AtS in review: "Not Fade Away"

[wisdomeagle]

"Not Fade Away" was just on Fox. (Had to duck-and-cover through another Serenity ad.)

My reaction? Mostly "waaaaaaaaah!" No actual tears, though.



Hamilton - "it's funny because he's Jayne."

Wes - waaaaaah!

Lorne - waaah! again. This was probably more moving this time than last time, when watching was sort of blurry with this urge to get to the end. And the fanficcer in me thinks of Lorne's life after this, of where he goes, of how he lives. In a way it's... it's that arc I love, the getting out, and how he lives with himself doing that. God. I love Lorne.

Connor - I was upset the first time I saw NFA that they textualized the end of "Origin," but okay, it was an amusing description of S4 - "inappropriately erotic," etc.

Hamilton, redux - says among those Angel failed are Doyle (yayyyy! for reprisal and return to beginnings!), Cordy, Fred -- hmm.

"We don't live in a fairytale, Lindsey." Aww. Eve. So screwed.

Harmony - amusing as always. "It's no act. I really am this nervous!"

Wonder how much more double-blindness there really was in Angel's plan. He played Hamilton & Harmony & Lindsey -- remaining only are his guys. (Though part of me? Wonders if he really was setting up Wesley to die. Do you think? I mean... I wouldn't put it past him, and he could calculate. Huh.

Illyria - Indeed, I love her. And she, indeed, loves Wesley. And I love the Fred-to-Illyria morph (though most of the sfx in that scene drive me particularly batty with their badness.)

Odd slo-mo in the W+H lobby was okay, but a bit random.

Gunn! Anne! Yay.

I love, love, LOVE the Wes/Angel Look. It's so absolutely perfect and left me writing on the couch, which caused my mom, who was confusedly watching with me, to be confused. "What? What?"

"THE LOOK."

"..."

Rewatching tense stuff is always so hard for me. I had my teeth gritted right up till the Wes/Fred goodbye scene and then didn't cry after all and was vaguely disappointed that I hadn't. I hate having to gague my emotional responses and generally falling short of my own expectations.

And knowing when the end will come... just isn't the same. I mean, the last alley scene is SO AWESOME, seriously, and I love it forever, but the shock of the ending is a one-time only thing. My mom got it. She was like, "That's where it ENDS?"

"Yes! *squee wibble squee* Isn't it so perfect?"

And so they stand in the alley forever, always about to fight, not living, not dying, forever and ever, in Joss's name, amen.

I must label my tape and rewatch the Wes/Angel Look. *happy place*

Comments

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

Hamilton - "it's funny because he's Jayne."
My husband and I had to be told it was the same actor. Then we squinted and said, Ohhhhh, it's Jayne! Except not! Yeah.

Angel setting up Wesley in order to prime Illyria would be fascinating. Although I'm not sure this is what you meant. :-p

I am still in shock and haven't rewatched "Not Fade Away" at all because even thinking about it makes me want to cry.

But the alley is perfect. It is completely perfect. I love that ending.

I haven't listened to the S5 commentary, either. I'm not sure I can bear to yet.

Yeah. *incoherent*

[wisdomeagle]

Angel setting up Wesley in order to prime Illyria would be fascinating. Although I'm not sure this is what you meant. :-p

That wasn't quite what I meant, though that would make SO MUCH SENSE. My impromptu theory was just that Angel knew Wes wouldn't make it, because Angel as evil-mastermind is fun, but if he actually had a (moderately) good reason for it... eee! *hearts*

NFA tends to render me incoherent too.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

man, my brother just saw this for the first time and didn't realize it was the last ep. then when he saw yesterday that they had cycled back to the beginning, he called and left a long rambly message about how "that can't be the end because it looks like Wesley is DEAD and he CAN'T be dead because I can't believe in a world where Wesley is dead!" *sniffle* I'm like -- you're telling ME???

why would Angel want Wes to die?

[wisdomeagle]

why would Angel want Wes to die?

See, I don't think he would. (I mean, not this season.) But yhlee pointed out above that letting Wes die might inspire Illyria to greater violence, and since this is a suicide mission for all of them anyhow, I don't put it past Angel to sacrifice Wesley.

[gvambat.livejournal.com]

It's also just about the happiest thing that could happen to Wesley at this point...Angel clearly is sacrificing Wesley along with the rest of them, so having Wesley die first (corralary-not be the lone survivor) might just be the kindest thing he could do from Wesley's standpoint. And Wesley knows. And Angel knows. And they don't have to say anything, they just look at each other and don't say goodbye...

[gvambat.livejournal.com]

Um, yes. *is all articulate and stuff*

[deviantfantasy.livejournal.com]

I have a theory about the look between Angel and Wesley. You see, the look happened because Angel and him had something else planned. Something no one else in the group knew about. In the end (and this is going to sound strange), I think Wesley was the only one Angel could really trust with the heavy stuff. Angel basically forgave Wesley for what he did with Connor at the end of 'Lineage', even though Wesley didn't know he was forgiving him.

I really think it was set up to where Wesley would've been alive if there were a Season Six or movie. I think Angel needed the others to think Wesley was dead because Wesley had a bigger project to do.

*nods*

Yup.

*goes back to her fantasy world*

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

Oh, my wank is that he was up against the guy who did magic, including memory screwage. And Wesley may not be as good with magic, but W&H resources? Random Artifacts of the Week? It's kind of a neat way to give them wriggle room: Either it's Wesley having a deathwish and going in there with patently inadequate prep even though it would mean letting the others down (this is Wesley; I can't imagine him not thinking this through; of course, what Wesley does with the thinking...well...S3 much?). Or it's Wesley ("most trusted lieutenant"?) and Angel having something else planned that could have been dealt with in S6.

Except THEY KiLLED OUR SHOW.

I have the desperate fantasy that they will make a movie. And it will be epic and it will--

Desperate, I said.

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

I just realized I repeated everything you said, except more incoherently. *slinks away*

[deviantfantasy.livejournal.com]

*giggles and pets your icon*

It's all right :D

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

that they textualized the end of "Origin,"

Yeah I know that feeling, but the way they did it makes sense, though. Although I feel guilty every time I textualize the end of "NFA" in fanfic. *goes away to add "ambiguity" to list of interests*

Aww. Eve. So screwed.

Yeah, by the end of the season I really felt bad for Eve.

and left me writing on the couch

writing or writhing? because i could totally see either.

Harmony - amusing as always.

Harmony was there in the beginning--well, sort of, as she was in "The Harvest" which is of a piece with "WttH." And here she is at the end. So her scene with Angel was important to me, because I saw it as a return to the beginnings, as a reminder that the show had not lost track of its roots. I think Harmony fulfilled that function much better than, say, Buffy could have.

Wonder how much more double-blindness there really was in Angel's plan. (Though part of me? Wonders if he really was setting up Wesley to die. Do you think? I mean... I wouldn't put it past him, and he could calculate.)

I didn't wonder this until I wrote "The Box of Yfrak," in which Angel did set up Wesley to die (although I'm not sure why).

And so they stand in the alley forever, always about to fight, not living, not dying, forever and ever, in Joss's name, amen.


Exactly. Which is why you hardly ever see any of the AtS in my post-"NFA" fics, because they're still busy in that alley. (Seriously, I think it goes back to that wanting to textualize thing.)

And it is such the perfect ending, summing everything Angel was about it. I love it too.

[wisdomeagle]

writing or writhing? because i could totally see either.

Heh. Totally writhing, but yeah, either totally possible.

Good point on Harm, re: return to beginnings. It's down to just her and Angel at that poing. And oh, I wish it'd been Cordy. But.

Aaaah, I love the ambiguity of the alley too! And also feel the same guilt re: textualizing their deaths (or their surivival), even though some of my best fics have come out of doing just that("Amoral Boundaries," as for instance).

Eeep, church. *love* Gotta fly!

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

My best-recieved fic ("Funeral") also came out of textualizing at leat one death/survival (Illyria), but there's a reason why I don't let myself do that in my main Buffy universe. Of course, that means I can effectively never use Angel, Spike, Illyria, or Gun as characters, so they might as well be done.

Have a nice time at church.

[gvambat.livejournal.com]

Harmony was there in the beginning--well, sort of, as she was in "The Harvest" which is of a piece with "WttH." And here she is at the end. So her scene with Angel was important to me, because I saw it as a return to the beginnings, as a reminder that the show had not lost track of its roots. I think Harmony fulfilled that function much better than, say, Buffy could have.

I might have to agree with that. Even though I would've liked to see a phone call to Buffy (perhaps one similar to the phone call in "City Of..."), and I would've loved to see Cordy's grave...

But they did a wonderful job of wrapping things up. What with Harmony and Lindsey and the references and the alley at the end...but you're right, Harmony is a part of the back to the beginning, the very BtVS beginning, that could have gotten lost because Angel's the only one left from then, and they've all changed so much...

*is all coherant and abuses elipses*