Karbear3916

Thursday, July 22nd @ 5pm(ET)
"Carpe Noctem" TV-14-DLSV, CC
An old man uses an ancient incantation to switch bodies with Angel.

~*Magical*~

I watched some of the second half of this episode. I never liked it that much. It was fun to see David play a wilder version of the Angel persona. But that old man annoyed me and I never felt like the actor really was playing Angel as an old man.

I loved the power shot of the group at the end though. And then Cordelia came running out to tell Angel that Buffy was allive. During that time I was still a big Buffy fan and any mention of her or the two shows linked made me happy.

Fred: Buffy?

She said it like she didn't know who that was. But she was there when they returned to the hotel and saw Willow. You would think the gang would have filled her in on that whole thing during the months that Angel was away. Or atleast said why he left.

Karbear3916

Yeah i liked this episode to i thought the old man wass creepy and didnt act very well but it was funny to see him try to act like angel and vice versa. I felt bad for fred in a way because the old man was inside angel and he was hitting on her but she didnt know and got hurt when she saw him making out with lilah. But it was nice of him at the end to go an apologize to her. But yeah the buffy part i never noticed that willow thing and they should of told Fred about who she was. They probably didnt want to u know fill her mind with alot of information since she just got back from pylea and they didnt want to make her confused or something. But i liked this episode overall.

Walloo

I like the old man in Angel's body in that epi, it was really great and there are some funny quote. I really love the stuff when the old guy hearing everybody saying thatv he should talk to "Fred" thinks that Angel is gay and after he talks with Wesley and all it was really funny, and how he looks how he's dressed like yeah the guy must be gay Angel's clothing has always been a funny subject in the entire show

"Fred: Nothing, just taking a little stroll and... why do girls want to look like that? I spent years in a cave, starving. What's their excuse?
Cordy: Fashion." "Cordy: She's got the big puppy love! I mean, who wouldn't? You're handsome. And brave and heroic. Mysterious ... emotionally stunted, erratic, prone to turning evil, and let's face it, a eunuch.
Angel: Hey! What -- how can you -- I'm not a eunuch!
Cordy: Angel, it's just a figure of speech.
Angel: Find a better one!" "Wes: You know there is something about brewed tea you simply can not replicate with a bag." "Cordy: Angel! Willow's on the phone. She's alive. Buffy's alive. "

saturn5

CARPE NOCTEM
The Good;
Some nice humour, especially over the whole 'Fred' thing and some nice stuff with Lilah
The Bad;
Surely Marcus notices that in his new body the heart isn't beating and he doesn't breathe?
Best line:
Cordy; "You're a eunuch"
Angel; "Hey!"
CC; "Figure of speech"
Angel; "Find another one!"
Jeez, how did they get away with that?
Apocalypses: 5
Angel Cliches
Inverting the Hollywood cliche; Much like the handicapped in Blind Date in the Buffyverse old people are EVIL! We don't expect Marcus' spell to affect Angel but it does.
In disguise; 8
DB get's his shirt off; 12
Cordy's tattoo; yes, her two piece purple outfit shows it off to great effect.
9,
Cheap Angel; 7
Fang Gang in bondage: yep, Angel
Cordy: 5
Angel: 11
Wes: 6
Gunn; 3
Lorne; 2

Fang gang knocked out: Angel as Marcus
Cordy: 11
Angel: 14
Wes: 5
Doyle; 1
Gunn; 1
Lorne; 2
Kills:
Cordy: 5 vamps, 3½ demons
Angel; 28 vamps, 40 and 1/2 demons, 3 humans
Doyle; 1 vamp
Wes; 7 demons+1 vamp
Kate; 3 vamps
Faith; 16 vamps, 6 demons, 3 humans.
Gunn; 8 vamps+ 6 demons.
Fang Gang go evil:
Cordy: 2
Angel: 2

Alternate Fang Gang: Angel/Marcus
Cordy: 2
Angel: 7

Characters killed: the three poor guys Marcus hijacks
43
Recurring characters killed;
7;
Total number of Angel Investigations:
5, Angel, Cordy, Wes, Gunn and Fred

Angel Investigations shot:
Angel: 11
Wes; 1
Packing heat;
Wes; 3
Doyle; 1
Angel; 1
Gunn; 1

Notches on Fang Gang bedpost:
Cordy: 3 ?+Wilson/Hacksaw Beast+Phantom Dennis
Angel: 5; Buffy, Darla and The Transcending Furies
Wes; 2; Virginia and the bleached blonde

Kinky dinky:
Three in the bed sex with 2 beautiful hookers. Well, we've all been there. CC refers to Angel as a eunuch, remember she doesn't know about Darla. CC salivates over the bodybuilders but still thinks 'All men are dogs'. Gunn and Wes argue over who gets to visit the 'First Class Escorts' but CC decides she should go instead. She refers to them as 'Pretty skanky women' (does she mean 'Women who are pretty skanky' or 'Women who are skanky and pretty'? To judge by the extremely attractive girls in the opening scene they certainly live up to their companies' billing). That's a bit rich considering she wanted to prositute herself to Rusell Winters and David Nabbit, has twice been knocked up by demons, twice sold as a slave and is currently having a high old time with her ghost and his loufa.
The simmering sexual tension between Lilah and 'Angel' finally comes to a head. Much like Kate in 'The Shroud of Rahmon' Lilah finally gets what she secretly always wanted, thrown across the desk to be ravished Viking-style and bitten by Angel. Is this ever mentioned again because Lilah is actually the only one who knows about it and she has no idea it's not really Angel? And what do AI make of Lilah's forgeries plonked on Wes' desk?
Captain Subtext;
Marcus thinks Angel is gay (just look at his outfit) and Wes is 'Fred', his boyfriend.
Know the face, different character; 3
Parking garages;
5,
Guantanamo Bay;
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;
Amy Acker's remarks about skinny models are weird as she's the thinest girl in the Buffyverse by quite some way, even more so that season 5 Buffy. Angel likes 70s Charlton Heston films, a leftover from the Manilow era? (The Omega Man has vampiric theme, plenty of blood and contains the wonderful line '***** paradise brother?'). The 'Nightstalker' is referred to but probably the LA serial killer rather than Kolchak. Marcus/Angel drinks martinis with Lilah, thought she was a whiskey girl?
Read a good fanfic once where Angel doesn't get his body back in the end but his soul gradually retakes control, Marcus' magic temporary and unstable. Good performace from Rance Howard as Marcus (Ron Howard's dad)
Marks out of 10; 7/10, always thought I disliked this ep but the humour makes up for a pretty weak story in many ways, actually found myself enjoying the rewatch more than I thought I would.

tootyfnfrooty

nice breakdown of the story iwould probably give it a 7 out of 10 too

livstevi21

I'm a bit more awake now so I'm able to write something more for this one.

This was an exhausting episode to watch. I kinda have a love hate relationship with body swap episodes in shows like these. Some of them are amazing like Smallville's Transference, and Buffy had one or two if I remember. The one thing that infuriates me about them is how long it takes anyone to notice that the person who they're supposed to know so well is not acting like themselves. This episode is no exception. A big red flag would have been Angel eating, but also how he mistook Wesley for Fred, the way he acted around Cordelia, the list goes on. Fred wasn't to know, bless her, and it was so cute how she had such a crush on him. I loved the beginning of the episode, with Angel wanting to go to the cinema and only Fred seemed to want to go with him. I felt sooo sorry for her when she thought Angel was asking her out on a date only to catch him with Lilah. Who, by the way, wasn't saying no when he made his advances on her, until of course he started to bite her. I wonder if Angel will be able to explain that that wasn't him the next time he bumps into her. It's a shame it was Fred who walked in on them, the others would have been able to tell Angel that he's going to have to explain to Lilah that it was an old man in his body and not him at the time.

sum1

I'm not a big fan of body swaps, but this episode is pretty funny.

wickedrum

I usually like the body swap trope. Tends to be funny.

sum1

The one in Buffy season 4 pissed me off. Eliza Dushku can play Buffy about as well as Arnold Schwarzenegger can play Willow Rosenberg.

wickedrum

Why do you think Arnold Schwarzenegger can’t play Willow

sum1

He isn't Jewish.

wickedrum