4x06 "Spin The Bottle"
Reviewed by Matthew Bon | Rating: 9/10

SERIES CREATOR JOSS WHEDON WRITES AND DIRECTS - When Lorne (Andy Hallett) performs a spell on Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) to restore her memory, it inadvertently causes the gang to revert back to their high school personas and leaves them with no memories of each other. Eventually, they discover that the only way to reverse the spell is to kill a vampire, just as Angel (David Boreanaz) realizes that he is one. Alexis Denisof, J. August Richards, Amy Acker and Vincent Kartheiser also star. Written and directed by series creator and executive producer Joss Whedon.

Overview:

When Joss does an episode, he really does do an episode. The most humorous piece of television I have ever seen graced my screen this week and I could not stop laughing.

First there was "City Of", a fantastic opening series premiere episode, then "Untouched", a dark tale about child abuse, next was "Waiting In The Wings" with plenty of A/C action (and ballet!) and now he brings up "Spin The Bottle" - a vibrant look back at what our characters used to be like when they were younger.

Joss made a lot of references to previous episodes. When Angel was scared by the car, the same thing happened to Buffy in 'Halloween', Willow & Buffy also talked about the test where it asks whether or not you want to be a florist like Fred in 'Dopplegangland', Wesley mentions the test about being locked in a house with a vampire which happened to Buffy in 'Helpless'.

And while many have already condemned this episode for being a rip-off of 'Halloween' and 'Tabula Rasa', I think that Joss was able to put a nice new spin on the idea.

Angel:

Oh poor guy, I think we're heading back to broody boy time. Not that there's anything wrong with that as we tend to get the best storylines when Angel is not feeling happy.

Ange: I'm rooting for the slave

HAHA sorry, that just cracked me up

Gunn, Fred & Wesley:

The triangle continues this week, and becomes a whole lot more dangerous. Gunn and Wesley together were terrific before they reverted back to their teenage years, and Wesley had some brilliant lines including:

Wesley: It's good to see how much faith you have in your relationship

&

Gunn: What happened to you man?
Wesley: I got my throat cut and all my friends abandoned me

Gunn (and just about everyone else) still doesn't understand what happened to Wesley. They don't understand how wrong it was of them to just leave him out in the cold and they don't understand how hard it has been for him to continue living having lost everything he worked so hard on.

And then it was quite amusing after the spell to see Wesley and Gunn's tension continue. Wesley especially was hilarious and I'd forgotten how funny he used to be while on Buffy. Lines such as:

Gunn: Gunn
Wesley: (ducking) Where?

&

Wesley: Judging from the amount of facial hair I've grown, we've all been unconscious for at least a month

Were hilarious. And Fred a pothead! How funny was that!

Cordelia:

It's moments like these that you really miss the Cordelia of old. She just kept throwing out those insults one after another, never missing a beat. Charisma definitely hasn't lost the knack of her comedic timing either as she was right on cue. She tagged everyone early on (Princess Charles, Mister Hair-Care-For-Men, Scarlet O'Shut-Me-Up & Salty Goodness [which as a fun fact is what she also called Angel when she first saw him in season one]) and was never short of anything to say.

Cordelia: Yep, I still got it

And

Wesley: In fact, I happen to be Head Boy
Cordelia: Gee, I wonder how you earned that nickname

Were particular highlights, I also really liked this:

Angel: Were we in love?
Cordelia: We were

That was a beautiful ending for the episode. But younger Cordy's continuing comments about her hair were cringe worthy and so was that 'What about Prom?' line. But I forgive them as the rest of the episode was brilliant. Cordy has a lot of angst and confusion to work through and while hopefully it will end out with an A/C relationship, I can't see it happening anytime soon.

Connor:

I found myself liking this character even more this episode as I do every week. I guess he's the easiest person I can relate to in the series (excluding the whole born to two vampires thing, accelerated ageing and well...everything else). The poor guy, he was so close to losing his virginity to a hooker - can unlucky can you be! I love Lorne's line:

Lorne: Classy girl. And poor Connor, engine revving and stuck in park

Then the corker came, when Cordy told him the exact same thing about getting a big reward and he went straight after Angel so he could achieve his dream and get into bed with her. That smile that came across his face as said he would get a reward was a classic.

He has a giant crush on her, and if it means he can even one second of intimacy with her, he won't worry about any feelings that his father has for her.

and Lorne:

I loved the way he was narrator of the episode and Joss had some great ideas how he used freeze frames, zoomed around the hotel while the actors were still, and the many other techniques to tell the story.

Here's my one quip about the episode as well - why didn't Lorne revert to his teenage persona?

Although I must say, since the episode was so god dam good, I didn't realise this problem till I went online and went to see what others were saying about Joss' recent outing.

Top 5 Quotes:

I can't put the top five quotes up because the whole episode was just one piece of classic dialogue. Joss is a genius at writing these characters and I can't possibly pick 5 of the hilarious lines from this week without excluding others that are just as equally good. Although special mention must go to this line:

Wesley: The cross obviously doesn't affect me or our friend the pugilist.
Gunn: Oh, your ass better pray I don't look that word up.

That was written and delivered perfectly, and had me laughing for many minutes after. (I did have to go and look that word up by the way. It means someone that fights with their fists)

In Closing:

Well, what can I say except for Joss is a god. His episodes in this series have all been of excellent quality, and this is so exception.

I did say I only had one question about this episode, and that was about how Lorne didn't turn, but I do have another point to make. After sitting down and thinking about the episode, looking at other viewers reactions - I have made a discovery that this episode was really badly structured. At some points the episode was pure comedy, and in other scenes, pure drama, and they kept switching from one to the other and I got confused as to how to play it.

All the events in hotel were exactly like a sitcom, and then when Connor came in at the climax of the episode, he totally turned the focus of the episode, and it became something completely different - and I was wondering to myself watching it - should I be laughing at this?

Even though the episode is like that, I cannot deny it's brilliance and I give this amazing piece of television a

9/10

I can't help but wish that seeing how good Joss writes and directs these episodes, he could do more in each season.

This isn't much of a review, as I've come off on such a high after watching this episode that I can't help but sit down at the computer and lay out all of what I liked...Joss kinda has that effect on you.

EDIT: I've gone in and changed some things in this review too

Next week, it seems, is the week where we are introduced to 'Big Bad' for the season and I for one, can not wait!


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