Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 1x07 – Angel
Mar. 4th, 2022 04:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsBuffy the Vampire Slayer: 1x07 – Angel
This episode was…weird. Pretty good, but a little…disorganized. Like maybe it was rewritten a couple of times, but not fully so there are a few different ideas that are vestiges of other drafts but don’t quite make sense in the final analysis. And some of it is because it ends up weirdly staged in ways that don’t work for what’s written.
And Angel himself is kind of the biggest problem. Up until the reveal that he’s a vampire most of what he’s doing make sense; and yeah it continues to work in retrospect once you know (since I always did on seeing this episode). But after that he can’t seem to settle on a personality or set of behavior.
I cannot get a read on what he’s trying to do at the end. He doesn’t even try to explain what happened when Buffy finds him with Joyce; and, sure, maybe Buffy kicked him out of there faster than what it seems when watching, but he’s not making much effort that we can see. Then he does attack Buffy at the Bronze, before he tries to explain his history. Just from those facts, I would almost be tempted to say he’s trying to suicide by cop, but that’s still not the way it’s played. He’s not acting like he wants to die and/or thinks he deserves to; but he’s also not just resigning himself to Buffy not listening to him and accepting that this is how it’s going to end; but he also isn’t trying to explain what happened with any urgency. There are shades of all those possible reactions, but they don’t jive together.
Even just from this episode it’s pretty clear why they would decide to bring Darla back later. Because she already has a much bigger place in the show’s mythology than was explored at all in the show. Since this is the first episode to where Angel is a prominent character (or a character in general) I’m sure his backstory wasn’t seen as that big a deal until now. But even just having Angel become a regular part of the story (and then much more so when he became the lead of his own show) then such a big part of his backstory deserved more exploration and a better send-off.
That said, just from this season, I would not have been particularly interested in seeing any more of Darla. Aside from when she’s actually got a plan she’s working on, she’s mostly just annoying.
And this episode is kind of awkward because it kind of goes against what the show has been set up to do in a few spots. I’m necessarily complaining that Buffy can’t take on the Three at the beginning and Angel has to help out. But at the same time, is does read much more traditional story than this show has been. The weak looking girl is in fact too weak to save herself and has to be helped by a mysterious shadowy man. And I think that’s the difference; that Buffy can need help is just a factor of the show, or there would be no other characters; but needing to be *rescued* seems out of step with what the show has been doing.
On top of which, it made we wonder if vampires are that susceptible to being kicked in the junk. I guess there’s no reason it wouldn’t still be a good place to attack, and Buffy is the Slayer so we’re not saying that just anyone can kick them in the crotch and get that effect. But it did strike me as something I could question.
And then there’s the fact that anytime the Three fail they offer up their lives as penance. Not just that the only way to make that work is if new vamps are inducted as the Three, which probably means there has to be a leader who designates who the Three are. But…how would anyone know about that part of their creed? And not just assume that the next time a group called the Three shows up there’s just coopting the name?
This is also the episode that gives rise to the ‘fell on a barbeque fork’ excuse for vampire bites. Do the doctors in Sunnydale know that’s a crock of shit and that’s just the agreed on thing to say? Because there have to have been several recent deaths from falling on barbeque forks.
I almost want to do a reflection on how the Scoobies decide here to make sure Buffy knows Angel wasn’t responsible for the attack on Joyce, and then think forward on the end of s2. But not for the reason I think a lot of people get mad at The Lie (tm), because I wouldn’t have actually blamed them for not rushing out to say something this time. Just because Angel didn’t attack Joyce, they don’t know at the time that he’s any different from the vampire that did. They’ve been talking for half the episode about how Buffy will probably have to stake him with no prior evidence that he deserved it (and evidence that he did before something got switched in him).
The other thing is a long running…not quite problem, but lingering doubt in the show. Because saying that vampires aren’t people and have no morals is…murky. Because morality is in so many ways a social construct, and a product of our surroundings. As vampires are born from humans who already have experiences, the show even points out that they have all their old memories, and they do have a societal structure that needs elements of ‘morality,’ they can’t be completely without it, or at least the ability to have it.
However, we are told and shown repeatedly that more than dietary requirements and level of UV aversion changes when a person becomes a vampire. Their whole perception of ‘morality’ changes; and even if they need a kind of morality to interact in vampire society, it’s separate from their morality as concerns human society. What TVD calls ‘the switch’ to turn off their emotions goes further in Buffy; something is gone in them, and something else has taken its place. The show’s rules on that get pretty fuzzy at times down the road, but this is what they laid out from the start.
What am I shipping?
This episode is kind of full of things I wish I shipped. I almost wish I shipped Buffy/Angel because there is a version of their dynamic that I could probably get into. I just don’t like Angel enough to want to see things through that lens.
It’s still weird that I’m not getting on board with Willow/Xander from the start. I like them both as characters (Willow more than Xander) and am inclined to ship them based on the crush we’re seeing. But I’m not feeling much chemistry between them; not that there has been a ton of opportunities for us to see their chemistry without Buffy around to muddy the waters. I guess that was why last episode at least got me to see that I could see shipping it even if I don’t yet.
I even kind of wish I shipped Giles/Joyce, at least in concept. It could have been an interesting concept where I’d look at the beginning here as acorns of something down the road. But because I don’t have those set of shipping goggles, I also don’t see what we’re introduced to as shippable.
This episode was…weird. Pretty good, but a little…disorganized. Like maybe it was rewritten a couple of times, but not fully so there are a few different ideas that are vestiges of other drafts but don’t quite make sense in the final analysis. And some of it is because it ends up weirdly staged in ways that don’t work for what’s written.
And Angel himself is kind of the biggest problem. Up until the reveal that he’s a vampire most of what he’s doing make sense; and yeah it continues to work in retrospect once you know (since I always did on seeing this episode). But after that he can’t seem to settle on a personality or set of behavior.
I cannot get a read on what he’s trying to do at the end. He doesn’t even try to explain what happened when Buffy finds him with Joyce; and, sure, maybe Buffy kicked him out of there faster than what it seems when watching, but he’s not making much effort that we can see. Then he does attack Buffy at the Bronze, before he tries to explain his history. Just from those facts, I would almost be tempted to say he’s trying to suicide by cop, but that’s still not the way it’s played. He’s not acting like he wants to die and/or thinks he deserves to; but he’s also not just resigning himself to Buffy not listening to him and accepting that this is how it’s going to end; but he also isn’t trying to explain what happened with any urgency. There are shades of all those possible reactions, but they don’t jive together.
Even just from this episode it’s pretty clear why they would decide to bring Darla back later. Because she already has a much bigger place in the show’s mythology than was explored at all in the show. Since this is the first episode to where Angel is a prominent character (or a character in general) I’m sure his backstory wasn’t seen as that big a deal until now. But even just having Angel become a regular part of the story (and then much more so when he became the lead of his own show) then such a big part of his backstory deserved more exploration and a better send-off.
That said, just from this season, I would not have been particularly interested in seeing any more of Darla. Aside from when she’s actually got a plan she’s working on, she’s mostly just annoying.
And this episode is kind of awkward because it kind of goes against what the show has been set up to do in a few spots. I’m necessarily complaining that Buffy can’t take on the Three at the beginning and Angel has to help out. But at the same time, is does read much more traditional story than this show has been. The weak looking girl is in fact too weak to save herself and has to be helped by a mysterious shadowy man. And I think that’s the difference; that Buffy can need help is just a factor of the show, or there would be no other characters; but needing to be *rescued* seems out of step with what the show has been doing.
On top of which, it made we wonder if vampires are that susceptible to being kicked in the junk. I guess there’s no reason it wouldn’t still be a good place to attack, and Buffy is the Slayer so we’re not saying that just anyone can kick them in the crotch and get that effect. But it did strike me as something I could question.
And then there’s the fact that anytime the Three fail they offer up their lives as penance. Not just that the only way to make that work is if new vamps are inducted as the Three, which probably means there has to be a leader who designates who the Three are. But…how would anyone know about that part of their creed? And not just assume that the next time a group called the Three shows up there’s just coopting the name?
This is also the episode that gives rise to the ‘fell on a barbeque fork’ excuse for vampire bites. Do the doctors in Sunnydale know that’s a crock of shit and that’s just the agreed on thing to say? Because there have to have been several recent deaths from falling on barbeque forks.
I almost want to do a reflection on how the Scoobies decide here to make sure Buffy knows Angel wasn’t responsible for the attack on Joyce, and then think forward on the end of s2. But not for the reason I think a lot of people get mad at The Lie (tm), because I wouldn’t have actually blamed them for not rushing out to say something this time. Just because Angel didn’t attack Joyce, they don’t know at the time that he’s any different from the vampire that did. They’ve been talking for half the episode about how Buffy will probably have to stake him with no prior evidence that he deserved it (and evidence that he did before something got switched in him).
The other thing is a long running…not quite problem, but lingering doubt in the show. Because saying that vampires aren’t people and have no morals is…murky. Because morality is in so many ways a social construct, and a product of our surroundings. As vampires are born from humans who already have experiences, the show even points out that they have all their old memories, and they do have a societal structure that needs elements of ‘morality,’ they can’t be completely without it, or at least the ability to have it.
However, we are told and shown repeatedly that more than dietary requirements and level of UV aversion changes when a person becomes a vampire. Their whole perception of ‘morality’ changes; and even if they need a kind of morality to interact in vampire society, it’s separate from their morality as concerns human society. What TVD calls ‘the switch’ to turn off their emotions goes further in Buffy; something is gone in them, and something else has taken its place. The show’s rules on that get pretty fuzzy at times down the road, but this is what they laid out from the start.
What am I shipping?
This episode is kind of full of things I wish I shipped. I almost wish I shipped Buffy/Angel because there is a version of their dynamic that I could probably get into. I just don’t like Angel enough to want to see things through that lens.
It’s still weird that I’m not getting on board with Willow/Xander from the start. I like them both as characters (Willow more than Xander) and am inclined to ship them based on the crush we’re seeing. But I’m not feeling much chemistry between them; not that there has been a ton of opportunities for us to see their chemistry without Buffy around to muddy the waters. I guess that was why last episode at least got me to see that I could see shipping it even if I don’t yet.
I even kind of wish I shipped Giles/Joyce, at least in concept. It could have been an interesting concept where I’d look at the beginning here as acorns of something down the road. But because I don’t have those set of shipping goggles, I also don’t see what we’re introduced to as shippable.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-05 04:17 am (UTC)I even kind of wish I shipped Giles/Joyce,
I do like them as a potential couple, though I don't think I started feeling those vibes until later episodes. I realize this doesn't fit particularly well with shipping Giles/Buffy, though :P
no subject
Date: 2022-03-05 05:07 am (UTC)I mean, from Joyce's view in s1, it would be single mom dates daughter's favorite teacher (who isn't even one who grades her). He seems a good influence on Buffy, so she knows they'll get along, and this Giles guy seems like a good catch. And if they break up, no real harm or deep foul, the relationships can probably go back to status quo as she sees it. I think it's different in the later seasons, but I kind of think Joyce might sometimes think it makes sense for her and Giles to work as a unit to help/support/etc. Buffy.
But for Giles, he's there to be on Team Buffy. We see with Jenny that romantic interests are not as important as Buffy. So it really wouldn't work to put any of the three of them in a position where Giles has to choose between Buffy and Joyce, or Buffy has to choose between Giles and Joyce. And seeing as he would still be sending Buffy out to fight all the goolies, the chance of some big fights and disagreements would be pretty high.
Also
I realize this doesn't fit particularly well with shipping Giles/Buffy, though :P
This is very true.