Angel S3-03: The Short Review

'That Old Gang Of Mine'

Written by Tim Minear

Directed by Fred Keller

"It's never easy - the pull of divided loyalties. Any choice we do end up making, we feel as though we've betrayed someone" - Wesley.

I've been mulling over my thoughts about this episode, and I've realised something. Whilst I like Gunn, and enjoy watching episodes that focus on him, he's not even close to being my favourite character. That's not a fault of J.August Richards' acting, or even of the individual Gunn episodes we've had; 'That Old Gang Of Mine', for example, is an engaging, thoughtful episode - the best of the season so far. However, for me the most memorable parts of the episodes involve other characters; Fred's desire not to seem 'snooty' whilst pointing a loaded crossbow at Gio's throat, for example, or Wesley's marvellous talk with Gunn at the episode's close.

Maybe this could be blamed on the handling of Gunn during season two. Fred has had better use than Gunn had had this time last year, you might say, so is it any wonder people have grown to like Fred? I think a large part of it, though, is down to the nature of the character. Gunn started S2 as an outsider, without everyday contact with Angel Investigations (and arguably would have been better served by remaining that way), whereas Fred is living at base camp from the outset.

(As a digression, it occurs to me that as Gunn's story in S2 paralleled Angel's, so too may Fred's story in S3 parallel Angel's. The theme for this season is supposed to be "it's never too late to start living", after all; it appears that both Fred and Angel will be trying to make more of a connection with the world).

Also, unlike some, I don't think Gunn's character was incomprehensible during S2. Everything he did defaulted to a single, simple underlying motivation: Gunn wants to save everybody. This could certainly have been more clearly articulated at times, but it remains true to say that the Gunn-centric stories we got were almost all good, solid work. Perhaps more importantly in the context of 'That Old Gang Of Mine', we have seen Gunn's attitude change since we met him. Back in 'War Zone', it was Gunn that was in danger of losing the mission - a point reiterated in 'First Impressions'. Gunn's relations with Angel Investigations have gradually drawn him away from his crew by giving him a sense of a larger purpose. What has been an issue, however, is the episode-by-episode use of the character; when he hasn't had a central role, he has often been marginalized - and worse than that, the marginalisation has sometimes seemed to trivialise the previous week's developments. In 'The Trial', for instance, there is no hint of the Angel/Gunn tension that came to the surface in 'The Shroud Of Rahmon'. Better is the followup to 'The Thin Dead Line'; it makes sense for Gunn to head off to see his crew during 'Reprise'.

Given the events of 'That Old Gang Of Mine', the issue of follow-up looks to be an important one this season, as well. One of the key issues raised is the Angel-Gunn tension that has apparently been simmering away just beneath the surface since they met. I don't have much of a problem with this; it's clearly a deeply-buried emotion most of the time (after all, it took magic to bring it out in TSOR), and yet, with hindsight, there have still been hints of it here and there. It was Gunn, for instance, who was hardest on Angel in 'Epiphany'. Gunn who looked least convinced by Angel's apology in 'There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb'. Equally importantly, given Gunn's history with vampires, it makes sense that such tension would exist. But what happens now? Is Gunn going to learn to be Angel's friend over the course of the season? If he does, will that mean that Angel can no longer rely on Gunn to stake him when it becomes necessary? Will the tension be more obvious from now on, or will Gunn continue to hide it?

More generally, I find it interesting that we have had two episodes in a row that deal with the existence of not-evil evil things. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this is thematic setup for events later in the season; laying the foundations for whatever they're going to do with Darla's baby by making sure that everyone (new viewers and all) is up to date with the morality of demons in Angel. It's also interesting to note that 'That Old Gang Of Mine' was originally slated to be episode two, with 'That Vision Thing' as episode three - and it shows. Some things are more effective this way around, some less so. Gunn's relationship with Angel is probably the most obvious example, since in 'That Vision Thing' there were no obvious signs of tension (although granted, they didn't share a whole lot of screen time). Fred getting out into the world makes more sense this way around, as well; even a trip to Cordelia's flat might have seemed a bit much after the siege in Caritas. On the other hand, the Gunn/Fred attraction that seems to be growing would arguably have made more sense if it had started with Gunn catching sight of Fred singing.

There isn't much to complain about here, though; 'That Old Gang Of Mine' is a pretty compelling episode, although perhaps not quite vintage Minear. Still, it's far more good than bad, and completes probably the strongest season-opening trio to date.