It feels a little jarring to be thrown into a comedy episode right in the middle of a dark and dramatic Darla arc, but Guise Will Be Guise still exists as a strong, tightly scripted comedic detour. At the same time, Jane Espenson showcases her knack for making character-driven comedy by giving Wesley some additional depth and strength. He's still a lot of fun, but already his wacky season one persona feels like a million years ago. The episode allows him to evolve from bumbling comic relief to a real hero, saving the day and getting the girl. It took literally becoming somebody else to allow Wesley to discover the confidence and strength of a hero.I liked Virginia. She's a strong character with the sass at the end, and I could understand why she'd be attracted to Wesley, and why he'd be attracted to her. The story she was introduced in was similarly enjoyable. It was one of those very Angel stories involving power-hungry Los Angeles types, and the ending with the fugly fat lady demon-thing was ridiculous in a positive way.
Angel's subplot was interesting, even if it did turn out that the T'ish Migav was a fraud. He actually knew a lot about Angel's character, assumed or otherwise, and it was interesting to see Angel confronted with some harsher truths. Angel also got involved in the funny at the end, too, and I loved his comments about not being a eunuch. That's become a classic scene for him.
In some ways Guise Will Be Guise was a filler episode, but it added enough to Wesley's character to make the whole thing kind of important. Fun, a whole bunch of silly, and universally well-performed. B+
Credits
Guest stars Andy Hallett (Lorne); Art LaFleur (T'ish Magev); Brigid Brannagh (Virginia Bryce); Patrick Kilpatrick (Paul Lanier); Todd Susman (Magnus Bryce)
Writer Jane Espenson Director Krishna Rao
There still seems to be a bit of ambiguity about how Angel gets happy, I thought it was interesting to see all the hearsay and rumours surrounding it and that it got challenged by the fake zen master, but there still seems to be a bit of ambiguity for the characters including Angel. Maybe he was a bit shy or he's just aware of how volatile the situation can be (like the drug incident) but he only went evil because he was in love when it happened! It's not just going to happen with any random woman but he can't really risk it can he. But maybe it is like the drugging thing, I don't know anymore!
ReplyDeleteThe eunuch thing was really funny.. the way Bryce said it like it was so holy and Angel's just like 'Nooo!!' but Gunn's comment about Virginia wasn't good, nope, wish they didn't put that in.