GIP and that vid recs list:

Remember a while back when I was all, 'Oh, I'll just whip up a list of what I think are the best BtVS/Ats vids around'?

Dude, I was so kidding myself. Right now? My list has 43 vids in it. I've only reviewed a few of them and I'm slowly working through reviewing the rest. Expect this to actually show up some time next week (and I wouldn't be shocked if a few more vids have popped up on it by then).

Oh, and mmm.... Darla.

On Angel: the Series, it's all about Angel:

Which makes sense. It's his show, therefore everything is About Angel, just as everything on BtVS is About Buffy (notice the differences in both of them when they go to each other's shows and shift from being the primary agent to being a shadow piece of that show's protagonist - and I love that the writers do this, because Buffy as seen through Angel is going to be a different creature than Buffy as Buffy, and this is also why I had no problem with the difference in S7 Willow and Orpheus's Willow (and Willow has a very interesting path in BtVS, as she goes from the embodiment of Buffy's innocence to the embodiment of Buffy's power.).).

On true ensemble shows, all the characters interact with each other in a roughly equal fashion, but on a show with a strong single lead, everything we see can be translated through the filter of the main character. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is Buffy's journey in Sunnydale, as Angel is Angel's in L.A. (which is why it would not surprise me if either Angel or L.A. moved on at the end of the series run - the place is nearly as key as the person, as the place represents where they are in their journey).

I'm just about to watch Untouched. Now, this episode amazed me the first go-round. Bethany is such a strong personality and such a fascinating character. But this time, I suspect I'll see far more into how she connects with Angel and his journey. She almost, but doesn't quite, kill her father, unlike Angel. Bethany actually strikes me very much as a key to looking at Wes. This was our second hint about Wes' childhood (the first coming in I've Got You Under My Skin), as he pierces right to what Bethany is repressing. Now, we don't know how extensively Wesley was abused by his father - we do know that his father dismisses him and looks down on him, and we know that his father locked him up under the stairs (shades of Harry Potter), but we don't know if his father was ever physically abusive. We know that Wesley was damaged very deeply by his father. "What our parents do to us," Angel says in Sense and Sensitivity. And he also said his parents tasted like chicken - interesting thought, as they were certainly terrified of what he'd become, before he killed them. Angel wasn't literally locked up, but he certainly felt emotionally locked up by his father. Wesley is an extreme case of a part of Angel, and Bethany is an extreme case of a part of Wesley.

And then there's Lilah. Lilah, who just isn't top priority, not compared to Angel or Lindsey. Lilah, who recruits for evil at high schools. Lilah, who we know has a perpetuity clause (does Lindsey? Would Holland care so much about corrupting and keeping Lindsey if he'd already had him locked up tight?). Wolfram and Hart can fuck with Lilah all they want - they own her. And all she can do is take it, because she made the deal, signed away her soul, and fire can't burn what's already hopelessly charred. Lilah never has a doubt in her mind about what side she's fighting on. We never see her doubt her career choice (unless she did in one of the S3 eps that I haven't seen yet). Lilah knows that this is where she has chosen to be and that that choice is final.

Sometimes, the Lilah/Wesley angle reminds me of Damned Yankees (two lost souls). She's locked up tight, he signs up (and ultimately does break free) but leaves himself an opening (I can't see Wes signing anything with a perpetuity clause). I always did like Lola.

And Lilah/Wes has shades of Darla/Angel. She is what he is capable of. Wes and Lilah played the same game, but played for different sides. They knew the stakes and they knew the rules. And it was the same game, just as Darla and Angel played the same game (whereas too often, Angel and Wes are playing two different games).

And now to watch the episode.

Telling a story:

Joss has said that he wants the credits to reflect on what the show is (which is why they change every year - he's about the now, not about the then).
( What do the Angel S2 credits tell us? )

Joss packs a lot in his credits (and I bet I'll find more when I do it frame-by-frame). And I think that what's there says a lot about where the show is and where the season is going.

And the Angel credits remind me of nothing so much as a very well-done vid. Of course, Angel is such a visual show, much moreso than Buffy.

Untouched -

"I'm not an angel - it's just a name."

As Wes says that 'Angel Investigations' is "just a name" after Angel abandons them.

"Got family in town? Me neither."

Oh, Angel, if only you knew. After this year, you won't be able to escape from the family.

"I see people try. I see people try to be better."

"No one is controlling you. You have the power. You gonna kill us? You gonna die? Then they win."

And then Bethany sees her dad and the windows blow out. One of those incredibly powerful visual moments in the show - I'd rank it up there with Connor dragging away the virgin, Angel killing Connor, ( spoilers for Angel 5x07 - Lineage )

. It's just... wow.

Inside Job

I've been thinking about Buffy, Darla, and Connor.

Buffy and Darla really are mirrored images. Both of them inspired Angel to go from a nothing to a something. Both of them led to his downfall from greatness. And, of course, Connor did the same - his existence created Angel as Father, and he destroyed it, just as Darla both created and destroyed Angel as Demon and Buffy created and destroyed Angel as Hero... but the destruction is never cleaned up and now Angel is a mess of broken demon, hero, and father.

Every time he latches onto an identity, it gets broken. Angel needs to learn to look inside himself for the answers. Right now, he's just given up. What he needs to do is find the strength inside - Angel's journey, like Buffy's, is one of empowerment. He believes that the man inside him is weak, and that's true. But the man inside him is also strong, and that's what Angel hasn't realized. ( spoilers for Angel 5x07 - Lineage )

Angel brings the people around him pain. But what he doesn't realize is that it can be a strengthening pain. Buffy is much stronger for having known Angel. For having loved him and being hurt by him. Doyle sacrificed himself to save the helpless and to save the people he loved. He sacrificed himself to make up for what he'd failed to do before, but mostly because he knew (as did Buffy, when she sacrificed Angel, as she sacrificed herself after her moment of realization in The Gift).

Angel wanted to save Darla because he wanted to save himself - because he'd wrapped up so much of himself and his damnation into her. "You damned me." If he saved her, then he couldn't be truly damned. If he could have Connor, have this innocent thing of his, then he couldn't be doomed. Angel keeps putting his salvation into someone else's hands. He wants to earn forgiveness, but he can't. Forgiveness is freely given. It isn't a prize to be won. Angel wanted to be redeemed. He wanted someone to say that his soul wasn't forever lost. He wanted God to want him.

Everything that he puts his faith in fails him. Because he doesn't have faith in himself. "You can take the easy road, and wait for the consequences, or you can take the hard road, and go with faith." But faith is an inside job. It isn't about fighting the big bad. It isn't about stopping the end of the world. It's about caring. But that doesn't mean that there isn't a big picture. Angel's messed up because he's seeing it as an either/or thing. Both the big picture and the people involved matter. ( spoilers for Angel 5x07 - Lineage )

Angel doesn't think about the price involved. He focuses on one thing or the other, and lets what he isn't looking at get lost. And that's gotten him lost.