Directed by: David Greenwalt
The main plot:
Tee, Angel’s stalking Buffy. So his M.O.
Blah to them being stupid over Buffy and forgetting about the head. I get that they’re 15-year-old boys but hi, they’re also not really, so couldn’t they please act like it?
Vampire constitution makes it hard to get drunk? Um, okay.
LOVE the Spike with the loose blonde hair. Usually i’m all over the shellacked peroxide and tend not to like the photos of JM with his regular hair (though there was one time when he was Crazy!Spike that i really liked the hair) but when they were hanging in this episode, that was hot.
Julie Benz literally glowed when A&S came back and found her in bed. I was impressed.
The big fannish-nitpick seems to be that no one believes D&D wouldn’t let A&S fuck them concurrently. *shrugs*
The other two nitpicks were:
--Losing the Capo’s head leads to chaos and more evil, so WHY is Italy helping them get the head back?
Um, isn’t The Capo their client or something? Was this an assignment or Gunn acting on his own, ear to the ground and all?
--The Immortal is ambiguously good? And Darla is attracted to that in him?
Huh? The Capo was ambiguously good, but i missed all this about The Immortal being that way, and Darla liking that about him. I want a transcript of this episode, dammit.
Andrew is so gay. “Part my threshold” -- tee. All the “You have to change” talk does NOT mean Andrew goes straight. I said elsewhere:
I was so psyched that they were gonna make Andrew canonically gay, but i should have known that when it's that obvious they're gonna yank it away. I maintain he's still so gay and the writers know it and are just being evil and playing with us. You know Joss loves him some ambiguity. And they so clearly weren't his girlfriends. I mean, they don't *have* to be faghags, but it would just be like Xander going out to the Bronze with Willow and Buffy. I tend to forget about the whole threesome fantasy thing, though. I totally didn't even think of it until you mentioned it; i was like "Well clearly they aren't dating him 'cause clearly mainstream TV doesn't recognize poly relationships so no girl is gonna share her guy nevermind go on a date with him and the other girl."
jennyo points out they made Darla/Dru canon so really would it be too much to ask for Andrew to be canonically gay? I mean, a lot of us insist he already is canonically gay but ya know, canonically canonically. I would like to point out that vampires are allowed to get away with a lot more than humans are by virtue of the fact that they are vampires. Like, it’s part of their job description to be perverse (" Don't mistake me. I do love the ladies. It's just lately... I've been wondering... what it'd be like... to share the slaughter of innocents... with another man. Don't... don't think that makes me some kind of a deviant, hmm? Do you?" -Angelus to William in "Destiny" flashback).The demon who wishes he was The Immortal’s lackey: *cough*"Okay, maybe I'm a little attracted."*cough*
“Let’s not go at this half-cocked.” “As opposed to going in full-cock like you usually do?” Yes, Spike, you wish Angel were (still) fucking you full-cock. :)
I enjoyed the slow-mo bit.
“The Americans, solving problems with violence, so typical of them.” Hi, Joss has politics. Not that we didn’t already know that
Hello, Italian Lilah. I liked Lilah’s reserve, though.
susiebabylon, we really must make you watch Lilah episodes next year. As you said, if trijinx thinks she’s hot…. (And there also needs to be Firefly watching with dealupa.)I actually think the episode worked better without Buffy being an active agent. It got to be about Buffy in “Chosen,” but tonight is about the 2 guys. The Immortal is eating cookie dough, tee. (Honestly, cookie dough can sometimes be even better than baked goods.)
jadasc says:* The last time we saw Andrew, he was doing the whole Watcher thing, and was firm on the idea that the AI team was on the bad-guy side.Holla, fanwank. I like it.
* This episode, Andrew's pleasant and cordial to the both of them. He muses idly about the possible weaknesses of the Immortal. He emerges wearing a tuxedo to go for his night on the town with two women, a taste previously established as being shared by the Immortal. (Who never gets a name, and whose face is never shown.)
* And meanwhile, in the other plot, we establish the potential for powerful supernatural creatures to change their appearance on a whim.
Am I off-base for suspecting that Andrew was *never* there, and it was the Immortal all along, playing out whatever subtle joke has kept him interested in these two vampires all this time?
The secondary plot:
“Your grief hangs off you like rotted flesh. I could not bear it from *them* as well.” I totally buy that from Illyria. Plus, she is really intrigued by this issue of her inhabiting a shell that had a previous occupant and how people react to the different inhabitants (And yes, Wesley had a hard-on the size of Florida from the moment he first saw her new skin, and she also wanted to “explore” that, and i laughed, in a good way.) and i think she is also interested in Wesley’s obsession with Fred wants to learn more about who Fred was.
carpdeus talks about change (and love) in this episode.“As you wish.” EEEE! For those of you lacking the proper culture referents, Westley in The Princess Bride is a servant to the woman he loves and always says “As you wish” to her. Thanks to
carpdeus for pulling out the move script and reminding us that: That day, she was amazed to discover that when he was saying, "As you wish," what he meant was, "I love you."I like this clean-shaven but still tough Wes. Yes, he frequently made the scruff hot, but i’m just not a scruff girl.
Final thoughts:
I enjoyed this episode a lot while watching it. And not just because the entire main plot was essentially a shoutout to fanfic. However, where is this stewing apocalypse Lindsey told us about? Where is Lindsey, now that you mention it. Who makes a filler episode as the antepenultimate episode?
Spoilerwhore TBQ says the last 2 episodes are gonna rock, though.
