Angel 5x16 Shells
Wed, Mar. 3rd, 2004 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterWow.
Just wow.
This is the emotional impact that A Hole in the World should have had on me. Sorry Joss, but Steve DeKnight just knocked your episode out of the water.
I teared up pretty much every second Wes was on the screen. And it's so perfect too, how people were saying S5 would have to be a retread of S3 and 4 because those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it. But it's much better than that. Instead of being the betrayer once again, this time, Wesley's the one being betrayed. And if this is why we had the entire Wes pining after Fred for forever, then good. He's had the most precious thing to him taken away, just like he took Connor away, and through good intentions and actions not meant to be harmful. Angel and Spike couldn't and wouldn't help. Gunn is now in the position Wes was in back in S3, at the point in which only Harmony will go visit him. He's been stabbed in the gut by Wes, just like Wes had his throat near cut and was nearly smothered by Angel (that scene in Forgiveness was definitely hovering in the back of my mind seeing Gunn in the hospital bed). Wes even goes through a portal to try to bring back Illyria... and of course, Fred returns, like Connor did, except unthinkably changed and unloving. It's like karmic payback to the spades, and just like Angel, he can't do anything but lose himself in anger and grief.
The scene when Illyria played back Fred's last words was heartrending.
The entire episode was about loss, and though it was painful, I thought it was a good decision in not being able to bring back Fred's soul, not being able to call on Willow again, not being able to have a Buffy-like resurrection (although we've all seen just how well that turned out...). And the entire sense of Fred as Mary Sue was gone for me, except that one moment when Knox was raving about her being the most perfect woman he knew, but I will attribute that to the evilness. There's a Fred-shaped hole in the world, and for different people, it means different things. And it was just so painful watching everyone trying to cling to hope, trying to believe that they would somehow make things better, like that moment in The Body where Buffy dreams that she saved her mother and that she's made everything ok again, because it's not ok anymore, and they can't fix it. And for Angel, having already lost Cordy, ouch.
I really like the Angel-Spike tag team, them talking vampire talk to each other, especially the scene where Spike says he can't smell her, and that's all that really needs to be said. I like this Spike much more than S7 Spike.
And oh, Gunn.
Of course, there's still some of the season to go, but it'll be interesting looking back on spec right when the season was starting on Spike taking over, on no character development for Gunn or Wes, because right now, they own the season.
I loved how instead of having Illyria be the big bad a la Jasmine, she's just another lost one, albeit a god. I very desperately want to watch Wesley try to cope with her and see what will happen on that front, because much opportunity for angst, and Wesley angst is always of the good. Again, like in You're Welcome, I have no idea where the season is going.
Little things I loved:
- Angel's speech just by itself, because he was Epiphany!Angel and reminded me why I love the character, and his "Were you listening to me at all?"
- "My last qu@&$#$( was taller."
- the little Jack Daniels bottles, so Spike!
Guh, I love how it's doing the season four thing and re-revisiting everything that's happened before, in a different light, again. I think part of it is just because it's had enough seasons now, enough backstory to draw on to make it resonant enough (I would argue that's a strength of latter Buffy, which I am a fan of).
Have I mentioned how much I love my show?
Just wow.
This is the emotional impact that A Hole in the World should have had on me. Sorry Joss, but Steve DeKnight just knocked your episode out of the water.
I teared up pretty much every second Wes was on the screen. And it's so perfect too, how people were saying S5 would have to be a retread of S3 and 4 because those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it. But it's much better than that. Instead of being the betrayer once again, this time, Wesley's the one being betrayed. And if this is why we had the entire Wes pining after Fred for forever, then good. He's had the most precious thing to him taken away, just like he took Connor away, and through good intentions and actions not meant to be harmful. Angel and Spike couldn't and wouldn't help. Gunn is now in the position Wes was in back in S3, at the point in which only Harmony will go visit him. He's been stabbed in the gut by Wes, just like Wes had his throat near cut and was nearly smothered by Angel (that scene in Forgiveness was definitely hovering in the back of my mind seeing Gunn in the hospital bed). Wes even goes through a portal to try to bring back Illyria... and of course, Fred returns, like Connor did, except unthinkably changed and unloving. It's like karmic payback to the spades, and just like Angel, he can't do anything but lose himself in anger and grief.
The scene when Illyria played back Fred's last words was heartrending.
The entire episode was about loss, and though it was painful, I thought it was a good decision in not being able to bring back Fred's soul, not being able to call on Willow again, not being able to have a Buffy-like resurrection (although we've all seen just how well that turned out...). And the entire sense of Fred as Mary Sue was gone for me, except that one moment when Knox was raving about her being the most perfect woman he knew, but I will attribute that to the evilness. There's a Fred-shaped hole in the world, and for different people, it means different things. And it was just so painful watching everyone trying to cling to hope, trying to believe that they would somehow make things better, like that moment in The Body where Buffy dreams that she saved her mother and that she's made everything ok again, because it's not ok anymore, and they can't fix it. And for Angel, having already lost Cordy, ouch.
I really like the Angel-Spike tag team, them talking vampire talk to each other, especially the scene where Spike says he can't smell her, and that's all that really needs to be said. I like this Spike much more than S7 Spike.
And oh, Gunn.
Of course, there's still some of the season to go, but it'll be interesting looking back on spec right when the season was starting on Spike taking over, on no character development for Gunn or Wes, because right now, they own the season.
I loved how instead of having Illyria be the big bad a la Jasmine, she's just another lost one, albeit a god. I very desperately want to watch Wesley try to cope with her and see what will happen on that front, because much opportunity for angst, and Wesley angst is always of the good. Again, like in You're Welcome, I have no idea where the season is going.
Little things I loved:
- Angel's speech just by itself, because he was Epiphany!Angel and reminded me why I love the character, and his "Were you listening to me at all?"
- "My last qu@&$#$( was taller."
- the little Jack Daniels bottles, so Spike!
Guh, I love how it's doing the season four thing and re-revisiting everything that's happened before, in a different light, again. I think part of it is just because it's had enough seasons now, enough backstory to draw on to make it resonant enough (I would argue that's a strength of latter Buffy, which I am a fan of).
Have I mentioned how much I love my show?
(no subject)
Thu, Mar. 4th, 2004 12:03 am (UTC)Although it's kind of sad that Joss can't seem to write Angel =(. Hole in the World didn't do very much for me, but this one knocked just about everything out of the ballpark, from mytharcness to characterization to sheer emotion.
(no subject)
Thu, Mar. 4th, 2004 12:20 am (UTC)moi
(no subject)
Thu, Mar. 4th, 2004 10:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Thu, Mar. 4th, 2004 11:26 pm (UTC)moi
(no subject)
Thu, Mar. 4th, 2004 07:38 am (UTC)Have to emphatically disagree there. In fact, in a posting at the Bronze Beta yesterday, DeKnight admitted that Joss had helped him write two scenes in the episode, and those two scenes Joss directed. They were Spike and Angel on the plane (speaking of which, I knew that "perspective" line could only have come from Joss!), and that final perfect touch, the scene of Fred driving away. Besides that, although he had no author credit, Joss had more of a hand in this episode than in Smile Time, which ironically he had been credited for.
Oh, and...
Thu, Mar. 4th, 2004 07:40 am (UTC)Sorry for being a pain...
Thu, Mar. 4th, 2004 07:47 am (UTC)Re: Sorry for being a pain...
Thu, Mar. 4th, 2004 10:14 pm (UTC)I think it's a general impression with me because the three Joss episodes of Angel that I can think of off the top of my head just have that slightly off feeling for me. Like the ending montage, which felt more like Buffy than Angel... I don't know. It's hard to describe, almost as though the characters kidn of go back to their Buffy roots.