What turned fans off of The Girl in Question?

[Joshua]

Everybody loves Spangel's bromance, so why did everybody dislike/hated/turned off from this episode?

Was it the misleading episode promo making the episode about Spike/Angel/Buffy? Or was it the fact that SMG didn't show up in another episode yet again even though David did it for Sarah's show in the series finale?

 

[Ethan Reigns]

Perhaps the exaggerated Italian accents were part of it.

Also, Angel and Spike appeared to be bumbling idiots who don't save the day - the Roman division of Wolfram & Hart saves their bacon eventually. Most people seem to like the protagonist having some beneficial effect in the story and neither Spike nor Angel seemed to have a clue even though they had been in Italy in their early days. Instead, they get the hazing of their lives (or deaths) at the hand of the locals.

The fact that they never see Buffy is another issue - if the title is "The Girl in Question", we expect to see a girl.

 

[white avenger]

Mostly, my objection is based a feeling that the "Buffy-less Buffy episode" was just plain out of place at best, and a total waste of time at the worst. The season, and the series, was winding down. Episode 20 should have been setting everything up for the finale. Angel should have been covertly recruiting some extra firepower for what was coming, not wasting his time cavorting around Rome. And what's the idea in having him not remember what color Buffy's eyes were?

"The Girl In Question" should have been aired the week after "Damaged," with Angel and Spike following Andrew, Dana, and the nameless Slayer team back to Rome. Once there they could have found out that the whole "Buffy doesn't trust you anymore, Angel" thing was pure crap, and that Buffy wasn't even in Rome in the first place. There could still have been the trouble with the Immortal, since they were once more intruding on his turf, and since the majority of the comedy takes place around that time, it would have still worked out okay.

 

[TotallySpiked]

I found the episode amusing based on the rapport between Angel and Spike, but I found the whole Buffy thing pretty stupid. If you know that Sarah can't make it for the episode, don't even bother making an episode about Buffy. Simple as that. Like it was stated above, they could have spent what little time they had left setting up the finale; I'm sure a lot of us would have preferred that. We got the Bangel sendoff in the Buffy finale, I don't really see why we needed to rehash it and Spike got to appear a champion in Buffy's eyes. Seemed like a closed book to me.

 

[Bexieh]

I actually really loved this episode :/ I thought it was hilarious! But I've only recently watched all of Angel so I missed any suggestion that it was meant to be a 'Buffy' episode so it didn't seem like a let down or anything to me since I wasn't expecting it in the first place. I just thought it was a really fun episode and I love seeing Angel and Spike being frenemies. It seemed a bit of a filler episode but I don't mind that. It was fun I thought and I like random little funny eps the best!

 

[tec]

I like it my self one of the handful of Angel eps I do like

 

[itssmiletime]

I wished they didn't even attempt to see Buffy. The jokes could've remained, wouldn't have minded, however, after the Dana episode, Fred's death, the drama between Eve and Lindsey, it seemed out of place. I would have focused more on Illyria / Fred (the scene where Illyria impersonates Fred makes me cringe and feel uncomfortable) and perhaps more comedy. The idea of Wolfram & Hart being global is fantastic... a missed opportunity, they could have showed how much control W&H had over the world... no escape.

Even though I classify it as a weak link within season 5, the final season of Angel remains so strong and consistent.

 

[Robb Stark]

I don't bear this episode any ill will. Actually, I really like it. I think some people give it more grief than it probably deserves, but I get the arguments against it. I think it works really well as a fun, standalone episode that probably shouldn't be taken too seriously.

I've seen in a few interviews that apparently Buffy was never actually booked to appear in that episode, it was "You're Welcome" she was supposed to be in. I'm not entirely sure I believe that, but that's what's been said anyways. As for the episode itself, I like it. The Angel/Spike bromance is hilarious, and the timing on a lot of the jokes is absolutely perfect. I like that they go back, in just one episode, that both Angel and Spike are always going to have a thing for Buffy.

Plus, it has one of my favorite lines ever from Angel: "Don't you people have, like, an Italian Wesley or something?"

 

[Aloverssoulz]

I LOVE this episode now, but HATED it the first time I watched it. I hated it because I knew ANGEL was canned and had only three episodes left, so this episode having nothing to do with the main plot ticked me off a lot. I didn't find the humor in it at all till my second re-watch (after having watched the last two episodes of the series).

It was the Go Fish of the season, only at least it is funny as Hell in later re-watches or as a stand alone episode. At least to me 😛