Ep notes: "Release" and "Orpheus"

[snick_backup]

Regarding Willow/Fred: "I believe the subtext here is rapidly becoming, uh, text." And I pretty much loved the irony of Willow pumping Wesley, of all people, for Fred tidbits. I also enjoyed the scene for knowing the RL Alyson/Alexis romance going on at the time.

It was rather nice to see brand new Willow footage, however little she interests me by this point in her development. Also clapped with glee when Willow put the smackdown on Cordelia/whoever's magical attempts. Take that, Ats; over here at BtVS we've got a megawitch who can totally take your big bad. Hah.

I suspect that "Orpheus" is a very good episode for people who like Angel. Head trips are always fun, and I quite enjoyed the parts where Angelus and Faith couldn't hit each other and were stuck with talking. Angelus without his physical menace just isn't much, you know?

I'm actually a little disappointed with the Faith parts of these two episodes; this is very much Angel/Angelus's show, and she seems to be around mostly to play punching bag, both emotionally and physically. She had a number of nice moments with Wes, though. And I love that he thinks she has to be as vicious as Angelus to beat him, but that Faith's non-vicious plan wins the day. He's trying to hand on wisdom, but she's in a better place than him, now. She's climbed her way out of her dark hole, and he's still wallowing in his.

Okay, now I feel sorry for Connor. I mean, I've always felt sorry for Connor. He's gotten a bum deal all the way along; no question being fed propaganda while surviving in a hell dimension for 17 years could screw a person up. But we never got to see any of that; it was all tell.

Whereas this icky pod!Cordy manipulation just pulls my heartstrings for the boy. Serious, serious power imbalance issues in this, ah, "relationship". Kid has no basis from which to evaluate her words/actions towards him; is it any wonder if he ends up more confused than ever? I want to just take him someplace with plenty of vampires to stake and silly movies to watch and people to watch them with him with whom he has no previous history.

Comments

[ever-neutral.livejournal.com]

And I love that he thinks she has to be as vicious as Angelus to beat him, but that Faith's non-vicious plan wins the day.

I just LOVE that scene though, where he gives that harrowing, ugly, vicious speech to Faith to egg her on. It is weirdly one of my all-time favorite Wesley moments, because he is actually horrifying there.

But yes, Wesley and Faith, dream team.

I always feel terrible for Connor. I mean, I sometimes want to bitch-slap him, but he just guts me.

[snickfic]

I would definitely love to see some good Wes/Faith or Wes+Faith fic.

Yeah, when I step back it's impossible not to feel sorry for Connor. He's just had a bum deal from start to finish. Doesn't mean I always want to see the whining on screen, though. *g*

[shapinglight]

What do you think of Charisma's acting as Evil!Cordy? I think she's just terrible. You can tell her heart isn't in it.

[snickfic]

Well, it definitely feels off. However, I'd been writing that off as the being possessing Cordy just not being very good at pretending to be her. I'd figured the blatant insincerity was a deliberate acting choice.

It's the fact that the writers are going there at all - spending an entire season misrepresenting a character for the purposes of plot - that just enrages me. An episode or two, okay. But this is ridiculous. (Also, I'm coming up on the big Cordy pregnancy reveal and am aghast at all the parallels with, of all things, "Expecting," which is right up there as one of the worst episodes of the generally dismal S1. That's what they pattern a major element of their season arc after?)

[shapinglight]

I think it struck a lot of people that way. Fury later said that they had to fit Charisma's pregnancy into the season somehow. Personally, I wish they'd kept her as Sarcastic Voice Off on the higher plane all season.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Wesley and Faith's dynamic in these episodes is what makes them great, IMO - "Oh, so you have a problem with torture now?!?" Two fucked-up people trying to get a hard job done without having any clue what it will take. The absolute heartbreak in Wesley's face when he tells Faith what she will have to be to beat him, and his smile at the end.

And on a slightly bigger metaphorical level, I love Connor curtly going "She was brave and she died in battle" and then Faith's first action when she wakes up is to smack Connor around a bit. Yay for hero(in)es who get the job done by living rather than sacrificing themselves. (I just wish there'd been some payoff in canon to Angel's slightly iffy "You and me pay for everything" line... Uh, one of you killed half of Europe, dude. Not to downplay Faith's own crimes, but...)

And Angelus acting like a big dork when he sees Angel rescuing a puppy.

OK, there's a lot I love in these episodes. Up to and including the lame joke on the commentary track about the lightshow when Angel and Angelus get put back together; "That's not a special effect, by the way, we just had David do that."

[snickfic]

Yay for hero(in)es who get the job done by living rather than sacrificing themselves.

Yes, yes. At that point I yelled at Connor, "Hello, she's not dead yet!"

Angel's slightly iffy "You and me pay for everything" line...

Well, I manage to watch this show by rolling my eyes at pretty much everything Angel says and carefully taking none of it to heart. But I do hear you.

I did enjoy pretty much all of Angelus being upset about Angel. We hadn't really seen anything get under his skin until that point, and it was very satisfying.

As far as the joke, it must not have been that lame, because it's been cracking me up every time I've thought of it for the last two days... *g*