Angel Investigated - 1.12 Expecting
Posted by Jason Chamberlain on 06.30.2009
Buffy's not the only show that can do metaphor episodes! This week's "Angel" takes aim at one night stands; they can have demonic consequences!
1.12 Expecting
Writer: Howard Gordon
Director: David Semel
Whedon Speak
Wesley: You don't think sticking the axe in the wall put them off? Angel: That was charming. Wesley: What about the fact that they thought we were gay? Angel: Adds mystery.
Wilson: You shouldn't sneak up on people like that in here. That's how accidents happen. Angel: Speaking of accidents. I'm a friend of Cordelia Chase. Wilson: This is a private club. Featured word; 'private'. Angel: You don't talk to me, I'll kick your ass. Featured word; 'ass'.
Demon: Who is the interloper to think you could disturb the birth of my children? Who are you? Wesley: Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, rogue demon hunter. And I'm here to fight you, Sir, to the death, - preferably yours.
Jeremy Thomas has the full review!
You know, any time a Whedonverse combat is done just off-camera, I just smile. There’s something about the way they do it that makes for a lot of fun. Just had to get that out there before I started this.
Following on the heavy themes of “Somnambulist” where Angel had to sacrifice his friendship with Kate in order to make up for one of his past sins, we take a walk into Cordelia’s wild side with “Expecting.” This episode starts off simply enough—Angel is trying to figure out Cordelia’s bizarre filing system while Wesley comes by, axe in hand, to just check and see if there’s evil that needs to be slain. Cordy doesn’t seem to up for it; she’s going out with her friends to see her surprise new boyfriend Wilson Christopher. This is a nice little opening bit that sets everyone up perfectly; Angel is trying to get back to work following the events of the previous episode, suppressing his feelings in his job while Wesley is increasingly desperate to be part of the team while Cordy is trying to party her troubles around Doyle and her gift away. Unfortunately, that plan goes awry when she ignores the determined efforts of Phantom Dennis to kill the mood, and a night with Wilson leaves her looking a good eight and a half months pregnant. Obviously, this is something that the AI gang didn’t ever plan for, but they react well enough as Wesley takes her to an ultrasound so they can find out what’s going on and Angel goes to find the father-to-be. This is Angel and Wesley in the roles perfectly suited for them; Wesley’s the supportive one while Angel’s just out to make whoever hurt Cordelia pay.
Unfortunately, the situation throws them for a loop when Cordelia’s opinion turns from fear and revulsion to obsessive protectiveness. Apparently she’s carrying a Haxil demon’s child, and they have a little telepathic whammy they can lay down and Cordy becomes quite the problem for them. Of course, it’s nothing that a handgun and a tank of liquid nitrogen can’t handle, and by the time the episode is done Cordelia and the other women surrogately impregnated by Wilson’s posse are free of their pregnancies while there’s one less big-ass, nasty demon in the world.
“Expecting” was written by Howard Gordon, who also wrote the phenomenal “Hero” and served as a consulting producer for the first season of Angel. He would go on to be one of the key creative minds behind 24. This isn’t one of Gordon’s best episodes—certainly not at the level of “Hero”—but that’s hardly saying that this one is bad. Gordon does a nice job here of crafting a one-shot story that serves as a metaphor for real-world troubles the way many Buffy episodes did. Interestingly this would end up being far from the first time Cordy ended up pregnant; after all, who can forget her giving birth to Connor’s child Jasmine from Season Four (as much as we might want to)? The episode has some fun little moments in it, such as the girls sorta flirting with Wesley and Angel in the beginning and the two guys talking about it as they walk away from the slaying of the first demon early in the show.
Obviously, this episode is Cordelia-centric, and that makes it Charisma Carpenter’s time to shine. She does a great job here in portraying Cordy through the many stages of emotional trauma that she goes through upon finding out that she’s with spawn. David Boreanaz and Alexis Denisof provide the back up nicely enough but this is Carpenter’s episode to rock and she does exactly that. I’ve always felt bad for the way Carpenter was treated during her Buffy tenure because I don’t think she got the credit she deserved as an actress. It wasn’t until Angel that she really came into her own, and this is one of those times she gets to show it off. She makes this episode work as well as it does.
Ronny Sarnecky
This was a weird episode. By the title, I figured that someone was pregnant. However, I never expected it to be Cordelia. The “Angel” series has given us a string of really good episodes lately. “Expecting” was probably the worst episode the show has presented in awhile. Not that it was bad, or anything. The episode wasn’t bad at all. It’s just that the other episodes were really, really good. The biggest event to come out of this episode is that Cordelia, Angel, and Wesley are starting to bond as a family who cares about each other, rather then three people working together in a business. This is a trait that makes the “Scooby Gang” special. This trait is now being carried onto Angel Investigations. One of the small things I liked with this episode is that Cordelia’s ghost Dennis showed in “Expecting” that he cares about Cordelia. When she brought Wilson over, Dennis tried to “kill the mood.” The next day, the ghost tried to comfort a distraught Cordy by handing her a tissue, and tucking her in with her blanket.
7.5
Jason Chamberlain
I gotta be honest, I'm on vacation right now and I didn't have a chance to actually watch this episode. Not to worry. I will draw on my incredible memory.
...
Well, there's some cool Wesley moments! I remember that. And the whole "gang becoming a family" thing is handled very well. Still, the concept kind of strikes me as a metaphor episode they never got around to on Buffy.
7
GRR!!! ARGH!!!
The 411: Charisma Carpenter gets her chance to shine here, and she doesn’t disappoint one bit. The episode is a one-shot that overdoes it just a bit with the liquid nitrogen ending and the dialogue isn’t the snappiest, but the episode is far from bad and the performances push this from simply decent to very good.
Unfortunately, the situation throws them for a loop when Cordelia’s opinion turns from fear and revulsion to obsessive protectiveness. Apparently she’s carrying a Haxil demon’s child, and they have a little telepathic whammy they can lay down and Cordy becomes quite the problem for them. Of course, it’s nothing that a handgun and a tank of liquid nitrogen can’t handle, and by the time the episode is done Cordelia and the other women surrogately impregnated by Wilson’s posse are free of their pregnancies while there’s one less big-ass, nasty demon in the world.
Obviously, this episode is Cordelia-centric, and that makes it Charisma Carpenter’s time to shine. She does a great job here in portraying Cordy through the many stages of emotional trauma that she goes through upon finding out that she’s with spawn. David Boreanaz and Alexis Denisof provide the back up nicely enough but this is Carpenter’s episode to rock and she does exactly that. I’ve always felt bad for the way Carpenter was treated during her Buffy tenure because I don’t think she got the credit she deserved as an actress. It wasn’t until Angel that she really came into her own, and this is one of those times she gets to show it off. She makes this episode work as well as it does.
