Episode 2.11: Redefinition. Original Airdate: 1.16.01
“After firing Cordelia,
Gunn and Wesley, Angel trains for a showdown with Darla and Drusilla while the
others decide what to do with their lives.”
Daniel’s Thoughts:
- Wes, Cordy & Gunn now laid off, are taking their boxes out of the Hyperion
- Well Gunn doesn’t have a box but the other two do. Among Cordy’s things are her MacBook and flowers. I feel like Cordy would have more stuff than that but maybe it’s a first trip
- They talk about Angel’s recent decisions.
- Cordy thinks it’s all about Darla. “It’s always some little blonde driving him over the edge.” Heh.
- “I won’t pretend to understand Angel’s reasons but maybe he needs to be alone right now and the best thing that we can do for him is to let him be.” Wesley is being extremely understanding right now.
- Angel meanwhile is getting rid of all things Darla including his creepy drawings of her.
- And now a training montage & a voiceover? Are we in a Rocky movie? [If we hear any inspirational power chords, we'll just lie down until they go away. - Giles]
- Also Angel is panting as if he has breath.
- Meanwhile, all the lawyers are dead piled on top of each other.
- Except Lindsey…opens his eyes. “She saved me,” he says, all in mopey dopey wuv.
- “I’m the only one left.” “Hey we’ve got a live one here!” “We do?” Aww, Lindsey thought he was special.
- It’s Lilah of course.
- Oh hey…it’s Wesley’s girlfriend, whatsherface? I keep forgetting she exists.
- Wes is wearing the ugliest orange shirt. I just…it’s distracting me.
- Wes is at that point where he doesn’t know what he’s going to do with his life.
- Meanwhile, as if in another episode entirely, Angel narrates pointlessly.
- Also seriously, who is paying the electric bills for this hotel?
- Back at W&H, Lilah’s arm is in a sling and Lindsey has a bruise on his face but other than that, they seem fine.
- Lilah is worried that they’re going to be under suspicion for surviving.
- And oop – Darla and Dru are waiting for Lindsey & Lilah in his office.
- “He’s got cow eyes, big and black. Moo…” – Drusilla adds her commentary as only she can.
- Darla spared Lindsey & Lilah because they want a connection to W&H and “the world above.”
- Some vamps roaming the sewers bragging about eating people at fast food places.
- Angel slides in and stakes em. Who is he, Buffy?
- Caritas! Lorne is singing.
- Wesley needs to make a decision about his future, so where else can he go?
- “Bloody Mary, please.” ‘Do you want real blood with that?” “Ah, no…bloodless, thanks.”
- And Cordelia made the same decision, I guess.
- And Gunn makes three.
- Wes to Gunn: “Well, I assume it’s not Madonna, but what are you gonna sing?” Don’t assume, Wesley. Don’t assume.
- Meanwhile, Angel is torturing his ol’ pal Merl for information: “I heard about your girls, Godzilla, Darcilla [sic], whatever.” Lol.
- Monster fighting pit – didn’t we do this already? I guess this isn’t to the death, though. Just for fun?
- “Violence without victims,” – is what Darla calls it.
- OMG, Dru just pulled a demon’s ears off. Holy shit, Dru!
- The Vampy ladies are looking to recruit.
- Dru can see that Angel is watching.
- He was, but he left just in time. He continues to narrate his lament and non-readiness and it’s so maudlin & boring.
- Meanwhile Lilah is worried. She wants to form a united front with Lindsey against D&D. Except she’s wearing a wire…
- And now our three fired friends are drunk. Cordy’s drink of choice: Margarita. Gunn’s: beer.
- Cordy making fun of Gunn: “Mr. I don’t take orders but where do I stick my axe?” lol
- Oh hey, a casual homophobic joke. Must be nice for J. August Richards, a closeted gay man at the time.
- And now the R-word. Oh someone needs to rewrite this scene ASAP.
- They drink more, they fight, they sing We are the Champions, they close the bar. I don’t care.
- Lorne comes to say hello. They want guidance now.
- Cordelia has a vision & it seems like Lorne predicted that it was about to happen which is cool. I wonder if we’ll see more of that?
- I guess they know what they have to do now: continue to help the helpless.
- Angel gets all his weapons in a row and ignores a phone ringing at the hotel.
- They’re all drunk right now. I don’t know how they think they can help. I don’t know how they’re even walking straight.
- Darla, “Where is he? Probably flogging himself in a church right now.” Dru: “Ooh, Flogging. Eww, Churches.” Hehe.
- Angel goes to slay some demons but they look pretty tough.
- The laid off trio meanwhile bump into the big ugly demon.
- After a long battle, Gunn finally kills him.
- Gunn points out that he nearly killed them all but Cordelia makes a great point: Yeah, but out of everyone here, which one’s the dead one? YEAH Unity!
- Dru’s opinion of Lilah, “I like the girl. She’s wicked.” You and me both.
- Angel’s killed all the demons. I bet it was those pull-ups that helped. [You're my favorite. - Z]
- Darla seems unsure if she's dealing with Angel or Angelus. The smoking usually means he's evil again.
- Angel is playing mind-games. He sets Dru & Darla on fire. Holy shit! Their stunt doubles axe a fire hydrant open. They’re burnt all over, but they’re okay.
- “It wasn’t Angel. It wasn’t Angelus either.” Yeah….this is something in between. This is Angel having no more fucks to give.
- Now it’s time for Lindsey & Lilah’s meeting with a representative from the senior partners.
- They need a replacement for Holland. The rep lays out both of their misdeeds.
- And the decision: Lilah & Lindsey will do the job jointly.
- Wesley comes to visit Angel. He tells Angel that they’re keeping the agency open with or without him.
Zelda’s Thoughts:
- Oh right. Angel fired everybody. Let’s go!
- Luckily they had the standard file boxes on hand to pack up random stuff to carry out, as all fired people must.
- “One thing you can say about Angel, at least he’s consistent. It’s always some little blonde driving him over the edge!” Is this why Cordy goes blonde later in the series?
- Wes thinks they need to let Angel be, and that maybe he’ll return to himself that way.
- And Cordy, Wes, and Gunn all walk away in three different directions.
- Angel’s file box, meanwhile, is full of his pencil sketches of Darla, but he’s burning them.
- It’s an interesting problem, really. Sometimes when I’m really upset the most important thing I need is alone time to process. They’ve seen that trying to Intervention Angel has, repeatedly, done jack all, because he ignores them or fakes normalcy to get them off his case. He doesn’t have to fake anything now. And knowing the future, he is eventually gonna cathart this. But I still think pushing everyone away like this is just one more Bad Plan from Angel the Bad Planner.
- Anyway, blah blah Angel VoiceOvers about not being ready yet while he does a lot of physical training, which isn’t a bad watch.
- Oh right, dead lawyers.
- Except Lindsey! Not dead! Just covered by deads.
- He’s kinda pleased to be the only one left, thinking Darla saved him. When they find another live one – Lilah – he’s disappointed.
- Oh right, Wes’s girlfriend Virginia. She wants him to file a grievance with the union for being fired. Union of Rogue Demon Hunters! URDH!
- Wes is a bit glum because he doesn’t think he has other skills. Come now, he could be a librarian like Giles! He can polish spectacles, brew tea, and pontificate about dusty tomes with the best of them!
- Angel’s still VOing. Does he talk at all this episode? I really don’t care about his inner monologue, which is mostly vague abstract yawners like “I’m not on their level, but I can get there.”
- We do have the hero shot of him walking through an underground tunnel, coat aswirl, which I think lands in the credits sequence at some point.
- Oh hey Darla and Dru are waiting for the two lawyerly survivors in Lindsey’s office.
- “He’s got cow eyes, big and black. Moooooooo.” Hi Dru.
- Darla’s decided she wants to run LA, no longer being W&H’s puppet, but she’s willing to keep the lines of communication open, via Lindsey and Lilah. She won’t be the puppet, but she’s willing to have W&H be her consigliare (did I use that word right?)
- Ah, Angel’s other practice for getting on Darla and Dru’s “level” is … fighting vampires. How unusual *stares at camera*
- Guess that was enough. “I’m ready. I’ve got the moves.” *stares into the camera even harder*
- I really liked the last two episodes. This one is so much ugh-er in comparison.
- Lorne is wailing on “Lady Marmalade” and god I love him. We lost Andy Hallett way too soon.
- Wes, Cordy, and Gunn all had the same idea: go to Caritas and have Lorne read them.
- Aw I feel a bit bummed that Gunn’s feeling at loose ends too. I thought he was only part time with Angel Investigations and still has his own crew. Is this the beginning of the defanging of Gunn from badass smart crew leader to just a follower, just the muscle?
- Angel tortures Merl to get intel, still not speaking on camera, and leaving Merl to hang once he gets what he wants. What a shit.
- Some kinda demon fight club, which Darla and Dru break up with a slow clap and a villain stride.
- Dru straight up rips off a demon’s ears, dang. Oh and Angel’s there, hiding under vampface and a hoodie. Give him a baseball cap and sunglasses and he’ll be as covert as an MCU superhero.
 |
| Very stealth. |
- Dru suddenly clocks him, saying “Eyes like needles,” which is one of the things Human Drusilla said before she was turned, in “Dear Boy.”
- It’s enough to rattle Darla, who starts combing the crowd for Angel but not finding him. She’s losing her supervillain dignity.
- We still don’t know if Darla has much of a plan beyond forming a crew. You’d think, for a former child of the Master, she’d want to have a crew made of this “royal” line, more from the Order of Aurelius (basically I’m wondering why she and Dru aren’t just siring a bunch of newbies)
- Anywhile, Lilah’s approaching Lindsey with the proposal of an alliance, including stealing files for insurance, like Lindsey did in season one. Except actually her plan is to record him on a wire admitting to it and making a plan. But he’s onto her, grabs the wire and says into the mic “But Lilah, I would never steal files from my employer.”
- Cordy’s drunky-blaming Wes for the Darla obsession, Gunn’s drunky-complaining about their sibling style bickering, and now Wes is drunky-saying it’s because Gunn doesn’t follow orders and what the shit.
- And after an unfortunate of the use r*tard as a pejorative and an escalating fight full of problematic shit, we cut to the three of them singing quite badly “We are the Champions.”
- Lorne, rather than reading them their future, preps his blazer as a cushion for poor Cordy, who’s tossed into a vision.
- The three of them, drunk and sleepy, go to rescue.
- They do try to call Angel but he ignores the ringing phone, grabs an axe to go with his duffel bag of weapons, and goes off on his own stupid thing. At least he’s not VOing.
- They get to the alley, the victim is missing, and they have no weapons. Gunn: “Man, I wish Angel was here.” // Wes: “Well he’s not. Angel’s walked away from his duty. We’re not going to.”
- Dru makes a reference to having de-eyed a bartender, but 1, we’re not sure if the bartender was human or demon, and 2, that’s not necessarily a death blow (after all, the guy whose ears she ripped off survived), so it’s not going in our headcount.
- Dru warns Darla that no matter how big an army Darla builds, Angel will still come for them. Darla’s pissed everyone keeps bringing up Angel.
- Kinda fun detail: some of the demons in the warehouse are clearly reusing some of the demon makeups we’ve seen earlier in the series.
- Oh shit, demon bites a big chunk out of Wes’s shoulder. Luckily, Gunn puts the demon down.
- “We should go before I pass out. Or possibly during.”
- But yay they beat the demon!
- Darla says with a smirk that she doubts Lindsey and Lilah even know what W&H’s true plan for Angel is. But clearly Darla doesn’t know either, so like … why are we being superior about this?
- Aaaaaaaaaand warehouse full of dead demons. “Dead already? Bad soldiers,” says Dru.
- And gasp, Angel’s there, SMOKING A CIGARETTE.
- BUT WHEN YOU SMOKE A CIGARETTE ON BUFFY OR ANGEL IT MEANS YOU’RE EVIL OR ABOUT TO DIE.
- Remember when Buffy’s guidance counselor smoked a cigarette on school grounds? What the hell was that shit?
- Anyway, Angel tosses down his cigarette, it follows a trail of motor oil, and sets Darla and Dru on fire and it’s fucking vicious.
- So I’ve got two shenanigans to call here: shenanigan one: they burn slower than literally any other vampire in this universe (seriously, they should be ash); shenanigan two: water wouldn’t put out a gasoline fire.
- This is the last we see of Dru for a while … she’s got a visit to make in Sunnydale before we say the longer goodbye (I think this is when she shows up in “Crush”?)
- Random new Old White Guy in Charge at W&H tells Lindsey and Lilah they will jointly be Executive VPs in charge of special projects, so that their competitiveness will yield interesting results. “The Senior Partners will be watching you.”
- Wes comes to see Angel at the Hyperion to tell him they’re keeping Angel Investigations open, even if he’s not going to be involved. “You may have turned your back on your mission, but we haven’t. Someone has to fight the good fight.” Angel continues to not speak on camera but VOs “Let them fight the good fight. Someone has to fight the war.” What … war? Literally what. He set two vamps on fire but didn’t even stay to make sure it killed them. Angel and His Shitty Plans are very bad at war-fighting.
- What a dumb dumb stupid dumb character.
Crossfire!
D: Wow, does Angel really not talk the entire episode? I didn't catch that.
Z: I think so, yeah. And it's just a narrative conceit because clearly he had to say something so Merl knew what he wanted to know.
D: I wonder if they only gave him that dumb internal monologue after the table read when David was all - dude, the lead has no lines?
Z: I half wondered if he had laryngitis.
Favorite Lines:
Zelda: “You may have turned your back on your mission, but we haven’t. Someone has to fight the good fight.” – Wesley
Arc/Continuity:
Caritas Song List
“Lady Marmalade” (Lorne)
“We are the Champions” (Gunn, Cordy, Wes)
Stats:
Dead Humans – *just a note that we revised last episode’s death count to reflect the 15 total, per Darla*
Dead Undeads – 15 (assuming Dru’s count of 10 little soldiers is accurate)
Dead Flashbacks – 0
Dead Lawyers – 0
Cordelia Has a Vision – 1
Wesley Prat-falls – 0
Lawyered Ex Machina – 0
Evil Reveal – 0
Unevil Reveal – 0
Shenanigans Called – 2
Apocalypse Called – 0
Prophecy Called – 0
The Angel voice over is terrible. He sounds like he's reading.
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