Wolfram & Cast
This is not your grandsire’s podcast! In Wolfram and Cast, long time Angel fan Steven Youngkin host an Angel Podcast geared toward Buffy and Angel fans who have seen the entirety of both shows and want a more in depth discussion than a simple recap and review. Each episode of Wolfram and Cast will focus on one episode of Angel, but we will touch on greater themes and character arcs from the entire series, so a spoiler warning is in effect.
Wolfram & Cast
S1E15 ("The Prodigal") -- Understanding Angelus: A Deep Dive into Character Evolution
Curious about how insecurity can morph a man into a monster? This episode takes us deep into the character arcs of Liam and Kate from the beloved Buffy spin-off series, Angel. We trace the trajectory of Liam's evolution into Angelus, as we dissect how his wickedness is rooted in deep-seated insecurity. We also witness Kate's transformation, igniting discussions about her potential Mulder and Scully style romance with Angel. The episode also gives you a chance to relive some of your favorite lines from the unforgettable series.
As we move further, we untangle the intricate relationships, the vampire mythology, and brave the challenge of dissecting a weak storyline. We delve deep into how the episode explores Liam's transformation into Angelus, and inspect Darla's complex character, a heady blend of love, danger, and allure. The episode also scrutinizes the profound father-child relationships and their impact on our characters. Despite critiquing the episode's weak storyline, we commend its focus on character development, painting a vivid picture of the character dynamics and key interactions.
To cap it off, we tackle profound themes of a father's disapproval, boundaries, miscommunication in TV shows, and emotional struggles. We immerse ourselves in an analysis of the character's actions and reactions, understanding how insecurity, demon fighting, and boundaries are pivotal in the narrative. We unearth pop culture references and lay bare the impact of miscommunication. Tread with us as we navigate the emotional dilemmas of Angel and the cruel helplessness of his character in light of events that shape him. This in-depth analysis promises to be enlightening and engaging, helping you see your favorite characters in a whole new light.
Hello, welcome to Wolferman Cast, an angel retrospective. I am longtime fan Stephen Yonkin. In this podcast I'll be doing a deep dive discussion on the Buffy spin-off show, angel, one episode at a time. Spoilers for both series. I've chosen to focus on Angel because, as a fan of the show, I feel that even 20 plus years after the show premier, it still has themes and ideas that are worth discussing. My co-host, the woman who is busy negotiating her deliveries of IA Newt to lace her PCP with just for the taste, of course, carrie Lobach is unable to record the next few episodes, so you will have just my opinion to listen to. I look forward to her return in just a few episodes so she can provide her insight, not just for the episode but to also mention every single vampire joke that the episodes make.
Speaker 1:In this week's podcast, I will discuss the 15th episode of the series the Prodigal, which was directed by Bruce Seth Green. This was the second of three episodes Green directed, the other two being In the Dark and the Trial. They also directed eight episodes of Buffy, including Halloween, ted and Phases, as well as episodes of Babylon 5, xena, hercules and Charmed. The episode was written by Tim Baneer, who also wrote 17 episodes of Angel, including Billy in Are you Now or have you Ever Been? After, tim became producer of Angel as well as producer of American Horror Story Doll House, as well as 9-1-1. In addition to Angel, tim also wrote four episodes of Firefly, including the train job. The episode originally aired on February 22, 2000 and the IMDb description of the episode is Angel seeks to solve a mystery involving Kate's father after a normally peaceful demon attacks a deliveryman on the subway.
Speaker 1:In the Buffy the Vampire's Lawyer Facebook group, shannon Hutchins my apologies if I mispronounce her last name wrote in comparing Angel as to Spike as humans as opposed to being vampires. See, that is where it comes from. Angel is a rich brat who doesn't think through the consequences and can't make the kinds of associations that Spike does with the Mickey D's analogy. He also was privileged, but felt powerless because of an overbearing father, in his mind at least. So when he is given the taste of being powerful, he gets drunk on it. Basically, he craves the sense of control and power that he can get by torturing, and the over the top gestures like sucking the whole world in the hell are exactly what to expect from an inherently insecure brat trying to prove something Because no matter how much damage he causes and how deep he really cuts people, it doesn't overcome the sense of worthlessness that he accepted about himself as a human being he has. All the human weaknesses he demonstrated were there before he turned, and I can totally see the progression of how Liam became Angelus. And a surprising number of people are sadists at heart, by the way, but it is modified and moderated by inherent goodness and it is a reach to believe that becoming a vampire would bring out sadistic tendencies that weren't displayed as a human.
Speaker 1:I wanted to read Shannon's analysis of Liam because it is very much on point with how this episode explains not just how Liam became Angelus in terms of events that happened before and shortly afterwards, but also examining the character. Even more so because prior to this episode we never really saw Angelus except in a very brief clip in Becoming Part 1, prior to being sired. We just saw him in the alleyway meeting Darla, which we do see that clip again here in this episode. But now we see more of it and, just like I got you under my skin allowed us to reexamine and recontextualize a lot of Wesley's behaviors. The prodigal now allows us to understand Angelus even more and to see that his evil also came from a sense of insecurity. And that is what this episode does very, very well.
Speaker 1:This episode, the prodigal, is a major upswing in the overall quality of the show and the reason for that is due to a superb and dense screenplay by Tim Maneer, which is at some points up there with his previous work on Some Nambulist. And, as you'll hear me comment at the end when I go through my favorite lines, this is one where I wish my co-host, carrie, was here, because I would have been interested in seeing what her favorite line was. And for listeners of the show please feel free to chime in with your line of the episode was because, like in the dark and some of the other really good episodes, there's arguments that could be made for a lot of great lines here, as well as also overall standout moments. And also what helps this show out was the deep characterizations. What the director, bruce Seth Green and Tim Maneer did very intelligently was they sidelined, actually, two of the characters, wesley and Cordelia, which in other episodes I would have said was a weakness of the show, by not giving them anything to do, but in this case sidelining them, with the exception of one or two scenes was the smartest move, because it allowed us to focus in on the two characters who were the main focus, kate and Angel, because it allowed us to more deeply compare and contrast their relationships with their fathers.
Speaker 1:And before I get further into Angel and slash Liam, slash Angelus, I want to first discuss Kate, because this was the episode that forever changed Kate, even more so than Some Nambulist did Some Nambulist, where she for the first time saw the world of vampires and realized what Angel was. That started her down the road. But if this episode had not had the events occur the way they did, we could imagine an alternate version of the series where she became allies with him, almost a Malder and Scali type of thing, where she was his ally in the forests and would provide him with information, like she did at the beginning of this episode, where, yes, she might be a little leery of him but eventually she may have grown fond of him and maybe even resumed a possible crush romantic relationship. Who knows, it could have gone down that path, but with the key event of her father s death that forever altered not just her relationship with Angel but start her down her path to what was her ultimate downfall. Now, what I was mentioning about the one possible branch that could have taken, and this is not a criticism, this is just like an alternate view of the series was at the beginning of the episode. We do see that she is slowly trusting him and she knows, as she comments, she realizes that he is a vampire, but he is still one of the good guys. So that s why she s willing to provide him with the information he needs and willing to help him any way she can within legal grounds, because she is still, first and foremost, a cop, because in general she views him as the exception to the rule of the evil things, as she refers to them when talking to Angel. But the moment she walks into her father s apartment at the end of the episode and sees him lying there dead and knows what killed him, and sees Angel standing over him, she will no longer trust him and she will view him as just one of the evil things. Now the interesting thing about that is that we know Angel had nothing directly to do with Trevor s death, with her father s death. He tried to help, but he was literally unable to get into the room to save the day, and the impression is that Kate would very quickly figure out that Angel didn t directly kill her father by the fact that she kills.
Speaker 1:The vampires in the following scene indicates that she knew that Angel was not directly responsible, but that doesn t change how she feels. She may not directly blame him, but she indirectly blames him, not because he couldn t save her father, but because before that moment, before Samambulous, she was blind to that rule. She could distance herself In a situation like that had she not been made aware of vampires and demons in the other world. If she had seen her father dead, she would have grieved. She was still been grief stricken the way she was. But she probably wouldn t have directly blamed Angel because she would have ran out of, possibly as a gang member came in and killed him, the result of just crying in the city. That would have allowed her to distance herself a little bit more from it. But now that she knows what did it, how they did it and why they did it, that s all because of Angel and that is why she can never be the way she was before, and because she knows what killed him, this now becomes an obsession of her.
Speaker 1:What is great about this episode is that this turning point occurred literally at the moment, or from father s death, which, as we see at the end of the episode, what caused Liam to become Angelus was also a precipitate cause his father s death. It was the moment he killed his father and the way he killed his father with a bit of cruelty that started him down his pathway to becoming more flamboyant in his death, in his attacks upon people. So it has a nice sense of parallel there, which I loved in the episode. That structure. Now, the next thing that I really liked about was it brought us back two characters that were very much missed and very much loved by fans Angelus and Darla.
Speaker 1:For Darla, she s always been one of the more interesting characters because, as we see here in this episode, she is somewhat complex in the fact that she s Angelus s mother, as we see at the scene where he rises from the grave and it s almost like at birth, and through the scene she is educating him the way a mother would do to a son, with it almost a sense of caring, mentoring, calling him so young, so very young, with affection, and then at various other points, she s a love interest. She s a romantic love interest, but also she s an antagonist at the same time, not just in this episode but throughout the series. So she has a mixture of a number of different things going on at the same moment, all the same character. And what the series does very well with her is the fact that they will blend them all together almost in the exact same scene, and that s why fans gravitate towards her so much, because she was such a complex character and Julie Bentz played her with that complexity so that we feared her because she was a dangerous vampire. I mean, she was around for several hundred years. She was around, as we see later on in the series, since literally before this country was founded. So she knew what she was doing and who knows how many deaths and bloodshed she had caused over the centuries. So she was definitely one to be feared.
Speaker 1:And in the first season of Buffy she was one of the master s most cherished people, most cherished followers. He cared about her deeply well, as much as the master could care about anyone. But what I like about her was the fact that she was alluring. I mean, she was attractive, she was sensual and sexual, but also extremely dangerous at the same time. And once again we have these parallels running into each other which, by that very definition, what I just said, contradicts itself, and as did her character, and that s what made her so interesting. And, I know, for female vampires. In most polls, if not all polls, when listing female vampires, drusilla gets the number one spot. But I think for Drusilla it was more just her odd nature that we hadn t seen before. And nothing against Julia Landau. She played Drusilla very well. She was a great character. Season two of Buffy worked so well because of her in spike. As antagonists they were wonderful characters. They goose up the show in a way that their absence would never put the show where it was. But with Drusilla it is her off playing nature. Had she been a more normal vampire, I doubt she would have been as popular, whereas Darla isn t odd, she isn t borderline insane, she is, or you can see her blending in well with normal, everyday humans where she could exist in the open. In fact, as a reminder to everyone, she was literally the very first vampire we saw in the series.
Speaker 1:She was in the opening pre-credits scene of Buffy the Vampire Soda. She was the one with the guy who was breaking into school, where at first we think she s going to be the victim of the first victim of the series, because she s like the scared high school girl. Is there anything around? Oh, I think I heard something. And then Joss pulled the rug out from under us and revealed that, nope, she s the one who s going to do the killing, not being the one who was killed. But now, as we see her more and more, we see like in this episode she does, in her own way, care for Angel. I mean, yes, she s evil, but there is an affection and she wants to educate him, she wants to teach him, she wants to explore the world with him. And part of the reason that she might be so attracted to Liam, as we see in her first scene in this episode, where she sees Liam in the bar fighting, one suspects that it might be because she can sense something in Liam that she has as well, which is his lost nature, because, as we see in her origin episode, leroy, she s lost as well. She has been cast out by society, and her case is not because she s constantly getting into barfights and is cast out by her father, but it s because of her profession. She is a prostitute who is dying of syphilis and nobody likes her because of her status in society. So when the master takes her under his wing, she feels at home, and so now she s willing to, in a sense, pay it forward to Liam.
Speaker 1:Slash Angelus and speaking of Angelus, that s the other returned character, and I will just say right now, any episode that gives us Angelus is automatically higher up on my ranking, because Angel was a good character in this series, has done much better with him than Buffy ever did. If he had stayed on and Buffy, he would have become so boring that we would have just wanted him gone, whereas with Angel they made him more complex. They gave him more of a sense of humor, more complexity, more sympathy, so that we did want to see him more. But, that being said, angelus is still an even better version, and it is clear that David is having more fun as Angelus at times than he is as Angel. And this episode we get a lot of Angelus.
Speaker 1:Well, not just Angelus, but Liam as well. As I mentioned Prior to this episode, we never saw Liam, except for that brief alleyway bit In becoming part one. By here we get an extended prologue so we could truly see how he is. And we could see that, similar to Wesley, who was wanting his father's approval. Well, that s the same thing with Liam. Like he was a young man who wanted his father's approval.
Speaker 1:Now, unlike Wesley, who was trying to earn his father's approval by being ultra studious and obedient and doing stuff like that, liam, on the other hand, had no knowledge of how to earn his father's love, his father's approval. This was a guy who was a layabout. This was a guy who was seducing and practically molesting the female help and was constantly getting into trouble with the law. And, as Shannon had written, he was essentially a rich brat who was used to the world handing him everything. And because he had everything given to him, he had no appreciation for what he had, and that includes the love of his mother, the love of his sister. He had no appreciation for what they were giving him and he definitely had no appreciation of his father. And his father, like most fathers in the Buffy universe, was not quite good at expressing their love and approval. And being a good father is not so much he was angels.
Speaker 1:Dad was a bad person, it was just that he didn t know how to make his points clear, and what is interesting with this episode is that, well, we do know his sister s name, catherine, and we of course know angels original name, liam, which I always like the fact that s a parallel with Spikes pre-Vampire name, william. But, saying that aside, we never find out angels dad s name, unlike Kate s father, trevor. In the case of angels father, he s just father, or, as I ll refer to him as dad or father or whatever, and that s because this is being told through Liam s point of view. It is being seen from his angle. That s how he s viewing his father, so it is all. He s not even thinking of him with a name. He s just thinking of him in a role, a father, and being back to the being the spoiled brat.
Speaker 1:Because he has no appreciation for what he has or for what has been gimme-tongued, he ruins it all. The moment he becomes a vampire, he destroys everything that he had given, that was given to him, for example his sister's trust. She's the reason he was able to get into the house was because she trusted him. As he said, she thought I was an angel, returned to her, which of name origins. I can live with that as an origin. It's better than some series that come up with more hamfisted ways. But anyways, he takes his sister's trust of him. He literally kills her with it. He takes his mother's love. We don't see too much of his mother, but we can imagine she probably loved him as well and was probably trying to save her daughter when he attacked and so in my head canon in a missing scene, in the scene where he kills his mother and sister, he no doubt killed the sister first Just to torture the mother and for her to see her daughter lying dead in front of her. And then he proceeded to turn his mother's love against her and brutally killed her and then, after killing the father, as Darla points out to him, he's ruined any chance he has of ever gaining his father's approval and he'll spend the next several centuries trying to gain it in some fashion, of trying to prove that he is worthy of being the type man his father said he would never be.
Speaker 1:And what is interesting with the character of Angelus is the fact that, thanks to David's performance, is that he is so brutal. He is such an unlikeable character. And why is he unlikeable. I mean, he's a villain, he's not anyone you're rooting for at any given time. There is no moment where you say, yeah, I hope Angelus wins. No, but that doesn't make him uncharismatic or somebody you want to see more for. That's why, fans, whenever we heard that Angelus was returning, we eagerly look forward to it, not because we root it for the character, but because he was so interesting, he was so dynamic. We were drawn to him and we could see why others were as well.
Speaker 1:And it's because David brought forth the charisma in the character, the seduction, and one of the big things I really liked about it was the main theme of this episode, which was father-child relationships. The series, throughout various points, would examine father-child, because in the previous episode I've got you under my skin my main criticism was I wish it had examined that relationship more by discussing how fathers can be towards children and sometimes they have to be cold and distant just to protect their family, what it's almost seeming to like now in retrospect. That episode was a warm up for this one, because this one examined it in force, because it did examine that fathers at times do have to be cold, they do have to be removed to be the strong person in the family and that sometimes people just they're rejected because of it. One of the last lines that Liam hears when he's leaving the house is his dad reaching out to him saying nobody was standing in your way. He is trying to reach out to Liam, but Liam has tuned him out, he has ignored him completely and this is lean to Liam's downfall and becoming a vampire.
Speaker 1:And what is interesting is that both Kate and Liam strive to make their fathers proud and neither of them are truly understanding what their fathers want or that their fathers are proud of them. Because, in the case of Liam, his father wants to be proud of him because he is the only son and his eldest child, but also just because he is his child. But in this case, here, as I mentioned, liam never really gave him any reason to be proud because he was a drunken loud, he did funnel the female servant, he did get into bar fights. So it's hard to be really proud of a child. But the father still tried his best to display them, to try to set him on the right path, but Liam just refused to listen.
Speaker 1:And going back to the title of the episode, one gets the feeling that, had this played out as the prodigal son Parable did, which was the son goes off, he gets into trouble on the road, he comes back and the father takes him in with open arms. You get the feeling that if Liam had, while out on the road, realized what a mess he was making of his life and had come back to his father, his father would have taken him back, red like his father, would have taken him back with open arms and killed the fatted calf, as it were, especially if he realized his son had realized what was happening. In an interesting twist of fate, the prodigal son does quote return, but unfortunately, unlike in the Bible, where the son returned reformed and apologetic for what he had done, in this case the prodigal son returned even worse than when he left and, even more ironic, there was a feast, but the feast wasn't with his family, the feast was his family. And now that leaves us to the other father-child relationship, which the episode examined very well, which was Trevor Kate. Now, in sense and sensitivity, we got hint. We got not so much a hint, we got the first signs of it, and I had issues there with that one because of the fact that Trevor came across as rude, not too much cold, but just a complete jerk, and it was hard to be sympathetic towards him because it was saying things like questioning case sexuality and saying you're humiliating me, stuff like that I can't imagine that anyone would actually say and not sense that, okay, that's just crossing the line.
Speaker 1:In this case, trevor is still cold, he is still distant. But in this case one we see the motivation for why he's trying to remain distant from Kate because he doesn't want her, even accidentally, involved with the activities he's doing. He's doing it not so much because he doesn't love her but, quite the opposite, because he wants to protect her from it. In fact, one of his last acts he does is when the vampires confront him and they ask about Kate. He says she knows nothing about this and he's doing that to protect her, to keep her out of it. And that's also why he keeps Angel out, because he doesn't want Angel involved, because that would also indirectly bring in Kate. So all of this is done out of a love for his daughter and just like Liam was wanting his father's love and approval, well clearly so was Kate. She was desperate for it and Elizabeth From played that even better here than she did in sense and sensitivity, where when he visits her on the crime scene in the subway she almost beams a little bit when she thinks herself that he came down to check on her because in her mind she's saying he does care about me, he is concerned for me. He may not say it, he's not going to be blunt about it, because that's not the way my dad is, but that's his way of showing his love is to come down and make sure I'm okay, that everything is going right. And when she is having a hot dog later on she's happy just to spend father, daughter or time with him, even though he's asking about Angel and probing her for information. But for her it's a bonding moment she gets to spend time with her dad.
Speaker 1:Next comment I want to make about how good this episode was was that it also gave us a deeper view of the vampire mythology in general, because previously all vampires were seen either sexually or as straight-up monsters. But in this case we're seeing not how they relate to humans either in the case of wanting to feed on them, but more we're seeing how they relate to each other, because in the siring process, which we never really saw too much of in the series prior to this, either in Buffy or here. In this one we see a deeper view and we see that the sire views the new vampire as a companion, which is possibly a reason why most vampires tend to sire somebody of the opposite gender with a few exceptions, of course, such as bike siring Holden and Angel siring Penn but most of the time it's usually a vampire siring somebody of the opposite gender. And also the sire views the new vampire as a child, somebody they have to raise, somebody they have to educate, introduce to their world. And we see that mostly in the scene where Angelus is rising up from the grave and Darla is mentoring him, showing him her world while educating him. And we also saw a little bit of that in some Nambulist after Penn killed his sister in Angelus, taunting but mentoring him as well.
Speaker 1:Now, even though I widely praise that, there is only one criticism I have of this episode, and that is as great as character development is and, as you just heard me praise for, the use of Darla, the use of Angelus, slash Liam, the use of Kate, the use of Trevor and Timonere and Bruce Seth Green do a great job of deepening and enriching these characters. The weakness of the episode was that the storyline was not that interesting and it is rather weak because we hear the reference to the drug at the beginning that is making these demons stronger, but to be honest, it never really plays a major role in the episode. It's almost just like an excuse just for Trevor to be involved with something evil, and this is the purest example of a MacGuffin. It could have been anything, it could have been some artifact, it could have been some. Whatever that the demons were.
Speaker 1:It didn't have to be a drug and we never really saw it in too much effect, other than the beginning of the episode and a later fight scene in Angelus office, which I'll discuss, was well done in a comical way. But we never see this as something dangerous. We need to keep out of vampires hands the way it was in the dark where we had to get the ring away from Spike and the others, because we did see how dangerous this was and we did see the effect of it, at least temporarily. At the end, in this case here we saw a couple brief scenes of it and in fact we are told at the beginning that if a warrior demon got a hold of the drug, that he would be almost unbeatable due to his strength. Well, the thing is, we never see that in play. It's mentioned but it's never done, because at the end of the episode, in the final scene with the dealer demon, we're never told that, oh, he ingested the drug. So he's now going to be a very tough foe for Angel to face. As far as we know, he never got the drug and, to be honest, he was not that tough of a foe. The subway demon was a lot harder to beat than was the dealer demon at the end.
Speaker 1:While it had a great cool move that I'll mention near the end, the death of the demon was not really the impressive part of it. And I'd mention this as more of a minor criticism than major one Because of the fact that the impression I get from rewatching this episode was that Green and Manir Never intended the plot to be that important. It was secondary, because there were so many scenes that didn't so much further the plot or the events of the story as much as it did furthering the character. So it became clear that this episode was more about character than it was story. So, as a result, the fact that the story was almost perfectory is a little bit less of a criticism and, as a result, this is one that so far on my rankings, I have list this as actually the best episode so far this season, even out doing some nambulus and in the dark. Now, with that aside, now to discuss the episode itself.
Speaker 1:The episode does open in Ireland in the 18th century where a young woman is getting water from a well and we see often the shadows that Liam is speaking to her. Now, nice such about this is it's almost a mislead, because we've seen that character when we didn't realize was Liam yet, staying in the shadows and sunlight trying to talk to people. But usually that's because he's a vampire. So at first we're thinking for a brief moment oh, this is Angeles we're seeing, because we're used to that time period. That would be Angeles and he, straight up, were a victim Into the shadows, so you can kill her. No, in this case he's still very much human and the reason why he's not wanting to leave the shadows is because he has a hangover, and so he says the light is bothering his eyes, and that's not a lie. He's got a severe hangover from partying night before. So, yeah, the light is bothering, but I like the nice parallel though, because he's seductively luring her to him say, come here, come here.
Speaker 1:I have something to tell you which is reminiscent of the scene in Innocence where Angeles did the same thing to Willow, but in that case that was not a hangover. He was luring her to him so he could kill her, either by her or snap her neck or whatever. But in this case, no, he's just wanting to maul her, just to grope her. That was it. But before he has too much of a chance to do anything really with her, that's when his father bursts in and Starts to chew him out because he was drinking party night before.
Speaker 1:And this starts the first several scenes where the father is Is saying that he's ashamed of him and cruises him for trying to corrupt the young girl. And Then Liam says you know, everyone gets corrupted, which is interesting because that is a philosophy that he carries with him as Angeles, where he is convinced he can corrupt everyone, because that becomes sort of his goal is to bring everyone down with him when he is Angeles. But during that scene then the father then smacks Liam and Says that you're a layabout and a scoundrel and he'll never amount to anything. But at that moment, right after he smacks him, that's when it cuts to the present day and we do see that he is amounting to something, because he is now Fighting a demon whose dress is a homeless person underneath a subway tunnel. And one site note here on the juxtaposition which I do like is when the father smacks Liam, smacks him across the mouth, there's a trickle blood that's coming out. Well, when it does a smash cut to the present day, we see another trickle blood also on angels face, but this time it's not from a father smacking him is from the demon hitting him.
Speaker 1:Well, while this fight is going on, above a policeman is lean Kate down to the tunnels because we're a port of a crazy homeless person tearing up the car and threatening passengers. And the cop points out the fact that the suspect was pulled out through the top then, while the train was still in motion, which I won't deny, it would have been cool to see if the show had had more of a budget, because that would have been an interesting bit, with the homeless demon attacking the passengers. All of a sudden. That opened the. The top of the car opens up. That lifted up. I want to not. I would have enjoyed watching. Angel just hauled the guy Hold the demon out from the car, but anyways, he cuts back to Angel who continues to fight with the demon and he does end up killing the demon right when Kate approaches the area and that's when she does almost a law and order ask line, which is appropriate considering her next series she did after this, but a law and order ask line of. Well, so much for reading him his rights. In fact, when I first heard her say that, since it is something outlaw and order, I almost expected here Right after that, but instead, instead of hearing that, we got the opening credits.
Speaker 1:Now, after the opening credits, angel and Kate are still talking while looking at the demon and Kate is coming that she doesn't know how to handle this case now because it is a demon, not just a homeless person, and she is willing to accept it as a demon.
Speaker 1:She has seen them, she is fully on board, she's not in denial because this is still new to her. She's not sure how to handle it, and Angel points out that she has actually handled these situations before, but she has turned her back on what the real cause was and Because, like most humans and this is going back to a thing that Giles commented at the end of the harvest, which is what you can't explain. You will tend to Rationalize, and we see that being played out here as well. We're a delivery guy who was at the scene of the crime is describing demon in the worst terms possible average height, average weight, average build. And when Kate is hearing this, she does a little look if you are completely useless. And she does says almost Archastically you know, okay, let's run with this, no, wait. Full well that that information tells her literally nothing while she had angel talking. She does look over and she knows is that her father, trevor, is there. She goes over and talks to Trevor and he heard about the hostage situation on the police scanner and.
Speaker 1:Also figured and heard that she was the lead officer. So he came down and after the father leaves, angel expresses concern for her and he does rebuff it Because she has made it very clear at this point that at least at this point, that she does accept that angels of ample good vampire she has, except that he's not evil, but he is still a vampire. And so she's saying the way I was towards you before warm, kind and all that, that's no more. Don't try to be my friend, let's just keep this professional.
Speaker 1:Now it cuts back to 1753 in an Irish Irish pub and Liam is In the bar having a normal bar fight in by the look of joy on his face as he's being people up. This is a drunken bar fight. This is not one that's angry or somebody says something back to him. It was just like some day he probably does every weekend or every couple of nights he just walks into a bar and just for the literally for the fun of it, starts beating the living tar out of everyone, just because that's what he doesn't have fun.
Speaker 1:Now, while he's doing this, watching him, or is a bar made as well as Darla, the bar made is played by Christina Hendrix, where people would most know Christina Hendrix from is TV series of madmen she was. She Played Joan Harris on the series and she was nominated for six Emmy awards for her performance. Other notable roles that she had was bad Santa to an episode of true calling, and also she played the character of saffron on Firefly, a reoccurring Love interest slash. Antagonist for Mal the bar made and Darla having a conversation Watching Liam.
Speaker 2:He forgets every promise he's made. When the sun comes up again, that wouldn't really be a problem for me actually.
Speaker 1:What I like about was one key line here in one of the many great lines in the series is oh, his lies sound so pretty when the stars are out, but he forgets every promise he made when the sun comes up again. And Darla's Reply of that wouldn't be a problem for me, actually, which I like as nice vampire joke. But the first part about the wise that carries over to Angeles because he does the same thing there He'll make promises, he'll see whatever it takes to get what he wants. So this is one those other elements where a human's almost worst qualities are amplified when they become a vampire. Just like he was a false Promiser and a seducer who was willing to see whatever he wanted in this case it was to get a woman in the bed. Well, as a vampire he would just say the same thing to his victims See whatever it took to lure him over, so he could then feed upon them and would forget his promises.
Speaker 1:Now, after the scene, it then cuts back to angel and Cordelia Talkie and we see that angel and his sword is zoned out. Now I'm not sure what exactly he was thinking about, because it wouldn't have been the flashback, because that wouldn't have made any sense, but Never was. He was zoning out and he wasn't really hearing what Cordelia was talking about a new security system and she was asking what the code should be and as a nice joke, she mentions her birthday, said yeah, it could be my birthday. And he admits he doesn't know what it is. And her response is tell me something. I don't know that, you don't know which is a nice Cordelia as line. But at that moment, that's when Wesley enters with a possible guess as to the aim, as to the demon that Angel had faced, and he's seen as a quanti demon. But he says that they're always female and, more importantly, the quanti are non-violent Demons and not capable of the power in the strength that angel had encountered. But, realizing the ferocity with which it was attacking and the location, angel's thinking that it went after the train car with a purpose and it was there because a someone who was in the car, not sure who.
Speaker 1:Well, angel then visits Kate at the station trying to get a little bit more information. Now, one nice thing I like about it was I think the show may have been figure it out a Same problem that I had observed in several episodes, which is how is he getting into the police station in the middle of the day concerned. It's broad daylight now I'm not saying he has to sneak in, but broad daylight. Why isn't he on fire when he's walking into the station? How's he getting in? Kate asked him the exact same question How's he able to get in, since it's daytime? And he points out that there's a such tunnel that leads up to the parking garage. Okay, well, they have now retconned every episode up to that point in a way that Justifies him being in the police station during the middle of the day.
Speaker 1:Well, he then asks Kate for the names of the passengers on the train to try to figure out who the Demon was targeting, and she refuses to help because her theory is the demons dead, there's no crime. Why continue pursuing it? She'd like to just move on with life, and it's her way of Trying to push that world behind her. Because if she doesn't have to confront it, if she doesn't have to talk about it, if she doesn't have to investigate it, then she can move on to normal worldly crimes Rape, murder, burglary, you know, so on, so forth, human crimes, stuff that Psychologically she can process better, whereas trying to further investigate who this demon was going after puts her right back in that world and she's not ready for that yet. Well, angel talks to Wesley leader about that and Wesley is giving the same theory that I just gave, which was the fact that it's not so much she's trying to be rude or whatever, is the fact that she's trained to adjust to it. And as a nice cute bit, he says that women in particular have trouble adjusting to this. While he's standing in the alleyway and we see Cortelia sawing off the demons arm with a hacksaw, showing Cortelia has grabbed on to this world whole hog, because now she there's, no, you it's, yep, you it is. You know, sawing off it using a hacksaw on the demon is now second nature to her. So she's come a lot farther than Kate has obviously.
Speaker 1:Angel then decides to do a stakeout on the delivery guy, because the reason why he, the delivery guy, the one who said that the demon was average height, average weight, average build, what made the delivery guy stand out was the fact that why would a delivery guy be at a commuter train? Because he obviously has his own transportation. So that's what made him suspicious, the fact that he was there at all. Well, he stakes up the delivery guy and he sees him get a call and he leaves in his van and he tells him to the apartment complex and goes up into the apartment, knocks on the door and answering the door is none other than Kate's father, who hands the delivery guy a package in a brown wrapper. After the delivery guy leaves, angel approaches Trevor's door and knocks on it and he tells Trevor that he figured out that the reason Trevor was there that morning was it out of concern for Kate, which is what Kate was thinking, that that's why he was there, but it was to remove something from the crime scene, whatever was in the package that he gave the delivery guy.
Speaker 1:Well, trevor's response to Angel is don't think you know how a father feels or why he does the thing he does and slams the door in Angel's face. This almost harsh attitude about you don't know how a father feels line cuts immediately back to 1753, where we see Angel stumbling up to his sister in his home and his father is kicking Liam out Once he has a nice juxtaposition with Trevor reacting to Kate, because in this case Liam doesn't understand why his father is acting the way he does, that his father is acting out of love, while Liam is viewing it in much colder terms. But the father is kicking Liam out of the house for being such a disappointment and says straight out you're never invited back here again, should he leave. And with that it has a final piece of dialogue between Liam and his father, which is Angel seeing disappointment on more dutiful son. You couldn't have asked for my whole life. You told me in word, in a glance, what it is you required of me and I've lived down to your every expectation. Now, haven't I His father? That's madness, angel, or Liam? No, the madness is that I couldn't fail enough for you. But we'll fix that now, won't we?
Speaker 1:What is interesting with that dialogue is that Liam is setting himself up for failure. It is how he views himself, because he is viewing himself through his father's eyes the fact that he is a failure. So he's going out, doing all of these things, getting into the bar fights. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Well, you think I'm a loser? Well, I'm going to be a loser, just to prove you're right. He's not willing to do anything to cut the circle because had he gone out and become productive, he would have earned his father's love, but because he has it so ingrained in him that he is a disappointment. He does make his father ashamed of him. So if you're, what do I have to lose? My father hates me anyway, so I might as well do this.
Speaker 1:So it starts this vicious circle that ultimately leads to him meeting with Darla and becoming Angelus, and as he leaves the house into daylight so to remind the audience even more that this is pre-Angelus, because in this scene we see him very much summing out into the daylight and his father then says a line that is sadly very true If you'll go courting trouble, you're sure to find it. And that is very true because at that point we get a smash cut of scenes to jump along the storyline a lot more, which is Liam going after the bar maid and swooping her up and doing who knows with her, and then clips from becoming part one where Darla is siring Angelus in the alleyway. And what I like about was the, instead of showing the extended clip again, which all the fans are already aware of, and we've taken time away from the episode it just gives us very quick clips Just to remind us of chronologically the events Very efficient storytelling. Now it does cut to the next day and Kate is talking Trevor and he is expressing concern for it, checking on how she's doing and, I would say, actually pretty casually, asking about Angelus. He's not doing it, a way that's making it obvious that he's much more concerned about Angelus than he is about her, or curious about Angelus, that he is concerned about her, but he's just gently probing, like what type of relationship does she have with him? Oh, I hear he's good at his job, etc. Etc. Just using old police tactics to quietly get the information he needs about Angel from her. And it's quite clear to the audience he's curious about Angelus because he wants to see how good Angelus is at his job and where, not, he can truly figure out everything that Trevor is involved with.
Speaker 1:Well, meanwhile, wesley is running tests on a demon and he comments to Angel that he's doing a vivisection on the Quoting Demon. Now, just as a correction here and it is actually odd that Wesley makes this mistake of all people, vivisections are surgeries that are performed upon living subjects. The demon was already dead. So what Wesley was doing to the demon was not a vivisection, it was a dissection or an autopsy. So somebody as well-read or as educated as Wesley was would have known the difference. Obviously, tim Manier was not aware of the difference. But anyways, wesley determines that the demon's aggression was due to a substance that greatly increased its adrenal gland and was making it more aggressive, and his theory was he wasn't sure exactly what it was, but the Aquarium was something similar to PCP and though laced with a bit of Ionute for taste. And he concludes that the demon was josing on it the way an addict would for PCP, and it was desperate for another hit of the drug. And that's why I went after the delivery driver, that's why it was at the Subway Tunnel to get another hit. And he concludes that the drug not only increased its aggression but also its strength.
Speaker 1:Well, as the talking, cordelia enters in an obvious costume of blonde wig and sunglasses, where it is so much out of the undercover playbook that it was actually rather humorous it was so cliche that it was funny and she was coming that she was telling the delivery guy and she tailed him to a place called Kell's Exotic Auto and took photos of him gaining brown packages. And Angel figures out very quickly that that must be the source of the drugs as Kell's Exotic Auto. And he's not wrong, because it cuts to the warehouse where Trevor is faking to some well-dressed men and tells them about what he knows of Angel. And he asks what's in the package, making it very clear that while Trevor is involved with this, he doesn't know what all he's involved with. He's helping out by just being blind to it. I'll get you the packages without knowing what's in there. And he's expressing regret at even doing the removing of the brown package from the crime scene. But the well-dressed man tries to assuage his guilt, as it were, by giving him payoff.
Speaker 1:And after Trevor leaves, the well-dressed man approaches the dealer demon. A much bigger demon says that Angel and Trevor have to be killed Angel because he could be a threat to him, and Trevor just because he knows too much. And as the demon storms off, he calls for an adrenal gland which, to be honest, we never actually see him yet. Well, at this point, not wanting to upset people who are also jonesing for adrenal glands, might find a sense of stinging. It must be time for our pop culture segment to be a little more. Time for our pop culture segment, where I find every pop cultural reference in this episode, compile it into a supercut and make heads or tails of what we are talking about. Your spider sense.
Speaker 1:Pop cultural reference. Sorry, now, in this case I don't actually have a smash cut because, unlike every other episode where there were numerous audio references to various pop culture things, in this case here, other than one sound clip from Wesley, which I'll get to in just a moment the biggest one was the title of the episode itself, the Prodigal, which I referred to in my general discussion of the episode, because this is a reference to the famous parable from the Bible, the Prodigal Son, which is in Luke 15, verses 11 to 32. Now, the setting of this is that Jesus is telling three stories to a group of Pharisees and scribes who are complaining that he welcomed an ape with sinners. And the two other stories that he was telling the Pharisees was the first one was about a man throwing a party after finding one lost sheep among the 100 sheep. And then the second one was a woman throwing a party after finding the one lost coin among her 10 coins. And then the third one to make it even clear, about trying to bring people back into the fold is parable the Prodigal Son, about a man throwing a party after his lost son comes back to him. Now, the first two stories were said to typify the celestial party that welcomed sinners when they do decide to repent. You repent, you can have all this even if you were sinning before. And the third story, the famous one, the Prodigal Son, is best reflecting this moral or this conclusion that Jesus was trying to reach.
Speaker 1:And in the story, the refusal of the older son to join the party directly related to the refusal of Jesus's listeners to join him in a party with the sinners who had come to him. Oh, they're sinners, we don't want to be involved. Well, he's equating them with the older son. I don't want to party with my younger brother because he was wrong that he shouldn't get the same benefits I do, which is what the Pharisees were saying to Jesus. Now, what is interesting is the fact that Jesus left that story somewhat open-ended, because he never makes it clear whether the older son ever actually joined in on the party, just like he's not making it clear where not the Pharisees would ever join in on the party. He leaves that for them to decide. And this leads to the question he was leaving to the Pharisees Sinners, the way Jesus does, the way the father accepted the younger son.
Speaker 1:Now, this is actually probably one of the most famous, if not the most famous of the parables that Jesus told in the Bible, and it has been referenced throughout the years in various items, also in music. For example, there was the Irish Falk tune that I played at the beginning of the episode the Wild Rover, where one of the key lines in the song is I'll go home to my parents, confess what I've done and I'll ask them to pardon their prodigal son. Now it was also used in the hit song Jump Around by the group House of Pain. In that song there's a set of lyrics that said Weren't here, moms? I came to drop bombs. I got more rhymes than the Bible's got Psalms, and just like the prodigal son, I return anyone stepping to me, you'll get burned.
Speaker 1:Now the other pop cultural reference that I want to mention just briefly is Wesley's line to Angel. When Angel wanted Wesley to stay back, and because he wanted to just do reconnaissance first, was Wesley saying Fool's rush in. Cordelia cuts off that famous saying by saying well, that explains why you want to go Well. In this case it's referencing the famous quote of Fool's rush in were angels fear the tread, which first of all, is appropriate, considering Angel. But anyways, the line is from the poem An Essay of Criticism by Alexander Pope and was published in 1711. And this poem is also the source of two other famous quotes as well. To Error's human, to forgive divine and a little learning is a dangerous thing. The line itself, a Fool's rush in, where angels fear the tread, has been referenced in many other works, in terms of the line itself, because it is a very famous line, even if most people don't know where it came from, because, for example, there was a 1997 American film called Fool's rush in sorry, matthew Perry in Selah Hayek. The song Fool's rush in is a 1940 song written by Johnny Mercer and covered by many artists, including ranging from Glenn Miller to Tommy Dorsey, to Rick Nelson, to Bow Wow Wow, to Dean Martin, to Elvis Presley, and also she and him.
Speaker 1:Now, coming back to the episode itself, it now cuts over to Liam's funeral because of the siren by Darla, and there is a half way decent crowd at his funeral. Among them is his father and his mother and sister. His mother and sister are openly sobbing, whereas father is staying there. You could tell there is sorrow in his eyes, but he is staying there, still trying to be strong for the family, but you could tell that he is sad about his son's death because, as I mentioned before, he does love Liam. Yes, he threw him out of the house, but it was technically tough love. It was for his own good and he never wanted his son to die. And it's been said many times, the hardest thing for a parent to do is to bury a child, adult, young, whatever is still the hardest thing. So this is not an easy moment for him.
Speaker 1:Now there is a priest giving a eulogy and, due to the music purposefully overwhelming what the priest is saying, it's hard to quite hear what he's saying, but according to the transcript, this is what the priest is saying Father God, we commit to you your humble servant, taken too soon from the bosom, as family, a man of just twenty years and six. Liam was well loved by everyone he met. Receive this, your humble servant. Reprieve that you may take his eternal soul into your care, father. Well, first of all, one gives us an age of Liam when he was sired. But it is also interesting that this is so much of a canned speech that the priest is giving. It's just just give me the age and name. That's all I need to know, and whether I say he or she. You get the feeling the priest has said this a thousand times, just something name and age and pronouns Because, especially since, get the feeling Liam was not quote well, loved, unless you define it as the number of women that he's bedded over those. Twenty and six years After the funeral, as the plot is being filled in by the grave diggers, the father is standing over it and we see Liam's somewhat ironic tombstone, which is 1727-1753, beloved son.
Speaker 1:Well, later that evening, darla is visiting the grave and, as many people have pointed out, that there was a goof in this scene, because we see Darla standing there over the grave and we see her breath, which is technically a goof because of the fact that vampires, who was established, can't breathe, so we shouldn't be able to see their cold breath, no matter what the temperature is. Well, tim Meneer explained that what happened was they were filming outside and was cold at that time when they filmed the scene when Liam is rising from the grave, and it was shot on location at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery behind Paramount Pictures. And well, the thing is, though, they just didn't have the budget to digitally remove the actor's breath, so they fear the heck with it. So the audience will see Angela's and Darla breathing. Well, we do see Angela rising from the grave as he's crawling his way out of it, and Darla wakas him to a new world with a nice bit of poetry. As I said, so many great lines in this episode, and that was an example of it. Well, while they're talking, having this conversation, a groundskeeper chances upon them and providing Angela's with his first meal.
Speaker 1:Now, one side note. The actor who plays the unidentified groundskeeper is actor Bob Fimiani, who has been in the series before as other characters. Well, he was in the Buffy Universe as other characters. He was Mr Ward in the Yoko Factor and Primeval in Glythru in Heartthrob. So he is a returning to the Whedoniverse. Well, as Andros is feeding upon him. The groundskeepers were citing the Ward's prayer and he does stumble upon the words, which you can understand, because he omits the words on earth, as it is in heaven, during the Lord's prayer, which, well, if I have a monster sticking his teeth into my throat, I might skip a word or two when reciting something. At that moment, my mind might be going elsewhere as I'm about to die, so I can forgive him for that goof.
Speaker 1:Now it does get back to present-day angel investigations as the security system is being put back into place and Angel then lets them know they want to do a recon on the exotic auto place. And that's when Wesley makes a comment about the fool's rush in. And at that point that's when Kate just strills right on in, even though the security system is turned on. She walks on in and wants to talk to Angel, which what I like about this entire scene is nice subtle running gag about the fact that this quote state of the art security system isn't really too effective or they really have not got it set up correctly, because demons and humans are just walking in and out of this thing and it's not detecting them. But anyways, coming back to Kate, she does provide him with a list of the passengers they asked for Grant.
Speaker 1:At this point he already knows what's going on, but at least she was helping. And she explains the fact that, while she's uncomfortable with what Angel is ie vampire she trusts his instincts as the detective. And she says all I ask is that you keep me in the loop, which we have already seen. He's not really wanting to do it, not so much because he's not liking Kate or any nefarious photos, but for the same reason Trevor is trying to keep her protected in both of their opinions but lest she knows the safer she is and in fact because of this paternalistic view, as it were, towards Kate unless she knows the safer she is.
Speaker 1:Wesley's against that as well, because he's making it very clear that Angel should be telling Kate about her father, that she has a right to know what her father is involved with. And Angel's response is the fact that it's very possible that Trevor doesn't know what he's involved with. And Wesley's understandable thing is the fact that, even if he doesn't know about the demon or the drug that's making him stronger or all that, that Trevor at the very least knows that he is involved with something unethical. So even if he doesn't know exactly what it is, he knows what he is doing is wrong and keep deserves to know that. And Angel's response to Wesley about that is yeah, I know all about it, wesley, believe me, but sometimes the price we end up paying for one bad choice isn't commensurate with the offense.
Speaker 1:In this case, this is a major contender for line of the episode, because what this does is it's not talking just about Trevor the fact that, oh well, he's making one mistake of working with these bad guys or involved with this drug for the demon, but does he deserve to have his relationship with Kate Forever, sever because of it? But no, this line actually has a much deeper, secondary meaning because it's discussing Angel's view of himself. He made one bad choice in his mind, leaving the bar after fighting with his dad and that as a result of that quote one bad choice, he is now spending the rest of eternity, as it were, atoning for the thousands of people he has killed because of quote one bad choice and in his mind he's still trying to wrestle with. Does the punishment fit the crime? And that is a neutral question that he will forever answer.
Speaker 1:Well, before they can discuss it much more, angel does leave and Cordelia types in the security code, which doesn't do much good considering the fact that the demons, regardless of the security, immediately burst into the office. And Leslie and Cordelia try their best to fight off the demons, but they're stronger, more aggressive, and what saves them is Angel coming back with the drug and he lures them away with it. And once again, this is a nice comic bit during this entire fight scene the fact that the security is not the world's greatest, because after Angel throws the one demon through a window. The system then says window is open. Thanks, we already knew that by the fact that he throws a demon through the window and even Cordelia gets frustrated with it he grabs the second demon and immediately forces it to talk and he gets the information he needs because he immediately calls Kate to warn her that her dad is in trouble. And we realize that time is a bit of the essence here, because Trevor opens the door at that same moment and we see the well-dressed man standing outside his door and they ask to come in and they say it's because we need to talk about Kate. Angel, meanwhile, is still leaving a message for Kate who, for whatever reason, is not hearing the message. Maybe she's not near the phone, or maybe she's refusing to answer, who knows. But he's leaving her message saying that Trevor doesn't know what he's dealing with. But Angel is rushing over there right that moment and we see him trying to get there as quickly as he can.
Speaker 1:Well, before we can see much more of this, it cuts back to 1753 and the father is boarding up the windows, but it's a little too late, because Angelus, who is now truly Angelus, is already inside the house and the father is surprising you're a demon.
Speaker 1:Because at that point he knows Angelus is not human, because he saw his son being buried. So he knows that Angelus is saying there, he's at least not in denial enough to say, oh, it's a miracle or whatever. No, he realizes that his dead son is standing in front of him. It's not a good thing. But he's also aware enough of at least the demon world to say that you're not allowed in here unless you're invited. And that's when Angelus then points out, saying he was invited by his sister who, as he says, she thought I was an angel. And he says that he was invited in by her right before he attacked her. He then proceeds to attack his father. Now, he doesn't do it quickly, instead, because his father tries to bring a weapon against him and Angelus just very easily steps aside and as he's about to kill his father, he says that his father was wrong, that Liam did make something of himself, and then he gives this speech before killing his father.
Speaker 2:An angel Strange. Now you seem taller when I was alive. Lord, bind this demon now. Do you think I ever let such a tiny trembling thing make me feel the way you did? Deliver me, Deliver my protection to father. You told me I wasn't a man. You told me I was nothing and I believed you. You said I'd never amount to anything. You were wrong.
Speaker 1:You see, father, I have made something of myself After all Once again, another great speech or mini speech from a character in this episode, because, for most children, they do view their parents, especially their fathers, as larger characters when they're younger and then when they get older, well, all people then view their fathers as human flawed. Now, for most people, that is a normal thing. Our fathers are not perfect. They make mistakes, whatever, and we can view them as realistic and deal with that, and there's nothing to hurt the relationship. We still love them. We just approached them in a different manner than we did as children.
Speaker 1:In the case of Angelus, though, and he said you know such a tiny thing that you are, he now views him as less than him. Originally, he was fearful of him. He viewed his father as stronger and bigger. Now it was all about power, as we see in the follow-up clip that I'll play here in just a moment that he feels he has the power. Now, instead of being equals, he feels he's superior to his father, and that's what allows him to kill him. And also, what is interesting with this scene is this was the first sign of Angelus' cruelty, because he purposefully saved his father for last. He could have come in at some point when all three of them were there and just very quickly slaughtered them.
Speaker 1:He had the strength, he had the speed, he could have done that with no problem. But he killed his mother and sister and left them there for his father to see him, because he wanted his father to see his wife and daughter dead in front of him, this way that his father could grieve and suffer for a moment before he was killed. And this is the first sign of Angelus' true cruelty that Darla inspired in him, the version of Angelus that we hear about all the way back in the season one episode of Buffy, where Angel said I killed a thousand people, with a song in my heart making him out to be the true monster Because he reveled in cruelty. A person who, instead of straight out killing Jenny Callender, just leaving her body wherever, instead staged it just to cause immense pain for Giles seeing the woman he loved laid out in front of him. That we see that beginning of it in this scene. It then cuts back to Trevor's apartment where the suited man is asking him about Kate, and Trevor assures him that she doesn't know a thing about what he is doing. As I mentioned in the beginning, he's doing this to protect Kate. Well, that moment that's when Angel knocks at the door and seeing the suited man, urgently asks Trevor to invite him in because, as noted in the previous scene, trevor never invited him in, so Angel's never gone past the doorway, so by the rules of vampires he can't come in. And Trevor makes it very clear that he's refusing to let Angel in, not so much because Angel's a vampire or whatever because, remember, trevor doesn't know about this world, but he's doing it because he wants to keep Angel out, because he just thinks of Angel as not just Kate's friend but somebody that could cause problems for Trevor's relationship with Kate, and so that's why he's trying to keep him out.
Speaker 1:Well, unfortunately for him, vampires are already in there. The suited men are vampires and that is why in the earlier scene they straight out ask can we come in? Because they needed once again Trevor's permission to do so. But unfortunately they're in there, angel's not. And they proceed to attack Trevor while Angel is standing in the doorway, literally helpless, with a look that is positively painful to watch, in a good way, because Angel is trying everything possible to get in and he knows he can't. There is no physical way for him to get inside the apartment and he's making it very clear the moment his soul leaves his body. I am in there, I am killing you. I mean it is one of pure rage, because it's one of those. He knows that he could have just gone into the apartment. Trevor would have lived, he would have destroyed both vampires easily. They weren't any great threats to him. He would have defeated them with no problems whatsoever but say outside, helpless, there's nothing that can be done. And he knows that only chance he has to do anything is he has to sadly wait for Trevor to die.
Speaker 1:This entire sequence is so well done because the great use of the music, the slight slow motion as they gruelly attack Trevor and, as I mentioned, the look on Angel's face of there is nothing he can do. Trevor is not inviting him in because once the attack begins, trevor's not thinking to say you can come in, no, trevor is just going to die and there's nothing that can be done to stop that. And what is interesting, this is the first time since City of the Angel is unable to save the victim, because in all the other episodes since that time he was able to save the victim, but in this case he can't. And it's even worse than the waitress in the first episode because there was just he got there too late, this one, he is there on time and, as I said, if he was invited into the apartment, trevor would have lived with no problems whatsoever, not even a scratch on him and said he has to stand there and just literally once again wait for Trevor to die, which is the worst thing in the world. And what I also like with the slow motion is this is somewhat reminiscent of the episode the Wish, with Cordelia's death, when vamp, zander and Willow slowly kill Cordelia, or at least in slow motion kill Cordelia, so that it's even more painful to watch than if it was a quick death.
Speaker 1:As Angel threatened, the second Trevor dropped to the ground, angel burst right into the room without a moment's hesitation. He quickly dusts one and then, before he can get to the other one, though, that vamp takes off, and unfortunately, at that moment that's when Kate arrives, hearing the message and hearing how much trouble her father is in, and she sees her father on the ground, sees the wounds on him, the bite marks, and because she's now wearing vampires, she immediately fears out what happened. She falls over, distraught over her father's body, and Angel tries to explain that Trevor doesn't know what the men were, but the fact that her father wasn't aware of this world doesn't do anything to calm Kate down, and she orders him to leave. And Angel realizes, just like with Trevor, there's nothing he can do to help Trevor at this moment. There's nothing he can do to help Kate. There is no words he can say, there is no actions he can do that will take care of her grief. And so he leaves just as helpless as when he arrived, which is a new state for Angel, because he's not used to being the hero. He's used to saving people and knowing the right things to say, and this isn't a case like in lonely heart where he's just uncomfortable talking to people. In this case, there is nothing he could say to Kate that is going to make her feel better as she's grieving over her father's body. Well, he goes back to AI and he gears up to fight the vampires and we see one of the things he's strapping on wrist stakes and I wrote in my notes yay, because it was too long since we've seen those. So he straps those on and he makes it very clear that he's moved on from cool and calm planning and it's just kill time now. He said that was plan A, now I've moved on to. Plan B was his response is what is plan B? As Angel grabs an axe, he says do I really have to tell you?
Speaker 1:Well, back at Trevor's, kate is still sitting in grief and shocking. One can't blame her for it because once again she's coming in. She's seen her father dead now, while she has seen probably a number of dead bodies, being a cop, this is her father. There is something completely different between seeing a loved one dead and seeing a stranger, an unknown victim dead. And also, what's even worse was if he had been shot, if he had been stabbed or if he had been hit by a car, well, that would still have been sad and that would have still put made her to struggle. She could still understand that because that's a human death, a car accident, he gets hit by accidentally, by a drunk driver. That's still grief and she would still be grieving over it. But in her mind she can understand that because that's human related. Or if a gang member had broken in and while trying to steal money to buy drugs, he ends up shooting Trevor once again, tragic, yes, but she could understand that as a cop, because she has seen that happen and she could process that this one on her hand, these are vampires. That is now that world directly invading her other world and that is enough to cause her mind to snap as or not so much maker insane, but for her to be changed forever while grieving over it.
Speaker 1:She looks over and and just as a side note, elizabeth Role sells this entire scene wonderfully where there's no words, it's just a complete lack of trying to process this in a way that even at this moment she can't. She doesn't know how to process this. She's an intelligent woman, she's a more than capable cop, but she doesn't know how to handle it. While she's processing all of this, she looks over and she does see the payoff money and the business card from Kells exotic autos and she puts everything together and realize what's going on. Well, it cuts over to Kells, where four vampires are going over some documents. Kate immediately walks in and shoots three of them and she shoots the fourth in the shoulder. Long enough to distract him because she realizes bullets aren't going to do anything. But she does that, and enough to distract him to stake him without hesitation.
Speaker 1:The head demon walks out and is surrounded by three other vampires and Kate puts four bullets into him, which understandably have no effect. And Angel doesn't walk in and to help Kate with the fight. And he does give. Well, that is a good tough guy, lying the demon. You have no comprehension. You do not understand what stands before you, angel, walking in behind Kate, trolling his axe, a big ugly drug-garden demon who thinks he's a lot scarier than he is maybe, and with that everyone looks at. Yeah, she knows which. I like that. That is not overly cheesy but is nice, good, tough guy.
Speaker 1:Kate and Angel proceed to fight the vampires as the demon is looking on and Kate, very impressively, is more than holding her own, considering vampires having free speed and superior strength, and this is her first true vampire fight. The one in some nambulous doesn't really count as much, because that was on pure defense and it was her first time and she wasn't quite sure of what was going on. But in this case she knows very well what's going on and she is able to hold her own in this fight and Angel, of course, is more than holding his own and he ends up getting the upper hand, in fact, and he holds the axe at the head, demons throat, and the demon at that point motions for the vamps to back off. Angel then backs away when Kate flips the vampire in a great move and stakes him. And at that moment, that's when the head demon approaches Angel. When Angel does a really impressive move, which is whip, stacks up, shoots out the two wrist, stakes at the vamps neck I will deny I was impressed with that maneuver and, like before he slices off the demons head, the demon says to Angel you're dead. And Angel, I'm already dead. Slicing off the head welcome to the club once again. Good tough guy line, just cheesy enough to be fun, but not so bad that you're groaning at it.
Speaker 1:Well, angel then approaches Kate, who is crouching where she dusted the vampire and once again, as before, she's still processing everything that's happened. She is still in grief over her father and Angel is trying to find a way to comfort her, to say the right words that might make this a little bit more bearable. And Kate is not having any of it because she says my father was human and you don't know anything about that as she walks off, and the look on his face as she walks off shows that he knows how disconnected he is still from humanity. Well, now it cuts back to Angel's house After the father is dead and Angel is sitting there just smoking a pipe, just relaxing, and Darla enters the house and we see Catherine and the father, both dead, along with the sister, and she has this conversation with Angelus.
Speaker 2:Brought to you by the Jesus of Christ, but his defeat of you will last lifetimes. What are you talking about? You can't defeat me now, nor can he ever prove of you in this world or any other. But we once swear informs all that we have become.
Speaker 1:If I had to pick a scene of the episode, this would be one of them. This would be a major contender for that entire dialogue between the two of them, because this is a scene where everything is done right, the lighting very muted, very low key, the music haunting somber, as we see the character of Angela's slowly realizing his true curse Throughout the series. Of course, fans know the curse, which is, yes, if he has a moment of happiness, he will lose his soul and become Angela's again. That was the gypsy's curse. But the real curse was the fact that he will be forever haunted by the fact that he will never have his father's love and approval. That is essentially what Darwa is haunting him with that, no matter what he does, no matter what he accomplishes, his father is dead. His father will forever disapprove of him and the final memories, the final acts that his father had towards Angela's was trying to kill him was that swing and calling him a demon. The final memories he will have of his father towards Liam was the fact that he disapproved of Liam, that he was ashamed of him. This will forever haunt Angela's slash angel throughout the rest of eternity, and nothing will ever change that. And this lack of approval is also what will lead to his future cruelty, because it is a sense of anger coming out. Just like Liam said, I will forever live down to your expectations. You think I'm a failure. I'll be a failure. Well, now it's fine. I'll never know the love of my mother or my father or whatever. Fine, the entire world can suffer for it. It is this sort of grief, as it were, this realization of what he has to face, that is causing him to strike out at others and to be as cruel as possible, to be the monster that he feels. His father forever thinks that he is that. Fine, I'll live up to being the monster that you said I am. I am that and I will be more so. And just like the line in I've got you under my skin, wesley's line about a father doesn't have to be possessed to terrorize his children, he just has to dot, dot, dot forever made that character far more interesting. This sense of emotional vengeance has now made Angeles an even more fascinating character than if he was just simply pure evil, because if you have pure evil, then he'd be a run the mill bad guy, nothing more than that. But what makes him so fascinating is the motivation here. It is this sense of emotional vengeance striking out at others that makes him more complex, and complex is always good.
Speaker 1:Well, come back to the episode for the epilogue. Kate is standing at her father's grave and Angel is watching it from the shadows and, as with the past couple of scenes, knows that there's nothing he can do to say to her, that is going to take care of this. Kate then walks away quietly and we see Trevor's tombstone Trevor Wachley, 1938 to 2000,. Beloved father. It's parallel with Liam's tombstone, beloved son In the episode ends.
Speaker 1:Now for the next segment. It's favorite kills and lines. Now, first of all, for favorite kills. I have been moaning the fact that for several episodes, angel, who is supposed to be this big killer and all that, hasn't really been killing anyone. Well, that changed in this episode, because in this episode alone, angel slash Angelus killed 9 different people, which, for those keeping score, is more people than demons that he killed in the last 13 episodes combined. It was a kill-a-palluza for Angel as a reminder of who all he killed. He killed the subway demon, the groundskeeper Kathy, his sister, his father, the suited vampire who killed Trevor, the two vampires with the wrist stakes, his mother and finally, the head demon. Now for the other deaths. Well, we attribute 1 to $1, which, even though it was in quick flashes, but she did kill Angel or Liam in this episode, so she gets credit for that. And then also we have the suited vampire who killed Trevor and Kate. Impressively, she got two vampires on her own, the suited vampire, after shooting him, and then in the final encounter she staked another vampire, so good for Kate, which now takes our kill total for this episode for 9 attributed to Angel, 4 by others, a total of 13 episodes. So overall for this series that's 23 and a half for Angel, a half of death for Wesley, 38 by others, so a total of 62 deaths so far as of this show.
Speaker 1:Now for the favorite kill. Now, in previous episodes it's been tough doing a favorite kill because a lot of them were rather lame, like in the last episode, the. I've got you under my skin. There was literally only one death on during the episodes and that wasn't all that interesting of a death thematically or how it was portrayed. The demon died In this one because we had so many deaths first, as I mentioned, 13 of them we had a lot to choose from.
Speaker 1:So in this case here I'm actually going to go with two of them. I'm going to go with the second place one, then the first place, both of which I have talked about length. The second place one is the final attack with the demon. That one is second place because it is just such a cool death swing up the axe, wrist stakes out, slicing off the head. The fact that it was shot so smoothly in all one move it looks like that was very impressive and, just as a side note, they can never go wrong with wrist stakes always impressive. But that I wouldn't say is my favorite kill.
Speaker 1:The episode, even though how looked on screen, was the coolest, but the one that will stick with me longest, the one I did talk about at length, trevor's death, that one. When I say my favorite, it's not so much oh, wow, that was so cool, but because thematically it furthered the characters so much because, as I mentioned, it forever changed how Kate viewed Angel, because whenever she will see Angel in the future she will hold him at least partially responsible for her father's death and that will forever alter her relationship with him, any chance of them being good friends or more gone. And, as I mentioned that, even though she may not blame him directly, for her father says it's not like he actually killed her, but he introduced her to this world, he brought her into this world and so she can't distance herself from that anymore and she was brought into this world by him. The same way, darla brought Liam into the world of vampire, and that forever altered her.
Speaker 1:When she killed the vampire later on, there was no joy or relief or yay, I defeated the bad guy. It was almost resigned, it's something I have to do. And killing the vampire afterwards didn't make her feel any better. Seeing the demon dead didn't make her feel any better. Nothing will make her ever feel better, and it is once again because of Trevor's death that her relationship with Angel and what the rest of the world will be forever changed and she will be, in essence, resigned to the darkness the way Angel is resigned to the darkness as well. Now for the favorite line. Once again, so many contenders for this one and, as I mentioned at the very beginning of the episode for listeners, feel free to chime in with what you thought was your favorite line and I'll probably agree with you that that was a great line, but line would have to be this line yeah, I know all about it, wesley believe me.
Speaker 1:But sometimes a price we end up paying for one bad choice isn't commensurate with the offense as I mentioned when I was first talking about this line the reason why I love this one so much, because it does some of how Angel views himself that he is spending all the eternity paying for the consequences of one bad choice, one decision that he made, that he will forever regret the leaving of his father, the meeting of Darla all of that flowed from leaving the house. Had he stayed home, had he returned home, he could have re-earned his father's love. He knows that now and he will forever regret that. And as a result of that choice, thousands of people have died needlessly because of it and he is forever suffering for it. And this ties in also with that scene I mentioned at the end, with Darla taunting him and saying that he'll never receive what he truly wanted his father's love. In fact, all of Angelus is a sonification of actin haste, repent in leisure, which is a nice parallel to Leslie's line in the episode of fools rush in. So nice parallel structure here. That's it for this week's episode.
Speaker 1:In the next podcast I will discuss the following episode. I will continue my retrospective with the episode the ring, where Wolfram and Hart shows itself again as we meet a fan favorite attorney for the first time, as Angel has to infiltrate a demon infested gladiator arena. So join me as I decide. If we are not entertained by Angel entering the arena, so join me, steven, for the next episode of Wolfram and cast. If you wish to reach out to us with any questions or comments, you can reach us on Facebook, instagram or Twitter at Wolfram cast, or email us at Wolfram cast at gmailcom. Feel free to write to us and we might read your comments or emails on the air. Please leave us a rating and review on iTunes, spotify or wherever you get your podcast entertainment, but for now,
