Chief Seattle review of "There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb"

[Linda]

Space
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
It's a Wrap

As I observed in my review of "Through the Looking Glass", the whole
Pylea arc seems to have been the coda for all the major developments
of season 2. The year was of course dominated by Angel and his
struggles with the vampire inside him. But we also saw a good deal of
Wesley and his insecurities. And towards the end of the season the
writers also began to deal with Cordelia and her visions and the
effect they were having on her. It was never going to be a
particularly easy task to examine in turn all of these different
developments in the context of a single storyline. So rather cleverly
the writers didn't try. Instead in "Through the Looking Glass" they
split the various characters up and gave them each a separate
storyline to follow with individually tailored obstacles to overcome.
In this way the writers completed the set up for the season finale.
It was by showing us how each of the individuals in turn dealt with
the obstacles placed in their paths that the writers explored the
theme or themes relating to that character.

Angel

For Angel, the "Pylea" arc began with two closely related themes. The
first was his difficulty in becoming part of this world; the second
was his yearning for simplicity - a life in which everything was
straightforward. To quote Giles in "Lie to Me":

"The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are
easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and, uh, we
always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everybody
lives happily ever after."

The suggestion here is that, in part at least, Angel's distance from
human society is caused by the fact that he felt that as a vampire he
didn't really belong in human society - physically or emotionally.
Physically he was separated from humans by his lifespan and his
aversion to sunlight. And as a vampire he just didn't think like
humans. He has difficulty in coming to terms with the complexities
and ambiguities of life in this world. He was far more comfortable in
a world of clarity where evil was evil and good was good. So, for
example, when the Wolfram and Hart lawyers turned up at the Hotel with
their subtle threats of indirect and perfectly legal retaliation
against him, he couldn't wait to get out of Los Angeles. There right
(at least in the legal sense) was not always pt in the service of
truth and justice. But in Pylea he finds a world that he is not only
physically comfortable in, but a world which conforms to his
straightforward outlook. Here he can play the part of a human hero
who kills evil things without regard to moral ambiguities and then is
admired for it. But there is always a catch. Within Angel there is
not only the hero; there is also the demon monster. Because Pylea is
a world of black and white, that demon monster is correspondingly far
worse than it is on earth. As Angel says to Fred:

"You saw what I turn into. Back in L.A. it's bad, but here it's... it
wants to kill everything and everyone, even my friends...".

Or as he later says to Wesley:

"When I fired you guys, the reason I... the darkness was coming out in
me, I didn't want you near it. The thing that comes out here is ten
times worse."

And just as Angel feels very comfortable indeed with the human hero he
is terrified to his very core of the demon within. We get an idea of
just how terrified he is by his dreams:

Angel: "What? Did I snore?"

Fred: "Um, I don't remember any snoring."

Angel: "Good."

Fred: "I remember caterwauling...and screaming; oh and moaning, lots
of moaning; you must be all drained out."

What has him frightened is not just the realization of how vicious and
powerful the demon is; it is the thought that he might not be able to
control it. Hence, even when faced with the Guard captain who stabs
him twice in the chest with a wooden spear he resists the urge to
morph into the demon. And more especially when asked by Wesley to
face the Groosalugg:

"Wes, you understand, I do this, I won't come back from it."

Here we see in a very clear and powerful way the dilemma at the heart
of Angel the character. Angel is both man and demon. As we have seen
throughout the early part of the season, the attitudes and impulses of
the demon are now a part of Angel's psyche, to the extent that he
cannot truly say that Liam the human and Angelus the demon are two
completely separate individuals. But on earth the interplay between
them is subtle and full of ambiguity. Angel has never been confronted
by the same sort of stark choice that he has now. Even at his darkest
when the vampire impulse to exact a conscience and consequence free
revenge on those he hated was at its strongest he never had to face
the possibility of him becoming the engine of pure malevolent
destructiveness that he had here. On the other hand on Earth the
strength and power of the vampire were always available to him without
paying the price of losing control. When he morphed into his game
face he was tapping into that power without becoming a true monster.
Here he was terribly handicapped because he was unable to tap into
that power. Hence his near- death experience at the hands of the
guard captain and his handling as a human by the Groosalugg. And this
is where the whole idea of Pylea as a black and while world works so
very well. It allows the writers to isolate the essential
characteristics in Angel's personality that they are interested in and
exaggerate them so as to set out more clearly the nature of the
dilemmas facing him. And in turn it also allows them to draw lessons
from the way he handles these exaggerated dilemmas.

And the key here lies in the way that he was eventually forced to
confront the beast within him and control it. And here I would like
to go back to the confrontation between Angel and the faux Tish Magev
in "Guise will be Guise". I have already quoted this conversation in
my review of "Through the Looking Glass". I replicate the whole of
the conversation here because it is important:

Angel: "If I let it, it'll kill you."

Magev: "It?"

Angel: "The demon."

Magev: "Ha! But the demon is you!"

Angel: "No."

Magev: "Yes! That's the thing you spend so much energy trying to
conceal!"

Angel: "No, I just ... I can't let it control me."

Magev nods: "Ah. I see. You *don't* think it controls you?"

Here we see two things. First there was Angel conceit that he was
different from the demon and that he was in control of it. Secondly
there was the fear in Angel that the demon could escape from his
control and cause someone harm. In Pylea it was brought home to Angel
in a particularly brutal fashion that the man and demon within him
were actually inseparable. For him that was where the real horror
came from; the idea that this was a darkness inside him, not just
inside a demon that shared his body. Worse still was the idea that it
could actually control him; that it could destroy his friends and that
there would be nothing he could do to prevent that. That was why he
could not bring himself to morph, even to save his own life. But
unless he did morph he was powerless to help anyone. The implication
was that it was only by tapping into his own darkness that he was able
to fulfill the mission that TPTB had given him. Ironically,
therefore, by coming to this world of black and white and by seeing
the extremities of his own personality the ambiguity of his own
situation is actually emphasized. Angel is neither just a hero nor
just a monster. There is something of both within him. And not only
is that an inescapable truth it is actually necessary for him. And
when he accepts that he must fight the Groosalugg and that to do so
means becoming the Angelbeast again he accepts that basic proposition.
And here the interesting line comes when he rationalizes his decision
to fire Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn:

"When I fired you guys, the reason I... the darkness was coming out in
me, I didn't want you near it."

The important point is that he now accepts the darkness was coming out
in him; thus suggesting that he now does see his own situation as
being rather more complex that the conversation between himself and
the Tish Magev might suggest.

This degree of self-awareness is, it seems to me, a necessary
pre-condition for self-control. If you do not understand yourself and
your own basic impulses then you have no reference point by which to
judge your own actions. I think this is why Angel could have drifted
into darkness while at the same time firmly believing he was acting in
the interests of good. And here is where I find the final
confrontation between Angelbeast and the Groosalugg so very
interesting. As far as Angel knew the Groosalugg was simply the tool
of the Covenant of Trombli - and instrument for evil in much the same
way as the lawyers in the wine cellar were an instrument for the evil
of Wolfram and Hart. And in this context the connection between the
Covenant and Wolfram and Hart looks quite deliberate and very
significant. Moreover the Groosalugg wasn't even human, as far as
Angel was concerned it was just a soulless demon of which he had
killed more than a few. And it was a powerful killer. So then when
he had to morph into the Angelbeast and had it literally by the throat
why stop? If defeating the Covenant was a just cause and if to do so
it was necessary to kill the Groosalugg why not just do it. It was
what Wesley wanted him to do:

"Go to the village, call out the Groosalugg and kill him."

The answer lies in the following lines:

Angel: "We're not going to do this... we're going to find another way.
I'm not an animal."

It is because he has a realization that there must be "another way"
that Angel regains control from the Angelbeast. Here the counterpoint
is between fighting and killing whatever stands in your way or
whatever you see as the enemy (the animal) and trying to understand
that your opponent may not be completely evil (the human). Here I am
reminded by the Hosts words in "Belonging":

Landok: "Your cowardice even extended to the sacred joust."

Host: "For the last time: not a coward. I just saw both sides of the
joust. How you're supposed to joust someone when you partially agree
with their point of view?"

In effect in this particular sacred joust Angel was willing to see
more than one point of view. Here surely we find a repudiation of his
mindset when he simply wanted to torture and kill all the Wolfram and
Hart lawyers he could get his hands on. It hardly need saying that
this is not the Angelbeast's doing. In repudiating the beast within
him Angel not only demonstrated physical control but more importantly
embraced the ambiguities of humanity - the idea of accepting
differences and trying to accommodate them instead of taking the
simple and straightforward approach of cutting a swath through
anything that gets in your way.

And the new settlement arrived at in Pylea is in this context a very
interesting reflection of the moral ambiguities and uncertainties of
this approach. As Gunn says accommodating the differences on Pylea is
going to cause problems:

" sayin' people are free don't make 'em free. You got races that hate
each other, you got some folks gettin' work they don't want, others
losin' the little they had. You're lookin' at social confusion,
economic depression and probably some riots."

Sound familiar? Perhaps Pylea is going to be rather more like Los
Angeles now than anyone might have thought.

And here we come to another very important element in Angel's journey.
The fact that he was able to embrace the ambiguities of human life
rather than the simplicities of the vampire is proof that, as Fred
keeps on reminding him, he is "a good man". But what also helps is
the faith that everyone shows in him. Not only Fred but even more
importantly Wesley. When Angel says that if he turns into the
Angelbeast he might not comer back, Wesley lies:

"Yes you will. I know you. We know you. We know you are a man with a
demon inside and not the other way around. We know you have the
strength to do what needs to be done. And we know you will come back
to us."

Time and time again the writers have stressed the idea of being what
others see us as. As the Host said in "Through the Looking Glass"
when Angel is regarded by Landok and the others as a hero:

"They see you a certain way. You start to see yourself that way. You
become that image. I get it. I do. Because I know how they see me!"

Here Angel sees himself through the eyes of others. When he first saw
himself as the Angelbeast his reaction was:

"The monster... They…they saw what I really am. I can't go
back. Not now. I can never go back. No..."

He saw himself through his friends' eyes (or what he took to be their
eyes) and that is why he began to see himself as a monster and to
doubt his ability to control it once it surfaced. But now he realized
his friends saw him differently and this appears to have been the
decisive factor in his ability to control that monster.

So here you have a very satisfying wrap up thematically. The duality
in Angel's nature is exaggerated and Angel is placed in a position
where he must confront it and deal with it. What helps him do so is
his connection to his friends. They helped him realize the human
within him rather than the vampire and that in turn helped him to
embrace a system of values that was quintessentially human. And
because he now feels more secure in the connection to his friends and
better able to understand and deal with a messy world where there are
too often no clear lines of choice he is much more at home in the
world than before he left it. That is why at the very end, as he
enters the lobby of the Hyperion his attitude contrast so sharply to
his earlier desire to leave the world behind him:

Angel: "Can I say it? I'm going to say it."

Wesley: "Say what?"

Angel: "There's no place like ..."

And as such I think that it is a very successful conclusion to the
year-long arc. The main themes of this arc were Angel's preoccupation
with his own redemption; the way he was still subject to the influence
of the demon within, especially in the way he yearned for a world of
clarity and simplicity where you simply thought about yourself. This
and the consequent disconnection from humanity was what caused his
descent into darkness. In Pylea we see the working out of these
themes. Here he had to confront the idea that he was both demon and
human in his make-up and impulses and it was the very starkness of the
duality of his nature that eventually led him to reject the vampire
impulse to kill without thought of consequence and embrace the human
impulse to deal with the ambiguities of the situation he found himself
in. And it was his ability to make the connection with his friends
that was decisive in this respect.

Wesley

The characterization for Wesley lacked the depth and complexity of
that for Angel but was in its own more limited way just as successful.
The key to the sort of character development we have here is the
nature of the catalyst. All too often where writers want a particular
character to overcome some deep seated problem they simply create a
crisis in which something dreadful will happen if he or she doesn't do
it. This is a lazy approach to characterization, not least because
the nature of the problem may be wholly inappropriate for this kind of
treatment. In Wesley's case for example the root of his problem lay
in his insecurity. He had no confidence in his ability to help. When
someone faces a demon of that nature piling on the pressure and making
his contribution even more vital is far more likely to send him
spinning out of control than to bring him round. In this context his
reaction when Cordelia disappeared through the portal was entirely
believable:

Angel: "We're gonna open up another portal and we're going in after
her."

Wesley: "Angel, I don't think that's a good idea."

Angel: "Wesley, I don't think I care."

Wesley: "But we're completely unprepared. We should go back to the
hotel, do some research."

The importance of the task ahead made him cautious, unwilling to risk
mistakes or acting precipitately. So simply giving Wesley something
important to do wasn't going to make him a natural leader. And indeed
the writers also get high marks for not taking a simplistic view and
showing us Wesley with the complete range of leadership
characteristics. Indeed they reminded us very forcefully at the end
of "Through the Looking Glass" of some of his more obvious weaknesses.
He isn't perhaps particularly practical. He and Gunn get lost
because he forgets that there are two suns in the Pylean sky. And
even more importantly he is still not very good at understanding what
makes people tick. He completely misreads the likely reaction of the
rebels to news that he is personal friends with the princess:

Wesley: "Well, we just happen to be close personal friends with the
princess."

Rebel: "They know the princess."

Leader: "Close personal friends, huh?"

Wesley: "I can prove it. In my wallet... uh, ah, the leather holder
in the back of my leg coverings."

Wesley: "That's it."

Leader (looking at photograph): "It's true. They know the princess."

Wesley: "Now, if your organization would just draw up some sort of
list of demands we would be more than happy to present it directly to
her majesty."

Leader: "Lets do it. Have Sasha write up a list of demands."

Wesley: "There, you see?"

Leader: "Shove the list in their mouths, put their severed heads on
sticks and display them outside the princess' window."

Gunn, who is far more streetwise about these matters, knew what the
result would be if people already suspected of being "reconnaissance
cows" were to admit to knowing the Princess. Wesley was much more
naïve. It's no wonder that Gunn now looks somewhat askance at him:

Gunn: "I've got a plan."

Wesley: "Oh thank God! What is it?"

Gunn: "We die horribly and painfully, you go to hell and I spend
eternity in the arms of Baby Jesus."

But what made the difference in Wesley case, what transformed him from
well intentioned failure to mastermind of success was that he was able
to develop a plan to attack the Covenant. He was able to put all that
study (which naturally would have included a lot of military history)
to useful effect. And it was this that very naturally and very simply
made him a leader. When the rebels were planning a frontal attack it
was Wesley who pointed out the flaw:

Wesley: "If you do, they'll cut you down... you cannot wage a frontal
attack against a stronger opponent. This kind of battle can only be
won through Guerilla warfare. By being sneaky. You create a diversion,
then strike at several different points at once. They never know how
many or how few you are. While they're looking in front, you come
from behind.

Rebel No.1: "And kill their leader."

Wesley: "Yes."

Rebel No.2: "Silas. The Head Priest. It is a good plan."

Rebel No.1: "I agree. (to Wesley ) You shall lead us"

And this is where the other strength of the characterization comes
out. Having a plan is one thing - implementing it is another. And
here I thought the self-doubt that Wesley showed was a very realistic
touch. At the beginning of "Belonging" when discussing how to kill
the Hacklar demon Wesley was completely indecisive:

Gunn: "You think we should get a flame thrower?"

Wesley: "For the Haklar? I hadn't thought of that."

Gunn: "Of course if we wound up in a tight space we could burn each
other."

Wesley: "Right. Right."

Gunn: "Well, you're the boss. You'll decide."

Wesley: "A flame thrower is big and loud. Might call attention where
we don't want it. Stealth, you know being a large part of..."

It's no wonder when the rebels first want to make him their leader he
is unenthusiastic:

Wesley: "Why do people keep putting me in charge of things?"

Gunn: "I have no idea."

And when Angel arrives he is only too willing to pass the buck to him.
However Angel is too preoccupied with his own problems and he is
stuck with the leadership. But the remarkable thing is that in the
iplementation of the plan he is not only decisive, he is ruthlessly
so:

Gunn: "I'm only gonna say this once. The guys you send to create the
diversions here and here... are going to die."

Wesley: "Yes they are. You try not to get anybody killed,
you wind up getting everybody killed. Get ready to move out."

This not only shows extraordinary cold bloodedness but great
self-confidence in his judgment about the plan. The cold-bloodedness
is certainly not unexpected. It is an inherent part of the
self-possessed rationality that Wesley has shown from very early on
and indeed echoes the very intense exchanges he had with Buffy over
the fate of Willow and Angel in respectively "Choices" and "Graduation
Day 1." It is the lack of doubt over what is the right thing to do
that is new. But it is believable and what makes it so is that there
Wesley is dealing with an area that he can have confidence in himself
- his intellect and his study. Here is where he feels most at home
and here there is no-one to contradict or second guess him. As was
made clear in "Over the Rainbow" and "Through the Looking Glass" this
is the world where Wesley is king. If he had a sudden burst of
self-confidence about almost anything else you could say that this was
suspect characterization. But here it seems to me to be perfectly
conceived and very well executed.

Gunn

For Charles Gunn there was little if anything here in the way of
actual character development. This isn't too surprising since the
real problem with him all season is that we have been lacking a
baseline from which to take any development. But here the writers
seem to have a handle on him; an angle which not only makes sense for
his as a character but which is actually interesting and which marks
him out as a unique personality with a distinctive point of view.

In "Belonging", Gunn has a choice to make. Does he help Angel and
Wesley go after the Hacklar demon or does he help his gang face the
threat of the vampire gang in McKenzie park? Faced with this choice
Gunn does the obvious but wrong thing - he tries to do both. As he
leaves he says to Rondell and George:

"I got to take this. Wait for me though. I'm through, I hook up with
you guys at base camp, we head out together."

In the event they go without him and Rondell dies. It is this death
(and the blame heaped upon him because of it) that convinces Gunn that
he has let people down:

"Last night... I lost one of my crew. I shoulda been there, but...
I'm sorry. Wes said the trip might be one way and... I just can't. I
know that makes me... I don't know what it makes me. I just figured I
owed it to you to tell you face to face. I wish you luck. I hope you
find her."

Gunn feels each individual death keenly and because he does so he has
to be there to try to stop it. That is why he feels he canot
accompany Angel and the others to Pylea. This was a decision based
not on reason, on an analysis of whom he could help most. It was
based on guilt. But equally when Angel telephones him he gives him a
message that Gunn himself describes in the following terms:

"Sounded like the captain of the Titanic gettin' ready to go down with
the ship."

This was in its own way also laying a guilt trip on Gunn. He was
caught bang in the middle and in the end his personal connection with
Angel, Wesley and Cordelia won out. But I think we can only truly
appreciate the significance of his attitude here in the light of his
attiude towards the Pylean rebels:

Gunn: "I'm thinkin' these guys...got a cause worth fighting for.
Isn't that what we do?

Wesley: "What about Cordelia?"

Gunn: "If we're going to be gettin' her out of that castle we're gonna
need a whole lot of muscle."

Wesley: "Muscle which could come in handy if we have to incapacitate
Angel."

Gunn: "Yeah. Also look at 'em. They won a skirmish today, but
they're no match for the Covenant. I don't want to leave 'em to get
themselves killed... I do that enough."

Gunn was responding to the need of the underdog. He was, if you like,
identifying the plight of these rebels with the similar struggle
against the odds of his abandoned friends in LA. It was the human
connection again. This was what motivated Gunn and what conditioned
his response. The counterpoint between himself and Wesley told us a
great deal about the way that Charles Gunn thought and felt. For Gunn
each life was unique and irreplaceable and had a worth accordingly. I
do not think that he would or could have organized an assault that
deliberately contemplated the casualties of Wesley's plan. I do not
say that Wesley disregarded human life but for him it did not have the
same absolute value as it seems to have for Gunn. His approach was
essentially utilitarian; if some must die that more might live and the
plan succeed that was a regrettable but necessary price to pay. He
looks one of the rebels straight in the eyes and orders him to charge
to his death. It seems to me that this was a step too far for Gunn.
The impression I got was not that he admired and respected Wesley for
taking an action he could not; I do not think he could understand
Wesley's thinking.

In "First Impressions" we were given a picture of someone who felt
keenly the responsibility of those with whom he fought and who looked
to him. "No Place Like Pltz Glrb" is clearly and unambiguously a
return to the Charles Gunn we saw there. To that extent is emphasizes
the continuity of the character. Unfortunately by the same token it
emphasizes the discontinuity of the intervening episodes. The problem
arises because his actions, especially in episodes like
"Redefinition", are very difficult to reconcile with this picture. I
still do not pretend to understand why he would apparently abandon
tired and trusted friendships for new ones. But I think we must now
simply overlook that difficulty. Instead we now see a return to the
Gunn who is the social and political conscience of the group, the
friend of the underdog and the one who remembers the victims. That is
why it is entirely appropriate that it was Gunn who was elected to
explain the difficulties of re-ordering life in Pylea. In creating
this role for Gunn I think the writers have not only carved out a
distinctive voice for him but have potentially created a significant
source of conflict. Wesley, as I have previously observed, is the
voice of calm rationality. This is not going to be an attitude Gunn
will find easy to accept.

Ever since "Blood Money" Gunn was Wesley best friend. Their closeness
was demonstrated in, for example, "Epiphany":

Wesley: "Gunn! What are you doing here?"

Gunn: "I was passing by. Saw the lights was on. Besides, I work
here."

Wesley: "But - I thought you'd gone."

Gunn: "Gone? Well, yeah, gone, but that don't mean I wasn't coming
back! What, you didn't think I was gonna abandon you like this guy,
did you?"

Wesley, smiling: "No. Certainly not."

Gunn: "Come on, English! You know you my man!"

The beginning of this episode opened up a rift between them when Gunn
was understandably upset when Wesley's stupidity (nearly) got them
both killed. But that was likely to be a temporary phenomenon. But
in the preparations for the attack on the Castle I got the distinct
impression that there was now a gulf of understanding between these
two. It will be very interesting to see where this goes.

Cordelia

Of the four principals, the writing for Cordelia here was by far the
least satisfactory. In "Through the Looking Glass" she seems to have
the life she always wanted - wealth and power beyond the dreams of
avarice and a handsome prince to share it with. What more could she
ask for? And the irony was that she only got all of this because of
her visions - her link with TPTB. Here they were not the ruination of
her ambition but their fulfillment. But then what she also discovered
was that none of this was real. As Silas reminded her so brutally at
the end of "Through the Looking Glass" it is the priests who are
really in charge:

Silas: "The princess, like the Groosalug, is a tool of the Covenant,
nothing more. You will do what we tell you to do. If we tell you to
mate, then you shall mate."

Cordelia: "You can't force us to..."

Silas: "And if we tell you 'silent' you shut your cow mouth!"

And to dive home the point he had Lorne executed just to show her how
worthless her pardons were. She was in fact precisely the same sort
of puppet that she was as an actress appearing in a sleazy commercial
in LA.

As I said in my review of "Through the Looking Glass", this made
perfect sense from a thematic point of view. Pylea was not home and
nothing that happened there to Her or the others was real. At some
point they would be faced with the prospect of going home and having
to deal with the realities of life there. For Cordelia in particular
it would mean not being a princess. It would also mean not having two
arms full of valuables to sell. Instead she would have her life as
vision girl. And given the fact that Cordelia is someone who has made
a virtue out of facing reality in all its forms and never hiding from
it, I thought this was excellent use of her character.

But then she made her dream a reality. She inspired the Groosalugg to
stand up to Silas and to become the real champion he never thought he
was:

Groosalugg: "It is not my duty to question authority."

Cordelia: "Well hold on now, you're the Groosalugg, the brave and
undefeated Champion. If fighting evil isn't your duty, I don't know
what is."

Groosalugg: "I fight who I'm told. I'm not a real Champion."

Cordelia: "Then maybe it's time you stopped working for monk-boy and
became one. And what you did for me and my friend? That was pure whiz
bang Champ all the way."

Then when Silas was about to kill all the slaves in Pylea she actually
killed him herself:

Wesley: "You don't have to do this."

Silas: I don't have to, but I'm going to. And you and your filthy cow
princess can all go to...

(Cordelia cuts his head off)

Cordelia: "Your cow Princess is tired of hearing you yak, Padre.

With that there is actually nothing to prevent Cordelia from staying a
princess, com-shuking with the Groosalugg and losing her visions for
good. Nothing that is except that she wants to keep them.

Groosalugg: "It was foretold in the ancient prophecies, one will come
who is cursed with the visions; she shall mate with the Groosalugg
whose demon blood shall absorb them."

Cordelia: "Absorb them?"

Groosalugg: "Your visions will pass to me."

Cordelia: "I knew there had to be a catch! You can't take my visions,
I need them, I use them to help my friends fight evil back home."

Groosalugg: "And I will use them to fight evil here, just as you have
done."

Cordelia: "Groo... I can't give up my visions. I like them. Okay I
don't like the searing pain and agony which seems to be getting
steadily worse. And lately, until the vision gets solved anxiety
overdrive."

Groosalugg: "You are pure human, you are not meant
to carry such a burden."

Cordelia: "Maybe not, but I'm not ready to give 'em up, either.
They're a part of who I am now. They're an honor. And you know they
only last for ..."

This is terribly noble and self-sacrificing of her; and also intensely
dull. Just look at the dialogue - my visions are a part of who I am?
An honor? There isn't a spark of original or interesting
characterization there. Been there seen that I do not know how many
times. It is writing by the numbers. And this is a problem I am
finding more and more with Cordelia. The late season 2 Cordelia who
embraces her visions and is pumped up by the prospect of helping
people is a shadow of the character who, for example in "Sanctuary"
blithely nodded agree when Angel was going on about saving Faith's
soul while at the same time making sure he signed a few pay checks for
her and then calmly exited the scene with a warning against sugar
overload. That was an individual. That was an interesting character
who made every scene she was in entertaining because she had a new and
different perspective from anyone else. One of the great things about
"Through the Looking Glass" was that it avoided the leaden "lets help
people" lines in favor of a more interesting characterization. Here
we saw Cordelia who really did love the idea of being a princess and
who hated the idea of giving it up but who at the end of the day was
prepared to face reality head on. If the writers had constructed a
scenario where to com-shuk with the Groosalugg would have meant
certain death for her they might have had an interesting scenario
along the lines of Cordelia trapped by the hidden hand of fate but
making the best of it. True nobility is often found in the way we
deal with the fate life has left us. And this would indeed have made
an interesting coda for the struggles Cordelia had been having with
her visions. But noble self sacrifice of this sort simply leaves me
cold. She is not giving of herself to save a particular individual.
That would be understandable. And as the Groosalugg pointed out the
visions would still be going to a good home. Rationally she has no
reason to keep them except that she wants them. Her attitude here
just seems very self-indulgent.

Plot

As I noted in my review of "Through the Looking Glass" the structure
of the plot here was a very interesting one. The story can be broken
down into three basic lines of action - Angel and his struggle with
himself; Wesley and Gunn and Wesley's assumption of the leadership of
the outlaws and Cordelia in her travails inside the palace. Each are
self-contained and proceed independently of one another. Yet at the
same time they all contribute towards a single overall goal - the
overthrow of the Covenant of Trombli. And to symbolize this they
intersect with one another at various points. The fate of the host
(with Landok's appearance carrying his head) is a tangible connection
between Cordelia and the events outside the palace. Angel meets up
with Wesley and Gunn and only goes into battle with the Groosalugg at
Wesley's suggestion. Indeed, in many ways the central focus of the
plot is Wesley because it is through his planning and organization
that things come together at the end - the assault on the Castle, the
battle between Angel and the Groosalugg and Cordelia's final
confrontation with Silas. This helps give the story a unity and a
sense of a single direction.

Equally, although inevitably there is a sense of build up to the final
confrontation there always seems to be something happening. So, for
example Wesley and Gunn start off on the point of being executed, move
straight into a fight for their survival with the Covenant guards and
then face off against one another over the planning of the battle.
Similarly Angel just doesn't stay in his cave brooding about the
Angelbeast he has become. Instead the writers engineer a pretty tense
confrontation between him and the Guard captain in which his resolve
not to become the Angelbeast again is sorely tested. And although I
am one of those who does think that beheading the host and then
allowing him to live was a cheat it had the advantage of giving
Cordelia something to actually do this week. Having to go to the
Mutilation Room to rescue his body, then finding it all cut up only to
discover that the Groosalugg had rescued it anyway was a nice sequence
of events which kept the interest far better than two talking heads.
In some of this action there was a degree of coincidence and a
suspension of disbelief. The rebels being attacked just when they
were about to execute Wesley and Gunn is something of a cliché. Angel
was looking for the palace, not the rebels. Why did he find his way
to them. And worst of all Cordelia had already tried to escape so why
wasn't she more carefully watched? But most of this is simply
nit-picking and doesn't really diminish the flow of the plot.

Indeed in its basic structure I think the storyline hangs together
really very well. As I have already said the focus is Wesley's plan.
His diversionary tactics do seem a logical approach to take and are
certainly much better than a frontal assault on a heavily defended
castle so it makes sense for the rebels to adopt it and the originator
of it as leader. Equally it is easy to understand the merit of having
Angel take on the Covenant's champion. So, from that point of view
the story just keeps on moving forward in a logical direction and we
actually feel as though we are getting somewhere.

And the place we are getting is, of course the final defeat of the
Covenant of Trombli. And it is more than satisfying that this final
defeat is the result of all the members of Angel Investigations
overcoming their individual challenges and by doing so each
contributing to the end of Silas. So Angel overcame the Angelbeast
rather than the Groosalugg; Wesley overcame his own sense of
insecurity and Cordelia actually made herself a princess. As for Gunn
well he did what he was best at leading the charge from the front. I
have to say there was a degree of predictability about it. In
particular it was clear from the start that Angel would at some stage
have to turn back into the Angelbeast but that he would succeed in
controlling it. That this would happen in his battle with the
Groosalugg was obvious from the moment we knew there would be such a
fight. And there was really no attempt to surprise us in any other
aspect of the plot development. But overall the only part of the plot
that really didn't work for me was the device for blowing cows heads
off. First of all I am not sure that it was needed. Silas' regime
was certainly bad enough to warrant tearing down just on general
principle and I don't think that adding the extra threat really helped
anything. Secondly something like that is by now a cliché and unless
you are going to put a clever spin on it is probably better to avoid
too many of those. But mainly there was the inevitable problem of how
you were to stop Silas from carrying out his threat. He seemed to
have plenty of time to get to the room where the device in question
was kept and activate it long before anyone could stop him. But of
course he committed the fatal error that all villains commit - he
stopped to gloat, forgetting completely Cordelia was right behind him
with a big sharp pointy thing.

I have just two final thoughts. The first is that, if you were being
churlish, you might suggest that the storyline had higher ambitions
than the budget could cope with. The attack on the castle lacked
scale both in terms of the numbers of attackers and in terms of the
seriousness of the defences. But then you have to be realistic and
appreciate the limitations under which everyone was working.
Considering these I thought the design worked very well indeed. The
second was about the quality of the humor. This is something that
ANGEL as a series has done very well during the course of the season.
But not here and that is odd. This was I think intended to be an
upbeat episode with things turning out well for everyone. As such it
seemed perfectly for a light humorous tone. In the main we certainly
got a light tone but for some reason the humor just didn't spark. I
can think of a couple of examples of this. First when Fred was
rambling about oatmeal and berries and tacos and bark enchiladas that
needed more work. Secondly when Cordelia was fussing over the
Grosalugg and ignoring poor old Angel:

Cordelia: "Stop! Stop the fight! Don't hurt him, I love him, I love
him!"

Angel: "You love me?"

Cordelia: "Not you, dumbass, (indicating the Groosalugg) Him! I love
him!"

In some ways I think the writers were trying to force the comedy into
a situation where it did not naturally belong. The peculiar
combination of foods referred to by Fred just looked contrived for the
purposes of humor. And Angel's reaction to Cordelia's preoccupation
with the Groosalugg would really only work if there was a genuine
misunderstanding of the nature of the relationship between the two of
them which we knew never existed.

Overview

B+ (8.5/10) The first thing to say here is that "No Place like Plrz
Glrb" was a highly entertaining romp. If it was a little predictable,
it crammed a lot of things into the hour and it moved along at a smart
pace and in a logical direction towards a rather satisfying
conclusion. And in the course of the story our heroes did indeed
confront some personal demons and emerge stronger and more united than
before. For Angel in particular it does give a sense of closure on a
very troubling period. In Pylea the writers allowed Angel to take
another look, from a completely different perspective, at the issues
that he confronted in the course of this period. In particular this
included the true nature of the relationship between himself and the
beast inside. And by actually getting something highly positive out
of this process they have created a sense of the character having now
gone through a real turning point. And that is, I think, very
important. If the Angel goes dark period had simply been forgotten
then their power and significance would have been critically
undermined. But make it the catalyst for change and you reinforce its
importance. Similarly both Wesley and Cordelia have been firmly set
on new courses. As I have indicated I am not a fan of the
self-conscious nobility of Cordelia's conversion to being the mother
of mercy but we can hope the writers do something a bit more
interesting with her next year. Certainly now I am more optimistic
that we will see better use being made of Charles Gunn. So, although
overall neither the humor nor the drama carried that much of a punch,
this episode has a sort of classic feel good ending for any season or
at least it would have been but for that final scene.