"Angel"
The Price (2002)

Director:

Marita Grabiak

Writers:

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

TV Series:

"Angel" (1999)

Original Air Date:

29 April 2002 (Season 3, Episode 19)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy

Plot:

After preforming dark magics back in "Forgiving," Angel knew there'd be a price and this is it. The...

Plot Keywords:

Cult Hero | Cult TV | Redemption | Attempted Murder | Neo Noir

Cast

David Boreanaz	...	Angel
Charisma Carpenter	...	Cordelia Chase
Alexis Denisof	...	Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
J. August Richards	...	Charles Gunn
Amy Acker	...	Winifred 'Fred' Burkle
Andy Hallett	...	Lorne
Stephanie Romanov	...	Lilah Morgan
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Gavin Park
Mark Lutz	...	The Groosalugg
John Short	...	Phil Spivey
Vincent Kartheiser	...	Connor
Wayne Ford	...	Kid
Waleed Moursi	...	Manager

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Trivia:

Cordelia is on her hands and knees scrubbing out the pentacle on the floor and says, "We definitely have ring a round the lobby and it will not rub out." This is a paraphrase of a WISK Commercial from the 1970s.

Goofs:

Continuity: Water level in cooler at Wolfram & Hart while Lilah and Gavin are talking.

Quotes:

The Groosalugg: Angel, you and I have fought side by side on more than one occasion. Fellow warriors, shoulder to shoulder. By now, my council must assuredly hold weight. So I beseech you to heed my words.
Angel: Okay.
The Groosalugg: Pomegranate mist is the wrong color for this room.

I really like this episode

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Every once in a while an episode comes along in the Buffyverse that I know isn't brilliant, but I just love to watch. "The Price" is one of those episodes. It's got some flaws and it isn't the most dramatic episode ever, but I really enjoy it. You could follow the season without it, I guess. (As long as you saw the last 3 seconds.) But it's just a really neat episode, and the last chance to enjoy the show before Conner arrives and starts taking over. I recommend that you see it.

Basically, "The Price" revolves around the repercussions of that spell Angel cast trying to complete in "Forgiving." He's accidentally opened a rip in reality (or something) in the Hyperions lobby. Soon little glass slugs are pouring in from another dimension and infecting people. They quickly dehydrate human bodies, and Team Angel is afraid that if they escape the hotel, all of LA will be in danger. They barricade themselves in the Hyperion. When Fred is infected, Gunn goes to Wes for help. Wesley reluctantly lends a hand, but he says that this is the last time he'll bail them out. Meanwhile, Gru is jealous as Cordy and Angel grow closer. When Cordy calls on her new demon powers to kill the glass squid, everyone is briefly happy. Then something else falls through the portal... A 16 year old Conner.

There are some great parts to this episode. It's the first time Cordy does her glow-y thing, which will come into play later and it's the first time that Gunn's fear of rats is mentioned. As a fellow rodent fear-er, I appreciate that he can casually kill slimy demons and evil vampires, but shudders at a mouse. Also, I like Gru and Fred criticizing Angel's choice of paint colors. Angel's annoyance over the way that Gru pronounces the word purple is especially fun. (Purp-la.) And it's fun to see them all working on a case again, even if Mr. Spivey does end up a pile of dust. It's also cool how the Angel and Gunn argument in this episode reflects the difficulties they'll have in season five. In "The Price," Angel resists the idea of sacrificing the lives of innocent people, even for Fred. Which will correspond to his acting in season five's "Hole in the World." Then there's Gunn who accused Angel of preforming spells for his own selfish interests, namely bringing Conner back, and endangering Fred. In season five, Gunn's selfish actions and tunnel vision are what leads to a disaster for Fred. It's interesting. Finally, I just gotta smile when Lilah has to open her email with an enchanted password spider. It's just cool.

When the glass squid things take over people's bodies, the human's faces begin to crack apart. Really there are a lot of references to cracks in this episode, signifying all the things that can, presumably, never fully be healed. Cracks in the walls of Angel's bedroom, because the portents that led Wes to take Conner have continuing repercussions. Team Angel is trying to patch them, but Angel can tell that things will never be the same. There's the portal to that hell dimension in the lobby, which is finally closed but not before it unleashes disaster. There's a cracked snow globe, because Conner's childhood can never be repaired and a crack in Wes's throat where Justine cut him, which is stitched up, but it will never fade. However, both of those things ARE mended in the seasons to come, or at least partially healed. I'm not sure what it all means, but I like it.

On the downside, is that pool in the Hyperion filled with water? Who builds a floor over a full swimming pool? I guess it could be one of those retractable floors, but its still weird. Also, I'm kinna unclear as to how those little glass-slugs lead Conner out of the hell-dimension. He tries to explain it in a few episodes, but I must constantly breeze out when he's talking because I've got no clue. Also a major mark in the minus column for "The Price"... Conner arrives. Hate him, Hate him, Hate him.

My favorite part of the episode: Gunn going to Wesley for help. I like that Wes is now as mad at Team Angel, as Team Angel is with him. Wesley is still the one that everyone turns to for help. At first he refuses to look up how to stop the glass slugs. But when he learns that Fred's the one in trouble, he finally just tosses a vodka bottle at Gunn to dehydrate the squid. Then he tells him not to come back. Gunn is so surprised and Wes is so bitter, that the scene just works really well.