Episode Review A:TS 4.09 - 4.10

[kangeiko]

Ow, did not see this one coming!

OK, from the beginning - I liked Gwen in this, despite the fact that she's still wearing that ridiculous Electra rip-off outfit. I liked how her hellhole of a place wasn't, in fact, a hellhole, and I liked the Ra-whatevers, and the spell to bring total darkness to the world. 'cause, hey, way back when in about 1999 I had this weird thought - "why doesn't the Big Bad try to bring about total darkness, 'cause that would make things a hell of a lot easier for the Eeeeevil legions?" And then I went off and wrote it. Only I never finished it, because it became too convoluted and then also there were politics. But that's beside the point. The point is that the spell makes perfect sense, and it makes me incredibly happy that someone Jossverse-connected thought so too.

I also liked Lorne and Angel's chat, what with Lorne saying everything I wanted to say to Angel, and then some. Plus, Cordelia telling Angel to get over it? Rocks. He is having an infantile tantrum, yes, thank you! Glad that it wasn't just me being paranoid.

Where is Lilah? Why is there no more Lilah around for the hot Wesley/Lilah action? Instead, we get Wesley making doe eyes at Fred. And Fred making doe eyes at Wesley and stammering in that really annoying way she has. Plus, we get further destruction of Gunn's character as a sensible, pragmatic bloke who'll work with vampires if he has to and will stake his sister if needs be - instead, we get Gunn, the guy who'll bitch endlessly about everyone. Blergh. Did he do anything constructive in this episode? Or, in fact, in the last few episodes? Other than that murder bit in Supersymmetry, Gunn's character has been wholly extraneous, and it shows.

Speaking of extraneous, do something with Lorne soon, please!

On the other hand, Connor? Is now my sweet baby boy. *pets* Which, seeing as how I started the season off thinking he's a twerp is a definite improvement. I felt really sorry for him with having to put with all the "yeah you're connected to the Beast therefore you're eeeeeevil!!" bit from Gunn (and although Fred was good in saying, duh, don't be stupid, she wasn't really convincing. Which is stupid, 'cause it's a convincing argument delivered unconvincingly, if you see what I mean). Stop being such a bitch, Charles!

Also, Angelus being connected to the Beast? ooooh, yeah. *nods*

I give this 8/10. Marks were deducted for Gunn and his utter gormlessness in this episode.



So, there was a point at which I thought, "hold on, this isn't even halfway through the season, you can't kill the Big Bad yet!" And then I remembered that it doesn't happen, so it must be something else. Curse those memories of the S4 arc! Otherwise, this episode was strangely convincing - I guess in a bad way. We've had several episodes where, after an estrangement, the group fight something together, there's an inspirational speech or two, and there is much back-slapping. So, despite the sacchrine bits - or maybe because of them - I actually believed it. I guess also because this season has been pretty unrelentingly dark, so to have this uplift felt sort of justified. Of course, to have that sucker-punch of an ending just crushed you all the more. It's like the inverse of "The Wish": you start off with a light world that gets unbelievably dark and gets darker, but then, in a flash, it's all light again, and everything is fixed. Here, you start off with a dark world, and then everything starts getting better - and better - and better - and you can't quite believe it, but everything was so dark before, maybe they're due - and better - and then, in a flash, that's all taken away, and things are even darker now that you know you dreamt the light.

Hmmm. Is it time for Emily Dickinson again? This definitely brought one of my favourite verses of hers (*) to mind. The rest of season will be all that more darker, I think, because of this episode - because this episode goes, "what if we solved the problem and had a group hug and everything was sweet and lovely like back in season 2 post-darla?" and then yanks the rug out from under your feet.

I totally see what selenak was talking about in terms of Angel requiring a lot more, now, to be happy. There was definitely the desire to fix everybody back into the roles he would like them to stick to - Connor as son, Cordelia is love interest, the rest of the gang as loyal, amiable sidekicks, and the world carrying on blissful ignorance. I notice that Angel didn't save the world in a way that got him attention, or indeed exposed the supernatural to LA's media - instead, it was a freak weather thing, and people were all happy and glowy and stuff, and went about being blissfully ignorant again. Angel wants to be a champion, not a - a - a whatever it is that has public adoration alongside saving the world. Hero? Celebrity? Anyway.

I did like how Connor's transition from hating him because of Cordelia to not hating him because of Cordelia was handled. I mean, I think it credits Connor with a lot more social skills than he actually possesses, given that he hasn't actually been socialised, but it's interesting. And it implies that Angel doesn't want to 'steal' Cordelia 'back' from Connor; he wants Cordelia to have been his all along, and Connor to understand that.

RE: Gunn and Wesley - interesting that Angel doesn't seem to actually be that interested in the reasons for Gunn and Wesley's animosity - ie the Fred question - and just wants them to shut up about it and put it behind them. Interesting, in the sense that they're hostile for the same reason that Angel&Connor are hostile (well, one of them) - and, again in this instance, the need is for the girl to remain with the guy who has 'always' had her, and the contender to understand and bear no grudges.

I'm gonna take a stand and say that's somewhat sexist, in that it objectifies women as prizes to be won, and makes men the determining factor. Sure, Cordelia says that she never 'belonged' to Connor, but she does belong to Angel - at, least, in Angel's head. And, much like modern rape law, a woman's sexuality is here 'owned'. Connor attempted to steal Cordelia away, and Cordelia was complicit in that. Therefore, she has to apologise to Angel in his fantasy, essentially for 'stealing' her own sexuality away from him. Now, 'our' Cordelia would never do that. She might apologise for hurting him inadvertantly, but she'd also point out that who she sleeps with is not his business - especially as they're not together in any way, shape or form. Fantasy!Cordelia instead yields gently - and the sex scene is cringe-worthy, too - in a very womanly fashion. With Connor, she takes charge (even though in the actual sex scene she looks bored out of her skull). She initiates the sex. Here, she yields to Angel. She waits on him. She reassures him. And, in the end, she absolves him of any guilt in staying inside and feeling happy by saying that they have waited long enough.

I have a lot more to say on the subject, but I have to go meet athena25 for coffee. Plus, I sliced my finger open and am dripping blood all over my keyboard. Must not pass out.

Um. I give this 9.5/10, for sheer upset and gutsiness. And also for Angel being a sexist pig. Yay!

* If I had not seen the sun
I could have borne the shade,
But light a newer wilderness,
My wilderness has made.

Comments

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Re: Lilah *zips mouth*

Actually, the only real comment I have on these two episodes is that any goodwill I had more or less been building toward Angel was pretty much zapped by the dream sequence -- and I think we're supposed to see it as selfish and rather sexist. But the one line that really fills me with gnawing rage is when Wesley says he's sorry for, and Angel says (and for once I checked the transcript on this) "it's the first time I ever heard you apologize about anything").

. . .

OMGWTF????? I even try to ignore the fact that Wesley basically spent the first 3 years of canon apologizing for having the nerve to exist . . .let's even say that the irony's unintentional, that the writers just weren't thinking about that.

HE PULLED YOU OUT OF THE OCEAN AND GAVE YOU HIS BLOOD, YOU ASSHOLE.

/immediate irrational and visceral reaction.

When I think about it, I can qualify my indignation -- I don't think anybody's fantasy-in-which-they-reprogram-their-friends would turn out in a very flattering light. I can't imagine that Wesley's would be very flattering to him at all. (Wesley's perfect day would probably involve some kind of scenario in which he pretty much has sex with everybody -- at the very least Fred, Lilah, Angel, Angelus and Gunn -- and OMGEVERYBODYWHOWAZEVERMEAN2HIMSAYSTHEYARESORRY!!!! Still, that particular line about the apology seems so petty in that context (that they've just acknowledged Wesley being the one to pull him out of the ocean) -- and layering it in with the perhaps unintentional implication that Angel doesn't remember/didn't pay attention to pre-betrayal Wesley, and it makes me fume.

Now, in fairness, there's a line Wesley has, a few episodes down the road, that makes me almost as angry -- i'll be sure to flail when that one comes along.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Wesley's perfect day would probably involve some kind of scenario in which he pretty much has sex with everybody -- at the very least Fred, Lilah, Angel, Angelus and Gunn -- and OMGEVERYBODYWHOWAZEVERMEAN2HIMSAYSTHEYARESORRY!!!!

Also, good old Roger would do more than that. He'd be utterly humiliated by Wesley in chess. Same for Giles and Quentin Travers. They'd totally quote things wrong in Latin as well.*g* But yes. Am amused by you listing Fred, Lilah, Angel, Angelus (agreed, btw, that he'd want the sex both with the souled and the soulless version) and Gunn but not Cordelia - have I been getting to you?

layering it in with the perhaps unintentional implication that Angel doesn't remember/didn't pay attention to pre-betrayal Wesley

Err, I never saw that implied at all, given that Angel's version of Wesley both in Deep Down and here IS pre-betrayal Wesley, complete with glasses. (Wesley doesn't wear these anywhere outside of Angel's head in the last two seasons.) First and early second season Wesley, definitely, and I always took that to mean that this was Angel's favourite version, though clearly given what he says when soulless he sees the attraction of post-betrayal Action!Wesley as well. You can even go further: what is Wesley in early s5 if not Wesley rewritten by Angel into his pre-betrayal self, and how much was the wish to do that a part of Angel demanding this particular bit of amnesia not just for Connor but his co-workers as well? Especially given that in Awakening, the whole gang needs to be happy, too?

All of which doesn't mean that when Wesley apologized I didn't roll my eyes and thought "geez, Angel" as wel.

Lastly, in the Big Lug's defense: outside his head, he's the one telling Wesley he's sorry, later in the season.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Am amused by you listing Fred, Lilah, Angel, Angelus (agreed, btw, that he'd want the sex both with the souled and the soulless version) and Gunn but not Cordelia - have I been getting to you?

Not at all. My continued adoration for Wesley/Cordelia as a 'ship is and has always been qualified by (a) the recognition that they're too dense to actually realize they should be together and (b) my insistence that, between the first act of "Waiting in the Wings" and "You're Welcome", Cordelia does not actually exist. I've been mindwiped on the subject, much like the S5 gang re: Connor. In my version, it's Connor who gets pregnant and gives birth to himself. I prefer that to contemplating this version of Cordelia. (My powers of canon-denial are AWESOME; phear me!)

Re: Angel wanting his old Wesley back -- v.v. true. (So that means he's stating that early Wes never apologized for anything either? Which is even more lame-brained. Or maybe it means that in his mind, Wes never NEEDED to apologize for anything pre-"Betrayal."

I totally agree re: effects of the mindwipe -- notice that in season 1 & 2, Wes is the one who wants everybody to be a family, while Angel is the one whose default mode is "brooding alone in the dark." By season 5, that's almost entirely flipped.

[kangeiko]

But the one line that really fills me with gnawing rage is when Wesley says he's sorry for, and Angel says (and for once I checked the transcript on this) "it's the first time I ever heard you apologize about anything").

. . .

OMGWTF?????

My reaction exactly! The nerve of him - when has Angel ever apologised for anything?? Everything he has ever done wrong, he has blamed on Angelus. No, I can't start now or I will go off on a rant about personal responsibility. Wesley is all about taking on all of his own guilt and everyone else's, and Angel - gah. GAH!

HE PULLED YOU OUT OF THE OCEAN AND GAVE YOU HIS BLOOD, YOU ASSHOLE.

/immediate irrational and visceral reaction.

*nods so hard my head falls off*

(Wesley's perfect day would probably involve some kind of scenario in which he pretty much has sex with everybody -- at the very least Fred, Lilah, Angel, Angelus and Gunn -- and OMGEVERYBODYWHOWAZEVERMEAN2HIMSAYSTHEYARESORRY!!!!

Mwahahaha! That said, wouldn't everybody's? *g*

Angel doesn't remember/didn't pay attention to pre-betrayal Wesley, and it makes me fume.

Did he, though? I do think that he had this one idea of how Wesley was - back in Sunnydale - and he has been carrying that around with him for years, ignoring the changes. I mean, three years must not seem that long a time to Angel, so maybe there's a little leeway there. But if the Wesley in his mind is still the one from Sunnydale, no wonder the betrayal hit him that hard. It was literally incomprehensible to him.

I.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Darkness as a great Big Bad plan: yes, exactly. And I loved that it actually stayed for quite a while. That moment when Connor and Cordelia look up and the sun grows pale, then dark entirely? Still chills me.

I also liked Lorne and Angel's chat, what with Lorne saying everything I wanted to say to Angel, and then some. Plus, Cordelia telling Angel to get over it? Rocks. He is having an infantile tantrum, yes, thank you! Glad that it wasn't just me being paranoid.

*g* Yes. I mean, I love Angel, but that "...and I want to tell you.... get over it" was so perfect.

Lilah: will be back.

Glad you feel the Connor love now.*g*

Cool Emily Dickinson phrase.

"what if we solved the problem and had a group hug and everything was sweet and lovely like back in season 2 post-darla?" and then yanks the rug out from under your feet.

And that would be why I think s4, as a whole, is better written than s2, as a whole. I mean, I love s2 right until Epiphany, which I love and hate (the hate part would be Lorne's "oh, don't worry about that lawyer buffet, those guys were meant to die anyway, and aren't you glad you got rid of the bitch?" speech, plus the fact Wesley, Cordy and Gunn never seem to be troubled by the lawyer buffet again, either - they resent that Angel kicked them out, not that he aided and abetted in murder, which just, well, grr, argh); I like Disharmony, resent Dead End or whatever the Lindsey resolution episode was called (though less so now that I know Lindsey is going to come to an unpleasant ening *veg*), and still can't adjust to the big break in tone of the Pylea episodes.

There was definitely the desire to fix everybody back into the roles he would like them to stick to - Connor as son, Cordelia is love interest, the rest of the gang as loyal, amiable sidekicks, and the world carrying on blissful ignorance.

Quite. It's telling that Wesley basically is early second season Wes again, complete with glasses, and Gunn is early second season Gunn as well, and Fred basically is the nice office girl.

Angel wants to be a champion, not a - a - a whatever it is that has public adoration alongside saving the world. Hero? Celebrity? Anyway.

True. He got over the lure of public adoration in Pylea, and now I'm contradicting myself, because that shows Pylea was good for something.*g* It's an interesting contrast to Spike, I think, because Spike does thrive on the whole Slayer-of-Slayers rep and the public credit (and wants it for having saved the world in s5).

And it implies that Angel doesn't want to 'steal' Cordelia 'back' from Connor; he wants Cordelia to have been his all along, and Connor to understand that.

Indeed. Hence Cordelia telling Connor she never loved him and always loved Angel, and Connor's "she's too old for me anyway". Two points here: when Mindwiped!Connor sheepishly says, re: Illyria in Origin, after she said "this one is lusting after me", "it's the outfit - I guess I always had a thing for older women", Angel mutters "I told them to fix that". Which is basically what he does in "Awakening" already - rewriting Connor's attraction to Cordelia as something wrong and misguided and not real Connor gets over. (Given that Darla is about 200 years older than Angel and Buffy was fifteen when he first saw her, sixteen when they hooked up, the complaints about Connor's thing for adult women fall seriously under the glass house syndrome, but hey.) And point the second: Kita in her story "Manus" does a great thing about Angel in s5 parallizing Spike/Buffy with Connor/Cordelia in his mind.

Re: I.

[kangeiko]

Darkness as a great Big Bad plan: yes, exactly. And I loved that it actually stayed for quite a while.

Yeah, me too. I'm fed up of things being solved almost instantly!

And that would be why I think s4, as a whole, is better written than s2, as a whole. I mean, I love s2 right until Epiphany, which I love and hate (the hate part would be Lorne's "oh, don't worry about that lawyer buffet, those guys were meant to die anyway, and aren't you glad you got rid of the bitch?" speech, plus the fact Wesley, Cordy and Gunn never seem to be troubled by the lawyer buffet again, either

Hmmm, I guess that's been fanwanked in my head, with fanon filling in for canon. But I do see your point.

Quite. It's telling that Wesley basically is early second season Wes again, complete with glasses, and Gunn is early second season Gunn as well, and Fred basically is the nice office girl.

Watching this in light of the S5 opener is weird. I mean, seeing as how I had such trouble with the second half of S3, basically I went from S2 (or early S3) to S5 - so I didn't have a break in character continuity. And seeing the direction that everyone was heading in, and how in S5 they're essentially re-set, it's really quite creepy in retrospect.

It's an interesting contrast to Spike, I think, because Spike does thrive on the whole Slayer-of-Slayers rep and the public credit (and wants it for having saved the world in s5).

Ah, but even as a human William wanted to be recognised by the world as not a loser. Angel wanted to make the world pay, instead.

Which is basically what he does in "Awakening" already

Again, it's weird to watch Awakening post-S5, as S5 is basically the finished version of the Awakening dry-run!

And point the second: Kita in her story "Manus" does a great thing about Angel in s5 parallizing Spike/Buffy with Connor/Cordelia in his mind.

Yes, I read it recently, and it's fab.

Re: I.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I mean, seeing as how I had such trouble with the second half of S3, basically I went from S2 (or early S3) to S5 - so I didn't have a break in character continuity. And seeing the direction that everyone was heading in, and how in S5 they're essentially re-set, it's really quite creepy in retrospect.

Mmmm, yes, though I really think one can appreciate 5 better after 4, because I don't think they're actually reset. And not just because Angel remembers and many of his reactions make no sense if you haven't watched the previous seasons. Also because something like, say, Gunn's pride and joy in being a supersmart lawyer directly hails from the increasing sense of inferiority and failure he had in 4. And as for Wesley, well - I think I'll link you to my two reviews of s5 as a whole.

Part I (http://selenak.livejournal.com/156925.html)

Part II (http://selenak.livejournal.com/171882.html)

II.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

On to Angel's idea of Cordelia:
Therefore, she has to apologise to Angel in his fantasy, essentially for 'stealing' her own sexuality away from him.

Yep, and note that he has her equating his past as Angelus with her sex with his son. Oh, Angel.

Now, 'our' Cordelia would never do that. She might apologise for hurting him inadvertantly, but she'd also point out that who she sleeps with is not his business - especially as they're not together in any way, shape or form. Fantasy!Cordelia instead yields gently - and the sex scene is cringe-worthy, too - in a very womanly fashion. With Connor, she takes charge (even though in the actual sex scene she looks bored out of her skull). She initiates the sex. Here, she yields to Angel. She waits on him. She reassures him. And, in the end, she absolves him of any guilt in staying inside and feeling happy by saying that they have waited long enough.

Definitely a wish fulfillment. Also, if this associates Cordy with anyone of Angel's sexual past, it's 17-years-old virgin Buffy, certainly not Darla. (Maybe Drusilla, though, Dru in the very early days.)

Fascinating contrast, too, to Cordelia in the opening scenes (i.e. the ones which take place in reality) where she skilfully manipulates Angel into agreeing to the desouling by playing on his vanity and saying how much smarter he is as Angelus, etc.; she's definitely in charge there.

Re: II.

[kangeiko]

Yep, and note that he has her equating his past as Angelus with her sex with his son. Oh, Angel.

*grits teeth* That boy needs a good smack, is what he needs.

Definitely a wish fulfillment. Also, if this associates Cordy with anyone of Angel's sexual past, it's 17-years-old virgin Buffy, certainly not Darla. (Maybe Drusilla, though, Dru in the very early days.)

Which makes me think - wait - wait - *massages brain* - Angel's inability to keep Darla post-resoulment (she is the one who pushes him away) makes him, not exactly settle, but maybe pick women/girls who he subconsciously feels more capable of controlling. Darla was always outside his control, but Buffy was young enough to yield to him, fantasy!Cordelia yields, as does human Darla - but not in the way he expects. In S5, we have wolf-girl (I forget her name), who is, similarly, vulnerable and helpless and all to eager to yield to a knight in shining armour.