My review for the episode:
This is the weakest episode of the season so far, but compared to season 3 or to a lot of season 4 episodes this is actually not bad at all. The biggest problem is that this is mostly boring, but it has a lot of good qualities as well, so it's really not that bad.
Let's start with the good. This episode has a lot of things that remind me of the “old Angel”, he feels guilty for killing the werewolf (that attacked Nina), he broods, he is adamant at finding the girl that was bit and he is efficient (for example he just asks to borrow Wesley's silver pen and goes to rescue the damsel in distress since he has got his vampire hearing back as well). Though I'm not sure how I feel about him saying that the cannibal restaurant will have a werewolf (the W&H doc who getting bit was very predictable) for dinner on the next moon. I know it is later said that the restaurant is closed, but can't it just move to a different location or city? And no one of his team says anything, that's a little worrisome as well, cause since when did Angel's mission of saving souls turn into picking who with to bother, oh right it happened at the later part of season two, silly me for forgetting.
But I still love the fact that once Angelus made an appearance Angel got his brains back and he still has them. He knows that he can't trust W & H so he takes the gang out of it's hearing range, but W&H has already put mistrust into the ranks, more than there was before. Though Wesley's Freudian slip of “can you trust him” instead of them (the whole lab team) was more out of jealousy because of Knox than suspicion of Fred's team's status, but everyone seems to have their doubts about Gunn letting the W&H into his brain. But worrying about it is completely legit and I'm worried about how accepting Gunn is of W&H. I get it that he now feels more useful to the team and more part of it than just the muscle, but I find his attitude very annoying. And I don't want to be annoyed with him since after he got over his attitude problem once he broke up with Fred, I actually started to like him again.
It's actually sad when I get happy from a Initiative reference Wesley made, but what made me even more happy was the bad guy saying to Gunn that there are no leprechauns (in Faith, Hope & Trick Buffy said that there are two things she doesn't believe in: coincidences and leprechauns). And love it when Gunn calls Spike blondie bear. Also he gets to hit a bad guy and Wesley looks very badass with shotgun and a tranq gun, drool.
One of the problems with this is that I really don't care about Nina's home life, the scenes were boring and she clearly is just a potential love interest for Angel, plus the hugs and stuff with her family was more than a little syrupy. I don't dislike her, I'm pretty much neutral towards her, but what I don't understand and what I detest is ME's (Mutant Enemy) need to throw women at Angel, completely ignoring the curse and the fact that the show works much better with Angel being a lone hero without a girlfriend. Their intention with Nina is proved at the end as Gunn or Wesley asks Angel if he thinks he has a shot with werewolf-girl and he answers that she gave him a look, ugh! ME is really trying to push Angel at every skirt in town.
And speaking of skirts, this episode shows far too much skin (that being Nina's skin) that it comes off gratuitous. There is no point in “cleaning” Nina by spraying her shirt wet and then cutting it off as she is hanging from chains, simply no point to it other than to attract 13 year old boys. And werewolf for dinner is pretty much cannibalism, ygh, though I'm not nearly as queased out with the alive factor as I was in Same time, same place with Gnarl. It's more idiotic than heroic/self-sacrificing that Nina is willing to be eaten alive than live as a werewolf, she doesn't score points with that, it's just stupid not brave.
Not much of Spike, but he isn't needed, actually his scenes could have been shortened. Fred saying 'bloody will' and Spike reminiscing of how brutal his fight with a vicious werewolf was while Angel killed one with a pen, was funny. And it seems that Spike is guilt tripping Fred the same way as he did guilt Buffy with his soul during the seventh season. But Fred really should stick to science babble and shut up the rest of the time because she usually doesn't know what she's talking about. I hated her telling Nina that Angel was involved with Cordelia (and being SaintCrappy's number 1 fan, it's clear she means Cordelia with the “involved with someone”-line) while they never were involved anywhere else than in her twisted fantasies, so again she should just shut up.
And one of the several downsides is the fact that Oz is not mentioned even once despite the fact that he's probably the only werewolf Angel knows (at least the only one Wesley knows). And if they bang their heads and claw themselves as a wolf why wasn't Oz chained instead of just locked up. I know it's just a small change of history, but considering Mutant Enemy's knack at doing it often it's annoying, but at least the looks is explained by Nina being different specie. Just like a lot would have been forgiven in Hells Bells if Giles had been even mentioned, so would have been in this if there had been one mention of Oz by Angel or Wesley. Mediocre episode at best.
7
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