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Angel: Through the Looking Glass

Cordelia: "What is it with me? Do I put out some kind of comshok-me vibe?"

Funny and cleverly written episode, but with a not-so-funny ending. I really love the Host, dammit. Make it not so!

It certainly isn't surprising that Cordelia, who is something like the Red Queen anyway, would absolutely love being a princess ("Off with their heads! Kidding..."), and that she'd be reluctant to give it up, even if she has to mate with something — and what do you wanna bet that that cute Groosalugg turns out to be a pig, er, cow in a poke?

Poor Angel. He was having such a good time in Pylea, looking at himself in the mirror, running around in the sunlight, telling heroic tales to the villagers (loved the thing about his hair standing on end, and the slaying of the lawyer beast) until instead of vamping out, he uncontrollably monstered out. I liked the "a handsome man saved me from the monsters" Beauty-and-the-Beast thing with Fred. These Pylea episodes have just been full of fairy tale analogies, haven't they? Fred's scrawlings on the walls of her cave looked like the words in the book that created a portal. Maybe they'll be what will take the gang back to L.A.?

At one point, I started thinking of the Host as the Cowardly Lion, and then I thought, hey, Wesley is kind of like the Tin Woodman, Cordelia would of course be Ozma, since she's the secret princess... but that left Gunn as the Scarecrow and Angel as Dorothy, so the analogy kind of broke down.

Bits and pieces:

— Those holy books in "trionic" — who else saw that "wolf ram hart" coming? Duh.

— Note from much later: I didn't know at the time that Joss Whedon was in this episode. He is Numfar, doing the dance of joy.


Quotes:

Lorne: "Boy. I'd give my left horn to not have to do this."

Bearded demon: "You have shamed our clan and betrayed your kind."
Lorne: "Thanks, Mom."
Bearded demon: "Each morning before I feed, I go out into the hills where the ground is thorny and parched, beat my breast and curse the loins that gave birth to such a cretinous boy-child."
Lorne: "My mother."
Bearded demon: "Your father was right. We ate the wrong son."

Angel: (telling a story to the children) "...and the scroll is just tipping from his fingertips, and his eyes lighting with fierce determination, and then whack! I chopped off the evil lawyer-beast's hand and he screamed and he screamed. And then I left."
Lorne: "Well, you're just a regular Hans Christian Tarantino, aren't you?"

Gunn: "You having a Blair witch moment?"

Rebel: "I know how we send a message to the princess. We storm the palace."
Leader: "That'd be suicide. Our entire number would be wiped out in minutes."
Rebel: "Yeah, but it'd be a message."

Leader: "Shut up, reconnaissance-cow-scum."
Wesley: "Now see here, I've told you already. We're not reconnaissance cows."

Cordelia: "And this one will free the slaves and outlaw polyester. I know it hasn't actually been invented here yet, but I'm a forward-thinking monarch."

Three out of four stakes, and only one more episode before a summer of reruns. Drat.

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

5 comments:

  1. I think “we are not reconnaissance cows” is right up there with “these are not the droids you are looking for.”

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  2. Cordelia as a princess is simply comic gold. All kudos to Carpenter who made it work.

    The look of the demon in Angel always shakes me. I always think of Angelus as Angel ramped up. In other words, Angelus is more handsome, more witty, more just everything than Angel.

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  3. I like Pylea nad love Fred but have mixed feelings about the arc - but it's all completely worth and fully justified by 'Numfar! Do the dance of joy!' Which was my all-time favourite moment in Angel even before I knew it was Joss Whedon.

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  4. I'm with you Juliette, the dances were hilarious and then I read that it was Joss and laughed out loud. It's these kinds of gems that makes the Whedonverse so wonderful. Of course it was all too good to be true and now comes the pain and the fights.

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  5. LORNE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, DROPPING THIS SHOW LIKE A HOT POTATO

    "who else saw that "wolf ram hart" coming? Duh."
    I honestly didn't lol, I still remember how blown my mind was. Sometimes it's nice to have a brain that just shuts off and absorbs TV consumption. There's no analysis until after. All the weak surprises and twists tend to hit me in ways the ones from books never do as much, despite being more clever and hidden.

    "Leader: "That'd be suicide. Our entire number would be wiped out in minutes."
    Rebel: "Yeah, but it'd be a message.""
    I love that guy

    ReplyDelete

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