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Angel: Dear Boy

"We don't want him dead. We want him dark."

Do I sense an upcoming appearance by Angelus?

I'm loving this. They are doing such fun things with Angel. He's all over the place, and it's working, as far as I'm concerned. I loved the prolonged Angel/Darla scene in the pillar-tank-thingy ("It's been a long time since I said this to someone, but scream all you want." "I'm not going to scream.") Wow, I was ready to scream.

I had no idea that Darla was human. What a great red herring. When she ran to her "husband" in the sunlight, I actually thought for awhile that it wasn't Darla. I've never been all that interested in Darla before, either – is it just that the more interesting possibilities are just now being explored?

To make things even better, we got an absolute plethora of returning characters: Kate the cop, Lindsey, that wonderful Karaoke Demon, and (best of all) Drusilla... wow. Dan actually went "Yay!" when he saw Juliet Landau's name in the opening credits. The writers have made some wonderful changes to Kate and she's now very Muldery – less makeup, messy hair, pale, nondescript clothes, exiled to the basement – her character just works better as an obsessed member of the opposition. Lindsey is way cool, of course. And I've been waiting for what seems like forever for Drusilla to come back.


Angel's crack (or crank) investigation team is finally coming together. Wesley and Cordelia are a delight when they're arguing, and Gunn is adding some necessary and interesting new blood. Kudos to Gunn for figuring out that Angel couldn't have killed the Cramers because he wasn't invited.

Bits and pieces:

— Lindsey seems to have a thing for Darla, and I think she returns his interest. He really liked the blind assassin last season, too; he must go for the bad ones. Guess he doesn't work at Wolfram & Hart for nothing.

— Which bleached blonde did Wesley have sex with? Inquiring minds want to know.

— I loved the way Angel just lifted Darla out of the crime scene from above.

— Gunn finally got to try out his hubcap battle axe.

— In the flashback scenes, Angel's long hair looked much better on him than before, and his bad Irish accent was a lot less noticeable. Maybe they got him a coach.

Quotes:

Cordelia: "Its disciples are human, they're killing each other. I think the fight is over how to worship it."
Angel: "This is why personally I rarely go to church. (Wesley and Cordelia ignore him) I thought it was funny."

Gunn: "You are not paying me enough for this. My uncle Theo always said never buy a dull plow, and never get in the middle of a religious war."
Cordelia: "You really have an Uncle Theo?"
Gunn: "No, but it's still good advice."

Darla: "He got a soul and it sickened me. All that power wasted on a whiny, mopey do-gooder. God, I could eat his eyeballs."
Lindsey: "Our plans for Angel are a little more long term than that. But if you can't help yourself, then by all means, be my guest."
Darla: "You're fun for a human."


Angel: "It was Darla. She's back, and she's human now, but I know her scent."
Wesley: "Angel, you can't just... sniff a person and know..."
Angel: "You had sex last night with a bleached blonde."
Wesley: "Good Lord, how'd you...?"
Cordelia: "That's unbelievable. (to Wesley) I didn't think you ever had sex."

Angel: "So talk."
Host: "So, no."
Angel: "What do you mean 'no.' You won't tell me anything?"
Host: "I'll tell you you're headed into trouble with a capital 'troub'."

Wesley: "You really stood up to him. (mimics Cordelia) Next time I talk to him, I won't weenie out like you, Wesley."
Cordelia: "Don't start with me. And if I sound like that, shoot me."

Gunn: "So he and Darla together, bad combo."
Wesley: "They rampaged through half the known world, until Angel got his soul."
Cordelia: "Imagine Bonnie and Clyde if they'd had a hundred and fifty years to get it right."

Darla: "We made quite a mess out there. Blood and habits everywhere."
Angelus: "Convents. They're just a great big cookie jar."

Angel: "It's been a long time since I said this to anyone, but you can scream all you want."
Darla: (breathing hard) "Oh. Oh. I'm not gonna scream."

Darla: "No matter how good a boy you are, God doesn't want you. But I still do."

I have to give it a four out of four because I just had the best time.

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

7 comments:

  1. Great episode. I loved that scene between Darla and Angel underground in the room with the pillars. Darla is so much more interesting and three dimensional since she returned from the grave than she was on the first season of Buffy. It's obvious her return really has Angel off balance.

    I was surprised that she turned out to be human as well. It was a very unexpected choice and I don't really remember how the show handles it. I can't wait to see where they continue to go with the Darla arc.

    And Kate the cop is still annoying me. I'm ready for her to leave.

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  2. That pillar/tank location is awesome.

    As you said, Billie: Kudos to Gunn! Gunn so often has the right answer; he is the best detective in the group. It’s sad that no one—not even Gunn—ever seem to notice that fact, to the point where describes himself as just “muscle” in a later episode. (Vague to avoid spoilers.)

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  3. This is a wonderful episode and I love the way that Angel could go one way or the other. The scene with Darla is a incredible to watch, especially as he tells her that she never made him happy. Her reaction is pure gold.

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  4. A great episode indeed.

    I can't imagine Angel falling for Darla even if he had a soul, at this point she doesn't appear to have any redeeming features. Should her soul not have kicked in already?

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  5. @Annie. I think her soul has kicked in but she is ignoring it. She wants Angel and how she felt with him and turning him bad seems the only way to make it happen. She's only been human for a short while and she needs to get used to it. I really enjoyed this episode and the interplay between Angel and Darla. Darla is that ex who you have so much trouble getting over for reasons that sometimes you can't even figure out and it was so cathartic to watch Angel disengage himself. Great writing and great acting not to mention a terrific review.

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  6. Really great episode. This story direction and the way it opens up all sorts of possibilities for Angel proves for me all over again that this spin-off was a great move. Angel works so much better in this setting than he did in Buffy's orbit and it just keeps sustaining and improving.

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  7. "— I loved the way Angel just lifted Darla out of the crime scene from above."
    I loved it too lol, I couldn't help but think of (HANNIBAL TV SERIES SPOILERS) Francis Dolarhyde snatching poor doomed Chilton from the car just out of screen after Will maneuvered him into helping bait Francis out of hiding. Both times made me laugh at the suddenness of it.

    I've never thought about how fucked up it is that Darla restrains Angelus from attacking Dru when he wanted to just so she could continue being harassed by her visions of her fate for a huwhile longer... Jesus. All that dread-building on top of the shock of the violence.

    Anyway I'm impressed with the escalation in this episode, I really thought they'd drag out the Darla-as-a-normal-human-doppelganger masquerading so Angel can continue doubting his convictions. But by the end of the episode he's as resolved as he ever was. 5 episodes in and they've already beaten the first season for me, lol. I don't mind if the quality suddenly dips after this as I'm sure I must've just jinxed it. Eep

    Angel's joke not landing with his crew was amusing and cute. I like it when they do that, the trope of leaders' jokes never provoking laughter and them grousing about it (I don't know how much of a trope it really is since the only other instance I can think of is from Animorphs).

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