Angel: War Zone Rewatch

October 1, 2015 6:16 AM - Season 1, Episode 20

Angel finally gets a big-money client while a street gang fights vampires.

This episode was, of course, the first appearance of soon-to-be-main-cast-member Charles Gunn. It was also supposed to be the first appearance of important-recurring-cast-member David Nabbitt (Michael Herman, a.k.a. Michael Bolton in Office Space), a tech billionaire and patron of Angel Investigations. Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts with Herman led to his character only making two more appearances.

posted by Etrigan (1 comment total)

Oh man, I would have really like to see more wonderfully awkward David Herman on the show. That's too bad that he wasn't able to recur. It would have made some interesting differences to their money situation, and maybe even with the whole Fred story. This bit in particular is nice piece of self-aware social commentary:

Nabbit: "We talked. We had some good times. It meant a lot to me."
Cordy: "Oh."
Wesley: "Yes, but - you were paying us to be there."
Nabbit: "I do that all the time. But you guys actually hung with me."

Not subtle, but certainly a sight more subtle than Cordelia's sledgehammer: "God. 20 minutes ride from billionaires and crab puffs - kids going to war." Actually, a lot of dialogue in this one is kind of sledgehammery.

Hooray, Gunn! Boo, first Buffyverse character with a name that sounds like mine being Gunn's quickly vamped and dispatched sister! Gunn added a lot to the show, though his writing was occasionally painful and the whole "I'm the muscle" thing could have been more nuanced. It might have been cool to have more stories checking in with how his group was doing (it might have been a cool spin-off series, actually). Gunn's love of dancing with death will be returned to in the episode where Cordelia tries to act like his guardian angel (and will never really go away).

Nabbitt: "Are you familiar with Dungeons and Dragons?"
Angel: "Yeah. I've seen a few."
Wesley: "You mean the - ah, role playing game."
Angel: "Oh - game. - Right."

The last scene between Angel and Gunn is well done, understated, and unexpected (at least in the eyes of Gunn, for whom it doesn't fall into familiar tropes).
posted by ilana at 9:26 PM on October 16, 2015