We Can Be Heroes. — “Not Fade Away” : The Rant

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Warning: Spoilerish to the amount of 10.

DISCLAIMER: This week’s edition contains strong language that may not be suitable for younger viewers.
Welcome Angel Fans to the last EVER Angel Episode RANT! It’s sad just thinking about it. I’m here with Eric, and this week we will of course be discussing “Not Fade Away”…the Angel finale.

Eric: What an episode to be reviewing.

Matt: You know, it’s funny. Angel was supposed to be “open-ended” at the end, and Buffy was supposed to “complete” at the end. But to me, Angel seemed more complete than Buffy did.

Eric: I disagree. They cut Angel off right in the middle of the episode. Buffy did seem open ended, but Angel more-so.

Matt: No, but it fit the series.

Eric: Yes, it did.

Matt: The hero that never stops fighting.

Eric: It was an amazing ending to an amazing season.

Matt: It was a perfect ending.

Eric: It was a happy, sad, and amazing episode.

Matt: I guess we should jump right into it – Wes’s death.

Eric: Oh my God, that has to be one of the saddest moments in Jossverse history.

Matt: At first, I thought that he could pull through the stab wound. Hell, the man was once sliced acrossed his neck.

Eric: I know that dude must have hit him deep. They sent him against the toughest one with nothing.

Matt: Right.

Eric: The big question is how much do you think of what Illyria was saying were lies?

Matt: I don’t know how much of what Illyria said were lies. I think I wish that Wes and Fred were together wherever they are. The romantic in me says they are.

Eric: I just worry, I don’t think that they are. I want to think it, but he asked her to lie.

Matt: True…so maybe everything she said was a lie. Although we know Fred loved Wes.

Eric: Yes.

Matt: So there’s one non-lie.

Eric: True, and we know that Illyria has a thing for Wes.

Matt: Wasn’t she awesome in this episode?

Eric: AMAZING.

Matt: Amy deserves a fucking Emmy for this.

Eric: I would have to say she is the best actor on the series.

Matt: I’ve never seen someone use this many different on/off switches in my life. One minute she’s funny, the next she’s dry, the next she’s vengeful, the next she’s Fred, the next she’s sad. She was all over the place and everything works when she does it.

Eric: There is one thing I did not like – she should have killed Vail as Fred.

Matt: I think it was fine as Illyria.

Eric: It would have had more power as Fred.

Matt: It showed the Illyria was MAD at him for killing Wes, thus showing even more of her humanity.

Eric: It’s a tough call. I feel like Fred is alive somewhere inside of her.

Matt: I think you’re daydreaming again. There was absolutely NO proof of any of that.

Eric: …and I think you are poopie.

Matt: Well, I am a poopie, but that’s beside the point.

Lorne and Lindsey. My, oh my.

Eric: I hate that Lorne is leaving, but I think that was the only way they could find for him to survive the fight.

Matt: Well, that and I can see WHY Lorne wanted to leave. Lorne isn’t the killing kind, and when Angel asked him to kill Lindsey, it went against everything Lorne believes in. So even though he knows WHY Angel wanted him to do it, he still didn’t agree with it….and yet he did it anyway.

Eric: Yeah, it’s just sad.

Matt: It was a struggle for him.

Eric: It was nice to see him sing again.

Matt: Maybe Angel didn’t NEED to kill Lindsey. But the thing with Lindsey is, he changes his stripes at the smell of a $ bill.

Eric: Lorne did say he already heard him sing.

Matt: I think Angel believed it was better to get rid of anyone he could that had a hint of evil in them.

Eric: But Lindsey seemed like he thought he had honestly changed.

Matt: Yes, but Lindsey is a sociopath. So his words don’t really mean anything.

Eric: True. And Harmony, like we didn’t see that coming!

Matt: Right…she has no soul. Of course, Angel would know. It didn’t seem contrived in the least that he would figure her out easily. He really didn’t even need any proof.

Eric: Although I do think if he would have included her more that she woundn’t have turned on him.

Matt: Maybe so, but then again, looking back at “Disharmony” you can see why Angel would never trust her.

Eric: True.

Matt: She was basically the same Harmony then as she was when she walked into W&H.

Eric: I agree…maybe a little broken.

Matt: Right, but not much difference. But anyway, when Lorne pulled out that gun I was like, “OH SHIT!” I jumped off of the couch, literally. I didn’t see it coming.

Eric: Neither did poor Lindsey. That totally surprised me.

Matt: I also found it funny that Lindsey said (paraphrasing) “at least i know Angel didn’t get his corruptable hands on you” to Eve. HA!

Eric: Did you like how Old Blue handled Vail?

Matt: Old Blue was off the charts bad ass last night. Everything she did was bad ass. There was not one line that Illyria spoke, and not one action she made that didn’t make me LOVE that character. When she smashed in his fucking face, I cheered.

Eric: “Wes is Dead… I’m feeling grief for him. I can’t seem to control it. I wish to do more violence!” Classic.

Matt: Exactly.

Eric: Illyria is like a cross between Fred and Caleb.

Matt: That’s a pretty good description..except that Illyria isn’t prone to wanting to destroy little girls. I think a better description would be Fred and The Judge.

Eric: Keep away the rocket launchers. I still miss Fred…and now Wes.

Matt: I think everyone does…anyone with a heart.

Eric: I think it’s safe to say that they would have brought Wes back for season 6. Proabably Fred too, but definitely Wes.

Matt: I’d say it’s pretty much known that Wes wouldn’t have died last night had it just been a season finale.

Eric: I don’t think so. I think he would have died either way. That episode would have lost a lot without a major death.

Matt: I have to totally disagree with that. If the Wes scene never happened, it still would have been a stellar episode, and we would have all looked forward to Season 6 just as much as we wish there was one now. With the way Lindsey died, we’d be talking about that today just as feverishly as we are about both Wes AND Lindsey.

Eric: But I don’t think they added that just because of the cancellation, ’cause Joss never closes things that much.

Matt: Obviously, Joss added it for impact.

Eric: I think it would be there even if we had a season 6. Killing Wes for good is like killing Xander, or Willow, or Buffy.

Matt: I know what you mean, I just don’t think Wes would be dead if we had a 6th season.

Eric: I do.

Matt: He’d get up off the floor after the battle, and everyone would be shocked. Just like they were when they found him alive in Season 3.

Eric: And if they do movies, I think they will bring him back. If there are movies that’s what they’ll do.

Matt: I’m getting more and more pessimistic about a TV movie even happening.

Eric: He’ll be alone in the room, calling out “Hello, not dead yet”.

Matt: That would be great. And then they find Fred’s soul, put it back in Illyria, and Illyria sacrifices herself for Wes to get Fred back. That would be a fairy tale story, but as Eve said, this isn’t a fairy tale.

Eric: I think that Wes’ death is a key to getting Fred back. Heck, I think now Illyria would get Fred back to make Wes happy.

Matt: What you said there, makes sense. I think at the point at the end, she would’ve destroyed the world for Wes. Which just tells us how great the writing is on this show, and tells us how convincing Ms. Acker is as well.

Eric: Yeah.

Matt: I think when you watch “Chosen”, you can tell in the writing how tired Joss was. When you watch “Not Fade Away”, you can tell he’s had some sleep, because there’s this crispness to it.

Eric: It was amazing, and I loved the Hamilton/Angel fight.

Matt: Yes, excellent “who’s got the bigger balls” type of fight. “smash, smash, go boom”

Eric: …Then Ham gave it away, what a dumb ass.

Matt: Connor walks in, and I’m telling you, if that kid had been like that from the start, we would have all loved him.

Eric: Hell yes, Connor rocked.

Matt: But then again, we probably wouldn’t have gotten this W&H storyline…although they probably could’ve found some other way to do it. And sure, you can say the Circle of the Black Thorn storyline was rushed, but what was Joss gonna do? Just leave it so wide open that we’re so pissed, we don’t care what he does next? We had to have something to fight at the end.

Eric: The Black Thorn was a secret organization, it makes sense that they would just pop up.

Matt: I think it’s to Joss and the writers’ credit that they came up with something like that for an ending.

And what about Spike reciting his poetry?

Eric: That was hillarious, he finally found fans!

Matt: It was a great joke about our society. 200 year old crap can be gold now.

Eric: Yeah, and I am very glad we didn’t hear the second poem.

I liked that Gunn went to help Anne.

Matt: Yeah, Gunn was a warrior at the end. And when he spent his last day helping the shelter, I mean, how can you hate on the guy?

Eric: I can…

Matt: Well, I can’t. Illyria told him he was going to die in 10 minutes, and yet he got up and fought to the death.

Eric: Yeah, but does that mean he’s dead too? And honestly I can’t hate him. I did try, but he redeemed himself.

Matt: I think he’s dead. When Illyria says something like that, she always means it. The chick doesn’t lie.

Eric: True, that’s 2 down.

Matt: And idiots can say “they’re all dead”, but the thing is, there were far less demons in that alley than Ubervamps in Chosen. Who says they didn’t kill a couple hundred and then run? Retreat for awhile…collect themselves, and go back? We don’t know. So for people to say they’re all dead is having NO imagination whatsoever.

Eric: Not to mention Super Angel and Illyria. They could take out tons by themselves.

Matt: Right…Angel has Hamilton’s blood. He has Senior Partner blood. Spike is Spike.

Eric: It’s probably only temporary, but he should have it enough to fight…..and Gunn is a Human Shield.

Matt: And Illyria is a friggin’ former God who just smashed the fucking face of a wizard demon who was supposedly the strongest of the circle. So who knows what happened? I don’t. You don’t…..no one does. Maybe Joss…but he’s a secretive bastard.

Eric: …and the most fun death is the death by poisoning.

Matt: Yeah…I loved how Angel out-smarted Hamilton on that one. He really just completely out-smarted him. He knew he’d be waiting, he knew Harm was going to turn on him. He knew everything that Hamilton was going to do….but Hamilton thought HE KNEW what Angel was going to do. It was brilliant. We can’t call Angel a dumb ass, that’s for sure.

Eric: The episode was simply amazing.

Matt: The rain falls down, the demons come out, our heroes are ready to battle, and we’re left in awe.

Matt: All in all time?

Eric: Yes, sadly.

Matt: I’m sure we could talk about this episode for a month…

Eric: All in all, this episode was true beauty, pain, and heroism at its best. I give it an 11.

Matt: All in all, I never thought when I first started this website that I would enjoy Angel even close to how much I enjoyed Buffy. But somehow that son of a bitch Whedon made me. This was the best Jossverse season ever. Better than Buffy season 2, 3 and 5 (I’m sure I’ll change my mind about that back and forth in the next few years). Definitely better than any Angel season (maybe all of them put together)…. and this was a GREAT capper to my favorite season. It’s gotta be a 10.

Eric: I concur, the man is amazing.

Matt: I guess that’s it, my friend.

Eric: Yep. Join us next week for sobbing and crying.

Matt: …and don’t forget pointless and random comments.

Cue the fade to black.

Matt’s Rating: 10.0
Eric’s Rating: 10.0
Overall: 10.0