Angel - To Shanshu In LA (5x5 review)
P@rick
The season's finale. A perfect reason for a party! And everyone's invited.
And when there's a party, there's dancing. This ep was all about Angel
dancing the Shanshu round a campfire. A ritual dance that is pivotal to the
"Day of the Bird"-rite. When a vampire with a soul turns 250, the number of
the bird, it must perform the ritual to prove it's maturity. Angel has to
resist the temptations of the female vamps to dance with them. When he
fails, a bird comes down to collect his soul (not a bat according to Wesley
since that isn't a bird) and he loses it forever.
Actually, I thought Angel was a lot younger than 250. But this time, Joss
did the math. So that's probably what went wrong.
Female vamps are drawn to this ritual like shallow women to a single
millionaire. So it was not really a surprise that Drusilla showed up. Ok,
maybe it was an unpleasant surprise for Spike, who was watching the ritual
from a distance doing his voice-over. "'Look at me dancing. I'm Fred
Astaire!' That's right you sod. You're just as dead as Fred bloody
Astaire".
Actually, Angel's dancing really has improved since 'She'. I think he and
Wesley have been practicing together in secret. Wesley did have that book
"Three quick steps to Shanshu". And he seemed to know all the right moves,
which didn't leave Cordy unaffected by the way.
The appearance of Darla could only add more fuel to the fire. And it did.
Quite literally when she tried to push Dru into the campfire. Drusilla was
too busy trying to hypnotise Angel to notice Darla approaching her from
behind. Spike knew that he couldn't interrupt the ritual. But something
must have short-circuited in his brain (no, not the chip) when he saw his
beloved Dru about to mingle with the ashes in the fire. Good thing he can
hit
demons and vampires. The chip doesn't prevent him from hitting women,
that's for sure. And now it has finally been proven that vampires *do*
smoke. And that it's bad for their health as well.
Drusilla wasn't very grateful for Spike saving her unlife. I'm not sure
which she hurt more, Spike's ego or his nose.
Angel got through the ritual unharmed. Even Drusilla's charms couldn't
distract him. They did distract Wesley though. Which prompted an interesting
reaction from Cordelia. Wow, who needs a Slayer when we've got (a jealous?)
Cordy. What Buffy does with her fists, Cordelia does even better with her
mouth. Drusilla didn't even try to counter her "I just noticed, those fangs
would look great on my ivory necklace". This time she didn't mind Spike
protecting her. They even took off together. Interesting! I would love to
see them return next year. On Buffy or Angel, or even both.
This lingering attraction between Cordy and Wesley will grow into something
more substantial next season. She did say drive "us" home. And the two of
them on his bike, it really seemed to fit. And I don't just mean the leather
suits.
And Angel? In the final scene we saw what gave him the strength to come
through the ritual. A picture of a blonde woman he keeps in a silver
medaillon. True love gave him the strength he needed. Drusilla and Darla
couldn't seduce him because he had only one person on his mind......
We'll be seeing a lot more of Kate next season.
Bye, Patrick
--
Keeper of the Willowism, "And I'm eating this banana. Lunchtime be damned!"
Protector of Willow and Oz waking up together
Keeper of the Wily Willow Charms
ThreadMaker [tm]
ReviewMeister [tm]
!!!!!5x5!!!!!
5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5
Joost Nagtegaal
<P.J.Mee...@students.fss.VampWillow.uu.nl> wrote:
>5x5, so no spoilers!
>
>The season's finale. A perfect reason for a party! And everyone's invited.
>
>And when there's a party, there's dancing. This ep was all about Angel
>dancing the Shanshu round a campfire. A ritual dance that is pivotal to the
>"Day of the Bird"-rite. When a vampire with a soul turns 250, the number of
>the bird,
*LOL*
/it must perform the ritual to prove it's maturity. Angel has to
>resist the temptations of the female vamps to dance with them. When he
>fails, a bird comes down to collect his soul (not a bat according to Wesley
>since that isn't a bird) and he loses it forever.
>
>Actually, I thought Angel was a lot younger than 250. But this time, Joss
>did the math. So that's probably what went wrong.
>
>Female vamps are drawn to this ritual like shallow women to a single
>millionaire. So it was not really a surprise that Drusilla showed up. Ok,
>maybe it was an unpleasant surprise for Spike, who was watching the ritual
>from a distance doing his voice-over. "'Look at me dancing. I'm Fred
>Astaire!' That's right you sod. You're just as dead as Fred bloody
>Astaire".
I can actually hear him say that!
>Actually, Angel's dancing really has improved since 'She'. I think he and
>Wesley have been practicing together in secret. Wesley did have that book
>"Three quick steps to Shanshu". And he seemed to know all the right moves,
>which didn't leave Cordy unaffected by the way.
>
>The appearance of Darla could only add more fuel to the fire. And it did.
>Quite literally when she tried to push Dru into the campfire. Drusilla was
>too busy trying to hypnotise Angel to notice Darla approaching her from
>behind. Spike knew that he couldn't interrupt the ritual. But something
>must have short-circuited in his brain (no, not the chip) when he saw his
>beloved Dru about to mingle with the ashes in the fire. Good thing he can
>hit
>demons and vampires. The chip doesn't prevent him from hitting women,
>that's for sure. And now it has finally been proven that vampires *do*
>smoke. And that it's bad for their health as well.
>Drusilla wasn't very grateful for Spike saving her unlife. I'm not sure
>which she hurt more, Spike's ego or his nose.
"Ow, that bloody hurt. Have you gone bonkers?"
>Angel got through the ritual unharmed. Even Drusilla's charms couldn't
>distract him. They did distract Wesley though. Which prompted an interesting
>reaction from Cordelia. Wow, who needs a Slayer when we've got (a jealous?)
>Cordy. What Buffy does with her fists, Cordelia does even better with her
>mouth. Drusilla didn't even try to counter her "I just noticed, those fangs
>would look great on my ivory necklace". This time she didn't mind Spike
>protecting her. They even took off together. Interesting! I would love to
>see them return next year. On Buffy or Angel, or even both.
>
>This lingering attraction between Cordy and Wesley will grow into something
>more substantial next season. She did say drive "us" home. And the two of
>them on his bike, it really seemed to fit. And I don't just mean the leather
>suits.
Wesley in a leather suit? Now there's a mental picture I'd like to
forget....
>And Angel? In the final scene we saw what gave him the strength to come
>through the ritual. A picture of a blonde woman he keeps in a silver
>medaillon. True love gave him the strength he needed. Drusilla and Darla
>couldn't seduce him because he had only one person on his mind......
Lemme guess who...
>We'll be seeing a lot more of Kate next season.
Ok, not who I had in mind :-)
Very good, P@rick. Almost a shame 5x5 is over, so we'll have to
miss your very funny 5x5 reviews. But maybe you can start reviewing
Buffy S5 or Angel S2 starting next week?
JN
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Notice: Spelling mistakes left in for people who need to correct others to make their life fulfilled.
Jonathan Black
> Very good, P@rick. Almost a shame 5x5 is over, so we'll have
> to miss your very funny 5x5 reviews.
I second that. Great work, P@rick. These "reviews" were a nice
consolation for those of us who have been missing Angel over the
past month or so, and I guess they were just as much fun for
everyone else as well.
> But maybe you can start reviewing Buffy S5 or Angel S2
> starting next week?
Well, that's true, he could do that. The titles are available,
including the spoilery one for 5.01 :) It'd be a lot of work
though, I think, to do it for every episode. I certainly couldn't
do it. I already admire P@'s skill in coming up with funny
reviews for all five of these Angel episodes. Come to think of
it, it was P@rick who came up with the idea of making up wacky
descriptions to go with the titles for `Doomed' through
`Restless' over the summer break, wasn't it?
http://deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=636389069
He seems to like this kind of thing :)
--
J o N a T H a N
QuoteMeister[tm]
Cordelia: "`Demons, Demons, Demons.' Wow! They put a lot
of thought into *that* title."
Wesley: "It's a demon database. What would you call it?"
Cordelia: "I don't know. How about `Demon Database'?"
--`The Ring'
Angel