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Angel
"Spin the Bottle"

Review by Douglass Kern, Contributing Editor
11.14.2002

Sweeps month continues with an episode written and directed by none other than show creator Joss Whedon.

Synopsis:

In this episode, Cordelia attempts to regain her memory via a spell performed by Lorne. Being magic, things do not go as planned and the gang end up losing enough of their memories to revert them to their teenage personalities. After some confusion and near disasters, everyone returns back to normal, including Cordy.

Thoughts:

A relatively simple set up for a very good episode. For starters, this episode's format is a bit different the usual once, since it is narrated by Lorne. He tells the story as part of a monologue for one of his performances. This format actually works well to help add some background information to the audience, not to mention that for a good portion of the episode Lorne is out cold.

The episode has no large side plots divided up between the characters, but instead it focuses on nearly everybody. The closest we get to a tangent storyline is a short scene with Connor, but this blends into the main plot by the end of the episode.

As for the real meat of the episode, namely the spell screw up, it provides a lot of laughs, but it is also a serious situation as well. The effect of the foul-up also provides a glimpse at the characters during their developing years. For Cordelia and Gunn, their teenage personalities have already been established, and Wesley's demeanor is close to his when he appeared on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Angel and Fred, though, are a bit of a surprise. Let me go into more detail about them all.

Cordelia is the most familiar to the audience, since we got to see her as the B**** Queen back when she attended Sunnydale High School. The spell had to have made her regress to a time right before Buffy moved to Sunnydale. I say this because it appeared she knew nothing about Angel or the supernatural, both of which she learned about in the first few episodes of BtVS. Cordelia is in full form here and is just as nasty, vain and stuck up as she was back in high school. Charisma Carpenter did a great job here, going back into the old Cordellia like putting on an old set of clothes that hasn't been worn for a few years. What is also great about this performance is it really shows how much Cordelia has developed in the past seven years. (And we get a lot of comments about her hair; good thing she didn't see the pictures in the photo album!)

Angel seems to have been a rather meek teenager, if the way he acted is any indication. Guess he started the life of debauchery when he was in his 20's, since here he is far from the wild drunkard we have seen in flashbacks. We also learn his name was Liam, something I don't think has been revealed before, but I am not totally positive about that. Since Angel was a teenager in the 1700's, he is also not used to a modern world. This is shown briefly, but sadly we do not get to see much of it due to time constraints. It also seems that Angel did have an accent which he later lost; guess being a centuries old predator makes it more easily to adapt when you are constantly on the move, looking for new prey.

Gunn is very much like when we were first introduced to him way back in Season 1 - very aggressive and confrontational to everybody. What is actually interesting about him in this episode is what happens before the memory wiping. Gunn confronts Wesley, and we have what looks like a revival of the love triangle between Gunn and Wesley with Fred.

Wesley is a pretty typical Watcher in training here. He does bring up the test that was performed on Buffy in "Helpless", a rather nice, subtle link to BtVS. He is a babe in the woods here compared to the gritty, burnt out character that he is in the current season. What is nice is that he willingly went to help out Cordy; now he has to fully admit he needs the others.

Last we have Fred. Now this is a big change, since apparently when she was a teenager she was a weed fixated ditz. She is very friendly and all, but is totally unlike the Fred we know. Guess her experiences being stuck in Pylea really did change her. Also of note is that is appears that the resolution Gunn provided to dispose of the professor in the previous episode is not going to be easily forgotten. This is a good thing, since I was worried it would be.

Connor doesn't do much this time except save a prostitute from vampires and go back to the hotel in the final act to help sort things out. What is a real shame is the guy is full of raging hormones, but also is lonely. After the way the prostitute treated him, maybe he should have left her to be vampire food. She could have at least said a normal thank you instead of trying to hire him as her next client. This doesn't change the fact that he is still a bit creepy.

After everything is fixed in the end we get a brief glimpse of what is coming. All we see are a set of bloodshot yellow eyes in a wrinkled, mauve colored face. Not much to go on, but it does seem to be an entity and not an event. Cordy is too traumatized remembering this to actually tell Angel what this is though. It's the Lorne thing from two episodes all over again. Geez; if something horrid is going to happen, tell the people who can try to stop it!

Other than that ending, this was an enjoyable episode that was funny, serious and dramatic. Now that Cordy has her memory back we can now move on to this big evil, whatever it is.

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