burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

[original airdate 12 November 2003; written by Drew Goddard and directed by Jefferson Kibbee]

So we open with the uber-hotness. Wesley, with the 2 guns, in slow-mo, with the five o'clock shadow. You could hear a million screaming fangirls at that moment. I'm generally not all about the Wesley hotness, but even i think that's really hot.

What did Eve say to Fred when she was working on the cyborg? “Let us know if you need any more resources”? In “Hellbound” she said Fred had already gone through the current quarter’s budget. Is harmonyfb right that it's not about the budget but about whether the work fits in with W&H's plan?

And she definitely was suspiciously watching Spike. The elevator exposition was a bit groan-inducing, but they’re definitely setting up for something important to come up either as regards Spike/W&H or as regards Eve (or both).

I thought this episode blew the rest of the season so far out of the water (though i have enjoyed the season) and was a phenomenal solid episode, but while i still sometimes enjoyed him, Spike’s writing seemed off to me for most of the episode. Maybe it’s just because stuff like his “Wesley was head boy” gag seemed so much like little boy outsider Spike of BtVS S4.

[P.S. lilithchilde, in “Spin the Bottle” (4.06) we learned that Wesley was head boy at the Watchers Academy. (She later tells me that she was referring to Spike calling him "Percy." I don't remember that, so either it registered but i just moved on since HP references don't induce squee in me, or i missed the line altogether.)]

[And while i'm editing, the Lorne/Father scene my squee moment was totally "Lorne hung out with Judi Dench!" I am such a dork.]

Resurrection spell at age 7!

First of all, resurrection spells are always creepy in the Jossverse ever since Forever, and the bird crashing into the windowpane made me think of “Rain of Fire”(AtS 4.07), but it’s such a cute story and dude, 7? His mom was right that he was a prodigy. Plus, head boy at the academy. His father is totally out of line being so deprecating. (Yes, i know, not really his father, but one of the reasons the episode worked was that we have been given enough hints about the horridness of Wesley’s father that this is totally believable. His father has demeaned him his entire life.)

Even though it turned out to not truly be Wesley’s father, i think that character still wins worst father ever on a Joss episode.

I was having interesting speculation about a new Council of the old Watchers and then it turned out that it wasn’t true at all. Seems the cyborgs will recur, though it’s not unimaginable that they would turn out to be Monster of the Week, first in a series of “good guys” out to get Angel. (Do we think this has anything to do with the Shanshu prophecy? Do we buy the explanation that their taking over W&H has upset lots of people, made them think that the A-team has gone evil?)

Okay, the patronizing of Fred is getting more explicit, as is her rejection of it. This is Joss, so of course there’s going to be a girl power theme, and i like seeing Fred sticking up for herself. But then Knox does similar things and it’s okay? Hey now, not cool. This also comes back to the fact that i am not on the Fred/Knox ship. And gah, adding more pain to Wesley! They’re having a moment and he’s about to tell her and Knox through no fault of his own stumbles in and Wes sends her away, because the moment is ruined and perhaps because he knows it can never work. He knows from “Life of the Party” where Fred’s affections lie, and perhaps he thinks himself too dark for her. People have been speculating about just how much of the past two seasons was erased with the Connor memories, and generally i have been uninterested in the discussion figuring that if you want to write fic you do whatever you want, and ME will give us whatever we need to know for the plotlines for this season. ME could easily have written around Wesley’s “The last woman I was involved with–I had to cut her up into pieces because a Higher Power stabbed her in the neck,” in fact I was expecting him to say something about his breakup with Virginia. We may be left to fanwank how he would possibly get involved with Lilah without the catalyst of the Connor betrayal, but i definitely think it’s important that ME gave us this explicit detail (which implies a whole lot about what the characters remember from the past 2 years).

And the end with Angel... he totally forgave Wesley even though Wesley didn't know it. So poignant!

(Also, Couch O' Slash! They were totally positioned just like Angel and Spike were during that bestest couch conversation scene.)

Aside: in the promo Spike says “Don’t talk; I need to concentrate,” and of course we all understand what he really means, but it’s actually less patronizing in the actual episode because the two statements are reversed and given a bit more cushioning. Gunn asks Spike for help and Spike gets resolve face and says “I need to concentrate” in a way which says “Okay, I know I can do this – right?” The Gunn says something and Spike tells him “Don’t talk,” with a “sorry” either before or after it.

Hmm, Father looked familiar. I’m guessing Earth 2.