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
S2E6 ("Guise Will Be Guise") -- From Imposter to Hero: Wesley’s Journey in Angel's Shoes
Ever wondered how a seemingly simple comedic episode can enrich character development in a supernatural drama? Tune into this week's episode of Wolfram Incast, where I, Steven Youngkin, break down "Guys Will Be Guys" from Angel's second season. Directed by Krishna Rao and penned by Jane Espenson, this episode expertly weaves humor and action, with Wesley hilariously stepping into Angel's shoes to protect a businessman's daughter, while Angel himself seeks life advice from an unexpected source. You'll gain a new appreciation for how this interlude contributes to the larger Darla storyline and discover why even an imposter swami can offer genuine therapeutic insights.
Prepare for a deep dive into the layered narrative that contrasts Angel's therapeutic encounter with Tash against Buffy's session with Holden in "Conversations with Dead People." I critique Paul Lanier's overly complex distraction plan, proposing simpler alternatives and discussing the storytelling techniques that keep us hooked, despite some logical flaws. Plus, listener feedback and a glowing review from a new Angel fan add fresh perspectives to our discussion, making this a must-listen episode for both veteran viewers and newcomers.
Finally, we'll explore the theme of perception and identity through Wesley's daring impersonation of Angel during a tense hostage situation. Marvel at how his comedic attempts to navigate supernatural threats reveal significant character growth. We'll also touch on the concept of "fake Shemps" in the film industry and how it cleverly ties into the show's plot. From Wesley's transformation to the introduction of Virginia and the complexities of Bryce's mansion, this episode promises a rich mix of humor, action, and insightful analysis. Don't forget to connect with me on social media and subscribe for more exciting episodes!
Hello, welcome to Wolfram Incast, an Angel Retrospective. I am longtime fan Stephen Youngkin and I have also been mistaken for Angel simply by donning a long black duster and walking purposefully into a room and walking purposefully into a room. In this podcast I'll be doing a deep dive discussion into 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, does it work, and all of the ideas and themes that the show puts forth. In this week's episode, I will discuss the sixth episode of the second season, guys Will Be Guy, which was directed by Krishna Rao. Krishna has also directed episodes of Dawson's Creek, the Pretender, the Chronicle, she Spies, the Unit 90210. He also worked as a cinematographer on three of the latter series. In 1997, his first directorial credit was the sci-fi film Crossworld. Raoul has also worked as a camera operator on a number of notable films, namely Halloween, the Fog both of those films directed by John Carpenter Bachelor Party, predator 2, ricochet and Star Trek Generation.
Speaker 2:The episode was written by Jane Espenson. This was the second of Jane's two contributions to Angel, the other being Room with a View, the cordelia centric episode from season one. Jane was co-producer on buffy and wrote 23 episodes of the series, including harsh light of day pains, a new man, superstar, I was made to love you. In storyteller, she was the only staff writer, besides joss whedon and marty knoxon, to be credited with more than five episodes in one season. She also wrote for Firefly, true Calling, battlestar Galactica, dollhouse, the season one penultimate episode, briar Rose and the Nevers. In addition to writing and co-producing, jane invented the name of the drink, zima, while working at a marketing firm. The episode originally aired on November 7,. At a marketing firm. The episode originally aired on November 7, 2000, and the IMDb description of the episode is Angel meets with a swami to end his obsession with Darla. Meanwhile, wesley assumes Angel's identity and plays bodyguard to a businessman's daughter, white. Jane's other episode, room with a View.
Speaker 2:This was an episode that moved Angel to the background and focused on one of the supporting team members, while he had the subplot with the Swami. That was very much of a secondary storyline. The primary storyline was focused on Wesley and like Room. Its purpose was to advance the character and lift them from where they were previously to someone stronger and more independent. The episode also acted as sort of a pause on the Darla storyline After the Darla-heavy episode of Dear Boy and before ramping up huge for the following episode, darla. The episode takes a pause by focusing on Wesley. There are references to Darla, but there's more of a discussion than a plot development. The primary purpose is to advance Wesley from being Mr Exposition or the Stumbler to someone who, at the end of the series, would sacrifice himself by standing up to an all-powerful wizard. The episode also takes a stylistic pause by focusing more on comedy, with pratfalls, character confusions, wordplay as well as other comic tropes, as opposed to the far more serious topics of the previous and following episodes.
Speaker 2:My questions to my dear listeners is first, how convincing was Wesley posing as Angel? And second, was the curse clear on whether or not Angel was a unit? Before I get into discussing the episode in general, I want to share with my listeners a very nice review written on Apple Podcasts. It was contributed by user I'm Feeling Sublime and they titled it Recent Angel Fan. In their five-star review they wrote, quote I watched Buffy when it aired, but have only recently been watching Angel.
Speaker 2:This podcast has an excellent analysis, deep dive on each episode. It's a great listen, whether it's your first time watching or if you're on your eighth rewatch. My only complaint is Carrie's audio. Not sure if it's a mic issue or she's way too close to the mic, but it's jarring and kind of crackly or fuzzy most of the time. It's worth listening to, though she has great takes on the theme. They both do. And I just want to thank the user I'm feeling sublime for your very kind words. As you have not noticed, my former co-host, gary, has moved on to other things and hopefully you're still listening and enjoying the show even though you don't get her contribution. You only have my comments now and once again I thank you and welcome any other comments, both good or bad, from any of the listeners out there.
Speaker 2:Now for the episode. I would say that overall, this is a nice bridge episode between the two key episodes I've mentioned before, which was Dear Boy and Darla. And when I say it's a bridge episode, one thing the listeners have to remember from when this episode first aired. At that time, when the episode was aired, it was on the network and, unlike streaming services like Amazon, prime or Hulu or Netflix or any of those, where creators of the show are given liberties to do shorter seasons, they can do 12 or 8 or 6 or 9 episode seasons. They don't have to do a full length so they can keep their stories a lot more tighter, a lot more compact.
Speaker 2:On network television, on the other hand, the creators, the producers, the writers are required to come up with 22 or 24 episodes for a full season order, and the effect of that is shown in series like Buffy and Angel, where at times you get what would be referred to as a filler episode, where, especially for a serialized show like what Angel was already becoming in season two with the Darla storyline, they had to take a step back because, frankly, they didn't have quite enough story to fill an entire 22 episodes or 24 episodes, as we will see by the fact that at the end of season two they go off on their own new mini storyline arc, almost as an epilogue or as a mini story after the true season arc end. And in addition to that sojourn that they have to Lauren's home dimension, they also have a number of filler episodes, such as this one or the Shroud of Roman or other episodes as well, as we'll see coming up. But when I call this a filler episode it doesn't necessarily make it a bad one, just meaning it doesn't advance the overall season arc in any substantial way in terms of the storyline with darla. But I do like it as a nice refresher because dear boy was very heavy, was very serious and, as listeners might note, I was a big fan of that episode. So so that's not a criticism by any means. And Darla well, you'll hear my comments when I do that episode next, but just as a spoiler on my comments of it. I absolutely loved that episode for reasons I'll go into at that time.
Speaker 2:But this one is more loose. It is funny, it is lighter weight and it's also not as concerned with the action. In fact, the final fight at Magnus Bryce's place is extremely brief and there's no real stunt work and in fact the main heavy in the episode is knocked out literally with one punch. There's no fight between he and Wesley or he and Angel at all and, as I'll note when I get to there, angel doesn't do really anything at all within that scene Well, I mean in terms of fighting. And it's also more concerned with character-based comedy, in particular from Wesley and Angel, because for Wesley, as I'll mention when we get to the scene-by-scene analysis, wesley does more crack falls, more loose actions like jumping away from the sun when he's accidentally exposed to it, but he's still supposed to be acting like he's a vampire, as well as also slipping on pieces of paper, and also more verbal comedy in which there's a misinterpretation of a phrase.
Speaker 2:For Angel, on the other hand, his comedy comes from what David does quite well very lightweight reactions to things, in particular that final eunuch scene that I'll discuss at length when I get to it, because it's actually my favorite scene in the episode, because it is simply the funniest, my favorite scene in the episode, because it is simply the funniest of the episode, of the scenes in the episode. And now, if I do have a flaw, though, with it, and it is having to do with angel, it's the fact that it feels almost like a slight step back from angel because, as listeners might recall is at the end of Boy, he was already starting to go dark, he was already starting to become low-rose and ultra brooding and descending a little bit more into have you level? Have you ever leveled cold? But in this one. Yeah, he's obsessed, but it's sort of like he cut back on the brooding. I mean, in the scene with the host or with lauren, he does discuss the fact that he's ready to burst out, but we don't see too much of that, especially when he meets with. I'll just say, right now I'm going to keep referring to him as tash mcgav, even though, as we find out, he's not, and I'll still just call him tash for lack of any other name. And, as we'll also we'll see, is in that final scene. Not only is he us brooding, he's outright comical, very lightweight and loose, but, on the other hand, the major strength that this episode has and, outside of just being a pause on the tone and the arc and all that, it does contribute one thing, which is it's a major step in Wesley's arc. And it is possibly not coincidental that the two big Wesley and Cordelia episodes, the ones that took him from their Buffy personas Cordelia being vain, shallow, blunt in her delivery and unthinking of others to becoming a lot more confident and empathetic towards others, and this one Wesley, going from stumbling and not sure what to say to people to being very confident and capably posing as Angel at the end that both of those episodes are Jane Esfenson episodes. It's almost like she is given the job of character growth episodes because, as I mentioned one of her other episodes she wrote for Buffy was Superstar, which did a similar thing for Jonathan, taking him to a more confident level than he was at the beginning of the episode.
Speaker 2:But getting back to this one with Wesley, what I like is the fact that it does do a substantial advancing of it. We saw in episodes before, such as the exorcism episode where we find out just a little bit about his background and then as well as in the ring where he has no problem standing up to the top guys in the bar and other bits there as well, well, where he does stand up stronger. But this is probably the first major development in there because at the beginning neither he nor anyone else, including the audience, would view him as worthy of wearing Angel's cape. And one nice touch I like is when he does put on the duster. Even though Alexis and David are approximately the same size, same height and build. They purposely got him a bigger jacket so that it looks too big on him, even though technically the one that David wears probably would fit Alexis quite comfortably and throughout the episode, whenever he's posing as Angel or describing Angel, it is done in the way that he admires and that he views him as somebody better than himself, because he views Angel as brave and competent. But what is a very nice touch is at the very end, when he goes back to the Bryce mansion to rescue Virginia, he's the one who's leading the way, he's the one who's in the hero shot in the dead center that Angel usually occupies and in fact he's the one who uses Angel's lie because it's showing that now, at this point, he's a lot more confident, he's a lot more sure of himself and we will see this continue in the later episodes, where he has no problem standing up to Angel, still being polite, but a lot less oh, I'm afraid of you getting rid of me or I'm afraid of screwing up or whatever. No, much more confident. And the other similarity this has with Room with a View is that, as I mentioned in the intro, angel is very much a secondary character in this story. He still has importance, but it's much more secondary. He has the B storyline, even though IMDB listed his first and made it almost sound like Wesley's was secondary. No, angels was the secondary storyline, but it doesn't make it a useless storyline because it does allow us to get inside of Angels' head very well.
Speaker 2:And even though I've stated in the past that I prefer showing, not telling as the rule for any movie or TV episode, because it's a visual medium, therapy episodes are the exception. Those who have listened to the episode I guest starred on recently on Buffy and the Artist's storytelling will note that I was overall of mixed feelings for the season seven episode Conversations with Dead People. But the one storyline that I absolutely completely loved and in fact I say it many times, I wish had been the entire episode was the Holden-Buffy therapy session. I mentioned in that episode that I loved how those two worked through Buffy's problem. They allowed us to get inside of Buffy's head in a way that made sense for her character, that she would be confessing all of this, that it felt natural to her.
Speaker 2:Same thing here with Angel. You could tell that Angel is wanting to let this all out and tell somebody and he has a therapy session with Tash which is very similar to the therapy session that Buffy has with Holden in conversations with dead people and, as I'll get into those scenes, is just like Holden made for a very good therapist. He was asking reasonable questions of her and he was giving very good advice. So, even though he was evil, he'd actually help her in his own way. Advice so, even though he was evil, he'd actually help her in his own way and nothing he did in the therapy part of it itself was bad. Well, that's the same thing here with Tash. The questions he's asking Angel, the comments he's making, the advice he's giving is actually quite good. So even though he's not an actual Swami we don't know what he is other than possibly a hit he's not saying bad things to Angel. What he's saying is the stuff that possibly the real Tosh might have said to Angel, and the same questions.
Speaker 2:The one question I do have about it is that the plan that Paul Lanier, who hired Tosh to keep Angel distracted, by and large makes no real sense whatsoever, because we find out that the entire purpose of the weekend was that Tosh went to the cabin, killed the real Tosh and stayed there knowing Angel was coming. We'll find out later how they knew that Lor Lauren was going to send Angel to Tosh. We'll find that out in a later episode. But setting that aside, angel was going to come to Tosh. As I said, the real one was dead and lying in the bottom of a lake somewhere, and the fake Tosh would then keep Angel distracted for the entire weekend, so that it would hinder Magnus's plan to sacrifice Virginia to get the power, because Paul didn't want Magnus to get that power.
Speaker 2:Now here's the reason why I'm hesitating, because even when I say it out loud it doesn't make much sense, for a few reasons. One, why didn't they just keep the actual Tash alive? Because most likely the real tash probably would have taken up the entire weekend anyway. And also, it doesn't run the risk of angel figure out oh wait, a minute, something's wrong here. Because angel will just stay there as long as angel needed to stay there to to work out his problems. So that would have already kept him occupied. But even so, if paul knew angel at all, then the better approach would be to have somebody go to angel and say hey, there's this very powerful wizard who's going to sacrifice his daughter so that he can get even more power. Well, at that point angel the save innocent young maidens would have broken in there, being up magnus, and stopped the ritual. So it would have made more sense not to keep him distracted, but to actually tell him the truth, because, as I said, angel, being a hero, would have rushed right in there, so this seemed like an unnecessary distraction. Now for series-wise, we needed this to happen so that we can get inside of angel's head and find out more what, why he's obsessed with darla, and what he's afraid of, so on, so forth, and, like with conversations with dead people.
Speaker 2:I enjoyed the dialogue. I enjoyed the byplay between art, will, the actor, and david. They play very well off of each other, but it's just that within the context of the story, it doesn't make much sense. Well, with that being said, let's get into the episode itself.
Speaker 2:The episode opens at the Hyperion Hotel and Wesley's reading a file. He's all by himself. Now, one nice touch that I like about it is the first shot that we get inside the hotel. The first character shot is of Wesley's feet walking along, and the outfit he is wearing is very not unimpressive. I mean meaning it's stylish, but the thing is, though, it's not anything that will make anyone think straight. It's very white, it's very bright tan colors, and almost makes him smaller and weaker wearing it. Well, he goes behind the counter and he's trying to open up a file cabinet as a flies open it and knocks him back in a nice bit of pratfall there. And alexis, as always, knows how to sell pratfall. He is very good at doing that and it establish. It reminds us right away how clumsy he is, and it's once again showing us third season of Buffy Wesley, somebody who is a bit of a poof, or somebody who thinks more of himself than he actually is and tries to come off more as what he is.
Speaker 2:Well, while Wesley is on the floor, a man comes walking in looking for Angel and Wesley explains that Angel's out and offers to help. Well, while Wesley is on the floor, a man comes walking in looking for Angel and Wesley explains that Angel's out and offers to help. And the man makes it very clear he doesn't want to talk to Wesley, referring to him as a secretary, and he says I only wanted to talk to Angel himself. It's an urgent matter. Well, the man asks if Wesley has any special abilities. Wesley asks him essentially are you a vampire, are you a demon? Do you have any special gifts? And Wesley just jokes well, I have a few. And when the man doesn't laugh at his joke, wesley then explains that he was a rogue demon hunter, harkening back to the episode where he first premiered.
Speaker 2:But that toughness that he's trying to convey is very much undercut by him sliding on a piece of paper on the floor. And once again, this is being done to undercut wesley in a way that it is believable, because we've all done that we try to come across as bigger, tougher or whatever than we really all are, and then something happens to really make us look foolish. But also, what the scene does is in the way he's that he's talking to the man. It makes it very clear the difference, difference between he and angel, because angel, first of all, wouldn't have slipped and fell on papers on the floor and angel would have had the quiet sense of confidence that the man was looking for. There would have been no doubt the angel was in charge. Well, the man's disappointed and walks out and refers to Wesley dismissively as Angel's secretary, not his colleague, not even his assistant, his secretary in a way that is meant to be as condescending as it sounds, and Wesley's feelings are understandably hurt.
Speaker 2:Well, that moment, cordelia then rushes down and says that they have to stop him and ask urgently for Wesley's help, seeing that he needs to first change in clothes that are a little bit more masculine. Well, it does cut to Wolferman Hart and we see Angel and Gunn coming up through the basement through a grate in more masculine. Well, it does cut to Wolfram and Hart and we see Angel and Gunn coming up through the basement through a grate in the floor. Now, as I was watching one podcast review of it, the Passion of the Nerd, they do point out that this is the second time Angel's been able to break into Wolfram and Hart. Considering they have vampire detectors on site, their security is not all that good. If Angel and Gunn are able to pop in whenever they want through a simple grate, well, they get on the elevator and Wesley and Cordelia also jump in, as now seeing who the him was that Cordelia was referring to, and Cordelia is posing as a lawyer, and the way she's doing it is by wearing a suit and glasses. So, and she even points out that it's the glasses that make her look like she's a she's a lawyer. That's a nice joke there. Well, they explain that they are there to stop angel and angel, I'm gonna say he wants to find darla and figure out what's going on. Why did wolfram and Hart bring her back? Why is she human? What is their end game? Reasonable questions. But they also realize how dangerous Wolfram and Hart is and how it's not going to be easy to get Darla out. Not to get Darla out, and in regards to the vampire detectors, cordelia even reminds Angel of them and saying the fact that you're going to be stopped five seconds after you enter the building because of that. And Angel says oh, don't worry, I have a plan and done, thinking maybe this is a similar plan as what they used back in Blind Date. Nope, in this case, here, angel's plan is that to get in there before they stop him. That's his plan. Just go get her and hope they don't stop me. And Gunn's reaction is cute, which is See what? That wasn't planned. Walking real quick was the plan In which I like Gunn's reaction of. I knew I should have asked him what the plan was before coming in, because now he realizes it's a. He realizes really, really really stupid plan. And angel explains that he's not angry or insane at all. After cordelia implies that he is both. But at that moment a guard then opens the elevator doors and angel's response is to immediately shove the stake the guard was holding right into his foot. And as they're getting off the elevator, he then comments well, maybe I am a little angry. And walks off.
Speaker 2:Well, after the opening credits it then cuts over to Caritas and we see two Asian guys singing the Cher song I've Got you, babe. And obviously we have not really seen. They haven't, but other than lauren himself, they're not finding the best singers to do this. Thankfully, in the later episode we do get somebody who does it damn good, boy singing. But at this point, nope, it's just like most karaoke bars. You're just there to watch somebody drunkenly sing some song that they absolutely loved. And yep, that's what's true.
Speaker 2:Here it is two guys up on stage drunkenly singing Cher, and Wesley and Cordelia are listening. And I do like the fact that Gunn is somewhat confused, understandably, by this, because he even admits it. He says how did I live in LA all my life and not know this was? In? Which surprises even him because of the fact that it's not like he's blind to the other world, to the occult world, to the demon world. Well, he's a vampire hunter, but this one just slipped completely under his radar the idea of a karaoke bar filled with demons. And then wesley is sitting there patiently not enjoying the performance and he explains to gun what's going on, to remind the audience again about lorn and reading people's futures and their souls. But sitting in the middle then is Cordelia who's just very sweetly enjoying the performance up on stage and you get the feeling after they're done she probably gave them a loud applause to encourage them, just to be a nice woman, while off on the side is Angel who is talking to Lauren, and Angel does admit the feeling a bit off and he's very much afraid of exploding.
Speaker 2:Well, loren's recommendation is that he goes to see this swami, friend of his Tishmagev, because Loren says what you're going through is more than what I can handle. There's no real advice. I can give you pay off or whatever, but Tish will help you. He'll shock your chakra, as he describes it, and in general the Swami will get him feeling much more balanced. And he tells him that Tush is looking in Ojai. Now for listeners who are not familiar with the state of California, ojai is about two hours north of LA and it is an actual city, so the driving distance is reasonable for something that Angel would do. And Angel makes it out there, and we see a small cabin out in the wilderness. Now, as a side note, though, when Angel is approaching the cabin, if you freeze, frame it or look closely, you can clearly see his reflection in the pond, which shouldn't be possible, considering he's a vampire and has no reflection.
Speaker 2:Now, one other thing is the fact that this is not the last time that Angel is going to seek out spiritual guidance. After a traumatic event In the episode Heartthrob, he'll go to seek more guidance after learning of Buffy's death. That time, though, he'll visit a group of Sri Lankan monks who, well, just like Tishmagev, who turns out not to be who he's posing as the monks, will turn out to be Sherhad Demon. Well, angel knocks on the cabin door, not sure what to expect hearing this name Tishmagev, you know. Is he a swami? Is he some form of a demon? What is he? What he doesn't expect is a burly, beer-drinking dude just standing there with a dish towel over his shoulder, just looking at him calmly. He said oh, he must be Angel. He got in and, because of Tish, immediately invites him into the cabin.
Speaker 2:Now Tish is portrayed by actor Art La art will fleur, who was a very long time character actor. In fact, on imdb he had 171 acting credits that stretched back to 1978 and he had first debuted in the tv movie rescued from rescue from gillian's island. As a side note to fans, don't seek it out, it's not not not good, it's really bad. But he did do other credits which were much better ones, such as the TV series MASH, the Incredible Hulk, the movie War Games, webster, the movie City, heat. Cobra also did Hill Street Blues, field of Dreams, and even appeared in the sketch comedy series Key Peele Art was originally going to be a screenwriter but he was convinced by his friend Jonathan Banks, mike Emrentrow from Breaking Bad. He was convinced by Jonathan to try acting and obviously it paid off well for him with that list of credits and once again, 171 acting credits. So he kept quite steady throughout his entire career, doing very nice character role turn. He sadly passed away in 2021 at the age of 78, following a 10-year battle with Parker.
Speaker 2:Now back to the episode. Cordelia cuts over to Cordelia, who is closing up the office, when a man jumps up from behind her, demanding to see Angel, and this is a different guy than visited Wesley earlier in the episode, and she explains that Angel's not there and the man then pulls out a gun and threatens her with it. Well, wesley approaches out of sight of both of them and overhears Cordelia being threatened. Well, he quickly ducks away and he reappears in the duster. And just like at the very beginning of the episode, where we see Wesley's feet walking and even scratching the ankle at one point with his other foot to show someone's weaker demeanor, well, we get another shot of wesley's feet, this time walking a lot more purposefully, and we see a little bit of angels dusters at the bottom. And one very nice touch is they're doing angels hero theme as wesley's approaching. And it makes sense that they do it, because Wesley then introduces himself as Angel, though he stumbles a bit as he is walking in there to show that he hasn't assumed that mantle yet. He is still Wesley, but he's just putting on his big brother's clothes, as it were.
Speaker 2:Well, it now cuts back to the cabin and Tish is beginning to talk to Angel. And one nice touch is he's working on a fishing line at the same time, fixing lures on it etc. Just working through the kinks on it and we'll see later on the fishing line does come into play, but here it's just being used casually as a disarming feature, because once again, this is not the Swami we would be expecting to see. Well, tish then points out something that I mentioned in the first episode and other fans, many other people, point out is Angel's car. Now Tisch is using this just to make conversation, but he does point out the fact that it is an odd choice for a vampire living in a city known for its sun is driving a convertible Because, as Tisch points out, is you don't really like yourself too much, or basically, he's looking just he's doing this just to be seen, almost to be noticed.
Speaker 2:He's looking just he's doing this just to be seen, almost to be noticed. And he also points out the fact that Angel is dressing in layers of black in weather that, as Art LaFleur says, is 80 degrees in the shade is the fact that most people wearing Angel's outfit, the heavy duster, the all-black outfit would be sweating to death. And now, in the case of Angel, maybe it's just a thing that vampires have, that vampires don't sweat because of lack of a warm body temperature, so that could be the excuse there. But all the same, exactly best, best outfit to wear either. Yes, as doyle pointed out in an early episode. It does look good on him. So, yes, I can learn, yes, addressing that way so that people like doyle could be a little bit attracted to him. But for tish, that's just thinking that really he's doing the outfit. He's doing the outfit, he's doing the car because it's all about appearances for him and he says that. And as he says it, that's either reflected in his friends, because the line he says is you're reflected in people around you, the way they see you, what do you think they see? I'll come back to that line at the end of the episode when I discuss my favorite line of the show, because that is a very good telelog.
Speaker 2:Well, it cuts over to the Hyperion and Wesley is still posing as Angel, while a man then points a gun at him and Wesley loathfully, confidently, tries to bluff his way out by claiming that bullets won't kill him. If he was a vampire it's true Now Angel would have said that in a way that would have been a lot tougher, like go ahead, kill me, I've been shot before, or something like that. Or you know, we'll see, we'll see what happens when the book, when the bullets go into me, he would have said some tough guy lying. Wesley does try to sell it as well, but there is a quaver in his voice because he knows it is a bluff. If the guy shoots him he will die. And he even sells a look of fear.
Speaker 2:Very quickly over to Cordelia, where you know that I'm not as confident as I'm trying to pass myself off as Well the man believing that Wesley is an angel orders him to come with him. When Wesley at first refuses, the man says OK, bullets won't kill you, they will kill her. And he threatens Cordelia unless Wesley joins him. Well, wesley wisely accepts the offer as if nothing else, there would be no episode. But he accepts it and they arrive at an extremely nice house. Now I'd like a nice bit of physical comedy. That happens here is first the henchman enters the house and then wesley takes like two, a step and a half in there when the man, without even thinking just and or looking at wesley, says I invite you in. And wesley, almost remembering oops, wait a minute, I can't come into the house yet until I hear that phrase and immediately falls back, almost stumbling, before he then turns on and walks back in after the invitation is hit. Well, they go a little bit further in the house and they then notice Magnus Price talking to talking to another quote business, who we later learn is paul laney, and they're discussing some driver.
Speaker 2:Now a couple notes, though, about the actors who we see talking to each other. Magnus bryce is played by another character actor named todd sussman, who also has an extensive resume 144 acting credits since 1970 when he appeared in a movie or TV show called Bracken's World Now some of his biggest credits. Well, just like Arthur Wilford, he was in MASH Now. He made many more appearances in MASH than Wilford did. In fact, he appeared in 48 episodes of the show.
Speaker 2:Now, for fans of MASH as well as listeners who are watching this, it's understandable, if you don't recognize him from MASH, that you might be thinking wait a minute, if he was in 48, who was he? Did he play some doctor? Did he play another soldier or whatever? Nope, well, he was a soldier, it was MASH. But the reason why you don't recognize seeing him? Because he was the voice of the PA announcer in those episodes Now, where at least people like myself know him immediately from the classic 90s sitcom New Heart, where he played Officer Shifflett.
Speaker 2:And, believe me, officer Shifflett is far different from Magnus Bryce and it's a character you almost have to see to understand. It was a very, very good performance from Todd Sussman and for Newhart, it's easy to understand why they kept bringing him back. But also now, his most recent credit that he did is a movie called Pinball the man who Saved the Game. I can't give him real details about Game. I can't give you all the details about it I haven't watched it. But he also keeps busy with additional voice work because, as we hear in this episode, he does have a great voice Very serious, very low and very easy to listen to. So he's used very often for voiceover work for companies such as Greyhound, mitsubishi Motors and Bullseye Barbecue Sauce.
Speaker 2:Now, the character that Magnus is assigned to is a character named Paul Lanier and he's played by actor Patrick Kilpatrick, and Patrick is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, also worked as a journalist and an international entertainment speaker and teacher. So you name it. The guy's kept busy. In fact, he has even more credits than Sussman or Art LaFleur over 200 credits to his name and in addition to acting, he also ran for the governor of California in the 2021 recall election as a Democrat. Didn't win, but he ran.
Speaker 2:While these two characters are discussing things. Wesley looks over and he observes a shaman security guard standing watch. Well, after Paul leaves, bryce then offers Wesley thinking he's's angel a glass of fresh blood and wesley, very reluctantly, drinks it. And, using the phrase nummy and though it's very clear that he's trying to keep from gagging on it, which is the normal reaction, most humans would have to drinking a glass of blood, and for the scene, this was one that alexis did enjoy doing, because he commented an interview later that he enjoyed playing angel in this episode, although when the bbc asked him what the props team used for the fake blood he had to drink, alexis said he was unsure. And with that he said, though, I should find out, because I haven't been feeling very well ever since. And also, as a note is, wesley is now officially the third member of Angel Investigations to drink blood, because of course, we've seen Angel drink in a number of episodes and Cordelia was the second one in the episode expecting, when she drank blood straight from the glass when she was pregnant. And in regards to alexis coming about that he hasn't been feeling very well since now.
Speaker 2:Obviously it wasn't real blood that they gave alexis, but the good thing that wesley didn't become ill because of the fact that uncooked blood risks carrying pathogens. No, natural human blood acquired by a wealthy sorcerer didn't carry that risk. He probably made it safe to drink and beyond that, the only real risk would be hemochromatosis, an injurious buildup of iron in the body which can damage the joints and the number of organs. Now that would be if you really drank a lot of blood to the level what well Angelus drank. But in this case he was given just a tiny glass and in fact he didn't even drink all of it, because we see him pour the rest of it into a vase which he didn't notice the fact that it was transparent. It was a glass vase. So as a result of the rest of the scene, he has to stand in front of the vase so that Magnus and his henchmen don't notice that it's something very rad.
Speaker 2:Well, bryce continues to explain his background and he mentions that his quote successes in software and the cable companies, which is what the average person would think of him, would think he was most famous for or most successful as Well, magnus explains that those two, the software and cable companies, they're all front and he explains that his family money came from wizardry, because what he did was he designed and did custom spells for very wealthy individuals, and he said, though, that the success came with a price and he has developed enemies.
Speaker 2:And in fact, he says that someone is threatening his only daughter, which Wesley is guessing probably is the guy in the hallway, paul Lanier, or he's thinking it might be some other spellcast.
Speaker 2:Well, magnus says that the reason why he's hiring Angel is to protect his daughter, make sure nobody hurts her, and what I like about this is the fact that it throws in some nice comedy bits to let it out the exposition, because usually exposition-heavy scenes are very, very slow. This one does throw in the bits of comedy, such as wesley having to throw out the blood and then not realizing wrong place to throw it out at, and then also having bryce act like a standard, like a standard software entrepreneur, where he mentions that the first spell was done in a garage, referencing how a lot of software companies, including apple computer, started in the person's garage and built from there. So, as a result, he does come across as as a david herman type software entrepreneur, as opposed to some spellcaster that we would see in most stories, and I like the touch, the fact that one of his enemies is running a company called Consolidated Curses. Could you sound more Madman-ish or just more Madison Avenue-ish than Consolidated Curses? And then, also.
Speaker 2:He then says offhandedly the goddess Yesgiv does not give with both hands, as if it was a standard of business, saying that you learn in business school. And the other piece of comedy that I want to keep coming back to is the drinking of the blood, because once again, alexis sells this very well, because you see him gagging on the taste and then burping with an obvious upset stomach, and then, of course, the pouring into the vase. Well, while this conversation is going on, it comes back to Angel, and Tush is continuing with the analysis and acknowledges that there are two sides to Angel. Now, in this case he's not referring to Angel in Angelus, which is what most viewers would think when you think of the two sides of Angel. No, the two sides that he's referring to is the one he projects and the real one, and he comments that these two sides are at odds with each other, which actually could be Angel and Angelus, because, as we'll see in a later episode in season four, the two versions of himself are very much at odds with each other. So, once again, tish, not bad observation, not bad advice. Well, tish then says okay, fine, since the two sides of you are fighting each other, we'll fight as well. So he then throws Angel a quarterstaff and he picks one up himself. Well before they get into the quarterstaff fight.
Speaker 2:It cuts over to Wesley, and Bryce then introduces Wesley as Angel to his daughter, virginia, who has been acting since age 16, when she got her start on the really funny sketch comedy series, the Tracy Ullman Show. So, unlike R, who started off in a TV movie well, hey, it was a paycheck In the case of Bridget, she started off strong and she ended up acquiring 80 acting credits. Now the one that is probably her best out of all of them, or at least the biggest one, which is sadly a seven-episode series called Kindred the Embraced, which, just as a quick note on Kindred the Embraced, I do want to talk a moment about it, considering the fact that it is a vampire show, and it's one I would would highly, highly recommend for fans of angel and for listeners of this show, because, as described on wikipedia, it is essentially dracula meets the godfather in a complicated but short-lived supernatural drama in which a san francisco detective makes an unsettling discovery that his city is home to a horde of vampires broken up into mob-like clans. And it gets even more complicated where the two main characters is the cop, played by actor c thomas howe, and the head of the clans, almost in a michael corleone type role played by lead actor mark frankel, and also featured appearances by two actors who buffy fans would recognize immediately brian thompson, who was luke, as well as the judge, and jeff cober, who also played two characters on buffy as well. He played rack as well as also the insane vampire in the buffy episode where she was tested upon turning her 18th birthday and. But in general, this is a show that unfortunately was canceled before they could even air all of the seven episode, and. But it is one that is available on YouTube as well as other sources and, as I said, I would recommend strongly to check it out, because it is a fascinating look at how they do their take on the vampire war by, as I said, mixing it with gangster dramas, by, as I said, turning the mob families into vampire clan.
Speaker 2:But now getting back to the episode itself, and now also, in addition to kindred the embrace, bridget also appeared in doogie hauser, md, nypd, blue, the tv series, american gothic sliders, the west wing before leverage, supernatural and ncis and, as a side note, she it was. She reportedly served as the visual inspiration for the character of princess merida in the disney movie brain. She wasn't the voice actor, but they did use her look as the visual inspiration for that character, which if you watch when you watch this episode you see the curly red hair you can understand that she very well could have been. But now getting back to angel, when she first looks at wesley she is immediately dismissive of him and just as great a vampire. Well, wesley decides to talk to virginia alone and after everyone else leaves, he admits that he didn't want to be there but the threats to her are real and he does offer to protect her since, as he explains, we're both stuck here, so might as well make the best of it. And she relents and she says, okay, let's go shopping. And they immediately leave.
Speaker 2:Well, now it cuts back to Gunn and Cordelia, and Cordelia is explaining the situation to Gunn and she's convinced that Wesley's ruse is an extremely bad idea. And, as she says, and this whole I'm angel thing is a very, very bad idea I mean, if I thought this that would work, I would have been Angel, because, guess what, pretty much of a girly name, which that was what I liked, because, yeah, well, her plan is better than Angel's plan for breaking into Wolfram and Hart's, though not much, though not much more detailed. It's very simple Gun gets Angel back from the retreat and meanwhile she'll try to figure out where Wesley was taken, because she figured she could hack into the police database and maybe she might stumble across a mugshot of the henchman. Well, meanwhile, wesley and Virginia have gone shopping, and where they've gone shopping is at an extremely high priced wizardry shop shop, and this is the type of store you would see on rodeo drive, the type that the old scene. If you have to ask what the price is, you probably can't afford. It very much applies here as well.
Speaker 2:And this is definitely not the same type of place as a magic box on buffy. They would never carry any of the stuff that the magic box has. As I said, they only carry the very rare and, and the way it looks it actually looks more like a museum than a store, and I've been on roneo drive. There are places on there that look just like this, that not magic shops, but because it is so high priced and they don't have to sell in quantity. Instead, they know that if you're buying just this one outfit or just this one thing, you're spending still a good deal of money, so, as a result, they can keep things laid out in a lot more interesting of a fashion.
Speaker 2:Well, wesley asks why are they there? And she reveals that she's looking for a gift for her dad's upcoming 50th birthday. And she says that he's throwing a big party and that's why he's nervous about her, because, as she as was the amidst, because it would be very easy to get to her at the party itself. So her father's nervousness makes sense. And regina says she feels that he loves his fellows more than her and regards her as basically another possession that he has and not really a daughter. Well, while they're talking, two men approach her and try to abduct her right in front of Wesley. Well, wesley steps in and immediately threatens them while introducing himself, and he says this You're Angel the vampire?
Speaker 1:Yes, I am. I'm Angel, a vampire with a soul fighting for my redemption with killing evil demons. That's right Scourge of the demon world. Don't worry boys, I don't kill humans Unless I'm angry.
Speaker 2:Well, even though Wesley doesn't do a great job of selling it because, once again, he's still somewhat nervous on this, it is enough to convince the men, because they back off and they explain that they were just sent there by Paul Lanier. And Wesley, though, does scare them off with just enough of a threat and they decide to leave Virginia alone. Well, now it cuts over to Angel, who is in the middle of the quarterstaff fight with Tish, and they're fighting back and forth with quarterstaffs, and even Tish realizes the fact that Angel's holding back, because we've seen Angel in fights. He would lay somebody like Tish out three strokes, and Tish admits that as well, and he's saying that he's. And he accuses him of holding back, and tish says is because he's not willing to let the demon side out, that he's willing to conceal it. And angel admits that that's true because he doesn't want the demon side to control him. And that's when tush knocks him down with the quarterstaff, gets the best of him in the fight because Angel was holding back.
Speaker 2:Well, it gets to later and we see Tash is talking to Paul Lanier over the phone and he reveals that he's not the real Tash McGev. He had killed him earlier and his job was to keep Angel occupied for the whole weekend whole weekend. Well, this surprises Paul. That Fesh is talking about. Yeah, I've got Angel here this entire time because Paul realizes wait a minute, there's some guy who's claiming he's Angel. So what's going on here? Who's the real Angel? Well, at this point, while I sit and wonder what to bring to the birthday party of a billionaire sorcerer who is everything, my spidey sense is tingling. It must be time for our pop cultural segment, where I find every pop culture reference in the episode, compile it in a supercut and make heads or tails of what the heck they are talking about.
Speaker 1:Your spider sense.
Speaker 2:Pop cultural reference. Sorry, I got you babe.
Speaker 1:I got you, babe. I got you, babe. You're rocky, and rocky too, and half the one with Mr T. A break for you, a break for me, a break for Mr Manilow Lovely, that was shit ripping boys. Is that a normal dance? Fine, I don't know how long I can keep it a short gig. It's like they don't even know you're a shimp.
Speaker 2:Now the pop culture reference I want to discuss here is the last one, from Cordelia, about shimp. Now, before I explain more about who shimp is and in particular the phrase a fake shimp is the fact that I have to give Cordelia credit For a girl that is in the 90s is current on fashion. She does have very old-fashioned comedy taste, as fans will remember. In the episode the Zeppo, she made a reference to Zeppo Marx, who was the fourth Marx brother and the one that. I'll be honest, even the people who are average fans of the Marx brothers if you ask them who were the one that I'll be honest, even the people who are average fans of the Marx Brothers, if you ask them who were the Marx Brothers, they would say oh, groucho, harpo and Chico. A heavy portion of them would not remember Zeppo, who was in their first several films as the straight man of the four. He didn't have any real comic lines or gifs that the other three had and he was. Then he left doing the movies for reasons I won't go into here, but he just stopped doing the films and he was never truly associated with them.
Speaker 2:Here Cordelia now makes reference to another comedy old-time comedy reference Shemp. Old-time comedy reference Shemp and basically now in which Shemp was referenced to Shemp Howard of the Three Stooges, who had been in a number of different films. Now I don't want to go too far into Shemp's comedy career or his background too much, but I do want to make a reference to the phrase a fake Shemp, because that is a movie industry term and it plays very well here for Wesley who's posing as Angel, because the phrase a fake Shemp a fake Shemp is a type of body double who appears in a film to replace another actor or person, usually when the original actor has died or is unable or unwilling to reprise their role. And in the case of the fake Shemps their appearance is disguised using methods such as heavy makeup or, in modern times, computer-generated equivalent, and or also they're filmed from the back, they dub in audio or splice in past footage from the original actor's previous work, usually using a sound-alike voice actor or using partial shots of the actor. Now, this phrase fake shimp was first coined by film director sam ramey and he came up with the term named after shemp howard of the three stooges, who, whose sudden death in 1955 necessitated the use of these techniques to finish the films in which he was already committed, and although using fake shims was somewhat common throughout the 20th century, the Screen Actors Guild contracts banned reproducing the actor's likeness unless the original actor gave permission to do so. This came about largely because of a lawsuit filed by Crispin Glover following his replacement by actor Jeffrey Wiseman in the movie Back to the Future Part II. As a reminder, crispin Glover in the original Back to the Future played Michael J Fox's father, and he was supposed to be in back to the future too, but, as I mentioned, he decided he didn't want to do it, and they went and substituted, in different technique to with, with different camera angles and things like that that I mentioned, to make it look like the jeffrey wiseman was crispin glo. Crispin sued them and he won the suit, and it determined that the method violated the original actor's personality rights. But the thing is, though, the method continues to be used in cases such as Shemp's, where the original actor is deceased and permission from the deceased actors extinct has has been granted.
Speaker 2:Now, the basic origin, as I mentioned about with shemp howard, was the fact that it was referencing the comedy trio, the three stooges, because essentially what happened was on november 22nd 1955, shemp howard died of a heart attack at the age of 60 and they still had four shorts left to deliver rumpus in the harem, hot stuff, scheming schemers and commotion on the ocean under their annual contract with with studio columbia pictures. Well, by this point in the trio's career, when continually required that shemp appear in the new scenes, director jules white used joe palma, who was one of Columbia's big character actors, as a body double for Shemp, and Palma often appeared only from behind or with an object of obscuring his face. Palma had appeared as a supporting character in numerous three studio shorts before Shemp's death, and continued that capacity for the trio of shorts when Joe Besser took over as the third stooge, and these four shorts are the only documented times they appeared as Shemp's stand-in. Shemp's usual stump double was Harold Breen, but these four shorts required someone to double as Shemp in an actor's capacity as opposed to a stunt person. While Pummel was the inspiration for the term fake Shemp, the phrase wasn't used at that time.
Speaker 2:As I mentioned, it was created later by Sam Raimi, and the concept, though, did predate its use for Shemp by several decades. It had been mainly used to replace actors who died or fell ill during production. Some early examples included Shadows of Suspicion in 1909. 1989, after Harold Lockwood died of Spanish flu. Saratoga in 1937, after Gene Harlow died having completed most of her scenes and fans lobbied to have the film released. And Return of the Ape man in 1944, where the illness of George Zuko let the heavyweight boxer Frank Moran's stepping into the role. Zuko originated midway through the film.
Speaker 2:Now for Sam Raimi, he was a self-professed Stooges fan and he coined the term for his first feature-length movie, the Evil Dead. For that movie most of his cast and crew abandoned the project after major delays, mostly due to budget issues, pushed production well beyond the scheduled six weeks and he was forced to use himself his longtime friends Bruce Campbell, rob Tappert and Josh Becker, his assistant David Goodman and his brother Ted Ramey as fake chefs. And Sam Ramey's later productions in film and television have always used the term to refer to stand-ins or nameless characters and, for example, 16 fake Shems were included in the credits for the fake Shemp to complete the body of a stand-in to allow her character, livia Soprano, to appear one final time before the character's death in the episode Proshai Lelushka, costing approximately $250,000. Now advances in visual effects, especially development of automated deepfake technology, have allowed for more sophisticated fake sheps. In 1999, for example, during the filming of gladiator, oliver reed died before filming all his scenes. As a result, a fake shemp replaced him and the ending was changed. And also in 2013, paul walker died from a car crash before completing the filming for Furious 7, of which he was the second lead in the movie after Vin Diesel. Well, because he was such a prominent character, the story arc for Walker's character, brian O'Connor, was rewritten to allow for his retirement from the series, to explain why he was no longer going to be in a future movie. And to achieve this, co-star John Brotherton and Walker's brothers, caleb and Cody, were used as shems, with computer-generated facial replacement used to recreate his likeness when necessary. And also, another use of a shemp was actress Carrie Fisher, who died in 2016 before she could film any of her scenes for the movie Star Wars the Rise of Skywalker, for which Princess Leia was going to be a lot more prominent of a character, because, for the sequel trilogy, each of the original trio were going to play a central role in those movies.
Speaker 2:In the Force Awakens, it was Han Solo role in those movies. In the Force Awakens, it was Han Solo. In the Last Jedi, it was Luke Skywalker. In the Rise of Skywalker. It was going to be Princess Leia, but because she had died before she could film any new scenes, what they ended up doing was they used footage that she had shot for the Force Awakens and also superimposed her head onto a digital body where necessary. And one last example was the movie Terminator Salvation. At one point late in the movie we see an early version of the T-800 a la the 1984 era Schwarzenegger. Well, for that movie, they couldn't use Schwarzenegger in real life One. He couldn't use Schwarzenegger in real life when he wasn't available, but also because, well, he looked very different from what he did in 84. So what they ended up doing was they used Arnold Schwarzenegger's facial likeness, recreated with CGI, with a mold of his face made in 1984 scanned to create the digital makeup. And Schwarzen. Schwarzer gave his consent to appear this way due to his being unavailable because he was serving as governor of California.
Speaker 2:Well, now getting back to the episode itself, cordelia is sitting at the desk at the counter, mindlessly scrolling through mugshots, which this is a very I don't want to say risky or chancy approach, because one of the hedge fans had never been arrested, which is very possible. He might not have been so as a result, this could be completely useless. But as a side note though, she does see somebody associated with the series, because while she's looking through the criminal database, that series producer, kelly A Manners, can be seen on a photo under the name Irwin Oliver. So I guess the series is willing to hire felons. Well, she quickly and understandably becomes bored and she starts leafing through a copy of Bio Magazine which, based on the cover and the design of it, is very reminiscent of Us or People Magazine, and this one, once again, blind luck. I love how the series has at times she just happens to stumble across a photo of not just Magnus and Virginia but the bodyguard from earlier in the episode standing behind them. What luck. So this is basically a do sex magazine because, because we have to consider here wesley is kidnapped at gun point from the office in front of cordelia. So she can see who is kidnapping wesley and she has no clues to his identity. But she decides to look at lapd mug shots to see if she can identify it. And then she gets bored, randomly reads a celebrity gossip rag and happens to come across a picture of the man who turns out to be the bodyguard to a celebrity. You can tell based on this that either the writers were on a deadline or they just really didn't care to come up with something a little bit better. That would actually make a little bit more sense and be a little bit more plausible.
Speaker 2:But anyways, wesley and virginia are walking back to her room and she is upset that she was, that she's essentially being kept prisoner in her own home, and she approaches her bedroom and sees two mystical guards standing outside of her room and when she challenges them, they fight her and they try to cast a spell on wesley, but he definitely avoids it and flips one of them to the ground, which give the guy credit, not an impressive move. And the two guards, once again paul lanyard and magnus price, do not hire the bravest of people because, just like Lanyard's henchmen back off just with an idle threat from Angel or from Wesley, in this case the two shot the two mystical guards just after a very short fight run off as well. So, as I said, magnus and Paul need to start getting better help, or else I guess angel's rep is really preceding is really preceding him what the move that wesley did and, if nothing else, impressed virginia, and but she's also very surprised that wesley's not vamping out, which is what she would expect from a vampire. Well, angel is also, at this time, still talking to tesh and he's now talking about darla and how she's human now. Well, and while they're doing this, they're both fishing off the side of a dock and he admits that he is still obsessed with darla and causing this nice exchange. Tesh, you're deeply ambivalent, angel, I am, and I and I am not Nice wordplay and Tish's advice is, rather is nice, oddly accurate, because his advice to Angel is right. So here's what you do you go out and you find yourself some small blonde thing. You bed her, you love her, you treat her like crap, you break her heart. You and your inner demon will thank me, I promise, and I love angel's reaction because he's acknowledging the same thing.
Speaker 2:Everyone listening that line is, which is well, because, as everyone knows, he did exactly that in season two and well, his inner demon was very happy and grateful, though that didn't work out too well for people like jenny calendar and everyone else that angelus slaughtered and tim manier, on tisha's suggestion to find a pretty blonde thing to love her and break her heart, commented in the book slayers and vampires. To complete uncensored, unauthorized oral history of buff Angel, tim Minare stated maybe the entire series of Buffy was about Angel not being over his first love. Maybe it's more about Angel and Darla than it is about Angel and Buffy Interesting approach. Well, wesley is still talking to Virginia and she says that sometimes she thinks of running away and leaving all what she has behind. And Wesley then admits that we all want to escape our lives sometime, which is appropriate for this episode because, in essence, he is leaving his life temporarily Because he's posing as someone else, he's role-playing as Angel, and it's given him a chance to get away from being Wesley for at least a few days.
Speaker 2:Well, virginia says that she would love to have just an ordinary job, and it's given him a chance to get away from being Wesley for at least a few days. Well, virginia says that she would love to have just an ordinary job, maybe a perfume sprayer or working in a tire store, which I will admit, and Wesley commented as well that perfume sprayer, okay, maybe, but most people don't dream of working in a tire store. Nothing gets people to do, but it's not exactly a dream job that little kids have growing up. I want to be a doctor, I want to be an astronaut, I want to be a cowboy, I want to work in a tire store Different strokes but in general she just wants out of her present life and she is obviously becoming very clearly attracted to Wesley, indicated by the fact that they start to kiss when Wesley backs off because he didn't want to take advantage of the situation, virginia is thinking that it's because of the curse, and that admission also frustrates Wesley, who is very understandably attracted to Virginia. But it's not slowing him down, though, though he does make some cute excuses.
Speaker 2:This first thing has been widely misinterpreted. It's more of a hex, not really, it's barely there. More of a recommendation, and we'll hear the real angel also comment that they're not really clear on the curse later in the episode doing a similar thing, and Wesley, it's very clear, wants to tell her the truth. But well, like any guy decides to go with making love to her instead, we'll save the truth for later. Well, it then cuts to next morning at tisha's place and gun approaches and tesh greets him, supposing very pleasantly, and as they're just talking, because he comments that Angel, well, first he makes the joke. You see that pile of dust over there Causing Gunn to react, and he says I'm just kidding, no, actually he had to leave.
Speaker 2:And as Gunn looks away for just a moment, that's when he knocks Gunn out and Angel sees this and obviously figures out that tish is a fake. Well, tish doesn't deny it and he's very confident because he's standing a good distance away from angel angels in the shade on the porch and fish is standing very clearly in sunshine, and so he figures he's more than safe because obviously if angel came running out to get him, angel would be into a crisp before he got within two feet of Tish. Well, angel comes up with an alternate solution by grabbing the fishing pole from earlier and whipping out the line into Tish's mouth and wheeling him into the shade, which is an impressive maneuver but also rather painful. Look at Impressive maneuver but also rather painful to look at. First of all the hooking the fishing light into the Tisha's mouth and then the secondary yanking him by. It would have hurt in real life. Well, wesley and Cordelia return back to the Hyperion and Angel and Gunn also return and Angel quickly summarizes what happened at Tisha's. But what he doesn't know is who hired the fake Tish.
Speaker 2:Well, it cuts over to a party at the Bryce mansion and we see the altar in the center of the room and Bryce begins the incantation as Virginia is forced and strapped onto the altar At that moment. Team AI then storm in, with Wesley in the front and center of the team, in the normal position that Angel usually takes. Now one question, though, about this Angel was able to enter into Bryce's house without being invited in by anyone Because, in word worth of view, he was able to enter Cordelia's house before she invited him in explaining that she had told him he was always welcome once she found a place. The invitation had taken effect once she signed the lease. So now the question is how was angel invited in? Because wesley didn't own the place, so he couldn't invite angel in, and I didn't see anyone.
Speaker 2:Well, only way I could think of is possibly a similar technique as what we saw in a previous episode, where Angel more or less forcibly got the guy to invite him in. Well, who knows? But anyways they walk into the room, and that's when Wesley heroically says release her or die, and you hear Angel off camera saying don't I say that, which is a nice comical subversion of the two roles of angel and wesley. Well, the mystical guns attack the team and wesley is right in center of the attacks, quickly knocks out the guard and also knocks out benny with just one punch. As I said, this is a very, very fast fight, and he rushes over to rescue virginia, and meanwhile Magnus is continuing with the infantation. Magnus is confused, though, that Virginia is no longer a virgin, which leads us to this bit of dialogue.
Speaker 1:What's going on? Let's go. Why did you come back? I said I'd protect you. She's impure, she's not a virgin. You Whoa, that's one impure man. She slept with him. You were supposed to be Angel. This wouldn't have happened. That's why I hired him. He's a eunuch. You slept with her A eunuch. Things happen. Two young people Danger. What are you talking about? She was a virgin before you got here. I was not a virgin. What? Oh, thank goodness, I mean I could have told you she wasn't no virgin, not a eunuch One day, as angel One day. And he's getting some. What? How could you? I kept you away from all men. The curse isn't even all that clear, daddy, you remember that chauffeur from when I was 16? And the one at 18? I haven't been a virgin for a very long time. I even dated Rick. I even dated Rick, jenny, don't do this. Don't make me angry, right? Because then you might do something bad. You were going to kill me.
Speaker 2:You are not my father anymore, not a eunuch. Well, I like about that scene is, first of all, they quickly indicate that this is not a serious scene with the light comical music. And then also is the fact that every single actor there got a nice bit there with. Was he saying hey god. When he realizes that virginia was not a virgin, the father having the misunderstanding of the fight with the daughter angel in the background, offended by the fact that I'm not a eunuch, you know, and then making side comments to himself, but the curse isn't exactly clear on that.
Speaker 2:I mean every single person, cordelia, gun and even frank, the shaman who you can't tell. But after she refers to the one of the mystical guards, he just very quietly walks out of the room almost with a ton of. Hopefully nobody will notice that I just slept with the boss's daughter and it almost plays out like a sitcom. New issue of the magazine and the articles discussing the fact that virginia bryce squired by mr wesley, wyndham, price private detective and bodyguard to the stars, and there's a photo of him in virginia at a very nice fair.
Speaker 2:And both cordelia and angel are jealous, but for different reasons cordelia because she feels that wesley is getting the reflected glory that should be what she's getting, because, remember, that's why she came to la in the first place. And then angel, who's offended when he reads there's no bryce detective agency. And once again we get the humorous music at the end closing out the episode. Well, now we get into favorite kills in lines where I discuss the best way that they killed people, either for theme or method or whatever in the episode as well. My favorite line of the episode the order of taraka.
Speaker 1:I mean, isn't that overkill? No, I think it's just enough kill.
Speaker 2:Now, in this episode we actually only had one death the entire episode and that was the real Tish McGav, who was killed by the fake Tish McGav. Even though it was off-camera and happened, who knows, at one point before or during the episode, I'll still count it as a death, which now takes our kill total up to 47 and a half for Angel, one and a half for Wesley, four for Gun, 68 for everyone else, so a total of 121 deaths. And for the favorite kill, since there's only one death and I don't know what really happened or whatever, so I can't count Tesh Begav I will instead go with my favorite moment, or violent moment, which was the fish hooked through the mouth, which was fast thinking on Angel's part to hook the fish and also, as I mentioned earlier, rather painful to look at. Now for my favorite line, that would have to be Tasha's line from early in the episode. You're reflected in people around you, the way they see, what do you think they see? And the entire episode is about perception Angel viewing himself through how his friends viewed him, and we also see Wesley's personality change based on how others viewed him. At the beginning, Cordelia viewed him as bumbling, and even the guy who walked into the Hyperion at the beginning thought of him as a secretary, low level, nothing. And Magnus viewed him as a tough vampire and a eunuch, and Virginia viewed him as a brave protector. And it was Virginia's view of him as competent, brave, capable that Wesley grew in confidence throughout the episode, First faking as Angel but then at the end walking in and saying very confidently release her or die. And this was not fake on his part, this was very confident. This was not fake on his part, this was very confident.
Speaker 2:And in general, sometimes strangers allow us to be sides that our friends and family members hesitate because they know us too well and too long. Sometimes it's strangers who can bring out other sides of us. And what I first associate this is with the verse from the Bible Mark, chapter 6, verses 1 to 6, where it said Jesus went from there and came to his hometown accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue and many who had heard him were astonished. Where did this man get these ideas? They asked what is this wisdom he has been given and how can he perform such miracles? Isn't this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon Aren't, his sisters, here with us as well, and they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own household, is a prophet without honor, so he could not perform any miracles there except to lay his hand on a few of the sick and heal them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. And that's true.
Speaker 2:Sometimes a prophet is never appreciated in his own hometown because people in a sense know us too well. They know too many other things that a stranger doesn't, and it allows us the freedom to be somebody that we normally wouldn't, and that's what helped out Wesley and that sometimes can help bring up the confidence that we might not have otherwise. That's it for this week's episode. In the next show I'll discuss the following episode. There's a hell. I've been there.
Speaker 1:An all new two hour event travels 400 years into the past. There's a hell. I've been there. The futures of Buffy and Angel revealed Slayers. You killed two of them. They're going to show me how, as old friends and enemies return in an extraordinary journey through time. Sir Michelle Miller, David Boreanaz in an all new Buffy and Angel two hour event.
Speaker 2:I smell fear. I will continue my retrospective with our learning of not just Darla's origins but also her fate in the present. So join me as I and a special guest discuss this pivotal episode in the life of Angel in the series. So join me, stephen, for the next episode of Wolfram and Cast. If you wish to reach out to me with any questions or comments, you can reach me on Facebook, instagram or Twitter at WolframCast, or email me at wolframcast at gmailcom. Feel free to write to me and I might read your comments or emails on the air. Please leave me a rating and review and be sure to press subscribe on iTunes, spotify, wherever you get your podcast entertainment. But for now, thank you.
