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Angel
Oh my indeed...
The long awaited confrontation between Angel and the man he “rescued” from Skip’s hell dimension has arrived, but is it all we’ve waited for, or does it disappoint? We’ll find out as we journey into...
"Billy"
Season III, Episode 6
Written by Tim Minear & Jeffrey Bell
Directed by David Grossman
I can tell you that I’ve waited for this episode ever since the guy got into the limo and drove away in That Vision Thing. Who is that guy, what did he do, and what makes him so bad? More importantly, WHY does Wolfram & Hart want him so bad that they’d have to torture Cordy in order to get Angel to retrieve him from his fiery prison? All of our questions are answered, but new ones just spring up where those leave off.
I love foreshadowing. It’s one of my favorite literary tools, and there’s a bit of it used at the start of our episode as Angel is teaching Cordy a few moves with a sword. She’s a bit frustrated with him because he’s only teaching her defense and not the offense to match. When pressed about why she wants to know so much, she says, “What if I have to use it on you??” Will this lead into a confrontation between our hero and our heroine? We’ll see...
Wes has invited everyone over for dinner. It seems that he was too nervous to invite Fred over for a romantic dinner, and is receiving advice from Cordelia. Fred, as usual, is beautiful. She sits watching Angel and Gunn playing on a PlayStation as Wes admires her from across the room. Interesting beginning to this twisted episode, I must say.
While they’re socializing, Wolfram & Hart are returning Billy Bloom to his uncle, Senator Bloom. This turns out to be an awesome Kennedy reference here. The Blooms are referred to as, “the closest thing to royalty” in the US. They're completely untouchable, yet somehow tainted. As he Billy leaves, Gavin Park turns on Lilah, telling her that she needs to quit flapping her mouth then tossing her into the bar on the wall.
Back at the Wes’s apartment, Cordy is in the middle of telling Wes that he needs to tell Fred that he’s interested in her when she’s struck by a vision. This vision has its twist though, as it’s of a man killing his wife a week prior. This leaves our intrepid crew a bit stumped, and they return to the hotel to research. Wes purchases some police information from a contact at the precinct, and in one of the surveillance photos they make an awful discovery. Our prison escapee Billy was at the scene minutes before the murder.
This revelation leaves Cordy and Angel both worried and frustrated. Cordy believes that it’s her fault that he’s out because if Angel hadn’t had too save her, Billy wouldn’t be out of his cage. Angel tries to assure her that it’s NOT her fault, and that he would have done it again if it came down to having to save her life. However, when Angel confronts Billy at his home, the police show up and take Billy away.
After a little investigation, the crew finds out that Billy has escaped from the police and is on the run. While Wes, Gunn & Angel head out to find him; Cordy decides to take matters into her own hands. She believes that she's at fault for this guy's release and heads to find out what Lilah knows. She finds Lilah battered and beaten, and lays into her with an amazing "bitch" speech. It seems that Billy has the power to bring out the inner hatred and violence in men through his touch, and while he doesn't harm women himself, he enjoys watching the fruits of his power.
Wes & Angel find one of Billy's bloody handprint at the scene where he escaped from the police. Angel continues the chase and Wes heads back to find out what he can learn about Billy's demonic lineage through his blood. Unfortunately for Wes, Billy's power is transferred through the blood, and he attacks Fred. He chases her through the hotel in a totally awesome Shining-esque sequence. He even takes an axe to the door of the room that Fred is hiding in.
So with Fred in danger of Wes killing her, Cordy intent on stopping Billy because she thinks she's at fault & Angel hot on his trail, we come to an exciting yet strange conclusion. Fred is able to KO Wes with a strategically placed fire extinguisher & Angel finds Billy at the airport about to get on a plane. However, before he can confront the demon, Cordy shows up to kill Billy herself. Only, when she distracts Angel, Billy lays his evil touch on him, and Cordy doesn’t know what effect it’ll have on her vampiric partner...
I really enjoyed this episode. There were some wicked scenes where the characters really blew me away. Cordy’s speech to Lilah, Angel’s determination to prove to Cordy that this wasn’t her fault, Wes’s confrontation of Fred both during and after Billy’s power had an effect on him. It was amazing. Gunn wasn’t in this episode very much. He hasn’t played much of a part since Geo showed up and confronted him in That Old Gang Of Mine. Will he bounce back and be a bigger part of the group? I hope so.
My only problem was the lack of depth in the bad guy. Sure, Billy’s power is pretty wicked. He can make men go psycho on women, but after That Vision Thing, I was expecting more from someone who was caged in fire. I was also expecting more of a challenge from the Powers that Be after Angel blatantly went against them in releasing Billy. We’ll have to see if more repercussions are to come...
It’s back to Darla and her revelation in next week’s episode, “Offspring!”
Episode Rating: 8 out of 10
- The guy who would never lay a finger on a woman in anger, PunkJr
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