ANGEL
S3x06 –
Billy
Review by Terry J. Aman
"What do you say to a woman with two black eyes?"
"Nothing you haven't already told her twice."
I can't decide if the inclusion of that joke was bad writing or further
demonstration of how out of character Wes was acting.
This was an extremely interesting installment, and big with the psychology,
although I'm a bit troubled by the implication of "the devil made me do
it" behind domestic violence.
But why am I starting here when I've been waiting for a month for some VISIONS!
I was wondering if this scene -- "the THX version" -- was sent by the
PTB because it was a case even this group could solve.
Clearly the Powers are upset about Billy's rampage. They took him out of this
world for a reason and his presence is ticking them off ...
... more than a demon congressman who is the American version of royalty
(caught the John-John reference but only glancingly). Congressman Blim is
ruining lives wholesale, probably, just by living his Enron pension-fund depleting
look-the-other-way-on-the-environment shred-the-Constitution policy-writing
day-to-day, and the Powers are worried about a single demon inciting individual
acts of violence from which at least some victims are walking away?
The Powers do not have what passes for their heads on straight.
I'm going to start narrowing my eyes at this tendency of theirs to fight small
battles. Because it's possible that if Billy were to walk the earth unfettered
he could incite the violence that killed the woman meant to defeat Blim in the
next election cycle, for one example, but that's getting just a little bit too
"Joan of Arcadia" for me.
We're only given individual stories, lives they're saving by the handful –
heck, lives they're not saving at all. At some point, Doyle's gotta pop up from
somewhere and say, "Y'know what? I think the Powers might be too
interested in maintaining the status quo to actually be of any use to you. You
just investigate whatever the heck you want."
Because the idea was to keep Angel connected to his humanity. And now he's just
basically their errand boy.
It's a little hard to understand.
I loved Cordy in this episode. Her smackdown with Lilah was the stuff of
legend. It's too bad she really only gets lines like that so very rarely. It
was a nice window on the old, shallow, pointless Cordelia and her transition
into something far more important.
And while Cordy is trying to assert herself more ("Go team!" was a
riot, by the way), Fred is still basically bait. But even more compelling than
the Rube-Goldberg device she built to protect herself was Dark Wesley.
Did Alexis Denisof turn in a performance or what? I mean the man was dead on.
Dark Wes with an axe is an attention-grabber.
How perfectly did Denisof, his not-especially-powerful body tracking Fred
around the Hype, find that character? And how perfect was J. August Richards'
transition?
Y'see, not that good. But it wasn't his fault. After the red rises, everyone
else just lost it (except for and-the-Oscar™-goes-to Angel). Gunn kept himself
under control.
Still, shades of Nicholas Brendon in "Bewitched, Bothered and
Bewildered" – oo, Wes and Gunn fighting over Fred – or near Fred –
or to kill Fred, Wes motivated by something he's still articulating, Gunn
motivated by rage. But while Gunn's nascent love for Fred is yet forming, Wes
is smitten – just not in an especially attractive way.
I love that she's able to forgive him. Fred takes it in the chest more than
once this season, with "Angel" in "Carpe Noctem" and now
this.
Gavin channeling his inner Jin against Lilah. Intriguing. I can't imagine he
gets away with that, but yet he's in many more episodes. It'd have been fun to
be a fly on the wall at the next staff meeting at W&H, but then probably
you'd get eaten by a passing Frog.
Meh, get over it Angel – so you're melodramatic. Deal.
It's interesting about the distribution of blame in this eppy beyond just
tracking the baddie-du-jour. Cordy seems determined to take the blame for
Billy's release on herself – greedy about it, almost. Is she being a drama
queen or a realist? A bit of both, perhaps, but I can't put the blood of those
murdered women on her hands – nor Angel's. Those were W&H's kills. The
manipulators of ineluctable events to unleash a destructive force on the earth
vs. the ones who effect the unleashing is no more or less than arguing whether
the carpenter or the hammer has more to do with the driving of a nail.
The confrontation between Cordy, Angel and Billy at the end was pretty good.
And, of course, Lilah.
Anyone else hear "The Avengers" theme playing as Lilah walked off?
Would've fit perfectly. And speaking of music, how 'bout those Gorillaz at the
party? Very, very cool.
Shades of Caleb in the dirty girls reference, in Wes harking back to prehysteria
– hell, in that cabbie. Some interesting things to explore.
Why do men, for example – in this case, exclusively men – lash out?
Frustration, maybe, feelings of inadequacy, but ... violence? Again, as
explored ... something primal. Angry. Really ugly. Yet – as presented by
Denisof ...
... chillingly charismatic.
Which was a bizarre reaction.
* actually troubled by this *
... until I remember ...
Carl, in “Desperate Housewives,” saying “the heart wants what it wants,” and
quoting Thoreau in “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” and
Susan's retort: “What, does he think most women lead lives of noisy
fulfillment?”
It's official ...
... we all just get on each other's nerves.
But to close with a perhaps misremembered quote from William of Baskerville in
"The Name of the Rose":
"I can't believe God would introduce so foul a creature into creation
without providing her with ... some graces."
Ultimately, a very cool eppy.
Back to
Angel Reviews
Back to Home
Page