Yeah, as great as "Becoming, Part 2" is, the finale never quite delivers on the promise of Angelus's character as established in "Innocence": "To kill this girl, you have to love her."

Interestingly, I think Angel very subtly implies that the real mystical destiny of the Master's bloodline was to bring forth Angel and Darla's son. I don't think I've ever seen anyone else mention this, but there are weird parallels between the Master's final scene following his ascension and the scene between Darla…

He was a prophesied warrior vampire whom the Order of Aurelius was supposed to bring to the Master. Giles figured out that the Anointed One was about to rise because it's the only reason the Aurelians would be in town.

I think it's more likely that the rethink came between the season 1 premiere and the season 1 finale; I don't see any particular reason to believe that the writers simultaneously thought that the Master was as old as any known vampire and only six hundred years old. Heck, the premiere itself has Giles's "This world is…

The actual canon text here is from Giles in "Prophecy Girl": "The Master is as old as any vampire on record." That would certainly make him more than six hundred years old.

So, funny you should mention — a friend of mine who sometimes peeks in on the 4channers informs me that they were recently plotting to turn Harry Potter into a white supremacist meme, in the hopes of destroying what we "normies" love most. Once they meme Harry into ignominy, surely the mainstream's longstanding love…

Oh, don't get me wrong — I agree that Atamanuik's take is more complex and more interesting, for many of the reasons you mention. I just think that Baldwin's impression, limited as it may be, provides an important missing piece of the puzzle.

I dunno, I guess I see Atamaniuk's Trump as being driven more by caprice and stupidity, Baldwin's more by resentment and disdain. If anything, I'd accuse Baldwin of being overly devoted to that characterization rather than of watering it down; part of what makes Atamanuik's impression much looser is that his Trump can…

I agree, actually. I think Baldwin is especially good at capturing Trump's sour, petty humorlessness (especially in comparison to Darrell Hammond's "gleeful shit-stirrer" take last year: "Jebra! Jebra!"), but his impression feels much more controlled and performative than the real guy. Atamanuik's interpretation is a…

Nope, that was from memory. Though I was anal enough to double-check whether "Honey" was the name of the wife so I'd know whether to capitalize it. :p

I definitely thought it was a dream — a perverse sort of wish fulfillment, where the best the main character can hope for is a horrific explanation for her family's behavior that provides a place for her among them and then puts her out of her misery. It sort of marks the point where she goes from resenting their…

You're lucky to have forgotten it. I've had the theme song periodically popping into my head for the past quarter century.

Ugh. I saw this at Sundance last year and was convinced that the only chance it had of getting picked up is someone was willing to spring for a decent music budget. The lack of period music is absolutely crippling, because the film itself seems to be structured to draw attention to its absence. I mean, you can't have…

I'll go to my grave defending Connor, who at his best is, I think, one of the most interesting and important characters on the show. The problem, I think, is that he's an impossible character to just rev in neutral when there's nothing important for him to do. Unlike, say, Fred, who can just wander by and say, "Blah…

The episode is pretty explicit that it's the latter, right? Though that doesn't preclude it from also being the former, depending on whether the Powers actually sent Darla or just appropriated her form, memories, and emotions.

It was especially bad if you watched it live, because that was the point when the writers tanked the "Willow is the Big Bad for the season" storyline they'd clearly been setting up for like nine episodes, and there was no guarantee they'd ever return to it. If you can just plow through the moronic "Willow is a crack…

I agree that this was the death knell for the series, but I don't think that it was inevitable. The problem is really with the subsequent season, which instead of using Rita's death as a jumping-off point for a deeper examination of Dexter's humanity, used it as an excuse to jettison that part of the show. I mean, the…

Paige (on the phone with Pastor Tim): "God's not who He says He is! He's not . . . American!"

My favorite part is where the supporting Hobbits explain that to pass time on set they made up an elaborate fake game called "tig" and convinced Elijah Wood that it was real. "No, Elijah, you can't tig on a tog; you can't tag on a tig . . ."

Yeah, as in-universe stuff on the Spinal Tap DVD goes, I much prefer the interview with Rob Reiner as an aging Marty DiBergi embittered by Hollywood's obsession with youth and new talent: "It's not my fault Stanley Kubrick's last film was bad! And I'm not as old as Stanley Kubrick!"