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Angel: Offspring

Darla: "I love children. I could just ... eat 'em up."

I'm sorry, but this whole Blade/Omen/Rosemary's baby plot just isn't working for me. I'm not really tracking with the new Holtz subplot, either.

And what's with the Angel/Cordelia romantic vibes that are suddenly flying in out of nowhere? After they've known each other for five years? When they're complete opposites, and not each others' type at all? And what's with Cordelia being solicitous toward Darla, to the point of getting bit? Cordelia grew up in Sunnydale and she is not stupid. Where was her head?

Dan, who liked this episode and the plotline more than I did, noted that Angel and Darla in their previous existences had sex for years and never made a baby before, but they have both since experienced supernatural changes in their bodies (Angel with his curse, and Darla with her resurrection). He thought that if any two vamps could break the rules and make a baby, they probably could. I'm not buying it yet, but hey, good point.

Maybe it was just the contrast with the incredibleness that was the Buffy musical that made this episode pale in comparison. Maybe, deep down, I've always considered Angel to be just a second hour extension of Buffy and it was just going too far afield. Maybe it's PMS. Whatever it is, I was seriously bummed.

Bits and pieces:

— One fun bit was when Fred got Buffy and Darla confused. After all, both of Angel's previous amours have come back from the dead. It's an easy mistake to make.

— One interesting bit was that the baby has a soul. Maybe it's not a monster, hmmm?

— The Host, who is supervising the revamping (pun intended) of his club, had most of the good lines. My favorite was the Barbie quote.

— I happen to know where Van Gogh's Irises is. It's worth over sixty million dollars and it's most certainly not in someone's house.

— Do they look for any excuse to chain David Boreanaz up?

— Gunn can juggle. He's cute and coordinated.

Quotes:

Cordelia: "Well, all we can do is live each moment to the fullest and be grateful that we didn't throw too much money at the NASDAQ."

Wesley: "In his case, it meant that some day the vampire in him might die, but the human in him might live."
Fred: "That he would be like a normal man?"
Wesley: "Yes."
Fred: "Wow. What would we do if that happened?"
Cordelia: "I'd buy him some plaid shirts and take him to the beach. The boy needs some color."

Angel: "I was just thinking about things. People. You know. How they relate. Take you and me, for instance. We're very different. Very different. Obviously... human... vampire. Woman... man...pire."
Cordelia: "Has someone been putting vodka in your blood?"

Fred: "Who's Darla?"
Gunn: "Angel's old flame from way back."
Fred: "Not the one that died?"
Gunn: "Yeah. No, not that one. The other one that died and came back to life. She's a vampire."
Fred: "Y'all have a chart or something?"
Gunn: "In the files. I'll get it for you later."

Lorne: "I was blue for a pretty long time. If it'd gone on much longer, I would have turned aquamarine."

Lorne: "This is way beyond my ken. And my Barbie, and all my action figures."

Cordelia: "Another big fun day at Angel Investigations. What do you say we pour ourselves a good stiff..."
Fred: "Uh-oh."
Cordelia: "A good stiff uh-oh?"

Dan liked it more than I did, and gave it a two. I'm leaning toward a one. How about taking an average and giving it 1.5 stakes,

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

4 comments:

  1. One small thing that always bothered me about this episode: it's 1771 and Holtz is wearing sunglasses! Today I finally made an effort to figure out whether it is actually anachronistic. It turns out that glasses with tinted lenses have been produced since the 1600s, although they didn't look like Holtz' and they weren't used for protection against the sun. More than a 100 years later, it is plausible that Holtz would have tinted glasses with the familiar side pieces that go around the ear. But he wouldn't use them against the sun; that only became a thing during the late 1800s when movie stars wore them for protection against the bright arc lights.

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  2. And what's with the Angel/Cordelia romantic vibes that are suddenly flying in out of nowhere? After they've known each other for five years? When they're complete opposites, and not each others' type at all?

    Yeah, that’s a good question.

    Rewatching this season in, ahem, a short period of time, I've noticed that the pacing of the relationships is really weird: we get a lot of episodes that include elements of Fred’s crush on Angel. In places, Wesley glances meaningfully at Fred as though he is developing a crush, but it’s never made explicit.

    Then, two game-changers in about 90 minutes: Fred really gets her act together after realizing her purpose in life in “Fredless,” and Wesley gets really into Fred (perhaps because she’s pulled herself together?) in “Billy” (and we know how that ends). That seems to open the field for a sudden Angel/Cordelia relationship, which is odd.

    And what's with Cordelia being solicitous toward Darla, to the point of getting bit?

    FWIW, and it might not be worth much, I see this as a holdover from Cordelia’s girl-power kick in “Billy.” Still weird, though.

    I don’t hate the baby plot as much as you, Billie, although a lot of the Holtz stuff leaves me cold. But this episode has great dialogue, like the Ken & Barbie quote you mentioned, and Fred’s excellent speech about things being “evitable.”

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  3. "I'm not buying it yet"

    Really? You found this any harder to buy than Angel still being the only vampire on the planet to have his soul restored? Huh? Harder than Darla coming back from her true death?? HUH!? Actually I had the same impression too, but I've always been curious about the ways we will or won't believe a development introduced to a series where its mythos was always the acceptably weakest part of it (at least to me). I don't see how a pregnancy should break immersion, but it kinda did for me too.

    Actually scratch that, the Angel-Cordy thing had the real immersion-breaking. What even was that? How final was his postmortem meet with Buffy?

    I did feel a good kind of dread with Holtz though. I'm a fan of the (hard) realization that even when you've certifiably gone through real change, the remainder of your life is basically spent facing the consequences of long past actions. We'll see how it goes

    And like Josie mentioned I found Cordy letting her guard down with Darla much easier to buy when it's the episode right after Billy. But I didn't like it either.

    "Maybe, deep down, I've always considered Angel to be just a second hour extension of Buffy and it was just going too far afield."
    D: That hurt to read.

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  4. Well the Holtz reveal at the end was certainly disappointing. I'm still enjoying the show, it has enough good material to keep you interested, but I find the general character development and plots a bit...all over the place? It feels messy. Also, the bonding between the characters is often forced and leaning towards cheesy (which was never the case on Buffy). Like they all coming together to paint Fred's room and Angel taking Fred out for ice cream...give me a break! They should have taken her in because they needed her, without the forced relationship and bonding. They all suddenly really personally care about this half-crazy girl because why?? Specially Angel. Come on. Am I just horribly jaded? I liked the brutal realism of Buffy better. And now the Angel and Cordelia thing just because of a comment by Fred?

    I mean, I still really love the show and I'm going to keep watching, but man it just makes me realize even more what a brilliant show Buffy was.

    ReplyDelete

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