“Hero”
Do Nazis ever make stories better? They do not make this story better. In “Hero” we get more of Doyle’s backstory, and find out that like Angel, he’s also seeking redemption. And what he’s seeking redemption for is ignoring a fellow demon who needed shelter from demon Nazis. The demon Nazis are, unsurprisingly, seeking to rid the earth of demons that have mixed with humans - such as vampires and people like Doyle - and are so very Nazi that one might wonder why they don’t mind their ideology being stolen entirely from those humans they despise. Seriously. We get the race parallels, Joss. No need to jackboot it into our heads.
But Doyle gets to save the day. He even does the dramatic thing and punches out Angel to get there first, kisses Cordelia, and leaps to his death to save a whole group of oppressed demons. And he gets a proper goodbye, with Cordelia's badly scripted commercial.
I don't know why his death in particular always hits me this hard. He was only there for 9 episodes, but it kills me every time I watch it.
Too soon. Maybe I should have taken more of a break between “Hero” and “Parting Gifts”. I mean, Wesley’s great and all, Alexis Denisof is fantastic, his character arc is a crazy ride, but he’s not Doyle, and slotting him into the show right then and there felt rushed.
This is a better episode than “Hero”. It’s more tightly plotted, fewer Nazis, advances the continuing plot, and has great physical comedy that maintains consistent characterization. I don’t really care. I miss Doyle.
"Somnambulist"
Okay, I came back after starting Buffy S4 and I am much more at peace with Wesley now. Wesley’s awesome, we’re good. This episode is also good! Bodies are showing up on the streets, dead with Angelus’ killing mark on their faces. (This mark never shows up again. Perhaps it was just a fad in the 1700s?) And Angel is having dreams of killing those people, and enjoying them (the dreams, the killing, and the tasty people, one assumes.)
Angel tracks down the killer, who turns out to be a vampire he sired some 200 years ago. He hasn’t changed his methods much over that time, except now he gels his hair straight up, just like Angel, which is a touch that I found hilarious.
During this, Kate discovers that vampires are real, and that’s what Angel is. This puts a strain on their working relationship.
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| Seriously, most vampires pop like balloons if you poke them with a pencil, but Angel is always getting staked all over the place. |
“Expecting”
Sometime life gives you lemons, and you make lemonade. And sometimes, life gives you a script about demon impregnation, and you kinda just have to go with it. Everybody tries! Cordelia tries, and mostly pulls it off, vacillating between horror and the magical demon-protecting mothering instinct that ends up kicking in. Angel and Wesley are suitably concerned and they all at the end, triumph.
There is an awful lot of hand waving as to the termination of Cordelia’s litter of demon babies, though. The mechanics, as described, are that the demon these men worship imbues them with its “life force” (ew) and when they have sex, they then impregnate their partner with this force (against which condoms do not protect) but when the “psychic link” is severed (the demon is frozen and shattered to bits) the demon babies magically disappear and I know this whole thing is technically magic but it makes no sense. They saw the babies on the ultrasound! They’re there! I get that late-term demon abortions are not where this show wanted to go, but that’s apparently where I went.
This blog post brought to you by “parentheses”! Parentheses are great for non-linear trains of thought (i.e., mine) and lazy editing.
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