Angel S3-05: The Short Review

'Fredless'

Written by Mere Smith

Directed by Marita Grabiak

"Once upon a time, there was a girl who lived all alone in a horrible cave so far from home that it made her chest hurt. And every day in that horrible cave, the girl tried to figure out a way to escape. None of her plans ever succeeded, of course, and she'd almost given up hopin'... when one day, just like in a fairy tale, a handsome man rode up on a horse and saved her, and took her back to his castle. Now, you'd think that was the end, wouldn'tcha? Dumb old fairy tales and their happily ever afters. But see, the minute they got back to the castle, the handsome man went away again. And even though she didn't mean to, didn't want to... high up in that castle, the girl just built herself another cave. Hoping that he would save her again. But you can't save me this time, can you?" - Fred.

'Fredless', like last week's episode, is very definitely Angel-lite. And whilst it's certainly more substantive than 'Carpe Noctem', it is still mostly harmless, and not what I'd call a particularly great episode.

The problem isn't in the character work, I don't think (although I'm fond of Fred, and would probably enjoy any episode focusing on her that wasn't outright ludicrous). This is Amy Acker's first real chance to show off, and whilst she doesn't excel all the time - her breakdown when confronted with her parents at the station is a touch melodramatic for my taste - there are some definite winning moments, most notably when she's recounting her tale to Angel. If there's a weak spot in the character development, it's that it is still not clear what her role in AI is. I suspect, however, that that may be the point; it doesn't matter what, specifically, she's going to contribute - the important thing is that she can't just walk away from the Good Fight after all she's been through. Meanwhile, in the broader scheme of things, I think it's becoming clear what Fred's role is; she's a replacement for Wesley's brain (it's noticeable that since Fred's arrival, Wesley has done less of the geeky explaining, leaving him free to look more leader-like), and to a lesser extent, for Cordelia's girlishness; with Fred around, Cordelia is free to be a woman.

I also very much like the fact that Fred's parents didn't turn out to be evil - it would have been too depressingly reminiscent of 'Family' - and that Fred's problem was internal, rather than external: She couldn't give up her fantasy-land to face reality - and that's not something Angel can save her from. Equally, I was tickled by the A-team's bemused reactions to the concept of good, loving, supportive parents. It helped that Roger and Trish were highly entertaining, with their plain-speaking no-nonsense attitude, and their ready acceptance of the paranormal. And given that Fred's parents weren't the bad guys, I'm glad that the pretense wasn't dragged out any longer than was absolutely necessary, although it did leave me wondering what was going to fill up the last twenty minutes of the episode.

It has to be said, though, that even with the revelation about midway through, they still had to use a couple of plot cheats to get there. The first is the letter; apparently we are supposed to think that Fred did send it, but I can't quite get my head around the idea of Fred sneaking off to post a letter. The second is the Host's comment that 'you haven't run far enough', which appears to just be wrong. I can see two possible interpretations here, although neither is wholly satisfying. The first is that he was referring to the fact that Fred should have run home earlier, to confront her parents. The second (which is more convincing, to my mind) is that the Host was allowing his own bitterness to influence his judgement. I'll just add that there's something strangely satisfying about seeing the Host in a fit of depression, with Caritas left unrepaired; I wonder what it will take to get him on the mend?

There are a few other things I think are worth commenting on about the episode. Firstly, I think the meeting with Buffy was handled about as well as could be expected. There's an argument to be made that the meeting should have taken place on Buffy, rather than entirely offscreen, but I didn't need any more than this on Angel Secondly, the Host's powers seem to be becoming more consistent; or at least, the way in which they work is being made more explicit. It seems that it isn't literally true that you have to sing to have you soul read; if your emotions are strong enough, he'll be able to read you anyway. My guess is the singing is needed partly because most people need to open up, and partly just because the Host likes music so much. Thirdly, I'm becoming a little worried that the Gunn/Angel tension that was used so effectively in 'That Old Gang Of Mine' is going to be wasted; the reference to it here didn't seem to treat it as the serious issue it was then.

Overall, 'Fredless' was an entertaining hour. It wasn't brilliantly done - the direction during the fight scenes was a little off-putting, and there was a shade too much sitting around talking rather than actually doing - but on the whole, it was solid, and seems to have nicely rounded-off the 'Fred mini-arc' that has been running since the start of the season. I suspect that she'll be acting slightly more sane from now on, which is probably a good thing; Angel may find it soothing, but sooner or later (depending on your "mmm….Fred" level), it would get annoying.