A reminder: These threads spend all their time making out with other
vampires, like in Anne Rice novels.

ANGEL
Season Five, Episode 16: "Shells"
Writer: Steven S. DeKnight
Director: Steven S. DeKnight

I’ve always liked this one, and it gets better with age, like a fine
wine or an ancient hell god. A few have mentioned this being when the
whole season comes together, and we all know how much fun that is.
Nothing puts me in a good mood like seeing an impressively cool scene
before I’ve had time to completely digest the previous one. “Shells”
sparked what I think is one of my best reviews – probably more worth
reading than this post, anyway, but I didn’t totally love it because
of some undefined spark it didn’t quite have, scenes that weren’t
quite tight enough, or something. Well, the hell with that, it’s good
enough for me now. Last time I was most drawn to Gunn’s world
collapsing and all the unexpected bits of humor thrown in. Still
great, but this time I was like everyone else and paid most attention
to Wesley, who’s back to drifting through the episode in his own
headspace and writhing for our entertainment, as Joss (should have
always) intended. Illyria quickly emerges as one of the show’s most
memorable creations with her ability to bend time leading to two cool
and, more importantly, creative action sequences. The denouement
might have been an anticlimax in lesser hands, but “Shells” is working
hard enough to prime the audience for it that I think it pretty much
works. Finally, there’s that montage set to song, the last of the
series (I think)… well, have I called any of the episode-closing
montages my favorite yet? If so I didn’t mean it, because this is my
favorite. They found the perfect song for taking a step back to say
goodbye to Fred (driving off hopefully into her bright future – damn
you, Whedon). I backed up and re-watched it a few times this time
through.
Rating: Excellent (up from Good)


Season Five, Episode 17: "Underneath"
Writers: Elisabeth Craft and Sarah Fain
Director: Skip Schoolnik

This one feels kinda tedious to me for some reason. It’s not that
it’s in any way bad – it‘s actually pretty good – but I’d call itthe
weak link of this run falling between “Shells” and “Origin.” The
holding dimension has some nice imagery, even if I don’t know if it
means much of anything, whereas the stuff they learn after going to
all the trouble of bringing Lindsey back still underwhelms me a
little, especially given that we don’t see him again until the end.
“Underneath” has some good moments like Lorne’s monologue and
Hamilton’s extended entrance (I quite like the whole defending-the-
fort story thread), and it’s a pretty good Gunn episode. I just have
very little to say about it.
Rating: Good


Season Five, Episode 18: "Origin"
Writer: Drew Goddard
Director: Terrence O'Hara

I think I’ve already mentioned this, but I’m glad to see the _Mad Men_
acclaim supporting my contention that Vincent Kartheiser is a pretty
damn great actor, and this episode gives him a chance to put a
different spin on Connor. Now, I was wondering whether I’d need to
downgrade my rating for “Origin” as it ambled along in an enjoyable
but indulgent sort of way. Then it hit its climax, and no, no
downgrade. This is one of those completions of something I’d thought
was already complete, with Connor being restored to what he could be
now that he’s been given the chance to handle it, and it’s a story
that couldn’t have been told properly without most of a season of
something else around to separate it from “Home.” The way Fred ends
up triggering Wesley’s crisis of faith is something I hadn’t expected
or anything, but makes great sense. Then even already knowing how
it’ll end, the confrontation outside the isolation chamber is
amazingly intense, rivaling the first time Wes lost faith in his
boss. My one issue originally was the lack of fallout, and now I
think I didn’t fully appreciate the way Wes reacts to getting his
memory back, deliberately making a decision to endorse Angel’s
choice. It helps that Drew’s writing throughout “Origin” is top-
notch, from its dead-on Sahjhan to all those lines of dialogue with
unobtrusive but clever double meanings. I have this weird thing with
Mr. Goddard where I can’t quite get over that he’s the guy who wrote
“Selfless” on his first time out, and will probably never be able to
match it, but this is one of his masterpieces.

Occasionally I’ll write something cool and totally forget about it.
Here’s a self-quote from the original thread about Wesley: “He has an
answer to the ‘why,’ which he didn't before he smashed the ball o'
memory. Fred still may not be ‘worth’ Connor for him, but she died
(indirectly) because Angel was trying to protect someone he loved, not
just because he sold out or made a bad tactical choice. That might
make a difference.”
Rating: Excellent


Season Five, Episode 19: "Time Bomb"
Writer: Ben Edlund
Director: Vern Gillum

This one improved on second viewing. It’s a clever puzzle, full of
unexpected reversals and stuff that doesn’t mean what you originally
thought it did (notice a theme with the best Wesley episodes?) It’s
equally successful as food for the left brain with the chronology to
unravel and the right brain with the high-octane sequences in the
training room, especially the vampire dusting. The weakest link of TB
is still the end for me (other than Spike’s line about Illyria pre-
and post-depowering). Illyria’s big speech is way too droning to hold
my attention, and completely submerges the intended money moment
(which I’ve been lead to believe is “fighting to hold on to what you
were - it's
destroying you"). The result is that the ending seems to come out of
nowhere and be more confusing than portentous. Yeah, I know we’re not
supposed to know the whole story yet, but a smoother bridge would have
been appreciated as the series moves, uninterrupted by any horribly
misconceived or awkwardly juxtaposed interludes, into its next
episode, “Power Play.”
Rating: Good (up from Decent)


Additional comments on S5D5: I sometimes spend more time than seems
appropriate trying to figure out Harmony in late S5. Especially when
she’s sitting with an injured Gunn and doing an amazing impression of
ability to be not completely self-centered. Evil and vapid as she is,
she could have belonged in this place.

Although I’m not normally interested in such things, the “making of a
stunt” featurette is pretty cool. They picked one where not
everything went flawlessly, so we can marvel over how much pain and
painstaking effort goes into five seconds that flash by during a
series that’s not really driven by how stuff looks. I guess it’s got
to be a dream job for someone, but how does one not find it thankless?

Some people commented that Adam Baldwin seemed a little full of
himself on the commentary track, particularly when he complains about
actors playing around and delaying everyone. He does give off the air
that he’s slumming it by being in shows with demons (as opposed to
more serious pop sci fi?). Of course, I don’t know how much stock to
put into those impressions given that people who actually know him and
work with him never have anything but good things to say. I just
kinda wish, as a Buffyverse geek, that someone had been on hand to
mention they made the Lorne Greene reference on screen when they first
named the character.

Thoughts?

-AOQ