PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A SPOILER-RICH ZONE

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A SPOILER-RICH ZONE. If your diet requires you to dine on television spoiler-free ... good luck with that.

REVIEW ARCHIVES

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Someone Wasn't Worthy




Episode 2.21: Becoming: Part 1. Original Airdate 5.12.98



"Angel plots to revive an ancient demon bent on sweeping everything on earth into hell itself."






Daniel's Thoughts:


  • I wish they hadn't made Angel Irish.  I feel he could have done another accent better.  Spanish maybe?  Or make him American like Darla. [I would pay good money for a Russian Accent. That would be hilarious. - Z]
  • Darla!  She's back!  In....a flashback!

"I didn't hear a about a chair shortage...oh"

  • We haven't had a good ol' fashioned vamp slaying opening in a while.  Love it.
  • Fish stick theatre!  Xander is doing something funny!
  • I love the whole chair shortage conversation.  Willow/Alyson has hilarious timing.
  • Snyder: This isn't an orgy people, it's a classroom//Buffy: Yeah, where they teach lunch.  HEE!
  • London - 1890 - here's some stock footage.
  • Interesting seeing Dru as a human and how they made her crazy.
  • I like Willow in teacher mode.
  • I still stay it's a ridiculous curse and I'll keep saying it until it stops. It punishes the man, not the demon!
  • And Xander has the same idea as the g*psies: Punish the man, not the demon.
  • Kendra is dressed like she's in the army!
  • How the heck did Kendra get that sword through customs?
  • Giles uses the Orb of Thesula as a paperweight!  Just like the shopkeeper said in Passions.  Yay for continuity!
  • I'm not completely unimpressed with the Manhattan set. It's totally fake but well done.
  • Flashback: Ewww, Angel's in love with a 15 year old girl.
  • Mr. Pointy!
  • I feel like they only brought Kendra back to kill her off...

Zelda's Thoughts:

  • Hiya Darla! I'm glad you're not attempting an accent.
  • I don't think we ever find out, even on his show, when Angel lost the Irish. It's there in some flashbacks, and then it's not.
  • "It'll all be over soon." // "Yes, my love. It will." SHUT UP. At least when Ethan tries that sort of thing, Giles catches him at it and undercuts it.
  • For our stats: 1 dead fishstick.
  • "I think you'd sweat cute blood."
  • THEY'RE ALL SO CUTE. Xander and Cordy and his fish hands, Willow and Oz and their Willow- and Oz-ness
  • Aw human Dru. Still creepy looking.
  • "I don't want to be an evil thing." This episode is not just about Liam becoming Angelus who became Angel who became Angelus, or about Angelus becoming the worthy vessel for the Tomb of Alfalfa, or even about Buffy becoming a slayer or an adult and whatnot. We've also got Dru becoming a crazyass vampire, or at least the lead up to it.
  • Love the transition of "God is watching you" to full on crazy present Dru striding along.
  • Spike reads the newspaper! He keeps up with current events! Our modern-day vampire.
  • I love love love their realization that they're looking at the soul restoration spell. I love it so hard. This show, you guys.
  • Hi Romania! You look kinda like the parking lot.
  • So when they restored his soul the first time, he was drawn to where the spell was being cast, so the Romanians could give him the speech of "you suck." This didn't happen when Willow does it later - he doesn't even feel the spell coming until it hits.
  • While Xander's right that Angelus is a killer, and is not ready to forgive that, Angelus and Angel are two separate creatures in terms of culpability. Angel will feel the remorse of his actions as Angelus, but they're not actions he would commit. If we can tolerate the Angel of S1 and S2 pre-Surprise, with all the murders he committed, Xander's point holds less power. The problem is the deaths are more personal now.
  • This argument is so good you guys.
  • Hi Kendra!
  • "And we're sure this was the Tomb of Alfalfa." Oh Buffy. Sometimes you shouldn't say words.
  • I think we shoulda let Angel keep eating the rats of Manhattan. Think of how much less of a vermin problem we could have in the city!
  • Hi Whistler! Who the fuck are you and why do you never ever exist again? I like the idea, but why is he never used again (yes, I know, the original plan was to have him show up on AngeltheShow, but they had Doyle instead).
  • "You can become someone. A person."
  • Pre-slayage Buffy! So cute, so sweet, so shallow! I wants to keep her safe. Also, it's a pretty good wig, in that it doesn't scream wig. Maybe it's just extensions.
"Yeah? Hi! What?"

  • Poor little Buffy! She's so scared and small.
  • Wait - so when Angel smiles, after his day of stalking, it's when he's watching her cry in the mirror. wtf, dude. Though "I want to help her. I want to become someone." is pretty cool.
  • "I want to learn from you. But I don't want to dress like you." And thus was born his penchant for dark button downs and black pants.
  • "Someone wasn't worthy." And then he just sits there and tries not to laugh as Angelus blusters and Dru twitches. Love me some petty Spike.
  • wtf, self-immolating vampire messenger. wtaf. How would he convince her to do that?
  • I love Buffy's blue-green coat so much.
  • Alpert!
  • Al Franken.
  • I'm aware the last two things barely count as bullet points. Shush you.
  • Daniel and I both cracked up at DB's physicality as he jumps after "All right, we'll fight."
  • Jesus. This fight is so brutal. I gasped when the bookcase fell on Willow. And poor Xander's hand.
  • Oh God and Buffy's running as fast as she can once she realizes it was a trap. She's running as fast as she can and it's already too late.
  • What an awful way for Kendra to die.
  • Slow motion run. God. And the Buffy/Angel theme of sadness is playing, but with a muffled drum beat below it. Goddammit I love this show. It's just so freaking good.
  • And we think we're at our last moment as she runs to Kendra's dead body, but then - for like the first time, there's police.

Favorite Lines:

Daniel: "It's a big rock.  I can't wait to tell all my friends.  They don't have a rock this big".  - Spike 
Zelda: "The big moments are gonna come, can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts. That's when you find out who you are." - Whistler. I mean, yes, all of Spike's lines, but also this.


Arc/Continuity Stuff:

  • Oz has animal crackers on his tray.
  • The disc that fell beside the desk in Passion is rediscovered!
  • Buffy finds the claddagh ring Angel gave her for her birthday.
  • Giles specifies that the soul-restoration spell would use black arts, not just rainbow happy magic.
  • Giles keeps an Orb of Thesula as a paperweight, as the shopkeeper in Passion said people do.
  • Angel saw Buffy get called to her Slayerness. Also, kind of a stalker.
  • "And you fall for it every single time!" - He's referring to when she fell for a similar trap in When She Was Bad.
  • Dru has hypnotic powers, which she uses to thrall Kendra into submission before killing her. Most vampires don't seem to have this power.
  • Kendra, the next in the slayer line, is dead.

Stats:

Voiceover - Whistler's thing (not the official Buffy shpiel)
Oz's Hair - red
Dead Humans - 3
Dead Undeads - 4
Dead Flashbacks - 3
Giles Unconscious - 1
Giles Cleans His Glasses - 0
Buffy Breaks a Door - 0
Evil Reveal - 0
Unevil Reveal - 0
Shenanigans Called - 0
Apocalypse Called - 1

11 comments:

  1. Angel is so creepy, perving on 15 year old Buffy. I was never enthralled with their relationship because it was just gross. Angel was supposed to be, what? 24 or 27 when he was turned? So whether you go by human years or vampire years, he's still a creepy cradle robber and so is 40 year old Spike. I know he's not supposed to be 40 but he has always looked it or that he's at least in his 30s. Blergh, vampire relationships, don't get the appeal.

    Anyways, love this episode. I was sad to see Kendra go and she probably got blood on her "favrit sheirt!"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree with all the Angel stuff. But shhhhhh I love Spike he is my own special moppet.

      Though it was adorable that JM was claiming to be 27 for the entire run of Buffy, and then after Chosen was done, suddenly he was 41.

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  2. I've just read quite a few of these and I really enjoy them. Well done. :-)

    Becoming Part 1 is so amazing, but I can never rate it next to Part 2 because they are both so complexly intertwined. It's not just TV at its best, it's storytelling at its best.

    P.S. I agree about Buffy's turquoise coat. The colour and shape suit her so well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thaaaaaaaaaanks!!!

      It is hard to separate the two-parters, since they really are just parts of one piece, but with Whistler's narration framing this half and not the other, breaking them up seems permisable for our reviews.

      Delete
  3. "Though it was adorable that JM was claiming to be 27 for the entire run of Buffy, and then after Chosen was done, suddenly he was 41."

    ...The fuck?! Seriously?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unless my memory is lying. I didn't get into the show until its sixth season was airing, and I remember trying to find out info on JM - in interviews when asked his birthday, he never gave the year, and I kept seeing articles that said he was 27, which I didn't quite believe. Then, BAM - 41.

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  4. I love your blog. It just makes me so happy. :-)

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  5. (yes this is my first post hello hi)

    I find it hilarious - since the paperweight of Thesulah thing is a deliberate continuity thing - that the shopkeeper refers to the buyers of that orb as 'New Agey people'. Just - that characterization of Rupert I'm-so-stuffy-give-me-a-scone Giles is fucking hilarious to me. Also adorable. And I love this blog, you guuuuise. <3

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  6. I still stay it's a ridiculous curse and I'll keep saying it until it stops. It punishes the man, not the demon!
    See this is where Buffy and a lot of fans get it wrong, the Demon and the Man are the same person. It wasn't really a soul they cursed him with but a conscience. Liam, angel's human self, was more like Angelus than Angel, so its not that He has a soul, but that now he has empathy for his victims and that burdens him. Plus in an case a soul does not make you inherently good.

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  7. Love, love, love your blog and all the insightfulness.

    My main issue with this episode was how easily and quickly Kendra died. Is it really that freaking simple to kill a slayer? Makes no sense to me.

    And it pisses me off later how quickly and easily Buffy forgives Angel (killing Jenny, torturing Giles, the mind games, the ending of the world) once he returns, but she's super mean to Spike, who compared to her first vamp lover is...well almost an angel.

    ReplyDelete