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
S1EP16 ("The Ring") -- Gladiatorial Grip: An In-depth Look into Angel's Moral Dilemmas and Unexpected Heroism
Can you imagine being captured and thrown into an underground gladiatorial arena, where survival means battling fearsome demons? This is where we find our eponymous hero in The Ring, a thrilling episode of the Buffy Spinoff Show Angel. We promise to take you behind the scenes of this adrenaline-fueled episode, providing intriguing insights into the clever twists and turns that make this show a fan favorite. Our in-depth commentary and analysis will give you a deeper understanding and appreciation of the fascinating world of Angel.
The episode offers an unexpected opportunity for Cordelia and Wesley to shine as they take it upon themselves to save Angel. They bring their individual skills and unique personalities to bear, creating a captivating dynamic that adds depth to the narrative. We also discuss the morally ambiguous character of Lila Morgan and the sinister attorneys at Wolfram and Hart. Together, we untangle the paradox of doing good while serving evil, offering a unique perspective on this eternal dilemma.
Finally, we delve into the gripping gladiatorial battles and Angel's firm stand against killing his opponents. We explore the historical context of such matches and its relevance to Angel's predicament. We round off our discussion with a look at Angel's surprising mercy towards Trepkos and the moral grey areas that come with such choices. Throughout, we pepper our discussion with historical trivia and answer listener questions, adding layers to the narrative. We urge you to join us on this captivating journey and encourage you to share your thoughts and perspectives. Tune in to Wolframon Cast for a fresh perspective on the show you love.
Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here? I am not entertained. Are you not entertained?
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to Wolframon Cast an Angel Retrospective. I am longtime fan Stephen Yonkin. In this podcast I will be doing a deep dive discussion on the Buffy Spinoff Show Angel, one episode at a time, with spoilers for both series. I have chosen to focus on Angel because, as a fan of the show, I feel that even 20 plus years after the show premiered, it still has themes and ideas that are worth discussing. My co-host, kari DelBach, is out placing her bets on a gladiator style match between Angel and Spike and 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 also to let me know whether or not Light Low's outfit was carbon dated or not and how sexy Angel looked in his t-shirt.
Speaker 2:In this week's episode, I will discuss the 16th episode of the series the Ring, which was directed by Nick Mark. Nick also directed 8 episodes of Buffy, including Something Blue, full for Love, checkpoint, double Meat Palace and Conversations with Dead People. The episode was written by Howard Gordon in his third of three episodes for the series, the other two being Hero and Expecting. Howard also wrote what's my Line, part 1 for Buffy, as well as 20 episodes of the X-Files and 52 episodes of 24 and 96 episodes of Homeland. Later, he was nominated for 14 Emmys for producing Homeland, winning three times, and for 24, the X-Files and Beauty and the Beast. Currently he is creating Gattica, based on the 1997 movie about genetic engineering in the future. The episode originally aired on February 29, 2000 and the IMDB description of the episode is Owner's of an underground arena and slave Angel and pit him against powerful demons for entertainment.
Speaker 2:Now, before I get into general comments about the episode itself, I wish to thank a listener who had written to me on Facebook Messenger. Her name is Stephanie Massey and she sent me a private message saying Just wanted to say my daughter and I were driving home and she asked me to put on your guys' podcast. She loves to listen to your podcast. She has never fully watched an episode of Buffy or Angel she's seven, lol but she knows of the show and the characters. Just wanted you guys to know. Well, stephanie, I wish to thank you and your daughter, allison, for listening to our podcast and I hope that you continue listening to it and if you ever have any questions or comments about the series, please do not hesitate to write to me or Carrie at Wolframcast at gmailcom. This also goes out to other listeners as well. I thank you for any comments and questions that you might raise, either through private messaging or through our posts on Facebook in response to your opinion of the show.
Speaker 2:Because, just wanted to mention my co-host, carrie, had put up a quasi poll about how people felt about the episode she that we reviewed a few episodes ago and that one. I will say we got a wide variety of responses, I would say the general consensus was everybody loved Angels Dancing, which, as a reminder, was the one scene in the episode I also greatly enjoyed. But in terms of Jira, there were, let's just say, a mixed bag. Some greatly liked her and wished that she had come back for a future episode. Others either could barely remember the episode at all or if they did remember it, they were not fans. So I thank you for your participation in that posting and please continue to do so.
Speaker 2:Now for this episode. Well, on the one hand, it is better than some of the previous ones that we had, such as she or where I fall to pieces, especially following the prodigal, which I reviewed in the previous episode and, as listeners might remember, I greatly praise and absolutely love the episode. This one, I would say, falls into more of middle of the road episodes Not exactly bad, but it's not exactly one that I would greatly rewatch. It's the equivalent of a monster in the week episode, though in this case the monsters are humans, which I'll discuss that nice touch here in just a moment where it's flipping then, where the demons are sympathetic and the humans are monstrous, and that, and also introducing us to Lila, whom I will discuss more in just a moment. Outside of that, there's not really too much that they gave to us, just a few nibbles here and there. The overall episode is rather forgettable.
Speaker 2:Before I get into some of the negatives, I do want to point out a couple of the positives. First of all, I do like the fact that there was an interesting twist where Angel is the one who needs to be rescued in this episode, as compared to all the other ones where he was the hero. He was the one doing the rescuing, saving Cordelia, saving of some damsel of the week, but in this case, here, because he was captured and taken into the slave arena, it was Cordelia and Wesley who had to come to his rescue, and that led a nice switch. And also in regards to Wesley and Cordelia, unlike even the protocol where I mentioned, they were barely used at all. That one I didn't have major problem with, but in the case of she and I've got you under my skin they served much less purpose. It was almost the Angel shell as opposed to an ensemble here. In this case the two of them did work very well together and proved to have mutual skills that were compatible With Cordelia using her ability to improvise and think on her feet, posing as the cop, and, as I mentioned when I get to that scene, she actually does do a convincing job as a police officer as compared to Wesley, who was humorously over the top. That was one of the pieces of Wesley comedy that I did enjoy. And then also for Wesley using his scientific skills to try to figure out how to break the bracelet.
Speaker 2:But also another nibble, a scene, some more of future Wesley in his scene with the bookie, where he is being tough, but in this case it's not being used for humorous effect. He is gaining more confidence and, as I'll mention I get to that scene in particular he is not intimidated, he is not called by the entire group, he knows what he wants, he knows how to get it and he is willing to do whatever it takes to get it. And that led a nice additional progression to the character whom I've mentioned in many episodes is my single favorite character arc in the entire series. His storyline has always been one I greatly enjoyed and this is another nice step forward in that progression, in fact, in that scene, because the one nice touch that I liked about it was the fact that after he shoots the crossbow bolt into the bookie's hand and it turns out he also has a pistol with him that he's willing to use more traditionally he walks over to the bookie and at first it looks like he's about to pull the bolt out. Instead he slightly wiggles around to torture him a little bit more. And what I like about that in the contrast is when Angel meets the bookie earlier.
Speaker 2:Angel, who's usually the brawn Angels, the one who does the tough guy, the punching, the grabbing, the vamping out to intimidate Angel's approach. He bribes the guy. He gives him well, according to a bookie, $200, whether or not that's true or not is questionable. What we do see Angel giving him money instead of punching his way to an answer. Wesley, on the other hand, who's usually the more intellectual of the two, he doesn't use that approach. Instead, he goes straight for the more aggressive approach by pulling out the crossbow bolt and without even really a warning. The warning is the pulling out of the crossbow, but when it's clear after a second or two that the bookie is not intimidated by the crossbow with the Robin Hood line, what does Wesley do? He shoots it without a second thought into the bookie's hand. First of all, once again, showing Wesley is a deadly shot. And this is in one of those like in expecting, where my co is pointing out that he had a rather big target to shoot at the giant canister. But in this case it was a hand and he did a great on point shot of it. And then, as I said, he walks over and so, showing any mercy, he starts to torture him a little bit more, making it very clear I will cause you pain until you give me the information I want and when we see it works. So that was a nice change in the character.
Speaker 2:Now, as for the story itself, on the other hand, it, to be honest, it wasn't all that interesting Now in retrospect, because we're very familiar with the movies. Anyone watching the episode now will say, oh well, the writers were just ripping off the movie gladiator, which is the reason why I was playing that sound bite at the beginning of the episode from the release got classic Now, as a reminder to listeners, though. The episode of Angel originally aired on February 29, 2000. The movie gladiator didn't come out until May 1st of 2000. So, yes, the writers probably were aware that there was this movie coming out, but since the movie had premiered yet and it didn't, obviously it didn't have the cultural impact that it did, because it had opened at theaters. At most people would have seen trailers for it Instead.
Speaker 2:The movie the writers were more inspired by was the Stanley Kubrick classic Spartacus, which also covered similar grounds of gladiators and people rising up against their oppressors, and there's a famous scene near the end of that movie of the slaves all standing up and saying I am Spartacus, I am Spartacus, I am Spartacus, all showing that they're rising up to defend one man. They're fighting back now against their oppressors. Now in that movie. That was a classic scene. It's an iconic movie scene and in fact the line I am Spartacus is one of the great movie lines of all time, and that was because that movie built up to that moment. That was a huge moment because you had the title character slowly building them up so that they would stand on their own.
Speaker 2:In this case, here at the end, when the demons suddenly came to his side, it didn't feel as well, or yes, throughout the episode, he kept on trying to convince them in various scenes not to fight or, if they were going to fight, to fight the McNamara brothers, to break their bonds, but for the most part, they were never really showing any change in it. It wasn't until the very end that suddenly, they all had a revelation and said oh yeah, we should all defend Angel, we should all fight back. We are better than this. And instead of feeling earned, it almost felt like well, okay, we only got a few minutes left of the episode, let's have the demons revolt. It felt a little rushed at the end and not as true to the story, and overall, though, the story did feel very by the numbers. I mean, there was a few twists, as I mentioned, with Angel being the one who needed to be saved, but there wasn't anything special about it. There isn't anything that makes me go.
Speaker 2:I want to rewatch this episode again and in regards to the monsters of the week, the villains of the week, we have the McNamara brothers, darren and Jack. Now, out of the two of them, to be honest, if I had to choose one that was the more interesting of the two, I would have to go with Jack, played by Scott William Winters. Thank you, scott made him actually creepier and colder. Actually, one of my favorite scenes in there is when he is confronting Angel right after Angel has his first kill in the arena and Angel is trying to tough guy him and Scott just has a simple look of you're not the first demon to threaten me. You're not going to be the last one. I know how to defeat you. You've got the bracelet. You try to come at me. You will be disintegrated instantly. I'm safe. And so, as all of his response to Angel's line of someday somebody's going to put you in your place and is just very casual responses someday, but not today, and not you it is said so casually and so confidently that you can tell that, as I said, that this is not the first time he's been threatened. He is not cowed by these demons, he is not scared by them. He knows how to control them and he knows he does have them under his control and I like that, and so result is actually a pretty much a shame that he's the one who dies sooner than Darren, because Darren is not as interesting.
Speaker 2:What would have been nicer is to give these two brothers a little bit more of a depth. What caused them to decide to form this demon arena? How did they get started? Because they would have had to capture the first set of demons. Was it an ingrained hatred? Was it something in their background that caused them to have such racist view of demons? Were they all just monsters? Because, as I mentioned back in Hero, cordelia also had that view All demons are bad. Because of her encounters she's had with them over the past several years, that you can really blame her for that. Were the McNamara brothers the same way? Were they raised believing that, or did something happen to them, actually making them a little bit more complex than just simple human monsters that deserve to be defeated? I just mentioned the villains that I wish we had known more about and will never get to see again.
Speaker 2:Now I do want to give praise to a villain whom we did get to see for the first time and whom I am so happy that the show did have the good sense to bring back again and again, and that was Lila Morgan, played by actress Stephanie Romanoff. She's the first attorney to actually give her name in the series because, as a reminder, in City of yes we Meet Lindsay and we know much more about him as the show goes along. He never gives his name in the first episode. In fact, even when he hands his business card it has Wolfram and Hart on there. It doesn't have his name on it and in the closing credits they don't even give him a character name. It's just young attorney, I believe, is what was listening to credit. It doesn't say Lindsay. It's not until he returns here in the next few episodes that we are now finding out his name. And the other attorneys the one in parting gifts, the creepy attorney in sentence sensitivity and the others once again, were never told their names. We're just told they're totally evil, that's all.
Speaker 2:Lila, on the other hand, we do get her name. She introduces herself as Lila Morgan and maybe it's because the writers and the producers who are now beginning to think that maybe this might be a character we want to bring back. I'm not sure why they chose to give her an actual name, but for whatever reason, she was the first attorney since Lindsay to make an impact. She was the first one that you truly did want to see more of, and it's because of the fact that she presents Angel with an interesting moral dilemma, which is can you serve evil while still doing good? Because she's making him that as an offer and you can still help the good guys out. Just come working with evil. Can you merge the two together? Now that's a moral dilemma that we see played out even more so in season five of the series. Can you be a little bit dirty? And at this point of the series, angel says no, if I serve evil, I become evil. But later on we do see that his views on that become, we'll say, more complex as he starts encountering more and more morally questionable areas, and that makes that journey even more interesting, and so we see the beginnings of it in his scene with Lila back at the law firm, but it becomes even more developed as the show goes along.
Speaker 2:Now, the reason why I was glad they brought in Stephanie Romanoff as Lila is the fact that they actually made her somewhat sympathetic, because she almost get the feeling at this point of the show that she was going to do a little bit of good. Now, granted, as we see later on, she's very much of a pragmatist. She understands the situation she's in, she understands her limitations, she understands the price that she has paid, she is a realist and she realizes for what I wanted to achieve in life, this is what it will cost me. That makes her similar to Lindsay, because we see Lindsay develop the same attitude as well, and this is why she and Lindsay were such great characters. And once they start giving these more depths to her Lindsay and also we see Holland Manners and a few others throughout the series it makes Wolfram and Hart not so much faceless, but it puts an actual human face on it. So that might be actually part of the reason why they gave her a name, because it now put a human face onto the law firm. And it's not a surprise that they brought her back, as we'll see in the next couple of episodes, when she and Krishan King both returned and they placed so well off of each other.
Speaker 2:Now getting into the episode Now the show opens up with Cordelia looking through an online database titled Demons, demons, demons, and she does have a nice dialogue with Wesley discussing over what the name of the database should be, and I like that repartee between the two of them, where Wesley is saying, oh well, what should you call it? And her response is, as a matter of fact, well, what about gaming database? Nice, simple. Now she's looking on here because, for whatever reason, she is suddenly interested in Wolfram and Hart and she's not finding them listed in the Demon database, which for good reason, because, as Wesley explains, the lawyers at the firm are human. They're not actually demons. They represent demons, they protect demons, but they are not actually demons. It's not clear why she's suddenly interested in finding out information about Wolfram and Hart, considering we hadn't seen them in literally six episodes, because the last one that they were involved with was parting gifts at the auction, so even in showtime it's probably been a few months since the events of that episode occurred. So it started to say why all of a sudden she's interested in them.
Speaker 2:And then also for the database. I know with a lot of online sites they'll have offshoots, like in wikis that they will have. Well, this person's not directly involved, but you might want to look up further information about them. So I'm surprised because they did represent demons, they did defend them that the database might now have had human assistants, human helpers or whatever and then included them in there, because they would be affirmed that, especially as we realize there how much power they have, it would only make sense for people to want to know about them if you're willing to fight them.
Speaker 2:Now also, what is missing from the database as well, as Wesley points out, are the Vigories of Odenton, which first of all it's a nice callback to she, because now Wesley and Cordelia definitely are aware of them. That one just makes me think the database is not all that comprehensive, or maybe it's just not updated all that often. Because we are talking the 90s. It's not as by the second update as we're used to today, where if there's new information out there on Wikipedia is updated within a couple minutes at most. But back at that time it was a little bit more hand updated. So I can actually understand why something as fairly new and unknown as the Vigories of Odenton, because they had not really been our dimension prevalently before that episode occurred.
Speaker 2:She also mentions that there should be a debondating site called Archfiendorg where the lonely and slimy connect. Just as a side note. I did have a look up, because whenever any TV series or movie or whatever mentions a website, I'm just curious to see if some fan or somebody involved with the series or movie did actually go to the trouble of creating one. And there is actually a home page for Archfiendorg, though all it is is just a very simple splash page with the title and the slogan where the lonely and slimy connect, and nothing more, which is a shame, because it would have been cute if somebody had put a lot more work into it so you could actually find three horned demons looking for two horned demon s, or whatever. But now getting back to demons, demons, demons.
Speaker 2:The database, I will give credit, though, unlike some of the other internet screens that I have openly criticized, saying nothing, looks like that In this case. Here, the database screen actually looks like some that would have been made at that time, because it had old time drawings which I can picture somebody play up there for graphics, and it has very simple fill in fields, which, once again, at that time computers and databases were not as advanced as they are today. I designed a few databases myself back at that time, and we kept it very simple. Here is a list of fields click, click, click, fill in. Maybe there is a drop down list and then you hit submit. Well, in this case, here that is what they had was just a view, very simple, fill in field size, slime, claws or hands and smell.
Speaker 2:Now, as they are doing their research, angel comes in during their argument that they have almost brother and sisterly, and once again he acts almost as a father, at one point even say kids, or shall I break you up? I mean in the nice gentle way, the way a father would, with two worrying children who are having sibling rivalry with each other. But as they are busy fighting over their respective dating lives, a man who is very much beaten up, with a black eye, ripped jacket etc. Walks into the office and this is Darren McNamara and he comes to angel investigation seeking help and he explains that, based on what happened was his brother Jack was kidnapped the previous night. The impression given by how he is being up is that in the course of the kidnapping he was being up as well. And he gives angel a box that was left as mailbox which is containing Jack severed finger, or at least that same price that we are getting. And when angel asks about what person took Jack, that is when Darren says that is the thing, these were people who took him.
Speaker 2:And now we get into the opening credits. Now, following the opening credits, darren explains a little bit more as angels going through photos of Jack, and he explains that basically that while Darren is a successful businessman, jack never was. And Jack had gone into trouble with a bookie and only him. Money got through bad bets, etc. Because of his gambling addiction. And he gives the name of the bookie, ernie Melons.
Speaker 2:And Darren mentioned the fact that he had helped Jack out before by paying off some of his debts, but this time he wanted Jack to work out for himself and unfortunately, what happened was Ernie came after him and that was the last that Jack saw was demons dragging Jack away. And angel does accept the case, being the hero, and decides that the smartest move is to begin with the bookie. With that, the show flashes over very quickly to an office where a group of men are playing cards and angel walks in to talk to the bookie and makes it very clear, as I mentioned the beginning, he is not here to beat him up, because at first the bookie is thinking that angel is going to get tough and he makes it very clear no he just wants to talk to him because angel decides to go the nonviolent approach in this episode, which is odd, considering later on he well, actually, that does stay true to the character, because he tries to remain as nonviolent as he can throughout the entire series.
Speaker 2:I mean throughout the entire episode. Well, the Ernie does explain that what happened with Jack is no longer about the debt, but it was more about making Jack an example to others who own a money, and he said that Jack was sent to a place beneath Beachwood Canyon and that's where angel drives out to now. Also as a note, because once again, when I hear addresses or sending names like that, I like to check and see if they actually exist or was something that was created by the writers. In this case, there is a beachwood canyon and it is looking to Hollywood Hills in northern Hollywood. So, considering angels in Los Angeles, not a reasonable place for him to be taken to now. As a few notes about Beachwood Canyon, it was the original location of the Hollywood side and there are definitely famous people who live there, because I'm northern Hollywood, because some of the notable residents include Kevin Bacon, jack Black, humphrey Bogart, charlie Chaplin, madonna and Keanu Reeves, which now makes me wonder how many of them are attending underground demon fights. You never know. Some of the, some of the names are just right off. I can picture them going to an underground demon fight. I could picture Jack Black, jeremy Amon or Kevin Bacon doing the same thing. I could came back to the show, though.
Speaker 2:Angel walks around and he sees a tunnel lid that he enters through. Now it cuts back to Cordelia and Wesley, or researching the demons that kidnap Jack, and they're using the demon database till look it up, which also leads to a nice dialogue where first Wesley is giving the descriptions of it bald, white skin, slime, claw like hand, sulfuric smell and eerie high pitch howl or whale, which causes Cordelia to say I've dated guys like this many times. But then also, as a nice bit, where Wesley, almost sounding a bit Giles ish, makes a comment about yeah, databases are never as good as books. I could, in the time it takes that database to try to find it, I could look it up in my book. And before he even has a chance to pick up the book, cordelia responds with got it. So it has a nice Giles Jenny calendar. Call back there. Interns are debate. Well, the computer does return what the demon is, a Howard demon.
Speaker 2:And at that moment, that's when angel is climbing down the ladder into the tunnel and he is attacked by 2. Bald, white skin, slimy, claw-like ansel, fury smell, eerie, high-pitched howls and wails. 2. Hauer gamons, and he does very quickly get the upper hand and he gets one of them to say that Jack was sold, that yes, they took Jack, but they sold him. So now he wants to find out where or to whom Jack was sold to. And that leads him to a nightclub. Well, he walks in there and there's a bunch of rich people who are pulling up to the valet parking and entering and is quietly observing from the outside, and he sneaks in through a sewer grate to get into the club itself.
Speaker 2:Now, inside the nightclub, there is a huge party going on. It's most likely the weekend, so, as a result, you can imagine why a lot of people would be there. And it is very similar to the set used for Lonely Heart. Realistically, it very well could have been the same set that they used just to save money, just change a few things around. Well, he sees a woman sitting by herself, just like he saw in Lonely Heart, except this case, here the woman who is sitting by herself is not Kate or a heroine. She's the woman we get to know as Lila, and she almost drops a betting ticket $5,000 for crib to win is what it says on the ticket. At this point we don't know her name. We just see her as a woman sitting here by herself.
Speaker 2:One other comment about Lila is in an interview with Stephanie Romanoff. She commented that right before gaining the call to audition, the person I was dating at the time said Angel was his favorite show and he was like you have to watch this show. And so I watched the show and the very next day I get a call for an audition. For it Isn't it wild. The audition was for a guest spot. There was no mention of it being reoccurring. I said to my manager I want to plead this. In a way they'll want to bring me back. So it worked out well. I think, as I commented in my general comments, you could tell that's how she was playing it. And it did work because she ended up appearing in 35 episodes of the series overall soon over the first four seasons and she did do a really good job. And now some of her other notable credits that she has done since then was the movie 13 Days and the Final Cut Now game.
Speaker 2:Back to the episode. Angel goes into the next room, which is an arena room where a crowd is cheering on a competition, and he sees two demons are fighting each other in a gladiator style pit. One demon, whom we later know as Tom Krib, beats the other and there are a chance of killing blow. Killing blow from the crowd. Anyone who's ever seen a pro wrestling event or a boxing match will recognize this type of crowd. Very bloodthirsty, we won violence. Well, to increase the chances of the violence, a dagger is thrown in the crib and he slices the throat of his opponent to the wars and the cheers of the crowd. At that point, an announcer similar to a boxing announcer is dressed in a nice tux and with a microphone sticking down from the ceiling, similar to a boxing match, declares Krib the victor and says that it's his seventh career kill and he did it in just six minutes and 22 seconds. And with that it says that they're about to bring out two new demons in the arena to fight. Well, at that moment, before we can see any more of the second match, angel spies Jack being let out of the realm and follows him men escorting him out. Well, angel follows and it turns out to be a trap that was set by Darren and Jack to capture Angel.
Speaker 2:A couple notes here about the actor who played Jack. He's played by actor Scott William Winters. Now he's brother of Dean Winters. Now, as a side note, dean Winters, not to go down too much of a rabbit hole, viewers might recognize Dean Winters nowadays from the all state commercials. He plays the character Mayhem, who is the spokesperson for that show. But he was also in a number of other shows, such as one of Tina Fey's boyfriends in 30 Rock, and he and Scott, his brother Scott, also starred in the series Oz. In that case Dean was a seasoned criminal who had the ability to stay above and all and manufactured deals with all the other criminals and fell in so that none of them ever bothered him because he was willing to make deals with all of them. And Scott played his mentally challenged brother, who coincidentally was a boxer in that series. They were also both in the TV series Law and Order SVU. Together, dean Winters and Scott both played cops at various points in the show.
Speaker 2:For Scott William Winters he was also in Borgia and his other very famous role he was in was Goodwill Hunting. He played Clark, who was Matt Damon's romantic rival. He was the one who was in the famous scene where Matt Damon at the end says how do you like them apples? In that famous scene, and also, for somebody like me, where I also recognized him from was the movie Jane Silent, bob Strike Back, where he was actually uncredited but technically he was playing himself, reprising the role of Clark in the fake sequel to Goodwill Hunting, which was called Goodwill Hunting 2 Hunting Season, which, if you haven't watched the clip of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and Scott William Winters doing a scene from it, which is, let's just say, a much more violent version of the them apples scene from the original movie, look for it on YouTube. The three of them are really, really funny. It's worth checking out just to watch all three of them satirize their characters from the original movie.
Speaker 2:Well, anyways, back to the show. Angel does fight back when he is falls into the trap, but he is very quickly subdued and that's when he's knocked unconscious and Jack just looks at Angel and says that this one will be a real crowd pleaser. Well, a little bit later Angel does wake up and he's in a cage, but without his duster, which, I'm sorry. I don't mind you doing a lot of things in, but you took away his trademark duster. That is just uncool, man, uncool. But he does notice that, in place of the duster, though, he has a wrist cuff on it which has XXI engraved on it, 21 to represent the number of kills we fight out later. With that he makes a quip. I asked for a room with a view which, once again, david is not the best at delivering quips. Leave it to others to do it. They do a much better job. But he does see a demon in the cell next to him. Angel does display that, while he's not good at quips, he is very fluent because he speaks them in Spanish, french and Italian. It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, the demon just ignores them anyways.
Speaker 2:Well, at that moment, that's when Jack comes down and lays out the rules. He makes it very clear Do not cross the red line that we see on there, which has in big white print do not cross. And he makes it very clear that if you do well, something bad will happen and we find out later what it is. And he also explains that the only way they will be freed is to have XXI kills. Then at that point the wristband will be removed. Well, angel at that moment says that there's no way he's going to kill another demon With that. That's when Jack, as I mentioned earlier, completely unfazed by anything Angel has to say because once again Angel is probably not the first demon to say this to him Just simply looks at him and says then you'll be killed Either way, the audience will get their money's worth and once again just washes right off of him.
Speaker 2:Well, while Angel is having this scene, wesley and Cordelia are looking for Angel and we find out that they did contact Kate and that they mentioned the fact that she didn't seem to care, which is actually a nice callback and continuance from the previous episode because, as a reminder, in the previous episode the last encounter she had with Angel was staking a couple of vampires who had just killed her father and Angel did not do anything to stop it. Now, as I discussed in that episode, he wanted to, he tried to, but he was unable to. But still, in her mind, as I went into great lengths there in that episode, she still holds him responsible for this. So you can imagine that Wesley's saying we need to find Angel, or saying whatever, find him, they'll find him. I don't really care anymore.
Speaker 2:But now Cordelia, though, also points out that Darren, who should be anxiously awaiting any updates from Angel on the team, is also missing as well, which is striking her as odd, because you would imagine, since his brother was kidnapped and Angel was looking for Jack, that Darren would be calling almost on the hour. Hey, have you heard anything? Hey, did you talk to the bookie? What did the bookies say? Did you have any other leads, or etc. Or I just found this in his apartment. Maybe this might help. They can't even seem to find Darren anymore, which also strikes them as odd. With that, wesley decides that the best place to go is to the bookie, since that was the last place they knew that Angel went, and Wesley decides to take a few weapons with him.
Speaker 2:Now it does have a throwaway bit where it's like this huge, complicated set was going to go on. How many fumbles with it, which, once again, as I discussed in the episode, she plumsy Wesley is now getting tired. That's why I'm glad they got rid of him, got rid of that version of him, as we'll see in the very next scene with them. Well, now it cuts back to the demons who are sitting down to eat their gruel, and Tom Cribb is sitting there and he tries to take control of the situation by dominating the table, and angels make it very clear he won't have it and defends another demon, a smaller, weaker demon that Cribb is trying to bully. As a side note, tom Cribb is not a random name that writers came up with.
Speaker 2:There was a boxer in the 18th century named Tom Cribb, born in 1781, died in 1848. He was one of England's most celebrated champions of the bare knuckle era and he made milling on the retreat acceptable as a mode of fighting. He held the title throughout the years of the sports peak in popularity and he did end up retiring in 1822, at which time he was awarded a Lion's Skin Championship belt, which was the first actual title belt that was ever given out. And the actor playing Tom Cribb is actor Marcus Redmond, now as a nice other tie in here, and this one was just more coincident than anything else. Another movie that Marcus Redmond was in was also one associated with fighting Fight Club. I'll discuss more, but, as listeners very well know, the first role and the second role.
Speaker 2:So, moving on at that moment as Angel and Tom the demon, not the boxer, as Angel and Tom are sort of toughing each other out, jack and Darren come down and they announce that evening's cards and one of the demons does rush at them and we see what the effect of the wristband is, because the moment his wristband crosses the red line he immediately disintegrates, instantly.
Speaker 2:It's clear that he's not the first demon to try this, because at no point do Jack or Darren look even the least bit scared as this huge demon is rushing at them because, once again, as I said, he's probably not the first demon to try out what the red line does, and for them it's another demon.
Speaker 2:And Jack in fact even makes a mention that he feels bad only because he paid good money for that demon. And that's when they decide to throw Angel into his place for the match. So now it cuts over to the bookie who is beating up somebody who obviously owes him money At that moment. That's when Wesley walks in to ask about Angel and the bookie tries to be tough with Wesley not very him because well, this is still the Wesley we see. You know, with the glasses, the suit, you know looking weak. Now he's not acting weak, but he looks like somebody that nobody else would take seriously. Ernie says well, hey, angel, pay me $200. Make me an offer. That's when Wesley starts to make it clear this is not the Wesley we've seen in the past.
Speaker 1:You should understand that the man I work for means a great deal to me and I will not give you a single red cent. What I will do, sir, is beat it out of you if I answer that.
Speaker 2:What is interesting with this is we've seen tough Wesley and I'm putting air quotes around that tough Wesley in previous episodes, such as expecting or parting gifts, where I'll thrash you within an inch of your life and then I'll take that inch, or where he was confronting the other demon, which was in expecting, where he was saying you know, I have any hobbies, my coho is favorite line from that episode. But the thing is, though, in both of those episodes and in other moments, his toughness was almost a little bit of a facade, in the sense that he wasn't as tough as he tried to act to be In this one. He is generally tough. That dialogue I just played was not fake, because that's when he pulls out the mini crossbow and, without hesitating, as I said before, he shoots it without missing a moment. And when the other henchmen the bookies' henchmen try to reach for their guns, he immediately, without hesitating, brings out in his other hand a pistol and says I wouldn't try it. And you get the feeling he probably would have fired upon them, maybe not to kill but at least to hurt. But the big thing is here is in this scene, at no moment does he appear intimidated or bullied by the bookie and his goons. He knows exactly what he wants. He knows he's going to get it. And that's what makes this scene interesting, because the line that I played I will beat it out of you In previous episodes would have been equivalent to I'll crush you within an inch of your life and then I'll take that inch. We as an audience would have laughed at him, but in this case that wasn't a funny line. It wasn't meant to be. It was a serious line that he would have been out of Ernie if necessary. So now, as a result, we get our first appearance of Badass Wesley, whom we get to see more and more as the series goes along.
Speaker 2:It cuts over to the arena and Lila has returned and is talking to Darren. She reveals that she is aware of who and what Angel is, because she makes a very pointed statement of saying that that's a vampire with a soul. Meanwhile, down in the ready room, the other demons are tuning up before their respective matches, while Angel is just sitting and brooding and sitting in a corner and Manish, the weaker demon that Angel defended earlier, tries to give him a little bit of advice on how to kill his opponent. As he said, you did a solid for me in the previous scene with Tom Cribb. So I'm helping you out in return. And Angel not being rude, but just makes it very clear I'm not going to kill him, I'm not killing anyone.
Speaker 2:One signed note here these are demons and I'll mention this again later on, at the end of the episode, because they almost imply this, which is in a previous episode. He probably would have killed somebody like a Tom Cribb or a Manish or any of the other demons, because we don't know if they're good or bad. Great in the Angel world, it is possible they were good demons. We don't know that. For all we know, tom Cribb slaughtered an entire family before he was captured, or Manish when an eight-somebody's entrails, and so on and so forth. We don't know this. We're assuming that they're good because Angel is defending them, but Angel doesn't know who or what they are. Well, he might know what they are, but he definitely doesn't know who they are. He doesn't know what they've done. So it is interesting that he is literally refusing to kill a creature that one episode prior or one episode later he would have no problem staking, stabbing, slicing off their head, whatever, but certainly in this one he's Gandhi, a reference that one of the other characters makes as well. So it's almost like I have found somebody worse than you, so you get to live, because the McNamara brothers are even worse.
Speaker 2:Well, angel is brought out into the arena for his fight, and the fight does occur, and Angel is strictly on defense, not because he's in timidity, but because he wants to keep his vow of not killing. So at no point does he go on the offense, which he could easily do, and the other demons observing this are nosing the fact that he does refuse to fight. Well, outside the arena, outside of the club, wesley and Ferdilia are looking around trying to figure out how to get in, and they do see a couple getting out of a car. Ferdilia, without thinking twice, immediately poses as a cop, and this does lead to a nice cute bit where she asks Wesley, show him your badge. And he pulls out something who knows what it is from his pocket and just quickly waves it like it's a badge, but she, on their head, that's doing actually a convincing job as a police officer, saying that they're about to do a raid later. Your best bet, give us your tickets now and we'll let you go, etc.
Speaker 2:Wesley, though, does almost blow it with a bit of overacting by leaning in, almost looking psychotic when he says something's going down tonight, something with the man. Okay, it's goofy, but to the episode's credit, ferdilia calls him on it as they're walking away. They're looking at something down with the man and she even says you almost ruined it with that line. That saves it by having Ferdilia acknowledge that that was an over the top line and Alexis' performance was over the top as well. It was intentionally over the top. But some are not there, even in spite of Wesley. They did convince them that there will be a raid at an illegal sporting event and a couple of leaves, leaving Wesley and Ferdilia with their tickets so they can get into the club.
Speaker 2:So now it gets back to Angel, who is still holding his own in the fight, but once again he's refusing to take any offensive moves and the crowd seeing this, just like at any boxing match or wrestling match or any violent type match, is bullying the one-sided nature of it, because it's boring to them. They wanted to see both demons fighting each other. To see Angel not fighting at all, as I said, is just plain boring. Well, that's when Ferdilia and Wesley walk into the room and see Darren. They also notice that Angel is in the arena below and Wesley refers to them as Octavian matches, which I'm not exactly sure where he got that term from because, as I'll discuss a little bit in just a moment here with the popular cultural references, yeah, it's Roman, but Octavius was an emperor. But I tried to look it up, I never found anyone who referred to gladiator matches as Octavian matches. So that's just a weird phrasing for Wesley to use.
Speaker 2:Demon that Angel is fighting is handed the knife by one of Darren's assistants. Basically, let's just end the match, let's have the demon kill Angel, so we can just move along. And he does cut Angel with it. Angel, defending himself, grabs the knife. Now, what is odd he's assigned out here.
Speaker 2:If they wanted to end the match by having the demon kill Angel, why did they give him a metal knife? Why not give him a wooden stake? Because, once again, even if the demon had stabbed the angel through the heart with it, yeah, angel would have been weakened. But the other thing the demon could do with it to Angel is to slowly cut off his head, which would have taken a little while with that knife. But the demon did get it and, as I said, he cuts Angel with it and Angel, without even realizing it, grabs the knife and ends up stabbing the demon with it.
Speaker 2:And in this case, whereas the knife wouldn't have had any effect at all on Angel, it did kill the demon. And that's when Angel looks down and sees the blood on his hands as the crowd is now cheering his name. I love this scene from gladiator, but in this case, instead of yelling, are you not entertained? Instead, he just walks quietly back into his cage. Well now, at this point, sensing that everyone's bloodlust and almost hearing the cheering of the crowds, my spidey sense is tingling. It must be time for our pop culture segment, where I find every pop culture reference in the episode, compiles it into a supercut and make hazard tales of what they are talking about. Your spidey sense, pop cultural reference, sorry.
Speaker 1:Every night it's jeopardy, followed by real affortune and a cup of hot cocoa. I'm Captain America here, coming from Mr Don't Talk to Me before I've had my flagon of Oprah in the morning. I think I can get out of this by pulling the gun. This is wheatgrass. I ordered the Kiwi Cooler Beetlejuice. Albino comes in a knockin'. What do you think you are, moses?
Speaker 2:What are you, Robin Hood?
Speaker 1:You think people get enough gratuitous violence watching Jerry Springer From Keanu. These Octavian matches date back to the Roman Empire. Add a Porsche and hair plugs and I've dated this guy A lot and then just a breast-side story. Why put off till tomorrow which you can do today?
Speaker 2:Now, two of the things I wanted to discuss is, first of all, the last quote that we just heard from Angel why put off until tomorrow what you can do today? Now, that's a famous quote that we have all used at various points or have read various books. But now for the origin of it. Now, it's been attributed to various people, such as Mark Twain, oscar Wilde, benjamin Franklin. Now for Mark Twain. Where he first used it was in an 1870 article in the Galaxy magazine. In the article, he was expressing unhappiness with a lot of Benjamin Franklin's aphorisms and he wrote snub those pretentious maxims of his, which he worked up with a great show of originality, out of truisms that had become rearsome platitudes as early as the dispersion from Babel. And to show how tired and shop-worn Benjamin Franklin's sayings were, he farcically attributed the following to Franklin why put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow just as well? Which later everyone began to recognize as why put off until tomorrow what you can do today? Now, as for Oscar Wilde, it was attributed to him in a 1946 biography by Hesketh Pearson, which was called Oscar Wilde, his Life and Wits, and in the book it was, hesketh wrote. One saying of his went so well that he repeated it on several subsequent occasions and Mark Twain either heard it or heard of it, appropriated and spoiled it. This is the original version. I had never put off until tomorrow what I can possibly do the day after. Here's the thing. Pearson, as I said, wrote that in the 1946 biography. Problem is there has been no evidence other than this biography that Wilde ever said that, so they could not find any corroborating evidence of it. So we have no idea how accurate that attribution was. But what we do know is that it was used even earlier than Twain and Wilde. It was used by the Earl of Chesterfield in a 1749 letter to his son, and in the letter he wrote Know the true value of time, snatch, seize and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination. Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today, and hence the saying not Twain, not Wilde, not Franklin, the Earl of Chesterfield. Now the other thing I want to discuss for the pop culture was the Octavian matches, or, as everyone else knows them, as, gladiator matches.
Speaker 2:Now, gladiator matches had the roots in the Etruscans, who were the predecessors of the Romans, and they were originally started off not as sporting events, but as part of a funerary ritual honoring the dead. It was later, with the Romans, that they became a form of entertainment and the earliest ones were in 264 BC. Now for the combatants, they were all different types. Most of them were prisoners of war, slaves, criminals with a death sentence, but the worst some who did become a Gladiator, voluntarily, for fame and glory, though that number was very small and in fact, as we saw in the movie Gladiator, some were actually Roman emperors, such as combatants who did participate. Now, the emperors who participated because of their station were scorned upon by others for participating, because they were felt that the Gladiators were a lower class, because they were the prisoners, slaves, criminals, and you're associating yourself with them. You're better than that. So that's why, even though they were participating for the sport or just to show that they are capable of winning such a match, others were saying you're better than this.
Speaker 2:Now there's actually several types of Gladiators and I could do an entire episode just discussing all the different types, but just the list some of them, and you could easily tell which ones were which by their armors and helmets and weapons. Now here are just some of them. For example, one of them was the Retiarius, or known as the Netman, where he was noticed that because he was armed with a net, a trident and a dagger, but in exchange, though, he had very little armor. Another one was the Secutor, also known as follower. He was usually pitted against the Retiarius, and you could tell him by the smooth helmet and sword and shield that he carried. Another one was the Provocator, or Challenger. Now, this was more the type of Gladiator that we would see in the movie Gladiator or in any movies that had Gladiator matches. He wore a breastplate and helmet with a visor, along with a sword and shield. Now, the Provocators, because of the heavier armor and weapons, they were usually paired off against others of that same kind. And also the Retiarius. Now, this was a Gladiator who won his freedom but chose to return to the arena. Ironically, as we see here in just a little bit, angel technically is a Retiarius because he is given his freedom In those cases. The Retiarius, because they chose to return to the arena after winning it. So that means they were very good in the arena. They were very rare, but they became very popular with the public.
Speaker 2:Now the Gladiator games eventually ended. They started to decline in the 4th century AD, when the Roman Empire adopted Christianity, and in 404 AD they were officially banned by Emperor Honorius. He banned it to honor Saint Telemachus. Telemachus was a monk who had come to Rome from Asia Minor and while he was watching one of the games, one time he leaped into the arena to stop the Gladiators from fighting, spectators being the oh so peaceful crowd that they were. Responded to this noble and brave act that Telemachus did by stoning him to death for interrupting their games. Say what you will about crowds if they want to match it, you better not stop it. He became a saint and, as I mentioned, the Roman Empire then officially banned it.
Speaker 2:Well, now going back to the demon Gladiator matches, chupcoes and Malish are now calling out onto the arena floor and Angel encourages both of them to refuse to fight by saying no one fights, no one dies. And with that crib actually says you know, easy for you to say after you just made your first kill. And that's when Angel comments that it's not the first life he's taken. Unlike the room with a view which I could have lived without, this one was a good one because of almost the somber way he's saying that we're not proud of being a killer, because, especially with a soul, because that was the big difference between him and Angelus. Angelus, on the other hand, would have said that line differently. He would have been bragging about it. It's not the first line of Teagan, or even the 21st loser.
Speaker 2:Angel, on the other hand, says that, regretfully, as a general rule, angel will kill if necessary but, as we've seen in this episode, will try to avoid it if at all possible, because even with the bookie, as I mentioned earlier, he'd even use any force. With him, he was going the nonviolent approach and that is the common thread in this episode with his character. I don't seek out violence, I don't enjoy violence and I will do it if I absolutely have to. Well, trepkos and Malish, on the other hand, do go out on the floor and Malish throws a few effectual punches before Trepkos breaks his arm and then snaps his neck. Now, as a note here, once again as background information, the name Trepkos for writer Howard Gordon, who wrote this episode. That seems to be almost a favorite name of his, because he also used the character Daniel Trepkos in an episode of the X-Files, so this is not the first time we hear that character name.
Speaker 2:Well, meanwhile, wesley and Cordelia are talking about what to do and while they're out in the parking lot and they realize that, well, calling the police is not a good idea because, as Wesley points out, is, or so the police are probably in on this, you know, they're probably on the take. So the fact that Darren, if he sensed that there was going to be a real raid, well, the smartest move for Darren to do would be to kill all the fighters right before the police appeared. With that, they also comment about the only way to rescue Angel is to break off the wrist cuffs. And because Wesley says they were forged by an ancient sorcerer. Now here's the interesting thing he only saw the cuffs on the demons briefly, as they're down in the arena, but yet he automatically knows you know what they are, what they will do, because he even says if they cross the red line it will kill them. I mean, how does he know that unless there's something in his research that this is a special type of cuff, which would have been nice if he had said, oh, I've seen this cuff, this was the ancient cuff of Hyperia or whatever that they were using, because how else would he know that a simple metal cuff is going to immediately cause them to disintegrate, and if? Or? It would have made more sense that, after they had gone the cuffs, and he looked up in one of his books or on the line, then he said oh yeah, that's what will happen if they cross the red line. But he knows this just after seeing them very briefly down in the arena, which is rather impressive for him, considering. I can't imagine how he would have known this. Now, even though he knows what the cuff does, he knows that the ancient sorcerer created it. What he doesn't know, though, is how to break it open. He just guesses. Well, like any cuff, it would need a key, but he doesn't know how to create one, and he says that he would need an actual cuff to try to work with it. And that's when Cordelia picks up a cuff that we have seen Darin stupidly earlier leave on the railing there, which is odd considering how valuable these cuffs are, because if it's designed by an ancient sorcerer, I can't imagine you can get them at any old magic shop or just down the hardware store. Darin, though, doesn't treat them as very valuable, because he did just leave it on the railing, and Cordelia quietly picked one up, and she gives it to Wesley.
Speaker 2:Now, down in the barracks, jack is coming on. How good of a fight Angel put on killing the other demon, baker. And Angel approaches the red line and threatens Jack with the dialogue that I've mentioned before. And Angel approaches the red line and threatens Jack, as you expect your image, just like the rest of the line. That dialogue do like mostly not so much because of Angel but because of Jack's, where, as I said, angel is not the first demon to threaten him. There was probably much bigger demons and more terrifying looking demons, but in this case Jack knew that he was safe as long as he was on the other side of the red line. Now it's also interesting where he says your demon, just like the rest of them. It's almost the same way that races would say that all blacks are the same, all Latinos are the same, etc. Etc. Because that's how he's acquainted them. A demon is a demon is a demon. There's absolutely no difference.
Speaker 2:Now, right after he says, why put off till tomorrow what you can do today? He immediately grabs Jack by the throat and the first time I was watching I was wondering why Angel's arm had the shocks going over or whatever, but he wasn't disintegrating, and then that's why I noticed the bracelet never actually crossed the red line, so that's how he was safe. The shocks going over the arm were almost like a warning signal that if he went just a half an inch further and moved the bracelet over the line, then, yes, angel would be disintegrated instantly. Even though it didn't disintegrate. It is amazing, though, that when he pulled his arm back, it was fine. There was no burn marks or any pain. He's fine. It was almost like a tingle. But anyways, he tries to get Jack to admit where the key is and to get the other demons to help him, and all just sitting there just watching him, refusing to move, not doing anything to help Angel, thinking quickly, says okay, fine, if you won't give me the key, maybe your brother will. That's when he orders the guards to go and get Darren. Darren comes down and Angel turns to kill Jack, unless they are let go. And Darren's response to that? He shoots Jack, killing him. Okay, well, that took away any leverage Angel has. And that's when the guards then surround Angel and tase him in unconsciousness.
Speaker 2:Well, a little while later, angel wakes up inside of Lila's office and she does now introduce himself and saying that he was sold to down and that's since bought his freedom. And what's nice is, in addition to buying his freedom, she bought his duster, because he is back in his black duster again. And she does introduce herself as Lila Morgan as I mentioned earlier, she's the first attorney to actually have a name in this series and she explains that she had gotten Darren to sell his contract to the firm and he's free as long as he turns a blind eye to the demon fighting situation. So that's her deal. You don't have to work for us, you don't owe anything to Wolfram and Hart, nothing. Just act like you never sold the demon fighting arena. And with that, she tries to convince him that he should only go for the battles he can win. As I mentioned earlier, she's a pragmatist. You're not going to win this one, you're going to lose it. Just move on. And Angel refuses to go along with the offer and instead agrees to be taken back to the arena, even though he has freedom. He could have walked out of there. He instead wants to be taken back there because he refuses for any of this to be part of the deal.
Speaker 2:And, as I mentioned earlier, this is actually my favorite scene of the episode, because you could already sense the chemistry between the two of them as they're playing off of each other just in that very brief scene. For Stephanie Romanoff, I can't praise her enough. She is charming, seductive and, unlike a lot of other actors in the show, she more than holds her own in the scene. Versus David, she commands the camera.
Speaker 2:Tim Menier, the one the producers of the show does recognize one questionable moment in this scene, which is Wolfram, and Hart purchased Angel from the ring leaders and, as I mentioned, he refused to simply walk away and forget what he knows. With that, they decide to send him back to the arenas. Why don't they just kill him right then? And there Tim muses in an interview. He comments. He says but do they want him dead? At the point that faith was involved, they want him dead, but not now. Look, it's easy to phone to the trap of why don't they ever kill Mulder? You know what they say on the X files he would become a martyr. Every week it seems like the consortium is saying we can't kill him. Well, why not? And in the movie there was a scene where they said we can't kill him, but the very next scene they shot him in the head again. You always run into his front. But I think if you have a little patience it will all make sense, because we do see in a few episodes yep, they do bring in somebody to get rid of Angel.
Speaker 2:But now anyways, back at Angel Investigations. Wesley's working on the bracelet, trying to figure out how to open it, and he fears that they need something that will conduct electricity, but not too much. Back at the cells, angel is led back in and the other demons are impressed because this was a guy who had his contract bought. He was free to walk away, but instead he came back and Darren taunts him by seeing that none of the other demons will help him do their own self-interest. And to make it very clear, darren says tonight you're fighting Trepkos, the one who killed Malish in the earlier scene, and he even points out the fact that Trepkos this will be that for Trepkos this will be his 21st kill. So it gives incentive to Trepkos to kill him so that he can have his freedom.
Speaker 2:Well, wesley is still trying to figure out how to open up the bracelet, with no success. And nice cute bit in the earlier scene when he was trying to open it up with the electricity and almost throw him across the room because it was too much electricity. So then, open the bracelet. Well, now you see him underneath the table gently trying to touch the bracelet with the electricity, very scared of what it will do to him. Cordelia is watching from behind the corner, afraid something will happen to her, like maybe Wesley will be thrown at her or something like that. So it is a nice cute dynamic of how they're engaged. But Cordelia suggests using horsehair from her pony, keanu, which turns out to be successful because it does snap open the bracelet.
Speaker 2:Well, back at the arena, lila is back to observe Angel on the arena and to show how much faith she has in him, she places $10,000 on Trepkos, trepkos and Angel brought into the arena and Angel tries to convince him not to fight by saying you'll always be their slave, even if they take that off your wrist. And Trepkos just looks at him and says a line similar to what he said about Malish earlier I'll kill you quick. And to show that he wasn't kidding and that Angel's words had no effect on him, trepkos very quickly goes on the offense. Cordelia and Wesley do sneak downstairs at the club and they try to get past the guard, with Cordelia distracting him while Wesley sneaks in behind and meanwhile on the arena, angel is getting pummeled to death. I mean, he is just being senseless and the crowd, unlike before, where they were getting bored by it because Trepkos is going so much on the offensive that they're cheering on. Well, obviously, trepkos will.
Speaker 2:At that moment, wesley approaches Crib and offers to free him if he gets him the Angel. Crib's response is grabbing the key with his tongue, using a trick that we saw him use earlier with Malish, and he grabs the key from Wesley and back in the arena. Angel is still refusing to fight offensively but because he is still Angel and he is a vampire, he is still surviving. Well this time, unlike the earlier fight where I commented about the odd weaponry they gave Baker. Well, in this case they actually gave some of the Trepkos. That is a lot more useful for getting rid of Angel, appointed within quarter staff when Angel's give us similar thing, but in this case that is something that obviously would have much more effect on Angel. Well, angel grabs the other one in a defensive posture and they do end up fighting, but once again Angel is doing it defensively.
Speaker 2:Wesley comes out and lets Cordelia know that, unfortunately his key that he made was taken. But down below Trepkos stabs Angel, but thankfully it is not through the heart, it is through the stomach, so it hurts, especially after the pummeling that he had taken from Trepkos. But obviously he survives and Angel snaps off the pole and he goes on the offensive knocking Trepkos down and he is in the position to kill Trepkos, with the crowd cheering him on. But he refuses to do so and Crib, who has used the key on his bracelet to free himself, is watching this back in the arena. Trepkos, because Angel is merciful to him, repays the mercy by leaving up and brutally attacking him, and Angel still refuses to fight back.
Speaker 2:But now, at this point Trepkos sensing wayman, this guy could have killed me, didn't? I am fighting him now? He is still refusing to fight, even though I am now in the position I could kill him refuses to go for the killing blow and stops fighting. So now both of them refuse to do it and Angel collapses while Trepkos stands and looks at the crowd, almost in an are you not entertained? Pose looking at them, and the crowd is now stunned in the silence.
Speaker 2:Now I will give credit to this shot here, because we have very moody, very pointed lighting on Trepkos, singling him out in the center with the crowd staring at him, and it is almost an up angle shot at Trepkos, almost heroic and the music is swelling as we are realizing something is happening to Trepkos, that he is realizing that what Angel is saying is correct.
Speaker 2:Darren's response to this is to call for the Taser wands to be used on both Angel and Trepkos.
Speaker 2:Well, wesley responds by pulling a gun on Darren, and Darren once again this is probably not the first gun that was pulled on him in his life is unmoved by it.
Speaker 2:What he is moved by, though, is the demons who then, at that moment, burst through the gates to attack the crowd, because they start leaping over the barrier because, now that they know I had the bracelets on, they can cross that red line with no problem, and crib goes out into the arena and uses the key on Angel to pop open his bracelet, and Wesley and Darren start to fight over the gun.
Speaker 2:When Cordelia knocks Darren into the pit along with the other demons, in particular Trepkos and Angel, darren, still having the gun, pulls it and is about to fire upon Trepkos, and as he fires, angel slaps the bracelet onto Darren's wrist and he then throws Darren to Trepkos, who throws him past the red line, dishingered him and Trepkos helps to stilt very weakened Angel because even though it didn't kill, he was being senseless and still has part of the wooden quarter staff sticking out of him and he helps him out of the arena saying to him it was a good fight. Well, now we get to the epilogue and Wesley and Cordelia are helping Angel back home because once again, still very weak and there is a nice bit of closing dialogue.
Speaker 1:Well, actually, didn't we send a bunch of demons free? Well, technically yes. Now what I?
Speaker 2:like about that is, once again it gets back to a morally great area that I'm glad the episode did address, at least briefly. I wish they had touched upon it a little bit more, which was the fact that if they're evil which once again we don't know if they're good or evil, we just assumed they were good. But if they were evil, did they really do a good thing freeing these evil captives? It's like, hey, there's a bunch of mass murdering felons in a prison and we broke open the prison wall, so now they're all rendering free. Well, yeah, they're free now, but maybe it was good for society for them to be locked up. Same thing here with the demons. Was it really a good thing? And it's almost the enemy of my enemy is my friend truism, because the McNamara brothers were even worse. So anyone opposing them isn't necessarily a friend, though, as I mentioned earlier, I wish the episode had addressed that a little bit more than just the throwaway dialogue at the end.
Speaker 2:Well, now it takes us into our favorite kills and lines, in which at this point, I discuss all the different kills and which one was my favorite. Well, for the kills we actually had a number of them in this episode, considering it was a gladiator arena, starting with Angel that he snapped Baker and the arena. Chup goes, got two kills and there he snapped Malosh's neck and disintegrated Darren. I give him the credit because he is one who did the actual kill. Tom Cribb got one in by slicing the throat of his opponent in the first match. Darren McNamara even got a kill by shooting his brother and finally we have Lossodek, the demon who left across the red line. That case no one person got a kill but I still counted as a kill and I just give it to. The old amorphous society killed him. This is for keeping a tally of all the deaths. So that takes our kills now up to 24 and a half for Angel, one half for Wesley, 43 for all the other characters, total of 68 deaths at this point of the series.
Speaker 2:And for my favorite one, that one, I would have to go with the one at the end, trepkos killing Darren. I'm glad they had Trepkos doing it because yes, he was tormenting Angel and all that, but it's much more liberating to have one of the other demons doing the death. And Trepkos, because he was portrayed somewhat sympathetically, because even his I'll kill you quick or I'll kill him quick was not meant to be boastful or prideful or whatever it was meant. This is my show of mercy. I won't torture you, I'll just kill you very quickly, get it over and done with so you don't suffer. So even when he said that to Angel, that was not meant to be a mean line. It was him in his own way, being nice towards Angel, make your death quick. So because he was somewhat sympathetic as a character, it makes sense and also ironic that his 21st kill, which we're told gives him his freedom Well, technically did give him his freedom, because he killed Darren McNamara and he was free.
Speaker 2:In a sense the McNamara brothers were lying. He killed 21 times, he's free. And also it has a nice bit of irony of live by disintegration, die by disintegration. So for Darren McNamara's death, that was appropriate.
Speaker 2:Now for my favorite line, it would be the line at the very end in the dialogue between the team of Cordier's line of well, actually did we set a bunch of demons free? Because, as I've mentioned several times throughout the episode, we're actually rooting for Angel to free the demons, because when he returns back to the arena of his own free will, that's a heroic act, because we know that's why he's going back there? Because he knows his best chance of freeing the demons is from the inside, not from the outside. But, as I've mentioned, we're conveniently forgetting that in any other episode he probably would have killed Trapkos or Lasvec or Tom Krib or Malish. He probably would have killed them because of something they were doing. But now this one, yay, you're free dumb. And I like her dear delivery of even confronting the more we gray area of that If we really do a good thing. And then Wesley's response of, well, technically, yes, we're even Wesley's were, all is it, we're on the good side here and so now, even though I wish this episode had gone into that subject a little bit more than one of the main things I like about the series is the series does go into that morally gray area. This is not something that is dropped. Maybe specifics of the demon arena, demon gladiator fights, is dropped, but this worldly questionable area of sometimes you have to make choices, which is the lesser evil, that you need to free your health, that is touch upon several times as a regular basis in the show and that's one of the things I really liked about, because that is what separates it from Buffy in Buffy.
Speaker 2:For the most part, for the first several seasons, it was very clear bad guys and demons. The demons should be defeated and the victims are all sympathetic and good. We got that. I mean, it was very clear cut because it was done from a teenager's point of view. But as adults we realize it's a lot messier than that and that's one thing. That angel got into that murkiness Is this the right choice that we're making and this was one of the signs of it? That's it for this week's episode.
Speaker 2:In the next show I will discuss the following episode. I will continue my retrospective with the episode Eternity, where angel investigations become involved with an actress who comes up with a unique solution for trying to keep her youthful appearance. So join me as we see the return of a true fan favorite character and discuss how little it takes to make angel evil. So join me 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 Wolframcast, or emails at Wolframcast 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.
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