The Prodigal:

[butterfly]

This would be my first viewing for this episode.

Interesting (or, well, totally intentional) that we go from an episode about how Wesley had a sucky dad to an episode about Angel had a sucky dad. Look! They have things in common! And Angel had a great reaction to Wesley in IGYUMS re: father issues. He clearly wanted to cuddle Wes like many viewers who actually watched the episode instead of quitting the show in "I'll never forgive you for killing Doyle!" anger. I really like Angel in The Prodigal. I wonder if I would have started liking Angel sooner if I'd seen this episode, because it's hitting my family conflict buttons - which are the ones that make me end up loving DB in the Connor-arc.

And the Angel family servant was hot. She really was. Mmm.

Also, I love Kate. And Cordy looks so much better with dark hair. Also, eee! Darla!

"Tell me something that you don't know that I don't know." Hee!

Okay, the 'Evil Thing' conversation may have just killed me. "There are not-evil Evil Things?"

The conversation between Angel and Kate's dad is all kinds of ominous now.

"You got any kids, Angel?"
"No."
"Right. Then don't think you can know how a father feels. Or why he does the things he does."

The Liam/Father conversation very much reminds me of the Buffy/Joyce conversation.

"You go out that door, don't even think about coming back."

Of course, Buffy had very different reasons for leaving.

And this interested me, in light of how Wesley gets treated in late S3:
Angel: "...but sometimes, the price we end up paying for one bad choice isn't commensurate with the offense."

Comments

[powrhug.livejournal.com]

oh! Someone who likes Kate...we're a rare bunch babe. Some of my favorite fics I've written are Angel/Kate (I know you didn't say you were a A/K shipper..just thought I'd share that! *laugh*)

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

She's pretty and she's a really interesting character.

And yeah, I wasn't a 'shipper, but I think that it'd be interesting to see how they interact.

Oh, I loved "The Prodigal".

[selenak.livejournal.com]

And Kate. And Darla. At the time, both ladies were persona non grata with a lot of fandom. And yes, the Angel's father issues were shown big time here. "The Prodigal" was the reason why there were a lot of comments on line of "Liam's father must getting a kick out of this in the hereafter" when grown Connor showed up... which, of course, was before things got seriously tragic and the parallels even more important.

Re: Oh, I loved "The Prodigal".

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I imagine Liam's dad going, "No! Stop making my mistakes! You're pushing him away! Argh! You still don't listen to me!"

[powrhug.livejournal.com]

I always thought she was a character they underused..made me sad.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I would have liked to see more of her.

[lasheremaleth.livejournal.com]

I recently rewatched The Prodigal for the first time in over a year, and was stunned to realise the "his lies sound pretty when the stars are out, but he'll forget every promise he's made come morning" barmaid was Saffron from Firefly.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Dude! You're right! Wow.

Joss does like to reuse actors. Not that I mind.

[lasultrix.livejournal.com]

It's a good episode, but one that I can't bear to rewatch because the accent just hurts me too much. As well as the historical inaccuracies - Catholics were forbidden by the Penal Laws to accumulate the kind of money that would allow them to have servants! Argh!

I'm fond of Kate in Season 1, but her terrible makeup choices in Season 2 annoyed me to the point where I almost wished Angel had killed her in The Shroud of Rahmon. What can I say, I'm shallow.

Darla. Mmmm.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

If I knew more about the past of Ireland (of course, I could ask my aunt, who majored in religion and took Gaelic) that would probably bug me, too. I think that Angel's accent sounds a bit silly, but it isn't painful for me.

And there's nothing wrong with being shallow when it comes to tv. Many times, I say, "Ooo. Pretty." and ignore actual content.