Dead End

Dead End
Written by David Greenwalt
Directed by James A. Contner

Original Airdate: April 24, 2001

Plot: As re-evaluation time comes up at Wolfram and Hart, Lindsay is given a gift--a transplant of new hand. However, he becomes worried when the hand apparently has muderous intentions and seems to be developing a mind of its own.

Review

Warning: If you're not too handy with avoiding SPOILERS, I strongly suggest you make this point your "Dead End." There are major SPOILERS just ahead for the latest episode of Angel..

In short: Needed a bit more focus.

There are several good reasons to do an episode focusing on one of the more complex adversaries on Angel. One is that Lindsay is an interesting character, who has often wavered in his loyalties and has just enough of a conscienc to make his character interesting. Another might be, as we found out last night, that Christian Kane has an exceptional voice and it's a real shame that we didn't get to hear him display this talent before now. The third one is that with an episode that focuses on a cast member besides David Borenaz gives David the time to jaunt over to Buffy and do a cameo for last week's episode. (In case you didn't know, last week's episode of Buffy was filmed after this weeks due to Mr. Boreanaz's schedule).

All of these are good reasons. And all of them were reasons that we got to see "Dead End."

And I think the episode did a good job making use of all of them and working with the strengths and weaknesses each reason brings.

It's just a shame the whole thing was so disjointed.

There were a lot of extremely interesting ideas in here. But it seems as though writer David Greenwalt, who is usually so good, brought up a bunch of ideas only to see them drop out after they were no longer convient to the plot of that moment.

Among the biggest offenders....

--Why was Lindsay's hand cursed? Did the demon do that? Is the body part that is transplanted--either the hand for Lindsay or the eye for the guy who stabbed it out--evil because of the process? Or was it because it comes from someone who is "evil"?

--Do the transplanted parts cause people to want to suddenly stab them as if it to get rid of them? We saw Lindsay use the letter opener on his hand and we saw the suberban gentleman use the butcher knife on his eye (or rather we heard about it from Cordelia, which makes it far more horrifying). Is that a sort of by-product of the surgery?

--Wolfram and Hart are so anal about security they've got creatures that pick up vampires in the basement, but they don't have any security cameras and if you've got an access card, you can get into ANY office in the building? Plus, their network security is pretty lax--I mean, password are supposed to be easy to remember, but is it believable that Lindsay could so quickly crack the code and get into those files?

--Does it makes sense they don't know what Lilah's been taking out with her? After last year, when Lindsay was able to make off with blackmail material, it seems as though Wolfram and Hart would step up the security, not keep it at the same lax level as before.

--Also, when it comes to the whole "body farm" thing, why wasn't there more security? A bunch of thugs that Angel and Lindsay beat the stew out of doesn't seem like the usual methods for the firm. I figured a silent alarm was going off somewhere. So why did it take so long for anyone to show up?

--As for the "body farm" concept--which the idea of keeping people alive to salvage parts was done in a far more effective and creepy manner on Farscape last week--why did they need the demon's symbol and blessing to basically hold people in suspended animation?

All of these things added up to me feeling wholly unsatisfied with the episode. And sometimes with a TV show, for me, it's getting the little things right that adds up to a complete watching expereince.

Not to say there weren't a few good things.

For one, I liked the idea that Cordy's having a harder time getting over her visions. At first, I wondered if she wasn't able to get over them until Angel and company had beaten this week's evil. That might be interesting. And if it's a result that's been happening while Angel went on his walk to the dark side, it might explain why Cordelia is a bit more bitter at him. After all, if she had to endure longer pain because he wouldn't get his happy vampire behind over there to stop the evil, that is a lot to bear. I have a feeling that we're moving toward a crisis with Cordelia and her visions. It may or may not be as severe as last year's "To Shanshu in L.A." where Cordelia nearly lost her mind, but it may get close.

I also liked the plotline of Lindsay and getting a bit more inside his character. Indeed, all season we've seen glimpses of him, but it's here that we really got inside of him. I loved the look into Lindsay's daily routine as it were--both pre and post surgery. Seeing him look longingly at the guitar, while realizing he can't play again due to what Angel did to him was a profoundly effective moment. Christian Kane, who has proved he's so able to play arrogant, showed a lot of depth in that one scene.

And, then, to hear Lindsay get a chance to sing. I've got to admit that all season long I've been a major detractor when it comes to the Host and the karoke bar. It's a crutch for the writers. Hell, the scene last night between Angel Investigations could have been lifted from a writer's meeting...

"Well, we're at a loss as to how to proceed. What now?"

"Karoke bar!"

Yes, it's a crutch. I am going to keep beating this drum probably until the end of the series since there are obviously some people on the writing staff who feel the whole "run to the karoke bar" is a good idea. Of course, there were also writers on Star Trek: The Next Generation who felt a Worf/Troi romance in the final season would be a good idea...despite what the fans thought. They liked it, so they were going forward with it!

But, I'm digressing here.

I didn't like the idea that we had to use the Host to once again get from point A to point C without there being a good point B in the middle. But, I will admit that I enjoyed Christian Kane's singing and that alone may have rescued the entire sequence.

And I liked the final scenes with Lindsay. Seeing him finally go over the top was nice. His break-down has been a long-time coming. Indeed, to see him final choose a side in the fight--and it not be Woflram and Hart was nicely done. I found it interesting that he finally got what he wanted--promoted and then stepped away. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of when I was in high school and I was registering for college. I had a list of schools. One of them, I applied to and got accepted to. But once I'd been accepted, that was enough for me. I didn't want to go there and chose another path for my life. But it was nice to know that I could have gone there if I'd wanted to. (And I'm glad I didn't, as I now hate the school and its fans...but that's a whole other issue).

I loved Lindsay's tyriad in the board room. And I found it interesting that the main lawyer, whose name eludes me now, never got scared. It's almost as if he knew Lindsay wouldn't hurt him.

However, and I go back to this seriously, there was a distinct lack of focus to the story. It just sort of moved along from point to piont without there being any direction. And I have to admit the meshing of the plots was not as seamless as it was on Buffy. It felt as though Greenwalt was trying too hard to meld together Lindsay's getting a new hand with the vision he gave to Cordelia.

And it didn't work.

And the whole vision thing brings up another point--just what happened to the guy in the vision and his family? Were they killed? Taken to another dimension? That was put out there but never really addressed fully.

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

--Cordelia seems to be getting stronger in terms of being able to go back and find details in her visions. I wonder if this will continue.

--I am sad to see Lindsay go. I liked the character. I have a feeling he'll be back. And you've got to wonder how well Lillah will do.

--Gunn and Wesley were a bit underused. Gunn has especially been suffering since Angel came back from the dark side. He was really developing and getting interesting and now it feels as though it's been shuffled to the backburner.

--Angel's having to hire a detective to do detective work was nicely done.

--As was his buying lunch for Cordelia. That scene really worked for me.

--I guess that since Elizabeth Rohm is going to be on Law and Order full time now, that it's pretty much the end of Kate as we know it. That's a shame. She'd have brought a good dynamic to Angel Investigations.

Well, that's it for now. All-in-all, there were some nice things about "Dead End" but there were too many things that weighed it down from being any better than it ended up being.

My rating: 4.5 (out of 10.0)

Next up: An evil has come to L.A. and the Host may be the key to helping stop it.