Angel 4.7 Rain of Fire

[thebratqueen]

Yes, I agree that the new title sucks ass.

This was an interesting episode. It had some things which were very good and others which were just sort of there, which I think was very frustrating for some because they could see how much better things could be.

Still, let's discuss.

The good - I have to admit, I'm a sucker for the idea that they might actually be doing a Season Noir-ish type thing on LA right now. I'm hoping that after the break we don't see the gang in the Hyperion Lobby going "Boy, that was weird a few months back. Hey anybody seen that beast?" I'd like them to pick up in a few months with the apocalyptic activity still going.

Wes. I'm not made of wood people. Although if I was a guy, that shotgun scene would've been a different story altogether. (And continuity, yay! They haven't used Wes's two-handed firing ability - cough - since season 1. Nice to know somebody remembered.)

Some of the scenes of the gang coming together were, I think, a good payoff for some of the melodramatic crap we've had to deal with. I'm willing to deal with shit for a good return, and seeing the guys sitting around and having to work together, and feeling the emotional undertones of "You in?" amongst other stuff, worked for me.

Lorne was also hysterical and how much fun did Steve have writing that? Again, Steve, welcome aboard.

This was also another time of them letting us use our brains to make some connections. Plus am I the only one who got an enjoyable biblical shiver off of the first fallen sparrow?

I was surprised to see how many people didn't like Cordy's "I can't be with you because of your Angelus past" thing (Which was not, IMO, a hide in plain sight spoiler so much as continuity. I'll mention one such spoiler in a bit.) For me it worked. Reason being if Cordy loved him, as she supposedly did, then obviously she had already forgiven/forgotten the Angelus in Sunnydale crimes. And the fact that the gang is with him now shows that they've accepted as much of his past as is possible. But it's a separate issue to understand on a gut, fundamental level how evil Angel(us) is, and I'm more than willing to accept that this was something that bit Cordy on the ass once she had the higher being ability to feel it on an intrinsic level. Frankly it reminds me a little of Wes when Angel tried to kill him. Suddenly the "oh we forgive you because you're on the wagon now" thing is a whole lot different when you're the one on the tail end of an evil DWI, so to speak.

Lilah also rocked.

Things that make you go hmmm?

Why couldn't Angel answer a phone? The boy's trainable. You're telling me he can't pick it up, go "Angel Investigations, please hold?" and then hand it over to Lorne?

Okay, yeah, we're all on the page that when Cordy gave Connor something "real" it was a pity fuck. But did ME mean it as a pity fuck or did they actually think this was True!Love! in the same way that we're supposed to believe that anybody wants to fuck Fred that badly? ME's been notoriously bad at recognizing anti-chemistry. Personally I think the scene would have read better if they just aknowledged that Charisma couldn't have been phoning it in more if she worked for AT&T and worked it into the plot that no, Cordy doesn't love Connor and was instead just boning him because she needed a little physical comfort herself in the face of the end of the world. (And yes, I've read JennyO's theory and I find it an interesting one, but I don't know if it's ever going to be supported in the text.)

Was it a deliberate choice to have all of the characters pouring themselves a glass of Ale About Me while the Apocalypse was going on? If it was, I'm behind it as an interesting contrast, but part of me suspects that this was yet another time of ME not recognizing how the characters were coming across.

Was there hidden meaning to the fact that Fred was in no way connected with the gang when the rain of fire came down?

Where did Cordy's amazing newfound fighting ability go? Even if CC was, for various reasons, unable to fight wouldn't her stunt double be able to pinch hit?

Things that didn't work:

The beast's costume. If you wanted him to look like that, I hate to say it but he shouldn't have been man-sized. Man-sized in that outfit, no matter how good the facial makeup was, just makes you want to look for the zipper. Especially since parts of the outfit just didn't move and therefore rang fake. They should have either done a more humanoid beast or made the beast bigger. A bigger beast would have also gone with the weird camera angles they used to film him. I honestly can't tell if that was a stylistic choice from a so-so director or if it was a necessity to hide the weaknesses in the costume.

Fred. Again. Here was the problem this week - if ME is Hell-bent, as they apparently are, on convincing us that Fred is such hot shit that Wes and Gunn automatically enter into fisticuffs over her every time they have to share a room and that Wes would actually be fantasizing about her wet mop un-ass while fucking the hotness that is Lilah, don't have those scenes follow a scene of Fred, the Amazing Passive Agressive girl. Because what happens is nobody cares. I mean honestly, who was on Fred's side today? Who was sitting there going "Yeah! She's so right! Gunn's such an asshole for killing that guy for her! And she SHOULD sit there and make him feel even more like shit by making a huge fucking production out of the taking a bath together thing!"

I have to admit this is a place where I almost regret spoilers, because for all the goodness (or at least understanding of the crapiness) that comes from knowing why they're doing the C/C thing, you have the flip side of knowing what's going on with Fred and... sigh.

I won't say any more b/c I try to keep my comments spoiler free.

Finally, Did You Notice...

... Wes apparently doesn't believe in condoms?

... unless Cordy was carrying, or Connor was both educated and hopeful, neither do they?

... the Beast smiled when Angel went into vamp face? (Now that's a hide in plain sight spoiler)