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Angel
Episode 4.02, "Ground Stat"
Written by Mere Smith
Directed by Michael Grossman
The second episode of the fourth season introduced the promised recurring character Gwen Raiden (a joke so obvious I will not dignify it with an explanation). In the beginning, a young Gwen is sent to a boarding school promising to meet her specialized needs. Gwen then electrocutes a little kid. With her hands. What a freak. The only thing notable about this intro, I think, is that for the first time a Joss Whedon program just felt like a jumbo rip-off of another cult show. Gwen's introduction, with the sun-drenched setting and superimposed expository information felt like an X-Files opening, and not a good one at that. Fortunately, the rest of the episode made for some damn good watching.
Angel is back, and now actively searching for Cordelia, who went mysteriously missing the same day he did. Giving Angel an agenda always makes for some excellent watching, and led to classic episodes such as last season's "Forgiving," which found him kidnapping and torturing a Wolfram & Hart executive to find his lost son, and Season 2's "Reunion," in which Wolfram & Hart finally send him over the edge, leading him to feed the senior partners to Darla and Drusilla. Nothing quite as memorable happens this time around, although he finally talks to Wesley of his own accord. Wesley, it seems, has set up his own crack team of demon killers, but takes the time out of his busy schedule to steer Angel in the direction of Dinza, a "Goddess of the Lost," who may either help him or make our hero, too, lost forever. Before he leaves, Angel tells Wesley that he has been forgiven for kidnapping Connor. Wesley's look (and Wesley gives great looks these days, doesn't he?) says it all: Damn it, Angel's the one who needs to apologize. I mean seriously.
Angel finds Dinza, one of the creepier demons to appear on this show I must say, who acts all scary and stuff and tells Angel that he needs to find "The Axis of Pythia" (spelling, anyone?), a relic that search for beings across dimensions. One wonders now why Angel didn't find out about this thing whilst he was looking for Connor in Quartoth. Oh well. To find it, however, he needs to call in a favor from Lilah, who has been spending some time stalking his son. In exchange for the information, Angel agrees not to kill her for being near Connor. Oh yeah, and he smells that she's been having sex with Wesley. Angel doesn't seem to mind too much. My question, however, is just what sex with Wesley must smell like. Not that I'm interested or anything. it just comes to mind.
In attempting to steal the Axis, however, Angel & Company come across Gwen, all grown up and all sexy and shit. Gwen beats them to the punch, but during her escape, Gunn dies. Totally, 100% dies. This, naturally, sucks. Proving that she will be a recurring character (although it didn't work for Bai-Ling in the first season), Gwen takes the time out of her busy schedule to help. She blasts Gunn with electricity - he wakes up. Yay. But Gwen has gotten away, with the Axis of Pythia in tow.
Angel goes to get it back, and he and Gwen duke it out for a while. She blasts him with voltage upon voltage, but nothing works because, hey, he's a vampire. I don't get that, personally. Vampires are vulnerable to fire - wouldn't enough voltage burn him up inside? Then, in an incongruous turn of events, she gets Angel's heart beating. How exactly this works has kept my head scratching for some time, too. He hasn't used his heart in over 200 years - shouldn't it have atrophied by now? What good is electricity going to do to a heart that doesn't pump blood anyway? But then, if it doesn't pump blood (which it can't, because it doesn't work normally), how come Angel bleeds when he's hurt? My brain go bye-bye now.
Anyway, Gwen's momentary employer double-crosses her, so he ends up getting his ass kicked and Angel gets the Axis. At the end, he discovers that Cordelia has been turned into a being of pure light and joy, and he, Fred and Gunn reflect that she must be happier now. Then, we cut to a place of pure light and joy, where Cordelia says, "What are you, deficient? GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
All in all a great, if somewhat scattered episode, and a marked improvement over the somewhat ponderous season premiere. Certain things, like Gwen's intro, felt out of place, and as a whole it seemed like an awkward introduction to a character that apparently will become more important later in the season. And the whole business with kissing Angel when his heart started beating just came out of nowhere. On the other hand, there were excellent bits of funniness (Angel and Fred's dueling sketches were a highlight) and creativity that were all kinds of pleasing.
Hollyfeld gives Ground State (although he doesn't really know what the episode's title means):
Episode Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Hollyfeld was a being of pure light and joy once but then the stuff wore off.
