This close to broadcast - I won’t bother with the black box.
Didn’t we speculate last week about things that do indeed get revealed in the very last shot this week?
A truly amazing episode. It had me completely, in more ways than one -
Visually stunning (for TV). The whole episode is so dark and playing on contrasts, I was amazed. From the very first shot till the last.
Had me fooled. Twice. Although Cordy’s eyes going white… hmmm.
As Angelus said - putting back the soul, using black magic… Hmmm.
I was a little afraid that it was gonna be talk, talk talk, this week too. So I was wrong. And I’m happy about it.
Angelscore: 10/10
Buffyverse: 8/10
TV-score: 10/10
A sidenote, relating to both shows. It seems more and more clear that the writers at ME enjoy writing for tha bad guys in a whole other way. Evil!Spike - Cool. Souled!Spike - boring. Angelus - cool, Angel - boring. Morphy!Buffy - twisted cool and evil. Slayer!Buffy - humdrum.
So now we know who the big bad is. It’s turning out to be fun.
Really just my own speculation, not spoiled from other source. If this is not the real Cordy, but some evil taking her form, it’ll be a nifty way to explain Charisma’s pregnancy. Also - her reason for taking Connor to bed is totally clear now. She really wanted to mindfuck them all. Twisted and Great, GREAT Evil.
VERY good ep. Basically, anything with the mind-fuck is a good ep. We have the double deception of Cordy on top of that of Angel. But, who, or what, is Cordy?
Whatever Cordy’s plan, I hope it is more devious then killing the Angel gang. If not, she should have just brought a bomb to the hotel. Or poisioned their coffee.
Q: How was Lorne fooled? Was it a very-temporary ensoulment?
Or, for a REAL mindfuck, Cordy is working for the PTB, in a seriously screwed-up capacity.
And I see no connection between Calvary and this ep.
As long as we’re doing the black box thing: re: the knife…
It was pretty obvious to me that the knife Cordy stabbed Lilah with was the one the Beast gave to his “Master”, you know, the “Boss” Angelus was on about while he was locked in the cage.
Wow. I knew SOMETHING was hella wrong with Cordy (no visions until tonight, no good explanation for the memory loss, the total dead-end of Angelus’ Beast encounter, despite her thinking that it was all a big and important revelation, fucking Conor, the fact that SOMEONE on team Angel had to have betrayed them with Manny, and there was no REAL reason to think that Angelus was active at that point) but I didn’t think that Cordy was going to reveal herself this soon, or like that, even if she was a big nasty. I agree though: how did the spell fool Lorne? And what did it actually do to Angelus?
That said, what the hell is up with the “three weeks” nonsense? I mean, doesn’t sweeps last until the end of Feb? Buffy has two more eps at least before rerun hell. And Angel’s only had what, like 4 eps since last rerun hell?
Well, I heard that the pre-emption in two weeks was planned for the airing of the new “Lone Ranger” TV movie. The one for next week, which is for the last two episodes of “Birds of Prey” was apparently done to avoid putting a new “Angel” on against the finale of “The Bachelorette.” Which actually may provide some solace to those who think that the WB is actively trying to kill the show.
As to the rest:
I’m still buying into the theory that The Bigger Bad is not Cordy herself, but something working through Cordy, and that Angel was actually re-ensouled for just long enough to fool Lorne. I’m not convinced that Angelus really knows how to play Angel all that well. He was “off” enough when he lost his soul the last time for even Xander to tell that something wasn’t right before the big revelation. Angel can play Angelus (“Enemies”), but I’m not sure that Angelus can play Angel.
I thought about her being the first evil after reading thru the threads. Then I relized the first is non-corporal, so that cant be it. Maybe she is the big bad boss tho, hmmmm… Glad to see Faith back in the mix, always did like her better than Buffy.
I think the black magic spell they used to “restore Angel’s soul” was really a spell designed to give a phony “oo! look there’s a soul in that aura” kind of effect to mislead Lorne.
sigh We really liked Lilah. Now my SO can’t be bothered to watch to show.
I think Angelus can play Angel for a little while if there is a lot of need. More likely I think the spell can a partially digested soul, essentially some soul like tatters that fouled Lorne and gave Angelus enough of a spiritual core to think he was Angel long enough to fool the gang.
I really liked the episode. I was incoherent with glee when Angelus showed who he was to Cordy. Can’t think, must watch again with housemate.
—I think the black magic spell they used to “restore Angel’s soul” was really a spell designed to give a phony “oo! look there’s a soul in that aura” kind of effect to mislead Lorne.—
That seems silly, given that the whole “let’s use Lorne to be sure!” was an afterthought. All that magic just to fool one gay demon? Seems kind of a waste.
And if it was a temp…
[spoiler]I don’t get it. When he lost the soul again, I would have expected another lightshow. But… nada. Also, if past resoulments are any guide, it would take a while for Angel to get his memory back. The writers made it almost painfully clear that “Angel” remembered everything (and reminded everyone that he remembered) immediately. The whole ploy: sending everyone but Cordy out of the basement, was also way too pat. Finally, Angelus certainly wasn’t at all surprised to be back: he acted more like he was letting down a ruse. And he played the same trick on Fred and everyone else when he got upstairs, and fooled them all again.
I’m sticking to my Cordy has a hitchhiker theory. First it would explain the elaborate farce with the soul restoring spell which evidently did something but just not what they had hoped. Second it would, if the hitchhiker could detatch at least partially, explain how Cordy got the knife. I really don’t see how she would have slipped away to receive the offering of the Beast otherwise. Third it makes the other elaborate games make sense. While the existence of the basement cam and the risk of walk ins explains part of that the hitchhiker theory covers it all just as well and then some.
My second impression of the episode is that I still like it a lot and consider it the best episode of Angel I’ve ever watched. The whole thing was good as were little random details. Most importantly it was amazingly entertaining and moved along in the way that the best of TV does. The episode grabbed me and sucked me through the whole of it without seeming to last for an hour while felling like a lot happened.
A random thought related to the episode: If Angelus truly has a seperate mind in some regards, as seems to be required for Wes’ theory about the Beast info vanishing act, then he probably doesn’t have memories of Dawn. In a crossoverless Buffyverse this doesn’t really matter but Angelus will have no clue who Dawn is because only Angel would have gotten some splash effect from the monk rewrite of reality.
The real question is: is the real Cordy EVER in control? Or is it all evil-Cordy that’s being playing along since it returned? If so, it’s been remarkably convincing… even in our “private” camera moments with her.
This may be a stretch, but you never know how obscure Joss’ writers will get: Calvary comes from the Latin for ‘bare skull.’ So it could be a reference to the stripped skull they needed for the spell. Far out, but maybe that’s what the episode title means.
Ok, I had read somewhere that Faith and WILLOW!!! were seen on the shooting lot of Angel.
Does this mean they have renegotiated the contract, the contract is breaking down, or what?
