Angel S2-09: The Short Review

'The Trial'

Story by David Greenwalt

Teleplay by Doug Petrie and Tim Minear

Directed by Bruce Seth Green

"Things fall apart. Not everything can be put back together." - The Host

'The Trial' is the episode where Wolfram and Hart's plot moves up a gear. Drusilla's slow-motion entrance into that motel room is perhaps the single most intensely exciting moment this show has delivered. It was impossible to predict and yet makes perfect sense - now we know why our favourite law firm wanted Angel to save Darla's soul: So that they could take his victory from him. Given how much Angel had invested in this particular mission, it's safe to say that his reaction will not be good. Inevitably, that one moment is synonymous with 'The Trial', but there is still much else to enjoy here.

Angel and Darla's relationship, for instance. Whatever you think of Darla, I don't think it can be denied that there's a definite sense of history between her and Angel. Not love, never love, but a remembered companionship - even if they were both bloodthirsty vampires at the time. The choice of flashbacks, then, seems a little odd, irrelevant even. They seem designed to remind us how ruthless Darla was, and thus how great her change over the course of the episode is, but they're not telling us anything that we don't already know. That said, the mention of Holtz, the vampire hunter, is intriguing; I'm guessing that there's more past there to be explored at some stage.

In many ways, 'The Trial' is Wolfram and Hart's episode as much as it is Angel and Darla's. Perhaps more so than in any other episode, they are in control of this one; having set Angel and Darla in their respective orbits, they need only apply impetus at the right time to produce whatever result they desire. Holland's assertion to Darla that 'we would never force you to do anything against your will' rings true, despite the end of the episode. Wolfram and Hart direct events, they do not force them. And, in Darla's illness, we see another reason for the diversionary tactics of early episodes; they were waiting until the disease had progressed to a stage where it could not be cured, increasing the urgency with which both Angel and Darla have to act.

I'm not a huge fan of the trials themselves, but I think they're about the best they could be - especially the phlegmatic Butler ("Well, you'll be unarmed, yes"). Let's face it, once Angel had decided to try to save Darla the question was never 'will he succeed?' but rather 'how will he succeed?', both because, well, he's Angel, and because we know Wolfram and Hart wanted him to succeed. The Trials merely reaffirm what we know about our hero, but for Darla the experience is a revelation. Viewed in such a light, I think the trials manage to sustain interest and tension reasonably well. They also work in terms of the arc structure, providing a useful contrast to the events of 'Reunion'.

The A-team is understandably sidelined in this episode; Gunn helps Angel with his hunt for Darla, whilst Wesley and Cordelia do, well, nothing. To be fair, at this point there isn't really anything they can do. They're not in a position to force Angel to do anything against his will, and are understandably reluctant to help him save Darla. Angel is also well aware of Wolfram and Hart's propensity for mind games; he thinks he's handling it. Moreover, even if they had helped it seems that would only have been playing into Wolfram and Hart's hands. That said, Wesley, at least, has at last plucked up the courage to try to broach the subject with Angel in a non-work-related context; it's just that Angel takes no notice.

All in all, 'The Trial' answers a fair number of questions whilst raising a significant number of new ones. There are plenty of entertaining moments along the way - Angel's reaction to Lindsey's casual "Wipe your feet" stays with me, as does Darla's caustic "Weird? It's mythic!" The ante has been upped, however; Drusilla is back, and Darla will rise again. Roll on the next episode.