The Ring

Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections: Angel: Season One: The Ring
Summary:
Angel does some actual detecting trying to find a client's brother, which you know immediately means there's trouble ahead. He finds the brother--or rather the brother finds him. It's all a trap to get Angel into a brutal bloodsport with no way out until after 21 kills.

Ruminations:
I'm with everyone else (see below). Do the WB and UPN have spies on each others' lots stealing plots? Is Wesly going to be assimilated soon? Will Chakote take up crawling through the Jeffries Tubes to get from one part of the ship to another? Are there so few plots left?

That said, this was a nice episode. They actually gave the secondary characters a little more to do than just move the plot forward, although not much. And I think I understand Wesly's blend of competence and incompetence (also see below): Cordelia. Put him around a beautiful woman, and he can't even open the drawer right. Alone, he's the Rogue Demon Hunter.

It was nice to see Wolfram and Hart show up again. They established them as recurring villians in the first few episodes and there's been hide nor hair of them since. On the other hand, having them return as a nice young woman who just looks the other way weakens them a bit. I'd like to see them start really manipulating Angel's life as pawns of the Great Darkness the glitter disco oracles warned about. But maybe that's just me.

Nits:
Wesly refers to the bracelets as "forged by ancient sorcerers." Then he calls them medieval. These modern kids! Medieval times were hardly ancient times.

If you can put your hand through the force field thingie without getting smoked, why not reach up and take out some of the projects I saw on the roof?

After 21 kills, you get out. Then, you come back with a small army of your friends and you kill everybody! What are they thinking? Maybe nobody really gets out.

They weren't too bright teaming up that big demon and that little one. The odds were too bad to make any kind of betting profit, and with such a boring fight the crowd could turn ugly in a hurry.

Best line (way at the end): "Kind of."
By KAM on Wednesday, February 23, 2000 - 9:48 pm:

Wasn't this originally titled Tsunkatse? ;-)

Will we see Angel fighting Seven of Nine? or perhaps a Gorn? Or Travis & a Mutoid?

Angel: I sting like a vampire, and fly like a bat, you cannot stake me, you no good dirty rat.

Will Angel become a stand up comic in next week's show because he has such a strong punchline?


By margie on Friday, February 25, 2000 - 6:01 am:

Thank you! I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this looked like a Voyager ep!


By Keith Alan Morgan on Tuesday, February 29, 2000 - 11:44 pm:

Do you think the fighters, before each match say, "With this ring I thee bled."? ;-)

Wesley is usually played as clumsy & incompetant, so his ease & skill with shooting the crossbow & retrieving the gun seemed out of place.

So why did Angel go back as a prisoner? The lady lawyer made a deal with the fight runner, then when Angel awoke she said he was free, not free if he agreed to ignore the fights. Even if she had made that deal with Angel, as a lawyer she should know that deals made under duress are not binding, legally, or emotionally/ethically/morally. The only reason I can think of why Angel wold take the so-called 'noble' act of going back to the fights was that he did think of himself as a slave.


By Richie Vest on Wednesday, March 01, 2000 - 8:06 am:

You Forget that Wesley was a Watcher, so I am sure he was not as clumsly as he playes. My nit is one of the Demons says Angel is trying to be Gandi. Why would a full blooded Demon know about a human pacifist.


By Keith Alan Morgan on Wednesday, March 01, 2000 - 8:46 am:

Because human pacifists are delicious.

I didn't forget that Wesley was a Watcher, my problem is that TPTB usually have Wesley act like a clumsy fool, not as a person trained to train Slayers. While the scene was appropiate for Wesley's backstory, it seemed out of place for the way he is usually portrayed.

Didn't Buffy make a Gahndi reference in Anne?


By Ratbat on Wednesday, June 07, 2000 - 2:59 am:

Well, Ghandi's not only human, he's also terribly famous. Demons do tend to have something of a grasp on human affairs.


By Josh on Friday, June 23, 2000 - 1:09 pm:

Why is it that Angel always seems stronger than every other demon on the show? Even on this episode, he didn't end up getting his butt kicked by the big demon dude until he spared his life. Is it because he has 200 years of experience? Shouldn't there be at least one demon or monster that he goes up against where it actually looks like the demon has a chance in the fight?
Another thing, this should probably go somewhere else but why are there so many vamps and demons in L.A. Sunnydale had so many because of the Hellmouth. Why do so many go to L.A. Are there a lot of demons in every big city? Is it because Wolfram and Hart help represent them and employ them? Is L.A. where all the rejects from Sunnydale go? I've always thought that the last one would be the case. I thought it would be pretty funny that Angel was fighting all of the rejects.


By Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Friday, June 23, 2000 - 10:06 pm:

To paraphrase an old joke, LA does attract the fruits, the nuts, and the flakes.

From the hungry monster point of view LA makes quite a bit of sense for a hunting ground as you have all these would be actors, writers, artists, etc., etc., coming there every day and wouldn't really be missed when they disappear (not for a month or two anyway.) I would imagine New York would also have a large demon population for similar reasons.


By margie on Monday, June 26, 2000 - 11:36 am:

> I would imagine New York would also have a large demon population for similar reasons. <

Seeing some of the pedestrians on the streets around there, I would have to agree with you!


By RXFan on Monday, September 22, 2003 - 11:50 pm:

I always was under the impression that the goings on of demons and vampires was a big secret of sorts. Kate's there's-no-such-thing-as-vampires-or-monsters attitude early in this season seems to suggest this. So with these demons fighting in an underground ring ... I'm suprised there's not a story in the LA times about it.


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