during the mutant enemy writers reunion podcast hosted by nerdist.com David
greenwalt listed the Tim Minear episode are you now or have you ever been as the
turning point for them really figuring out and understanding the show it's
interesting that in the same way that fireflies tumultuous life on TV
reflected some of its internal themes the writers having to work to find the
voice of this show about a vampire with a soul seeking Redemption feels oddly
fitting ru now takes place during the paranoia late in American 1950s
it's brilliant in its construction for shadows a number of key events this
season and shows facets of angel we have yet to see and I think for the first
time in his story begins to clarify an important question what is the line
between redemption and forgiveness the greater scheme the big picture crash
versus two dozen markets by the village why is it
angel is showing Weston Cordelia photos of the Hyperion the mothballed Hotel we
saw him enter in judgment Cordys obvious joy at being hostess and teen caregiver
still makes me happy know that cinnamon sometimes I like to crumble up the
Weetabix in the blood a little texture angel withholds his true motivating
interest in the hotel and we get a very cool transition flashback to the
Hyperion's heyday it's 1952 and the front desk is being attended by a
squirrely bellman and John kapelos yes I had to look his name up John is
one of those character actors I'm always happy to see but can never remember the
name of the Richard Jenkins category of awesome actor the bellman takes a
message to a room he's obviously terrified of currently occupied by
the post-credits opening shot gives us a well choreographed painting introduction
to the other cast of characters currently living in the Hyperion really
beautifully designed with present-day angel opening the shot and past angel
ending it angel returns from a trip to his blood
dealer and shady man in the hallway is shady in this moment from before angel
meets Whistler but after he and Darla are splitsville he's still drinking
human blood he discovers a woman has been hiding in his room and this is how
we meet judy judy is being followed by detective mitrik shady whom angel tosses
out blessed to be heroic but more as a means to get rid of her as he slams the
door in her face we get another cool transition back to modern times Wesley
and Gordie discover that angel once lived at the Hyperion guess that was a
mirrorless camera Wesley Intuit's why angel might have
kept his history with the hotel a secret back in the 1950s angel hears the sound
of a man a sales man he previously heard talking to no one committing suicide
though doesn't pay at much mind the hotel manager decides not to call
the police after a sultry Cajun voice in his head makes him fear the hotel being
shut down angel while smoking a hardcore brood runs into Judy at the Griffith
Observatory a rumor that the neighbours suicide was a murder starts to permeate
the hotel an angel seemingly against his better judgment is starting to get to
know Judy Judy reveals that she stole money from her banking employer in order
to start a life with her boyfriend and has been hiding out at the hotel problem
is everyone here's got something to hide and Judy has been hiding that I've been
passing since I was 15 years old passing for white it's just blood Judy
angel agrees to help Judy and hides the money in the basement when he does he
hears the Cajun voice of bad ideas for the first time himself
now back in the present angel has figured out the demon haunting the hotel
is a thesulac demon and they need to render it corporeal to kill it you'll
want me to research the raising ritual already done in the past we see him
collaborating with a paranoid conspiracy theorist bookstore owner who explains
how to put the paranoia demon down but the situation in the hotel has decayed
beyond coming back angel without clauses final moments at the Hyperion occur
wonderfully edited between the present in which team angel works to vanquish
the paranoia demon once and for all in the past the paranoid residents of the
Hyperion attack they descend on Judi and to save herself from the crowd she gives
them angel Oh Judi as stated by the bookstore owner two ways to corporeal
eyes a paranoia demon by ceremony or through a big meal there is something
about the thesulac demon i love that i find hard to pinpoint there are other
demons in the Buffyverse with more terrifying designs or were perhaps more
intricate or artfully rendered but whenever I think about angel as a whole
the thesulac demon is one of the first that bubbles to the surface of my memory
he just so loves being a demon and you thought you've made a friend he's so
happy about it from the joyful use of that creole Cajun accent a subset of
Louisiana for the non American that evokes more a side character from a
streetcar named desire did that delighted bellow the thesulac sounds and
speaks more like a man at a barbecue than a demonic hell spawn that
contrasted with the fact that his chaos is grilled up from the fears and
anxieties inherent to any human makes him a chilling brand of monster back in
the present team angel kill the vessel actin angel finds Judy alone in a room
whose fear the thesulac has been feeding off of all this time and Judy let's go
wow where to begin are you now or have you ever been is the most confident
episode of the show not featuring any substantial Buffy influence to date from
the melting pot of cinematic influences it blends together to the design of the
Hyperion itself to its incorporation of American history this episode is a tight
hanoks step forward from most of the previous season where the first season
of the show flirted with its noir influences are you now is an open
celebration of them and somehow all of those familiar elements cohere into a
fascinating piece of fantasy storyteller unlike anything I've quite seen before
that also brilliantly reveals aspects of angels character generally speaking
angel is a character divided against himself
Angelus versus angel demon versus man past versus present agony versus ecstasy
he is a character defined by division and driven by a desire to find some sort
of unity and everything around him reflects that division from the city
where he lives into which he can only go out at night to his desire for
loneliness and solitude despite the concrete evidence that he
needs connections in the world that reflect to him always his best self
don't be embarrassed family but the flashback sequences in
are you now present us with an unusual version of Angel one living passively
among humans as a version of himself curiously unified there have been
previously established tells for the dormancy of evil angel in the first
season of Buffy Darla used the fact that he was still drinking human blood as
evidence of a nature he would never escape but from the moment Buffy showed
him that his commitments were stronger than his impulses and that he always had
a choice between them we only see angel with butchers blood after becoming
soulless again in surprise and jealous immediately murdered a woman and blew
her own cigarette smoke from his lips metaphorically tying his evil to the act
of smoking and sure enough when he reintroduces himself to spike in
Drusilla he does so cigarette in hand and here in
are you now is an angel who is passive non violent but drinking human blood and
smoking not so much having a unified his two halves as teetering between them and
passing as human fittingly noir as a visual tradition is defined by the
strict division of light and dark the lines between white and black and this
episode is steeped in that visual tradition starting with the introduction
of the Hyperion itself as much as angels apartment in season one had a sort of
sweet style to it many of the writers commentaries from the season involved
more than one complained about the set being too
difficult to shoot on the elevator being way too slow it was usually artificially
sped up in post-production when you see it in action or the office set feeling a
little claustrophobic II once they decided to make the switch from fully
episodic to mostly serialized season arcs the explosion at Angel
investigations 1.0 felt like a statement of purpose and Hyperion set feels as
ambitious as the show's new direction where angels office in basement
apartment were visually ambiguous with bright light spilling in through open
windows and the evenly lit apartment the Hyperion is lit in hard classic visual
contrasts the lamps in the hallway don't road light evenly across the room but
instead end in hard lines and shadows the name
Hyperion comes from one of the twelve Titans of Greek mythology Hyperion
fathered the Sun Moon and Dawn the hotel itself then works as an embodiment of
angels character filled with seemingly incompatible contrasts and with a long
dark past that angel is committed to reforming evil not anymore
hilariously in the Buffy episode aired in pairing with this one the Scoobies
also got themselves some new digs this week the magic box one of the persistent
debates in the fandom that doesn't come up quite as often as what's the best
season or do you ship angel by Lee or Scott Hope just kidding nobody ships
Scott hope he sucks might be magic box versus Hyperion it's interesting how
both sets reflect the themes of their respective shows the magic box is bright
and colorful a new future for Giles after a year of midlife crisis for a
place where several previous owners were murdered the magic box feels almost
comically unaware of its past the Hyperion in contrast is literally
haunted by it Buffy a show about growing up would by its nature be less burdened
by history but angel is a show about being an adult and our pasts are
something we always carry with us the city of Los Angeles has been a heavily
featured influence on the show already especially in the interstitial smash
Tut's but judgment with its Street joust in this episode with its Hollywood type
residents and Griffith Observatory sequence have been seriously up in the
ante the city is again another symbol for angel a
connection he made directly in somnambulist when he pondered at the
evening skyline and throughout the show so far we've seen similar sorts of inner
turmoil in the city the haves and have-nots it's day and night cycle Los
Angeles is also the most frequently featured city in America noir cinema
from Double Indemnity to the Big Sleep to the Oman schleiden LA Confidential
are you now or have you ever been contains more than one reference two
films set in the era it's invoking or two prominent noir features the Griffith
Observatory sequence with angel in his red jacket is a no moshed
James Dean in rebel without a cause Judy stealing from her employer was the same
series of events that led Janet Lee to the Bates Motel in psycho and Judy's
pursuing detective is named after a character in Chinatown who like Jack
Nicholson later appears in a scene with a taped nose the title of the episode is
a reference to the famous and ugly time period in American history it is set in
the 1950s are sometimes referenced as the heyday of strong American values
Leave It to Beaver father knows best Ozzie and Harriet but beneath the
wholesome veneer mainstream entertainment was painting racial
segregation was at its pinnacle almost every state still had sodomy laws on the
books and moral panic was everywhere America was a country divided between
what was considered the culturally mainstream normal and everything else
and in 1949 the Soviet Union had tested their first nuclear bomb which set off a
wave of paranoia and fear today known as McCarthyism Joseph McCarthy was an
American senator who managed to stir a public panic that communists eyes were
among us and they were everywhere one of his favorite targets was Hollywood
during the hearings it was not uncommon for those called to be asked for the
names of other possible communists if they didn't give them they were
blacklisted like the Hollywood ten if they did
they've saved themselves part of McCarthy's ultimate downfall came in the
form of a 30-minute news broadcast in 1954 edward r murrow went on CBS and
dissected the senators bully tactics and fear baiting ending with a call for
responsibility from the American people McCarthy he said wasn't really the one
to blame he didn't create the evil which spawned the blacklist and the
persecution he only capitalized on something which was already inside every
one of us the fault was not in Our Stars but in ourselves taken long one of the
big reasons are you now is successful is Judy angels most significant analog in
this episode Judy in a wonderful performance by Melissa marsala is half
african-american half Caucasian but passing for white I've been passing
since I was 15 years old this is not the first time the idea of passing has shown
up in the series Doyle was accused of passing in here oh
you're passing my mother was the same way beyond the both pretending to be
something they are not there are various hints that Judy and Angel are kindred
spirits for instance in the sequence where we first admit Judy angel slams
the door in her face but the way the sequence is edited the camera pulls back
revealing the face angel slammed the door on was his own I think the use of
these ugly American historical cultural artifacts would feel Tritan
inappropriate on many other shows but since these shows are so steeped in
theme and the exploration of important human questions already it works
Judy's issues with race and belonging aren't simply a vehicle for
understanding angels his are also one for understanding hers if the episode
hadn't done Judy justice with a convincing performance and a satisfying
emotional payoff this would have been a misstep as terrific as an episode of the
show are you now is I have to admit things it does well are not necessarily
at the heart of my addiction to the series Buffyverse flashback episodes are
of a shockingly consistent quality generally if the episode features scenes
of a gallivanting Angelus or a guilt-ridden free Whistler angel it is
likely to be one of the highlights from that season and
are you now is no different but where those other episodes use flashbacks in
parallel with and to reveal ideas about our characters in current time are you
now story is almost entirely contained in the past though the acquisition of
the hotel is definitely a vital moment most of what the tale reveals about the
present has yet to be seen the episode is artful intricate and
engrossing but I missed team angel and the chemistry that normally flows
between them that is sidelined for most of it in the DVD commentary Tim Minear
said the hardest parts to write in this episode where the modern day seems where
we actually do see Gunn Wesley and Cordy there are a ton of complex beautiful
things going on here but all the time spent setting them up builds to an
emotional payoff important but so quick and quiet that if you're not paying
close attention you might miss it the episode contains two very significant
ties to previous the first is in the dark what do you want engine
I want
goodness and the second is the Buffy episode I only have eyes for you and I
only have eyes for you ghosts of a murder/suicide couple are
living their grisly end through human avatars over and over again Buffy who
has been blaming herself for angel's death is inhabited by the murderer and
his victim inhabits Angelus the murder takes place but possessed and jealous
who can't die with a bullet stops possessed Buffy from killing herself
over the guilt and gives her exactly what she needs in order to be able to
forgive herself for what happened anyway and are you now or have you ever been
the mirrors of Judy and Angel commit to regrettable acts Judy turns the crowd on
Angel to save herself an angel in response abandons the hotel
Judy and the rest of its inhabitants people he could have saved to a hungry
thesulac and so far she is where Judy's saving herself led to the murder of
someone who had been going out of his way to help her and angel knew that the
angry mob that attacked him was being emotionally amplified by the ugly
tentacled monster they may not have deserved his forgiveness but after all
to forgive is an act of compassion above hits it's it's not done because people
deserve it it's tell me because I needed Judy
spends a lifetime of guilt alone in the hotel believing she has done something
she can never take back but just as the bullet and I only have eyes for you was
not enough to end him time and the Neuse are not either and in their final
moments together angel gives Judy the thing he himself most desperately
desires a thing the trail of dead in his wake
cannot give him forgive me of course and with that act
of compassion if only for that finite moment in time
angel is redeemed we can deny our heritage in our history but we cannot
escape responsibility for the result there is no way for a citizen of a
republic to abdicate his responsibilities and whose fault is that
not really his he didn't create this situation of fear he merely exploited it
Cassius was right The Fault dear Brutus is not in Our Stars but in ourselves