Blood Money

Blood Money
Written by Mere Smith & Shawn Ryan
Directed by R.D. Price

Original Airdate: January 23, 2001

Plot: Angel uncovers a link between Wolfram and Hart and a local runaway shelter that he threatens to make public in an attempt to expose the firm's illicit activities. Gunn, Cordelia and Wesley take steps to set up their demon fighting business. Review

Warning: There is no laundering of SPOILERS here. Everything to come is tainted with big-time SPOILERS for the latest episode of Angel, "Blood Money." If you haven't seen it yet, please turn back now....

In short: Disappointing.

I'm of two minds about "Blood Money." There is the deep-rooted, long-term Buffy and Angel watching part of me that enjoyed a chance to catch up with Chantrelle/Lily/Anne and to see where the events of two years ago have taken her. There is a part of me that enjoyed seeing Gunn, Wesley and Cordelia set up shop to fight the good fight.

But there's a bigger part of me that was ready for the next step. Angel upped the ante big time last week with a plot that was stunning in how far it went to give the new show a new sense of purpose and direction. And virtually all of that was lost this week, with the exception of perhaps one or two isolated scenes.

First off, I'll deal with the portions I enjoyed.

The most entertaining plotline was that concerning Gunn, Wesley and Cordelia's attempts to continue the good fight without Angel. I liked the fact that virtually everyone involved here kept wishing things could be the way they were and wondering what they'd do if they had Angel's help to fight the demon. (And while part of sort of expected Angel to appear and somehow help fight the fire-breathing demon, I am glad they didn't do it). I also liked the enthusiasm each of the actors had in each of the scenes they were involved in--especially the opening scene of Wesley and Gunn playing Risk. That one really worked. I also liked the camaraderie that is building up among the team members and the banter between them. Simply put: this type of development for these characters had been missing far more often than not this year and that makes it enjoyable when we do get to see it.

It's a shame that they disappeared from sight in the final half-hour of the show.

The other element I liked was the return of Anne. It was one of those fan-boy type moments that does my heart good. If you've watched Buffy over the year, you will remember her as Chantrelle from the wonderful season two episodes "Lie to Me." She cropped up in the season three premiere of "Anne" and was quite good there. And it was nice to see there was some long-term payoff to the events started in "Anne." I liked that Lily has moved from a woman who was once one of the people her charity is designed to defend and fight for to a person who is out there defending those people and fighting for them. I also liked the fact that she has remained consistent. I felt that Lily's decision to take the money to give help to those who came to her shelter--no matter how she got it or how much Wolfram and Hart were willing to take--was good. While I can't agree with her reasoning--it's more money than we'd get any other way even if they only got 5%--I can see the rationale behind it. And I liked that. I liked that a great deal.

Finally, the really only other part that I liked a great deal was Angel's threatening Lillah in her car. David Boreanaz walked a fine line between calm and psychotic that was chilling. The scene reminded me of how calmly charming Angelus can be--right before he kills you. In some ways, it reminded me of the sequence with Jenny Calendar right before Angelus killed her. The cocky arrogance of Angelus was there, if not his blood lust or need to kill Lillah.

As for the rest, it left me extremely, extremely cold.

In many ways, I wish they'd reversed the events of the past two episodes. If we'd seen "Redefinition" this week, I might have been happier. Why?

Well, last week we established that Angel is now at war with Dru and Darla. He is training for an upcoming battle against there. He is focused and determined. Now, suddenly Angel has turned his attention elsewhere--to Lindsay and Lillah and Anne. For someone who is focused, he's lost it a bit. I can't see the dark, determined new Angel we met last week taking time off to put the investment into stalking Anne as he did. Maybe this is part of some overall plan, but I don't buy it. If you take these events and put them last week and then have Angel step up his war against Dru and Darla, I'd be happier.

Secondly, Angel went really extreme last week. He saw that any ends justified his means. And after burning Dru and Darla, it's hard not to believe they aren't planning to come after him with a vengeance. Or that there wouldn't be some fall out or mention of what happened. Instead, it's shown in the "Previously on Angel" segment so we understand how bad Angel has become. But it comes to nothing more. Sorry, but that was a BIG event in the Angel universe and it can't be put on the backburner until the writers get around to dealing with it.

Next up--Angel's plan. It may be that "Enemies" was just commercially released on video and is, thus, on my mind a great deal. But the whole idea of bringing in an outsider to set-up the enemy and get the chance to expose them is a bit contrived. And it was also something that I saw coming a mile away. It was too convenient to the plot for the cowboy demon to show up at just the time when Wolfram and Hart needed him and to have this vendetta against Angel. And the whole high noon showdown at the end...I really didn't buy it. I liked that Anne got the money for her charity, but I didn't like that we had the high noon showdown to get it.

And it's a shame that this plotline took up the entire last half of the episode--when I really, really yearned to see what Gunn, Wesley and Cordelia were up to. In a lot of ways, their plotline felt like it was leftover from last week. Almost as if Mere Smith had some great ideas on how to keep the idea of their striking out on their own going longer but due to time couldn't do it. So it was tacked on to this weeks story--and while I'm glad we got to see it, I wish there had been more to it.

Which bring me to my final drawback on the story--the lack of balance. Last week's episode had a good balance of the plotlines. We finally got some nicely done material for Wesley, Cordy and Gunn. And I loved seeing it. You can see how all the actors involved here took the material and ran with it. And they ran with what they had this week. There was such an enthusiasm to what they were doing and it was wonderfully done, that is left a vacuum in the other scenes in the story--especially when the focus shifted away from them. I only hope that as we get into February we get to see a bit more from this trio as they have shown they deserve the screen time.

So, all in all, I've got to say I was pretty disappointed with Angel. Part of it may be residual hope after last week was so good. But I think most of it is that the episode just wasn't up to the usual par that Angel has, at times, established over it's two year run.

So, that's about it for now, except a few small things...

--I liked the idea of seeing the fire but not the demon in the sewer. I like leaving stuff to the imagination.

--I love Merl the demon. But he seriously needs to move.

--Thank goodness-no karaoke bar this week!

--I wish Anne had said something about a girl who'd helped her out and then gone back to Sunnydale. Or how she'd gone to hell once. It would have been interesting to see Angel's reaction to that.

--I wonder if Anne still lives in that apartment Buffy gave her at the end of "Anne"? It might explain why she likes sleeping at the office!

Well, that's it for now. I've got to admit I'm disappointed with Angel. And that hurts--especially as last week it was so good.

My rating: 3.5 (out of 10.0)

Next up: A repeat and then four new episodes....see you in two weeks!