Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel - First Time Viewer

[OCD Geek]

I think you might be right. Interesting thing is I’ve never actually seen fight club, which I think is what all these stories are based on.

By the way, tonight I get to see the back half of the Faith comes out of the coma storyline, and, according to IMDB, Gellar's final episode on Angel. That means after tonight I've pretty much covered everything dealing with Gellar as Buffy. Kinda sad about that, actually.

Five by Five/Sanctuary are a straight up sequel rather than a companion piece like all the other crossovers. If you feel you need a refresher, you might want to rewatch This Year's Girl/Who Are You? beforehand. Or even if you're good to go memory-wise, it's just phenomenal to watch as a continuous 2 hour, 40 minute event.

 

[tomalak301]

Five by Five/Sanctuary are a straight up sequel rather than a companion piece like all the other crossovers. If you feel you need a refresher, you might want to rewatch This Year's Girl/Who Are You? beforehand. Or even if you're good to go memory-wise, it's just phenomenal to watch as a continuous 2 hour, 40 minute event.

I decided to take your advice for both your reasons. If I am excited to see Faith go from psycho slayer to "psycho" slayer ally in the final episodes, might as well refresh my memory about how she gets to Angel in the first place.

 

[JD]

I just found out that Juliet Landau, who played Drusilla, is the daughter of Martin Landau and Barbara Bain. I had no idea, Landau is such a common last name that it never occurred to me she could be related to them.

 

[tomalak301]

Five by Five

I was wondering how this episode connected to Who Are You as I was watching and then we got that ending. That was a hell of a debut for Faith on Angel. I was like, wait, didn't she feel guilty for all the killing and pain she has caused and that's why she went back to the church. Then on Angel that got confirmed with her emotional outbreak. That was some awesome stuff from Dushku there, especially the interrogation scene with Wesley. I still have the second part of this story, but it really was a good idea to go back and watch the Buffy side of it.

 

[Masiral]

That scene of Angel and Faith in the alley is probably my favorite moment of both series. Dushku is just amazing in that scene.

The rain in that scene is actually real rain. The scene had always been scripted with rain, but it was decided that it would be too expensive. The night they started shooting ended up being the start of a major rainstorm, so they got it for free!

 

[tomalak301]

That scene of Angel and Faith in the alley is probably my favorite moment of both series. Dushku is just amazing in that scene.

The rain in that scene is actually real rain. The scene had always been scripted with rain, but it was decided that it would be too expensive. The night they started shooting ended up being the start of a major rainstorm, so they got it for free!

Always love it when things work out and you don't have to pay for it. I actually turned on the subtitles to get that scene down. It was probably the first really emotional moment I've had watching Angel.

 

[tomalak301]

Sanctuary (And Overall Thoughts on this Four Episode Story)

That's how you do a character arc in 4 episodes. This was a hell of a story, especially since on Angel they were allowed to take it a little darker than just on Buffy. This four part arc allowed for a great character study to be shown, can someone who has committed so many crimes be redeemed and how that impacts the world around her. In this episode we had everyone coming after Faith: The Council, Buffy, Wolfram and Hart, and Kate and the LAPD. I really liked that it was Angel who felt the need to protect Faith. The vampire who actually did get his soul back (And we saw in the flashbacks how beat up he was by siring who he sired, to the point where Darla kicked him out to the streets) helping someone who is lost and asked for help.

It was interesting to me that this episode kinda portrayed Buffy has kinda the villain. Yes she had a good point about what Faith did to her, but she came off kinda petty. I mean Angel and Buffy broke up, Buffy is now seeing Riley (Something Angel didn't know until know, so we are late in Buffy Season 4 and Angel Season 1) and Angel can't see Buffy anymore because of the curse. What gives her the right (During the whole inititive thing by the way) to come to LA and tell Angel what to do. In fact, I think this was the long awaited resolution to Graduation Day I was surprised didn't happen. Angel and Buffy have to separate, and then Buffy goes to College like nothing happened. To finally get Angel telling her that this is his city and she should go back was I think the moment I was waiting for. It was also the "You have your show, I have mine" moment. I do think all this could have been avoided if they both were honest with each other. Maybe Angel should have said, "We got into a fight and she asked for help" or something like that, but the tensions were high. Still, his point about helping people (And that's the basis of the first season so far) was spot on. Also, in thinking about what I was going to say, I rewatched the scenes with Angel and Buffy in The Yoko Factor, so I was glad they were able to make up. I still think Angel was in the right though.

I looked up how many more times Faith is in Angel and it's about 4 more. She's in the Season 2 premiere and then I guess that arc in Season 4 setting up Buffy's final five episodes. I'm really looking forward to seeing her again and keeping this story going. Also, Wesley is growing some spine with each episode. How he dealt with the Watcher retrieval squad was great. It was kinda amusing how Cordelia basically was written off this episode in the first 5 minutes. Surprised we didn't see her at the end with Buffy or something.

Overall, this was quite a 4 episode set (5 if you include Yoko Factor). These two shows allowed organic character growth and it was awesome to see.

 

[tomalak301]

War Zone

This episode got better as it went along. Really interested in the underground culture they created, showing the differences in wealth from one neighborhood to the next in LA. I liked seeing that struggle and the Vampires and the kids as kind of the gang warfare we really do see in big cities. I guess Gunn becomes a major character (I looked him up on wikipedia) so this was a good start for him. It did feel like they were setting him up as a new character going forward, especially from when he killed his vamp-sister to him talking with Angel on the building.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Vampires depress the housing market.

A step below that, these people were homeless.

How much jail time do you get for stealing electricity?

 

[tomalak301]

Vampires depress the housing market.

A step below that, these people were homeless.

How much jail time do you get for stealing electricity?

In California? Probably no less than 2.

 

[tomalak301]

Blind Date

Throughout the season, Wolfram and Hart has kind of just been there. They're antagonists, but they have really been in the shadows, not really having much to do with the main heart of the series. Heck, even in the Faith episodes they kinda remained sidelined for the most part. Now we get the penultimate of the season and they just got a whole lot more interesting, especially Lindsey's character. We see the guy finally get a heart and save the kids from the blind demon, all to have it go by the wayside when he couldn't pass up more power with W & H. I hope Holland (Who looked familiar so I looked him up and he was the Hotel manager in TNG's The Royale) is a recurring character moving forward because he and Lindsey might make W & H a lot more threatening. I couldn't quite make it out that well, but the episode ended with a prophecy of some sort in which Angel has a role to play. It sounds like Season 2 might get back into the mystical elements that I enjoyed in Buffy rather than the demon of the week. I'm excited that they might have launched this new direction for the series because they need to do something to change up the status quo.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I called that character Bernard (From the character he played in Lost) because I couldn't remember the character's name.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

It was interesting to me that this episode kinda portrayed Buffy has kinda the villain. Yes she had a good point about what Faith did to her, but she came off kinda petty. I mean she and Buffy broke up, Buffy is now seeing Riley (Something Angel didn't know until know, so we are late in Buffy Season 4 and Angel Season 1) and Angel can't see Buffy anymore because of the curse. What gives her the right (During the whole inititive thing by the way) to come to LA and tell Angel what to do.

I watched Angel before Buffy so I never liked when Buffy came on because it seemed all she did was make Angel feel bad.

 

[tomalak301]

I watched Angel before Buffy so I never liked when Buffy came on because it seemed all she did was make Angel feel bad.

I don't think Buffy made Angel feel bad in the Remember Me Episode. I look at the Angel/Buffy love as more unrequitted love. I think there was a time when they really did love each other, but because of outside forces, they could never be together.

 

[Forbin]

I don't think Buffy made Angel feel bad in the Remember Me Episode. I look at the Angel/Buffy love as more unrequitted love. I think there was a time when they really did love each other, but because of outside forces, they could never be together.

It's like me and that hot executive admin in the front office at work. No wait, it's nothing like that. She doesn't like me.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I really hope that you haven't spoiled yourself on the first season cliffhanger. It's a doozy.

 

[Forbin]

I really hope that you haven't spoiled yourself on the first season cliffhanger. It's a doozy.

You should probably stop doing that.

 

[Turtletrekker]

You should probably stop doing that.

Doing what? Telling someone to avoid spoilers? I know that tomalok has spoiled his/her self on a few things and didn't want a repeat, if possible.

 

[JD]

I don't really see where telling somone a cliffhanger is a "quite doozy" is a spoiler.
Kinda reminds me of this The Big Bang Theory scene

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[tomalak301]

To Shanshu in L.A.

We have an end goal for the series now, and wow what a cliffhanger that was. This episode was dark. Cordelia taking a hardcore vision trip, Wesley inside Angel Investigations as it explodes, the Oracles being killed off. To end a mostly episodic season on an episode like this was quite an achievement because it really does set up the rest of the series quite well. So the Shanshu prophecy is about Angel becoming human again, which sets up quite a lot of different possibilities for this series to go in. It's no longer about hunting demons and being broody. Angel now has a goal to get to, even to the point where what he told Buffy about having to live day in and day out with his curse, might no longer be a possibility.

Then we get that cliffhanger, and @Turtletrekker, I was not spoiled on that cliffhanger. Earlier in the season I said I need to focus more on Darla because she was kind of the underrated of the "Vamp-Four" (I know that's not series canon, I'm still going with it) and after the episode I wanted to remind myself about Darla's role on Buffy. It wasn't a big role, other than I rewatched the end of the episode "Angel" in which Angel Stakes her and yeah, rising her from the dead was a hell of a cliffhanger, or should I say set up for season 2. I am definitely going to get more Darla and I'm really excited for what Season 2 has in store now, because this was such a strong finish to the first season.

In terms of the overall season, I still think it started out rough but once we got to "I Will Remember You", things started to pick up. Did they rely too heavily on the demon of the week motif? Probably, but if this was the least arc-ed season in the Buffy-verse, there were still quite a few arcs in there. For one, we got Cordy, Wesley, and Angel coming much more closer as a family. As the season went on, I was starting to forget about Doyle, so to bring in one of the more annoying characters from Buffy Season 2 and make him likeable to the point where I'm smiling ear to ear as they are sitting down for breakfast at Cordy's apartment is great character writing. I'm so glad Wesley didn't die in the explosion. Two deaths in one season might have been overdoing it (Even though I know GOT did this every week, which was probably why I stopped that series after season 2).

I also liked that this series became it's own thing after the Faith episodes. It felt like Angel was finally able to put him and Buffy in terms of a relationship behind him and while they share the same universe, they are now really different shows. Buffy was about growing up and finding your way in the world. Angel is a lot more "adult" kind of hitting the demons and darkness much more full on. I'm excited for where this series will go in Season 2.

In terms of Angel Top 5 for season 1:

Rm With a Vu
I will Remember You
I've Got You Under My Skin
Five by Five/Sanctuary
To Shanshu in L.A.