S5.E03: Unleashed

[Joe Hellandback]

UNLEASHED

The Good; Especially love the gag of Nina asking Angel if he's Frankenstein and Angel self-consciously rubbing his forehead, Spike's taunting must be getting to him. Nice final scene with Angel making sure to anchor himself to the world once more by hanging out with his friends. The Hyperion has also not been forgotten and a sly dig at Scientology.

The Bad; A little trite that they give the cryptozoologist to the cult to eat but then abolish the club?

Best line; Nina; "Angel, he saves a lot of girls?" Fred; "Girls, guys, puppies, he's pretty much an equal opportunity saver" (presumably Fred has been told of Angel's Orpheus flashback)

Jeez, how did they get away with that? Nasty scenes with Nina about to be eaten alive

Apocalypses: 5

Angel Clichés In disguise; 8

DB get's his shirt off; 14,

Cheap Angel; 7 Lorne remarks that hell has frozen over when Angel says their food is on him

Fang Gang in bondage: Cordy: 5 Angel: 14 Wes: 7 Gunn; 5 Lorne; 5 Fred; 3

Fang gang knocked out: Fred by the kidnappers Cordy: 15 Angel: 19 Wes: 7 Doyle; 1 Gunn; 2 Lorne; 6 Groo; 1 Connor; 1 Faith; 1 Fred; 3

Kills; Angel kills one werewolf. Cordy: 5 vamps, 3 demons Angel; 45 vamps, 60 and 1/2 demons, 5 zombies, 12 humans, one werewolf Doyle; 1 vamp Wes; 14 demons+5 vamps, 5 zombies, 2 humans Kate; 3 vamps Faith; 18 vamps, 6 demons, 3 humans. Gunn; 11 vamps+ 13 demons, 5 zombies, 1 human. Groo; 1 demon Fred; 3 vamps+ 2 demon, 5 zombies Connor; 16 vamps, 5 zombies, 2 demons, Jasmine

Fang Gang go evil: Cordy: 3 Angel: 3 Gunn; 1 Wes; 1

Alternate Fang Gang; Cordy: 4 Angel: 11 Fred; 2 Wes; 1 Gunn; 1 Connor; 1

Characters killed: 2255

Recurring characters killed; 9;

Total number of Angel Investigations; 5, Spike noticeably absent from the gang at the beginning. Angel, Gunn, Fred, Lorne, Wes,

Angel Investigations shot: Angel by the security guards Angel: 14 Wes; 2

Packing heat; Wes with a pistol and unusually Gunn with a shotgun Wes; 9 Doyle; 1 Angel; 4 Gunn; 3 Fred; 2

Notches on Fang Gang bedpost: Cordy: 5 ?+Wilson/Hacksaw Beast+Phantom Dennis+Groo+Connor plus possibly the Beast Angel: 5; Buffy, Darla and The Transcending Furies Wes; 3 definite; Virginia, the bleached blonde and Lilah, 1 possible, Justine Gunn; 2 Fred and Gwen. Fred; 1 Gunn Groo; 1Cordy

Kinky dinky: Nina quite reasonably suspects Angel to be a psycho rapist. Well, not lately. Nina naked and chained (anyone else think she looks a little like Sharon Stone?). A fellow student calls and says he missed Nina in the life drawing class which implies she does nude modelling (she certainly has the figure for it).

Captain Subtext; Wes not so subtly jealous of Knox whom Fred refers to as being 'Under me' and 'On top of'. The comparison of Angel to the werewolf is clear, he cut himself off from humanity to avoid temptation but ended up losing all value for people and lost his human side anyway, just as Angel might have if Doyle hadn't come along.

Know the face, different character; 5

Parking garages; 8,

Guantanamo Bay; Angel once again tortures ruthlessly

Buffy characters on Angel; 16. It would have been nice if Caine the bounty hunter had shown up but as the actor had also played Sajhan maybe that was impractical. Wetherby, Collins and Smith. Angel, Cordy, Oz, Spike, Buffy, Wes, Faith, Darla, Dru, The Master, Anne, Willow and Harmony. POSSIBLY The First Evil

What the fanficcers thought; Plenty of fic where Oz shows up in LA to help Nina out with what he's learned, if ever there was an ep for him to re-occur on Angel this was it.

Questions and observations; Lorne's reading not too good lately. Here's a good game for you, match the car to the AI member in the opening scene. The guys refer to being at WR&H for a month. Does Angel detect the werewolf by his scent? He's met one before, Oz in Phases. Spike still lies a lot. Different werewolf makeup than what we see in Buffy and thank god, much more impressive! Note though that Nina has amnesia for her first few transformations just as Oz had. Note it's Lorne who figures out how to find Nina. When Fred tells Nina that Angel was seeing someone does that mean CC or Buffy? Lorne makes an 'extra weight' remark of Angel, is that a joke on DB? Wes refers to the Initiative or whatever they call themselves nowadays.

Marks out of 10; 7/10, enjoyable standalone ep, reminds you of the sort of thing they used to do in season 1