A reminder: It's these threads' inner megalomaniac. They, uh, rebel
at serving coffee.
ANGEL
Season Four, Episode 12: "Calvary"
Writers: Jeffrey Bell and Steven S. DeKnight and Mere Smith
Director: Bill L. Norton
Finally, we enter my favorite part of the year, when setup turns to
payoff. "Calvary" of course ends with a big shocking reveal that
suddenly makes us see everything very differently, and which does hold
up among the ranks of surprise endings on re-watching. Before we get
there, credit also goes to the way the show comes up with a fairly
unexpected method for the inevitable release of Angelus from his
cage. I'm not quite as swept up by the play as I was originally
(hence the rating demotion), but still think it's paced pretty well
with its mix of violence, drama, and banter. Lilah, proudly self-
interested and amoral, is a great addition to the group dynamic,
particularly since she fucks with Wesley and Fred's heads just by
being there. A far better reluctant ally than Gwen was in that role
(and Gwen was pretty good in LDJ), although she'll arguably be
eclipsed by an even better guest star next time. I think I find Lilah
more intriguing a character than ever when she's divorced from her
usual role as W&H's representative. So of course, the evil show then
goes and kills her. So many things go wrong, and a good time is had
by all.
Rating: Good (down from Excellent)
Season Four, Episode 13: "Salvage"
Writer: David Fury
Director: Jefferson Kibbee
It seems a fair number of people adore "Salvage." I mean, Faith
busting out of prison! And the Beast gets killed! And Faith beating
up Connor! And Faith! It's certainly a pleasure to see a Slayer come
in just as the show is starting to run out of heroes to root for, and
immediately run into her limitations. Faith vs. Angel confrontations
are good things, and I do not stand with those who think that the
Slayer concept fits awkwardly into the allegedly more grown-up world
of ATS. This re-watching, though, I couldn't help but notice that the
show mostly seems to boil down to people hitting each other and things
going boom. There's not a whole lot of emotional impact. I
originally expressed my admiration for the part in which our favorite
dark Slayer does her best to boast about being a murder. I want more
of that. But there isn't more, since at heart, "Salvage" is a pretty
simple story whose big moments and reversals are almost all on the
surface. At least the surface is on the bombastic side.
Rating: Good
Season Four, Episode 14: "Release"
Writers: Steven S. DeKnight and Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain
Director: James A. Contner
We run into the opposite strengths and weaknesses here. "Release" is
a complex story. This is an episode that starts with Faith telling us
and Wes how quickly she heals, and then slowly uses the camera to show
us how much she has to heal from. It's quietly striking, and leads
beautifully into the loudly striking destruction of the innocent
shower wall. (Plus, naked Faith, woo.) This is also a story that
will incorporate a lot being done with subtle glances and the notion
of blame, Wesley fully throwing himself into the part of the dark
Watcher and Faith making the choice to follow his path against her
"best nature," and the image of Faith on the ground before Angel
again, this time begging to live. In short, this is some deep shit.
That's why it's so frustrating that the depiction doesn't always live
up to the potential, because although "Release" is pretty good, it
could've been "Orpheus"-good, if only the writing had been just a
little tighter. Especially at the end. The lengthy closing sequence
ought to be both explosive and resonant, but the violence is curbed in
favor of the near-endless clunky speeches into which the themes are
awkwardly twisted. (We've previously gone over the bit of
"incompleteness" caused by holding off on the last dose of revelations
and re-contextualizing until the first scene of "Orpheus." I still
say that it hurts the play of "Release" taken on its own with no
particular benefit for the benefit for the series taken as a whole.)
Elsewhere, Angel's invasion of the Hyperion is filmed and performed
very well, while his conversations with the Booming Evil Voice not so
much so. Special mention for one of the single least convincing uses
of a blue/green screen in Buffyverse history during the shower scene,
although it'll soon be topped by the end of "Sacrifice."
Rating: Good (up from Decent)
Season Four, Episode 15: "Orpheus"
Writer: Mere Smith
Director: Terrence O'Hara
Geez, what a flawed masterpiece. My adoration of the entire dream-
walk as well as every other scene with either Faith or Angel in it
knows few bounds. The dialogue sparkles, and we learn a lot about
Angel from finally filling in the last big gaps in his history. This
leads to Good Angel's stirring re-appearance and the cathartic triumph
as Faith makes one last, hardest choice and Angel gets to share his
epiphany with someone else and truly save them. In another thread, I
commented that this portion of Faith's arc completes her story in a
way that makes one wonder how one could have ever thought it was
complete (which I did) after "Sanctuary." That is truly satisfying.
Part of why I'll always think of Faith as an ATS character despite her
appearing on BTVS a lot more often; the heaviest lifting gets done on
this show, and her connection with Angel is richer, IMHO, than
anything either character ever has with Buffy. Which is quite a
standard to exceed. Hell, I'll throw in a few more superlative
comparisons. This part of the story is as good as "Consequences," and
only the tiniest of shades behind "Five By Five."
And on top of that, "Orpheus" throws in a BTVS crossover... and the
problems begin. I like the initial glee of Willow appearing at all,
and I like her interacting with Fred and trading notes on dark places
with Wesley. But her part of the story jars horribly with the way
she's being portrayed over on the other show (some people have
disputed the "horribly," but not the jarring). *And* it degenerates
into a big ridiculous magic-off in the middle of the sublime plot it's
influencing. *And* by making the soul able to fly straight to Angel
regardless of where anything is, Faith's gamble is rendered pointless,
and thus this subplot actually badly undermines the whole A-story. At
times like this "Orpheus" is awkward, clumsy, and genuinely not good.
So, guys, what do you think? How do you rate an episode that fucking
nails the important stuff so brilliantly while fumbling the
surrounding details so often? I was finally forced to do the
comparison game, thinking of "Becoming (Part Two)," a show that annoys
the hell out of me at times but whose central bits are everything they
should be and more. Well, I like the two episodes just about
equally. Ergo, if "Becoming II" got upgraded to Excellent, so does
"Orpheus."
Rating: Excellent (up from Good)
Additional comments on S4D4: This disc has multiple episodes with
more than two credited writers, which seems unusual. Don't know if it
means much of anything.
The "Orpheus" commentary track was a bit of a disappointment for me.
With that much stuff in the show, there's no excuse for awkward
silences or generally being boring. Too bad they couldn't drag Mere
back into the ME warehouse for an hour; people tend to be more
articulate with their own episodes.
Okay, it's time for a big bit of hand-waving. We're told that
everything Pod!Cordy does was for the single-minded purpose of getting
Angel de-souled. Well, *why*? How does this contribute to arranging
for giving birth, especially since Good Angel returning doesn't seem
to make much of a difference? Why not just, oh, say, keep a low
profile? That's the one thing that Lord Usher, who spent a lot of
time trying to explain S4, had trouble with. [This is from an older
pre-AOQ post:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.tv.angel/browse_frm/thread/607150b0537e0975/203c5c88bb7e24da?lnk=gst&q=lord+usher+fanwanks#203c5c88bb7e24da
He comes to a very different set of conclusions than I do, almost
universally, but I give him credit for at least trying to tackle
something my version can't explain away - why misguided peace-goddess
Jasmine manifests as cackling evil Pod!Cordy.]
I joked that I've been saving up as many fanwanking points as possible
so I can spend them all here. The best most people can come up with
is distraction. Keep everyone else running around in circles during
the few weeks it takes to have herself as a baby. I'll go a step
further in the same direction. Rightly or wrongly, Jasmine has
fixated on Angel as her greatest enemy, the world's champion. One
she's born, he'll be harmless, but until then, he's the threat. She
knows that she can't hide the fact of her pregnancy from him forever.
And - here's the crux of this argument - she knows for an absolute
fact that he will find out quickly, and upon doing so, he will
recognize that the birth is an evil thing, and he will stop it. Make
it mystical instinct if necessary. Her solution is to do whatever it
takes to get him under her control, or, failing that, at least get him
out of the world-saving picture (in a way that also ties his sidekicks
up). Molding Connor into her champion and going into hiding is plan
B, which helps her get through the last few days, but only barely. It
wouldn't have been enough had she not kept Angel away until then.
This is fanwank, and clearly so. But what matters is that it's enough
to satisfy my narrative sense and let me, personally, get past what
would otherwise be the biggest hiccup in my enjoyment of re-watching
Season Four. Any irritation left over when things don't fit can be
transferred to the Jasmine episodes, which I don't like so much,
without tainting my appreciation of the run leading to favorites like
"Orpheus" and "Inside Out."
Thoughts?
-AOQ
P.S. For those playing along at home, take note that I'm flipping the
order of the shows here, so the next Second Look thread will be ATS
S4D5.
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