Somnambulist
Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections: Angel: Season One: Somnambulist
Summary: A serial killer is active in the city, using Angel's M.O. from his bad old days. Is Angel sleepwalking, or is it more than that?

Reflections:
Moody and grim, I can live with. But other than blowing the big secret to Kate, what exactly was the purpose of this episode? It was well-written, well-acted, had a compelling storyline--and advanced our understanding of the character zero. He's tortured by his past mistakes. We get it already! Even if you just watch this show and skip Buffy (why?) you should have figured that out by now.

Let's get a move on here. Don't waste episodes exploring the depths of Angel's self-torture. I'll grant you this one, Whedon, but it's time to move on.

That said, it was a good episode. Charisma Carpenter did a nice job with the "ditzy until I don't want to be any more." "You're totally pumping me for information, aren't you?"

Nits:
Why do they even bother with the rules? Angel can wander anywhere in the city he wants to, at any time of day or not. He can enter another demon's lair any time he wants. I just plain give up. The uneasy standoff between Angel and the other demon on the each side of the shaft of light was well done, though.

Angel's big revelation is that the bad guy isn't after the schoolbus full of kids because it's too original. How about the fact that kids on a bus are rarely, if ever, out of the sun? When the heck do you attack a schoolbus if you're a vampire, anyway?

The whole fight at the end, I'm screaming "Go vampire!" Of course he couldn't, because the expression on his face had to be human so Kate could react to that and not stake him.

Poor Wesley. I hope that his role in the show expands a little, if they've got to have him. Today he wasn't much more than chauffeur and human target.
By Keith Alan Morgan on Wednesday, January 19, 2000 - 12:19 am:

Wesley says that he recognized the murders because he had studied Angel and holds up a file with ANGEL on it. However, when he first met Angel, he called him "Angelus", indicating that that is what the Watcher's Council calls him, and should be on that file.

I wonder what Wesley would have told the cops if they had encountered him by or in the building?

So why does it have to be a wooden stake and not a bullet though the heart?

I was thinking Angel could just flip the vamp over onto the stake that Kate was holding.

By A> Sinclaire on Friday, January 21, 2000 - 8:35 am:

How come the pronouncing of the naem used to be with the l silent and something else different I don't know what, but suddenly it's like this and sounsd all wiggy and weirrrrdddd???

By Callie Sullivan on Wednesday, March 21, 2001 - 2:25 am:

Cordelia dropped in a throwaway line about Angel which included the immortal words, "He's my friend." Cordelia considers Angel to be her friend?? Cripes - I thought she would have thought of him as her employer and not much more, especially now that the headaches give her reason to resent him.

The whole business of Kate going alone into the warehouse was really naff. It seemed really unlikely that she would be allowed to go alone - and even after she fired several shots nobody came rushing in or even radioed to ask if she was alright!

By D.W. March on Wednesday, March 12, 2003 - 1:33 am:

Loved this episode. I couldn't believe all these people that were saying Angel was so much better than Buffy. But my season one DVD set hasn't let me down in a single episode yet (although I'll probably never watch "I will remember you" again since it has such an unhappy ending).

Not much to nitpick, although I wonder why when Kate said that the building was sealed off, Angel and Wes were able to break in through a side of the building that didn't look very sealed off to me.

I also wondered how much fun a vampire would have attacking a schoolbus at 7am. Alternately, perhaps there are schools in LA that are so far off the beaten path that the buses have to leave at 5am? Traffic maybe? I hear LA is terrible for that.

Loved Angel's protege. I hope that kid comes back sometime, although the big stake through the heart will probably prevent that.

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