Shutting down the grave robbing department of Wolfram & Hart angers Magnus Hainsley, a necromancer who relies on dead bodies for his work unleashing demons on the world in disguise. So he makes a deal with Spike to get his revenge…

A two-pronged story, Just Rewards has to introduce Spike to the show and explain how he’s back while delivering the necromancer story. It doesn’t quite mesh, mainly because neither plot is especially enthralling. The necromancer storyline is the weaker link, mainly consisting of Angel rather stupidly walking smack into the middle of trouble; while it’s fair to note that one of the Wolfram & Hart lawyers doesn’t fare well, it seems even more ridiculous that Angel should keep going back as, being dead, he’s entirely powerless and only gets away with his life due to Hainsley’s concern about the senior partners’ wrath. Otherwise it’s just a seemingly endless run of double and triple crosses involving Spike, whose loyalties do seem malleable.

This is one of the things I like most about the story; Spike has no loyalty to Angel, and throughout you’re not sure whether he’s playing both sides against the middle or has made some kind of plan. The only downside is that it seems a little like a step backwards for a character very much on the side of good by the end of Buffy. In the end he demonstrates that he is on the right side, but it’s good that Angel still isn’t entirely trusting of him, and interesting that he latches onto Fred as someone who might be sympathetic to him, even if, as she points out, she’s the science kid and he needs Wesley to assist in anything magic-related. His plea for help is rather lovely and shows there’s more to him than most of the others realize.

What is rather puzzling is his existence at all. Why did the amulet preserve his essence, why did it spit him back out, and what use is he going to be as a ghost? As Spike himself points out, he doesn’t fancy playing wisecracking ghostly sidekick any more than we really want to see it week after week. The sniping and lack of respect between him and Angel is fun but still looks like it’ll be wearing after a while.

After such a storming opener this is a bit of a letdown; the villain of the piece isn’t especially threatening, there’s not much more revealed about Wolfram & Hart although Spike’s presence throws up a couple of interesting questions, and there’s already a small danger of it becoming the Boreanaz and Marsters show. While that’s to be expected in order to integrate Spike into the cast, it can’t be allowed to push the other characters aside, and now they’re spread out through the huge W & H offices, it’s trickier to force them all together again. Hopefully it’ll work itself out over the next few episodes, and I have faith that Joss Whedon has plans beyond Spike being intangible all year or he wouldn’t have agreed to add him to the cast; hell, James Marsters probably expects something more than standing about being sarcastic. It’s an okay follow-up but there seems to be less of a plan involved in this year so far. Though I suspect I shall soon be proved utterly wrong, as that’s one of the things I love most about Angel.

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