“Au contraire. His day is packed: Brood about Darla, brood
about Darla, lunch, followed by a little Darla brooding.”
I feel a bit guilty for not liking this episode more. The
structure, with its misleading opening of Wesley seemingly in a lot of trouble,
and it’s often repeated brief clip of Angel seemingly killing Kate, is a genuinely
clever piece of misdirection. The problem is that an overly abrupt ending comes
as a disappointment after the promises made earlier in the episode. Still, this
is a promising debut from new writer Jim Kouf (co-creator of Grimm). He
can handle structure well; with more experience I good things from him.
This is a Kate episode. Meh. Kate is one of those characters
that exist purely to annoy and frustrate the viewer; the authority figure who
stubbornly refuses to believe the hero under any circumstances. Worse, her
dislike of Angel, however realistically developed over the last season or so,
is, essentially, racism. I find it hard to sympathise with her. Still, I agree
with her about Darla. She’s mortal, conscience-stricken and lost, but there’s
no reason why she should not have to face justice for her crimes. All should be
equal before the law.
This episode’s McGuffin, the shroud itself, causes our
series regulars to behave rather differently. Cordelia provides the comic
relief (and, as usual, all the best lines; I love her nicely metatextual bit of
feminism about the sacrificing of virgins), but it is also interesting to see the
conflict between Angel and Gunn. We’re left to wonder how much of this is
genuine, if normally suppressed.
A few mentions of Darla aside, this is an episode of the
week, without much arc stuff going on; a rarity these days. You just know that
the next episode will be arc-heavy.
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