Capre Noctem

Carpe Noctem
Written by Shawn Murphy
Directed by James A. Contner

Original Airdate: October 8, 2001

Plot: Fred's crush on Angel is flamed with the vampire takes her to a Charlton Heston double feature, leading to Cordelia confronting Angel about Fred's feelings toward Angel. In order to avoid an awkward talk, Angel seizes upon a case of dead young men, whose bodies are cropping up in hotel rooms, with little more left than a gelataneous mass. The investigation leads Angel to an elderly gentleman who has the power to switch bodies and trades out bodies with the vampire...

Review

Warning: Let's not misunderstand one another before we head on out. There are major SPOILERS just head for the latest episode of Angel, "Carpe Noctem." If you've not seen it and don't want to know any details about the plot, please turn back now....

In short: Had potential to be more than it was.

Body-switching plots are nothing new on genre shows, like Angel.

The original Star Trek ended with a body-switching episode, Farscape has done it on occasion. Even the show that gave Angel life, Buffy has done it.

So, there's nothing really new under the sun (no pun intended) with the concept of body-switching.

Heck, even Lois and Clark did an episode that was similiar in some ways to this one--an older man switches bodies with Clark but doesn't realize he's Superman until he pulls open his shirt to reveal the red S on his chest.

So, as I've said before, not a lot new here.

But sometimes it's what you do with an old concept to make it new and fresh that counts.

And I think that's what Angel mostly succeeded at with Carpe Noctem.

I will say this one is not going to land in my top five of all time episodes, but it was still enjoyable enough for a vareity of reasons. It also missed the mark on a few things.

Carpe Noctem had some nice, intersting and funny character moments. It was great to see David Borenaz obviously have a field day with being the old-man inside of Angel's body. The enthusiasm was utterly infectious and you could see that Borenaz was having a great, great time. (And I loved the way that the old guy in Angel kept using the same pick-up line on every woman he came across. It kind of reminded me of Joey on Friends with his, "How YOU doin'?")

All that said, I feel the episode didn't focus long enough on Angel in the old man's body. First of all, you've got a great guest star in Rance Howard, who I don't think was honestly used enough. He really shone through in all the scenes we saw him and I like that. But I feel the whole idea of Angel in a nursing home was too rich with comic possiblities to be ignored. Beyond the comic, there was also the question that as a vampire, Angel never has to worry about the frailities that faced the old-man character. So, it would have been interesting to see Angel try and come to terms with those. We saw it a little bit in the sequence where he's trying to get out and has a heart-attack as well as his not being able to stand up to Ray. But there was so much more potential here.

I think part of the problem was this show was so very plot heavy. There's a lot going on here.

And I'll admit that most of it was good enough that I don't feel irritated when they moved from one plot to another. But there was some really interesting stuff here that could have and should have been given more time. I liked seeing Angel uncomfortable about having to talk to Fred about feelings and misunderstanding of said feelings. I also liked the seeing Lillah and her moves down at Wolfram and Hart. (Indeed, this set off what could be the most interesting, long-term development--Fred helping Angel out of his predicament with the other lawyer (whose name eludes me at the moment). Her fixing the issues for Angel was an interesting twist and has, hopefully, set the ball rolling for what is to come in future storylines). But I do wish that the whole Angel and Fred issue had been allowed to simmer a bit more. It's so much fun to watch Fred fawn for Angel while our favorite vampire is totally clueless that women find him attractive.

In a lot of ways, the plotline here reminded me of Eddie VanBlundht from the classic X-Files episode "Small Potatoes." Eddie is able to morph and disguise himself as anyone--so he takes on Mulder's body and locks Mulder up so he can live the life Mulder never had. The coda is a nice one as Eddie tells Mulder that he is a loser because of his looks, etc, which Mulder is a loser out of choice. I felt there were themes of that here with the old guy realizing what Angel had and trying to work with it to really live the life of a vampire to the fullest. That was interesting, but again, it wasn't really explored enough.

There was so much more that could have and even should have been done with the body-switching plot.

And yet I liked just about everything we saw.

And while I think we needed a break from the darkness of the past couple of episodes, I wish we'd got more from the script.

I also admit that I felt frustrated that the ending was a bit too quick. Of course, I understand that Angel and the old guy can't stay switched forever. But the ending of Wes and company realizing what had happened and then figuring out that it's not Angel and they had to fix it was a bit rushed. Also, the crew's coming in at the end, while a nice moment seemed a bit too forced for me.

Also, is it just me or does anyone else think that Wes deserves an episode? I will admit that the only thing that's frustrated me this year on Angel is that Wes hasn't yet got any real definitive, good screen time. Yes, he's been there and we've seen flashed of it, but up until now, there's not been a Wes-heavy episode. Maybe that will come in time since we've had an Angel centered episode (actually two--this one and the season premiere), a Cordy-centered epiosde and a Gunn-centered episode. Obviously we need a Wes-centered one and a Fred-centered one (though from what I hear that's coming next week). So, let's give Wes something more to do! There's so much rich character development for him just screaming out to happen.

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

--Loved the fact that the old guy thought Angel was gay becuase he'd had a date with Fred.

--Watching the old guy in Angel try to figure out who is who was a riot. As I said before, David Borenaz really ran with the story. He did a superb job.

--I loved Fred hitting Angel's body with the bat after he'd gone down.

--OK, so Angel now knows Buffy is alive. I liked the ending, but I am hoping that it's not doing what I think it's doing. Namely, I've noticed the past few weeks that there are NO previews for next week, while Angel has become a virtual billboard for any other show on the WB. That coupled with the fact that WB is not taking any new pitches from 20th Century Fox leads me to believe Angel is in trouble. I have a feeling that since WB issued an edict that there would be no crossovers and half the Angel eps this year have referenced Buffy, this might be a sticking piont. (Of course, that's like saying to a Star Trek show--well, you take place in the same universe, but never talk about Kirk, Spock or McCoy. You can't have the shows exist in the same universe and NOT reference one another.) I have a feeling our favorite vampire is in trouble...and we may soon be seeing him over on UPN. I hope not because any such move would disrupt the flow of the season storyline that is developing so well.

--I loved how Angel rushed out to find out about Buffy and to see her. Too bad we'll never see it on-screen.

--Loved old guy as Angel thinking that Wes was Fred and trying to smooth over the romantic tension. Absolutely a riot.

Well, that's it for now. Overall, there were some nice laughs in this one--and not at the expense of the characters, which is always a good thing by me--but there were some missed possibilities here as well.

My rating: 7.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Fred's parents arrive to take her home....(Lots of Amy Acker! This CANNOT be a bad thing! ;-))