S5.E14: Smile Time

[Joe Hellandback]

The Good; It's all fabulous, a truly, truly great episode and I'm proud to say I do own a puppet Angel doll (unfortunately the one with him in vampface as all the rest were sold out).

The Bad; ?

Best line; Polo; "I'm going to tear you a new puppet-hole bitch!" (a line never before said on TV and in all probability never will be again) also like; Puppet Angel; "I'm made of felt. And my nose comes off!" (as above)

Jeez, how did they get away with that? The bit where the puppets make their creator 'talk to the hand', euugghhh!

Apocalypses: 5

Subverting the Hollywood cliché; Cute children's puppets are EVIL! Also like the talk between Gunn and Lorne with Framkin where he correctly points out that actually the public would invariably support him if their case ever came to trial. Puppet Angel's Jerry Bruckheimer style 'power walk' also hilarious.

In disguise; 8

DB/JM get's his shirt off; 18,

Cheap Angel; 8

Fang Gang in bondage: Cordy: 5 Angel: 15 Wes: 8 Gunn; 8 Lorne; 6 Fred; 5 Spike; 6

Fang gang knocked out: Angel by the nest egg Cordy: 15 Angel: 20 Wes: 9 Doyle; 1 Gunn; 4 Lorne; 8 Groo; 1 Connor; 1 Faith; 1 Fred; 6 Spike; 5

Kills; 1 demon for Angel, 2 for Gunn and 1 for Wes Cordy: 5 vamps, 3 demons Angel; 48 vamps, 63 and 1/2 demons, 5 zombies, 12 humans, one werewolf and one cyborg Doyle; 1 vamp Wes; 15 demons+5 vamps, 5 zombies, 3 humans, 2 cyborgs Kate; 3 vamps Faith; 18 vamps, 6 demons, 3 humans. Gunn; 11 vamps+ 15 demons, 5 zombies, 1 human. Groo; 1 demon Fred; 3 vamps+ 2 demon, 5 zombies Connor; 16 vamps, 5 zombies, 2 demons, Jasmine Spike; 21 vamps, 7 demons+1 human+one parasite

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

Alternate Fang Gang; puppet Angel Cordy: 4 Angel: 12 Fred; 2 Wes; 1 Gunn; 1 Connor; 1 Lorne; 1

Characters killed: 2265

Recurring characters killed; 11

Total number of Angel Investigations; 6, Angel, Gunn, Fred, Lorne, Wes, Spike

Angel Investigations shot: Angel: 14 Wes; 2

Packing heat; Fred uses one of Wes' 45s to good effect (maybe they've learned their lesson from Lineage?). She's a good shot but then she is from Texas. Wes; 11 Doyle; 1 Angel; 4 Gunn; 3 Fred; 4

Notches on Fang Gang bedpost: Cordy: 5 ?+Wilson/Hacksaw Beast+Phantom Dennis+Groo+Connor plus possibly the Beast Angel: 6; Buffy, Darla, The Transcending Furies, Eve Wes; 3 definite; Virginia, the bleached blonde and Lilah, 1 possible, Justine Gunn; 2 Fred and Gwen. Fred; 1 Gunn Groo; 1Cordy Spike; 3-Buffy, Anya, Harmony

Kinky dinky: Nina and Angel start to grow closer and closer. Naked Nina in her cell showing an awful lot of flesh after returning to human once more "Oh my god, I ate him!" Hmmmmm? Flora the puppet says she wants to get Gunn's 'Pretty eyes'. Fred thinks puppet Angel is cute. Nina seems to now enjoy being naked and locked in a cage. She thinks the whole vampire thing is kinda sexy although she admits that's a cliché for an art-school chick. Polo's line to the little kid 'Get over here and touch it' is a bit suspect especially the way he moans and groans when he's draining the lifeforce and talks about taking their innocence away.

Captain Subtext; Angel has been utterly oblivious to Nina's growing attraction to him but it's perfectly plain to everyone else, even soulless Harmony. He does however pick up on the Wes/Fred vibe.

Know the face, different character; 7 David Fury, writer, producer, director and now actor. He previously played the goat-sacrificer in Epiphany and the mustard on his shirt guy in Once More with Feeling.

Parking garages; 9,

Buffy characters on Angel; 17 Wetherby, Collins and Smith. Angel, Cordy, Oz, Spike, Buffy, Wes, Faith, Darla, Dru, The Master, Anne, Willow and Harmony. POSSIBLY The First Evil, Andrew.

Questions and observations; Especially love the way that Horatio can convey whole sentences in just a few sounds, Chewbacca style. Also you note that Groofus is beginning to be more and more won over to humanity (a common theme in Buffy/Angel), actually caring about the quality of the show in addition to their soul-sucking. David Fury is pretty good in his role. Fred shoots down Knox whom as we'll see

Spoiler

doesn't take rejection well. In an otherwise extremely lightweight episode we have the beginning of the fall of Charles Gunn, the senior partners having given him these new abilities he revels in and then forcing him to make moral compromises when they start slipping away from him.

It's been 4 months since Unleashed. Puppet Angel does pretty well against Spike. The last few seasons of Happy Days are referenced where Fonzie famously 'jumped the shark' (a sly joke for the Angel audience and critics who might think Angel is past it's best? Or the WB executives?) 

Presumably the camera crews etc we see are actually the real Angel camera crews? Why no commentary?

Marks out of 10; 10/10, it's eps like these that make Buffy and Angel so special.

[Spartan Girl]

This was the best Angel episode, period. Puppet Angel was so hilariously hyper. One minute he gets all excited over Smile Time, the next he's ready to nuke them all!

[Joe Hellandback]

5 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

This was the best Angel episode, period. Puppet Angel was so hilariously hyper. One minute he gets all excited over Smile Time, the next he's ready to nuke them all!

It's great and unique (you think of eps like Supernatural's Scooby-Doo crossover) but it's not the best of all, I think that's still Orpheus.