First Impressions
Angel Episode Review
In which Gunn prays for death and Cordelia loses Angel's car.
What Happened
Gunn asks Angel to help take out a Devac demon that has set up shop in his neighborhood., but is annoyed when Angel insists on bringing Cordelia and Wes along. Wesley and Cordelia are concerned that Angel seems to be more sluggish than healthy lately, particularly after Angel can't manage to take out a single vamp who crashes the meet with Devac.
Cordi is soon distracted by a killer vision of Gunn in trouble. When she goes to warn him, however, she finds him training with his friends and while she's sorting that out, Angel's convertible gets stolen. Cordelia tells Gunn about her vision and announces that she is not leaving his side until she knows he is safe.
Gunn tours some places where the convertible may have been taken, following the trail to a guy named Desmond. They catch up with Desmond at a party that gets crashed by Devac's men. When Cordelia tends to the neck wound of one of Gunn's friends, a girl named Veronica, Gunn admits that he still carries around the guilt of not being able to save his sister.
Desmond tells them where the convertible is, but Devac is waiting for them. Fortunately, Wesley and Angel show up in time for the fight scene. Afterwards, Cordelia tells Gunn that he creates danger for himself. He better plan on having her in his life for a while.
Angel goes back to the hotel, where the dreams he's been having of Darla appear in the flesh to "take care" of him.
What We Learned
- Angel was going for a medley.
- This is the kind of dust that spawns countless generations of little baby dust.
- Let sleeping vampires lie.
- Gunn hasn't bothered to see a movie since Denzel was robbed of the Oscar for Malcolm X, so Cordelia's advice to be more Guy Pearce and less Michael Madsen was pretty much lost on him.
- It always enhances a guy's rep when some skinny white beauty queen shows up to save his life.
- Gunn is not in the market for a sidekick.
- Wesley will pay for making Angel wear the pink helmet.
- Some people need discipline to survive.
- Cordelia is one high maintenance chick.
Best Lines
Gunn: "I'm gonna need more that C3PO and stick figure Barbie backing me up. No offense."
Wesley: "Very little taken."
Gunn: "Too late. He split."
Cordelia: "Maybe he heard what a pleasant person you were to be around."
Gunn: "Something better attack me soon, because I know I can't take much more of this."
Cordelia: "Instead of being high moral ground boy, how about helping me find the keys?"
What Did I Think?
Cordelia tries to save Gunn from himself, prompting a downtown Odyssey to retrieve Angel's stolen convertible. Apparently, someone's been reading their Jane Austin. And watching their Adventures in Babysitting.
As fun as it is to see Cordi and Gunn bounce off each other, this suffers from being both predictable (they argue, ergo they want each other) and, as of the end of the third season, relatively pointless since nothing else has been done with it. Her worry about his supposed death wish is never mentioned again and once Fred appears on the scene, contact between Gunn and Cordelia is rare.
What this episode does do is remind of Gunn's primary motivation, the death of his sister, but it doesn't really show anything new. We get some background, but it is so stereotypical. Rough neighborhoods, moderately and extraordinarily sleazy friends, hip-hop parties and lame attempts at street slang do not provide real insight into a character.