"Think Daredevil #181. I'm Bullseye, you're Elektra."
Wow. That was a bit good, A superb script, a quirky concept, geeky in-jokes, great character stuff, a Fred episode, and Amy Acker shows us just how extraordinary she is when really called upon to really act our socks off. She's always excellent, but she's extraordinary here.
It's an origin story, of sorts; dabbling in a bit of physics again sees Fred publishing "just a little breakthrough in quantum particles" in an academic journal, leading initially to screams of delight and getting a bit jiggy with Gunn, but ultimately to Fred being invited to lecture at her old uni, a daunting prospect indeed. Even more daunting is a portal opening in the middle of your speech and a worryingly phallic CGI demon doing rude things to you.
Of course, the main focus here is the fact that Fred's old professor sent her (and other promising postgrad students) off to Pylea out of sheer professional jealousy, and for the first time ever we see Fred getting all vengeful and scary, which Amy Acker gives us both convincingly and without holding back. It's up to Gunn to restrain her and Wesley, who blatantly still carries a torch (he just isn't that into Lilah although she, admittedly not without cynicism, blatantly at least fancies him), to gently aid her with her dish served cold. And it's the ultimate act of love for Gunn to throw the prof into Pylea himself so she doesn't have it on her conscience- although we don't really see her reaction.
We also get Cordy gently telling Connor that she doesn't like him that way and, seeming a little more herself, visiting Angel to ask him, in the last line of the episode, "Were we in love?" Naturally we are left hanging. We also get the clear implication, often hinted st, that while Gunn may not be a card-carrying geek, he knows his Marvel. Good man.
This is, so far, a bloody good season. But this episode stands out, it really does. A beautifully crafted bit of telly.
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