The House Always Wins

The House Always Wins
Written David Fury
Directed by Marita Grabiak

Original Airdate: October 20, 2002

Plot: Angel decides to give what's left of Angel Investigation's gang a break by treating them to a road-trip to Las Vegas to check-in with Lorne. Once there, they discover Lorne is being held against his will and forced to read the fortunes of people in the audience so a casino owner can steal their destinies.

Review

Warning: The chips are stacked against you if you don't want to SPOILERS for the latest episode of Angel, "The House Always Wins." If you've not yet seen the episode and want to go in unaware of any of the plot twists and turns, please turn back now...

In short: The house may win, but the viewers don't.

I've never been to Las Vegas. The closet I've ever been to the jewel of the Nevada desert is once, while flying to Hawaii, my plane stopped over in Vegas to refuel. I spent an hour or so on the ground, kicking myself for not taking the boarding pass and at least gambling away a quarter or two in a slot machine in the airport. (Silly me--I actually believed the flight attendants when they said the refueling time would only be about ten minutes or so).

But I know a lot of people who love Vegas. The city itself has a certain mystique and a charm to it. And so, it's easy to see why not only Lorne would end up in Vegas but also why Angel and company might go there to blow off a little steam.

Now, before I really get started here, I want to say that I am not one of those fans who thinks every episode of any given show has to be completely serious and add something to the overall arc story of a show. I can enjoy the stand alone "fun" episodes as much as the next fan. But when you do a stand alone, fun episode, I think you've got to have one key element--mainly, you need to make it fun.

And while there was so much potential to "The House Always Wins" it really fell short of a lot of it.

For one thing, I've got to wonder just how much of the back story of Angel that David Fury was really aware of. Based on what we've seen about the character not only on this show, but also on Buffy, he wasn't always the happy go-lucky type of person that he is now. In fact, he spent a lot of his first hundred or so years with a soul wandering aimlessly and without a purpose. He was suffering for his sins and feeling a bit overwhelmed. We saw this not only on Buffy in the flashbacks in "The Becoming" but also in early season two of Angel with "Are you Now Or Have You Ever Been?" Angel was a sulky, broody vampire who was pretty much next to no fun to be around and it's hard to imagine that he'd go to Vegas and live there on a regular basis. And it's also equally hard to believe that when he's out there, he meets up not only with the Rat Pack, but also manages to attend the wedding of Elvis and Priscilla. Those two small moments really took me out of the plot because they seemed to stretch things so far. Also, the comment that Angel had a life before he met the A.I. crew was an interesting one--but not one that's fully supported by what we've seen and been told over the past seven or so years of meeting and getting to know this character. If anything, these lines felt like they were slipped in to be "preview material" and get casual fans who might be drawn in the Ocean's 11 like preview to watch the show.

Which I have no problem with drawing in new fans. But if you're going to draw them in, you should really have something of substance to offer them and not just what we saw here.

Most of us have known since the season's first episode that something wasn't really right with Lorne and his trip out to Vegas. And here, we finally found out just what it is. I have to say that I'm glad the writers decided to go ahead and move this plot forward. It's one that could easily have bogged down the show and led to weeks of no forward momentum. And the concept worked fairly well--Lorne, who can read people's destinies when they sing, is taken prisoner and forced into helping a ruthless casino owner steal people's destinies. These destinies are then sold on a black market to others. It's like E-Bay only with souls up for auction. It's an intriguing idea, but it brings up a lot of questions, a lot of which went unanswered.

My biggest question was just how Lorne got into this situation. Yes, we know that Lorne is being held in place by his sense of right--he doesn't want to see another girl get killed because of his refusal to help out in the scheme. But how did Lorne get duped to the point where he was that far in in over his head. And also, how exactly did the casino owner know of Lorne's ability? I think that if you spend a few minutes and give us not only the background we got but also take it back a bit further, you get a more compelling show. Also, you get some interesting character development for Lorne. Last time we saw him, he was willing to try and pursue his dreams in Vegas. It would be interesting to see or hear how that dream was corrupted or got off course in the time since we last saw the big green guy. What led him to the point that he was able to be held prisoner? I really would like to know.

Also, once we know why Lorne is out in Vegas, a lot of the story felt really contrived. The steps from point A to point B to point C felt a bit too obvious at times. Indeed, after the first fifteen or so minutes of the story were content to slowly let the trip to Vegas and the first meeting with Lorne unfold, the final three-quarters of the story felt a bit oddly paced. Angel loses his destiny and becomes a mindless gambler, Gunn and Fred hatch a plan to free Lorne, everyone is captured and Cordelia must step in from on high to make sure that everyone gets to the right place at the right time. I've don't really have much of a problem with any of the developments, but the way they unfolded was a bit under whelming. Certainly, we all knew that somehow Angel would get in to be the hero and save everyone. And I did like that way that Cordelia was able to influence things to get him there. But as I've said before, the pacing of everything seemed off. There was never any real urgency to it. I guess knowing that Fred, Gunn and Lorne all weren't going to die really took some of the edge off the events unfolding out in Vegas.

As for Cordelia using her influence from on high, I found that interesting. But I also found it annoying that the few times she tried to contact Angel, it was while he was somewhere with a lot of background noise or distractions. I got the impression he could hear her, but that he wasn't sure. Why didn't she try to contact him on the road to Vegas or outside the casino without the loud noise and the bright lights to overwhelm his senses. Or why not contact him while he's asleep? I know that Cordy is anxious to get out of whatever dimension she's in and will do whatever it takes to have Angel find her and save her. But it seems as if she wasn't exactly picking her moments.

As for her influencing events to get Angel and company out of danger, I can buy it. But I can buy it if--and this is a big if--this is what leads to her losing her powers. I wonder if her being returned and having apparently no memory of things is her punishment for helping Angel out. That might be interesting to see as the season-long story arcs continue to develop (and boy howdy am I hoping they start soon!) on the show.

But with any show that's an ensemble effort, we have to have a look-in on how the other characters are faring. And for this one, Angel was one out of two. For the second week in a row, the Conner plotline felt extremely tacked on, almost as if they were meeting SAG rules to feature Vincent Kartheiser. Seeing Conner take on a vampire isn't necessarily something that's new or interesting. And while it's nice to see him moving past his being sulking sleeping on the street boy from last week, this time around it wasn't that big a thrill to see him either.

As for Wesley, after last week's session with Lillah, I wasn't sure this plotline could get any more out there and disturbing. (I have to keep remembering not to tempt the powers that be like that!) Wes's phone sex with Lillah was particularly chill inducing. It also made me feel kind of dirty for having watched something like this unfold on screen. Don't get me wrong--I like how far Wes is going over to the dark side. It's just every time we think it can't get any worse, they manage to push the envelope just a bit farther.

What did intrigue me was how Wes is willing to take cases from Angel. That could be a huge source of conflict as the season goes along.

The other thing that is starting to concern me about this plotline is how far down the dark path Wes is going. Honestly, I can't see how they're going to redeem him or bring him back to the fold because the things said and done are piling up to a point that any resolution may end up feeling like a reset button. I seriously hope this doesn't happen, but I'm starting to fear it might. I see that Joss is writing an episode later this season and I'm hoping it all hits the fan then. But again, I'm not sure we can ever really go back to Wes working with Angel and company and have it feel believable.

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

--Fred dressed up as demon girl was a good way to get into Lorne. But was it just me or did her make-up seem to come off at odd intervals?

--Anyone else wonder if Fred and Gunn would tie the knot while in Vegas?

Overall, this was an episode that had some good potential, but was let down by a rather pedestrian approach to the storytelling. I can only hope that things kick up into high gear next week.

My rating: 5.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Cordelia's back...but she has no memory of anyone.

"Who are you people?"

--Cordelia Chase