Angel ep by ep; SHELLS-...and hello Illyria!

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saturn5

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SHELLS

The Good;
Great battles and some real heartbreak for Wes and Gunn. Also like the skeleton key gag.

The Bad;
Why do Wes and co keep attacking Illyria with swords etc when his axe just shatters off her head in the opening scene? Illyria mispronounces 'Offal'. The ending is perhaps a little overly maudlin compared to 'You're welcome'.

Best line;
Harmony; "Sorry boss, if I'd have stopped her in Gunn's office..."
Angel; "Did you get chucked out a window?"
Harmony; "No"
Angel; "Then you're one up on me!"

Jeez, how did they get away with that?
Wes stabs Gunn

Apocalypses: 5

Angel Cliches

Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
Illyria; "My last high priest was taller"
plus Angel doing his 'save humanity' speech only for Wes to give Knox some Frank Castle style therapy with his Colt 45 (and I'm not talking about the beer!)

In disguise; 8

DB/JM get's his shirt off; 18,

Cheap Angel; 8

Fang Gang in bondage:
Cordy: 5
Angel: 15
Wes: 8
Gunn; 8
Lorne; 6
Fred; 5
Spike; 6

Fang gang knocked out: Wes by Illyria
Cordy: 15
Angel: 20
Wes: 10
Doyle; 1
Gunn; 4
Lorne; 8
Groo; 1
Connor; 1
Faith; 1
Fred; 7
Spike; 5

Kills; Wes kills Knox
Cordy: 5 vamps, 3½ demons
Angel; 48 vamps, 67 and 1/2 demons, 5 zombies, 12 humans, one werewolf and one cyborg
Doyle; 1 vamp
Wes; 16 demons+5 vamps, 5 zombies, 4 humans, 2 cyborgs
Kate; 3 vamps
Faith; 18 vamps, 6 demons, 3 humans.
Gunn; 11 vamps+ 15 demons, 5 zombies, 1 human.
Groo; 1 demon
Fred; 3 vamps+ 14 demons, 5 zombies
Connor; 16 vamps, 5 zombies, 2 demons, Jasmine
Spike; 21 vamps, 12 demons+1 human+one parasite

Fang Gang go evil:
Cordy: 3
Angel: 3
Gunn; 1
Wes; 1

Alternate Fang Gang;
Cordy: 4
Angel: 12
Fred; 3
Wes; 1
Gunn; 1
Connor; 1
Lorne; 1

Characters killed:
2265
Recurring characters killed;
12
Total number of Angel Investigations; 5,
Angel, Gunn, Lorne, Wes, Spike

Angel Investigations shot: although it's a wonder, they run in front of their SWAT team's guns?
Angel: 14
Wes; 2
Packing heat; Wes armed to the hilt this ep
Wes; 13
Doyle; 1
Angel; 4
Gunn; 3
Fred; 5

Notches on Fang Gang bedpost:
Cordy: 5 ?+Wilson/Hacksaw Beast+Phantom Dennis+Groo+Connor plus possibly the Beast
Angel: 6; Buffy, Darla, The Transcending Furies, Eve
Wes; 3 definite; Virginia, the bleached blonde and Lilah, 2 possible, Justine, Fred
Gunn; 2 Fred and Gwen.
Fred; 1 Gunn, 1 possible Wes
Groo; 1Cordy
Spike; 3-Buffy, Anya, Harmony

Kinky dinky:
Knox's mum thought he was reading porn. Let this be a lesson to us all, let your children read porn otherwise they'll turn into the crazed acolyte of an ancient demon warrior-goddess who plots to destroy humanity. Illyria strips in front of Knox. Spike agrees Harmony has a degree in tearing things up, his back? Angel refers to Jasmine violating CC. Harmony fancied Knox.

Captain Subtext;
Harmony has great insight for a vamp, telling Wes the girl of his dreams loved him. She also comments that Knox's Rick Springfield screensaver opens a whole new bunch of questions.

Know the face, different character; 7

Parking garages;
9,

Guantanamo Bay;
Everyone tortures everyone else, it's the Spanish inquisition! Love the way Wes is glad that Knox is tortured even before he knows Knox is a traitor.

Buffy characters on Angel; 17
Wetherby, Collins and Smith. Angel, Cordy, Oz, Spike, Buffy, Wes, Faith, Darla, Dru, The Master, Anne, Willow and Harmony. POSSIBLY The First Evil, Andrew.

What the fanficcers thought; .

Missing scenes;

Questions and observations;
Note the weapons lined up by Fred's bedside. Harmony talks of her 'pound of flesh', a term from The Merchant of Venice which also features a climactic courtroom scene. Lornes isolation gradually growing. Willow is in Tibet, looking up Oz? Wes comments "Never a witch around when you need one", his wife of course Alysson Hannigan. 'Old ones' very Babylon 5 term. Note with the exception of Harmony who isn't part of AI Angel is now an all-male production? Is Fred's soul actually destroyed? Is that possible?
Knox comments that humans have conquered demons through opposable thumbs, fire, TV and sneakiness. Guess that settles the whole astronauts vs cavemen debate, the astronauts win out. Illyria know's WR&H of old? She could be a mine of info on them. Do you think she knew Glory too? She learns the hard way that the ravages of time wait for no man and can even bring a goddess to her knees. We see Wes pack away Fred's Roy Rogers commemorative plate which she mentioned to Knox about in an earlier ep. AI seems to rapidly be becoming the place for people with nowhere else to go. Harmony makes herself incredibly useful in this ep, even figuring out the cellphone messages.
Marks out of 10; 8/10
 
I love Shells more than A Hole in the World.

Illyria was kinda cocky, but she'd be more likeable in later episodes. I feel sorry for Wes and when he cries, it breaks my heart. Then he stabbed Gunn and killed Knox, which is creepy, IMO.

I love how Harmony is there for everyone, especially the scene with Gunn.

And the last scene, I wonder if there is anyone that didn't cry?
 
MinwaraYana said:
I love Shells more than A Hole in the World.

Illyria was kinda cocky, but she'd be more likeable in later episodes. I feel sorry for Wes and when he cries, it breaks my heart. Then he stabbed Gunn and killed Knox, which is creepy, IMO.

I love how Harmony is there for everyone, especially the scene with Gunn.

And the last scene, I wonder if there is anyone that didn't cry?
Click to expand...

I didn't, it was LITTLE OTT for me
 
MinwaraYana
MinwaraYana
What is OTT? :)
MinwaraYana agrees: What is OTT? 🙂
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It means 'Over The Top'. In this context: overdramatic.

Metaphysically, is Fred gone? Some theories posit that Fred may live on in a fashion through Illyria's memories and of course the concept is not lost on the idea of vampires. The emotional connection Illyria and Wesley have may be based at least partly on this theory: Identity and identification.

I agree that Shells has more of an emotional impact because we deal with the reactions. AHiW is more about the desperation and hope, and while Shells continues the bargaining stage of grief (especially in Gunn's case) we get the emotional acceptance of tragedy.

Gunn's really a poster child for the saying pride comes before a fall. Towards the end of this ep, there comes th strong existential theme: dealing with the meaning or meaningless of life. Dr. Sparrow understood that Gunn would feeling meaningless and worthless without his abilities but without Fred it doesn't mean anything anyway. He says as much. For all his reasoning of why he made the choice he did, it doesn't matter. For him there are no excuses, he wont accept any, not anymore. This perhaps is what Angel meant when he'll later say that Gunn is essentially a good man.

Spike as I've said is person rooted in reality. He sees things closely (more than most) but sometimes at face value. He accepts it and embraces it. When he was evil accepted the world whereas Angelus wanted to destroy it. We'll see more of Spike's realism in Underneath. He sees before Angel (although most do) that Fred and Wesley had become lovers. Angel unfortunately is displaying the behaviour he was talking about in Smile Time, not noticing what's right in front of him. While he tends to dwell on the past and the future a lot, he also tends to value possibilities and meaning. There is that word again. When Spike says Fred is gone, Angel doesn't accept it. So places meaning in stopping Illyria, when that fails we'll see that he uses Fred death as part of his plan. Placing meaning when there is none apparent is a powerful existential act and Angel really continues some of those themes right here (no inherent meaning, man is his choice etc).

Wesley is unreasonable because he's LOST ALL REASON. He we go again. His world is gone. He hits the sarcophagus with a crow bar. Why? Why not! It's not helping as Harmony says but what meaning is there left? What the point? Sometimes the lack of meaning can lead to wanting to destroy and 'smash'. He kills Knox. Again why not? Wesley mentioned that Fred was a huge part of why he wants to help humanity. With her gone, some of the worst faces of humanity do not seem worth saving based upon the concept of justice (as he says to Illyria). He didn't like Knox for what he did. At the moment he doesn't care enough about humanity as a whole to save him based upon Angel's reasoning. Harmony also manages to give some good advice to Wes but he says that even though the woman he loved, loved him back it's not enough. We can understand this, because no matter how little or how much time you share with the person you love, it's never enough.

Illyria is empathic to human emotions. He looks like Fred and feels connected to Wesley. They bond through their mutual isolation, clinging vainly to what is lost. Illyria doesn't belong in this world Wesley says but yet she's here. This is a very fundamental issue. What person belongs in the world inherently? We all come into the world in our own way but only we can determine meaning in what we do. I said earlier that hope was a theme in the last ep, but it is also in this one. In all the uncertainty and apparently meaningless hope the we can find something meaningful at least to us as individual may be enough. I use the word 'may'. Illyria asks if this hope is enough? Wesley doesn't answer because he cannot truthfully determine it. It's a choice they make every day, hour, minute.

Spike makes an important decision in his ep and it actually my favourite moment. His other moments I could view as noble but this is my favourite because it's primarily because he believes in the mission itself. Spike is now not defined by his mother, Dru, Buffy or even Angel. He sees value in Angel's mission dispite his feelings toward him. This decision is kind of a first for him and huge development for his being a champion. I personally find it a lot more gratifying than his "The soul, the changes, it was for you, it's what you wanted". Well what do you want Spike? What do you believe in? This answered that wonderfully.

Harmony can be very insightful. Once Spike says keep it simple Harm it suites you. Without complication Harmony can sometimes see things clearly (Angel should take note of that). She effortlessly connects with both Wes and Gunn and we saw before she even connected with Fred.

We'll see Lorne's reaction in full later on. Going on with Fred is having little meaning for him. But Spike is right. Lorne is no good to anyone, including himself if he is full of doubt. But no rush Lorne. He needs to find himself again, in the world without Fred. He says later he'll pretend to help. But being there and getting on with things is helping but understandably Lorne isn't there yet.

The fight scene with Illyria was fantastic.

The scene at the end reminds me of Fredless which breaks my heart because she says she knows where she'll end up. I doubt she thought she'd end up consumed by Illyria.
 
Does anyone find it weird how they really downplayed the significance of Illyria after this episode? Half of the demon worshiping cults want to bring about the Apocalypse by resurrecting the Old Ones. Heck, the schemes of two the major villains in Buffy involved the Old Ones. The Master wanted to release the Old Ones with the Hellmouth and the Mayor wanted to become an Old One.

Even though Illyria's army of doom is gone, she should have an instant army of demons and demon worshipers at her disposal. Instead, she just mopes around at the Wolfram & Hart office.
 
Giantevilhead said:
Does anyone find it weird how they really downplayed the significance of Illyria after this episode? Half of the demon worshiping cults want to bring about the Apocalypse by resurrecting the Old Ones. Heck, the schemes of two the major villains in Buffy involved the Old Ones. The Master wanted to release the Old Ones with the Hellmouth and the Mayor wanted to become an Old One.

Even though Illyria's army of doom is gone, she should have an instant army of demons and demon worshipers at her disposal. Instead, she just mopes around at the Wolfram & Hart office.
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She probably feels they're beneath her?
 
Even though Illyria's army of doom is gone, she should have an instant army of demons and demon worshipers at her disposal. Instead, she just mopes around at the Wolfram & Hart office.
Click to expand...

Maybe it is hard to take an Old One seriously if she is locked inside the body of an underfed geek girl?

But seriously, I agree with you.
 
saturn5 said:
SHELLS


Jeez, how did they get away with that?
Wes stabs Gunn


Subverting the Hollywood cliche;
Illyria; "My last high priest was taller"
plus Angel doing his 'save humanity' speech only for Wes to give Knox some Frank Castle style therapy with his Colt 45 (and I'm not talking about the beer!)



Captain Subtext;
Harmony has great insight for a vamp, telling Wes the girl of his dreams loved him. She also comments that Knox's Rick Springfield screensaver opens a whole new bunch of questions


Guantanamo Bay;
Everyone tortures everyone else, it's the Spanish inquisition! Love the way Wes is glad that Knox is tortured even before he knows Knox is a traitor.
Click to expand...

I love this episode and it's ending. I think it's great, Quoted some of the highlights of the ep that you mentioned.

I absolutely love Wes stepping on Angel's point by shooting Knox, love the introduction of Illyria (though obviously sad to see Fred go) and absolutely adore the line that humans won the world by "opposable thumbs and sneakiness"
 
Wesley seems to go to great lenghts when he feels betrays or knows he has to do what's best for AI. I was so shocked when he stabbed Gunn, I had completely forgotten he actually did this when I watched recently, so great. I think I found Shells more sad than A Hole In The World.
 
Spike always manages to be funny, even in the direst of circumstances, but it's not inapropriate, just Spike being himself: "Can't even get drunk. Why would anyone ever make a bottle this small? It's inhuman. It's like a bloody tease. It's like, 'Here's what a bottle of Jack would look like if you actually had one,' or, 'here's a drink, but it's very far away.'"

This part makes me cry:
ILLYRIA: We cling to what is gone. Is there anything in this life but grief?
WESLEY: There's love. There's hope...for some. There's hope that you'll find something worthy... that your life will lead you to some joy... that after everything... you can still be surprised.
ILLYRIA: Is that enough? Is that enough to live on?

Other than that I really like Kana's assessment of this episode. Great stuff.

Wanted to add that even though I disliked that Cordy's death is underplayed, I really think that some of the gang's grief is about losing both Cordy & Fred, especially for Angel. He couldn't save either one of them.
 
Great eps! I loved Wesley killing Knox. It was so badass and I would have done the same thing.

Loved the fight scenes also! Season 5 has some great fight scenes!

Poor Gunn...I feel bad for him.

Fu*k Giles. He's a prick.

Angel get's him back in season 8 of Buffy so HA! 😛
 
Aloverssoulz said:
Great eps! I loved Wesley killing Knox. It was so badass and I would have done the same thing.

Loved the fight scenes also! Season 5 has some great fight scenes!

Poor Gunn...I feel bad for him.

Fu*k Giles. He's a prick.

Angel get's him back in season 8 of Buffy so HA! 😛
Click to expand...

Its Angel's fault for going to W&H in the first place, and Giles did the right thing Willow shouldn't have to go clean up Angel's mess when he knew full well going to W&H was a fools game, and it isn't Giles responsibility to bail Angel out when he willingly make a bad choice willingly and something goes wrong. Agree about Wesley didn't feel sorry for Knox, and did feel sorry for Gunn too. I'm in denial on the soul destoryed thing its just to erksome, and I think the writers went too far with it, but well acted and Illyria is an interesting character really liked her at the end.
 
Great episode, one of my favourites... although I don't really understand why the gang don't all hate or at least resent Illyria, since she was at least partially, if not entirely responsible for Fred's death.
 
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