Billy

Billy
Written by Tim Minear & Jeffrey Bell
Directed by David Grossman

Original Airdate: October 29, 2001

Plot:Billy, who Angel freed from a hell dimension to save Cordelia, returns and displays why he was sentenced to the cage of fire. His touch brings out the animal side of men, who lash out at women around them. As Angel and Cordelia race each other to find and destroy Billy, Fred is trapped alone in the hotel with Wesley and Gunn, both of whom come under the influence of Billy...

Review

Warning: SPOILERS are known to jump across from this review to you without any warning. I strongly suggest if you haven't seen the latest episode of Angel "Billy" that you turn back now. There are major SPOILERS just ahead....

In short: Creepy, disturbing and well-acted.

When Angel first premiered three short years ago, Joss Whedon, David Greenwalt and company touted the fact that because Angel aired at a later hour than Buffy, that it would deal with some of the darker side of humanity. And to date, we've seen a lot of that. We've seen plots on Angel that we probably wouldn't ever seen on Buffy due to the darkness and intensity of the subject matter.

But this week's episode, Billy, deals with a subject matter that has been dealt with on Buffy before--that of men abusing women. We saw an episode that examined this back in season four with Beauty and the Beasts.

Before I go any further, let me say this--I think the type of violence against women--or any person for that matter--that we saw in Beauty and the Beasts and here in Billy is nothing short of wrong and I applaud both shows for taking an honest look at it for the horror that it is. But in watching Billy, I found myself thinking, this is similar to Beauty and the Beasts, only it's gone a whole lot darker.

Which, as I stated before, is what Angel is built-around. It can be darker than Buffy in a lot of ways.

And it certainly was here.

Billy is yet another success in a series of successes for the third-season of Angel.

It wasn't perfect, mind you. But it was a very solid, creepy and extremely well-acted episode of Angel.

In a lot of ways, it was a tragedy--at least for the budding relationship between Wesley and Fred. Both Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker both delivered strong performances, with Alexis coming out slightly in the lead for my favorite acting job of the episode. He ran the gamut, from the early on, uneasiness of a possible first-date with Fred and his discussion with Cordelia, to his absolute horrifying, calm, controlled behavior as Wesley went over the edge and hunted Fred down in the hotel to his sobbing to end the episode as Fred left his apartment. Denisof was given some strong material to work with here and he stepped up to the challenge admirably. As I said, I loved how he ran the gamut and he was genuinely creepy and scary as he stalked Fred through the hotel, ax in hand. Denisof was able to tell us by body language and just how his face looked that there was something wrong. I know that in watching this we're supposed to be reminded of the Shining, but I will say that I feel as though Denisof equaled or bettered the performance given by Jack Nicholson in that film. (Mind you, I am not a huge fan of the film, so that may be some amount of bias there. And BTW, if you want to really experience The Shining, I highly recommend the book. Dark and chilling--sort of like this episode.)

But the strongest statement came at the end at Wesley's apartment with a dynamite scene between Wesley and Fred.

Wesley's lack of responsiveness to Fred and his admitting that he hadn't returned her calls was great. And then his breaking down as Fred stood outside his door and heard him was nicely done. I think we saw Wesley in pain because of the pain he'd brought on his friend--and someone he wanted to get closer to. But I think it may go deeper than that. In the moments of being possessed, Wesley became the thing he hated and feared most--his father. I will notice that Wesley did try to hurt Fred with an axe, but his words were far more biting and hurtful, at least for the long-term. And that's what makes his breakdown at the end so wonderful to see and I know that we'll probably continue to see more of the long-term consequences in the future.

As for Fred, I think it's no secret I'm a big Amy Acker fan. And while this week wasn't quite the stretch she was called on to give last week, it still all worked. She ran with the part of (no pun intended) the female victim in distress and did well with it. A couple of things really stood out for me. One was her calm and subdued delivery of the line "I like to build things" as the fire extinguisher on a rope knocked Wesley out. Another was her conversation with Wesley and the final great moment was when she slowly went back to the door and we saw the hesitation go across her face as she tried to figure out how to comfort her friend Wesley or if that would even be appropriate. It's obvious that she cares about Wesley and that scene felt absolutely right--because sometimes it's hardest to know how best to reach out to someone in a time of need like Wesley faced.

All of that was superbly done.

But there was so much more to it than just that.

I loved seeing Angel and Cordelia have to face the consequences--Angel as the result of his actions and Cordy as the result of Angel's wanting to save his friend. We've seen a bit of the lighter side of Angel these past few weeks but I will admit it was nice to get back to his dark side. Seeing both of them consumed by guilt and the need to put right what they perceive as what they put wrong was nicely done. And the scenes with Billy at the airport were superbly done. I loved how dark they were willing to take Cordelia. I almost got the feeling Cordy wanted Billy to experience the same fear that he inflicted upon the women who were his victims, as much as to kill him. And the scene where Cordelia stepped closer to Billy with the crossbow to make sure she wouldn't miss when she killed him was utterly chilling. Because at that moment you were absolutely sure she'd do it and utterly sure she would not regret it at all.

There were so many superb performances all around in the episode. All of the regulars turned in fine, chilling and utterly effective performances.

And so did Billy. His calm control and pervasive pleasure at seeing these women get hurt so was nicely done. I also found it interesting that his family was like the Kennedy's and considered untouchable, thus making Angel and Cordy's style of vigilante justice the only way to bring him down. In some ways, it reminded me of the X-Files' Pusher episode where the villain can push his will to inflict harm on others, thus leaving him in the clear. Billy was utterly chilling and while I figured he'd come back and there would be consequences to freeing him, I didn't know they'd be this immediate or final. I am glad we wrapped the chapter up on Billy--at least as a villain. I have a feeling the consequences of what he's done to our crew will be far reaching.

However, for all the greatness this episode had, it had one flaw that really held it back from the level of greatness.

Namely, Billy's demise.

While having Lillah kill him worked, it was the chain of events to how she got there that didn't. It felt too forced to have her suddenly turn up at the airport and kill Billy and that really took down the episode a bit in my mind. Again, I know that Angel and Buffy both play with the conventions of horror films, but there are times when those conventions should be left out entirely. And this was one of them. The ending strained my suspension of disbelief a bit too much and thus, pulls the episode down a few notches in my final estimation.

But, overall, what we saw here was strong and superb. I admit that I've been wholly impressed by Angel this year. It only keeps getting better.

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

--Angel and Cordy training was nicely done. I loved how Cordy picked up on the routine and used her cheerleading past to help her. The cheer while battling Angel was a nice touch.

--I didn't mention it, but I liked Gunn as well. His realization that he had Billy's curse and his attempts to protect Fred were nicely done. I loved how we slowly saw him giving into his dark side, up until Fred hit him with the table leg to knock him out. Gunn's desperately pleas to Fred to knock him out were another highlight.

--Boy oh boy, at first when Gavin grabbed Lillah, I thought maybe we were seeing part of his dark side. And maybe we will in the future. His character needs some fleshing out, other than the thorn in Lillah's side.

--Lillah really suffered a lot in this episode. The make-up job on her was superb.

--I liked the conversation between Lillah and Cordy. Anyone else reminded of the alley-way fight between Cordy and Buffy in "When She Was Bad"?

Well, that's about it for now. Overall, a great episode marred only by a strained dispatch of the villain of the week. Angel is hitting a stride, I think. Keep them coming.

My rating: 9.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Darla's back in L.A.