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Angel: There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb

Host: "You know where I belong? L.A. You know why? Nobody belongs there. It's the perfect place for guys like us."

I was seriously pissed at the end of the previous episode when I thought the Host was dead, so I was relieved and happy that he was only somewhat dead. They sure do like separating body parts from each other in Pylea, don't they?

Except for the body part separating issue, this episode was like horror slapstick with Cordelia creeping around with Lorne's head when she wasn't making cow eyes at the Groosalugg, and Wesley and Gunn helping a bunch of renegade cows storm the castle. The more serious parts had Angel befriending Fred in a somewhat romantic way while making manly attempts not to monster out. What's with Fred? I heard that she might be a new continuing character. I like her so far, although the dithering she does could get old pretty quickly.

To sum up, fun was had but I'm not crazy about Pylea, and I liked last week's a bit better. I'll leave out the sad ending where the gang arrived back at the ranch and found Willow waiting to give Angel some seriously bad news.

Wait, I'm not done. And now for some year-end comments!

So there we were, happily involved in episodes about Darla and Dru and Wolfram and Hart and will Angel go bad or won't he and Angel having sex (at last), and then we took an unexpected sharp left turn into Pylea. What happened? I mean, the Pylea episodes were funny, clever and different, but they kind of left me going, "Huh?"


I did love the Darla story arc and the Darla/Dru rampage; it was like vintage Buffy. My favorite part was the Angel/Darla sex, with the action and dialogue paralleling his experience with Buffy. Angel didn't turn into Angelus this season after all, when we kept getting hints that he might. I expect that at some point in the series he will indeed turn; it'll be interesting to see if and when they actually do it, and how. I didn't care much for Angel going into brood mode, but I loved his humble attempts to get back into the good graces of his staff.

Speaking of the staff, it was great to see Wesley, Cordelia, and Gunn becoming close — particularly Wesley and Gunn, who connected in a big way during Angel's absence. Gunn is probably my favorite of the three, and I just realized that as I was typing it. And he's not a cast member, but I love the Host with all my heart. He made me laugh out loud over and over again this season, and I particularly love the way he interacts with Angel.

I want Lindsey back. He's a wonderfully amoral and unpredictable character, and he has great eyes.

To sum up, the second season had lots of great episodes and was so much better than the first that there really is no comparison. I particularly liked "Darla," the second part of "Fool for Love," which has turned out to be my absolute favorite Buffy episode), "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been," "Reprise" and "Epiphany." There were some dropped plot threads, though. What happened to Faith? And Anne and the teen shelter? And where did Kate go? (I know, she got a series in New York, but hey.)

Bits:

— Cordelia finally got to be a real princess and found it wasn't what she really wanted. She also had a chance to pass on the visions, and chose not to. Cordelia seems to be maturing.


— Wesley got to be all manly and general-like, assigning suicide missions right and left. He really came into his own as a character this year, running the office without Angel, becoming good friends with Gunn.

— They managed to hide Charisma's tattoo pretty well in that skimpy princess costume.

Quotes:

Fred: "Tacos! Sorry. I didn't mean to holler at you. I love tacos. Do they still have them? You know, back..."
Angel: "...home? Yeah, they didn't outlaw tacos."
Fred: "Oh, of course not. I've been trying to make an enchilada out of tree bark."
Angel: "Bark enchiladas. Huh. How's that going?"
Fred: "There is work to be done."

Lorne: "Why am I still alive? Once they chop me up, it's over. I'm looking at pieces of myself! Oh, it's over! (Sobs) Wait a second. Since when do I have five toes?"

Groo: "I disobeyed the Covenant. I shall spend eternity burning in Tarkna for my sin."
Cordelia: "Oh, who believes a literal Tarkna nowadays?"

How about three out of four stakes for this season ender? Looking forward to next season, although it won't be as much fun with Buffy and Angel on separate stations and on different nights.

(Brief postscript: the reason why some of my late season two reviews are so sparse is because I was in the process of moving from the east coast to the west coast. My apologies. The full season review stuff was added later that summer.)

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

10 comments:

  1. Joss Whedon really does second seasons well! (which only makes me wonder what could happen to Firefly - now that I think of it, that was the only one of his four series so far that hooked me from the first few episodes and it's the only one with so few episodes...)

    I liked the first season and the idea of the series, but mostly I just watched it out of necessity because of Buffy crossovers. The ressurrection of Darla really stepped up the game the way the return of Angelus (or maybe the introduction of Spike and Drusilla before that) did to Buffy.

    As for this last arc, I agree that it has an odd tone and I hope something like this doesn't happen again, but it had lots of fun moments and I thought it helped to settle the series themes with the remark of belonging in a city where nobody belongs, helping the helpless and having Angel (quite literally) accept his inner demon.

    (Also liked BtVS S05 a lot - I didn't care that much for S04, although it had some excellent standalone episodes)

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  2. Interesting how both shows ended in a story about dimensions and portals. I wonder if this whole Pylea arc started out as a way to get the A-team out of the way while Buffy fought Glory.

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  3. So there we were, happily involved in episodes about Darla and Dru and Wolfram and Hart and will Angel go bad or won't he and Angel having sex (at last), and then we took an unexpected sharp left turn into Pylea. What happened?

    OOO! I know this one. They planned to have the Darla/Angel/Dru story end the season. Then the scheduling with Juliette Landau fell through. (I'm pretty sure it was her not Julie Benz but it was one of them). So they course corrected quickly and came up with Pylea. It felt odd at the time, but works out in the long run for the series.

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  4. I love the Pylea episodes. They’re so bizarre in the context of this multi-episode arc, but it’s nice to avoid the big season-ending blow-out.

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  5. Of course, the real issue is, how do you pronounce 'Plrtz Glrb'? It seems obvious that it should be 'Plertz Glerb' and that's always how I've done it, but there is also 'Plartz Glarb' or 'Plortz Glorb', or even a mixture of those last two, 'Plortz Glarb' or Plartz Glorb'.

    Does everyone do 'Plertz Glerb', or is there a real variety of pronunciations out there?

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  6. I love the Pylea episodes as well. They are a fun departure (ooh, pun) from the norm and it's kind of nice that the season ended on a happy note. Or, it did until the final seconds. I've always thought that it was a truly compassionate thing that Willow made the trip to LA rather than pick up the phone. News like that has to be told in person.

    Billie, I've always pronounced it 'Plertz Glarb,' but what do I know?

    Great re-watch, all.

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  7. I'm with Sunbunny and Billie on this Plertz Glerb. @percysowner thanks for the background. Rewriting on the fly seems to be a talent of this team and I like what they did with it.

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  8. ^Yeah, thanks. That does explain Pylea's randomness as more than just a "they wanted a break from the darkness." Only fans think like that while intentionally watching a dark show, the masochists. Also explains Dru's absence which was more conspicuous than Kate's sneak exit. Well, I still loved the experience this watch-through too.

    Wesley sitting down near the fireplace with the sword on his shoulder and rubbing his thumb against the blade... evocative shot. I fully bought it. Try to save everyone, you get them all killed. Of course I still prefer Angel's "we'll find another way" as he said when sparing The Great Mighty Groo, but Wesley can't just think like a champion.
    Lorne's dismay that they took the sight of his disembodied head too stoically, lol. Where's the extolling of virtues! Where's the love! And I liked that Fred didn't freak out at all when he re-animated.
    I loved, there's 2 instances where Lorne's interacting with his mom and Angel's right behind him over his shoulder. First it was mouthing 'mom?' in confusion but this episode it was just looking taken-aback and sad for Lorne when he thanks her for only putting his head on the lice pile and not the maggot heap. I loved that.
    Touched by Gunn's preemptive guilt in leaving the rebels to their fate and doing it right this time, even though Wes unintentionally takes over.

    Plertz Glerb should really be the only appropriate answer, but maybe the 'a'/'o' sounds would be more like when people can't pronounce 'milk' the right way. I could also imagine Cordelia's lip-flapping thing she does to 'censor' the Angel in Angel Investigations, where the unavoidable vowels would be in Plrtz Glrb.

    5 cheers for this arc! Brave direction! Brave direction! Brave direction! Brave direction! Brave direction!

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