Collected Thoughts

I still haven't gone back and watched all of last week's episode. So there's that. Wes! My god Wes how far you've come. AD does pain and grief so beautifully I just want to see him break over and over again. The part that broke me into tiny little pices was his final, barely whispered "yes" so much emotion. Guh!

Also I liked Illyria way more than I thought I would. She's not Fred at all. Plus the fact that her Army of Doom just dried up and turned to dust was cool. The grief that was offal in her mouth is now hers.

Poor Gunn. I totally got why he made the choices that he did, how could he know what would happen? Okay. He should have figured that something bad would happen but he was a drowning man grabbing on to what he knew would save him damn the rest.

Of what I did see last week I wasn't surprised how everyone banded together to stop what was happening to Fred no matter what. I read some things where people were questioning why everyone reacted like Fred was all that. But I didn't see it like it was just Fred, but that this was almost a repeat of what happened of Cordy and they were damn well not letting it happen to another person they cared about. I was glad when Angel made that statement to Spike.

Also glad when Angel called Wes on his stabbing & shooting of anyone who Wes thought got in the way of helping Fred. Although I was glad when Wes killd Knox. Knox totally deserved killing but I was kind of hoping that Harmony would end up killing Knox, no real reason except Harmony really enjoys smashing things and torture.

Angel's speech about choosing Knox along with the humans I was thinking "oh hell no! I'd kill knox. Knox is a traitor." It sort of felt like the disconnect from when Buffy "talked" Willow out of going to kill Glory right after she brain sucked Tara. Buffy's telling Dawn and Spike that she "reasoned" with Willow and Dawn & Spike are looking at her like "yeah right."

What else?

I think that if Illyria hadn't used the memories of Fred that Wes would have killed her. But when she did the spark memory thing (which was both a cool effect and nicely played by AA) it was a great manipulation and there was no way that Wes could do that. Before it was Fred's body but the thing that killed Fred. And then it was tiny tiny bits of Fred, the only thing Wes had left and how can he kill Fred?

As for the montage. The montage itself was really good. HOWEVER, it didn't match the feel of the episode. Plus it felt too much like a "Buffy" thing rather than an Angel thing. The episode was just so emotionally raw and harsh. DeKnight gutted everyone and let them bleed and I was ready to sit there and recover from that and there's this music and...it didn't work for me.

This is the story telling I love. I've already read two excellent fics that came from this and I can't wait for more. The hiatus will be nice, it will give me a chance to go back and rewatch stuff.