Angel

Fred: "It’s like an M.C. Escher picture, but with wires and flesh instead of geese."

For the past four years, Wesley has made occasional offhand comments about his father, the man who put the "D" in Dysfunctional. I’ve often thought that Wesley’s father should guest star some day and die a suitably gruesome death at the hands of some skanky demon. I must admit I never expected Wesley to empty an entire clip into him.

Alexis Denisof already has my heart, and this episode just made me love him more. We saw Wesley’s strength and determination, his desire to do good, his loyalty to his friends, and his love for Fred. We also saw reminders of the old Wesley, the pratfall Wesley, who seemed to show up every time that Roger belittled him. Equally strong performance by Roy Dotrice as Roger Wyndham-Pryce; he was perfect for the part, and so easy to despise.

Despite the clues (Roger knew how to disarm the self-destruct device, and showed way too much interest in Wesley’s security measures), I was still completely taken in. I thought Roger was probably after something very important to the Watcher’s Council. I also actually believed for several seconds that Wesley had killed his real father. So did Dan.

Buffy continuity was just delightful here. Spike talked about people and robots having sexual relationships; I wonder where he got that idea? :) My favorite was Angel and Spike both trying to comfort Wesley by describing their own parent-killing experiences.

While Spike was mostly comic relief, he had two particularly fine moments. He saved Gunn’s life by figuring out how to punch *through* Gunn and hit the cyborg. And he had a serious confrontation with Eve about the amulet. The reason for Spike’s current incorporeal condition is still a big question mark. Was the amulet meant for Angel, or for Spike? And hey, is Eve still in the elevator? We can only hope.

Bits and pieces:

— Roy Dotrice, appropriately enough, played "Father" on "Beauty and the Beast."

— Lorne to Roger: "Well, look at you. It’s like Winston Churchill and a young Richard Harris had a beautiful love child. Which, according to my sources, may not be as ridiculous as it sounds."

— Were we ever told before that Wesley’s father was a former Watcher? I don’t think so, because I was surprised. The fact that Giles’ father and grandmother were Watchers implies that it’s an occupation that runs in families, though, so maybe I should have guessed.

— Angel and Eve talked about Connor again. After mention of "The father will kill the son" last week, I wonder if Connor is returning. Or hey, maybe Angel just needs to work through his issues.

— Lorne: "So I am covered in cherries, the police are just pounding on the door, and Judi Dench starts screaming, ’That’s way too much to pay for a pair of pants!’"

— The password is... Elysium.

— I need to stop bitching about Fred passing up a guy like Wesley for Knox, who is still an unknown quantity. But I can’t help myself. What can that girl be thinking?

— What were the Ninja Cyborgs really after? Were those pitiful things white hats or black hats? Why did they want to control Angel?

— I have a cat named Spike. (Three guesses whom I named him after.) He loves to knock things off tables for the sake of seeing them fall. When Spike pushed the beaker off the shelf in the lab scene, I laughed out loud.

— In 1963, Spike was slaughtering an orphanage in Vienna?

— In this week’s hair report, Fred managed to look dangerous and professional, and a lot of it was her hairdo. Well, okay, some of it was her mannerisms, and the really big gun.

Five stakes, of course. This is the best episode of the season so far,

Billie http://www.geocities.com/billiedoux/