I have no socks on.

Because they got rocked the fuck off.


[Begin Spoiler for Lineage — Highlight to view]

This was a fantastic episode. Like other episodes where lots of Big Shit happens, it had the potential to go downhill really fast, but it resisted. Oh my Lordy Lordcakes. I really, really loved this episode. It was so fabulous and fucked up and so fabulously fucked up. HOLY SHIT!

I'm giving it a 9.5. It wasn't perfect by any means. There were definitely ways in which it could have been better, and certain things could have been left out cough*Spike*cough. cough*Eve*cough. Dude, is Eve still in the elevator? That's awesome! I could have done without the whole her and Spike business, because I didn't care. Also, that scene was shot at odd angles, so their faces looked distorted and unpleasant. Also, for some reason the position and posture of Eve's body made it look as though she were standing at a urinal. Unpleasant! Also, in the beginning, after Angel started digging into Wesley for his "error" my brain started going to delightful geeker joy places, theorizing and questioning as to how Angel was dealing with these actions that Wesley doesn't even know he did. The whole Connor thing is really confusing now. Did he still go dark? What up? Anyway, I was angered and dismayed that Angel and Eve then had to have a conversation spelling everything out. As Fred later said, "Do you know how patronizing you sound?" ... or approximate quote, anyway. Seriously. Because it's not like I've watched the show for the past five years. It's not like I'd know what was going on unless it was spelled it out and they used small words. I mean, do they think their audience is stupid, or have they lost all capacity for subtlety? Both?

See also, at the end. I was so happy that Angel was all "Hey, I killed my father too! Let's bond." and I was happy that they went there (And hey Kirk - relevant to our discussion!) but then they pissed me off with the over-explanation. See, he did that when he first became a vampire. Which you'd know if you'd ever seen this show before. On the one hand, I forgive it, because that was a great scene (including the Spike bit, which was actually nicely handled), but on the other hand it pisses me off because it mucked up a great scene.

Anyway. HOLY SHIT! Oh dude. This was a great episode. See, I was going to comment that Wesley's interaction with his father wasn't hitting the spot for me. I loved the dude that played his father. He seemed to be the perfect casting. I love that they looked similar, I loved that he was shorter than Wesley, I loved the whole thing. But I thought he should dig into him more. I thought Wesley should "revert" more. More like his phone interactions with his father, like in the last scene. Oh, speaking of the last scene, I could tell from the fingers and the tones that Wesley was pressing "0 44.." to call home, and that just made me really, really happy for some reason. Yee!

A quick sidetrack. What is Wesley's name? Is it "Wesley" or is it "Wezley"? Because "Wezley" has always pissed me off. I pronounce it the other way, so this seems lazy and unnatural. Yet Wesley's fake-father clearly called him Wezzzzzley. What up! I don't know if I approve of this! I forget how Wesley himself actually says it, but, dude. STOP VOICING THE FRICATIVES! God.

Anyway! Down to business. Dude. Wesley shot his father. HOLY SHIT. And I was very happy that it turned out to not be his father. I was actually very happy with this. I'm glad that his father wasn't evil, and I'm glad Wesley didn't kill his father. And I'm also glad that he thought he did. That was the only way they could have done this, so I'm not at all against the ridiculous fake-father concept. If it had been his father and he had been evil and all the rest, that would have felt really wrong to me. So I glad at the way this worked out. I don't have to be uneased by it. You can move past Wesley's reaction of: [vomit], and my reaction of: "Holy Shit!" and fully accept and revel in the complete and utter beauty and fucked-uppedness of the situation. It's so Beautiful And Fucked-Up.

And I also like the (perhaps unintentionally) subtle reactions of Wesley. Yeah, honey. You did it because he threatened Fred. Sure. That explains shooting him, once. Maybe twice. But you emptied the fucking gun, dude.

This episode was such a mind-fuck. And it was great! I loved every minute of it. Well, except the minutes with Spike and Eve. ... And the other reasons that I knocked off .5 points. Oh well. It still rocked heavy.

[End Spoiler]