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
S1E20 ("Warzone") -- Vampires in the Hood
Ready to journey into the bustling city of Los Angeles, as we uncover the intricate layers of complex characters and riveting narratives? Wolfman & Cast is back, this time, to dissect and discuss the fascinating world of Angel, honing in on episode 20, "Warzone". Join us as we navigate through the captivating introduction of Charles Gunn and the remarkable portrayal by J August Richards, which breathes life and depth into this seemingly cliched character.
Eager to unlock the secrets behind David Nabbit's character and his contribution to the series? We’ll delve into the potential missed opportunities in developing Nabbit's character and the unexpected edge that Richards brings to his portrayal. Our critique extends to the exploration of racism, pre-judgment and potential romantic link-ups which shape the narrative of this immersive series. We’ve also got you covered on our thoughts about the episode plot- hint, hint, it involves street kids and vampires!
As we venture further, we uncover the enigmatic layers of Angel's character the episode. From blackmail cases to tense dialogues, we analyze the fine intricacies of the show. Hear our take on the depiction of demons and vampires in Los Angeles and how Angel, contrary to traditional evil portrayals, provides a nuanced perspective. So, sit back and strap in for an enthralling discussion on this unforgettable series and discover why Angel continues to hold a special place in our hearts.
Hello, welcome to Wolferman Casts, an Angel retrospective. I am longtime fan Stephen Junkin. In this podcast I'll be doing a deep dive discussion on the Buffy spin-off 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. Thus, for each episode, I will go over what works, does it work? And all the ideas and themes that the show puts forth.
Speaker 2:In this week's episode, I will discuss the 20th episode of the series Warzone, which was directed by David Grossman and written by Gary Campbell. David Grossman directed two other episodes of Angel, the Bachelor Party and Sacrifice. In addition, he directed episodes for a series such as Star Trek Enterprise, for which he was nominated for a Hugo Las Vegas Dollhouse, including the series-changing episode the man on the Street House and Agents of SHIELD. Writer. Gary Campbell started off with the Canadian comedy trip, the Kids in the Hall, and was a writer for that sketch show, along with shows such as the Jamie Kennedy Experiment, mad TV and Blue Collar TV. For his involvement with the Kids in the Hall TV series, he was nominated for two Emmys. The episode originally aired on May 9, 2000 and the IMDB description of the episode is as Angel helps a nerdy billionaire retrieve some compromising photos, he encounters a group of street kids defending against an invasion of vampires.
Speaker 2:Warzone was an attempt by the series to open up the universe more beyond just that of Angel investigations. Joss Whedon had one to introduce another character who would be very different from both Wesley and Angel. And when writer Gary Campbell pitched the idea of street kids battling vampires, the character of Gunn was conceived Because the series had an entirely white cast, with the exception of the occasional vampire or side character. Joss wanted to explore the more diverse ethnic makeup of Los Angeles, as Tim Menier commented about Charles Gunn in the book Slayers and Vampires. The other thing is that we were actively trained to bring some diversity to the show. It was an incredibly white show. We also wanted to not just show the glamorous sides of Los Angeles. We wanted to say maybe in the rougher sections of town you take the metaphor of the vampires and the demons and the otherworldly things under the surface of LA. And so it is not just sort of the storefront detective vampire in the fancy law firms but also the kids on the street and the gangs. It was a way of doing the Lost Boys a little bit. They were sort of the anti-Lost Boys, because they were fighting vampires as opposed to being vampires.
Speaker 2:The episode introduced us to Charles Gunn, played by actor J August Richards. Richards ended up appearing in 91 episodes of the series, one more than Charisma, and only Alexis and David appearing in more episodes than him. In addition, it introduced us to nerdy billionaire David Nabbit, played by David Herman, most famous for his roles Michael Bolton in the film Office Space. Nabbit was originally intended to be a reoccurring character, but only appears in two additional episodes. David Herman had difficulty fitting the show into his schedule and so the writers stopped writing scenes for him. For this episode.
Speaker 2:I have the following two questions. First, how well handled was the character Charles Gunn? Second, if Angel did ever play Dungeons and Dragons, what type of character would he have played? Well, before I get into the world of Dungeons and Dragons first, I just wanted to discuss the episode in general. As much as I loved the previous two episodes and bringing back all those regular episodes, this one, I would have to say, not the strongest of introductions for Gunn and David Nabbit and especially for Gunn, whom I'll get into more in just a moment because I will admit he became a lot more interesting as the series progressed.
Speaker 2:But on this episode alone he and Nabbit are very much on the cliched side. Charles Gunn is a tough talking black man and David Nabbit is your awkward, shy but nice nerd. We've seen those in so many other movies and TV shows that it goes beyond cliched. It's not even a trope, it is a cliché. But first I want to talk a little bit about J Argus Richards, in which I will not deny as much as I just said, that was a cliched character that is more in the writing than it is in the performance, because his performance is very charismatic, very strong, very dynamic. You do actually like him as an actor and he did become much more interesting as the series went along and when I was rewatching this again because, as a reminder to the listeners, I first watched the series when it aired 20 years ago and I have rewatched it several times since and for the purposes of this podcast I'm rewatching it yet again so I can get even fresher eyes on it and not just rely upon memory. And rewatching it does remind me that Wesley, who in previous episodes I have praised his character arc and I will continue to do so as the series goes along.
Speaker 2:Wesley himself did not start off as the strongest of characters because when he first premiered in Buffy in the episode Bad Girls, he was the poofy, stuffy British guy, very dull once again, extremely cliched. And the same thing for Cordelia, whom I will admit her character improved as both Buffy as well as Angel went along. But if you go back and watch her in the pilot episode, welcome to the Hellmouth. That once again not a character type. That was all that original, especially considering how many better characters there were in that episode than her. But she was just your standard veins, stuck up high school mean girl who would say oh, I see, you found the softer side of Sear. You know, standard put downs to the ones she considers beneath her. So a lot of times with this series they did sometimes start off with cliches and then start building shadings into them, and gun is the same thing here as well.
Speaker 2:But before I talk a little bit more, I just want to discuss a little bit about J August Richards career, because he starred often in an episode of the Cosby show and before he did Angel, he was in series such as Family Matters, the movies Higher Warning, good Burger. He was also in Chicago Hope Sliders, the West Wing and Moisha, so he had a nice diversity of acting before he got into Angel's gun, and since that time he was in the TV series the Rookie and the Rookie Feds, and also, very memorably, in Agents of SHIELD, and, as a piece of trivia, he attended USC with actors George Hurtburg, who played Adam, and Danny Strong, whom everyone knows, of course, as Jonathan. Now, getting back to the character, though, what is odd is the fact that the character was originally named Day when J August auditioned for him, and he had no ethnicity. But, by the way, maybe he was playing the character or maybe something he brought to it. They made him into the strong black man, but unfortunately, added on there the stereotypical clothing, the hoodie, the do rag, stuff like that stuff that, once again, we see. Yes, you're a man of the street.
Speaker 2:I was hoping for something a little bit fresher, a little bit more original, which, thankfully, though, as the series moves along, we do get the more interesting sides of the on, and that's sadly unfortunate with David Nabbit, because he was only in a couple more episodes. We don't get that same broadening or deepening of the character that we get with gun or with Wesley or with Cordelia, but once again, just like for J August who brought in an edge to gun or a first murder gun that may not been on the paper, same thing with Herman I want to know. It is a kind and sweet performance for somewhat character once. Once again, the nerd, the guy who is awkward around girls we've seen that sitcoms, we've seen that in dramas, we've seen that everywhere. Nothing that original.
Speaker 2:But unlike gun, who I could see what he was going to bring to it, not just the ethnicity but also a little bit more of a guy who grew up battling vampire, a man who lived his entire life doing this. So he's immortal. But the thing is, though he is part of this world. He didn't have to be convinced of it, he was not specially trained of it, and I'm not sure if we ever truly find out his entire background within the series itself, in terms of as a kid were his parents killed by vampires. You know stuff like that. That once just like with some namulist, where I wish we had learned more about hen in that episode, his background with gun I wish we had learned more of his background and note once again to listeners if there was comic books or novelizations that discussed it. That goes beyond the scope of this podcast, mostly because I haven't read them, but gained back to Nab it, though.
Speaker 2:The end of the episode especially does hint at a possible relationship between Cordelia and him, where, oh well, she does find him sweet, but she says there's no attraction, which, in TV show terms, means yes, though I'll eventually be an attraction, because just go back and watch the very first episode of Buffy to see that, where she says oh, I really don't like Angel. Well, we know how that ends up. And but thing is, though, since we never get too many more episodes with David Nabot, we never truly learned what he could have provided. Maybe he could have funded the organization, the detective agency, giving them better stuff. I don't know, but as we see in this episode as I'll mention more in a moment is the fact that his storyline almost seems like a distraction away from the main storyline, which was the gun storyline, and as a result, it weakened it a little bit because it didn't provide too much with it. But, on the positive side, one thing I will give the episode credit for was a decent discussion of racism and pre-judgment, as I'll mention more later when I get into my pick for my favorite line of the episode.
Speaker 2:It does discuss the fact that not just the ethnic groups that are pretty judged or viewed suspiciously, but in this world vampires are viewed the same way as well. For example, in the scene at Madame Doria's, they're willing to accommodate humans in all forms of demons without any question or judgment. But the moment they realize they figure out that Angel is a vampire, all of them look down upon him. And the same thing with Gunn's gang. They see that Angel is a vampire, so for them the only good vampire is a dead vampire. They don't give him a chance. They don't assume well, maybe he's different. They assume all vampires are evil, all vampires are out to kill, and so it leads to a nice sense of irony in the scene where Gunn is watching him with the blackmailer and they assume that Angel's the bad guy, when in reality Angel's the hero in that scene. He's stopping the bad guy, but from their view, nope, human vampire, it must be the vampires wrong, which I'm sure.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, being members of ethnic groups, they have had to deal with similar situations themselves, with people pre-judging them oh, you're a young black guy, you must be out to mug somebody or do some other crime. So I like the fact that it has a nice contrast there and I wish the episode actually had dug a little bit more into that. Which then leads us into the plot of the episode itself, which is very incidental and very much by the number gang 5 vampires. Vampire takes sister and turns her gun, kills sister. Angel saves the day. There's really not much complexity to this plot. It's very much. Scene after scene after scene, plot, beat after plot, beat after plot beat. Not much there.
Speaker 2:And one thing I didn't really like was at the very end the train established these kids as tough street kids who could handle their own, and it's hard to say how many years they've been fighting vampires because, even though other characters keep on referring to them as kids, these are all young men and women. They all look to be in their early to mid 20s, maybe late teens for some of the younger ones, but not any younger than that, and one can imagine they've been doing this for several years From what looked like in their opening scenes. They know how to handle themselves around vampires very well, there is no panic, there is no lack of preparation. In fact, in the scene with Angel, they very cleverly set up a bunch of Rube Goldberg traps that almost got him, and so these are men and women who knew what they were doing. So the reason why I mentioned that because it seems a bit odd is at the end I know it's Angel's shell, it's the series is called Angel, he has to be the hero. But it sort of undercuts the strength of these characters, this gang, that you have to have this white savior come in and save them from the vampires at the end, when in reality it would have been more interesting if they had stopped the vampires in some fashion and Angel was just observing or he just helped out at the end. And this is where it meant itself what has happened earlier in the series, when in that case it was for young women trying to establish oh yeah, this young woman is strong until the very end when we have to have Angel save the day. So I guess she's not totally strong because she needs a big, strong man to save her. Same thing here these are young kids who can fight off the vampires. They've got their vehicles tricked out in the right way to gun down the vampires and to ram them with giant wooden stakes. Very clever idea. I have to give that to them. That was very smart laid out of the truck, but no, at the end we have to have the white guy save the day.
Speaker 2:Also, as I'll mention this again later when I get to the scene itself, the death of Alana the sister, it's reminiscent of the similar scene in Becoming, part 2, the Close your Eyes, where Buffy had to kill Angel for the greater good. Same thing here with Gunn, where he had to kill Alana for the greater good In Becoming. That was a hugely powerful scene because we knew the two characters, we knew the love they had for each other, we knew how this was the decision she did not want to make because she had to make. So we knew the sacrifice that she was doing by running the sword through Angel In this one, because we'd only seen the characters for really about half an hour at most, maybe twenty minutes if you take out all the other scenes of David Nabot. The impact of him staking Alana is intellectually powerful. Yes, we know he killed his sister.
Speaker 2:He had no choice and Richard tries his best to show you the difficulty he had in doing it and once again it was a well acted scene, but emotionally it doesn't have the same power as the scene that it reminded me of Close your Eyes, which and then also the other problem I have with it because of the formulae plot is that the head vampire which I'll just call him head vampire because I'm not even sure literally if he was given a name he was such a throwy, disposable villain. He was similar to the character in the other episode who was getting all the drugs from Kate's dad, which, once again, I'm not sure if he was given a name, and he was a very disposable character there as well that once again it lessened the storyline. It made it not as interesting and, just like in Hero, he is such an obvious racist type White guy with a shaved head going after ethnic heads. You couldn't have made it anymore on the nose if you had tried, which I think a lot of this problem, as I'm sort of getting at, is. It's not so much the acting. The acting overall is good by everyone.
Speaker 2:Jay August, strong performance. I could see why they wanted to bring him back. There's a nice tough talking scene with Angel that I'll play the clip from that. I really liked David Herman, brenda Sweetcharm to Nab it. I mean, there's nothing really wrong with any of the performances, and some of the scenes are well staged, but I think, ultimately, it comes down to the script, and I think it's because of who they had write the episode. Gary Campbell, which nothing against him gives in the hall a very popular troupe that has some very talented people involved with it.
Speaker 2:But the thing is, though, the person who wrote for Kids in the Hall and the Jamie Kennedy experiment is not exactly the type of person I would first think of to go to write an episode for a dark and moody film, noirish vampire detective show. And what's even odd is the fact that even though he is a comedy writer I mean, that's as I rattle off his credits, and if you read through IMDB, you'll see even more of that, more and more almost 100% comedy. This thing that is lacking from this is the humor. Whereas in other episodes there were legitimately funny sequences or funny lines or throwaway bits, this one, it really didn't have any, with the possible exception of the Dungeons and Dragons joke, which I've heard better. I mean, it's not so much as bad, it's just meh. And also because of the fact that he wrote more sketches than he did actual scripts.
Speaker 2:That reflects in the structure of this one where, as I mentioned before, the David Nabbet and the Charles Gunn storyline didn't really mesh well together. I think what he was trying to go for was a contrast of showing rich versus poor, which it did work as well, as well as it did in, let's say, 5x5, where you had the Angelus and the Face storylines running parallel, where it was very clear why both storylines were being shown in there and how nicely they tied into each other. So in that episode, parallel stories worked wonderfully. In this one, it almost seemed like we're going from this storyline to that storyline, back to this storyline, back to that storyline. It was bouncing between the two, with neither of them really gelling well together.
Speaker 2:Which leads me to then my final issue, which is one I've had in a number of other episodes, which is they're still finding their way in terms of putting together a good group dynamic, because in this one, wesley and Hordelia yeah, they had a couple of scenes, but they weren't really needed that much. I mean, granted, they didn't come up with as lame of an excuse to write off Charisma as they did in Sanctuary, which is have her literally disappear at the beginning of the episode. So they didn't have to write anything for her. But in this one they didn't contribute anything, anything that was needed, and so it was still essentially Angel with a guest character, because at this point Gunn was not a regular yet he, so he was the victim of the week.
Speaker 2:So it was getting almost back to an episodic structure, as opposed to the serialized, where that allowed them to start using the ensemble a lot better and mean for more interesting storylines, which and then also as mentioned with the angel, is not just, it was almost entire focus on angel. I want to correct that a little bit. It did put a lot of the focus on gun, almost to the point that this at times felt like a backdoor pilot for some show like Charles Gunn, vampire hunter or hired gun or not. I know I'm coming up with really cheesy titles, but once again it didn't feel like a part of this series. It felt too episodic. And once they started getting into more serialized storylines, like they will in the next episode, blind date, when they bring back Lindsay and we see more members of Wolfram and Hart, that's when the show becomes more interesting again, which leads us now into the episode itself.
Speaker 2:The episode does start off like almost every other episode we've seen in this show, which is where a young woman is walking alone at night and she is quickly stalked by three vampires who corner her in an alley. I would have to actually count the number of angel and Buffy episodes that start off this way, especially angel episodes. Well, just like the other episodes, we then see a tall, dark character approaching them and with a sword and a long black duster, and the vampires look and it's somebody that I recognize, and the camera, which was focusing on his feet, slowly pans up and we see that the character is an angel, but is gunned. No, we don't know what his name is yet. And his opening line is just expecting somebody else, which that I will bet was good, because it was almost like him talking to the camera, talking to the audience, saying yep, I know you're expecting this to be angel to show up and fight the vampires. Nope, it's me, and so nice meta-reference. And this entire setup was well handled by the director by starting off his feet, being a single angel, then slowly moving up with the angel-style music playing. It gives him a nice hero shot, surrounded by the gang behind him, with pure confidence but not arrogance, ready to fight and once again giving me impression that this is not his first vampire fight, that he knows exactly what he's doing. In fact, this is set up this way in the script because in the script for Warzone the character is introduced by this quote.
Speaker 2:We start in low and see a pair of black leather boots walk into frame. We move up to reveal black leather pants in the bottom of a black coat. We move further up to reveal a gloved hand holding a drawn sword. The camera moves all the way up to reveal not angel, but a young man, hard beyond his years, carl's gun, standing behind, and to the sides of him are now four similarly hard-looking mutes. One holds a crossbow, two are holding nasty-looking pipes and the fifth chain holds a nasty length of chain with a spiked ball on it. Idling behind them is a crappy but tripped-out old pickup truck with a gatelyn gun on the bed, aimed over the cab and staked hikes on either side off the standoff of Mexican variety, in which, as I said, that's a great shot, and we now go into the credits, in which this is only about a 40-second set up. But for bits like this. That's all you want. Just get to the point quickly. And to credit to the show it does. The show don't tell, which I like.
Speaker 2:Well, after the credits, it cuts away from this highway underpass and cuts over to a very fashionable party that the trio are attending. And Cordelia makes it very clear she's in her element as she has this discussion between her and Wesley where she says I miss that smell and Wesley's coming back. I believe. Cordelia, no money, I'd like to smell money every once in a while. An angel with a smile. She's not just saying that. I like to hide some in the office every once in a while just to watch her. In which cute dialogue. And because at this point the characters are all playing very well off of each other and I do like the fact that at this point Wesley and Cordelia are very much friends. So there is none of this. Well, they won't. They are some animosity or anything. No, they're good friends and all three are bouncing very well off of each other and Wesley, even at this point, has completely lost the oh I feel so bad about my self-attitude even now has the confidence, and that lends to better dialogue between them.
Speaker 2:Well, at the party, we do meet the hosts and the reason they're there. David Nabbet, and like everyone else, including the team, he's dressed rather sloppily, with a wrinkled, unkempt shirt and unstyled hair, and he's sitting by himself, ignoring the rest of the party. Now, as I mentioned, very much of a cliche, in fact. The wrinkled shirt, the unkempt hair reminded me immediately of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who, in a documentary, was often said that he had to be reminded by his assistants to do things like brush his hair before meeting because he was so busy thinking of other things that he had forgotten to do even basic stuff like that. Well, nabbet strikes you as somebody who's very reminiscent of a Bill Gates, but he does greet the gang, and he says that he has no idea who most of the guests of the party are, and he comes across, as I said, as very shy and awkward but nice guy, just like Bill Gates.
Speaker 2:And we're in Southern California. So, of course, if he's a rich guy, it's either because he's an actor or he's a software billionaire. Well, he's not an actor, so he's a software billionaire, and what is interesting, though, is the way he makes good. He's a software billionaire. He's not stated at bragging oh yeah, I'm rich. It's almost a shrug of the shoulders yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm rich, which Herman delivers. Along. The same way, most people would say I just bought a new sofa. I mean almost with a ton of pay we could have done what I did. I mean it's not so much he's ashamed of it. But he doesn't think too much of it. He just assumes that's just the way things are. That's who I am, I'm rich. Well, he does talk to them about the reason he hired them and he explains that he's being blackmailed.
Speaker 2:Which then leads to the Dungeons and Dragons joke of him saying are you familiar with Dungeons and Dragons, angel scene of you. Which is interesting is the fact that the very last line of the series and of the Buffy universe essentially is well, personally, I kinda wanna slay the dragon. Let's go to work. And we see up in the air there's a dragon. So it means it's not just a joke. Angel could have seen Dungeons and Dragons when he was younger, because we know in this universe dragons exist, saw that also in the Buffy episode where she had to sacrifice herself, and because we see when the universes open up what's flying through there a dragon. Well, anyways, getting back to NAB, he explains that he played a live D&D in high school and loved doing it, and then he was told about a place where they could romance a real demon woman, a brothel called man of Dorians, and he visited it. Well, he ends up having to build up to a dozen times, but just like going to any brothel. So it's not just because it's a demon brothel, but any brothel. He's scared that a historical was running out about him visiting there and unfortunately, there had been photos taken of him by an obviously sleazy guy named Lenny, which I like the name Lenny but Angel assures them that they will take care of it.
Speaker 2:Now the question I have about this, though, is in the previous episode, 5x5, when Cordelia approaches him about taking a case involving a divorce and Wesley and Angel say that's not what we do, we help the hopeless. And then, in Sanctuary, angel makes it even clearer that now his mission statement isn't even so much helping the hopeless, but saving souls, like he did with Faith or also with the kid in 5x5, whom he got him to, in essence, somewhat turn his life around by testifying against the bigger Richard guy that Lindsay was representing On this case here. This is sort of a case that I would be surprised that Angel would want to take, because David Nabot's not a hopeless or helpless person. I mean, he's a software billionaire, he could have gotten anyone to help him out. And then, also because he's a generally nice guy, there's no soul to be saved. It's not like, oh well, we have to get him to repent of what he did, that he's been doing evil things. No, the impression, I guess, is he's probably been running his business ethically and he's a good boss, nice guy.
Speaker 2:It seems odd that he would go and help this person out, and I think it's mostly because of the fact that, just like in previous episodes, that this is still in their episodic phase where it says we need a victim. And I think this might have been a little bit better if we had just a brief bit where they were brought to see Nabot because Cordelia had a vision, and that would explain why Angel went to help him. Because Cordelia said oh, I've got a vision, because it's been several episodes since she's had a vision and almost at this point dude almost forgot about it, which is odd considering when Doyle was having visions. That's how his episodes led off. Oh, I've got another mind-wracking vision, and so this is the person you have to help. They could have done the same thing here with her to justify why Angel was helping somebody that normally, as I said, he would say, nope, that's not what I'm here for Now.
Speaker 2:The scene ends with Nabot talking to them and coming to LA is more than just fancy party and valet parking, that there's a whole other world that no one sees. Now he's referring to the brothel, but Angel then also makes comment saying more than one world, which then cuts back to the highway sequence where Gunn's gang is fighting with them and, as I said before, you could tell this is not their first vampire fight. They are prepared, they are more than holding their own and this is just having normal kid type strength, I mean. So it's not like, oh, they're super strong or anything like that. No, they're just normal people. But they're very organized, they know exactly what they're doing. And in fact, also the woman who was the victim at the beginning well, that's Alana, that's his sister, and she's holding a giant stake right at the dust of the vampire coming at her. So she's not looking scared, she's not a damsel, but no, she is ready to fight when needed to.
Speaker 2:And also, in the car that I mentioned with the Gatling gun, he's got that ready to shoot at people and he ends up taking out two vampires with some very nicely aimed shots. I mean so very nicely done and the well. As I mentioned, they took out two of the three vampires and the third one takes off and Gunn sends some of the team after him as he has the car take off the gun shooter who, in the course of the fighting, got wounded so they had to go back to their compound, as it were, for like a better word. Now they're right back at the hangout and the shooter is taking it inside to be taken to two and once again you could tell they've been doing this for quite a while, because it's not even a hangout, it is compound is probably a more accurate term because it is very well fortified, with plenty of sentries up and down the steps and all around, and all of them are armed with crossbows. They are ready to fight and they're keeping watch. The doors are heavy and in fact this looks actually not even so much a compound but military barracks, and everyone who's there looks to me about in the same age late teens, early 20s.
Speaker 2:Well, unfortunately, the shooter ends up soon dying of his wounds. What is interesting here is his death actually serves as a nice bit of an intro to Gunned because it's very clear, sadly this is not the first person who has died at Gunn's arms. Because he is unemotional but not cold about it. You could tell he liked the kid and that, yeah, it's sad losing a soldier, but to him he's almost like a general and soldiers die, young men die in war and that's how he views us. Hence the episode Warzone. And in fact when Alana even comments about saying he don't want to live long, he even makes that comment that he knows In the battle they're fighting he's not going to have a long life, that he's fully expecting that there will be the day that he will end up dying as well, most likely during battle. Also, like any good general, he has the respect of everyone who's serving under him, who's working with him, because it's very clear everyone else in the gang respects him and look up to him. Also, as a good general, he does have a bit of an open heart, because when he sees that others have shown up and Chane has made the comment about oh yeah, they're just running food, gunn doesn't hesitate. His first words are everybody eats. Because he refuses to turn a blind eye towards others on the street who need help.
Speaker 2:Well, now we cut back to Madame Dorian's, and Angel is quietly strolling through there when he's spotted by the Madame who immediately eyeballs him as a vampire. Now she, unlike all the women working for her, does appear to be human. She doesn't have any obvious demon markings on her. Now, in the background, just as a side note, we do see a female demon from the Odentow from the episode she. So they've managed to assimilate themselves into society, as it were, and using what they're good at, attracting men.
Speaker 2:Now the Madame refuses to talk to him either as a vampire or as a detective about Lenny. So in this case, yeah, she's against him, not just because he's a vampire, but because he's also a detective in nature of the business. But she does change her mind when Angel brings up the black male, something that she's very much against and realizes would hurt her business if her clients found out that they could be blackmailed by this ainericist. Obviously, if they knew that was a risk, they would stay home. Well, she brings out an attractive female demon that Nabbit was sleeping with a woman named Lena, who also at first was reluctant to talk to Angel until the man of Merless Holder to be cooperative. And, as I mentioned at the beginning, this is an interesting view of the demons in LA, and I've mentioned this in other episodes, because in Buffy all demons were shown to be evil of various forms. Here in this case, as we see at the Pandorians no they're just because they're demons, they're just like everyone else.
Speaker 2:I mean, they make different living. So it does show more of a complexity, and the demon prostitutes are very sympathetic and no different than their human counterparts, except for, of course, having additional appendages, but this scene could play out, this anyway, in any detective show with a human prostitute. But what is interesting, though, as I mentioned at the top, is the fact that the one group of demons that are almost universally looked down upon, vampires All other demons, people like, dislike whatever, they're open-minded towards, but vampires though, nope, they're evil, and I think it's simply because of the fact that Angel, and later on Spike, is the exception to the rule, because, with the regular demons, they do have souls, which, granted, of course, contradicts a little bit of what Giles explained at the beginning of Buffy, where all demons are soulless and the Angel universe is saying that, no, a lot of these demons do have souls. They are good and kind and decent, hardworking people, but vampires on their end, with the exception of Angel, universally soulless, universally evil. Now it cuts back to Gunn's hideout, his compound, and Alana confronts Gunn about Bobby's death and she blames him because she says he's gained repose and is seeking out vampires because he's willing to confront death and see how close he can get to it, and what she's afraid of is losing him in battle because as he starts taking more and more chances.
Speaker 2:Well, as they're talking, the team comes back from chasing the third vampire and they mention the fact that they did track it back to its nest and, just like any good soldiers, they're there strictly for reconnaissance. They didn't go and engage. They came back and told Gunn. Gunn then was just about to go and start wep-ing up to go after the nest when another soldier comes down and says that a vampire is approaching very quickly and is leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Now, what I like here is this part is done so quickly it's almost like we don't have quite a moment to realize. Hmm, I wonder who that is. They made the dialogue very quick, very rapid, so that then it immediately cuts over and we do see. Yes, the vampire who is sleeping rooftop or rooftop is Angel and he's not after Gunn. He doesn't know about Gunn and the gang, yet he's there, coincidentally, to confront Lenny, which then leads to one of the better tough guy dialogues in the series.
Speaker 1:What do you want? Big question what do I want? Well, family place in this planet I can call my own. But you know what? What? I'm never going to have any of those things unless these next few minutes go exactly the way I want them to.
Speaker 2:Neither are you. I give credit to David. He manages to deliver that in the right intimidating style. He's gained better at doing intimidating dialogue and because in this case he didn't even have to vamp out, because he could have just been any big, strong guy saying this to Lenny. Now, watching him from a close distance is Gunn and he's observing all this and I'm not sure how much of the dialogue they're able to hear. My guess is they're far enough away that they weren't quite able to hear the dialogue and they have no idea who Lenny or Angel are. And once again, as I said before, human vampire, vampire must be the evil person they have to stop. And especially since they see Angel intimidating a human, they assume even more so he's evil, and that is entirely confirmed. When Lenny then makes a mistake of saying you don't want to see my bad side, angel just then calmly vamps out to show that his bad side is far worse than Lenny's. But now the line that they may have heard which if they did I could understand them why they would definitely not trust Angel at all is, as he's in vamp phase, saying Okay, so now I'm from around here, in fact I'm moving in, take it over, you understand me, I will dog you every night for the rest of your very short life until you bring me what I want. Are we clear? That doesn't sound at all like any mobster. You know anyone like that? That is obviously bad. Granted, of course, as the audience, we know that this is a good guy saying that to a bad guy and so we're on his side. Got this point of view? No, it sounds like the similar thing is what you would hear from a mobster. Because he's seen this and because, just like it, man Amdoreans, they assume that all vampires are evil, he makes it very clear that he will take Angel out.
Speaker 2:Well, now it cuts to the next morning, at David Nabot's place, and he's writing them a blank check for the services. He also thanks them for what they did at the party, and the characters are just as confused as the audience of what did they actually do at the party? They just literally showed up and ate appetizers. That's about all they did. They didn't stop anyone or anything like that. Well, wesley and Cordelia are understandably confused and Nabot explains that what he's saying to them for is simply talking to him and being friendly, and not just because he's rich, but because they're generally nice people. Well, cordelia and Wesley look at the check and it must be for some insane high amount. And he now explains that he's got the money and that's just his way of showing thanks. And Cordelia then gives it a rather cutely awkward response to learning his name David. It's such a strong masculine name, feels good in your mouth. And as they're leaving, wesley also comments feels good in your mouth. Just the stumbling over those words of that is so the wrong way of saying it. And I think it might be because for Cordelia, she's somewhat surprised, because the last rich guy she really met was the jerk in Hero who was rich, not a billionaire, but still rich. And he was also a jerk who left her in the street to die from a vampire, whereas you get the feeling Nabot probably wouldn't be able to stop the vampire, but he wouldn't have deserted her on the other hand.
Speaker 2:Well, now we get to the evening and Lenny is waiting for Angel with the photos. Angel shows up, lenny hands over the photos and from out the corner comes a demon that Lenny also hired to attack Angel. They have a brief fight and it's not much of a fight because Angel very quickly gets the upper hand and snaps the demon's neck. Well, lenny does the thing that anyone would do in that case he runs off. I mean, I can't say I blamed the guy I would too. While Angel is catching his breath when, at that moment, he is shot through the chest with a huge wooden stake we're talking his biggest one I've seen go through him yet. And what is amazing is the fact that, as big as that thing was that I'm shocked and it missed the heart. I mean, they had to aim to miss the heart with something that big that took out half his chest. Well, angel, of course, does the smart move. He also takes off running and, with guns gained, pursuing him in the alleyway, firing more wooden stakes at him.
Speaker 2:Now, as a note here, as he's running through the highway from them, the music that's playing in the background for people watching the episode. If that music sounds a little bit familiar, it's because it's the same music that was used in the library attack scene at the end of Becoming Part 1, when Jorzilla and the other vampires came into attack. Giles and the gang Reuse the same music, no big deal. Well, he runs into a room where there are more traps that he just barely misses, as I said they were, they're prepared for vampires. Because these are elaborately Rube Goldberg-esque traps and which, as I was watching, this again made me think it's a good thing they and Holts never actually teamed up in season 4, because if they had, angel would be dead within seconds, because with Holts intelligence and determination and Gun and his gang's intuitiveness and industrianness, yeah, angel wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes, but all of them would have wiped him out instantly.
Speaker 2:And he is then jumped by the gang, who do nearly get him, and at one point, though, he gets the upper hand by headstates, killing Gun. And when he realizes that the person is human and not a demon, so, and of course, with his code of ethics yeah, if Gun was a demon, gun would be dead, but like the demon that Lenya had hired. But in this case, since he's human, he pulled back. At that point. He then fights off the entire gang, and what's interesting here is these kids are much better fighters than the Watcher's retrieval squad, and the retrieval squad had guns, but this gang is doing a much better job, much more organized job. Well, angel then gets a hold of Elana, when Gun, of course, yells for them to stop, and Gun then fires a wooden arrow which, accidentally, is about to get at a sister, when Angel blocks it with his hand and then makes it very clear here that Angel isn't welcomed here and the gang then walk off. They let him live only because, well, he technically saved Elana's life.
Speaker 2:Well then the next morning Cordelia is tending to Angel's wounds while Wednesday is going through what Blackmail photos and Angel's when to find the kids and help them. He wants to find where the compound is or where the hangout is, and he and Wesley do understand why they did attack him, because it makes perfect sense. They've been living on the streets and they're young, so it would make sense that they would be distrusting the law of vampires. So he doesn't hold anything against them attacking him. In his mind that was a logical thing to do. But he wants to go and help them before they get themselves killed. So he sends Wesley to find the kids while he looks for the vampire nest.
Speaker 2:We then see the vampire nest and it's not too far different from the residents for a guns gang, and the vampires are from what looks like are just as much street creatures as guns group are as well, though the head vampire is upset that the street trash is making life tough for them. So he's actually very intimidating, not so much irritating, but he's very much annoyed by gun and his group than he is by anything Angel does, because Angel's not handling anything like the vampire nest. And the head vampire then makes it very clear that he is declaring war on gun and his gang and they vow to go for the heart. Well, gunn and the gang also meanwhile are discussing Angel, and the sister thinks Angel could be of help to them. But Gunn, who once again is distrusting of Angel and once again a bit of why is this person in here? Sort of a racist trip. Why is this black man in Angel Restore? He must be there to rob it. Well, why is a vampire in this area of town? He must be there to feed or to attack or something. So they immediately assume person they don't like is in a setting that he shouldn't be in. So he must be up to no good. A nice racist trip there.
Speaker 2:Cuts back to Angel who is at the nest looking around and one of the vampires is hiding up in the rafters. Angel steps aside as the vampire leaps down on him and misses. Instead of immediately dusting him, angel forces him to tell where the rest of the nest are and it's hard to say where not. He actually kills him after that. We don't see it on camera anyways. Well, gunn is working on a state gun and is talking to his sister and he suddenly senses something as smoke. Bombs are tossed in and he orders everyone out into the daylight, including his sister with him and his lieutenant still there. Well, they suddenly realize wait a minute, that was the entire purpose was to drive everyone into the daylight because he was thinking they were all going to come into the compound. Nope, whoever was throwing the bombs wanted everyone out there. So he immediately rushes out and we see the vampires in hazmat suits grabbing the sister and throwing them, throwing her into a van. Gunn leaps onto the back of the van to see a sister being attacked before he's thrown off.
Speaker 2:And this sequence is very well, not very short, very brief. They don't draw it out, and it actually makes me wonder why don't more vampires realize if you go out in a hazmat suit, you're not going to be caught on fire. So they could go out and do a similar thing that this group did grab the victim, drag him into the darkness, take off the suit, feed, make sure one of the more vampires didn't think of that as well. But also, getting back to the heroine-ness, what it does is it shows the dangers of this lifestyle, of finding this war. As the guy said, this is a war we're going after them. Here's our first victim. At this point, while the other vampires are wondering why they never thought of wearing hazmat suits so they can hunt during the day, my spidey sense is tingling. It must be time for my pop culture segment, where I find every pop cultural reference in the episode, compile it into a supercut and make heads or tails of what they are talking about your spider sense pop cultural reference.
Speaker 2:Sorry, now, in this case the episode actually had one pop cultural reference and that was the joke that I referred to earlier about Dungeons and Dragons that David Nabot had been playing and what led him ultimately to going to the brothel. Brief bit on Dungeons and Dragons. And one thing I just want to state right off the bat unlike a lot of other pop cultural references, this one I actually have to fight the urge not to go even longer on, because I will admit I had been playing Dungeons and Dragons almost since it came out back in the 80s and I'll give more of the history in just a moment and I had been playing for like 10, 15 plus years all the various versions of it. So this is a game that I am very familiar with and I'm a big fan of. So I have to fight the urge not to just babble on about it but to give some history on it.
Speaker 2:This was a tabletop roleplaying game created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in 1974, now one note to listeners as to what a tabletop roleplaying game is and what is unique about this game. Because, unlike most games let's say, for example, chess or monopoly or anything like that where you have a board of an exact size will go with monopoly. Here's the board, here's the spaces, here's the pieces, here's the dice, etc. Etc. And everything is done on the board. You buy yourself properties, you pay rent, so on, so forth, whatever. The rules of the game are same thing with chess you have the pieces, you move the pieces. With Dungeons and Dragons, there aren't what pieces, what boards, whatever will vary from group to group. In fact, when I played it, we didn't even use boards. Everything was done, almost as we're in a group storytelling session and we didn't. Now some other players will have a big board out on the table, going through the dungeon or the town or whatever, and they'll have a little model representing their character so that this way then they can see where they're located at in relation to the monsters and all that. But I'll admit I actually never even did any of that. We used a table and we used dice, as I explained in a moment, but we never actually used any maps or anything like that, because everything was done more in the imagination. But anyways, getting back to the game itself, as I mentioned, they created it in 74 and it was then published by a company called Tactical Studies Rules, or TSR for short, and which was then bought up in 1997 by Wizards of the Coast, which was a subsidiary of Hasbro.
Speaker 2:Now, the basic concept of it, as I mentioned, is played by a group of people, usually five, six, seven. You don't want any larger than that because it gets cumbersome and you don't want it too small, not as interesting, but anyways, each person creates their own character with specially defined characteristics, such as class. What are they? A wizard, are they a fighter, are they a cleric, a priest? You know, so on and so forth. Their hit points, which is their life, you know, and the more hit points you have, the longer you can live, the more damage you can take. Your armor class how tough are you? How susceptible the damage are you? And then also some general statistics that determine all these other things your strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, constitution, charisma you want as high numbers as possible and all of them will affect everything else you get. And then also, what weapons and armor do you have and other miscellaneous items.
Speaker 2:And, as I mentioned, the way it works is you act out an adventure which is put together by the head guy named a dungeon master, DM for short and the DM served a number of different roles. He was not just the writer of the story he's the one who came up with the original adventure but he's also the referee. He makes decisions in terms of were not something hit or not, or were not you were able to find a secret door, stuff like that. He was also the narrator. He described to you what was happening. He described to you what the room looked like and the town was like, what you smelled, stuff like that. And then also he portrayed all the other characters, or were known as NPCs non-player characters in the story. He would portray all of them in the different encounters. He was the monsters, he was the villagers, he was the damsel in distress, whatever, and the stories could be almost anything by the very nature.
Speaker 2:Yes, they would often involve battles of all various forms, but once again ought to pay on who the players are, who the DM is, because I can tell you a lot of the ones that I played with my friends and brother. Some of them involve puzzles, because I remember there's one time we had to solve a sudoku puzzle to be able to get out of this one trap, and also they involve encounters with various members. You maybe had to negotiate to get past this way or try to buy something or learn information about this castle, and so we had to ask the right question. So it was very conversation oriented as well, and, once again, this all depends on how the DM and the players do it. Some, my focus just straight on fight after fight after fight. It all depends. Others, it might be traps that you had to evade and figure out the way to disarm them, and the adventures themselves. With my brother, he created all these adventures himself. He came up with all of them. But, I'll admit, when I was DM, occasionally I would use a pre-bought one, a module that you could get at the store online, where it had all of the storylines, the monsters and everything else already laid out. You just had to go and more or less tell the story to them and run the encounters as written in the module and with this game.
Speaker 2:This was, and still is, a hugely successful role-playing game and is probably one of the most influential games that have come out, because this has influence or sorts of role playing games, not just tabletop, but also computer role playing games as well, warcraft, and I'm not even about to mention others, but also various military ones, outer space one, so on. All of them were inspired by dungeons, dragons, and a lot of them use the same thing of pre-written characteristics and then also encounters and things like that and bringing in dice as a randomization, because you'd have to roll dice during a fight scene to see if you hit the person and how much damage did you do. And that is also used in other games as well. And it also had a major influence in pop culture because in 1983 on sorry morning television on cbs, there was an animated tv series which, as a note to listeners, especially if you like Dungeons and Dragons, I would check it out because I believe it's available on youtube and possibly on other streaming services.
Speaker 2:But what is notable about this is one big characters and also this is actually one of the few animated series I saw that did have a legitimate ending to the series. The final episode wraps up the series, where you had a group of kids at the beginning of the series get beamed, transported into this world of Dungeons and Dragons. Well, the final episode Spoiler some of them make it back to the real world. I mean it ends the series, which I get credit to the shell for that. But also there's numerous computer and video games that are directly based on Dungeons and Dragons. They were set in what's known as the Forgotten Realms Universe, which is a special universe for Dungeons and Dragons, and there have been no less than three different movies, the most recent one coming out earlier in 2023, starring Chris Pine, and then, in terms of TV references, this is just some of them.
Speaker 2:The TV series Stranger Things the first season was, in fact, centered around a group of boys playing Dungeons and Dragons, and in the first and second season, they are battling creatures from the game, such as Vecna in the second season, a known, extremely dangerous monster in the D&D universe. The comedy series community had an entire episode devoted to it, titled Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, and later on, a sequel to that episode called Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. The cult series Freaks and Geeks, which starred Seth Rogen and also James Franco, among other actors who later became famous. Their final episode was called Disco and Dragons, where the young boys, the geeks in the series, invited James Franco, who was the cool kid in the series, invited them to play the game, and he ended up really enjoying it. In the TV series, the Big Bang Theory had re-eated scenes of the guys playing D&D, including one that was Christmas-steamed.
Speaker 2:And, as a note, one of the best episodes involving Dungeons and Dragons was one where the gang in the show tried to get invited to actor Will Wheaton's celebrity game which, as a note, in real life Will Wheaton does run a celebrity Dungeons and Dragons game, but in the series his celebrity game included himself William Shatner, kevin Smith, kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Joe Magnoiolo, which, as a side note, as I'll mention more in a moment about famous players, will Wheaton, kevin Smith and Joe Magnoiolo do actually play D&D in real life, and I know listeners out there are waiting for me to say well, what about Buffy? Because yes, in the shows. Then the night before the final battle, andrew Xander, giles and Amanda are playing the night before are playing D&D, which gave us the great line from Giles. Could he get any uglier? I was this highly respected watcher and now my wounded dwarf, with the mystical strength of a doily. Now, as I mentioned for Will Wheaton, that there are a number of famous people who have stayed a day of playing Dungeons and Dragons and greatly enjoyed or are big fans of it, and this is just a small subset. Among them is the former pro wrestler, the big show, or real name, paul White. Actress Drew Barrymore, james Franco, steven Spielberg, judy Dench, terry Crews, steven Colbert, matthew Lillard, joe Magnoiolo, mike Myers, patton Oswalt, will Wheaton, robin Williams and Vin Diesel. Now, just as a note, if I can get invited to a game that is involving Steven Spielberg, judy Dench and Vin Diesel and Drew Barrymore, I want to be there because and also the big show I want to be there for that game, because that will be one heck of an interesting game. Judy Dench and Vin Diesel, you know, throw in the big show, you've got a game going, going away from D&D and back into the world of Angel.
Speaker 2:So now it cuts back to Cordelia and Wesley who were arriving during the day in an alleyway looking for guns compound. Meanwhile Angel has already found it and he gets into the entrance and forces one of the end centuries to invite him in because as a compound it is living quarters, so he has to be invited in. He comes up with the way of invite me in. Nobody said he had to be nice about it. Well, angel enters the hideout and talks to Gunn who is preparing for battle. Along with his gang. Angel trays the ward them not to go after the game because that's what the vampire group is wanting and he offers to help. And Gunn's response is to flip open a window shade, forcing Angel away. Once again, this is a group that is ready.
Speaker 2:Anyways, forces Angel into a room where Gunn very quickly locks a steel door, trapping him inside. And I almost have the impression Angel is not the first vampire to have been trapped in that room. But anyways, gunn and the gang approach the lair. They wait until evening Makes me wonder why they didn't go during the day. But whatever. Anyways, he checks it out in advance, armed with a stake, and he enters the room and he hears his sister coming and he is at first happy to see her, until he quickly realizes that she has been turned. And he realizes this as she knocks him literally happily across the room with one easy push. David Straton, the director, suggested to the actress, michelle Kelly, who played Alana, that in the scene where she shoves him to the ground that she should look like she's really enjoying that, and Michelle comments that that's when the laugh came out. She explained that the director knew at that point her character was relishing all this newfound strength and freedom, even if it was for evil.
Speaker 2:Angel, back at the compound, is trying to get out of the locked room and he finds a wooden panel and punches through it and he finds a metal grate behind it and he struggles to reach the latch, but unfortunately it's too far away for him to try to reach. When the door is then suddenly unlocked by Cordelia and Wesley. And Wesley points out the same thing I was thinking at that moment, which was why didn't he point out his cell phone and call them? Because he knew they were in the area, because he had sent them out to look for the compound. But Wesley asks the exact same question why did you just call us? We couldn't come here and did what we just did. And Angel gives some weak excuse, but mostly because I get the feeling he just hates cell phones.
Speaker 2:So back to Alanna and Gunn. And Alanna approaches Gunn. She tells him how great it is being a vampire, similar to the Harvest, where Jesse is saying the same thing to Xander, saying oh yeah, I'm so much stronger now, this is so awesome. But with Alanna, she dares him to kill her and he refuses because she is his sister. So with that she leans over to bite him. When then he dusts her, with a great deal of regret on his face and in the background is Angel who approaches at that moment. That's when Gunn's gang burst through the door because he had said very clearly that to come in if he's not back in 10 minutes, and makes me wonder. Wait a minute.
Speaker 2:Gunn goes down the steps, sees his sister, has a conversation with his sister. She pushes him across the room, he dusts her. Meanwhile, over at the compound, angel is trapped in the meat locker that he described and he comes out, probably talks to Leslie and Cordelia for a couple minutes, but anyways, all of this was just 10 minutes. Wow, nobody has long conversations anymore. Because I mean he sees his sister in less than 10 minutes dust. He goes from I can't kill you, I can't kill you sister, to dust. That is one cold blooded dude. Well, anyways, getting back to the gang, they obviously want to kill Angel, but Gunn stops them because he realizes that Angel is good. That conversation is stopped because the rest of the vampire gang shows up at that moment and the head vampire taunts Gunn and implies that he was the one who had turned Alana.
Speaker 2:Angel then approaches and makes the vampire and the gang a deal that he will let them live if they leave now and never returning. He's seen this very calmly, very assuredly. There's no bravado or whatever. And he makes it very clear that Gunn and his gang are under his protection, that if they come they will have to deal with him. Well, the vampire calls his bluff and with that he says you know who are you With that? Angel, without blinking an eye, shoves a stake right through him and says Angelus, which?
Speaker 2:What is interesting here is the fact that this is literally the only time in the series that Angel ever introduces or refers to himself as Angelus when he wasn't in the evil form, because, yes, when he was Soulless he was Angelus or Angelus whatever. But normally when he had a soul, he always introduced himself as Angel to separate himself from the Soulless version. So the only thing I could think of was he was seeing that for the benefit of the other vampires, because Angelus was very famous as a known killer and not somebody you wanted to travel with by any means, or even as another vampire. So the fact that he just very casually killed their leader and that's how he introduced himself was a signal to the other vampires leave.
Speaker 2:And yeah, and as he's staying there looking at all of them, he then makes it very clear that there's going to be a truce because, as he makes it very clear that Guns Gang, if there's a war, then, yes, they'll take out a number of the vampires, but some of his gang will die as well, so there's no point in this. Well, gun and the vampires do accept the truce and they go their separate ways and with the final hero shot of Angel to stay and they're just looking on. Well, now we get to the epilogue. Wesley and Cordelia are talking about Guns Gang and during the course of this conversation she also reveals that she wouldn't object to going out with David Nabid and admits that, yes, she'd be dating him strictly because it was money, and get the feeling that it would be more than just dating. Because she makes a very clear yeah, she would be prostituting, because she would be providing him with companionship in return for him bringing them business. And once it makes a very clear yeah, that is exactly prostitution, you're providing him companionship in exchange for money. Now I've seen other reviews of this where they say this shows a growth in her character, because even at the beginning of the episode she makes her comment about oh, I smell money and all that, but now at this point she's willing to not prostitute herself, which shows a bit of a growth. It's been an unneeded scene because it doesn't add much to it and it doesn't really show that much growth in the character was served.
Speaker 2:Almost felt like a time filler for the better wrap up scene, which was Gun looking out over the city and Angel approaching him, and Gun makes it very clear he's not going to stop, he's going to keep fighting the vampires because they are out there. This is a war that has to be fought. And Angel doesn't make any point to change his mind because he realizes, yeah, that's what needs to be done, and he realizes Gun is good at it. Well, gun asked Angel why Angel does it and Angel's response is what else am I going to do? Almost similar thought that Gun is having as well. That's all he can do at this point.
Speaker 2:Gun then refuses Angel's help when Angel says I'll be around, but then Angel says, even though Gun refuses his help, angel then says but I might need yours. Which is interesting because it is now Angel extending out his need for help, because in almost treating Gun as an equal, because up to now, anyone he was using to help him would be people like Wesley or Cordelia or Kate at the police station. They were people assisting him. They were not equals to him. I mean, he respects Wesley but he does not view Wesley as an equal. Wesley is good for the research. Kate is not his equal. She's good for providing the information that the police have Gun, on the other hand, because Gun is his own group and can more than hold his own against vampires, gun is an equal. So that's why when he says I might need yours, it's not as somebody to help me out, but somebody to fight alongside me, which is nice. And then he walks off and the episode ends. Well, now that leads us to our final segment, which is Favorite Kills and Lines.
Speaker 1:The Order of Taraka. I mean, isn't that Overkill? No, I think it's just enough kill.
Speaker 2:Now for the kills. In this one we had the kills actually spread out among the different characters, because Bobby, the team Gun shooter, he took out two vampires himself by shooting from the Mountain Crossbow Bolt. Angel took out two characters he took out Lenny's Henchman Demon, and then also the head vampire, as I mentioned at the end. And then the head vampire dusted one of his soldiers. And then in the vampire gang sorry, the vampire gang working for the head vampire they took out Gun's sister, even though the head vampire said he fed off of her. It's hard to say, we're not, he actually did. Let's all just say the vampire gang did. And then Gun dusted Alana, his sister. So that brings our kill total now up to 29 and a half deaths for Angel, one half for Wesley Gunn got his first one in his first episode and 48 for every other character, which brings a total of 79.
Speaker 2:Now for the favorite kill. This one I would have to go with. Out of all the deaths here I would have to go with Gun's killing of Alana, because, while the others were just standard vampire deaths, even the head vampire, other than the use of the word Angelus, still not much. But now Gun's killing of Alana, though, was notable because, as we can gather from this episode, gunn has killed many vampires over the past several years. That's nothing new to him because he's very comfortable doing it, but this was the first one that was personal to him, and you can tell by the look on his face. It did affect him because this was the one he didn't want to do, but he knew he had no choice.
Speaker 2:And even though we didn't get to see too much of Alana and, as I mentioned in my general review, I wish for this scene to have more of an impact. I wish we had seen more of the two of them to see how close they were, but we did get enough of it to sense that these were two people who have probably been together for a decade or more, alone because who knows how long ago their parents died, leaving them to fend for themselves, and so they only had themselves to turn to. And Alana was the closest person in the world. And also the irony that at the beginning of the episode, it was Alana who was afraid Gunn was the one who was going to die young, when in reality it was her. And one comment here is as compared to Angel being sent to hell by Buffy, where that's repeated at several other times throughout Buffy as well as Angel. This is the. As far as I can remember, gunn never refers to killing his sister ever again, which you would think that would be something very powerful. You killed the person who is closer to you than anyone. Move on with life. Now for the favorite line, the one I have to go with is the line from Gunn to Angel when Angel is offering him advice and help. You don't need advice from some middle class white dude that's dead.
Speaker 2:Going back to Tim Minier's original comment on the episode, which was an entire subculture living under Los Angeles that you don't really see, which maybe this is sort of what they were trying to go for by showing David Nabot versus Gunn, which was the fact of showing not just white versus black but richer versus more, because this is the wealth stratification, because Tim Minier comments is you'll have upper class neighborhoods and a block away poverty. The upper class people sort of don't notice the poverty or choose not to, and the middle class people, you can understand, ignore that part of town, not because of the vampires, but because of the humans ie Port Blacks living there and, as I mentioned that this episode does address an undercurrent of racism the fact that Angel is just as looked down upon and treated suspiciously as any Blacks or any other ethnic groups are. Just like for a lot of ethnic groups, angel had approved his trustworthiness Because even at the end, gunn probably still doesn't truly trust Angel, and it's not even the case like with Kate. Oh yeah, she doesn't trust Angel because she saw vampires kill her father and where that had an emotional effect on her. So in this case with Gunn, it's because he is a vampire and once again we don't truly know. Maybe vampires killed his parents and so that could lead to the similar thing with Kate, but nevertheless, because vampires are looked down upon and ostracized in their own way Very similar. Well, 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 Blind Date, where Angel and Lindsay team up to save a group of children from a demonic assassin, as we meet another member of Wolfram and Hart, helen Manners. So join me as I discuss whether or not Lindsay worked better as a colleague or as an adversary and the similarities between Lindsay's decision at the end and Angel's at the end of season 4. So join me, steven, for the next episode of Wolfram and Cast. If you wish to reach out to me with any questions or comments, you can reach me on Facebook, instagram or Twitter, at Wolframcast or email me at wolframcastgmailcom. Feel free to write to me and I might read your comments or emails on the air. Please leave me a rating and review and be sure to press subscribe on iTunes, spotify, wherever you get your podcast entertainment.
Speaker 1:But for now… I'll be around, I don't need no help. I might, I might, I might, I might, I might, I might, I might, I, might, I might, I, might, I might, I might, I might, I might, I might, I might. Even I really am So… I might, I might, I'm, I'm, I'm, I might, I'm I might, I, might, I might, I might, I might, I might, I, might, I might, I might, I might, I might, I might, I might, I might.
