Saturday 3 May 2014

Angel, "Eternity" Review (1x17)

Brief Synopsis: “Angel takes a job protecting a well-know actress called Rebecca from a stalker. When Rebecca notices Angel’s lack of reflection in a mirror, she begins to suspect what he really is and plans to use Angel to further her fledgling career.”


"The Ring" (1x16) quick link here                                                                                                                                       "Five By Five" (1x18) quick link here



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With that being said, let’s get started, shall we?



“Eternity” is arguably the greatest example of an “Angel” episode that exposes the differences between it and its counterpart, “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. Simply put, “Eternity” couldn’t take place in Sunnydale. It wouldn’t work. With “Angel” being set in Los Angeles, it was only a matter of time before they centred an episode around the Hollywood lifestyle and celebrities. Usually, when an television show tries to tackle this subject, it goes horrifically wrong. In the case of “Eternity”, it goes pretty darn well. Not only is this a superbly acted and written episode, but it gives us so much more than it has any right to. Rebecca isn’t portrayed as just a fledgling actress trying to hold onto her career. We see why she’s so desperate to stay young. We see her career falling deeper and deeper into disregard, we see her reaction to the revelation that Oliver, her agent, was the one arranging her stalking to give her some publicity, and we see her resolve crack before our eyes. Even though, ultimately, Rebecca is a selfish character, we understand why she’s acting the way she is, which makes all the difference in the world. I’ve got to be honest, I do not understand or like the Hollywood lifestyle in a lot of ways. Don’t get me wrong, wearing makeup and trying to look your best is cool, but numerous cosmetic surgeries? Botox? Collagen? Implants?...what happened to growing old gracefully? Correcting something that’s a major flaw or insecurity is one thing, but so many people in Hollywood ruin their faces entirely! Look at Michael Jackson or Lindsay Lohan (I’m a fan of both of them. I adore “Mean Girls”...)! They’re unrecognisable. Who the hell needs a damn shoulder or chin implant?...where was I?...

Ah, yes, “Eternity”. “Eternity” exposes the emphasis today on people’s desperation to stay young and the extreme measures to which people are willing to go in order to look good. If that was all this episode was about, it would fall flat. When you add in Rebecca’s downward spiral before trying to drug Angel, Angelus’ temporary resurfacing, and how the term ‘honesty’ is explored in this episode, you’re left with something that’s truly memorable. I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention how flawless the acting was by everyone involved! David Boreanaz is perfect as Angelus. He’s great as Angel by this point too, but there’s something special about the way he plays Angelus. Everything changes. His mannerisms, sentence structure, facial expressions...the transformation of his acting between Angel and Angelus is nothing short of spectacular. Tamara Gorski is arguably the finest one-episode actress of the season. Think of the range of emotions that she has to play in this episode, yet she plays every one of them to perfection. She makes Rebecca empathetic, likeable, charming, and yet dislikeable for a while when the time comes. That can’t be easy to pull off! Absolutely amazing job by her. Of course, Alexis Denisof and Charisma Carpenter are their usual superb selves.



As I alluded to earlier, the theme of this week’s episode is ‘honesty’ and how honesty is both a positive and negative thing. We see Angel and Wesley lie to Cordelia about how good she was in her theatre performance because they didn’t want to hurt her feelings. Was it right to lie in that case? I think so. It wasn’t a huge lie and the truth would have hurt Cordy a great deal. Oliver lies to Rebecca about the stalker, rather than telling her about her career problems and working around them. Angel lies to Rebecca about who he is before it’s revealed that he’s a vampire. What Angelus does after he’s brought forth is tell the truth...in the meanest way possible. One of Angelus’ greatest strengths has always been his ability to spread discord and sadness by bending the truth. It’s what makes him the most interesting villain of the Buffyverse! He’s ruthless, legitimately creepy at times, and has an acid tongue. Was Angel wrong for lying to his friends to spare their feelings? Was Angelus right for telling the truth? It’s a subjective issue. However, Angel’s reasons for lying to his friends were selfless, whereas Rebecca’s were ultimately selfish. I think that’s the difference between telling the truth and lying at the end of the day. Angel was lying to protect other people’s feelings, Rebecca was lying to further her own career and motives.

Before diving into the episode itself (yep, this is still just the intro), I just need to take a moment to mention how great “Angel” season one has become since episode eight, “I Will Remember You”. The season started rather averagely, but quickly blossomed into something that will go on to become my favourite television show of all time. Sure, the season arc leaves a lot to be desired (as it’s basically non-existent), but the standalone episodes are some of the best the show ever produces, the core group of characters have been well established, and the family atmosphere between the main three is wonderful. Think about it, what first season television show has episodes with quality like “I Will Remember You”, “Hero”, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, “Eternity”, “Five By Five”, “Sanctuary”, and “To Shanshu In L.A.”? Not many. Sure, a few of them have the added bonus of being stories from “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” with a few years of build up, but most of them revolve around the central “Angel” cast.

The episode opens up to what might be the greatest cold opener in “Angel” history; Angel and Wesley frantically trying to find a way out of Cordelia’s God awful play. First off, I love their ever-growing bromance. Secondly, you expect them to be talking about some gigantic demon or a gang of vampires, yet it turns out the thing they’re terrified of is having to sit through a few hours of one of Cordy’s plays. After watching the snippet we get to see, I can’t say I blame them. Cordelia is a terrible, terrible, terrible actress. I think it needs capitalising just to emphasise the point...TERRIBLE. SHE YELLS “LINE!” DURING THE PERFORMANCE! Even though she sucks, Wesley and Angel both support Cordelia and lie to her in order to make her feel better. I love their attempts to lie without actually lying...“it’s a night in the theatre I’ll never forget” and “you took the role and made it your own” are my favourites of the double entendres.

Soon after, Angel saves Rebecca from being hit by a car. It was nice to see Oliver brought back from the pilot episode, “City Of”. He was an amusing character in the pilot, why not use him again if it’s realistic? It’s good continuity! Plus, during the pilot he hit on Angel, so it’s nice having him back just to see Angel a little more uncomfortable than usual. Rebecca is fascinated by Angel because Angel doesn’t know who she is...I bet the smouldering good looks didn’t hurt either. Angel doesn’t own a television...that’s just a crime. He does get one in season five after he joins Wolfram & Hart, though. We see him watch hockey and Smile Time.

Cordy’s behaviour in this episode is interesting because Rebecca encompasses everything that Cordelia wants out of life...fame, wealth, celebrity friends, and being the centre of attention wherever she goes. If she had the opportunity to here, I think Cordelia may have been tempted to run away to Hollywood if the opportunity presented itself. It’s interesting to compare this episode to season three’s “Birthday” for that reason. In “Birthday”, Cordelia sacrifices her fame and wealth in order to save Angel from a terrible fate and help people. Her character growth in just two years is staggering. However, she’s not the Cordelia of “Birthday” yet. Cordelia is genuinely ecstatic over the fact that her elbow is in the newspaper next to Rebecca. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Angel was irked over not being mentioned in the newspaper himself for saving Rebecca. He acts as though he doesn’t want notoriety or praise, but then gets grouchy when he’s not mentioned. Hilarious. He does the same thing in the next season when Wesley is in the newspaper for dating Virginia. Rebecca shows up to ask for Angel’s help in stopping her stalker, who’s trying to kill her. The chemistry between Angel and Rebecca is great. Angel rejects the case because he’s attracted to Rebecca...didn’t see that coming! How can Wesley see it, but Cordelia can’t? Wesley is usually completely clueless when it comes to feelings and love.

After eventually taking the case, as we all knew he would, Rebecca discovers that Angel is a vampire after she saw his lack of reflection in a mirror. The cool thing here is that Rebecca instantly accepts that he’s a vampire and she’s perfectly fine with it. Her reaction was basically “you’re a vampire? Cool. Do you wanna go get some food?”...it was that casual. It’s the exact opposite to how Kate and most people react. I guess being in Hollywood, Rebecca has seen much more weird and disturbing things than vampires.

Cordelia: “Judging by the outfit it’s safe to come in. Evil Angel would never have worn those pants.”


(oh snap)

Poor Angel. I love that Cordelia and Wesley are constantly mentioning over the years that Angelus is better than Angel. They tell him that Angelus is a better dresser, more intelligent, more resourceful, more cunning...no wonder Angel always gets a pouty look on his face when Angelus is mentioned. I’m surprised he hasn’t developed a complex. Speaking of ‘better dresser’, Angel is wearing a suit. ANGEL IS WEARING A SUIT. To quote Janice Ian from “Mean Girls” (greatest chick flick ever, what!), “it’s like watching a dog walk on its hind legs”. Seeing Angel as the centre of attention for a change (or just next to the centre of attention) is oddly nice? He’s usually brooding and skulking in the shadows so it makes a pleasant change to see him surrounded by people.

Then comes the big reveal: Oliver was faking the stalker and attempted attacks in order to get Rebecca some publicity because her career was dwindling. Hollywood is messed up, man. Rebecca realises that her days of being able to play a leading character are coming to a close and soon she’ll be stuck playing the main character’s mother or aunt. In order to counteract this, she decides to drug Angel and encourage him to turn her into a vampire. Again, Hollywood is messed up, man. We’ve seen Rebecca grow more and more frustrated over the first 30 minutes of this episode. We’ve seen Rebecca become more and more desperate. After Cordelia explains the process of being turned into a vampire, you can see a light go off behind Rebecca’s eyes – this is how I can save my career and stay young forever. When you think about it, how would this plan have worked in the longer term? Surely people would have noticed when she hasn’t aged a day in 50 years. This episode works because of the slow-burn nature of it. Before the drugging, Rebecca manages to make Angel smile a lot. I can’t remember a female making Angel smile so much, actually. Damn her for being so self obsessed! 

Having Angelus brought forth in this way was a very intelligent way of letting the “Angel” viewers meet him without having to have it result in an entire arc. “Angel” viewers that aren’t familiar with “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” don’t know just how ruthless and interesting Angelus is. They’ve heard about it and seen flashbacks of it, but now they briefly get to see it. I appreciate why Angelus was brought back for this episode, but I don’t particularly like it. In “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” season two, Angelus returning was a huge deal. It was two years in the making and it took sex with Angel’s ‘true love’ in order to extract his soul. Now, here he is losing his soul over a happy pill? Was it a Viagra? It feels insulting and degrading to the Buffy-Angel storyline of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” season two to have Angelus back in this way. He’s used as a plot device as opposed to being the centre of the plot, which he should be. Angelus is a story arc villain, not a one-episode villain. I understand the reasoning for it, it makes sense for this episode for Rebecca to drug Angel to make him more compliant, but I don’t like it.

Angel: “You couldn’t possibly understand.”
Rebecca: “I wasn’t afraid, was I? When I looked into the mirror and you weren’t there. I didn’t scream, I didn’t run, I understood.”
Angel: “No, you weren’t afraid. You looked into that mirror and all you saw was yourself. But that’s all you ever see, Rebecca, and that’s what really frightens you. This isn’t about the way the studio or the network or your fans see you, it’s about how you see yourself. Your own reflection has been corrupted into something unrecognisable. You think you want it to stay the same? What you really want is to make it disappear.”
Rebecca: “You’re supposed to help people. Help me.”
Angel: “You want me to help you, fine. *he takes her to his fridge and squirts blood into her mouth*.


Very few scenes in “Angel” season one hold the power of that one. It was jaw-dropping and brilliant on so many levels. Angel squirting human blood into Rebecca’s mouth was completely unexpected and shocking. Was that Angel or Angelus? He’d been drugged by this point, but Angelus wasn’t fully out. On top of that, the line “you looked into that mirror and all you saw was yourself” is very powerful and so very true. I’ve always known that it doesn’t take a lot to bring Angelus back (a little squirt here or there...), but it wasn’t until “Eternity” that it really hit me. One pill was all it took. Just one pill. If Angelus didn’t get knocked out by Wesley, think of how much damage he could have caused by the time the drug wore off! Angel has to constantly worry about the fact that the soulless version of him is laying in wait just below the surface, waiting to strike. That is something that Angel has to deal with every single day, every moment. It explains why Angel likes to avoid people and brood in the darkness. It explains why Angel has very few friends. He’s distancing himself from the world to protect people from himself.

Angel: “But I am happy...*bites Rebecca*...perfectly happy.”



When I first saw “Eternity”, I was eleven years old. When Angel pulled away from Rebecca and it was revealed that it was Angelus, my jaw dropped to the floor, my brain melted, and a scream issued from my mouth that I didn’t think I was capable of pre-balls drop. I couldn’t comprehend what had just happened. HOW CAN ANGELUS BE BACK?! THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING! Turns out it was only temporary, but it was still a shocking moment. One of the cool things about the Buffyverse is that they don’t overuse their greatest villain. Angelus is only in half of one season of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. In Angel’s own show, Angelus is only in half of season four, plus briefly in this episode. His appearances are more memorable because they’re so rare. Angelus starts chasing Rebecca around the apartment and it’s at this moment that he becomes truly terrifying. The part where they stop either side of a lamp is terrifically shot. The lighting of the scene and the partial shadow across Angelus’ face adds so much. After Angelus cuts the power, the episode gets legitimately creepy for a while. He walks slowly into the room and you know that nobody is safe. Remember, Angelus killed Jenny Calendar. He’s killed important characters before. There’s every possibility that he will do so again here.

Before attacking, Angelus starts to verbally destroy Cordelia and Wesley. While I hate him for it, I love how honest he is. He’s such a master manipulator! Not only is Angelus the most notorious and feared vampire in history, but he’s easily the greatest villain when it comes to psychology and mind games. It’s for this reason that Cordelia outsmarting Angelus is so terrific...

Angelus: “What are you going to do, melt me?”

David’s delivery of that line was superb. I laugh my ass off.

You know I said Cordelia was a terrible actress? I was wrong. I was totally convinced that the water she was holding was holy water. Apparently, potentially fatal situations make her a great actress. Now all she needs to do is have someone aim a gun at her while she’s on stage performing and she’ll be golden. Cordy’s monologue was realistic because it made sense. Unlike Wesley and Rebecca, Cordelia has met Angelus. She knows Angelus. She was in Sunnydale during his reign of terror. She saw the results of Angelus’ twisted humour. She knows how fragile the curse is and that Angelus could come back at any moment. Even though it turns out she was lying, it does raise an interesting point. Just like Angel, Cordelia has to constantly worry that Angelus could return. Wesley has read about Angelus, but seeing Angelus and knowing Angelus is entirely different. It would make perfect sense for Cordelia to wear a cross and keep holy water in her desk.

Wesley pushes Angelus down the elevator shaft and knocks him out. When Angel wakes up, he’s himself again and he’s been chained to his bed. Cordelia and Wesley are angry at Angel for lying to them. They understand it, but they expect Angel to be honest. If Angelus can be honest with them then so should the non-evil version of their friend. Again, they understand the lying to protect their feelings, but they hold just enough resentment to leave Angel tied to his bed as they leave the room. Amusing.


Quote Of The Episode

Wesley: “We’re doomed.”

Angel: “Maybe we can make a break for it?”

Wesley: “Impossible.”

Angel: “Front exit?”

Wesley: “We’d be spotted instantly.”

Angel: “Back door?”

Wesley: “Blocked.”

Angel: “That’s it, then, we’re trapped.”

Wesley: “We might try shouting ‘fire!’. It’s not technically a crowded theatre...”


FINAL SCORE: 7.5/10


What are your thoughts on "Eternity"? Did you enjoy this episode? Dislike it? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section below!

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6 comments:

  1. Wesley, Cordelia and Angel dynamic was, for me, the highlights of the season. I adore Angel-Wesley bromance, curse you s3 and Cordelia-Wesley friendship, again curse you s3. Anyway, it's always good having Angelus around but I don't buy at all that just a pill makes him loose his soul, as headcanon, sort of, Angel never turns into Angelus, the drugs just makes him act like Angelus but he was still ensouled-Angel. He acts like a psycho due to the drugs effect, I refuse to believe that drugs can make him feel a moment of "happiness" even if it's a "syntetic" one.

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  2. I love this episode. I agree the actress who plays Rebecca was spectacular. ..she showed so much emotion and took my emotions with her. I would have loved a follow up on her later in the series.
    They pulled no punched with Angelus. ..when he threw her down the pit thing I could feel tge pain and terror.
    The squeezing blood into her mouth was terrific. ..for those wanna-be vampire kids out there (like those in Buffy Lie to Me)...I'm sure it made the thought of vampirism gross rather than seductive.

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  3. That's generally the opinion amongst fans, and fanwriters like Nikki Stafford, dunno if it's ever been "jossconfirmed" that this was just an Angelus fugue state of soem sort.

    Props for using Marshall and Lily in one of your "illu-captions," or whatever thye're actually called. (actually I've decided to bring that bunch over into my "Ice Age Buffy" ficverse, maybe thru a time warp, the BBT gang & 2 or 3 -only- Firefly characters. Willwo's not around for the first decade and I have a scene in mind where Tara and Lily *almost* kiss.)

    Seeing Angelus so out-of-nowhere-y (I'm 9 years older than Joss but that Buffy-speak has rubbed off on me) was a shocker to me and my daughetr as well. Our bodies remained in the playroom but our minds got sent to an odd space til the last scene:-).D'C'A'

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  4. Regarding Angelus brought about by the pill: it wasn't the REAL Angelus. Ever wonder why Spike remains essentially the same personality with or without a soul while Angel is a totally different persona? I believe it is because Angel actually created a dissociative identity, that the Angel persona is based largely on the guilt and empathy that are absent without a soul so the gaining or loss of the soul triggers the dominant identity to shift.

    The synthetic happiness loosened Angel up and he lost his inhibitions, leading to that blood-feeding scene. Then he thinks he's experienced perfect happiness and the Angelus persona is revealed without the soul actually being lost. That's why it wears off without a re-ensouling. That is why Wes tells him that what he is feeling isn't genuine. The soul is still there, but the split personality that thrives without it took control. I suspect that if "Angelus" actually killed someone or did anything damanging enough to trigger the soul's natural guilt reaction, then Angel may have snapped out of it and returned as himself, realizing that he could feel guilt.

    Also "Angelus" in this episode is pretty much Heath Ledger's Joker... before Heath Ledger's Joker existed.

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