Angel, "Through The Looking Glass" Review (2x21)

Brief Synopsis: “Cordelia has inexplicably been made Princess of Pylea, but she begins to suspect that her guards may be her jailers. Meanwhile, Wesley and Gunn search for a way to free Cordy from the castle, while Angel and Lorne get a cold reception from the Deathwok Clan.” 


"Over The Rainbow" (2x20) quick link here                                                                 "There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb" (2x22) quick link here

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Now we’re rolling, people! While “Belonging” and “Over The Rainbow” primarily focused on setup, “Through The Looking Glass” is part one of the execution. The problem with “Belonging” and “Over The Rainbow” is that occasionally I felt that they were a little too bogged down in setup. While setup in itself isn’t a problem at all, I feel that every episode should have some form of development at the same time. However, I’m willing to let that slide because of the sheer volume of character development that’s offered in both this episode and its successor. I’m also really impressed with how successfully “Angel” has been able to create this realistic alternate dimension of Pylea in such a short space of time. Seriously! We’ve learned about their culture, their methods, their beliefs, their prophecies, their views on life, and their views on people who don’t like to fight in just one episode. Due to this, it’s very easy to get caught up in the medieval looking world of Pylea and imagine that it’s a real place. It’s the very embodiment of a fantasy world. From knights on horseback to a champion defending the innocent, to an evil covenant that represses the poor...I’m expecting Robin Hood to arrive at any second.

It’s no surprise that Tim Minear wrote this episode, as I’ve said before that he’s the M.V.P. (‘most valuable player’) of the “Angel” writing team. This is a man that wrote episodes such as “Hero” (co-wrote), “Sanctuary” (co-wrote), “Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been”, “Darla”, “The Trial” (co-wrote), “Reunion” (co-wrote), “Reprise”, “Epiphany”, and “Billy” (co-wrote). He’s basically written every major arc-heavy episode of this terrific season. Sadly, outside of the season four finale, “Home”, Tim Minear stops writing for “Angel” at the end of the third season to write for “Firefly”, and the quality definitely nose-dives for a while without his influence. I just think he understands the characters of “Angel” more than anyone else. Take this episode for example. “Through The Looking Glass” is all about perceptions. How does the world view Angel? How does he view himself? Is he a man with a monster inside or a monster with a man inside? Or is he both? Can Wesley finally see himself as a leader? Now that Cordelia has been gifted everything she’s ever wanted (to be a princess, loved, and admired), does the reality match her perceptions? I think Lorne sums this episode up best when he’s talking to Angel in the town square...“they see you a certain way, you start to see yourself that way. You become that image”. The genius thing about this episode is that Tim compares how these characters are viewed in Los Angeles against how they’re viewed in Pylea. The biggest character dissections of this episode are Angel and Cordelia, so I will look at those two separately from the rest. In Los Angeles, Angel has to skulk in the shadows and help people in shrouded darkness, always under the radar of the mainstream world. However, in Pylea he’s heralded as a hero. He’s openly admired and worshipped for being a brave warrior. He loves that attention and you can see it written all over his face when he’s surrounded by people in the town square. When he vamps-out and loses control, he’s suddenly bitch-slapped back to reality and has to take a look at himself once again. In the case of Cordelia, in Los Angeles, she’s gone from wanna superstar to someone whose life revolves around head-splitting visions. She has no friends left outside of the supernatural world, she’s almost given up on her dreams of being an actress, and she’s never felt so alone. In Pylea, she’s a frickin’ princess! SHE HAS A TIARA AND A THRONE! It’s a complete 180 from her life in Los Angeles. However, just like with Angel, things aren’t what they seem. Just because she sits the Iron Throne (I did mention in the last episode how Pylea was like Westeros), it doesn’t mean she’s in charge. She has the evil Cersei-like Covenant of Trombli to contend with. They’re the ones who’re really running the show and they enforce this message to her with a silver platter.

Yet, on top of all that drama and character development, this episode still manages to be side-splittingly funny! Most of this humour revolves around Angel and Lorne. Angel having a reflection means that for the first time in 247 years (excluding a brief period of humanity in “I Will Remember You”) he can see himself. He can see his hairstyle...and he doesn’t like it one bit. It’s just so funny to me that the most notorious vampire in history turns into a school boy going to prom the second he sees his reflection...

Angel: “Okay, this is because of going through the portal, right?”
Cordy: “No, it always looks like that.”
Wesley: “Angel, while we search for the proper incantation, it might save time if you go with The Host. Hit the streets, see if you can document any portal activity.”
Angel: “I don’t get it.”
Wesley: “Well, The Host knows this world. We need to ascertain if...”
Angel: “No, I mean why didn’t anybody tell me about this?”
Cordy: “Ugh, you look good.”
Angel: “...You’re not just saying that, are you?”

 

How can anyone not be entertained by paranoid Angel? Plus, we have Joss Whedon as Numfar, performing the dance of joy and the dance of honour. Yes, that is “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” creator, and the writer and director of the third most successful film in history (“The Avengers”), Joss Whedon, underneath that makeup. Evidently, only Joss, David Boreanaz, and the makeup team knew that it was Joss until after the scene was filmed. How awesome is that dude? He sat in the makeup chair for 3-4 hours, just to have some fun and dance. By the way, if you’ve never seen Mr. Whedon dance, he’s terrific. We also have Lorne using “Stop! In The Name Of Love” as a weapon against the Pylean warriors, Angel mouthing “...mother?...” when he first sees Lorne’s beard-wielding mother, and Fred’s politely offended reaction when she learns that Cordelia has been made a princess after being in Pylea for a day or two, while Fred never has after being stuck there for five years. Stick a fork in me, I’m done.

The episode opens with everyone feeling happier than they have been since arriving in Pylea. Cordy’s a princess, the rest of the team have been freed by her, and they have a buffet of food in front of them. However, things quickly get more disturbing after Wesley realises that the Covenant of Trombli’s holy books have a wolf, a ram, and a hart on the covers. Seriously, how did I not see this coming after Wesley said “fascinating, a hart”. Stupid, stupid brain! It was a great little addition to the episode to have Wolfram & Hart somehow involved in the running of Pylea. While they’re not in Pylea at the moment, their presence on the show is still felt, which it should be after them being such an important factor in Angel’s character journey this season. The holy books also reveal that Cordelia will ‘com-shuk’ with a Groosalugg...

Cordy: “Something I’m going to do?”
Wesley: “With a ‘Groosalugg’.”
Cordy: “What does that mean?”
Wesley: “I have no idea.”
Gunn: “Sounds dirty if you ask me.”
Cordy: “Nobody did.”

I’d just like to point out that Gunn totally called it! Com-shuk is naughty in origin! Cordy’s supposed to have a deep, hard com-shuk with the Groosalugg. They’re gonna be com-shucking all day and night. After Lorne and Angel leave for Lorne’s family’s house, Wesley and Gunn also escape the castle, but Cordelia is discovered and ends up staying behind. Later on, Angel and Lorne are separated due to the skirmish where Lorne uses the power of song as a weapon. This means that the members of Angel Investigations (bar Wesley and Gunn) are all apart from one another, which is quite the rarity. They’re all alone in this strange new world, which allows their characters more time to be dissected and explored individually. In Wesley’s case, he’s slowly fitting into his leadership role. He gave orders to Angel and Lorne decisively and he was the one to formulate the plan to escape the castle. Going back to the theme of perception, when Wesley is viewed as someone to be respected and followed, he’s perfectly capable of playing the part. In the next episode, when Wesley is accepted by the rogue ‘cows’, he becomes their leader and does a damn good job of it because they view him as a brave warrior and a leader. Remember, Wesley was never more confident of his abilities than he was in “Guise Will Be Guise”, where everyone thought he was Angel. If people perceive him as a leader, he is one. In comparison, Gunn is still struggling with his decision to leave his old gang behind in Los Angeles. Did he do the right thing? Should he have chosen Angel Investigations? Unlike the other four characters that left Los Angeles for Pylea, Gunn’s story has very little resolution in this season. All of Gunn’s dramas come to a boil in the next season’s “That Old Gang Of Mine”. However, just because he has little resolution in Pylea, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a plan...

Gunn: “I’ve got a plan.”
Wesley: “Oh, thank God! What is it?”
Gunn: “We die horribly and painfully. You go to Hell and I spend eternity in the arms of baby Jesus.”

The most interesting character journey of Pylea for me is Angel’s because his is the one we’ve spent the most time with over this season. The first sixteen episodes of season two were one big story, which dissected Angel’s character in every way imaginable. Just how close is the relationship between Angel and Angelus? What does it mean to be a vampire with a soul? How dark can Angel, not Angelus, become? How far do you have to push him before he breaks? Since returning to the fold and leaving his dark ways behind him, Angel has had problems fitting back into his former team. He’s struggling to come to terms with being a follower and not a leader. Plus, as I mentioned in the intro, in Los Angeles Angel has to work in secret. Staying under the radar of the police and the authorities. He rarely gets thanked for saving all these souls, he has very little money, very little recognition. In Pylea, he’s a hero! Pylea is a world where the strongest warriors are the most beloved and respected citizens. Angel is a known Drokken killer and Landok has filled the Pyleans in on what a brave warrior Angel is. He’s viewed as a true hero and has re-established his position as a leader.

 
For two years now, Angel has been happy to receive no recognition for helping people and saving souls. He wasn’t working for a reward or a pat on the back, he was working for redemption. To help the helpless because they needed helping...but does that mean that Angel wouldn’t enjoy a little recognition sometimes? HELL NO! Yet, Angel being heralded as a hero isn’t what makes him a hero in Pylea. The moment that makes Angel a hero is when he casts aside all this praise and respect to save an innocent woman that is about to be murdered (Fred). Angel faces overwhelming odds and probable death to rescue the ‘damsel in distress’. In Pylea, it’s obvious that a hero and champion can lop off the head of an innocent and still be perceived as a hero, but that doesn’t track with Angel’s moral code...

Lorne’s Mom: “The cow is a runaway. A scavenger that sneaks down from the hills and plunders our food stores.”
Angel: “She was probably hungry.”
Landok: “Will you not swing the crebbil?”
Angel (defending Fred and wielding the weapon towards the Pyleans): “Only if you force me to.”
--------------------------------------------------
Fred: “Handsome man saved me from the monsters.”

UGH, “A Hole In The World” has ruined that phrase for me forever. When Angel defends Fred and vamps-out, he turns into a monstrous demon that makes his vampire face on Earth look like a cute Halloween mask by comparison. It’s so cool that we get to see what the monster inside of Angel looks like...that would make the demon Angelus’ true face, yes? The Angelus that would exist if no part of Angel’s personality or appearance resided when he vamped-out. Either way, I never thought I’d get to see what the demon inside of Angel looked like. I’d never thought about what the demon inside of Angel looked like! Wesley and Cordelia have always explained Angel as a man with a monster inside of him. However, as Angel explains to the T’ish Magev in “Guise Will Be Guise”, he views himself as a person that treads a thin line between man and monster. He’s constantly terrified that he’ll lose his soul and hurt people again. Therefore, when he vamps-out in Pylea and turns into an uncontrollable beast, he’s beyond scared. When he’s in vampire face on Earth, he’s still in control. He’s a little stronger, a little scarier looking, but he’s still Angel. That’s not the case in Pylea. Angel is gone until he reverts back to his human looking face, and that human looking face is a mask of terror. Angel doesn’t want to turn into that monster again, not ever. Have we ever seen Angel looking so frightened? I can’t recall it.

Having just been saved by Angel, Fred is quick to reassure him that he’s a good person. We’ve all got our demons, right? NEVER CHANGE, FREDIKINZ! It’s so funny to me that a 247-year-old is having identity issues. I guess that shows us that we never stop evolving, changing, or feeling insecure. It’s understandable that Angel is terrified. Not just of losing his soul, but of what he’s capable of in general. Remember, it wasn’t Angelus that was dark and selfish throughout this season, it was Angel. He was pushed to it by Wolfram & Hart, but Angel was still in control of his own actions. He’s only just gotten himself back onto the right track and now he’s being terrorised by the monster inside of him in Pylea. Pylea was a happy place for him before this. He could walk in the sun, look at himself in the mirror, and be treated as a hero, but now he’s been brought back to reality and reminded that he can never escape from the monster within him. Angel’s friends know that Angel is a good man and he’s capable of selfless, heroic things, but Angel’s journey this season hasn’t been about how he’s perceived by his friends or the world, it’s about how he perceives himself. The monster inside of Angel in Pylea is the perfect metaphor for how Angel perceives himself when he’s pushed or soulless...unhinged, erratic, dangerous, and terrifying. The very aspects of his personality that he’s been struggling with all season are forced in front of his face, but in a position where he’s powerless to stop them. The next episode, “There’s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb”, will bring Angel’s identity crisis to an end for the most part, when he’s able to stop the beast inside of him from killing Groo. In season three, we see a much more confident, in control Angel than we have throughout this season and I think his actions at the end of the Pylea arc are the reason why.

(the true form of the demon inside Angel...sexy, no?)

Much like Angel’s journey in Pylea, Cordelia’s also goes from positive to negative. She starts the episode as a princess. She’s worshipped, pampered, loved, and she has servants. Not only are these things that Cordelia has always wanted, but they’re things she’s mostly given up to help the helpless. The physical and mental burden of the visions has consumed her life. She has few friends outside of Angel Investigations, she rarely goes to auditions, rarely socialises, and spends most of her time researching or fighting the good fight. To the world outside of the supernatural, Cordelia is nothing. She has no riches, no wealth, no connections, no status. Her entire existence revolves around fighting vampires and demons, but the regular world doesn’t even know they exist. The sad thing is that Cordy’s perception of herself has grown to match the one I just described. She’s lonely and the visions are quite literally killing her. However, to the Groosalugg, Cordelia is perceived as being a beautiful, wonderful princess...

Groosalugg: “Have they no eyes in this village?”
Cordy: “What do you mean?”
Groosalugg: “Can they not just look upon you and see that you’re a princess?”
Cordy: “I’m not.”
Groosalugg: “Pardon my impudence, majesty, but you’re wrong. The Covenant has declared it so.”
Cordy: “It doesn’t matter what they say.”
Groosalugg: “Then you declare it so! You declare it with your bearing and your beauty, and the mercy that I have seen you bestow upon one of your subjects this very day.”
Cordy: “He was a friend of mine.”
Groosalugg: “Then, if you treat all your subjects this way, you will do much good.”

Firstly, how adorable are these two together? I instantly started shipping Groodelia (I may have just made that pairing name up...) because Groo is so good for Cordelia’s sense of self-worth and self-esteem. Groo represents Cordelia’s previous perceptions of herself. The Cordelia of Sunnydale High was headstrong and fully aware of how beautiful she was. She had her parents’ money, a nice car, popularity, adoration, and respect. Now, she has none of those things and notice that she’s quick to dismiss Groo when he calls her a princess in not just title, but actions. He tells her that she’s a princess because of her beauty and the way that she treats people, but Cordy no longer sees herself as that person or someone who’s worthy of leading people. The Cordelia of Sunnydale High would have agreed with him and said something that was equal parts sassy and rude. Again, just like Angel, by the time Cordelia leaves Pylea, she’s a more confident, mature person. In the next season, she’s very much a champion. A leader who’s willing to give up everything to help the helpless. So much so that she voluntarily becomes part demon. The difference is that here she feels stuck and isolated, whereas in season three she feels invigorated and positive. Pylea gives Cordelia the recognition and validation that she’s been seeking in Los Angeles. Also, I’m glad she raises the point about how every demon seems to want to impregnate her with its spawn...it happens way too often. I’m surprised she hasn’t started wearing a chastity belt for protection by this point.

Of course, Cordelia’s journey through Pylea quickly goes from positive to negative because of the Covenant of Trombli, who are very much displayed as the Pylean version of Wolfram & Hart. They hold all the power and all the control. True, Cordelia is princess in title, but she has no real power in Pylea. When she gives Silas of the Covenant a list of proclamations, he’s quick to dismiss her notions of grandeur and remind her that she’s only the princess because the Covenant has declared it so. If they say she’s no longer princess, she loses everything. They hold the power, she does not.

Silas: “And if we tell you ‘silent’, you shut your cow mouth!”
Cordy: “Pardon me?”
Silas: “Pardon, your majesty? Don’t you feel you’ve done enough pardoning for one day?”
*Silas lifts the silver lid off of the platter to reveal Lorne’s decapitated head underneath*

 
I’ll admit it, folks, I was totally duped by this. I was sure that Lorne was dead and I was pissed off. You drag Lorne back to his home dimension, a place that he was desperate to avoid, only to kill him?! Screw you, Minear! Alas, even with the reveal in the next episode that Lorne can survive decapitation in his home world for a while before he dies, it’s still a terrific cliffhanger. Pylea started the episode as a happy place. Cordelia was a ruler, the members of Angel Investigations were freed from their chains, and Angel was a respected champion. By the end, Lorne is dead (or so we think), Cordelia has been put in her place, Angel is a terrified runaway, and Wesley and Gunn are about to be decapitated by rogue ‘cows’. What a great reality check and a reminder that appearances can be deceiving. Everyone ready for the season finale and the best episode of the Pylea arc?


Quote Of The Episode

Lorne: “Whoa, whoa, back up, back up! You want me to talk to my family? On purpose?!”

Wesley: “Well, it’s that or face the possibility of never returning to our own dimension again.”

Lorne (to Angel while sighing): “Come on, gorgeous, you can stare at yourself in my grandmother’s glass eye. Oh, and while we’re here, it’s just Lorne, okay? To the people of Pylea, a ‘host’ is just one more thing to lay your eggs in.” 



FINAL SCORE: 7.5/10

What are your thoughts on "Through The Looking Glass"? Did you enjoy this episode? Dislike it? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section below!

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