Sinus headaches, Angel Rewatch...
Feb. 24th, 2026 05:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatDid Virtual Urgent Care - who proscribed antibiotics for the sinus infection that I appear to have - congestion that won't go away, made worse by the storm - resulting in the sick sinus headache from hell (which has a sort of vertigo as a symptom). I got a doctor's note for returning to work by Thursday, 2/26/26.
Ventured out around 4pm to pick up antibiotics from the pharmacy - wasn't bad considering the pharmacy is about six short blocks from my apartment.
They've plowed the roads, and cleared for the most part the sidewalks. There's puddles in places, and some areas are narrower than others - depends on whether it was a professional building maintenance person, or a home owner. Home owners suck at shoveling city sidewalks for the most part.
Although they did a better job with this storm than the last one - most likely because the city threatened them with sizable fines if they didn't do it.
I wanted to go back to work today - but I only slept three hours last night, even though I went to bed early. Was up all night with the nauseous headache, which made the room spin and came in waves. I went to lie down - it started. I couldn't even sleep sitting up. Standing I was fine. Or sitting on the edge of the bed. Finally, after a sneezing fit, lots of nose blowing, two more mezcline, and decogestants - it cleared a bit for sleep. But I felt horrible the next morning and gave up. Was going to use vacation time - decided sick time made more sense - I'm sick. And I've got more sick time than vacation time.
***
I finished watching All Creatures Great and Small S6 on PBS Passport, and might start up on Miss Scarlet or Maigret again. It didn't require much focus. I couldn't concentrate on anything until now - due to the headache. Last night, if I thought about anything at all - I got nauseous. It was frustrating and weird. It's a cozy series - All Creatures Great and Small - reminds me a little of Call the Midwife. I think the original might have been slightly better and more realistic, but I don't really remember the original that well? I read the books in the third and fourth grades.
Also working my way through Angel S5 - the Spike and Wes episodes so far are the better ones. I can tell that "You're Welcome" - the 100th episode was reworked at the last minute for Cordelia. I think it was originally supposed to be the second part of Damage, with Buffy showing up.
But Gellar had a scheduling conflict and they convinced Charisma to come in - instead. At any rate, it is clunky. The dialogue, the plot, all of it, is clunky. And Cordy works as a kind of ex deus machina to yank Angel out of his apathic angst and back into being the PTB and WRH's puppet. Lindsey is right about Angel being their puppet, and would know - since they used Lindsey to manipulate Angel with the Shanshu Prophecy. Lindsey was the one who made Angel aware of it, when he attempted to leave WRH, and WRH manipulated Lindsey into getting Angel to steal a scroll and the shanshu, then rewarded Lindsey for it. Cory is brought back as kind of a cheerleader to Angel. But her dialogue is more of a retread of previous seasons. She says basically the same things she said to Angel in S3. Interestingly enough she's the only one who knows about Connor - but doesn't bother to tell anyone else.
You're Welcome kind of inadvertently hammers home how much more interesting Spike is in the group dynamic than either Connor or Cordy were. He provides a bit more friction, and enables Angel less, and is less of a cheerleader.
Also is a nice foil, and non-romantic or non-sexual love interest for the character. Their frenemies - and S5 is about the slow burn of their friendship.
But my main difficulty with You're Welcome is the plot doesn't work. It makes no sense that Spike would attempt to kill Cordy by biting her. That's out of character for him since roughly S5 Buffy. It also doesn't make a lot of sense that no one asked a bunch of questions about Cordy popping up fine. She quickly resolves the Lindsey situation with the gang. Angel has a cheesy fight with Lindsey, and it's not really all that clear what Lindsey is doing. And I wasn't really sure who to root for at one point.
Clunky episode. Doesn't improve upon re-watch. There are a few interesting side bits though? Spike is bonding with Angel's friends and goes out drinking with them quite a bit, particularly Gunn. Gunn is losing some of his mental capacity - since the white room disappeared. Fred is falling for Wes and less into Knox. Angel is oblivious to everyone but Angel. Harmony is allowed to be part of the team - and seems to be in the extraneous annoying character role?
Damage and Soul Purpose are the better episodes in this grouping. And I can't help but wonder what would have happened if Gellar had been available? I'm kind of glad she wasn't - because it refocuses the story on the relationship between Spike and Angel, and less on the triangle. (Not a fan of love triangles. Fighting over which ship is better or should sail makes me irritable.) The best parts of Soul Purpose are Lindsey pretending to be Doyle and kind of reliving with Spike - the highlights of Angel S1.
It's an interesting meta-narrative on the series - and points out the degree to which someone (higher beings) or WRFH were manipulating Angel with the visions, and using Doyle to do it. And considering Angelus was a manipulative bastard - as shown in Destiny, and Angel is too to a degree -it's rather clever that the PTB and WRH have managed to manipulate Angel as well as they have. He's become essentially their puppet. In Soul Purpose both Angel and Spike are being manipulated - Angel with the parasite, Spike by Lindsey. Wes and Gunn even show up at Spike's digs much like Lindsey once showed up at Angel's to "reason with him".
In Damage - and this is a clever episode as well - it in some respects is a nice sequel to Lies My Parents Told Me. In it, Spike is forced to view his actions against the two slayers he killed through the eyes of a potential slayer, and a tortured girl. When he thinks she's a demon - he can deal with her, when he discovers she's a slayer - he arrogantly believes he can handle her as well - even though Angel tries to talk him out of it.
As Spike later admits to Angel: "As a demon, I know this is odd to say but I never once stopped long enough to consider the evil of what I was doing, or to see the victims, I was into the party, the crunch, the violence, the fun." He realizes it's horrible all the same. That as Dana tells him, when he says - he didn't hurt her. Yes, yes, he hurt others, many others, but she wasn't among them - that it doesn't matter. He realizes in a way she is right. It doesn't. And when he tells Angel early in the episode - with more than a little pride and swagger - "I killed two slayers, with these two hands." It's fitting in a way, that Dana takes the hands he killed the slayers with. Because he did kill them with his hands. He didn't bite them. (That's kind of why I found it jarring that he goes to bite Cordy in You're Welcome). He breaks the Chinese Slayer's neck with his two hands, and Nikki Wood's neck with his two hands. Doesn't look back at either, or consider the lives they lead, or the people they left behind. Not until he runs across Dana - and is faced with the monster he'd become.
He says to Angel, "she's a monster now like us." What's partly interesting about that statement - is Spike calls both himself and Angel monsters. Angel doesn't really correct him. Just says Dana is a victim, and Spike reminds him that so were we. It's an odd bonding moment between the two, and perhaps among the most honest in the series. It's also why I like noir - because of that honesty. Noir doesn't shy away from the darkness inside people - and isn't afraid to comment on it or explore it. I think it needs to be explored - because that way we can actively choose not to do that or give in. Spike and Angel with souls - are actively choosing not to give in to the monster fighting back, but realistically, don't always succeed. They don't give up either.
Soul Purpose - Angel is giving up. In Damage - he's fighting, except he's take on Dana is different than Buffy's and a nice twist on how he handled Faith. Andrew tells him that they no longer trust him. And will take Dana into their care. It's not clear what the slayers will do with Dana, but they aren't allowing Angel to give her to WRH for safe keeping. And Buffy provides the orders from afar - and this time, Angel can't confront her on them - since he doesn't really know where she is and can't easily get to her. Andrew may or may not have told Spike the truth of everyone's whereabouts in Damage. Are the various friends really in separate locals? Maybe. The writers keep it open-ended, and in using Andrew, an unreliable sources - keep it up in the air. Also, it's interesting Giles sent Andrew - since Angel and his friends, including Spike, wouldn't take Andrew seriously enough to see that Andrew was using them to find the slayer (Dana) and get her out. Damage is a well-written episode. Although the Dana portions are admittedly difficult to watch, and a far more realistic and painful take on what Angelus and Spike did to their victims as vampires. They may not have used drugs - but they did use fangs.
Off to get something to eat.
Ventured out around 4pm to pick up antibiotics from the pharmacy - wasn't bad considering the pharmacy is about six short blocks from my apartment.
They've plowed the roads, and cleared for the most part the sidewalks. There's puddles in places, and some areas are narrower than others - depends on whether it was a professional building maintenance person, or a home owner. Home owners suck at shoveling city sidewalks for the most part.
Although they did a better job with this storm than the last one - most likely because the city threatened them with sizable fines if they didn't do it.
I wanted to go back to work today - but I only slept three hours last night, even though I went to bed early. Was up all night with the nauseous headache, which made the room spin and came in waves. I went to lie down - it started. I couldn't even sleep sitting up. Standing I was fine. Or sitting on the edge of the bed. Finally, after a sneezing fit, lots of nose blowing, two more mezcline, and decogestants - it cleared a bit for sleep. But I felt horrible the next morning and gave up. Was going to use vacation time - decided sick time made more sense - I'm sick. And I've got more sick time than vacation time.
***
I finished watching All Creatures Great and Small S6 on PBS Passport, and might start up on Miss Scarlet or Maigret again. It didn't require much focus. I couldn't concentrate on anything until now - due to the headache. Last night, if I thought about anything at all - I got nauseous. It was frustrating and weird. It's a cozy series - All Creatures Great and Small - reminds me a little of Call the Midwife. I think the original might have been slightly better and more realistic, but I don't really remember the original that well? I read the books in the third and fourth grades.
Also working my way through Angel S5 - the Spike and Wes episodes so far are the better ones. I can tell that "You're Welcome" - the 100th episode was reworked at the last minute for Cordelia. I think it was originally supposed to be the second part of Damage, with Buffy showing up.
But Gellar had a scheduling conflict and they convinced Charisma to come in - instead. At any rate, it is clunky. The dialogue, the plot, all of it, is clunky. And Cordy works as a kind of ex deus machina to yank Angel out of his apathic angst and back into being the PTB and WRH's puppet. Lindsey is right about Angel being their puppet, and would know - since they used Lindsey to manipulate Angel with the Shanshu Prophecy. Lindsey was the one who made Angel aware of it, when he attempted to leave WRH, and WRH manipulated Lindsey into getting Angel to steal a scroll and the shanshu, then rewarded Lindsey for it. Cory is brought back as kind of a cheerleader to Angel. But her dialogue is more of a retread of previous seasons. She says basically the same things she said to Angel in S3. Interestingly enough she's the only one who knows about Connor - but doesn't bother to tell anyone else.
You're Welcome kind of inadvertently hammers home how much more interesting Spike is in the group dynamic than either Connor or Cordy were. He provides a bit more friction, and enables Angel less, and is less of a cheerleader.
Also is a nice foil, and non-romantic or non-sexual love interest for the character. Their frenemies - and S5 is about the slow burn of their friendship.
But my main difficulty with You're Welcome is the plot doesn't work. It makes no sense that Spike would attempt to kill Cordy by biting her. That's out of character for him since roughly S5 Buffy. It also doesn't make a lot of sense that no one asked a bunch of questions about Cordy popping up fine. She quickly resolves the Lindsey situation with the gang. Angel has a cheesy fight with Lindsey, and it's not really all that clear what Lindsey is doing. And I wasn't really sure who to root for at one point.
Clunky episode. Doesn't improve upon re-watch. There are a few interesting side bits though? Spike is bonding with Angel's friends and goes out drinking with them quite a bit, particularly Gunn. Gunn is losing some of his mental capacity - since the white room disappeared. Fred is falling for Wes and less into Knox. Angel is oblivious to everyone but Angel. Harmony is allowed to be part of the team - and seems to be in the extraneous annoying character role?
Damage and Soul Purpose are the better episodes in this grouping. And I can't help but wonder what would have happened if Gellar had been available? I'm kind of glad she wasn't - because it refocuses the story on the relationship between Spike and Angel, and less on the triangle. (Not a fan of love triangles. Fighting over which ship is better or should sail makes me irritable.) The best parts of Soul Purpose are Lindsey pretending to be Doyle and kind of reliving with Spike - the highlights of Angel S1.
It's an interesting meta-narrative on the series - and points out the degree to which someone (higher beings) or WRFH were manipulating Angel with the visions, and using Doyle to do it. And considering Angelus was a manipulative bastard - as shown in Destiny, and Angel is too to a degree -it's rather clever that the PTB and WRH have managed to manipulate Angel as well as they have. He's become essentially their puppet. In Soul Purpose both Angel and Spike are being manipulated - Angel with the parasite, Spike by Lindsey. Wes and Gunn even show up at Spike's digs much like Lindsey once showed up at Angel's to "reason with him".
In Damage - and this is a clever episode as well - it in some respects is a nice sequel to Lies My Parents Told Me. In it, Spike is forced to view his actions against the two slayers he killed through the eyes of a potential slayer, and a tortured girl. When he thinks she's a demon - he can deal with her, when he discovers she's a slayer - he arrogantly believes he can handle her as well - even though Angel tries to talk him out of it.
As Spike later admits to Angel: "As a demon, I know this is odd to say but I never once stopped long enough to consider the evil of what I was doing, or to see the victims, I was into the party, the crunch, the violence, the fun." He realizes it's horrible all the same. That as Dana tells him, when he says - he didn't hurt her. Yes, yes, he hurt others, many others, but she wasn't among them - that it doesn't matter. He realizes in a way she is right. It doesn't. And when he tells Angel early in the episode - with more than a little pride and swagger - "I killed two slayers, with these two hands." It's fitting in a way, that Dana takes the hands he killed the slayers with. Because he did kill them with his hands. He didn't bite them. (That's kind of why I found it jarring that he goes to bite Cordy in You're Welcome). He breaks the Chinese Slayer's neck with his two hands, and Nikki Wood's neck with his two hands. Doesn't look back at either, or consider the lives they lead, or the people they left behind. Not until he runs across Dana - and is faced with the monster he'd become.
He says to Angel, "she's a monster now like us." What's partly interesting about that statement - is Spike calls both himself and Angel monsters. Angel doesn't really correct him. Just says Dana is a victim, and Spike reminds him that so were we. It's an odd bonding moment between the two, and perhaps among the most honest in the series. It's also why I like noir - because of that honesty. Noir doesn't shy away from the darkness inside people - and isn't afraid to comment on it or explore it. I think it needs to be explored - because that way we can actively choose not to do that or give in. Spike and Angel with souls - are actively choosing not to give in to the monster fighting back, but realistically, don't always succeed. They don't give up either.
Soul Purpose - Angel is giving up. In Damage - he's fighting, except he's take on Dana is different than Buffy's and a nice twist on how he handled Faith. Andrew tells him that they no longer trust him. And will take Dana into their care. It's not clear what the slayers will do with Dana, but they aren't allowing Angel to give her to WRH for safe keeping. And Buffy provides the orders from afar - and this time, Angel can't confront her on them - since he doesn't really know where she is and can't easily get to her. Andrew may or may not have told Spike the truth of everyone's whereabouts in Damage. Are the various friends really in separate locals? Maybe. The writers keep it open-ended, and in using Andrew, an unreliable sources - keep it up in the air. Also, it's interesting Giles sent Andrew - since Angel and his friends, including Spike, wouldn't take Andrew seriously enough to see that Andrew was using them to find the slayer (Dana) and get her out. Damage is a well-written episode. Although the Dana portions are admittedly difficult to watch, and a far more realistic and painful take on what Angelus and Spike did to their victims as vampires. They may not have used drugs - but they did use fangs.
Off to get something to eat.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-25 07:56 am (UTC)