"Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsmtsm@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:4cdb5302-bf6f-4392-a100-8bc04815235b@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>A reminder: It's these threads' inner megalomaniac. They, uh, rebel
> at serving coffee.
>
> ANGEL
> Season Four, Episode 12: "Calvary"
> 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)
This episode has some limits. The way Angel fucks with people's heads,
while very good, still repeats much of the tone and content of the
previous
episode. It can't achieve the same level of impact second time around.
The
tension around an urgency to get Angel's soul back vs. counter efforts to
release him is a definite episode highlight - bringing in Lilah as a kind
of
misdirect as threat and the big revelation at the end. But it also
highlights the question of why they created Angelus at all. (And the
question becomes even less easy if you attribute Angelus's creation to
manipulation by Cordy/Jasmine.) It's like AI charged up the hill.... and
then charged back down. The climax is awfully good, but not all that much
actually happens before it. Indeed, seeing this, I can't help but wonder
if
this episode couldn't have been merged with the prior one to create a
pretty
intense experience.
One little awkward moment is when the Beast gives the knife to an unseen
Cordelia. The Beast is extremely formal doing it. It's kind of a dull
scene, serving only to connect Cordelia to the Beast through the knife.
But
what gets me about it now is how completely different it is to the give me
sugar scene in the next episode. This is not a creature with an intimate
relationship with Cordelia.
Those limits matter... a little. The greater impression is a very easy
episode to watch and be absorbed by. I'm also realizing in watching these
last two episodes that questioning why they created Angelus to begin with
highlights the simple facts shown - that they made a mistake. In an ill
conceived effort to get ahead of the game they fall behind instead, while
the AI team left behind is crumbling to boot. It makes for some good
drama.
Special props from me for the mechanism of the reveal about Cordelia being
the killing of Lilah specifically. I haven't noticed people speak of the
moral ambiguity of what's going on, but just how "evil" is it for her to
kill the remaining leader of W&H LA? This was something I was very
conscious of on first view. While her behavior is screwed up on a number
of
levels, it's not necessarily irredeemingly evil. Indeed, the primary
target
of The Beast so far has been W&H. I like how the show does squeeze every
little bit of ambiguity out of the situation as possible. (Even if I
don't
much like the characterization of Cordy/Jasmine.) This perspective works
even more so in retrospect since we learn that Jasmine perceives herself
to
be a force of good.
I would rate the episode Good as well.
This is the last AtS episode not previously rated by me. Though I
realized
that there are a few BtVS episodes to come that I haven't rated yet.
> Season Four, Episode 13: "Salvage"
> 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
I think what I like best about this episode is it concludes with Angelus
taking charge of the situation. For 3 episodes running, Angelus has
actually lived up to his reputation of being formidable, if not quite for
being blood thirsty. He's now undermined the unknown master (Jasmine) and
the AI team both quite effectively. He almost got Faith too - impressive
quick thinking by her barely preventing it. For a brief moment Angelus is
a
genuine 3rd major player in the mix that could turn everything upside
down.
The next best thing is Wesley talking to the ghost of Lilah - or actually
talking to his own imagination. Lilah pointing out that she must be
mouthing his thoughts is a cool and effective way of making her conclusion
convincing that Wesley was trying to rescue her. I also like how even
with
Lilah dead, she remains an effective block to any Wesley/Fred connection.
The "big" event of Faith's return is also wonderful, but not as thoroughly
as the above. (I like her better in the next two episodes.) Here the
idea
strikes me as just a little better than the reality. We mostly get
Faith's
bravado - and perhaps a bit too much of a commanding attitude.
There's not enough Connor here - or in any of the surrounding episodes -
for
him to really get in the way (plus we get his first knocking around by
Faith), but I'll note that just about every second he's on the screen
annoys
me. As he does in all the episodes on this disk and going back some in
the
prior disk. Just seeing his smug face gets me muttering. He never brings
down an episode's rating, but the cumulative affect of his presence is
wearing for me. I think that's worth noting because the string of Good
episode ratings around now can give the wrong impression. They're an
accurate and positive statement about the stirring action and pace that
leaves you wanting to see what happens next. But there are building
contrary elements. Like Connor. Another is the futility of it all, which
I'll come back to.
I rate this episode Good.
> Season Four, Episode 14: "Release"
> 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.
Dark watcher indeed. This is just about as low as Wesley gets for me. (I
don't mean that I disapprove of the story. I love the drama of it.) The
way he manipulates Faith by recalling her torture is rather appalling.
(He
doesn't really care anymore. After having his throat slit and then
abandoned by his friends - well, the Faith history is comparatively
trivial
to him.) The way he achieves his ends works, but how he does it... well,
I'll come back to this in Oprheus.
It's still good for Faith though. There's some nice setup for her story's
conclusion - having Angelus compare himself to her just as Angel once did.
And in this brief connection with Wesley, no matter how twisted it might
be,
she gets her moment as a true Slayer. Not mentioned in story - and maybe
not thought of - is that Faith is effectively saving Angel here, which
partly matches a Buffy accomplishment, and quietly repays Buffy as well.
That ought to psychologically matter to Faith even if it's out of Buffy's
sight.
> 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.)
I'll just repeat that in retrospect, many of the gaps in Release get
filled
in by Orpheus, revealing more content than one gets on first view. I
agree
that it's not the best way to do it, but it still improves the episode
next
time around for me. The words and choreography of the fight makes more
sense. (I especially like how Faith's plea to live that Angelus will
triumphantly use as an invitation to vampirism is actually aimed to
encourage Angelus to do just that.) Wesley's missing follow-through with
Faith is now known. You seem to have raised the rating too. I don't know
if that's the reason.
> 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.
That bothered me more this time around. It's pretty badly done isn't it.
Not too keen on the demon hangout either.
> 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."
What are you referring to?
> Rating: Good (up from Decent)
Also Good.
> Season Four, Episode 15: "Orpheus"
> 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.
Other than WWII Angel.... OK, so maybe that wasn't a big gap. Only goes
to
show how fantastic this episode's history is.
> 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.
Yes.
> 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."
That I think moves into hyperbole. This is a fantastic conclusion that
works exceptionally as knowledge about Faith. But the experience of
watching it - especially from a Faith centric perspective - is nowhere
near
the other two IMO. (To the extent that it gets close is primarily because
of the Angel history parts.)
> 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,
As I said last time, there's a palpable sense of relief when she appears.
Maybe finally they're going to get ahead of the game. It seems to
positively affect everybody conscious other than Cordelia. Hell, even
Faith
evidences a kind of distance awareness of what Willow's doing, and is
encouraged by it. That's probably the part of her appearance that works
the
best, though a couple of the side conversations have their allure.
> 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).
As I said elsewhere, she's not really part of this universe in any
practical
sense. Her established role in the Buffyverse creates only a pretense of
established role here. And it shows.
> *And* it degenerates
> into a big ridiculous magic-off in the middle of the sublime plot it's
> influencing.
I like that part at least some. The action distracts a bit from her
awkward
fit. On the other hand, she does sort of take over in a very BtVS kind of
way.
> *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.
I believe that's quite consistent with the way the original spell worked.
It may make Faith's gamble pointless, but not knowingly. Wesley didn't
know
Fred had called Willow - probably didn't think of it. He and Faith acted
in
good faith. I think that's good enough to support what's going on with
Angel and Faith. And, in a broader sense, it may also support the whole
S4
story line where *everything* is pointless.
However, that said, let me point out something that could have been - and
actually was - thought out in advance. Why did Wesley push through the
orpheus solution to begin with? He and Faith weren't going to do that the
first time they went after Angelus. They were just going to capture
Angelus
with the tranq gun (and probably more than a few punches to the head).
Sure, Faith came back a broken wreck from that. But not because of
Angelus!! That was the Beast that beat up Faith. Why do they embrace
such
an extravagant solution now that the Beast is out of the way? If you
recall
the conclusion of the fight in Release, Faith had Angelus beat until she
"let" Angelus take her.
Logically, that doesn't make sense to me. Unless... Unless it's Wesley's
state of mind that really leads to the extreme - a highly questionable
extreme. This goes to how low I feel that Wesley sank last episode.
Doing
what's necessary has become so uncaring of collateral damage that he won't
even compromise from the extreme when a softer alternative is quite
viable.
But all is not lost with Wesley. Unlike Release. Unlike Supersymmetry
for
that matter. In Orpheus, Wesley starts showing remorse. Just a little.
A
touch of doubt that it really was necessary. (Perhaps that's another
reason
for Willow's solution not to have required Faith's sacrifice.) Last time
around, Scythe spoke of Wesley as a man who no longer has anything to care
about. Yet we can tell here that deep down he still does.
> At
> times like this "Orpheus" is awkward, clumsy, and genuinely not good.
Connor and Cordelia have clumsy aspects to. Aside from Connor generally
annoying me, here is also the period where Cordelia's manipulations start
being so clumsy, obvious and ill considered that one had difficulty
imagining Connor continuing to go with them. (Although I do at least like
the concept of Connor being fucked with again by being sent to kill his
father. It's necessary for his greater story.)
> 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)
Well, I think this is the best episode of the season, so I guess Excellent
isn't such a struggle for me.
> 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?
Good Angel figures out what's going on. Though that's mostly because of
becoming Angelus. So, Cordy appears to have made things worse with the
de-souling.
"You know Angelus is crucial to my plan." (Salvage) The plan never gets
explained. I suspect M.E. never successfully devised one.
> 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.
The best I have in-story is that Jasmine screwed up. First by not
realizing
how strongly independent and effective Angelus would be as a free agent.
She assumed he would be easier to control. Then by not taking Willow into
account. She progressively lost control of the situation and fell back to
plan B - just barely successful. The unknown is what her original intent
was. But let me come back to that. I think you've underestimated the
scope
of that question.
> 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.
The pregnancy, as we know, is brief. Going low profile would have been as
simple as telling Angel that she needs a couple weeks to work this out on
her own, and then taking off to Death Valley or something (with Connor in
tow if she wants). It wouldn't be the first time that she's taken time
off.
> 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."
OK. Here's the thing for me. It's not just Angel and Angelus. It's the
Beast and rain of fire and blotting out the sun too. What does *any* of
it
accomplish other than alerting people that trouble's coming? The only
thing
I know of is the destruction of W&H. I suppose that's kind of big, but
that
only requires the Beast without the other flash/bang, and could be done
with
one strike, without making the Beast a player in anything else at all.
Indeed, it would/should look like trouble W&H brewed up on its own rather
than trouble for Angel and team.
This is a core problem with the season for me. There's no purpose to most
of it until Jasmine finally is born. And then she proves to be more
annoying than just about anybody - maybe even Connor. It's a whole bunch
of
noise signifying nothing. Even the Knights of Byzantium, who existed
pretty
much to take the fates lined up against Buffy to the level of absurdity,
made more sense than the lead up to Jasmine.
OBS
|
