3.10 Amends

[Clare]

3.10 Amends - Episode #044
As Christmas approaches, Angel is tormented by visions of people he murdered - leading Buffy to confront an ancient evil known as 'The First'.

Review (also post a score out of 10) and discuss this episode.

[cyclica]

Meh.

This felt like an episode that they kind of had to do, to get angel back into the gang and get the story going. It was ok, but I didn't enjoy seeing angel tormented for an entire episode. They never explained the whole shared dreams thing. And it felt like much less humour than usual, maybe because of the lack of scoobies for much of the episode.

I'm giving this ep a 4 and not a 3 purely because of the one good scene. I am of cource referring to angel's attempted suicide, which was stopped because somebody up there likes him.

[partcynic]

3x10 “Amends”

Episode Rating = 6

An example of Joss Whedon in his workman (as opposed to auteur) state, “Amends” is a solid S3 episode with all of the finesse you’d expect from the series’ creator. However, it also has the slight indignity of being a lesser Whedon product, paling beneath both the rest of his S3 material, and his “Buffy” entries as a whole. It’s not that anything here is bad (the pace is good, the theme intelligent and the character development believable), but the dialogue isn’t as tight or clever as one would expect, and David Boreanaz’s admitted improvements as an actor don’t mask the fact that he can’t pull off suicidal turmoil (or on a shallower note, an Irish accent and muttonchops). The result is a satisfying and worthy edition, but one lacking the memorable nature of the show’s best episodes.

What I liked about “Amends”:

- Oz and Willow’s material was excellent, and I enjoyed all of their scenes. The reunion felt reasonably natural, and Willow’s genuine remorse for her prior actions made Oz’s willingness to take her back believable. Despite the short gap between their break-up and the events depicted here, it felt like they’d been apart for a while, and their chat in the classroom was quite touching. Even better was Willow’s later attempt at seduction, which was gently humorous and resulted in a fantastic speech from Oz that was second only to his similar talk with her in “Innocence”. Overall, I was glad to see the two get back together, and both of them were sympathetic and likeable.

- Buffy and Joyce’s trip to buy a Christmas tree provided a nice scene, and I liked the comedy elements as Joyce guilt-tripped Buffy about Faith, but then quickly changed the subject and walked away when Giles was mentioned. It was one of the funnier segments in an otherwise serious edition, and the brief moment with the dead trees was a clever bit of plot set-up.

- The mini story with Faith was a surprisingly effective one, and was implemented well. Bringing the character back after a two-ep hiatus was enough to create a sense of distance between she and Buffy, and the first interaction between the two had an appropriate level of discomfort. I was particularly fond of how Faith was presented, and her actions here were like a miniature version of her entire story – a young woman who acts ‘tough’ to conceal the fact that she’s actually vulnerable, and who could be a really good person given the right opportunities. It was particularly sweet that she thought to bring gifts for the Summers family, and I also liked that Buffy trusted her enough to leave Joyce under her guard while she went after Angel.

- Thematically, the First is actually a clever concept, and it was intriguing to be faced with so-called ‘ultimate evil’ for an episode. Although some things could have done with ironing out, I loved how the First’s activities here were intelligent, and its hobby of using spectres to haunt the living was effective – you could certainly understand how Angel would be psychologically undermined by having his entire murderous past dredged up, and the angry ‘ghosts’ of his former victims return to torment him. However, what worked best was how the First permitted the show to say something interesting about the nature of evil – defeating it wasn’t about some silly scythe or Slayer army, but understanding how people’s minds work. It’s fantastic when Buffy stands up to and dismisses it as the nothing it is – after all, it can’t achieve anything unless individuals make the personal decision to listen to it. In this way, the episode pointed out how good and evil are the products of human choices and behaviour, and that’s refreshing in a show that so frequently has clearly demarcated lines of morality.

- Even though what was shown here wasn’t really Jenny, it was still good to see her (and Robia La Morte) one last time, and it heightened my emotional connection to the story to have her as the First’s mouthpiece instead of one of Angelus’ anonymous kills (though they were fine too).

- Speaking of welcome returns, it was fun to see Willy again after a season-long absence. The character is appealingly slimy, and he’s also humorous (I liked his loudly announcing the Slayer’s presence and the place quickly emptying, and Xander’s attempts at being intimidating were one of that character’s better moments). As a locale, Willy’s Place works, and it’s cool to have the characters reaching out to the underworld instead of getting all of their information from books.

- After treading water for so long, it was great to see Angel finally make some forward progression, and while it was delivered through the predictable Buffy angst route, the momentum made that acceptable. The character’s slow unravelling and need to know why he was brought back were mostly believable, and I could understand how he still had trouble controlling his feelings for Buffy, even though he knew what the consequences for expressing them would be. It was an excellent idea to examine his human flaws instead of pinning everything on his vampirism, and the entirety of the climactic hilltop conversation was well-written. It wasn’t as affecting or emotional as it could have been, but it still worked, and the sudden snowfall scuppering Angel’s suicide attempt remains heartwarming despite its cheesiness.

- The dialogue-free ending is lovely, and it’s a pleasant surprise for the show to imply that there’s some kind of force for good out there (this would obviously be developed into the Powers that Be over on “Angel”). The cinematography and music were both very pretty, and closed the episode on a sweet (but not saccharine) note.

What I Disliked about ”Amends”:

- As is the tendency for S3, I have big misgivings about Xander’s characterisation, and why Buffy’s okay with his company. At the start, he’s his usual scumbag self (with those spiteful comments about Angel, Giles and Jenny), but he starts caring about what happens to Angel halfway through, despite trying to get him killed only three episodes ago! The change in behaviour is poorly explained (the line about “Hanukah spirit” just doesn’t cut it), and it looks like an eleventh hour attempt to make him likeable after the writing staff suddenly realised how awful he’d been this year.

- Though he tries his best, David Boreanaz can’t pull things off acting-wise. His attempts at conveying Angel’s inner suffering aren’t strong enough to do the narrative justice, and having the poor guy attempt an accent in the flashbacks was just cruel.

- Xander camping outside to avoid his drunken family members was amusing, but isn’t it dumb to do that when he knows vampires are out hunting after dark?

- There needs to be an explanation for Buffy being privy to Angel’s dreams. I’m sure they could have easily tossed in a reason (Hellmouth influence, etc) instead of leaving it as a plothole.

- This is a problem for later episodes, but why does the First just disappear? Granted, it failed at trying to recruit Angel, but couldn’t it have caused other problems? I’m not saying that I wanted it to make a reappearance (S7 is testament to how bad an idea that is), but I’d like to know why it suddenly gave up, as well as why it specifically wanted Angel in the first place.

- ‘Nightmare catapults’ (the bolt upright the characters do upon waking from a bad dream) are way overdone here, occurring what feels like every few minutes. Perhaps a less clichéd device could have been used.

Do I like this episode more or less than the last time I watched it?

In my first set of ratings, I gave this a seven, but I’ve since dropped it down. While I do enjoy this episode and have no problems rewatching it, the irritation provided by Xander’s dodgy characterisation and yet more billowing Angel angst (no matter how constructive) sour the taste of what is otherwise strong development. However, “Amends” also features its share of thoughtful and mature progression (for not only Angel, but Willow, Oz and Faith), and for this reason I’m happy to give it a six out of ten.

[cyclica]

I stand by my 'meh'. Even with multiple plots going on, it feels like very little has happened in this episode. Maybe it's because so much time is taken up by buffy/angel scenes, and since I'm not much of a fan of bangel those scenes tend to drag for me, making the whole episode a bit of a drag. Or maybe it's because there's so many things left unexplained, the whole episode felt like merely a setup for a later one, which was never made. Either way, this was hardly the most thrilling episode.

Let's start with the scoobies. Cordy gets a token scene to show us she's reverted to season 1 status, willow and oz are getting back together (and she's still pushing ahead too fast, like when she wanted to kiss oz in 'innocence', and he told her he wanted to wait till they were both ready and doing it for the right reason), and xander is trying to be a good friend and accompanying buffy for some of the ep (I loved him trying to intimidate willy the snitch). We also discover willow is jewish, xander's parents fight, joyce is still uncomfortable being around giles (nice continuity to 'band candy'), and faith's been lonely since she and buffy fought in 'revelations'. This leads to a nice little subplot where faith gets invited over for Christmas. It's strange seeing faith in such a small and peripheral role, but I liked it. It may be my favourite of this episode's subplots, it's a heart-warming Christmas story, and it gives the episode a festive feel (as does the snow, and the grr arg monster in a santa hat at the end).

My favourite line in this ep comes from joyce. As buffy is lost in thought, remembering a sexual dream she had with angel, joyce picks up a toy angel decoration for the tree and says 'so angel's on top again?' ;D

As for the main plot, well basically angel feels bad about everything angelus has done, he misses buffy, and the first evil tries to make things worse. What this plot amounts to is a wonderful scene at the end of the episode where angel tries to kill himself, and buffy can't convince him he's a good man who's worth saving, so it takes some divine intervention to show him, by having a snowstorm in a heatwave prevent the sun from coming up. It's a beautiful moment when the snow starts to fall, and its easily the highlight of the episode.

But before we get to the end of the episode, we first have to make sense out of quite a few problematic scenes and plot holes, some of which are so big they have entire threads devoted to them

- Angelus has a moustache?
- We get the first appearance of the first evil in this episode. It's great seeing jenny again (sadly for the last time), but was it really necessary to introduce a near-omnipitent villain just to make angel remember the people he killed, which is what he was doing anyway before the first showed up?
- According to season seven the first can't touch anyone, but jenny clearly touched angel here. I know that's the fault of later eps, I just thought I'd mention it.
- Just what was the first's plan anyway? It tried to get angel to kill buffy, then didn't mind when he tried to kill himself. What would it have to gain from that? Maybe it could see into the future and knew buffy was a threat to it... but if that was the case it wouldn't have waited until s7 before taking action again, it would have send bringers after her right away. If it wanted angel evil or dead, perhaps it was angel who would pose a threat to it. Though angel never had any interaction with the first again, unless you count the senior partners as being connected to the first somehow.
- Why was angel brought back anyway? And by who? It couldn't have been the first since it didn't mind angel being dead. Later on jasmine took credit for bringing him back, but I doubt joss and the other writers had jasmine in mind when they wrote angel back in. Was it divine intervention again?
- Buffy and angel are in each other's dreams? What?! How? Why? It was totally unnecessary, and it's another one of those 'showtime scenes' that makes no sense.
- Following on from that, when buffy watched angel's dream, why would she assume she was in his dream? How can it not occur to her that what she saw was just her own dream? 'There was stuff in it I couldn't know about'... come on! It's not like she talked to angel afterwards and confirmed that what she saw really happened.
- Willy says that 'things that live underground' are leaving because of the first/bringers. Why? Why would the first or it's minions pose a threat to demons? If the first is everywhere, why would the demons be leaving now, like the first has just moved into town or something?
- Angel can smell a sunrise! Before it comes! Can he also taste a rainbow?


Overall, despite the plot holes, the dull bangel scenes, and the slight lack of scoobies, I did actually enjoy this episode a little more, and I feel my old rating of a 4 was a bit harsh, so I'm bumping it up to a low 5. Though it's still an episode I hardly ever watch outside of a season-long marathon. Or at Christmas.

[partcynic]

- Angelus has a moustache?

Isn't that stretching the definition of 'plot holes' or the term 'problematic scene? Why would Angelus having had a moustache at some point be an issue? Unless you just mean it looks silly, in which case I agree.

- We get the first appearance of the first evil in this episode. It's great seeing jenny again (sadly for the last time), but was it really necessary to introduce a near-omnipitent villain just to make angel remember the people he killed, which is what he was doing anyway before the first showed up?

It was about more than that, though. The First wanted him to kill Buffy and turn evil, not just remember his murders.

- According to season seven the first can't touch anyone, but jenny clearly touched angel here. I know that's the fault of later eps, I just thought I'd mention it.

Yep - but as you said, that's an issue for later on. You'll also notice that in this episode, there was written history on the First/Bringers - they claim there's none in "Bring on the Night".

- Just what was the first's plan anyway? It tried to get angel to kill buffy, then didn't mind when he tried to kill himself. What would it have to gain from that? Maybe it could see into the future and knew buffy was a threat to it... but if that was the case it wouldn't have waited until s7 before taking action again, it would have send bringers after her right away. If it wanted angel evil or dead, perhaps it was angel who would pose a threat to it. Though angel never had any interaction with the first again, unless you count the senior partners as being connected to the first somehow.

- Why was angel brought back anyway? And by who? It couldn't have been the first since it didn't mind angel being dead. Later on jasmine took credit for bringing him back, but I doubt joss and the other writers had jasmine in mind when they wrote angel back in. Was it divine intervention again?

I honestly don't know if I can give a decent answer to these questions. But if we really stretch things far, we can say that it was Jasmine who bought Angel back, in preparation for her return to earth. The First thus wanted Angel to either turn evil or die so that he wouldn't be able to fulfil Jasmine's role for him, meaning she wouldn't be reborn as human. This would prevent her from turning everyone in blissful slaves and eradicating evil, meaning that the First could continue its plot to 'infect' everyone and become corporeal. Perhaps it stepped up its activities in S7 as a direct response to Jasmine's imminent arrival in the parallel Angel S4.

Bear in mind that this isn't what I personally believe (that would require having too much faith in the writers' ability to plan ahead) - but it is a plausible explanation for everything.

In addition, the First being willing to let Angel die doesn't preclude it being the one that brought him back. If you're omnipotent, pulling one person out of hell isn't going to take much effort, and if it could have turned Angel evil, it could have gained a useful corporeal ally. And if he refused to change, his death would be no real loss to the First. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

[cyclica]

Jan 23, 2010 12:24:46 GMT -5 partcynic said:

Isn't that stretching the definition of 'plot holes' or the term 'problematic scene? Why would Angelus having had a moustache at some point be an issue? Unless you just mean it looks silly, in which case I agree.

The problem is, he didn't have a moustache when he died. So, despite being dead, he somehow grew one later on.

Though yes it does look silly.

Jan 23, 2010 12:24:46 GMT -5 partcynic said:

Yep - but as you said, that's an issue for later on. You'll also notice that in this episode, there was written history on the First/Bringers - they claim there's none in "Bring on the Night"

I hadn't noticed that! You've just given me another reason to dislike season 7.

Jan 23, 2010 12:24:46 GMT -5 partcynic said:

I honestly don't know if I can give a decent answer to these questions. But if we really stretch things far, we can say that it was Jasmine who bought Angel back, in preparation for her return to earth. The First thus wanted Angel to either turn evil or die so that he wouldn't be able to fulfil Jasmine's role for him, meaning she wouldn't be reborn as human. This would prevent her from turning everyone in blissful slaves and eradicating evil, meaning that the First could continue its plot to 'infect' everyone and become corporeal. Perhaps it stepped up its activities in S7 as a direct response to Jasmine's imminent arrival in the parallel Angel S4.

Bear in mind that this isn't what I personally believe (that would require having too much faith in the writers' ability to plan ahead) - but it is a plausible explanation for everything.

That's an interesting idea! Though like you said I doubt the writers had all that in mind when writing this episode.

I can buy that it was the first, but it could also have been divine intervention, or the powers that be (joss may have had them in mind so soon before the spin-off), I wish we could have found out for certain who brought angel back.