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4.6 Spin the Bottle Gunn: "Oh, good. Symbols on the floor. That always goes well." I loved this episode so much that I didn't even mind that it was part two of "Tabula Rasa." I have no objection to something being done again if it's done this well. Returning all of the characters to their teenage personas was inspired. Trust Joss Whedon to think of such a thing. It was great seeing smart-ass Cordelia back in the saddle again; couldn't we keep her this way? She must have been sixteen or younger, because Cordelia met Angel at sixteen and she didn't know him here. (Did you notice that the first thing Cordelia said when she saw Angel was "Hello, salty goodness?" That was the same thing Cordelia said when she saw Angel for the first time back on BtVS.) It made perfect sense, Wes figuring out (erroneously) that they were being tested a la Buffy's eighteenth birthday. Alexis Denisof probably had a ball returning to his old characterization of Wesley as prissy, clumsy head boy watcher-in-training (or as Cordelia called him, "head cheese.") I just loved the accidental emergence of his concealed, um, weapons in particular. One of my absolute favorite scenes was when Wesley was duct-taping Lorne to the lobby sofa. Gunn: "I say we cut his head off." Wesley: "Thank you very much, Marie Antoinette." Gunn: "What you call me?" Cordelia: "Hey, hey, you two wanna pause the homoerotic buddy cop session long enough to explain this? Wooden stakes? A guy with horns?" Even Fred and Gunn were consistently delightful here, with Fred trying to score weed, talking about alien abductions and government conspiracies, and Gunn back in his first year distrustful vampire-hunter persona. (It was also touching and sad in the beginning when grown-up Gunn was talking about just being the muscle. Gunn is afraid of losing Fred to Wesley, and I'm starting to think he might be right.) Angel's Liam was very young and uncertain, probably from before he began rebelling against his father. I thought Angel being unable to make himself speak with an Irish accent was a total hoot. That morphing scene in the bathroom where he figured out he was the vampire they were all hunting was also priceless, and I loved the fake-out with the cross. (Although I thought the way Fred ran the cross over herself like a metal detector was even funnier.) Angel got points for telling Cordelia the truth about their aborted love affair at the beginning; and the ending, when they were talking about it again and she said, "we were," was sad. Are we supposed to believe that it's over before it even began? Somehow I doubt that. No Powers That Be on any television show have gone this far with a romantic relationship only to let it drop. The amnesia is now gone. Is the fun gone, too? Perhaps Cordelia made the amnesia happen because she didn't want to know what was coming. Whatever it is, it looks like it arrives next week. Bits and pieces: -- In this episode, Lorne called Gunn "poutybritches," Wesley "crumpet," and Fred "Freddikins." -- Did Joss Whedon intentionally address some of the specifics that are constantly discussed on the internet? i.e., the slashability of Wesley and Gunn; Angel not being able to pull off an Irish accent; and how much everybody hates Cordelia's new hair? -- Cordelia: "I know my ABCs, my history, I know who's president and that I sort of wish I didn't, I know the name of every shoe store in the Beverly Center..." -- Gunn: "What happened to you, man?" Wesley: "I had my throat cut and all my friends abandoned me." Tell it like it is, Wes. -- I thought Cordelia referred to Connor at one point as eighteen. Close-captioning says that Cordelia said "he is a teen." That's good; he was only sixteen a few months ago, and as far as I know, he hasn't spent any more time ageing in an alternate dimension. -- Wesley: "There's no call to be snippity, miss." Cordelia: "This is a clarion call for snippity, Princess Charles." -- They did another Buffy reference; Angel thought the cars were demons, just as Buffy did in "Halloween." -- "Transitive nightfall of diamonds?" What did that mean? -- It was wonderfully satisfying, seeing Angel beat the crap out of Connor. -- Connor clearly needs to get laid even more than Angel does. Four out of four stakes, of course, Billie |
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