Disharmony

Angel Episode Review

In which Cordelia needs new friends and Harmony misses her minions.

What Happened

Harmony tells Cordelia that she feels she needs some direction in her life. Partly out of spite at being forced to associate with Angel again, Cordelia tries to convince the others that Harmony can become a good vampire, and they reluctantly let Harm help out with their latest case. Unfortunately, Harmony decides to join the vampire cult and trade her new co-workers in for a place in the pyramid scheme run by a vamped self-help guru.

What Did I Think?

Surprise. Surprise. This "old friend" is actually "old." Harmony's been kicking around since the first season of Buffy. Furthermore, it isn't really played for a surprise when it turns out she's evil. Hello, she's a vampire; we knew that. The joke is that she does more damage when she's trying to be good. As far as her being taken seriously as a Big Bad goes, that went during the whole "minions" fiasco in "Real Me."

The reason Harmony's here is to contrast the vapid girl-talk "friendships" Cordelia had back in high school with the real friends she has now, particularly in respect to Angel. He starts off trying to weasel back into her good graces by doing things for her and agreeing with everything she says and gets shot down but good. In the end, he does what a real friend would do and tells Cordelia the truth as he sees it, that Harmony is going to turn on her, even though he knows that it will piss her off. He also knows that Cordelia's litany of his sins is deserved, so he takes that too and doesn't hold it against her later.

The only weak point here is how he later gets back into her good graces by buying her a new wardrobe. Yes, Cordelia has always been a clotheshorse, but the joke about her dropping everything for designer-wear has been played. She had some real issues with how Angel behaved and I really think there should have been a final scene between the two of them talking it out.