We open with more backstory on Holtz, returning
home to discover his daughter has been sired. Terrifically sad set of emotions
running through him on that.
And we have the lovely exchange in the alleyway, after Darla lashes out and
knocks Team Angel for a loop with an explosive four-point assault. And then
this truly Jossian exchange:
Darla:
"What, no one wants to sit back here with me? I promise I won't kick
anyone out ... while we're moving."
Fred:
"It's not that we don't trust you ... well, we don't ... but the fact of
the matter is your water just broke all over the backseat."
These moments are moments to cherish.
And the timing was perfect, too. We have all four of them piled into the front
seat with Darla in the back, we're given lots of time to ask ourselves why
they're all doing that -- I mean, really, if there's a vampire in the car I
guess I'd rather have it next to me than behind me, and then we get that
perfectly distanced "Oh yeah" moment. Quite stylish.
This episode is when we discover why Darla isn't eating these people. She's
overwhelmed by a new emotion engendered by the being she is carrying. She feels
love. And it scares her to death (well, insofar as it can scare her to death
seeing as she's already dead). Her frustration and confusion is visible. She
knows once the child is born, she won't feel this loving, protective feeling
anymore, and knows that she is capable of anything -- including killing it --
which horrifies her. She says as much to Angel.
This fuels her decision to stake herself -- one of the most dramatic sequences
in the 'Verse -- along with one of the best exchanges ever. Angel and Darla all
but reconcile with her statement that this child is the only good thing they've
ever done.
It follows one of the loopier conversations in the 'verse, which Fred has with
herself. She seems to go more than usually nonlinear, and this seems to be an
apologetic ploy by the writers -- heck, it could've been culled from a
transcript from the writers' meeting the day they truly realized none of this
Darla-being-pregnant thing makes any sense within the mythology established in
the 'verse.
But along with the violent destruction of Caritas (which is truly heartbreaking
-- poor Lorne!) it also ties in with Holtz's reaction to his daughter's murder
-- that killing Angel and releasing his soul to hell would be satisfying, but
destroying that soul through the theft of his child would be delicious.
Sahjhan wants to keep him focused on the mission, but that mission undergoes a
redefinition in Holtz' mind. He can't make Darla any deader than she already
is, but he can screw Angel's mind in the same way that Angel screwed his. He
leaves to plot an even more fiendish revenge.
It's possible all of this could've gone better. If Sahjahn had told him about
Angel's soul and Darla's pregnancy, would Holtz have planned this differently
from the start? Holtz seems to possess a thoroughly deliberative mind, one
capable of intricate planning as well as incorporating new information. It's
possible he'd have planned something even worse.
Holtz' conversation with Angel, with a handy assist by Lilah to hash out a few
plot points, was carefully written, along with his conversation with Sahjahn.
Although the "big whoop" comment seemed slightly broad for him, I
loved his description of Attila the Hun, with his "heart as big as the
whole outdoors when it came to gift-giving." Fun line. And Angel had a
delicious escape, culminating in his looking, along with the rest of Team
Angel, after Darla driving away. "What are we looking at?" Sort of a
Xander line, but certainly funny.
This episode is good, but it lacks a certain amount of forward motion. Rather,
it pauses and takes stock of the major players in the coming eps: No more
Darla. Just Sahjahn and Holtz, Lilah and Gavin, Angel and the Baby, and Wesley,
Fred and Gunn.
And Lorne.
Why, after this bombing, they didn't offer him a wing at the Hype just baffles
me (I think he moves in, but they should let him open a karaoke bar there).
Why, after this episode, they're all still on speaking terms is escaping me a
little.
Nevertheless, this is the corner they've written themselves into with this kid,
and now they've got to struggle free.
Now, if they could just find some bitter, pinch-faced dishwater blonde to come
in for reasons best known to themselves, maybe that could be fun.
But I doubt it.