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Angel: Happy Anniversary

Angel: "But no, it's Angel, why you're so cranky? Angel, you should lighten up. You should smile. You should wear a nice plaid."
Host: "Oooh. Not this season, honey."

Okay, much better. Angel alone, brooding and killing things, doesn't work for me. Angel riding around L.A. with a demon who called him Angel-Face – now, that worked. I hadn't really put it together that Angel was so miserable because he thought he'd lost his shot at redemption; leave it to the Host to drag that out of him.

I adore the Host. He looks like he belongs in that makeup and wardrobe. He functions on the show as both psychotherapist and stand-up comic. Who else could get away with calling Angel "sweetie," "bubba," "angel-face," "big fella" and "Mr. Get-to-the-Pointypants," all of which he did in this episode? Love him. Give me more.

Isn't this great face/suit horns/shirt color coordination?

Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn continued to bond as they made an initial success of their new agency, in spite of no money and a miserable office with a funky smell. And I just got a tremendous kick out of their Agatha Christie-like drawing room denouement, with Wesley pontificating, Gunn wiping yuk off his hub-cap axe, and Cordelia snarfing down the hors d'oeuvres.

Talk about one moment of perfect happiness — did Mr. Gene the genius grad student ever consider that he was condemning his beloved to an eternity of unhappiness, since she was only making love with him one last time to avoid hurting him? Of course not. What a jerk.

Bits and pieces. Okay, one bit:

— I have to add a librarian thing. That Russian/English dictionary that the Host was hiding behind in the library didn't have a call number label on it. Plus it was shelved with the fiction instead of in Reference.


Quotes:

Gunn: "Okay, everyone parked within ten blocks has a flyer on their windshield. We just slightly irritated almost a hundred people."

Angel: "So the world's gonna end."
Host: "Brings you right down, doesn't it? Hey, don't feel the need to offer your guest a frothy cappuccino or a hot cinnamon roll."
Angel: "I don't."
Host: "Man, you just get darker and darker. And the weird thing is, your aura? Beige."

Angel: "Can you just get to the point already?"
Host: "Yes, I can, if you'd let me get a word in edgewise, Mr. Get-to-the-pointy-pants."

Angel: "Seventeen karaoke bars. You know, I need to lie down and scrub out the inside of my head."

Gunn: "How do you avoid reality?"
Virginia: "Money. It cures everything but boredom, and food cures boredom, so there you go. Imported chips and packets of cheese."
Gunn: "Thanks."
Wesley: "We'll enjoy them huddled around our pathetic candles."
Cordelia: "We'll make pathetic nachos."

Virginia: "You guys are really down."
Gunn: "Yeah. And don't try to tell us there is no way to go but up because the truth is, there is always more down."

Angel: "I think you should shut up now."
Host: "I'm the Host. Have you met me? I never shut up."

Angel: "Well, the guy is a disaster at love, and nearly destroyed the world. I can relate."

Three out of four stakes. Really good episode,

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

5 comments:

  1. Another one where I did some fast-forwarding: it’s possible to enjoy this episode completely without watching a single scene featuring the world-ender and his girlfriend.

    But I love Wesley’s Agatha Christie bit, too. Especially the way he looks at the duck-cane.

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  2. I love the Host and Angel together. Their partnership is hilarious.

    I do miss the gang being together and the final "it's just a name" always breaks my heart a little bit.

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  3. Billie - Obviously, the Host brought the Russian/English dictionary from home, knowing he''d need a book to hide behind and also knowing his Russian was rusty and could use some brushing up.

    The A story of this episode is so dull. Lorne is its only redeeming factor.

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  4. The story IS dull, and I find Angel's wallowing annoying (except for his rant in the car which is funny). The presence of Lorne, and the antics of Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn redeem the episode somewhat.

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  5. Much as I enjoyed season 1 decently enough, there was something I felt missing and this episode made it clear: my memory was faulty. I was certain the original AI crew were the ones really slumming it up at the beginning of their start-up because it didn't make sense to me that they'd really ever struggle again financially after meeting Nabbit. So it was actually the Angel-less crew that went through this struggle, huh.

    ReplyDelete

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