Wednesday, June 17, 2009

DVD review - Buffy season 5/Angel season 2 episodes 12

Continuing my viewing and reviewing of Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 5 and Angel season 2...

*** SPOILERS ***

B5-12: Checkpoint (written by Petri and Espenson, airdate 1/23/01)

The second half of the season kicks off with a bang. The Council of Watchers come to down to "assess" Buffy - by interogating her friends, analyzing her fighting skills and even threatening Giles. You can see at the beginning it throws her. But once Glory shows up and threatens her family, and then the Knights attack her - all wanting to get "the key", the lightbulb goes off in Buffy's head. She knows what they all want - the power she has. And she spells it out to the Council just how it is going to be - they work with her or get the hell out of her way. Loved her speech, loved the support of her friends and Giles. Even Spike helps out, in his own way - whether he wants to or not (oh, and he does because he wants to show Buffy he cares). The little character bits are also good in this one - Willow and Tara being questioned together, Xander and Anya "I'm not a demon, I was born on the 4th of July" being questioned together, one of Spike's questioners having written a thesis on him, and Spike and Joyce sharing a love for "Passions". All these things, while small, just add to the rich tapestry that is this show. Oh, and the revelation that Glory is a god - that's going to take some time to absorb.


A2-12: Blood Money (written by Ryan and Smith, airdate 1/23/01)

We don't get a lot of the three amigos (Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn) this episode - but what we get is a nice counterpoint to the main episode plot. Angel is on a quest to defame Wolfram and Hart, and he finds a way via Anne, who runs a teen shelter that W&H is using as a front. Angel finds out they plan a fundraiser to "benefit" the shelter but ultimately it will see only 5% if lucky. The plan is brilliant with lots of twists and turns, putting Lindsey and Lilah in the cat-bird seat. I really like how this one played out and it shows Angel still is on the side of helping others while discrediting his enemies. That last fews scenes bring it all home: Lilah and Lindsey find out why Angel must not be killed (and that they are expendable - burn!), and Angel and Boone settle their match once and for all (with Anne coming out the winner!). A nice one-off episode.

2 comments:

Michael O'Connell said...

ANGEL: Okay, help me out here. So we know that this is not just the same actress who played in the Buffy series, but the same character - it's "Anne", who, at the end of the season 3 opener, asked Buffy if she could use the name "Anne". So now here she is again, running into Angel. Correct me if I'm wrong, but did her and Angel not have a talk in the underground wanna-be vampire lair back in Buffy season 2? Again, we KNOW it's the same character because in this ep she mentions how she used to be a vampire wanna-be. Yet, neither recognize each other. Someone as obsessed with vampires as her would FORGET Angel? And Angel, who remembers people he met for two minutes on the street two hundred YEARS ago would forget her after three years? This whole thing just struck me as bad continuity, which is one of my biggest pet peeves. It basically says, "Well, I know that fact is in the way of what we just came up with, but it's okay - our fans are pretty stupid, so they won't notice".

Other than that...yeah, good episode. Anything with lots of Lindsey and Lilah is always win. Loved the Boone character. And how could you NOT love Cordy and Wes camcorder wackiness? Meta joke I loved - when one of the wealthy folks at the fundraiser asks one of the actresses, "So what's the thing with making your character gay? Was that just for ratings, or what?". Heh.

Martin Maenza said...

If that was uspposed to be that same "Anne", I missed that. The two should have remembered one another. Very weak tie-in to past continuity if you ask me.