Angel 29 April -- Well, that didn't take long... (SPOILERS)

Cafe Society
1

(My first thread, so be gentle.)

Okay, not a bad episode, for its intent.

Angel is still in Denial World, leaping onto the dehydrater-demon case with glee.
What, they don’t have one of those bells at the front desk?
I wonder what happened to the guy’s dog.

Groo either does a Three’s Company misunderstanding walk-in or actually hears the exact truth. We shall see (though Cordy staying behind in the kitchen made it pretty clear which was which). Either way, the actor’s doing a pretty good job playing a dim but straightforward guy. Pity the character has such a ridiculous name, or I’d like him a lot more.

Gunn takes the hit and goes to Wesley for help. Good for him.
Then Wesley gets to play the martyr role to the hilt – dude, you betrayed everyone. So sorry they didn’t scamper to your doorstep to get your side of the baby-kidnapping story. Get your ass off the couch and explain it to them. “Burden of proof.” Look it up. P.S. Get over Fred. She made her choice because you were a coward. Deal.

Cordy’s powers make another deus ex machina appearance, which automatically lowers this ep a notch or so.P.S. Your hair is still bad. Long and dark, it’s what brought you to the dance. Go with it.

“The Destroyer.” Well, okay, as soon as the portal opened, we knew that was coming. Me, I would have loved to have that plot thread hanging for like two years, but I understand the reason for doing it so soon.

Lorne desperately needs to be made full cast. Kill someone else if we need the room.
Can’t be Angel, can’t be either of the cute women, can’t be Wesley, 'cause he’s all angsty… sorry, Gunn.

How many times do we need to do the Wolfram and Hart “Ha ha! Angel is doomed! Oh, wait, we don’t want Angel dead, so we must help him!” scene? Let’s just put it in the opening credits and be done with it. Love the bug password, though. It’s the little touches that keep me coming back.

And, of course – alcohol solves all of our problems! Yippee!

2

So, anyone know what exactly happened with Cordy and the bright light? I got rather confused at that point.

I know she’s part demon…

3

Alcohol solves all our problems! [sub]Tee-Hee[/sub]

Indeed! Good call! As for Cordy’s power … stankow got that one right, too.

I was terribly dissapointed at the end. The kid so soon? Eck.

OTOH, new Buffy tonight!
:wally

4

My local station ruined the cliff-hanger for me.

We’re told the Destroyer is coming right now. A big portal shows up in the hotel. A big demon comes through. A person comes through after the demon and …

“Local man goes on rampage after badly timed news report. Film at eleven!”

Grrrrrrrrrr.

I know it was the kid. Could someone please describe the rest of the scene. Thanks.

5

You didn’t miss much, Trion. The person does something to the demon (seems to have some sort of arm-mounted gun), the demon falls, the person turns to face Angel, brings the arm gun to bear, and says, “Hi, Dad.” Smash cut to credits.

6

Please, please, please don’t let this be another Dawn situation, where we have to put up with a bratty, sullen teenager hanging around and getting in the way. I liked this ep a lot, but I have a terribly bad feeling that Angel’s son is going to hang around way too long. The Wolfram & Hart bit seemed fairly unnecessary as well.

7

My station did the same thing – cut to a promo for the news about two seconds too early. Those bastards. (Of course, not being totally clueless, I was pretty much able to fill in the missing bit, but I was still pissed.)

As for the deus ex machina aspect of Cordy’s powers – well, there are two types of threats on Angel/Buffy. There are the evil demons that need to be fought heroically, and then there are the evil plotpoints that need to go away after they’ve raised all the necessary emotional issues. For example, last night the Buffy rerun was the prom episode with the hellhounds. The hellhounds were, let’s face it, utterly lame. Guys in fur suits with fangs. About as scary as pomeranians. The interesting thing was not how they were dispatched – the interesting thing was Buffy’s reaction to a threat to the prom.
So yeah, kind of lame way to get rid of the slugs. But they’d served their purpose.

8

Finagle, I dig where you’re coming from with the slugs-as-plotpoints thing, but what I don’t like about it is that it rendered useless the entire Gunn subplot (such as it was). He didn’t need to go see Wesley, because Cordy’s anti-slug-light would (presumably) have killed the one in Fred as well. I realize that he wouldn’t have known that, but still.

Here’s how I would have done it:
Fred gets infected just as she finds out that the slugs are susceptible to some spell or whatever. However, the cure would kill anyone who’s hosting a slug as well. That way, they still have to figure out how to get the thing out of her before unleashing the slug killer spell.

Also, and I just realized this, I hate how Wesley knew exactly what the slugs were and how to get rid of them, even though he hadn’t seen one and was going from a one-sentence recap from Gunn. He couldn’t have expressed a little doubt? “Well, this might do it, but I’m not sure.” No, he was all Rogue Demon Hunter (now with Kung Fu Vodka Grip and Action Shoulder Chip!)™.

Argh. Disliking… episode… more. Must… go back… and… leer… at… chicks…
[sexist]Speaking of which, Fred’s getting cuter by the minute. If Cordy doesn’t go back to her good hair stat, she’s gonna get bumped out of the top three on the BuffyAngelVerse Hot Babes List.[/sexist]

9

Did anyone else have a childhood flashback when the Fang Gang were trying to figure out how to destroy the slugs? D’uh, salt. And every gardner knows to put beer out for slugs in the garden. Voila, slug-be-gone.

I wondered if Cordy was feeling a little self concious about her hair. She wore that bandana for most of the episode. And she was just a little too perky after that whole “bright light” thing.

:::nitpik:::Why did the power come back on? Gunn shut down the main power, I didn’t see anyone run down and switch it back on.

:::nitpik::: How can Cordy not know there was a pool?

Wesley should at least write a letter explaining his actions. Moping about his apartment certainly isn’t doing any good.

Poor Groo. He means well, but he really is just a puppy dog.
Gunn seems to be developing a bit of an attitude. I am not sure what it is, but there is a sense of dis-satisfaction, dis-quiet and a bit of rebellion brewing there.

There was quite a bit of this episode that should have been left on the cutting room floor (W & H). It felt like filler. I suppose they are saving up for the grand finale.

10

The slugs reminded me of the Herpes monster in The Ice Pirates, with a little Alien gooiness thrown in. And WTF? There’s a pool underneath the ballroom floor? Did I miss something there? While Wolfram & Hart’s appearances are spotty at best, I find myself having more of an affinity for Gavin and his wicked, wicked ways. I want him to crush Lilah. As for Connor the bratty teenager, he seems, so far, to have more a bone to pick with Angel–good old reliable revenge instead of Dawn’s pubescent pouting and whinging.

11

New Slug-B-Gone Powers! Now with Electrical Circuit Reconnection Side Effect! And as always, it leaves that yummy raspberry taste in your mouth! Another quality product from Deus Ex Machina World! Now open in Burbank, Rancho Cucamonga and West Hollywood!
Deus Ex Machina World is not affiliated with Deus Ex Machina Palace, Sunnydale, California. Any similarity between the two is entirely coincidental.

12

THANK YOU!!! I have been waiting for a reference to this movie in any way for 15 years!!! It’s one of those terrible, HBO-made films that only the truly bored saw, but I always thought it was hysterical.

Space herpies!!!

Har har har!!!

Lyllyan, it wasn’t that Cordy didn’t know the building had a pool … it’s that the building doesn’t have a pool but there were so many of those critters they looked like one, with all their watery-squishyness.

13

So, does anybody think that Lorn will get the humdinger ballroom set up as a new demon night club?

'Cause I don’t know what to think of that. On the one hand, cool, an new Caritas. On the other, letting all the demons in LA into the hotel may not be the best way to go, security-wise.

Confession: During the “Turn the lights out, they glow in the dark” sequence, just after the lights went out, just when you get a shot of the slug behind Fred, my dog, sleeping on the couch next to me, shifted, and her cold nose brushed over my leg.

I screamed.

14

The unknown pool thing isn’t all that odd in old buildings. I’ve run across them myself - an old indoor pool that’s been planked over and converted into a room (and yes, if they aren’t sealed correctly, a goodly amount of water can collect in them).
Of course, in my experiences, the existence of the pool wasn’t unknown, but only because the people who lived in/owned said buildings had an institutional memory that there used to be a pool. In this case, Angel lived in the hotel briefly in the 50s (at which point, considering the place was in decline, the pool likely was already covered over), then the place was abandoned until Angel Investigations moved in.

Stankow - how pleasant would it have been for Fred if the critter was killed by Cordy’s white light while still inside her? At the very least “ugggghhhh” comes to mind.

Overall, I liked the ep

Sua

15

Thanks for the architectural brief regarding the pool issue. I was confused. I missed portions of the episodes when the gang was in Pylea; thus I have a question concerning Groo: are his pupils oddly large or is this a lighting issue?
And Gorgon Heap, in honor of the late Robert Urich, we remember Ice Pirates fondly (especially that really funky sex scene where you could change the environments–COOOOOL!).

16

Thanks for the description of the last scene - Was the quick cut to the news an East Coast phenomenon or did it happen elsewhere?

Pools & Ballrooms - Remember the scene at the school in It’s a Wonderful Life when the ballroom floor starts to receed, uncovering the pool?

17

The quick cut didn’t happen in my East Coast market, possibly because they know that I’d show up at the station’s offices with an ax screaming, “There’s ALWAYS a smash cut to credits, you morons!”

And I was wondering about Groo’s big ol’ pupils myself. If it’s an effect, it’s great. If it’s just the actor, then it’s still cool.

18

Groo has big, black pupils 'cause he’s a demon. His great shame as a child was that he looked so much like a cow (a human).

While he looks human, his heart is in his ass.

Sua

19

Thanks stankow.

For the record, my early cut to the news was courtesy of Boston’s WB56.

20

I think Mark Lutz (Groo) has to wear dark contacts for the part. Remember, he’s not supposed to be human.

Wearing those contacts is probably a real bother, but it sure beats what Any Hallett (Lorne) has to go through.