Other people's Angel comments on "Salvage":
1. harmonyfb 2. minim_calibre 3. vonnielake 4. thebratqueen 5. astolat 6. mpoetess 7. djinanna 8. jess79 | 9. wisteria_ 10. double_helix 11. heres_luck 12. bonibaru 13. loligo 14. hesychasm 15. stakebait 16. zortified 17. ros_fod | (ros_fod, channeling Faith: "Yeah, you all thought I was in prison, but really I was at Command and Staff College, so here's the tactical strategy document I built and these powerpoint slides illustrate the search pattern that we're going to use to find Angelus and bring him back and then I'm going to re-soul him myself with some of the black magic skills I managed to pick up, too...so I don't wanna hear any peep from y'all.") |
Some of my own stray comments...
It's cute, the big Faithfest everyone's having. ;) I'm not a huge Faith fan. I like her, but I don't lust and lick the screen when she's on. I would have watched a spin-off with Faith, but I'd have gone in with a few doubts about whether she could carry the show. I remember a while back when I rewatched all of season three and realized that Faith was not in it as much as I'd remembered--and that I was okay with that. I feel, when I watch her, that her psychological damage limits her range. But that's just me. (I suppose the limited range thing could be Dushku, come to think. But hey, I don't have a *death wish* today.)
She was fun to watch last night, though. Prison!Faith, to start with--how can *that* not be fun? And we were given the incorporation into canon of what was previously fanon, I think, which is that Faith could have broken out at any time; that she was doing her time by choice, accepting punishment as a route to redemption. Bad calc on the parole estimate, I thought. A few decades until parole on a 25-to-life sentence? First, I admit I don't understand how having a flex-sentence works; but if the low end is 25 years, and you behave, you should be able to parole in--what?--seven years or so?
Faith and Wesley: greatness. They were clicking. The old Faith eps are fuzzy in my mind, but of course we all know that Wes has come a long way, and he shows it here. The way he stopped the car downtown, with the windows open, knowing it'd be jumped by vamps; casually directing one of the vamps to attack Faith--an act that mimicked how Buffy trained Dawn, by the way, and perhaps even training from Giles, though no one scene springs to mind. (Great camera angles in that scene, too.) He was the consummate watcher to her all the way through this ep. I was so pleased and proud. And when he introduces Faith to the MoG, we get him saying, "Faith the Vampire Slayer." I bet they scripted that back when they hoped for a Dushku spin-off. Regardless, it was a perfect moment, an acknowledgment at last of who she was, of her legitimacy. My favorite Faith moment, though, was when they reached the warehouse and saw the Angelus's welcome sign (cracked my shit up) and she stared at it and continued her bland litany: "Maybe a carpet fiber." My god. Best line delivery *ever*.
Connor and Faith was pure beauty to watch. Alpha Faith didn't even need to bitch-slap the kid at first; all she had to do was hold her place with some steely eye-contact and bark a few times, and he tucked his tail between his legs. And oh my *god*, that little smile of his after she turned away. That was *so* cute! I also enjoyed their spat of combat later on, and how he was forced to leave--and how excited he got when he thought that Faith had killed the Beast. I hope he doesn't get all teen-scowly and disappointed when he finds out otherwise. Poor, poor Connor. That stuff with Cordy was just creepy as fuck.
Speaking of. Cordy was creepy as fuck. I'm not entirely sure it was a good creepy, either. I feel like she should have had more presence in her scene with the Big Rubber Satan. She was kind of lackluster there, and in her other scenes. I mean, "Give momma some sugar," and that kiss--was that mean to be a Holy Shit moment, when we realize she contains new depths of depravity, or the Eww Gross moment that it was? There's a difference, right, because--Angelus coming to in an alleyway and killing a hooker and then blowing her own cigarette smoke out with a grin. That's Holy Shit. Cordy's killing of Lilah; that was pretty Holy Shit. This week, she was just kind of cold and crawly-skin making, with dead eyes, a blank affect, and a flat tone. Some uncompelling line readings. And my god, that hair. That is the true evil.
Angel's phone call to Dawn. How pathetic that we get so excited when they cross canon THE WAY THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO...in my mind.
And in my mind I imagine Dawn saying, "So, hey, what's going with that whole eclipse thing--" just as Angel is hanging up.
No, not really. But are we ever going to find out what the Sunnydale contingent thinks of the events in L.A.? Also, if Giles is flying all over the world to collect potentials, surely he departed from and/or transferred flights in L.A. a few times? Um, didn't he notice the huge lack of *sun*? What about the U.S. government? What were they doing all that time? Inquiring minds want to know.
Don't really have much to say about the Faith/Beast/Angelus stuff. I was a little bit disappointed that Angelus killed the Beast instead of Faith. But on the other hand, when Faith was lying there on the ground with the chains dangling next to her, all I could think was, "No, no, no, please don't have her pull the chains and drop something on his head, because NONONO!" It would have been too pat. So at least they didn't do that. In retrospect, I think they may have wanted us to think they would, in order to make Angelus's act more surprising. It was kind of understated, if so.
This wasn't the be-all and end-all of Angel eps for me, but I do admit to jumping up from the couch after each commercial, running briefly in circles, and making squealing noises. Perhaps I need to get out more....
Edited to add:
beth666ann has a cool post on LiveJournaling, confession, persona, and the false appearance of truth. Go, Meta Girl!