Episode Reviews   

"Life of the Party," Wednesday, October 29, 2003

by Anne

Episode Summary

Lorne bustles about, dealing with clients and organizing the Wolfram and Hart Halloween party, with a seemingly endless supply of energy. However, alone in his office he fights a pounding headache, and his reflection talks to him, saying that he has to get back out there. Lorne angrily smashes the mirror, but the talking reflection doesn't go away. Returning to his cheerful, energetic act, Lorne goes to discuss the party plans with Angel. Lorne gets the others on his side and they talk a reluctant Angel into joining the efforts to make the party a success. Angel realizes that the party matters to Lorne; Lorne says that he's on Angel's team, and the party is something that he can do to help. The party starts out slowly, but Lorne buzzes about, encouraging the guests, and soon the party is in full swing. However, the gang soon observes that people are acting strangely: Fred and Wesley are drunk although they haven't been drinking, Gunn is peeing all around the office (staking his territory, that is), and Spike is thinking positively. The common link between those acting strangely is that they're doing what Lorne told them to do. The gang pulls Lorne into Angel's office, where they find Angel and Eve having sex under the "Lorne effect." Lorne denies that he's controlling anyone, but Gunn recalls that Lorne had his sleep removed. Wesley explains that trouble ensues when an empath demon is deprived of sleep for too long. He and Fred go to find Lorne's sleep; checking the books, Wes discovers that sleep deprivation can also cause unsolved problems in the empath demon's subconscious to manifest. At the party a powerful green monster - that looks like a larger, angrier version Lorne - attacks. The monster is about to pound Angel into the floor when Fred returns Lorne's sleep; the monster disappears as Lorne passes out.

Episode Review

In the previous episode, I thought that Eve was slightly less annoying, but after this ep I realized that she simply didn't say much then. She's talking again and I'm hating it. Her attempts at being sarcastic come across as simply being obnoxious. Lorne said there was sexual tension between Eve and Angel, but I just don't see it. Aside from that, why must the writers try to create romantic interest between Angel and every single female character that crosses his path? And why is Angel confiding to Eve, the liaison to the Senior Partners, that he's always second-guessing every decision he makes?

About Angel having sex with Eve, I'm not a bit surprised that this didn't bring him perfect happiness. At this point, he certainly isn't in love with her: it was the spell that made them get together. Plus, if there's anything at all between them it's purely physical, and as we saw with Angel and Darla in season three, that doesn't break the curse.

Eve claimed that not everyone bottles things up inside like Angel does, but that clearly isn't true. The prime example of that is Lorne, who secretly had his sleep removed to try to keep up with the demands of his job. When the sleep removal made Lorne grow increasingly cranky, he tried to cover that up as well. The others also hide their feelings: Gunn did basically the same thing that Lorne did - allowed himself to be altered by Wolfram and Hart because he felt inferior to the others. On a smaller scale, Wesley continues to hide his feelings for Fred.

Fred seems to be the only one that is just being herself. (Although, given a few more eps, we'll probably find out that she's holding something in, too.) However, her fascination with Knox - and her determination to believe that he's not evil - will probably lead to a bad place.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

* What did that unreadable expression on Eve's face - after she told Angel that she'd had sex under a mystical influence before - mean?

* How could Lorne not know what would happen if he didn't sleep? Then again, he did say that he failed mystical studies.

* This episode had shades of the Season Four Buffy ep, Something Blue.

* I'm sure it would be annoying if it happened a lot, but I really liked happy, upbeat Spike.

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