"Unleashed," Angel 5.03

[hermionesviolin]

“Blood was spilled. Vendettas were sworn.”
“You’re so full of crap.”

M and i were so totally sucked in by Spike, thinking “Well, they’ve never met onscreen, but they’ve never said they haven’t met - isn’t this an interesting twist though we already kinda did this with Wood and it doesn’t quite fit, but... -- oh, he’s full of shit, nice one.” I like getting suckered like that.

“Jessie’s Girl”! “Laurel’s gonna die,” i thought. (If you’re reading this, dear, i hope you are okay. I wish i were writing you prettygirlfic.)

Whee, Gunn “damn it feels good to get my violence on.”

Okay, the guy at the end getting turned into a werewolf and left there... real disturbing... made me feel ill. We’re all about saving the girl, restraining her, teaching her how to deal, refusing to even entertain the possibility that maybe she’ll get away from you and hurt/kill/bite someone... but just because someone’s in cahoots with someone evil (because of course no one in AI has blood on their hands) you’re gonna let him get eaten alive. I was really disturbed and sickened by that. They did close down the restaurant at what seemed to be the very next night, but still, what happened to the guy? You know Mr. Crane is gonna start up somewhere else (unless i missed a line wherein they said they took care of him permanently) and regardless, bitten-man is gonna need the same kind of help/treatment/whatever Nina’s getting.

(Oh, and Fred said something about being there [at W&H] a month. Does that mean we have jumped ahead 3 weeks or is that a month after arriving so really only a week or so has passed since the last episode? At least since they’re in LA they don’t have seasons, so it’s much easier to fuzzy time.)

Yay for verbalizing your issues.

“Look Angel, it doesn’t matter whether you like Spike or not, what matters is the fact that you’re letting it get to you and we’re hurting because of that.”

They also verbalized the feelings of distrust they have about Gunn. Obviously i don’t think he’s any sort of tool of the Senior Partners or that he’s bugged or anything, but i appreciate that they are acknowledging the tensions they all have about their uneasy bargain. “We all got something out of it.” There was this pregnant silence wherein i expected someone to ask “Hey, Angel, what did you get out of it?” Do we think the writers did this purposely to remind us of Connor and foreshadow a later appearance of his? I would like to think so.

I definitely feel like they’re building potential Spike/Fred (though hey, maybe she just feels bad for him -- and i definitely understand why she felt guilty at the end), but it’s actually working for me. (The quote that opened my entry? They so have the snark. Snark i can see leading to snogging, just not hate.) I don’t actually want to see them get together for a whole host of reasons, but they have actual tension, and tension can lead to chemistry.

Aw, dysfunctional family in the lap of luxury.

“She gave me a look.”
Your cast is overstuffed and growing redundant as is, she had better not become a regular.
Besides, what about Cordy, love of your life? I mean, she got mentioned and everything.

Hey, no Harmony or Eve at all this episode. And look how i didn’t miss them. It’s really difficult to juggle lots of characters in only 45 minutes. Ensemble shows rock, but plotlines by necessity need to focus on only a few. (Oh, and no Knox either. Another issue verbalized. Wes is jealous of Knox, plus no one really trusts anyone they work with.)

Bit sledgehammery this episode: “Spike’s more than a ghost, he’s unique.” I do like the idea that he’s perhaps important/useful/something -- like how it’s really interesting that Angel is prophesied to be an important player in the apocalypse, like Skip’s “Do you have any concept of how many lines have to intersect in order for a thing like this to play out? How many events have to be nudged in just the right direction? Leaving Pylea. Your sister. Opening the wrong book. Sleeping with the enemy. Gosh, I love a story with scope.” in “Salvage” (Angel 4.13) [Thanks to pscinema for bringing that up in her commentary on Conviction.] And then of course later in that conversation Fred asks Gunn (and it remains to be seen if this will be relevant this season) about Angel:

FRED: What do you think he'll do?
GUNN: What he has to, like he always does.
FRED: Will it make a difference? If we really are just pieces being moved around a board?
GUNN: Then we'll kick it over and start a new game. Look, monochrome can yap all he wants about no-name's cosmic plan but here's a little something I picked up rubbin' mojos these past couple of years: the final score can't be rigged. I don't care how many players you grease, that last shot always comes up a question mark. But here's the thing: you never know when you're taking it. It could be when you're duking it out with the legion of doom or just crossing the street deciding where to have brunch. So you just treat it all like it was up to you, the world in the balance, 'cause you never know when it is.

Of course, Gunn’s speech references back to Angel’s Epiphany (episode 2.16):

KATE: My whole life has been about being a cop. If I'm not part of the force it's like nothing I do means anything.
ANGEL: It doesn't.
KATE: Doesn't what?
ANGEL: Mean anything. In the greater scheme or the big picture, nothing we do matters. There's no grand plan, no big win.
KATE: You seem kind of chipper about that.
ANGEL: Well, I guess I kinda - worked it out. If there is no great glorious end to all this, if - nothing we do matters, - then all that matters is what we do. 'cause that's all there is. What we do, now, today. - I fought for so long. For redemption, for a reward - finally just to beat the other guy, but... I never got it.
KATE: And now you do?
ANGEL: Not all of it. All I wanna do is help. I wanna help because - I don't think people should suffer, as they do. Because, if there is no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness - is the greatest thing in the world.

Nina’s sledgehammery werewolf-vampire parallel worked because it was supposed to be sledgehammery.

---

Next week’s episode = “Hellbound.”

It’s gonna be another all-about-Spike episode, but it should be good (and i’m not just saying that because i love the character).

We’re all set to watch for parallels/contrasts to “Amends,” right?

Viewer advisory? What’s so disturbing that it needs an advisory? And partial nudity? Come on, past 2 years of Buffy, anyone? Oh yeah, that was on UPN, not WB. And from what i glimpsed in the promos it looks like Joss is giving us GratuitousNakedSpike. Because when you’re crazy you’re also naked and chained up. Well, actually... werewolf... Angel-post-Hell... Hmm. There’s interesting stuff going on there, clothes being a common symbol of “civilization” of humanity of non-animal-ness.

Maria thinks Amber Benson is cute but not that James Marsters is hot. Silly lady. (Though admittedly, a lot of it is the character. If i just started watching Angel this season i don’t think i would be sold on him. And she just saw my calendar.)

Oh, and no one believes Angel’s “Some people can’t be saved” (or whatever he said) was sincerely stated in reference to Spike, right? I mean, they’re all about the misdirection in the ads, and for all Angel wants Spike to go whoosh, he doesn’t believe too many people are unsalvageable, particularly souled vamps who averted an apocalypse (or two, if we count his actions at the end of S2).



[Wow, that actually included thoughtful stuff mostly not triggered by other people’s commentaries. Responding to offbalance’s praise of my entry on last week’s episode, i said that i’m often unsure of my ability to have good thoughts working directly off of a text, but give me other people's thoughts and i often do well. It’s nice to be reminded that i can actually work directly off of texts (and stuff other people have said about previous texts).]

Comments

Bravo!

[carpdeus.livejournal.com]

More later

Thank you, sir.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

I look forward to your later extended comments.

[offbalance.livejournal.com]

you just covered...everything. Everything!!

Did the chinese food bit feel forced to you, too? I thought Fred was all about the tacos! Wouldn't that have made more sense, to order from a Mexican place? Still, the all 'hey let's order together' felt odd and silly.

(and the end in Angel's apartment made me think of the end of Queer Eye for some reason. Probably because I am silly.)

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

*blushes* You're ever so kind.

After Nina and Fred's conversation about how they're a big dysfunctional family, the Chinese food seemed an appropriate coda. (And hey, Fred eats things other than tacos. We saw her and Gunn having breakfast once, for example. Maybe everyone else prefers Chinese.) I can see how the whole "let's order together" thing could feel strange, but they played it as if they do that a lot (Fred telling the guy taking their order that they had moved) and given how many late nights they spent at the Hyperion researching, it makes sense. One could also make interesting psychological theories about them (the characters) trying to act like old times, trying to create a facade of trust and happiness.

(I have only seen a few mibutes of an end of one Queer Eye, so i cannot vouch for your sillyness or lack thereof, but given that they're playing up the gay this season, having his apartment seem like that could perhaps have been intentional.)

[offbalance.livejournal.com]

All very true. I hadn't thought of it that way. Mexican food usually came up a lot in past episodes (especially where Fred was concerned), but I remember Cordy being all about the Chinese food, so maybe it also works as a memory.

. One could also make interesting psychological theories about them (the characters) trying to act like old times, trying to create a facade of trust and happiness.

So completely it! That makes the sort of awkwardness seem more appropriate. :)

[evil-laugher.livejournal.com]

The thing with the scientist being turned over to the werewolf-eaters was disturbing, but that was probably the point, to upset us. The guy had betrayed them, so he was going to get killed anyway unless Angel was feeling especially pitying, and it did let them escape.

From what I know, Cordy is just not going to be there. Putting her in a coma was a way of keeping her out of the picture, which is fine with me :D

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

It was certainly a nice trick to let them escape, though i think the writers could have done it differently if they had wanted to. It is probably another in what will be a long line of examples following up on the "What about mercy?" "You just saw the last of it?"

Oh, i know Cordy was put in a coma to write her out of the show, it just seemed strange that after having Fred and Nina talk about Angel's dating life or lack thereof and Fred mentioning Cordy (as she had to) that we would then see Angel seeming interested in dating since (A) mentioning Cordy reminds us the viewers of the Big Love they were suppposed to have [i was never quite sold on it, but the point is that the writers were trying to sell it] and (B) Angel has never really seemed big on the dating.