This morning, I'm flipping through the radio stations, and I hear the DJ on 93.3 talking about interviewing Dave. Two minutes later, a sleepy voice goes, "Hello". (Cause it was 6AM in So. Cal. y'all.) :} Happy me. Got to hear him all mumbly at 9AM EST. He chatted with the DJ for a good 15 minutes and was intelligent, articulate, and downright bloody charming the whole time. I tell you what, if humping the Playboy Bunny does that for him, I'm all for it.

Now onto tonight's ep. Mixed feelings. First off, I love Darla. Unashamedly, unabashedly, adore the bitch. Because she IS a bitch. (And, you could serve a beer on her boobs in a corset... But I digress...) Man, *I've* been that pregnant. I can *so* relate. Yes, even to the tearing the heads off small children part. Although, Haagan Daaz satiated my urge, whereas I'm gonna assume it wouldn't quite work for her. 

I loved her complete hatred of Angel, I loved her fists flying in the beginning, I loved her crying at the end, and most of all, I FUCKING LOVED when she chomped on that self-righteous, pretentious, vacuous doppleganger who has been posing as Cordelia for the last several months. I fully realized the depths of my loathing when all I could think of during that scene was...KILL HER KILL THE BITCH DIE DIE DIE...

And then I realized something. It's not Cordy. It's the writers. Ok, yea, duh, Cordy is a fictional character, I never went that far gone, but that's not my point. My point is that the writers are trying SO hard to make her grow up SO fast, they are fucking it all up royally. She is either Philanthropist!Cordy or ShallowSlut!Cordy and never the twain shall meet. Remember when she was a bitch but we LIKED IT? Well, I do. Then they lost the plot. And the characterization. 

Soon thereafter, all the characters went to hell in a bucket. And you know why? 'Cause they all revolve around Cordy. Angel has *always* been her bitch. Wesley and Gunn follow her lead and her scent like happy doggies. And Fred worships anyone who can get near Angel while using  the word "stiffen" in a sentence. So when Cordelia's character went whacky, the whole show went with her. 

Tonight's insane little C/A fest felt wrong on so many levels. It was cheap, pre-packaged, and phony as hell. She wouldn't let Angel near her ass with someone else's dick, and we all know it. And so the whole dynamic did nothing but confuse the HELL out of me. 

Then a dear freind clarified thus: "He hasn't gotten any since March. He's still distant from the guys on the team, and he never allowed himself to get close to Fred. Cordelia is still his only link to humanity. Plus, he's alowing himself to notice for the first time that she is a *girl*, and attractive. That other women *exist* besides Buffy." 

Well, I sorta summed up what she said, but that's the gist. The intelligent, well thought out gist, if I may add. And god, I hope it's true. Sorry, Tink, but Angel and Cordelia is just wrong on so many levels that I can't even get past the incestuous thing to count the rest of them.

On the other hand, the last half of this ep saw a return to Angel!! The REAL Angel! Not the big lumbering, lummox Angel who wears Dave's cute, but much less insightful face. Not the goofy Elvis impersonator Angel. But ANGEL. The guy who would stake his Sire..but not if it meant giving up the life of a souled child. The guy who won't APOLOGIZE seven hundred times, but will take action instead. The guy who makes dumb promises about not being alone to not-particularly-helpless blond women. The guy I fucking adore. That guy. Much ado and hooray and let us all say Amen.

Next week promises to be a kick. So does this whole plot line. Bad fanfic spawned or no, from 8:30 tonight on, I was remembering why I worship the creative minds behind Mutant Enemy. Cause they make this stuff LOOK GOOD.