The one with
the almost season-redeeming shower scene
I always forget what happens during this one. It opens with Faith undressing and
getting in the shower, and then I pause, and then I rewind, and then I pause
again ... for a moment .. and then frame advance through the ... oh, my, yes.
That is one of the coolest scenes on television.
This is the one where Angel is bragging about killing the Beast, his going up
in a big burst of sunshine which doesn't kill Angelus, but ...
What is it with this show and the having of too much power that causes
the bursting forth of explosions? Between The Beast (twice), Spike and Illyria
you'd think they'd have gotten bored.
But it was a great effect. And now Cordy's in Angelus' head. Which opens
another parallel I can't quite get my head around. In "Provider,"
Cordy and Angel are talking about Connor:
Cordy: He wonders where his father's been.
Angel: Daddy's got mouths to feed.
Cordy: I've got a mouth too. Always have had one. Kinda known for it and we've
fed it fine for years.
Then in the Orpheus den, Angelus is screaming at, well, Evil Cordy.
Angelus: What do you got, a big scary voice? I've got one of those, too, you
wanna hear it? YOU CAN KISS MY VAMPIRE ASS!
I don't know why it was so important that I track that down just now.
But Angelus didn't kill the Beast to get the Beastmaster's attention. Angelus
doesn't really ... have an agenda.
I did enjoy him calling the Beast the Beastmaster's "pet rock." And I
liked his reference: "You're preachin' to the guy who ate the choir."
OK, when Jasmine said they may have done the right thing, raising Angelus to
kill the Beast, was that the beginning of the terrible explanation for this
season?
I enjoyed how they used Wesley's darkness to reignite the badass in Faith.
"I avoided the main arteries. She'll live. If that's what you call
this."
Faith: "Torturing humans part of the new makeover?"
Wes: "I did what I had to because you couldn't. You have a problem with a
little torture now? I seem to recall a time when you rather enjoyed it. ... I
remember what you did to me, Faith -- the broken glass, the shallow cuts so I
would remain conscious."
He drives her to her darkest self and she's ... surprised to find how short the
trip is.
Angelus didn't learn a damn thing from the W&H documents, and we were just
reminded in "Habeas Corpses" that Angel has a photographic memory, so
there was no reason for him to grab the documents. To quote her Shiny
Thighédness, "Dud ex machina."
Or maybe not. If nothing else, that Desdemona's handkerchief of a fake charm
tracked Faith and Wes to Angelus through Lorne knowing where it came from set
up one of the coolest fights we've seen in this show.
"Half this crap is written in some proto-demon Cuneiform, and no offense,
but I think the other half is just doodling."
This was perhaps Amy Acker's Booty Manifesto. Early in the episode, she said,
"There's always a but. When this is all over can we have a big but
moratorium?" Then later, when Gunn said "He comes dancing in here
again trying to pull another Dark Shadows, he's gonna get a dart up his
ass," and Fred responds, "His ass moves pretty fast."
Loved Connor in the mirror. I don't like him much in this season, but that was
a wonderful little moment.
I did appreciate that they tried to normalize the Fr/unn in this eppy, and it's
so sad that it's not meant to be.
The interrogation of the one-horned demon was a delight as always -- no one
writes toadying like Mutant Enemy.
The main thing is that scaffolding fight between Faith and Angelus. Very cool,
very wild and again, one of the better things on television (except for that
one or two seconds that reminded me of Buster Keaton running around on a boat.)
JASMINE WATCH: "Angelus can't fight his true nature" is such a
Jasmine line.
She had no idea why she needed Angelus, or Angel, but no problem.
Neither did the writers.
Jasmine did tip Angelus off as to where they were going to be, but again, if
that's the big idea, why didn't she just kill them in their sleep?
Anyway, this for some reason stands out for me: Jasmine tells Connor,
"We're special, just like our baby's gonna be."
You are special. Like some Olympics are special.
* images of Jasmine on the short bus *
* giggling *
P.S. -- This was the coolest cliffhanger of the season -- Angelus about to sire
Faith. Very. very cool.
And then ...
... the rest of the season happened.