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
S2E5 ("Dear Boy") -- The Haunting Waltz of Vampiric Love and Betrayal
Are the ties that bind us a force of good, or do they sometimes unearth the darkness within? This intricate question is at the heart of our foray into the haunting dance between Angel and Darla in "Angel" Season 2's "Dear Boy." As we dissect the episode's central focus on these star-crossed lovers, we uncover the layers of manipulation and the challenging question of whether Angel's past as Angelus cements him as one of the most malevolent vampires to walk the night. Julie Benz's and David Boreanaz's performances leap out as they breathe life into a tumultuous history spanning a century, etching the screen with a story of love, darkness, and the quest for redemption.
Ever wondered how the sidekicks contribute to a hero's journey? Amid the turmoil of Angel's struggle, we shine a light on the indispensable roles of Wesley, Cordelia, and Gunn. Their unique quirks, such as Angel's comical age sensitivity and the team's financial predicaments, serve not only as comic relief but also as pivotal narrative elements that ground the show in a relatable reality. A listener's insight on Boreanaz's deliberate off-key singing peeks into the show's lighter side, while a detour through the origins of detective fiction connects Angel's broody demeanor to the iconic Philip Marlowe, painting a picture of a complex hero navigating the shades of gray.
Finally, we wrestle with themes of free will versus destiny as Angel's internal battle rages on. The episode's direction expertly contrasts moments of darkness with glimmers of humor and humanity, juxtaposing Lorne's compassionate guidance with Angelus's chilling past actions. As we unpack the episode's emotional confrontations and strategically placed pop culture references, we're left to ponder on the nature of true evil and the possibility of redemption. So, get ready for a journey into the morally gray corridors of the Angelverse, where every character's search for salvation is as captivating as the demons they face.
I guess you never knew, dear boy, what you had found. I guess you never knew, dear boy, that she was just a cuter singer. Oh, I guess you never knew what you had found, dear boy. I guess you never saw a dear boy, a soul, a soul, a soul.
Speaker 2:Maybe we're not too far, dear boy, you're never going to get us away. Yes, you have to be close, dear boy. Hello and welcome to Wolfram in Chaos, an Angel Retrospective. I am longtime fan Stephen Youngkin. I am having mixed feelings about the death of Stephen Kramer. Yeah, he was an innocent, but there again, he was just an actor.
Speaker 2: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 that the show puts forth. In this week's episode, I will discuss the fifth episode of the second season, dear Boy, which was written and directed by executive producer David Greenwalt. Greenwalt directed seven other episodes of Angel, including she, there's no Place Like Plitzgrib, heartthrob, tomorrow and the Girl in Question. He also directed four episodes of Buffy, including Reptile 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 Cordy TV show in the episode Birthday. Right now, david Greenwald is working on the documentary series Mr Williams.
Speaker 2:The episode originally aired on October 24, 2000, and the IMDb description of the episode is Darla tries to drive Angel over the edge in hopes of getting him to embrace his dark side. Dear Boy was the episode that kicked the season plot arc into high gear. Like Buffy, it took a few episodes for Angel's second season to really come into focus. With Buffy, the episode that set things off was School Heart, which introduced us to Spike and Drew. With Angel, it was Dear Boy, which made Darla front and center. While she did appear in Judgment First Impressions and Untouched her appearances, there were more the supporting variety, but with Dear Boy she was the main character and, unlike other episodes, this show focused entirely on the relationship between Angel and Darla, both in the past, with more flashbacks, including showing us when Angel was first met Drusilla and the present. My question to my dear listeners is was the relationship between Angel and Darla interesting enough to justify an entire episode focused solely on the two of them. Also, by choosing to turn Drizella into a vampire while she was insane, did that put Angel truly among the worst of the vampires and the demons that we have seen in both series?
Speaker 2:First the general discussion of the episode. Now an overall comment about this. For listeners of my previous episode discussing untouched, where I gave it pretty much a pan for a number of the flaws that it had, this one was a major improvement in leaps and bounds over that episode. Unlike a lot of other stories where they had an A plot and a B plot, this one it was singularly focused on Angel and Darla and it didn't waste any time on B plots. I'll get to the supporting team done was in Cordelia in just a moment, but they were used strictly as supporting characters. There was no underlying plot between any of the three of them and by keeping it focused entirely on Angel and Darla, it allowed us to get to know both of them much better just through their reactions to each other. Now, with a lot of these general discussion episodes, I tend to go high in picture overall Performances, directing writing.
Speaker 2:In this case, for this discussion, I want to focus on one scene in particular. I'm going to come back to it again when I do the scene-by-scene discussion, but for the general overview the scene needs to be analyzed and that is the confrontation scene in the fourth act between Angel and Darla. That is one of the best scenes the show has done in the series up to this point, because one big thing to realize is this is the first time in either Buffy or Angel, the two of them had extended scene together with him in angel form. The last time they had encountered each other since he became angel was in the season one episode of Buffy Angel, and that was just a very brief scene at the very end of that episode. Every interaction we have seen up to this point between David and Julie Benz we have seen up to this point between David and Julie Benz. David has been either Angelus or it was just host-person Angel, so he had really become the Angel we have seen in Buffy and in this series. And, as I mentioned, even that scene in the episode Angel and Buffy was very brief and they were not truly the center of that episode. Buffy was. It was much more focused on how this was affecting Buffy and Angel rescuing her and doing what he did to save her.
Speaker 2:In this episode, on the other hand, the focus is 100% on the two of them, on their past, on their history, and David and Julie bring their A-game to this episode. You can sense a true history between these two characters just by how they're looking at each other, by their body language, by how they're using their words, everything is. You can sense a century's worth of relationship and also a very complex relationship between them. This is one of the series' best scenes because literally every single line is worth studying, is worth analyzing. For example, for Darla. She is both seductive and desperate in the episode. She condescends about humans, but then she also tries to pull out the dark side of Angel, so she seduces him, but yet you can sense a need for him. And then Angel, on the other hand, as we'll get to that scene, is at moments cruel towards her with using lines like you blew off the time ahead.
Speaker 2:But you never made me happy, as I'll mention again when we get to that scene. That was actually reminiscent of a similar scene he had with Buffy in Innocence, but in this case the difference is he's doing this to be kind to her, to explain. Things are different now. I was never truly happy with you because I didn't have a soul, so I was incapable of love. I was capable of lust and other similar desires, but not love. Thus I could never truly achieve perfect happiness with you, and he was warning her. You're now going to be feeling all of these feelings for the first time in centuries and so, as I said, that was both cruel and kind.
Speaker 2:A complexity here just in similar line readings. And also is the fact that this episode, as I had mentioned in my general comments, really started the plot arc going, because up to this point the past few episodes was more or less transitioning from season one to season two, from season one to season two, but with this one we see a extended scene between her, between darla and lindsey, so that we have a chance for lindsey to lay out what wolfram and hart's goal is for angel, which is to bring out the dark side of them, in essence to bring out angelus, and they're using darla as a way to get to him as a vessel. And with Darla we see once again that complex relationship that I've mentioned in past episodes that made her such a fascinating character. As I've stated in the past, she does love him in her own twisted way, there is deep affection she has for Angel, or more specifically Angelus, and because she is the one who sired him, because she is the one who sired him, because she is the one who mentored him, she knows exactly the buttons to push on him. And once again it gets back to that final scene where you could see him almost being pulled towards her, that she could get at him in ways that no other character ever could, and that's what makes her such a worthy foe that she is very intelligent. They never make her out to be stupid or sloppy in her attacks, that even as a human she is very vicious.
Speaker 2:In her scene with steven kramer, where she is in control of the entire encounter, she is the one who is running the show. Lindsay might be calling the shots from behind the phone, distantly, but you get the feeling that she was agreeing to do what Wilford Midhart wanted and what Lindsay was asking her to do, only because it served her ends, as we'll see a later episode, when she breaks the leash that wolfram and heart have on her, when she's through with them and wants to go off on her own, she does it without a moment's thought. So right now wolfram heart thinks they're using her when in reality she's using them, and that's her intelligence. And what is also interesting with darla in this episode is the fact that she is very condescending towards humans, in that final scene where she says, well, he is just a human, referring to Wolferman Hart. And as Angel points out to her, the irony of that statement is that she is human now as well.
Speaker 2:She is mortal for the first time in a couple of centuries. So, as a result, not only is she condescending, but there is a sense of self-hatred built into it that I can't believe. I am no longer immortal. I can't believe that I'm human, which is a contrast to Angel, who thinks, to the Shanshu prophecy, that it his goal to become mortal. For her, becoming mortal is a curse, for angel, it's a reward. So it leads to this dichotomy between the two characters, where they're going in technically in opposite directions from each other.
Speaker 2:And another comment about her is the fact that her motives are very complex. It's very clear she doesn't want him dusted, she doesn't want revenge, similar to Buffy in the episode Becoming Part Two. She just wants her boyfriend back, because in Becoming Part Two, xander spells that out, saying that Buffy is willing to forgive everything that Angelus has done as long as she can get her boyfriend back, all that takes. And we see that in season three, when he does return, that she is technically willing to forgive everything that he had done. Well, that's the same thing here with Darla, except it's in the opposite she's willing to forgive everything that Angel had done as long as she can get her boyfriend, angelus, back. So we have two blonde girls here once again who are on the opposite side. One loves Angel and is willing to forgive Angelus' actions. Another one loves Angelus and is willing to forgive all of Angelus' actions.
Speaker 2:And also, as a nice similarity between Buffy and Darla, both of them can sense the version that they love inside of the version that they hate. Because throughout season two of Buffy, buffy, while she loathed angels, she kept on sensing angels inside of him. We just need to bring angel out, hence the orb of Thessalon being brought forth in becoming because she can sense that the version she loved was inside of the version she hated. Well, same thing here. Darla mentions that she can smell angelus inside of angel, that once again she loathes the outer cover, angel, but she knows that the version she does love angel, angelus is inside and she just needs to figure out the way to bring him forth. And once again it's through what she hopes is a curse, except, once again, the flip side of the becoming curse. And because of this complexity I hate how you are now, but I love what you were that. This is why they could never truly bring themselves to kill the version that they dislike, because both Buffy and Darla realized to do so meant killing the version that they love. And it is this complexity in her motivations and the nice parallel structure with Buffy that this episode plays forth, and does so very well.
Speaker 2:And the other scene that I want to mention just briefly and once again I'll get to it more when I get to the scene-by-scene discussion is the final shot where he's talking to Wesley and Cordelia in the doorway as they express their sincere concerns about him. His attitude, his tone, his cure-coldness shows that even though Darla didn't bring forth Angelus, she is having an effect on him. Up to this point in the series he had always been terse, or, as Oz mentioned jokingly in Nothing in the Dark, that Angel has always been laconic. But in this case this is not moody, this is not terse, this is not laconic, but in this case this is not moody, this is not cursed, this is not laconic, this is coldness. Where he's looking at Wesley and Cordelia, who are there strictly out of sincere concern for him because they know the effect or they fear the effect that Darla can have on him. Wesley mentions that straight out, that she is his sire. So Wesley especially understands the complexity here of this relationship, that even though they are there out of concern, he is very chilly towards them. He is ready to shut the door. He is essentially going back to the version that we saw in Are you Now or have you Ever Been, when he was not willing to help Judy at the beginning. He was not giving a damn about any of the patrons in the hotel and he was leaving them to be consumed by the demon and to have their own paranoia and hatred be turned against them. This is the version that Darla is bringing back, the 1950s version of Angel, but even darker and as we see, this version becomes more and more prominent in the next several episodes, to the point where he is willing to let an entire room of mortals die and with just a kiss off of and the funny thing is, I just don't seem to care. It's leading up to that moment for that character.
Speaker 2:Now you'll notice that I didn't mention too much about Wesley, cordelia and Gunn in some of the other episode reviews. If they're not really used, I tend to cite that as a criticism of the episode. Hey, how come you're not making use of Charisma or Alexis, so on? In this case they were used in the way they should, as a way of furthering the plot or as a way of providing the audience's view of the character, and then also in the case of Gunn, by having Wesley mention Angelus and the complex relationship as sort of a catch-up to the audience. Now, technically that wasn't truly necessary.
Speaker 2:The flashbacks, which were wonderfully done, and I'll get to those in a moment sorry, the flashbacks, which were wonderfully done, and I'll get to those in a moment the flashbacks already showed how truly dangerous Darla and Angelus were together. So we didn't need Wesley to say Angelus was among the worst. We have a scene where he took an innocent woman, made her insane and then sired her while she was insane, an action that was so shocking that even his sire gave him a look up. That's twisted. Which, that's still one of my favorite reaction shots from darla is the fact that you managed to outdo me for pure evil to do something that cruel, so we didn't need wesley to spell that out for gun.
Speaker 2:If nothing else, it allowed us to see kate and for kate to provide a nice line explaining how angel and his team are so focused on the big picture they're overlooking the innocent victims and, almost, in their minds, writing them off as collateral damage. Yeah, a few innocent people got killed, but we need to focus on the big evil here, and this is one thing I wish the show had delved into a little bit more, because, in a way, team ai was becoming the way that doyle feared that angel would become at the very beginning of the series, which is hey, when all is said and done, the good outweighed the bad. So he lost a few lives here and there, and that's what kate pointing out that they were so obsessed with the big picture. If a few people, like the homeowners of the house that Darla took over, if they end up dying, notice, angel Investigations team wasn't one bit concerned about them, and that was an interesting touch that I wish the series had gone into a little bit more, because at times it does appear like Angel Investig investigations really doesn't care about these innocent side victims, the ones that are wild that, as long as they're focused on the big demon. A few innocents got killed along the way, who cares? But overall, this is easily one of the standouts of the season and of the series and, as I I mentioned, like School Hard, it brought a character who's going to become very important in the series into focus and set the groundwork for the rest of the season in a solid, solid way. So now that leads us into the episode discussion itself.
Speaker 2:The episode opens with a very fast-paced, rapid-fire smash cuts of the streets of LA, shifting between night and day, and if you look closely you'll notice the very first lash image you almost have to freeze frame. It is of Angel to show that important character that we need to focus on. Well, right after that, angel then walks into the Hyperion lobby and he's exhausted, even though he's been doing nothing but sleeping over the past several days, which does lead to the dialogue between he and Cordelia, where Cordelia says ah, you must be all worn out from sleeping for the last three days, and she looks at Wesley and says it's like living with the world's oldest teenager. You can't be having a growth spurt at 248. Could he? Angels insulted responses 247. Which nice touch there were. He's offended that she's trying to age him a year even though he's immortal. So, unlike mortals were. Yeah, we get offended by our age. We say they're 37 when they're really 38. Well, technically that means one year less to live. In the case of Angel, 247, 248. Theoretically it could live to be 1,000, and it wouldn't affect him, but still it's a nice touch.
Speaker 2:Well, wesley and Cordelia are bickering over their finances which, according to Cordelia, if they are frugal and garner some paying clients, they could survive through last Wednesdaynesday. Now, nice touch here is this is actually a very similar conversation that cordelia was having with doyle, because in the episode I fall to pieces, where in that case cordelia was trying to encourage doyle to have visions to bring in some paying clients, whereas in this one, wesley's hoping that cordelia could have a vision once again bring in paying clients so that it could help out Wesley's salary In. I Fall to Pieces. It was about Cordelia's head. Well, at that moment Cordelia does indeed have a very sudden vision and in the vision we see there are shots of rogue figures fighting fists and weapons and a green, slimy monster who's seemingly growing out of the wall. He's not separate from the wall, he is literally part of the wall. Well, wesley starts immediately trying to find the monster in his books, and cordelia points out that the vision is less about the monster and trained to defeat him and more about the figures themselves and the fact that they're fighting each other. And what concerns her is the fact that the humans are fighting each other over how to worship the demon.
Speaker 2:And Angel's response is this is why, personally, I rarely go to church when there's no reaction to that line. He says I thought it was funny. Which credit to David on that. One is the first part of the line. This is why, personally, I rarely go to church. It's a cute line, he says I thought it was funny. Which credit to David on that. One is the first part of the line. This is why, personally, I rarely go to church. It's a cute line, and so I did chuckle a little bit to it. So, yeah, I would have to agree with Angel. I thought it was a funny line as well, even if Wesley and Cordelia completely ignore him.
Speaker 2:Well, while they're still researching, wesley and Cordelia, darla suddenly appears on his lap kissing and nuzzling him, and meanwhile, wesleyan Cordelia are completely oblivious to her presence there and it's very clear that this is a waking dream which he shakes himself hard awake from. And Cordelia then explains that she's thinking the place is sacred and it felt like it was underground, like a water tank. And just at the mentions of both of those, angel immediately figures out there's a convent named St Bridget's in Fremont which was built on native burial grounds and the land there was cursed. As he explains, he has a big thing for convents which, as we see later in the flashbacks, yes, he does. I mean he does have a deep history with convents. So it makes sense that present-day Angel would still study them, almost as a hobby, as a sort of holdover from his days as Angelus. He then says that they're going to need to call in Gunn to help with this.
Speaker 2:Well, it now flashes over to the humans fighting with the Mold Demon, the creature we saw in Cordelia's vision, and the gang, including Gunn, enter and Gunn comments that this is not a good idea, with another nice piece of dialogue of Gunn saying you're not paying me enough for this. My Uncle, theo, always said never buy a doll plow and never get into a middle-world religious war. Cordelia's response is you really have an Uncle? Theo Gunn's response is no, but it's still good advice. Once again. One of the things I love about this episode is the dialogue flows naturally from the characters, where it's funny but yet sounds plausible that these characters would say these lines. It's very reminiscent of Buffy very distinctive dialogue, very memorable lines that never border on overwritten.
Speaker 2:Well, angel concludes that since it's a thrall demon, the type that he figured out what it was killing it should stop the fighting. It'll break its spell on the worshippers At that moment. The demon then noses the gang and the followers now stop fighting each other. They now go after the gang themselves. And what is interesting with this fight is, unlike a lot of the other fights in this series, where Angel and his team are fighting other demons or vampires or whatever. In this case they know that these worshippers are one human and two being violent only because they know it's not the human's fault and they are mortal. Instead, they are fighting to subdue them. Just knock them out cold, that's all they're trying to do. There is no attempt to kill any of them.
Speaker 2:Angel is finding his way through, and it does look like he's fighting his way through all the worshippers to get to the demon. But for an odd reason he suddenly starts punching one of the followers again and again and again, even though the guy is down and is subdued. As strong and as good of a fighter as angel is, normally one, maybe two punches would be enough to knock the guy out and he could move on. But this guy, he just starts humbling him. Luckily he doesn't kill, but it is a vicious beatdown. Gunn, meanwhile, who is also fighting using his cool hubcap axe made for him by his gang, is calling for help from Angel. But Angel, because he keeps on pummeling on this one guy again and again, is ignoring Gunn kill the thrall demon himself using the axe. And what's even more interesting is, even after he kills the demon and the spell on the worshippers has been broken, angel is still mindlessly punching the follower to the point where wesley has to physically pull him off of the worshipper and tell him to stop.
Speaker 2:Well, they're walking out of the convent or the reservoir and, as they expected, all the worshipers are now normal, just walking out casually, with the spell broken, so they're no longer violent, they're no longer a threat, they're no longer fighting each other. It's almost like okay, well, we're done, let's go have a beer. It's almost the conversations they're having with each other. Well, meanwhile, gunn is very understandably upset that Angel didn't come to his aid, that Angel was just straight out ignoring him, and he makes a comment about that to Angel saying oh so I guess we're all on our own now. Angel just ignores him coldly and just walks off on his own.
Speaker 2:Well, it does cut to a short time later, with Angel walking through a nighttime plaza filled with clowns, jugglers I don't want to say a festival, but it looks like almost like a market being held there in a plaza. It might be a Friday night, saturday night in the summer, or early fall, based on the clothing and the people are just out on dates, having a nice time and visiting with each other, dining, so on. Well, as Angel is walking through, he suddenly notices Darla walking alone nearby, and what's interesting is the fact that she's wearing a dress very similar to the one that she wore in the dream he was having in the episode First Impression the same red dress. Well, he starts to follow her and gets closer and with that he looks and he sees it's not just a woman who looks like darla, it is darla which, as a reminder, this is the first time he has seen her alive since he dusted her back in season one episode of buffy. Well, now we get to the opening credits and then then, once the opening credits end, it now does a flashback to the past, back to the good old days of Angel, which adds a side note. I've said this in past reviews, past summaries of the show I'm up for any episode that gives us Angelus. More Angelus the better is how I always feel, and it is true here as well.
Speaker 2:Angelus is wandering through the streets and he encounters Darla, who has just fed off of Lord Nichols, and she makes a mention that Nichols was propositioning a streetwalker when he met Darla, and she then reveals that she killed both, lord Nichols because he offended her, but then the prostitute is. Well, just for the fun of it, why not? She then points out to Angel a father walking along the street with his three daughters, and she says that she knows that one of the daughters there has the sight, and when that daughter turns her head around, it is our favorite insane vampire, drusilla, with Juliet Landau making a very welcome appearance again. But in this case, though, drusilla is juliet landau making a very welcome appearance again, but in this case, though, drusilla is still very mortal, and it's hard to tell whether or not she was insane at this point, the impression we get from the chronology in the history that we hear angel tell is that at this point she's still moral, she has sights and, as she had commented in a previous episode, her parents felt that she was possessed by a demon because of her visions, but otherwise she's still quite sane. Well, as angel and darla approach drusilla from a distance, drew, turns her head, sensing them, and it has a look of fear and dread. And, as as Angelus points out, that that fear and dread is not just the fact that she can sense them around, it's because she knows the future, she knows her fate, of what's going to happen to her. Well, angelus is about to get closer, to make the future a reality, and Darla convinces him, though, to hold off, as she says let's plow right, then, to show her viciousness, her darkness. Let's wait, because our cruelty towards her can become even sweeter.
Speaker 2:Well, now it cuts back to the present and back to the plaza where Darla is walking away, while Angel is in pursuit of her, walking quickly towards her, and she passes by a man in a hot dog suit who's passing out dollar off coupons. Well, now it cuts to the next morning at the hyperion, and a man is sitting in a lobby saying he needs angel's help and was in credulia presented him with one of their convenient payment plans. Let's get reminiscent of season one of angel, where cordelia was desperate for money because how else is she supposed to live if she doesn't get paid? Well, same thing here. They need to make money to pay for the Hyperion and everything else. So this is a paying client. Well, the man explains it a little bit further and he says that it's his wife that he needs help with. And as he says that the issue he needs help with has nothing to do with demons or possession or anything like that, no, it's because she gets abducted by aliens on a regular basis, because Angel hasn't come into the scene yet.
Speaker 2:But initially of Wesleyan Cordelia, which is the fact that, even though they're in a universe where vampires exist, where demons exist, where just in the previous scene they fought a mold monster on the side of a convent wall, that means nothing to them. I mean, yeah, that's every day. Wesleyan fought one of his books and mentioned the tomb, the one of thousands of types of demons. I mean, they have dealt with a young boy who had no soul that they thought may have been possessed. They go to a karaoke bar that is ran by an empathic demon who can sense their futures through song. So all of that is just run-of-the-mill course for them. But aliens Nope, that's a lie, that's ridiculous. Vampires, demons all of that is just run-of-the-mill course for them. But aliens Nope, that's a line, that's ridiculous. Vampires, demons all of that, yeah, more than plausible Aliens. You must be insane to think that. So it's nice to see a nice divining line in this series what is considered plausible in modern-day reality and what is considered ridiculous in the delusions of a madman, whereas on a show like the X-Files, on the other hand, mulder was a lot more open-minded. He was willing to buy into both vampires, as we saw in the episodes, as well as alien abduction with his sister. So I guess out of the two of them, fox Mulder is the far more open-minded hero than Angel is.
Speaker 2:Well, the man goes on and explains that she often disappears and returns for her abduction in just a day or so, and he says that he needs them to investigate because he had found a receipt showing that she was at the Franklin Hotel when she was supposed to be in the Triffid Hotel. That's at that moment. That's when Angel walks into the room, completely ignoring the potential client, not at all sympathetic towards's. When angel walks into the room, completely ignoring the potential client, not at all sympathetic towards him, just walks around by. And when the man asks if his wife is cheating on him, angel, without hearing any other facts, just very rudely says probably and keeps walking on by. Once again, we get already sense this not just aloofness but coldness, where no sympathy whatsoever towards the guy. Is my wife GMing me, probably?
Speaker 2:Well, the man leaves at that point and Cordelia is now chewing Angel out for his attitude and his dismissive tone towards Mr Jeacon, the potential client. As she's going on, angel is ignoring her as well, but in this case it's not rudeness, in fact. Well, but in this case it's not ruinous. In fact, he is trying to sniff and caress her hair in a extremely creepy fashion and cordelia appropriately reacts by leaping away, yelling personal bobble, personal bobble which I think every single woman out there would have had the exact same reaction if she's trying to talk to a guy and instead he starts sniffing her hair. That just that moment made me go. You know I'm doing that at that moment.
Speaker 2:Then wesley storms in and gives a very clever and cute wesley-esque line where wesley says I need to speak with you, man to man, cordelia, you may not want to be here for this. With that he rolls up his sleeve as if he's about to get into a fight with Angel and says almost plaintively was it something I did? It was just Alexis's delivery, going from rolling up his sleeves Cordelia, you may not want to be here for this to very weak, in a moment that Alexis does very well, where it is funny and it is realistic for that character, where at this point we had not gone into badass wesley yet, we're veering closer and closer towards it. I mean, as I've mentioned throughout the series, I love wesley's character. His is still the single best out of both series and we're seeing that slow transition where he is trained to be serious and tough with angel, but there's still the old wesley coming out.
Speaker 2:We're feeling sort of paranoid and self-hating that with angel's attitude, the first thought he has is it's something he said, it's something he did.
Speaker 2:Well, angel explains that he's been out of it lately because of her and that he says that he saw her in town the previous night. Now he doesn't say who her is, he just says I saw her back in town and Cordelia, logically thinking that her is Buffy, starts to criticize him and almost saying with tone of just get over her. That's when Angel interrupts and says no, it's not Buffy, it's Darla of, just get over her. That's when angel interrupts and says no, it's not buffy, it's darla. And he then reveals that he's been having dreams about her and now he's seen her live. And wesley then points out the I don't see impossibility but the improbability of that happening, since he did dust her three and a half years ago. In the episode angel and angel explains say he's aware that vampires don't return from the dead, but she did. And he then reminds wesley that it is possible for vampires to return from the dead because well, he did. In episode faith, hope and trick, which leads to this great line vampires don't come back from the dead.
Speaker 3:I did and I saw her.
Speaker 2:I'm not crazy where, right between the clowns and the big talking hot dog in which I just loved that touch of it between the clowns and the big giant talking hot dog, and credit to david greenwald for, in the scene where he does see darla, which looks like just filler oh, we see a clown, we see a guy handing out hot dog coupons. That looks just like stuff just thrown to the scene. But greenwald smartly put those elements in there so that he could lead to this line, so that angel does sound a little bit insane to say that, yeah, a woman I killed three and a half years ago is alive and I see her in between clouds and a big giant talking hot dog. Losers might hear them chuckling a little bit during it, because it's hard for me to say that line again without laughing a little bit because it is funny. And David delivers that line very well, because he is so seer in it, almost like not realizing how insane it sounds. And Angel then explains further that he thinks he's dreaming about her because she's there. And Wesleyley, though, points out also the logic that it could be the other way around, that angel thinks she's there because he's been dreaming about her. So a result his dreams is affecting his perception of real life. Well, it now cuts over to wolferman hard and see that very much alive Darla talking to Lindsay and she comments that Angel is slowly falling apart, which Lindsay then says is his plan to unhinge Angel by having Darla play on his strengths and weaknesses. Now in the original shooting script for Dear Boy, lindsay does compliment Darla on her ability to manipulate Angel, with the following exchange Some of these lines were cut due to length.
Speaker 2:Lindsay, we're counting on that. You've given us more information on Angel than we had when he first got here. Nobody knows him like you do, especially the side we're interested in, darla, which is Lindsay, the particular set of hairs you have. The boy by Angel may be a vampire, but he's still a man, as explained even in that dialogue and in what we see in the episode. Darla has been providing them with further information because she's known this guy for a hundred years Now. Granted, for the past several years she's been a pile of dust, so obviously she doesn't know anything about that, but she does know about the relationship and all the terror that they cause together, which is providing Wolfram and Hart with even more useful information as to how to get an angel, how to bring out the darkness inside of him, what he's capable of, so on and so forth. And Lindsay, as I mentioned previously, does reveal his goal, which is not to kill him, him, but to bring out his dark side. And, as he explains, there's no better way to a man's darkness than to awaken his nastier urges.
Speaker 2:Even at this point, it's hard to tell how dark they truly want angel to get. Do they want him to become just the way he was in? Are you now, or have you ever been, which is still good, still controllable, but just very dark, very cold and not wanting to help others? Or are they wanting to push him all the way and bring angelus back? And what is interesting is, if they're wanting angelus back, do they truly realize how dangerous he is because a cold, dark angel? Well, we'll see in the later episode that he's willing to let them all die. But angels, on the other hand, wouldn't just let them all die in a room. No, angels himself would feed off of all of them after slowly torturing them for several hours, just for his pure amusement. So I'm not sure if lindsey and wolverman hart really realize the forces they're playing with here and how dangerous that is.
Speaker 2:Well, anyways, darla notices lindsey's prosthetic limb, which is extremely fake and almost popeye size in terms of it, and it makes you wonder. Wolverine Heart is this international global law firm that has got endless amounts of money, you imagine, and tons and tons of resources. They couldn't have spun for something that looked like it came from the Flintstones. I mean, we're talking this is a giant plastic hand now granted from the show's budget. They can only do what they could do, but it does make you think that war for my heart really didn't give a damn about giving lindsay anything useful, because it's not even a true prosthetic limb where the person can manipulate digits and work it like it's a regular hand. No, this is made in a giant fist, almost like like one of those Hulk hands that you buy little kids. You buy kids in a toy store where it's clobbering time. Well, or Hulk smash I almost expect Lindsay at some point to go. Lindsay smash with his fist. Well, as she is caressing his Fred Flintstone-esque hand, she does have a somewhat seductive dialogue with him it's very smooth.
Speaker 2:You don't feel anything not in my head which great dialogue from both of them, because you can sense that for lindsey, he is also developing feelings for darla. She is not just a tool for him to use to get at Angel. No, he is actually developing feelings for her and you can't say that that's surprising, because Darla is a very seductive, very attractive woman and very appealing. You could imagine in their off-screen dialogues, as he got to know her better, as he learns more of his, of her past, etc. That that would appeal to him. And just in this brief scene between the two of them, just like as we'll see in the later scene between her and angel, it's what's not said that is even more powerful than what is said, which is once again one of the many reasons I like this episode so much. It's not pure exposition, it is dialogue that builds on character, not story, and also builds up the chemistry between Julie Benz and Christian Cain. Those two play very well off of each other and you can also see why later on, after he loses darla to angel, why that would also become yet another grudge he would hold against angel in his quest to bring him down. Well, darla comments that it's strange seeing angel again and seeing him reminded her of the angel that betrayed her, and her response is then that it's that betrayal that eats at her. As she says, it's not the betrayal that eats at you in the long winter's night, it's the missed opportunities. And great line. And I'll mention right now, when I was rewatching the episode, I made a note to myself saying that this might be one of the lines of the episode. Watching the episode, I made a note to myself saying that this might be one of the lines of the episode at the end, when I list favorite line, that that was a big contender, because what that discusses, just with that brief line, is that's what haunts all of us at times. It's the what ifs, the could have beens. What if I had stayed with her? What if I had taken that jump? What if I had done this? What if I had not done that? That obsession over the past choices we made, people, we were with people, we didn't go out with opportunities, we turned down that, if we allowed to, it can eat away at us in the long winter's night, and that's sorry. What's going on with her is that obsession. Is what if he had not been cursed, you know? Would history have been different? And short answer is yes, history would have been very different. Many people would have died.
Speaker 2:But getting back to the episode, that's what's eating away at her. It's not just what she betrayed her, it's all of those lost opportunities. Well, she explains that what soured the relationship was him being cursed and, as she says, he got his soul. And it sickened me. All that power, all that power. We saw, not a whining mopey do-gooder god, I could eat his eyeballs.
Speaker 2:And, once again, a nice parallel with buffy, as I've mentioned in my general episode overview, which is the fact that she loved Angel, as we saw in the past clips, in those flashbacks, she had genuine affection for Angel. It wasn't just oh, you're my vampire, you're my minion, or whatever. No, they had a true relationship. The same way, spike and Drew have a relationship where the two of them truly do care for each other, which was interesting, considering these are creatures without a soul, but in their own way, they are capable of love. Well, that's the same thing here. Darla truly loved Angelus and now that he got a soul, it sickened her. Well, and, as I mentioned before with Buffy, it was the flip side. She truly loved angel once he lost his soul. That sickened her.
Speaker 2:Also, another character she's similar to is spike because, as we saw in various episodes, yeah, his relationship with angelus was a bit more complex and it was a sibling rivalry where spike looked up to angelus but he hated angelus at the same time. It was a rivalry I can outdo you, I'm better than you but also he did generally like Angelus and admired him, but, just like Darla, once Angel got his soul, then that sickened Spike. As he stated in many episodes, he was the Slayer's lapdog and in both Darla as well as Spike and Drew's case, all three of them felt that Angel was a waste of a great monster because they admired the terror, the devastation that Angel has caused and Angel is just a whining, mopey do-gooder, a waste of great material. And all three of them spike and darla felt that angel is just a mere shadow of what angelus was and what angelus was capable of. And another thing I want to bring out is during this entire scene we see her idly playing with the scales of justice. Figure as she's talking to lindsey and she's resting her fingers gently on the scales of justice. Figure as she's talking to Lindsay and she's resting her fingers gently on the scales, visually weighing what justice should be brought to Angel for what he's done to her. She's sort of like setting the scales and putting her finger on the scale, trying to push it into her favor. Overall, great scene between the two of them, because it did exactly what a scene like this is supposed to do. It laid out the details of the scene and also it established the relationship between Lindsay and Darla and, as I mentioned before, the reason why it works very smart dialogue. I could recite almost the entire scene or play the entire scene, because every line worked, every line works, every line matters and Christian Cain and Julie Benz, again, are wonderful play off of each other and even though they don't lay on too heavy, their connection is established.
Speaker 2:Lindsay is becoming attracted to her but is also obsessed with Angel, as he says. I have a particular interest in this guy. A lot of people do. And meanwhile Darla who, yes, she has a soul but is still evil, says I have a particular interest in this guy. A lot of people do. And meanwhile darla who, yes, she has a soul but it's still evil, unlike spike and angel who, when they got their souls, were wrestling with it, darla has a soul. Well, actually it's hard to say if she has a soul as much as she is just mortal, because she's still quite evil and you can sense she is using lindsey as a means to an end. In fact she even says straight out to him, saying you're fun for a human, and almost like a cat playing with a mouse where she's just toying with him, that yeah, she's not gonna kill lindsey simply because he's of use to her. Once again, she's mortal, but not good by any means.
Speaker 2:Well, it then cuts over to an la police station and a man, jack, approaches keith's desk with a file and jack explains the fact that keith has suffered because of her obsession with the occult. She has become fox mulliver in this series to the point where she's moved out of downtown where she was a rising star because of cracking the cases, going against people like big tony and and others like that, but now she's been really good to the back corners of the office. They haven't fired her because she's still a good cop, but on the other hand, she's hacking the big cases like she used to and you get the feeling, even if she's hand-handed the big cases, she turns them down and is instead listening to, scanner non-stop, looking for any cases that are the bizarre and grotesque, as jack explains, and this obsession has cost her her former friends and allies, who have all deserted her or, as we can sense from her attitude towards the other cops, could be. She's also blown them off as well, because, as we've seen in past couple of episodes in her brief scenes, she's not exactly polite towards them, that if they say something to her she just shoots them down and ridicules them back. So you get the feeling she has no real friends in the in the department anymore. Well, jack tosses her picture, though from a friend, of a friend, as he says. He doesn't say who it is, and the picture is of the hyperion hotel, with a note simply saying he's moved.
Speaker 2:Well, now it does cut to a hotel, though in daylight, and cordelia is there working undercover as a waitress, and they're spying on jekinon's wife who is talking to a man, and the wife comments that no, shockingly, she's not being abducted by aliens, that that's just a BS story. She keeps on telling her husband, who willingly buys into it, and she uses it just as an excuse to go off her. Well, toot them, put it nicely, an afternoon delight. And you get the feeling it's a different man every time, because the sense you get here is this is the first time she's met this guy and she goes off, sleeps with them, comes back from her abduction and then a few weeks later or whatever, when she's in the mood again, she conveniently gets abducted again.
Speaker 2:Well, angel is off to the side listening in, recording this entire conversation discreetly and wesley is also snapping pics of her and the man more or less acting like normal well detective getting evidence for their client. Well, claire, the wife and the man, marty, are about to go upstairs. Angel then stands up, stops him and reveals himself and what they were doing shows him the recorder, shows him camera and he says that the clara saying your husband knows, and he tells her work things out with him, or just and once again very coldly says I don't really care what you do. I mean, laura was disgusted with her, not liking her, not willing to help her in any way. Well, that does cause marty and clara to separate and Cordelia chews them out for tossing aside a paying client, because Mr Jeakins wasn't wanting Angel to do that rude action, he was wanting evidence she was having an affair, and then Jeakins would react. However, he would react.
Speaker 2:Well, as Cordelia is lecturing him, angel then sees Darla at a table and I just want to mention again this is in the middle of the afternoon now. Darla is not in actual sunlight, nor is angel. One could imagine he probably found some darkened way to get sneak into the hotel through the sewers. Well, he sees darla sitting near an entrance, sitting in a restaurant having lunch, but again, no direct sunlight is on her. This is very important. Well, she then gets up and leaves.
Speaker 2:Angel then stops and confronts her, saying I don't know what game you're playing, but stop it. And she looks at him terrified and confused, which, had she been anyone other than Darla, would have been a normal reaction of a strange guy. Suddenly grabs her, because you can imagine for most women that they're walking along the hotel just having a nice casual lunch and suddenly some strange guy who's about six inches taller than her suddenly grabs her roughly and screams into her face about I don't know what game you're playing, but stop it. They would start to panic as well, saying what the hell is going on here. And what is interesting is she looks just different enough that her reaction of I don't know who you are, you know that you could understand that. Okay, maybe Angel does have it wrong.
Speaker 2:Well, she abruptly yells for security, claiming she's a married woman, deanna Kramerramer, and that angel is assaulting her, which angel basically is now grant, we know she's not deida kramer. Well, angel then fights with the security guard and as he's doing it, darwin runs and this part is very important into direct sunlight, which is really confusing angel, because one thing for her to be alive, but she is now able to go into sunlight without immediately catching on fire, and she then runs into the arms of another man, hugging him, scared, and an angel stands there looking very confused. And this is a great shot for the audience, because the audience is wondering okay, we know that darla is alive, just had the previous scene with her and lindsey and we saw her in previous episodes, like in scenes with her and lila, etc. So we know that is darla. There is no mystery today. The series never attempts to make it vague. Is she alive, is she not? No, the mystery now is how is this vampire able to go into sunlight without immediately becoming extra crispy? And so we're as confused as Angel is.
Speaker 2:Well, the gang then returns to the hotel and Wesley and Cordelia point out that since the woman didn't run into direct sunlight and is standing there quite comfortably, she's obviously not a vampire. And Angel agrees, obviously's obviously not a vampire. And angel agrees, obviously she's not a vampire. But he says that is darla. Though he could, he could smell her, he could sense her, and he's saying she's just human now. So how she achieved that he doesn't know, but she is human. And with that he recruits wesley and cordelia to try to find dieta and steven kramer, her husband her quote husband in the records, to find out where they live. And Angel then says that to get information himself he's going to have to return to Caritas. And at that point we get our next musical rendition from Angel.
Speaker 3:Everybody have fun tonight. Everybody wang chung fun tonight. Everybody wang chung tonight. Everybody wanked to fun tonight. Everybody wanked chung tonight. Everybody. Everybody have fun tonight. Everybody have fun tonight, everybody. Everybody have fun tonight, everybody. Everybody have fun tonight, everybody.
Speaker 2:Watching David sing Everybody have Fun Tonight by Wayne Chung reminded me of one of my favorite clips from the 80s sitcom Cheers, gentlemen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you know, I was listening to a rock and roll station on my way over here and you know it put me in the mood. There was a passage in one of those tribal songs that I feel, uh well, is the keynote for this evening Everybody have fun tonight, Everybody have fun tonight Everybody Wang Chung tonight.
Speaker 2:Personally, I feel that should be our philosophy of life. Everybody have fun tonight. Everybody Wang Chung tonight. Getting back to Angel, though, it is clear that, unlike when he was singing Mandy, that he chose that song because that meant a lot to him. He found it pretty. So on Then for Everybody have Fun Tonight. You almost get the feeling he just picked that song at random on the karaoke machine. He was there just to get Lauren to read his future and that was it. Because he is only half looking at the lyrics. And fortunately, for the song Everybody have Fun Tonight, the lyrics aren't that hard to remember, especially in the chorus Everybody have fun tonight. Everybody wing chung ta. It just repeats the same lyric again and again, just in different ways. But even there Angel is only half looking at the lyrics and he doesn't even finish the song because he apologizes.
Speaker 2:The audience drops the microphone and heads straight over to Lorne and he demands reading. And Lorne nicely but seriously tells him that I'm not going to tell you your future, because he says you're at a crucial crossroads. You can go in either direction, but he does advise him. He says do not pursue darla, because that way is not going to lead to good stuff. And when he refuses to tell him even more of his future, angel reminds him that he's willing to, that Lord is willing to help murderous demons, but he won't help him. And Lord then mentions the fact that the reason is with the murderous demons, even though they're murderous demons, what he's doing is setting them onto their path, and it may not be a good end, but it is the path they were meant to be on. And he says to Angel, by telling you to stay away from Darla trying to get you back onto your path, you're getting off of it.
Speaker 2:What is interesting here is this is a type of scene or type of advice that oracles would have given him in the first season. You're getting off your path, you're veering away from where you were meant to be, your destiny, so on. But Lorne, thanks to Andy Howlett's great delivery, is far less annoying or condescending about it. There is a sense of I truly do care for you, angel, I'm trained to help you out here, trained to move you gently back onto your path. What is also interesting here is the fact that this scene discusses a similar theme that the show touches on throughout the series, which is free will versus destiny, because lauren, when saying, yeah, I'm helping out the murderous demons because they were meant to be murderous demons, is covering an idea that I've mentioned in the past, like with blind date, which is are some creatures, are some people, meant to be evil and some vampires meant to be good? So was that their destiny or was that free choice? Was that free will?
Speaker 2:And lorne also brings up, just in passing, the concept of what happens if we veer off of our path. Will the powers that be, will, forces that we aren't aware of, move us back onto our path, or will chaos ensue? Angel then tries to get tough with lauren about it, and lauren, though, ignores him because, yes, it is more impossible for outside of the club for angel to hurt him, because angel is much stronger and lauren is a lover, not a fighter. He is a very peaceful demon but, as lauren points out, is saying, there's an anti-violence spell here on this club, angel cannot cause any damage, and he also says that he's not scared of Angel because he knows that Angel is still a good enough person that he would never intentionally harm anyone like Lorne. So that's why his threats mean nothing to Lorne. It's because Lorne knows the good side of Angel would stop him doing it.
Speaker 2:Well, now it cuts back to the hyperion and the phone rings, with cordelia giving a new opening slogan angel investigations. We solve big problems for small prices, which I'm not sure if I like that better than we help the helpless or help the hopeless, or whatever the phrase was. But it doesn't really matter what the new slogan is, because it's angel on the other end asking for darla's address and she gives it as 1409 galloway studio city. Now, as with a lot of other things in the show, I did try to google it and there we find a galloway in studio city. Now I did find a 1409 galloway Court in Sunnyvale, california, which I don't think that's what Cordelia was referring to, because Sunnyvale and I just have to stress the city's similarity to Buffy's hometown but Sunnyvale is located right near San Francisco, which those not familiar with the layout of California, san Francisco, is five and a half hours driving time away from Los Angeles, so I don't think he made a quick five and a half hour drive over to that location.
Speaker 2:Well, wherever Fortune 09 Galloway is, angel then brusquely hangs up on her and really says what are you looking at? To a demon who just having to glance over him non-threateningly, just a casual look. Well, wesley, now realizing that they need to be careful about Angel, just in case he goes pure dark or worse, angelus prepares a tranquilizer gun, and he also decides that they do need to bring Charles' gun in as well to help out if necessary. Well, angel does track down the address and is slowly watching Darla and Stephen Kramer, and the couple are having dinner together. We're looking from Angel's point of view, from the outside, to see them having a nice dinner, and the camera, though, goes inside the house and we see that Stephen is an actor posing as Darla's husband inside the house. And we see that Stephen is an actor posing as Darla's husband and, just out of the point of view of Angel, purposely staying there because they could sense or know where Angel's going to stand at, is a guard, obviously somebody most likely hired by Wolfram and Hart.
Speaker 2:Well, stephen Kramer is going on and on about his previous acting experience, and darla makes it very clear that if he doesn't shut up, she will kill him, which, yes, I know that darla is evil and all that, but this is one of those sides. I can't really say that I blame darla for her reaction, because I probably would have said the same thing that steven kramer as well. Shut up or you're dead in the next five seconds. Well, she also then speaks through a hidden mic earpiece to lindsey, who's listening in from his office, and she says that she knows angels outside watching them. Well, it cuts back to the hyperion and gun is there and wesley is showing off their influence to subdue angel, which is a trained gun, and heavy metal manacles. And they explained to gun about how dangerous angelus is. And when gun asked in terms of dangerous vampires because of course gun has fought many of them, wesley points out historically as bad as they come. So this is not your run the mill vampire. If angelus comes back, this is someone to definitely fear.
Speaker 2:Well, to show how dangerous angels is and how dangerous he and darla are together, it now cuts to the past. At a convent angel commented earlier he knows a lot about. Well, angel is, we find out, has just slaughtered all the nuns there. Now, as a side note, later on, when I get to the kill total, I will be including a number of off-screen deaths that we don't technically see, but I still attribute to the appropriate characters, such as the two people that Darla killed in the first flashback, those I attribute to her because we know she killed them. We know how many she killed In this case I'm not counting the nuns because we don't know how many nuns he slaughtered. Now we know he killed all of them, but it could be 5, 10, 20. We don't know, so I'm not counting that into the kill total when I don't know how many he had slaughtered in that scene.
Speaker 2:But what we do know is that there was one person he did keep alive, who is Dorizella, and we know he kept her alive because we hear her prattling on, and at this point she is very clearly insane, as you get the feeling. She saw the entire slaughter and unable to stop it, and her mind is freaking out now, appropriately. And she's also going insane because he explained that he killed her entire family all off screen. But he purposely kept her alive. And when Darla was mentioned, why aren't you killing her?
Speaker 2:He then says he has big plans for Drusilla. He wants to turn her into a vampire instead of killing her. And as Darla mentions wait a minute you realize that means she's going to be insane as a vampire as well. And that's when Angelus just smiles and he points out that that is even more cruel. It would be merciful to actually kill her now but desire her. Knowing the fact that that insanity would carry over for all eternity is even more cruel. And the fact that he's counting that ultimate cruelty as fun as this would be cool to do shocks even darla. I mean, she doesn't condemn it, she's, she gives a thumbs up on it. But that amazes her because you get the foot. That's something he never thought of. She probably would have. She might have thought to drive drusilla insane, maybe, but then she would have killed her. But to go that extra step to force an insane person to remain insane for all eternity is a viciousness that exceeded even her. Well, to show how much she is turned on by that thought, they proceed to make very passionate love right in front of jerusalem.
Speaker 2:Who's watching all of this babbling on? Well, now it cuts back to the present, with Angel still watching Darla from outside of her house. And what is a nice touch is, as it flashes over back to the present, we still hear Drew whimpering, even in the present, almost to subconsciously indicate that Angel is never far away and that the past does affect present. Well, darla and Steven finish their dinner and Lindsay then gives the go-ahead for the next phase of the plan. Darla then picks up the phone and dials 911, screaming in panic that there's a man outside the house who's breaking in, trained to kill her.
Speaker 2:Well, steven Kramer, who's not aware of any of the rest of the plan yet, the villain. He was just hired just to pose as her husband. At lunch and then at dinner he was told that part of the plan thinking okay, no big deal, easy gig, I can improvise and act as her husband, but not realizing this part of it, starts to say hey, wait a minute, this wasn't part of the plan. She then orders the security person, who now puts on vamp face, to do it and make it look real. And what she's referring to, the. It is the security person slapping her hard as she screams in terror, loud enough for angel to clearly hear her.
Speaker 2:Well, angel then bursts into the house. Now, as a side note, and k Kate points out how this was achieved later. What's interesting is the fact that he's able to do so either because Darla doesn't really live there and there are no true owners of the house, or the someone helped me acted as an invitation, as we find out later. There's a third reason, which is the true owners of the house were already dead and thus nobody actually owned it. Angel rushes into the house, as I said, and darla then rushes over to her now dead husband screaming what did you do, don't hurt me?
Speaker 2:Well, lindsey listens in, happily, knowing the fact that everything is going to plan, everything is working exactly the way he wanted it to. Well, the cops also then burst in very quick response time here, because there she just dialed 911 a minute before, and they're already on the scene, the whole squadron in fact. And they all come in with guns raised, which I'll point more about that out in just a moment. But before I get back to that, though, at this point, while I sit and agree with Lindsay that Darla did deserve her own series, my stridey sense is tingling. It must be time for our pop culture segment, where I find every pop culture reference in the episode, compile it in a supercut and make heads or tails of what they are talking about.
Speaker 1:Your spider sense.
Speaker 2:Pop culture ref sorry.
Speaker 3:Imagine Bonnie and Clyde if they had 150 years to get it right. Everybody have fun tonight. Everybody wank chung tonight. Everybody wank chung tonight. Everybody have fun tonight. Everybody have fun tonight. Everybody, everybody have fun tonight. Everybody, everybody have fun tonight. Yeah, everybody. Everybody have fun tonight. Oh, he's an eccentric. All the great ones are Sherlock Holmes, philip Marlowe. Those are fictional characters.
Speaker 1:Yes, right you are, which gives Angel rather a leg up.
Speaker 2:First, before I get into my pop cultural discussion, as I mentioned in a comment from a previous episode, when talking about Judgment, a listener wrote in and said that David actually has a pretty good singing voice. Credit to David for this series for having the worst singing voice possible, for acting like it, because, as I mentioned in response to that one, I've never actually heard David Boreanaz sing normally, but in this show, wow, he is bad at flat. I guess I can't say much because I'm all towards your listeners with me trying to sing, because it would make you go and say no, david's much better, even at his worst. But anyways, what I want to discuss is the third clip about Sherlock Holmes and Philip Marlowe.
Speaker 2:Philip Marlowe in particular, philip Marlowe, is a fictional character that was created by Raymond Chandler, who was characteristic of the hard-boiled crime fiction genre. The genre originated in the 1920s, notably in Black Mask Magazine, in which Dashiell Hammett, the Continental Op and Sam Spade first appeared. Marlowe first appeared under that name in the novel the Big Sleep, published in 1939. Chandler's early short stories published in pulp magazines such as Black Mask and Dime Detective featured similar characters with names like Carmody and John Dalma, starting in 1933. With names like Carmody and John Dalma, starting in 1933. Some of those short stories were later combined and expanded into novels featuring Marlowe, a process Chandler called cannibalizing, which is more commonly known in publishing as a fix-up when the original stories were republished years later in the short story collection A Simple Art of Murder Chandler then changed the names of the protagonists to Philip Marlowe. His first two stories, blackmailer, stealth Shoot and the Smart Alec Kill with a detective named Mallory, were never altered in print but did join others as Marlowe cases for the television series Philip Marlowe Private Eye.
Speaker 2:Underneath the wisecracking, hard-drinking, tough private eye, marlowe was quietly contemplative, philosophical and enjoyed chess and poetry. While he was not afraid to risk physical harm, he didn't dish out violence merely to settle scores. Instead, morally upright, he was not fooled by the genre's usual femme fatales such as Carmen Sternwood and the Big Sleep. Chandler's treatment of the detective novel exhibits an effort to develop the form. His first full-length book, the Big Sleep, was published when Chandler was 51, his last playback when he was 70. He wrote seven novels in the last two decades of his life. An eighth, poodle Springs, was completed posthumously by Robert B Parker and published years later. Explaining the origin of Marlowe's character, chandler commented, marlowe just grew out of the pulps. He was no one person. When creating the character, chandler had originally intended to call him Marlowe.
Speaker 2:The stories for the Black Mask feature characters that are considered precursors to Marlowe, and the emergence of Marlowe coincided with Chandler's transition from writing short stories to novels. Well, overall, raymond Chandler wrote 22 short stories featuring Marlowe between 1933 and 1941. And Chandler also wrote nine additional original works featuring him between 1939 and 1962. Among these were the Big Sleep, farewell my Lovely. And the Long Goodbye. Among these were the Big Sleep, farewell my Lovely. And the Long Goodbye.
Speaker 2:Over 80 years, marlowe appeared in numerous movies, starting with the Falcon Takes Over in 1942, and continuing with the Big Sleep starring Humphrey Bogart. Farewell my Lovely with Robert Mitchum and, most recently, marlowe from 2022 starring Liam Neeson. Among the many TV adaptations is an upcoming series from Bad Robot Productions and a 2007 pilot starring Jason O'Mara. Finally, marlowe has appeared on stage at least once. An adaptation of the Little Sister in 1978 in Chicago starred Mike Genovese as Marlowe. In 1982, richard Marr and Roger Mitchell wrote Private Dick, in which Chandler has lost the manuscript for a novel and calls in Marlowe to help find it. The production played in London with Robert Powell as Marlowe.
Speaker 2:Well, now coming back to our modern-day Philip Marlowe Angel, the cops are now ordering him to his knees and he tells Darla that she'll pay for this, as he runs quickly out in the house with the cops shooting at him. Now if you comment about this scene and the cops reaction, I can't really criticize the series too much, because this is a standard cliche, a dirty, hairy approach of the cops opening fire on the man instead of straight running at him. Now, first of all one as I mentioned right before the pop culture mashup, these cops were on the scene we're talking within a minute and it wasn't just one cop car showing up, it was like three or four of them all bursting in. So good thing they were in the area to respond so darn quickly. They must have been what around the block all hanging out. Hey, now I can't understand them kicking in the door because she was screaming for help and so exigent circumstances.
Speaker 2:Okay, that part fine, but when he runs out of the house, they don't just chase after him. No, they are literally opening fire on him. And he was not technically a threat to the police. They didn't see any weapons on him. He wasn't brandishing anything that would hurt them. He was just on the run.
Speaker 2:So, as a result, deadly force was not called for in this situation, definitely not the rain of fire that they were doing, and it's just a good thing they didn't accidentally shoot darla or some innocent person who says not walking their dog at night, because I can imagine that press conference later. Yeah, I know, we killed some 84 year old grandmother who was walking her poodle late at night, but hey, there's a guy running down the street. So hey, what can you do? But meanwhile they do chase him up into the attic, though, and the cops immediately demand the SWAT team, which, once again, really the SWAT team. I mean, yeah, he's a suspect in the murder, so, of course, chasing after him, that part I'm not questioning, but he's still technically a suspect, because you have to understand from the cop's point of view.
Speaker 2:Here's what happens woman calls 911, says a guy is breaking into the house. Cops get there on the scene, they see a guy saying they're a dead body. Now how do we know that the guy who's standing there is the actual murderer? Because it's not like she's saying I'm by myself, there's no one else here, there's a guy fitting angel's description and whatever. No, for all we know this is just maybe her husband's brother or whatever, shocked that his brother is dead and the real murderer just left. Nope, they immediately assume that he is such a threat they need calling the SWAT team just because he fled the scene. Now, this is why I'm drawing attention to this. I haven't looked up burbank, the burbank police department's website, and on their actual website it says the SWAT team is called upon to respond for service of high-risk search and arrest warrants.
Speaker 2:Incidents involving barricaded suspects, hostage rescues or active shooters, crowd control and other situations require resources beyond the capacity of the patrol division. Once again, angel had no weapon. They don't know he's a vampire, so he's not a high-risk search. And technically they couldn't know he's a vampire, so he's not a high risk search and technically they couldn't really arrest him yet. They could bring him in for questioning, but they couldn't arrest him. They have no evidence on, because they don't even have darla identifying him yet. Well, he's not barricaded. I mean, the guy's running and there's no hostage situation here. Once again, he's on the run, he. He hasn't taken hostages, he's not an active shooter, there is no crowds control and so, once again, swat team, a little on the overkill side here, I'd say Well, meanwhile, in this dirty, hairy world, we have Angel fleeing off the roof and the cops take off in suit. Cops take off in suit, and as I was watching, once again, I'm just hoping they're not still pointing out their semi-automatics and firing him down the street, because at that point my kill total is going to go through the roof on that one, because I'm going to say, well, angel killed three people, or whatever, cops still killed 40, but they were chasing after that one guy.
Speaker 2:Well, later, though it's hard to say how much longer kate is now on the scene and she's talking to darla, and in this case kate's appearance does make sense, because you get the feeling they probably described who the suspect was, you know, tall, six foot, blah, blah, blah and all that. And to kate, that sounds whoa, that sounds a lot like angel, and especially as she probably heard how fast and strong he was, that that sounds like somebody I know is, especially if she heard that the guy jumped off a roof and ran off easily after doing that, boom, that would trigger something with her. So, you, I can understand her wanting to be on the scene of this crime. Well, kate then explains that they chased him for 16 blocks before they got away and, though it makes me wonder, then they chase him on foot. If so, yeah, angel, stronger, faster would get away, did? Man doesn't think of getting into cars, and if so he outran a car. But anyways, darla, though, when plugging the key explained, said in a way she knew him, not personally, but she had known that he was following her for a few weeks now and at one point he had approached her and said that he helped the helpless. Now one question here about that. Obviously, for fans of the show, we know that that's the old slogan for angel investigations. Only thing I can think of is that somehow or another, wolfram and Hart knew it from their research into Angel Investigations. Maybe Lindsay called, or whatever, or sometime in the past, and that's how Darla sorry, that's how Cordelia answered the phone Angel Investigations, we help helpless, and that's how they knew that phrase.
Speaker 2:Darla goes on and says that Angel kept on confusing her for some woman named Darla whom he knew from the past. Right now Darla is still posing as Deanna Kramer, and Darla also says that she told Angel to stay out of the house, but he burst in and started biting his face change. Now here's what's interesting and I'll mention this later is Kate is so myopically focused on stopping Angel. She doesn't pick up that Darla made a mistake here in describing the events and in Darla's defense. She is probably not realizing that Kate is familiar with vampires and the rules of vampires. Because the mistake that Darla makes when describing this event is that she says straight out I told him to stay out, but he still kicked, he still burst in. Well, vampires need an invitation to get into the house. So if she told me explicitly to stay out, how did he get in? And then also, the other mistake is she says that he started biting. Where are the bite marks on her or steven kramer? Now, normally I would say this was a mistake, you know, know by the writers or whatever, but as they make it very clear is in the case of Kate, no, this was a mistake made by the characters, and Greenwald intended for Kate to make this mistake because, as I said, she's so single-mindedly focused on Angel she's not even noticing that something in that story that Darla just said doesn't make sense based on what Kate knows about them.
Speaker 2:Well, kate then turns and asks the cops to get a tape on the hotel from earlier that day the hotel that Angel first ran into Darla at and to look for any clues they might find. Well, as Kate is talking to the cops, what she doesn't notice is Darla getting scooped up in a tree by Angel in a nice move. Where Darla just walked casually under a tree, all of a sudden two arms leaned down her up very smooth, very fast. Well, now it cuts back to the hyperion and gun makes it very clear that while he does like angel, but if angel disappears, he will kill him without hesitation. And the reaction from wesley and cordelia is when wolpern would help you, because they realize. Realize how evil and dangerous Angelus is, cordelia especially from Season 2.
Speaker 2:Well, at that moment the SWAT team immediately bursts into the hotel and once again I just have to go with how police-minded this city is, because once again this is just one murder. Now I don't want to sound blasé that even one death is irrelevant, but still this is just one murder. Technically, for all we know, darla killed her husband, because we've seen enough Law and Order episodes to know that oh, it's some outsider really the spouse who committed the murder. But in this case, here they believe the spouse say, oh yeah, this guy killed, and they send the SWAT team swarming all around the city and they immediately kick in the doors of the hotel. Also, as a piece of trivia, the real-life SWAT team would be familiar with this location because the Ambassador Hotel, which substituted for the Hyperion in the show, was actually used as a training ground for police SWAT team exercises. So not sure how many actual SWAT team members were as extras in this scene, but if they were, they'd say, hey, I know this place, we trained here.
Speaker 2:Well then Kate comes in afterwards and demands that the entire hotel be searched, top to bottom. Now that part is legal, since they are technically in hot suits of the suspect actively evading police. Now I was reading on one website where they point out that this is a flaw, saying when Kate says, hey, I have proximate cause, which that's not the right phrase For what they're doing they don't need proximate cause and this is a warrantless search. And so one website was pointing out that this is a flaw, because that means this Fourth Amendment rights are being violated. Now, in this case, though, there is an exception to the Fourth Amendment, which is the exigent circumstances, which does permit warrantless searches in emergency situations where there is a risk of imminent danger or evidence being destroyed if officers wait for a warrant. And in this case, yeah, that would technically exist, because angel is now suspected not just of murder but kidnapping, and so there is a risk of danger to darla because, once again, pete doesn't know that darla's a vampire and doesn't know that this is all staged, and so, from the cop's point of view, angel is a high-risk suspect, so they can burst into his living residence without a warrant.
Speaker 2:Well, angel's investigations team, though, of course, refused to cooperate with them, and Kate, playing the nice racist card here, approaches Gunn somebody she doesn't know, a black man, and immediately demands ID from him. And we've never seen her do that with any, with either wesley or jordelia in the past. I need id. No, the first white guy she sees, I need id. And then she then also mentions the name of darla to to the team.
Speaker 2:Well, now it cuts over to the reservoir where we saw earlier in the episode, where the thrall demon was, and angel then makes a few things clear as he drags darla into that area. One, he knows she's human. Two, he knows that wolfram and heart brought her back. And he also makes it clear that he will kill her even if she is human, that he will break his code on that one. And he brought her there because it's convent and they do have a special relationship with convents, referencing the earlier flashback with gerzilla. He then vamps out while darla, still in diada creamer mode, is acting scared. He then leans in to bite her and at that moment that's when she drops the act entirely and instead of being scared, she kisses him back passionately and then says there's my boy, knowing that she's bringing back a vert, at least a version of angelus.
Speaker 2:Well, kate, back at the hyperion, is going over gun's rap sheet and he does have a bit of a colorful history disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, grand theft, auto assault, and. And Cordelia first tries to defend Gunn by saying oh well, you know, everyone has committed some crimes in their past. And Cade says that, yeah, some of them were committed while he was a juvenile, but some were as recently as the last two weeks, which what's good actually for Gunn. Part of stuff like disturbing the peace and possibly resisting arrest might have been in the last two weeks. You know he gets into a fight with the vampires Cops. Come in Once again, these guys probably opening a hail of gunfire on Charles Gunn. That's how cops are in LA, I guess, and you know Gunn was arrested for resisting arrest or whatever.
Speaker 2:Well, back to Kate. Kate then recites facts that darla had told her she begged him to stay out, but that he burst in the door and killed steven. And gun is the one who notices the major flaw in that story, which is how did he get into the house if he wasn't invited? Because he points out to kate what kate already knew, which was the fact that Angel's a vampire, and so even Kate realizes oops, there's a gap there. Wesley goes a step further and produces a daguerreotype of Darla that was made over a century ago and shows that to Kate and points out that the Darla from 100 years ago is identical to Deanna Kramer, therefore same person to Deanna Kramer, therefore same person.
Speaker 2:Well, now we get to the reservoir, which is the scene that I was referencing earlier in this episode, where I was discussing my overall comments about it, and Darla and Angel are kissing passionately, but Angel now starts to resist her and Darla does admit that Wolfram and Hart's goal is to mess with him so much that he turns evil, but then she starts to seduce him, wanting to give him one moment of perfect happiness, hopefully bringing back angelus. And what is interesting, what is nice here, is the fact that in the buffy episode, angel, when angel grabs darla, she says that's good you. She says that's good, you're hurting me, that's good too. Well, in this episode also nice farewell when Angel grabs her, she says you're hurting me. I like, once again, nice twisted relationship between the two of them that she likes to be hurt. Well, his response is then the single coolest thing that he could say to her.
Speaker 2:You took me places, showed me things, the top of my head, but you never made me happy and the look that darla has on her face is sign that he truly did cut her deep with that line. Because, as I've mentioned many times, darla does love Angelus, just like Spike loved Drew, and so there is deep affection there. And so to be told by the person you love yeah, you showed me everything you know and caused all these reactions in me, but you never made me happy and caused all these reactions in me, but you never made me happy. That is the single cruelest thing he could possibly say to her is essentially saying yeah, we've been together all these years, but you were never truly special to me, you were just there. And Julie sells that reaction where she is sincerely and genuinely hurt and once again this is conveying that, while she is evil I don't want to say she's good, no, she's evil, but she did truly care for angela's. And to be told that their entire relationship technically meant nothing to her I mean, it meant nothing to him they'll cut her deeper than any stake could have used on her and she gives an appropriately bitter response that conveys her pure venom and hurt.
Speaker 2:When talking about buffy, that cheerleader, her response is buffy wasn't happiness, she was just new. And once again, that is the response of a sperm lover which, using the old cliche, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. And this is a woman scorned by her lover. And, as I say in my general comments, this is a phenomenal, phenomenal scene and what I love about was, upon re-watching again, notice the parallels between this and the similar scene I mentioned before in innocence between angelus and buffy. And in both cases angel is saying the worst things he can to a woman who loved him and in both cases he is telling her that she means nothing to him and in a sense it was. Oh, I've been with many women before. You're just the latest in my conquest. You know that I felt nothing when I was with you.
Speaker 2:And in that scene buffy's face is being destroyed more and more for with each line that he's saying and, just like darla, you could tell that there is no physical damage he could do to her than what he's doing right now with his word. Same thing with darla. And he is saying things that only a lover can say to their part, that if anyone else said it, you could write it off. But in this case, because they have such a special place in your heart for them to say this to you is devastating. Well, darla, though, comes back and also says that Angelus, she knows that Angelus is still with an angel and she knows that it's who Angel is truly meant to be a sense of desperation and hope. Well, meanwhile, we cut away briefly to go back to the hyperion, and team ai is chewing out kate, saying that angel is innocent, he didn't kill steven kramer, and kate met said okay, he might not have killed steven, but he is still directly responsible for innocence that died because of him in this line.
Speaker 1:you don't get it, do you what? The fact that he's innocent, the fact that while you're line your boss, you can't blame angel?
Speaker 3:he's trying to do what's right, that's right.
Speaker 1:He's good. I keep forgetting. I'm sorry. And why did he kidnap that woman again?
Speaker 2:which, even though I had issues with kate in previous episodes where she actually turned from being tough to being almost obnoxious, that line redeemed her, at least temporarily, because of the fact that that is a concept I mentioned earlier that Team AI and the series itself somewhat ignores. In this episode, angel investigations seem to dawn on them that well, because of Angel, the owners of that house he knows who they were. I mean, it could have been just a couple, it could have been one, one owner. It could have been a nice couple with four children all dead. Why so wolfram and hart could commandeer the house and stage this scene for angel? We don't know how many people died just for that scene alone to occur, but we do know that stephen kramer died to stage that scene. Now, while Angel may not have directly killed them, it was because of him that they died, that these innocent people who had no reason to be involved other than they just having to be there and AI didn't really care about that they were more concerned and almost obsessed with Darla trying to stop her that they were willing to turn a blind eye. So, in a sense, they were becoming the way Kate was myopically focused, but in their own way and, as I've mentioned before, I wish the series had gone a little bit more into that.
Speaker 2:Well, it now cuts back to the reservoir with Angel and Darla, and Angel now reminds Darla that, being human, she now has a soul and soon she'll be going through the similar torment that he did. And she reminds him again of how truly dark he is. And she mentions the fact he's not the white knight that he thinks he is. And his response is almost to back up her statement, because he starts to choke, because and this is, in a way, proving she's right and how easily she can get to him. Well, she then immediately produces a cross which she can hold she's human, but he can't and she shoves it against his chest, burning him. And once again, another great line from her, which is see, no matter how good a boy you are, god doesn't like you, which once again, I mentioned how many great lines this episode had. That was another great one Once again, to cut at him deeply to say it doesn't matter how many good deeds you do, it doesn't matter how many damsels in distress, how many apocalypses you stop, it doesn't matter, god hates you. When you finally get dusted, you're not. It doesn't matter, god hates you. When you finally get dusted, you're not going to heaven, you're going to hell, because you are evil deep down. So you might as well just embrace it. And after she moves across the way, though, she then ends it with an even better coda on it, which is but I still do so once again, going back to what I said before of Buffy is willing to forgive Angelus so she can have her boyfriend back. Darla is willing to forgive Angel so she can have her boyfriend back.
Speaker 2:And once again, as I wrote in my notes, did I mention how incredible this scene was. And everything is working, the music where it swells to reflect the epic emotions are being felt by the character and, as I said, julie and david give a level performances in this scene, and all of the action here is emotional. There's no big fight scene. There's no stunt work or flying around the rafters. No, this action is emotional because Greenwald, being the smart director he is and the smart writer he is, knows that a fight scene would have been stupid. It would have lessened the scene and diminished the drama. Instead, he had to have these two characters go at each other with words, with emotions, to truly let us know their history and how deeply these two characters have affected each other's lives and how much damage they can do, once again, not through fists, not through weapons, but through words. And that made the scene all the more intense because of the writing, the acting, the directing, the editing, the music. Well, darla then ends the scene by running off into the daylight, basically a place that she knows Angel can pursue her into, as she looks back at him and just says what, no, goodbye, kiss, and strolls off, not running, running, strolling, knowing she has the upper hand right now.
Speaker 2:Well, in the epilogue it cuts back to that evening at the hyperion, angel sitting in his room alone, thinking over everything that has happened, sitting by himself. Cordelia and wesley then knock on the door and they wanted to check to make sure he didn't go bad. And, as I've mentioned in my general summary, he's already displaying a darker demeanor than he has before and he's very cold towards wesley and cordelia, almost ready to slam the door in their faces when they stop and talk to him and wesley says angel, be careful. Angel's response is what do you mean, angel? It's just with darlbeck, in league with wolferman hart, there's a lot of forces arrayed against you there's going to be trouble. Angel, with a very cold laugh, then says there's going to be a lot of trouble and I say bring it on. Already being affected by Darla and already going into a side, that's not good. Well, that now brings us to a segment of favorite kills in lines where I discuss my favorite kill and my favorite line in the episode.
Speaker 3:The Order of Taraka. I mean, isn't that overkill?
Speaker 1:No, I think it's just enough kill.
Speaker 2:Well, first for the summary of the kills. In this case, gunn got the Thrall demon in the initial fight. No thanks to Angel Darla, as I mentioned earlier, we did see her kill two people, lord Nichols and the prostitute he was propositioning, even though they were off screen when we saw their dead bodies and it was acknowledged by both characters that she killed them. So she gets credit. And angel, I'm giving him credit for killing at least drusilla's two sisters, because he commented he killed the entire family and we saw that she had at least two sisters. So the assumption is he killed both of them and her father, because we do know that from the earlier clip the father had three, three daughters. Now, the fate of the mother, we have no idea. She might have already been dead, or she might have been out of town, or Angelus may have killed her as well, because we don't know her fate. No credit for her, but I am giving him credit for Drew's two sisters and a father. And the other death is to the vampire security guard who killed Stephen Kramer, because that one the assumption is he did not Darla, obviously because Darwin was still human. Well, because of that, the new kill total is 47.5 deaths for Angel, 1.5, still for Wesley, 4 for Gunn, 67 for all others, taking our new kill total up to 120 deaths.
Speaker 2:Now for the favorite kill, this one that, even though I didn't include it for angelus because it was so off screen I can't in any way count. It would be the siren of jerome and, as I've mentioned many times, even though it was not technically part of the episode, it's just the pure fact that he sired a woman. He first slaughtered her family in front of her. He then slaughtered an entire convent in front of her. While she's sitting there gibbering away insanely, he's making passionate love to darla, both of them in their vamp face and right in front of her, while she's having visions of oh my god, I know what my future holds for me, because in the earlier scene, angelus comments that she knows what her fate is. He's doing all of this with the sole intention of driving her even more insane and then turning her insane when she's at peak insanity. That is just a level of evil I can't imagine, because even darwin says wouldn't it be more merciful? Well, sorry correction, angelus even mentions they would be far more merciful just to kill her. But he says no. This is even more cruel and, as I mentioned before, darla had a shocked look on her face of wow, she approved, but still surprised, and it was more of the student did exceed the master at that point.
Speaker 2:Well, for the favorite line, it's the clip that I played earlier, which was you took me places, showed me things, huh, you blew the top off my head, but you never made me happy. And, as he explains, even though I mentioned before that, when Angelus said a similar line to Buffy, saying that this meant nothing to me, our time together was irrelevant, when Angelus said it he was being cruel. Angel was saying it not so much for cruelty but for honesty that it meant nothing to him. And he explained that it's because he had no soul when they were together, so he couldn't feel love, he couldn't feel happiness and, as he explained, yes, she gave him sexual ecstasy. I mean, the times together were very passionate, very erotic, etc. So he's not saying he didn't enjoy it, he's just saying he never felt perfect bliss and, as I discussed in a previous episode that it was established in Surprise, the perfect happiness didn't come from sex itself.
Speaker 2:Now, one could imagine, as Angelus, he's probably had sex with many women, willing or unwilling, over the centuries. No, what it came from was the cuddling afterwards, the feeling at that moment that all is right with the world. At that moment that all is right with the world Because, remember, in Surprise, he didn't turn into Angelus until afterwards, when they're laying in bed together with Buffy in his arms. That's when the soul got ripped away from him. It's not when they were making love, didn't happen during that scene. That went fine. It was that moment afterward because he felt at peace with the world. He felt tent and it was that peacefulness he could never feel with Darla. As I said, he could feel his ecstasy and the appropriate physical reactions, but he could never feel the peace afterwards. And it's because of the lack of a soul. He could never have the emotional closeness and he said, as a vampire, he never could. Well, that's it for this week's episode. In the next show I will discuss the following episode.
Speaker 1:While Angel confronts his darkest demons, as Angel knows, someone is trapped into taking his place. Give me Angel, I'm Angel. It's one thing to fight, another to protect, but one thing he didn't expect Look, go on drink An all-new Angel. Go on drink an all-new Angel.
Speaker 2:I will continue my retrospective, with Wesley having to pose as Angel while Angel is off on a retreat. So join me as I discuss who makes for a far more dashing creature of the night Wesley or Angel. So join me, stephen, for the next episode of Wolfram and Cast. If you wish to reach out to me with any questions or comment, 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. But for now,
