Angel S4-02: The Short Review

'Ground State'

Written by Mere Smith

Directed by Michael Grossman

"All those months under the water, I kept thinking to myself...'I gotta get home to Cordelia'. I get back and I find out that she's gone, I keep thinking 'I gotta get Cordy back home. Finally I find her, and I realise...she already is home. Where she belongs." - Angel

The second episode of season four is a bit of a mixed bag. There are some nice moments, but for the most part that's all they are. The story never feels entirely coherent, never feels that it has much purpose - and given that the episode is all about Angel's efforts to find Cordelia, that feels very odd. In the end, it's more style than substance.

'Ground State' also marks almost the first time I haven't been instantly impressed by a new potential recurring character on Angel; even Linwood was vaguely interesting, way back in 'Quickening'. Gwen, on the other hand, really doesn't do much for me. Sure, she's pretty to look at, but there's nothing really to hold my interest. There's potential - I did rather like her disappointment that the only man she can touch isn't interested - but for now it seems as though the writers spent so much time establishing the character's history that they forgot to do anything interesting with her in the present.

Structurally, the episode felt flimsy, bolstered by cheap cliffhanger act breaks. Gunn's temporary death was clearly setup for the restarting of Angel's heart later on, but as an act break it feels wasted. I feel as though the same preparatory work, if it was necessary at all, could have been conveyed by a redshirt earlier in Gwen's break-in. It was however, better than the act 3-to-4 break, where the kiss doesn't seem to have served any purpose at all, and nobody comments on Angel's heart somebody beating. As a last note of disappointment, I felt the ensemble writing slipped somewhat; for the first time in a long while, I found myself noticing 'the Connor scene' and 'the Wesley scene' (and god, if I never have to watch Lilah and Wesley ever again, I'll be a happy man).

The positive notes in the episode - and despite the above, I did think there were a fair few - were mostly character-based. Angel's attempted apology to Wesley was perhaps the most interesting. It was fumbled, and awkward...but he was trying, and Wesley didn't give him a chance. I'm guessing Wesley is right in thinking that Angel was there to ask for information about Cordelia, but we'll never know for sure because he himself diverted the conversation in that direction and left before Angel really had a chance to say anything more; and I suspect Angel was more glad that he had a reason to see Wesley and start building bridges than he was simply trying to get information. Quite apart from which, Wesley sitting on a dossier of information about Cordelia seems rather short-sighted of him. He knows as well as anyone the potential for timeflow differences between this and other dimensions, so you'd think the least he could have done would be to have mentioned that he had useful information for Angel, rather than waiting for Angel to come around. Wesley's categorisation of Angel as 'necessary' was also faintly unsettling; we may be seeing the former watcher heading towards a truly ends-justfied morality, at this rate.

The other big winner this week was probably Fred. I have a theory about why she keeps asking Wesley for help: She thinks it's what he wants. I think Fred believes that Wesley's self-worth is wrapped up in feeling useful (which is actually not an unreasonable impression for her to have gained), and that the thing to do is to make it clear to Wesley that they need him. And I think this feeds in to her angst about having to be in charge; apart from the pressure, she also has to worry about making Wesley feel redundant and unwanted.

Hey, it's a theory.

Last but not least, I love the fact that Angel starts to accept that Cordelia may be gone for good. I hate the fact that he appears to be wrong and that wherever Cordy is, it's reset her character to S1 for the benefit of a few disgruntled fans, but the fact that Angel recognises that, this time, his goal is out of his reach is a nice touch.

And that's about it. There was no big theme this week, no clever metaphors. It was pretty much straight-up superhero fantasy, and that's always a disappointment - but the moments were just about enough to carry the show.

The Council of Watchers rating: