The episode, the evil Fred, the corruption, and the choice
I felt it was an OK episode, but not great. Perhaps I'll feel different after a second viewing.
I think Amy's last line about sums it up: "This will do." In other words, not an awesome ep, but good enough.
It certainly is interesting watching all the characters get corrupted by evil, isn't it? Btw, that's the explanation (if any be needed) for why Wesley shot that guy in the leg.
(Previously, someone commented that this was not in keeping with "Dark Wes" because whenever Dark Wes did something twisted it was for the greater good. But when you work at W&H, "greater good" is hard to see (too much darkness) so this time he shot a guy in the let 'cause that guy was distracting him from thinking about helping Fred and nothing else mattered.)
A likely plot-flaw: At the beginning of the ep, Knox is the only one in the lab when the mover guys bring in the sarcophagus. He does a good job of not betraying that he knows what it is. One might say a little
too good. It's almost as if he
knows the audience is watching and doesn't want to give anything away to them yet. ::mmm:: Oh well.
Also, the hole in the center of the world: This would be cool except that it's annoying to have huge, universe-altering stuff dropped on us five seasons into the spin-off series of another series. It's also a little hard to swallow. I mean--where did the molten core go? I know, I know--I should really just relax.
🙂 /time passes.../ Okay. Now I'm relaxed.
To change to a happier note (and also to have an excuse to use some of these ridiculous, over-the-top emoticons), let me be one of the first few to say:
Evil Fred!! WOO HOO!!
::evil1:: ::dance:: ::rolf:: ::dance:: ::evil1::
Why, just the other day I was reading where Amy said she wanted to get the chance to play an evil Fred and I'd been thinking, "well yeah, that
would be cool." Okay, so she's not Fred anymore, technically, but it's close to the same thing.
And about Fred being dead: This is the Whedon-verse. How many characters have they broght back onto the show (BtVS or Angel) after the character was technically dead or destroyed or sent to hell or heaven? Let's see: Principal Snider, Ms. Calendar, Joyce Summers, Buffy (twice!), Mayor Wilkens, Adam, The Master, Glory, Vamp Willow (commonly referred to as `Bored Now Willow' ::evil:: ), various dead potential slayers, Darla, Angel , Spike, Cordelia (sort of twice/kind of).
Am I leaving any out? Yeah probably. And I could be leaving out some major character too. I just wanted to make a point that: just because the trailer said she was gonna die, and just because the ep said the demon liquified her organs and such like... still, she could easily come back, if the writers want her too.
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nerd4hire said:
This is the way I see it. Start with the credo of "do no harm". From there you go to do harm, but only if you can rationalize it away by saying, "the harm I do is offset by the greater good I'm doing" as with Wesley torturing the junky girl to get information that will help him save Angel so the two of them can save the world. An offense of passion can be explained away by saying, " the zeal with which I carried out the action is excused by the extremity of the offence" as with Wesley emptying his revolver into his father for threatening Fred.
As these excuses continue, it becomes easier to explain things away, until you are seeing someone get shot, because he pissed someone else off, or screw the thousands of people that are going to die if I do this. I want to do it.
What comes next? Possibly "do harm, because you feel like it", or simply "do harm". That's the kind of gradual corruption that is happening in Angel Season 5.
I agree completely. Such is the nature of corruption. Just watch Boromir in LotR: FotR. Or, you could ask the Nazgul back when they used to be kings of men. Or perhaps Blibo or Frodo or Gandalf or Galadriel could fill you in on the corruption thing. Or Saruman--yeah he knows a little about the corruption thing too. And then there's poor Gollum...
It's always fun (for me) to watch characters slowly get corrupted and twisted to evil. At the same time, it's disheartening to see how few people on the list (not you,
nerd4hire) recognize what's going on.
EXCEPT that this is a Joss show and you never can be too sure about him. I was
sure Buffy was headed down the path o' darkness during season 7 Buffy, but then she was fine after all. Of course that could also be because of the different nature of that show.
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I say the astronauts would win, not the cavemen. Why? Well, think about it. Once you piss 'em off enough, they'll still be able to be just as ferocious as the cavemen, so that should put them on at least equal footing. Plus, the astronauts will be wearing space suits that they can use to frighten and intimidate the cavemen with. Then once the cavemen are off-guard, the astros can surprise 'em.
🙂
But really, the whole debate isn't quite so silly as it at first sounds. As one person put it, it's sort of magic vs. tech. Or it's primal instinct vs. modern day, cultured people.
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Warning--you are now entering psychobabble opinion zone<--
Choosing the cavemen to win means you feel that, ultimately, the human nature is to kill, and
just to kill and that's all. Choosing the astronauts to win means you believe that humans can somehow overcome their powerful id and that we're more than just base animals. This explains Angel's and Spike's choosings.
In `Forbidden Planet', I think the astronauts sort of win in the end, but I forget. Of course, they're fighting powerful id monsters, not cavemen so it's not quite the same.
