Ep 21: Power Play - discuss!

[PokerKitten]

Oh my freaking god.... penultimate show, probably ever

Casting sides are out and I'll do my best to summarise through the tears....

We open on a scene with Spike and Illyria... now what a ship that could have been, huh?!

Anyway, Illyria seems to be teling him about wes cutting himself off from her after she pretended to be Fred, and that he won't tell her why. As Spike explains, she may not think she is powerful any more - and he calls her Highness... he isn't going to sew scrolls into his stomach any time soon is he?! - but, looking like Fred as she does, "That’s the most devastating power you’ve got."

Then we are in the W&H lobby, Angel and Gunn emerging from an office, Hamilton is there with Senator Helen Brucker and her aide Ernesto. Harm is at her desk

Hamilton introduces Helen to the lads, and she reveals that she has had dealings with W&H since Manners' time. Oh, and Ernesto turns out to be a vamp! Helen turns down coffee but says Ernesto might like some blood, heh! Virgin, and at room temperature is E's preference, but as Harm points out, no human blood on offer.

All are then seated round the big ol' table, on with a political candidate's commentary. Conley, a real wholesome family values kinda guy *barf* and Helen is more than concerned as he is standing against her. She says she didn’t claw her way up from Hell to the U.S. Senate just to have some paedophile take it
away from her..... Eh? he's a paedophile?! Er, not yet! But when the Gang are done with him, the world better think he is... Uh-oh!! There is talk of their brainwashing skills, and Dr Sparrow, but as Gunn points out, Manners doesn't live here any more. they don't do stuff like that now!

Helen turns to Angel while Gunn is still protesting about them not ruining a man's life etc.... and Angel says "We can do it." He dismisses Gunn's protests and infact, dismisses him, sends him out. Gunn crashes into Harm as he storms out.

We are next in Wesley's office, investigating Boretz Demons, in one of the infamous books. But the text begins to fade.

We see a Vinji leader, a member of the fell brethren, along with a few other human power players in the background.… Okay, so we have some familiar faces here from throughout the season... Izzy takes off his mask, all happy, and introduces Angel to the crew. Drogyn is mentioned but I am not sure I undertsand that bit! Sebassis he knows, and Seb congratulates him on being back to form, calling him Angelus, which Angel calls him on. Helen is there, and Angel tells her he didn' know she was so well connected! Well, if she wants to make it to the White House in 2008.....

Vail is there too, with all his tubes, and Angel seems to be telling him that they are okay. Everything turned out for the best (with Connor).

That seems to be it.



TBC

[PokerKitten]

The ep is called Power Play, and is written by David Fury, directed by James Contner.

[PokerKitten]

This is the ep the BAPS girls saw being filmed, and they have the greatest details. Intriguing stuff!

The scene between Spike and Illyria is Spike commiserating with Illyria
over how the mighty have fallen. Once she was so powerful, and now even
the lowly W&H employees ignore her presence. Spike is sympathetic -- he
mentions his ghost period. There's a suggestion that Illyria's powers have
somehow been depleted, but no explanation given. Illyria is upset because
Wesley is ignoring her, ever since she started assuming more Fred-like
attributes. That feeds into the bit we already saw in the casting sides
about Spike telling Illyria that her ability to resemble Fred is a very
devastating power.

More than half the day was spent trying to film the scene where Hamilton
arrives with Senator Brucker. The main reason for this is because the
actors had enormous difficulty with the pronunciation of a demon name (the
"Boretz" demon), and this kept throwing the actors off. James had
memorized it a certain way, and they wanted him to pronounce it
differently. David kept pronouncing it differently every time he spoke,
and he seemed to be so focused on getting it right that he would then
forget his next line. The Boretz demon, btw, is an homage to Joss Whedon's
assistant, whose name is Mike Boretz.

I can't remember what was in the casting sides, but as Angel is escorting
the Senator into his office, Wes comes over to tell him about some demon
killings. Evidently a Boretz demon. Spike joins them as well, making
uncomplimentary remarks about Boretz demons. Angel tells Wesley he can't
be bothered -- he's busy with the Senator. Both Spike and Wesley are left
scratching their heads over Angel's behavior. Spike offers to go take care
of the Boretz, and invites Illyria (who is again brooding over Wes' failure
to acknowledge her) to join him.

Angel also overrules his *no human blood* policy at Hamilton's urging, to
order Harmony to get some human blood for the Senator's vampire aide,
Ernesto. And Gunn is outraged by Angel's decision to help the Senator
against her opponent by arranging a brainwashing. Gunn storms out of the
meeting. I think the latter is in the casting sides we already saw.

The political commercial for the Senator's opponent, btw, was very well
done. They shot it with videotape to make it look more realistic. And it
looked very realistic indeed -- down to the golden retriever gamboling
around the perfect family, with the flag waving patriotically in the
fadeout over the scene.

Very interesting thing we noted was the wardrobe reversions and changes.

Spike. James, of course, was resplendent as always in his *new*
but-identical-to-the-old-one duster and black tee shirt (and yes, as Dezz
noted, it was way cool to see James as Spike). His hair was still slicked
back (the makeup person adjusted it at one point when a few hairs dared try
to arrange an escape attempt, whipping them back into their designated
places). But there were changes with respect to the others.

First, Fred (Amy). Illyria's face is no longer blue -- just her
forehead. We thought Amy looked pretty amazing as Illyria. She is small,
and has the physique of a dancer. Her costume was fascinatingly
complicated-looking, and we asked what it was made of, guessing leather or
pleather -- and it turned out to be spandex, with patches of leather. The
costume was also designed with lots of removable parts, so she could keep
cool if it was hot by opening a part here or there. While we were there,
she unzipped the top piece and walked around in the mesh tank top
underneath quite a bit when she wasn't filming. (The cast and crew were
all complaining about the weather, because record heat was being recorded
in the LA area that day, even though the sound stage was nicely air
conditioned.) We were told that the costume came in handy the other day
though, when they were apparently filming on location at night somewhere,
and it was very very cold.

Angel -- David was no longer suited -- he was wearing a typical Angel
mid-length leather jacket. And he was no longer wearing a button-down
dress shirt, but rather a more casual pullover that was not tucked
in. Btw, although David does nothing for Alane or myself on the screen,
where he comes off to us as a tad bulky, in person he came across as quite
yummy-looking. (But Theresa felt he came across pretty much the same in
person as on screen -- and not in a good way.) Alane notes that he has
more neck when you see him in person, but when you watch him on the monitor
two seconds later, the neck somehow disappears. Amazingly enough, she's right!

Wesley. Alexis was also somewhat casually dressed (though none of us are
recalling precisely what he was wearing). We think he was wearing a blue
and white button-down casual shirt and jeans, but we're not sure. What we
do remember, though, is that he had stubble again! The three of us agreed
that he looked pretty much the same in person as on screen. Alexis seemed
to spend a great deal of time getting into character and studying his
lines, pantomiming the delivery, right up to the moment he was ready to go
on. He also took advantage of the opportunity to keep his lines at hand
when he was holding a file or document as he approached Angel.

Gunn. JAR had perhaps the most dramatic costume reversion. Gone was the
tailored suit. Gunn was dressed in a strange, Japanese (?) boxing-themed
tee shirt, with a green hooded sweat shirt over it. In other words, back
to his old style of dressing. And -- he was bald. Again.

What all the changes in the characters' looks and clothing mean, we have no
clue. But it was interesting to observe.

Adam Baldwin is TALL. He seemed to be even taller than DB. He was dressed
in a typical lawyerly business suit.

Mercedes, poor thing, was dressed in a hideous tiered and ruffled/pleated
print skirt with a pink sleeveless knit top. She didn't seem impressed
with the wardrobe choice, and we don't think she'll be taking the wardrobe
skirt home with her as a memento.

If anyone has any other questions on the actors, or the sets, please go
ahead and ask, and we'll answer if we can. Alane and I were both surprised
by the fact that the bottom tier of the staircase (which resembles marble
on the screen) was in fact concrete painted to give a marbly
appearance. And we noticed a lot of flourescent lighting, which is not
favorable to anyone, which may in part account for the not-so-great way
some of the actors look on screen at times.

Laurie

[PokerKitten]

Info from Mythical Boards

ADDITIONAL CAST
Harmony MERCEDES MCNAB
Lindsey CHRISTIAN KANE
Hamilton ADAM BALDWIN
Izzy MARK COLSON
Sebassis LELAND CROOKE
Cyvus Vail DENNIS CHRISTOPHER
Senator Bruckner STACEY TRAVIS
Drogyn ALEC NEWMAN
Nina JENNY MOLLEN
Ernesto ELIMU NELSON

Written by DAVID FURY
Directed by JAMES CONTNER

As an aside, I see the cute Alec Newman (Drogyn) has landed the lead in Dark Shadows, that vampire show that probably contributed to the decision to pull AtS... hmmmm.

[PokerKitten]

Info from Fraz at Fanbolt.com

"Power Play"
HAS ANGEL TURNED EVIL? - The gang starts to have doubts about Angel's (David Boreanaz) loyalties when he appears to have become very close with the Circle of the Black Thorn, an evil secret demon society. When Drogyn (guest star Alec Newman), the guardian of the deep well, makes a startling revelation, the gangs' fears that Angel has become evil seem to be validated.


Circle of the Black Thorn...?! Oh dear, very menacing sounding... NOT!!

[PokerKitten]

Summary from Mythical Boards

Episode 21 | POWER PLAY


As Angel’s behavior grows increasingly hostile, his friends learn he’s associating with members of an evil secret society, and may have deliberately engineered Fred’s death.

In a dark stone room, five black-cloaked figures savagely beat a man. Before the deathblow, however, Angel appears and pulls the man to his feet. As the man thanks him, Angel vamps and rips into the man’s throat. Flashing back a day and a half, Angel wakes up in bed with Nina (the werewolf girl), and as they bask in post-coital bliss, she proposes a beach vacation. Angel declines, feeling pressured by work. A bit later, at Wolfram and Hart, Spike finds Illyria moping around and suggests she get out for some fresh air. Meanwhile Hamilton introduces Angel and Gunn to Senator Helen Brucker and her vampire assistant, Ernesto. As they exchange pleasantries, Wes interrupts to tell Angel about the latest victim of a nasty Boretz demon. To Wes’ surprise, however, Angel tells him not to sweat the “small stuff,” and ushers him out of the office. Outside Wes tells Spike about the demon, and Spike offers to take Illyria and go hunt for it. Back in Angel’s office, Brucker asks Angel to help her campaign by convincing the world that her opponent is a pedophile. Gunn bristles at spreading nasty lies, but Angel agrees to do it. Gunn storms out of the office. A few minutes later, as Wes pores over a book about Boretz demons, a strange symbol (which was also visible in the dark room in the opening scene), appears on the page, accompanied by the words, “You’re looking in the wrong place.” Just then, however, Gunn enters, and when Wes looks back at the book, the symbol is gone. A bit later Angel plays racquetball with Izzy (the devil from episode 12). Izzy updates Angel on the Fell brethren, who are happily raising the baby Angel helped them acquire for a ritual sacrifice, and tells Angel the Fell are spreading good word of mouth and “it won’t be long now.” Meanwhile, as Spike and Illyria cruise an abandoned amusement park looking for Boretz demons, Illyria comments that Angel is exhibiting all the signs of someone who has been corrupted and is about to betray his friends. Then, as she predicts Angel will kill one of them, Drogyn — the keeper of the Well from which Illyria was released — appears and says Angel has already done so.

Spike gets grabbed away by a Boretz demon. After he and Illyria fight it off, Drogyn says he’s come to warn them about something. Then they notice Drogyn is bleeding, and when they ask who attacked him, he says it was Angel. Meanwhile, at Wolfram and Hart, Wes storms into Angel’s office, but Angel — who’s in a private meeting with Hamilton — asks Wes to leave. Later Lorne and Gunn join Wes in his office, and just as they start to wonder what’s wrong with Angel, Spike calls. They all regroup at Spike’s apartment, where Drogyn tells them he was tortured by a demon sent by Angel, who was afraid Drogyn would find something in the Well indicating Angel was the one responsible for Illyria’s release and Fred’s death. Gunn is skeptical, but Spike remembers Drogyn can’t lie. Wes shows Drogyn the symbol he saw earlier in his book, but Drogyn doesn’t recognize it. Nonetheless the group decides to confront Angel, and leaves Drogyn to guard Illyria. Later, at Wolfram and Hart, Spike, Wes, Lorne, and Gunn find Angel and demand to know what he’s up to. He just says you can’t get obsessed with good and evil when power is the only thing that counts. He repeats his earlier advice about not sweating the “small stuff.” Wes asks if Fred was “small stuff,” but Angel dodges the question and closes the door in Wes’ face.

Later Gunn and Spike return to Wes’ office with Lindsey in shackles. Meanwhile Angel gives Nina tickets for a tropical vacation — for herself and her sister — saying she needs to be far away while he takes care of some dangerous business. And as Drogyn and Illyria play video games at Spike’s apartment, Hamilton arrives and attacks Drogyn. Illyria rushes to Drogyn’s aid, but Hamilton attacks her too. At Wolfram and Hart, Lindsey identifies the symbol Wes found as the mark of a secret society, the Circle of the Black Thorn: an elite group of evildoers who keep man’s inhumanity to man running smoothly. Wes notes that’s the Senior Partners’ job, but Lindsey says they exist on another plane while the Circle is in charge in this world. Wes realizes Lindsey was hoping to break into the Circle himself, and Gunn speculates that Angel may have succeeded where Lindsey failed. Lindsey says Angel would have to kill one of his own associates to get in, and the others realize he may already have done that with Fred. Meanwhile Angel follows the Circle’s symbols down a long hallway, through a wall of fire, and into the dark room from the opening scene. This time, when Angel pulls the beating victim to his feet, sucks his blood, and then breaks his neck, we see the victim is Drogyn.

Izzy and ten other masked figures watch as the Circle’s symbol is burned onto Angel’s chest. Then Izzy welcomes Angel to the fold and the other figures remove their masks, revealing most of the villains introduced in the past few months: Sebassis; Cyvus Vale; Brucker; and several Fell brethren, who congratulate Angel on joining their ranks. A bit later Angel returns to his office, where he’s met by Spike’s fist; as well as the rest of his angry, armed friends, who say they know now what Angel has been up to with the Circle. They raise their weapons and Angel strikes back, sparking a huge fight which finally reaches a standoff. Then Angel pulls a crystal out of his pocket and utters an incantation, and there’s a bright flash… after which Angel says they have six minutes to talk while anyone looking in from outside will still see them fighting. Then, under this magical cloak, Angel explains that he set things up so that Drogyn would think he had helped kill Fred, and word of this evil would get out to the Circle. He says it all started two months ago when Cordelia’s magical kiss transferred a one-time vision to him, revealing who the real powers are. When Fred died he decided to use the incident to win the trust of the Circle members. In other words, it’s all his master plan to take on the Circle and attack the true powers of evil in a way he never could before. Finally Angel asks if the others are ready to join him in the fight, which will likely kill them as well as the evildoers. His friends think it over, and one by one agree to join him. Meanwhile Hamilton watches Angel’s office from outside. All he sees is the magical illusion of the group inside still fighting… but then a slight look of skepticism crosses his face.

[PokerKitten]

The spoilers section is looking so empty now I could cry....

Anyway, here's the trailer for the penultimate episode

www.thewb.com/MediaCenter/Index/1,17492,170345,00.html

Craptastic as usual

[PokerKitten]

Do you remember getting real detailed spoilers from PersephoneMoon, for BtVS last season? Tensai has pointed to her stuff on the last two AtS episodes. Here is the link to her take on PowerPlay

[PokerKitten]

Spike says "Guess I don't have to worry about that, then. Angel and I have never been intimate. Except that one---"

Sorry Spike, if there was one time, there would have been many! ;D

[Cyrus]

As usual, misc ramblings typed up as the ep was airing...

---------------------------
Oookay, that was a short teaser... Guy getting beat up by some hooded dudes, then Angel comes in and "resues him" he says thank you, then Angel vamps out and bites him... opening credits...

19 hours earlier... ewww nekkid Angel and wolf girl in bed together...
Wolf Girl: "Where did you learn how to do that... you're not percetly happy are you? Cuz I got my wooden stake right here *reaces in nightstand drawer* oh that's not a stake"... "oh and the brow is back"

heh, Spike calls Illyria "Blue"

Illyria re Wes: "He and I are no longer having intercourse."
Spike: "what what what?!"
Illyria: "He has ceased communicating with me."
Spike: "oh oh"

Harmony: "Sorry we have a no human blood policy."

hmmm Angel seems like he's no longer interested in saving the "small people" or bothering with the "small stuff"

Spike to Illyria: "Hey! Wanna go find something to hit?"

Uh oh... Angel is being an arse! I mean like really!

Heh, Wes' special book just said "You're looking in the wrong place."

ROTFLMFAO! ! ! Angel is playing raquetball! ! ! ;D Black WF&H tshirt, black pants, eye goggle things, and headband!

Illyria: "I have seen this with many civilizations. Your leader has been corrupted."
Spike: "First thing, Angel is not my leader, second, what do you mean corrupted?"

Spike says if Angel was evil he'd know it...
Ooooh the part with Spike talking about him and Angel being intimate stayed in there! (The summary I'd skimmed said that not all of the summary would get in because it was too long.)

Harmony re the design Wes was scribbling out and she thought it was a tatoo: "A little more bad in your bad boy bank? It should go on your calf."

Lorne: "Is Angel in there? What's the weather report?"
Wes: "Cold. Icy."

Uh oh now they're telling us that Angel planned the release of Illyria!

LMAO Spike want to go with the gang to interrogate Angel, and so he makes Illyria stay and watch Drogen at his apartment. He tells her there's beer in the fridge, and she can watch a little telly, and play some "crash bang" and hands her the video game controller! ;D

Gunn: "Is that Angel talkin' cuz that wound a lot like Angelus."
Angel: "If I was Angelus half of yall would already be dead."

Angel: "Until I have global power, I have nothing."

Wes: "That small stuff that you don't worry about, would that include Fred?"
Angel: "I loved Fred."
Wes: "That's not an answer."
Angel: "Then I guess you don't get one." *shuts door in Wes' face*

The whole Angel-Nina thing is kind of ummm... forced and rushed.

LMAO @ Illyria and Drogen playing Spike's video games!
Drogen: "It is a task of some sort. You must get those crystals... and the fruit."
Oops her comes "Agent Smith" busting in Spike's door to get I & D. Oh and now he's tearing up S's apartment beating up I & D. lol he reminds me sooo much of Agent Smith.

hmmm Lindsey in chains... ;D He's got long hair and earrings.

Spike: "...spend a lot of time in basements paddling each other's bums to prove their manhood..."
Lindsey: "It's not a fraternity Spike."

oookay now we're back at the exact same place as the teaser...

ooh the hooded dude burned that sybmol on Angel;'s chest... WTF>?! ?! There's all the demons from earlier this season, including the one A was playing rball with, archduke horny demon, the senator, and Cyvus Vail.

Cyvus: "Your son. He kills quite well."

ooooohhhhhhh dusterless Spike! ! ! ! ! they just attacked Angel! all of the good guys! did I mention I can see Spike's bare arms sticking out of his tshirt?! ;D

If you dont like the way I do business, you can lebe before I kill you

OMG! ! ! There's this big figty with Angel against all the good gys.

WTF?! Angel cast a 6-minute glamour to make eberybody out side the room think they were still "at each other's throats"

whoa when cordy kissed angel she gave him one vision!

Angel: "I've seen the faces of evil. I know where the real power is."

Lorne: "Do you want me to point my crossbow at him because I think he's goign to start talking about ants again."

Spike: "Kill em all... burn the house down while we're still in it."

They're going to take a vote on taking down the Senior Partners, and they know they're probably all going to die doing it... Spike is the first to vote in, then Wes, Gunn, whoa the evil liason dude is watching what is going on "outside" the glamour.

"Stay tuned for scenes from next week's Angel. The series finale..."
-------------------------------------

Since I was doing this while the ep was airing, I might have to watch it again to make more sense.

[PokerKitten]

"Do you want me to point my crossbow at him because I think he's going to start talking about ants again."

Eep, I've been talking about ants a lot lately, too!

[Cyrus]

*points crossbow at PK* lol

[witchwolf]

CY- must say I as much as I was enjoying watching Angel last night, i kept my ears open for any line I knew you'd mention. Couldn't wait to read your re-cap.LMAO ;D
Obviously you've never experienced ' Crash Bandicoot ' for Playstation... very easy to get obsessed with. I highly recommend it when in need of placading ones self into a vegitative state.
only one left..... gosh what to do after next weds OH yeah.. JM will back back here after Memorial day , it's all gooood.

[Cyrus]

LMAO thanks... ;D I just type stuff I find amusing as I hear it. Eyes on telly, hands on keyboard... heh I end up with a lot of errors and have to come back and fix them. If you don't watch the ep or read one of the summaries you could get lost in my ramblings! Wonder if there may be a new Prattle title in there somewhere...

Nope never played that game... have no Playstation...

Only one more episode...!

[slaybelle74]

i watched this ep knowing what was gonna happen(cause i'm spoiled).....but i still got chills..and laughed..and even got a little inspired by angel's speech....then completely teared up watching the trailer for the last episode!!!why,oh why is this show being cancelled??all this time to adjust and i still don't get it (to all the stupid WB executives!)

[PokerKitten]

Staggering in from my JamesFilledWeekend, one of the first things I do is start downloading this ep...

[Cyrus]

Oh yes make sure you do before it disappears! It was a very good episode! ;D

[PokerKitten]

I watched this last night. Not sure what to say.... The sound quality of my download wasn't the greatest (too quiet) so I missed some of the dialogue first time round, which doesn't help. I def need to watch it again before I tackle the finale.

So maybe as a result of that, the first two thirds of the ep seemed a bit flat to me, not like a penultimate ep at all. But what I will say is that I enjoyed all of Illyria and Spike's interactions, it was good to see Drogyn again even in such ghastly circumstances, and ye gods but Angel's speech at the end was magnificent! Buffy could never make these impending doom and battle speeches, could she?! I would have followed him into the Darkness, for sure.

And I told you from the get-go that Hamilton was one scary motherfucker!

[nightnurse]

Is Illyria dead ? , no don't tell me I'm spoiler free....but she hadn't completed her Crash Bandicoot crystal quest ;D
Great ep...Spike calling Illyria 'The Blue Meanie' LMAO
I really liked Drogyn....
Hamilton WAS beefy wasn't he? Although I can't understand how he bested an admittedly weakened Illyria so easily ....she HAD just killed the Boritz demon with apparent ease, and IT had just laid out Spike

Wow...BB gave a good speech..hell, I'd a followed him too!

[PokerKitten]

Hamilton WAS beefy wasn't he? Although I can't understand how he bested an admittedly weakened Illyria so easily ....

Don't wory, you'll find out

I never did rewatch this ep. I'll watch them all again in sequence (missing out a couple of dogs!) at some point....