"Angel" Heartthrob (2001)

Director:

David Greenwalt

Writers:

Joss Whedon (creator) &
David Greenwalt (creator) ...

TV Series:

"Angel" (1999)

Original Air Date:

24 September 2001 (Season 3, Episode 1)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Fantasy | Thriller

Plot:

Even as Angel mourns Buffy's death, he must do battle against a vampire he was friends with back in 18'th century Marseilles - and whose girlfriend he has just killed.

Plot Keywords:

Reference To Romeo And Juliet | Vampire | Redemption | Vampire Slayer | Powers That Be

Cast

  (Episode Cast overview, first billed only)

David Boreanaz	...	Angel
Charisma Carpenter	...	Cordelia Chase
Alexis Denisof	...	Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
J. August Richards	...	Charles Gunn
Amy Acker	...	Winifred 'Fred' Burkle
Julie Benz	...	Darla
Andy Hallett	...	Lorne
Ron Melendez	...	James
Kate Norby	...	Elisabeth
Keith Szarabajka	...	Daniel Holtz
Matthew James	...	Merl
Koji Kataoka	...	Pilgrim
Sam Littlefield	...	Young Pilgrim Hostage
Dalila Ali Rajah	...	Sandy (as Dalila Brown-Geiger)
Christian Svensson	...	Vamp #1 (as Christian Hastings)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Mutant Enemy

Trivia:

As of this episode, Amy Acker joins the regular cast.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Darla stands up from the bar at the end of the episode, you can clearly see the edges of the fake stomach prosthetic she is wearing through her shirt.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Cordelia: I understand people who drink too much. I understand people who put a little note on the parking meter that says it's broken when it's not. I don't understand people who worship demons.
Charles Gunn: Yeah, especially a Lurite demon. The stink on that thing. You're a prince of the underworld, bro, take a Jacuzzi once in a while
Wesley Wyndam-Pryce: It's sad. The only way some people can find a purpose in life is by becoming obsessed with demons.
[Cordelia yarns]
Wesley Wyndam-Pryce: By the way, Gunn, technically that wasn't a Lurite, it was a Murite. A subspecies of the Lurite. The male sports a small telltale fin just behind the third shoulder.
[...]

Soundtrack:

I Left My Heart In San Francisco

The last five minutes of this episode sets up the whole third season

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Season three is not my favorite season of "Angel." (My favorite is season five and then, probably, season two.) Still, this is an incredibly important season for the show. Without understanding the Connor storyline this season, it would impossible to really understand Angel's motivations in seasons four and five. "Heartthrob" is really not the best episode of the show. It's about Angel's reactions to Buffy's death. But since we all know by now that she's not really dead, it doesn't really matter that much. Still you can't skip this episode if you're watching the show on DVD. The last five minutes of "Heartthrob" sets up the rest of the season.

The episode revolves around Angel trying to deal with Buffy's death. He's been in a Tibetian monastery for the last three months trying to deal with his grief. Cordy, Wes and Gunn have kept Angel Inc. going while he was away. Fred is also staying at the Hyperion, but she's spending all her time hiding in her room. After spending five years living in a cave in Pylea, she's afraid to come back out into the real world. When Angel comes back to LA, he and Team Angel go to fight a group of vampires. Angel stakes a female vamp and then realizes that he knew her. It seems that back in the 1700s, Angel and Darla roamed around Europe with a vampire couple named James and Elisabeth. A vampire hunter named Holtz was chasing after them for a lot of the time. James and Elisabeth were incredibly in love.

Now, Angel has staked Elisabeth. James vows revenge. James goes to a demon doctor to have his heart mystically removed, making him invincible. For a little while anyway. He chases Cordy and Angel around, finally cornering them in a subway car. He and Angel fight. James tells Angel that if Angel had really loved Buffy, he wouldn't be able to go on without her. James finally dies. Cordy tells Angel not to believe James's ideas about love. She says that fighting evil honors Buffy's memory, it doesn't mean that Angel didn't truly love her. Angel thanks Cordy. Meanwhile, in Mexico Darla is looking for a demon shaman. She has a small problem that she needs some help with... She's pregnant.

There are some good parts to this episode. I enjoy Angel coming back from his sabbatical and bring them all gifts. Gunn is especially cute tossing around his shrunken head. And I like Fred's crazy rambling in her room. She has writing all over the walls and she's so twitchy and weird that I just like watching her. And I think that Cordy's talk with Angel is really sweet. She tells him that it's okay to go on, even without Buffy. Cordy really has become Angel's rock. Also the end of the episode is great. Vampires aren't suppose to get pregnant. So having Darla back and carrying a baby is just really a cool twist.

On the down side, how can James be in love with Elisabeth? Vampires can't love. It's a basic rule of the Buffyverse. I'll accept that Spike can still feel love, because he's always been portrayed as "different." From his first episode, (BTVS season two's "School Hard") Spike's been able to experience emotions and has just acted more human than other vamps. In fact, Spike's very strangeness will play into "Angel" season five's story line. (See "Destiny.") But, James?! No way. I'm not buying that that guy can still feel emotions. I'm not even buying that Angelus hung out with him, considering how whiny James is. It just doesn't make any sense.

My favorite part of the episode: Fred finally coming out of her room, just in time to walk in on a vampire fight.