Reading Joss Whedon

What the Hell?: Angel’s “The Girl in Question”

134 What the Hell? Angel’s “The Girl in Question” C Y N T H E A M A S S O N Iwould like to formally nominate this episode as [the] Worst Epi[sode] of Angel Ever,” posts Doug on May 6, 2004, to the online forum All Things Philosophical on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel”: The Series.1 On Television without Pity, [O]stentatious writes, “Wow. Of all the shows I’ve ever considered myself a fan . . . this episode was the worst single episode of any of them. The worst. Hands down” (2004). On Whedonesque, ZachsMind laments, “It was fluff. It was filler. It was pab[u]lum. . . . I would have preferred Il[l]yria just killed them all and then burst into flames” (2004). You get the idea, but here is a brief sampling of the most passionately vehement responses to “The Girl in Question” (Angel 5.20) posted in the immediate aftermath of its debut on May 5, 2004: • Catanzey: “The identical [Wolfram & Hart] office was predictable, and sad, because I know they can’t afford another set. . . . This whole season has been [Mutant Enemy] slowly tearing a Band Aid off my eyeball—this time, they just yanked that sucker off.” • [S]teffie: “Was this the ‘madcap adventures in Italy’ episode of the popular sitcom Cordy?”2 1. This paper was first presented at SCW3: The Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses , Arkadelphia, Arkansas (June 5–8, 2008). I thank Kathryn Barnwell and Marni Stanley for early editorial feedback and Stacey Abbott for providing me with her SCW2 paper. 2. “Birthday” (Angel 3.1) features Cordelia in an alternate dimension as the star of the television sitcom Cordy. What the Hell? Angel’s “The Girl in Question” ✴ 135 • SNeaker: “With the cookie dough, and the jacket and the . . . I’m just so embarrassed for everyone involved with that show. I’m embarrassed for the gaffer. I’m embarrassed for the donut guy.” • [L]uxgladius: “Lamest. Episode. Ever. . . . What’s the point of an episode where the subject character isn’t even there?” • The Pez: “Seriously how pathetic could you get to have a storyline centered on someone who isn’t there?” • [S]ervo: “This is the 3rd last episode, and nothing happened. Nothing.” • Kalbear: “It was scattered and weird. And oddly lit. . . . And nothing happened.” “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful”: Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (1954, 43). I am not suggesting that “The Girl in Question ” reworks Waiting for Godot. I am, however, convinced that centering the story line on a subject character who is not there is key to understanding this episode as an existential drama. This antepenultimate episode of the series is set primarily in Italy, where Angel and Spike attempt to rescue Buffy from an old nemesis, The Immortal. Angel’s most recent encounter with Buffy (which had occurred during the final episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) included a conversation in which she described herself as “cookie dough”; figuratively, she claimed not to be fully baked and thus, by implication, not ready to settle down with anyone, including Angel (“Chosen” 7.22). In “The Girl in Question,” neither Angel nor Spike has seen or spoken with Buffy for almost a year, yet each still harbors hope of reconnecting with her in Italy. Despite their best efforts in Rome to locate her, including repeated trips to her apartment (which they find occupied by her colleague Andrew) and to a dance club she is rumored to frequent, Angel and Spike do not succeed. Indeed, other than a brief shot of a woman in the club who could be Buffy, neither she nor The Immortal appears in the episode.3 An absent Immortal is also featured in flashbacks to 1894, when Angel (Angelus), Spike (William), Darla, and Drusilla temporarily resided in Italy. Meanwhile, in current-day Rome, with help from the Italian branch of Wolfram & Hart, Angel and Spike work to retrieve the literal head of the “Capo di Famiglia” of the Goran demon clan. Their official mission involves 3. The first issue of Buffy Season 8 (Dark Horse Comics, 2007) confirms that the woman glimpsed in Italy is not Buffy. For my paper, the critical point is not Buffy’s presence but the repeated attempts by Spike and Angel to reach her. 136 ✴ Angel returning the head to Los Angeles in time to avert violent dissent among rival demon clans...