Angel Ranking Game...
Aug. 21st, 2004 05:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatHeh, yes, I've pretty much moved past all this now, but I though since I did start one way back in the winter and never finished it. I'd redo and finish it. Post it. Then maybe, when I get the chance, after much time has passed, to re-watch the series, I might do it again and see how much I've changed my mind. A Water Marker as it were.
So here's the Angel Ranking Game... for those who are still interested in such things.
The way this works is you compare episodes as they appeared in the season. ie. City of (1st episode S1), Judgement (1st episode S2), Heartthrob (1st episode S3), Deep Down (1st episode S4), Conviction (1st episode S5). Explain which one worked the best. Criteria: for the seasonal arc, flim, direction, writing, acting, overall. And yes, it will most likely be subjective.
My Best Choices in bold. Oh decided to forgo the worst selection. Long enough as it is.
1. City Of
Judgement
Heartthrob
Deep Down
Conviction
Deep Down does a masterful job of setting up the arc of the season and the journey of the lead and other characters through a sort of dreamscape. Angel's dreams show us how he feels about everyone, his hopes/fears about his relationship
with them and how he views what happened. The loss of family is a major theme as is the idea of the world turning upside down yet remaining erect. The Existentialist view that we have no control and the struggle against that concept. A dark gritty episode, that includes a man holding a woman prisoner in his closet with nothing more than a bucket - it never lost track of the metaphors, it blended them, and it proved Angel was *not* a kids show. When people call it one. I laugh and want to show them Deep Down. One of the riskiest episodes the show ever did. And one of the best. With all it's twists and turns.
2. Lonely Heart
Are You Now or Have You Ever Been
That Old Gange of Mine
Ground State
Just Rewards
The online favorite is Are You Now, which never impressed me as much as it did everyone else, possible because it reminds me of one too many Twiligh Zone and Star Trek episodes I've seen? Not sure. At any rate I think Ground State did a better job of moving the season forward in some respects. It explained where Cordelia was, shed light on Angel's view of Buffy and Cordelia's fates and his own hopes (you get the feeling he envied both their deaths or up-lifting to the higher place), through Gwen, it demonstrated Angel's desperate desire to connect and fear of doing so without destroying those around him - a theme that resurfaces later in the season.
Gwen also was an interesting, well-drawn character, whom we got the past of, rare in the show. The mythos of Dinzia who informs Angel he has more to lose - is a nice echo of the Oracles from earlier seasons.
3. In The Dark
First Impressions
That Vision Thing
The House Always Wins
Unleashed.
Of all the options, that Vision Thing is the only one that clearly moves everyone forward. The metaphor perfectly hits the emotional connection. In this episode, Cordelia's relationship with the Visions is examined more closely, are they always good, can she be manipulated through them, can others? It's a nice twist on the idea of prophecy and predestination. The desire to have a comfortable plan, only to realize that it wasn't what you thought. In Season 3, the writers are constantly pulling the rug out from under their characters. The moment their characters start getting comfortable, start planning - wham. Hey, Cordy, maybe your visions don't help the world after all? That Vision Thing started the arc, demonstrating in a way that Cordelia's heroism didn't come from having the visions, but how she coped with them, which was stoically and hanging in there, it also showed how that could back-fire on her. An episode that makes you think.
4. I Fall to Pieces
Untouched
Carpe Noctum
Slouching Toward Bethlehem
Hellbound
I pick Hellbound, because of the interaction between Angel/Fred and Spike. How Angel deals with the situation and deals with Fred forshadows what he does later with the Circle of The Black Thorn and Illyria almost perfectly. His comment to Fred - that not everyone can be saved - echoes his realization in Hole in the World, when he realizes he can't save Fred. Fred's desire to save Spike, because it's worth the attempt, is echoed by Spike in Hole. This episode more than the others foreshadows what lies ahead. It also does a brilliant job of developing the relationships between Spike/Fred and Spike/Angel. Plus the closure of Angel locking away Parvayne is a lovely echo of his son's actions towards him.
5. Room with a Vu
Dear Boy
Fredless
Supersymmetry
Hard one to pick, because Supersymmetry in some ways so perfectly sets up the Fred/Gunn/Wes triangle in S4, but it's a triangle that falls a bit flat and doesn't quite play out as well as what was set up in the flashback sequence of Dear Boy, where Darla nudges Angelus towards Dru, and gets off on how he tortures her and outdoes Darla in nastiness - an action Darla and Angel pay for beautifully centuries later when WR&H bring
Drusilla back to vamp Darla, who'd become human and ensouled.
Dear Boy also does a brilliant job of setting up Angel's dark arc in S2, which got cut short when Christian Kane and Julie Benze suddenly became unavailable. In it, Darla reminds Angel that he is no better than she. That in a way they are soulmates, remembering actions equally ugly. She also points out to him that Angelus is him, that just because he has a soul now, does not mean that part isn't there. Supersymmetry came close to giving us the same complexity with Fred and Gunn but not quite.
6. Sense and Sensibility
Guise Will Be Guise
Billy
Spin The Bottle
Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinquo
While I enjoyed Billy and Spin, Tale does a better job of being both stand-a-lone and perfect metaphor for Angel's journey that season. Through Numero Cincquo we see Angel's desires, fears, and his depression crystalized. The other characters are also all equally handled and melded in.
The finale echoes Not Fade Away, where Numero Cincquuo dies alongside his five brothers in a fight against an unstoppable demon who steals hearts, a demon who even when killed, will surface again several years in the future, but by fighting him and even dying to do so, they save people today. The metaphor being - living is tough, but we can either go out fighting, doing the best we can, or lurk in the background, a hermit, unknown, lost mail guy.
7. The Bachelor Party
Darla
Offspring
Apocalpyspe Nowish
Lineage
OF the five, Darla does the best job of moving forward story, and developing character. Darla is the twin to Fool for Love.
Both tell the tale of Angelus' closest comrades of the Fanged Four, Spike and Darla - his mother/lover, brother/son. In each, we see the tale not from the lead's perspective = Angel and Buffy, but from the dark supporting character/nemesis who is also an unreliable narrator. What Darla says to Angel and what is told don't quite fit any more than what Spike says to Buffy and what is told don't quite fit. Her story tells us the other side of vampire lore, the part Angel doesn't say. It also does a wonderful job of telling us what informed this character and why Angel is taken with her - her anger at men and children, leading later to her redemption through both.
If you haven't seen Darla, I'm not sure you can understand the series. It is in some respects one of it's corner stones. Telling us as much about Angel and his relationship with Connor and women in general as it does Darla. In that way it is very much like Fool for Love another corner stone episode that is essential to understanding the series as a whole.
8. I Will Remember You
The Shroud of Rahmon
Quickening
Habeas Corpses
Destiney
As much as I loved Habeas, Destiney is a better choice. Destiney does for Angel and Spike, what Dear Boy did for Darla and Angel. It clarifies their relationship. It also does a lovely twist on the Fisher King mythos, in effect, making fun of it. Showing how the journey is far more important that the reward. Something Angel finally figures out by the end of the season. Spike also acts as a nice surrogate son here, in some ways voicing Angel's issues with Connor from Home, as well as Angel's issues with Angelus. An episode that appears on the surface to be about a fight or which vamp is better, when in reality it is about a relationship between two men who know each other too well. A relationship I've seen explored more closely in Nip/Tuck.
9. Hero
The Trial
Lullaby
Long Day's Journey
Harm's Way
Of the five, Lullaby is probably the best. It brings the Darla arc to it's end and beyond. It also introduces Angel's son.
But most of all, it does an excellent job of exploring the central themes of the series, redemption, family, rebirth, and choice. Darla who fears giving birth, because once she does she'll lose the ability to love unconditionally and may destroy that which she loves, ends up killing herself to do so.
It's an incredibly ironic episode - we have Holtz who chases Darla and Angel, who ages ago killed his baby son, we have Darla who struggles with the idea of having a child - and Angel who has always struggled with his father's approval and now is suddenly faced with having a son. Lullaby is the turning point in the series and in all the characters journeys.
After Lullaby no one is the same. Possibly the best episode of the series.
10. Parting Gifts
Reunion
Dad
Awakenings
Soul Purpose
This one is hard. I personally enjoyed Reunion the most. It was certainly the darkest and took Angel in the most interesting direction. But I think Awakenings, which I didn't really enjoy that much, may have been better critically speaking, since it describes perfectly what Angel wanted most and why that is in effect Angel's greatest flaw. Angel's perfect day demonstrates in a nutshell how he's misread all the players of this piece and overlooked a couple of important ones. It's a fascinating episode in retrospect and shows us so much of the lead character's psychology and flaws. It is also a nice parody of the Indiana Jones films.
11. Somnabulist
Redefinition
Birthday
Soulless
Damage
I preferred Damage, but I think Soulless may be the better episode. The reason is that Soulless focuses again on the relationships between the characters - we get Fred/Gunn/Connor/Wes/Lorne/Cordy/Angel's relationships all neatly shown - in a twisty seven character play. Here Angel finally lets each character know how much he does see, and how much he ignores. The id unleashed as it were. Imagine being in a room with your dearest friends, locked in a cage, and your conscience removed. Damage - spent far too much time on psycho slayer and not enough on the characters and moving forward.
12. Expecting
Blood Money
Provider
Calvery
You're Welcome
I may be the only person online who didn't love You're Welcome.
It was okay. But I didn't feel it told me anything new or interesting about these characters. Nor did it really propell the story forward much. Calvery does. In Calvery - Lilah comes back and the Cordy/Lilah relationship is flipped. Here Lilah becomes Gal Friday and Cordy the betraying femme fatale, who literally stabs Lilah. The role switchage is marvelous and mouth dropping. We also have Angelus pretending to be Angel, and demonstrating as Angel did ages ago in the BTVS episode Enemies, how close the two really are. The Jekyll and Hyde or dualism in the episode is kept throughout.
13. She
Happy Anniversary
Waiting in The Wings
Salvage
Why We Fight
While Waiting in The Wings does a nice job of poking fun at the fans and audience, Salvage does a better job of propelling forward plot and character. Two scenes make Salvage memorable:
Wes talking to Lilah's imaginary ghost in the basement as he contemplates chopping off the head of her corspe, and when he confronts Faith in prison. The idea of saving someone who can't be saved, even if that person is yourself is a theme that follows Wes throughout the series, almost as closely as Angel. In some respects in Wes's case it's far more trageic.
14. I've Got You Under My Skin
The Thin Dead Line
Couplet
Release
Smile Time
Two words: Angel Puppet. This episode may in my humble opinion be the second best if not the best episode of the series. Outside of the Wes/Fred romance which got a little smulchy at times, it is a lovely satire on television business and fans. It also expands on and plays with the idea of Angel as a puppet to the PTB, WRH and anyone else. Three scenes stick in the memory, Spike and Puppet Angel fight, Puppet Angel/Nina in the jail cell showing perfectly how Angel's attention is always on the wrong thing at the wrong time, and the creepy scene of the three puppets manhandling David Fury. Smile Time, Destiney, and Tale of Cinquo may be the three episodes that perfectly describe what Season 5 was all about and why I enjoyed it as much as I did.
15. The Prodigal
Reprise
Loyalty
Orpheus
A Hole in The World
Hands down the best has to be Reprise. I loved the others, but Reprise is another episode that perfectly flips things. In it Angel is told he's in hell. That there is no point. The world is meaningless. And he falls into bed with Darla, in a scene that is brutal and comes very close to sexual assault. Dark, gritty. Reprise is the opposite of the BTVS episode Surprise in every way and that's the point. It also is the turning point in Angel's relationship with his friends and it results in Connor. Another corner stone episode.
16. The Ring
Epiphany
Sleep Tight
Players
Shells
As wonderful as Epiphany and Shells are, everything changed in Sleep Tight. Sleep Tight is when Wes' arc truly took off. He was never the same, nor was his relationship with Angel and the others the same, after that episode. Sleep Tight flipped the series over on it's head. It took it in a darker, grittier, less comfortable direction and questioned many of the precepts. After Sleep Tight, Angel the Series took a few risks most series don't. Like it or hate it, it was a corner stone and it propelled everyone forward and commented on all the themes in a new way.
17. Eternity
Disharmony
Forgiving
Inside/Out
Underneath
Hard one. But picking Underneath over Forgiving and Inside/Out.
Underneath made me think. It asked questions without providing simple answers. Took the characters places that weren't quite expected. The Lindsey/Gunn switcheroo. The idea of selling out for the dream. Another episode that perfectly captured the themes of the season.
18. Five by Five
Dead End
Double or Nothing
Shiny Happy People
Origin
Of the episodes mentioned, Five By Five did the best job of furthering characters arcs, using a character who'd been missing in action, was horrible, had done horrible things, and showing how those things did not define her. If Connor's arc in Origin had come close to what was done with Faith in Five by Five and Sanctuary, I might have liked it more. It also once again, gave us yet another side of Wes.
19. Sanctuary
Belonging
The Price
The Magic Bullet
TimeBomb
I chose Magic Bullet for three scenes: the scene in the shop about the consipiracy where Fred shoots Angel, the scene with Fred running from Gunn/Wes (her former lovers) with the Beach Boys playing in the background, and the scene at the end when Connor betrays them. Quirky. Twisty. And Surprising.
20. War Zone
Over The Rainbow
A New World
Sacrifice
The Girl in Question
Okay this was hard. I loved A New World. But I adore Girl In Question. Girl in Question hammered home a point about the characters, the series, the writers, and the people watching it: move on. If you run in place, you'll miss the world. You'll miss the small things, the necessities - and you will lose your head. It discussed how what we want forever eludes us when we focus on it. That it may in fact not be what it appears to be. How perspective can lie. All these wonderful themes. Plus three beautiful scenes that echo in my memory:
Spike and Angel's debate on who saved the world the most, Angel echoing Buffy's cookie dough speech to a bewildered Spike, and finally Spike and Angel sitting on Angel's desk discussing moving on. Three moments I'd waited a long time to see. Oh - then we had the wonderful Fred/Illyria/Wes scenes, where Wes struggles with Illyria's ability to play Fred, so well, one wonders if it is an illusion.
21. Blind Date
Through The Looking Glass
Benediction
Peace-Out
Power Play
Winner is Peace-Out, simply because of four scenes: Connor explaining his actions to Wes/Gunn/Fred about Jasmine, Connor and Cordelia in the church, Angel and Jasmine in the streets after he has exposed her - Connor's killing of Jasmine, and Lilah showing up. This episode showed just what price we pay for free will. And what price we pay for being shiny happy people. Of the episodes above it does the best job of wrapping up these themes, propelling characters into new situations, and closing old arcs.
22. To Shanshu in LA
There's No Place Like Plzt Glirb
Tomorrow
Home
Not Fade Away
While I love Not Fade Away, I prefer Home. Home felt more multi-faceted, more layered somehow. And made me think more.
The idea of selling out. The idea of making bargains. Of twists of fate. Of where fate leads and how much we can control it. Thinking you can. Edgy episode. Tragic. And a wonderful book end to Deep Down. Home and Deep Down may in my opinion be the best openers and closers of the series. Visually both get across character and propell forward the story being told.
Whew - took a long time. Sorry for typos. Didn't edit. Just typed free-hand into the posting box. Like I usually do for most of my entries. Silly I know but that's me.
So here's the Angel Ranking Game... for those who are still interested in such things.
The way this works is you compare episodes as they appeared in the season. ie. City of (1st episode S1), Judgement (1st episode S2), Heartthrob (1st episode S3), Deep Down (1st episode S4), Conviction (1st episode S5). Explain which one worked the best. Criteria: for the seasonal arc, flim, direction, writing, acting, overall. And yes, it will most likely be subjective.
My Best Choices in bold. Oh decided to forgo the worst selection. Long enough as it is.
1. City Of
Judgement
Heartthrob
Deep Down
Conviction
Deep Down does a masterful job of setting up the arc of the season and the journey of the lead and other characters through a sort of dreamscape. Angel's dreams show us how he feels about everyone, his hopes/fears about his relationship
with them and how he views what happened. The loss of family is a major theme as is the idea of the world turning upside down yet remaining erect. The Existentialist view that we have no control and the struggle against that concept. A dark gritty episode, that includes a man holding a woman prisoner in his closet with nothing more than a bucket - it never lost track of the metaphors, it blended them, and it proved Angel was *not* a kids show. When people call it one. I laugh and want to show them Deep Down. One of the riskiest episodes the show ever did. And one of the best. With all it's twists and turns.
2. Lonely Heart
Are You Now or Have You Ever Been
That Old Gange of Mine
Ground State
Just Rewards
The online favorite is Are You Now, which never impressed me as much as it did everyone else, possible because it reminds me of one too many Twiligh Zone and Star Trek episodes I've seen? Not sure. At any rate I think Ground State did a better job of moving the season forward in some respects. It explained where Cordelia was, shed light on Angel's view of Buffy and Cordelia's fates and his own hopes (you get the feeling he envied both their deaths or up-lifting to the higher place), through Gwen, it demonstrated Angel's desperate desire to connect and fear of doing so without destroying those around him - a theme that resurfaces later in the season.
Gwen also was an interesting, well-drawn character, whom we got the past of, rare in the show. The mythos of Dinzia who informs Angel he has more to lose - is a nice echo of the Oracles from earlier seasons.
3. In The Dark
First Impressions
That Vision Thing
The House Always Wins
Unleashed.
Of all the options, that Vision Thing is the only one that clearly moves everyone forward. The metaphor perfectly hits the emotional connection. In this episode, Cordelia's relationship with the Visions is examined more closely, are they always good, can she be manipulated through them, can others? It's a nice twist on the idea of prophecy and predestination. The desire to have a comfortable plan, only to realize that it wasn't what you thought. In Season 3, the writers are constantly pulling the rug out from under their characters. The moment their characters start getting comfortable, start planning - wham. Hey, Cordy, maybe your visions don't help the world after all? That Vision Thing started the arc, demonstrating in a way that Cordelia's heroism didn't come from having the visions, but how she coped with them, which was stoically and hanging in there, it also showed how that could back-fire on her. An episode that makes you think.
4. I Fall to Pieces
Untouched
Carpe Noctum
Slouching Toward Bethlehem
Hellbound
I pick Hellbound, because of the interaction between Angel/Fred and Spike. How Angel deals with the situation and deals with Fred forshadows what he does later with the Circle of The Black Thorn and Illyria almost perfectly. His comment to Fred - that not everyone can be saved - echoes his realization in Hole in the World, when he realizes he can't save Fred. Fred's desire to save Spike, because it's worth the attempt, is echoed by Spike in Hole. This episode more than the others foreshadows what lies ahead. It also does a brilliant job of developing the relationships between Spike/Fred and Spike/Angel. Plus the closure of Angel locking away Parvayne is a lovely echo of his son's actions towards him.
5. Room with a Vu
Dear Boy
Fredless
Supersymmetry
Hard one to pick, because Supersymmetry in some ways so perfectly sets up the Fred/Gunn/Wes triangle in S4, but it's a triangle that falls a bit flat and doesn't quite play out as well as what was set up in the flashback sequence of Dear Boy, where Darla nudges Angelus towards Dru, and gets off on how he tortures her and outdoes Darla in nastiness - an action Darla and Angel pay for beautifully centuries later when WR&H bring
Drusilla back to vamp Darla, who'd become human and ensouled.
Dear Boy also does a brilliant job of setting up Angel's dark arc in S2, which got cut short when Christian Kane and Julie Benze suddenly became unavailable. In it, Darla reminds Angel that he is no better than she. That in a way they are soulmates, remembering actions equally ugly. She also points out to him that Angelus is him, that just because he has a soul now, does not mean that part isn't there. Supersymmetry came close to giving us the same complexity with Fred and Gunn but not quite.
6. Sense and Sensibility
Guise Will Be Guise
Billy
Spin The Bottle
Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinquo
While I enjoyed Billy and Spin, Tale does a better job of being both stand-a-lone and perfect metaphor for Angel's journey that season. Through Numero Cincquo we see Angel's desires, fears, and his depression crystalized. The other characters are also all equally handled and melded in.
The finale echoes Not Fade Away, where Numero Cincquuo dies alongside his five brothers in a fight against an unstoppable demon who steals hearts, a demon who even when killed, will surface again several years in the future, but by fighting him and even dying to do so, they save people today. The metaphor being - living is tough, but we can either go out fighting, doing the best we can, or lurk in the background, a hermit, unknown, lost mail guy.
7. The Bachelor Party
Darla
Offspring
Apocalpyspe Nowish
Lineage
OF the five, Darla does the best job of moving forward story, and developing character. Darla is the twin to Fool for Love.
Both tell the tale of Angelus' closest comrades of the Fanged Four, Spike and Darla - his mother/lover, brother/son. In each, we see the tale not from the lead's perspective = Angel and Buffy, but from the dark supporting character/nemesis who is also an unreliable narrator. What Darla says to Angel and what is told don't quite fit any more than what Spike says to Buffy and what is told don't quite fit. Her story tells us the other side of vampire lore, the part Angel doesn't say. It also does a wonderful job of telling us what informed this character and why Angel is taken with her - her anger at men and children, leading later to her redemption through both.
If you haven't seen Darla, I'm not sure you can understand the series. It is in some respects one of it's corner stones. Telling us as much about Angel and his relationship with Connor and women in general as it does Darla. In that way it is very much like Fool for Love another corner stone episode that is essential to understanding the series as a whole.
8. I Will Remember You
The Shroud of Rahmon
Quickening
Habeas Corpses
Destiney
As much as I loved Habeas, Destiney is a better choice. Destiney does for Angel and Spike, what Dear Boy did for Darla and Angel. It clarifies their relationship. It also does a lovely twist on the Fisher King mythos, in effect, making fun of it. Showing how the journey is far more important that the reward. Something Angel finally figures out by the end of the season. Spike also acts as a nice surrogate son here, in some ways voicing Angel's issues with Connor from Home, as well as Angel's issues with Angelus. An episode that appears on the surface to be about a fight or which vamp is better, when in reality it is about a relationship between two men who know each other too well. A relationship I've seen explored more closely in Nip/Tuck.
9. Hero
The Trial
Lullaby
Long Day's Journey
Harm's Way
Of the five, Lullaby is probably the best. It brings the Darla arc to it's end and beyond. It also introduces Angel's son.
But most of all, it does an excellent job of exploring the central themes of the series, redemption, family, rebirth, and choice. Darla who fears giving birth, because once she does she'll lose the ability to love unconditionally and may destroy that which she loves, ends up killing herself to do so.
It's an incredibly ironic episode - we have Holtz who chases Darla and Angel, who ages ago killed his baby son, we have Darla who struggles with the idea of having a child - and Angel who has always struggled with his father's approval and now is suddenly faced with having a son. Lullaby is the turning point in the series and in all the characters journeys.
After Lullaby no one is the same. Possibly the best episode of the series.
10. Parting Gifts
Reunion
Dad
Awakenings
Soul Purpose
This one is hard. I personally enjoyed Reunion the most. It was certainly the darkest and took Angel in the most interesting direction. But I think Awakenings, which I didn't really enjoy that much, may have been better critically speaking, since it describes perfectly what Angel wanted most and why that is in effect Angel's greatest flaw. Angel's perfect day demonstrates in a nutshell how he's misread all the players of this piece and overlooked a couple of important ones. It's a fascinating episode in retrospect and shows us so much of the lead character's psychology and flaws. It is also a nice parody of the Indiana Jones films.
11. Somnabulist
Redefinition
Birthday
Soulless
Damage
I preferred Damage, but I think Soulless may be the better episode. The reason is that Soulless focuses again on the relationships between the characters - we get Fred/Gunn/Connor/Wes/Lorne/Cordy/Angel's relationships all neatly shown - in a twisty seven character play. Here Angel finally lets each character know how much he does see, and how much he ignores. The id unleashed as it were. Imagine being in a room with your dearest friends, locked in a cage, and your conscience removed. Damage - spent far too much time on psycho slayer and not enough on the characters and moving forward.
12. Expecting
Blood Money
Provider
Calvery
You're Welcome
I may be the only person online who didn't love You're Welcome.
It was okay. But I didn't feel it told me anything new or interesting about these characters. Nor did it really propell the story forward much. Calvery does. In Calvery - Lilah comes back and the Cordy/Lilah relationship is flipped. Here Lilah becomes Gal Friday and Cordy the betraying femme fatale, who literally stabs Lilah. The role switchage is marvelous and mouth dropping. We also have Angelus pretending to be Angel, and demonstrating as Angel did ages ago in the BTVS episode Enemies, how close the two really are. The Jekyll and Hyde or dualism in the episode is kept throughout.
13. She
Happy Anniversary
Waiting in The Wings
Salvage
Why We Fight
While Waiting in The Wings does a nice job of poking fun at the fans and audience, Salvage does a better job of propelling forward plot and character. Two scenes make Salvage memorable:
Wes talking to Lilah's imaginary ghost in the basement as he contemplates chopping off the head of her corspe, and when he confronts Faith in prison. The idea of saving someone who can't be saved, even if that person is yourself is a theme that follows Wes throughout the series, almost as closely as Angel. In some respects in Wes's case it's far more trageic.
14. I've Got You Under My Skin
The Thin Dead Line
Couplet
Release
Smile Time
Two words: Angel Puppet. This episode may in my humble opinion be the second best if not the best episode of the series. Outside of the Wes/Fred romance which got a little smulchy at times, it is a lovely satire on television business and fans. It also expands on and plays with the idea of Angel as a puppet to the PTB, WRH and anyone else. Three scenes stick in the memory, Spike and Puppet Angel fight, Puppet Angel/Nina in the jail cell showing perfectly how Angel's attention is always on the wrong thing at the wrong time, and the creepy scene of the three puppets manhandling David Fury. Smile Time, Destiney, and Tale of Cinquo may be the three episodes that perfectly describe what Season 5 was all about and why I enjoyed it as much as I did.
15. The Prodigal
Reprise
Loyalty
Orpheus
A Hole in The World
Hands down the best has to be Reprise. I loved the others, but Reprise is another episode that perfectly flips things. In it Angel is told he's in hell. That there is no point. The world is meaningless. And he falls into bed with Darla, in a scene that is brutal and comes very close to sexual assault. Dark, gritty. Reprise is the opposite of the BTVS episode Surprise in every way and that's the point. It also is the turning point in Angel's relationship with his friends and it results in Connor. Another corner stone episode.
16. The Ring
Epiphany
Sleep Tight
Players
Shells
As wonderful as Epiphany and Shells are, everything changed in Sleep Tight. Sleep Tight is when Wes' arc truly took off. He was never the same, nor was his relationship with Angel and the others the same, after that episode. Sleep Tight flipped the series over on it's head. It took it in a darker, grittier, less comfortable direction and questioned many of the precepts. After Sleep Tight, Angel the Series took a few risks most series don't. Like it or hate it, it was a corner stone and it propelled everyone forward and commented on all the themes in a new way.
17. Eternity
Disharmony
Forgiving
Inside/Out
Underneath
Hard one. But picking Underneath over Forgiving and Inside/Out.
Underneath made me think. It asked questions without providing simple answers. Took the characters places that weren't quite expected. The Lindsey/Gunn switcheroo. The idea of selling out for the dream. Another episode that perfectly captured the themes of the season.
18. Five by Five
Dead End
Double or Nothing
Shiny Happy People
Origin
Of the episodes mentioned, Five By Five did the best job of furthering characters arcs, using a character who'd been missing in action, was horrible, had done horrible things, and showing how those things did not define her. If Connor's arc in Origin had come close to what was done with Faith in Five by Five and Sanctuary, I might have liked it more. It also once again, gave us yet another side of Wes.
19. Sanctuary
Belonging
The Price
The Magic Bullet
TimeBomb
I chose Magic Bullet for three scenes: the scene in the shop about the consipiracy where Fred shoots Angel, the scene with Fred running from Gunn/Wes (her former lovers) with the Beach Boys playing in the background, and the scene at the end when Connor betrays them. Quirky. Twisty. And Surprising.
20. War Zone
Over The Rainbow
A New World
Sacrifice
The Girl in Question
Okay this was hard. I loved A New World. But I adore Girl In Question. Girl in Question hammered home a point about the characters, the series, the writers, and the people watching it: move on. If you run in place, you'll miss the world. You'll miss the small things, the necessities - and you will lose your head. It discussed how what we want forever eludes us when we focus on it. That it may in fact not be what it appears to be. How perspective can lie. All these wonderful themes. Plus three beautiful scenes that echo in my memory:
Spike and Angel's debate on who saved the world the most, Angel echoing Buffy's cookie dough speech to a bewildered Spike, and finally Spike and Angel sitting on Angel's desk discussing moving on. Three moments I'd waited a long time to see. Oh - then we had the wonderful Fred/Illyria/Wes scenes, where Wes struggles with Illyria's ability to play Fred, so well, one wonders if it is an illusion.
21. Blind Date
Through The Looking Glass
Benediction
Peace-Out
Power Play
Winner is Peace-Out, simply because of four scenes: Connor explaining his actions to Wes/Gunn/Fred about Jasmine, Connor and Cordelia in the church, Angel and Jasmine in the streets after he has exposed her - Connor's killing of Jasmine, and Lilah showing up. This episode showed just what price we pay for free will. And what price we pay for being shiny happy people. Of the episodes above it does the best job of wrapping up these themes, propelling characters into new situations, and closing old arcs.
22. To Shanshu in LA
There's No Place Like Plzt Glirb
Tomorrow
Home
Not Fade Away
While I love Not Fade Away, I prefer Home. Home felt more multi-faceted, more layered somehow. And made me think more.
The idea of selling out. The idea of making bargains. Of twists of fate. Of where fate leads and how much we can control it. Thinking you can. Edgy episode. Tragic. And a wonderful book end to Deep Down. Home and Deep Down may in my opinion be the best openers and closers of the series. Visually both get across character and propell forward the story being told.
Whew - took a long time. Sorry for typos. Didn't edit. Just typed free-hand into the posting box. Like I usually do for most of my entries. Silly I know but that's me.
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Very interesting
Date: 2004-08-21 04:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-21 05:04 pm (UTC)I may live to regret this...
Date: 2004-08-21 08:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-22 07:58 am (UTC)It is difficult
Date: 2004-08-22 05:55 pm (UTC)Truth is? I can't help but agree at times with another friend, pumpkinpuss (on atpo board sometimes), who hates these lists and believes it's an exercise in futility. Each episode is good for different reasons. She may very well be right. So it's just a game, or water mark, to see if I feel the same way years from now. I'm still on the fence regarding certain episodes.