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Angel
Episode Air Date 10/15/01Hell hath no fury like a Crotty hurrying to finish a review...
With last week's episode stooping to gunplay, it was a welcome relief that the only mention of firearms this week was a two-for-one Charleton Heston film festival. NRA pitchmen aside, there were plenty of other potentially more amusing real life scares: Old age homes, health club pitches, and (gasp) an opening scene that could have been leading into an hour long WAWGTDAFS.
(See last week's review: Will Fred become a valued member of the Fang Gang? Or is she doomed to putter around the hotel while conversing with shrubbery, occasionally quoting Fitzgerald but mostly channeling Dustin Hoffman with squeals of "I want to go with Angel. Definitely Angel.")
Alas, Fred remained in subplot land in favor of a main story involving the pursuit of endless youth. A very simple plot, but it achieved several good results. First, it was enough fun, just-satisfying-enough of a distraction from the fact that this was yet another throwaway episode intended to tide the audience over until the returns of Darla and Fire Boy.
Perhaps more importantly, David Boreanaz finally seemed to be having some fun this week. This season, with a few exceptions (the Skip interchange, for example), Boreanaz has seemed uncomfortable and/or bored with the Angel role. Maybe by playing a different character this week, he will be fresh in the future.
Actually, all of the cast members started the season with stiff performances and have gradually re-settled into their roles. In the last two weeks Charisma Carpenter has done an especially nice job with Cordelia.
Meanwhile, development of supporting characters is progressing at a steady pace like a slow burning fuse. While the writers have made an effort to humanize some demons, they are also making some of the humans, particularly those pesky nogoodnicks at W&H, more demonic. The recent vision-hijacking episode introduced a smarter, more threatening Lilah. This week she followed up by messing with the plans of competing would-be Angel eliminator Gavin Park, a semi-nerd who will likely surprise later in the season.
In revealing some of Lilah's hidden desires, the audience was treated to a really fun moment, the consequences of which make her a far more dangerous threat than ever before. After all, hell hath no fury…
