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1.7 Angel Buffy: "When he’s around, it’s like the lights dim everywhere else." This is my favorite first season episode, no contest. It isn't the romance, although Angel is probably the embodiment of a teenage girl's fantasy of the ultimate boyfriend. No, it's Angel's back story -- and what a story it is. It's only episode seven, and David Boreanaz is already well into his somber, brooding Angel persona. We learn that he is about 240 years old, that he was a vicious killer when he was first turned into a vampire, that he was cursed by gypsies with his soul, and -- well, let’s put it in Angel’s words: "When you become a vampire, the demon takes your body but it doesn’t get your soul. That’s gone. No conscience, no remorse; it’s an easy way to live. You have no idea what it’s like to have done the things I’ve done, and to care." Up until now, Angel has just been an attractive, mysterious stranger. His extraordinary past immediately gives his character pathos and dimension. How could anyone regain their soul and conscience and live with a past like that? How can Buffy be in love with her natural enemy? There are several scenes that score way high on the romance-o-meter: Buffy telling Angel to take off his shirt so that she can patch his wounds; hiding him secretly in her bedroom; him staring at her in the Bronze; and that intense first kiss when he vamps out on her. One of my favorite moments in the entire series is at the end in the Bronze when they kiss, she moves back, and we see the outline of the cross he gave her burned into his chest. Heavy-handed on the symbolism, but wonderful, nonetheless; a lot of BtVS is heavy on the symbolism. Darla, who is a lot more aggressive and interesting here than in the pilot, is revealed to have a long-term history with Angel. We're given facts and clues about Angel's past: Darla made him a vampire; he's originally from Ireland; he wreaked havoc in Europe for several decades; he and Darla did some serious damage in earthquake-ravished Budapest at the turn of the century (which century?); he was cursed a hundred years ago and hasn't bitten a living human being since then; the last time he saw Darla, "it was kimonos." Angel dusts Darla at the end of the episode, which is a much more significant action in retrospect. How old was Darla? Darla tells Joyce that her family goes back to the War of Independence. The Master actively grieves for Darla and says she was his favorite for 400 years. Long time. Bits and pieces: -- Joyce meets both Giles and Angel for the first time. -- Buffy’s home address is 1630 Revello Drive. Buffy and Angel both appear to live within walking distance of the Bronze. -- Buffy screams when Angel vamps out on her. Buffy rarely screams. -- Sarah Michelle Gellar must have been placed on a box for the love scenes. -- Joyce thinks she fainted and fell on a barbecue fork. "We don't have a barbecue fork." -- Buffy asks Angel if he snores. He says that he doesn't know, that it has been a long time since anyone was in a position to tell him. Interesting conclusions can immediately be made about his sex life, or lack of it. -- When Angel says, "I'm just an animal, right?" Buffy responds with, "You're not an animal. Animals I like." I particularly like this exchange, since calling someone an animal in this context has always seemed inappropriate to me. My cats are two of the nicest people I know. -- The library training session was a wonderful Buffy/Giles scene ("Goodbye stakes, hello, flying fatality.") -- We see the bird tattoo on Angel's back for the first time. -- It is established that bullets cannot kill vampires. Even the amazing number of bullets that come out of Darla's guns. -- Obligatory dog reference: Angel says to one of The Three, "Good dogs don't... bite!" Inconsistencies: -- How could The Three acquire such a serious rep if they offered their lives in penance for every failure? They wouldn't be around for very long. Perhaps it's some kind of vampire cult that recruits new members? -- Angel says he hasn't bitten a living human being since he was cursed. We later learn that this isn't entirely true. -- By the way, I'm not a reviewer that jumps on every inconsistency; it is clear that the writers of BtVS made their decisions for the sake of the story. A few inconsistencies that mostly occur very early in the series are a small price to pay for such great television later on. Future reference: -- Darla is staked by Angel in this episode, but dying does not prevent a BtVS character from returning. This is far from her final appearance. -- Angel is referred to as "Angelus," which is "Angel" in Latin. Later, it becomes a Buffyverse convention to refer to his heroic, soulful persona as Angel, and his soulless counterpart as Angelus. -- We see Giles holding a coffee mug in this episode. He does this often in many future episodes; this is probably an inside joke, since Anthony Stewart Head was in a series of well-known "Taster's Choice" coffee commercials. Quotable quotes: Willow: "How is it you always know this stuff? You always know what's going on. I never know what's going on." Giles: "Well, you weren't here from midnight until six researching it." Willow: "So he is a good vampire. I mean, on a scale of one to ten, ten being someone who's killing and maiming every night, and one being someone who's... not." Angel: "Romani. Gypsies. The elders conjured the perfect punishment for me. They restored my soul." Buffy: "What, they were all out of boils and blinding torment?" Darla: "Do you know what the saddest thing in the world is?" Buffy: "Bad hair on top of that outfit?" Xander: "Ah, the post-fumigation party." Buffy: "Okay, so what's the difference between this and the pre-fumigation party?" Xander: "Much hardier cockroaches." Four out of four stakes, Billie |
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