Its from the last couple of seasons- it is the room used by W&H to talk with the “senior partners”. Think of the similar room used to meet with the the fraky spokepersons for the Powers That Be (pre-killing spree that is). The “conduit” used to be in the form of a creepy little girl, but was killed last season during the great W&H slaughter-a-thon by the little bad. The panther is the new conduit to the senior partners. At the last episode of the season last year, Gunn went up alone to the white room and met with the panther. After that, Gunn has been just a little different.
I think the hair, wardrobe and bulkier appearance are part of the “change” that they are subtely trying to show Angel undergoing. Another facit of that is the meeting to admonish Fred for being over-budget. Would the old Angel have bothered to do that?
That bothered me, too - he can’t touch anything, but we can hear his steps when he walks, and when he tried to lean on Fred’s lab table, he went right through, but then hit the floor with a helluva thud. Which could have been one of the Reaper’s “parlor tricks,” I guess, but it bothered me.
It was my feeling that Eve was making him do it, that she was looking after W&H’s interests to the extent of checking the books and making sure Angel kept his team in line. She was much stronger in emphasizing how much Fred was over budget and that the quarter was not over. Angel seemed uncomfortable with the whole thing, and just caved and told her to run her department as she wanted.
Well, I think they explained it when it was pointed out that Spike could affect physical objects when he put his mind to doing so. Like, for instance, the shower glass, and the coffee cup at the end of the episode.
While he probably didn’t realize that he was making impressions or footsounds (this was before his “I can touch things!” epiphany), it could probably be explained away by saying that he was subconsciously causing this to happen. You know, if you don’t think about it too hard, it just happens?
Either way, this is why I brought up Ghost. It seems that the writers just ripped a whole few dozen pages out of that movie when it came to Spike touching things. I dunno. Maybe I’m being too nit-picky.
Maybe, but the old Angel wouldn’t have even done that. Also, Angel did bring it up at the meeting, then Eve joined in. Like I said above, its not a black and white change, but an increasingly darker shade of gray. Add it to the impact of his bleak speech to Spike, and made much more impact on me then the amount of dent Spike left in the couch cushion. That has a little too much of the “Did Giles touch anything this episode?” obsession from last season’s Buffy. A wiff of dramatic license was used to have them slumped over together on the couch for Angel’s lines is ok for me. In any event, it the true howlers like the Stun Guns hurting Angel in one episode then him being immune to it several episodes later when Electro Girl (Gwen) zaps him that annoy me. Other than that, I would rather focus on what the characters are saying.
For what’s its worth, here is my wild guess as to the coming plot (completely spoiler free) but boxed for courtesy in case I guess right:
Given how much Gunn and Angel have bought into their version of the “mission” of W&H, once the others start catching on to the effects of working there on Angel and Gunn I imagine a major rift develops in the group. Some leave, some stay. Then the size of the cast is now an advantage, as some work from the outside on figuring out what the real plan is. My guess is Gunn, Angel and maybe Wes or Fred stay, and Spike, Lorne and either Wes or Fred leave- for maybe the hotel again. In the end, they will be directly opposed to each other, both thinking they are doing the right thing.
I watched a few eps the first season, but stopped just because at the time I didn’t need another show to watch. I seem to remember he had some kind of goofy Irish demon sidekick, who got killed in a massive bloodbath ep. That was one of the last ones I saw. Oh yeah, I saw the one when he investigated the haunted hotel. Ever since then I saw glimpses of some guy with a fake hand, the gang moving into the hotel, him having a baby, Cordy cutting her hair… Didn’t make much sense at the time, but now I’m looking forward to getting up to speed.
I see they started re-running old Angels on Saturdays by me. Will be fun for my family to catch up now that Buff is over.
Last week my son came up with some kind of explanation how since Spike thinks he is supposed to be standing on the floor, he is able to stand on the floor. He claims last night’s revelation corroborates his theory, but I must admit I’m still a little unclear on the details!
The cushion incident bothered me because he had fallen through the floor (or something) minutes before. It called my attention away from the dialog between Spike and Angel, and that’s why I mentioned it, not because of an obsession with continuity. Believe me, when it comes to ATS and BtVS I am the queen of willing suspension of disbelief, and would normally never even notice something like that.
No problem- I was just giving my take on it. I thought he had been “sucked” down there by the reaper who later had admitted he was playing with Spike for a while. After all, he had not gone through the floors unwillingly before.
Maybe it is a special W&H spectral couch- woven out of Yeti pelts, designed for comfortable seating of the living, undead and non-corporial guest, while remaining stylish and blood stain resistant. Of course, maybe they just thought the shot was worth the possibility the more observant of us might wonder how this couch is different. Or the concentration point provided above is a good one too. In any event, its just my 2 cents.
I got the impression that she simply brought up that the quest to save Spike was costing money, and Angel went with it from there, because according to ep 3, in the absence of friends to hold you in check, you become evil(er).
What are y’all talking about with the Ghost/Patrick Swayze thing? I’ve never seen the movie, but “ghosts who will it hard enough can touch things” is hardly a unique concept… or is it something more specific?
Personally, I quite enjoyed the episode–though Wesley’s thing with Fred is incredibly annoying. I don’t know what the little love triangle deal there was with those 2 and Gunn, and I honestly don’t care, but the man needs to build a bridge and GET OVER IT.
I thought the séance woman was amusing, and bummed when they promptly killed her off two minutes later. IMO she would have made an entertaining recurring character.
To be fair to the other posters, it’s just me making that accusation. And no, it’s probably not the most underused idea in the history of ghost stories, but the last big ghost story using this was indeed Ghost–so that’s the movie that comes to mind. I felt somewhat disappointed that they went for this because it isn’t a unique concept, nor is the way they presented it unique (rehashing old cliches and spinning them in a fresh way is what I have come to expect from Mutant Enemy).
Plus, as far as I can see, the whole “I can’t touch this” doesn’t seem to matter. If they can dispense with that problem so easily, why bother making it a problem anyway? Right now the only benefit I can see is that they did so to make us cheer when Spike finally realized he could kick back at Pavane.
The thing with the couch cushions was obviously an unavoidable error, like when you can sometimes see Angel’s reflection in a pane of glass. Sure, they could have gotten around it by, say, making a fake couch out of molded plastic that wouldn’t deform when Spike sat on it, but that would probably have cost a couple grand to make, and I personally would rather that money went into something a little more important, like f/x, make-up, sets, or something else more important than a throw-away detail that only hopeless geeks like ourselves would ever notice or care about. The couch obviously wasn’t supposed to indent, and my suspension of disbelief is plenty strong enough to pretend that it didn’t.
Mug, my thoughts exactly about the medium. She was a hoot.
I thought it was a fine episode, much better than last week. I see that last week’s ratings were good. Hope that bodes well for the show.
And speaking of little things that bug you, why didn’t Lilah just knock Angel out last season and put him in one of those hell chambers. I mean, if it was that easy to take out the Reaper…
Of course, it always bugged me about Buffy, too. I mean, why did the ghouls and vamps INSIST on trying to attack her with their hands? It seemed so easy to just climb the tree outside her always open window and blast away with an Uzi.
Re Boreanaz’s weight. He DID appear chubbier last night. Which is odd because in the first 3 episodes he seemed to have slimmed down. He even had his shirt off and I thought to myself that he was getting back to fighting weight after last year.
I don’t get why Gaspode mentioned that he’s not drifting into hell anymore. I didn’t see how that was related to this episode. I mean, the hell thing is the same, but whereas before he was drifting into hell, this episode he’s getting pushed. I don’t see how stopping the guy who was pushing will stop him drifting.
Avumede: I think what was established in this episode was that Spike was never drifting into hell on his own. He was “supposed” to be incorporeal but anchored somehow to this reality. It was Pavane, in his ongoing effort to keep himself out of hell, that was pushing him down. Now that Pavane is gone, Spike is safe.
Did Pavane’s power reached beyond the limits of W&H or could Spike just have “hung out” outside the limits of the desecrated ground where the office building resided?
