Karbear3916

Thursday, September 2nd @ 5pm(ET)TNT
"Apocalypse, Nowish" TV-14-DLSV, CC
As plagues of various pests descend on Los Angeles, the beast Cordelia saw in her vision returns and the Apocalypse begins.

saturn5

APOCALYPSE NOWISH


The Good;
Hold on tight, we're going on a rollercoaster!
The Bad;
?
Best line:
Lorne; "CLOSE THE DOOR!"
Jeez, how did they get away with that?
Apocalypses: 5
Angel Cliches
Inverting the Hollywood cliche; the gang royally get their collective ass kicked by the Beast
In disguise; 8
DB get's his shirt off; 12

Cheap Angel; 5
Fang Gang in bondage:
Cordy: 5
Angel: 12
Wes: 6
Gunn; 4
Lorne; 4
Fred; 2

Fang gang knocked out: Angel, Wes and Lorne all knocked out
Cordy: 12
Angel: 16
Wes: 6
Doyle; 1
Gunn; 2
Lorne; 7
Groo; 1
Kills:
Cordy: 5 vamps, 3½ demons
Angel; 41 vamps, 57 and 1/2 demons, 8 humans
Doyle; 1 vamp
Wes; 12 demons+3 vamps, 2 humans
Kate; 3 vamps
Faith; 16 vamps, 6 demons, 3 humans.
Gunn; 11 vamps+ 12 demons.
Groo; 1 demon
Fred; 3 vamp+ 1 demon
Connor; 8 vamps and 2 demon
Fang Gang go evil:
Cordy: 2
Angel: 2
Gunn; 1
Wes; 1

Alternate Fang Gang:
Cordy: 3
Angel: 9
Fred; 1

Characters killed: I figure about 50 dead at the nightclub?
96
Recurring characters killed;
8;
Total number of Angel Investigations: 5 Wes for all intentions back in the fold
Angel, Gunn, Fred, Lorne, Wes

Angel Investigations shot:
Angel: 11
Wes; 1
Packing heat; Wes goes all John Woo with a pair of 45s and a pump action shotgun. Maybe he should call Buffy and borrow her rocket launcher?
Wes; 6
Doyle; 1
Angel; 3
Gunn; 1

Notches on Fang Gang bedpost:
Cordy: 5 ?+Wilson/Hacksaw Beast+Phantom Dennis+Groo+Connor
Angel: 5; Buffy, Darla and The Transcending Furies
Wes; 3; Virginia, the bleached blonde and Lilah
Gunn; 1 Fred
Fred; 1 Gunn
Groo; 1Cordy

Kinky dinky:
Actually no kinky dinky for Fred and Gunn since supersymmetry. Schoolgirl Lilah, RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! "Keep them on", bet that's the first time he's ever said that to her! Lilah as Fred wishes that one day she'll have hips. To judge by 'Spin the Bottle' I'd say she'd prefer bigger breasts. CC and Connor also get it on. A lot of people dislike this as they think it's tantamount to incest but frankly I'm ok with it as long as they're not blood relations (fine with a girl wanting a daddy figure as long as it's not actually her daddy). Remember Connor doesn't remember CC acting as his mother and to her she's the closest thing she'll ever get to Angel (just as Spike hangs out with Joyce and Dawn because they're the closest thing he can get to Buffy) When told that snakes emerged from a part of someone's body Lorne wonders if it was just some form of sex game? When Wes suggests 'pooling resources' Gunn tells him to 'Go pool himself'.
Captain Subtext;
Gunn shows an unusual interest in bathroom fittings for such a macho character.
Know the face, different character; 4
Parking garages;
6,
Guantanamo Bay;
Angel tortures Gavin but you figure not as much as Lilah's going to.
Buffy characters on Angel; 16
Wetherby, Collins and Smith. Angel, Cordy, Oz, Spike, Buffy, Wes, Faith, Darla, Dru, The Master, Anne, Willow and Harmony
Questions and observations;
Really like the way it's Gunn that figures out the symbol although it looks a bit like the cross of St Patrick to me (the red diagnols on the Union Jack). Can anyone tell me at exactly what point CC goes evil, it's never clear to me? Gunn's fear of rats reoccurs, living in abandoned buildings for so long must have been very tough for him. Really this is the end of the road for Cangel. Angel asks Wes if he's 'in' much as Doyle asks Angel if he's 'game'. Goodbye to Gunn's hubcap axe.
Marks out of 10; 9/10 some really good stuff here

Crystal Clear

Usually, I'd be inclined to agree if:
[*] there's strong chemistry stemming from genuine build-up where it feels like the natural place for it to go.
[*] the actors were on board with it.

But neither one of these things applied. Connor may not remember Cordelia as his mother figure but he's literally been told about it by the gang since he returned in season 3. He's smart enough to know there's a line that you don't cross, plus he's also been aware that his father is in love with her. Thus, it's a betrayal.

Then you have Charisma Carpenter openly talking for years about how uncomfortable she was with the change in Cordy in season 4 + flat-out saying at a convention "I did not understand the relationship with Connor". Plus remember that she was pregnant at this point, and she often says how much more comfortable she felt doing the love scene with David Boreanaz in 'Awakening' [4x10] because she had known him longer than Vincent + was closer in age to him. She had also been playing the Cangel budding romance ever since season 3 and to just drop that for this season in favor of a different version of her character with the man's son is just... Twisted. I'm usually on board with gutsy twisted plots, but this is OLDBOY (father/daughter) levels of twisted.

I think the mistake that the writers made (one of many this season) was fooling the audience into believing that we're watching the real Cordelia in this scene. If they had filmed it by already establishing that she was not the real Cordelia at this point, it might have been received better. When the reveal does come in 4x12 that she's clearly possessed, it's almost too late - many fans had given up, merely believing that Cordelia had been character assassinated in Apocalypse, Nowish.

Plus, it's creepy how long the camera man lingers on the sex scene. I get that they're showing how Angel cannot take his eyes off them or believe what he's seeing, but it's just too much.

Oh and that weird quote from The Beast to Angel: "do you really think she's safe, with him?" - - did possessed Cordelia intend for the Beast to tell Angel that so he would come and catch them together? Or did the Beast decide to do that on his own? He's clearly hinting that Angel needs to go and check up on them but he also knows that Cordy is the Big Bad so that's how you know that he's intentionally stirring up trouble here instead of actually believing that Connor is a threat to her.

Oh and the writers basically give away that Cordelia is not herself when The Beast (in his first scene) leaps away instead of killing her when he has the chance.

BlackWhiteRose

It was a good episode.

livstevi21

Um. Nope. I can't. I've loved this show up until this season. But S4 is really starting to test me. The end of this episode was a huge NOPE. I agree about the change in Cordy and the direction the writers took her in. It is dumb, icky, and just plain weird. It's not the whole Cordy sent to being a higher being and all that, and then being sent back home with complete amnesia, only to have all her memories restored and her needing time to gather her thoughts with it all hitting her at once. No. That I can live with, it's this stupid bond with Connor. When she inadvertently kissed him when she didn't have her memories but still realised that was wrong was one thing, but then deciding that in the middle of the incoming apocalypse of all things she takes him to bed. The only explanation is that she has to be possessed/100% not herself still. There's no way the real Cordy would do that, especially to Angel. Regardless of everything that has happened and how Connor has looked after her when she had amnesia, Connor is Angel's son, and is only just 18 years of age.

She told Angel she loves him but can't be with him because she needed time to sort herself out. And yet she's happy to shack up with his teenage son? This makes no sense. It was so uncomfortable to watch, and to make matters worse, did Angel actually see them together?! Only moments before he was bleeding out on his neck. What was all that about.

I just hope it turns out that Cordy is possessed and that whoever or whatever is possessing her is let out soon and things get back to relative normal. Of course, after the whole apocalypse thing is solved.

I also do not want to see more Lyla and Wesley scenes

At this point I might have given up on this show, but it would be a shame to give up now since there's only one more season after this. And I'm not one to usually give up on shows if I don't like or enjoy a particular storyline. But S4 has certainly been testing me. It's a shame 'cause up until now I had been really enjoying it.

sum1

Season 4 is a trial.