Angel

(Episode written by Ben Edlund / directed by Bill Norton)

So it’s Halloween??? Yeah, I know HERE it’s Halloween. But it was like a month after they took over W&H last week. Oh well, at least they didn’t time and date stamp it. (Though maybe it would have helped if they had time stamped it since an awful lot seemed crammed into a single day --- or at least a single wardrobe for Lorne.)

Lorney-Tunes: (I’ve gotta start with Lorne!) I wish AH had gotten to finish that number. "Don’t Leave Me This Way" is just SO Lorne --- though my favourite is still "I Will Survive", another song I would have liked to hear him finish from his debut episode, "Judgement" 2x01 (back when he looked REALLY scary --- you know, before he had some chin work and the nose job).

While not everyone can do white shoes after Labour Day, I guess it’s OK for Lorne. Then again, those might have been silver --- well, certainly pearlescent. And they matched his belt, so what the heck. And I love a nice squared toe. (I’ve got wide feet so pointy shoes make my feet look huge. I’m so glad square toes are the in thing.

I haven’t seen that many Post-it notes on a wall since… well, since last I visited my husband’s office. One person’s obsessive-compulsive is another person’s attention to detail. On the other hand, maybe the staff at W&H are just afraid to actually go into Lorne’s office ’cause of the ghastly décor. Hey, we saw what he did with the suite for Jasmine last year: a little over the top, but fabulous nonetheless. Clearly W&H has ruined the man’s sense of interior style.

What the heck is that mirror made of?

It was just his office. I LOVE the decorations for the party (especially the Mexican "Day of the Dead" scull Angel took a swing at). THAT man knows how to throw a party. I wish I had some pot stickers...

Now this sleeplessness thing… To his headaches, I can relate. (I even had to have a CT scan a couple of years ago to rule out tumour. Turned out once my son started sleeping through the night --- and thus me doing so --- the headaches went away.) Sadly, I was never able to will the people around me to do stuff. That’s just gotta be fun at parties. Well, obviously!

Now the whole Incredible Hulk thing… that was a bit much.

LORNE: It’s not about good and evil; it’s about party. Party. Capital ’P’, rhymes with me! About to have a stroke here ’cause you’re killin’ me.

Lorne’s got such a turn of phrase.

ANGEL: We don’t know how many of [the guests] are holding grudges against us --- or each other. It’s a perfect recipe for an out of control blood bath.

LORNE: That’s describing every good party I’ve ever been to.

Poor Lorne. His big thing is entertaining. He wants to be successful at this. Buck up little camper: the party was fabulous.

Gunn: Again I’m not sure how I feel about the way they’re going with Gunn. I’m OK with the legal ease. I love the more colourful style. (Actually, I like seeing the lot of them in more colour.) But… well, first there was the bit wherein Gunn mentioned Spike making fun of him in the bathroom, not they’ve got him peeing… on Wesley’s shoes (and everywhere else). To quote Fred, "That’s just… just wrong." But in spite of my general discomfort with literal bathroom humour, I still think the discovery sequence was probably the funniest bit of the episode…

WESLEY: Lorne’s doing it… something to all of us.

LORNE: I am not!

WESLEY: Everything he’s told us to do, we’re doing. Spike’s thinking positively. Gunn’s peeing all over the office.

FRED: And we’re a little drunk.

WESLEY: Yes! Not because we drank but because Lorne told us to be drunk.

ANGEL (to Gunn): Lorne told you to pee all over the office?!

GUNN: Lord, I hope so.

And then to see him, standing there, holding himself… Yep, the funniest part of the episode. (Not sure what that says about my sense of humour…)

Angel: I don’t know why but when Angel first appeared in this episode my first thought wasn’t "Ew… he’s covered in gunk". It was "There is no way Angel could do up that jacket; it’s WAY too small".

Why is it every time he kills clients, the other clients are OK with it? Yeah, I kinda get that demons are into carnage (especially the evil ones) but it’s a little convenient don’t you think?

LORNE: What’d I miss?

ANGEL: Us. Waiting.

Angels’ pretty easy going with the nudity. I take it he’s not afraid of Spike turning up anymore. (Though he wasn’t there to hear about Gunn’s experiences with Spike in the bathroom. Gee… that doesn’t sound right.) I’m not sure what to make of all the gratuitous nudity this season. And I realize that some of that stuff was meant to be funny but… I guess I’ve just seen one too many Austin Powers flick to be amused by strategically placed cushions.

So first we learn that Angel hasn’t spent the past century brooding, now we realize he may not have been brooding much at all. He’s just hiding out watching TV. I bet he’s into soaps too.

Eve: Clearly Eve doesn’t live with a man. In university I had lived with two guys and both of them took longer showers than I. My husband spends more than twice as much time in the bathroom as I do in the morning. (And he claims that there isn’t "hands on time" or "gentleman’s time" --- not that there’s anything wrong with it *eg*.)

EVE: The door was open. Well… unlocked. Well… I had a key.

In my head, I can see the line delivered by Lilah (better than Eve), or Darla (better than Eve), or… well, pretty much anybody (better than Eve). Get the point? Still not liking Eve --- and the real downside, it’s not even dislike in a "she’s evil, I hate her" kinda way. She’s just really annoying.

ANGEL: Eve. So, I guess we should… I don’t know, talk.

EVE: About what?

ANGEL: About what happened. You know, back there. With us.

EVE: Angel. It’s not like this is the first time I’ve had sex under a mystical influence. I went to U.C. Santa Cruz.

Anybody wanna hazard a guess as to what that look was all about afterward??? (I think maybe that was the first time she’d had sex under a mystical influence --- or maybe SHE wasn’t under one…)

Harmony: I like her --- though I still figure if it weren’t for the party, that outfit would have been entirely inappropriate. ((And evidently Anya didn’t have a chance to tell her that Spike has no dance when Harmony was raiding her closet.)

HARMONY: they’re all out their sweating through their Matsuda’s wondering if you’re gonna axe them or… you know… *axe* them.

Spike: I found it interesting that they kept doing funny camera angles in this episode so JM didn’t look so little. While it’s nice that he seems to have relaxed a bit, Spike just seemed… out of place. I think it was more than just his being cheerful. Some scenes he was just there doing nothing and the nothing was detracting from the others in the scene. Wish they didn’t feel they had to have him on screen. (I prefer quality to quantity.) The last scene in particular: having him just sit there until Angel tells him to get out. SO obvious they just wanted him there to respond to the "pissin’ on the big man’s chair" thing.

Wes: But Spike wasn’t the only one that was out of place in scenes. In the early part of the episode Wes was just sitting or standing around not saying anything. Poor dear.

And, he’s still got a thing for Fred while she’s still interested in someone else. *sigh*

OH! But I learned the other night on *Queer Eye for the Straight Guy* how they maintain Wes’ 5 o’clock shadow. (It’s all about clipper guards.)

Fred and Knox are just so darned cute together.

Miscellaneous Bits: That scrawny little boy the demons were bleeding… eech… creepy. And at first I was kinda grossed out by the cannibalistic nature of the whole thing until I realized that vampires are pretty much doing the same thing --- had the Master in the Wishverse been successful they’d have been literally doing the same thing --- since they are drinking from the same species.

Nah… it’s still icky.

On a lighter note though, did you know that Tonic Water glows under black light. (Not entirely unlike the "blood" they were drinking --- though it takes on a green cast rather than blue. It’s a great trick at parties.)

Anybody else disturbed by what W&H employees consider a party: lighting cows on fire with sambuca???

EMPLOYEE: Man, this is lame. I mean, where’s the ritual sacrifice? How do you get the ball rolling without a ritual sacrifice?

(Something just occurred to me… There’s all this talk about last year’s office party, but everybody from last year’s office is dead --- many inexplicably turned to zombies and eviscerated by the Beast. Any more plot devices this season and my head may explode --- no, wait. That’s just the lack of sleep.)

SPIKE: Hey! Look! Angel’s getting’ some. Good on you mate.

Well, good on Eve actually --- and who knew Angel liked to enter from behind?

Milk Dud? (I’m glad Angel asked about that one.)

Bossy???

Lighting cows on fire with sambuca??? What’s up with all that???

I’m not sure I like Angel or Spike in good moods.