Angel S04 E14 – Too many words

Previously: FAITH.
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Release

Lorraine: Faith is all bloodied and broken and Wesley tries to tend to her. She says she’s okay, though she could use a shower. Wesley asks if she’s sure if she’s okay and all she says is that she’s sticky. In the bathroom, we see Faith peel layers of clothes off her very bloodied body and then step into the shower. The stream of water starts to wash away the blood (but not the make-up!) and then she straight freaks the hell out and starts punching the tile wall, yelling as she does. That seemingly out of her system (at least for now) she goes back to washing off the blood.

Sweeney: This scene was really striking especially considering their last encounter before all of this. I kept waiting for that to be brought up, but I suppose it was sufficient that it made me think of it. Wesley’s self-righteousness in the face of having made his own serious mistakes was always really grating, but freeing Faith – forgiving her and telling her it was time to move on for the cause – was probably the single most selfless thing we have ever seen him do. Not sure if the show wanted my head to go there when he took a bloodied up Faith into his apartment, but it certainly did.

Kirsti: Wes trying to tend to her injuries was positively Giles-esque. Four for you, Wes.

Lor: Demon bar. Angelus is drinking with some baddies when a lady sends over a drink for him. He’s all, “PFFFT.” and gets back to telling his story about how easy it was to lure Faith to the Beast and then kill the Beast. From the bar, a horned creature sarcastically thanks “soul-boy” for bringing back the sun. Angelus stands and when the Horned Thing sees him, he starts freaking out and claims he has Tourettes. Angelus starts to choke the Horned Thing when suddenly, a deep voice calls to Angelus and says it’s time they had a talk.

Electric cellos.

Post-credits, Angelus asks where the voice is and it answers that it’s where it’s warm and soft. (S: Ew.) (K: So much ew.) Angelus lets go of the Horned Thing and says he’ll play hide and seek with the mysterious voice. The Voice says play time is over now that Angelus killed its favorite pet. Angelus walks out of the bar into a backroom as The Voice says that it’s been watching Angelus for a while now. Angelus wants a face to face and we cut to Cordelia in the Brooding Hotel, white eyed, and saying the words Angelus is hearing. He wants to know why she’s stalling on the meet-up if her whole, convoluted plan was to release him. But alas, she says that sometimes you just bring back a beast and block out the sun for the hell of it. She’s also holding a glowy orb, and I’m going to assume it’s a mystical voice distorter. (S: And voice thrower! Fun party trick!) (K: I wonder if the killer in Scream 4 is going to use something similar for voice distortion?? FIND OUT ON SATURDAY AT #SNARKATHON!!) Cordelia says she has wonderful plans for Angelus, but he isn’t in the business of being part of anyone’s plans. She asks if he dares to defy her, and he tells her to kiss his vampire ass.

At the hotel, Connor walks in, because Cordelia, supreme orchestrator of evil, has been placing these supernatural threat calls without locking the door. Sloppy. Connor gives her another blanket because she must keep warm. Probably because she’s carrying a demon spawn and I hear those things like hellishly warm conditions. Cordelia takes some dramatic breaths and claims to be woozy either ’cause of the crossbow injury or ’cause of the baby.

Back at the demon bar, Angelus is yelling at the air since he essentially got hung up on. A nearby vampire asks what for whatever Angelus is on.

Broody Hotel. Connor strokes Cordelia’s hair (ew) and she asks if Faith is alright. Connor says she’s hurt, but it’s okay because she’s strong. She says maybe they did the right thing bringing Angelus back, since he did kill the Beast, and that’s Connor’s buzzkill. He sits up in bed to better brood. Cordelia tells him that Angelus can’t fight his true nature, but he did make the world a little safer for their family. (K: Please stop mentioning “your family”, Cordevilia. It makes me need brain bleach again.) Connor promises to never let anything hurt her or the demon spawn. Connor asks if she’s ashamed of him, since she wants to keep their procreation a secret. She explains that their baby is growing so fast, it would scare the others and they might try to kill it. WITH FIRE. (I added that last bit.) But, anyways, since this child is growing like a soap opera baby, everyone will soon know what’s she’s carrying. It’s said in such vague terms and with such building, suspenseful music, I feel I’m justified in calling it a demon spawn. Joy.

K: Spoilers, sweetie.

Lor: Every time you say that, I just assume I’m right.

In the lobby, Gunn is giving Fred a gun, for just in case. Fred and Lorne have lots of objections (K: Lorne says “Did I mention that the only shots I’m good at involve tequila?” because he’s the best.) but Gunn doesn’t see any reason to drop their guard. Gunn starts to walk off to check the sewers for ways Angelus could sneak in when Connor comes down the stairs. Fred turns on him and point her gun and I shout, “SHOOT! SHOOT!” She cannot hear me. I am sad.

Sweeney: We will never stop trying to make the fictional characters hear our sage advice, though.

K: One day, they’ll listen. ONE DAY. I mean, Lor’s so good at TV that they have to, right??

Lor: You would think.

Gunn asks after Cordelia and Connor says she’s tired. Fred wants to go up and check on her, but Connor stops her. He comes up with a weird lie that she just wanted really hot soup. Hot, like hellfire, I guess. He takes off and Fred asks the others if they think he’s still shacking up with Cordelia. Lorne isn’t picking up warm fuzzy vibes, but he doesn’t have a good read on what he is picking up. Fred suggests that he might be pissed about Faith benching him. Gunn says it’s better he’s playing nursemaid (ew) or whatever to Cordy than trying to kill Angelus. Fred points out that Faith got beat up, though, and she is their fighting chance.

Trapped in the Closet Apartment. Faith is all cleaned up, though still bruised and cut. She apologizes briefly to Wes for his bathroom, though he isn’t overly worried about that. He wants to know that Faith is completely in the game. She says she’s five by five.  Wes doesn’t look like he buys it.

Brooding Hotel. Fred is getting her research on when Angelus shows up. She tells him that he can’t hurt her because they did a no demon violence spell. Angel pulls out some sort of charm out of his pocket that undoes the sanctuary spell. Fred doesn’t believe him, but he pins her against the wall by invading her space. He wants to what Fred knows about the Beastmaster. She says nothing and even if she did know something, she wouldn’t tell him. In that case, he helps himself to the books on her desk. Fred does know that the Beastmaster will make Angelus “his” bitch. At this point, Fred gets a good look at Angelus’s charm and sees that it’s made in China. She grabs a vase behind her and breaks it over his head. She then grabs her tranquilizer gun. The first shot misses as Angel runs out of the office. The second shot ends up getting Lorne instead. Angel spidey-jumps up to the second floor (K: Hands up if you’re not American and just got hella confused about how high he can jump. *raises hand*). Fred fires again and he blocks it with the book he stole, leaving her out of darts. Angelus gloats that he was just having fun, allowing Connor to join this party. Connor runs and tries to hit Angelus but he’s blocked by the sanctuary spell and goes falling down to the lobby floor.

After a Not Break, Angelus jumps back down to the lobby and blabbers about how Fred will think about how she almost stopped him when he’s slaughtering her friends. I think I’m officially tired of Angelus. At first, it was all, “hey look! Angelus says true things and DB plays him well,” but now? Angelus just talks so damn much and it’s all this hot air. And now the singsongy, gravelly voice DB uses for him is grating. I know, I know. I have a low tolerance for… everything.

Sweeney: You sort of had to know that when this season finally stumbled onto a good thing it would find a way to ruin it.

Lor: Outside, Fred and Wesley are walking in as Angelus walks out. Faith starts to fight him, but he pushes her into Wes, knocking the gun out of his hands. Angelus grabs Wesley and holds him in between himself and Faith. Angelus talks FOREVER while Faith tries to decide what to do. Eventually, Gunn comes out with another gun. Angelus pushes Wesley into Gunn and then spidey-jumps away. Faith checks on Wesley who tells her to go after Angelus, but it’s too late. He’s gone.

Inside, Connor has come to and he rushes up to check on Cordelia, who was in the bathroom. She’s fine, except for the “morning sickness that can’t tell time.” Cordy wants to know what all the concern is about and Connor tells her about Angelus paying them a visit and taking their material on the Beastmaster. Oh, I’ve been meaning to say that Beastmaster is a terrible name and I can think of only one thing:

That is just a reminder that we could be watching a worse show.

K: In my head, I always refer to the Beast’s boss as “The Master”, which obviously means I think of this:

It’s a far more pleasant connotation but also a reminder that I could be watching a way better show, despite what that gif would have you think. Sigh. 

Lor: Downstairs, Lorne is still knocked out. Fred is worried Wes and Faith blame her for losing their material. Gunn points out that it wasn’t like those two were much help anyway. Plus, he’s happy Fred wasn’t hurt. Fred tries to jump on this touching moment to talk, but they are interrupted by the Foley guys going OD on a gun cocking sound effect. It’s Wesley, deciding that they should be armed to hurt Angelus enough to slow him down. Gunn likes the sound of that, but Wesley wants him to stay and guard the hotel. In his soft papa voice, Wesley tells Fred to be careful and takes off with Faith.

Outside, Faith is calling out orders but Wesley is all, “are you just going to let him get away again?” Faith reminds him that he would’ve died if she’d gone after Angelus. Wes asks her to think of all the people who may die now because she let that matter. Wes says that the only way to beat Angelus is to be as vicious as he is. It’s an interesting contrast to what we saw in today’s Buffy episode, with Buffy saying that you cannot fight evil by doing evil things.

Sweeney: Buffy > AtS. “NO, WESLEY, THAT’S WHY YOU HAVE TO STOP HIM.” Majorly dislike this logic.

K: Agreed. Your logic is not like our earth logic, Wes.

Lor: Occult Bookstore. Angelus is sitting by the fire, casually reading, with a pair of glasses. He takes them off and flings them at the cowering man just in front of him. He complains (in lots of lots of words) about not being able to understand any of the texts and gather information about the Beastmaster. He starts wailing on the shop owner before he’s interrupted by a Cordy Head Call. She yells at him for seeking her out and they basically repeat their last conversation where she tells him they should work together and he says no. Cordy taunts him with his usual existence of being trapped inside of Angel’s head. Plus, she’s got his soul and will restore it if he doesn’t behave. That gets his attention and he asks what the “master” wants him to do.

Gunn is loading more guns and gives another one to Fred who is still brooding about letting Angelus get away. Fred: All the little mouse could do was squeak at him. Gunn: Then next time Minnie’ll take a chunk out of his cheese. I know that when Fred went after her professor she was fueled by a lot of hate and a whole lot of vengeance, but we’ve seen almost nothing of that woman since then. It’s weird how she kind of flip flops back and forth between mousy and able to hold her own.

Sweeney: Kind of like her character depends mostly on how it can best service the plot? Yeah.

K: A+, Sweeney.

Lor: Anyway, Gunn tells her that if she did something wrong, she should not do it again. She looks at him until he realizes the full meaning of what he’s said. He turns away from her and she asks him not to, because that’s all they ever do. She apologizes for what happened with Wes. She misses Gunn and she wants to go back to the way things were. He leans in and they kiss, but only briefly before he says he should do a sweep and leaves Fred alone in the lobby.

In the Demon Bar, Faith is roughing up the Horned Thing. A vampire stands up but Wesley points his gun at it. The Horned Thing insists he doesn’t know anything about Angelus, and then gets cocky as he sees a fellow demon sneaking up on Wesley. Without turning around, Wesley shoots the sneaky demon right in the face and then turns the gun onto Horned Thing who is suddenly more eager to talk. Angelus is in there all the time, running his mouth, but he doesn’t know where he lives. He tells them about Angelus talking to himself and going into the back room.

Faith and Wesley head back there and find lots of drug/junkie visuals, with vampires and fed on girls. They are attacked but Faith fights the vampire and Wesley stakes it.

Brooding Hotel. Connor is in the mirror, checking out his fangs and pushing his brow together to make it bumpy. Cordelia catches him and jokes about teenagers checking for pimples and ah, yes. Let’s laugh about puberty as this clearly 30-year-old pregnant woman stands behind him. Oh, show. (S: NGL, I giggled when it was just Connor. Then Cordelia walked in and ruined it.) (K: RIIIIIIIIIIGHT THERE WITH YOU, SWEENEY.) Cordelia’s figured out that Connor tried to take out Angelus and got hit by the anti-demon spell. Connor says he isn’t a demon, but Cordelia reminds him that she is. He thinks it’s different because she chose that gig. He doesn’t even know what he is. Cordelia knows– he’s a daddy. A daddy of a special, special baby. Cordelia keeps up her brainwashing by saying that all Connor has to do is keep them safe. Then she sends him downstairs to see what’s happening so he can report back all the details.

In the demon bar, Faith grabs a nearby girl in an attempt to help her out of there. Wesley picks up a syringe and notes that she did this to herself. Faith grabs the girl and slams her against the wall, asking her if she saw a vampire recently, talking to himself. When she doesn’t respond, Faith punches her in the face. Still no information, so Faith lets her go and says she doesn’t know anything. Wesley steps up and STABS THE GIRL IN THE SHOULDER. Sorry, I just wasn’t expecting that. He asks again about the vampire and the girl this time confesses that she saw Angelus and he was talking to someone else about souls and strings and rains of fire. Wesley pulls out the knife and she falls to the ground. Faith asks if he’s lost it. Wesley says he avoided the main arteries and she’ll live. Whatever is controlling the Beast has made contact with Angelus.

Sweeney: WHAT THE FUCK, SHOW.

K: Remember when Holtz stabbed Justine in the hand to test her loyalty? Yeah, Wes is rapidly heading for Holtz territory.

Lor: Wesley walks out of the room, gun over his shoulder, and Faith follows, asking if torturing humans is part of his deal now. He brings up that one time Faith was more than happy to torture him, though she says that isn’t her any more. Wesley says it’s nice to have a gun with him as back-up. Wesley continues to goad her.

Faith doesn’t want to risk killing Angel, though, she wants to find another way.

K: It’s kind of like when Buffy told Kendra that anger makes you a better Slayer, except douchier.

Lor: Wesley has a lot of Watcher lessons to catch up on. These are super lessons,. No time to be gentle.

Brooding Hotel. Lorne is coming to as Fred gives him a drink and apologizes. He isn’t too worried, ’cause the dart gave him a good nap. #priorities. (S: Yet another reason why Lorne is the Snark Squad’s favorite.) Gunn asks what he missed, though he figures the sanctuary spell must’ve worked since everyone is still in one piece. Fred is still down on herself for being tricked and letting Angelus take their research away. Lorne looks at the fake charm and says not to feel bad because some fella named Maury has been peddling those since forever, and it fools people all the time. The Gang’s ears perk up. Connor asks for Maury’s location and Fred runs off to call Wes with the new information.

I can’t tell where we are, but there is some construction going on and Faith and Wesley find Angelus there. Faith takes a shot but misses. Angelus kicks her and she goes flying back into a column. Wesley starts shooting and also misses every time because Angelus is faster than a speeding bullet. Angelus grabs Wesley and throws him into some scaffolding. Angelus now has Wes’s gun and takes a few shots at Faith. She rolls away from Angelus, and ends up tumbling down the stairs. Angelus stands over her, gun pointed, and reminds her of when she begged Angel to kill her because she didn’t want to live. He asks if she still feels that way. She answers, quietly at first, and then loudly, that she doesn’t. He says it’s too bad because she’s going to die anyways. He cocks the gun until it’s empty and Faith flinches every time. He doesn’t shoot, because he doesn’t want her to die this way.

Sweeney: Angelus has a really long track record of getting named characters cornered and defenseless only to not to not actually kill them. He needs to go back to Villain School.

K: Either that or said named characters need to actually DO SOMETHING rather than just standing there. I don’t believe for a second that Faith, when confronted with a gun, would just sit on the ground and let him cock it ten times before reacting.

Lor: I’m telling you– Angelus has weird ideas about how to work against the Fang Gang.

Faith kicks the gun away from him and gets back up into the fight. Angel talks during the whole damn thing. Faith doesn’t have much fight in her and soon, she’s back on the floor, bleeding and hurt. Angelus calls out to Wesley who doesn’t respond, and says Wes really messed up with her. Faith laughs and tells him to save the head games. Angelus talks a lot. Faith grabs a knife and throws it at him. She stands, grabs the knife out of his chest and manages to get a few more slices in. He super kicks her again and sends her flying, allowing him to Mario jump up into the scaffolding. I just realized I interchange spidey jump and Mario jump, for no discernible reasons. Anyway.

Now Angelus gives us 4-5 sentences on how hard it is trying to be someone you are not. They move the fight onto the scaffolding, jumping from one level to the next, but Angelus reaches her and throws her down to the floor. Next, he punches her repeatedly in the middle of 9-10 sentences about how she’s just punishing herself for being a murderer, just like he is. Faith’s pissed and she stands and is able to finally get the upper hand in the fight. She hits him until he’s on the ground and then repeatedly punches him in the face. She stops herself, though, and steps back, saying she different now. She isn’t like him.

He says she will be as kicks her ankles, grabs her, vamps out and sinks his teeth into her neck.

I’m still pretty pumped about Faith being here. It makes sense that after she’s spent all this time learning how to control and repress herself in jail, she’s having a hard time tapping into that Slayer will to fight. And even if she had some of it when she left jail, the first thing she meets is the Beast, who would’ve certainly defeated her if Angelus had not been there. In this fight, it seems that she would occasionally get angry enough to truly be in it, but it would all leak out of her. She was tired and hurt, and really, what is she fighting for? Faith tells Angelus that she doesn’t want to die, but I’m not sure I believe that. Perhaps she doesn’t have a death wish still, but I don’t know that she’s found a reason to live.

Sweeney: Amazing point. +1. This show is #meh but Faith’s presence here makes me really grateful that we’re watching it, because although she has more appearances on Buffy, essential points in her arc happen here, so that’s been neat to watch, as someone who had only seen Buffy.

K: That’s a really good point, Lor, and now I kind of feel like I should take back my earlier point about not buying Faith just sitting there…

Lor: I’ve already complained about Angelus’s villain speeches. Like multiple times. Throughout the post. But, you know.

Sweeney: BUT ITS ALWAYS WORTH REPEATING. STUPID VILLAIN GLOATING SPEECHES ARE STUPID.

K: Unless they come from The Mayor, because then they’re filled with delightful sidebars about germs. 

Lor: Other than that, what fills the space between the YAY FAITH and BOOO ANGELUS is a lot of boring. I don’t care anything about Fred and Gunn anymore. Cordelia is boring as hell. She’s basically a super evil on bed rest. What the hell? It was a lot of chatter in the episode.

 

Next time: WILLOW COMES TO HELP RESTORE ANGEL’S SOUL AND WE WILL PROBABLY SQUEE THE WHOLE TIME in Angel S04 E15 – Orpheus.

SCHEDULING NOTE: In order to adjust our viewing for crossover magic, we will be posting a second Buffy post in lieu of the usual Angel post on Thursday, January 30th.

Thursday’s Buffyverse posts will be BtVS 7×15 & BtVS 7×16. We resume Buffy/Angel next Monday (Feb 2) with BtVS 7×17 & AtS 4×15.