There's a great moment towards the end of Happy Anniversary in which Lorne criticizes Angel for losing track of his mission, telling him that his recent decision to cut ties and embark on a road of vengeance is the type of thing reserved for lesser beings, not somebody as noble and heroic as he normally is. It's the strongest representation of what's occurred over the last couple of episodes, Angel for the first time stating his reasoning for firing his employees and attacking back at Wolfram & Hart. He hates those guys, his friends were getting in his way, and he's lost interest in pursuing redemption, considering it an impossible outcome.Both characters work crazily well together, their banter being just as ridiculous as it is insightful. They make a strong detective duo, too, chasing leads to find the source of the drama, and Lorne even joining in when they got attacked by those fairytale-looking monsters (Joss sure does love his ghoulish men in dinner suits). We need to see more of Lorne's high-pitched wail of kick-ass.
The 'end of the world' story is intriguing, if a little tragic. Of course, it does mark yet another unfortunate Whedonverse trope with the nerd who seems fine with casual assault of the women around them. The trio on Buffy did it, Topher did it on Dollhouse. Here we have a guy who is seemingly fine with trapping his girlfriend in an eternal rape-freeze. Ick. However, the story worked really well, despite the moral issues. The science was probably kabluey, but I was really affected by Gene's fear of losing the one loving person in his life. Obviously he took it way too far, but those pre-'cosmic sex assault' scenes were powerful.
Elsewhere, this was by far the best use of Cordy, Wes and Gunn since they were fired. I loved Virginia's re-appearance, and how can you not get a kick out of that completely wacko scene with Wesley doing his best Miss Marple impression, Cordelia picking at the hors d'ouevres and little old ladies being exposed as demon-raisers.
Like Blood Money, this episode collided together standalone elements with separate parts from the various story arcs at work right now, and I adored most of it. Lorne and Angel's buddy act was hilarious and absorbing, and I got completely absorbed in by the various subplots this week, too. The show continues to fire on all cylinders. A
Credits
Guest stars Andy Hallett (Lorne); Brigid Brannagh (Virginia Bryce); Matt Champagne (Gene Rainey); Darby Stanchfield (Denise); Mike Hagerty (Bartender)
Teleplay David Greenwalt Story Joss Whedon, David Greenwalt Director Bill Norton
This was a really fun episode! I was surprised by how happy I was to have Lorne stick around- he's faithfully obnoxious and knows how to make a point, that wail was so necessary! (hilarious)
ReplyDeleteIt was satisfying to hear
Angel voice what's been going on with him.
The casual assault of women does seem to be a recurring theme but there are always so many insipidly damaging terms used towards women without a second thought, it's almost expected that a really nerdy guy when asked 'what would you do if you ruled the world' is going to make some kind of joke of having a legion of obeying robot women at their side, like even if it is a joke the reality of that could be really gross- maybe Joss just heard it too much and got pissed off!
I thought it was a nice change to hear how genuinely sorry the scientist was when he realised what he could've done, hopefully he was supposed to be sorry about everything.
That's interesting about damaging terms towards women, since it's always something I'm conscious of. I mean, I'm always pretty happy tossing around 'bitch' in regards to characters on TV, but seeing or hearing refer to actual people as 'bitches' has really rattled me recently. I remember describing Charmed characters as 'sluts' and 'whores' back in the day, but the thought of me doing that makes me cringe now.
ReplyDeleteIt's complicated, but it's just unpleasant to reduce yourself to that level of insult, especially when the person you're directing it to doesn't at all warrant that kind of treatment.
Ah, went off on a tangent there.
Good on you sonny boy! It's good to see people caring about these things.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's just derogatory without reason, very loaded and so casually passed. Those kind of terms have become so encompassing and synonymous with a type of behaviour that could be described with other words and about males as well, to use words that have been placed solely as 'female' insults fuels the culture that females are defined by these behaviours and not the individual, I don't even think it makes much of a difference calling a man a 'whore' etc, because the word still has it's roots and is cultured to be much more validated when said to a woman. So funny actually how there are gendered swear words actually, I can think of a load that are specific to just men and women. Innocuous sexism hmm
oof.. Bitch is a difficult one.. I've been guilty of that. I don't like that it's gendered but maybe it's seen as milder because it refers to a 'beast' (sounds so medieval! but I only say it because of the word 'beastly').. If I do use it (not much of a swearer actually except the English kind- might I add, some of the words Spike gets away with are actually pretty strong haha) I tend to describe behaviour as being bitchy rather than an actual person but it's not really any better is it?
Agreed about the historical connotations. I guess we have 'man-whore', but there's no similar 'male' world for 'mistress', for example. It's so ingrained in our culture, though, and if anything it's become even more casual to label women 'bitches' or something like that.
ReplyDeleteAnd, like you said, "bitch" is complicated. Thinking about it, I usually use it as a term of endearment online. I would describe characters like Alexis Carrington or Amanda Woodward as "badass bitches", or "hell-bitch" in an overtly campy way, and I think that's kind of awesome. But when you read, I don't know, Facebook comments where people are literally describing people as "stupid bitches" (or, even worse, a "skank" or something), it crosses into that really ugly area that personally rattles me and radically turns me off the person saying it.
It's difficult, but I think you need to just be aware of how words can hurt, and how generally it's horrible to slur people with such heavy, emotionally-strong words. It's all sort of after-school special and obvious, but it's absolutely the fundamental thing people need to learn in order to make society better.
Well said!
ReplyDelete