Angel
Episode Air Date 10/01/01

I had a demon named Skip once; my dad let it run away.

From the promos running on the WB, it looked like we had seen it all before. The visions plaguing Cordelia grow stronger than she can handle. Only Angel can save her from being completely overcome. While it may be fun to watch Charisma Carpenter writhe around in bed, we need something new.

And the Angel team almost delivered.

This time around, whatever Cordy envisions ends up having a physical consequence for her. By the time the episode is half-over, she gets clawed, boiled, and burned. With an unintended poignancy, Cordelia questions why The Powers That Be (the show's little dance around having a supreme being) would cause such suffering.

For anyone with half a brain who noticed Wolfram & Hart sniffing around, obviously TPTB would not. Instead, the evil law firm has employed a guy with a little more than one brain to use the same channel to torment Cordelia. The purpose? To coerce Angel into undertaking a quest for them.

Once again, the fight scenes utilized fairly simple stunt work, even when fighting demons from Hong Kong. But by now even the producers realize that the fight scenes have a sameness to them. The second sequence barely even registers. How many different spins can you put on beating the crap out of demons?

The answer lies in personalities, of course. This week offers up a fearsome looking demon apparently made of brass. He commutes to his corner of Hell, and bears the name "Skip." Skip The Demon. It works.

Our regular personalities, however, have become so glib that this episode veers on Stephen King channeling Neil Simon. Everybody has a quip or a witticism, even Fred. And even though it makes sense that she would babble after years with no human contact, she has already started to become like a less sane version of Willow over on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Give her her own personality, for the love of pete.

Both this week and last do a better job of setting up long-term plotlines than interesting us in the plot before us. Darla's current condition can mean nothing but trouble for Angel. Wolfram & Hart's new gambit to smoke Angel out with paperwork may prove to be a menace he cannot overcome. And what about Holzst?

As long as these long-term questions remain interesting, we'll still be there.

 

Derek McCaw