That Vision Thing

That Vision Thing
Written by Jeffrey Bell
Directed by Bill Norton

Original Airdate: October 1, 2001

Plot: As Cordelia's visions continue to intensify and begin leaving physical effects, Angel becomes determined to track down the source of the visions and put a stop to them.

Review

Warning: If you're really tired of "That Vision Thing" that just never warns you when SPOILERS are coming, you might want to consider turning back now. There are major SPOILERS just ahead for the latest episode of Angel.

In short: Solid work.

"That Vision Thing" is a study of using opposite methods to acheive the same goal. In this case, the goal is that of Wolfram and Hart, specifically to mess when Angel and hopefully move him out of the picture from his destiny or his part to play in the coming apocolypse (as we've seen directly hinted at several times last year).

However, we see that lawyers inside the firm are taking a different approach. Last year, we had Lindsay take the direct approach--bringing back Darla in the hopes of sending Angel over the edge and into the darkness that lives inside him. Obviously that backfired in huge ways. (Personally I think bringing in the combination of Darla and Druscilla tips the balance so far that you can never expect certain results....but that's what makes for interesting drama). Now, we see Wolfram and Hart coming at Angel in interesting ways.

One is the new lawyer guy, whose name eludes me at the moment. The one who is resorting to working within the system to get at Angel. Seeing him show up with a list of 57 building code violations was interesting--as was the scene later with the exterminator and Gunn. It's interesting to see Wolfram and Hart manipiulate the system in order to get at and hopefully defeat Angel. Personally, I very much doubt that this plan will work. Angel's simply too smart for that to happen and I simply can't see the producers finding yet another new home for Angel Investigations. The old hotel just has too much interest and potential to see them abandon it. (Then again, they've surprised me before)

The more interesting attempt to get at Angel comes through our old friend, Lillah, who has apparently decided that if she can't hit Angel where it hurts the most--by destroying his friends. And seeing her manipulate Cordelia and cause her pain--physical, emotional, mental and spiritual was devestating to watch. We'd had hints that Cordelia's visions were getting more severe, but I never suspected that Wolfram and Hart would be behind them. But based on what we saw in the episode, it's easy to see how Angel could and would be manipulated by visions. It also brings up some interesting long-term questions, such as just how long Wolfram and Hart had this in their pocket and long they used it. It also makes me wonder that if they are willing to manipulate Angel to free what is apparently one of their clients, then could it be possible they used Angel to go to Pylea to get Fred back? It would certainly go a long way toward explaining the obvious and still unexplained Wolfram and Hart reference on the book covers that we saw while there. And, for me, it would go a long way toward redeeming what I found to be a plotline that I never really bought into as much as others.

There was so much that I liked about the manipulation of Cordy's visions that it may be hard to list it all here without feeling like I'm gushing about the episode. But, I'm going to try.

I really liked seeing Angel's reaction to it. This comes right out of his arc from last week. In a way, it's an extension of the guilt he feels over not being able to be there to help or possibly save Buffy. So, here he overcompensates by doing whatever it takes to save Cordelia. And while I one-hundred percent believe the conversation with Cordy over whaffles at the end that the ends justified the means to Angel, this is one plotline that I have a feeling will come back to bite our hero in the coming season. Indeed, when Angel went into the other dimension to free the prisoner, I found myself wondering if this might not be Holtz that Angel had gone to free. It would certainly have been interesting to see that based on the rumors I've heard about Holtz cropping up later this season. (I won't go into more for fear of SPOILING things too much for others). Seeing Angel have to battle the forces of good and being tricked into thinking they were the forces of evil was nice. It reminded me a lot of an episode of Quantum Leap where Sam meets the devil, who is disguised as Al. Sam does what Al tells him because he trust the information Al gives him, thus leading him to do the devil's work unaware. I found myself reminded of that here with Angel trusting that visions came from the Powers That Be and not questioning them.

I also admit that for all my criticism of his being overused, the Host actually served a good purpose here. I don't mind the character--but only so long as he's well used. And his inclusion here because he was literally the only character that we've seen on regular basis who could help get to the root of the problem worked very well. Plus, any funny reference to the Sound of Music is good by me.

But the real powerhouse of the show was Charisma Carpenter. After being shoved to the sidelines a bit last year and underdeveloped, it's nice to see that Cordy has had two back-to-back strong episodes. Obviously "That Vision Thing" was a far more powerful showcase for her, but Charisma stepped up and delivered. One thing I loved was her raspy voice as she got progressively worse. Also, I'm not sure I say this enough--but her acting during the vision process makes what is happening so believable. Seeing Charisma seize up and writhe in pain as the vision is put upon her is nicely done and she always does such a good job with it. It's a high compliment that something that is so usually out of the ordinary on other shows can fit so seemlessly into the character that we don't always notice how GREAT a job she's doing on the acting.

I also liked seeing Cordy before and after. I loved that we got to see the continued recovery process. And Charisma's reaction to the claw marks and then boils and burns was nicely done. It's a sold performance all-around and some of the best work she's done of the show to date. And she has done a lot of very nice work.

And if "That Vision Thing" had simply left well enough alone and concentrated on the visions out of control plotline, I'd have been very, very happy. In fact, the episode might have earned the first 10 of the season. Alas, it was not to be.

Simply put, while last week's revelation that Darla was pregnant fit the show, this week it felt forced.

I can't put my finger on it, but the Darla and the shaman scenes just felt like a bit of a letdown. For one thing, I guess we've confirmed that the baby is Angel's. And while there were some questions raised, none of them grabbed my attention like last week's "Oh my! She is pregnant!" from the kicker. I guess part of it was that from the beginning we knew the shaman's technique would fail and that Darla would have to come to L.A. and confront Angel. I am hoping that this plotline is one of those where the hints are all there, but the production team is pulling a Farscape on us--namely making us concentrate on the left hand so we don't notice what the right hand is up to. I've got hopes that this can be pulled out, but if it continues with more scenes like this, I may quickly lose confidence in it.

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

--Loved that Fred came out of her room. And seeing Gunn and Wesley compete for her attention was nicely done.

--The scene where Gunn takes Fred back to Angel Investigations for books and tries to flirt with her while she completely misses it was hysterical.

--This one was full of laugh out loud moments. The biggest was Angel and the demon guard's discussion. There were some many quotable lines there.

--So, there's a new associate on special projects. Should Lillah start fearing for her job security?

--I think my favorite scene was the Angel and Cordy share a waffle at the end. It was such a powerful character moment for both. I know there are some who might be Angel/Cordy shippers, but I personally see it working better as a brother/sister type of relationship. Angel as the protective older brother is a nice twist.

--I liked Cordy's reasons to not want to lose the visions. She's come a long way since we first met her at Sunnydale High six years ago.

Well, that's about it for now. All in all, a solid, enjoyable episode. Slice off the last four minutes and you've got an all-around, viturally perfect episode.

My rating: 9.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Gunn is torn between two worlds...

"Do you live here?"

"No I commute. It's only about 20 minutes."

--Angel and demon guard.