Angel: 2x7 Full Reaction
Added 2024-07-23 14:14:33 +0000 UTC"Darla"
Comments
I think it was more than the sire bond that made Angel want to go back to Darla in the flashback. He was so sick of feeling nothing but guilt and remorse he desperately wanted to feel anything else even if it meant returning to who he was before he got his soul. Only problem with that was it meant killing innocent people again and he wasn't thinking that far ahead. What's important is he couldn't follow through with it when it came down to it. Also Lindsey started falling for Darla and Holland noticed this and exploited that as part of the plan.
Nathan Conarroe
2025-02-08 02:35:09 +0000 UTCI love Julie Benz' acting when she tells Angel that he's been saving people from her at the very end of the episode.
Ahmad
2024-07-25 21:33:09 +0000 UTCYeah, Buffy flourishes as the slayer because of the Scoobies and Angel remains out of the darkness because of the fang gang.
Ahmad
2024-07-25 21:32:12 +0000 UTCThe cool factor of the past scenes being split between the two shows, and the different perspectives of each was something you never got to see in television back then, and the way they pulled it off looks gorgeous. The Boxer Rebellion, was an anti-Christian extermination effort by the Empress Cixi who blamed the many natural disasters China had suffered in the recent years on the Christian god angering the Chinese gods by their presence, so she employed The Society of Righteous Hands and Fists, who used martial arts, known as "Chinese Boxing" at that time. So it would be called the Kung Fu Rebellion if they had that term back then. Both Buffy and Angel are Kung Fu fighting shows, with some of the best fighting stunts people ever saw on TV, to this day. That scene with the Chinese Slayer and Spike was as good as any Martial Arts movie you might have seen back then. You get action along with the drama with Joss Whedon shows and movies.
spikeysnack
2024-07-25 16:14:06 +0000 UTCI love Darla. I love the nuanced dialogue. I love David Boreanaz, hes so underrated. This is one of the best episodes of the whole show imo.
Bisibia
2024-07-25 03:06:05 +0000 UTCAngelus with a soul went through a hard period. After living with Darla for 150 years, it was the only thing he knew anymore. That's why he wanted to come back even though he couldn't kill humans anymore. Except for evil doers, as Darla said. But not killing for food. Otherwise it doesn't really sync up with what he told Buffy about not ever feeding on a living human since getting his soul. He can kill bad guys.
Gung Ho
2024-07-25 02:09:21 +0000 UTCOr she just hadn't reached her final judgement yet. Souls waiting in limbo, or Purgatory, are outside of time and space so there's no awareness for it. The human before Darla, that is. The human that the Master killed, not the vampire demon that Angel killed. The vampire is still dead and could be in it's own demon hell. The memories are shared because the body is shared.
Gung Ho
2024-07-25 02:00:35 +0000 UTCMy interpretation of "save her soul" is that Holland plan's is to get angel to kill her/turn her, so her human soul gets "saved" from Darla going mad and kill herself. That moral conflict Angel would face, should turn him evil. But at the end, of course he wouldnt do it, as the flashbacks shows
Milo
2024-07-24 19:49:35 +0000 UTCBenz's performance is especially impressive when you remember her initial run on Buffy - she was a B-tier villainous lackey who died after appearing in three episodes. When she was cast, she only needed to be pretty and capable of playing evil. And it's often a cackling, campy evil in Buffy's first season. Good thing she was wildly overqualified for that role, or we would have missed out on a lot of great television.
Holy Stregas
2024-07-24 17:48:33 +0000 UTCMy take on Darla's comments is that "nothing" WAS her hell. We know there are multiple hells, and vampires are often serious sadomasochists, with Darla being no exception ("you're hurting me...I like it.") So a traditional Christian eternity-of-hot-pokers hell probably wouldn't be much of a punishment. But I can't think of a better hell for Darla, a hedonist with a taste for the finer things in life who craves new sensations and experiences, than eternity in a black void. No sensation at all. Just...nothing.
Holy Stregas
2024-07-24 17:41:35 +0000 UTCThis is the episode where the group of Darla, Angelus, Drusilla, & Spike are referred to as 'The Whirlwind'. I came across the name in Wikipedia, but never knew in what episode it was first used.
Chet Erez
2024-07-24 04:40:38 +0000 UTCThis episode is where the fandom began to refer to the vampire quartet (Darla, Angel, Drusilla, and Spike) as The Whirlwind. They spent centuries together as wild, ravening, passionate monsters, and were as uncaring of their victims as a natural disaster. It's the perfect label for them, just like The Scoobies or Angel Investigations. One note I'll give you for your theories (no spoilers), but by 'save her soul' Holland meant the same thing as Darla: Turn her back into a vampire again. Being turned kills the human, and no matter what the demon inhabiting the body does afterwards the soul is already gone off to wherever it is that souls go after death. The franchise is iffy as to how much of the personality and memories of the human impacts the resultant vampire (We discussed that in the last Buffy episode), but they are clear on that point: The original person is DEAD. By turning her into a vampire he would be saving the human soul of Darla...while still damning her. Remember, their goal is not specifically "Get Angelus back", it's "turn Angel evil". Getting Angelus back is certainly one way to do it, but "Get him to commit the vilest and most evil act someone can do, but done with the purest of intentions" is certainly bound to really mess up somebody's state of mind. Once he's crossed that step, imagine what else he could be manipulated into doing? How many reprehensible actions could he take under the guise of The Greater Good? They're lawyers, they don't always think in a straight line.
JBK405
2024-07-24 03:45:21 +0000 UTCI think you might've missed this cause you were taking notes or something, but I just love this little detail of when Angel tells Wes that unlike him (Angel), Darla won't have to go through this alone, and Cordy interjects by saying: "You're not alone." The scene then just lingers on Angel and Cordy staring at each other with Cordy looking so hurt that Angel said that. And Angel realizing how much he takes for granted the humanizing influence and presence of his friends, especially Cordy. Idk just some really good face acting by Charisma and David there.
Ariel17
2024-07-24 03:43:48 +0000 UTCGreat reaction to a very rich episode. I think you misinterpreted one detail. When Angel says he searched for Darla after gaining his soul, he's talking about the period from when she first threw him out on learning about his soul (as shown in the flashback in Season 1's "Five By Five"), which was, I think, in 1898, until he found her again in China in 1900, as shown here, about 2 years later. When Wesley says Angel spent 100 years looking for redemption, he means the time between Darla rejecting him again in China and when he comes to Sunnydale to help Buffy in 1997. When we find out that souled Angel has fed on some humans, but only evil ones, rapists, killers, etc., I couldn't help but think of the TV series "Dexter," whose central character (I can't call him the hero, much as I'm tempted to, which is the ironic point of the show) is a serial killer. Powerfully conscious of his own sociopathy, he channels his need to kill by using a code learned from his father, who was aware of his condition: Only kill those who truly deserve it, and whom the law hasn't been able to properly punish. It was a great show.
DanielOrme
2024-07-24 02:05:23 +0000 UTCOnly episode (so far) with every member of the Order of Aurelius sire line; The Master > Darla > Angelus > Drusilla > Spike
Isaiah Bryant
2024-07-24 01:50:03 +0000 UTCThis crossover is exceptional. The flashback scenes are on both shows but they maintain different tones and story arcs for each show.
The Testimony of Mushroom
2024-07-24 00:20:38 +0000 UTCcan we take a minute to appreciate the costumes, hairdos and make up in the flash-backs 😍 also the music!! 🎶 and no need to mention the writing... but I'm still going to hehe
madfem
2024-07-23 22:22:26 +0000 UTCI'm so glad you enjoyed this episode. Julie Benz's performance as Darla is incredibly nuanced. I love how this episode clearly portrays vampire Darla in the flashbacks as extremely smart, manipulative and perceptive. This episode has a fantastic callback to Buffy season one where Angel sees Darla again and he says, 'The last time I saw you, it was kimonos.' Which pays off here as that's what she's wearing in their final scenes during the boxer rebellion. Also in Buffy season one when Angel kills Darla, we see the Master in a grief stricken rage. He tells the Anointed One that Darla was his favourite! The scene between Angelus, Darla and the Master is so much fun! I also love that you're enjoying Lindsey's character. Christian Kane also does an amazing job!
Rebecca
2024-07-23 17:46:26 +0000 UTCActually, the theorizing in real time (as close as possible anyway) I find to be quite a bit of fun even though I am one of those people who are "in the know". Questions about the state of "Darla's" soul versus the fate of Angel's soul and the apparent differences in post-death fates I think of this way. Angel's soul was present in his body at the moment of his death yet also his fate in Buffy season two might not have been an actual death... after all he was sucked bodily into a hell dimension, soul and all. Darla when she was destroyed by Angel either did not have a soul present or the soul was a complete, innocent bystander with (maybe) no awareness of the vampiric activity. A present soul might be tortured by the revelation of said vampiric activity but does not explain the "nothing" Darla said to have experienced which indicates that no soul was present when dusted. It makes some sense that soul-wise Darla as a reborn human would have no memory of the fate of her soul having been disconnected from it for 400 years and would perceive her second death as a trip to nowhere and nothingness. There is a lot that can be theorized and some of it can have truly horrifying implications for people in the Buffyverse where all this stuff is occurring.
Michael Labs
2024-07-23 17:38:21 +0000 UTCHey before you mentioned watching shows about various slayers, well theres a novel written by Joss Whedon and Amber Benson (Tara) along with a few or four others that features stories about the slayers listing them in chronological order starting with the first slayer. I haven't checked it out before but I'm thinking of doin so here soon.
Morgan Williams
2024-07-23 16:20:04 +0000 UTCThat's pretty cool, thank you
Stephen Knueppel
2024-07-23 15:21:31 +0000 UTCJust for fun I thought I would try some historical research to see if I could do a better job than Angel at finding out Darla’s “real” name. *This is solely looking for the first name of female Virginia colonists of English ethnicity in their early 20s (Julie Benz’s age in Buffy S1) who died in Virginia 1609. **This is not taking into account any evidence regarding morality, worldview, career field, (We all understand that Darla is a fictional character and this isn’t making any comparisons with these real historical figures other than historical documentation of sex, age, ethnicity, time and location of death). The Virginia Company created (limited) documentation about who travelled to the colony, but the 1st voyage and the 1st Resupply had no female passengers. The 2nd Resupply arrived autumn 1608 with 2 English female passengers onboard, Margaret and Anne. Neither are good candidates to be Darla’s human identity. Records suggest that Margaret was in her 40s. Anne was 14 in 1608 and was still alive for a census in 1625. The 3rd Resupply arrived in the spring of 1609 documenting the arrival of 13 female English colonists. By removing those who are too young, too old, those who are documented as living past 1610 etc, the possibilities are whittled down to 2. There is not enough recorded evidence to know whether Mrs. Horton fits our criteria (also her first name is not listed) However, Sarah is documented as being 20yo and dies in the spring of 1610. It would seem that Sarah doesn’t fit our criteria either. Except, in the 1600s calendar usage was not as universal as today. There were disagreements about what the first day of the year was, Jan 1st or March 25th. If Darla favored March 25th and others favored Jan 1st; she would believe that she died in 1609, while it would be recorded as 1610. In short, based on this (not academically rigorous) historical analysis regarding colonists’ sex, age, ethnicity, and year and place of death (and should not be viewed as aligning Darla’s character traits with any real persons); If Angel had done a little more research he might think that Darla’s real name would be Sarah.
James Smith
2024-07-23 14:30:31 +0000 UTC
