Make no mistake and accept no imitations. I am nowhere near as good as Gaspode is at this. I simply needed to see an “Angel” thread where there wasn’t one previously. I understand that there was some problem with the wildfeed yesterday, and as a result I went in 75% spoiler free. Quite the rush.
Misc. stuff:
Conner is still whining about how no one likes him. Too bad Faith already left.
Angel is back in all of his Angel-y goodness.
Cordy has turned into an uber bi-otch.
Fred now knows how Wesley felt about Lila.
Gunn seems to have gotten over Fred and is moving on nicely with Gwen.
The FG now knows that Cordy is the Beastmaster.
I was especially impressed with Lorne’s sung incantation; it makes sense, and it was an amazingly nice bit of detail. It also seems to hint at some more power being inherent in music itself. It’ll be interesting to see if the series follows through on that.
The Gwen/Gunn thing… I dunno. Another romantic subplot? Seems unnecessary, but hey. Maybe Gunn has to admit that he’s one of the most turgid elements of the turgid soap opera he’s been in. It seemed a little far fetched; why would she set him up like that, if it would be just as easy to convince him that she needed to steal the gizmo from the bad guy for herself? Seems like a good cause. And she seems like she’d be able to convince a straight guy of almost anything.
And finally, Connor wises up to Cordy’s Emotional Manipulation for Beginners tactics. And then gets browbeaten yet again. Sigh.
Yes, big problems with the wildfeed. Thanks for starting the thread, Lyllyan
I was thinking, as Cordy walked down the stairs to where Lorne was chanting, that -Yay! - they’re doing everything right this season. Taking the time to build up emotions and anticipation, exploring the characters slowly and with continuity, making everything fall into place. Unlike another show I was ranting about yesterday.
It’s nice to see that Spandexia wasn’t just something used once and then discarded. It was nice to see her used as a plot device, to give more depth to Gunn’s character - and boy, was he suave!
Connor almost got it and then fell back. But no wonder. Being 18 and lovestruck is the same as living in denial.
I think all the twists in the plot are falling nicely into place by now. Another happy TV moment for The Gaspode.
I just wanted to say that the bit where gunn was straightening his tie after whooping on the Ninja’s was a nice touch. I cheered.
Ok, I’m about to put up a new thread. I have very very little background on the Angel-verse.
Also, electro-girl makes me feel all happy in my pants. she can’t act, but damn is she hot.
Will someone specifically spoil the last 10 minutes or so for me? My VCR went all kerflooey, so I’ve got it up to where Gunn puts the techie thing on Gwen’s back and then fuzzy nothingness… :mad:
The thingie neutralized Spandexia’s electro powers, and she could be touched… and kissed… for the first time in her life. Wasn’t Gunn handy to have around?
Lorne showed up, saying he know how to get his empath abilities back. Some ritual, alone in the basement. He takes off, telling Cordy that by next day, he’ll be able to read her and the baby.
Spooke scene, where Evil!Cordy sneaks downstairs, towards Lorne, with big knife in hand. Just as she’s about to stab him, all lights come on. Wups. There is Angel. And Wes. And Fred. All with guns.
And Lorne shows a magic 8-ball, and asks it: “Has Cordy been a naughty girl?” Show 8-ball answering: “Definately”. Cut to credits.
Don’t know about “happy in the pants” but she is damn hot.
Wonderful episode, methinks. Gunn finally got some play (er, so pun intended). He deserves to get more attention because he’s a cool character and the actoor (J. August something?) is very good at playing cool.
One of my favorite scenes was when Cordy and Angel were talking and Angel kept going on about how incompetant the Beastmaster is. He must have suspected, or maybe even known, by then and was trying to goad her into playing her hand.
What a great episode, and amazing when compared to the Buffy of the previous day. Lots of Gunn! Acting like Gunn, not some mopey moron. I enjoyed the twists and thought the writinf was quite good.
Every actor got at least one good scene, and Lorne was very well used.
The Conner scenes were not even painful. Heck a few of them were actually decent! :eek:
10/10.
Two great epsiodes in a row. I missed most of the preview, so I am super spoiler free. Woot!
Oh, hell yeah! This has been my favorite Joss episode since Firefly left the air.
Angel this season has relied far too much on mopey failed romances for my tastes. I mean, the plot lines make sense, but they’re damned depressing. It was refreshing to see
-Gunn being a smartie
-Gunn being a hottie
-Gunn kicking ass (and straightening his tie – hee hee!)
-Angel and the whole gang setting up a great trap for Cordelia.
One thing that continues to bother me about Buffy is that the scoobies are terminally incapable of communicating with one another: episode after episode relies for tension on the fact that they scheme and mope behind one another’s backs, screwing everything up. On Angel, OTOH, several times the characters have made their plans while the cameras were turned away, so that we the viewers are dazzled by their teamwork and trickiness (I’m also thinking of the episode where Angel rescued baby Connor from all the bad guys in LA, using a closet-read clue).
In the final scene, I was trying to think like Joss, and I figured that Lorn wouldn’t die because that was too obvious. I figured that maybe Connor would rescue him, having finally gotten a clue. But once again, Joss surprised me.
So any theory on when they figured it out? My guess is that Angel knew or suspected throughout the episode. His comment about the attack on Lilah and the theft of the soul made me think he was piecing it all together. I wonder if, when he was “visualizing the text”, he was really passing along a message to Wesley and Fred in a language he knew only they could read.
That’s what I thought jeevmon. I think Angel knew something was up when he was trying to remember the text and spent the rest of the episode fishing for clues. When he felt he had enough evidence they used the Lorne thing to lure her into a trap.
One thing, I wonder if anyone bothered to let Connor know what’s up? I didn’t see him in the last scene but the way he was talking to Cordy in his “Fortress of Solitude” made it seem like he was doing the same thing Angel did when has was talking to Cordy about how much of a sorry ass the Beast Master was.
Yes, Amp, that was my favorite line too! Angel’s photographic memory is fallible in just the right places. I agree Angel knew about Cordy’s evilness through most of the episode; could he perhaps have known as he came out of the office in the beginning of the episode as the others were discussing her pregnancy? jeevmon, that’s a really interesting idea, about Angel secretly communicating with Wes and Fred. Makes me wish I had actually taped the episode instead of just thinking about it.
I sort of enjoyed the Gunn/Gwen plotline for the diversion. Sure, it was cliched and formulaic for the most part, but more importantly it was fun. Good fight choreography with Gunn and the ninjas, a sweet black suit, and the smooth exchange with Morimoto all made for a pleasant ride.
I was very afraid for Lorn, especially after he got into the credits. That’s never a good sign. Great great great touch with the Magic 8-Ball. The shots of Cordy’s boots coming down the stairs reminded me of a Lita Ford video. Or Vixen. You get the picture.
That’s just it, Judith. I was totally enjoying myself as her boots were close in the picture. It’s not that I’ve got a thing for female legs in boots, but the way the director builds up the atmosphere, without rushing things. Very, very good television. When it’s only 40 minutes of action, they usually don’t take the time to do this. Some classic Buffy have done it. And then I think I have to look at classic Miami Vice, where Michael Mann really took a lot of liberties with the way TV is conventionally produced.
My guess is that another one of Angel’s unreliable abilities is to tell if they’re lying, by being able to hear their heart rates. When
Cordy said, “I’m the bad guy. I walked in here and did all these things and nobody caught on,” Angel noticed that her heart didn’t say she was lying…
LITTLE ANGEL: Angel star Charisma Carpenter gave birth to a baby boy, Donovan Charles Hardy, on Monday in Los Angeles. This is Carpenter’s first child with hubby Damian Hardy.
