Angel 5: Is That It? Am I Done?
[NAFDA] This is where we talk about the show! Anything that's aired in the US (including promos) is fair game. No spoilers though -- if you post one by accident, an admin will delete it.
I feel like I have closure. Sure, they could die in the next fifteen minutes. Heck, I hope they do (if they bring out an Angel movie I will be VERY skeptical about its topping this, and I really hope they don't because the characters are all dead. Something they could mention in a Buffy movie, actually, which I would LOVE to see.) But they're heroes - their lives are always in danger, and they could always die in the next fifteen minutes. Just because we see their killers before the credits roll doesn't make it any different.
If the episode had been exactly the same, except that after Illyria says "I feel grief for him that I cannot control" or whatever, Angel said "Welcome to humanity," turned to Gunn, and said "Well. Keep fighting the good fight?" and Gunn had said "You know it." and the four survivors had walked out of the raining alley, into their destinies, would that have been better closure for you? Because the danger they were in wasn't immediately evident?
Honestly, I would like that ending too, now that I think about it. But I like this one better.
Got to the end of the thread after a long slog back from Worcester at the casa Infante (met Lee and Matt the Bruins fan...and the ferrets - wee!). Thanks to Victor and Thessaly for hosting!!!!
No coherent thoughts. I think Angel ordered Lorne to kill Lindsey, though. And I think Lorne still liked Lindsey, but saw the necessity of it. Loved the ending...the fight goes on (and no one turned into Skittles). I LOVE how what would be the big battle on any other show (including Buffy) was basically an after thought. It was the individual efforts that mattered most, and how they faced them. And "Let's go to work" was the perfect last line for "it's what we do that matters" Angel.
Anyway, it's wicked late, and thank dog I took tomorrow off - it would have taken longer than I realized to get home even if I'd left early, and I was very happy to be able to hang out for once.
I'm still processing, even after all these hours.
Agreed that there was a lot of symmetry, etc. in this episode. How much do I love that at the beginning of the episode, Angel signs away his Shanshu, but at the end, the two things that allows him to defeat Hamilton are Connor (in a way, the embodiment of the Shanshu) and the fact that Angel is a vampire and was able to suck some of that powerful blood right out of Hamilton.
I am so, so glad that the turning point of the big fight depended on something so central to vampire lore--a vampire chomping down on someone's neck to drink his blood. Perfect.
So... I come in here this morning, and I see Micole posted the
Not Fade Away
lyrics, and I see DCJ posted the
Not Fade Away
lyrics. Now, I knew I posted them before I shut off the PC. So I hit the previous button, and am surprised my lyrics aren't there. I hit it again, but still no lyrics. I decide to threadsuck this thread, and go back a few pages prior to where I think I came in, certain I must be misremembering the order in which I made my posts. Nope. No lyrics.
It occurs to me that I must have posted them in the Spoiler thread, so I check. Nope.
I go to Bitches. Nope.
I cringe, and go to BBaBB. Whew! No lyrics there. That's good. My curiosity is growing at such a rate that it's threatening to overpower my cringe. I look in other threads, including Bureaucracy...nope. Not there. I look in COMM, thinking, "Okay, given the title, it is sort of COMMable, but erm...COMMing myself will be a bit humiliating, even if accidental." But my lyrics post is not to be found.
I leave my desk, and refill my coffee cup. I return, brace myself, position my mouse, close my eyes, and click.
Frig.
I posted them in Press.
Gah!
How frigging embarrassing. I am touched that the Stompies didn't delete it. Thank you, but I just have. I never intended to do that. What a tool. Apparently, I failed to shed the remains of my newbie before the 'verse bowed. This is so typical of me. I am not an old soul. I am brand new to this rock, and it shows. I should have known my curiosity was no match for my cringe.
I'm very sorry.
I thought the ending was perfect. We didn't need to see them actually die--in fact, showing all the noble deaths would have risked being too melodramatic (although ME might have been able to pull it off.) And the ambiguity is nice, too; even though we know there's a 98% chance that they all ended up in pieces, there's still that 2% chance of a miracle for the more optimistic to cling to.
Actually, one of the first thoughts after Joss' name came up was, "Man, the ficcers are going to have a field day with this ending."
The same publication responsible for "Vampire David Boreanaz" also did a nice writeup of the finale.
I have nothing to add to Micoles wonderful posts, though I'm surprised nobody mentioned Lindsays line about Eve being the only thing in his life not touched by Angel.
Still spinning over Wes' death. Ironic that it was at the hands of Vail - the one who restored his memories. Which ultimately led to Angels and Connors rapprochement. Talk about redemption for past sins.
Fred-as-lie was good for me, because Illyria clearly cared about Wesley and so I just read it as her expressing her feelings the best way possible.
During that moment, my brain flashed on a dying time during China Beach (maybe i'm mixed up - early 90s Vietnam army hospital drama with Robert "I'm not a hologram, I just play one on TV" Picardo). Kid's bleeding to death, wound irreparable, only survived to get to the hospital because of a tourniquet (or maybe inflatable pants, i don't know). They explain the situation to him, give him pen and paper to write a letter to his mother, he laments he's never even been kissed. The moment they loose the tourniquet, the nurse plants her lips on his. And he's gone.
And he's gone.
Kid's bleeding to death, wound irreparable, only survived to get to the hospital because of a tourniquet (or maybe inflatable pants, i don't know). They explain the situation to him, give him pen and paper to write a letter to his mother, he laments he's never even been kissed. The moment they loose the tourniquet, the nurse plants her lips on his. And he's gone.
And the part of that show that stayed with me (if I am recalling correctly that it was this episode) -- that the kid told McMurphy (Dana Delany's character) that she would always remember him. She denied that she would. But she did.
The movie or the frog-asphyxiated executives at WB?
Either one works for me.
