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
S2E1 ("Judgment") -- Unveiling the Soul's Melody: A Tribute to "Angel," Lorne's Legacy, and the Art of Redemption Storytelling
Ever found yourself wondering what tune would best reveal the secrets of your soul in a mystical karaoke bar? Let's unravel the symphony of themes, characters, and storytelling that orchestrate the second season premiere of "Angel." This episode is a tribute to both the show's shift towards a more serialized tale and the late Andy Hallett's unforgettable portrayal of Lorne, inviting you to consider the song that would unveil your aura at Caritas. We reflect on an episode that has provoked mixed reactions but undoubtedly set the stage for the narrative evolution of Angel's universe, introducing the indomitable Charles Gunn and the enigmatic Lorne, while redefining the roles of Cordelia and Wesley.
My encounter with Hallett at a Buffy convention serves as a warm prelude to dissecting this key episode, as we reminisce about his journey from sharing a stage with Patti LaBelle to enchanting us onscreen. We scrutinize the storytelling fabric—from the Hyperion Hotel's role to Angel's cringe-worthy yet poignant karaoke attempt—exploring how even seemingly filler scenes contribute to character development and foreshadow future arcs. The nuances of production come to light, too, with a nod to the technical quirks of format transitions and how they inadvertently shape our viewing experience.
Finally, we navigate through the maze of pop culture references and real-world locations that the episode weaves into the narrative, lending authenticity and depth to our beloved characters' plight. As we dissect Angel and Gunn's demon lair discovery and the weighty themes of misjudgment and prejudice, we also don't shy away from spotlighting the humor embedded in the show's fabric. So tune in, as this is not just about tallying demon kills or cracking jokes over prison cuisine—it's a celebration of "Angel" as a canvas for the timeless theme of redemption and an ode to the craft of storytelling.
I never realized how happy you made me, oh man, when you came, and you came without taking me, but I sent you away.
Speaker 2:Oh man, when you kissed me and stopped me from shaking and I need you to take me Hello, welcome to Wolfram and Cast an angel retrospective. I am longtime fan Stephen Yelkin and I also happen to think that Mendy is a really pretty song and that Barry Manlow is an underappreciated artist. In this podcast, I'll 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. Thus, for each episode, I will go over what works, doesn't work and all of the ideas and themes the show puts forth. In this week's episode, I will discuss the first episode of the second season, judgment, which was written by executive producer David Greenwald.
Speaker 2:Greenwald directed seven other episodes of Angel, including she, dear Boy, there's no Place, like Plitzgrib, heart Drop Tomorrow and the Girl in Question. He also directed four episodes of Buffy, including Retire Boy, bad Eggs, homecoming and the Wish. Other shows that he executive produced included Grimm, for which he was nominated for a Hugo, buffy, moonlight, prophet and the X-Files. In addition to writing, directing and executive producing, he also displayed another talent by being one of the TV theme singers for the Kordi TV show in the episode Birthday. Right now, david Greenwald is working on the documentary series Mr Williams. The episode was directed by Michael Lange, who also directed Sanctuary and four episodes Buffy, including Surprise, band Candy, bad Girls and Pangs. Overall, michael Lange has directed over 260 episodes of other shows, such as the OC, beverly Hills, 90210, did Larry Sanders Show, northern Exposure and others. In addition, he made an appearance in an X-Files episode he directed called Young at Heart. The episode originally aired on September 26, 2000 and the IMDb description of the episode is misinterpreting one of Kordelia's visions.
Speaker 2:Angel tries to help a pregnant woman and accidentally kills her demon protector. Angel tries to fulfill the dead warrior's mission and escort her to a tribunal to protect the woman's unborn baby. When the woman runs off, a desperate angel visits a demon carrier born in Caritas and seeks help from the club owner, the host, who can read the destiny of anyone who sings before him. Judgment was the season premiere of the second season of Angel. Now that the show had committed itself to moving away from victim of the weak detective noir format, it moved into a more serialized format, with Angel continuing his quest to fulfill the Shanshu prophecy and become the vampire that was made mortal. In addition, we have a new addition to the cast, mr Charles Gunn, and the show also introduced two elements that would become very central to the series over the next several seasons the host, who we will later know as Lorne Krevrenswath of the Deathlock Clan, and the Hyperion Hotel. Both are given brief whipses here, the hotel in just one scene and the host in a couple of scenes, but it was enough to let fans know that this would not be the last we would see either of them as a season premiere.
Speaker 2:The show has a few jobs to catch the audience up on what happened, in case they forgot since the previous season ended, and to lay the groundwork for the season to come. Thus, my questions for the listening audience are first, how well did judgment do at setting up the second season? And second, what song would they sing at Caritas so that Lorne could read their aura? Now, before I get into the episode as a whole, one big thing I want to talk about is the host, whom, just because everyone who is listening to it at this point knows who he really is, I'll refer to by his real name, lorne, and I just want to say massively charming and wonderful introduction of him. It reminds me of the way in the first episode when they introduced Lindsay you immediately like this character and you wouldn't see more of him, lorne. The same way it was impossible not to be won over by him in just the few scenes he had. Before I get into the character, just a brief background on the actor, andy Hallett.
Speaker 2:Andy was born Andrew Alcott Hallett and he was born on August 4, 1975 in the small Cape Cod town of Austerville and he first sang when Patty LaBelle invited him up on stage at a concert in Boston and the praise she gave him afterwards boosted his confidence and he decided to try singing more often in public Soon. He moved to Los Angeles and he had a few jobs and a couple of non-speaking roles in commercials. But Joss Whedon saw Andy sing at a Universal City Blues review called BB Kings and at that moment thought of the part of the host for him. And months later Joss approached Andy in an airport and offered him his first big time acting position as the host and angel. And the sad thing is, even though he's a tag quasi regular in Angel as we'll see over the next couple of seasons he was not made an official regular meaning being in the opening credits of the cast until the last nine episodes of season four, after making 45 guest appearances before that.
Speaker 2:Now, unfortunately, he didn't get enough other acting roles after this, so he did have other appearances. For example, he appeared in Amber Benson's movie Chance as Jack, and he was in a Buffy episode prior to appearing in Angel. In this case he was an extra in a lecture hall scene when Joss needed as many warm bodies as he could get for that scene. But in the Buffy episode hush. In fact, if you freeze frame it near the beginning of the episode in a clip where Buffy and Willow are talking to each other, free frame it you will see the law a non green made up version of Andy Hallett sitting almost directly behind her. But in addition to those, he was also in a mini series called the enforcers, which was directed by Angel writer Mayor Smith, and his other role was as the voice of Jiminy Cricket in the animated movie Gepetto's Secret.
Speaker 2:Now, as a personal note, I did meet him years ago at a Buffy convention in Cleveland, ohio. In addition to Andy, it also had James Masters, anthony Stewart, head, nicholas Brendon, as well as other people showing up as well. This was held after Buffy went off the air, so at that time there was a lot of discussion about James going over to Angel in the following season. But sending that aside, one of the people I was most excited about meeting was Andy Hallett, and the way I met him was cute was the fact that he was signing autographs and there was a room set aside in a hotel for attendees to stand in line and get his autograph.
Speaker 2:Well, it turns out that his plane was delayed and he was late arriving. Well, being fans and being respectful fans, none of us were complaining. We just sat there waiting patiently for Andy to arrive because his manager, his assistant or whoever she was, assured us that he was on his way. She had gotten a call from him when he arrived at the Cleveland airport and when he showed up, my God, he was exactly like Lord. He talked like Lord, and I'm not just saying yes, he had the same voice, but his sweetie honey and everything else he said to his assistant yet, swear to God, you're watching Lord without makeup because he had that exact same charming, wonderful attitude where he just warmed up to him immediately. We were and he apologized to all of us. None of us were at all upset and he took time to talk to every single one of us and it was a wonderful experience meeting him and getting his autograph. But sadly, he wasn't around too much longer because approximately one month after Angel stopped filming, he suffered a dental infection which spread through his bloodstream to his heart and he ended up spending five days in the hospital. He did recover, but unfortunately the infection weakened his heart and he ended up having three more hospitalizations for his heart over the next five years and sadly he ended up dying of congestive heart failure at Cedar Sinai Hospital, with his father by his side, on March 29, 2009, at the very young age of 33. And I can tell you, as a fan of his as well as his appearances on Angel, he was and will always be dearly missed.
Speaker 2:Now about the episode itself. Now, like a number of Buffy season premieres and other Angel season premieres, it's a bit of a mix-bag. There is a lot to like about it. First of all, lauren, whom I'll get back to in a little bit more, just a moment but also some parts that just didn't feel well thought out and which is a shame because it followed the episode's blind date and T'Chang Xu in LA, which listeners of the show will remember. I gave high marks to both of those. This one felt a little bit of a step back on it and in fact at times it felt rather stretched out for an hour long episode and some of the scenes felt almost like filler and it was at times pushing itself to get to the final scene.
Speaker 2:And when I say that it didn't really feel well thought out, there were some questionable plot points in the sense that they never quite explained it. One of the big ones is about the pregnant woman, joe. I'm not sure if they ever actually told us her name in the episode, but in the credits she's listed as Joe, but anyways, they're never really explained to us why she was on trial. I mean, we're told that her child was to become someone important, maybe something like a future John Connor in the Terminator, which is an obvious influence on this episode. But if her daughter sorry, if her child was to become someone important, why is this tribunal allowing the mother and child to be at risk in the first place? Because they made it very clear oh, we'll only protect her if her champion will win in a fight to the death they never actually explained okay, if this child is so important, well, one the other demons who are chasing her down to kill her, but also if her champion ends up dying in the battle, then they made it very clear okay, well, I guess you die too, as well as your unborn child, so you're going to kill someone who's supposed to be very important in the future.
Speaker 2:I mean, as I said, that's rather vague, which ends up leading to the second question why is this child so important? Is it someone who's going to be a great leader, or somebody who's going to be very powerful, or somebody who will stop an apocalypse, something like that? Why is this child so important? In the episode blind date, they didn't give us too much detail, but at least they threw in a line about the blind children, saying that, oh, if you combine them together, their powers will increase exponentially and they will become, as a group, extremely powerful. There they told us all we need to know about those kids, and not at us. Here we're not just old. Child will be very important. You figure it out?
Speaker 2:And also in regards to another unanswered question, was in the scene where Angel rushes in to save the woman from a demon. He thought she was being attacked by because of Cordelia's vision. Well, she's watching this and Angel makes it very clear that he's not out to kill her. Yes, he's out to kill the demon, but it's because he's trying to save her, because he says, you know, in fact I believe he even says I'll say I'm here to save you, or something like that. Well, why doesn't he ever yell at any point during that fight scene this is my protector, you two are on the same side, or stop fighting, or something like that? She just says to her and watches it, and she doesn't make it clear until after her protector is dead. Oh, by the way, you weren't supposed to kill him. I mean, granted, of course, plot wise, if Angel doesn't kill the demon, then then the rest of the story doesn't exist. But they could have maybe had it so that she wasn't in the room at the time and she came in after he killed the demon, and that's when she falls down and says you killed my protector, and so on. But the fact is she was staying right there. She could have yelled something out. But those were some of the unanswered questions.
Speaker 2:I wish the episode had hit on at least a little bit to not allow some gaps. But now I want to talk about the biggest plus for this episode and that is Lorne and the karaoke bar, caritas. Now, first of all, caritas is obviously influenced by Koffselblanka Because, just like in the classic film Rick's Cafe, where that was a cafe, that was a safe zone for both Germans as well as non-Germans this one they made it very clear this is a safe zone for demons and humans, where there is a mystical spell put on the place so that no violence could occur there. And a place like this also later on not influenced by, because the series came out afterwards, but this type of concept also existed in the John Wick series with the Conan O'Hotel, where same thing there safe zone where no violence could occur. And I liked the fact that it isn't just a bar or a nightclub. No, that would be too cliche, too normal. Even in the series we have seen nightclub and we've seen bars and Buffy, we had the bronze. No, in this case it's a karaoke bar, which the inspired idea of that is.
Speaker 2:It provides an excuse for Andy Hallett and others to sing, sometimes very well. Like Andy Hallett had a phenomenal voice, it was just a joy to hear him sing any chance they could get and at times they came up with excuses for him to sing and I had absolutely no problems with that. Or other times, like in this episode, the sea actors who really should never, ever, ever sing again, like David and I would get to his performance of Mandy later Other than I'll just say, right now it's actually a competition between this and his dancing and she in terms of what is the most charmingly awkward moment for that character in the entire series. Fans love the dancing and when I reviewed that episode, that was really the only thing I praised about it. This one is really really up there where it is so uncomfortable that you just admire David for doing it, because it actually makes character all the more charming for the fact that, okay, he's handsome, he's strong, he's fast, he's immortal. It's nice to know that being a vampire may give you awesome fight moves. It does not give you singability.
Speaker 2:And also a nice thing is that Lorne now replaces the oracles as the person who will provide angel with advice and try to guide him plot-wise onto the next step. And the oracles with their compass references to lower beings and their overwritten state tie is so much and so little, or something like that, when past annoying, it just went full tilt into. I was happy when the Volka demons slaughtered him. Lorne, on the other hand, instead of referring to angel as a lower being, instead of coming up with pastry names for him, such as angel cakes, was endearing from the first moment you saw him and he nailed him perfect. That's in the opening credits, sorry, just in the opening prologue, where you don't know who this character is, but you're merely introduced to it, you're merely interested in him. And then in his first real discussion, seeing he has with angel, it was once again charming as anything and like gun, lorne could have been a great spin-off character.
Speaker 2:They could have easily had done a half hour show just centered around Caritas, with Lorne guiding people onto their path. In each episode they come, they perform a number maybe we see Lorne performing a number as well and then he goes and gives advice to that character as a quasi anthology sort of the way. In the late 70s, early 80s, we had Love Mode or Fantasy Island, that type of thing where you have guest stars showing up. They could have easily done Caritas and I would have happily watched it. Then the other character, and he does show up in Caritas, but I should mention and I'll talk about him a little bit more when I get to summary of the episode is Merle the snitch, and that was their one pullover they did from the film noir version of the series, in which they even have Cordelia doing a film noirish reference, giving him some chin music and Joey Sings as a nice reference to what the show used to be. And this is a character that used to be played by somebody like Peter Lorre in the Sam Spade films with Humphrey Bogart, in which someone who's a weasley snitch, in which, oh yeah, I'll provide you advice, but I might betray you or I might give you the wrong advice, or what not. Now, while I like those characters, a couple of the other characters felt a little shoehorn in, as if, well, we have to use these characters, so might as well jam them in somehow.
Speaker 2:For example, gunn's involvement in the episode was rather unnecessary because his main plot point, which was to get the amulet back to Wesleyan Cordelia for research, that could have easily been done by Angel itself. They didn't need to have Gunn do it, because Angel could have swung by Cordelia's place, give her the amulet and say, hey, I need you to do some research, find out what this is, et cetera, et cetera. They had Gunn do it simply because of the fact that at this point there was no scenes yet between J August, as well as Charisma and Alexis. They had no scenes together, which that scene, outside of being extremely cringe worthy which I'll describe more when we get to it also didn't really make too much sense either because of the fact that they were not familiar with who Gunn was, which didn't make sense for a few reasons.
Speaker 2:An Angel had been working with Gunn in a couple of episodes, such as in Blind Date, also into Shanshu. He was going back to him for assistance. You would have thought he would have mentioned something to Wesleyan Cordelia, saying hey, I know this one street guy who's got a lot of connections and I'm using him because one would imagine, of course, that there's other cases, other stories that they're doing outside of what we see on the series. But even more importantly, in the episode Warzone, which introduced Gunn, wesleyan Cordelia went to the neighborhood where he was at. Angel asked them to look up this guy to try to figure out what was going on. So you would have thought at that point Angel would have said oh, by the way, you know that guy and the street kids that I was having you help me with, his name is Charles Gunn, etc. Etc. Or Wesleyan would have asked oh so, by the way? So what happened? Oh, I worked with this guy named Charles Gunn, but I mean no point apparently. Did he ever barter to tell the two of them about the events that happened at the end of Warzone? And also, likewise, you would have thought that in the weeks because it apparently was weeks, weeks following to Shanshu and LA, he would have mentioned that he had brought in Gunn to look over them. But once again, it was done just to have a cringe over the scene.
Speaker 2:Now, the other set of characters that also felt unnecessary because they added nothing to the plot was the Wolfram and Hart scene with Lindsay, lila and Darla. I'm not sure what that contributed to the episode. Now I'll mention there was a musical reference that does tie indirectly to Barry Manlow but that I'll describe a lot more later when I get to the pop cultural references. But apparently it looks like it was done strictly just to remind everyone about Darla and her storyline, because there was no real forward momentum that was made on that storyline, other than she's a little bit more aware now because she's gotten over the shock of being brought back to life, but also it's to remind audiences of Lindsay. Now, in regards to Lindsay, there was an interview with Christian Payne and he had commented that quote.
Speaker 2:I thought that after blind date they might make me a serious regular. Instead, they picked up my boy, jay, referencing Jay Oxfordchart. He was one of my really good friends. We hit it off that season and he's still, to this day, one of my closest friends. I was happy for him and then they started bringing me back and I thought, okay, I'm okay, but I really wanted to be a serious regular and likewise as listeners. Now I'm a huge fan of Christian Payne and the character Lindsay, so that's the best thing I think of is that they were just put that scene in here, one to fill out, because, as I said, this episode did feel like a number of filler scenes Also just to remind everyone of their involvement in the overall storyline.
Speaker 2:Now, the one other scene that also felt a little awkward was Angel stumbling into the Hyperion Hotel when he was on the run with Joe. Now, once again, I could see series wise, why they included that scene, because they wanted that as a way of introducing it in the next episode. Are you now or ever have been, because that, as we know, ends up becoming their quarters for the next couple of seasons. But once again, it could have been handled a little bit more smoothly and in fact it could have been held off internally until the next episode. It didn't have to be in this episode at all because once again, the appearance of the Hyperion contributed nothing to the overall storyline.
Speaker 2:Now, those negatives aside, there are other pluses I did want to make you. I did want to reference, such as the use of Cordelia and Wesley. While they weren't main characters, they were well used and once again I'm setting aside their scene with gun, extremely cringing. But they have got a stronger bead on the character at this point because Cordelia, because of revisions and because of the events that occurred to her into Shanshu, is a lot more empathetic thanks to those visions and she's also more confident, because what nice touch I like is at the beginning of the episode, when she's at acting school it looks like or in an acting class. Her performance is actually a lot better than it was when last time we saw her perform when she was in the doll, in a doll's house where she is stiff as anything and in the middle of actual performance yells out lying. And in this one she makes a character decision on the fly when she slaps the guy but she justifies it as saying well, I think my character would do that, which is not an unreasonable thing for a performer to do.
Speaker 2:And also the other nice touch that I like was she seems to have gotten more knowledge of demonology at the very beginning when Wesley was saying, oh, it could be this type of demon, and she responds very knowledgeably oh, that demon doesn't go after children. That's a lot better than the burl demon Goofiness that she had at the beginning of the series were now. Because she realizes that she's got the visions this is her lot in life she might as well at least learn about the demons she's gained the visions of. And because she's more knowledgeable, it also allows her to be a better advisor to angel. And that's leaning to Wesley as well, who is a lot more confident. And also in the beginning scene is a lot smoother with the women, though I mentioned the cute joke they throw in just to throw it, which is chuckle, which didn't make me chuckle, but he's dressing better and he's gained more of a confidence in him. And also I like the fact that he's the one who knows about Caritas and Murl, that's not angel, because one would have expected at earlier series they would have had angel know about the demon underworld and all that. No, it's Wesley who makes a comment that almost to be a member of the team. He's making connections out there and I found this snitch demon who could provide them some information also about Caritas where they could go for additional advice. And also the one last good sight and once again I will be praising this scene even more so which is the fact of angel singing.
Speaker 2:As I mentioned at the beginning, it is charmingly awful, unlike the Wesley Cordelia gun scene which was just cringe-worthy, this one was humorously cringing, like the dancing, in which it showed actually, in a way, a more human side to angel. He's not perfect in every way. He is a bad singer, as we have heard many people in many karaoke bars. They're not all professional singers. They are flat, they are off key, they cannot carry a beat or a tune if they tried. And also I like the choice of the song, the use of man alone.
Speaker 2:The nice thing about it is for listeners who are much younger than I am, they may have very little clue who Barry Manila was. But just without going into his life story or his entire career, I'll just suffice it to say in the 70s he was a huge superstar. He was a very, very, very popular singer, selling out arenas, having gold, platinum records, so on. I mean he was very popular and with young people of that day he was not uncool, he was somebody that people genuinely liked. But since that time, as happens with a number of singers, as they get older, as time goes along and it becomes your parents' favorite star, well, he stopped being a bit on the cool side. So what that does by having somebody like Angel, who dresses, you know, fashionably, you know, and is otherwise very cool, to have him say about Mandy, I think it's really pretty shows that he's not truly part of this world. He's actually somewhat stuck in the past. He stuck with liking something like Barry Manila.
Speaker 2:Now I can't do this episode unless I make a reference to the one word that fans of the show will know will become the word that they have used most often, even more so than vampire, even more so than angel name, and that, my friends, is the use of the word champion, I had to fight the urge not to start doing a running cowley of it, like I do with the number of kills, because I'm afraid that number is going to exceed the kill count very quickly In this episode alone. I went through the transcript. The word champion was used seven times in this episode, and this is just the first one, and that will become one of the most overused words in the entire series. Angel champion, I'm your champion, we need you to be a champion. You're working to be a champion. I have no idea why they grabbed onto that word and why they could have pulled out of the sorus to find some other word to use other than champion once, but it is what it is. With that being said, though, now for the episode itself.
Speaker 2:The episode opens with Lauren, the green-skinned demon, seeing I will survive at a nightclub, and, as I mentioned, it is an arresting opening because we don't, at this point, we have no idea who this demon is, and one other nice touch that I like about the use of Lord I just want to draw attention to is a thing I've mentioned in previous episodes is what separates Angel from Buffy is the fact that in Buffy. Once again. With the exception of Clem, the demons in Buffy were all evil unless they did something to get their soul back spying an angel. Otherwise, every demon that showed up in Buffy was evil, was malicious. As made very clear in Angel, not all demons are bad. There's a lot of demons that are good, such as the women in Sheet they were good and at most, especially Lord. There is not an evil bone in his body. Yes, he's a demon, but he's far from evil, and we can sense that immediately in this opening. When he shows up, starts doing a few bars of I Will Survive and then he does a nice intro as if this was a Vegas nightclub. By doing it this way, he's catching the audience up on the show by not directly talking about Angel, because there's absolutely no reason for the character at this point, for Rorn, to know anything about Angel or what's going on, but just to remind everyone how dangerous Los Angeles is, and by making a reference to sweet young things being pursued by big, hairy monsters.
Speaker 2:Well, the episode then cuts over to us having a chance to see how some of the other characters are spending their time. For example, cordelia is in an acting class and she's doing a breakup scene with a fellow student when all of a sudden she suddenly beat with a 911 call. And if I was still doing the carbon dated segment on this, the beeper would be the first thing I would turn to for carbon dating this series, because this was years before smartphones appeared and people could just text you. This was at the time when you had to carry a little beeper on you and you were given a very short message called this number. You didn't have room for an entire paragraph text for your friend to send it to you along with pictures, cartoons, whatever. She gets the beeper and she suddenly has to leave to call that number.
Speaker 2:Well then it cuts over to Wesley Blean, dark at a pub, and, as we saw in the episode 5x5, he is a phenomenal pub. Sorry, he is a phenomenal dark player because he easily wins the game and he's a lot smoother. As I mentioned before then, he was in previous episodes making eye contact with a pretty young woman Standing just a short distance away and, unlike in previous episodes, you can tell he's not flustered by a cute girl who's obviously interested in him, because he's making eye contact back at her and you get the feeling that had he not gone on a page at that moment, he probably would have hit on her and maybe would have done a pretty good job at it as well. But he does get the 911 call and he takes the money that he won from the guys and you can tell from their reaction. This was a friendly game of darts. I mean they weren't upset about losing the money. I mean it was just hey, you won, you won. And because he ends it on a casual, nice note, hey, they're like next time. And once again their reaction isn't anything angry. But it does have the cute joke of while he's making eye contact with a woman he throws the dart at the board and just suddenly hear off camera a guy. Go ow, as he flinches a little bit relative. Oops, I may have stabbed a guy with a dart trying to look cool. Nice, cute, throwaway joke. That worked. Well, we see why they're getting the page. The page was from Angel, who calls him to meet him at a nearby gym and they stroll into the gym purposefully with heroic music behind them, them in a trio hero shot walking in there and the worker who's there is trying to kick them out. Private gym when they approach a mirror looking for a Karnis demon and Angel would come and say he knew the demon would be there, because they love muscles and mirror and a health club is the best place to go to. Well, angel looks at the mirror without his reflection in it, of course, and suddenly kicks it in.
Speaker 2:Now, before I continue, one unfortunate error that the episode has. And I say unfortunate because one thing for viewers to remember when this show was first aired, it was in a square format, designed for television. It was never intended to be in widescreen format. It was intended for a square format, and the reason why I mention that is when the scene of them walking through the health club to get to the mirror that was shot in a way that the actors are in the center frame and anything that was occurring off that center would have been cropped out because one's getting square format.
Speaker 2:Now, the reason why I'm going into this much detail about the shape and square versus widescreen is the fact that at one point we see the characters walking across a wall of mirrors. Well, because it's a wall of mirrors. In the age of the vampire, well, obviously he's not in the reflection and in the center frame you do see just Wesley and Cordelia, because you see the reflection. You don't see Angel and he's not supposed to appear until the camera then pans over to them and that's when it looks like, oh, he didn't have a reflection. Now the problem is the fact that in the widescreen format you see David standing off to the side there waiting for his cue to join them as they walk forward, looking like he's just now there, but in the widescreen format you can clearly see him waiting for his cue. So it's a cue you know nothing. I mean, it's not a big reason to hurt the episode, but it is a nice thing to notice the difference between that square format that they intended and the widescreen format.
Speaker 2:Well, game back to the episode. As I mentioned, the trio stand in front of a mirror and Angel figured out that that's the one that they're behind. He kicks it in, and he's lucky, because that would have been really embarrassing if he kicked in the wrong mirror and had to turn to the worker and say, oops, sorry, maybe it's this one, maybe it's this one, maybe it's this one, until finally finding him after kicking like 20 mirrors. But in this case that didn't happen. He kicked in the correct one around the bat, and he does see behind it a sacrifice of two young people tied up and gagged at a red rogue demon and a creature with a sword. Well, angel makes very quick work of the demon, killing him with the demon's own sword, and Wesley, meanwhile, is also making very quick work of the human and Cordelia drops a weed on him, knocking him out. Well, the team then unties the humans and they walk out of the club, achieving their objective At that point.
Speaker 2:It then cuts to the opening credits. Now, in the opening credits, as I mentioned at the beginning, we do have a new addition to the cast J August Richards, and a few things I just want to mention here is about the B-roll footage that is shown behind the actor, because for each of the actors they have a scene from an episode showing them a nice scene, but then also has B-roll footage. And for Gunn, for J August, it's the alleyway. It's an alley to show that Gunn is from the street and so that makes sense that they would show it in an alley. Now I just want to make a mention, since I'm talking about at this point the other characters, b-roll footage. Angels is a cage which is used to represent the fact that he's still trapped by his past, that he's still training and he's almost in a prison trying to get past it, trying to atone for his sins. So yes, background is a nightclub, which represents at this point still her desire for the glamorous life.
Speaker 2:Now Wesley's is interesting because in the first season his background footage was a blurred out image of Doyle's apartment, and the reason why is because, well, as a reminder, glenn Quinn was not supposed to lead the show as early as he did. So his B-roll footage made sense because it was his apartment, his messy apartment, to show his messy life. When they brought in Alexis, they were still using Doyle background, which actually made sense because at that point Wesley was still just a replacement for Doyle, not just the actor but the character, and at that point Wesley still felt like a replacement for the Doyle character. Well, now in season 2, he's no longer just a replacement, he is his own character, he has his own purpose, his own youthfulness to the team. So they don't need to show Doyle's background anymore and instead they use drawings from a demon book, which makes sense because of his studious nature and his ability to do research in various books. So now all the backgrounds make sense for each of the actors, now also just as a nice piece of trivia.
Speaker 2:This is the only season, on either Buff or Angel, where every actor in the opening credits appears in every episode of the season. That did not occur in Buffy, that did not occur in Angel and any of the other four seasons, because in all the other seasons at least one actor who is in the opening credits was absent from at least one of the episodes. Now that we're done with the opening credits, now it cuts back to Cordelia's apartment and she and Wesley are keeping track of all the demons on a whiteboard and it's almost like a tally sheet. Oh, this is what was wrong, this is how we killed them, so on. If they're doing this as a way of keeping score, you get the impression that at this point they're believing the fact that, hey, if we kill enough demons, we save enough people.
Speaker 2:The Chandrauproxy is fulfilled, as if there was a minimum number that Angel had to get to. Well, while they're doing this, she does have a vision of a demon. Well, as she describes it nasty demon of unknown origin, whereas Wesley abbreviates it NDOU, which would have been actually interesting if they had used that abbreviation in later episodes and just assumed the audience knew what an NDOU was, which would have been not that good of an acronym, because usually acronyms it helps if you can actually pronounce it as a word, like if it's called it N-O-U-D or nasty, unknown origin, demon, new Odd this is a new odd. Well, as they're trying to figure out what the new odd was, it does come to Wolfram and Hart for our one scene with these characters in the episode and Lila is on the phone with a rival and in a nice cute line from Lila she's talking to them and saying of course, if you don't sign, we'll sue your ass off and kill your children. Just kidding, no one wants a lawsuit, which once again, stephanie Romanoff does a good job of selling lines like that.
Speaker 2:Well then she enters Lindsay's office and he's playing classical music for Daru's benefit, and I'll get back to that music that he's playing, to Chopin when I get to the pop cultural references, because it does actually have a tie in. But she can sense that Angel is still around and she remembers that Angel is the one who dusted her and she has a look on her face. It's hard to tell if she's wanting vengeance against him or if she's still attracted to him or we can't really tell. In fact she says at the end of the scene Angel, I'd like to see that boy, and you can't tell if it's for good or bad is why she wants to see him. So the scene, as I said, is filler, doesn't add anything to the overall episode, but it's nice to see these actors still doing something.
Speaker 2:But now it cuts back to the main part of the episode, which is Angel sketching the new odd and yes, I will keep using new odd until it is a thing. But anyway, he sketches the demon based on Cordelia's description and once again, he may not be able to sing or dance, but that boy can draw sets. An excellent drawing, sketch drawing does of the demon. Well, wesley is also looking at a book that Dennis the Ghost literally flings at him from the shelf and it opens up to the page of the demon which Wesley identifies as a pre-el Mohtu demon and he's reading the description and he says that the demon is bred to maim and massacre, though he's not sure exactly where the demon is located at in terms of life, what their normal haunts are. Well, wesley suggests at that moment asking a parasite demon that he knows, a snitch who has connections with the underworld and he says that basically, that the most likely place to find Merle the snitch demon is at a safe haven for demons.
Speaker 2:So with that now it cuts over to a place we'll see quite often over the next couple of seasons Hurtas, and it's also the same place we saw in the prologue and there's a demon there singing. I'm so excited and once again, not they created singing, which is not that unbelievable for a karaoke bar. And at the door is a bouncer who is checking all the entrance for weapons, both humans as well as demons, and as a nice. Not sure if it was intended to be a continuity thing, but we do see one of the demons is looks very much like one of the mouthless telepathic demon species that was in the episode Earshot, the one that caused Buffy to suddenly have the ability to hear everyone's thoughts, though in this case the demon is wearing a robe, while the ones in Earshot were naked. But also another demon who is sitting alongside Mordor, the Bedback is looking very much like the reptile had a demon that was trapped in the initiative in a new moon raising. So I'm not sure it was intended to be called back to those episodes or if it was just a case of the costume department said hey, we need demon costume. Oh, let's use that one, let's use that one. Could very much have been the latter, but anyways, after the demon who sings I'm so excited is done, lauren pulls him aside and tells him what he sees in his aura about his future, and then also at that point, we have another demon coming up on stage to perform a song that we hear in the beginning of is Sexual Healing.
Speaker 2:Next one is the songs for this episode. Well, it's a piece of trivia. Edward James Gage, who plays Mordor the Bedback in this case I just have to say the entire thing because I just love that title, mordor the Bedback Just saying that makes a chuckle but also he played one of the movers in the episode Buffy vs Dracula, which aired immediately before this episode. So, hey, edward James Gage had two roles and two episodes as two completely different characters, but in the same night. Well, while Mordor the Bedback is singing, the game meets up with Merle and he's played by actor Matthew Jane, which is just a brief bit there. Matthew James played Merle in Judgement, redefinition, dead Old Gang of Mine, heart Drop, then Dead Line and finally Blood Money. He also played the character the Dude in the movie Jane Silent Bob's Stripe Back, which, as a nice tie-in with Angel, starred our favorite Slayer, faith, who will always be my favorite Slayer at least Forget the chick who had a show named after her. I go with Faith, but anyways he was also in the movies, clean until night.
Speaker 2:Well, came back to Merle, they bribed him to give him some money and he gives him a bit more information on the Priomolto Demon and he says that the demon is traveling around in the underground and he makes it very clear this demon is extremely tough and a simple staking is not going to get rid of the demon, because he says oh, as he mentions to Angel, you fold the first time a pointy thing touches you, whereas the Priomolto Demon a lot harder to kill. Well, is there about to leave? Angel runs into Lorne who, once again, at this point we just know is host. But anyways, lorne is immediately gracious and comes across as extremely friendly and he tries to get Angel to sing. And that's when we find out a little bit more about Lorne and Wesley explains that the host is psychic and can read people's souls when they sing. And Wesley explains that he's anagogic, which means mystical.
Speaker 2:Now I looked it up just to make sure that the show was using Lord anagogic correctly, and according to Mary a Webster, anagogic means interpretation of the word, passage or text as of scripture or poetry that finds beyond the literal, allegorical and moral senses a fourth and ultimate, spiritual or mystical sense. And the actual reference definition goes further and says revealing a higher spiritual meaning behind the literal meaning of a text. The medieval Christian exegesis of the Bible reinterpreted many episodes of Hebrew scriptures according to four levels of meaning the literal, the allegorical, the moral and the anagogical. Of course, the anagogical sense was seen as the highest, relating to the ultimate destiny of humanity according to the Christian scheme of universal history, whereas the allegorical and moral senses refer respectively to the church and the individual soul. The anagogic is thus a specialized form of allegorical interpretation, rich-ringed text in terms of eschatology, and they make a reference to seeing also allegory. So, without saying the word one more time again wow, that's tough to pronounce. Credit to Alexis for getting it right. But anyways, reading those definitions, they're actually using the word correctly.
Speaker 2:But anyways, angel makes it very clear that there are three things that I don't do stand date and sing in public. And he is very clear, very serious, that he outright refuses. And in fact, when Wesley Crudill tried to get him good by saying that Lauren might be able to give him even more information, angel at that point becomes extremely upset and storms out of the bar. Well, now it cuts to an alleyway and Angel is walking down the alleyway alone and all of a sudden a pregnant woman comes running down, very scared and obviously being pursued. Angel offers to help her when the pre-Omoto demon leaps out at him.
Speaker 2:Now, I mentioned at the beginning, during this scene, why she never yells. But now it leads to a second question why was she running scared? She knew the pre-Omoto demon was her champion. She makes that very clear after Angel kills him. So why was she with the pre-Omoto demon and instead she was running franghtend? I mean, now, great to lay her on, she does run away from Angel, so maybe she just doesn't like staying around people who were, or demons who were sent to protect her. But all the same, as I mentioned, angel offers to help her when the pre-Omoto demon leaps out at him.
Speaker 2:They start to fight and, though the pre-Omoto demon is tough, angel very quickly gets the upper hand and wildly snaps a snack. I mean, it is a loud crack. Now, instead of being grateful, the woman instead falls to her knees, sobbing over the demon, saying to Angel what have you done? What have you done and Angel is obviously very confused by that reaction that I just saved you from a demon who was chasing you and you're upset at me. Well, joe, the woman explains that the demon was her protector and he was there, sent to protect her from the tribunal. Well, it now cuts back to Team Angel, who were discussing the misinterpretation. What we're supposed to think? A creature like that can suddenly change its modus operandi overnight, turn into some noble protector and defender of….
Speaker 2:Oh god. Well, angel just assumed that because it's a demon, it must be evil. And Cordelia's vision said that this demon was in fault. He assumed that Cordelia had a vision of the demon. He must be evil, so he must be killed. And Wesley's comment well, why would you? Cordelia said he was a nasty demon. And Cordelia corrects him that no, I said he looked nasty. I didn't see he was a killer, you did, which was actually true. She just said he looked nasty. Well, to be honest, he wasn't the most pleasant looking demon in the world. It was Wesley who, looking the book, jumped to the conclusion he was a killer.
Speaker 2:Now, one nice touch here about this misinterpretation, which is fundamental to the entire episode, is the episode does this learon with the gun scene, which was stereotyping, because Cordelia and Wesley do the same thing with gun. They stereotype him. The man in the alleyway sees some young cups coming purposefully after him. He assumes that they're out to kill him. This episode has a number of scenes of stereotyping with pre-amoto demon. Oh, he looks like a demon, he must be bad. And, as with other stereotypes, you see something you don't know looks scary, you immediately assume it's bad. So you're judging on what the person is and not who they are. And the common example of that is oh, I see a black person. He must be out to rape or rob or deal drugs or whatever Stereotype.
Speaker 2:Well, angel says that because the demon was a soldier like him, angel needs to assume his mantle and to assume whatever mission the pre-amoto demon had. And he assumes that Merle probably knew about this and intentionally misled him, because most likely, merle probably knew that the demon wasn't evil and just for whatever reason was held. That keeps him information. Well, to get the rest of the information, it now cuts to him very violently, beating up and interrogating Merle, and Merle now provides more info and he explains that there is a grace on the unborn child's head. That's when we find out that the child is supposed to be something powerful in the future, which, as I said at the beginning, we're never told more than that. And because of that, the dark ones, I guess, who are the equivalent to, who are the opposite of the powers that be, but the dark one wanted him killed before he was even born. So once again, we have a Permanent Type Reference here killing an unborn leader before they ever are born. Well, they paid Merle to help get rid of the pre-amoto demon, because if she doesn't have a champion, then the tribunal immediately rules against her and will have her killed. And also, without the pre-amoto demon, protect her. The dark ones figure. Other demons will have an easier time of getting at her before she ever goes in from the tribunal. Well, angel interrogates him and demands know where the woman is at, and he does end up reluctantly giving the location, which is Boyle Heights, which Merle says is the bad part of town.
Speaker 2:I looked up some stats about the real Boyle Heights, because it does exist in Southern California. It is a real location and, at least as of now, it is 94% Latino and the median income is $33,235, with 41% of the population making less than 20,000 a year and only 5% have a four year degree, while 69% of it don't even have a high school diploma. And now the crime right there, because Merle says it's the bad part of town. The crime does depend on the neighborhood because I was looking at the crime statistics. Some were better than others, so not so bad. So you really wouldn't want to be out at night, even in real life. But I like the fact that they did pick a location like Boyle Heights when I mentioned 94% Latino, 69% not even having a high school diploma, so on. Because once again it leads to this stereotype oh, it's filled with minorities and uneducated and poor, so it must be a dangerous area, it must be the bad part of town to be aware of.
Speaker 2:Well, now it cuts over to Boyle Heights and a man is trained again to his car at night when we see a group of young people walking very quickly towards him and he immediately assumes that they're coming to attack and he runs away from them, yelling take the car, take the car. Well, he runs to another person and now we see why these young people were walking very quickly after him. It wasn't to attack him, it was to go against the person he was right to, because the person he ran into, that's the bad person, that's a vampire. And the vampire immediately wastes no time and tries to attack him and the group, who is revealed to be Gunn's gang, with Gunn appropriately enough as the one in the hoodie, leap in and save him. Gunn makes very quick work of the vampire, dusting him, and the man's response is instead being grateful, is to run off in terror and is even thank Gunn. And what is interesting here is once again the stereotype being the man's reaction is not that different from Angel's, because he saw a group of young people out on the street at night walking quickly towards him. He immediately passed judgment and assumed they were dangerous. Well, after the man takes off, angel then steps out the shadows and greets Gunn, and Gunn, who has now worked with Angel several times now, is openly friendly towards him and welcoming, and Angel asks for Gunn's assistance in finding out where the pre-Omoto demon is living.
Speaker 2:Well, it cuts to, I would assume, maybe a couple of hours later, at least a little while later, they're walking for an underground tunnel, and I would like to think it was at least a couple of hours, because the fact that Gunn didn't know what a pre-Omoto demon was, but he immediately knew where he lived, as I stated, he admitted that he had never even heard the demon. Well, anyways, they're discussing the situation which is recapping for the audience. Well, what we just saw, literally 5 minutes before. So I guess the writers assumed we had the world's shortest memories, that we couldn't just remember what we saw literally in the scene right before this, and because the situation almost looks like it was put down to its follows Moment one, angel mentions the demon and Gunn has never heard of him.
Speaker 2:Moment two, angel asks for assistance. Literally seconds later, gunn takes him to where the demon that he never heard of lives and based on the fact that Angel is just now mentioning why he wants to find the demon's lair, I mean so it's one of those, I'm assuming. A second later, because of the fact that he's just now getting to it, one would think that Gunn at some point would have said why you don't know where the demon is, or whatever. But anyways, as they're walking through the area, gunn notices a large vent that was new. Now here's just another sign note here about that.
Speaker 2:Inside the room the light is passing through a large powered fan that can be seen and there is no other clear way out other than the entrance that they come through the vent, because ventilation fans are not built to blow into a perpetually unoccupied enclosed room. That would make sense. The vent would have had to always been there and it would have made a little bit more sense if Gunn noticed a lack of ventilation or noise from the vent. That was due to a new door, not the fact that there was a vent there itself. But anyways, they do walk up to the vent, and now this is at the point where they don't feel any air coming out from behind the vent. Well, they figure out that it's a door. They open it and they see a makeshift bed in hiding area and residents behind it.
Speaker 2:As they come, in a very spartan area, and they do see a book with his name in it, kamal and the weapon the demon used to fight with. Angel also notices a box next to the bed and after fussing around with the box for a moment or so, he finds a false bottom with a large ceremonial coin in it and almost looking like an amulet. Well, he gives his business card to Gunn and he asks him to help the gang out. Well, on the card it mentions Silver Lake, california, as the location. Well, silver Lake. Once again.
Speaker 2:I looked this up because, once in out of curiosity, silver Lake is an east side neighborhood that fully embraces the hipster style. This is Google Maps' description of Silver Lake, california that it fully embraces the hipster lifestyle. Donkey blocks with street art are lined with artisanal coffee shops, vegan cafes and creative Asian eateries, as well as indie music venues, trendy bars and boutiques. The area also includes finding samples of modernist architecture and a namesake reservoir that's ringed by a popular walking trail with a dog park and a grassy meadow. To be honest, based on that description, I could imagine that's where somebody like Cordelia would live. I mean, sounds like a neighborhood she could theoretically afford but also have enough of her interests. And also, I looked on the map. It is just 10 minutes from the Griffith Art Observatory and that comes into play heavily in next episode. And also, as a side note, though on the card it lists the zip code as 90026. Now, that is not in the Silver Lake area, that's actually in the Echo Park area, which is just outside of Silver Lake, and in fact it's right next to Logan Academy of Global Ecology, which is and I have every thought that this was entirely incidental, this was entirely coincidental. It just happens to be two miles from Angels Point Park. I'm thinking that, especially when they were writing this episode back at this time, they didn't have the notice that that name on there. But it is a nice touch.
Speaker 2:Well, anyways, angel asks Gunn to give the disc to the team so they can find out what it is and what it has to do with the Tribunal, and Angel says that he'll remain and look around the few items the demon had and after Gunn leaves, he is looking around and he sees that the demon isn't all that different from Angel once again, a Spartan lifestyle.
Speaker 2:But he does hear something approaching and he pulls out the demon's sword and it turns out to be Joe coming, probably to rest or hide from any demons chasing her.
Speaker 2:Well, angel now explains that Kamal's mission is now his, that he's assuming it, and Joe says that she has no idea why all of this is happening to her, which, once again, using the Terminator analogy, is very similar to Sarah Connors response at the very beginning, when she says she has no idea why the Terminator is chasing her down and also, like Sarah Connors, she doesn't know why her unborn child is going to be so important.
Speaker 2:But Joe says that all she wants to do is just protect her daughter because she's her child and not because of who she is or what she might become later.
Speaker 2:Well, angel asks for the woman to let him help her and she says that they need to get the coat of arms which it makes clear is the amulet to present to the tribunal, because she says if they present it they'll call everything off, which, as a side note, is actually not true, as we see later.
Speaker 2:But anyways, angel then reveals that, oops, actually I sent it back to my place, which, since we don't know when the tribunal is going to appear or not, the woman is a lot more upset than she needs to be because all Angel had to say is hey, we'll go back to my friend's place and we'll get the disc, we'll get the coat of arms, no big deal. But anyways, she is upset and she opens the door to leave when she's suddenly attacked by another demon. Well, at this point, while I start to tune up my vocal chords so that Lauren can read my future, my spidey sense is teaming. It must be time for our pub culture segment, where I find every pub cultural reference in the episode, compile it into a supercut and make heads or tails of what they are talking about.
Speaker 1:Your spidey sense.
Speaker 2:The pub cultural reference sorry.
Speaker 1:I've been watching a little noir festival on Bravo. Who's a little Kurt? Who's a little Kurt Jurgens and the enemy below, I just think, barry Manilow, copa Cabana. Mandy, mandy, well, you came and you gave without taking, but I sent you away. Oh Mandy, well, you kissed me and stopped me from shaking, and I need you today. Oh Mandy, oh Mandy, taught me from shaking.
Speaker 2:Once again. Now we see why there is never a musical episode of Angel. Now this first of all a comment on Barry Manilow, the Barry Manilow and also the reference to Chopin as heard in that sound clip. There Lindsay makes comment about how Darrell likes Chopin and Brahms and the music that he starts to play in that scene is Chopin's prelude. In scene Meyer he plays in the CD player for Darrell and she responds very nice to it. That actually does have a tie-in with Barry Manilow and unlike the Angels Point part, which I'm thinking was just Pierre Coinsons, this one, I think the tie-in was intentional, because here's why the opening for Barry Manilow's song Could it Be Magic is also Chopin's prelude in C minor.
Speaker 1:The next one is just Matt оm.
Speaker 2:Now, that was the opening for the song Could it Be Magic, which was not as popular as man Lo's other songs, but man Lo's follow-up album, the next year, man Lo II, did include, among other songs, mandy, which, as you are in the clip, is the song that Angel performed at Caritas, and Angel explained that he picked it because it was pretty. That could have been a reason that maybe he did pick it because it was pretty, or it could be he was drawn to man Lo simply because of man Lo's use of classical music, because of the fact that, as we saw in previous episodes, angel does have an affection for classical people, for artists and things like that, and so that could have been almost like, subconsciously in there is the use of classical music in a pop song, and so that could have been what drew him to man Lo in the first place. Now, why didn't the episode have them sing Could it Be Magic? It's not as well-known as the song, especially 20-some years later, whereas Mandy is still a well-known song. Or, as faith comments at the end, Coppa Cabana, which is also a very popular song that very man Lo had written and formed. So, as a result, having him do Could it Be Magic would have confused a lot of fans because we wouldn't have known what the song was, whereas Mandy, as I said, is one they did know.
Speaker 2:Now, the other pop cultural reference that I want to draw attention to is Lawrence comment about Kirk Juergens in the movie Enemy Below. Now, the movie Enemy Below was a 1957 American war film about a battle between an American destroyer escort and a German U-boat during World War II, and it was produced and directed by actor Dick Powell. In the movie starred Robert Mitchum and Kurt Juergen, the actor that Lord referenced, as the American and German commanding officers respectively. The film was based on the 1956 novel the Same Name by Dennis Reiner, who was a British naval officer involved in anti-Summery warfare throughout the Battle of the Atlantic. Now, in regards to Kurt Juergens himself, he was actually a critic of the Nazis in his native Germany and after filming the movie Wiener-Meadelen, he got into a fight with the brother of a high-ranking SS official, a member of the Nazi paramilitary group and also a member of the Nazi staff, and because of the fight he got sentenced to a labor camp for the politically unreliable in Hungary. Well, after a few weeks he managed to escape from this camp and went into hiding and then later, after the war, he became an Austrian citizen, obviously later an actor.
Speaker 2:As for the movie itself, the film won an Oscar for best sound effects and the film has had an influence and references to other films. For example, the 1966 Star Trek episode Balance of Terror is very closely based on this film because in that episode it involved the Enterprise in a battle of wills with a Romulan vessel, in the same style that the U-boat and the destroyer were in the movie. And also Nicholas Meyer cited it as an inspiration for the final battle between Kahn and Perk in the movie Star Trek II, the Wrath of Kahn, and also in the 1995 film Crimson Tide. Two officers debate about the cast of the Enemy Below.
Speaker 1:The Enemy Below, robert Mitchell. And and what? Robert Mitchell? Incomplete answer. What's the German guy with the white hair? What's his name? What's that? Perk Juergens? Howdy Kruger? Robert Shaw does not seem to be as good. Well, she was in Valor. Where are you from? How you doing? Hi? My thanks, I trust me and, sir, when you speak to me, stand to the attention seller. Who played the German sub-commander in the Enemy Below with Robert Mitchell? Was it Kurt Juergens or Hardy Kruger? Sir, wrong answer. Drop down and give me 20.
Speaker 2:And this is also not the last time that Angel the series, goes back to World War II as well, because in the movie why we Fight it's set on a submarine.
Speaker 2:So I'm not sure we're not that as a tie-in with Enemy Below, but another World War II reference. Well, now getting back to the episode itself, angel is finding the other demon, and one nice cute bit I like was, after he screwed up in the first fight he does learn his lesson because as he's finding the demon, he does yell out to Joe saying is it okay for me to kill him Because he didn't want to make the same mistake twice and have Joe say, great, killed my fallback protector. But Joe does make it very clear that it is okay to kill the demon and Angel then makes very quick work of him and he then tells Joe that the best move is for them to take off as well before other demons come. Well, now it cuts about over to Cordelia, and Wesley and Cordelia are doing research when they hear a knock on the door. Once again, as I mentioned, it's very clear, based on their reactions, that Angel never bothered to tell them about who Gun was, as shown by this clip.
Speaker 1:Wesley, you've heard Angel talk about Gun. He's a great guy with a really fly street tag. What's he fly? It's how they know you on the street, Dorgo Gun. It really lets him know you mean business. It's my name, Charles Gunn. To ends.
Speaker 2:Which once again they're a bit of stereotype. They see a young black man in a hoodie goes by the name Gun, and Cordelia immediately assumes that that's a street name, though actually, in her defense, I don't know too many people named Gunn, and so we're resolved. It's not totally illogical for her to assume that he could have just introduced himself as my name is Charles Gunn and she would have known immediately. But once again it would have taken away from the joke of her misinterpreting his name. And also it does bring back yet again another reference. As I've said, the stereotype Young black guy goes by the name Gun. He must be a thog. Well, gunn does explain that Angel sent him over with the Taos men for them to research. Well, now it cuts over to Angel, who is still on the run with the woman, and they find an underground entrance into a large abandoned hotel, which we'll know will come the next episode, as the Hyperion, and Angel looks around and you can see by the look on his face there is a sense of deja vu here, a sense that had been here before and, as we find out once again, next episode. Yes, he has, but the hotel becomes secondary because he immediately turns to her and asks her to tell him all about the Tribunal, and she explains that it's an other worldly court that can save her and her daughter. And he quickly sends her over to Cordelia so that he can fight two new demons who are coming after her.
Speaker 2:Well, angel races into Cordelia and finds out that the woman never arrived and Angel's theory is the fact that, instead of going to Cordelia's, she just took off on her own because she doesn't trust them. And he says, to be honest, after he killed her protector and they were brought to hold on to the amulet that she needed, that makes actually good sense that she wouldn't trust them. And he then also says that he thought he was close to his goal and realized that he was nowhere close. But then Cordelia then assures him that she will stick with him and told the very end. That's when Wesley then rushes into the room, having figured out what the disk is, and he says that it's the emblem of the Cajar bin's chair judgment, an ancient port that was built to settle grievances. Once again, I'm not sure what the grievance was in regards to her, but we will go there. But anyways, wesley says that this Tribunal has existed since medieval times and they settled things in fights to the death. And he says there's no way to tell when or where they'll appear. And with that, angel then says he only knows of one way to try to figure out where she is, which is when we get the wonderful scene of angels singing mandi at Caritas. And, as heard in the audio clip that I played, wesley and Cordelia are sitting there in horror listening and watching this, and you could almost imagine that Wesley might be thinking which was more torturous for him watching angels sing mandi or watching Cordelia act in a doll's house? Both would be hell to go through and I like Cordelia's line of that man will do anything to save life.
Speaker 2:Well, after the song where Lord then introduces a angel as the vampire with soul, which is a nice twist on how angel is usually described Well, he does sit down with Lauren to discuss his situation and Lauren explains that he shouldn't feel guilty about killing the champion because well, really anyone could have made the mistake. And he goes on further to say that the Tribunal will appear wherever the woman is, because ultimately it can't escape it. So just look for the woman, you find the Tribunal. But then Lauren does ask him before he goes into more detail about where the woman is located. And the big question he has is why was mandi a solid choice? And Angel's answer is well, to be honest, I thought it was pretty. And Lord popping up says there's a destroying world. Who can argue with Vanillal? Which, once again, I cannot like this character? There is a reason, just from this episode onwards, why for most fans, he was their most loved character, because what is nice about was? He comes across as sincere in his likability. He doesn't look like this is just an act that he's putting on, that. He is genuine and how warm and comforting he is. And he sensed that there is not a fake bone in his body.
Speaker 2:Lauren then tells Angel where the woman is. He says it's the corner of fourth and spring and this is where the trial will be. The host doesn't know how the trial works or if Angel will be successful, because he's not a psychic. He can just read their souls. Well, it cuts to a woman heading down the street to that intersection and the Tribunal. Three men in robes suddenly rise up out of nothingness and in many evil chairs. At that point, a knight on horseback comes riding down the street with a lance and the knight throws down his talisman, angel explains that her champion is dead and doesn't have the coat of arms. The Tribunal says, sorry, we can't give you asylum and the ancient law states that the two champions will meet in moral combat. One can save her life, one can take it, and because she has no champion or coat of arms sucks to be you, I guess you die Life is forfeit. Well, as soon as one of the judges says that, that's when Angel appears and throws down his talisman, volunteering to be her champion. Well, the trial by combat occurs and it begins with a jousting mat. And Angel makes it very clear it's been a while since he's been on the back of a horse, but he doesn't anyways.
Speaker 2:Once again, the difference between how the series was shot and intended for the square footage as opposed to widescreen. In the widescreen footage when Angel is coming down the street jousting, if you look in some of the wider shots, you can see that the road has clearly been cordoned off and cars that were getting too close are signaled away by crew members. Slash alice. Well, angel does win the first part by knocking the demon back a bit, but not off the horse. The knight sits back up very easily, but for their second go around, then I'll just call him the knight.
Speaker 2:The knight definitely knocks Angel off hard off the horse, and now it's onto a sword fight, which is something that enjoys we've seen from previous episodes of Angel's Walls. Buffy is very comfortable with the demon knight, ends up stabbing him, though with the sword through his stomach. Now here's where the thing I can think of is the fact that it's always going to be this type of battle, no matter who or what the champions are. Because of the fact that it's a nettle sword going through his stomach, we know that's not going to kill Angel, because, one, it's through his stomach you can only kill him this hard and two, it's a nettle sword, not a wooden sword, not a wooden stake, it's a metal sword. So, yeah, it'll hurt him like Dickon, but it's not going to kill him. And it would have been much scarier if the tribunal had handed the demon knight a wooden sword. That would have been to the death.
Speaker 2:But anyways, the demon knight, who obviously didn't realize what Angel was, goes over to claim victory, and apparently the judges didn't either, because they awarded the victory by saying that Angel was dead and because he was quote dead, the woman's life is forfeit. As the demon is about to slit Joe's throat, angel, who obviously isn't dead, stands up and he does kill the demon in a thin fashion by slicing off his head, which I'll do it. Well, the tribunal rules that the woman and her daughter are under their protection until the daughter quote comes of age. With that, they disappear. I'm going to serve their purpose. Well, now it cuts to the epilogue, back at Cordelia's, and Angel is putting away the whiteboard. He explains that they're going to start over fresh, that they're not keeping score anymore, because that's not how things work. And that's when Wesley makes this comment.
Speaker 1:Of course we shouldn't be keeping score. We're not running a race, we're doing a job, one soul at a time.
Speaker 2:Which in essence becomes their mission statement of Angel Investigations and his nice approach, which is we get rewards not because we earned it but because we deserve it. And, as the episode explains, the reason for doing good deeds for others is not what it can do for us but what it can do for them. And if we focus on just how actions benefit us, never truly doing good or becoming champions, we're just people doing good deeds, the ones who are champions, the ones who are doing good for the sake of others. They're the champions, they're the ones to be admired.
Speaker 2:Well, angel, in the final scene then, is visiting a friend of his in prison, and the friend is once again my favorite slayer, faith, who is a lot more optimistic of a mood than last time we saw her at the end of Sanctuary.
Speaker 2:She is coming to terms with her imprisonment and she has a just two prison life and she admits she is very realistic about why she is there to atone for what she did, the crimes, the sins, etc. But she makes it very clear, by telling the story about a girl who tried to throw down with her, that she is willing to defend herself, but within limits because, as she explains to Angel, she lives. To tell the tale, I took the knife away. I can't say much for the risk that came in. So still faith. And they joke over the fact that Angel was singing very manly. As she laughs and says and here I am with my petty little problems. Just this brief scene between the two of them makes me wonder once again what the show would have been like if Eliza Dushku had been able to become a regular on the show, because they do have a great dynamic with each other and she does play very well off of Angel. It does end with a nice closing dialogue.
Speaker 1:Road to redemption is a rocky path.
Speaker 2:Which is once again the mission statement of the show, which is the fact that this is not going to be easy. They are going to have to go through a lot to achieve their ultimate goal of being redeemed. But as the camera pulls back from the two of them, there is a bit of dialogue, which has a bit of a final joke that I had to look up in the transcript to see because of the fact that the music was drowning it out, and the dialogue is as follows Angel is well, we might Food getting any better. Faith you know, it's not that different from what I grew up on, it's a little one note eating the same thing every day. Angel, I wonder what that's like. And Faith, right.
Speaker 2:Well, now it cuts to the closing credits and for the third and final time in the series we do get a clip over the final credit and this looks almost to be like outtakes of David singing Mandy, because it's all different variation of him doing it and joking around at one point to it, almost like Elvis and joking with the people watching, etc. And just like with the dance scene in Shee, where it's obviously used because it was great footage they knew fans would enjoy watching this one as well is even funnier because it is clearly David having fun performing the song and one's not doing it all. Well, it ends with a sound bite that we will hear at the end of every episode from that point on, not just the gur R, the vid for Joss, but also David singing. Thank you, thank you very much. Well, that now leads us to our 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:Well, in this episode Angel did get some nice kills in, because he managed to get in actually six deaths in this episode alone. He killed the Karnas demon, the pre-Omoto demon, the demon attacking the woman right before they went into the Hyperion, and then also two demons in the hotel itself after he sends her away to go back to Cordelia's I'm assuming he probably killed them, and then at the very end, the demon knight. One on the other got one death in the vampire in Boyle Heights. So that now takes the kill total up to 40 and a half for Angel, one half death for Wesley, two for Gun and 59 for everyone else. So a grand total of 102 deaths as of this episode. Now for the favorite kill well based on all of those.
Speaker 2:It's an easy choice the pre-Omoto demon which, as I had mentioned the fact that he killed the demon without realizing that the demon was actually good played into one of the themes of this episode jumping to conclusions, because throughout the episode they do a number of that Angel assuming the goals to rack up a number of kills in order to get his objective to become moral Angel. And Wesley assuming the demon was evil because, well, it was a demon. The little man assuming Angel was an awarding champion, when in reality obviously he was the Tribunal not realizing the right types of weapons to arm the evil champion with because, as I said, mental weapons were never going to be a threat to Angel unless head got cut off. And then, at the end, the evil champion assuming that Angel was killed without going over and looking and seeing that no, angel is still very much in this world. And what this is all getting to is sometimes we have to look young on the surface to see reality, and if we do, then we can see that even a tough guy, vampire like Angel might find the song bandy pretty. Now for the favorite line. That would have to be Wesley's line near the end. Of course, we're not running a race. We're doing a job once whole, at a time.
Speaker 2:And once again, this is getting to one of the messages of the episode, which is the fact that we need to focus on the big picture and not try to keep score on each individual good deed or each individual detail, because if we focus on just day to day tasks, then we lose sight of the bigger picture or where we fit in in the grander scheme of things and we realize that to be a good person, it's not just ratcheting up X number of good things, like for Angel, x number of kills, but once again, this will get the bigger picture of having your soul actually changed. That is what will ultimately make you into a champion. And it was that vision that allowed him to see his true objective. Once again, it wasn't keeping score on a whiteboard, it was to ultimately help and to cleanse himself and to actually become a true hero. Well, that's it for this week's episode. In the next show I will discuss the following episode. Next week. Angel relives a mystery.
Speaker 1:He left in 1950s Hollywood To make amends. He must make peace with his past, something that's making people crazy. He's a monster. There's any time. You can tell just from the talk to the souls who can really use your help. Take them off In only a few minutes Next week, on the WB's new Tuesday.
Speaker 2:I will continue my retrospective with another flashback, this time to the time of the 1950s, where we see a version of Angel who was neither Angel nor Angelus, but somewhere in between. So join me as I discuss all of the references and inspiration for this episode, ranging from James Dean to Ross Serling, to Joseph McCarthy and others. 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 Wolframcast at gmailcom. 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 remember all my life. All you do is me and stop being shaken. I'm just gonna keep looking in their eyes. I'm holding that. Stop being shaken. Baby Drinks in the house up front. It's everyone doing it. Oh man, oh man, thank you. Thank you very much.
