Angel Conviction
DVD Season 5, Episode 1
Tara I. – TwoCents Staff Reviewer
tara@thetwocentscorp.com
Angel Broodometer: 2
What a difference a few seasons can make! We start Season 5 with Angel leaping across tall buildings to save a young woman from a vampire. Armed with quips, kicks, and a new suit, Action Angel takes out the other vampire in a nicely choreographed fight scene.
After accepting the girl's thanks, with a lot more grace than in Season 1, Angel takes his leave only to be confronted by an entire Wolfram & Hart tactical unit. The unit pretends to be happy to hear that he's unharmed. Less happy? Angel. Especially when he discovers that he's wearing a tracking pin in his lapel. His mood gets even better when the girl is forced to sign a disclaimer (involving her immortal soul, of course) and pose for pictures.
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Angel
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DVD Season 5, Episode 1
Tara I. – TwoCents Staff Reviewer
tara@thetwocentscorp.com
Angel Broodometer: 2
What a difference a few seasons can make! We start Season 5 with Angel leaping across tall buildings to save a young woman from a vampire. Armed with quips, kicks, and a new suit, Action Angel takes out the other vampire in a nicely choreographed fight scene.
After accepting the girl's thanks, with a lot more grace than in Season 1, Angel takes his leave only to be confronted by an entire Wolfram & Hart tactical unit. The unit pretends to be happy to hear that he's unharmed. Less happy? Angel. Especially when he discovers that he's wearing a tracking pin in his lapel. His mood gets even better when the girl is forced to sign a disclaimer (involving her immortal soul, of course) and pose for pictures.
Meanwhile, back at Wolfram & Hart, Fred and Wesley are stressing out about their new positions as head of the lab and research, respectively. Less stressed out? Lorne who was put in charge of entertainment. For those who didn't watch Season 4 (or had it surgically removed from their memories, at the end of that season) Team Angel accepted an offer from Wolfram & Hart to run their L.A. office. Everyone accepted for different reasons, but the most important reason, in terms of the rest of this season, was Angel's. He accepted Wolfram & Hart's offer to provide his son, Connor, with a new life. As part of the spell, Wolfram & Hart removed all knowledge of Connor from everyone's memories (including Connor, Wesley, Fred, Gunn, and Lorne). After the spell, only Angel remembered his son.
Angel returns to Wolfram & Hart just in time to meet the new liaison to the Senior Partners: Eve (Sarah Thompson). And yes, they make the inevitable apple joke. She tells the team about “the catch” in their arrangement. The catch is that they have to help Wolfram & Hart's clients—most of whom are evil. If they don't, if they just shut down the offices, evil will just find other representation.
Angel and the gang decide to review the Wolfram & Hart client files. The contents are not encouraging. Even less encouraging for Angel is his new assistant: Harmony (Mercedes McNab). Harmony manages to convince Angel not to kill her by providing him with a delicious mix of pig and otter blood. It's the otter's blood that really makes it special, apparently.
Among the Wolfram & Hart clients is Mr. Fries (Rod Rowland). Fries is about to be put in jail. He's not happy about it, and, as one of Wolfram & Hart's top clients, he tells Angel that he expects the charges to go away. If Fries ends up in jail, he'll detonate a bomb that will devastate L.A.
Fred and Wes try to figure out how to defuse the bomb while Angel tracks down a freelance mystic who had worked with Fries. An interrogation later, Angel discovers that the psychic built a mystical vessel that could contain anything. the mystical vessel? Fries' son.
Angel saves the boy from an overeager Wolfram & Hart tactical unit and disbands the unit by killing most of them, while Gunn, saunters into the courtroom and easily manages a mistrial with his new and Wolfram & Hart improved brain.
Gunn, who at the end of Season 4 travelled to the White Room and had a chat with a panther, decided to expand his horizons by letting Wolfram & Hart implant legal knowledge, and the complete works of Gilbert and Sullivan in his head. Fred and Wes are not happy that Gunn decided to let Wolfram & Hart into his head...literally.
Angel, however, is more upbeat. He's convinced that they'll figure out Wolfram & Hart's plan and manage to use the resources of the corporation for good. Of course, this is Angel, so the upbeat mood lasts as long as it takes for Angel to open some mail. A very familiar looking pendant falls out and starts emitting light and dust and Spike(James Marsters)! It's Blondie Bear!
I'd forgotten how funny this episode was. There were some great lines in it. Unfortunately, the Broodometer was a paltry 2 this week. Or maybe I was just distracted by Angel's hair. It's like his hair was attacked by a liter of evil gel!
What did you think? Did you like the idea of Angel working for Wolfram & Hart? Or did you stop watching? What about now? Was the premiere better than you remembered? Or worse? What's your Broodometer rating for the episode? Give us your Two Cents below.
Next week: Spike!
I was excited at the possibilities. The episode was good, I was just happy the show was on the air. I thought Angels brood-a-meter was about a 2. I thought it was an interesting twist to send Angel into Wolfram and Hart. Again it had a ton of possibilities. I love the opening. Go back to the beginning of the series and see the opening as if it's gone corporate. Maybe I'm easily entertained.I don't know if it in my top ten, but I was glad to see it.
ReplyDeleteI thought this episode - and the direction they jumped into for this season - was a welcome change from the heinous mess of the prior season.
ReplyDeleteI liked the episode and the possibilities it presented. I think if the hadn't been cancelled they'd have had a lot of options for future seasons.
And the re-introduction of Harmony was a pleasant surprise. She's awesome!
I was so excited that they brought former Buffy characters back by way of Angel. I love Mercedes McNab and was glad to see her back.
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