Angel 5.16 'Shells'

[chicken]

First: Oh my god, Tears, Crying, lots of them. From the moment Wesley choked on his tears onward, I was a total goner. I am such a sucker for the Joss pain.

I know the ending montage was a little on the side of Tearjerker manipulation, but all the rest, all the other crying was well-earned, well-written, deep and true, and not at all shallow or cheaply 'tearjerker'. It was the kind of meaningful sorrow that no other show can come close to producing.

Amy Acker has really taken this opportunity to stretch her acting skills, and I am very impressed. It's not all little girly voice anymore, you know. Her facial expressions, the way she holds her body, all very different and subtler.

A technical/stunt note: bunnyohare noticed that the woman doing Amy's stunts looks a lot like the woman who did a lot of Eliza's stunts. Does anyone else see the resemblance and/or know for a fact whether it is the same woman or not?

After I read keever's observations, I am indeed quite freaked out thinking about the slug episode, 'The Price'. "We're Thirsty!" The way that Gunn has changed and all. The way Angel reacts, and the way Fred would have wanted to sacrifice herself to save many others.

I have a question about Harmony here. Steve clearly adores her and has done an interesting job of giving her some depth, some feeling. I really enjoyed it, especially since her wacky dumb humor was still kind of there, too. However, does anyone else feel that the sudden appearance of these new traits is a bit, well, sudden? And hard to believe? Perhaps her whole experience being a murder suspect served as a sort of transition, but still.

Although the really important bit -- Unicorns! On the desk. Hangin' about. Woo hoo!

They never let the viewers forget that whole 'Why would someone take a unicorn?' and unicorn horn dusting thing. Because, funny.

Finally, Lorne. Why does he get so little screen time? Andy is so under-used. Pout.

Overall, I really loved this ep., it had everything from Spike/Angel slash and humor to dark, teary stretches, to great Wesley and Gunn. It even had the most ridiculous Knox ever. I am still unsure of his motivations -- why, really, would he fall so much in love with Illyria since the age of eleven?

To riff on my comments in the review by mpoetess ...

Cordelia's death: hard to take, emotionally draining & expensive.
Fred's death: just as costly in tears and heartache.
A whole month without eps, and then only six more eps after that: NOT priceless.

Okay, that was lame of me.