Not that I hadn’t already figured that out, but you get the picture. Like Jeffrey Bell (writer, first-time director, and co-executive producer) said in the commentaries, this is the most un-Angelic Angel episode opening ever. I mean, The Beach Boys singing “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”? If your warning lamps didn’t light up before this, they certainly must have now. (Speaking of “Wouldn’t it be nice”, the last time I heard that was when I watched Michael Moore’s “Roger & Me”, one of the best documentaries I know of. Not that I really know of that many documentaries, but hey. Anyway, it was used when he rode his cars through his old neighbourhood, shooting old, derelict houses and empty factories. That one was sad, this one was scary, I don’t think any of those two emotions were what The Beach Boys hoped to envoke in their listeners when they wrote the song. Poor Brian Wilson.)

So. “The Magic Bullet”. Yet another teen mov… oh wait. That was wrong. Yet another good episode, was what I was supposed to say. An episode which picks up the mind control theme from the receeding one kind of immedeately. You have the shiny, happy people strolling around LA, with “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” as a soundtrack, and with people driving a BMW 700 series stopping for pedestrians. Then comes Fred, our own little Doctor Kimble, chased through the streets by Gunn and Wes, ironically. It’s alomst like some kind of a secret police chasing a dissenting woman in some kind of authoritarian state. An image which is furthered later in the episode, when conspiracy theory guy sets fire to a book called “Ten Steps To Freewill”. Neat-o.

Anotherthing I noticed, was that the Jasminian society kinda seems like a distorted conservative dreamland. Those of you who know anything at all about classic conservativism know that those people see society as an organism, where different classes are seen as the different parts of that organism. Here, that is taken to the extreme, with Jasmine and her closest circle almost becoming the same consciousness. More of that mind control stuff. Anti authoritarianism is always neat. I don’t think I’ll go into any specific details about drawing parallells between this and the current state in the US, but now that I mention it… well, I quote Jeffrey Bell again: You’re smart people. You understand what I mean. (Or what I hint at; I’m not sure if I really mean anything any longer.)

Oh, and they’re burning books, too. You all know what’ll come next then, right?

But the episode also has its funnier moments. Like the open mic night at Fellowship Hall. If that ain’t neat, I don’t know what is. To once again quote Jeffrey Bell (who worked on X-Files, and whose commentaries I really liked; he had a lot of writer’s insights into what they wanted to accomplish with this scene and that, and those kinds of things are always interesting)… oh, yeah, that’s right, the quote: “Where else would you see this on television?”

I think I’ll end this one with a tiny Lorne quote (as if there hasn’t been enough quotes already), which is uttered as he’s on his way to lead Wes and Gunn up to the room where Angel and Fred are waiting to mix their blood with Jasmine’s. Or rather Cordelia’s. Anyway, the quote goes as follows: “And the role of Judas Iscariot will be played by Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan.”

I say it again: Where else would you see this on television?