Where to begin?
I think, that I might actually beging with the best part of the episode, which is spite of the hilarity of the Angel plot is the very last scene, and the preceeding scenes which lead up to this one. Because this, this is where what I have been waiting for since the end of season 2, finally happens. This is where my favourite character finally experiences that things go his way, one of the first times during the show that he’s actually happy. And that he experiences this with one of my other favourites is just a bonus.
Related to this one, final scene, are a whole bunch of other small scenes. The first one, where Angel talks to Wes about Nina, and Wes comments that Angel can be quite dense, refering to Angel’s failure to see the signals Nina sends out — and then Fred comes into the room and Wes acts just as dense; this is both painful and hilarious at the same time. Second is a scene where Wes and Fred is watching “Smile Time”, and Knox enters with two coffees, one of which he gives to Fred and then acts embarassed that he forgot to bring Wes one. Following this scene is a, well, a follow-up to an earlier scene, as Fred asks Knox to go, on the pretext that at least one of them should be awake enough to run the lab the next morning. The rivalry between Knox and Wes in this scene is so apparent it almost corporealises, and I guess that, added to his professional concentration, is one of the reasons why Wes still fails to pick up on Fred’s subtext. Or would-be text, if he hadn’t interupted her. More painfully funny stuff. Finally, there’s the short scene in which they try to shut down the Nest Egg, and are ambushed by that weird puppet whose name I can’t remember at the moment. R something. Or L. Anyway, this time it’s Fred who saves Wes’ life by shooting a would-be killer. Fun parallell.
Just too bad things won’t last very long for them.
Then there’s obviously the whole puppet thing, and how being a puppet amplifies Angel’s emotions, especially the eager ones. Or so I think; the way he throws himself around Fred’s waist when she tells him there might be a way to turn him back, seems a little out of character for Angel. Even though he naturally is distressed at the moment, and distressed people are more disposed towards acting strangely, I guess. And to lend some not really needed, but still appreciated, comic weight to the episode, even though he’s a felt puppet stuffed with synthetic cotton, Angel is fully capable of beating Spike to a bloody pulp. Yay.

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Angel is, whenever he less the sombre facade fall, a very big baby, I think they’ve established that quite thoroughly in the series. So no, I don’t think doing that is out of character for him in his emotionally-overwhelmed puppet-state.
27. March 2007 @ 21:15 ( Permalink )
Yeah. I was a little unsure of whether to include that comment at all, really. After all, he has shown great enthusiasm at several point before, for instance when he got the tiny hockey sticks sometime in season 3, when he and Fred’s dad talked about boxing in “Fredless”, or when he’d bought Cordy clothes and been reconciled with her again.
27. March 2007 @ 21:23 ( Permalink )
“or when he’d bought Cordy clothes and been reconciled with her again.”
I know it’s weird, but I actually think that might be my favourite moment of the entire character.
27. March 2007 @ 21:27 ( Permalink )
I might be inclined to agree. However, there are so many to choose from, it’s almost an impossible task.
27. March 2007 @ 21:37 ( Permalink )
Gunn’s is when he kills his sister, Wesley when he shoots his “dad”, Faith when she says “step away from the glass”, and Castro when he stumbles on his way down from the podium.
27. March 2007 @ 22:20 ( Permalink )
And Fred’s when she sings “You make me happy” and then coughs blood in Wesley’s face.
28. March 2007 @ 13:03 ( Permalink )
The blood-coughing, not so much, but the singing right before, quite possibly.
Now, could you please just tell everyone else who is too busy to currently be working Miss Burkle’s case to come by my office?
28. March 2007 @ 16:53 ( Permalink )
Ah, wait, I just remembered an even better Fred one: Some time in season three, I’m pretty sure it’s “Tomorrow”, when Angel’s about to go meet Cordelia on the cliffs and believes that Connor is gonna stay with him and be his son for “real”, he is so happy that he’s actually humming and whistling, and Fred gets up from where she’s sitting, takes a stake out of Gunn’s hand (I think it’s Gunn, but it’s not really important), goes over to where Angel’s standing, pokes him in the ribs, and says, “But you’re not too happy, are you?”
That’s a great moment. Naturally not as emotional as the one where she sings, but still great.
And that quote: Goosebumps!
28. March 2007 @ 20:52 ( Permalink )
There’s nothing about “A Hole in the World” I don’t love to pieces, and that’s the truth.
28. March 2007 @ 21:42 ( Permalink )
I’d forgotten - I saw this episode again yesterday, and I’d forgotten that it was in this one, the last one before “A Hole in the World”, that Wesley and Fred got together.
In the final scene.
Meaning they got exactly one scene of bliss together (which for Wesley is pretty much the only bliss he ever had in his eight years on the shows), and then the episode where she dies.
MAN, Joss is evil.
2. April 2007 @ 09:39 ( Permalink )
Like he and his padawans are saying all the time: Happy characters aren’t interesting, so they always throw in some suffering. Something Wesley must be the prime example of; hardly even Buffy or Angel have suffered as much as that poor guy…
2. April 2007 @ 13:22 ( Permalink )