Better Safe Than Cocktails

Episode 1.11: Somnambulist. Original Airdate: 1.18.00

“Angel attempts to assist Kate with a murder investigation after discovering that a protégé from his past is responsible for a series of killing.”

Daniel’s Thoughts:

• Woman running.  This is how we start a lot of our episodes.
• Vampire with a weird knife thing drains her.
• Oh, what? It’s Angel???  He wakes up. It was a dream. OR WAS IT?
• Oh hey, it’s Kate.  I thought we were done with her.
• The victim has a cross carved into her face.
• Alexis is in the credits now!  And Doyle is gone.
• And guest starring future famous person: Jeremy Renner
• Alexis really brings the humor.  I love it.
• DMV’s totally stalker-phobic.
• Wesley is being a lurky-lurk.
• Angel should really hire Veronica Mars.  They have no idea how to do that detective stuff.
• Angel realizes the victim from his dream is real.  BUT IS HE DOING IT? (spoiler: he’s not)
• Kate’s not helping by profiling the murderer in a way that fits Angel to a tee.
• I like this continuity and how it furthers the plot.  It fits perfectly that Wesley would know everything about Angel, as he mentions his Sunnydale days and it makes sense that he would recognize Angel’s old M.O.
• Nice little flashback.
• Jeremy Renner vampire back in the past.  And then modern Jeremy Renner vampire in the present….with that late 90s/ early 2000s haircut.

• Angel’s drawing skills are impressive but we knew this about him already.
• “Ma’am can you buy me some beer? It’s for my mother…”  Dude.
• The stuntman jumping through the window looks like he’s being thrown through the window 
• You’ll need a stake, Kate.  Gunfire won’t do.  Come on, you haven’t learned about this city yet?
• It seems this is the first time Kate has seen Angel in vampface.  She knows now.  Every time I see Kate I think it’s her last episode but she has about ten more.
• “…and you’re totally pumping me for information, aren’t you?”
• “Get me a stake.” “It’s like 8 in the morning.” I guffawed.
• Oh that chin stubble of Jeremy Renner’s.
• Angel establishes that he can come into another vampire’s place without being invited.
• They’re good at using throwaway lines to  cover up potential universe-plot-holes – like having Angel be under the covers for a  minute before they drive out of the sunlight and explaining entering Penn’s apartment.  It’s needed, but doesn’t have to be a whole thing.
• That sewer is so clean.

Zelda’s Thoughts:

• Ah yes, this is when I got my crush on Jeremy Renner (RIP my crush, Jeremy Renner ruined that)
• Sidenote: does anyone remember the series The Unusuals? Highly underrated.
• Hmmm a woman runs in fear but why is the camera all weird? BECAUSE SHE’S BEING TERRORIZED BY ANGEL HOW COULD IT BE.
• And he wakes up from a nightmare, as Kate drives up to a crime scene. Yep, that girl is dead. But did Angel kill her?
• Kate says this is the third killed with the cross scratched into her cheek. We got a serial killer.
• Hey new credits! Welcome Wesley. I love that one of his clips is him accidentally hurling an axe into the wall next to him.
• Cordelia’s practicing the hard sell on a chair and like … if anyone’s taken the trouble to find them, would they really need the hard sell?
• Oh right, Wes doesn’t work for them yet, he just had breakfast with them and is awkwardly hanging around.
• After agreeing that everything seems quiet, Wes hangs around because “the situation can only escalate.”
• I kinda dig this bit of storytelling. Wes, a Council educated former Watcher, sees the article about the new serial killer, recognizes the M.O. as Angel’s, and leaves before Angel emerges from the elevator.
• But Angel, visiting Kate to ask for a favor, sees the crime photos and his memory twigs.
• So I love Kate and all but if we’re dealing with a serial killer, why is she the profiler? Since when is that her field? And aren’t serial killers the FBI’s field?
• Wes presents a file of old newspaper clippings about Past Angel, and isn’t he living a nomadic existence? Is he just carrying his Angel files with him while he rogue demon hunts? Along with options of chafing leather pants and linen suits? Did he have a trailer attached to his motorbike?
• Is there an actual explanation for why Angel’s having these dreams psychically connecting him to Penn and his killings? Like when he dreams of Darla in S2, there’s evidence she’s manipulating that, slowing driving him mad. Is Penn also visiting Angel at night and sitting nude on top of him? Are there pictures? [Pics please- D]
• Look it’s Baby Jeremy Renner, in as bad a wig as Angelus’s.

• Oh no I forgot about Angelus’s Irish accent. Oh boy oh boy.
• Fun fact: this isn’t Renner’s only time playing a serial killer.
• Wesley likes Gallagher apparently.
• Angel claims he used to have a connection with those he sired. O ….kay. I’m waiting for his Spike dream.
• Angel is ignoring all the Kate flirting. Dingdong. Look how pretty her eyes are.
• Angel breaking out his canon A+ drawing skills to give us a sketch of Jeremy Renner, but with his old hair.
• Wes: Where’d you get the police radio? Angel: Police car. Wes; OH DEAR. *puts it at his feet as if it could stain him with crime* omg he’s such a ponce
• Gasp! They caught Penn mid-drain and saved the boy! Good job LAPD.
• Also Penn can kinda fly?
• Meanwhile we saw Angel’s climbing wire!

• Kate shot Penn. Penn played dead. Uh oh Kate.
• Oh wow, Penn didn’t even know Angel was in town. But like Angel, he lost his “accent.”
• Oh shit, I think this is the moment Kate officially finds out Angel’s a vamp. There goes that crush.
• Noooooo Cordy’s doing her hard sell … on Penn. He looks like he enjoys the sun as much as any Angel. Is it a trait of the house of Aurelius?
• Heh I love when Cordelia realizes out loud when she’s being manipulated. “And you’re totally pumping me for information.”

• Snerk. Penn was a Puritan. Of course he was.
• A montage of research! Angel stalks the streets, Kate researches vampires, and Penn researches … Kate. I assume. He’s wearing glasses and looking Penn-sive (sorrynotsorry).
• Oh riiiiiight, Penn leaves a false trail for them about attacking a middle school bus full of kids.
• Hah oh man, Penn is just IN the briefing room and it’s kind of amazing.
• Why is he not killing any of the cops? If he were as badass as he pretends, they’d be dead. So would Wesley.
• I love how you can always tell when a vamp (or demon) is about to morph faces based on the tight frame of their face and the greenscreen background.
• Good job Kate, had some holy water ready to splash on Penn.
• The fighting in this ep is pretty great, I’ll say. Good job, stunt team.
• Hot damn, Kate got a doublestaking, aiming carefully enough to impale Angel but miss his tiny heart, but succeed in staking Penn.
• “I wonder if anything really changes.” // “Sure it does. They do. You have.”
• Angel’s worried that darkness is still in him, but Cordy reminds him that’s not the only thing that’s in him.
• I gotta say, I spent a lot of my first watch of Buffy and Angel being too dismissive of Cordelia. They’re giving her all the best stuff though—both snark and sense.

Crossfire!

Cordelia: I don’t want to stick around for your nocturnal commissions

Z: *looks to D in amusement*

D: *shakes his head, cringing* No.

 ***

[Z and D have been debating how many dead flashback faces we saw]

Angel: *tells Kate about the next victim*

D: *pauses* okay, so that means that there were five, right?

Z: Were there?

D: Well there were two before.

Z: And the one we saw.

D: And the one we heard about, and the one that’s coming next.

Z: Right.

D: His sister, and then four others?
Z: Okay.

D: So that’s two plus one plus one plus one.

Z: Or it’s one plus four plus –

D: Even if you’re right –

Miss Scarlet: 

Favorite Lines:

Daniel: Angel: Give me a stake. // Cordelia: It’s like eight in the morning!

Zelda: Wes: You’d be locked up faster than Lady Hamilton’s virtue! My apologies. // Cordelia: That’s okay. I don’t know what that meant.

Arc/Continuity:

Recurring: Detective Kate Lockley

Future Famous Person: Jeremy Renner

Whedonverse Hat Trick: Jeremy Renner (Penn here, Clint Barton/Hawkeye in Avengers)

Angel! In! History!

In the late 1700s, Angelus used to mark his victims with a cross scratched into their faces.

Stats:

Cordelia’s Hair – loopy curls

Dead Humans – 2

Dead Undeads – 1

Dead Flashbacks – 5

Dead Lawyers – 0

Cordelia Has a Vision – 0

Lawyered Ex Machina – 0

Evil Reveal – 0

Unevil Reveal – 1 (Angel wasn’t responsible for the murders he dreamt)

Shenanigans Called – 0

Apocalypse Called – 0

Prophecy Called – 0