"Eternity" (Angel 1.17): The one before Faith shows up

Spoiler alert. As far as I'm concerned, these episodes are just biding time until Faith arrives for some tough love from a vamp who's been there before. And by "there," I mean "a killer of the innocent." But I suppose we need to earn our way to "Five by Five," so here's the Angel guide to dealing with actresses.

DO realize they're all vain and ambitious. If I were feeling more engaged, my feminista hackles might rise a little at the portrayals of both Cordy and Rebecca, the actress whose life he saves at the beginning of the episode. But since I'm not, and since Cordelia's performance in A Doll's House was so hilariously bad, and since the show was savvy enough to quote a scene from A Doll's House without then congratulating themselves on the reference, and since Cordelia redeems herself later, I'm going to let it go.

The performance is precisely as bad as this still might suggest.

Anyway, while Angel and Wesley are trying to figure out how to simultaneously a) tell Cordelia the truth and b) not tell Cordelia how wretched she was in the play, Angel saves Rebecca (because that's what he does), and once she finds out he's immortal, she wants a little of that for her rapidly aging face and body.

Would she have only "acted" like a person who could get out of the way of a car, speeding towards her, from a block away, all this could have been avoided.

DO be prepared for the public life. I'm mainly just including this point for an excuse to feature Angel's premiere hair.

It's unfortunate.

DON'T leave your drink unattended around Hollywood types. Which doubles with the maxim "DON'T ever slip a vamp a mickey." After clumsily getting Angel to drink a drugged flute of champagne, (which, as my intrepid co-watcher Jenn points out is both ridiculous and unnecessary),

This isn't a thing.

Angelus wakes up, and so does the episode. Whereas I would have gone with a roofie, Rebecca apparently went with X or the like, leaving Angel so relaxed, and so close to "true happiness," that Angelus comes out to play.

Mess with Angelus? That's one blood bag in the face . . .

and one champagne-flute shard to the throat.

DON'T underestimate the talent. Though Rebecca is instantly and lethally out of her league, Cordy shows her Sunnydale cred and takes Angelus out with an assist from Wes.

The face of a girl who knows what's up, re: vamps.

And, as Jenn notes, we all should know have known that Angelus wasn't going to take, as Angel would never find true happiness with a brunette, no matter what she dosed him with. And speaking of brunettes . . .


I do appreciate Angelus's appearance in this episode (and in "The Prodigal"), if for no other reason than his blood-soaked past will be precisely what best qualifies him to peer-mentor our favorite Slayer to be Named Later. See you next week!