Mark Watches ‘Angel’: S02E08 – The Shroud of Rahmon

In the eighth episode of the second season of Angel, JESUS CHRIST THIS SHOW. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Angel.

I CAN’T. I CAN’T!!! HOW IS THIS SHOW GETTING SO GOOD SO FAST HOW?!?!?!?

NUMEROUS THOUGHTS I HAVE

• Look, okay, we all have tropes or framing devices that we love more than most. I adore time travel. I like stories about identity. I obsess over redemption arcs. I’m sure each of you have certain things you love as well! But this episode takes two of my favorite ones – heist plots and in media res stories – and jams them together with a healthy dose of terror, tension, and a crisis of sanity. I won’t argue with you if you didn’t like “The Shroud of Rahmon,” but at least you know why this whole episode just made me so happy.
• Ahahaha, I can’t help it, I am such a fool and I’m beginning to understand just how hilarious it must be to watch me stumble obliviously through these shows. I was 100% convinced that Angel was feeding on Darla in the cold open because she was clearly the only blond character I should be concerned about at this point in the show. Literally, the second Kate appeared on screen, I groaned out loud purely because I felt so silly. GODDAMN IT. STOP IT. My brain is constantly working against my best interests, I swear.
• I’m not a fan of Cordelia’s hair in this style? But I would have noticed it five minutes after you had it done, Cordy, so let’s be friends. Text me.
• I refuse to stop talking about this, but the fact that Angel continues to introduce secondary characters of color and that they talk just like people I knew in Los Angeles will impress me. I guess it’s kind of sad that something that basic is impressive to begin with, but whatever. It’s the state of television. This is what Los Angeles looks like, this is how people have conversations, and I seriously adore that it’s happening often instead of every so often.
• As much as I have a thing for ensemble casts and characters banding together for a common goal, I like that the show isn’t integrating Gunn into the group in a way that ignores his own interests or personality. Angel is a presumptive hero, so it’s realistic that Gunn would be irritated by any of Angel’s attempts to take control. I’m more interested in conflict as a way to give characters depth.
• Okay, I really feel like I have a grasp on what season two is doing over the course of this batch of episodes, at least when it comes to Angel: this is about how his violent demon side is always at the surface, that it’s not as buried as he’d like to think it is. That first scene with Kate is unbearably uncomfortable, and it’s clear that Angel is in the wrong, too. Dude, she’s doing her job. Shut up. If she doesn’t understand what she’s getting into, then just tell her.
• One of the reasons I like in media res is because it’s such a fascinating way to build tension. Knowing that Angel drinks a human’s blood from the beginning, it’s thrilling to watch the pieces fall into place.
• I LOVE HEIST MOVIES SO MUCH. Oh my god, half the fun and entertainment of “The Shroud of Rahmon” is watching this fucked up team try to steal the shroud. The dynamic is just so weird, because, first of all – no, wait, I need a separate bullet point just for this one.
• ANGEL AS JAY-DON. HELP ME IT’S SO AMAZING. I think the only other show I’ve ever seen where I derive so much joy from a character showing any emotion aside from eternal detachment or brooding self-hatred is Dexter. Like, the whole point of Angel’s character is that he’s kind of emotionally immature and boring, so seeing him step out of that is always a treat. Angelus, singing karaoke, dancing, and now as Jay-Don… it’s just too good.
• Anyway, we’ve got a team that includes two people who are both faking their identity and furious with one another. On top of that, TONY TODD IS ON ANGEL OH MY GOD THAT IS SO AWESOME. We have two demons, a vampire, two humans, and a whole lot of internal conflict. Not one person wants the same thing as another, and add in the effects of the Shroud of Rahmon, and then this turns into a disaster. We already knew that this would end terribly, so this becomes a matter of figuring out who loses their head, who gets bitten by Angel, and how Wesley ends up in all of this. Oh god.
• I would say that I wish more time had been spent on developing how the Shroud affected people in that museum. That’s mostly because there’s so much potential there, and we only got a glimpse of it. I actually thought this was going to be a two-part episode for a while because HOW COULD THIS ALL BE RESOLVED IN TEN MINUTES. Characters were all over the place, everything was a hot mess, and we still hadn’t found out how Wesley ended up getting arrested. I just really liked how the writers chose to take all the characters in different directions as they explored them losing any sense of their sanity. Some of it was funny (Cordy, Wesley), but everything with the heist team was REALLY UPSETTING. I seriously yelped like a dog getting its tail stepped on when Vyasa ripped off Bob’s head. HELP.
• Yeah, I thought Kate would die in this episode. But you know what? That would have been the easy way to resolve this. Instead, this episode ends pretty much in chaos. How the hell are Gunn and Angel going to deal with what they did to one another? How are Kate and Angel going to cope with the incredibly complicated situation between them? Angel technically saved Kate’s life, but at what cost? He still drank her blood, and it’s the first bit of human blood he’s tasted in a very, very long time. There’s no way this isn’t going to play into the plot with Darla. IT HAS TO.
• Help me, I love this show so much right now.

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