{"id":1778,"date":"2013-01-09T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2013-01-09T17:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=1778"},"modified":"2013-01-09T09:00:27","modified_gmt":"2013-01-09T17:00:27","slug":"mark-re-watches-angel-pylea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2013\/01\/mark-re-watches-angel-pylea\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Re-Watches &#8216;Angel&#8217;: Pylea!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Everyone, let&#8217;s talk about one of the BEST THINGS that\u00c2\u00a0<em>Angel<\/em> ever did<i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>And I mean that! In hindsight, I loved this arc even MORE than I did when I first watched it. Let&#8217;s discuss!<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Okay, videos first:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Belonging&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>[vimeo 56861258 w=500 h=375]<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Over the Rainbow&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>[vimeo 56861260 w=500 h=375]<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Through the Looking Glass&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>[vimeo 56861261 w=500 h=375]<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>[vimeo 56861262 w=500 h=375]<\/p>\n<p>I was serious yesterday when I said I had a lot to say about this arc. BUCKLE IN.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 16px\">NO HELP ME, THIS WHOLE ARC IS ABOUT HOW EVERY CHARACTER STRUGGLES TO BELONG IN THEIR OWN RESPECTIVE WORLD, SO THEY&#8217;RE TRANSPORTED TO ANOTHER ONE IN THE PROCESS AND IT GIVES THEM ~PERSPECTIVE~ OH MY GOD. And in the case of Fred? She is given the hope of\u00c2\u00a0<span style=\"line-height: 16px\"><em>another<\/em> world for the first time in five years.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li>~<em>my feelings~<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Hey, Wesley&#8217;s dad sucks. He does! Even when he&#8217;s a robot,\u00c2\u00a0<em>jesus<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan. YES.<\/li>\n<li>It must be said that the worldbuilding given in these four episodes is ridiculous. I LOVE WORLDBUILDING.<\/li>\n<li>I had said during my initial watch of these episodes that it was neat how this didn&#8217;t function as a traditional end-of-season story arc. And while it was certainly unexpected and bizarre, I&#8217;d like to amend that. The Pylea arc is an integral way for this show to examine the exact themes brought up in &#8220;Judgment&#8221; and throughout season two. Angel struggled with the darkness within him this whole season, and this was a chance to actually\u00c2\u00a0<em>show<\/em> us what was inside of him. I&#8217;m actually surprised that the show never really brought up the demon within Angel again, as I think it could have been pretty neat to discuss again. Of course&#8230; how? How would that have happened? I have no idea.<\/li>\n<li>Anyway, the great part about these four episodes is how fantastically the writers deal with every single character. All of them get screentime: Gunn, Fred, Wes, Angel, Groo, and Cordelia. All of their stories matter. It&#8217;s something that later seasons of this show (and, to that extent,\u00c2\u00a0<em>Buffy<\/em> as well) didn&#8217;t do all that well. But lord, when this show was on fire, IT WAS SO GOOD. I&#8217;ve seriously re-thought my stance on the best season, and I think 2 might outrank 5 after having watched this.<\/li>\n<li>NO, ANGEL IS CLEARLY IN LOVE WITH CORDELIA,\u00c2\u00a0<em>NO, THAT PATH IS FULL OF TRAGEDY AND HEARTBREAK, DUDE.\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>Oh god,\u00c2\u00a0<em>why<\/em>. They came so close! Then it was STOLEN FROM THEM.<\/li>\n<li>Things I will remember when I am 89 and reminiscing on my youth: Angel not being on fire. It will forever be hilarious to me.<\/li>\n<li>I don&#8217;t know why I hate Constable Narwek so much more on this second time around. Like, I just hated\u00c2\u00a0<em>seeing<\/em> him on the screen.<\/li>\n<li>This arc made me miss Caritas. Poor Lorne. I&#8217;m eager to see if he&#8217;s in the\u00c2\u00a0<em>Angel<\/em> comics because his ending just made me sad, and Lorne deserves better.<\/li>\n<li>Oh god, the references to\u00c2\u00a0<em>The Wizard of Oz<\/em> and\u00c2\u00a0<em>Alice in Wonderland<\/em> are even more dense and complicated than I realized. I LOVE TEXTUAL REFERENCES, Y&#8217;ALL.<\/li>\n<li>Cordelia is my personal queen, so the end of &#8220;Over the Rainbow&#8221; is canon for my\u00c2\u00a0<em>life<\/em>. Thanks,\u00c2\u00a0<em>Angel<\/em>. You helped me realize this, and I am forever in your debt.<\/li>\n<li>It is absolutely\u00c2\u00a0<em>surreal<\/em> to watch Amy Acker in these episodes. I cannot even believe that is the same character as the Fred in season five. (Related: Fuck you, &#8220;A Hole in the World,&#8221; I will forever hate you on principle because you took Fred from me. Yes, watching TV shows is\u00c2\u00a0<em>all about my own personal feelings only<\/em>.) Amy Acker, I think after Sarah Michelle Gellar, you&#8217;re the best actress in all of Whedon&#8217;s work. Let&#8217;s add some Dichen Lachman in there, too, with an honorary reference to Enver Gjokaj as the beautiful free soul who loves the dance floor.<\/li>\n<li>Ugh, &#8220;Through the Looking Glass&#8221; is so fantastic as an analysis of what it means for Angel to be a hero. He totally eats up the attention that Lorne&#8217;s family gives him, feeding into his more violent side in order to gain praise, but he then discovers the toll that violence takes on him in Pylea. It&#8217;s the end-point of the story brought up in this season regarding the demon within Angel. Before, it was always metaphorical. The poor decisions Angel made were in\u00c2\u00a0<em>spite<\/em> of his soul. Now, we see that the demon inside\u00c2\u00a0Angel is\u00c2\u00a0<em>literal<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>And Fred&#8217;s the only one to show him that she&#8217;s not afraid of him. I&#8217;m pretty sure Fred is my favorite character on this show, and this arc solidified that.<\/li>\n<li>I kind of feel bad for Groo? Like, he falls for Cordelia, she goes back to a\u00c2\u00a0<em>parallel world<\/em>, he arrives in season three, but she&#8217;s basically in love with Angel, and everything is just sad for him? What&#8217;s his life like\u00c2\u00a0<em>now<\/em>?<\/li>\n<li>Well, at least he existed to show Cordelia that even without a tiara, she&#8217;s a queen deserving of love and respect.<\/li>\n<li><em>I miss Cordelia Chase so much<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>FOREVER BITTER ABOUT SEASONS FOUR AND FIVE.<\/li>\n<li>Oh god, please don&#8217;t let that be engraved on my tomb. HERE LIES MARK, WHO IS STILL REALLY PISSED ABOUT HOW\u00c2\u00a0<em>ANGEL<\/em> TREATED CORDELIA IN SEASONS FOUR AND FIVE. ALSO, HE&#8217;S DEAD AND STUFF.<\/li>\n<li>Wow, the end of &#8220;Through the Looking Glass&#8221; upset me SO MUCH when I first watched it<\/li>\n<li>This arc also reminded me of a time when Wesley was happy.\u00c2\u00a0<em>That hurt my heart<\/em>. Oh god, season three is just so agonizing to watch. I&#8217;m kind of glad no one&#8217;s commissioned me to watch the whole Darla\/Holtz\/Sahjhan arc yet because it&#8217;s unfair to all of my Wesley Feelings. Yes, that deserves to be capitalized.<\/li>\n<li>You know, I&#8217;m kind of glad that the last episode didn&#8217;t make Lorne&#8217;s family suddenly satisfied with what Lorne had done. The Pylean culture is so unlike our own, and in their eyes, he disgraced them. Plus, it&#8217;s necessary that they reject him so that Lorne understands that where he belongs is in Los Angeles.<\/li>\n<li>This bullet point is for Numfar. That is all.<\/li>\n<li>Okay, so if you watch the video for &#8220;There&#8217;s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb,&#8221; you&#8217;ll see I was STILL SURPRISED BY THE END OF THAT EPISODE. I had forgotten that this aired after &#8220;The Gift,&#8221; and Willow&#8217;s appearance\u00c2\u00a0<em>once again<\/em> was a total punch in the heart. DAMN YOU, JOSS WHEDON AND DAVID GREENWALT.\u00c2\u00a0<em>DAMN YOU<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Give me all your thoughts,\u00c2\u00a0<em>please<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everyone, let&#8217;s talk about one of the BEST THINGS that\u00c2\u00a0Angel ever did.\u00c2\u00a0And I mean that! In hindsight, I loved this arc even MORE than I did when I first watched it. Let&#8217;s discuss!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[215],"tags":[217,400],"class_list":["post-1778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-angel","tag-mark-watches-angel","tag-rewatches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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