Angel 4x02 "Ground State" [SPOILERS]
Shuggie
"Ground State"
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That was fun! Mostly..
The odd thing about this episode for me was that I loved most of it -
apart from a couple of really jarring horrendous moments.
I loved the comic book style of the thing. I thought Gwen was great -
part X-Men, part batgirl/catwoman. I loved that it was another heist
episode - Shroud of Rahmon is one of my favourites. I thought Gwen's
side of the heist story was really slickly put together - it was fast
paced, tight snappy dialogue, delivered with a confidence and lightness
that made you not care that it was one giant cliche. One one level it's
total fluff, non-serious, all action but no depth. That's fine - I can
do without depth in a well-done heist scenario. Plus put a hot babe in a
skintight suit and have her steal something and I'm smiling - there's a
reason I love Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back - besides the Orangutan.
I also thought the Wes/Angel scene was good. After all the debate last
week it was nice to see some kind of mutual respect between these two
restored. Angel holding out the olive branch and Wes at least
acknowledging it if not outright accepting him with open arms. Wes is in
a darker place but it's good to know that there's a lifeline of a
connection there. I know some people may have read my comments last week
as Wes Good/Angel Bad - but it was never that simple and I really like
that we're not expected to rubbish one to feel good about the other.
I also really liked Dinza (?) the demon of the lost. I think together
with Gnarl ME have really found their feet again in make the creatures
creepy. Perhaps they were a little too similar but I can forgive that.
Then we had the Angel-Lilah scene. How many times can we have Angel use
Lilah as the convenient source of knowledge/access? She's head of
Special Projects now right? With direct access to the Senior Partners?
and she's still supposed to be all afraid of Angel? Plus the whole scene
just felt slow and talky in what had been a fairly pacey episode to that
point.
One thing about that scene I did like was finding out that Angel knows
about Wes and Lilah. I like that he never mentioned it to Wes but throws
it up to Lilah - as a warning perhaps? There's the symmetry of Angel
allowing Connor to go his own way but warning off Lilah and doing a
similar thing with Wes. It wasn't brought out much though so I'm not
sure how intentional that was.
I'm beginning to feel like I need to know more about where Wes is coming
from. What's he thinking about? Is he planning something? Is he playing
Lilah or is it just the thrill of walking on the edge - sleeping with
the enemy? That comment he made to Lilah about bringing Angel back
because he's a useful fighter - is Wes trying to set something up where
he's going to try to use Angel? or is he misleading Lilah?
The next big clunky jarry thing was was Fred. I'm sorry but I want to
send her to Sunnydale so Dawn can slap her! Where did that rant come
from? I can't think of a logical reason why she couldn't feel that way -
it's plausible for where her character's been. But it just felt wrong.
The we have the final part of the heist and that kiss - say what?? I
guess it's one of those reflex things, someone starts your heart and you
kiss them - sort of like CPR in reverse? That was really clunky. I guess
they felt they'd built up enough sexual tension to pull that off, but I
think they're about 4 or 5 episode's worth short on that.
For one horrible moment I thought the bad guy (can't remember the name,
but he's Angela's dad from My So-called Life) was going to turn out to
be talking to Wes on the phone. Then they pulled the stupid "we had tuna
last night" gag - so I was relieved and cringing at the same time.
And the ending - not much to say - unlike everyone else here I don't
hate it. I like it less than I would because it's basically a rerun of
the same joke from last week, but I don't hate it. I do wonder what the
point was in having Cordy be a higher power when she's just basically
gonna turn around and come back again. Was it really only insurance in
case Charisma left the show? Was there a completely different 'higher
power' arc that's been scrapped because of the negative feedback? Anyone
know?
Anyway - overall it was a combination of rompy comicbook fun with a few
annoyingly jarring moments. More good than bad though.
--
Shug
I knew it! I knew it! Well, not 'knew it' in the sense of having the
slightest idea, but I knew there was something I didn't know.