Oh, this is
getting irritating
The quest portion of this episode is the portion I liked the best. It was cool,
very "Raiders of the Lost Ark" -- down to Angel's "Wood -- why
did it have to be wood?" line.
These mysterious caverns, these keys and puzzles that Angel dreams up (his
ultimate fantasy involves a stake punching through Wesley's hand -- does that
seem right to you?) It also involves a naked Chinese shaman with writing up and
down him, however, so it's best not to read too much into these things.
Oh, and I didn't hear him say "Buffy." I'm sure I heard him say
"Cordy." But I didn't have my subtitles on and it sounded more than
anything like a gasp.
Angel is too easily talked into becoming Angelus. And, somehow, by Cordy.
Monty, this seems strange to me.
Jasmine's wiping Angel's memory so that only Angelus has access to the
information means that she doesn't want Angelus to surface, right? She'd gone
to all that trouble, after all, to remove all references to the Beast from this
dimension, right?
Well, the memories Angel is running around being all broody about are the
memories Angelus made. So she wiped his memory, too, and this should've been an
exercise in futility.
Motivation, motivation ...
Well, I like the idea that Faith was sprung to address Angelus and then trucked
back to Sunnydale. She was one of the coolest things about S7. But motivation
in bringing Angelus forth is from the people who want to stop the Beast ...
... unless Jasmine honestly believes that Angelus and the Beast will join
forces.
Wow, has she misread this world.
He is convinced to try -- or to relent -- they bring in the shaman, build the
cage and his soul is removed through what Angelus calls a "retarded
fantasy."
Tell us about it. Oy.
JASMINE WATCH: Oh, just about everywhere. But she is hiding, being very
circumspect. She's throwing Lorne a bit -- he couldn't read Angel through
"The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia," after all (and Angel was
clearly singing his heart out) and she's trying to pretend to be all Cordy and
light (why did she want to raise the Beast and block out the sun? How did that
help? And why was she the one to present the winning argument about raising
Angelus? Is she just a loon?)
But never mind all that. She's got a physical presence, now, so she's about to
become even more erratic and difficult to read.
Nice to see the Beast go down, even if it was in a dream sequence.
But what a ... weird set of stories this has become.