Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Angel (1x07)

[fajrdrako]

Angel. Aaaaah what a delicious episode.

See, romance on television is a delicate and terrible thing. I love romance, especially capital-R Romance, and we live in an unromantic age. I get my fix from Dunnett and 19th century poets and the like. Not often from books published as "romance", which are sometimes good but not what I'm looking for, and still less from television. One of the reasons I loved "Doctor Who" so much is that it presented me with one of the best romances ever on television. (The Doctor and Rose, if you're wondering what I'm talking about.)

Knowing Joss Whedon's track record, the last thing I expected from Buffy was really good romance. I expected sexy stuff and lots of action-adventure and humour and heartwarming stuff and good characterization and clever writing, but I didn't expect anything truly romantic because I've learned not to look for that on TV. Ever. And "Firefly" was mostly counter-romantic, but it had its moments. My belief is that Joss likes to present us with wonderful classic romance in the finest heart-wrenching fashion, and then twist it out of shape.

But here, in "Angel", we get real classic brilliantly-written doomed romance and I can hardly believe it. It doesn't matter what comes after this. It's a moment of romantic glory. It's set up so carefully - yes, of course I knew Angel was a vampire, because I'm coming in way after the fact, but if anything that foreknowledge just made it more effective.

Amazing. I can hardly believe my eyes.

Okay, now I've had my little rave, on to precise points.

1. Darla returns. I felt like cheering. Why was I happy to see her again? Maybe because she was one of the few vampires we've seen so far who actually has a personality. One of the only two, I'd say, the other being Angel. (I have the feeling that the Master has a sort of personality, but I haven't figured it out yet. So far he seems like a mouthpiece for dialogue. There's nothing real about him.)

2. I like Darla's line: "I don't get to have any fun." She's a sulker, isn't she?

3. "I will send the Three," says the Master. Joss seems to like using numbers this way. Prime numbers? Well, that's sort of traditional for the mystical, the mythical and the horrific. Snow White and the Six Dwarfs wouldn't sound as good. I'm not sure if I think this use of numbers is trite or clever.

4. The Annual Cockroach Rodeo. Eeuw.

5. Buffy: "For us to have a conversation about a guy, there'd have to be a guy for us to have a conversation about. Is that a sentence?" That's the kind of things writers write. And it amuses me.

6. Buffy: "Buffy: When [Angel] is around... it's like the lights dim everywhere else." So romantic! It sounds like something Lois McMaster Bujold would write.

7. Cordelia: "Please get your extreme oafishness off my two-hundred-dollar shoes!" This struck me as particularly bitchy, materialistic and prime Cordelia characterization. I hope she eventually develops into less of a one-note role. She has been consistently amusing but I'm getting impatient with her. She's becoming predictable in an unamusing way.

8. Xander to Cordelia: "Y'know, hey, I don't know what everyone's talking about. That outfit doesn't make you look like a hooker!" Oooh, good left hook! Is he developing some backbone? Some wit? Some defenses? And this is followed up by another good Xander line: "Boy, that Cordelia is a regular breath of vile air."

9. Liked Willow's depressed line, too: "Just sitting here, watching our barren lives pass us by." Aaaw.

10. I wouldn't have got it if I didn't already know the basics of Angel's story, but I loved the way it's set up when, after being attacked by the Three, Angel and Buffy run to Buffy's place, where she says, "Get in! C'mon!" and then, as the Three lurk around, Angel says, "It's all right. A vampire can't come in unless it's invited." Oooh. Deftly done, Joss.

11. I don't want to like the Three because they're hokey and they have no personality, but you know - I like the Three. I love their armour which implies, I don't know, a long and dramatic background of mid-Renaissance warfare in the steppes of Transylvania. Or mountains. Whatever. They're so tough and old they might be Vampire Huns.

12. I couldn't really make out Angel's tattoo properly. Were we suppose to see what it was?

13. Buffy's kind of unsubtle trying to keep her mother from seeing Angel. Surely every teen-age girl knows this kind of things is futile? But then her mother, later on, doesn't even hear Buffy and Angel talking in her room, which, unless they were totally soundproofed, seems extremely unlikely to me. Not a big deal. Just something... not handled very smoothly.

14. Sort of a rhetorical question here, so don't answer it: why does Angel spend the night in Buffy's room? Would the Three really kill him? Or is it just that he wants to hang around with Buffy? Or keep out of the Master's way? I'm hoping it's reason #2 there, but it might not be.

15. The next day: I like Xander's reaction - "Buffy, c'mon, wake up and smell the seduction. It's the oldest trick in the book." Pretend to be chivalrous - why don't more guys try it?

16. I still glaze over in boredom whenever the Master and the Anointed appear on screen. Yawn.

17. The diary conversation between Buffy and Angel was amusing. I know a lot of people (including myself) have dire "he read my diary" stories. (And in fact, the subject came up in last week's Torchwood...) I like the dialogue about his family, too: a nice set-up, first to make him seem sympathetic (poor guy, family killed by vampires) then horrific (he's a monster - as a vampire, he killed his own family). Effectively done.

18. So Angel says he wants to kiss her but it's a bad idea because he's "older". Right. He does seem to have unvampirelike scruples. Maybe even unhumanlike scruples. C'mon, Angel. Just kiss her.

19. He did.

20. And transforms. There's something a little "Beauty and the Beast" about that. Isn't the kiss supposed to turn the frog into the prince, not the prince into a vampire?

21. Cool, anyway.

22. But I still don't take back all those nasty things I've said about vampire romance. This is clearly and obviously a unique exception.

23. Xander isn't very compassionate about this. Sometimes he is... unendearing.

24. Love the dialogue between Angel and Darla:

Angel: What's with the Catholic schoolgirl look? Last time I saw you it was kimonos.
Darla: And last time I saw you it wasn't high school girls.

She has a point.

25. Nice Darla line: "Is there anything better than a natural disaster?" Heh.

26. I absolutely love the exchange between Darla and Angel:

Darla: You and your new friend are attacking us, like one of them. But guess what, precious? You're not one of them. (Sunlight.) Are you?
Angel: No. But I'm not exactly one of you either.
Darla: Is that what you tell yourself these days?

27. Giles says Angel/Angelus is "the one with the angelic face". I've seldom seen anyone who looks less angelic to my eyes. Now, Lymond looked angelic, a Della Robbia angel. But Angel? He looks human to my eyes. I've got over flinching at his looks (good) but I still don't find him particularly attractive - kind of interesting-looking, maybe, but certainly not angelic.

28. So Angel has been a vampire for 240 years. Cool.

29. Lovely Buffy-Willow exchange:

Buffy: You want Xander, you've gotta speak up, girl!
Willow: No, no, no, no. No speaking up. That way leads to madness and sweaty palms.

30. I loved Buffy's new mixed feelings about killing Angel. "I'm the Slayer, and he's a... vampire. God, I can't! He's never done anything to hurt me..." Interesting dilemma. Such a set-up. A totally impossible situation. (Rivalled, perhaps, only by Mal and Inara.)

31. I loved Darla telling Buffy's mother she's a friend of Buffy's, and getting Joyce to let her in. (Shudder.) And the Buffy comes and thinks it's Angel who attacked Joyce. Brilliant! It's the old "what's the worst thing that could happen?" trick. I love it.

32. And then I love the way Joyce just refers to Darla as "your friend" so Buffy thinks she's talking about Angel. Nice, nice set-up. Plausible.

33. Barbecue fork? Heh.

34. This isn't really a good Giles episode. He's fine, but doesn't get the best lines, the isn't the focus of any of the action, he doesn't give good advice or wisdom or (much) knowledge, and is generally overshadowed by the Buffy/Angel theme. About which he seems to have no advice or thoughts whatsoever.

35. I liked it when Joyce said, "That school is amazing," but I don't really like the way the plot (or the line) plays on her ignorance. It isn't quite fair.

36. Great Buffy-Angel exchange:

Angel: I'm just an animal, right?
Buffy: You're not an animal. Animals I like.

37. Great Angel-Buffy fight. Best fight in the show yet, I think.

38. More great dialogue, albeit a little expository:

Buffy: I've killed a lot of vampires. I've never hated one before.
Angel: Feels good, doesn't it? Feels simple.
Buffy: I invited you into my home and then you attacked my family! Angel: Why not? I killed mine. I killed their friends... and their friend's children... For a hundred years I offered ugly death to everyone I met, and I did it with a song in my heart.

[This reminds me of the Doctor's destroying Gallifrey in "Doctor Who". Same principle.]

39. So we get the story of Angel's curse. When my friends told me about this curse way back when the show was first on, it didn't make much sense to me. It makes more sense now, actually seeing how the action goes, and hearing what Angel says.

40. So Buffy offers herself to Angel. Vampirically speaking. Woo. But I love the symmetry: Buffy can't/won't kill Angel, he can't/won't bite Buffy. Powerful stuff.

41. I'm pretty sure Darla will be back. To interesting to disappear or die.

42. Good Angel line at the Bronze: "I just gotta... I gotta walk away from this." Hah! Famous last words.

43. So they kiss. Of course. Quite right, too. And another great bit of romantic dialogue/visual action:

Buffy: You okay?
Angel: It's just...
Buffy: ...painful. I know.

Then we see, but she doesn't, how her cross has burned him.

~ ~ ~


I liked it. A lot. In case you didn't already notice.

Comments

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Joss likes to present us with wonderful classic romance in the finest heart-wrenching fashion, and then twist it out of shape

Oh my God, does he ever! Just you wait, 'enry 'iggins, just you wait.

Ahem. Yes, Angel is one of the episodes in BtVS, setting up events and mythology for the show that reverberate all the way to the very end. I don't think it is prefect, mind - there are episodes later that will utterly blow you away and I think Angel does have flaws - but it is a hugely important episode.

Maybe because she was one of the few vampires we've seen so far who actually has a personality. One of the only two, I'd say, the other being Angel.

Yeah, that's fair. There are two kinds of vamps in BtVS - cannon fodder and ones that have agency of their own. The ones that are important to the plot are obviously better written - and the better written and more personality they have, generally the more important and lasting they are.

Cordelia characterization. [...]She's becoming predictable in an unamusing way.

She does become less predictable - even by the end of this season. I grew to love Cordelia on Buffy.

"Y'know, hey, I don't know what everyone's talking about. That outfit doesn't make you look like a hooker!" Oooh, good left hook! Is he developing some backbone? Some wit? Some defenses?

Yup, and yup. Xander vs. Cordelia tends to bring it out! And I think all the bits of dialogue you picked out in the Bronze scene are great.

And transforms. There's something a little "Beauty and the Beast" about that. Isn't the kiss supposed to turn the frog into the prince, not the prince into a vampire?

I find that moment interesting because of the loss of control by Angel. When I was watching the previous episodes again, one of the things I was noticing particularly was how uncomfortable Angel seemed around people. He never lingers, just gives Buffy whatever message and then leaves. So he is very isolated, unused to actual human physical contact and he says he hasn't fed on a human since the curse. He's stayed away because he can't trust his control, which of course means he has no practice staying in control when he does get that close. And that is why he vamps out and doesn't manage to stop himself. Anyway, that's what I think.

Xander isn't very compassionate about this. Sometimes he is... unendearing

Yeah. Angel does not bring out his best side, to put it mildly.

I absolutely love the exchange between Darla and Angel

Mm, it's very good. Though my favourite moment between them is the later scene where Angel pushes her against the wall and she says "You're hurting me. That's good too." Watch that Joss, sneaking in the twistedness.

I loved Darla telling Buffy's mother she's a friend of Buffy's, and getting Joyce to let her in

Okay, I love that plotwise for this episode. But it bothers me a bit because it makes a mockery of Buffy keeping her Slayerness a secret. How does Darla know where she lives? Well, presumably the Three told them, which means the Master knows as well. Or an outside possibility is Darla finds out because she knows Buffy's name, but either way the episode shows it is not that hard for the forces of evil to find out where Buffy lives and that means the secrecy puts her mother in danger because she is the only one who doesn't know the danger exists. That's actually my major complaint about this episode, btw, and I agree with your point about the plot playing on Joyce's ignorance. Thankfully, as someone else says, Joyce is allowed to move beyond a metaphor for parents not understanding.

Why not? I killed mine. I killed their friends... and their friend's children... For a hundred years I offered ugly death to everyone I met, and I did it with a song in my heart.

That is probably one of my favourite Angel moments. I love the little twisted smile he has.

"I just gotta... I gotta walk away from this." Hah! Famous last words

Absolutely. But also true, in many ways.

(Sigh. Edited because I forgot to close an italic. *is irritated*)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Just you wait, 'enry 'iggins, just you wait.

LOL - one of my favourite musicals, that. I pause to consider John Barrowman in the role of Henry Higgings. It would be playing against the usual type of casting for the role, but I think it would be brilliant. To have the casually chauvinistic Higgins played by someone gorgeous - it would put all the more depth into Eliza's role. I'd like that. And I think Barrowman could do it brilliantly.

a hugely important episode

It's a twist of theme. So far it's been "schoolgirl fights vampires and monsters" without much more oomph to it than that. Now the stakes are higher - the monsters can be in our own hearts, and the Beast can love the Beauty. Nice layering of themes. I hope for more to come.

I grew to love Cordelia on Buffy.

Good. I didn't think, given what I've heard about the show, that she could remain so one-dimensional.

Yup, and yup. Xander vs. Cordelia tends to bring it out!

That in itself is a good reason for her existence!

I find that moment interesting because of the loss of control by Angel.

Godo point. Yes, it makes sense that Angel should have fears about his own sense of control. And it raises the interesting question of his two levels of self-control needed: control of the vampire's lust for blook and control of the man's lust for sex. Both of which are dangerous to him, for different reasons. But, repressing everything, what is left to him? Even on a level of 'companionship' he doesn't belong with either vampires or humans. Buffy's being a Slayer, not a normal human, just raises it another notch - moves her from the level of 'potential victim' to 'enemy'. But as in any good Montague/Capulet story, the enemy is in our hearts.

Watch that Joss, sneaking in the twistedness.

Good for him!

How does Darla know where she lives? Well, presumably the Three told them, which means the Master knows as well.

She'd be in the phone book, wouldn't she be? (I'm not sure yet whether the vampires are literate. The vampires created within the last century presumably would be.)

either way the episode shows it is not that hard for the forces of evil to find out where Buffy lives and that means the secrecy puts her mother in danger because she is the only one who doesn't know the danger exists.

Yes to all of that. An old comic book dilemma, and Joss is playing on all the themes of comic books.

That is probably one of my favourite Angel moments. I love the little twisted smile he has.

Yes - I may still have trouble with David Boreanaz, and I do, but how can I not like a character with lines and moments like that?

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

I pause to consider John Barrowman in the role of Henry Higgings

I'm having trouble with this image - every time I think I have it, the JB in it bursts out laughing.

She'd be in the phone book, wouldn't she be? (I'm not sure yet whether the vampires are literate. The vampires created within the last century presumably would be.)

That's what I was thinking with Darla being able to find her house from knowing Buffy's name.

Re vampire literacy, I think any that have lasted long enough to have been alive in an illiterate age would be the ones smart enough to learn. The old and powerful ones are probably as much into the books of lore as Giles is.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

every time I think I have it, the JB in it bursts out laughing

Well, of course! But... he'd be different, and that's part of the joy of it. Every Higgins I've seen has been played like Rex Harrison, sometimes well, sometimes badly. And just think how much better John Barrowman would be at singing those lovely songs. "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" would make me weep.

Yes, I agree about the vampires reading - if it was useful to them, they'd learn. And it would be.