Spin the Bottle (Angel)

Infobox Television episode
Title = Spin the Bottle
Series = Angel


Caption = {Caption|}
Season = 4
Episode = 06
Airdate = November 10, 2002
Production = 4ADH06
Writer = Joss Whedon
Director = Joss Whedon
Guests = Andy Hallett
(Lorne)
Vladimir Kulich
(The Beast)
Episode list = List of "Angel" episodes
Prev = Supersymmetry
Next = Apocalypse, Nowish

"Spin the Bottle" is episode 6 of season 4 in the television show "Angel". Written and directed by series creator Joss Whedon, it was originally broadcast on November 10, 2002 on the WB television network. In "Spin the Bottle", Lorne performs a magic spell on Cordelia to help her regain her memory, but instead the spell causes all the Angel Investigations members to revert to their teenage personas. See List of "Angel" episodes for a complete list.

Plot

After his rendition of "The Way We Were", Lorne addresses an unseen lounge audience, narrating the conversation that Angel and Cordelia had begun just as the previous episode ended. Cordelia questions whether she and Angel were in love, and Angel is uncertain. Cordelia just wants to remember who she is. Lorne arrives with the answer: a bottle containing a memory-restoration spell, which Cordelia is eager to try. Wesley arrives, having been asked to help with the spell, and has an awkward meeting with Fred. She vaguely informs him that her mission was completed, as Gunn realizes that Wesley helped Fred try to kill her professor. When he confronts Wesley, Wesley reminds him that Gunn and the others abandoned him after he kidnapped Connor. The gang hold hands in a circle around the bottle as it starts to spin. The spell disorients everyone, and they stumble about the room as if under the influence of marijuana. Cordelia suddenly freaks out and smashes the bottle with her boot. She starts on a tirade about kidnapping and sophomore pranks, as she has mentally regressed to when she was the most popular girl at Sunnydale High; Wesley believes he is still a student at the Watcher's Academy, Gunn is once again a rebellious street kid, Fred is transformed into a younger and insecure pothead, and Angel has reverted to his pre-vampire self - a 1753 frightened Irish teenager named Liam. While Liam wonders what happened to his Irish accent, the rest of the gang question what brought them together and what they should do to solve the mystery of their current situation. Gunn and Wesley butt heads on plans and when Wesley tries to demonstrate his toughness with a karate demonstration, he unintentionally activates a stake weapon up his sleeve. When Gunn and Fred find Lorne passed out behind the counter, they are shocked to see a demon. Meanwhile, Connor saves a young woman from two vampires. The woman offers her body in repayment, but only if he pays.

Back at the hotel, Wesley tapes Lorne to a seat in the lobby while arguing with Gunn over whether to cut Lorne's head off or torture him for information. When Cordelia asks why they're not freaking out at the sight of a green man with horns, Wesley and Gunn both reveal that vampires and demons are real and they both have experience with them. Fred examines an unconscious Lorne while Wesley shares his theory that they're being kept in the hotel with a vampire as a test. They all start to wonder why they don't look 17 like they feel, and collectively decide to hunt for the vampire that will supposedly set them free once they kill it. Cordelia and Liam team up and go one way while the other three head in the other direction. Liam struggles to adjust to this strange world that is hundreds of years beyond his life. Cordy tries to comfort him, but while she turns away, Liam vamps out and much to his own surprise, realizes that he's a vampire and he will be killed if the gang finds out.

Liam tries to leave the hotel, but he becomes frightened when he spots the cars on the street and rushes back inside to escape the "demons." As the group regathers in the lobby, Wesley introduces a new theory: the vampire may be one of them. He passes a cross around the group, but when it finally reaches Liam, he manages to hide his smoking hand until a distraction develops. Lorne wakes up, his memory unaffected, and identifies Liam as a vampire. A fight breaks out between Liam, Wesley and Gunn, and the girls run in separate directions. Liam catches Cordelia, who screams loudly, drawing a lurking Connor out of the shadows. Liam rants to Connor about fathers and the two fight, while upstairs, Lorne convinces Fred to release him, and he mixes together a concoction to restore their memories.

After treating some of the others, Lorne puts a touch of the mixture on Cordy's tongue. She pauses as she is struck with a vision of a terrifying demon and then runs off. Lorne finishes up his story at the lounge, describing how Cordelia reveals to Angel that she remembers everything. He asks her a final question: Were they in love? She tells him they were and walks off, leaving Angel behind.Lorne then walks off and the camera reveals an empty Lounge.

Acting

This episode took much longer to film due to the cast being unable to stop laughing. Amy Acker and Andy Hallett ruined dozens of takes by giggling, and Alexis Denisof and David Boreanaz prolonged shooting for an hour and a half when they couldn't stop laughing. To get the scene, Denisof explains he and Boreanaz resolved not to look at each other; on the DVD commentary Whedon points out background shots where Boreanaz is still failing to keep a straight face.Citation |url=http://slayageonline.com/EBS/angel/DVD_Commentaries/spinthebottle.htm |title="SPIN THE BOTTLE." DVD Commentary by Joss Whedon & Alexis Denisof |first=Rebecca |last= Bobbitt ]

Main cast

*David Boreanaz as Angel
*Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
*J. August Richards as Charles Gunn
*Amy Acker as Winifred Burkle
*Vincent Kartheiser as Connor
*Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndam-Pryce

pecial guest star

*Andy Hallett as Lorne

Guest stars

*Vladimir Kulich as The Beast

Co-stars

*Sven Holmberg as Delivery Guy
*Kam Heskin as Lola

Production details

Writer/director Joss Whedon says this episode grew out of his desire to see Wesley returned to the "bumbling moron" of the past. "We were reminiscing about the days when he was a complete idiot, and so we thought we wanted to see old-school Wesley but also cool, new-school Wesley," Whedon explains.Citation |url=http://www.cityofangel.com/behindTheScenes/bts5/s4DVDreview1.html |title=ANGEL Season Four DVD Collection REVIEW |first=Kristy |last= Bratton ] Although the regression to a comedic figure contrasts his new, darker persona, Wesley still exhibits heroism during this episode, which is in line with the growth his character experienced over the last four years.Citation |title=Reading Angel: The TV Spin-off With a Soul |editor=Stacey Abbott |first=Stacey |last=Abbott |isbn=1850438390 |date=2005 |publisher=I.B.Tauris |pages=199-202 |chapter='Nobody Scream...Or Touch My Arms': The Comic Stylings of Wesley Wyndam-Pryce |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=7B42U0hgDy0C&pg=RA3-PA201&lpg=RA3-PA201&dq=spin+the+bottle+joss+whedon&source=web&ots=O9BMBfikMm&sig=5SguPwvBH8PkX6cRcG50yRmP8kI#PRA3-PA201,M1] Peggy Davis argues that "Wesley can embody masculine heroism or feminine comic figure, but not both" [Citation |url=http://slayageonline.com/SCBtVS/Proposals/AF/Davis.htm |title= “I’m a Rogue Demon-Hunter”: Wesley’s Transformation from Fop to Hero on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel |last=Davis |first=Peggy ] ; however in this episode he demonstrates that his heroic masculinity allows for a comedic element as well. In addition to bringing back "classic Wesley", this episode also gave the opportunity to refresh viewers' memories of "teenage bitch queen" Cordelia, whose character changed dramatically during her time on "Angel".

Whedon gave Lorne's spell the side-effect of making the gang "high" to differentiate this memory spell from a similar one used in the "Buffy" episode "Tabula Rasa", readily admitting the spell itself is "lazy writing," meant only to set the plot in motion. The frame narrative established by Lorne in the night club was done to highlight the postmodern aspects of the episode, explains Whedon. The artificiality of the night club, and Lorne's breaking of the fourth wall when he comments on the commercials that played during the act break, provides a foreground for the alternate reality caused by the spell. Whedon notes that while writing this episode, he already knew that Connor and Cordelia were going to have sex, but the story had to move faster than he had originally planned because Carpenter became pregnant.

Continuity

* When Cordelia, under the spell, first sees Angel she says "Hello, salty goodness", the same thing she says upon first seeing him in "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date".

*The age the characters regress to is unclear; Fred states "not one of y'all look 17", implying that would be the age they think they are, but Cordelia has no recollection of slayers or vampires nor does she recognise Angel, despite meeting him when she was 15 or 16.

*When Wesley says, "there are stories at the Watcher's Academy of a test. A secret gauntlet which only the most cunning can survive. You're locked in a house with a vicious, deadly vampire, and you have to kill him before he kills you. It's been done in the past with Slayers," he is speaking of the Cruciamentum that Buffy had to undertake in "Helpless".

*Fred speaks to a plant in this episode, as she previously did in "That Old Gang of Mine". Also, Spike mentions speaking to plants is one of Illyria's powers in "Origin".

*Fred confuses a Slayer with the thrash band of the same name. This is the second time in Buffyverse that Slayer has been mentioned in association with Buffy's title. The first was by Forrest in the Buffy episode "Doomed".

*Fred asks if anyone else took a personality test recently, with questions "about politics and your bowel movements and if you want to be a florist..." This would seem to be the same florist question test that was mentioned in "Doppelgangland".

*Cordelia says Connor is 18 years old, the first time he is given a concrete age after returning from Quor'Toth in the third season.

*This episode follows a similar plot to the Buffy episode "Tabula Rasa".

Translations

*German title: "Flaschendrehen" ("Spin the bottle")
*Italian title: "Gira la bottiglia" ("Spin the bottle")

Reception and reviews

The DVD commentary for this episode, featuring writer/director Joss Whedon and actor Alexis Denisof, ranks 75th on the list of top 100 commentary tracks for DVD boxsets and movies on RateThatCommentary.com, [Citation |url=http://www.ratethatcommentary.com/top100.php |title=Current top 100 commentary tracks ] and 3rd on Slayage.com. [Citation |url=http://www.slayage.com/articles/000275.html |title=Listmania: The Revenge |date=August 29, 2005 |first=Daniel |last=Erenberg ]

This is episode is one of the more well regarded of the season, with UGO Networks commenting that it is "a bit of a high point" of the season and "great fun all around." Pointing out that Whedon had previously explored amnesia on "Buffy", here he "goes back to the well here with a twist." [Citation |url=http://www.ugo.com/channels/dvd/features/angel_season4/review.asp |title=Angel Season Four DVD Review |first=Michael Patrick |last=Sullivan ] Sci-fi.com calls it the best of the "light" episodes this season, due to the writing and directing credits of Joss Whedon. [Citation |url=http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue398/screen2.html |title=On Screen: Angel Season-Four DVD |first=Kathie |last=Huddleston |date=December 6, 2004]

References

External links

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