In Hell You Tend to Know a Lot of the People

Episode 1.13: She. Original Airdate: 2.08.20

“Angel finds himself caught in the middle of a war between the sexes when a female demon from another dimension fights against her male oppressors.”

Daniel’s Thoughts:

• It’s a party!  
• We haven’t done this in a while and I forgot where we were in the Angel universe.
• Zelda and I are doing this remotely. It took a half hour of tech but we finally got it.
• Oh this is the one where Angel dances.
• “In Hell you tend to know a lot of the people.”
• “Can I get you some blood?”
• Aww, Angel is me at a party.
• Wesley is dancing now.  Oh Dear.
• He just called women “Fillies”.  Dude.
• Wesley’s sweater rivals Chris Evans’. 

• ANGEL DANCING.  Even if it’s in his imagination.  It’s still pretty amazing.
• I’m amazed Angel even agreed to come to this party.
• And then he retires to the kitchen.  Aww, Phantom Dennis offers him a chair and a beer.
• Meanwhile in another part of LA – something mysterious is happening that we don’t really see except a box, what looks like dry ice - & a man saying OMG.
• We’ll find out soon.
• Oh, Sean Gunn is in this.
• “I have two modes with people. Bite & Avoid.” – Same.
• Oh hey, Wesley’s officially part of the team, now I guess.  I didn’t know they ever made it officially official. Like with words.  I like that.  It's kinda a throwaway scene that most people probably don't need but I appreciate it.
• Cordy has a vision of what we saw earlier but even more.  A gross corpse with popping eyes.  By which I mean, eyes literally popping. 
• An ice factory.  There are ice factories?  That must be the easiest business in the world.  Turn on the tap, freeze.
• I mean, who – when they’re a child – says – you know what I want to give people when I grow up? Ice.  Everyone needs ice.
• This demon looks like something out of Star Trek.
• “Tae” is not from our dimension.  And he’s hunting the creature.
• Angel and his Batman toys. I love it.
• And there SHE is.  SHE also looks like someone out of Star Trek.

• SHE’s pretty strong.  SHE may be from another dimension but she’s got our dimension’s cell phones. 
• Oh the misunderstandings we used to have with bad cell phone reception.
• “Did she Carrie you?”  Honestly, even without the bad cell reception – it’s a weird reference since Carrie sounds so much like carry. “Did she carry you?”  I mean – come on, Cordy.  Step up your pop reference game.
• Angel knows so much about old art and poetry.  Love that.
• A cool dimension thing opens and another SHE falls out.  Which one is the SHE of the title?  Shouldn’t it be called SHES?
• “Why does it speak when no one listens?” – damn – so this is all a metaphor for sexism I guess?
• They’re removing something from her back.  AH, I see.  It’s an allegory for those tribes who remove girls’ clitorises.
• They keep calling her “IT” – Is that why the episode is called SHE?  Is this about misgendering?
• Hey, it’s very young Sean Gunn.
• Angel’s shirtless so I’m not really paying attention to the rest of what’s happening right now.
• His shirt’s on right now – so Cordelia is recapping blah blah blah ice factory.
• To the ice factory!
• Wesley trying to introduce himself to the scantily clad women.  What the eff, Wesley.  There’s awkward and then there’s just inappropriate.
• Ok, he’s still doing it.  I can’t tell if he’s just being awkward or if these women hold some sort of power.  Like sirens.  Z says they’re sirens and that was apparently an entire plot point I missed and/or wasn't paying attention to. [That's the bro's excuse for castrating them, is so they don't drive the menfolk wild with their sexual energy and feminine independence. - Z]
• And the credits shows Wes & Angel dancing bloopers and I love it so much.

Zelda’s Thoughts:

• I wonder if I would hate this episode as much as I do if they had cast literally anyone instead of Bai Ling. Like, what if they went with their Cabaret star casting jag (aka remember the time Joel Grey was on Buffy?) and cast Liza Minelli as Jhiera? How fun would that have been?
• AW HELL YES at least we begin with iconic Wesley dancing.

• Man, wardrobes and eras. Wes looks silly in his big knit sweater, but Chris Evans’s big knit sweater in Knives Out took over the film’s twitter account.
• Oh but this rando girl compliments Wes’s sweater so maybe I know nothing Jon Snow. [I, too, like the sweater, Jon Snow.-D]
• And now we get also-iconic Angel’s nightmare fantasy of him doing his own wacky dancing.

• Aw Phantom Dennis, pulling out a chair for brooding Angel to sit, cracking open a beer for him. Just a couple of dead bros bonding.
• Oooh a mystery crate making noises and glowing.
• Angel wants coffee. I guess it really doesn’t give him jitters anymore.
• Angel claiming he has two modes with people, bite and avoid. Another step in retconning from when they hadn’t nailed down who he was yet on early Buffy.
• Aw, Wes is finally officially part of Angel Investigations! Yay!
• Wow that was a super gross vision, esplodey eyes and all.
• Luckily the Jerico Ice Factory has ample shade in its empty parking lot for when Wes and Angel drive up.
• Angel, going through the corpse’s wallet, knows just which card to extract as a clue. My old wallet had like 40 restaurant cards and all the actor cards from my friends. My wallet would be unhelpful. Also I’m not a corpse, which I guess would also be unhelpful in investigating a murder.
• Oooh this bro is here from another dimension to stop a bringer of chaos. #topicalcommentary
• Seriously, why does a vampire drive a convertible.
• Time for Angel! Can! Fly! (with batman toys)
• Angel’s brand of detectiving involves so much more B&E than I think should be allowed. Did he train with Veronica Mars?
• Dammit, she’s here. Should I say She’s here? Should I capitalize it? Fine I’ll use her name since I know it. [I CAPITALIZE ALL THE LETTERS: SHE - D]
• LOL first Angel’s phone isn’t dialing properly, then it’s low battery. I was about to make a snark about TV writers from this era finding any excuse possible to have characters not be able to use the shortcut of mobile phones, but then he did get through on the third try. Oh but he’s got shit signal. Never mind they’re still sort of doing that thing. At least they put more effort into it than Buffy-drops-her-cell-in-a-graveyard.
• Heh, Jhiera tells security Angel’s stalking her. Oh but Angel took off his jacket. EVERYONE SO SNEAKY.
• Oh my god, I forgot Angel pretended to be a tour guide in the art museum for a hot second. I love it actually.
• Omg did Baudelaire write a love poem to Angel did he did he did Angel love him back I ship it and the ship name is Baudelangel.
• Wow, the boob window on Jhiera’s leather halter top why.
• Yeah this bit annoys me, the bro demons hitting the IT too hard (calling all women it instead of she/her), it’s not something they would do if that’s just how they always referred to them. It’s a clumsy read.
• I mean also obviously I’m annoyed that they treat women like objects or mindless cattle and are forcibly castrating them, it’s fucking evil, I’m there with y’all. I just. This episode is such a chore, as is Bai Ling, as is the forced I-don’t-buy-it chemistry between her and Angel.
• DB and BL: emote at each other with heat wave trembles overlaid on the screen. // Me: meh.
• Aw baby Sean Gunn, not even in demon makeup! Oh man his face, so young, his hair like the down on a baby chick.

• Wowww Angel’s guilty “I had to take a shower” and like I don’t need that wank energy.
• Angel’s plan is he goes and punches everyone. What a planner.
• Wesley, stop being stupid and gross please. It’s not funny and I hate it. I know it’s out of his control because of all the pheromone exposition we got earlier but please stop.
• Nooooo the bro demons punched out baby Sean Gunn! Save him, Amy Sherman-Palladino!
• Bro demon: Give them back, or the humans die. // Jhiera: Then they die. // Wes and Cordy: *fuck that, we can punch our way out of this too*
• Angel just smashed all the coffee and Wesley had a golden prat-fall on it and I love it.

• Blah blah final scene blah blah everyone is sexy yawn
• Though DB had some nice five o’clock shadow in that intense close up.
• HELL YEAH CLOSING CREDITS WITH MORE WACKY DANCING.

Favorite Lines:

Daniel: “In hell you tend to know a lot of the people.” – Angel

Zelda: 

Arc/Continuity:

Recurring: Phantom Dennis, Angel’s A+ drawing skills

Already Famous Person: Bai Ling (we guess?)

Whedonverse Hat Trick: Both Sean Gunn and Chris Durand playing their second role on this show.

Angel! In! History!

Angel as sudden art museum docent: “And this brings us to Monet's incomparable 'La Music Aux Tuileries,' first exhibited in 1863 ... On the left one spies the painter himself. In the middle distance is the French poet and critic Baudelaire, a friend of the artist. Now, Baudelaire -- interesting fellow. In his poem 'Le Vampire' he wrote 'Thou who abruptly as a knife didst come into my heart.' He strongly believed that evil forces surrounded mankind. And some even speculated that the poem was about a real vampire. Oh, and uh Baudelaire was actually a little taller and a lot drunker than he is depicted here.” aka ship Baudelangel is canon.

Stats:

Cordelia’s Hair – parted down the middle, lightly waved

Dead Humans – 1

Dead Undeads – 0

Dead Flashbacks – 0

Dead Lawyers – 0

Cordelia Has a Vision – 1

Wesley Prat-falls – 3

Lawyered Ex Machina – 0

Evil Reveal – 1 (the Vigories of Oden Tal are castraters who enslave their women)

Unevil Reveal – 1 (Jhiera isn’t a bringer of chaos but a refugee and revolutionary)

Shenanigans Called – 0

Apocalypse Called – 0

Prophecy Called – 0