Previously: Creepy Toby was creepy, Blind!Jenna was creepy, hell, even the PLLs were creepy. — Please Do Talk About Me Sara: Aria and Emily are pushing a big box down...
We open with a hilarious scene between Lorne and Angel. Apparently Broody McBroodsalot has been singing karaoke again, this time clown themed. Lorne asks if Angel's been practicing, and yes - in the shower. Personally, I sing while blowdrying my hair because then no one can hear me, but to each their own. Lorne tells Angel that he's reached a bend in the road and needs to work out what to do now, then heads on stage for some singing. Angel, meanwhile, heads over to the bar where Darla is waiting for him. They're schmoopy and Angel is grinning like an idiot, and it makes me very uncomfortable because that's a trait I associate exclusively with Seeley Booth.
I think I’m being punished by Whedon. First I get a Xander-centric episode, and then later today I get a bunch of insane dream sequences in Angel? What the hell did I do to deserve this?! SIGH.
Lorraine: Pfft. No sympathy from me. Get back to me if Whedon ever does an episode about anal lube.
K: Fair.
We open in the Fruit Roll Up Basement, where Xander, Anya, Buffy and Riley are watching kung fu movies. Anya’s arm is in a sling on account of the head wound she incurred in the last episode turned out to be an arm injury instead? IDK.
Lorraine: Pfft. No sympathy from me. Get back to me if Whedon ever does an episode about anal lube.
K: Fair.
We open in the Fruit Roll Up Basement, where Xander, Anya, Buffy and Riley are watching kung fu movies. Anya’s arm is in a sling on account of the head wound she incurred in the last episode turned out to be an arm injury instead? IDK.
We pick this episode up exactly where the last one left off and our Pretty Little Liars are running through the halls looking for Emily. They consider splitting up, but resolve to "split up together" when nobody wants to be left alone to get picked off by Creepy Toby who they probably incorrectly believe to be A.
Lorraine: Hey, I'm awarding points for at least knowing that you don't wander around alone looking for the guy who comes with his own murder-y soundtrack.
Sweeney: This is true. I forgot about his murdery soundtrack.
Lorraine: Hey, I'm awarding points for at least knowing that you don't wander around alone looking for the guy who comes with his own murder-y soundtrack.
Sweeney: This is true. I forgot about his murdery soundtrack.
Wesley is looking over a photograph of the Hyperion Hotel. He tag-teams with Angel to provide us with the relevant back-story. Essentially, it's big, impressive and has been abandoned for a long time. Cordelia comes in and serves Wesley tea, has a cup of coffee for herself and hands Angel a cup of blood Angel inspects it for a bit before telling Cordelia that it appears to be coagulating. She replies that it's just a little cinnamon and she was experimenting. As one does.
Kirsti: He should consider himself lucky - she could have added crumbled up Weetbix to it like Spike does!
Kirsti: He should consider himself lucky - she could have added crumbled up Weetbix to it like Spike does!
There were split opinions on the whole randomly throwing out the fact Buffy has a sister thing. It was strange to me, but I also know that I'm not the exact audience it was written for. I only mean that I had 10 years of pop culture to tell me Dawn would show up eventually and a bit of foreshadowing last season told me she was probably Buffy's sister. That's a ton of build-up all leading to about 10 seconds last episode where it was all, "AND BUFFY HAS A SISTER LOLOL."
Sweeney: When I first watched last summer I sent our group of bloggy friends a series of DAFUQ? emails.
Sweeney: When I first watched last summer I sent our group of bloggy friends a series of DAFUQ? emails.
I always find it amusing when I feel compelled to start a recap by reminding you all of some plot point or other. Most of the time it's because it's some random shit that wouldn't qualify as a plot point anywhere outside of the Fifty Shades series. For instance, please do recall that the architect designing the new Grey house has come to visit the Greys... and she's a woman!
I KNOW, GUYS. How could I think you would forget such a shocking turn of events, in which a woman is a woman near or around Grey?!
I KNOW, GUYS. How could I think you would forget such a shocking turn of events, in which a woman is a woman near or around Grey?!
THIS IS IT, YOU GUYS. Finale time. The final lying liar credits take us to King's Landing, Dragonstone, FUCKTHETWINS, Winterfellstillonfireallfuckingseason, The Wall, and past the Gulf of Grief to Yunkai.
We begin the episode with my current least favorite person, Roose Bolton, looking down on the epic torching and slaughter of the remaining Stark bannermen. The Hound is riding off with Arya, who tragically comes to just in time to see her brother being paraded through the streets, headless, with his direwolf's head staked to his body, as everyone chants, "The king of the north!" The look on her face is just too much.
We begin the episode with my current least favorite person, Roose Bolton, looking down on the epic torching and slaughter of the remaining Stark bannermen. The Hound is riding off with Arya, who tragically comes to just in time to see her brother being paraded through the streets, headless, with his direwolf's head staked to his body, as everyone chants, "The king of the north!" The look on her face is just too much.
LONG VIDEO IS LONG. I’M SORRY. I tried to cut this down as much as I could. There are so. many. things. that I didn’t get to in this video, which...
Sweeney: Beginnings are almost as exciting as endings! I just need to insert the requisite number of YAY NEW SEASON exclamation points! There, that's good. We start the first episode of the season with a demon who is green with red eyes and little red horns who is on the long list of faces I recognize from Tumblr. He looks very menacing, but then he starts belting out "I Will Survive" taking a break to tell the audience (at this show, but also us, the viewing audience) about all the nasty things in LA.
K: LOOOOOOOORNE!!!
K: LOOOOOOOORNE!!!
Sweeney: Season 5 has mixed reviews from all of you, but anything beats S4 in my book, so let's get started and leave that disappointment behind us. Buffy is lying in bed with Riley and unable to sleep because she knows her relationship is doomed. Or because she knows there's a vampire out there waiting to be staked. Whatever. She gets up, runs through the cemetery and gets to staking before returning to bed, knowing that it's just her doing the slaying and no more Initiative, and all is well in the world.
Lorraine: I got all sorts of Buffy answering the call of duty vibes from this scene. A lot of those very! significant! moments in Restless told us about Buffy coming up against her slayer nature and really belonging to this world.
Lorraine: I got all sorts of Buffy answering the call of duty vibes from this scene. A lot of those very! significant! moments in Restless told us about Buffy coming up against her slayer nature and really belonging to this world.
Aria is in bed pouting to a St. Lola in the Fields song and flashing back to the pedo-y highlights of her brief "relationship" with her English teacher, Ezrafitz. Her wet-day-dreaming is interrupted by the other members of the Pretty Little Liars who have come to stage an intervention. They want Aria to get out of sweats, which I've got to admit, has happened to me before. The part about my friends showing up at my house and going, "OMG PUT SOME REAL PANTS ON, WE ARE GOING OUT." True story.
Sweeney: Any friends who tried to demand that I put real pants on would be promptly cut out of my life. True story.
Sweeney: Any friends who tried to demand that I put real pants on would be promptly cut out of my life. True story.
The things we cut from these videos are often as important as what we leave in. For instance, I cut out a lengthier rant about John Hughes movies, a piece about how I never watched teen movies and thought, "yes! That's how high school is for me," and clarification that yes, my sister did buy her first movie in 2001, because we've never, ever been big movie owners. To this day, I own a handful if that.
Lastly, making these things makes me acutely aware of my own speech patterns and habits, like my tendency to pad everything with filler words like, "maybe," "probably," "definitely," etc.
Lastly, making these things makes me acutely aware of my own speech patterns and habits, like my tendency to pad everything with filler words like, "maybe," "probably," "definitely," etc.
Know what's better for the Snark Ladies than celebrating one end of something? CELEBRATING TWO ENDS OF SOMETHING. WE DID IT!
Season 1 of Angel took some time trying to find its footing, though very little of it was worse than boring. We were reluctant to take on this new project and long commitment, but all said and done, I'm super glad we did.
If the first seasons of Buffy were about using about using the supernatural to metaphorically represent high school, the beginning episodes of Angel were all, "by the way, graduating high school is hell too."
Season 1 of Angel took some time trying to find its footing, though very little of it was worse than boring. We were reluctant to take on this new project and long commitment, but all said and done, I'm super glad we did.
If the first seasons of Buffy were about using about using the supernatural to metaphorically represent high school, the beginning episodes of Angel were all, "by the way, graduating high school is hell too."
Although we have discussed our difficulties with ranking in the past, this was probably the easiest list for me to put together. I moved episodes around a lot less than I did in S2 & s3. Aside from the final two episodes, which I have gone back and forth on, I have no reservations about the list. That said, my list basically fell into three groups (1) Good Episodes (2) #MEH Episodes -and- (3) Never Again Episodes. I'm not surprised by how many fell into the last category, but for all of our S4 bitching an moaning, group one is actually almost half the list. The biggest problem with this season is that it's so hit-or-miss. There are several episodes that are just AWFUL, and the Never Again section on this season is definitely longer than previous season for me.