Ep 11: Damage - discuss!

[PokerKitten]

From Filmjerk - www.filmjerk.com/nuke/article679.html

Angel: The untitled episode 11, written by Steve S. DeKnight and directed by Jefferson Kibbee, seems to focuses on a woman named Dana, a mental patient who has been institutionalized from the age of 10 following a traumatic experience. This character, which is listed as a major guest role, is having violent outbursts and Angel brings in a creepy pyschic to find out what her deal is.

[PokerKitten]

Casting sides alert! Casting sides alert!! And fuck me! We have a very surprise guest...!!

The episode is called Damage and is written by Steve DeKnight

Okay, a summary:

Night in a seedy-looking asylum.

Doctor Rabinaw walks down the hall to nurse Carol, who is doing a crossword. They talk about stocking up on psychiatric medications, and then the crossword. Another nurse calls for urgent assistance from Dr R for his patient, Phillip. Dr R asks what happened, and the nurse says she doesn't know. They discuss his meds, and realise that the nurse got them mixed up Phillip got someone else's sedatives. Yikes!! Panic!! Loud slamming noises ensue.

Dr R runs down the hall towards the pounding, with a couple of orderlies, but the noise stops. The doc laughs in relief, believing that the door is secure. But it isn't because it then flies open revealing Dana, a young woman described as dirty, -kempt, and with scars on her limbs.

Dr R tries to calm Dana as the orderlies move towards her, but Dana sees the needle the doc is holding. When the orderlies attempt to subdue her she fights them off.

Dr R is terrified.

*GAP*

Night-time at the asylum again. Our vamp heroes have been riding seperate lifts/elevators because two lift doors open, Spike emerging from one, Angel from another. Angel is surly, Spike is cheerful. Spike asks if Angel's head got muddled by the slug Spike saved him from, and if he's here to get it checked out. Angel is not amused, and tells Spike he should be out patrolling the streets. But Spike retorts that he feels he needs to help out Angel, as he is so office-bound these days....

Dr R asks if he can help them. Spike says no, they are there to help him. Dana has "escaped". Angel hands the doctor his card, and tells the doc that he's going to help get her back.

Dr R says he told the police everything already but Angel asks for the details again.

***

Angel, Spike and the doc are in Dana's room, which is covered in ooglie crayon drawings of monsters and a young girl, and Spike checks them out while Angel talks to the doc.

Dr R tells them about the meds and says that Dana was on a very high dose of sedatives. He goes on to explain that she witnessed her family's murder when she was 10, and was kidnapped and tortured by the murderer afterwards. She was found months later and had been almost catatonic since.

Spike looks at the broken up door and comments that it looks like she's not so catatonic anymore.

The doc says that several months ago, Dana's behaviour changed (red alert - are we talking stupid slayer-making spell here? Are they going to face up to the irresponsible act of Buffy and Willow in making lots of slayers without their consent?). As he trots out the medical jargonese, Spike pulls one of the drawings fromt he wall and says it's demon possession. Which "theory" the doc mocks, prompting Spike to scoff at the doc's moustache in return. Humourless Angel tells him that this is not helping, and Spike agrees - he's not helping, he's doing, and he's off to repossess that demon. He leaves, with Angel glaring after him.

Angel apologises to the doc about Spike's terminal idiocy. The doc says he should go after him, because Dana will kill him, too, and then he leaves. Angel says to himself that Spike will just come back again if he's killed. ;D

Angel looks at the drawings on the walls again, and wonders just what the doc hadn't been telling him. He turns, and Nurse Carol is in the doorway.

*GAP*

A drugstore at night. Dana is tearing open cakes and stuffing her face! A member of staff confronts her, but she ignores him and carries on feeding. As he tries to stop her, she grabs his arm and breaks it. He falls to the ground, screaming. She has a saw with her!! But she moves over to the clothes and grabs a pair of trousers/pants and a shirt which triggers a flashback.

Flashback to a basement (the Jossverse loves its basements). We see bloodied tools and chains and stuff and a guy dressed in dark clothing. He is humming a chirpy tune as he selects his next tool, a small saw. He turns around, and we see a bloody 10 year-old Dana, who is chained to a radiator.

End of flashback, and still in the drugstore. A security guard points his gun at Dana. He tries to calm her down, but she looks at him vacantly.

*GAP*

[PokerKitten]

Oh boy, I'm finding this quite tense and exciting and we only have bits of it... yikes, bits! Bad choice of words in the circumstances!! Anyway, here's more:

A wharf at night. Dana is walking amongst empty buildings. Another flashback hits when a boat horn blares.

Flashback to ubiquitous basement. Dana is chained up and terrified. The guy we saw before reaches for a container, and Dana screams in terror.

Flashback ends and we're back at the wharf. Dana is now bloody and crying. A dockworker notices her and asks her if she's okay. She looks up at him confused.

***

Back at W&H, the Gang are researching ... messily. Wes is reading Dana's psychiatric reports and Angel is frustrated that they aren't making progress. He then mentions that they've identified all the slayers that Dana has dreamt about.

*GAP*

Okay, brace yourselves...

We see Andrew and Spike. No, I'm not delusional. ANDREW and Spike... and Spike is annoyed that Andrew is tagging along, and tells him to go back to W&H. But Andrew wants to be where the action is, and he opens his coat to reveal his weapons *steady!* He says that Mr. Giles has been training him, and he's more manly. ;D Then he trips on the pavement, and turns around to see what caused it. He sees the bloody remains of the dockworker that tried to help Dana and squeals in unmanly fashion!

*GAP*

A home, at night. An estate agent is showing Angel, Lorne and a blue-skinned, robed psychic round the house.

He is doing his selling job, highlighting the house's features, but of course they aren't interested in them. The psychic, Vernon, says that the walls scream with the blood of the innocent. Angel asks Lorne if Vernon is reliable and Lorne reassures him. He's Madonna's psychic after all.... ;D

We then see what Vernon can see. Fifteen years ago, Dana's family is murdered,; mum, dad, baby/young child (and this is ringing bells with me, but in my story the girl was all grown up, not ten! Anyway....)

We flashback to 10 year old Dana hiding under her bed. The murderer stops by her bed and suddenly chucks it over.

Vernon snaps out of his "vision". Angel asks him where the man took Dana, and he says somewhere dark, cold, dusty. That's where her pain lives. And it's still calling to her.

*GAP*

Spike and Dana, in... you guessed it... a basement. Spike tells her he can track her now, so no point running off again. Dana whispers that there is no escaping... and Spike agrees, trying to get closer to her and reassuring her that he doesn't want to hurt her. Dana is rambling a bit and Spike reckons she's a loony, but like he says, that's alright because hey, he used to date a girl who was kinda loony. And he tells her that a couple of months ago, her head got all scrambled (okay, again with the slayer-making alert). Dana is still rambling and says something about having to get back to her son.

Ack! But as Spike approaches, she kicks his legs out from under him and sticks a needle in him, drugs him, hits him. Spike is all weak and wobbly, she injects him again...... Says that she can't be hurt again..... Spike sounds like he is protesting, then passes out.

***

This is the end of the sides, and the script. Again, brace yourselves

A warehouse at the wharf. Wes and a SWAT team are armed with tranquiliser guns. Dana is on the ground, unconscious, and the team rushes in to get her. Angel and Wes turn around, and we see... *gulp* Spike.

Spike is unconscious and chained to a radiator, bloody, beaten..... and his hands have been cut off. The SWAT team calls for the med team.

Spike is rushed outside on a trolley, with Fred by his side. Fred is using her cell phone, demanding the surgical team. Spike is put in an ambulance, and Fred and a medico - with Spike's hands in a cooler - climb in.



Well, as far as we know he is still a vamp, and at times like these you gotta love those vampiric healing skills *faints*

[PokerKitten]

*still breathing heavily and reaching for smelling salts... I CAN reach, I have hands *

Here is Clairel's version of what the sides tell us, up at AASB - www.voy.com/14810/133038722.html

As previously reported by Filmjerk, there is a mentally disturbed
young woman named Dana who has been in a mental asylum for about 10
years. When she was a kid of 10 years old, her family was murdered
and she was taken away by the murderer and tortured for months. She
was found eventually, dazed and catatonic, and has been
institutionalized ever since. She has superstrength and if she isn't
constantly sedated she goes berserk. A nurse mixes up the meds one
day, Dana doesn't get her sedative, and she breaks out.

For some reason both Spike and Angel have heard about this
separately. It seems as if they are rival "do-gooders" now. Angel
is annoyed when Spike shows up at the asylum to investigate at the
same time he does. They both talk to the doctor a bit, then Spike
leaves saying it's time for action. Angel stays around and talks to
the nurse. She wants a job with W&H and she shows Angels some
videotapes and pictures she's not supposed to show him.

Dana is in a grocery store chowing down on Hostess Ding Dongs, and
snapping the clerk's arm like a twig when he asks her to pay for the
food.

Later there's a street scene with a bloody corpse. Spike arrives and
sniffs the blood, prepared to track the perp (who I guess is Dana).

Spike also runs into Andrew (yes, Andrew from BtVS!), who is freaked
out by the bloody corpse and screams like a little girl. Evidently
it isn't their first encounter in LA; Spike tells Andrew to go back
to Wolfram & Hart, and Andrew talks about how Giles has been training
him and he is now 82% more manly than he was before. He also shows
Spike a variety of weapons stashed inside his coat.

There is also a scene with Lorne, a real estate agent, and someone
named Vernon who I think is a psychic. They're walking through a
house that I think is Dana's childhood house. The psychic is talking
about what happened to her and her family, and how "her pain is still
here." There is also a mention of how Dana has been dreaming about
Slayers for years (perhaps she's a Slayer herself now and that's why
she has superstrength?).

There are flashbacks with Dana at the age of ten, screaming in fear
at a man in jeans and work boots whose face is never seen. He's
called the Humming Man because he hums all the time. He is preparing
torture devices for Dana.

There is no casting side for the Humming Man himself. My guess is
that the Humming Man is actually Spike, or at least the audience is
supposed to think it is. It's also mentioned that he wears a black
teeshirt, and when adult Dana sees a dark-colored teeshirt she freaks
out and has a memory flashback.

Later--brace yourselves, because this is upsetting--Dana evidently
must have gotten hold of Spike, knocked him out, and chained him to a
radiator somewhere. It's mentioned that his arms are stumps, and
Dana has a saw: evidently she sawed off Spike's hands. Fred has
arrived with an ambulance and a med team and is taking Spike back to
her lab to operate on him and give him new hands.


Okay, don't worry too much about her spec about us being meant to think the black clad torture guy is/was Spike. You COULD interpret the penultimate bit of the sides as her saying HE can't hurt her any more and Spike protesting that she is crazy, he never.... But hopefully it is nothing more than the black clothes triggering her....

[PokerKitten]

Tensai has posted a sides summary too, with some spec - www.spoilerslayer.com/archives/002494.php

ATS: Episode 11 Details

As expected from the casting information released yesterday, further info has now become available. The big news, a familiar face from Sunnydale is in this episode. Titled 'Damage', you can get the scoop below.
Angel: Damage

The episode opens at a mental institution. A doctor (Dr. Rabinaw) and the head nurse (Carol) are chatting when a nurse rushes up to them, because a patient is not reacting well to their medication. There was a mix-up, and the patient was given the wrong sedative. Dr. Rabinaw is horrified when he discovers exactly who wasn't sedated. We discover why, as the heavily-reinforced door that contains this patient begins to take a beating from the occupant inside.

Rabinaw and some orderlies move to the door to the cell. Rabinaw is not worried, as the door can certainly handle this patient. Until it flies off the hinges and across the corridor. Inside, we see the patient. A young woman. A very tiny, slim and 'not the type to burst through metal doors' woman. To further disprove this assumption, the young woman (Dana), quickly disables the orderlies and escapes.

Angel and Spike arrive at the aslyum, thanks to an anonymous phone call.

Note: Spike makes reference to Angel maybe needing to check himself in, due to some mind-twisting parasite that Spike saved him from. I would guess that this is what induces the hallucinations/dreams in the previous episode.

They ask for more information from Rabinaw, who explains that Dana's family had been killed when she was only 10, and she was abducted and found wandering the streets months later. As Angel and Spike examine her room, which is covered with crayon drawings of a girl being accosted by demons, Rabinaw explains that up until a few months ago, she had pretty much catatonic. Then suddenly she came out of it, in a clearly agitated and schizophrenic state. She also seemed to be incredibly strong. Spike quickly takes a page from the 'Tru Davies book of Wrong Conclusions', and deduces that she must have been possessed by a demon. He heads out to find her, while Angel ponders the drawings further.

Meanwhile, Dana has wandered into a nearby store, hugging a bone-saw to her chest. While eagerly devouring snacky goodness from the shelves, a stock boy confronts her with the old 'you eat it, you buy it' routine. Which turns out to be a bad idea, as she breaks his arm without hesitation and heads off to get some clothes in another aisle. Where a armed security guard confronts her.

Back at the institution, Angel is approached by Carol (the nurse). He realizes that Carol was the one who called. Turns out that she's heard about a few openings at the firm, and figures this could give her an 'in'. She takes Angel to a room where Rabinaw has been taping sessions with Dana. One of the tapes features Dana in restraints speaking in multiple tongues (just like your standard victim of demonic possession), which seems fine until she says something in a language that Angel understands.

Back at the store, Spike walks by as the security guard's body is wheeled out under a bloody sheet. He smells some blood on the pavement, realizes that it's Dana's, and starts tracking her.

Missing a bit of the action here, but at some point Spike gets into a tussle with Dana. Dana is more than able to go head to head with Spike (have you figured it out yet?), and gets away. She is discovered at the docks by one of the workers, who goes over to her to see if she's alright (his first, and final, mistake). Meanwhile at Wolfram and Hart, Wesley and Angel have figured out that Dana has been dreaming about Slayers.

At the docks, Spike stumbles upon Andrew, who stumbles himself on the remains of the dockworker. (yes, that Andrew. I think he shows up at the end of the previous episode, as Spike tells him to go back to the offices and isn't surprised that he's in town).

While this is going on, Angel and Lorne have gone with a Wolfram and Hart psychic (Vernon), to the house where Dana used to live. We discover what happened when Dana was 10, as her family was targeted and killed by a mysterious 'humming man', who abducted Dana and tortured her until she escaped. Vernon realizes that she's trying to return to the basement where she was imprisoned for so long

Which is where Spike finds her. It's unclear if he's figured out what Dana is (A Slayer), as she rambles on like the mad-woman she is. Spike tries to talk to her, since he has some experience with half-insane women, but she manages to get the drop on him and uses some medication she found in the basement to render him unconscious (the same thing that used to be done to her by the 'humming man'). Spike, mercifully, blacks out.

Warning: If you are eating, or thought that nothing could be worse than last season's 'Kick-The-Spike' on Buffy, stop reading now

Final scenes in the episode are a Wolfram and Hart strike team rushing the basement and Wesley tranquilizing Dana. Angel and the others discover Spike chained to a radiator, sans hands. As Spike is rushed out to a waiting ambulance, Fred is communicating with the medical team back at the firm. Another employee comes out with a cooler containing Spike's hands. That's all I have for now
I have a feeling, based on all the info on hand at the moment, that this could be the first episode of February sweeps. Either that, or it's going to be the one right before that. I'm also rethinking who may be appearing in the episode that follows this one, the 100th episode of the series. Rather than it being Cordelia who returns, the appearance of Andrew and the Slayer-storyline makes me think that a hefty chunk of the Scooby gang may be on hand for the following episode. It's still what I would consider a longshot, but the tone of the episode indicates that there may be continuing storyline here.

Whether or not that means Buffy is going to show up, that's another question entirely. I just don't see how this storyline could possibly roll into the return of Cordelia. Unless, through a bizarre twist, we discover that Cordelia was a Potential as well.

[PokerKitten]

From tensai at Spoiler Slayer:

In Episode 11, we will learn that Buffy is in Europe (Italy) and that she is unaware that Spike is alive. Spike, for his part, doesn't want the news getting back to her either.

[PokerKitten]

Drew Goddard has been added to the writing credits for this one - Steve and Drew, promises much!

[PokerKitten]

Guest stars' cast ist:

Harmony: MERCEDES MCNAB
Dr. Rabinaw: KEVIN QUIGLEY
Carol: ALEX S. ALEXANDER
Young Nurse: REBECCA METZ
Dana: NAVI RAWAT
Stock boy: DAVID BROUWER
Security Guard: WILLIAM STANFORD
Young Dana: JASMINE DI ANGELO
Andrew: TOM LENK
Dock Worker: MIKE HUNGERFORD
Real Estate Agent: DEBBIE MCLEOD

Vernon the Creepy Psychic: MICHAEL KRAWIC

SWAT Team #1: MESAN RICHARDSON

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Written by: STEVEN S. DEKNIGHT & DREW GODDARD
Directed by: JEFFERSON KIBBEE

[PokerKitten]

Ep summary, from Mythical Boards

DAMAGE


COPYRIGHT

™ and © 2003-2004 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.
Watch Angel on The WB on Sundays, at 8pm


A deranged vampire Slayer is convinced that Spike is the man who kidnapped and tortured her when she was a child.

When a nurse at an asylum mixes up two patients’ medications, one of them goes into convulsions and the other, a 20-something woman named Dana, goes berserk, grabs an antique bone saw, and dismembers two burly orderlies while a horrified Dr. Rabinaw watches. A bit later, at Wolfram and Hart, Angel and his friends get a tip about a “possessed” patient who escaped from the asylum. Angel and Spike go to there, and Dr. Rabinaw shows them Dana’s room, which is decorated with childish crayon drawings of demon-like monsters terrorizing young girls. Dr. Rabinaw explains that when she was a child, someone murdered Dana’s parents, then kidnapped and tortured her, and she’s been nearly catatonic ever since. Convinced Dana is possessed by a demon, Spike immediately runs off to find her, but Angel sticks around and a nurse, Carol, offers to show him videotapes of Rabinaw’s sessions with Dana. Meanwhile Dana goes to a drug store where she gorges on junk food, and flashing back to her childhood torture, snaps a clerk’s arms and uses the bone saw on a security guard. Back at the asylum Carol shows Angel the tapes of Dana’s therapy sessions, and he’s surprised to hear Dana screaming in Romanian on one of them. A bit later Spike finds the drugstore Dana ravaged, picks up her blood scent… and a bit later comes face to face with her at an abandoned building. About the same time, however, Angel calls Wesley and tells him they’re not dealing with a demonic possession after all: Dana’s Romanian rantings, and her drawings of young girls being menaced by demons, indicate that she’s a Slayer, not a monster.

Dana attacks Spike, but even though he fights back, she hurls him out a window just as Angel arrives. Angel tells Spike that Dana’s really a Slayer, and they return to Wolfram and Hart to meet with an associate of Rupert Giles. When they arrive, however, they’re surprised to see Giles’ emissary is Andrew, who’s thrilled to see Spike alive. Andrew explains that in every generation, there are thousands of young women born with the potential to be Slayers, but only one is chosen. He says, however, that Buffy, this generation’s Slayer, had her witch friend cast a spell to activate all the potential Slayers in the world, and Mr. Giles has been slowing tracking them down and training them. Andrew speculates that Dana is one of these recently activated Slayers, but she’s so deranged that she channels voices and visions from generations of past Slayers… which causes Spike to realize that Dana must have thought she was the Slayer he killed a hundred years ago, and confused that vision with memories of the man who tortured her when she was a child. Spike immediately rushes out to find Dana while Dana herself wanders a wharf, still suffering flashbacks of her childhood torture. Back at Wolfram and Hart, Angel and his friends try to figure out where Dana might be, and Lorne suggests she might return to the scene of her torture. They decide to ask Andrew where that was, but discover he’s gone… and then we see him find Spike at the wharf. Spike tells Andrew to go home, but Andrew insists he’s much stronger than he used to be, and then he trips and lands on the remains of a dockworker Dana killed. About the same time, Angel and his friends to go a suburban home, where Vernon, a psychic friend of Lorne’s, has visions recalling the brutal murders of Dana’s parents, and the man who kidnapped Dana from the scene. Then, as Vernon senses the man took Dana to a dark building that smelled of molasses, we see Dana, in the present, arrive in the basement of an abandoned distillery, where she finds a box of tools and hypodermic needles hidden behind a grate… and then she has another flashback: Spike approaching her with one of the syringes.

Meanwhile, as Spike and Andrew wander the wharf looking for Dana, she stalks them. At Wolfram and Hart, Angel asks Gunn to find out who killed Dana’s family, and Lorne to find out where the man took her when he kidnapped her. Wes asks what they’ll do with Dana when they find her, but Angel says the most important thing is to get her off the streets. Back at the wharf the smell of Dana’s blood leads Spike into an alley, where Dana attacks him. Andrew tries to shoot her with a tranquilizer gun, but she knocks him out and runs off. Spike chases her… into the distillery basement. As they circle each other, Dana babbles about people and places that make Spike realize she’s still jumbling the memories of several different Slayers, including the one he killed. Finally Spike gets closer to Dana, but she jams a needle into his neck, and as he gets woozy, she chains him to the same radiator where her assailant once chained her. Then she injects him with another syringe, and he passes out. Back and Wolfram and Hart, Lorne finally remembers what Vernon said about a molasses smell, Fred realizes it could be a distillery… and then Andrew comes crashing in, telling them about Dana’s attack. Then, back at the distillery, Spike finally comes to and realizes Dana has cut off his arms with the bone saw.

Spike starts to pass out again, but Dana slaps him awake. He tries to convince her that he wasn’t the one who tortured her, but she has another flashback of Spike as her assailant. As it continues, however, Spike’s face morphs into that of another man, Walter. Then Dana has a vision — from another Slayer’s point of view — of Spike killing her mother, and she raises the bone saw again. Just then, however, Angel arrives, grabs her arm, and tells her that Walter is dead now. She thinks about this, but then attacks Angel. As they fight, however, Angel grabs Dana, Wes fires tranquilizer darts into her, and a Wolfram and Hart SWAT team moves in while Fred and a medical team attend to Spike and his severed limbs. Finally Andrew insists that because she’s a Slayer, Dana has to come with him. Angel protests, but then a team of twelve other Slayers arrives to back Andrew up, Angel relents, and Andrew and the Slayers leave with Dana. Later Angel visits Spike in the Wolfram and Hart hospital wing, after his arms have been reattached. Spike says he now realizes that even he will face a day of reckoning for his past misdeeds… and Angel tells him to sleep tight.

[PokerKitten]

While I appreciate the summaries Mythical Boards provide, they always seem to lack heart and make everything feel very sterile and cold. This one is no excpetion. But how nice to find Andrew "overjoyed" to see Spike alive. But heaven save us from a truckload of Slayers!

I'm still sick and tired of Spike being beaten up, tortured and mutilated....

[PokerKitten]

A coupla thughts from tensai on the summary:

All in all, pretty much matches what we expected from the scripts. Little more dramatic in a few places, and they do play on the 'Spike as the torturer' arc a bit. But in the end, it was all misdirection and Spike seems to be on the mend by episodes end. Also interesting that there is no indication that this will segue into Cordy awakening, but it could be like the end of 'Destiny' and be shot at a later date.
www.spoilerslayer.com/archives/002557.php

[PokerKitten]

At first I didn't think it was worth posting this - there'll be nothing new there. We have a summary, I muttered to myself! But it may be something and nothing, but there is a kinda something new here. A new slant on things:

First posted by Fraz from Media Boulevard
www.mediablvd.com/portal/

WB Episode Description for Ats 5.11 "Damage"

Wednesday, Jan 28 - (9:00 - 10:00 pm ET)
"“Damage”" -14, V
A NEW VAMPIRE SLAYER EMERGES – When an emotionally unstable woman, Dana (guest star Navi Rawat, “House of Sand and Fog”), escapes from a psychiatric ward, Angel (David Boreanaz) learns that she was tortured as a child and is now searching for her tormentor. Andrew (guest star Tom Lenk, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), a watcher-in-training, arrives from Sunnydale with surprising information about Buffy and to inform the group that Dana is also a vampire slayer. Meanwhile, Spike (James Marsters) believes that if he can save Dana, he will prove that he is destined to be the vampire champion. Alexis Denisof, J. August Richards, Amy Acker, Andy Hallett and Mercedes McNab also star. Jefferson Kibbee directed the episode written by Steven S. DeKnight & Drew Goddard

Andrew (guest star Tom Lenk, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), a watcher-in-training, arrives from Sunnydale with surprising information about Buffy and to inform the group that Dana is also a vampire slayer. Meanwhile, Spike (James Marsters) believes that if he can save Dana, he will prove that he is destined to be the vampire champion.

This is what stands out for me - I can't believe the great eejit is actually a WIT, he must be aspiring to be in his own little mind, surely But surprising info about Buffy? And Spike trying to help Dana because he thinks it'll prove he is worthy of reward? Since when did he turn into Angle?! I thoguht they were meant to be very different?!

[AlwaysSpike]

I am very interested in this "News about Buffy" and the concept of Andrew being a Watcher in Trainning is also interesting. I would have enjoyed it if they explored that idea on BTVS. Water in Training. We all know what a Slayer had to go through...but the Watcher. Hopefully with this slayer flavored episode they will be able to tie up the slayer loose ends.... let us face it Angel and BTVS have always run concurrent to each other and the few crossovers have keep the shows that way in the past. If they are going to move forward with Angle then it would be nice if they tie up the whole Vampire Slayer thing. Here we are in LA battling evil, when the Hellmouth was the center of the evil thing. Let's redirect this. The Slayer being "The One" now needs to maybe be redirected. Now there is not "One" slayer but all of these others at the same time. The whole mythology has changed which is good and all but now it would be nice to tie up the old mythology and begin to make the Angel world the new one. They are the ones fighting the good fight. It would be interesting to look at this episode as a means to show how the responsibility of saving the world has now been handed over to the Angel Team. Otherwise there will always be this “Angel doing his thing…. Slayers out there doing their thing.”. This episode will not tie up the Slayer mythology but I hope it will give us some answers and maybe show how the Slayer is not the Big Name in the New Game. Don’t get me wrong I am a BIG BTVS fan and hate that the Slayer Chapters are coming to an end. It is because of BTVS that I watch Angel. Okay, it is because of Spike, but I have watched the show from it's beginning. But is the BTVS thing is not going to be around...then tie it up and move on.TEXT

[PokerKitten]

Yes I agree that they should deal with the extra slayers and give us some substantial clues as to what is happening with them and what little remains of the Watchers system.... To be honest, I was quite surprised but pleased that they were going to tackle it in this way. I always felt it was totally irresponsible to suddenly "empower" all these young women who didn't have a clue what was happening to them, and that some of them would be loose cannons. Dana is a perfect example of that.

So I am looking forward to this ep for many reasons, and knowing that Spike will get over the being armless - heh! - thing quite soon, I hope I can take this further round of Kick The Spike philosophically.

[PokerKitten]

Dori's Spikefeed is out, but it doesn't seem to get posted to Tabula Rasa site anymore. It is on BAPS, but I can't reproduce it without permission. Anyway, the whole wildfeed will be around any minute.

But there is Andrew huggage of Spike and emotion at discovering him alive, aw! And we learn where the Scoobs are - pretty farflung! Xander is in Africa, Willow and Kennedy are in Brazil, Buffy is in Rome, where Dawn is in school. She doen't know Spike is alive of course and Andrew offers to tell her but he says "NO. I'll take care of it." Andrew also intimates that no-opne - including Buffy - trusts Angel now he is W&H's CEO.... heheheheh!

The nasty bits are glossed over, but like I say, the wildfeed is a -comin'.

[PokerKitten]

*sing-song voice* It's he-re! - www.angelsacolyte.com/

OMG, Andrew is so in love with Spike (until he seems to have forgotten all about him at the end!)

I am getting sick and tired of Angel growling at Spike and saying he ain't worthy and doesn't do good etc. He seems to be changing his tune by the end, thankfully. They both have pause for thought.

Seems the Gang have forgotten everything they knew about Buffy and Faith, as we are given a slayer recap *yawn* Screw viewers new to the shows, they should bloody well do their homework instead of making us hear tihs stuff!

Hands mercifully reattached by the end!

[Incogni2]

**I2 feels the heat**

Ya know, it's just too damn late and I tried skimming over the spoiler posts above to see how close it came, but I have to go to bed.

I am not an Andrew fan and would have been quite fine with him getting axed instead of Anya in Chosen. But the story with him played well and true to his character, except at the end when he left with no regard to the outcome of Spike. Otherwise, it rather fit. And the remark that no one trusted the W&H new recruits particularly 'biting'.

I thought it was a very good ep and the ending with Angel and Spike as once being victim's themselves poignant.

so I shall now go sleep on it, prob watch it again and write later. C ya.

[PokerKitten]

Yes, Andrew in very small doses was fine in BtVS, but the other nerds were always more intriguing and interesting to me and he grated on my nerves when they made him virtually a regular in S7. As a one-off in Damage I might find him amusing, but hopefully he won't be back. The writers love him because he's THEM!

Can't wait to get downloading!

[PokerKitten]

Okay, I dithered a fair bit about rating this ep but in the end I had to say I didn't LOVE it, but I did admire it. Excellent writing, direction, and a sense of a story well told and contained in the standalone format, even though it had its roots in another show entirely. Can't be that easy to pull off something like that, so much kudos that DeKnight and Goddard gave the director and actors such a tight script to work with.

Tom Lenk was on top form, even though there is no
way I could stand anymore of his silly behaviour and chatter. Cameo good, recurring bad. The woman playing Dana was terrific too.

All the fight scenes were great. Exciting and interesting to watch - it must be hard to make these things look different all the time, so another big thumbs up. The first one, with Dana despatching the hospital staff, was cool and her painting her face in blood was amazing in that it made me flash back to Restless and seeing the First Slayer with wild hair and painted face. Nice touch.

A few other things I liked - Angel and Spike emerging from the separate lifts at the hospital and clocking one another. Very well done. An example of a scene I had known about for weeks on paper but seemed totally fresh when I saw it for myself. Made me grin.

Spike being kinda tolerant of Andrew's clingage. And the first expression that fixes on Angel's face when watching and hearing Andrew go all mushy over Spike... a mixture of confuzzlement and "wow, some people liked Spike and I guess I knew that but I didn't want to see/believe it... because then I would have to acknowledge that he isn't necessarily who I have been telling him he is". Oh okay, maybe I am just reading too much into that and DB was actually suppressing a belch. But

Seeing Spike look down on a second man in the cast - taller than Lindsey AND Andrew, yay!

The way Spike tried to deal with Dana before she bested him was very endearing. And then not flinching from telling her the truth about himself later.

The final scene. What a standout. It is a jewel in its own right and could be watched entirely on its own for the strength of performance and dialogue in explaining succinctly the different personalities of our two Soul Boys, the nature of their vampirism, and their respective guilt. Very clever. BtVS watchers learnt about the different ways they went about their vampire business back in S2, but this was way better than a refresher or exposition for newbies. Yes, they were innocent "victims" themselves once and I'm glad its out there. If only this undertsanding between them would flow into future eps, but don't hold your breaths, folks!

Some of the one-liners... Gunn saying "Rational thought, it's an acquired taste". It is, unfortunately! (Btw, I am disappointed that his emerging reservations about what they are doing at W&H, as provoked by Spike last week, have apparently been well buried. Fred seemed to pick them up instead).

"Show and tell me nothin' " - Spike

"Yes, attractive slender woman" - Andrew to Fred

Spike saying to Angel - "Keep your knickers on". Okay, any Brits agree that what he SHOULD have said was "Keep your hair on" (which would have been hilarious considering the running jokes about Angel's hair for so long!) or "Don't get your knickers in a twist". Even the best of the writers get the sayings just a little off, it seems, and I am still volunteering to be on set to put them straight about it and coach James in how to deliver them!

Angel saying "vampyres" a la Andrew.

:-[The only thing that jarred/made me cross was Angel at the beginning bitching at Spike and saying he 's no different than he was before, like I said after reading the wildfeed. I am so sick and tired of it, and if only the final scene would mean an end to it.... if only You know, it is one thing to tailor all the eps up to newbies, to rewrite history a little to fit in with the world of Ats. But PLEASE! A lot of us had to suffer with Spike through S7 of Buffy as he battled his insanity and learnt how to stuff the voices of his victims into the deep recesses so that he could move forward and be useful, do good. For the first part of the season the guilt and shame crippled him. I find it disrespectful to not allow AtS viewers to know that.

I think I am done for now....

Oops! PS - Andrew was right. Spike IS more beautiful than before.... ;D

[Incogni2]

Been waiting for you to watch the ep PK. I found an interesting tie-in between the recent interview with James and one of the lines in the ep.

In the interview, James mentioned the fact that it was hard to stay looking the same after 7 years...vampires don't age...then in the show...

Angel was harranguing Spike again for his lack of remorse and Spike said..."and you should let it go mate...it's starting to make you look old"

Just thought it was interesting and prob a complete coincidence...

and I thought Dana was outstanding as well, little spoken dialogue, volumes spoken with her demeanor.

And I did so love the ending scene...thought you would too.

Spike IS more beautiful than before....

...truer words never spoken...sigh...