by beast916
Wesley: Damn it, you listen to me! This box is the key to the Mayor's Ascension. Thousands of lives depend on our getting rid of it. Now I want to help Willow as much as the rest of you, but we will find another way.
Buffy: There is no other way.
Wesley: You're the one who said take the fight to the Mayor. You were right. This is the town's best hope of survival. It's your chance to get out.
Buffy: You think I care about that? Are you made of human parts?
Giles: Alright! Let's deal with this rationally.
Buffy: Why are you taking his side?
Wesley: You'd sacrifice thousands of lives? Your families, your friends?
Oz has been sitting through all this. He gets up and walks behind Wesley.
Wesley: It can all end right here. We have the means to destroy this box.
Oz picks up the pot for the box-destroying ritual and throws it into a display case, smashing both to shards. Everyone looks at each other.
-- "Choices"
It's a common trial: the life of one versus the lives of all. It's not very often in popular media to actually have this choice settled, of course. In "Choices" they choose Willow, but are able to save the all. In Spiderman, Peter Parker is able to save both the girl he loves and a busload of innocent children. In an episode of Early Edition, the protagonist, Gary Hobson, chooses to save a child rather than a plane full of people, but is saved from the agony of that decision because the child's father, ta da, also happened to be the pilot of the plane. By the way, if you ever think your friends are unsupportive, find Early Edition in syndication--that guy has the worst friends ever.
Wesley chose to sacrifice Willow for the greater good, while those who knew and loved Willow felt there was another way to handle the situation. What mattered to them most was the immediate danger Willow was in. Thinking back, at the time I agreed with them. I mean, seriously... it's Willow! How can you not want to protect Willow? Wesley obviously had no friends at all to make such a decision. Of course, none of us really knew Mr. Wyndham-Pryce at the time, so all we had to base him and his choices on were the presentation of his character and the reactions of other to him. In the third season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Wesley doesn't come off too well. He seems like a Council lackey, all rules and regulations. And the Scoobies obviously didn't appreciate him--he was just a second-rate replacement for Giles. Never mind the Gang is reticent to let anybody new into their lives.
We have had time to get to know Wesley, though. And the first impression is just that, a first impression. There are many layers to Wesley. But for the most part he is defined by his ability to see the big picture and his emotional attachments. His view of the big picture is shown in "Graduation" when he comes back to help Buffy, when she had in a sense gotten him fired.
It wasn't too long after he became a member of Angel Investigations Wesley began to show how far his emotional attachments would take him. Although to that point we had pretty much seen bumbling Wesley, in "The Ring" we saw him ably extract information from a bookie about Angel. This is no bumbling Wesley. But when we see him around Angel and Cordelia, he is still the same old Wesley. It seems when he is around people he either wants to impress or cares about (both of which apply to his father) he cannot be take-charge, competent Wesley. However, he does grow over time, as he becomes more a part of the family.
His view of the big picture does not change much. After surviving Faith's torture (a far cry from the Wesley panicking before Balthazar), he is approached by underlings of the Watcher's Council. Although he makes them think he will work with them, he casts his lot with Angel. Part of this is the emotional attachment he has formed with Angel and Cordelia, but an equally important factor is the amount of good he can do with AI, compared to what he can do with the Council. The Council has already proven itself to be a bureaucratic mess, out of touch with the modern world. Wesley would be accomplishing greater good with AI, so he stayed with them.
Season 2 of Angel showed more of Wesley's view of the big picture. Although he was hurt by his friend's firing of Cordy, Gunn, and him, he decides with the others to go on, because Angel is not the big picture--the mission is. The only time his view of the picture is tainted is when he has a conversation with his father, which brings back the bumbling, can't-make-decisions Wesley. But, almost immediately, he is back to big-picture Wesley. When Cordy goes through the portal to Pylea, it is Wesley who goes about researching the correct way to enter the portal, while Angel just wants to leap through, damn the consequences. And, once in Pylea, he chooses to sacrifice some of the rebels in order to win the battle. Wesley doesn't want to either abandon Cordelia or lead the rebels to their deaths, but he understands that planning and sacrifices have to be done.
In Season 3, we see Wesley move away from his emotional attachments, first because of his actions in "Billy", then by the relationship of Gunn and Fred. It would seem his actions are motivated by jealousy. While I agree he does feel jealousy, I think it is his need to move away from his emotions that cause his actions. He does not want his jealousy to rule him, so he throws himself into his work. Unfortunately, his work points him toward a prophecy that seems to state Angel will kill Connor. He can't tell Angel until he investigates and his "strictly business" policy prohibits him from telling Gunn or Fred. And Cordelia is not around to talk to. Although he is wooed by Holtz, Wes makes the choice to remove the child himself (we do not know what he would have done, but I get the feeling he and Connor would have simply disappeared), after attacking Lorne, who realizes Wes's plan. Here we see his big picture view overcoming his emotion. He realizes Lorne will try to warn Angel, so he does what he feels he has to and knocks Lorne out. I wonder what the present-day Wesley might have done in this situation.
Of course, Wesley's plans do not go as he wishes, and all he ends up is in the hospital with a slit throat, almost smothered by his friend, and alienated from everybody he cared for and who cared for him.
This brings us to present-day Wesley, who will not go out of his way to help Angel Investigations (he provides the treatment for Fred, but does not check to see if it works). When Lilah shows him Justine about to be attacked by vampires, he does not get the opportunity to warn her (and we cannot be sure he would--and neither can he, as Lilah's goal was mainly for him to doubt himself), but he also does not show much desire to bring vengeance on the person who slit his throat.
The Wesley we have seen since that time is one who will have sex with Lilah, a woman who is high up the ladder in the admittedly evil Wolfram & Hart. However, he is also the person who saves Angel. It is hard to tell whether he does this as repayment for his earlier transgressions or because he knows Angel still has a part to play. He is willing to spill his blood to save Angel, but not to spend any time with AI. That time is behind him.
Wesley is a completely different person than he was when we first met him, and he is the same person. He came in with his view of the big picture and his concern of how people saw him. Then he began to become attached to Angel and Cordelia, and later Fred and Gunn. However, now that he no longer has an emotional attachment to anybody (or maybe, just possibly a small one to Lilah), what does he have: the big picture. But what is his big picture now? Lilah thought it should be Wolfram & Hart's; Fred thinks it should be AI. Wesley isn't sharing his thoughts. There might be some hope in the fact he did not kill Justine, that he gave her the keys to allow her the opportunity to better her life. Or maybe he just doesn't care. He could just as easily have killed her if she didn't do as he wished. After all, he put her in a closet for hours on end, an ironic little punishment reminiscent of what his own father did to him.
I have said before Wesley makes the show. I think this is true more than ever. After all, didn't Lorne say the English boy had a part to play? But what part? Giles was willing to murder a man whose crimes were the equivalent of harboring a criminal. What is Wesley willing to do for the big picture? And how will that affect his friends... former?