Angel, "Over The Rainbow" Review (2x20)

Brief Synopsis: “After being inadvertently sucked into a dimensional portal, Cordy finds herself stuck in Lorne’s home dimension, Pylea, a place where humans are slaves. Back in Los Angeles, Angel is desperately trying to find a way to rescue Cordelia, but Lorne is reluctant to head back home in order to help.”


"Belonging" (2x19) quick link here                                                                                       "Through The Looking Glass" (2x21) quick link here

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1) This review will almost definitely contain spoilers for episodes after this one.

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



“Over The Rainbow” is largely a continuation of the previous episode, “Belonging”. Both of these episodes are more setup than execution. “Belonging” revealed to us the mental state of the main five characters on “Angel”. It highlighted where they’ve been, where they are, and hinted at where they’re going. “Over The Rainbow” continues to highlight Lorne’s struggles with Pylea and the life he once lived there, it continues to highlight Gunn’s inner turmoil between his loyalty to his old gang and his new employer, it continues to emphasise Wesley’s struggles with being the leader of Angel Investigations, it furthers Cordelia’s conflicting feelings surrounding her visions and what that means for her future, and it continues to explore the good vs. evil inside of Angel. It’s also interesting to note that just as “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” is taking place outside of Sunnydale for the second time ever, “Angel” is taking place outside of Los Angeles for arguably the first real time ever. I love reviewing these shows simultaneously because it allows me to notice and draw upon similarities in themes and stories that I otherwise wouldn’t have if I reviewed “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and then “Angel”.

I must admit, the Pylea arc of the show feels odd for a season finale, but it makes a wonderful change of pace. Would I have preferred if the Darla-arc had continued until the end of the season and then the Pylea arc had taken place at the beginning of season three? Sure! The season ending on “Epiphany” would have been the right move in my opinion. Angel would have saved Kate, had the wonderful conversation about how Kate never invited him in, he would be feeling somewhat positive about life again, he would rejoin Angel Investigations...and then be informed of Buffy’s death by Willow. That would have been my choice of finale. Especially considering that the first sixteen episodes were one big thematic story. Then the Pylea arc, which primarily focuses on where the characters are heading, would take place at the beginning of season three and help set Angel back on his path after Buffy’s death. However, I’m okay with the Pylea arc closing out the season because it’s something different from the norm., and it gives us a new world to explore. I was expecting Wolfram & Hart to be involved in the finale somehow, but outside of the Wolfram & Hart books in Pylea, they’re largely absent from the arc. Of course, Wolfram & Hart do cement their place in the next season before Angel leaves Los Angeles for Pylea. Gavin Park arrives on the show and announces to Angel that Wolfram & Hart are interested in buying the hotel when Angel’s lease is up. That’s right, people. They couldn’t make Angel go dark permanently so now they’re trying to ruin his life with annoyance. Scary, right?

Pylea itself is an interesting world and I can see why Lorne was so desperate to leave. It’s not a Hell dimension or anything that sinister, but it is a brutal place to be in its own right. It’s basically a slightly less dark, dank, and miserable version of Westeros from “Game Of Thrones”. Medieval times are being represented in a big way. Just like in medieval times, the world of Pylea is less advanced than most of our beloved Earth. The inhabitants of Pylea keep slaves, they’re largely ignorant and arrogant, and the level of xenophobia in Pylea is apparent even before Lorne points it out. Humans are kept as slaves and known by the term “cows” because they simply look different to the inhabitants of Pylea. That’s their only crime. “Cow” is an apt name for the humans that live in Pylea because that’s exactly how they’re treated...like a pack animal. Good for carrying things, but little else in the eyes of the Pyleans. All but Groo, but that’s a story for the next episode.

The episode opens with Angel Investigations desperately trying to re-open the portal and retrieve the only female member of their team. Angel is clearly more anxious and aggravated than the rest of the group by some margin and I’m not sure if it’s feelings of friendship, romantic feelings, or subconscious romantic feelings that he’s not yet aware of. Just go back and watch that scene (after finishing on “Shangel’s Reviews”, of course). Angel is reckless. Angel doesn’t care about being trapped in Pylea, he doesn’t want to think or debate, he just wants to jump straight through the portal after her...

Angel: “I don’t wanna research, alright? I wanna jump through the big swirly hole thingy and save Cordelia!”

Is this leftover guilt from abandoning and firing his friend? Is this trying to make amends for that? Or is it something more? Let’s not forget, Angel realises his romantic feelings for Cordelia in the next season, so perhaps this is the start of that. It makes a certain amount of sense too. Gone is the Cordelia that cared about only herself. The one who resented the visions, had no empathy, and followed Angel. Cordelia is an equal to Angel now. She’s just as selfless (if not more sometimes), just as strong, and just as much of a champion. Plus, they’re the only members of the team that have been together since day one. They watched Doyle sacrifice himself together, they mourned together, and for a while they were all each other had. These romantic feelings are a natural extension of their friendship. Remember, when Cordelia first laid eyes on Angel in “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” season one, she uttered the infamous “hello, salty goodness” line. She had a crush on Angel right from the start, but Angel though of Cordelia as someone that was too whiny and self-involved. He said as much to Doyle at the beginning of “Angel”. Not anymore. Cordelia has sacrificed her physical and mental health to help the helpless. She carries the burden of the visions out of a selfless need to help people and this need will be put to the test throughout the rest of her time in Pylea.

While Angel is frantically searching for a way through to Pylea, Cordelia is captured by a Pylean and a friendly dog-like demon. She’s quickly sold to a female Pylean for the respectable price of one pig...

Cordelia: “First of all, I’m a human being, not a cow. You can’t just barter a human being! Second of all, one pig? One measly pig? Third of all, there has been a huge misunderstanding. See, I am an American and I have rights.”

It’s just like Cordelia to be more offended about how little she was sold for than the fact that she was sold in the first place. If she’d been sold for thirty pigs, she’d have been totally cool with it. For the remainder of this review, much like my review of “Belonging”, I’m going to break it down by character...


Cordelia

Soon after meeting Fred and living her new cow-like existence, Cordy has a vision in front of a group of Pyleans. Not coincidentally, the Pyleans view this ability to see things before they come to pass as a ‘curse’. Of course, this is how Cordelia viewed them when she first received them from Doyle. She felt cursed, held back, and victimised. Slowly, very slowly, Cordy has started to see them differently. They’re still a curse physically and mentally, but they also offer Cordelia a place in the world. They give her the ability to help people and save souls. Cordy isn’t a vampire, demon, or fighter. She’s a regular human being with no special skills outside of sass and determination. The visions give Cordelia a purpose and a means with which it fight against evil. Cordy’s vision here does raise a deeper concern regarding the P.T.B...why did they give Cordelia a vision in Pylea? Was she sent to Pylea by them to help the helpless of Pylea? After all, the P.T.B. must be aware that Pyleans despise psychic abilities and Cordy will be persecuted by them sending her this ‘gift’.

Cordy has been waging an internal struggle for some time now. Are the visions a gift or a curse? Can she hold onto them and still live a normal life? The visions are becoming increasingly challenging for her to bear, but should she still continue to carry that weight? The visions offer her a place in the world and the means to fight evil, but at what cost? Her ‘curse’ has stopped her dedicating herself to achieving her dreams of superstardom and wealth, they’ve isolated her from her friends who aren’t a part of the supernatural world, and she’s been feeling increasingly cut off and lonely. Remember, Cordelia has been battling physical symptoms of the visions for a while now. As we discover in the next season’s “Birthday”, she’s been taking painkillers secretly and having CAT scans to try to counteract the consequences of a human carrying the visions. After being tortured by the Covenant of Trombli for a while, they realise that Cordelia is the subject of some prophecy they have and that she is supposed to pass her visions on to their friendly, neighbourhood Groosalugg. Therefore, after torturing her and abusing her, they make her a princess. A princess that wears an outfit startlingly similar to Princess Leia’s gold bikini in “Return Of The Jedi”.

 
Thank you, Mere Smith and the costume department, thank you. The irony here is that Cordelia has always wanted to be a princess. When her parents still had all their money, she was treated like one. She was idolised in school, had everything she wanted at home, and was a princess in everything but title. Then, her parents lost all their money and she was forced to live in the real world. She was given the visions and her mind was opened to all of the pain and suffering in the world. Ironically, these visions have now led her to being a princess in title. These visions, this curse, has given her something she always wanted...but it comes with a price in the next episode. Does she pass the visions on to Groo and lift her burden or does she keep them and continue to help the helpless? Being a princess isn’t the wonderful, effulgent life Cordelia imagined. It comes with consequences. In this case, the consequence would be giving up the visions. It’s time for Cordelia to make a choice about something she’s been struggling with for a year and a half. Something that will determine the fate of her character.


Fred

Here is a character that has suffered more than most people we ever meet in the Buffyverse. For five years she’s been living as a slave, a runaway, and a ‘cow’. Mere Smith and Amy Acker manage to make Fred interesting, captivating and loveable with a few moments of being introduced to the show. Her character journey before meeting Cordelia has been haunting. This is a character that hasn’t been allowed to laugh for five years (“I forgot...laughing.”), a character that has been living as a slave with no friends, no support, and no hope. Even after escaping her bonds and trying to live in the shadows, her life has still been brutal. Frankly, she’s gone mad. She’s known nothing but isolation and talking to herself. She’s been living in a hidden cave, drawing on the walls and trying to figure out how to open a portal to get home. She doesn’t know if her family and friends are alive or mourning her...she has had nothing and no-one for five years. It’s no wonder it takes her so long to adjust once she returns to Los Angeles. Oh my God, that scene where she first sees her parents in “Fredless”...I have to review that. DON’T WANNA. Of course, Cordy meets Fred at a time before she’s made a princess. She’s showing Cordy what her future is to become if her friends don’t arrive and save her. “Angel” the show runs for five seasons, which equates to roughly five years of these characters’ lives. Take all of that, everything that Angel, Cordy, and the gang go through in that time, and realise that Fred was trapped in Pylea living as a slave for an equal amount of time to all of that.


Wesley

Angel: “What, we handcuff ourselves together? Who do we know that has handcuffs?”
Wesley: “Well, I...wouldn’t know.”

Oh, you kinky, kinky former-Watcher. A little ‘Word Puzzle 3D’ bonding with Gunn, was it?

It’s funny, Wesley has been struggling to fit into his leadership role at Angel Investigations, yet when the situation demands a leader, he becomes one without hesitation. This isn’t something that the Wesley of season one would be able to do. This is a quality that has developed through support from Angel, Cordy, and Gunn, through helping the helpless successfully, and by putting some distance between him and his verbally abusive father. While Angel is happy to jump through a portal without thinking, Wesley takes charge and figures out a solution on how they can all land in Pylea together and not separate upon impact. When Gunn is mouthing off to Constable Narwek, Wesley takes charge and makes him stop. He’s slowly proving to himself that when he needs to take charge, he’s capable of doing so successfully. Like Cordelia, like Angel, Wesley learns in the next two Pylea episodes that the positives of discovery comes with negatives too. Wesley is forced to sacrifice some of his soldiers in order to get to the Covenant of Trombli. He has to make the choice for people to die for the greater good. Being a leader comes with difficult decisions and I think it helps him appreciate Angel more because he can empathise with the position that Angel used to be placed in time and time again. Of course, this is all leading somewhere in the next season. Wesley has to make a difficult choice to try to save baby Connor from his father, Angel. He does the wrong thing, but for all the right reasons. He’s willing to leave his life and friends behind to try to save a child from his father.


Gunn

Gunn’s story in this episode is heartbreaking from start to finish. In the last episode, “Belonging”, Gunn was supposed to meet up with his old friends, Rondell and George, and go on a vampire hunt with them. He was supposed to lead his old crew into battle. However, at the last moment, Angel needed Gunn instead, so Gunn went with Angel. While Gunn was helping the helpless with Angel Investigations, his friend George was being murdered by vampires.

Gunn: “Last night I lost one of my crew. I should have been there, but...I’m sorry, but Wes said the trip was one-way and I can’t! I know that makes me...I don’t know what that makes me, but I figured I just owed it to you to tell you face to face.  Wish you luck. Please, find her.”

Gunn is suffering from a big ol’ dose of survivor’s guilt. He feels that if he went with his old crew like he intended, George would have survived. Gunn’s loyalties have been split all season and he’s been really struggling to figure out where he belongs. If he returns to his old gang, he feels he’s screwing over Angel Investigations. If he stays, he feels he’s leaving his old gang vulnerable and at risk. He’s in a no-win situation. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t, and feeling guilty over his sister’s death either way. At the beginning of this episode, Gunn finally makes a choice. He chooses his old gang. After George’s death, Gunn realises where his loyalties are. It tore him apart to say goodbye to Angel, Wesley, and Lorne, and to not help them find Cordelia, but he made the choice he thought was right. When Gunn said this to Angel and Wesley, I genuinely thought he was leaving the show to make way for Fred’s arrival. I thought he was going to disappear from Angel Investigations and go back to his former life. Luckily, after some prompting from a voicemail from Angel, Gunn returns to the fold and leaves for Pylea with his friends. However, that doesn’t mean that Gunn is comfortable with his choice. When he’s nearly killed in Pylea, he makes a remark about how he left his crew and friends behind in Los Angeles to come to Pylea to die. He’s not yet 100% positive he’s made the right choice. Yet again, like Cordelia with her visions and Wesley with his leadership role, Gunn’s story isn’t resolved in this season. Gunn’s new gang vs. old gang struggles are finally resolved in the next season’s “That Old Gang Of Mine”, where Gunn is forced into making a choice.


Lorne A.K.A. The King of Sass

Lorne: “They have no music there. It doesn’t exist. Do you know what that’s like? No lullabies, no love songs. All my life I thought I was crazy, that I had ghosts in my head or something, simply because I could hear music. Of course, I didn’t know it was music. All I knew was that it was something beautiful and painful and right. And I was the only one who could hear it. Then I wound up here and heard Aretha for the first time....well! Don’t kid yourselves, Cordy’s in a very bad place.”

Is there anything more beautiful than that? Lorne was ridiculed and vilified in his own world because he was different. While everyone else was fighting and jousting, Lorne was humming to himself and creating music in his head. He escaped a world where he didn’t belong and found love and music in this one. He created Caritas on the spot he landed because he was finally free of the persecution and hatred. He didn’t want anyone else to feel the way he had in Pylea, so he made Caritas a sanctuary. A place where humans, vampires, and demons could socialise together and be comfortable in the knowledge that they couldn’t be hurt there. Lorne took this hatred and persecution that he felt and he turned it into a positive. Lorne, you sassy, wonderful bastard, never change. There’s just one problem with this scenario...Lorne needs to go home one last time to eliminate all these unresolved issues. Of course, he desperately fights this. He doesn’t want to go back to a world where he was mocked and disliked. Who can blame him for that? Angel, Wesley, and Gunn need Lorne to go because they need a guide in this brave new world, but why should Lorne go? What’s in it for him? The simple answer is reassurance. He escaped from Pylea, but now he needs to go home to prove to himself once and for all that he didn’t belong there. He didn’t run away, he ran towards a better life. He can put Pylea to rest in his mind and will never have to live with the question of ‘what if?’.

 

Lorne’s return home is less than warm. He’s insulted for running away, mocked for still being a ‘coward’, and he’s interrogated by Constable Narwek. He’s returned home a prisoner. However, every cloud has a silver lining. Lorne is still able to relax with an ice-cold beverage when he’s feeling stressed...

Lorne: “You know, ordinarily I handle bad news really well. I just drown my sorrows in an ice-cold gin and tonic, little squeeze of lime...except they don’t have them here!”


Angel

After frantically searching for a way to get to Cordelia, Angel discovers that Pylea brings him a few advantages that he doesn’t get at home...respect for being a warrior, a reflection, and the ability to walk outside in the suns (that’s not a typo, Pylea has two). When they first land in Pylea, Angel is happier than a little kid at Legoland...

Angel: “The sun! Daylight! Quick, hand me a blanket! Hand me a blanket or I’m gonna catch on fire! Hand me a blanket, I’m gonna catch on fire!...Why am I not on fire?”
Gunn: “Yo, that was phat.”
Wesley: “Well, it is another dimension. Perhaps their sun...”
Lorne: “Back up, Copernicus. That’s ‘suns’, plural.”
------------------------------------
Wesley: “And we didn’t merge into some freakish, four-man Siamese twin!”
Gunn: “That was a risk?! How come nobody told me that was a risk?!”
Angel: “Can everyone just notice how much fire I’m not on?”

 
He’s so happy and giddy! I love it! It really emphasises to the audience just how desperate Angel is to become human again and bask in the light of humanity. The book that Wesley used to get the team to Pylea doesn’t exist in Pylea because it no longer serves a purpose. Therefore, when Angel Investigations fly through a portal to Pylea, the book remains in Los Angeles in the road...oops. Getting home may be challenging. Over the next couple of episodes, Angel will discover that having a reflection and the ability to walk in the sunlight (two things he’s been desperate to get back since discover the Shanshu Prophecy) comes with consequences. While Angel’s life could be deemed better in Pylea, it also means that the demon inside of him is more savage, vicious, and brutal. On Earth, when Angel vamps-out, he’s still in control. He’s a little stronger, a little bumpier, but he’s controlling the wheel. In Pylea that’s not the case. Angel is gone and replaced by the demon inside of him in its true form. No contamination, no half-measures. Angel turns into a vicious demon and is no longer in control of his actions. This terrifies him. It’s also interesting because this has been the primary theme of the second season of “Angel”. The good vs. evil inside of him, Angel vs. Angelus, redemption vs. darkness. Can Angel overcome the monster inside of himself or will he be lost to darkness?

Before vamping-out though, the members of Angel Investigations (bar Cordy) do battle with the warriors of Pylea...

Wesley: “I think we’re winning!”
*Cue Angel, Wesley, Gunn, and Lorne defeated and tied up*

 
Gunn utters a line here that will be reused in the last ever “Angel” episode, “Not Fade Away”. Gunn says, “I take the twenty on the left, you take the fifty on the right”. In “Not Fade Away”, Gunn says, “you take the 30,000 on the left...”, before Illyria cuts him off. The guys are kept in a prison cell together, ready to await the judgment of the monarch of Pylea, the eater of Pylea’s enemies’ flesh. Angel, Wesley, Gunn, and Lorne are shuffled forwards and the doors open to reveal that the monarch of Pylea is...

Cordy: “Hi guys.”

Say what?

The episode fades to black.


Quote Of The Episode

Lorne: “I’d rather have a hydrochloric acid facial. I’d rather invite a hive of wasps to nest in my throat. I’d rather sit through a junior high school production of ‘Cats’!...You see where I’m going with this?”

Aggie: “Not Pylea.”

Lorne: “Exactamondo.” 



FINAL SCORE: 7/10

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

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