BECOMING PART 1
SEASON 2 EPISODE 21
We've finally come to the beginning of the end of Season 2. This is a pretty flashback-heavy episode, the first of it's kind in the series but definitely not the last. We open up in Ireland in 1753, with a mysterious narrator named Whistler talking about destiny. Human Angel and his friend get kicked out of a pub for being too rowdy and the unnamed friend passes out in the street. Angel sees a pretty girl across the street in the alley and heads over to get some action. This turns out to be Darla (remember her from Season 1?) and man, Living Angel is not subtle at all. She seems to be interested though and gets him to close his eyes while she vamps out and bites him. Then she turns him, and it's a good scene and all, but it does happen a little bit too fast I think. She decides to change him awfully quickly.
Flashforward to the present (or the late 90s, whatever) and Angel is doing his usual Buffy-stalking while she's fighting some lesser vamps. She dusts the guys no problem and helps Xander up, telling him she's just ready to get the fight with Angel over with. And he talks to himself about how it's going to be over soon. Meanwhile, Giles goes to meet with a museum curator about an ancient monolith that's just been dug up. I like this scene a lot; rarely does Giles get to talk to other adults, it's always nice to see him actually be somewhat charming rather than just the stuffy middle age guy routine. He seems very intrigued but tells the curator not to open the thing until he can translate the text on the outside.
At school, Xander reenacts the vamp fight that Buffy had the previous night for everyone at the lunch table. The man puts on a good show considering all he has to work with are two fish sticks and a toothpick. And Oz is back! He hasn't been seen in a while and the show never really says where he's been. Busy being a rock star I guess. He and Willow and Xander and Cordy are being all cutesy. But then Snyder comes in and ruins their fun times, and even threatens to expel Buffy yet again. Flashback time again! This time we see Human Drusilla at a confessional where Angel has killed the priest and taken his place. He takes advantage of the poor vulnerable girl and tells her she's evil and meant for evil. Flashforward to crazy Dru talking with Angel and Spike. They see the paper about the giant tomb that has arrived at the museum, and for some reason they seem to know what's inside it. Or at the very least that whatever is in it is evil.
Back at the library, Buffy and Willow bring the cure to Giles and we get one of the most tense scenes of the season. Willow thinks that she can probably do the spell but Giles says it's too dangerous and may lead to something that she can't control (FORESHADOWING). Then Xander speaks up and he's awfully hostile in this scene, isn't he? He takes a firm anti-Angel stance and pisses pretty much everybody off. I don't know, I side with Xander...he's absolutely right. Maybe for the wrong reasons, but he has the right idea. Meanwhile Angel and Dru show up and kill the curator, while the vamp henchmen load up the big tomb thing.
That night, Buffy finds the Claddagh ring and that complicates things. She heads out patrolling and hears a noise in the bushes, and out pops...Kendra! Why she was in the bushes? She..."wanted to test her reflexes", riiiiight. She came because she heard there was a dark power rising in Sunnydale and two slayers are better than one, after all. And we get to see what this tomb thing is all about back at the mansion, with Spike caustically delivering one of my favorite lines of the episode.
Spike: It's a big rock. Can't wait to tell my friends. They don't have a rock this big.
Then we get a little lesson on the demon inside the tomb, Acathla: big demon was going to destroy the world, killed by a solider, etc. He turned to stone and if someone "worthy" pulls it out, he comes back to life and swallows the world into hell. I've gotta be honest, I don't quite understand their plan. It's clearly explained in a later episode than demons get tortured down there just like humans. My only guess is that maybe they don't know that? Maybe they think the devil is going to give them a reward for sucking the world into hell? I don't know. Angel and Dru are into the idea, but Spike seems a little bit hesitant.
At the library, Giles explains the situation but sort of gets around the religious aspect of hell by saying it's just a hell-like dimension. Buffy tells Willow to do the spell as a fail-safe in case Buffy loses and Kendra even reveals that she brought a sword blessed by the knight who first slew Acathla. Willow says she needs a day to figure out the kinks of the spell and an Orb of Thesula which Giles says he has and has been using as a paperweight (in a humorous callback to Passion).
Back at the mansion, Angel begins the ritual, by reading some kind of script and biting a hostage they have. Then we get another flashback of Angel. This time in New York, 1996. It turns out that soulful Angel has been barely surviving by scavenging off of rats; then some snarky guy shows up to make fun of him for awhile. Turns out this guy is Whistler, sort of a Proto-Doyle (who we'll see in Season 1 of Angel the series). For the record, I like Doyle way better. Whistler tells Angel about his destiny and how he can really make a difference, getting Angel to head to LA.
Angelus finishes his spell and tries to pull out the sword, but it doesn't work, anticlimactically. This really pleases Spike; the rivalry between the two of them is about to explode, you can just feel it. Meanwhile in class, we get one of the weirdest scenes ever. A messenger vamp shows up in Buffy's classroom to tell Buffy to meet Angel or a bunch of people are going to die, then she bursts into flame. Talk about committed to the cause. Willow decides to do the curse at the library while Buffy heads to meet Angel. Buff and Kendra get a nice little moment where Kendra gives her a lucky stake that she affectionately calls Mr. Pointy.
Buffy meets Angel at the graveyard and they fight after a bit of taunting. Giles, Willow, Xander, and Cordy begin the ritual at the library with Kendra standing guard before they are ambushed by vamps from all sides. Willow gets crushed by a bookshelf, Xander gets his arm snapped, and Giles gets knocked out. Cordy gets away, leaving Xander, Willow and Giles unconscious while Kendra takes on everyone. Back at the graveyard, dim-witted Buffy finally figures out that it was a trap to get Buffy away from the group, exactly like the first episode of the season. She takes off running to save the group as Angel laughs at her. Kendra does pretty well but gets outnumbered as Dru walks in. She calls off the vamps and the two have their own little fight before Dru starts doing this weird hypnosis thing. It doesn't really amount to much because Dru just slits her throat with her fingernail anyway. They kidnap Giles and head out, and Buffy arrives too late, finding Kendra dead in the library as Whistler plays us out with another monologue.
Overall this is a great episode, both in terms of setup for the second part as well as story and character development. We get to see a lot of Angel's backstory here that was only hinted at before, and while it will continued to be fleshed out in further episodes (mostly on his own show later on), it's nice to get a taste of it here. This is probably the best two-parter of the series mostly because the parts work so well both independently and together.
****
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