lunas_borednow

Last week, in the process of rescuing the pregnant woman, Angel came up from the sewers in an abandoned hotel. This week, he asks Cordy & Wesley to look into the hotel's history. In the 1950s Angel stayed in this hotel, which was located in the heart of 1950s Hollywood. The entire hotel was full of people who had something to hide. Angel meets Judy. Although Angel wants nothing to do with this woman's life or her problems he ends up getting involved. Judy has stolen a bag full of cash from her employers- a bank- who just fired her because they found out she was part black (she was light enough to pass for white). As you can imagine, she's lost hope in humanity. Angel & Judy teach eachother that the world isn't all bad. Judy makes Angel care enough to acknowledge that something is wrong in the hotel. Something is whispering evil to its residents. Angel goes to a shop in L.A. to find out what the creature is & how to get rid of it. He returns to the hotel as Judy is being harassed by lots of hotel residents incited in a mass panic. Judy, in fear, blames a certain death on Angel. The group lynch Angel. Later, he gets himself down & encounters the demon causing all this mess. Instead of fighting with it, he leaves it to its prey because Angel's just lost all hope in humanity. In the present day, Angel- with Cordy, Wesley, & Gunn- chant the demon into showing itself. When it does, it tells Angel that it's still feeding. Angel electrocutes it & goes upstairs to see Judy. Angel & Judy make peace, & Judy, now free of her paranoia, rests. Angel comes downstairs & tells everyone that they're moving into the hotel. Wesley warns that the hotel is a place of evil, to which Angel replys: "not anymore."

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from Buffyworld.com

saturn5

ARE YOU NOW OR EVER HAVE BEEN?
The Good;
Very good allegory of the McCarthy age and we get an idea of what Angel got up to after 'Why we fight?'.
The Bad;
According to the commentary Angel sends the money back to the bank. I wouldn't, they're a bunch of racists, I'd have given it to charity or something.
Best line:
DENVER; "No other cat but me"
Jeez, how did they get away with that?
Seeing Angel lynched is nasty in the extreme.
Apocalypses: 4
Angel Cliches
Damsel in distress; 16,
Inverting the Hollywood cliche;
Angel doesn't save the inhabitants of the hotel, just leaves the demon to feast upon them. When he finally returns to rescue Melissa it's to let her die.
In disguise; 4
DB get's his shirt off; 7
Cordy's tattoo;3
Cheap Angel;
4
Fang Gang in bondage:
Cordy: 5
Angel: 8
Wes: 2

Fang gang knocked out: yep, Angel
Cordy: 9
Angel: 11
Wes: 5
Doyle; 1
Kills:
Cordy: 3 vamps, 1½ demons
Angel; 1 demon for Angel so 16 vamps, 17 and 1/2 demons, 3 humans
Doyle; 1 vamp
Wes; 1/2 a demon
Kate; 3 vamps
Faith; 16 vamps, 6 demons, 3 humans.
Gunn; one more vamp so 4 in all.
Fang Gang go evil:
Cordy: 2
Angel: 2

Alternate Fang Gang:
Cordy: 2
Angel: 6

Characters killed:
25
Recurring characters killed;
4;
Total number of Angel Investigations:
3, Angel and Cordy and Wes

Angel Investigations shot:
Angel: 8,
Packing heat;
Wes; 2
Doyle; 1
Angel; 1

Notches on Fang Gang bedpost:
Cordy: 2 ?+Wilson/Hacksaw Beast
Angel: 1;Buffy

Kinky dinky:
The starlet is obviously supplementing her income through prostitution. Nevertheless she refers to Melissa as a **** as an insult.
Captain Subtext;
The leading man is obviously gay and hiding it Rock Hudson style.
Know the face, different character; 2
Parking garages;
4,
Guantanamo Bay;
The McCarthy era is a strange one as after the fall of communism it was revealed that many of those he persecuted were indeed Soviet agents (it's an interesting paralell of George Bush/Barack Obama being pressured to release some the Guantanamo inmates only for 1 in 7 going back to terrorism) but the important point here is that we rail against all lynch-mobs and witch-hunts which are inherently evil no matter their justification, Angel season 2 of course was during the War on Terror and the point is well made.
Buffy characters on Angel; 11
Wetherby, Collins and Smith. Angel, Cordy, Oz, Spike, Buffy, Wes, Faith, Darla
Questions and observations;
2nd appearance of the Hyperion which is also in Judgement and 'I fall to pieces' under a different name . Presumably Angel must be pretty rich just to be able to give the money away like that. After this we presume he must go into his hedonistic phase, henceforth to be known as 'The Manilow Era'. He does return to hotel later however as he's in the picture when the police arrest the bell-hop (who goes to the electric chair despite being innocent of the charges against him). First apprearance of Denver who'll crop up again later. In an ep about the 50s Cordy's dress seems very sixties? If this ep is 9 minutes over as the commentary says, why not Special Edition DVDs with the footage restored?
Marks out of 10; 8/10

livstevi21

Interesting episode. I like how it explored a time in Angel's life after he got a soul but before he truly realised his purpose with it. Though he was still drinking human blood, despite not actually killing anyone, which I thought was interesting - where on earth did he obtain a jar of human blood? The demon in the hotel was very creepy and I like how he feeds on human insecurities and fear. The scene in which everyone hanged Angel was brutal, I mean, they weren't to know that Angel couldn't be killed that way. The manager obviously came out of the persuasion shocked at what they had all done. It was sad how Angel just let the demon feed on everyone at the hotel and left. I guess he returned to it 'cause of the guilt he felt and wanted to finish the job of killing the demon. I didn't quite fully understand Judy's character, and I was confused at how she was still alive and remained at the hotel despite the demon having fed on everyone else and she was all alone. Why exactly did she not just try to leave after so many years? Not to mention, Cordy and Wesley found a newspaper cutting saying she had died. I liked how sweet Angel was with older Judy and how she remembered him. She didn't seem at all phased by the fact that he looked exactly the same as when she met him. It was sad how she passed away. And so Angel decides that the abandoned hotel will be the investigations new home. Bit of a creepy building to use with it's dark history lol I'm with Wesley on that.

sum1

Best episode of ATS ever.

BlackWhiteRose

It was so well done.