And the Cats in The Cradle… — “Lineage” : The Rant

Warning: Spoilerish to the amount of 10.
Wes is a superhero without superpowers. He really is.

“Lineage” is the best episode of the 5th season thus far, because of the emotions involved, the comedy involved, the dramatics involved, and because Alexis Denisof was FINALLY involved.

I’ve been saying all season that Wesley seemed like the 5th wheel. They finally managed to give him an episode, and it turns out to be the most interesting so far. What does that say? Well, 1) I’m right and 2) Listen to me.

I just hope we don’t have to wait 6 to 8 episodes for more from Wes and Fred.

I’ve never been a big shipper of any couple in the history of the Jossverse. Last night I was cheering Wesley to get the petite brunette from Texas. I’m now on the Wes/Fred bandwagon.

And what have I been saying all along? Knox is evil. He even did the “I’m so evil, I’m going to interrupt this moment between you guys” scene. EVIL.

I want to see how this plays out, and writers — let’s talk about it more often than 30 seconds every other episode.

The comedy was great. Spike’s gleeful report about Wes being “head boy”, Spike and Angel trying to relate to Wesley by talking about killing their folks but making things worse, Lorne talking to Wesley’s ‘dad’ about his mishaps with Dame Judy Dench. All of these scenes were priceless.

And who wrote the episode, you say? Why none other the man himself….DREW F’N GODDARD. The man is invincible. He plays the emotions unlike any Mutant Enemy writer out there, with the exception of Joss Whedon himself. Its like before he got the job he watched every episode of Buffy and Angel 10 times each and said to himself, “what haven’t they done?”. He’s just the best without his name under “executive producer”…period. Maybe they should make HIM showrunner instead of the mediocore stylings of one Jeffrey Bell.

In the end, with one phone call we notice that fake Mr. Wyndam-Price is basically like real Mr. Wyndam-Price. And we finally understand who brings the bumbling bafoon out in Wesley.

Final verdict: I loved it. Finally an episode that held me interested and wanting more. The first episode of the season was good, and the Lorne party episode was equal to that, but “Lineage” was better than both of them put together.

Rating: 4 STAKES

Rant Over.

– Matt