Angel 5x17 Underneath

[oyceter]

Squee!!! New Angel!!!

Mercedes McNab in the credits! Illyria in the credits!

Snappy refresher course in the season in the beginning, with a very nice Spike and Angel conversation. I very much like the Spike and Angel conversations they've been having on the show.

Also, Illyria's talking a little too much, imho. Although I did like the world of shrimp ^_^. And "smurf!"

Layers on layers in the episode, except I can't think of the point that's being hammered home with the imagery -- the kid studying the layers of the earth, the basement of the subconscious, ala Buffy (and the hearts, flashback to Restless?), Eve's talk of layers that she doesn't know herself. Illyria or Fred or Wes himself digging into Wes' psyche, wanting to see how bare he can be stripped.

I knew they were going to flash to something happy once they started talking about hell. Ditto with the quip buried into Illyria's long and description passage on worlds she's been to. I think next TV season, I am going to be a bit baffled by all the shows that talk about things seriously and don't throw in an off the cuff quip to lighten things up.

I loved the visual parallel of Spike and Angel standing with hands on hips in the reaction shot to the new liaison. And Jayne! Er. Alec Baldwin! He was awesome and not at all Jayne-like. I adored the Home Alone scream when he showed up, and everyone commenting on his sartorial savviness. And the elevator. Hee. See, things like that should happen more in action movies, just because of Murphy's Law.

Lindsey's storage place reminded me alternately of Edward Scissorhands and the spooky city in A Wrinkle in Time. I thought at first Lindsey's wife was going to be Darla.

And I can't believe Gunn is there. Until I saw the preview for next week, I thought seriously that they might have just left him there. I can't tell anymore! Usually on shows I'm pretty sure that they're not going to kill certain people, but ME has been killing characters left and right on Angel, plus there's the cancellation, and I feel like there are no guarantees. I can even see them end the show with Angel alone surviving, or something, because there isn't that core group of Scoobies like there was in Buffy.

Next week: Squee!!!! And Connor called him "dad"! Does that mean he remembers?! And the Fanged Four!! My fannish cup overrunneth.

Comments

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

Squee!!!! And Connor called him "dad"!

Don't want to burst a bubble, and I'm completely unspoiled, so this is just spec, but... [I'll skip a few lines just in case you don't want to read it...]





I assumed that the clip was a mislead and that Connor was actually talking to the man he thinks is his father. All we saw was that clip of Connor saying the name, and The WB has been misleading with clips in promos before. Not that I really, really don't hope that I'm wrong about that. But it kinda seems more likely to me. Unless that was a clip from later in the episode, when Connor might finally know who Angel is. Again, me with the hoping. :-D

[oyceter]

*sigh* Completely forgot that the promos were made by the WB, mother of misleading promos. With possible exception of UPN...

But still, CONNOR!

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

Isn't it funny how completely different Jossian show rhythms are from anything else? I too knew from the moment Eve started overemoting about hell that they were going to cut to Lindsey with 600 vestal virgins or something, just because that's how this show works, but I've never seen that vibe anywhere else. It can't take itself seriously for very long, and that's what I'm going to miss the most, I think.

That and all the kickass girl characters. Sigh.

.m

[oyceter]

I know! Last year the only thing I was watching were Joss shows (Buffy, Angel and Firefly), and then Firefly and Buffy were gone, so I tried to pick up a new show.

Watched Alias and had a hell of a time getting used to normal TV procedures, in which overemoting and being deadly serious is counterbalanced by... more overemoting and being deadly serious. I want another Joss show, damnit.

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

Before the episode aired last night, they did a brief preview of things to come.

Darla!
Drusilla!
Connor!

Squee!

I had this feeling of, well, if this is the end, they are bringing back the people who made the show what it was for one last hurrah.

I'm hoping it's not the end. I'm hoping there will be a new season, a TV movie, a mini-series, a straight-to-DVD thing. But I felt a bit better seeing the return of old favorites before the end.

[oyceter]

EEEEE!!

So excited!

^_^.

I am not quite coherent, but so excited!

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

Now if they could just return Doyle. *sigh*. I guess he got his return in "You're welcome" with the old season 1 video.

Yes yes yes yes!

[arethusa2.livejournal.com]

Me too with the Wrinkle in Time! All they needed was boys with bouncing balls, but that'd be too on-the-nose for Whedon. People are mindlessly substituting a fake life for a real one, their minds taken over, not looking beneath the surface.

When he appeared I started singing "Jayne! The man they call Jayne!" and got some odd looks from my family.

And W&H is layer upon layer too.

Re: Yes yes yes yes!

[oyceter]

I know! I kept thinking Lindsey was going to mess up getting the paper or something!

Hee, when Jayne first showed up, the boy was like, "hey isn't that... that guy!" and I, being a bad fan, thought "X-Files bounty hunter?"

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

Agree about the Darla, too – my first thought was that this was Darla. And. As I can see, a lot of people saw the similarity.

Layers, contrasts, sudden transitions, hidden gems – how are we going to live without Joss TV?
The contrast between the Terminator and the cheerful liaison was great. And that happy hell was creepier that the “normal” hell would be.

[oyceter]

Hee, I loved Terminator/nice liaison guy.

Sigh. Missing Joss TV already...