Awakening

Awakening
Written by David Fury & Stephen S. DeKnight
Directed by James A. Contner

Original Airdate: January 29, 2003

Plot: Because of Angel's lack of memory about Angelus's pact with the Beast, the gang sets about finding away to remove Angel's soul and restore Angelus. Wes's solution is to find a shaman who can remove souls. Angel has the group build a cage and then begins the procedure, only to find out that shaman may not be telling whose side he's really on...

Review

Warning: If you are just "Awakening" from a long sleep and haven't yet seen the latest episode of Angel, you may want to turn back now. There are major SPOILERS just ahead.

In short: Fluff and filler.

I've been rewatching a lot of old Doctor Who lately. And one of the stories I just recently finished watching is a seven-part epic called "Inferno." In that story, a drilling project is moving forward to penetrate the Earth's crust and release some pockets of a special gas that will be a low cost, effective source of energy. However, something is awry--there could be potential disasterous results should the project be seen through and only the Doctor knows why. The brilliance of this story is that it sets up a potential end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it disaster in the first two episodes and then spends four episodes in an alternate universe where similiar events are occurring, only at a later stage. We see the disaster and then see the Doctor get home to our universe with an episode to stop the insanity and save our world. Yes, it's padding out a story to a seven episode length, but the thing is, the story makes the most of the padding. It doesn't have an internal reset button and it pulls no punches. It really is seven entertaining episodes that deliver on a promise.

It's padding done really well.

Now, I don't mind a bit of padding here and there. I like a bit of character development as much as the next person. In fact, I will take character development any day over mindless action. But the thing with padding is--it's what you do with it. "Inferno" does something different with it.

"Awakening" on the other hand just left me frustrated. Honestly, I don't think I've been this frustrated with Angel as a show since way back in season one with another episode that had a huge reset button ending, "I Will Remember You." Let me say this up front...I hate reset button endings. I hate episodes that are dream sequences simply for the sake of filling time. Dream sequences or fantasy things can be well used--just look at any episode of Farscape in which Cricthon appears to return to Earth. But you've got to have something to say, something concrete to do with them. It can't just be about a daydream, a fantasy and then pulling the rug out from under the audience's feet at the last moment.

Perhaps I would have been far more likely to go along with the idea of the dream sequence is the WB hadn't promoted this one as "that one where Angelus returns" all week. I had called early on that somehow it would take the entire hour before we saw Angelus return, but I'd honestly hoped that the show would prove me wrong. There are just some days I hate being right in my predictions.

I do get what Angel is trying to do. Certainly the Beast is one really bad monster. And one that is not going to be easily defeated. I get that. We've got that since he showed up in late November. He's pretty much had his way with Angel and company, beating them to a bloody pulp every time they run across him. And I must admit there is some part of me that likes seeing the gang frustrated at their lack of ability to do anything to stop it. Certainly that could work as a character development thing--if it's well used. But I honestly feel that right now, Angel is spinning it's wheels. We've been promised the return of Angelus and the return of another popular figure from the Buffy-verse and, until that point, we're just in waiting. I feel as though this season's arc has yet to really kick into gear and the time we're spending now it just waiting for that event to happen. And it's getting frustrating as all get out.

And it was so perfectly exemplified here.

We took one baby step forward. But after all the things we'd seen happen in the dream sequence, it felt like four to five steps backward. And that left my frustrated, upset and not really yearning for much more for Angel.

I think part of this is that the dream sequence felt a bit forced in the final analysis.

They say that guys think about sex every 5.6 seconds. And that would certainly seem to be the case for an undead vampire as well-- since I'm assuming the events we saw on screen took place in Angel's mind in about five seconds. In the course of a dream, we saw some interesting things--namely that Angel for some reason loves Connor and that he seeks a bond with him, that Angel wants to hear Wes say that he's sorry so they can both reconcile and put the past behind them, that he wants the gang of Angel Investigations to be one happy family and that he wants to find an easy way to defeat the Beast. (The whole sword thing was a bit too easy...and I can't see the Beast letting a mystical sword that could kill him go that unguarded). And also, that Angel really, really wants to sleep with Cordelia and that, on some level, he wants her to come to him and be asked for forgiveness for her night with Connor. In short, Angel has a view of how his perfect life would be and let's face it here-- reality is coming up pretty short.

And isn't it interesting that instead of a cold, removal of his soul that Angel wants his soul to be taken from him again in a moment of passion, a moment of true happiness. He doesn't want it to be a cold, sterile procedure. Instead, he would like it to be in the arms of a woman he loves--even though he does call out Buffy's name at the moment of soul loss--which I've got to admit is hugely interesting and probably would result in Cordy never coming near him again in any way, shape or form had this been reality.

All that said, I kept thinking several things toward the end. The first was that the Beast's release of energy would be what triggered Angelus's return. The energy would burn out the humanity of Angel (his soul) and leave Angelus. Which that would have worked becuase of the irony--now that he's here, we just don't need him and now what do we do?!? Then, I figured it would be one moment of happiness when everything was right and everyone was together and loving each other. After all, what father figure doesn't want to see his family all get along? But, of course, we went with the Angel has sex route that lost him his sould last time. Honestly, during all of this I kept thinking "Have we learned nothing from the mistakes of our past?!?" Surely Angel might not have, but maybe Cordy did. Which is why it almost made me glad it was all a dream since I can't see Cordelia being that stupid. (Though based on how she's acted this year....it wouldn't be THAT much of a stretch).

Honestly, I'm not sure there was any good way out of the corner they'd painted themselves into at that point. But the storyline didn't bother to try. Instead, it came up with--oh this was all just a fantasy..ha, ha, on you. And then it ended. And that left a bad taste in my mouth. I honestly wish they'd gone with the Beast is gone and the price of vanquishing him was releasing Angelus. That would be potentially interesting to see as the rest of the season progressed.

Instead, we got the magic button, reset, no consequences to any of this ending. And that really, really stunk.

So, I guess you can say I didn't like this episode. And you'd pretty much be right. Not that I'm going to stop watching, mind you. I'm too much looking forward to Angelus's return and the return of the character who shall not be named to stop now. Plus, I have this feeling that if we don't catch these episodes as they're new and airing, we'll never see them again until syndication.

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

--Anyone else hoping the Beast would somehow work out a way to kill Connor? This kid is way too annoying. He and Dawn must have gone to the same school of how to be a brat.

--Connor's speech that his dad ruined his whole life just made me hope Angel would kill him right then and there.

--I liked the Indiana Jones homage with the route to the sword. But I did wonder if it was as perilous to get out as it was to get in.

--Wes's kicking butt and taking names to get the Shaman worked well. I love Dark Wesley.

Overall, "Awakening" was not one of the stronger episodes of Angel I've seen. It had some potential, but all that was ruined by three acts of filler and a reset button ending. Hopefully we can do better next time.

My rating: 2.5 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Angelus is back..and going all Hannibal Lecter.