Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Written by Mere Smith
Directed by Fred Keller

Original Airdate: April 24, 2001

Plot: After being sent to the Host's home dimension of Pylea, Cordelia finds that humans are captured and sold as servants. However, when she has a vision, the people of Pylea come to believe she is possessed and put her through a series of tests. Meanwhile, the rest of Angel Investigations and the Host try to find a way to open a portal from Los Angeles to Pylea to rescue Cordelia....

Review

Warning: This is a major hot spot for SPOILERS for the latest episode of Angel, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." If you've not seen it yet and want to see in unaware of some of the more interesting plot points that come up, please turn back now...

In short: Disappointing.

I never thought I'd say this, but I think I'm actually starting to miss the early season two arc of Angel goes to the dark side. While at times that storyline wandered around a bit and was sometimes frustrating as hell to watch, at the very least it was interesting.

Which is something that I can't say for the current arc on Angel.

I find that I really, really want to like the current storyline on Angel. I've gone into the last couple of episodes trying to have an open mind, to try and enjoy them. This week even had the added bonus of being written by Mere Smith, who has delivered two solid, enjoyable episodes earlier this year. However, despite my intention to try and sit back and enjoy the episodes, I find that I simply can't do it.

Why?

Well, to boil it down to a basic point--the arc Angel is doing is dull.

There were certainly some isolated, nice points to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," but they were so few and far between that it was hard to really stay interested in the overall storyline.

One thing I liked was the continuation from last week of Gunn's storyline. While I didn't really buy the impact that Gunn's losing his friend was supposed to have on the audience, I did buy that it had an impact on Gunn. And so, to see him come to Angel and essentially resign to fight the good fight with his crew was a nicely done scene. I liked the fact that Gunn was willing to come back and face Angel and tell him face to face. That's certainly in keeping with the character of Gunn, who has always faced up to his responsibilities and stood by his decisions. I liked seeing the conflict of loyalties shown here.

However, I just didn't buy that one phone call from Angel and a long message pushing Gunn back over the edge and into helping the group again. Gunn has swung too quickly from one camp to another in the course of the past two episodes. And while I can accept that this is a time of high emotions for him and that his decision making process might not be the most coherent right now, it just didn't feel right for him to quit in one scene only to join back up two scenes later. I realize that on some levels, getting Gunn to go with Wesley, Angel and the Host was done out of necessity--for had he not gone through with them at the time they journeyed to Pylea, he wouldn't have been able to journey over with them.

The other interesting point was Angel's reaction to being in the sun without being on fire. That certainly is something that grew out of last week's episode with Angel on the set and enjoying the feeling of the artificial sunlight. And it certainly is in keeping with his character. David Boreanaz brought quite a bit of infectious joy to the scenes. He seemed like a kid in a candy shop as he suddenly realized the extent of his new freedom. And I've got to give them credit for nicely doing those few scenes.

And, of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't say all the little nods to the Wizard of Oz weren't nicely done. The most obvious one was Cordelia tapping her heels together three times to try and get home.

But, unfortunately, all of this couldn't make up for the fact that for the majority of the story, I was only vaguely involved in the events unfolding on screen.

Part of the problem was that the ideas felt too stretched out. I wonder if this is the middle part of a trilogy or set of episodes and was simply designed to get us from point A to point C, with his being point B. Unfortunately, the journey to point B took just too long. For one thing, the scenes of Wesley and Angel bickering about how they had to get to Pylea and soon got repetitive quickly. Indeed, seeing Angel's growing frustration only made me feel frustrated that we hadn't actually moved forward and got to the Host's dimension already so maybe the plot could jump start itself and get moving.

Nor did the scenes with Cordelia do much for me. Certainly, the idea that the monster chasing her turned out to be nothing more than a friendly pet was nicely done, but the whole idea of her being captured and deemed a cow and then put to work didn't ever click. I kept hoping one plotline or the other would serve to distract me from the tedious nature of the other, but each one keep reminding me of how the plots just weren't working and weren't moving forward.

And after seeing how things turned out, I have a feeling that the writers were building toward one scene. Indeed, the entire episode hinges on finding out in the end that Cordelia is now some kind of princess to the people (a fact that really, really needs some huge amount of explanation considering that humans in Pylea are considered basically slaves). Indeed, the shock value of this was pretty much foreshadowed early enough, though I will admit the last scene had me sort of guessing as to who might be in the chair. For a brief moment, I figured it would be Darla or Druscillia or some other supporting cast member. (Again, I've probably watched too much Doctor Who over the years where those types of moments always lead up to one of the Doctor's classic adversaries sitting in the throne).

I'm not quite sure how things are going to turn out here and I can't comment until I've seen the rest of this trilogy or storyline. But it feels as though there may have been enough plot for a solid two-parter but it's been stretched into three. And sometimes stretching a plot line to three parts can work. If you've watched Farscape (and if you're not, why not?!?), you may have seen the Look at the Princess trilogy. That trilogy was originally planned as a two-parter but was expanded to a trilogy and it all worked. Namely because there was enough of a story for three parts but also because they dropped some huge hints about the entire season storyline in that second segment. If you've not seen that trilogy, I would beg, borrow or steal to get a copy of it. It's very, very good.

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

--The Host having a psychic friend was an interesting touch. Not sure if I buy the character or not, but the idea was good.

--Was the girl Cordelia was talking to in the stable Fred, who I assume they're going to rescue by the end of this storyline.

--You've got to wonder if Angel's not being burned up by the sun might not have some other impact on him. Why wasn't he? Was it like Superman and only a yellow sun affects him?

--Wesley just took way too long to find the solution on how to get through the portal.

--The Host....I found him annoying and repetitive.

--Liked the Wolfram and Hart moment. The two lawyers were pretty good. And if you're a fan of the B5 spin-off Crusade, you might have recognized one of the lawyers as having been a main character on Crusade.

All in all, this episode was a huge disappointment. I am trying not to be too hard on it since it's the first part of a continuing storyline. However, Angel is going to have to get back on track real quick in order to rescue this storyline.

My rating: 3.5 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Pylea is having strange affects on Angel....