ANGEL
S3x04 –
Carpe Noctem
Review by Terry J. Aman
Carpe Noctem is sort of a stand alone, and again – no visions we might use
to analyze the motivations behind the Powers That Be. They haven't been
especially large with the visions lately.
Because it's sad. As they ran it, it seems like this entire adventure was a
fluke, based on Angel's discomfort in confronting Fred about her hero worship.
It was a good case. But their progress on it was a little deus ex machina.
If that guy hadn't been peeping out his window at exactly the right time, Angel
wouldn't have gone across. Also, his body exchange was clumsy. When a guy is
holding an artifact and starts with the Latin, do not let him finish. He
even knew what it would do and he just stood there.
The acting was pretty good. David played the aging hipster pretty well, and the
guy did a reasonably good job of channeling Angel. It wasn't as good a job as
Sarah and Eliza did in channelling each others' characters, but to be fair, the
old guy's character is pretty well undefined.
But again, what a ridiculous situation. Are the seniors incarcerated? The guy should
be able to use the damn' phone whenever he wants!
Of course there were the hilarious assumptions the guy made about Angel and
Wesley being gay, but I'm just gonna jump in and look at Lilah and Fred. Poor Fred.
Her little heart was just going pitter beep whenever she was with Angel, and
then she sees him with Lilah. And here they'd already been building little
places for her to leap off onto Gunn and Wesley (Wes' body language at one
point was decidedly assertive and would've made more sense if Gunn and he were
specifically pawing the earth over Fred). Instead of crying in an elevator,
Fred should've been up in her room being angry. But I guess that isn't where
Fred is yet.
And Lilah ... well, when the demon takes over, Marcus (was that his name? I've
already forgotten) should've been even less in control, and Lilah should be a
bloodstain and a memory. I guess it's a good flash forward to the end where he
is taken down by Fred and Cordy hitting him over the head with sticks.
Mostly this was a comic entry, but I'm troubled by how easily Cordy flits to
afterthought land when she doesn't have a vision. More to the point, however,
she at least had something to do. Poor Fred can only stand there wanting to
help in some way.
They need to find some sort of task for her.
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