Angel Episode 6

I watched another episode of Angel, and in this episode, they are back to helping strangers. The lady in distress is a cop. She's trying to catch a mass murderer who has many tricks up his sleeves. He manages to use his people on the outside, while he's in jail, to control the cops. His plan is simple but powerful. He hires a theripist that opens up all the cops to their emotional side. This affects the lady cop the most because of her deep emotional problems with her father. Cordelia in the begining gets upset with Angel because he is not emotional enough to ask nicely of her and Wesley to help him, and he didn't notice her new shoes. Later in the show Angel is also affected by the therapist and turns soft, and Cordelia wants him to switch back.

Opening up and owning your emotions is a very useful tool in life. It is good to sympatize with others and understand how they feel. However it sometimes isn't good at all. The cops need to be tough, it's apart of their job. After the therapist, they're so loving and thoughtful, they just let all the criminals go. This brings up many questions, when is it okay to show your emotional side? Is it ever okay to be tough? Why is it easier for Cordelia to be emotional verses Angel? Why are there such different people around? How much is controlled by our surroundings? Is Cordelia 'softer' just because she's a girl? Would the world be better if we were all nice?

Being nice is definitely a good thing, but in this world, you can't always be good. We would all like to think that goodness gets goodness, but that's not the case. There are a lot of terrible things out there that keeps us from being nice, and will be like that forever.

Angel episode 5

Angel episode 5

In this episode, there are no new characters that are in trouble and need Angel’s help. The people that need help are Angel’s two assistants, Wesley and Cordelia. Cordelia realizes there are cockroaches in her apartment, so she desperately needs to find a new one. This sounds simple, but she runs into more problems. After she gives in and lets Wesley help her find one, she gets the perfect apartment she always dreamed about. Soon though, she realizes that this apartment is haunted, and the old lady ghost is trying to kill her. Wesley runs into an old friend that isn’t so friendly. He has accumulated some debt to people over the years and it caught up to him in this episode.

Inherently, people are stubborn. Cordelia needs a new apartment fast, and Wesley can help her, but she wants to keep trying on her own until she can do it herself. When she realizes her apartment is haunted, she still doesn’t want to give it up, she screams, “I will die before I give up this apartment.” Wesley lives his life on the edge, in fear of someone finding him. Angel asks why he just doesn’t change, and Wesley claims his life would be too boring that way. Cordelia and Wesley struggle to change in this episode and listen to Angel. There are better ways of living out there, but they don’t want to find it. Especially, it’s bad when stubbornness risks a life, and for Cordelia and Wesley, that’s exactly what happened.

Firefly, revisited

Underneath people’s exteriors, there’s often a second side of them that comes through. Inara is a companion on the shuttle and she seems like someone who can’t do anything. But, when she goes and rescues Zoe and Mal from the sheriff, she shows a different side. She shows her status and her usefulness. When Zoe and Mal are caught and with the sheriff, you don’t think he’ll let them go, but on the contrary, he does. The sheriff and Inara do things that you wouldn’t expect their character to do. Why are people so dynamic? When do people show their second side? Is it wrong to stay the same or wrong to change? Characters and people are filled with different roles and facts that make them who they are. Everyone has a different background and experience that makes them special. The sheriff let Mal and Zoe go because maybe he once was on their side, or maybe he has a close relative that has had to deal with Niska. We don’t think there’s anything special about Inara, but she has to surprise a lot of people before and is use to is, and maybe this is really her. The sheriff and Inara show their second side when they’re under pressure in a delicate situation. Mal and Zoe’s lives were in their hands, and this is when they had to make an important decision. Sometimes important, character defining moments are made only when we have to, when someone’s life depends on it, but is that okay? Shouldn’t we always try to be like that?

Angel: episode 4

Angel: episode 4

I watched the next episode of Angel earlier today. This episode was about a young woman who was being stalked by a creepy doctor who can separate any limb from his body.

This first thing I thought about, was why this is the second episode in a row where the woman is in trouble and needed Angel’s help. There is a trend here where Angel helps only women, and the show displays women in a helpless way. But the Angel show is somewhat accurate. I’m sure most of the stalking situations are man to a woman. But it brings up the question, that there must be different stalking situations out there, Angel just doesn’t include it in the show. And Angel isn’t politically correct show, so it probably never will.

The second interesting thing was how the doctor separated his hands and eyes from his body whenever he wanted. He used his eye to spy on her, and his hands to choke the cop that was keeping her safe. He learned all of this being a doctor, and abused his research knowledge. I wonder if there are rules about this for a doctor. I’m sure there are, the way they have to document everything, but no one believed him his research, probably because it was science fiction. The doctor also abused his power as a doctor. He operated on this young woman, Melissa and then asked her out, probably the first mistake. Melissa agreed thinking she was lucky to be out with a doctor. There is a sort of safety and pride that goes with dating a doctor, and Angel makes you think twice about this.

Angel: In the dark

I just finished watching Angel, episode 3, In the Dark. I really liked it, better than Firefly for some reason.

In this episode, the focus was the ring, much like Lord of the Rings. I’m not a big LOTR fan, so I related it Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Like the Sorcerer’s Stone, the ring gave the wearer protection from any harm. So for Angel, the vampire, he could be in sunlight and staked without dying. This seams like an obvious thing to have and to want, but to Angle and Harry, it isn’t what it seems. Angel from the beginning knew he didn’t want it, this is a large character trait showing, and what makes him the hero of the show. He makes a sacrificial choice to destroy it, like in Harry Potter and LOTR (I believe.)

The mini story running through the episode involved a young woman whom Angel saved in the beginning. She was physically abused by her boyfriend and nearly killed. Angel got her to safety, but only for a short time. We realize that this young woman says she ‘jones’ for her boyfriend, because when they meet up again, everything is good, and she is happy. Every time though, things turn bad. Angel convinces her that she needs to separate from him for good. He explains that the harder it is right now, the happier she’ll be later and more likely she’ll get a real shot at love. This relates to the ring Angel has: Even though it will create happiness right now for a short time, ultimately it will only destroy you.

The Train Job

I just finished watching “The Train Job.” It was pretty interesting, sometimes more difficult to understand, but I’m still kind of excited to see the next one.

The most intriguing character right now is the crazy sister. I don’t quite remember her name, I’m not so good at that sort of thing. Anyway, I like her because we don’t really know everything about her. We don’t know what makes her tick- or what’s wrong with her. And at the end we know people are after her, but we don’t know why. That’s a really good writing technique, to give us only a little bit, so the viewers have to keep watching to find out more.

I also enjoyed this episode because the moral dilemma the captain had to face. Apparently they are thieves, so they are in the line of misdeeds. But in this episode they steal medicine from the ill for the ‘bad guy.’ They have to make a decision to risk their life or risk the lives of all the people that are sick. Ultimately, they risk their life. This is a very defining characteristic of the captain and co-captain. This shows the audience that even though they are thieves and ‘bad’ people, they are still the hero’s of the show and the people we root for in the end.

There are a group of interesting people on the ship and throughout the show we will see how each different personality interacts and is stronger or weaker together. In this episode, we see how the captain and hairdresser work together. There is obvious sexual chemistry, but they use that and their quick thinking to escape from the train station and travel forward.

Hello

Hello, my name is Maggie King, as you will see on the creative title of my blog. I’m from Mason, Ohio. I lived there for 10 years and just graduated from Mason High School. Most of my free time in high school was absorbed by BAND. I played trombone, was in the highest ensemble and in marching band for four years. However before high school, I swam year-round for eight years. So now on The Ohio State University campus, I haven’t really found anything to get involved in yet. The student activities fair was great, except I couldn’t GET anywhere. I graduated from a school of nearly 3,000, and I still find this place overly crowded- but I hear this week is the worst. So I still have time to find something to consume my time here. For now, I’m enjoying substantial free time in my super double in Taylor.

I have two older sisters, and they’re pretty important to me even though there is a large age gap, or maybe that’s why they mean so much to me. My oldest sister is Maria. She graduated in 2009 from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in mechanical engineering, and now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina working for Duke Energy. Melissa, 19 months younger, graduated from Kenyon College with an economics degree the same year. If you haven’t heard of her school, you’re not the first, it’s smaller that my high school. It is north-east of Columbus about an hour. She is now working in Cincinnati for Proctor and Gamble.

Currently, I’m enjoying the ‘welcome week’ of cool stuff as I am now an official college student and preparing for an exciting four years as an honors chemical engineering student.