Angel Investigated - 2.4 Untouched

Posted by Jason Chamberlain on 11.11.2009

This week in LA, Angel helps a girl with telekinetic powers, while Wolfram and Hart ramp up their efforts to torment Angel!

2.4 Untouched
Writer: Mere Smith
Director: Joss Whedon

Whedon Speak

Angel: Do you know how hard it is to think straight with a rebar through your torso?
Cordelia: Actually, I do. Benefits of a Sunnydale education.

Cordelia: Don't bone my boss.
Bethany: What?
Cordelia: Angel. He's strictly a no bone.

Ronny Sarnecky has the full review!

The fourth episode of Season Two finds Angel helping a girl named Bethaney, who has
uncontrollable telekinetic powers. On the outside, this episode appeared to be your
typical “baddie/damsel in distress of the week” show. However, one of the reasons this
episode is greater your typical “of the week” program, is because there is more than
meets the eye with Bethaney.


When the camera panned over to Wolfram & Hart’s lawyer, Lilah, Whedon left you with
a moment where you are questioning whether or not Bethaney is friend or foe to Angel.
Of course, it didn’t take long to see that Bethaney was just a pawn in the game Wolfram
& Hart is playing with Angel. When it was discovered that Wolfram & Hart wanted to
use Bethaney and her powers to become an assassin, it reminded me of the end of the
“Buffy” episode “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” in Season One. In that episode, a girl
named Marcie became invisible, and was attacking people in Sunnydale High because
they ignored her for years. At the end of the episode, a still invisible Marcie was taken
by the FBI to a special school that featured other invisible students. They were training
these kids to be assassins. It seemed that both the FBI in the earlier “Buffy” episode, and
Wolfram & Hart in this episode of “Angel, wanted to use Marcie, and now Bethaney’s
powers for their advantage, instead of helping them deal with their powers, and how to
control them.

This episode advanced the storyline of Darla even further. We finally learned how Darla
has been able to control Angel in his dreams thus far. We also were given a hint that
Wolfram & Hart has more in store for Angel, in regards to Darla, then just given him wet
dreams about her.

“Untouched” was a pivotal episode in turning Gunn from a supporting character that
occasionally helps out Angel, and making him a true member of the Angel Investigations
team. In this episode, Angel, with Cordelia’s urging, offered to pay Gunn for his
services. While this may seem like a small, insignificant item to the show, having Gunn
become an official member of the team is huge in the scope of the “Angel” landscape.

Jason Chamberlain	Not one of my all time favorites, but a solid episode nonetheless. It's always great to see Angel and Lilah go head to head, and she showcases her eeeevil here as does Holland Manners. I love that guy!	8
Jeremy Thomas	On the surface, this feels like a filler episode that just barely advances a few plot threads. Even in that surface respect, this is a pretty decent episode. First off you have Bethany, the psychic girl who can't control her telekinetic powers. This is an archetype seen many times, including that of Tina in Friday the 13th: Part VII which is probably the best comparison here. This, I felt, was handled much better than the Jason installment because of the performance of Daisy McCrackin as Bethany. She's not consistently excellent but she does very well. I also appreciated the typically dark tone the story took. You wouldn't expect a television show like this to tackle something as serious as sexual abuse, but they did so and did it very well. It provides an excellent justification for Bethany to be like she is, and it plays nicely. Meanwhile, you have the obvious plot thread advancements, like Darla's side scenes where she talks about the Calynthia powder she's using to control his dreams or Gunn becoming more of an official member of the team by going on the payroll. These don't seem significant now, but they will be later. What I really loved about this episode though was the one plot thread we've seen in every episode thus far in Season Two, and that's the continuing darkening of Angel. When Bethany has her father held in the air, Angel tells her to finish it…and she does. Angel is a character who's always been very serious about the sanctity of human life, and while I think everyone can agree with his decision that the father needed to die, this is a major turn for the character. It was done in a subtle fashion due to the abhorrent nature of the victim-to-be, but carried nicely. I also loved the scene in the alley where Angel once again talks like a hardened, Sam Spade-type detective…very noir. The only thing that really bugs me is the flashbacks to the gypsy scene, which doesn't match how it played out the last time we saw it. It's a nitpick, but it did bug me. Otherwise, good show as always.	8.5
Mike Gorman	For me "Untouched" was an episode that had its moments but overall felt like an average Angel outing instead of something special. It had a pretty formulaic plot, ie. Angel discovers an innocent, innocent rejects assistance initially but is helped by the hour's end. This time around the innocent in question, Bethany, happens to have telekinesis which makes her a bit more interesting, to viewers and Wolfram & Hart. As other commenters have mentioned, the truly interesting parts of this episode revolve around Darla's dreamy encounters with Angel and the effect they are having on our hero. He is exhibiting all of the symptoms of sleep deprivation which would not usually be a big deal but Angel is a vampire, so cranky and short tempered are not nice qualities in him. Darla's interventions are starting to have a dramatic effect on Angel's actions and are taking him down a dark path. Just what destination this will lead him too remains to be seen. Other memorable moments this week include the subplot about Cordy wanting Angel to pay Gunn for his work with them. It further cements Gunn's position on the team and provided a few comical moments. I think it would have been interesting to have had Bethany remain around for a while. A telekinetic might have come in handy.	7.5

GRR!!! ARGH!!!

The 411: While “Untouched” isn’t one of the best episodes of “Angel’s” second season, it does advance storylines that are paramount to future episodes of the season. For that reason, “Untouched” should be viewed by all “Angel” followers. However, if you do miss the show, nothing happened in it that our synopsis wouldn’t be able to fill you in on.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]