Evil Angel Never Would Have Worn Those Pants

Episode 1.17: Eternity. Original Airdate: 4.04.00

“A television actress whose career is in a slump tries to preserve her youthful appearance by becoming one of the undead.”

Daniel’s Thoughts:

• OK, I know this is a fake out thing.  Close-up on Angel & Wesley being “terrified” but it’s obvious by the way it’s being filmed that it’s nothing supernaturally scary.
• Oh man, Cordelia is in a play and she actually called “line!” Oh man.  It’s fine for comic relief, but I’ll be happy when this Cordelia-trying-to-be-an-actress thing is over.
• “And I thought I knew Eternity” – Angel
• Oh and here’s the “so what do you think?” awkwardness of when you go to a friend’s play. “You really made that role your own!” Been there.
• Flashback to episode one when Cordelia & Angel reconnected at a party – that’s nice continuity. 
• So Angel saves some famous star’s life and now she’s gonna come back and recreate The Bodyguard.   I’ve never seen The Bodyguard but I imagine it has vampires saving famous people. [I've also never seen The Bodyguard so I can say with complete certainty that this checks out. - Z]
• Who called ET? Wesley: Emma Thomson? Cordelia: Entertainment Tonight, doofus. Me: The Extra Terrestrial?
• On Your Own sounds like it was a terrible show based on the title alone.
• Rebecca claims her stalker letters are signed in blood.  If they were, wouldn’t the police be able to get DNA evidence from it? 
• I love that Angel knows it’s not blood right way.  He can probably smell it.
• Why can’t Angel help the actress? Because he likes her? Why? He’s had like one conversation with her.  And as Cordy says, “You’d have to get really close for that.”
• I love the fake Cordy vision.  It proves that Charisma is a better actress than Cordelia.
• Ugh, Rebecca is like 24 years old and she worried about getting old.  It’s a real reflection on real Hollywood.  Non-sequitur…did this actress work after this?
• Someone breaks into Rebecca’s house.  Angel to the rescue!  Sorta.  He kinda gets clobbered.
• Ooh, nice vampire non-reflection mirror.  Ooh, she knows.
• If I touch you, will you be cold?  I…they don’t really have any chemistry. 
• “Angel’s moment of perfect happiness is because he was with Buffy.”  YES.  It’s not about having an orgasm, people.
• Wait – how did Cordelia get into this famous star’s house?
• “You really told her?” I mean – they’re acting like it’s this love thing but how else was he supposed to explain his non-reflection?
• Oh no! A shooter! 
• I think this episode was better when I was younger, and therefore more impressionable than I am. [Hey! - Anya "Our Little Patriot" Jenkins]
• Ahhh, Rebecca knows her stalker.  He’s a stuntman.  Oliver is setting this all up.  That’s an interesting turn of events.
• “Nobody stays young forever.” Rebecca:

• Cordelia fangirling with Rebecca is really super cute.
• “There’s no coffin.”  Angel has been annoyed by that before. I love that.
• Man, I’m so tuning out for this romance stuff.  I mean, I’m sure it’s party because my heart is dead. But also, I really think they have absolutely no chemistry. 
• This part.  I always remember this bit.  It made an impression on me: Rebecca drugging Angel and what it does to him.
• I know it’s a desperate move, but Rebecca obviously didn’t think this through at all.  Sure it may work for a decade or so – but after a while, people are going to catch on and that’s a short career.  I mean, no one can look you forever.  She’s not Bianca Lawson.

Actual Vampire Bianca Lawson.

• “Cordelia says you’ve saved the world.” “A couple of times, I helped.” I like that he gives credit where credit is due (BUFFY SAVED THE WORLD.)
• And now the effects of the ecstasy is setting in.
• I both love and hate this.  I mean ecstasy is a drug that give you a high – but perfect happiness? And if it’s that easy, Woflram & Hart shoulda thought of that.   Despite that? I can’t help but thinking it’s a kinda cool plot twist and shows how dangerous it can be to befriend a vampire – even one with a soul. And it’s made the episode suddenly interesting.
• It’s also heightens the tension – that it might be easy to turn Angel into Angelus.
• And David is so good at playing Angelus.
• The ease of which Wesley lifts Rebecca.
• Not Ecstasy – Doxi…what? Mall?
• I’m glad Wesley is there to be the smart one.  He let’s the audience know that the effects are temporary – though I’m still wondering how this works.  Has his soul escaped his body…for a bit?  Is it hiding?  Cause the whole idea of Angelus being Angel is not him being…happy….it’s him literally losing his soul.  True happiness is the cause.
• But here comes the worst part of Angel being Angelus.  He’s not just a powerful killer – if that weren’t bad enough – he gets at all your insecurities.  Yes, it’s worse than killing.  Ask any teenage girl.
• Maybe this will finally convince Cordy to give up acting?
• “I think about this happening every. Single. Day.”  I think the point they’re trying to make here is that Cordelia is actually a good actress? And it’s a fun moment but it only proves that Cordelia is a very good liar.  Lying is very different than acting.  Lying is manipulation. With acting, your audience is in on it.  You’re pretending together.  Besides that there’s also some truth to what she’s saying.  The holy water may not have been real but the words behind them probably were.  She’s lived through Evil-Angel.  I’m sure there’s a part of her that nervous about that.
• Cordy is wearing Buffy-type pants and I love em.

Zelda’s Thoughts:

• Oh right, the fakeout of Angel and Wes being trapped but it’s really them stuck watching Cordelia in A Doll’s House.
• Legit, she’s really bad in it. But she shouldn’t be doing period work maybe? She was good at pretending to be a detective last week.
• Oh hey, the struggle to find positive things to say to your friend who was bad in a show. We know that struggle well.
• Randomly across the street is some kind of red carpet event, and Cordelia is fangirling. But lo! Angel twigged a car set on hitting famous actress and saved her! … And got hit by a car. But it’s cool, y’all, he’s a vampire.
• “It was such an honor to save your life, Ms. Lowell,” says Cordelia after Angel gets hit by a car.
• Ugh, Cordy used the r*tard word, why.
• Angel disappears while Rebecca’s attention is diverted. Cordy: “Oh, he does that.” Throwback to “you made him do that thing where he’s gone.”
• Heh, the article about the car doesn’t mention Angel saving Rebecca.
• Cordelia, commenting on how quickly stars can seem irrelevant if their show is off the air … I wish this weren’t as true as it is.
• Rebecca’s hair, face, and energy are all very Shannyn Sossamon. (y’all I am gobsmacked that I spelled her name right on the first try, so yes, I’m bragging about it)

• Ah, Rebecca’s got a stack of death threats. But Angel can tell they’re not written in blood, because vampire. He’s really giving away a lot of his tells to Rebecca. She already caught that there’s no sunlight in his office.
• But Angel won’t take her case, and says so very quietly, and yet Cordelia has bat hearing because she yells at him through the glass.
• Aw, Wes cottons on that Angel likes Rebecca and doesn’t want to get close to her. And Wes also thinks they can still find a way to help her, even if it’s finding someone else to help her. Thanks Wes.
• I see, I see, Rebecca is facing the most dreadful of Hollywood curses: aging while female.
• Dang, Angel smashed through a window to fight random dude who broke in. Lucky Rebecca had already invited him over earlier?
• Also her giant mirror reveals no Angel reflection GASP.
• And then poof Angel disappears again.
• Except he’s still hiding in the house, after the police leave. Because he knows he’s been found out and needs to do some damage control.
• Good job, Rebecca, you figured it all out: vampire.
• “It’s a long story.” // “How long? A hundred years?” // “Two … hundred. And some change.”
• Dang, the chemistry between them though is pretty good. Way better than whatsherface in “She.” There’s something delicate about the way he looks at her, realizing she’s not afraid.
• Cordelia, even though she had been pushing Angel to take the case, is now worried he’ll activate the trigger for his curse and lose his soul.
• I like Wesley’s point, and it’s one he’ll reiterate in season five: “You realize how rare that is, true happiness?”
• Aw, Angel’s Rebecca’s plus one at a premiere! I … kinda like his hair brushed this way? Like, it’s stiff with gel but that was very much a thing at the time.

• Aw man, this dude’s got a gun. Buffy told us they’re never useful. Certainly not useful against Angle in his Bond suit.
• Dang, Rebecca recognized her “stalker” as a stuntman that Oliver has also represented. It’s so fucked up, that Oliver would pull this stunt to try to help her career.
• And the dumb dumb thing is we know this isn’t out of the realm of possibility, because we got dumbass Jussie staging his own attack.
• Cordy’s so kicked on hanging out with Rebecca she doesn’t cotton that Rebecca is pumping her for information. Too bad, I like when she’s wilier and figures it out.
• Angel’s basement apartment is so big and I love my apartment but it is not as big and I’ve been inside it for two months and anyway, I love his curving bookshelves.

• Wow, she even spills champagne on his shirt. I mean, David’s looking good this season so I don’t blame how often they get the boy shirtless, but also ugh now it’s time for us to stop liking Rebecca because she’s dosing Angel’s champagne to bring out Angelus.
• It’s interesting that this works. I think I would have liked it better if, you know, it hadn’t? For a couple reasons. One, it could have worked if Angel were only faking as Angelus (like he did with Faith once), because then it would be Angel using tough love to teach Rebecca a lesson. Two, it would get us around the awkward thing of his being only temporarily soulless? Like, how does that work? It’s not like he was orgasming constantly when he turned back to Angelus the first time. It was one moment of perfect happiness that turned him. How come if this drugging is effective enough to bring out Angelus, it’s only temporary? If you come at me with “it’s not real perfect happiness” because it was drug induced, then I’ll come at you with “then it shouldn’t have worked in the first place.” Anyway, shenanigans.
• Oh good, Cordelia finally figured out that Rebecca was pumping her for info.
• “Cordelia says you’ve saved the world.” “Oh, a couple of times I helped. But I almost had it sucked into hell once, too.” And you can see him look a bit wistful. Is that the ecstasy taking effect?
• See, Angel starts off with the tough love, making her drink blood to see what it’s like. But he also recognizes that it’s crueler than he typically is.
• At least Rebecca figures out early enough this was a dumb dumb plan.
• My shenanigan aside, it’s nice to see David having fun with Angelus again. You can tell how much he enjoys it.
• Oops the plan is super backfiring, because Angelus doesn’t plan to turn her, just torture and kill her.
• Hah, his little kick step on the stairs as he says “I’m a vampire.”

• You know what, she’s super lucky that Angelus’s MO is to torture for a while or she’d be dead already.
• A+ Rebecca, clocking Angelus in the face twice before fleeing up the … slow … old … elevator. Oh sweetie.
• Oh good, Wes and Cordy are here.
• And Cordelia assumes they slept together.
• Oh it’s not ecstasy, it’s doximall or something.
• Yeah see, Wes says it’s synthetic, not true happiness. This. Should not. Have worked. Whether or not Angel knows it’s synthetic, it shouldna worked. And Wes thinks telling him will undo it. THIS MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE. It’s not like Angelus’s essence is pure happiness running around gleefully wreaking havoc. I mean, sure, he has fun, but we’ve seen Angelus angry.
• Aw hey this is Wes’s first time meeting Angelus.
• Oops, Wes is knocked out.
• And now Angelus is cruelly telling Cordelia just how bad she was as Nora.
• Aw see, Cordelia showed us again she’s good at lying when it’s contemporary work! That was a great lie about the holy water in her bottle.
• Heh, Angel, super de duper de chained up in bed.
• He wakes up with a visible bruise (unlike after getting hit by a car, but whatever) and Cordelia asks “Are you still evil?”
• Wes is of Buffy’s school of thought on Angelus vs Angel, not wanting to hold Angel accountable for the things Angelus says and does, seeing them as two separate people.
• And Angel compliments Wes’s moves against Angelus.
• Oh wow, Cordelia. She agrees with Wesley, but she’s mad at him not for the truth Angelus spoke, but for the fact that Angel lied to her. Honesty is Cordelia’s love language.

See also: "Earshot."

• They leave Angel chained in bed. Kinky.

Favorite Lines:

Daniel: "Angel's moment of perfect happiness was because he was with Buffy" - Wesley

Zelda: “You walk a fine line, Angel. I don’t envy you.” - Wesley

Arc/Continuity:

Recurring: Oliver

Angel! In! History!

He’s heard Ernest Borgnine is a very skilled lover.

But he never killed a famous person before.

Stats:

Cordelia’s Hair – curly gorgeous updo for playing Nora; blown straight and parted down the middle irl; then loose ringlets, half-up

Dead Humans – 0

Dead Undeads – 0

Dead Flashbacks – 0

Dead Lawyers – 0

Cordelia Has a Vision – 0

Cordelia Fakes a Vision – 1

Wesley Prat-falls – 0

Lawyered Ex Machina – 0

Evil Reveal – 1 (Oliver was behind the stalking plan)

Unevil Reveal – 0

Shenanigans Called – 1

Apocalypse Called – 0

Prophecy Called – 0