FEATURE: Angel - I've Got You Under My Skin

Previously on Angel: Angel Investigations now consists of the Dark Avenger himself, Wesley and Cordelia, but the ghost (not literal ghost) of Doyle hangs over the three of them. 

After Cordelia has a vision of a suburban home and a young boy, Angel and Wesley head over to the address just in time for Angel to save the boy, Ryan, from being run over by a car. Wesley does a little investigating whilst Angel is with the family and discovers the luminescent bodily excretions (yum) of an Ethros demon, which is possessing one of the family. The gang spring into action, discovering that it's Ryan who is possessed, not the father as initially suspected. They decide an exorcism is the only way to go. However, as events take their course, it turns out that the demon might not be the biggest foe they have to face this week.

I've Got You Under My Skin marks another move into the darker territory that previous episode She explored, the whole episode defined by a deeply ominous quality from the moment of Cordelia's vision. It's probably the most full tilt that the series has so far gone into horror and the possession aspect of the story allows it liberally reference one of the pinnacles of the genre in The Exorcist. There are little nods, like Cordelia's fear that everything was about to get really vomity, to the wider themes of the episode; family and the traumas that they both suffer and inflict. 

For Angel, it's means of working through his grief surrounding Doyle and his empathy for Mr Anderson, the family patriarch, trying to desperately keep their family together despite the odd occurrences and violence that follows them around. There are the first hints towards Wesley's troubled relationship with his father through a brief line he has about fathers terrorising their children and it's something the demon uses against him during the exorcism. And it establishes that Wesley is prepared to kill Angel if he needs to, something which the vampire acknowledges is a good thing. Hey, we've all seen what he gets like.

The great twist in the episode, of course, is that the demon isn't the one everyone should be worrying about, but Ryan himself (a Whedon addition, reportedly). It's a really clever feint, especially the reveal that the demon was trying to get Ryan to kill himself in order to save those around him. When a soulsucking demon wants someone dead, they're probably not very nice. And so it proves when Ryan attempts to set fire to his sister whilst his parents are locked in their room. All of the work that his father had done to try and keep Ryan safe, protect him from the horrendous acts that have been committed, is undone by virtue of the demon escaping and Ryan being allowed to cut free.

It gives the episode a bleak message; some people simply can't be saved. Just as with Doyle, who willingly sacrificed himself and could never have been saved by Angel, Ryan isn't to be redeemed here. That's where the horror comes from in this episode. Although the score is wonderfully ominous and the atmosphere created by director RD Price and Jeannine Renshaw's script is fantastic, it's the simple, horrifying thought of powerlessness that defines the episode. 

I've Got You Under My Skin should feel like another filler episode and indeed starts off that way, but the marriage between the episode's plot and themes is perhaps one of the best so far and a real statement of darker intent. Ryan may have been taken into custody to get the help that's needed, but there feels like no real resolution simply because the bad guy here is just a little boy, not someone Angel can sink an axe into. Angel was always advertised as grimmer than its Sunnydale-based relative, but it gets fun when the show fully embraces that.

Quote of the Week:

Angel: [Cordelia's] making brownies.
Wesley: Oh is that what I smell? I thought I tracked something in...

- Becky

You can read Becky's look at previous episode, She, here.

Follow @AssortedBuffery on Twitter
Or like our Facebook page

FEATURE: Angel - Parting Gifts

Previously on Angel: Angel's friend Doyle was gifted with visions that allowed him to find people in need. However, Doyle has sacrificed himself to save Angel, Cordy and a host of benevolent demons from the Scourge, but not before kissing Cordy and seemingly passing something to her.

Following Doyle's death, both Angel and Cordelia are dealing with his loss in different ways. Angel attempts to bargain with the Oracles in an attempt to get his friend back, citing that he needs Doyle's visions in order to proceed on his quest. They assure him that Doyle's noble death has to stand but that "when one door closes, another one opens." Back at HQ, he's approached by an empath demon named Barney who seems to have a mysterious figure chasing him, a leather-clad motorbike riding figure to be more precise. Angel agrees to help and Barney lies low at the office. Meanwhile, Cordelia is out for an audition when she is hit by a vision and suddenly the Oracles' meaning becomes clear for Angel. 

I used to think of this episode as a bit of a throwaway one in the aftermath of Doyle's passing, one that is designed to introduce Wesley as the new player in the Angel game and move him into place accordingly. On this rewatch though, I realise that's doing this episode a real disservice because it becomes the very embodiment of "don't judge a book by its cover." This is cleverly layered in from the start with Cordelia's appraisal of Doyle's character as a layabout without much worth who then proves it by saving everyone's lives. There's also Barney, an empath demon who can feel beyond the surface emotions everyone is projecting and find the truth in how they are actually feeling.

Of course, it goes further with Barney because he's the episode's bad guy but spends two-thirds of it under Angel's protection, trying to use him to take out the demon hunter chasing him. The demon hunter appears in shadow or in brief close-ups, stalking his prey with what feels like a cruel efficiency. Only to be revealed to be... Wesley. Angel quickly sees through his more macho leather-clad appearance and we're soon back to the nervous, posturing Wesley we're used to. The moment Angel swipes the crossbow out of Wesley's hands is just perfect.

The episode layers these kinds of switcheroos all the way through it. We go from believing the motorbike guy is the story's bad guy through to the Kungai demon looking like that's the foe, only he proves to be just as much of a victim as everyone else. That it's sadsack Barney whose about to harvest Cordelia's eyes is cleverly hidden. It's one of those instalments that constantly keeps you on your toes and is much more than simply re-introducing Wesley to the Buffyverse. We also get another brief glimpse of Wolfram & Hart; one of their lawyers is the final bidder for Cordelia's eyes at the auction. When the auction goes south and Angel arrives, we overhear her phone call and it's clear from her oblique reference to him that Angel remains on their radar. 

I'm not sure many shows handle a regular cast change-up with the adroitness that Angel manages here. The grieving process for Doyle fuels a lot of the episode, but it never holds it back from embracing the new. Cordelia is now having the visions that made Doyle initially vital to the team (even if she doesn't want them badly enough to kiss everyone she comes across in the city) and Wesley is invited to join them by the end of the episode. There's little ceremony here, but Doyle's death was grand enough. Now, the team rebuilds.

Quote of the Week:

Wesley: I'm a rogue demon hunter now.
Cordelia: Wow! What's a 'rogue demon'?

Inventive Kill: Cordy bags her first demon! She staked a vampire back in her Buffy dies but now she can add Barney to her list.

Let's Get Trivial: The Korean scenes are probably not going to win any awards for their authenticity. Angel's Korean is, in fact, gibberish with subtitles whilst the lady nursing the Kungai demon speaks sort of Korean, but with a terrible accent. Soon is the only one in the scene who manages to speak the language.

LA Who's Who: This marks the last appearance of Glenn Quinn in the main credits. Sob.

- Becky

You can read Becky's look at previous episode, Hero, here.

Follow @AssortedBuffery on Twitter
Or like our Facebook page

FEATURE: Angel - Hero

Previously on Angel: Buffy had been in town to confront Angel about Thanksgiving and leaves after about five minutes, but in this timeline, only Angel knows of an alternative path in which he became human and gave it all up to continue his battle with the forces of evil. Doyle has fancied Cordelia from the start, but is afraid that if she learns he's half demon, she'd reject him.

So after last week's episode full of pain and sacrifice and loss, we get Hero. An episode full of pain and sacrifice and loss. Doyle is finally nearing the courage to tell Cordelia that he is half demon when he has a vision of several half-human/half-demon refugees cowering in a dank basement. They're on the run from the Scourge, a gang of pure-blood demons who loathe "half-breeds" and seek their extermination. It's not the first time Doyle has had a run in with them and they prove to be his biggest test as he seeks his own brand of atonement.

When we have news stories of American states shutting down their borders to refugees forced to give up their homes and money for safe passage to another country and openly discriminatory people advocating ID cards are running for Presidential candidacy, Hero is one of those episodes whose poignancy has only grown with time. It's no coincidence that the Scourge run around in uniforms that wouldn't look out of place in the Third Reich; they're pure blood demons who have a real loathing of anyone with mixed human heritage. Prejudice is confronted on several levels; Doyle has to confront his own self-loathing for his demon half whilst Cordy has to break down her own misconceptions about demons built from her experiences in Sunnydale.

In 2002, Glenn Quinn died after an accidental heroin overdose, adding another layer of tragedy to any watches of this episode. During his short tenure on Angel, he crafted a character that fans fell in love with, creating a legacy in just nine episodes that fans still talk about to this day. Quinn had an easy charm that he brought to deal and a clear, droll sense of humour that fit well within the realms of the Whedonverse comedy stylings. That Doyle gets Whedoned early in the season was part of the plan early on which means that all of Doyle's loose narrative threads are wrapped up in this one episode. Cordelia learns of his half-demon blood and reacts with characteristic candour, admonishing him for not telling her and then asking him if he's ever going to ask her out for dinner. He never gets chance, instead kissing her before he dies and passing on his visions.

Earlier in the series, he told Angel that everyone has something to atone for and here, we learn what Doyle's particular event was. He was approached by a fellow Brachen demon seeking refuge from the Scourge and Doyle refused to help, knowing that he would be getting involved in something far bigger than he is. When he receives a vision of them all dead shortly after, he goes to their hiding place to find out if what he was shown was the truth. He finds them massacred. When the Scourge returns, he confesses all to Angel, but only realises what his test will be when the beacon is about to go off and will kill anyone in close range with human blood. Doyle jumps and succeeds, sacrificing his life in the process.

If I Will Remember You was the episode in which Angel finally and literally cast off Buffy, then Hero is the one that reinforces its darker and perhaps loftier ambitions. In my look at I Will Remember You, I talked about Angel's sacrifice and need for redemption, which has been the show's driving force from the start. To immediately follow the episode with the same themes could seem repetitive, but the show gets around that by having it as the story of Doyle's redemption. It's also an episode about the cost of fighting the good fight. Like Jesse back in Buffy's first episode or Jenny Calendar (at the hands of Angel himself, lest we forget) in the second season, the audience needs reminding of the high stakes involved in such a quest. Angel may get a happy ending, but there will be casualties along the way.

I'm of the opinion that Hero gets harder and harder to watch each time, but the coincidental relevance to ongoing news events gives it that extra layer of tragedy. It may have functioned as a simple Holocaust allegory back when it first aired, but now it's taken on whole new levels of meaning. I don't know anyone who can get through this episode without shedding a tear and if you can, well, you're more in control of your emotions than I am. It's certainly not an episode I enjoy revisiting, despite its brilliance.

Quote of the Week:

Doyle [in the Angel Investigations ad]: Come on over to our offices and you'll see that there's still heroes in this world... Is that it? Am I done?

LA Who's Who: Sean Gunn! Sean Gunn plays Lucas. And who is Sean Gunn? Brother of Guardians of the Galaxy director James and the real hero of Gilmore Girls, Kirk. He'll re-appear sans blue pin cushion face in the episode, She. There's also Lee Arenberg who goes on to play Pintel in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl alongside Mackenzie Crook's Ragetti.

- Becky

You can read Becky's look at previous episode, I Will Remember You, here.

Follow @AssortedBuffery on Twitter
Or like our Facebook page

FEATURE: Angel - I Will Remember You

Previously on Angel: Doyle had a vision of Buffy in danger which sent Angel running to Sunnydale with the aim of protecting her without the two ever meeting. This was a bad plan.

Buffy arrives in LA after Angel’s skulking protector role in her own show’s episode, more than a little upset that she wasn't included in Dark and Forehead’s plan. Whilst they're hashing out their differences, they're attacked by a mutant ninja demon thing with a sword and in wounding it, Angel gets some of his blood on him. It turns out that the blood turns him human, suddenly allowing him and Buffy to have a proper relationship that involves food and other… stuff. Yet, as there always is, there is a catch. Angel is much weaker and less capable in his human state and he realises he can't keep saving people that way or protect Buffy, leaving him with a horrible decision.

Oh boy. This episode.

First of all, before I get to the sad bits, this episode is a huge one in terms of the series because it re-establishes Angel’s quest for redemption as a hero and the sacrifices he is willing to make in order to do that. Time is a key theme throughout the episode, opening with Angel placing a carriage clock, he gives a watch to the Oracles and scenes are frequently underscored by a ticking clock or, for the first time, Angel's heartbeat. Time is a gift, something to be savoured and also something to be lost, which is the cruel lesson for Angel in this episode.

The episode is such a rollercoaster of emotions that it lives in infamy. It's the first time that Angel really flies because it has that central idea of consequence and sacrifice at its heart, as well as a helping hand from the guest appearance from the Slayer herself. What makes it all the more painful is we get to see Angel and Buffy having that life, albeit briefly. There's ice cream and kissing and joking and kissing in the sunshine. Seeing the ultimate Whedonverse couple who have never been able to properly do that get the chance for happiness is wish fulfilment for both them and us. Buffy even says she feels like a normal girl for the first time ever. And man, are repeat watches of this episode difficult.

Part of that is to do with the excellent performances of both Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz and it really works, partly because the weight of Buffy as a parent show is used to push Angel forward rather than simply echoing it. They both so fully inhabit these roles that when they're together, the chemistry takes over, the weight of their tortured relationship seems to be embodied in every line. And of course, none of this would be complete without Christophe Beck's gorgeous 'Close Your Eyes' theme, which just adds to the tears.

Whilst Gellar has had the meatier role for the larger part of their relationship, Boreanaz seizes his moment perfectly, building on the already great work he's done in his first few episodes of his own show. Angel's character in Buffy was defined almost solely by his relationship with the Slayer with only really Amends devoted to his past and conscience. Here, he gets the spotlight and the accompanying development. He is a character built on consequence and redemption, much more so here than he was in Buffy.

I'm not usually a fan of the 'turn back time and it never happened' trope, as I mentioned in The Wish, and I think that and this episode is part of the reason why. It set such a high standard of how effectively a narrative erasure could be done and the consequences it should have for its central character that I've measured other uses of it and found them wanting. It helps that the idea of time is woven throughout the episode, ensuring that its use as a solution is simply an evolution of a theme. Also, it works so well for Angel as he has to live with the knowledge of what he could have had (and could still have, though we're not at the Shanshu Prophecy yet) works extremely well on a character level.

Finally, what I love about this episode (despite the fact that it breaks my heart) are all the little moments we get in between the dark and brooding love story at its centre. Angel walking in through the front door in broad daylight for the first time and Cordelia, not making the connection at all, assuming he's brought an umbrella. It's Angel seeing his reflection for the first time in centuries and not quite able to comprehend what is happening to him. The awkward moments between him and Buffy as they work out how to go about a normal relationship, neither of them having the faintest clue about how that works. And Angel with ice cream, which is probably the most adorable look of glee Boreanaz has ever produced.

I never get through this episode without ugly-crying my way through the last five minutes. It's heartbreak of the kind only Buffy and Angel could produce. Next week, it's Hero. So, prepare for more tears.

Quote of the Week:

Female Oracle: I like time. There is so little and so much of it.

Let's Get Trivial: There is a foreshadowing to Buffy's death in The Gift here. Angel asks the Oracles what would happen to Buffy if he remained mortal, to which they reply what must happen to all mortals "though in the Slayer's case, sooner"

Demonology 101: First appearance of the Oracles who have a role to play as Season One develops.

The Buffy Connection: This episode follows directly on from Pangs in which Angel arrived in Sunnydale over Thanksgiving to help protect Buffy, who then turns up to see him the following day in LA during her Thanksgiving break.

- Becky

You can read Becky's look at previous episode, The Bachelor Party, here.

Follow @AssortedBuffery on Twitter
Or like our Facebook page

FEATURE: Angel - The Bachelor Party

Previously on Angel: Doyle's half demon who gets green and spiky in his demonic form, but he hasn't told Cordelia yet, despite having a massive crush on her. Angel is still mourning the demise of his relationship with Buffy.

After Cordelia's rich, handsome and very boring date runs away from a vampire attack on them both, Doyle jumps in and saves the day, leading Sunnydale's former queen into re-assessing her pre-formed opinions of her colleague. She starts to take a shine to him whilst his crush on her continues unabated, but everything is paused when Doyle's ex-wife, Harrie, comes to town. She's about to get re-married and needs Doyle's signature on the divorce papers for everything to continue. Angel finds out that Richard, Harry's fiance, is a demon, but one which is living peacefully amongst humanity. However, when Doyle is invited to the bachelor party, it turns out he's not there just to give his blessing, but also to have his brains eaten by the bridegroom. As you do.

After the last episode, Sense and Sensivity, started to give us a little insight into Doyle's past, The Bachelor Party dives straight in with his young marriage, previous employment as a third grade teacher and his work at a soup kitchen. It turns out that, not only did Cordelia have little understanding of her colleague's past, but so did we. Glen Quinn shines throughout the episode, going from his usual self-deprecating schtick to handling the emotional moments well; the whole scene where he finds out about the upcoming nuptials is played beautifully. Also, the Doyle-cam idea of whirling around with him when he's trapped inside the box at the bachelor party itself is a great idea and watching Quinn's facial expressions is very funny.

The episode also offers a little glimpse into what it must be like to live as a demon in a world where, traditionally speaking, demons are to be feared, hunted or killed. Doyle's reaction to finding out that he's a demon is to hide it, to save himself from prejudice and the potential violence that might result. He continues to shake off his true, green and spiky visage even though it makes him stronger and keeps Cordelia in the dark about it (this leads to a great moment where she unknowingly beats the crap out of him with a silver tray).  Having this insight broadens the show's world a little and starts to build that demonic hierarchy that becomes an increasing element of both Angel and Buffy. Evil isn't so easily spotted, nor are good people always human shaped.

That idea of integration and the difficulties that arrive from it underpin a lot of the comedy moments in the episode, as well as some of the more emotional scenes. Harrie's a great character, a human who finds herself fascinated by the demonic world around her to the extent that she studies it academically, whilst never quite successfully navigating the racial tensions that arise from Richard's family. When she gets angry with Richard for sticking to archaic tradition in trying to eat Doyle's brains, his brother declares her to be a racist, despite her request being a more than reasonable one.

The episode doesn't quite fire as much as it should do with such a rich thematic opportunity. Not enough is made of the ridiculousness of traditions that both humans and demons cling to here. The sheer absurdity of a bachelor party or a wedding shower doesn't really come under as much scrutiny and yes they aren't as outwardly bizarre as eating the first husband's brain, but the parallels are there to be made. The comment about the stripper is probably the closest we get to any kind of finger-pointing at our own bizarre rituals.

The Bachelor Party isn't the strongest of episodes, but it does have some nice moments in it and does a lot to develop our understanding of Doyle, soon to be sadly Whedoned out of the show. The next two episodes are an emotional rollercoaster, so please prepare for a whole lot of tears and mourning.

Quote of the Week:

Brother Straley [after Harrie leaves Richard]: You don't need her anyway.
Party Attendee: Yeah, who wants a wife whose knees only bend the one way?

LA Who's Who: Carlos Jacott, here appearing as Harry's future husband, is a serial Whedonverse guest star, appearing Firefly's pilot episode and in Buffy as Ken in Anne. He's one of only five actors to appear in all three shows.

The Buffy Connection: The vision that Doyle has at the end of this episode is taken from the cold open of Buffy's next episode, Pangs, in which Angel makes an appearance to protect Buffy from the danger that the vision warns of.

- Becky

You can see Becky's look at previous episode, Sense and Sensitivity, here.

Follow @AssortedBuffery on Twitter
Or like our Facebook page

FEATURE: Angel - Sense and Sensitivity

Previously on Angel: Angel met Detective Kate Lockley on a routine investigation about a weird chest-sucking demon thing; she naturally assumed he's a serial killer, but hey, he saved her life and now they're pals who help each other out.

Kate's currently trying to track down a mobster wanted for murder, Little Tony Papazian and enlists Angel's help in tracking him down. Thanks to Doyle's networks, Angel gets the job done, leaving Kate to arrest Papazian. She gets a little too aggressive with him during the interview and a lawyer, Mercer, from Wolfram & Hart succeeds in getting the entire precinct to take part in sensitivity training. However, after the training, everyone gets a little too sensitive; Kate breaks down and confesses her daddy issues to her father at his retirement party in front of a bunch of cops, which promptly results in everyone breaking down as a result of their own sensitivity training. Angel and the gang get involved and try to resolve the situation before Little Tony can get to Kate.

There's a fun conceit at the heart of this episode, one which feels a lot like the Buffy episode Band Candy, when Sunnydale's adult population were cursed with returning to their teenage personalities. Here, the sensitivity training and magic talking stick allows the LAPD to get in touch with their inner feelings whilst reducing them to a bunch of emotive wrecks. It never works quite as well as its Buffy counterpart though because apart from Angel and, at a push, Kate, we don't know the personalities involved as well as we did Giles, Joyce or Snyder. The comedy derived from seeing them regress from the people we knew and therefore operated on a much deeper level than anything Sense and Sensitivity can achieve.

It doesn't help that we, as an audience, are still getting to know Kate; we know she's pretty ruthless and efficient at her job. She's one for a dry sense of humour and might be attracted to Angel. What this episode does is allow us to get under her skin whilst the narrative fills in a lot of her background fairly swiftly. Her daddy issues are ridiculously cliched, but the performance of Rohm makes up for it, resisting the easy route of breaking down hysterically at her father and instead opting for a more measured approach that escalates as she revealed how craply he had treated her. The episode's boldest move is to not have this resolved at the end.

It's easy to imagine that in Buffy, a similar situation would have ended with her father attempting a reconciliation at the end, or at least acknowledging his behaviour. For Angel, it's much more fitting to have the ending that is given; he simply shows up to scold her for making a fool of herself, ignoring anything she said and outwardly stating he's going to pretend it never happened. Angel observes this scene from a quiet corner along with the audience and it feels as if we're witnessing a personal snapshot. The moment is a quietly heartbreaking one and affirms that, in Angel's world, some things just aren't meant to be fixed and this is a relationship that won't ever be mended.

I've already spoken about the comedy of the central conceit and how it doesn't land so much for the police characters, but to end on a more positive note, let's talk about how amusing Angel is when he's being all sensitive and cuddly. David Boreanaz lands his lines so brilliantly, especially the moment where he confesses that he feels Cordy and Doyle judge him when he vamps out. Charisma Carpenter is the perfect foil as Cordelia gets more exasperated and less sensitive towards her boss as she goes on. As I said before, it works much better here because we know the characters' personalities so well and the awkward hug that Angel proffers to his colleagues makes the rest of the episode truly worth it. And obviously the Hawaiian shirt, hat and Baltimore accent at the beginning is just brilliant.

I still can't quite decide whether or not I like this episode. Admittedly, a large part of that has to do with it being Kate-centric and the show is still unsure of what to do with her, though the episode works hard to get more of a character background in place, as cliched as that might be. Yet it's probably all worth it for the chance to see Angel go full warm and fuzzy on us.

Quote of the Week:

Angel: You know, Antony, you could be a rainbow and not a [punches Little Tony] "pain" bow.

- Becky

You can read Becky's look at previous episode, Rm W/A Vu, here.

Follow @AssortedBuffery on Twitter
Or like our Facebook page

FEATURE: Angel - Rm W/A Vu

Previously on Angel: Cordelia is struggling to find herself in LA; her career is a non-starter and working for Angel doesn't exactly reap financial rewards. Not much is yet known about Doyle and Angel is still getting used to having people around him all the time.

Cordelia's tiny, messy apartment is a metaphor for how crappy her LA life is so far and when the exterminator not only leaves it covered in dead cockroaches, but in several live ones as well, she decides enough is enough and decamps to Angel's. He's naturally less than happy with this arrangement. Meanwhile, Doyle is approached by some demonic debt collectors. He manages to evade them momentarily and goes to Angel to help. Seeing a mutually beneficial arrangement is to be made, Angel agrees to help Doyle with his bailiffs if Doyle finds Cordelia an apartment. It's all going swimmingly until that apartment turns out to be haunted.

Having gone through some, shall we say, interesting living arrangements in my time, my already deep love of this episode is now combined with a kind of empathy with Cordelia. Granted, none of my places were strictly haunted, but there certainly dwelt in them creatures of odd backgrounds and habits. Continuing with the monster as metaphor here, Rm W/A Vu deals with that struggle to find somewhere to live, something which seems like a factor you can put up with until it starts to affect the rest of your life. For Cordelia, it represents everything that she's lost and finding the pretty little apartment with its view and its nice, tiled fireplace, it's a sign that she's starting to get her life back together.

The move to LA has proven to be one of the best things that the writers could've done for Cordelia; she was always a little too big for Sunnydale and they would have quickly run out of things for her to do there other than repeat her bitch phase at UC Sunnydale. Bringing her to LA, reducing her confidence and landing her in less than savoury circumstances gives them a chance to get the audience on her side. We've always known she has layers (she does well on standardised tests, after all), but now we get them peeled away and explored more fully.

This episode is all about her getting her groove back, the ghost attempting to decrease her self-worth so much that committing suicide seems like an easy way out. Of course, Mrs Pearson (played by the wonderful Beth Grant) didn't reckon on meeting the meanest girl in Sunnydale High. Who doesn't give a cheer when she says "the bitch is back?" Yet prior to that, the episode makes it clear that Cordelia has her own redemptive arc, similar but on a smaller scale to her vampiric boss'. She feels the need to atone for the hurt she caused during high school and to rediscover a more positive purpose that chimes well with working for Angel Investigations.

The focus on the sidekick characters of Angel is really the episode's strength because, whilst we have got the redemptive arc of Angel all sorted, the others have been neglected a little as the show has been finding its feet. Cordelia may be the focus here, but there's some quiet development going on with Doyle and his debt-collecting sub-plot. It's a further glimpse into the ragged, dangerous lifestyle he's been leading, something Angel perhaps offers a way out of with his higher purpose. As the vampire detective ominously warns, Doyle's kind of lifestyle doesn't tend to last too long. It's the kind of foreshadowing that Buffy has always been so good at and it's laying the foundations for one of the saddest yet brilliant episodes in Angel's run. (Just to warn you, that episode ruins me.)

The haunted apartment premise also allows writer Jane Espenson and director Scott McGinnis to hark back to some classic horror, as well as a few not-so classic nods too. Phantom Dennis' face looming through the wall has more than a hint of The Frighteners about it whilst his battles with his mom about the girls he likes is a little Norman Bates. Alas, this is a rewritten Psycho in which Norma sort of wins, at least for a little while, but built on that same kind of misogyny. Mrs Pearson's brand of benign evil is nicely creepy and I always love the moment she stops getting all poltergeisty to yell at someone for breaking a tile in the fireplace. And Phantom Dennis is one of Angel's best ancillary characters, one which I would have loved to have seen more of than we did.

Angel is still bobbing between the character driven episodes like this one and the more detective procedural angle that the show was still aiming for, but Rm W/A Vu is perhaps one of the best examples of the former. It gives Cordelia further motivation and development than simply needing to leave Sunnydale to make something of herself whilst also starting to shade in the background in Doyle's troubled life. It also helps that it's wickedly funny.

Quote of the Week:

Angel: Yeah, it's haunted.
Cordelia: It's rent-controlled!

Inventive Kill: Mrs Pearson bricks her son up into a partition wall so he doesn't run off with his girlfriend.

Let's Get Trivial: This is often cited by Charisma Carpenter as one of her favourite episodes.

LA Who's Who: You may recognise Beth Grant from Donnie Darko: "Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.

- Becky

You can read Becky's look at previous episode I Fall to Pieces here.

Follow @AssortedBuffery on Twitter
Or like our Facebook page

FEATURE: Angel - I Fall to Pieces

Previously on Angel: Angel Investigations is up and running, but Angel is still having a hard time asking people for money. He's built a foundation for a working relationship with Kate, a cop whose life he saved from a life-sucking sex demon.

As Cordelia's ongoing struggles with Angel Investigations' empty bank account deepen, a Doyle vision leads the gang to Melissa, a woman being stalked by a surgeon who has concocted a weird fantasy in which they're engaged. Angel uses his contact with Kate to get some background on the guy, Ronald Meltzer, a medical maverick who also happened to specialise in psychic surgery. The reason Melissa can always feel he's watching her? Because he is by detaching his eyeball and having it follow her around. As Cordelia would say, "bleurgh." 

Both Buffy and Angel often look at the dangers of gender stereotypes and expectations, particularly when it comes to performative masculinity; Buffy has to deal with entitled jocks and scheming college douchebags, Angel gets to deal with stalkers believing they should have access to a woman's body, just because. Ronald Meltzer is a doctor and a brilliant one at that, but that alone doesn't convince Melissa to fall in love with him and, for her, their relationship ends after one date. However, he's not happy with that and uses his power to insert himself into every aspect of her life. As Kate says, the power of stalkers is in how completely they can take over their victims, even if they're locked up and far away.

It elevates I Fall To Pieces beyond a simple monster-of-the-week instalment into something skincrawlingly creepy, a place where even the victim's home is no longer a safe haven. The voyeuristic aspects with the floating eyeball alone are enough to give you goosebumps, but the episode escalates that further by having Meltzer's hands grope Melissa in bed. It taps in to a very real social anxiety for women, the knowledge that a lot of men out there don't regard your body as your own, but feel they have access to it. The episode draws its power from that and watching it in our contemporary context adds to the creepiness. We live in a world where stories from sites like Everyday Sexism demonstrate how sexual harassment continues to be normalised.

It's to the episode's credit that it managed to take a one-off character like Melissa and make her something more than just the victim of her present situation. In a scene with Doyle in her office, we find out she used to be into extreme sports, specifically bungee-jumping, but the anxiety that has arisen from the stalking has stopped her from doing anything. It's a brief moment and one that benefits from Doyle's terrible way with words ("Don't you worry. When Angel is finished with his case, I can guarantee you'll be wanting to jump off a bridge again..."), but it gives her a little dimension and emphasises the traumatic effect that this situation has on her. That sympathy is also crucial for the unsettling nature of the episode; we already feel awful for her by default, but the extra detail gives it a greater depth.

However, the episode does fall down a little for me when it comes to the main characters; Doyle and Cordelia aren't given much to do beyond their generic vision-having/administration roles and the episode only makes an oblique reference to the connections between Angel and Meltzer. Angelus, Angel's more entertaining but downright evil other half, was famous for stalking, often tormenting his victims as part of his games with them. This was seen overtly in Passion, but also in his relationship with Drusilla. It's clear from a couple of lines that Angel is drawing on his own experience in his psychological profiling of Meltzer, but it doesn't go nearly far enough in making these parallels explicit. Given Angel's quest for redemption, the ongoing arc of the entire series, it could have been another little step forward in him accepting and atoning for his past.

After the unevenness of Lonely Heart, the episode falls into its investigative procedural groove a little faster, demonstrating that Angel has improved his social skills from the pilot and can actually draw in potential victims from Doyle's visions without freaking them out further. However, it still doesn't feel like the show doesn't know what it wants to be just yet. The last three episodes saw it trying to pull away from the Buffy tether, but never quite succeeding. This week, it feels like a lost X-Files episode from the blend of supernatural and scientific to the way in which Cordy briefly Scullys Angel with a possible 'normal' explanation of hidden cameras and the like. Fortunately, it still retains enough of the Whedon/Greenwalt schtick to remain firmly in the Buffyverse.

Though isn't an Angel/Mulder/Scully investigation something we'd all love to see?

Quote of the Week:

Cordelia: What is stalking nowadays? Like, the third most popular sport amongst men?
Angel: Fourth after luge. 

Inventive Kill: Angel disconnects Meltzer's head and then seals his body in separate boxes before depositing them at a building site where they get covered in concrete. Yum.

Let's Get Trivial: Often musical references are snuck into the Buffyverse and this episode finds Doyle repurposing lyrics from Funny Girl's 'People' to try and chat up Cordelia.

Demonology 101: Meltzer's lawyers are from Wolfram & Hart, another step towards the show integrating them into its landscape.

- Becky

You can read Becky's look at previous episode, In The Dark, here.

Follow @AssortedBuffery on Twitter
Or like our Facebook page

FEATURE: Angel - In The Dark

Previously on Angel: Tall, dark and forehead is now working in LA as a sort-of private detective, aided by Cordelia Chase and a half-demon called Doyle who has visions that offer clues for upcoming cases.

Beginning with one of the funniest cold opens ever (and yes I have typed the entire Spike-dubbed conversation below, just for you guys), Spike lands in Los Angeles on the quest to recover the Gem of Amarra after Buffy kicked the crap out of him back in Sunnydale. Oz has the Gem and has taken it straight to Angel for a nice mini Scoobies reunion. However, with the help of the sadistic vampire Marcus, Spike traps Angel and tortures him for the Gem's location and it's up to Oz, Cordelia and Doyle to save the day.

Oz slots into the LA set-up with ease, his natural lack of verbosity allowing for some comedy moments with the equally laconic Angel and a motormouth Cordelia in need of some Sunnydale news. Likewise, Spike's particular brand of nastiness is allowed to be let loose in this darker setting, employing a sadistic vampire with a talent for torture to extract the information about the ring from Angel. And any adversarial interplay between James Marsters and David Boreanaz is worth it. Spike continues to be the Wile E. Coyote of the Buffyverse at this stage and it's always fun to see it all go wrong for him.

The episode also takes advantage of the opportunity to play with the show's not-yet-settled dynamics as Angel becomes the one in trouble with Cordelia and Doyle the ones who need to save him. Their gentle joshing is the most adorable aspect of these early Angel episodes. It's fun to see them be the heroes, coming up with a successful plan to rescue Angel, even if they do inadvertently give the ring to freaky torture vampire.

The use of the Gem of Amarra in the episode crystallises much of what has already been said about the direction that Angel's arc will take in his own series as it is in the torturing scenes. Destroying it is necessary; no one vampire should have that amount of power, particularly one as vicious as Angelus is if he turns up again. As he says to Rachel, the woman he's helping, there's the easy fix (which is what taking the ring would be) or the difficult road. 

For Angel, it's achieving some form of atonement for his previous life and it has to be the hard road. The idea of light and dark is weaved throughout the episode and, just as the Shanzu prophecy which will crop later reinforces, Angel has to walk "in the dark" before he can achieve that redemption.

I also love that Angel positions himself as a champion for the marginalised, the ones living in the dark of society, without the help that the "9-5" people get. As a show, Buffy was always concerned with those people, the ones the rest of society forgets are there or refuses to see. Angel gleefully picks up that mantle and runs with it, the big city hiding more adult fears within its shadows. It isn't hard to understand why these shows became so popular with the people who felt like they didn't fit in anywhere. They placed us front and centre, whether we were nerds, unpopular, lonely or scared. 

And that very final scene, of Angel and Doyle sitting as the sun goes down, allows us to glimpse our heroic vampire's vulnerability too as he admits he was on the verge of confessing everything under torture. It might be just a throwaway line that also chucks in a your mom joke for good measure, but it's just a little effort towards humanising Angel and building his character. 

Quote of the Week:

Spike [as Rachel]: How can I thank you, you mysterious black-clad hunk of a night thing?
Spike [as Angel]: No need, little lady. Your tears of gratitude are enough for me. You see, I was once a badass vampire, but love and a pesky curse defanged me and now, I'm just a big fluffy puppy with bad teeth.
[Rachel goes to touch Angel's hair]
Spike: No, not the hair! Never the hair.
Spike [as Rachel]: But there must be some way I can show my appreciation?
Spike [as Angel]: No helping those in need's my job and workin' up a load of sexual tension and prancing away like a magnificent poof is truly thanks enough.
Spike [as Rachel]: I understand... I have a nephew who's gay, so- [gasps]
Spike [as Angel]: Say no more. Evil's still afoot. And I'm almost out of that nancy-boy hair-gel I like so much. Quickly! To the Angel-mobile! Away!

Let's Get Trivial: This is Oz's only appearance on Angel and the episode marks the only time four original Buffy cast members are in the same episode together.

The Buffy Connection: This episode follows on from the events of The Harsh Light of Day in which Buffy gives Oz the Gem of Amarra to pass on to Angel.

- Becky

You can read Becky's look at previous episode Lonely Heart here.

Follow @AssortedBuffery on Twitter
Or like our Facebook page

FEATURE: Angel - Lonely Heart

Previously on Angel: The vamp with a soul has taken up residence in LA and is now working with a half-demon called Doyle who has premonitions and Cordelia Chase who gave herself a job after finding out what Angel is up to. They're now an investigation agency designed to take on those people in need of help from the forces of darkness.

Whilst trying to get Angel to put in a good word for him with Cordelia, Doyle has a vision of one of those 'terminally stuck in the 80s' places and the gang race off to see what might be happening there. Angel meets Kate Lockley over the course of his not-so-subtle attempts to investigate the place in an awkward meet-cute in which he states that he's a vetinarian. After a dead body turns up, the gang realise they're dealing with some kind of symbiotic demon, jumping from host to host and killing people in the process. A coincidence at a crime scene reveals Kate to be a police detective who immediately jumps to the conclusion that Angel is the serial killer.

The episode mines a lot of its humour from the fish out of water stuff that Angel, Cordelia and Doyle suffer from respectively. Angel in particular once again demonstrates that talking to people really isn't his thing and his conversation with Kate is a little too earnest to register high on the laugh scale. In fact,  too earnest is a good way to describe the episode as a whole in its treatment of loneliness. Rather than subtly underlaying the theme within the story, it's hammered home again and again that these people are lonely and it gives serial killers/demons the chance to prey on those people.

Given that this is a major theme of City Of too, not to mention Buffy's alienation in her own series at the moment, it all feels a bit repetitive (especially when watching them in close proximity). I also spent a lot of this episode thinking of the terrible Torchwood episode where they did something similar with an alien and Gwen got all hyper-sexed and made out with everyone. At least Lonely Heart is better than that. For one thing, the actual demon is a pretty grim spectacle and suitably penetrative for its sex-based shenanigans, giving the episode a nasty body horror element that works well. I do find it amusing that the demon loses all game after he gets the crap kicked out of him.

Lonely Heart also pushes more towards the noir end of the genre spectrum as the investigative side of Angel comes to the fore with the use of Doyle's vision as the kick-off point. There a couple of genre calling cards in there; the loneliness of the big city, Kate as the dame in the bar, Angel as the lone wolf investigator. You also get the twist at the end where Kate think it's the barman that has done it all along, a neat non-supernatural wrap-up for her. 

But again, the whole episode feels like it's trying too hard at all times and as a result, it never quite sparks into life. It brings us the Kate and Angel relationship which will be an important one as the series progresses though she doesn't know he's a vampire as of yet. However, Lonely Heart doesn't really advance us much further than reminding us everyone gets lonely in the big city and we all kinda knew that anyway. It seems somewhat fitting that the episode ends as it began.

Quote of the Week:

Angel: I know you guys have been working hard, couped up inside a lot and to show my appreciation, I was thinking; the night being young and all, that the three of us could... or should.. you know, maybe... go out? You know... for fun.

Cordelia: Or we can go home.

Doyle: And you can sit in the dark alone.

Angel: ... God yes. Thank you.

Let's Get Trivial: Originally, this episode was a whole lot darker and you can check out the full details (including prostitutes and drug addiction) right here - Thank you to Jonathan Cardwell (@Jonny_C85) for sharing this morbid alternate Angel reality with us! 

- Becky

You can read Becky's look at City Of here.

Follow @AssortedBuffery on Twitter

Or like our Facebook page

FEATURE: Angel - City Of

Welcome to the new, ongoing rewatch of Angel, the spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for which, if you don't know, I am already doing a weekly rewatch of. Angel rewatches will be appearing now every Tuesday, running concurrently with the Buffy ones so we can maximise the crossover potential and see how these two shows continue to fit in with each other. So, who's up for a trip to LA?

At the end of the third season of Buffy, Angel announced that he was leaving for Los Angeles as he saw no future in the relationship. He goes to do what he does best. Fight evil in a fashionably long coat. With Batman-esque gadgets and a similar taste for fashion, it's going fairly well, but soon a half-human, half-demon with an Irish accent and buckets of charm shows up, called Doyle. Doyle has visions from the Powers That Be and offers his help to Angel's ongoing quest. Meanwhile, Cordelia has come to LA in the hopes of starting an acting career and it isn't long before her path crosses with Angel's.

A pilot for a spin-off is always a tricky deal. You don't want to make it inaccessible to people who haven't managed to catch the parent show, but it also has to please the fans that have made the jump too. It also has to establish the new tone, new characters and a new location without seeming too forced. A knowledge of Buffy isn't essential for City Of beyond certain character relationships, particularly as Doyle rather handily provides an exposition recap to allow those who aren't familiar with Angel's back story to catch up. It's a nifty trick and thanks to the charismatic presence of Glenn Quinn, it doesn't feel too intrusive. 

The general mood sets up everything else with ease and though it still feels like a show searching for its own identity, and will do so for much of the first season, particularly as the investigation format takes hold. There some foundations built for future episodes too with the first appearance of so far unnamed Lindsey and his mysterious, vampire-helping law firm, Wolfram & Hart. These little moments all work to position Angel as the small guy trying to do the right thing in this world. It helps that LA itself is at once both inconceivably large yet claustrophobically threatening, something which had previously been utilised in the Buffy episode, Anne. As Angel's opening narration illustrates, the vastness of the city allows it to become a haven or a hell to all kinds of people. 

If Buffy is about the horrors of growing up, then the first season of Angel is about the horrors that result from being a grown-up, from seeing the world through adult eyes and attempting to change it one little bit at a time. Much of this is seen through Tina and then Cordelia as they attempt to navigate their supposedly burgeoning acting career. Here, the career they expected to walk into in that typical 'small-town-girl comes to LA' kind of way hasn't materialised and she finds herself as a potential victim in a stereotypical 'small-town-girl gets lost and killed in LA' kind of way. Unfortunately for Tina, Angel doesn't get there in time. When Angel finds Tina's dead body, it's a moment that comes to define the darker mentality of Angel, one in which sometimes the bad guy gets to win and our hero doesn't get to save the girl. 

That doesn't mean it's not without the same sense of humour though; there are plenty of moments in the pilot when that particular Whedonverse wit shows through, particularly in the scene where Angel goes all action man and jumps into the wrong car or Doyle unable to smash open the gates. His first meeting with Cordelia is likewise amusing as she does the full Cordy spiel, but is undercut later when we get a brief glimpse into how awful her life currently is. That said, Miss Chase isn't taken down by something like not succeeding and she even gets to figure out pretty quickly that Russell the bad guy is in possession of sharp, pointy teeth. Let's face it, there are many scary things in the Buffyverse. Cordelia is still one of them.

City Of works hard to establish Angel as a different beast to its Slayer-based older sister and though it's going to be a while before it succeeds wholly in that regard, the new Angel gets to be meaner, leaner and broodier. What more could we want?

Quote of the Week: 

Cordelia: I finally get invited to a nice place with no mirrors and lots of curtains... Hey! You're a vampire!
Russell: What? No, I'm not."
Cordelia: Are too!
Russell: I don't know what you're talking about.
Cordelia: I'm from Sunnydale. We had our own Hellmouth. I think I know a vampire when... I'm alone with him in his fortress-like home...

Let's Get Trivial: The first draft of the episode featured Whistler, the demon from Angel's past seen in Becoming, in Doyle's role as mentor.

Inventive Kill: That would be Angel kicking Russell Winters out of a very high window so he bursts into flames on the way down.

Los Angeles Who's Who: One of those vampires that Angel takes out in the beginning is none other than Lost's Josh Holloway.

The Buffy Connection: This episode reveals that the silent phone call Buffy receives at home in The Freshman is from Angel.

- Becky

Follow @AssortedBuffery on Twitter

Or like our Facebook page