Beyond the fact that this is perhaps
my second least favorite episode, I don't honestly know what to say. The girl
is genuine, it was a good save, she was a walk-in so no help from the Powers,
and yet the doctor was working some mojo so it was a nice mystical piece.
I think I reacted badly to Doyle hitting on Melissa, since he's full-on for
Cordelia in the next episode, and I'm not entirely certain he isn't also on
some level crushing on Angel, so make up your mind, dude.
Cordy's getting the office fixed up a little, so that's pleasant.
The thing I really cannot get over about hating this episode is that damn' eye.
Sure he's mystical. Sure he may have learned the power of levitation -- I
guess. I mean, Willow could levitate stuff almost right away, so I guess it's sort
of possible.
But I really don't like it. He's a surgeon. Even if he'd trained in the
discipline of disassembling himself, that alone feels like something he'd never
have the courage to do. Surgeons treat their hands like Stradivari. He'd always
have some nagging suspicion that the hand wouldn't reattach. I don't see him
pursuing this discipline to begin with.
And to use this power to stalk this woman and invade her home. I mean, once you
subsume ego to the extent you must in order to get very far with Eastern
mysticism, you really don't become a stalker.
So there's this deep mind-body-spirit power that feels grafted onto a spiritual
lout, and let's be honest with ourselves, obsession is one thing, but I'm
pretty sure he'd be able to find someone who would love him back. The
"one thing you can't have" angle is solid enough as a cliche, as is
the arrogant "but of course you want me, my sensibilities are
offended by the mere possibility that you do not," but it's deeply
childish.
So this is a difficult character to get my head around and he feels like a
villian someone made up for a television program. And frankly, once you get
past the initial horror of realizing there's a spare part in bed with you, it's
easy enough to put a knife through it, or to catch it in a net.
Very little love for this episode.
Oh, by the way -- Angel shouldn't be
able to be poisoned. He just shouldn't. I didn't like it in Buffy, and I don't
like it here. He has no functioning circulatory system, and standard
neurotoxins shouldn't do anything to him since he's already a walking corpse,
and I disapprove of his having any reaction at all to the injection.
Also, a doctor developed something, for working with animals,
that will "slow your heart until it stops altogether"? Puppy?!
Very disappointing.