Apocalypse Nowish (or Joss is the Devil)
POSTED BY: bobknaptor
UPDATED: Thursday, January 9, 2003 03:00
VIEWED: 14319
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Ok, first, a warning... Since the episode has already aired, I am not going to use the spoiler tags... if you live somewhere that hasn't shown this episode and don't like spoilers... don't read this thread.
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OK, enough fair warning. Allow me to just say "WHAT THE.... HUH?" Oh my gosh, what a crazy episode full of plot twisty goodness!
First, I have to say, two VERY disturbing sex scenes in this episode. First Wesley and Lilah, which is always a bit unsettling, but this one even more so because Lilah was pretending to be Fred. It was just... wrong! And then Cordelia giving Connor the pity f*ck! what was that all about??? Whoever mentioned Oedipus when talking about Connor before, I would like to second and third that....
Demon/devil guy was very scary. I can't begin to imagine how he'll be vanquished. But, about this guy... I have to say... I was very disappointed to see Joss using the Christianized idea of the devil for this unstoppable demon. (I'm talking about the goat legs here...) The Christian devil's description is almost identical to the pagan god Pan. Who, although, obviously not perfect (he was known to, on occassion, rape unwilling women), he is not an "evil" god. He is the god of Wine, Women and Song, not unlike the Roman Bacchus or the Greek Dionysus. He celebrated in drink and orgy the joys of life and creation. So, I was disapointed to see Joss backing that Christianized idea of the "ultimate evil". (end of my religious rant for now.)
Ok, other craziness in the episode...
Fred and Gunn are sounding like they are on their way out. Poor Gunn. He gave up so much to save Fred from herself, and it looks like he gave up something that was too important to her. It seems to me like both of them would rather have sacrificed that part of themselves to save the other from that sacrifice. I'm not sure if there would be a happy ending if the professor had survived... but I think if either one of them had done the dirty work, it would still have been the end of their relationship.
It's nice to see Wesley back fighting with the gang. I've missed him a lot this season. And Oh my gosh, was he ever tough looking with those guns as he shot the heck out of the big demony guy! I loved the little homage to the Matrix there... shooting two handed, dropping those guns and grabbing another from behind his back. Beautiful.
(I missed who wrote and directed this one. Was it the man himself? or someone else? It was amazing and left me totally speachless when the credits came up. I can't believe next week is a rerun!)
And one more thing I want to add here.... If this apocolypse is a completely different apocolypse from the Sunnydale impending doom, I will be greatly disappointed. I absolutely refuse to believe that Willow could be in England and sense the big bad rising in Sunnydale, but be in Sunnydale and not sense a big bad rising in LA, just a couple hours drive away. By the same token,I can't believe that Cordy in her higher plane of consciousness, could sense the big brewin' evil in LA, but have no idea of the big brewin' evil in her hometown on the hellmouth. So the real question... how does big evil in LA get to Sunnydale to be the big evil that's been stirring up trouble there? Any ideas?
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Impending doom... almost as good as warm milk.
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Ok, here's my whole thing on the Cordy-Connor EWWW-EWWW-EWWW-ness.
One thing I noticed about the episode was that most of Cordelia's compliments to Connor come in the form of comparisons to Angel. She notes that Angel has the nack for saying the right thing, which is something she loves about him. Then she turn around and compliments Connor for the same quality. She comments on Connor's stealthiness, saying it must be genetic. In my humble opinion, she's can't have the real Angel, so she goes for the next nearest thing.
In conclusion, EWWW!
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Still unhappy? Okey-doke. I've got two words that are going to take all the pain away: Miniature. Golf.
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Writer: Steven S. DeKnight
Director: Vince Gillum
I'm also hoping the Buffy and Angel dilemmas are somehow tied together. At the very least, they should make the seperation of the two events somehow feasible.
However, I'm not entirely convinced that The Beast is the full-on, season long 'big bad' for Angel the series. I suspect he is dispatched by February sweeps and that Angelus is the actual big bad.
mattro
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Maybe so... I like that better than the idea of the pity f*ck. It seems to me like this little adventure is going to cause much much much more chaos and struggle within the group, though.
I think that with the big impending doom, Angel could have safely slept with Cordy and NOT had his moment of perfect happiness (the curse doesn't say the moment he has an orgasm. In fact, he didn't lose his soul the moment he had sex with Buffy, he lost it later, when she fell asleep in his arms and he was holding her after sex. He didn't lose his soul with Darla.) Maybe the knowledge that the entire world could end at any minute would be stressful enough that sex with Cordy wouldn't have turned him all GRRR again.
Either way, the episode ended, for me at least, on a great big "EEEEWWWWW". I was grossed out at her kissing Connor... but sleeping with him? That's not right! I would say that has ruined any and all hope of any Angel/Cordy relationship. Angel is too good a man to steal a woman from his son, especially the one he lost his virginity to, one he so obviously loves. I think we are going to have some very awkward times ahead, even if it wasn't the big apocolypse in the air.
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Complete sentences... I've been working on it.
Darn that simultaneous posting... 
in response to mattros statement, I would like to see this guy dispatched quickly. He was reminding me an awful lot of glory last night (in that whole "unstoppable fighting" way...). Thanks for the info. I missed it last night in the credits.
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Yeah, Angel and Cordelia aren't ever going to be together. I couldn't be happier.
Oh, and as for the Angel-curse-loophole: It's a delayed reaction. Angel was drugged once with similar effects, but he didn't immediately go evil.
As for the Darla thing, Angel did not lose his soul becasue it was not a moment of pure happiness. It was a moment of pure dispair. He did not love Darla.
And as you may remember, Buffy and Angel were fairly certain it was the end of the line for both of them when they made love. Didn't seem to take the fun out of it for Angel.
The truth is that Angel and Cordy would never have worked out for the same reasons it didn't work out with Buffy. And I'm of the opinion that if all barriers were removed, and Angel could be with who he wanted to he'd be left with a choice: Buffy or Cordelia. I don't think for one minute that Angel would choose Cordy over Buffy.
I'm not saying this because I'm some scary BA Shipper that flames anyone that proposes another relationship, I'm just calling it as I see it. Even to this day, the writers continue to distinguish the Buffy-Angel relationship as something very different from other relationships on the shows. Cordelia herself described Buffy as the love of Angel's life ("Heartthrob"). In "Selfless," Buffy says that she loved Angel more than she loved or will love anything else. Quotes like these are common threads through all seasons of both shows.
In short, Angel and Cordelia could never have worked, even without the Connor-bonking. In fact, I'd have to say that the whole AC romantic plotline is the dumbest thing the writers have ever come up with. I just don't buy it.
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Still unhappy? Okey-doke. I've got two words that are going to take all the pain away: Miniature. Golf.
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Yeah, it's probably a good thing. I've never thought that they really belonged together and was not real happy with the end whole "will they/won't they" tension at the end of last season before they both had their "I love you" epiphanies.
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Perky Love Muffin
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Sorry. I wanted to change the wording on that post, and it turned into a massive rant. Should have made it a seperate post. Oh, well.
________________
Still unhappy? Okey-doke. I've got two words that are going to take all the pain away: Miniature. Golf.
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[Either way, the episode ended, for me at least, on a great big "EEEEWWWWW". I was grossed out at her kissing Connor... but sleeping with him? That's not right!
I think it's the BIG KISS OFF. Conner is headed for that predetermined fate when he ices that villian who was so bad the evil beings turned him insubstantial. The Horny-Pointy-Thang is just a harebringer of the big fight.
Jeff
Who thinks the women of Angel need a lot of good steak dinners, with plenty potatoes!
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I have a theory...
It isn't Cordy. Did anyone else notice the strange looks that Cordy and the Big Bad were giving each other, between BB's smashing of Connor. In addition, this "Cordy" was a blank slate for several episodes, then Cordy's friends gave her Cordy's memories back. In addition, the entire time that she's been back, she's been flirting with Connor.
Seems to me that this "Cordy" is some kind of plant. She was there with the information implanted in her. which Lorne read. Why didn't he also read any of her experiences as a higher being? Because this isn't that Cordy. I think that Cordy is trapped, while this doppelganger, who delivers lines like a bad soap opera love scene every five seconds, is splitting up Angel and Connor even more. Charisma Charpenter isn't usually that bad of an actress, so i'm thinking it might be a clue.
She flirts with Connor and then gets herself into troubled spots so he can save her. She makes these big grandiose speeches to Angel, very similar to the ones that the shapeshifter on Buffy is doing to people.
I inted to keep watching to see if my theory proves true. If so, I get to tell my wife that I told her so!
Just my dos pesos,
Rex!
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Well at least there will be no Angel and Cordy. I've always hated them together in a romantic sort of way, it's so forced and contrived. But Cordy and Connor, let me echo that EWWWWWWWWW. This is sort of a spoiler to explain why it happened...
Select to view spoiler:
Charisma Carpenter is pregnant in real life, so the writers have incorporated it into the story. Looks like Connor's gonna be a daddy, so the whole thing is even worse and more soap opera like than it first appeared.
This season had a good start but this ep let me down. I am so bored and unmoved by Gunn and Fred. I want them to stay together though, because I don't want Fred to make Wesley suck like she made Gunn suck. Gunn's been completely emasculated since he got with the annoying little twit. He's even terrified of cute little rats, what a tough guy.
I still love Wesley and Lilah. But blech on the whole Lilah-as-Fred scenario. Can you tell I hate Fred? She needs to stay away from Wes, but of course that won't happen.
Oh, and the Beast? Not scary at all.
Warrick: You didn't have to wound that man.
Mal: Yeah, I know. It was just funny.
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