Angel - "Unleashed" Review
By: Michael Hickerson

Written by Sarah Fain and Elizabeth Craft
Directed by Marita Grabiak
Original Airdate: October 15, 2003

Plot: Angel rescues a young woman, Nina, from a vicious werewolf attack, but not before she’s bitten. He must then race against time to find Nina before her transformation begins. Adding to the situation is the fact that Nina is also being hunted down by another group. Meanwhile, Spike tries to make Fred understand the urgency of his situation and that his trips into hell are getting longer each time.

Warning: SPOILERS are about to be “Unleashed.” If you’ve not yet seen the latest episode of Angel, then I strongly suggest you turn back now or see what else is on the menu…

In short: A lot of rehash and lack of focus.

One of the first things I learned in my English literature classes is that, when it comes to telling a basic story, there are only a certain number of stories out there. So, while you’re not going to go out and reinvent the wheel, there are a lot of elements of storytelling that you can use to make the exploration of the basic story new, different and fresh.

How many times have I heard this criticism leveled at Enterprise and Voyager—it’s not that I mind them retelling stories from other Star Trek shows, it’s just that I wish they’d do something new with them.
Which is pretty much my biggest criticism with Angel this week. It wasn’t that I necessarily minded revisiting the idea of a werewolf in the Joss universe. But I wish they’d done something new or different with it.

On the most basic level, “Unleashed” in the same basic plot as “Phases.” A character is bitten by a werewolf and starts attacking people. There are certain elements who come out of the woodwork in the show to hunt down the werewolf for their own evil purposes. Buffy or Angel intercedes and saves the werewolf from the bad guys, thus saving the day, at least for now.

The thing with “Phases” was that the storyline of someone unknowingly turning into a werewolf every time the moon was full had a far better draw because we, the viewers, had a better relationship with the character of Oz. He was Willow’s boyfriend and we’d seen him over the course of season two and got to know him. With “Unleashed” we met Nina and while there was some good attempt to do some back-story on her, I wasn’t as honestly compelled by her dilemma. Yes, it was nice to see her struggling to fit into her family—that she didn’t want to hurt her niece and then trying to cover what she had become, but it never really rang that true.

And while it was certainly horrible that a group of people is going to feast on Nina while she’s still alive, it didn’t have the same compelling angle as Oz being hunted down by the poacher who wants to bad Oz for the collection. Again, I think it all comes down to how well we know and relate to the character undergoing the problem. We had a long relationship with Oz; we didn’t have one with Nina.
And “Unleashed” suffered for it.

I could almost shake off the feeling of “been there, done that” that the main storyline gave me, if I hadn’t been so out and our horrified by some of the choices made by the characters in the storyline—namely Angel, Wes and Gunn.

The biggest for me had to be Angel. Now, I understand that Angel isn’t necessarily the most forgiving guy and certainly he’s upset and angry that the evil doctor has lied to him and manipulated events to get Nina captured. And certainly the guy does deserve some type of punishment. But does he really deserve to be turned over to the same set of villains who are going to cook him up while he’s still alive and then feast on him?!? So, basically what Angel is saying is that it’s OK to eat the evil scientist guy, but not OK to eat the nice, cute girl who didn’t’ ask for this. Well, you know I doubt evil scientist guy asked for a werewolf bite and I’m pretty sure he didn’t ask to be eaten—his reaction showed that. So why does Angel go to such great lengths to save Nina but then turn over the scientist guy to the baddies of the week?

If the purpose of the show is for Angel to save souls, then why does he get to judge the value of whose souls get saved? Is Nina’s any better a soul than the scientist’s soul? And is Angel the one to make the judgment? OK, sure he lied to them and blocked Lorne’s reading (interesting to see that come up since it now makes us question if everyone at Wolfram and Hart can do it and knows how to do it) but does that mean he should be killed in a horrible way? Yes, he did a crime and the punishment should fit it. But I’m not sure the punishment fits the crime here and isn’t a case of going too far.
In a lot of ways, it reminded me of Angel slamming the door on the Wolfram and Hart lawyers in season two, leaving them to Darla and Dru. But that was better explained by seeing Angel go down a dark path. Here I didn’t’ feel like he was going down a dark path like he was then. Just abusing his authority and power as the new head of Wolfram and Hart. And making a moral judgment that isn’t necessarily his to make.

That said, I am shocked that neither Gunn nor Wes reacted to this as well. Yes, I know both have gone a lot darker since season two, but I still don’t buy that neither of them would at least say something to Angel about this. Even if we just saw a challenge to it later at the office.

Honestly, as I watched, I found myself missing Cordelia, because this is the type of situation that I think she’d call Angel on. I missed that dramatic moment and I think the episode, as a whole, suffered for it.
Also, I am wondering if we’ll ever see Nina again. Yes, we made reference to her coming back in 30 days and that Angel is attracted to her (which should teach me to never believe anything a WB promo tells me since they took one isolated scene and then totally misconstrued the entire point of the episode to get ratings). But will she come back or is this a one-off? Also, what’s to really stop the culinary guys from finding her again and taking her prisoner? Yes, it’s nice she gets to go back to her old life, but in a lot of ways her old life is over and she can’t ever get it back. I’d almost say it’d be worth it to bring her back just to explore that, but then part of me screams—“Gwen!” and we all know how poorly developed that was last year.
However, “Unleashed” is not totally beyond redemption. In fact, it was saved by the strength of the subplots.

Seeing Angel and company meet high above L.A. to escape the listening ears of Wolfram and Hart was nicely done. At first, I thought it was a ploy to get away from Spike, but then we discover why they really did it. I liked seeing everyone question if Gunn has gone evil due to his download of the demon law.

That also led to Angel’s conversation with Lorne that in his need to strike out at evil, he was missing the target and hurting those close to him. That scene resonated on a lot of levels—part of it is because that’s exactly what he did three years ago in season two. Nice to see that someone has learned and is willing to call Angel when he gets out of line. And it led to the nice scene at the end in Angel’s new apartment and the ordering of Chinese food. That all worked well.
But the most compelling subplot was the Fred and Spike storyline. I loved seeing how desperate Spike is getting and his insistence that Fred give up all other projects to pursue his. Also, it’s nice to see Fred go from put out by this to concern over Spike and what’s happening to him. Also, Spike’s insistence at not telling Angel is good—because I wonder how eager Angel would be to help Spike. The way Angel has acted, I feel that he’d just let Spike slip off into hell and not think twice about it.

But all of these good points couldn’t save the episode from being much more than a disappointment to me. Certainly it’s not quite up to the heights of disappointment that “She” or “I Will Remember You” were, but it still the weakest of the three so far this year. Here’s hoping next week gets things back on track (and from the preview, it looks like it should….wow, how great did that look?!?)
OK, so that’s it for now except a few small things…

--So, you’ve got a werewolf issue and no one brings up trying to find and/or contact Oz who has this thing under control? That doesn’t make much sense. Yes, they are two different breeds, but Oz has a good starting point for research on how to help Nina.

--I loved the scene were Spike tries to make up a reason he won’t go to Wes for help.

--Poor old John Billingsly. He just can’t get away from playing doctors. (For those of you who don’t know, he plays Dr. Phlox on Enterprise).

--I liked seeing Spike wander through and help Fred find the answer to the problem. That was a nice touch, even if it wasn’t intentional.

So that’s all for now. Overall, “Unleashed” is a disappointment and the first major stumble of season five. I’m hopeful things get better soon.

My rating: 5.5 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Well, Spike is being sucked into hell and it’s got a “graphic images and partial nudity” warning on it. That said, the preview looked really good…but again, been burned before!