Eternity • S01E17 • TPN’s Angel Guide
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- Опубликовано: 17 окт 2024
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Opening Theme
Wil Hughes
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Outtro
"Favorite Secrets" by Waylon Thornton
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Passion of the Nerd reviews Eternity. From Angel, Season 1, Episode 17. Directed by Regis Kimble. Written by Tracey Stern. Starring David Boreanaz as Angel. Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase. And Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. Guest Starring Tamara Gorski as Rebecca Lowell
![From the Vault: Pinocchio (1940 Film) [AUDIO ONLY]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/lflg4QISk3A/mqdefault.jpg)
I'd recently rewatched and she did invite him. When she comes to his office she asks if he'd really never seen her show and when he says no she says "well stop by and I can show you the one I didn't win the Emmy for". I thought it was an awkward line until I realized it was to fix the "needs invitation" bit for later.
Buffy-Wiki did reference that exchange as the invitation that satisfied Buffy-Angel-vampire-lore-continuity.
Angel's reply to her telling him to stop by is literally 'thanks for the invite' DING DING DING DING DING - invitation received and accepted. The writers don't so much drop a hint, as they drop an anvil. Sadly - a lot of people clearly aren't listening that carefully.
It is an incredibly clunky line - so much so that I initially missed it out when I did a fan fic rewrite of the episode. And then I got to the bit where he crashes through the window and was like , 'oh - yeah...' and hastily went back and stuffed it in.
No lo habia notado
Or perhaps due to a lack of it feeling like a home, Angel can enter it? I mean what makes a home, a home? the people that live there, cuz if the people that lives there dies - a vampire can enter without trouble.
I think it was important for Angel as a series to establish Angelus as *not good*. For the people who followed from Buffy this is obvious, but not everyone watching this series came from Buffy. My husband for instance has seen a lot of AtS but he never really cared for the High School drama vibe of the first few season of Buffy, so he never got into that show. I think it was important for AtS to show separately from BtVS that Angel is a ticking time bomb, instead of simply having the characters just talk about how bad Angelus was/is.
Well Angelus is not EVIL. He is Angel without a consciousness, no concern for others, no interest in anything but his own selfish desires and wants. And there's no empathy to limit how far he'd like to go to achieve whatever it is he wants.
@@kinagrill I never said Angelus is evil in my review even though is absolutely is evil. Not because of the lack of a soul but because he makes a conscious choice to BE EVIL. It's something he enjoys and works at. He chose Drusilla on a whim because she was a seer but his driving her to madness was done with the express and calculated intent and desire to do evil. Same with how he displayed Jenny Callender after he killed her. Angelus gets his jollies by doing calculated acts of evil. He enjoys watching people suffer and does calculated acts of evil to prolong that suffering. He's a sadist without conscious or remorse and being evil is something he enjoys and is proud of, he does evil for evil's sake and he enjoys it. That's why Angel choosing to do *good* tortures him so much.
Souled Spike vs unsouled Spike is a better example of a demon that is selfish but not necessarily evil. Spike is driven by his desires and emotions both in his souled and unsouled states. Unsouled he can and does do good things for selfish reasons (teaming with Buffy to save the world from Acathla) he also does evil things for selfish reasons (eating orphanages with Dru, trying to rape Buffy) the difference is that the driving force behind his evil actions was NOT to do evil. His driving force has always been love. Unsouled it's a selfish possessive love, but it's still love.
Angelus not being evil is one hell of a hot take!
Continuing to watch not under your control? You have a choice, it's an easy choice, but it is a choice.
I love that opening... there's just something so charming about watching good actors acting badly.
@defrostedrobot77 I was just going to say, "If there's a key, there must be a lock." You're the one I traded quotes with back during the live stream for the anniversary, right?
@Kristen A. I always wonder how good actors manage to intentionally act badly to get across that their characters are acting badly while trying to get an acting job.
@@defrostedrobot77 HAHAHAHA... That episode of SPN was entertaining.
I love the physicality of David's performance as Angelus. It makes me realise how reserved Angel is, as if he constantly holding some part of himself back. Which makes sense with this episodes drug lore bit, that the only thing keeping Angelus at bay might just be Angel's inhibitions
His soul never left him. The drug confused Angel/Angelus. The demon is always in Angel.
Well if the soul never left, then Angelus would never have been at the forefront, so that statement doesn't really hold weight.
@@kinagrill IDK about that. While it's never stated outright, it's repeatedly heavily implied the suppressing his demonic half requires a constant act of will for Angel, so Angelus could be coming to the forefront simply because he has no resistance.
Ehhh no, when angel with a soul is a person being with conicence who takes control in charge running his vessel vampire form as the good guy those happy pill doesn’t ‘confuse’ it cancels out the soul source in fog doesn’t remain doesn’t remain control with pills nor (especially ever make love too with a soulmate) releases temporary letting his evil Angelus out, til the pill dries out
This episode has some of my favorite Angelus lines in it honestly.
“Tell you what, I’ll torture you for a few unbelievably long hours and then you can tell me if this is the lifestyle for you!"
I love how you pointed out how Raven saw herself as a monster for aging, and then Angel shows her what a monster really is. Chilling!
My favorite part of this episode is between Angel and Cordy. After her play Cordy asks Wes and Angel what they thought, their real thoughts about her performance. We all tend to give what we expect to receive, and Cordy expects nothing but brutal honesty from people, especially those she's calling friends. We see then the scene where Angelus (not Angel) is the one who tells Cordy the truth. The way he does it, well, I would give up acting instantly if someone told me how bad I am in that brutal way, but Cordy used his words as a weapon, she uses honesty as a source of strength (and we also know she later starts taking acting classes). When Angel comes to the surface again, she's mad at him for his lack of honesty, he failed to give his best friend the thing she values the most and she tried to make him realize. She won't expect any less from someone she trusts.
Very well said.
And that is why she is such a great character...until about midway through season 3 anyway
The way I have always seen this episode is that Angel never loses his soul. He's simply feeling blissfully happy and that euphoria unburdens him enough that he lets all the usual tethers he keeps on Angelus loose, and it kinda runs away from him. He's _high_ -- not soulless. Angelus is still part of Angel even when he has a soul, as he admits openly earlier this season, when in Somnambulist, he insisted the dreams he had of committing murder weren't nightmares. Angel still actually wants to kill people -- he's just so traumatized by his guilt that it effectively shackles that part of him. Without the guilt, the shackles fall away.
As for the curse being dumb... I don't really agree. The point of the curse is emphatically _not_ to turn Angelus into a good person (though that is the end result). The point is to _torment_ him. If that torment is what feeds the curse in the first place, then once he no longer being tormented, the curse loses its power. It doesn't really seem to me to be a loophole specfically crafted into it, but something they couldn't avoid due to the nature of the curse. They still made it hold to an incredibly high standard of "perfect happiness". The drug high here doesn't stop the torment entirely, just enough that his self-control mostly goes away. He's not perfectly happy, so the curse holds strong. But it's probably as close as you could get to a free Angelus without actually freeing him.
It is one of the great contrasts with Spike. Spike's not really into the big evil stuff, as he told Buffy in season 2. He likes eating people, but after he is shackled by the Institute, when he learns he can fight demons instead, most of his struggles go away. Spike's evil is mostly petty, which he can still do, so he's not conflicted. He steals, drinks, smokes, and insults people for his jollies.
I always loved this episode. For some reason, the drug effect actually felt completely logical to me. It's not that his soul is on pause so much as it's that Angel is constantly suppressing his vampire nature, which is an inseparable part of his being, soul or no soul.
I'm also a sucker for this episode's "lesson". Sure, being a vampire can seem glamorous and cool, but do you REALLY want that?
Yes. We see him relapse/regress into vampirism behavior and just make plain bad decisions after he is re -insouled. He fed off that dying man in the who was the victim of robbery in the 70s. Also he tried to go back to his previous life with Darla during the Boxer Rebellion in the 1800s.
I feel the drugs works perfect for the metaphor. You said yourself he's a recovering alcoholic and adding drugs in that makes just as much sense for anything for that metaphor. Drugs make you feel euphoric and can turn you into someone you normally wouldn't be, so instead of the soul being on "pause" maybe it just strip Angel from his inhibitions. If the show is about choice then drugs are know for taking away that choice in all sorts of ways. It might be a bit on the nose but I think it still works. Also the Gypsy curse thing where they didn't know the details or told Angel about the details I feel like it's easily explained away with it was forgot over time and Angel took off from shock before they gypsies could really tell him. Not to mention Darla, Spike and Dru killed off most of those people.
Ben Martinez This is a good explanation.
@@cordeliachase601 thank you
In the flashback I don't think they bother telling him the rules though and they do spend some time explaining what they did. Also the uncle did know the rule as well so it wasn't lost.
I always had this theory that also explains the difference between Spike with a soul and Angel with a soul behaving differently. Spike is the same, while Angel has a split personality. It had developed so deeply that it’s integral to his character and his own beliefs about himself. Without a conscience, he’d do terrible things, he knows. Except with one, he’s also done terrible things (and will do worse in season 2). So the drugs might make him THINK he turned into Angelus, strip him of inhibitions, the alcoholic who fell off the wagon and gets wasted again and abusive. He no longer bothers being civil nor bottles up his feelings. The drugs don’t turn him into a different person. He’s always Angelus. Except because of the pain, he chooses not to be. He chooses to be a different man. The drugs took away that choice.
Anyone whose a addict and not just for the Show would totally agree with that notion.
I actually liked this episode it showed how Angel/Angelus truly fight each other within the inner dialogue and the performance David gives is nothing short of magnificent, wonderful, fantastic, and amazing.
The way I've always headcanoned the drugs bringing out Angelus is the writers are making the addict metaphor of the show literal. Angelus is always there for Angel, something that both Orpheus (season 4) and Amends (Buffy 3.10) make painstakingly clear. Thus, to me, it's very possible that if Angel's inhibitions are lowered enough, Angelus has a chance to come out. The romani who cursed Angel said they restored his soul, but nothing about taking out the demon. Between Amends, Orpheus, and Eternity, we have a very clear picture that the line between Angel and Angelus isn't just defined by pure happiness, but Angel's own will.
The lowest that Eternity ever made it for me, even without closer analysis, was the status of candy episode. I just loved the appearance of Angelus too goddamn much to care about the (admittedly debatable) stupidity of the 'temporary lost soul' debacle.
The actress annoyed me more. Because hello, Buffy is the one...
Same
It's a show about Angel, it's a waste not to include Angelus, but it's tedious if every single time you have to build an entire arc around it and it can get old rather quickly
So I totally got their reasoning and I liked it
"Angelus was interesting for what he revealed about Buffy." You just keep outdoing yourself. Keep up the amazing work
Looking back, I always found this episode fit into the idea of Angelus always being 'deep in.'
Angel's happiness, being pysiological and not spiritual, served more to drive him down and give Angelus the wheel briefly.
We see Angel on more than one occasion reference how he has urges still to do dark things, and we know it is only his soul - something that brings with it at least the potential of a conscience - that makes him choose not to give into those urges.
He says it to Buffy in the s1 episode Angel: "I can walk like a man, Buffy, but I'm not one. And I wanted to kill you tonight." He still has strong vampire instincts, and Angel the series explores that on many occasions. One example being the Sombambulist where he dreams/experiences what Penn is doing - the horrific murders - and says they were happy dreams.
So, to me, dumb as it was (and the whole curse/drug pause button is indeed dumb), I saw Angel being given the drug as the same effect as when people imbibe mind-altering substances. Be it alcohol or drugs. It doesn't cause them to want or act in a way they couldn't possibly do/ want to do - it lowers the inhibitions/social construct/conscience that make people choose *not* to do those things. I.e. how they behave when sober.
Or to put it another way - Angel's superego is knocked out temporarily so his id Angelus comes out to play.
There's Angel the vampire and Angel the man.
Thoughout the series we will see that Vampire/Man, there is darkness in both. They just manifest in different ways. In the end though humans are happy meals on legs to Angel's vamp biology.
“Tell you what, I’ll torture you for a few unbelievably long hours and then you can tell me if this is the lifestyle for you.”
Mark Blakeley he sounds like a commercial god I fucking love Angelus
The episode didn't really seem like he was actually Angelus, even though I know that was the intention. The performance came across more like Angel was confused, unable to fight the demon inside him as well and psychologically expecting to turn evil because of his fears about the curse. Since that explanation makes more sense than the drugs affecting the curse's magic I just choose to interpret it that way. It's not Angelus just a very messed up Angel.
Exatcly like some people who drink/drug are happy personality wise vs. The others who get angry and violent. It was a glimpse of Angelus, not the real thing. Like Liam in a drunken brawl back in 1700's pub in Ireland.
I believe he was confused, yes. A "mix" of both.
The effects of the drug Rebecca slipped him made him think he was perfectly happy, had lost his soul and become Angelus again so he acted like Angelus until it wore off even though he hadn't had even had a moment of true happiness with Rebecca because he didn't love her.
I was going to comment something similar but I'm going to take it a step further. Artificial bliss essentially tricked Angel into losing his inhibitions and guilt. I've always theorized the reason why Angel and Angelus seem so distinct while Spike retains the same personality is because Angel has actually developed a dissociative identity, which is triggered by his ability to feel empathy/guilt. Thats why the drug making him feel bliss and stripping him of his inhibitions/guilt made the personality shift, even if the soul was technically still present. Once his body was able to feel guilt again, the Angel persona returned.
@@mikesannitti6042 Oooohhhh I love this theory! Dissociative identity makes sense. It also follows that Angel is the secondary persona, on top of Angelus (or rather the tertiary one if we count Liam). So the amount of self control to keep Angelus in check is probably exhausting (as shown by the tears in the scene with Rebecca).
However, that does beg the question, what happens when he sleeps? Does he switch back? Or are empathy and guilt still just as present?
Personally, I've always thought Angel's reaction to the drugs was brilliant. He becomes Angelus because he believes he will. It's the power of suggestion. The drugs influence him into subconsciously giving himself permission to be bad again, to give up the burden of remorse for a moment and be free.
Why is no one talking about Angel and Barry Manilow? The intro was one of the best parts of this video!!
Right, any die hard fan knows Manilow is Angels favorite singer lol (and now mine lmao Oh Mandy ✌️😉)
Regardless of the stupid reasoning behind how Angel lost his soul I was always really impressed by the episodes climax. It's one of the few buffy/angel sequences I find legitimately terrifying. Also Cordelia tricking Angelus with her water bottle is one of my all time favorite moments on the show. Cordy took a long time to grow on me and this episode helped shift my stance on her character significantly.
This episode has two of the best involuntary Cordy noises. The babyish sound of fear when Angelus calls her name, and the scoff when Angel says 'You're not going to untie me, are you.'
My head canon explanation for how Angel enter's her house for the save: its a rental property with no permanent resident that is provided by her manager/agency/studio or whatever and he squeaks through on the temporary lodging loophole in the invitation curse.
That was my reasoning too. It wasn't her home, just somewhere she was staying that was owned by her agency or the studio.
I would have agreed but there is a scene where she says "you should drop by sometime" or something which would have counted.
Nice idea but rented accommodation still counts (Spike/Angel need invites to get into Buffy's college dorm). Only temporary accommodation like motels don't count.
It would depend how much the occupant considers it a home though. I would presume an actress moves around enough that most of her residences don't feel like home to her, even if she actually owns the apartment/home.
We do see it's as much a metaphysical thing compared to a legal thing. The bookstore owner in Have you now or ever been talked about setting up a sleeping bag in his store to make it into a "home" so vampires couldn't walk in. He most likely owned or at least rented the store which didn't mean anything but if he sleeps there, it makes it his "home" which would be enough to keep vamps out (he seems to know a fair amount about mystic stuff so I assume he has some idea what he's talking about).
Oh, and maybe he spied an invitation to the party too. That could theoretically work.
This was a candy episode to me. I loved every minute on my first watch. Especially the return of Angelus.
"You're crazy!"
"No, I'm a vampire!"
There's no reason he can't be both.
Angelus is such a great character, I think we all have an Angelus in us in some way. The scene at the end of this ep with Cordelia & Wes about her acting is brutally honestly hilarious.
What if the drug isn't simulating happiness, thus causing him to briefly lose his soul? But it is doing what it does to us human-folk, let our defenses down and letting our primal urges out. Then it would be the Angel that we know running on thirst and sadism that he at his core is known to possess. Honestly I never liked the Angel/Angelis dichotomy because it almost gives that dark part of his personality a pass in a way, like an abuser who only hits his girlfriend when he drinks,....No that is you, it's the you that you just choose to keep from everyone.
That's how I saw it, too.
I'd agree with the Dichotomy if a few episodes in later seasons didn't deal with this.
We see the pure vampire side of Angel and we know it's a beast.
We see Angel go dark and see how he can go without giving into the vampire. The man is no saint. When Angel is a sadist it's like some addict whose has to do it but takes no pleasure. Angelus LOVES his work. Angel doesn't want to rape a woman before eating her. He will totally destroy someones world if you tick him off enough.
I've always gone back and forth as to weather or not Angel was merely acting like Angelius like he did in "Enemies".
I'm of 5he belief he was acting, at first. At least up until he squirts blood into her mouth to scare her away, then the drugs take hold.
I love this episode, overall. The scene where Angel feeds her the blood is hard to watch.
“I love this episode, overall.”
Join the club.
It's so interesting that we have different opinions ;) Because I don't like this episode. "The actress" was stupid to try mess with a vampire in the first place.
When Boreanaz cries, I cry
One of my favorite S1 episodes
José Sarango Join the club!!!!
New Angel episode guide is a hell of a Birthday present. Keep it up TPN
Macore Games HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Happy Birthday!
Whenever it lands it will be like my birthday.
"Angel was never cake."
After the monster montage, something about that line just cracked me up. Great video!
My god, that elevator shaft stunt just feels brutal. I wince every time I see it.
It's interesting that right after getting drugged, Angel admits how much he misses emotional connection and closeness and then works so hard to offend and drive everyone around him away. It demonstrates that Angelus is a manifestation of Angel's fear and rejection of love and intimacy -- something he learned to do as a human. It explains Angelus trying to destroy Buffy's love for him and also destroying the love story of Giles and Jenny.
I was always confused by them making a loophole in the curse that would take away Angel’s soul, considering they gave it to him because he KILLED PEOPLE. However, I always conveniently zoom past that because the love the Angelus storyline.
Raine B I just always figured it's because the gypsies were from the 19th century, and therefore much crueler in their desire for vengeance. Like Holtz (who is from the 18th century). Both could just kill the demon, but prefer doing something that makes the soul suffer.
I love this episode. "Blip"ness aside, it's incredibly well-written, acted, etc.
Rebecca actually does give Angel an invitation while in his office. I missed it at first but she does tell him to "stop by" some time to which Angel replies "Thanks for the invitation". It's a little contrived but it is in there.
Edit- Just realised loads of folk have already pointed this out:p so instead my question is what was the agent's original hit and run plan? If Angel hadn't been there Rebecca would've been hit by the car; so much for her agent insisting he wouldn't let her get hurt!
Can't wait for the next two episodes. By far my favorite two episodes of season 1
Oh around twenty minutes into Sanctuary is gonna be good. I don't think we have ever seen this character quite that angry.
I think that the soul wasn't necessarily paused, but that the following events happened because Angel *thought* it was, in a kind of weird placebo effect way. I think that it's very easy for Angelus to "pop out", since he is always present in Angel. And I think that Angel is always subconsciously looking for a relief of his anguish, a way to make the guilt stop.. which can present itself in his hopes of redemption, but also a subconscious willingness to "let go". He always makes a deliberate choice to subdue his Angelus part, but when he thought he didn't have a choice anymore, he just went with it. He let go.
So, in that way we didn't see Angelus in his true form, only Angel *thinking* he was Angelus.
Cake, meal, whichever description you want to use Angelus/David Boreanaz devours the scenery here.
That tease at the end of this vid. I love ur vids, gives me a lot more appreciation and respect for the show, especially cos i havecwatched it time and time again since i was a kid. Realky makes rewatching it now more enjoyable, and in some cases more painful.
Great review Ian. Can't wait for 5x5.
Awww i thaught we were on the "Faith Episodes" of S1 Angel......atleast im now gonna get super excited for next week!
That tease at the end though! Can't wait.
Thank you so much for your videos. I love them!
To me the drug thing is a placebo effect so that angel can release Angeleus because of pent up repression. As a fan that’s how I’ve solved the plot hole. 🤗
That's what happens when you're repressed. You overreact. ;)
honestly, I was so happy to see angelus again (and terrified lol) that I didnt mind the crappy loophole. I'm so impressed by how David makes the distinction between Angel and Angelus-- in voice, physicality, energy. I also loved Cordelia's speech as she held Angelus off with the "holy" water. Her reveal that she's been waiting for Angelus to come back since Buffy season 2 with a stake in her desk was kind of heartbreaking, and something I wish was touched on more. "Buffy" the show treated Cordelia poorly during the Angelus arc, (making her worry about him entering her car for instance), so the reveal of the emotional toll it had on her was fascinating. I always felt that though each Big Bad caused immense trauma in one way or another, I always felt there was a vast separation between someone like Adam and the scoobies, versus Angelus and the scoobies. Having your friend (or at least a trusted ally) suddenly turn on you and then wreak total physical, emotional, and psychological havoc would have been absolutely traumatizing.
All of which makes me wish had the Skip and Jasmine crap not happened, Cordy would've been the very first to educate Gunn, Faith (who eventually experience Angelus despite the ruse Angel and Buffy devised to get more info on Wilkins), & even Connor about what a true menace Angelus is
Oh yea, the Faith Angel episodes are next... my absolute favorites. I can't wait!
...and then... Can't wait for the next ep.
Damn that LA Noire soundtrack at 4:07. I remember booting that game up and just sitting in the main menu listening to that song.
I wish my students watched Angel and Buffy, then I could prove that me teaching A Doll's House is a valid thing. :D
I always really liked this episode, stupid loophole aside. Angelus is my favorite villain in the buffyverse simply for how much glee he shows whenever he's on screen. Evil is art to him and he loves art. I don't really think there's another character that could emotionally torment the rest of the cast like he can. I get why people don't like him for his character but I just think he's incredibly enjoyable to take in and a small taste of that in this episode was enough for me to enjoy it.
Next episodes are my favorites of the season. I really wish they could have made faith a regular or at least a recurring. She would have fit so well in the show, and displays it well in season 4.
Going with the whole metaphor of the show as Angel as a recovering alcoholic, giving him literal drugs in the ep, only takes the metaphor aspect away for me. I've always thought that this was the writers way of giving Angel a "relapse" of sorts and we see just how thin the line of sobriety can be for an addict, even if it's not the same kind of "drug" that they are recovering from. Angelus is always constant. He's always lurking beneath the surface of the soul. It's Angel's will to do the "right" thing that keeps him at bay as we learned in Amends and later Orpheus. That's why I've never believed the use of drugs to bring forth Angelus as, for the lack of a better term, cheap, in Eternity. Just my two cents. :-)
I always took it as kind of like alcohol for normal people. Angel still has a soul, but he isn't in enough control to really hold back on his urges. Also makes me appreciate how much work he puts in on a daily bases to just not kill everyone every episode.
I cannot wait until you get to five by five!! Its the Prophecy Girl episode of Angel where the show really takes off!
The curse having a fatal loophole makes sense in a OUAT kind of way since powerful magic like that always comes with a price in these kind of stories.
These videos are fantastic, as always, but boi oh boi am I excited for you to talk about two of the best Angel episodes coming up.
This was a great review (as always, love Buffy and your videos add so much more for me as a new fan. I got into Buffy just a few years ago) and I hate to be this guy but what's the song you used for the Angelus montage? I've been looking for it since you used it in the first episode of the Angel guide ^^U
I’ve watched all of Angel, just as I have Buffy. Unlike Buffy though, I haven’t rewatched it multiple times. So watching your reviews, it’s a major refresh. I remember being so disappointed in this one, because of the Angelus story arc, and how he was and still is my favorite Big Bad, pretty much for the reasons you gave here. Not only was he evil in every sense of the word, he was once one of the good guys and Buffy’s first love, and his turn was because of her. Bringing Angelus back here was, for me, just... lame.
Love this episode greatly.
Cordy "ARE YOU INSANE??"
Later on Angel turns insane xD.
For me, Angel's "true happiness" thing brought out by drugs kind of makes sense. The curse wasn't JUST to have his soul returned. Spike got his soul back and was fine after a while. The curse part isn't the soul, but rather an emphasis on the guilt. They basically cursed Angel with guilt and depression, having all of his worst memories constantly held at the forefront of his mind. The drugs lower inhibitions, or release him.
Excited to see the new piece! And so quick on the heels of the old one. I for one love watching you grow into your role.
One thought that has been bumping about in my head for a while, apropos of basically nothing. I don't think you are correct about Xander and Cordelia's relationship being bad. Sure, it ends badly, and sure it begins with foolish makeouts, but couldn't the same be said for a lot of high school relationships? To me their romance is a powerful vehicle for the growth of each character. Cordelia gets a much-needed priorities-check; Xander gets a much needed self-esteem-boost (and another non-toxic source of intimacy). I see you trying to build a parallel with the relationship of Buffy and Angel, but there's two things wrong with that. First: Buffy and Angel have consequences to their relationship; if there were similar but lesser stakes to C&X, ok, but there aren't. Second: even in a story as allegorical as Buffy, there are things that don't conform to allegory. It's actually the mistaken belief that everything in an allegory has to be, well, allegorical, that turns people off from Allegory. Even Animal Farm isn't ONLY about the Russian Revolution.
Ok that's all. Please keep up the good work!
That's in some ways the point: the goal of good allegory is the tension between character and symbolism.
I always thought that it brought out Angelous because Angelous is ALWAYS THERE, its ONLY Angel's self control that keeps him at bay. Witness how easily he fed Wolfram and Hart to Dru and Darla while having a soul, a very Angelous move. The drug simply caused enough havoc with Angel's control that Angelous was able to shove him into the corner and take back control over their body with Angel powerless to stop him, similar to how Angelous was powerless when Angel was saving puppies and torturing him with Barry Manilow.
A lot of people are still overthinking the emergence of 'Angelus' during this episode. Angel doesn't lose his soul, nor is it put on pause. But what drugs/alcohol do is remove your inhibitions, your ability to control base impulses. Angel still carries some of Angelus with him - the beast waiting beneath the surface. This is an important reminder of that. Drunk people will act entirely selfishly, driven by their id, they may well abandon their best friend or become violent for no good reason. That's what we're seeing in this episode.
I am so stoked everytime you post one of these!
I loved this episode. It's probably my favorite of the season. Love when pseudo angelus rips Into Cordy and Wesley.
I just rewatched this episode tonight. I found the fact that a woman was attacked and terrorised and it was kinda frame as her fault - a bitter pill to swallow. Other than that though I really liked this episode. Cordelia sparkles here!
Loved the point About the emotional resonance vs plot
l think this is the first time anyone examines 'perfect happiness', which is important later in the series. My favourite parts are with Cordy and Wesley - bonding over how to handle Angelus, working together, and how they never forget for a moment how dangerous he is.
The thing that made the Angelus turn work for me (which I fully acknowledge is more a headcanon than anything else) was the idea that the drug was working as a placebo effect. It's been well established by both Buffy and Angel that Angelus is always there, to some extent, and it made total sense to me that he could become dominant if Angel believed he'd experienced true happiness, which he clearly did. Does it totally solve everything? No, it's still a little cheap that Angelus was summoned this easily by a one-off character given how much devestation he brought in Buffy season two, but it at least fixed the soul problem for me.
I think there is also some interesting echoing of 'Lie to Me' in this episode. The perception and fixation on the idea of becoming a vampire as a 'cure' to a physical problem. Angel also has a declaration similar about Rebecca (who eventually manipulates him) 'knowing' what he is, just as Buffy does with Ford (who also manipulates her) 'knowing' that she is the Slayer. I'm sure there are more links in there..
I do love the LA Noire soundtrack. I've been listening to it on a loop with Body Heat and Chinatown.
Huh it was the first episode of Angel that I've recorded on my VHS :D Good old times.
"....There's more than one road to Hell."
-John Constantine
And hoo boy does this episode and quote fit when comes to more than one avenue for Angelus to return whether its sex, magic, or temporarily drugs
I like Eternity a lot because it is one of Angel's few straight-up vampire stories that deals with vampire tropes.
To me I always thought Angel was pretending to be bad to scare her away from ever approaching a vampire to change her.
It is pretty clear from his interactions with Wes and Cordy that he was not pretending.
Great episode guide. I cant wait to see the next video.
I for one enjoyed this episode, I would often re-watch it and got mad when Netflix took Angel off because I couldn't just go re-watch any episode I wanted...
This is one of my favourite episodes of Angel, was hoping youd get to this one soon,,Buffy s2 was great but this is a different story, Wes does explain how the drug effect on angel was a chemical suggestion, an illusion- not real,,dose happen in real life with people on drugs, they lose control..
So you by thats what is happening with Angel here; nothing to do with the curse,, think people are looking too closely at that detail(cause it didnt happen like on Buffy) and not have fun with the episode.
She's not a villain per se but Rebecca is the antagonist of the episode. She wanted to become a vampire so she could stay eternally young but didn't realise she'd become an evil bloodsucking monster not be able to continue her acting career like she thought. Her drugging Angel could have gotten Cordelia and Wesley killed too.
When you think about it, Rebecca is this episode's Ford (from Buffy S2's Lie To Me), she wanted her dream realized but unlike Ford, she got a glimpse of the one of the underworld's greatest monsters but got scared straight in the process
Ok, let's talk about the narrative function of Angelus.
Angelus takes on a fundamentally different form in all his appearances post-season 2. Season 2 Angelus functions as a symbol for consequences of actions that you could never have predicted. Buffy and Angel have that moment of closeness and it leads to this whole series of events. It's neither of their fault, but its happened and now you have to deal with it.
In all his appearances after season 2, Angelus takes on a fundamentally different role. Angelus is a musical number in a musical. By that, I mean that Angelus functions as a way to get characters to admit things or express feelings they cannot normally do so. Faith tells Buffy about not only her allegiance with the mayor in Enemies but also her motivation for that allegiance. This is because of the presence of Angelus, he brings it out of her. In Eternity, Angelus enables the characters to all express how they really "feel" about Angel, as well as Angel to express through Angelus how he feels about the other characters. This continues in later appearances of Angelus but I will leave that aside to avoid spoilers. Hell, there's a reason Angelus likes his little theatrical flourishes.
I love that Cordy isn't mad that Angel was so mean when he was drugged; she was mad that he lied about her acting. Buffy season 1 Cordelia would never have wanted that truth, but now Cordy wants honesty from her friends even when what they have to say is critical. I can only imagine that it would have been constructive criticism with Angel's conscience turned on.
I like how this episode is a not subtle at all threat to part of the Buffy cast to avoid David Caruso-ing themselves by abandoning the show to focus entirely on movies.
Personally, I hate the "poor little rich girl" trope so the large chunk of this episode doesn't work for me. However, that brief return of placebo-Angelus is what sold the episode to me. It raises so many interesting questions about whether Angel and Angelus are two separate beings and how well his soul protects him and his friends from the murderous impulses. For a brief moment Angel allowed himself turn into a monster because he THOUGHT he had lost his soul.
Lore confusion aside, I enjoy this episode. Just dont think about it too much haha
She invites him in just like Cordelia did earlier in the season with her apartment.
Has anyone ever noticed how Angelus here in the episdoe was an inspiration for The Dark Knight's version of Joker 4 years later? it's dead on.....
I wonder if this episode would have been less contentious if the drugs actually didn't work, but Angel deliberately acted as if they had specifically in order to show Rebecca what being a vampire really means. I bet there would have been a lot of interesting character stuff to play with after that
Great, gotta wait patiently for Five by Five now.
Hey now. Three weeks in a row of episode guides is pretty good for me.
...buuut...yes.
Uh, yeah duh?
Three in a row is perfect! Buuuuuut Five by Five IS my favorite one of Angel's first season.
Kinda so close and yet so far, y'know? Good work though, as always!
Imagine all those paparazzi photographers when they check the pictures they took of Rebecca and her bodyguard only to find that just one of them appears in the photograph
Vampires appear in photos, it is established in S2E02
Really? That's dumb. Isn't that part of the lore due to vampires not having reflections and a photograph is made via light reflection?
Cordelia on Angel's photo from 1952: "It's not that vampires don't photograph, it's just that they don't photograph *well*"
As always, fantastic.
Angel has never been even close to what makes ATS good, although I'm not un-fond of him (I used to be- Spuffy forever etc.) Which is why it's going to get SO MUCH BETTER with Fred here. Love her.
To be fair, drugs does turn people into people that may as well not have a soul sometimes
Truly Amazing
Was Copacobana an inside joke on Angel's favorite song being Mandy,I wonder?
I was going to point out that I dindn't ever notice that their wasn't an invite until I remembered there is a shoehorned line she says about how he should stop by to see the Emmy she didn't win.
I knew Wesley was telling the viewers that it wasn't sex with Buffy, but I didn't put it together that he was confirming your theory until you said so.
I always looked at the Angelus climax as cheap because it was meant to be. Meaning it wasn't actually Angelus. Just like the happiness Angel feels when on the Doximal drug isn't real. As Wesley says, it is synthetic.Doesn't mean he isn't dangerous though. It is a cheap gimmic-y climactic moment that was meant to be that way. If it wasn't meant to be that was, the actress would have died at "Angelus's" hands. I don't know if this makes sense, but I always looked at it as the Doximal surpressing the soul rather than bringing the pleasure out. Angelus is serving the purpose of revealing the faults in what Rebbecca believes.
I feel as if the last paragraph was many different thoughts not cohesively put together.
Huh.. new insight on this episode. Ok.. well... Next!!!! Please let it not feel so long before Faith-time!