Ah… the legendary Angelus. The last time he managed to loose his terrible power upon humankind… well, the last time, he didn’t even manage to bite a defenseless girl before he was overpowered — by the combined strength of… Cordy and Wesley. And that was Wesley back when he was tearfully grateful to Angel simply for hiring him. Not a terribly impressive resume is it?

So it’s lucky for Angelus that no one bothers to mention that brief run-in, and his rather more fearsome stint terrorising Sunnydale is remembered instead. Much scarier.

Of course there’s a few difficulties in interrogating someone who knows all your secrets, and furthermore is well aware of exactly which information you hope to get from him. Especially if you’re not going to offer to release him or anything in return. It seems no one has a cunning plan to get round this. Not even Cordy. She does however have a crummy plan that somehow manages to work. I wasn’t convinced. Perhaps she’s been studying hypnotism.

The episode managed to survive this rather key logical drawback on the strength of the characters involved. While Angelus proved a little more foul-mouthed and less witty than I remember him, it was a treat to see the other characters get wound up by him. Gunn and Wesley’s fight in particular was brilliant. And I found myself almost starting to enjoy Connor during his conversation with demon Dad.

Of course, it is yet another episode with no clear individual plot — merely ‘question the suspect; investigate nothing; return’. Not a particularly dynamic piece of writing in that respect. Interestingly, it was directed by Sean Astin (Sam Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings) and he does a fairly good job with an episode confined almost entirely to one room with a cage. It always seems fairly dynamic — especially during the nifty initial pan down to the basement at the beginning of the episode. Of course, it’s hard to precisely judge Angel‘s direction due to channel seven Australia’s decision to transmit it full screen, rather than the widescreen it was filmed for.

A moderately successful episode then, with not quite enough meat.

Things to ponder: The Beast once asked Angelus to work with him. Angelus remembers him, even though Angel did not. The Beast can be banished — just not the way they tried it in Long Day’s Journey. And I feel sure there’s some tricky foreshadowing going on with Cordelia’s breasts. They seem to have been mentioned almost every episode this season… perhaps they have a part to play in the apocalypse?

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This entry was posted by the illustrious Tom Charman on Saturday, May 17th, 2003. It concerns such pressing issues as . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.