I Will Remember You

[DoughnutHole]

This must be one of those rare cases in supernatural shows in which the main character sanctions the psychic rape of another character and his actions are romanticized and viewed as a "sacrifice". Amazing. Only Joss Whedon could get away with such a thing.

I get what you're saying... and I respect it. And in some cases, I do think Angel "mind-raped" people. Specifically when it came to Connor and erasing him from everyone's memory.

But as far as IWRY goes, I dont think it technically counts as rape, considering what he did was erase the day all together. He didn't just suck her memory of it out of her head, he got rid of the day entirely. Made it so it never happened. So how can you be mind-raped of something that never happened?

At the very least, I think Angel's getting the short end of the stick... having all those memories that *technically* never happened.

With that said, I don't watch this episode very often. It's pretty heartbreaking... the "what if" aspect of it makes it very hard to watch for me. I think I'd prefer to be Buffy, and just not know...

 

[crazysoulless]

I found this hilarious parody while surfing the net.

Five-Minute "I Will Remember You"

by Dachelle

Exposition!Cordelia: Previously, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel went to Sunnydale and skulked around behind Buffy's back to help save her from the spirit of an uber-angry Indian guy. I bet she's mad about that.
Doyle: Why would she be mad that he saved her life?
Cordelia: Oh, Doyle, you have so much to learn about women.
Doyle: And so little time to learn it.
Cordelia: OMGWTFBBQ! Angel's about to stake himself! With a pencil! We have to stop him!
Angel: I'm not going to stake myself. I'm just straightening my desk. Obsessively. I'm certainly not frustrated for any reason. I'm just straightening. Really. Stop looking at me like that.
Cordelia: Oh, I thought you might be upset that you and Buffy will never get to be together again. Never. Never ever ever. No matter how much you both might be longing for it, yearning even, loins straining with desi--
Angel: Well, I used to be upset about it, but I've had to learn to deal. Buffy's human, and I'm not, and that's never going to change.
(DUM DUM DUM!)

Cordelia: Hey, it's Buffy! She's here! In L.A.! How unexpected! What are you doing here, Buffy?
Buffy: I came to see my father, which is odd considering he's a horrible deadbeat who abandoned me and won't even show up for my mother's funeral next season. Anyways, I thought while I was in town I'd stop by and berate Angel.
Cordelia: Sounds great! Doyle and I will just be leaving now.
Angel: So, you're....
Buffy: Irrationally pissed off that you came to Sunnydale and saved my life? Pretty much.

Buffy: Let's just stick to the plan. We don't see each other, and after lots and lots of time, you'll....
Angel: Finally get a better hairstyle?
Buffy: No, I'll....
Angel: Finally be done baking your cookies?
Buffy: No, we'll....
Angel: Forget?
(DUM DUM DUM!)
Buffy: What's that?
Angel: It's just the Music of Bittersweet Foreshadowing. There's a lot of it this episode.
Buffy: No -- THAT!
Mohra Demon: Rargh! Rargh!

Doyle: Hey, did you hear that?
Cordelia: Oh, yeah. That's probably just Buffy and Angel fighting.
Doyle: Don't you think we should check it out?
Cordelia: No. I mean, I'm sure they're not being attacked by a large demon or anything. We should go.

Mohra Demon: Rargh! You stabbed me with my own sword! That's so unfair! I'm taking my toys and going home!

Buffy: Let's engage in caustic banter while we search for the demon that masks the obvious sexual tension between us.
Angel: This is weird.
Buffy: Oh! I'm so glad you said that. Being around you is weird. Sometimes I want to fight you, and sometimes I want to... you know.
Angel: I meant the demon's blood is weird. It's kind of like radioactive snot.
Buffy: Oops. Embarrassed now.
Angel: No, it is confusing. I'm confused.
Cordelia: You're sexually confused? Big surprise there.
Angel: Cordelia, you do realize you're not actually in this scene, right?
Cordelia: I go where the snark calls me.
Buffy: Here, I'll go one way to find the demon, and you go another. That will help alleviate any... confusion.

Mohra Demon: Rargh! Your girlfriend is no longer here to protect you!
Angel: Hey, she's not my girlfriend anymore. We have an understanding... Ow! Your sword cut me! Let me take a moment to look at my bleeding hand dramatically.
Mohra Demon: Rargh! You stabbed me! I bleed on you!
Angel: Augh! I'm experiencing the Glowy FX of Something Supernatural Happening to Me! I'm losing my soul! No, wait, I'm losing my free will! No, wait, I'm losing my virginity! No, wait, I'm losing my... demon!

Angel: Hey, Cordy! Doyle! I'm alive! I'm alive! I... suddenly have an eating disorder!
Cordelia: You know what they say overeating is a substitute for, don't you?
Angel: What? Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the crunching.
Cordelia: Never mind. I'll go get Buffy before you go up four more pants sizes.

Angel: We need to know more about this demon, what it did to me, what I can, uh, do now.
Doyle: The demon that attacked you is called a Mohra demon. Its blood has regenerative properties, so when it mixed with yours, you became human. It's a mercenary that takes out warriors for our side. You know, funny thing about the Mohra demon....
Angel: Dammit, Doyle, can I have sex with Buffy or not?
Doyle: I dunno. Let's ask the Oracles.
Angel: The Oracles? Who are they?
Doyle: They're a brother-sister pair who spend eternity hanging round with each other in body paint. It's way too Flowers in the Attic for me.

Brother Oracle: We'll tell you what you want to know, but first we're going to extort presents from you.
Angel: Uh, I have a watch.
Sister Oracle: How deliciously ironic!
Angel: Actually, I don't think that's the proper use of irony.
Sister Oracle: Shut up, Lower Being! Ooooo, shiny!
Angel: But, what do I do now that I'm human?
Brother Oracle: How the hell should I know? You're mortal and useless. Go get some with your girlfriend or something.
Angel: Sounds like a plan!

Angel: I'm going to spend some time talking about how we need to take things slow, but it's really just a ploy to get back in your pants.
Buffy: Shut up and take me now!
Angel: Okay.

Angel: Thank heaven we found a way to combine my two obsessions, sex and ice cream.
Buffy: Mmmmm....
Cordelia: EW!
Angel: Again, Cordy, you're not in this scene.
Cordelia: Well, someone needed to say it.

Doyle: Gee, thank heaven I won't have those head-crushing visions now that Angel's alive... OW!

Buffy: Blah blah blah contentcakes.
Angel: Go to sleep. We'll have another day like this tomorrow.
(DUM DUM DUM!)
Angel: I wish that music would shut up.

Doyle: Sorry to burst in on your coital bliss, but the Mohra demon's regenerated itself. Someone needs to kill it. And you need to put on some pants.
Angel: I'll go kill the demon while I leave Buffy here asleep. She's very understanding when I sneak around and do things behind her back.

Mohra Demon: Rargh!
Angel: I fight you ineffectually!

Buffy: Hey, where's Angel?
Cordelia: Why aren't you talking about me and my feelings instead of that big galoot who went off to fight the Mohra demon by hims-- oops.

Angel: Oof! Ow!
Mohra Demon: Rargh! You fight like a girl!
Buffy: That's an insult to girls!
Angel: Smash the jewel in his forehead!
Mohra Demon: Rargh! My mother gave me that! (Dies)
Buffy: It's all right, Angel. We're together now, and nothing will take you away from me.
(DUM DUM DUM!)

Angel: Here's another present. Now make me a demon again so I can stop fighting like a wuss and help Buffy.
Brother Oracle: No. And that vase totally doesn't go with our décor.
Sister Oracle: I say we help him.
Brother Oracle: Well, there are a few hair styling tips I could share....
Sister Oracle: I meant that we could do that time thing.
Brother Oracle: Temporal folds are not for the whims of lower beings.
Sister Oracle: You're wrong. And mom always liked me best!
Angel: What are you talking about? Stop using big words like "temporal."
Sister Oracle: We'll take away this day. It will be like it never happened. You alone will remember it, so that you don't make the same mistakes again, and we're all spared the sight of the ice cream. Can you deal with that?
Angel: I get another reason to brood? Okey-doke.

Angel: Buffy, I went to see the Oracles. They're making me a demon again so I can help you in the fight against evil. The only catch is that everyone will forget this day ever happened.
Cordelia: Well thank GOD for that! The ice cream thing's been giving me nightmares.
Buffy: No! I'll never forget, I'll never forget, I'll never....
Clock of Doom: DONG! DONG!
Angel: What were you saying?
Buffy: I forgot.

Buffy: So, back to berating you....
Mohra Demon: Rargh! Rar-- oh, crap! Not again! (Dies)
Buffy: Wow. How did you know how to kill that thing?
Angel: Oh, I've fought it before. And when I say before, I mean times other than today, in the past, and certainly not another version of today in which I became human and we had lots and lots of sex before I unselfishly gave it and you up to rejoin the fight against evil as a demon.
Buffy: Yeah, whatever. I'm going back to Sunnydale and Captain Cardboard.
Angel: And I'll go back to brooding. Really. Brooding. Stop looking at me like that.
(Angel broods at Ludicrous Speed)

THE END

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

Buffy: "So let's just stick to the plan. We keep our distance until a lot of time has passed. Given enough time we should be able to.."
Angel: "Forget?'
Buffy: "Yeah. - So, I'm gonna go - start forgetting."

When are they gonna figure it out? They can't forget. Thing like that can't be forgotten. Even if they do move on and end up with someone else, they could never forget. As one of BtVS episodes say "Forever".. I love how episode names are two, or sometimes three faced.

 

[white avenger]

When are they gonna figure it out? They can't forget. Thing like that can't be forgotten. Even if they do move on and end up with someone else, they could never forget. As one of BtVS episodes say "Forever".. I love how episode names are two, or sometimes three faced.

It's never been a case of forgetting about anything. It's more a case of LEARNING from their mistakes and moving on. If, and I do say "IF," they can't move on together, then they should accept the fact and find someone with whom they CAN move on. But the bottom line is, the only way to put all of the bad things behind them is to get on with their lives and quit brooding about the past.

Personally, I'm beginning to find the while "star crossed lovers forever separated by cruel fate" thing just a little bit exasperating. It almost seems as though, if Joss and his writers can't come up with something new and interesting to write about, they fall back on poor, pitiful Buffy and Angel, pining away for what can never be.

We all know that we will never see Buffy and Angel happily ever after together, especially as long as Angel has his own series, and it's published by a rival company. And since Spike is also controlled by that other company, that pretty much sinks both the Bangel AND the Spuffy ships. And since Riley is married, Xander is hooked up with Dawn, and Giles is just too disgusting to contemplate, the only other choices our Slayer has are Faith and Satsu. Or, of course, Andrew.

(Sorry for the rant, folks, they've changed my medication again, and I may not be my usual sweet lovable self for the next few days)

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

Excuse me? Can never be? Who are WE to judge what can or can't be? From since we have the power to say that people CAN'T be together just of their differences. Maybe I'm not more realistic person, and life still didn't thought me everything I need to know about it, but I know that people who love each other can find their way. Vampire and human.. that just mean they're different. This is not Noah's Arc that we all have to have a pair of same kind, we're free to choose. Who knows what will happen in end. I sure don't. I can only think and dream. But as I see it now Buffy could end up with anyone. Maybe with Riley. Sure he's married, but we saw how high Josses imagination can go.

 

[dan k]

I watched parts of this episode again the other day and it just pulls on the heart strings. I love the fact that we get to here "Close your eyes" again aswell. That song is so fitting for Bangel, so powerful and underlines how strong the feelings they have are. This is not a dig at Spuffy because i love that ship but "Close your eyes" is one thing that Spuffy doesn't have that Bangel does. I don't understand how people can't at least understand Bangel after listening to that song. I think it is telling that no other couple in the Buffyverse have their own song, shows the bond Buffy and Angel have.

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

white avenger agrees: Not "can" never be, "will" never be, because of the reasons that I listed, but above and beyond those reasons, Joss will never allow it.

So you're in his head, and you know what he will and won't do, or can and can't do. I think you prescribe yourself too much power about Bangels destiny.

 

[white avenger]

So you're in his head, and you know what he will and won't do, or can and can't do. I think you prescribe yourself too much power about Bangels destiny.

Joss will never allow it because he is evil, sadistic, and despises the term "happily ever after" above all concepts. Just look at all of the wonderful love affairs that he's ruined so far: Willow and Oz; Xander and Cordelia; Willow and Tara; Giles and Jenny (okay, that bud was nipped before it could even bloom, but the potential was definitely there); Wes and Fred; Fred and Gunn; Angel and Darla; and of course, Angel and Darla and Spike and Dru, neither of which were really romantic in nature, but they were long term relationships. (I didn't even mention Buffy and Spike there, just because I didn't want this to digress into another round of the Eternal Debate)

I don't so much prescribe myself excessive insight as to the Bangel destiny as such, I simply see a certain pattern in Joss' way of thinking on this subject in general. Feel free to think that Bangel as the one and only exception to Joss' actions up to this point if you wish, and I wish you luck and commend you for your loyalty, but I just don't see it.

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

Sure he's not going to give them happy ending when he has material to work on. But in the end, when Buffy is truly over, why not?

 

[white avenger]

Sure he's not going to give them happy ending when he has material to work on. But in the end, when Buffy is truly over, why not?

I very seriously doubt that Joss will ever admit that he has run out of story material concerning Buffy, Angel, Spike, the Scoobies, and the Fang Gang. In all likelihood, Buffy and her friends will outlive Joss just like Kirk, Spock, and the rest, outlived Gene Roddenberry, Tarzan outlived Edgar Rice Burroughs, Sherlock Holmes outlived A C Doyle, Dracula outlived Bram Stoker, and literally hundreds of other characters outlived their creators, dating back to Beowulf and Arthur's Knights. And just like all of those other Champions, each lived his life and faced his fate alone. And before you point out that Arthur had Guinevere and Tarzan had Jane, the former wasn't actually part of the original story and the latter was almost never featured in Burroughs' books after the original trilogy.

So don't count on any white picket fences, fat babies, or mailboxes with Buffy's and Angel's name painted on it. At least not in anything resembling canon. If you want happily ever after, you have to get it from fan fiction.

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

That's the thing. Joss should finish it. Now now, but in 20 or 30 years. He should write the last letter, because it's his story. And he should finish it, because one day he'll be gone, and no one should proceed his work, because that would be total waste. No one can do it like Joss.

 

[Tsquared]

Holy moly, my friend has let me borrow his collector's set and I'm FINALLY watching Angel. So, right now I just watched this episode, I know it ties in with season four of Buffy (I think I know which eppy) and wow. I'm really REALLY liking Angel, and I still have 102 episodes to go! Doyle is friggin' amazing, and it's nice to see old Cordelia. It's so weird with the time loop, I mean Cordy just finished High School here. 😀

I would post a longer more detailed review, but man right now I'm just confused. I know Fuffy is just something I'd always love to see. The real deal is Spuffy/Bangel though, I mean it is. And right now I cannot decide which side I'm on. It's episodes like this that just tear my brain apart and won't let me choose. Bangel? True love? Spuffy? True love? Gah.

Angel rocks. I'm going to give this as much longevity as possible, I love being able to watch Buffyverse that is new. I'll probably do 3-4 episodes a week. 🙂

 

[crazysoulless]

Every time I watch IWRY I still hope that Angel changes his mind at the end and stays human with Buffy. Or that Buffy was the one still awake when Doyle came in and killed the Mohra while Angel slept and then took off her clothes and snuggled back under the covers with him.

 

[LadyLavinia]

But as far as IWRY goes, I dont think it technically counts as rape, considering what he did was erase the day all together. He didn't just suck her memory of it out of her head, he got rid of the day entirely. Made it so it never happened. So how can you be mind-raped of something that never happened?

Sorry, but that argument doesn't hold up with me. The reason Angel had sanctioned the PTB to rewind that day was to erase Buffy's memories of what happened. Yet, his memories of that day remained intact. Worse, Angel got on his high horse and refused to tell her what happened, like some damn parent exerting his will upon a child. As far as I'm concerned, Buffy was a victim of psychic rape on his orders. AIs it any wonder I can barely stand him and this atrocious episode?

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

Sorry, but that argument doesn't hold up with me. The reason Angel had sanctioned the PTB to rewind that day was to erase Buffy's memories of what happened. Yet, his memories of that day remained intact. Worse, Angel got on his high horse and refused to tell her what happened, like some damn parent exerting his will upon a child. As far as I'm concerned, Buffy was a victim of psychic rape on his orders. AIs it any wonder I can barely stand him and this atrocious episode?

Here we go again with that mind rape thing I'm allergic to.

So, let's see the scenario where he did told her. Angel tells Buffy what happened, Buffy gets depressed and lost her way like she did in season 6, starts sleeping with some guy just to make her feelings go away for a second, stars pushing her friends away, Adam wins and all world goes to hell.. and I guess, then it would be all Angels fault?

So, let's not tell her. Buffy keeps on living her life, not depressed, but happy, in some moments sad but that's natural.

She said she understands. Buffy said that. It wasn't some manipulation. When he said everything to her, she said she understands.

Buffy is strong, but when it comes to Angel, or any other feeling close to her heart, Buffy is like any other human.

 

[dan k]

The idea of Angel raping Buffy is obscene to me. He made a conscious decision to put the world infront of his feelings for Buffy. The reason he didn't tell her what happened is because he knew it would hurt her. It wasn't like he had any intention of reversing time when he slept with Buffy.

Turning Angel into the bad guy in this sense is ridiculous in my view. He was selfless and should be praised for the strength he showed.

However like i've said before i would have liked Buffy to find out what happened, her reaction would have been fascinating, its one of those things in the show that i'am disappointed never happened.

 

[GrrArghx]

Angel asked the Oracles to turn him back. He didn't go to them and say "Can you erase everyone memories but my own and break Buffy's heart because I think it's funny?"

Rewinding time was the only option the Oracles gave him. Him choosing not to tell her afterwards is because he knew she was trying to move on without him.

 

[Kana]

As I've always said, Angel had good intentions. He did what he did to protect her, but yes he does make decisions for people on their behalf without consulting them. However you're right, PB, the people who are affected do happen to agree with him or at least understand e.g. Connor and Buffy.

 

[TheChosenTwo]

Angel asked the Oracles to turn him back. He didn't go to them and say "Can you erase everyone memories but my own and break Buffy's heart because I think it's funny?"

Rewinding time was the only option the Oracles gave him. Him choosing not to tell her afterwards is because he knew she was trying to move on without him.

Exactly 🙂 I totally agree.

 

[Tranquillity]

So, let's see the scenario where he did told her. Angel tells Buffy what happened, Buffy gets depressed and lost her way like she did in season 6, starts sleeping with some guy just to make her feelings go away for a second, stars pushing her friends away, Adam wins and all world goes to hell.. and I guess, then it would be all Angels fault?

Well that's a little dramatic isn't it? How about he tells her the truth post-time-rewind, she gets upset, naturally, but goes back to Sunnydale and deals with it and really gets to move on with her life properly rather than always thinking "maybe" about Angel.