Darla (Angel episode)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “Darla” | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Angel episode | |||||||
| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 7 |
||||||
| Written by | Tim Minear | ||||||
| Directed by | Tim Minear | ||||||
| Guest stars | Mark Metcalf (The Master) James Marsters (Spike) Julie Benz (Darla) Juliet Landau (Drusilla) Christian Kane (Lindsey) Sam Anderson |
||||||
| Production no. | 2ADH07 | ||||||
| Original airdate | November 14, 2000 | ||||||
|
|||||||
| List of Angel episodes | |||||||
"Darla" is episode 7 of season 2 in the television show Angel. Written and directed by Tim Minear, it was originally broadcast on November 14, 2000 on the WB television network. In this episode, Angel tries to rescue Darla from the clutches of Wolfram & Hart and Lindsey's affections, as she suffers guilt of her demonic past. Flashbacks show Darla as a syphilis-stricken prostitute being transformed into a vampire by the demonic Master, her retaliation when the Gypsies cursed Angelus with a soul, and the Boxer Rebellion in China. Many of the flashback scenes echo the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Fool for Love", which was originally broadcast earlier the same night.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
As Angel draws pictures of Darla, Wesley expresses his concern that Angel has become obsessed with her. Meanwhile, Darla is haunted by memories of her past. In 1609, Virginia Colony, the human prostitute Darla lies in her deathbed, covered in sores from the syphilis that is killing her. She receives a visit from the Master, who takes her life and makes her a vampire. In 1760, Darla brings Angelus before the Master, bragging about her wonderful new creation, but Angelus' lack of respect towards the Master results in him receiving a beating. In the end, Darla chooses Angelus over the Master. In 1880, while strolling the streets of London, Angelus, Darla, and Drusilla bump into a man named William, later known as Spike. In need of companionship, Drusilla makes him into a vampire. In 1898, Darla begs a Gypsy to halt the curse on Angelus in exchange for her protection of his family, but unfortunately Spike has already slaughtered the Gypsy's family. The next year, during the Boxer Rebellion in China, Angel tracks down Darla, and - despite being cursed with a soul - asks her for a second chance to rule at her side. However, when he comes upon a terrified family he distracts his vampire companions from them, then tries to express excitement when Spike reveals he's killed his first Slayer. Angel returns to Darla, who demands he prove he's evil. She says she went back and killed the family in the alleyway, but kept their baby, which she wants him to kill. Angel's soul prevents him from hurting the baby and he grabs it and jumps through a window.
In the present, Darla calls Angel, telling him Lindsey kissed her and she needs to escape. Lindsey overhears, and he and a security guard try to restrain her; the security guard is shot. Upon violently persuading Lindsey to reveal Holland ordered Darla terminated, he rescues her and brings her back to the hotel. Lindsey finds that the security guard he supposedly killed is actually alive, and Holland reveals their intent all along was for Angel to make Darla a vampire again. However, when Darla begs Angel to make her a vampire, he refuses.
[edit] Production
Composer Robert J. Kral says this is his favorite episode to have scored, as he was able to write several different themes for the character of Darla.[1] He was asked by director Tim Minear to write music that was "epochy. Something with horns...something Wagnerish." Kral and Buffy composer Thomas Wanker deliberately choose not to collaborate, so that the cross-over scenes would "maintain a different perspective," Kral says.[2]
Production designer Stuart Blatt says the Boxer Rebellion flashback scenes in this episode and "Fool for Love" were filmed at a movie ranch with a standing set for a Mexican village. "Through our research," Blatt says, "we realized that a lot of Chinese towns looked very similar to small Mexican villages...clay adobe structures with either thatched or tower roofs."[3] Gaffer Dan Kerns explains that to simulate the burning streets, his crew set up numerous 'flicker boxes' that "pulse like a flame", in addition to simulated moonlight from "cherry picker"-like machines.[4]
[edit] Writing
This episode was writer Tim Minear's directorial debut. He says he felt it was time to explore Darla's history, which "should really be her story with Angel throughout the 150 years that they were together." When Joss Whedon pointed out that they were already doing a Spike origin story on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Minear suggested they do both.
Although this episode shows Angel and Darla's romantic history, Minear cautions, "at no time was I trying to play this as being Angel's true love. It's more like the play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; this troubled, old married couple with secrets. I wasn't trying to take Buffy's place in his heart by any stretch of the imagination. But here's a guy who's been around for a couple of hundred years before he ever met Buffy and certainly he was shaped in some way." He explains that despite cries of retconning from fans - who saw in the Buffy episode "Becoming, Part One" that Angel was living on the streets of New York in the early 1990s - he doesn't believe Angel was "thrown out of that room in Romania by Darla in 1898 and has been on the street ever since."
Minear likens the storytelling approach in this episode to the non-linear, looping technique exhibited by Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction: "It's a different story happening in the same universe."[5]
[edit] Continuity
- This episode indicates that Angelus was unimpressed with The Master and left with Darla after he met him. This appears to go against continuity in the first season Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Angel", where The Master says that Angelus was the "most vicious creature [he] had ever met" and that he was meant to "rule at [his] side".
- In London 1880, after Drusilla calls Darla "Grandmother," Darla tells her not to call her that. Drusilla's response is, "Don't be cross. I could be your mummy." A clear reference to the later events of the series, when Drusilla does in fact sire Darla.
[edit] Acting
Actress Julie Benz says the flashback scenes are "the high points" of playing Darla; her favorite scene is the Boxer Rebellion.[6] Gaffer Dan Kerns' girlfriend Heidi Strickler appears in that scene, playing the frightened mother in the alley whom Angel attempts to shelter.[7]
[edit] Main cast
- David Boreanaz as Angel/Angelus
- Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
- Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
- J. August Richards as Charles Gunn
[edit] Guest stars
- Sam Anderson as Holland Manners
- Julie Benz as Darla
- Christian Kane as Lindsey McDonald
- Zitto Kazann as Gypsy Man
- Juliet Landau as Drusilla
- James Marsters as Spike/William
- Mark Metcalf as The Master
- Lin Oeding as Chinese Boxer
- Bart Petty as Security Guard
[edit] Translations
- Italian title: "Il ritorno di Darla" ("Darla's Return")
[edit] Reception
This episode won "Best Period Hair Styling in a Series" at the Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Awards.[8][9]
[edit] References
- ^ Interview with Robert J. Kral: Favourite Score, BBC, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/buffy/angel/interviews/kral/page3.shtml>. Retrieved on 1 October 2007
- ^ Review of Episode 7, Season 2: "Darla", <http://www.cityofangel.com/episodes/reviews/ep2_7.html>. Retrieved on 8 October 2007
- ^ Interview with Stuart Blatt: A holiday in Pylea, BBC, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/buffy/angel/interviews/blatt/page7.shtml>. Retrieved on 20 September 2007
- ^ Bratton, Kristy, Lights, Camera, Act- Lights? LIGHTS! An Exclusive Interview with Dan Kerns, <http://cityofangel.com/behindTheScenes/bts3/danKerns2.html>. Retrieved on 16 October 2007
- ^ Gross, Edward (November 13, 2000), Writer-producer Tim Minear on directing `Darla`, <http://www.timminear.net/archives/angel/000044.html>. Retrieved on 17 September 2007
- ^ Interview with Julie Benz: All-time High, BBC, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/buffy/angel/interviews/benz/page1.shtml>. Retrieved on 18 September 2007
- ^ Kerns, Dan (2004), “Angel by the Numbers”, Five Seasons of Angel, BenBella, pp. 28, ISBN 1-932100-33-4
- ^ Francis, Rob, News - 19th February, BBC, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/buffy/news/archive/archive26.shtml>
- ^ Tiernam, Jill (March 19, 2001), Crowning glory - Hair and makeup awards: Where everyone looks pretty, Variety, <http://www.variety.com/vstory/VR1117795482.html?categoryid=38&cs=1>
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- "Darla" at the Internet Movie Database
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
