Review Time: 'First Impressions' [SPOILERS Angel 2ADH03]
Mattia Valente
A little on the late side, both for UMTA and ABE group standards, but
hey, I've decided I'm writing reviews, and I'm sticking with it. That I
suck ass at it is just a minor inconvenience, I guess..So strap in your
goats, put on your safety equiment and jump into the empty pool
headfirst!
SPOILERS Angel 2ADH03, "First Impressions"
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Another mixed bag episode.
We started the season with 'Judgement', which wasn't terrible, but was
far from great. We were then treated to 'Are You Now or Have You Ever
Been', a truly great episode, and we jump right back down again with a
particularly weak episode. Not to say that it doesn't have it's merits,
but overall, it just didn't work for me.
The Story
---------
'First Impressions'. Nothing is quite as it seems (heck we thought we
might get a good episode, but we didn't..) in this episode. Darla's
hopping around (and more) in our DBH[tm]'s dreams, but wait, not only
that, she's actually in the room, with no clothes on! Gunn, starts out
all asshole and insensitive and ends up being a big softie, little tiny
snitch person turns out to be a wholly unipressive but large and ugly
demon, girl at the party turns out to be a vampire, Cordy tries saving
Gunn, ends up fracturing his friend's skull. Flip things around, turn
things on their head, fun, right? Well, maybe, but it didn't impress
overmuch.
Ignoring the Angel/Darla thing for a moment (I'll get back to it
elsewhere; besides distracting Angel it doesn't have a particularly
large influence on the part. Bunch of vagueness and taunting..), this ep
focusses on Gunn and Cordelia. It had to happen, considering the fact
that J August Richards is now regular, with a place in the opening
credits, and yet doesn't have much of any connection with the rest of
the gang.
Early on in the ep, we see a downright rude, blunt and unsubtle hardass
waltzing in, insulting people left and right (although 'no offence' is
meant, of course.) Hmm..way to go Gunn. Real smooth, love the people
skills. Then David 'could I be dorkier' Nabbitt pops by, and Angel
heads down the stairs (about time...) Angel's been sleeping well into
the afternoon (it's those nice little happy dreams he's been having),
asks Nabbitt about how to finance the Hotel, which results in Cordy
getting all hot and bothered due to all the money talk (hehe..) and
basically, we let him handle the hotel stuff, and move right along.
Gunn wants backup with this situation he's got with a demon named
Deevak, who's put two of his guys in the hospital. They're set to meet
up with a snitch who's supposed to give him info, which he declines to
do, resulting in a mild beating (ahum) from Gunn; DBH[tm] and the Fang
Gang aren't too pleased with this kind of thing, this 'I'll do whatever
it takes' hardass attitude is not something they're quite used to
seeing.
They get jumped by vamps, and incredibly annoyingly cut fight scene (to
me, anyway) ensues, way too much work goes into it, and at the end of it
our four heroes are all pooped, and comment on how DBH[tm] is off his
game (it's them dreams..) We head back home, Cordy drives, takes the car
home, has a vision of Gunn in trouble (Shock! Horror!), Angel's too busy
dreaming to hear the phone, Wes is out of the house, so she goes off to
save Gunn on her own.
Well, Gunn doesn't need immediate saving, and has sever doubts that this
'skinny white beauty queen' can do anything but embarrass him in front
of his manly guy gang. Cordy, with trademark tenacity, refuses to be
shaken (plus, she managed to get Angel's car stolen. GO Cordy!) Well, on
a quest for Angel's car they go all over town, arguing about Gunn's
personailty, Cordy's annyingness and a slew of other things while we go
along. Along the way, at a party, vampires attack (wohoo!! Vampires!!),
and a friend of Gunn's gets seriously hurt. Off to the hospital, Gunn
feels all responsible for what happened, lets his sister's name slip
(you know, the one he ended up having to kill beause she was a Vampire);
he's nowhere near as stable and hard as he makes out to be.
Moving along, we've got Angel and Wes getting into action, taking a
motorbike to follow the gang (Cordy had the car, remember?), and Angel
gets to wear the pink ladies helmet (hehehehehe....some people find this
is 'not done'..he's the DBH[tm] after all, mustn't mess with the
coolness and integrity, right? Wrong-o.) which is deeply amusing. In the
meantime, Gunn and Cordy have found the car, but they've also managed to
find Deevak (who, as it turns out, is that little annoying stool pigeon
when he's passing as human.) Fighting ensues, Angel and Wes slide in in
the nick of time, everyone happy.
Cordy and Gunn share a moment (touching one, really. J lists this as one
of his favorite scenes this season, him and C talking by the car.) and
we've got an episode.
Hmm....I need to practice trimming my synopsis/recap bits. They're too
long, I think.
Gunns 'n' Cordys
----------------
Let's focus on Gunn for a moment. He's got issues, big honkin issues, as
Riley might say (...and now I'll go stand in the corner for imitating
Riley..) This is perfectly understandable, and the reasons pretty much
come to light in that scene at the hospital.
Gunn is all about responsibility, all about keeping his people safe. In
the beginning he was doing for Alonna, his sister: "She was the REASON,
man!" pretty much said it all, all the way back in 'War Zone'. Since not
being able to save her, his sister, he's been slipping. He's grown
harder and more callous, he does everything he feels is necessary to
ensure that this doesn't happen to anyone else:
"I can't stop. I can't ever stop."
"I can't take it easy. I can never take it easy. Not for a second,
alright. The minute I forget that someone like Alonna pays the
price."
He feels responsible for his people, for his 'hood, for better or for
worse. That, and he pushes himself too hard, and too far to get things
down. He's carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, or at
least the weight of his world, which is already too much for him too
deal with, although he's the last person that will admit that, to
himself or to anyone else. It's not a good place to be. He knows people
everywhere, and everyone knows him, or knows of his reputation:
"Him? He's nothing, Deevak. Name's Gunn. He's under the false
impression that he runs this town."
Needless to say, this isn't something Gunn can keep up forever. At a
certain point, this attitude, taking on too much, will catch up with
him; that moment has come for Gunn in this episode, and that's what
Cordy saw: Gunn is a danger to himself as he pushes his limits, goes off
into the deep end. Losing a sister will do funny things with your head,
I guess.
Cordelia is the person who's there, by his side, she of the sharp
comments and the listening ear. She's grown a lot over the past year and
a bit (there was growth when she was on 'Buffy', but nothing like what
happened on 'Angel'), and the experiences she had with the visions in
TSiL have definately left their marks; no more is the carefree Cordelia
of old (though the Bitch isn't completely gone, thank Joss. It's part of
her charm ;-) she's grown progressively more caring about others.
Sticking with Gunn through thick and thin, confronting him with himself,
with his ridiculous attitudes, and finally with her conclusion:
Cordy: "It's how you life your life. You don't just face danger, you
create it. You're on a self destruct mission - unless you get
some help."
Gunn: "I ain't buying none of this Dionne Warwick crap."
Cordy: "You know it's true. You need some serious saving. Looks like
I've got my work cut out for me."
Gunn: "Oh, is that right?"
Cordy: "Well, yeah. Better just plan on having me I your life for a
while. At least until you find some peace."
This pretty much covers it all, I think; we've got an honest moment
there, a private moment, between Gunn and Cordy. He shows her his softer
more vulnerable side, albeit not in so many words. We've got some
definite clicking between these two characters, on a more personal level
than we've got between most of the rest of them; Gunn and Wes are very
much on opposite sides of the field right now, DBH[tm], is well, a Dark
Brooding Hero and doesn't really open up much at all, and we're all
pretty familiar with the 'original' Fang Gang dynamic.
We get to see some great work from Charisma Carpenter in this episode,
and the chemistry she and J have on screen is a pleasure to watch. They
play off of each other very well, emotional ping pong that sustains the
episode beyond it's rather meagre storyline. I for one look forward to
more Gunn development; he's the character that's got the least
backstory, and has a lot of potential lurking in there. This could be a
bunch 'o' fun.
Girls and Pink Helmets
----------------------
I'll more or less skip Wesley this time around, since I don't feel
there's an awful lot to say about him as far as FI is concerned. No
major events happening there, he's his usual self (thinks me. Some
people may disagree. Yay!)
Angel, OTOH, has things happening to him. Darla's back, and she's in his
bedroom, although he probably still thinks she's dust. He's having a
whole bucketload of very pleasent sexual dreams, some more surreal than
others (the teaser, with a short appearance by the Host is one of my
favorite sequences..), all centered around his sire and sometime lover.
He's sleeping his days (and much of his nights) away, isn't waking up to
phone calls, and is exceedingly hard to wake. There's definately some
sort of mojo involved.
I do have a bit of a problem with these dream sequences. Yes, they're
fun, and a scantily cald Julie Benz surely can't be a bad thing, right?
Well, all true, but these bits just don't really seem to mesh with the
rest of the episode; the best kind of flashback/dream sequence is one
that adds to the storyline, but this one doesn't really do that. It's
quite heavily featured, it's important for arc development (one assumes)
but it doesn't click.
Personally I want to know what Darla (or rather, Wolfram & Hart) want to
achieve. Darla's hanging around in his dreams, giving him pleasure and
contentment; Angel is happier in his dreamworld than he is in the real
world, I think. There he's got a girl who seems to adore him, and no
responsibilities. Darla's also playing on this right now: talking about
his friends, and how they don't ever thank him, how he's given enough,
its time to take something back.
Hmm..okay, fun, I guess but I can't exactly see how this fits in with
W&H's plan to tear him from the powers, bring him down to them (as Vocah
said in TSiL.) Infiltrating his dreams is one thing, and it is already
affecting his performance (he's off his game, sleeping a lot, not
focussed any more..) but how exactly this whole plan is supposed to go
down is something we'll just have to see about.
One theory could be that they want Darla to sleep with him, give him
that one moment of true happiness after which he'll lose his soul;
downside to this is I doubt they could control Angelus any more
effectively than Angel (perhaps less so. Darla at least has some
control..) Right now, it just seems like a whole lot of work, bringing
Darla back just to have her sleepwalk him and mess with his rhythm, or
get him cranky and/or make him feel unnapreciated. No, right now I'm
just not really seeing it.
Hopefully it'll work out for the best; I am very interested in what
Darla was brought back for. I mean, we had the whole hiatus between the
end of S1 and the beginning of S2 to mull over it, and I for one never
came up with a truly satisfactory answer (not that I tried very hard.
I'm not really one for speculation. I like being surprised too much :o)
Furthermore there's the fact that he's enjoying said dreams; keep in
mind that this is Darla, the vampire who made him, who taught him how to
kill (and whom he quickly surpassed, but that's beside the point.) The
dreams are all pleasent, sceanrios, moonbathing on a beach, dancing in a
club, getting it on on the couch, but it's a strange place to be
nonetheless. All the more so because he seems to prefer being in the
dream world to being in the real world; in that sense Darla is doing a
pretty charitable job keeping him away from his 'mission', but it's not
really doing much to bring him down to the dark side. Again, if they
just wanted him out of the game, they could've staked him.
A final point that has me a little worried: he's not prone to discussing
things with the Fang Gang, its true, but the fact that he's particularly
quiet about his dreams, and pretty uncommunicative on the whole is not a
good thing; he's becoming introspective again, and that can't be good.
What else does Angel do but sleep and fight like crap in this episode?
Well, he gets to wear a pink helmet! Wohoo! Personally I find that this
touch of silliness, this little strange and embarassing moment actually
works pretty damn well. Yes, it gets a big laugh, and yes, it does take
a little away from the mystique surrounding our DBH[tm], yes, it could
be seen as an excuse for Wesley to call him a wanker, but all that's
fair game; Angel may be the 'serious sibling' when you compare in to
Buffy, but it's still a show that has a quirky comic edge. The Pink
Helmet incident (and the fun they keep having with it) is something
that, for me, works very well, just as dancing Angel or Singing Angel
work. They make him a little less heroic, perhaps, but a little more
real; maudlin antics are fair game.
Final Thoughts
--------------
Quick recap is in order: this is not a great episode, not by a long
shot. In fact, all things considered its a pretty big dissapointment.
The story itself is rather weak, Deevak looks anything but scary, that
whole aspect was just pretty much bad. This is a nice little
Gunn/Cordelia showcase episode, and the performance they deliver makes
it far more enjoyable than it might otherwise have been. Interesting
stuff for Gunn here, Cordy's moving along her path, though not by leaps
and bounds from TSiL, IMO, keeping in character at this point in time.
Angel is dreaming nekkid Darla dreams, which is fun for him, I guess,
and is intruiging, but doesn't actually go anywhere in this episode
(besides the final shock revelation that Darla's actually in his room,
that is..), and the dreams themselves to little or nothing to add to the
core story, for me. In short, fun setup for the coming weeks, I guess,
but a little out of place and disjointed in this episode. Gives the
whole thing a slightly unbalanced feel, it's nowhere near as cohesive as
AYNOHYEB was, and perhaps the contrast makes it look even worse than it
is. It's possibly a shade better than Judgement, but I'd say its a bit
of a tough call, so I won't go there.
Thus ends my rambling rant on 'First Impressions', 'Untouched' is up
next week..that should be interesting...
Mattia
--
"My beagle went swimming today and now he's typing on my keyboard with
his ample nose. Oh, and he's the bestest handsomeest beagle EVER."
--Tim Minear, Salon.com, May 2001
Arkasha
I thought it was alright. Better then judgment at least.
> The Story
> ---------
<snip. I think we al saw it ;-)>
> Gunns 'n' Cordys
> ----------------
>
> Let's focus on Gunn for a moment. He's got issues, big honkin issues, as
> Riley might say (...and now I'll go stand in the corner for imitating
> Riley..) This is perfectly understandable, and the reasons pretty much
> come to light in that scene at the hospital.
>
> Gunn is all about responsibility, all about keeping his people safe. In
> the beginning he was doing for Alonna, his sister: "She was the REASON,
> man!" pretty much said it all, all the way back in 'War Zone'. Since not
> being able to save her, his sister, he's been slipping. He's grown
> harder and more callous, he does everything he feels is necessary to
> ensure that this doesn't happen to anyone else:
>
> "I can't stop. I can't ever stop."
>
> "I can't take it easy. I can never take it easy. Not for a second,
> alright. The minute I forget that someone like Alonna pays the
> price."
Kinda reminiscent of some of Buffy, except he deals with the responsibility
more aggressive and less, well, whiny.
<snip>
>
> Girls and Pink Helmets
> ----------------------
<snip Angel dreams>
>
> Personally I want to know what Darla (or rather, Wolfram & Hart) want to
> achieve. Darla's hanging around in his dreams, giving him pleasure and
> contentment; Angel is happier in his dreamworld than he is in the real
> world, I think. There he's got a girl who seems to adore him, and no
> responsibilities. Darla's also playing on this right now: talking about
> his friends, and how they don't ever thank him, how he's given enough,
> its time to take something back.
I also would like to know *how* they're doing it.We've never seen Darla
herself have any mindpower type capabilities. It could be that she was
altered in the bringing back spell or W&H are doing some back-up magick for
her. We haven't even seen whether she is still a vampire or human or maybe
even something else.
> Hmm..okay, fun, I guess but I can't exactly see how this fits in with
> W&H's plan to tear him from the powers, bring him down to them (as Vocah
> said in TSiL.) Infiltrating his dreams is one thing, and it is already
> affecting his performance (he's off his game, sleeping a lot, not
> focussed any more..) but how exactly this whole plan is supposed to go
> down is something we'll just have to see about.
>
> One theory could be that they want Darla to sleep with him, give him
> that one moment of true happiness after which he'll lose his soul;
> downside to this is I doubt they could control Angelus any more
> effectively than Angel (perhaps less so. Darla at least has some
> control..) Right now, it just seems like a whole lot of work, bringing
> Darla back just to have her sleepwalk him and mess with his rhythm, or
> get him cranky and/or make him feel unnapreciated. No, right now I'm
> just not really seeing it.
The main agenda for now seems to be to separate him from his friends (sound
familiar?)or better turn him against them. After that it's not clear. Maybe
they hope Darla can gain such an influence over him, he'll turn sides. She's
already convincing him, he has to protected her.
> Hopefully it'll work out for the best; I am very interested in what
> Darla was brought back for. I mean, we had the whole hiatus between the
> end of S1 and the beginning of S2 to mull over it, and I for one never
> came up with a truly satisfactory answer (not that I tried very hard.
> I'm not really one for speculation. I like being surprised too much :o)
We also didn't get to see how much (if any) power W&H has over her. Is she
just with them coz it's convenient and they both want to 'hurt' Angel. Or
did the spell meant that she is somehow bound to W&H?
> Furthermore there's the fact that he's enjoying said dreams; keep in
> mind that this is Darla, the vampire who made him, who taught him how to
> kill (and whom he quickly surpassed, but that's beside the point.) The
> dreams are all pleasent, sceanrios, moonbathing on a beach, dancing in a
> club, getting it on on the couch, but it's a strange place to be
> nonetheless. All the more so because he seems to prefer being in the
> dream world to being in the real world; in that sense Darla is doing a
> pretty charitable job keeping him away from his 'mission', but it's not
> really doing much to bring him down to the dark side. Again, if they
> just wanted him out of the game, they could've staked him.
>
> A final point that has me a little worried: he's not prone to discussing
> things with the Fang Gang, its true, but the fact that he's particularly
> quiet about his dreams, and pretty uncommunicative on the whole is not a
> good thing; he's becoming introspective again, and that can't be good.
I really hate it when they don't talk. It's bound to go wrong sometime!
Don't they watch television ?
<snip rest>
Arkasha
__________________________________
Requiescat in Pace:
http://www.envy.nu/restinpeace
-----------------------------------------------------------
Mattia Valente
A little, yes. I found the demonic aspect of the whole thing even
silier, though, to be perfectly honest. They've both got interesting
redeeming features, and I'm tempted to cut 'Judgement' a little slack
because, well, it was a premiere ep.
> > The Story
> > ---------
> <snip. I think we al saw it ;-)>
Well, yeah. I suck at short recaps; I've given up on even trying.
> > "I can't stop. I can't ever stop."
> >
> > "I can't take it easy. I can never take it easy. Not for a second,
> > alright. The minute I forget that someone like Alonna pays the
> > price."
>
> Kinda reminiscent of some of Buffy, except he deals with the responsibility
> more aggressive and less, well, whiny.
Heh. A little, yes. Thing is, Buffy fights it all the way, because she
doesn't really want to accept her destiny, or feels she can't cut it (at
least in seasons 1 to 4...S5 is the opposite, she's all confident and
cocky.)
Thing is, it's not a real responsibility for Gunn, not all of it. He's
biting off more than he can chew, and it's getting dangerous. He also
doesn't trust (m)any other people, has to keep full control; Buffy's got
the scooby gang to back her up.
> > Girls and Pink Helmets
> > ----------------------
> <snip Angel dreams>
> >
> > Personally I want to know what Darla (or rather, Wolfram & Hart) want to
> > achieve. Darla's hanging around in his dreams, giving him pleasure and
> > contentment; Angel is happier in his dreamworld than he is in the real
> > world, I think. There he's got a girl who seems to adore him, and no
> > responsibilities. Darla's also playing on this right now: talking about
> > his friends, and how they don't ever thank him, how he's given enough,
> > its time to take something back.
>
> I also would like to know *how* they're doing it.We've never seen Darla
> herself have any mindpower type capabilities.
Supposedly it's a vampire attribute, but I agree, Darla hasn't been a
prime example of thrall (unlike the Master and Drusilla, for example. Or
Dracula, but Dracula's weird..) Magic would be my best guess at this
point.
> It could be that she was
> altered in the bringing back spell or W&H are doing some back-up magick for
> her. We haven't even seen whether she is still a vampire or human or maybe
> even something else.
Hmmm....we'll have to wait. Wonder how long they're going to string us
along, though. Dawn's still in stasis, for example.
> > One theory could be that they want Darla to sleep with him, give him
> > that one moment of true happiness after which he'll lose his soul;
> > downside to this is I doubt they could control Angelus any more
> > effectively than Angel (perhaps less so. Darla at least has some
> > control..) Right now, it just seems like a whole lot of work, bringing
> > Darla back just to have her sleepwalk him and mess with his rhythm, or
> > get him cranky and/or make him feel unnapreciated. No, right now I'm
> > just not really seeing it.
>
> The main agenda for now seems to be to separate him from his friends (sound
> familiar?)or better turn him against them. After that it's not clear. Maybe
> they hope Darla can gain such an influence over him, he'll turn sides. She's
> already convincing him, he has to protected her.
Well, in his dreams. There's a big difference between the exerting
influence in dreams and exerting influence in the waking world; Darla's
been dead for a few years now, Angel killed her, she doesn't form a
threat to him (although these pleasent dreamy episodes are
disturbing..this is a killer we're talking about.) He's being drawn away
from the world right now, but how this hopes to 'bring him to the dark
side' is still a little beyond me.
> > Hopefully it'll work out for the best; I am very interested in what
> > Darla was brought back for. I mean, we had the whole hiatus between the
> > end of S1 and the beginning of S2 to mull over it, and I for one never
> > came up with a truly satisfactory answer (not that I tried very hard.
> > I'm not really one for speculation. I like being surprised too much :o)
>
> We also didn't get to see how much (if any) power W&H has over her. Is she
> just with them coz it's convenient and they both want to 'hurt' Angel. Or
> did the spell meant that she is somehow bound to W&H?
I very, very much doubt that W&H would bring her back just for the fun
of it; she is not, at this point in time, her own tool. She's doing W&H
bidding would be my very strong guess. They're pretty much control
freaks, really, and the fact that she has a realtionship (past, anyway)
with Angel is the reason they chose her; she was his sire, an important
person/demon in his unlife, whichever way you turn it.
> > A final point that has me a little worried: he's not prone to discussing
> > things with the Fang Gang, its true, but the fact that he's particularly
> > quiet about his dreams, and pretty uncommunicative on the whole is not a
> > good thing; he's becoming introspective again, and that can't be good.
>
> I really hate it when they don't talk. It's bound to go wrong sometime!
It's Angel, remember? Dark, brooding, laconic?
> Don't they watch television ?
We know Spike does, I doubt Angel even owns one..
;-)
P@rick
[Darla]
> > We also didn't get to see how much (if any) power W&H has over her. Is she
> > just with them coz it's convenient and they both want to 'hurt' Angel. Or
> > did the spell meant that she is somehow bound to W&H?
>
> I very, very much doubt that W&H would bring her back just for the fun
> of it
Furthermore (from TSiLA):
Vocah: "I am summoned for the raising - the very thing that was to bring
this creature down to us -tear him from the Powers That Be"
And he was talking about Darla here. So she has a very distinctive role
to play. A role about which W&H might very well know a lot more about
than Darla does.
Bye, Patrick