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Angel
Episode 4.01 "Deep Down"
Written by Steven S. DeKnight
Directed by Terrence O'Hara
The Season Four premiere of Angel has the distinct but innate misfortune of coming immediately after the show's illustrious Season Three, so the bar was probably set unfairly high. Season Three, fans will remember and newbies will be saddened to learn, was one of the finest seasons of any show in recent memory, with elegantly unfolding storylines, standout standalone episodes which managed to knit themselves effortlessly into the overall plotline, and character work that hasn't been done so well since, well, Season Three of Buffy. Needless to say, Angel fans, who had been sticking to the show for a season and a half waiting for it to get really good (it finally perked up towards the end of Season 2), were really fucking happy.
And if at any point in the following review you get kind of bored, just go up to the preceding paragraph and try to count how many times I used the word "season." It sure as hell seems like a lot from where I'm sitting.
To recap: Darla returned to Los Angeles, somehow carrying Angel's child, which the show had already established was downright impossible for vampires to do. Also having returned was an old nemesis from 100 years prior - the vampire hunter Holtz, whose family Angel and Darla had long since massacred. Holtz had made a deal with the dimension-hopping demon Sahjhan, who brought him to the 21st century so that he might kill Angel and his unborn child. The plan failed, as Darla killed herself in order to save her child, born a human. Holtz decides that rather than merely kill Angel, he can achieve his revenge through the vampire's child, Connor.
Angel takes to fatherhood like a vampire takes to blood, and starts to dote affectionately upon his son. This all seems well and good, until Wesley discovered an ancient prophecy that stated that Angel would devour Connor. In desperation, Wesley kidnaps the child and hands him to Holtz, whom he at least knew would never harm a human. The plan goes awry, however, when Holtz's lackey Justine, an obsessed, less-talented version of Buffy, slits Wesley's throat and leaves him to die. Angel discovers what has occurred, but is too late to stop Holtz from escaping with Connor into the worst of Hell Dimensions. Sahjhan is at least temporarily defeated, but only after revealing that he had falsified the prophecy Wesley was trying to stop. Wesley did all that work for nothing, and is thrown out of Angel Investigations' inner circle, his name never to be spoken again.
But wait, there's more! Shortly thereafter, an interdimensional rift appears in the lobby of Angel Investigations, caused by a poorly cast spell Angel use to try and get Connor back. Through this rift comes a teenaged ragamuffin in a Peter Pan outfit, calling Angel "dad" and then trying to kill him. Connor has returned, having grown up in the Hell Dimension, raised by Holtz, and trained to hate and kill his father. Angel almost manages to convince his son that Angel isn't evil (well, not at the moment, anyway), but Holtz has also returned, and using Justine as his accomplice, kills himself and frames Angel for the murder. Connor discovers the body, and together with Justine chains his father up, throws him into a big metal box, and dumps him into the middle of the ocean.
All that, and Cordelia became elevated to a "benevolent deity" status, but only after realizing she was in love with Angel and before actually telling him. Also, Wesley's sleeping with Lilah, Fred and Gunn fell in love, and Lorne's off in Vegas. It was a busy season.
So "Deep Down," episode 4.1 of Angel, is disappointing in comparison. That's one of the reasons this review is so damned late. I was trying to figure out if the show was really mediocre, or if it just had too much to follow. It's kind of both, sadly. But remember, the Season Three opener was kind of a letdown as well.
The incongruous opening scene has Angel Investigations, everyone past and present (well, not Doyle, but who wants him back anyhow?), sitting down for a nice meal. Actually, it's too nice, and before long we realize that of course it's just the dream of a starving vampire whose son has betrayed him. Haven't we all had those moments?
Meanwhile, back in Los Angeles, and reality, Fred and Gunn are on the pursuit of Marissa, a vampire who may or may not have been in the vicinity of the docks, Angel's last whereabouts. They are a bit outmatched, however, and might actually have been in serious trouble had it not been for the last minute heroics of Connor. Connor, it seems, has failed to tell anyone about his watery imprisonment of Angel, and is playing an "I'm just a stranger in a strange land" routine that elicits both sympathy and aggravation from Fred and Gunn, who have since become his surrogate parents. The relationship seems strained, since the duo doesn't exactly contain the strongest voices of authority in the Whedon-verse. They seem to genuinely care for Connor, but don't really know what to do with him. So they do the best they can... nag about his "kill-'em-all" conflict resolution skills.
Meanwhile, Wesley is fucking Lilah, which looks to be a pretty good way to spend your time. And over the summer, what began as a purely lustful arrangement seems to have turned into something that may not be love, but may have at least a little affection involved. Of course, they are both still just trying to get what they want out of the relationship, and apparently Lilah has been asking for some time if Wesley knows the whereabout of Angel. He tantamountly denies it, and after she leaves opens his closet to reveal Justine, in a cage. Kinky. Apparently, after learning that Angel disappeared, he kidnapped Justine and has been working her over ever since to find out where he's been. And apparently, she told him that he's stuck in the bottom of the ocean somewhere, and for a while now he's been scanning the ocean floor, searching.
And then he finds him, drags him up and gives him some blood, but of course he's still hallucinating and sees Wesley as Connor instead. And so the perfect ironic moment, Wesley having just saved Angel and Angel telling him, "I should have killed you when I had the chance." That must be a blow to the ego - they just love torturing Wesley on this show, don't they? Meanwhile, Connor & Company finds Marissa, and while Fred and Gunn are otherwise occupied, Connor slays her to keep his secret safe. Naturally, his pseudo-parents are pissed but sympathetic. How must it feel to have killed the only person who knows where your father is? He must be hurting, but as Fred tells him, it's not nearly as much as he's going to hurt for what he did to his father. Then cute little Fred shoves a taser into his neck. That's pretty cool.
So yeah, Angel is back and he confronts his son. Actually, he could be madder. Compared to having your girlfriend send you to a Hell Dimension for a hundred years, being locked in a box for a couple of months isn't so bad. So, yeah, he may be willing to forgive, but until that time, Connor isn't welcome in his house. Hotel. Whatever. Fred and Gunn thanks Wesley, but they push him away again for not telling them the score even sooner.
Oh yeah, Lilah decapitated her boss and now runs the department. She's cool. And Cordelia is spotted floating a beautiful blue sky-like place. She's bored.
So what's wrong with this?
Well, nothing extreme, it's just nothing to shout about. While it does give the viewers a good sense of where things are after the summer (something I've always liked about the Whedon shows - if the show breaks for the summer, stuff still happens, we just don't see it), it seems like the conclusion of last season's cliffhanger is pretty weak. It spends so much time concluding everything that nothing seems to move forward, which breaks distractingly from the fabulous sense of momentum we had in Season Three. But again, the opening to Season Three sucked, so I'm giving it some slack in the long run.
In the short run, it's getting a pretty low score for the extreme dead time we feel whenever Fred and Gunn are on-screen this week. Normally, Fred and Gunn Time is great, but then normally they're not supposed to be the characters who really take care of business. That would be Angel, Wesley, and hell, even the Groosalugg. And hey, where the hell is the Groosalugg? Sure, Cordy's not there anymore, but wouldn't he have stuck with the understaffed team out of chivalry? Loyalty? Any of those Groosalugg things? Hell, I would have been satisfied if they'd even so much as mentioned the guy to let us know what happened to him. Sure, he's not a fan favorite, but for continuity's sake let the audience in on it, hmm?
I digress. Anyway, yeah, the Fred, Gunn and Connor stuff feels like filler, and the whole "finding a vampire who happens to have seen the whole thing" feels a little tacked-on. When you compare that to an interesting plot point like Wesley keeping Justine locked in his closet with just a bucket to keep her company, it just comes across as less than stellar storytelling. And lines like Wesley threatening to take away the bucket are classic, compared to the less memorable emoting that goes on at the hotel this week.
Speaking of Wesley. As I said before, they love to dump on him in this show, and sometimes it works. Angel's line on the boat was wonderfully ironic. But when Fred and Gunn push him away again it seems extremely forced, especially since he had a damn good reason for keeping them in the dark. Connor killed the last person who found out what he had done - Wesley didn't tell Fred and Gunn because the little shit is dangerous. Couldn't they get that through their thick heads?
And as for the starving vampire bit - remember when Spike first got the chip in his head three years ago and couldn't nourish himself? And remember what he said happens to vampires who don't feed? They end up looking like Somalia children. Yes, I know that's kind of difficult make-up to pull off, but it does go against Whedon vampire lore. It's not the first time it's happened, but it is annoying that Angel doesn't even appear to have lost weight.
All this adds up to a watchable episode of Angel, little more, occasionally less, and if you were a first time viewer last week you're bound to be a little confused at to what all the hype was about. But remember that Angel works best over the long run, so hopefully as things get going this season we'll be back in classic television storytelling mode.
As it stands, however, I give the season premiere of Angel:
Episode Rating: 5.5 out of 10
Hollyfeld hasn't kept anyone in a cage in the closet for years now.
