Angel 4.02, 4.03, 4.04
I accidentally watched the entire rest of the first disc last night. And then when I woke up with middle of the night insomnia, my brain kept dwelling on certain scenes while I was busy not falling back to sleep.
I didn’t really like the chick in “Ground State”. It was odd to start an episode with a flashback to a non-series regular. And she herself was just an amalgam of Rogue from the X-Men and Liz from Hellboy so it’s not like she brought anything new and exciting to the mix. I did like Angel’s heart beating and I did like Fred’s breakdown after Gunn’s temporary death. (Mr. b asked “Who’s the bitch?” and I thought he meant Lilah. I suppose if you don’t have any background on Fred’s history that scene could be harsh. Heh.) Disappointingly, this one was much more standalone than I was hoping for out of the second episode of the season.
“The House Always Wins” brought a lot of fun and silly back to the table, no casino pun intended. I guess they didn’t send Lorne away for long. I like when Angel’s in reminiscence mode, though I have to wonder how he was able to pal around with all the so-they-famous-ares when he was busy being broody and sad about having a soul pre-Buffy. The magic gambling device reminded me of a similar episode of DS9 but it was cool to see Random Admiral from TNG as the head bad guy. Oh and who doesn’t love Green Fred prancing around in a showgirl costume?! I’m sure Gunn didn’t mind!
“Slouching Toward Bethlehem”: yikes, that’s quite a title. Is that supposed to be a phrase in common parlance? I mean, I consider myself very well read but I had no idea it was from a Yeats poem without the help of the friendly neighborhood internets. So anyway, allusion, smallusion. Yada yada endtimes, apocalypse, blah blah blah. The thing is, I’m totally down with the immanitizing of the eschaton arc, let’s just get to it already! Lilah is playing Wesley and I can’t tell if Wesley is going to let her or not. Cordy comes back and, like Daniel Jackson, has her mind wiped once returned to corporeal form. Too bad she didn’t come back nekkid, too, and instead wore that unfortunate seraphim costume (which is just grossly out of character and gross to boot) some more. But hey, her hair was improved by her stay in heeaaaaaaven so that’s something. It looks like my sick premonition of no good pseudo-Oedipal action between Cordelia and Connor is sadly going to come true. I understand that things are seriously, seriously creepy at AI if you come in as a blank slate and have no clue that you can trust these freaks. But her clinging to Connor seemed almost arbitrary and I really just don’t need to see them Do It and then watch Angel be all angsty about it.
I didn’t really like the chick in “Ground State”. It was odd to start an episode with a flashback to a non-series regular. And she herself was just an amalgam of Rogue from the X-Men and Liz from Hellboy so it’s not like she brought anything new and exciting to the mix. I did like Angel’s heart beating and I did like Fred’s breakdown after Gunn’s temporary death. (Mr. b asked “Who’s the bitch?” and I thought he meant Lilah. I suppose if you don’t have any background on Fred’s history that scene could be harsh. Heh.) Disappointingly, this one was much more standalone than I was hoping for out of the second episode of the season.
“The House Always Wins” brought a lot of fun and silly back to the table, no casino pun intended. I guess they didn’t send Lorne away for long. I like when Angel’s in reminiscence mode, though I have to wonder how he was able to pal around with all the so-they-famous-ares when he was busy being broody and sad about having a soul pre-Buffy. The magic gambling device reminded me of a similar episode of DS9 but it was cool to see Random Admiral from TNG as the head bad guy. Oh and who doesn’t love Green Fred prancing around in a showgirl costume?! I’m sure Gunn didn’t mind!
“Slouching Toward Bethlehem”: yikes, that’s quite a title. Is that supposed to be a phrase in common parlance? I mean, I consider myself very well read but I had no idea it was from a Yeats poem without the help of the friendly neighborhood internets. So anyway, allusion, smallusion. Yada yada endtimes, apocalypse, blah blah blah. The thing is, I’m totally down with the immanitizing of the eschaton arc, let’s just get to it already! Lilah is playing Wesley and I can’t tell if Wesley is going to let her or not. Cordy comes back and, like Daniel Jackson, has her mind wiped once returned to corporeal form. Too bad she didn’t come back nekkid, too, and instead wore that unfortunate seraphim costume (which is just grossly out of character and gross to boot) some more. But hey, her hair was improved by her stay in heeaaaaaaven so that’s something. It looks like my sick premonition of no good pseudo-Oedipal action between Cordelia and Connor is sadly going to come true. I understand that things are seriously, seriously creepy at AI if you come in as a blank slate and have no clue that you can trust these freaks. But her clinging to Connor seemed almost arbitrary and I really just don’t need to see them Do It and then watch Angel be all angsty about it.