Angel: The Ring Rewatch

September 17, 2015 6:12 AM - Season 1, Episode 16

The first rule of Demon Fight Club is that you post on FanFare about Demon Fight Club.

Angel gets drawn into an underground demon gladiator ring and has to kill to survive before Wesley and Cordelia figure out how to free him. Lilah Morgan makes her first appearance, representing Wolfram & Hart.

posted by Etrigan (1 comment total)

This one dives again into the "Who is more monstrous, demons or humans?" well, and the humans don't come out looking so great, though the show does acknowledge that loosing a bunch of demons back onto the streets might not necessarily be the best of ideas now that they're not the persecuted anymore. Darin is a huge creep and disintegration is probably justice. I don't think I expected him to shoot his brother the first time I saw this. On the other hand, even demons reference Gandhi, and the "I'll kill you/him quick" is surprisingly moving. (Angel saying "I could have taken you" is a weird joke considering he was in position to deliver the killing blow, so yeah, he did technically win first...)

Lilah!! She is such a fascinating character, and the show is much better for her existence on it. It would have been really interesting, I think, to have a showdown between her and Kate. I forgot that it took this long for her to appear. She has some great prickly chemistry with Angel here, but she has chemistry with everybody. Her pragmatism contrasting with Angel's idealism comes to a head when she offers him control of W&H.

Love Welsey and Cordelia working together. I guess this was "someone zaps himself" week on Buffy/Angel; Xander gets himself with the blaster, Wesley with the cuff. At least Cordelia notices Wesley's in pain. They manage quite well. Wesley's on the "great shot" upswing of his extremely coordinated/extremely clumsy dichotomy in this one (the less cool he's deliberately trying to be, the cooler he is), and I like the scene where they "warn off" a wealthy, connected patron and take his tickets. This is also one of the first times we see Wesley torture someone (reminds me of when he stabs the girl in Orpheus) with twisting the metal dart in the bookie's hand.

I think Cordelia says her horse was named Keanu, which, of course. Nice continuity referencing her changed financial circumstances.
posted by ilana at 10:37 AM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]