Angel 5x17 Underneath
Apr. 15th, 2004 03:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sisabetLast night it hit me. I mean - I *know* the show has been cancelled - trust me. I may be in denial, but the cool thing about being me is that it is perfectly acceptable to hold two diametrically opposite opinions at the same time and feel that both are equally valid and not be conflicted by this. Much. Well, yeah - there is conflict. But not about Angel. Unless it is who is better for Angel: Spike or Wes? and then I was a whole heap of conflicts until "Shells" and that solved that up, right and proper. But other than that - I'm good. So I know that the show is cancelled, but I am ignoring this knowing.
Cutting to blather about "Underneath"
So Lindsey is walking slowly down the cellar stairs and I get that feeling. You know - that end-of-the-season, OMIGOD I do not know what is gonna happen, is Giles gonna die? feeling. I love that - I do - it is one of the best parts of any of Joss Whedon's shows -- you watch all year and are entertained - but then - right about now - everything starts paying off, and if you don't go in spoiled, you really feel that anything barring the death of the lead can happen. And after "The Gift" you just amended that statement to mean "Anything can happen." Which can be devastatingly gut-wrenching when you are watching characters you care about - characters that you love and that are very real and dear to you - and you have no idea if they are going to be okay.
I watch end-of-the-season eps like it is double-overtime and my school is playing Duke with a one point lead and the losers have to die. Also - I watch for the shirts versus the skins, but that is another post altogether.
I don't feel this way about any other show and I have never felt this way about any show, other than Buffy. This is because Jossverse shows - more than anything I have ever watched ever - take risks. Things change and stay changed. It pays to be a loyal viewer - you get rewarded with moments like Lorne remarking that he guesses that is what they now do - leave a man behind (which takes me all the way back to season 2 and "Belonging" - which is a wonderful parallel for "Underneath") and the fact that you are a fan and that you know the history is not mocked or ignored - instead it is celebrated.
So last night, Lindsey is slowly walking down the stairs and I felt that first twinge of End of Season Madness and it hit me: this is it. I was fine with Buffy ending - it was time - I remember what happened to TXF - and I still had Angel.
But this was it. I don't know that I can feel this way about another show. I mean - I like and even love other shows. I don't feel like this about them, though.
So I have five more nights.
In a very reduced fashion - this is what got me last night:
Lindsey's hell is very much like my cousin's hood. I totally get that. Also, I thought Mrs. Lindsey was Darla at first glance.
Adam Baldwin looked great - also - he is very tall. I kept getting distracted at the end when he is standing in front of DB because I kept thinking about how very tall he must be to tower above Angel like that. Also - I was thinking that an entire season with AB in a suit as a kooky-yet-deadly liason to the senior partners would be cool. I like him. He is by far my favorite Baldwin. If Canada ever attacks the Baldwins, let's do everything within our power to keep Adam safe, 'kay.
Lindsey believes he deserves to have his heart ripped out. Just... Wahhhh!!! Lindsey!!! God, I really really really have a thing for Lindsey. A thing for Lindsey that was not scratched at all by his previous appeareances this season - it was just tickled. Last night was the satisfaction. LINDSEY!!!
And then: GUNN!!! NOOOO! Angel - go back and get him. Now, please - just go get Gunn. It's like all during "The Body" I didn't really believe that Joyce was permanently dead - I kept expecting Dawn to do some key thingie and Joyce to be resurrected and then that didn't happen and the part of me that separates fiction from reality, just broke. Cause that was real. Maybe that was when I caught this End of the Season feeling - who knows? But, I am truly worried and frightened for Gunn and I don't know if he'll just end up staying there and rotting, being punished as he feels he should be (and I can't even fathom what he'll come up with) because this show would do that. I mean - they fucking destroyed Fred's soul and that has been bothering me too a whole hell of a lot. You don't just burn up a soul - that is just wrong. That is the most heinous thing I can ever think of. That is "Event Horizon" wrongness. It is worse than "Event Horizon" - it is an abomination and I don't really like using that word since it feels like fundamentalist televangelists have totally cheapened its meaning - but if ever there were an abomination - I suppose this is one.
Your soul is not supposed to be destroyable. At least, not in the Jossverse - we've already seen evidence that the soul is something greater than the physical body - that the soul is what makes us viable and valuable and worth fighting for and even though Fred sometimes got on my nerves and I really didn't like her with Wes, I never wanted her soul to be all burned up and gone ::cries::
But - I really dig Illyria (or whatever her name is - I still can't spell Wes's last name correctly, so forgive me for not yet investing in remembering Blue Chick's name - I'm bad at name spellings). She is interesting - I'm interested in her and also - she is blue. I like blue. I keep thinking about her versus Glory - both being confined to this plane and in a human body - and I like the blue chick waaaay more. She would crush Glory without a second thought because she would be too busy being pissed that the sky is so low.
Gunn and the hospital room and Angel and just... see - I am all incoherant - but Angel is screwing up and he knows he is screwing up, yet he can't seem to stop it at all - every move he makes, it makes things worse and until he faces what he did to cause all of this - everything is gonna continue to go jacked up crazy.
At least he has Spike. Spike, who called Angel "partner" - awwwwww. Spike who watched "Knight Rider" - Spike, who is the biggest dork of then all (and it takes a ton of dorkiness to outdork Angel. Angel had a mullet - remember?) - I like that Spike. I like that he insists he doesn't want the group to have a name like the Scoobies, yet he continues to name possible names. I like that Angel's face went all dreamy for just a second contemplating "Angel's Avengers" - I really *like* these guys.
Wes is scaring me - and that is good. He looks terrible - he looks 10 years older and way too thin - which is just as he should look. I'd comment more on my thoughts about Wes - but![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sockkpuppett already covered them - I agree with Lum.
Now I am tired and have more work to do. So, the end.
Cutting to blather about "Underneath"
So Lindsey is walking slowly down the cellar stairs and I get that feeling. You know - that end-of-the-season, OMIGOD I do not know what is gonna happen, is Giles gonna die? feeling. I love that - I do - it is one of the best parts of any of Joss Whedon's shows -- you watch all year and are entertained - but then - right about now - everything starts paying off, and if you don't go in spoiled, you really feel that anything barring the death of the lead can happen. And after "The Gift" you just amended that statement to mean "Anything can happen." Which can be devastatingly gut-wrenching when you are watching characters you care about - characters that you love and that are very real and dear to you - and you have no idea if they are going to be okay.
I watch end-of-the-season eps like it is double-overtime and my school is playing Duke with a one point lead and the losers have to die. Also - I watch for the shirts versus the skins, but that is another post altogether.
I don't feel this way about any other show and I have never felt this way about any show, other than Buffy. This is because Jossverse shows - more than anything I have ever watched ever - take risks. Things change and stay changed. It pays to be a loyal viewer - you get rewarded with moments like Lorne remarking that he guesses that is what they now do - leave a man behind (which takes me all the way back to season 2 and "Belonging" - which is a wonderful parallel for "Underneath") and the fact that you are a fan and that you know the history is not mocked or ignored - instead it is celebrated.
So last night, Lindsey is slowly walking down the stairs and I felt that first twinge of End of Season Madness and it hit me: this is it. I was fine with Buffy ending - it was time - I remember what happened to TXF - and I still had Angel.
But this was it. I don't know that I can feel this way about another show. I mean - I like and even love other shows. I don't feel like this about them, though.
So I have five more nights.
In a very reduced fashion - this is what got me last night:
Lindsey's hell is very much like my cousin's hood. I totally get that. Also, I thought Mrs. Lindsey was Darla at first glance.
Adam Baldwin looked great - also - he is very tall. I kept getting distracted at the end when he is standing in front of DB because I kept thinking about how very tall he must be to tower above Angel like that. Also - I was thinking that an entire season with AB in a suit as a kooky-yet-deadly liason to the senior partners would be cool. I like him. He is by far my favorite Baldwin. If Canada ever attacks the Baldwins, let's do everything within our power to keep Adam safe, 'kay.
Lindsey believes he deserves to have his heart ripped out. Just... Wahhhh!!! Lindsey!!! God, I really really really have a thing for Lindsey. A thing for Lindsey that was not scratched at all by his previous appeareances this season - it was just tickled. Last night was the satisfaction. LINDSEY!!!
And then: GUNN!!! NOOOO! Angel - go back and get him. Now, please - just go get Gunn. It's like all during "The Body" I didn't really believe that Joyce was permanently dead - I kept expecting Dawn to do some key thingie and Joyce to be resurrected and then that didn't happen and the part of me that separates fiction from reality, just broke. Cause that was real. Maybe that was when I caught this End of the Season feeling - who knows? But, I am truly worried and frightened for Gunn and I don't know if he'll just end up staying there and rotting, being punished as he feels he should be (and I can't even fathom what he'll come up with) because this show would do that. I mean - they fucking destroyed Fred's soul and that has been bothering me too a whole hell of a lot. You don't just burn up a soul - that is just wrong. That is the most heinous thing I can ever think of. That is "Event Horizon" wrongness. It is worse than "Event Horizon" - it is an abomination and I don't really like using that word since it feels like fundamentalist televangelists have totally cheapened its meaning - but if ever there were an abomination - I suppose this is one.
Your soul is not supposed to be destroyable. At least, not in the Jossverse - we've already seen evidence that the soul is something greater than the physical body - that the soul is what makes us viable and valuable and worth fighting for and even though Fred sometimes got on my nerves and I really didn't like her with Wes, I never wanted her soul to be all burned up and gone ::cries::
But - I really dig Illyria (or whatever her name is - I still can't spell Wes's last name correctly, so forgive me for not yet investing in remembering Blue Chick's name - I'm bad at name spellings). She is interesting - I'm interested in her and also - she is blue. I like blue. I keep thinking about her versus Glory - both being confined to this plane and in a human body - and I like the blue chick waaaay more. She would crush Glory without a second thought because she would be too busy being pissed that the sky is so low.
Gunn and the hospital room and Angel and just... see - I am all incoherant - but Angel is screwing up and he knows he is screwing up, yet he can't seem to stop it at all - every move he makes, it makes things worse and until he faces what he did to cause all of this - everything is gonna continue to go jacked up crazy.
At least he has Spike. Spike, who called Angel "partner" - awwwwww. Spike who watched "Knight Rider" - Spike, who is the biggest dork of then all (and it takes a ton of dorkiness to outdork Angel. Angel had a mullet - remember?) - I like that Spike. I like that he insists he doesn't want the group to have a name like the Scoobies, yet he continues to name possible names. I like that Angel's face went all dreamy for just a second contemplating "Angel's Avengers" - I really *like* these guys.
Wes is scaring me - and that is good. He looks terrible - he looks 10 years older and way too thin - which is just as he should look. I'd comment more on my thoughts about Wes - but
sockkpuppett already covered them - I agree with Lum. Now I am tired and have more work to do. So, the end.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-04-15 01:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-15 01:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-15 01:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-15 01:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-15 01:57 pm (UTC)More on matters of substance when I get home tonight.
Also
Date: 2004-04-15 02:10 pm (UTC)And that's exactly what Lindsey(and now Gunn) are trapped in: Walls and routines.
Re: Also
Date: 2004-04-15 02:15 pm (UTC)Re: Also
Date: 2004-04-15 03:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-15 04:31 pm (UTC)I would have been willing to bet money that the wifey was Darla...in the first few seconds of the scene. I was so sure. Gah. Last night was definitely a gooood Lindsey fix.
Adam Baldwin is and will always be, my baby daddy.
Such a good episode, and it's really getting to me too, that the show will end in five episodes. Sniffle. Poor Fred's soul. Poor Gunn.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-15 04:42 pm (UTC)I'm going to have to keep Kleenex on hand for the rest of the season. Oh, and send off more postcards. Even a mini series or occasional movie is better than no part of the Jossverse at all.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-15 05:39 pm (UTC)::cries::
no subject
Date: 2004-04-18 01:27 am (UTC)It's shareable, BTW :-)
no subject
Date: 2004-04-18 09:00 am (UTC)::loves::
no subject
Date: 2004-04-15 05:24 pm (UTC)***
Girl, if you ever get to Cal., you have a place to stay as long as you want. We can drink tea and eat chocolate and watch our boys and laugh. And cry. I heart you so much. Just want you to know. I seriously, seriously do.