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Angel: Billy

Cordelia: "It's weird. I'm starting to get used to being creeped out and comforted at the same time."

I was definitely creeped out and impressed, although I don't think I was comforted.

This was a good episode for Charisma Carpenter, and an even better one for Alexis Denisof. Cordelia got to be strong and forceful and learned swordplay while Wesley went, in the space of one episode, from a really nice man, to a monster, to a complete emotional wreck. I spent most of this episode waiting for each of the male members of the cast to turn — especially Angel, who didn't. Good suspense there.

Wesley was chilling, and then pathetic. I think it was smart for the writers to make Wesley the one most affected, because I think he is perceived as the gentlest male in the cast. Gunn was better prepared for it to happen to him because he's so quick on the uptake; I liked him telling Fred to knock him out, which was very characteristic of him.

It was interesting seeing Lilah and Cordelia sorta kinda relating to each other. (Lilah: "So you know me." Cordelia: "Please. I was you, with better shoes.") Lilah being the one to stop Billy was cool, too.

Are they attempting to divide up the cast into hetero couples? If so, they must be putting Fred with Wesley (if she'll even consider him now that he's done a Jack Nicholson in The Shining on her). Does that leave Cordelia with Gunn? I had thought at one time that they were going in that direction, but they never did anything with it.

Bits and pieces:

— Boy. Does Wesley have issues, or what?

— Wesley lives in apartment number 105.

— We finally got to see other parts of the hotel.

— What sort of demon was Billy? We never did find out. And if they had to name a character Billy (my name), why couldn't it have been Fred?


Quotes:

Gunn: "Dead! So dead. So very, very dead. Just how dead are you, huh?"
Angel: "I'm tired of being the dead one."

Angel: "How many convenience stores we got on the Westside?"
Fred: "Well, even if you just include Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and Malibu only, the combined populations is something like a hundred thirty thousand people spread over more than thirty square miles, and given that..."
Gunn: "A lot."
Fred: "I was getting there."

Lilah: (shrugs) "So? You know me."
Cordelia: "Please. I was you, with better shoes."

Fred: "So, however Billy is putting the mojo on people, the power seems to be in his blood. Which means it can also be in his sweat or his saliva or even his touch."
Wesley: "Speaking of saliva, where is Cordelia?"
What did that mean, exactly? That she talks too much? It went right past me.)

Billy: "I don't hate women. I mean, sure, you're all whores who sell yourselves for money and prestige, but men are just as bad. Maybe even worse. They're willing to throw away careers or families, or even their lives for what's under your skirt."
Cordelia: "I'm wearing pants."
Billy: "So, you can dress like a man, talk like a man? Does that make you feel superior?"
Cordelia: "Actually, I'm feeling superior because I have an arrow pointed at your jugular. And the irony of using a phallic shaped weapon? Not lost on me."

Three stakes? Not bad at all,

Billie
---
Billie Doux reviewed all of Buffy and Angel, so she knows the plural of apocalypse.

4 comments:

  1. This is one of those difficult episodes. I love the Lilah/Cordelia scene, but I just can’t watch Wesley being mean to Fred. He’s so heartbroken afterwards, too. Oh, Wesley!

    Fun casting fact: Billy’s cousin was played by Kristoffer Polaha, who has since been in a lot of things, including Ringer with SMG and Joss’s own Dollhouse.

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  2. This is super late, but the saliva thing is because wesley made out with cordelia once back on buffy!

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  3. I was kind of dissatisfied with this one. Not so much with the episode itself--liked Cordelia particularly--but that Billy was such a minor thing in the greater scheme of things. Wolfram and Hart were just breaking this monster out of hell because his bigwig politico uncle was paying them? It just seemed like if they were going to go to such great lengths to get Angel to accomplish one task for the that it would be something more significant.

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  4. Basically agree with Magritte above... strange that it's a polarizing episode because my reaction was 'meh, pretty good.' I like this mini-arc format but it was handled about as easily/quickly as Angel being bodyswapped.

    On the commentary they said the idea they had about Billy's parentage is that instead of the expected Demon Raped A Human it's the reverse. I thought it was amusingly fucked up, and wish it made it into the script.

    Well, still a vital episode for the Wes stuff. I'm a fan of the trope where somebody hears another person crying in the room they just closed a door on. Poor Wes. But honestly I wasn't ready for the Angel crew to finally start pairing up lol.

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