S5.E04: Hell-Bound

[Joe Hellandback]

HELLBOUND

The Good; Great villain, some great Spike stuff and an all round great premise

The Bad; ?

Best line; Angel (to frozen in time Pavayne) "Don't worry I had them give you a window"

Jeez, how did they get away with that? Gory as hell, how did this not get an 18 rating?

Apocalypses: 5

Angel Clichés In disguise; 8

DB/JM get's his shirt off; 15, Naked Spike.

Cheap Angel; 7

Subverting the cliché; Gunn and Wes always assumed Spike was going to hell

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

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

Kills; 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: poor Claire 2256

Recurring characters killed; 9;

Total number of Angel Investigations; 5, . Angel, Gunn, Fred, Lorne, Wes,

Angel Investigations shot: Angel: 14 Wes; 2

Packing heat; 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: Gunn likes Eve's lovely friend, Claire the mystic. Too bad she doesn't last long. Spike spies voyeuristically on Fred in the shower.

Captain Subtext; Apparently Spike materialises beside Gunn in the toilet and makes remarks about his penis. What sort of remarks? Claire suggests that Fred and she hold hands if Fred is lonely. Pavayne describes Spike as a 'Little Nancy still crying for his mother', well he's got the last bit right as 'Lies My Parents Told Me Proved'.

Know the face, different character; 5

Parking garages; 8,

Guantanamo Bay; WR&H show some REAL indefinite detention

Buffy characters on Angel; 16. Wetherby, Collins and Smith. Angel, Cordy, Oz, Spike, Buffy, Wes, Faith, Darla, Dru, The Master, Anne, Willow and Harmony. POSSIBLY The First Evil

Questions and observations; Of course the term Reaper is another supernatural series and he too sends souls to hell. Mercedes McNab guest-starred and at one point the devil goes 'Ooohhh Buffy' when handing Sam a stake to recapture an evil soul who thinks she's a vampire (because there are no vampires in the Reaperverse). Spike refers to the King's English as he's seen 2 Queens in his time (Victoria and Elizabeth 2nd) and 4 kings (Edward 7th, George 5th, Edward 8th, George 6th). Spike calls Angel 'Liam', he knows his backstory. Angel likes Spike's poems, did he continue to write AFTER he became a vampire? Spike suspects that it may be the First Evil tormenting him which seems logical. Spike also says he's been a ghost for months which gives us some timeframe. Love to have seen Lee or some of the other casualties from WR&H over the years as Reaper's puppets. In many ways I think they try to cast Fred as the team glamour-puss but she doesn't really cut the mustard in that regard, Amy Acker a beautiful woman but just doesn't compare to CC, Buffy, Faith etc. Very Christian idea of hell. Eve is actually quite heroic here. Very little Lorne, he's really sidelined this season even if he's now a regular. The fate of Pavayne is very reminiscent of the fate of the 'Family of Blood' in the Dr Who ep of the same name (possibly the best ep ever?), both it and Torchwood drawing a LOT from Buffy and Angel (Angel sunk to the bottom of the ocean by his son, Capt Jack buried alive by his brother). So what happens to Pavayne AFTER 

Spoiler

the fall of WR&H at the end of the season?

When Pavayne says that 'There's hope for you yet boy' when Spike has the choice of being human or rescuing Fred does he mean good Spike or evil Spike? Presumably Fred told Spike about Angel's Manilow obsession?

Marks out of 10; 9/10 very strong ep, great villain, truly creepy and excellent performance from JM

[illdoc]

49 minutes ago, Joe Hellandback said:

Angel likes Spike's poems, did he continue to write AFTER he became a vampire?

 

49 minutes ago, Joe Hellandback said:

Presumably Fred told Spike about Angel's Manilow obsession?

Always wondered about those lines...did Spike indeed continue to write poetry (presumably for Dru) and how did Spike know Angel likes Manilow? Was Angelus also a fan and played his records around the Crawford mansion? Did Spike spy on Angel, who is playing the songs in his current place? Was there some really strange "pillow talk" between Buffy & Spike ("did you know Angel likes Manilow?")? Why would any of AI tell Spike about Angel's musical preferences?

[MerelyAFan]

I could see William in his early days after his siring but before he really developed the personality/persona of Spike doing poems for Drusilla. 

The only way the Manilow thing makes sense to me is Angelus mentioning it to Spike & Dru in season 2 of Buffy as yet another reason why he despised (being?) Angel.