Angel: 3x9 Full Reaction
Added 2025-02-10 15:00:06 +0000 UTC"Lullaby"
Comments
you don't know who Attila the Hun is ?? oh Americans are screwed
madfem
2025-02-19 21:39:15 +0000 UTCIsn't it crazy that Holtz's character was teased in an early season 2 episode ??? Damn I love this show
madfem
2025-02-17 00:05:19 +0000 UTCThe sweet baby is here, Angel is a dad can you believe it!
Morgan Williams
2025-02-14 00:30:20 +0000 UTCDarlaβs arc on this show is so well done, I love it. Canβt wait for you to watch the rest of the series, it gets even crazier.
Ahmad
2025-02-12 20:12:18 +0000 UTCThe careful vagueness of the prophecy, "there will be no birth, only death," is, I suspect, inspired by the prophecy in Macbeth (Joss Whedon does love his Shakespeare), where Macbeth is assured that "none of woman born" can harm him. When at the climax he is confronted by Macduff and reminds him of the prophecy, Macduff informs him that "from my mother's womb I was untimely ripped," i.e. delivered surgically, not "born." So, Darla and Angel's baby is not "born," but comes into the world through death. Darla's realization scene on the roof is some of the deepest writing on the show. Her self-knowledge, the understanding of where her newfound ability to love comes from, and how it will disappear once the baby is delivered, how she won't even be capable of remembering the feeling once she becomes a soulless monster again, makes her self-staking a fully tragic (like I said, Joss loves his Shakespeare) act.
DanielOrme
2025-02-12 03:19:35 +0000 UTCSeeing that the following episode is called 'Dad' would admittedly take some of the jeopardy out of the final scene π
Antonio
2025-02-11 06:23:20 +0000 UTCFun reaction. Great performance from Julie Benz (Darla)
James Smith
2025-02-11 02:04:01 +0000 UTCName a more iconic duo than Angel and alleys in the rain - this whole episode is great, but the ending is next-level. Darla coming to terms with her borrowed love and sacrificing herself is so powerful and heartbreaking. The buildup, the music, the release of Darla's death and the standoff are superb; definitely one of my favourite scenes from either show. Not to mention the scene between Angel and Darla on the roof. True redemption is, I'd argue, impossible for both Angel and Darla; the sheer magnitude and horror of what they did together can't be undone. All they can do is do their best to help people going forward: for Angel, this means being a champion of good, and for Darla it means saving her son's life. As Angel said to Kate last season on her last appearance: "If there's no great glorious end to all this, *if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do*. 'Cause that's all there is. I fought for so long, for redemption, for a reward, and finally just to beat the other guy, but I never got it...All I wanna do is help. I wanna help because I don't think people should suffer as they do. Because if there's no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world." "If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do". This quote basically sums up the entire series. It's possibly the most important line in the entire show. Angel as a series and a character is about redemption, but at the end of the day it's also about fighting - not to get a reward of some kind - no, you fight the good fight because it's the right thing to do. Your reward is the good that you do for others and it's through your good deeds that you can ultimately seek redemption. Speaking of rainy alleys, this helps us when we think about Faith and how Angel helped her; he told her in "Sanctuary": "Just because you've decided to change doesn't mean the world's ready for to to. The truth is, no matter how much you suffer, no matter how many good deeds you do to try to make up for the past, you may never balance out the cosmic scale. The only thing I can promise you is that you'll probably be haunted. And maybe for the rest of your life." This theme is incredibly consistent through the show, and it's my favourite version of redemption as a concept. It doesn't sugarcoat things and provide an easy way out or excuse. It's about taking responsibility and trying to be better. I can't overstate how much I love this damn show. Oh, and poor Lorne - he just can't catch a break π
Jordan McLaren
2025-02-10 20:42:37 +0000 UTCThis episode is so good. Julie Benz is just phenomenal in every way. That scene on the roof between her and Angel is one of my favourites of either series, it always makes me cry! Considering Darla is Angelus's metaphorical mother (she selfishly turned him into a vampire), her selfless sacrifice to save her own child here allows her arc to come full circle. She's able to grant her child life instead of death. Apparently, Julie Benz cried when she first read the script for this episode! Holtz and Lilah are also π.
Rebecca
2025-02-10 17:04:05 +0000 UTCNow things are getting....interesting. As always with prophecies, they never mean what you think they mean, no matter how clear they might look. That's something to keep in mind as we continue as well. The construction demon wasn't working for Sahjhan all along, he only came here after Lorne fired him. Once Lorne fired him, he decided to sell the info he overheard. Angel's at peace with being unable to earn redemption due to the epiphany he had at the end of the season two (After he slept with Darla, appropriately enough). He's never going to undo the evil he did. Never. He can't un-kill the people he killed, can't undo the physical or mental torture, can't save the people he turned into demons. What he can do, is do good NOW. He can save people in danger, comfort those in distress, help those in crisis. It's not a competition or a contest where you add or subtract points. The scales will never balance. So, since he can never dig himself out of the hole he is in, his role is to do the good he can while in the hole. He summed it up when talking with Kate for the last time: If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do. That's the moral of the series in a nutshell.
JBK405
2025-02-10 16:42:34 +0000 UTCI literally just commented "There will be no birth, only death" when we started the recap and then had to delete it because y'all figured it out right away lol See you in the next one.
Preaching to the Horse's Mouth
2025-02-10 16:04:31 +0000 UTC
