In the thirteenth episode of the first season of Angel, the team investigates why people are being burnt alive, and stumbles across a plan to hide refugees from a parallel dimension. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Angel.
You know when you have a lot of feelings about characters? Like, sometimes the mere sight of their face instills far too many emotions and thoughts for one brain to deal with? Then you’re overwhelmed with feels, and you don’t even really care what the characters are doing as long as they’re doing anything on your screen or in a book, and everything feels all right regardless? I’m kind of at that point with Angel. I think it’s brilliant that all three members of Angel Investigations are familiar faces because it is so much easier for me to get attached to Cordelia, Wesley, and Angel. That’s also a good thing because even in the most mediocre of story lines, I’m just happy that they are around.
I use the word “mediocre” simply because this episode, for the most part, feels quite neutral. It’s not boring, but it’s not exciting. It’s not awful, but it’s not a stunning work of art. It’s not meaningless, but it’s not terribly memorable. It just happened. There are some great parts! There are others I don’t care for! There is dancing, and then there are heavy-handed metaphors. At the end of the day, actually, if it weren’t for the dancing and Bai Ling being absolutely fabulous, I don’t know that I’d have anything positive to say about “She.”
I think that this was meant as a way to reference genital mutilation, or perhaps it was just a metaphor for patriarchal dominance. Actually, the fact that I couldn’t figure out what the fuck this episode was trying to say about women was really distracting. Okay, so the ko was being removed, but the ko can also set people on fire, but it is the fault of these women when it’s also not? Also, Angel is attracted to Jheira because of her ko but he doesn’t do anything and then there’s heat, and how the hell does the heat not burn through clothing, but it can roast a man alive?
Okay, I’m being incredibly nitpicky. I just felt so confused by what was going on. I cared about what Jheira was doing, and I thought that the show made it obvious that she was trying to liberate women from the Oden Tal dimension and bring them to Los Angeles. But then I guess I just didn’t care beyond that? It’s hard to actually pinpoint why, but my attention just kept wandering. Something was missing from this story, and that’s despite that Bai Ling was wonderful here. It was also nice to see that Wesley is starting to become more capable during fights, especially since I’m so used to him being knocked out or tripping or falling or doing any number of things that might make him incapacitated for the duration of any sort of physical activity. Look, it’s just what he does, okay? Don’t blame me!
I guess this really comes down to an issue of taste. The story didn’t click with me. That doesn’t mean it’s objectively awful or anything like that. I’d actually be interested to know if there are people who greatly enjoy “She.” Sometimes, some context or discussion can make you like something you did not like, you know? I know this is a rather brief post, but I already feel like I’m forcing out words at this point, so I declare that at least fifty comments below this must have GIFs of Angel and Wesley dancing. Ideally, they’ll all be synchronized so it’s like a huge dance party in the comments. Discuss.
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Most people at the time thought it was poor.
Most people at the time thought it was poor.
Yeah, it’s generally considered a pretty weak episode. I don’t mind it, I won’t turn it off if it comes on and Bai Ling is indeed fabulous. But yeah, the story is kinda meh and doesn’t really engage like the better episodes do.