“Life of the Party” Written by Ben Edlund Directed by Bill Norton The Story Lorne is striding through W&H, looking colorful and sharp as usual. It just occurred to me that we’ve never seen him sitting and working. He’s always on the move, and always highly energetic. His assistant is barely able to keep up with him and the multiple cell phones he has to juggle. Also, he calls Harmony “Harmonica” and she calls him “Lorney Tunes.” Lorne’s looking for Angel, but Harmony advises he not approach him until he’s in a better mood. His field mission didn’t go well. And here’s exhibit A: Angel covered in green slime, looking thoroughly disgruntled. The nifty grenade Wes gave him did not work. Wes heads off to show it to Fred for more testing. Lorne wants a moment on Fred’s schedule too. Then he turns to Angel. Angel doesn’t want to talk. He wants to shower. Lorne will have to wait. Lorne finally goes back to his office, which looks more like a chic dressing room. He sits down at his vanity, looking uncharacteristically grumpy and beat, and then his reflection starts talking to him. It thinks he’s looking pretty bad. He ignores it, until it gets so perky that it annoys the crap out of him and he yells and smashes the mirror. Whoa. Lorne is not okay. The shattered mirror starts singing after him and he strides back out into the main building as energized as before, singing and dancing. Angel is finishing up his shower, and...wait for it...yes. Eve barges in because apparently she has a key to his apartment. Yeah, that’s not okay. He holds his hand out for the key, and she hands it over. She’s very annoying and very inappropriate. But they did have a meeting. Angel hurries to get dressed. Oh hey! I think he got a haircut! His hair is back to being spiky instead of tall and then gelled to the sides. Angel and Eve head to their meeting. He’s not doing well, highly stressed as he attempts to outmaneuver the Senior Partners without knowing how they’re trying to maneuver him. Eve thinks he has a tendency to bottle up his issues. Angel doesn’t agree, but the way he punches a dude holding a giant skull decoration by reflex kind of indicates otherwise.
Angel’s very surprised to find the lobby in the process of being lavishly decorated for Halloween. Lorne is concerned because there aren’t enough important people coming to the party. Angel super doesn’t care about the party, and Lorne starts to look like he’s having an angry headache again, but then he snaps out of it with a manic laugh and brushes aside Angel’s apathy. He’ll meet with Angel about the party in his office in 25 minutes, once Angel has gotten over his bad mood. Wesley is obsessing a bit about the faulty grenade, and Fred doesn’t quite understand the fuss. Nor does Knox, who is absolutely the last person Wes wanted to see. If the grenade doesn’t work, it’s either because the spell at it’s core was bad or because the trigger was faulty. Fred and Knox swear their designs and engineering were flawless, and they’re all giggly. Wes keeps insisting that his side of the project was right “because it felt right.” Lorne strolls through, and nobody wants to talk about the party right now. Fred wasn’t even planning on attending. Neither was Wes. Lorne feels betrayed. Knox explains what a big deal the Halloween parties are at W&H. Fred and Wes are more worried about making sure Angel has working equipment the next time he goes on a mission. Lorne convinces Fred and Wes to pawn the repair job off on Knox. Lorne’s next stop is Gunn’s office. He wants Gunn’s help persuading Angel that the party is important, and he tells him to “stake out his territory.” Lorne kind of brushes Lorne aside because he’s also really busy. Lorne actually succeeds in getting the entire team into Angel’s office when he wants them there, but then he seems to be missing. Spike gripes about what a fake holiday Halloween is and how no self-respecting demon goes out that night. Is Angel going to call him out on that time he broke his own rule about Halloween a mere six years earlier? Nope. He just makes the glass of his office turn more opaque so they can’t see the bustle of decorators. Bah. In comes Lorne, finally. Gunn tells Angel the party is an important part of establishing his image with W&H’s clients and employees. Angel still thinks it’s likely to turn into a bloodbath between many rival factions. Lorne counters that all types and creeds mingled at Caritas; he can handle it. Harmony comes in with blood for Angel while Eve adds that this is important for his employees. Harmony accidentally manages to be helpful, pointing out that morale is horrible and everyone at W&H hates Angel. Apparently most people think he’s throwing this party because he wants to slaughter all of them. Angel gives up. He’ll let Lorne do whatever he needs to do to make this thing work. Well, one thing he needs is for Angel to schmooze some of those A-listers, like Archduke Sebassis, major demonic nobility. If they get him, they’ll get everyone else who matters easy. Angel finally realizes how much this party matters to Lorne. Lorne kind of wilts, and he admits that he feels like this is the one super important thing he’s capable of doing for the team. Angel and Lorne get to Archduke Sebassis’s manor. Sebassis is a fan of Angelus. Yikes. Also, he has a slave demon whose blood is on tap. Ew. Lorne starts in with trying to get Sebassis to come to the party. He offers Angel some of the slave’s blood. Angel tries to decline, and then Sebassis gets all scathing about Angel’s diet of pig’s blood. Lorne has some of the blood and I’m not sure if he actually likes it or if he’s just very good at faking it. Sebassis agrees to come to the party. Lorne and Angel go. Sebassis’s underling thinks it’s a trap, but Sebassis is fine with that; he plans to bring weapons. Cut to the party, panning out from a big disco ball to a dance floor occupied solely by Harmony. Off to the side, Hodgins from Bones is complaining about how bad this party sucks because there’s no ritual sacrifice. Lorne prods him and the other lawyer with him to go mingle. Then he meets a demon who came to the party dressed as a human...because he’s wearing a human’s actual face skin. Incredibly morbid, yet hilarious! Fred and Wes are over by the refreshment table. Fred’s very impressed with the party. She’s not much of a partier herself. She tends to lurk by the snacks table. Lorne finds them over there and tries to get them to stop being wallflowers. He emphasizes the importance of getting drunk if they’re going to have fun. Next, Lorne goes to drag Angel out of his office, where he looks very not busy. He claims to be brooding, but he’s actually watching hockey. (Angel’s brooding because his team’s losing. Bahaha.) Lorne starts to lose it, gets another headache, and then switches to manic positivity again just when Angel gets concerned. But now Angel thinks something might actually be up, and he joins Lorne out in the lobby. Lorne makes some introductions. The dance floor is much busier now. Harmony finds Spike, who is determined to be too cool for this party. *eye roll* She dances away from him and he wanders over to Angel and Lorne to get his negativity on them. Lorne tells him to lighten up. Then the Archduke arrives with an entire entourage. Angel and Lorne go to greet him. Angel is surprisingly chipper about it. The underling dude is wearing a jacket made of the skin of a Pylean, Lorne’s species. Yikes. Lorne is very freaked out. Fred and Wes are now drunk, staggering around the party arm in arm. Harmony warns them to avoid a puddle of urine. Can Fred and Wes be drunk more often? They’re hilarious. Lorne finds Gunn up on the balcony. Gunn tells Lorne how impressed he is with Lorne’s energy, and Lorne confides in him that he had his sleep removed a month ago. Holy crap. Gunn thinks that’s super awesome, and he advises Gunn to give it a shot. The Archduke and his dudes are ready to massacre the entire party if Angel tries anything. The blood slave finds more urine on some potted plants. Eve finds Angel and compliments him for kissing up to Sebassis. Angel isn’t too happy about that. He insults her dress. Lorne passes by and jokes about the intense sexual tension between them. Cut to them snogging madly in his office. They both agree that this came out of nowhere, but that doesn’t make them want to stop. Also, neither of them has a last name, which is hilarious. Cut to a bathroom, where the Archduke’s underling in the Pylean jacket is taking a dump when something breaks down the stall door and kills him with lots of very squelchy noises. Out in the party, things seem to be going very well. Fred and Wes are even dancing. Hodgins is leading a congo line. Fred bonks into one of Sebassis’s dudes and drunkenly reprimands him. Wes pulls her away from him. They discuss how drunk they are, and then they realize that neither of them has actually drunk anything. They agree that’s weird and want to go ask Gunn if he thinks that’s weird. When Wes grabs Gunn’s shoulder to turn him around, Gunn ends up peeing on Wesley’s shoes, because he was in the middle of marking his territory. Then Spike pops by, having a blast at the party. This is the final clue to make them all agree something Plot A-ish is happening. Wes and Gunn question Spike about his chipper attitude, and they realize Lorne’s the cause of all the weirdness. They find Lorne and drag him to Angel’s office, where Angel and Eve are naked behind the sofa. Well this is awkward. Spike is very pleased for Angel. Angel is very creeped out by happy Spike. Wes can’t pronounce “presumably” at the moment, which cracks Fred (and me) up. He drunkenly tries to explain that Lorne is causing them all to be weird. Okay, seriously, can the character in charge of exposition be drunk while expositing more often, because it’s just the best. I may have to do that with one of my stories. It’s important to find ways to liven up exposition scenes. Lorne objects to Wesley’s insinuations, but while Gunn complains about how he’s been peeing all over the place, Angel and Eve start snogging again. Gunn realizes that this is probably happening as an adverse reaction Lorne, an empath demon, is having to getting his sleep removed. Instead of reading people’s auras, he’s creating them. Lorne still thinks that getting his sleep removed was a very good thing, but now Gunn is peeing on Angel’s chair. Angel stands up to take charge, inadvertently exposing himself to everyone in the room, so he grabs a cushion from the couch. He orders Fred and Wes to find a way to put Lorne’s sleep back. He tells Lorne not to affect anyone else with his make it so powers, and has Gunn track down other people affected by Lorne. Meanwhile, he and Eve will keep having sex. Spike is a huge fan of everything Angel has said. Sebassis and some of his dudes find the splattered remains of the Pylean jacket guy. Fred and Wes stumble into an archive of some kind, which is where they’ll find Lorne’s sleep. Fred has been quite enjoying herself and wants to spend more time with Wes. He says he wants to be better friends, and she heartily agrees, sealing it with a huge hug. She wants to them to be confidantes. He whispers that he wants that too. Bahaha. NOW KISS. No, Fred, dangit, do not mention Knox. Wes is no longer having fun. Sebassis and his dudes burst into Angel’s office with crossbows. Spike compliments their entrance. Angel and Eve pop up again, and Angel actually starts getting dressed this time. Sebassis wants Angel to come out of his office for a public execution. Someone screams out in the lobby. They all go to investigate. The dude wearing a human mask is now dead. Angel holds Sebassis at bay: his team isn’t behind this. Wes is drunkenly researching sleep disorders. Bahahaha, apparently someone else at W&H had her “ennui” removed. That’s awesome. Fred finds Lorne’s sleep, and she also needs to find the thing that will put it back in him. Wes learns that long-term sleep deprivation on empaths reverses their abilities, and then deteriorates further into a kind of Hulk alter-ego situation. Lorne admits to Sebassis that this is all his fault, but he’s not doing it on purpose. Enter Hulk Lorne, who swats away the Archduke’s dudes like flies, then smacks Lorne to the ground. Fred and Wes are waiting for the elevator so they can go save the day, except they forgot to press the button. *snort* Angel tells Sebassis to get out of there while he fights Hulk Lorne. Gunn’s the next one to get chucked across the room, and then Hulk Lorne turns on Sebassis. Angel grabs him. Wes and Fred come out of the elevator facing the wrong way. Fred aims the sleep gun at Lorne’s head. He conks right out and Hulk Lorne turns to magical confetti and dust. Aww. The effects of his influence wear off immediately. Later, Hodgins is commenting on the awesomeness of the party on his way out. Knox finds Fred picking up empty drink glasses. He fixed the stun grenade! She missed him at the party. He asks her for a cup of coffee, but she’d like an actual drink. He’s cool with that too. Wes puts a blanket on sleepy Lorne and soberly exposits on what happened. Angel goes after Eve to talk to her about what happened between them. She doesn’t care. It’s not the first time she had sex under a mystical influence. She snorts and walks out. Wes gets all surly when he sees Wes and Knox clinking glasses across the lobby. He walks away alone. Angel is heading to his penthouse when Gunn finds him to tell him things actually went over well with Sebassis. Angel feels like this whole thing was bad, because W&H is starting to change them. They didn’t realize Lorne was doing so poorly, and they’ve done all this work to make seriously evil dudes comfortable partying with them. Gunn warns Angel not to sit in his chair until after the janitor deals with it. Spike is a huge fan of Gunn peeing in Angel’s chair, even though he’s no longer mystically chipper. Angel kicks Spike out. Spike actually goes, for once, mostly so that Lorne can keep sleeping. Lorne is apologizing in his sleep. Awwww. Angel tucks him in more securely. That’s so adorable! Lorne is dreaming of parties, and he’s smiling. If I was going to rank the Buffyverse Halloween episodes, I’d put “Halloween” first, easily, followed by “Fear, Itself,” and then “Life of the Party.” (Yeah, “All the Way” is terrible.) This episode is tons of fun and full of lots of excellent character stuff. It’s like a combination of the concepts of “Nightmares,” “Halloween,” and “Something Blue.” It’s great. I don’t find Angel/Eve particularly amusing, but Angel’s arc still does parallel Lorne’s quite effectively. It’s not really a mystery what’s causing the problems, because it’s obvious something’s wrong with Lorne from the beginning, but that just makes it so instead of getting caught up in trying to solve the mystery, we’re focusing on how the events are affecting the characters. Drunk Fred and Wes are just fantastic, and they really need to date already. Gunn peeing on everything is pretty funny. Spike being positive gets funnier the more I think about it. I’m just surprised the dance floor didn’t literally catch on fire after Lorne made that comment. Now can we have episodes about all the other characters? The Characters I’m not sure I agree with Eve that Angel tends to bottle up his issues. It’s just that being at W&H has robbed him of many of his usual outlets, so he’s currently bottling by default. He can’t hang out with his team without feeling like he’s being watched. He can’t go out saving people without fear of W&H interfering. He can’t just fight the bad guys and protect the good guys without weighing the effects it’ll have on his company. He doesn’t need to bottle up his issues for them to be overwhelming in this particular situation. I doubt most people would be able to easily adjust. No, bottling is not Angel’s problem. It’s that he still doesn’t have his bearings. Cordelia was the one who provided those most of the time. It weirdly never occurred to me that such a critical part of Spike’s personality is his negative attitude. Well, maybe it did, but I haven’t thought about what a difference it would make if he became an optimist. Can he be the butt of more jokes like this? It was great. His general negativity might be one of the reasons I don’t like him. Angel is pretty negative, but that’s mostly turned inward. Spike turns it outward and performs his entire personality so that nobody will focus on his own flaws. He does not handle his self-loathing well. So what does Gunn marking his territory have to do with his arc overall? Well, he wasn’t happy with “just” being the muscle because he felt much less useful to the team than the researchers (which is ironic, because Dawn felt exactly the opposite way until she apparently got really into translating dead languages). He got the law upgrade, which suddenly made him kind of the MVP now that they’re running a law office. There’s definitely an element of ego in all of this. He can’t feel good about himself unless he feels important. I really appreciated Fred’s comment about not knowing what to do with herself at parties. I’m exactly that way too. I’m very much an introvert, so unless most of the people at a party are my friends or the party is themed after one of my fandoms, I will probably hate it, and I’ll stay by the food. Mostly I just don’t even go to parties that sound like they’ll be boring for me, because I know I’ll be boring for everyone there. It’s rare that a TV character will acknowledge introvert problems in a way that isn’t just an “I’m learning to be an extrovert!” thing (which are typically super annoying). She seems to be interested in Knox, though, which sucks. Be interested in Wes! Lorne is such a sweetheart, and he’s always so focused on helping people get on their paths that it seems like he forgot how important it is to take care of his own basic essentials. He can’t just stop sleeping to be more productive. If that were possible, every grad student ever would be doing it (actually, most of them are trying—hence nervous breakdowns during thesis year). But I love that this problem came about because he was simply trying too hard. Lorne is a Hufflepuff. Wesley needs to stop being so passive-aggressive with Fred. That’s what made him miss his chance with her in S3, because she was definitely interested, but Gunn was the first one to show initiative, and initiative is very attractive. But she isn’t dating Gunn anymore, so why is he still dawdling? He’s doing exactly the same thing about Fred/Knox as he did about Fred/Gunn. He’s alternating between being grumbly and unpleasant and being wistful. Just do something! Favorite Quotes “You no get? I human being! Look, I do human being. 'I proud my honor roll student!'”
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The Watcher's Diary
In this blog, I'll be reviewing, analyzing, and generally fangirling over excellent television. Exhibit A: the Whedonverse. Archives
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