Angel Review – “Time Bomb”

Down to the last three, now.

Cast and Crew

David
Boreanaz
as
Angel

Alexis
Denisof
as
Wesley Wyndham-Pryce

J.
August Richards

as Charles Gunn

Amy
Acker
as Illyria

Andy
Hallett
as
Lorne

James
Marsters
as
Spike

Written by Ben Edlund

Directed by Vern Gillum

Past TV reviews can be found here.

Original Airdate

Time Bomb originally aired Wednesday, April
28, 2004.

Synopsis

Something’s wrong with Illyria, and it’s not just her
inexplicable
decision to save Gunn.

High Point

Gunn’s “the worst part of it” speech.

Low Point

Angel and crew not listening to Wesley’s explanation
of the device.
Had they listened, they’d have known the bit that
surprised them
later.

The Review

The premise wasn’t completely original this
time. (Remember
the Star Trek: The Next Generation series
finale?) It was
handled well, though. I give it 4 out of 6.

Once again, they do a good job on effects
we’ve seen before.
The slow-motion sequence near the end (where you see
a character’s
face full out front) didn’t look quite right, though.
I give it 4 out
of 6.

The story was well constructed. The players
were in place,
it moved nicely from scene to scene, and it left us
with more puzzles
to be solved in the last three episodes. I give it 5
out of 6.

The acting wasn’t bad, although Boreanaz was
over the top
when it came to adapting to new situations late in
the episode.
(You’d think he’d have it sorted out the second or
third time.) The
rest of the cast, particularly J. August Richards,
played things out
well. (By the way, the pregnant woman was played by
Jaime Bergman,
Boreanaz’ wife. I think I heard rumours about her
actually being
pregnant with their second child, too, though I may
be wrong about
that. Their first was born when they decided to work
Connor into the
storyline.) I give it 5 out of 6.

The emotional response this produced was
strong, guaranteeing
that I’ll be back for more next week. I give it 5
out of 6.

The production was well done, as usual.
These people have it
sorted out well, putting together some good,
stylistic TV. (I do miss
the flash cutting at scene changes, though. That
really used to set
this show apart.) I give it 5 out of 6.

Overall, it’s a strong episode to lead us
into the series
closer, and a few likely made for TV movies next
year. I give it 5
out of 6.

In total, Time Bomb receives 33 out of 42.

12 replies on “Angel Review – “Time Bomb””

  1. a nice setup

    I’m glad I’m not the only one that misses the flash cuts.

    spoilers warning

    This episode set up some interesting points, most notably that Illyria could have taken out The Wolf, The Ram, and The Hart, but now may not have the power. Angel is told to follow only his ambition. Why does that lead him to close the deal with the Fell?
    The deaths scene would have been much more believable if they hadn’t killed Angel. If we were left to stew a bit about “The team is dead. How will Angel save them?” instead of “Obviously, they won’t kill off the whole cast.” I might have been forced to chew on my nails a bit.
    I enjoyed getting an immmediate answer to “Is he going to cut out his own heart?” :)

    I really hate that Lorne gets such sh**ty parts now, but at least Wesley is getting much-deserved screen time. AD is doing a great job playing Wesley on the brink of collapsing.

    “This is how the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.”

    • Re: a nice setup
      First off, I would like to remind you (and everyone) that the "Supertags" (checkbox below posting) includes the spoiler tag which produces text that you have to highlight, like this. It seems like folks have forgotten about it. :)

      I had a long thing here (now deleted) which described why I think Angel made the deal at the end, but I don’t have everything together in my head yet and don’t want to ramble endlessly. To me, that’s a sign that the show is as good as it ever was, making me wonder where the lines between good & evil, enabling apocalypse versus fight it, actually are.

      • Re: a nice setup

        First off, I would like to remind you (and everyone) that the “Supertags”
        (checkbox below posting) includes the spoiler tag which produces text
        that you have to highlight, like this. It
        seems like folks have forgotten about it. :)

        That’s because it sucks. Most of us have seen the damned episode, no
        reason to inconvenience the vast majority of readers.

        Just my opinion…

        • Re: a nice setup
          Hello, Mr. Touchy. I offered the reminder since a) it’s not noted anywhere on the main screen while posting, b) People have been putting SPOILER WARNING and such in posts and c) it’s NOT (repeat NOT) that inconvenient – for the sake of whichever deity one might hold holy, the hand is already on the mouse while browsing and it takes no more than three seconds to point, click and drag to highlight the shadow text.

          Certainly nothing to get so snarky about…

    • Re: a nice setup

      spoilers warning

      Angel is told to follow only his ambition. Why does that
      lead him to close the deal with the Fell?

      I think it’s pretty clear – Angel needs to concentrate on gathering power and
      allies for the battle ahead, instead of constantly paving the road to Hell with
      his good intentions. We are told that up until the Gunn rescue, WR&H has
      been very pleased with Angel’s performance (who thinks that they count
      profits in dollars? I certainly don’t).

      My bet is that every situation that WR&H has put him into has been
      engineered so that
      Angel trying to do the right thing helps WR&H (and hurts Angel) in the long
      run.

    • Re: a nice setup

      I enjoyed getting an immmediate answer to “Is he going to cut out his own heart?” :)

      I really hate that Lorne gets such sh**ty parts now, but at least Wesley is getting much-deserved screen time. AD is doing a great job playing Wesley on the brink of collapsing.

      I also loved getting the immediate answer — the words of that question were barely out of my mouth… ;-)

      I’m really pleased to see Amy Acker getting to play such a different role — my respect for her has jumped dramatically seeing how well she’s handled the change. And she was already clearly good from when we first met her.

      Another one I think stands out is Vince Kartheiser (Conner). He’s incredibly good and I see him going whereever he wants as an actor. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

      • Re: a nice setup

        I’m really pleased to see Amy Acker getting to play such a different role — my respect for her has jumped dramatically seeing how well she’s handled the change. And she was already clearly good from when we first met her.

        Another one I think stands out is Vince Kartheiser (Conner). He’s incredibly good and I see him going whereever he wants as an actor. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

        I miss Fred, but AA is doing a wonderful job.

        I didn’t care much for any of the Connor storyline. I don’t know if it was the character or the actor, but I did really love his finale. Someone on here mentioned how so much more is said when not spoken, and I think VK did a wonderful job. Much like Cordelia’s farewell, the episode was top-notch and well done.

        Joss (or his crew) definitely has an eye for casting. If history is any clue, maybe we’ll see Alexis Denisof, Vincent, Amy, or other Buffyversers in “Serenity” and maybe even “Serenity: The Series”. :)

  2. Tick, tick, tick…
    I once again was entertained by this show and intrigued by the question of what will happen next. I could not help but wonder if all this was as simple as a retributive strike on Illyria for her saving Gunn and disrupting the plans of the egnigmatic senior partners or another move towards how THE apocalypse would come to be; Illryia’s power drawn into that item that the group just HAPPENED to have. I find it interesting that “another force” was at work here.

    I look forward to the up and coming episodes with relish… and a beer LOL.

  3. Flash cut
    When did they drop the flash cuts? I just realised that i hadn’t noticed that they had stopped :-/

    • Re: Flash cut

      When did they drop the flash cuts? I just realised that i hadn’t noticed that they had stopped :-/

      They have been missing for quite a while. I don’t remember seeing them last season, and maybe as far back as S3.

  4. Why the hell?
    Why the hell did Jayne seem so scared? (I dont know his new name..he’s still Jayne to me) Does anyone else think Illyria might be the SP’s former god? Maybe THEY killed her, and now they’re a bit scared she’s back.

    • Re: Why the hell?

      Why the hell did Jayne seem so scared? (I dont know his new name..he’s still Jayne to me)

      Haha… I started singing “The man they call Jayne Cobb” when he came on screen.

Comments are closed.