This week on Buffy and the Art of Story: Angel, Season 1, Episode 7.  This episode covers how season-long antagonist The Master is the protagonist in the main plot.

Also how the episode intertwines that plot with 2 subplots – one with Buffy as protagonist, one with Angel. And the way the episode serves as a Season Midpoint.

As always, the discussion is spoiler-free, except at the end (with plenty of warning).

Story Elements in Angel

In this podcast episode we’ll look at:

• How the main plot and 2 subplots weave together perfectly
• A villain as protagonist
• 3 things a protagonist should do
• The Season 1 Midpoint 

As I note on the show, my understanding of the role of the protagonist was deepened by listening to story expert Lani Diane Rich of Chipperish Media.

She explains protagonists and antagonists here and in many of her podcast episodes.

Story Structure

For help applying the 5-point story structure the podcast covers to your own work, a free story structure template is available on my patreon page. You don’t need to be a patron to download it, though it’s great if you’d like to be.

Support The Show

If you become a patron for as little as $1 a month, you’ll not only help fund more episodes like Angel, you’ll get access to bonus episodes.

Those episodes will include Buffy-adjacent stories (such as key Angel episodes). Also films or TV episodes that are intriguing from a story, theme, or character perspective.

Including Wonder Woman once I reach 50 patrons.

Next Up:  I, Robot…You, Jane (S1 E8)

Angel Episode Transcript

I am Lisa M. Lilly, author of The Awakening supernatural thriller series and founder of WritingAsASecondCareer.com. If you love creating stories or just taking them apart to see how they work, you’re in the right place.

This Week: Angel

This week we’ll be talking about Season One, Episode Seven: Angel. In particular, I’ll talk about how the main plot and two subplots weave together and the use of a character who is normally our antagonist as a protagonist in the main plot. The discussion will be spoiler-free except at the very end. But I’ll give you plenty of warning.

Okay, let’s dive into the Hellmouth.

The Main Plot and Two Subplots

As I sat down to analyze the plot points in this episode, I struggled to figure out exactly where they were. Which seems strange because I love this episode and I think it is very well structured.

After a while I realized it’s because we have a main plot and two subplots.

The main plot is really the Master’s plot to both kill Buffy and win Angel back. He is our protagonist, the Master that is, in this episode, though he acts through Darla, and though he normally is our antagonist during this season.

Our other plot, which you could also see as the main plot since Buffy is our traditional protagonist and it’s her show, is Buffy wanting to be with Angel, falling for Angel. Which is really part of the overall series struggle Buffy has with trying to have a normal life and personal life, along with being the Slayer..

We also have a subplot for Angel wanting to be with Buffy. Angel is the protagonist of this plot.

I’ll talk as I go along about why I don’t see the Buffy/Angel subplots as one cohesive subplot, although all three of these plots are woven together so well that it did take me a while to see them separately.

The Opening Conflict

We start with our opening conflict. And remember that conflict is what draws the reader in and gets the reader intrigued, though it might or might not relate to the main plot.

Here it does if we see the Master’s plot to kill Buffy and win Angel back as the main plot.

The Master starts out by saying “Zachary did not return from the hunt.” And there is a conversation between him and Colin — him being the Master, not Zachary who’s gone — between the Master and Colin, the little boy vampire Chosen One from the last episode, and Darla.

They are all blaming Buffy. The Master asks Colin what he would do and Colin says “I would annihilate her.” The Master says something like, ‘From the mouths of babes.’ And Darla wants to be the one to kill Buffy but the Master says no, Darla has personal interest. He’ll send ‘The Three.’

We don’t know who The Three are but the tone tells us that this is something serious and ominous and not good for Buffy.

Party At The Bronze

The next scene is at The Bronze. It is the fumigation party before they are going to fumigate The Bronze and get rid of the cockroaches. Everyone gets a free drink if they bring up a cockroach that they killed.

Willow is explaining this to Buffy, which also obviously tells the audience about what is going on here, but Buffy is really not paying attention. And Willow says “What’s it like where you are?”

This is when they get into a conversation about Angel and how Buffy is thinking about him, but she can’t really see how she’d have a relationship with Angel.

She says, “How would that be? Every time he turns up it’s, ‘Hi, honey you’re in great danger.’” This is a nice way, I’ve talked before about getting exposition in through conflict. And this is a very minor exposition issue, both the fumigation party and the Buffy/Angel relationship.

It’s very quick, but it brings viewers up to speed with what’s happening. And it does it through conflict because Willow’s explaining something and Buffy is not paying attention. They are good friends so Willow doesn’t take it personally.

But there is a little conflict there and that helps keep us interested even as both characters are really telling us things that we need to know. We also see Cordelia and Xander exchange some insults on the dance floor.

Story Spark

We now move to our Story Spark or Inciting Incident which typically comes about 10% into any story, whether it’s a book, a movie, or a 42+ minute episode of TV. And here we see that Story Spark right on target at four minutes and ten seconds.

The Three, these very powerful vampires, attack Buffy. There’s a fight. Two of them end up holding her, one is advancing toward her. She looks nervous and there is a cut.

So this is the Story Spark for our plot which is driven by the Master, who wants to kill Buffy.

Two More Story Sparks

We have the credits and then we have Angel, who was lurking in the shadows, he joins the fight pulls one of the vampires off Buffy. And for the moment saves her. The fight continues.

Buffy then saves Angel and they race to her house. She says something like, you know, ‘Get in, come on in,’ which allows him to enter, though at that point we don’t know that that’s necessary for him to come in.

I see this moment as the Story Spark for both the Buffy plot and the Angel plot. This gets rolling their personal relationship, which is going to move to another level in this episode, as both of them will discover in less than direct ways how the other one feels.

Main Plot and Subplots

So why am I seeing the Buffy plot, Angel plot, and the Master’s plot as three separate plots? And, particularly, why are the Buffy and Angel plots not just one subplot? I think it’s because I see a different protagonist for each one.

In her podcast How Story Works, story expert Lani Diane Rich gives a great definition of a protagonist, who is our main character. And she says,

“A protagonist does three things. The protagonist is the viewpoint character, that’s the first one. The protagonist must have an active goal and propel the story forward. Also, the protagonist has the most at stake.”

Those three things are key to how I separate these plots.

Main Plot: The Master

In the main plot, the Master is the one who is moving that story forward. And he is our viewpoint character, either personally or through Darla, for that story of trying to kill Buffy and trying to turn Angel. It is his choices and decisions that move that story forward.

And he has the active goal. Buffy in that story is not the one with the active goal. She is reacting to the Master’s plot. She is defending and pushing back against it.

Subplot: Buffy

Then we get to Buffy’s and Angel’s relationship, Buffy is the protagonist of her story. We see much of it from her viewpoint — including how she feels when she thinks Angel has read her diary. When they kiss and he vamps out, all of this is her point of view – how she feels about it and what she chooses to do at different points in the story.

And I’ll talk about those different plot points and how I see them fitting in her story.

So there she has the active goal which is to resolve her feelings about Angel. And first that takes one form of moving the relationship forward or knowing if he feels the same way.

It becomes having to deal with the turn, the reversal that he is a vampire, and then to trust him. But the relationship, how she feels about him, is her story. In that story she has the most at stake.

More on The Master Plot

And I should backup for minute, the Master in the plot about killing Buffy and getting Angel back, he has the most at stake because getting rid of Buffy is key to his strategy of getting out from his trap. Getting Angel back is both important to him for that reason, but also because he wants this group of vampires around him, including Angel and Darla.

Subplot: Angel

When we look at the Angel/Buffy relationship from Angel’s perspective, we also see it through his eyes. We see scenes where Buffy is not there. We see him struggling with his past, who he is: not human, not vampire, something in between, and his struggle with how to live with that.

Darla brings that to the forefront, symbolizes that, and he ultimately must make a choice.

He has an active goal of wanting to not just be with Buffy, but wanting to find a way to live life and make up for the past and change and be a hero. So that is his active goal. In that story he has the most at stake because he is at a true crossroads.

So that’s why I’m seeing these as three different stories. When I started looking at it that way it was easier for me to see how the plots moved in those stories and intertwined.

Misdirection

Back to Buffy and Angel in Buffy’s house. Angel tells her that now they are okay, they’re safe inside the house because vampires can’t come in unless they’re invited. She says she heard that before, but she never tested it. That quick conversation in the heat of the moment gives the audience yet another rule about vampires.

Also, we talked before about misdirection. Here we have, to some extent, up to now, maybe not so much had a misdirection about Angel, but the show has held back something important about Angel — that he is a vampire.

And here if we go back and watch the episode, knowing that he is a vampire, this rule works because Buffy did in fact invite him into her home.

This rule also becomes key later when Joyce invites Darla in. So in that sense, the show has played fair with the audience. If we look back at all the episodes we don’t see Angel doing anything that is inconsistent with him being a vampire.

Buffy and Angel Development

Angel is injured. He takes off his shirt, we see his tattoo. Buffy, I think, helps bandage him and they have one of these moments.

But Joyce comes home, cutting off any romantic interplay for that moment. Buffy tries to stall, kind of hoping, I think, that Angel will get out of the house — or actually, I take it back — she doesn’t want Angel to get out of the house because the Three are out there and she doesn’t know that he’s a vampire.

But she’s obviously trying to stall for time, and Joyce is a little bit suspicious. Then Angel comes out of the kitchen. And I really like that about Angel, that he wants to be as upfront as he can.

He doesn’t want to be hiding back in the kitchen and not letting Joyce know that he’s there.

Buffy claims he’s at community college, and he’s helping her with history. I really like Joyce in this moment because she clearly knows there’s something more going on. But she doesn’t give Buffy a really hard time about having this guy over when she’s not there.

She just says ‘It’s late’ and kind of pointedly says that. Buffy says ‘yes, she’ll say goodnight as well.’ So she pretends, after Joyce is gone upstairs, to say good night. And she takes Angel up to her room.

Suspension of Disbelief

In fiction, there is the concept of the suspension of disbelief. And usually what we mean is the story is so good it lures us in and we suspend our disbelief in things that otherwise we would not believe in, like vampires, because we love the story. Because the story has convinced us.

There’s also what I think of as a willing suspension of disbelief, where as a reader or audience member we aren’t quite persuaded by something but we go with it because we enjoy the story.

We make a more active choice.

And here I feel like I willingly suspend my disbelief of Buffy taking Angel up the stairs into her room, they’re having this conversation. The house I don’t think is that big. So I’m sure that Joyce would hear them, but I’m willing to just go with it because I want to have this scene and these moments between Buffy and Angel.

Buffy wants Angel to stay so that he’ll be safe. And I might take back what I said about yeah, she doesn’t know he’s a vampire. But even if she knew that he was at this point and was okay with it, I think she would still want him to stay.

Not just personally because she would like him to stay, but because those vampires were so strong that she and Angel together had to run away, essentially. So she really wouldn’t want Angel out there on his own.

The One-Quarter Turn: Subplots

They have this conversation, it’s one of their, I’m pretty sure, it’s their first truly personal conversation.

Buffy asks what Angel’s family thinks of his career choice and Angel says they’re dead. It was vampires, it happened a long time ago.

This raises a brief story question, it’s going to be answered at the end. It does make us intrigued about Angel’s past.

And also, as with the invitation in, it is playing fair with the audience. Because it is something that is consistent both with Angel not telling Buffy he’s a vampire, and with Angel telling the truth.

So he is also trying to be honest with Buffy. And Buffy says “So this is a vengeance thing for you?” And they go to sleep.

She also asks him about, when he lays down on the floor and she’s lying in bed, she asks, does he snore? He says, “It’s been a long time since anyone was in a position to tell me,” which is a very intimate moment all around. They’re sleeping in the same room, he is telling her he hasn’t slept with anybody else in a long time.

And I see this as the One-Quarter Turn for both the Buffy subplot and the Angel subplot.

So that One-Quarter Turn is something that generally comes from outside the characters and spins the story in a new direction.

And while this isn’t totally outside the characters, because they are making a choice to have this conversation, they were thrust into the situation by the Three. It’s hard to imagine, given what has happened in the series so far, that Buffy and Angel would ever end up in Buffy’s bedroom at night, going to sleep, having this conversation.

One-Quarter Turn: Main Plot

Our next scene is at the library. We get Xander feeling outraged that Angel stayed overnight — or maybe not outrage, he’s feeling jealous. And when Buffy is talking about how wonderful Angel was, he says “Oh, oldest trick in the book.”

Buffy says “What, saving my life? Getting slashed in the ribs?” And he’s kind of like, “Oh yeah, guys do that kind of thing all the time.”

Now I think we get to the One-Quarter Turn in the main plot of the Master trying to kill Buffy.

Giles says that Buffy must be hurting the Master if he sent the Three. So she has to step up her training. But the Three failed and so will offer their lives in penance. We then transition to the Master. So really what Giles has offered in the context of conflict, because everyone is worried about Buffy, he has offered the exposition that the Three are finished.

So now this next scene is really that turn, about thirteen minutes in, and the Master has Darla in fact kill the Three.

And that turns the Master’s plot. Note that it did come from outside the Master. While he’s the one who has Darla kill the Three, it is apparently lore or tradition, or some code of honor that the Three have, that because they failed they forfeit their lives. So it is from outside the Master.

Also, it’s because Buffy and Angel defeated the Three in the sense of getting away.

So this, as a One-Quarter Turn should do, triggers a new direction and propels the plot toward the Midpoint. The Master must find a new way to get to Buffy and that is what is going to move us toward our Midpoint commitment by the Master.

Buffy Prepares

We next see Buffy preparing to deal with whatever the Master throws at her next. She is in the library training with Giles. She wants to use the crossbow. Giles says she’s not ready yet. He wants her to use, I forgot the name for them, these long poles.

She makes a joke about “What, am I going to fight with Friar Tuck?” and she beats him so quickly and then gets to have the crossbow.

The Midpoint: Buffy Subplot

At night Buffy brings Angel food because he has been hiding out in her bedroom all day. They have this mixup about her thinking that he read her diary, trying to backpedal around the things she wrote about him and claim it wasn’t about him.

At the same time he is saying he can’t be around her. He’s older than her, he thinks about kissing her whenever he’s with her. And they kiss, he vamps out. Buffy screams, he dives out the window.

Though it’s a little bit early, it’s almost 17 minutes in, so it’s not quite at our Midpoint of the episode, I see this as our Midpoint reversal for Buffy in her personal plot to resolve her feelings about Angel, to have this relationship move forward.

Midpoint of the Series

In the pilot episode, we saw two things at the Midpoint. They are the two things that generally one or the other or both will happen in well-structured story: either a major reversal for our protagonist or a commitment by the protagonist — to fully commit to the quest and throw caution to the wind.

Here, this is a significant reversal for Buffy, no question. This person that she has fallen in love with turns out to not be a person.

And it is very typical of what Joss Whedon will do in his shows in that the character has a wonderful moment, what she has wanted, Angel feels the same about her, kisses her, and then immediately that is yanked away in the most awful way that Buffy could probably ever imagine.

This Midpoint Reversal propels the story forward. Everything Buffy does from this point on is driven by this reversal at the Midpoint.

Dealing With The Reversal

We see Xander and Buffy and Willow and Giles talking and Xander says, “Buffy has to kill Angel.”

And there’s a little bit of comic relief with Cordelia, who overhears. Xander pretends that he’s talking about an umpire, not a vampire and ‘everybody hates them.’

Darla

We then see Darla going to Angel.

She reminds him of their past together, and they have a conversation that is both antagonistic but has a lot of chemistry there between them. As they revisit their past sexual and romantic relationship, she baits him, scorns him. She says “You’re living like them, you’re fighting us like them, but guess what, you’re not one of them.”

And as she says that she opens his blinds, and he has to cower away from the light. So it is a very visual and visceral argument that she makes to him. Not just using words but actions.

She says, “Go ahead, talk to Buffy, tell her about the curse, maybe she’ll come around, and if she doesn’t, you know where I’ll be.”

So this is the Master, through Darla, propelling the story forward. I guess at this point she is both acting for the Master and for herself. You could see Darla as having yet another subplot that is part of the Master’s plot.

Because she isn’t only doing this for the Master, right, she’s doing it for herself. She wants Angel back.

So I can definitely see an argument for that or even maybe that she is the one driving our main plot here. That’s getting really complicated to go into four plots.

I think it works so well only because these are all so well integrated that it all weaves together into one story that has very strong character work and plot turns.

And I can’t help pointing out the exposition here, which again, we get a little bit of through this conflict. This is the first time that we hear about this curse and it’s in this very heated discussion between Angel and Darla and that’s a great way to throw in that little teaser about something about Angel that we did not know.

Nearing the Main Plot Midpoint

Now we are nearing the Midpoint of the episode around 22 to 23 minutes in.

We have library research, Giles finds Angelus, references to Angelus in a diary. Gives us this background about him being a vicious vampire, then coming to America, shunning other vampires and just kind of staying out of the — I was going to say out of the history books — out of the Watcher diaries, I guess. But he does say that Angel was the most violent and vicious animal — he calls him an animal.

This also could be the Midpoint for Buffy’s plot because it is part of that major reversal, but I still see that as happening when Angel vamps out, because that’s so much more personal.

The Midpoint: Main Plot

What we get immediately after that is what I see as the Midpoint of our main plot.

The Master and Darla are talking. Darla’s saying, “You gotta let me take care of it. Take care of Buffy and Angel. We’ll get Angel to kill Buffy and bring him back into the fold.”

Here’s why I do see the Master, not Darla, as the protagonist of this plot because it is up to the Master to say yes. The fact that Darla is presenting this, but waiting for the Master to greenlight it means that he is the one in control. He is the one who makes this commitment, throws caution to the wind, fully commits.

Because now he isn’t just going to try to kill Buffy, but to get Angel to do it and bring Angel back to them. Because for hundred years Angel has stayed away from vampires.

So note that although Buffy normally would be our protagonist, she is not the one driving the action in this plot.

The Master is driving the action. And from the Midpoint to the end, it should be the protagonist’s choice or what happened, either that major reversal or that all-in commitment, that propels the story forward. So here the Master does that by making a commitment.

We now have Buffy and Willow in the library. Buffy is saying she needs to get over Angel so she can kill him but she can’t. “He’s never done anything to hurt me.”

So she is moving forward from that reversal, trying to process that information, deal with, and figure out what she needs to do.

Darla is listening to this and forming her plan. She learns a lot, both about Buffy’s life, so that she can weasel her way into Buffy’s home, and about what is it that Buffy needs to be willing to kill Angel. Because the only way Angel will kill Buffy is if Buffy is trying to kill him.

Moving Toward the Three-Quarter Point Turn

Joyce is home alone. Darla knocks on the door, rings the bell, and pretends to be a schoolgirl in her schoolgirl outfit. She says she’s there to help Buffy study.

And she seems to know so much — she knows that Buffy and Willow are at the library studying about the Civil War (although some of that information Joyce also gives her) — but she really seems know Buffy and talks about helping her with another aspect of history.

Joyce is persuaded that Darla is a friend.

And after all, just last night Buffy had another friend, a guy, there that Joyce had not met yet. Who supposedly was helping her study. So this fits with what what Joyce is seeing Buffy doing.

It doesn’t seem strange that this girl shows up that Joyce has met before.

Inviting Evil In

Joyce invites her in, and we get a nice moment were Darla says, “Thank you for inviting me into your home.”

In the kitchen, she attacks Joyce. Angel comes to the house and he sees this, comes in, and tries to stop Darla. Darla thrusts Joyce at him and disappears after encouraging him to go ahead and give in to what he needs.

So he is holding Joyce and presumably this is the first time, or at least the first time in a long time, that Angel has been in this position where he is holding a human who is bleeding.

We can see that this is difficult for him. He does not want to bite her, to drink her blood, in sort of his head and who he wants to be. But he has this very visceral reaction, much as he did when he kissed Buffy, being so close to her.

You figure this has to be even stronger for him because there is blood there.

Three-Quarter Point Turn: Buffy Subplot

That is when Buffy enters and sees this, which looks very damning for Angel, because he’s holding Joyce, he’s vamped out, Joyce is bleeding.

So this I see as Buffy’s Three-Quarter Turn for her personal plot because from reversal at Midpoint to here, she was still struggling with what to do. She didn’t want to kill Angel. She was trying to figure out how to get herself to do it, but we saw that she was not there yet. If she could’ve found a reason, a way, to make it work, to not kill him, certainly that’s what she would’ve done. Because she does talk about, ‘He hasn’t hurt her.’ ‘Why did he not try to attack her’ and so forth.

But now she sees Joyce, and she is ready to kill Angel because of this.

It does arise from the reversal because that is why all of this is happening. If Angel hadn’t vamped out, she hadn’t discovered he was a vampire, none of this would likely have happened.

For one thing, he probably wouldn’t have been back at Buffy’s house, Darla’s plot wouldn’t have worked on him.

And because it’s TV we go from that moment to a commercial break. Great way to hook the audience, keep them watching through the end of the episode.

Throwing Angel Out

Buffy throws Angel out and says if he comes actual kill him. It’s clear she is done.

At the hospital, Joyce is recovering, she’s going to be okay. And she says, “Your friend came over.” Buffy, of course, given what she has seen, assumes that it was Angel.

And Joyce also comments about Giles being there and how the teachers at the school really do care about the students, which is kind of nice. Because it gives us an interpretation of know how she sees, or tells us how she sees, Giles being there. Which, looking back, would be really strange that your school’s high school librarian shows up at the hospital.

But I think because Giles is just so appropriate about everything we don’t have a sense that Joyce finds it strange that he is around.

The Three-Quarter Point Turn: Main Plot

Buffy now says she will go after Angel. She was stupid and she knows she has to kill him. She knows he lives near The Bronze and she brings her crossbow.

Darla now goes to Angel and says Buffy is hunting him. And she says something like, ‘You’ve had 100 years with no peace because you won’t accept who you are.” She keeps pushing him on this. And he says, about 31 minutes, 32 minutes in, “I want it finished,” after Darla saying, you know, “What are you going to do?” He says, “I want it finished.” Or I think she says, “What do you want?”

This is the Three-Quarter Point in the Master’s plot line, so our main plot, because now from that Midpoint commitment, to get Angel to do this through Darla, the Master’s set it up so that Buffy is hunting Angel.

Angel has to make a choice. And his choice is “I’m going to finish this.” It looks like he’s done. He’s done trying to straddle this line. He is going to embrace being a vampire again.

So this is the three-quarter turn from the Master’s plot, which grew out of that Midpoint.

The Midpoint: Angel

At the same time, I see it as Angel’s plot, the Midpoint commitment for him. He is throwing caution to the wind and saying, ‘Okay, I’m done. I’m going to embrace that I am in fact a vampire. I’m not going to let Buffy kill me. I’m going to kill her because I cannot be a human being. I’ve tried and I can’t and it’s too painful and it’s too difficult.’

The fact that these two come together here shows something that I feel is generally true in stories, which is your subplots usually do roughly follow the same plot structure as a main plot.

But often those points come at different parts of the narrative. So you might have that turn from outside the protagonist, it might not come one-quarter way through the story or the episode.

The Midpoint commitment is not necessarily at the Midpoint of the overall story, but it is a turning point and a commitment or a major reversal in that subplot. And it generally comes in the middle of that story for that protagonist.

So we see that here how our main plot roughly follows the timing that we’re used to in a structured story, but the Angel subplot kind of weaves in and out of it, as does Buffy’s subplot.

Now we’re back at the hospital. Giles and Joyce talk and it becomes clear to Giles that it was Darla who attacked Joyce, not Angel. It is too late to catch Buffy, she’s already on her way to The Bronze. But Giles, Willow, and Xander head there to try to meet her and let her know.

The Climax: Buffy Subplot

Now we move into our Climax scene for the, not so much the Master’s plot, but the Buffy plot about her personal feelings with Angel and to confront each other.

She attacks first. She shoots him with the crossbow and she misses. Now does she miss on purpose? She comes very close, maybe, it seems like maybe, although we have set up that this is a new weapon for her.

And just as an aside, which other podcasters and other bloggers have mentioned, what is the deal with the crossbow? It really makes no sense to me. It does not seem like a terribly useful weapon for one-on-one fighting. I mean I guess if I think ahead to the series, sure the crossbow is used it times for a long distance shot at a vampire. So that would be useful to pick off vampires from a distance.

But it doesn’t make a huge amount of sense that she is relying on it so much when she can use a stake so well.

But maybe here I can see it because perhaps it would be too hard for her to actually stake Angel.

Maybe having that distance, she can deal with trying to kill him that way. And I’m completely reading that in after the fact. I have no idea if that was the goal of the writers or if it was just, they wanted a weapon where Buffy could conceivably miss.

I don’t think we buy at this time that she would miss if she tried stake Angel. Like, yeah, he might fight her off, but we wouldn’t get that, her just missing him. And he makes the comment that ‘she was a little off in her aim.’ And it opens up the space for them to have a conversation instead of just fighting and not talking about things.

Angel and Buffy Talk

She asks him why he didn’t attack her before. Was it a game making her feel for him? And she says she’s killed vampires before, but it’s the first time she hated one. And he tells her he killed his family and his friends and children for a hundred years and then that he didn’t for hundred years, that he did not hurt anyone, didn’t kill anyone.

So she’s saying, ‘What happened, why did you start with my mom?’

He tells her about the Gypsy curse, and his soul being restored. So again we’re getting his back story in a very dramatic way in the middle of conflict.

Also, this is not this character giving exposition to another character who already knows it. Buffy does not know the story, and she does need to know it to understand what happened.

The key thing Angel says is, “I can walk like a man but I’m not a man. I wanted to kill you tonight.” And that tells us that when he said that line to Darla earlier, ‘I want it finished,’ he was saying, ‘I’m going to kill her.’

And that’s part of why I see that moment with Darla as his Midpoint commitment because he, at that time, took this position, made this commitment to do something that otherwise he was not going to do. And it is throwing caution to the wind for him. It’s throwing away 100 years of not killing anyone.

Three-Quarter Point Turn: Angel Subplot

She now offers him her neck. I think she puts down the crossbow, offers him her neck, and says, “It’s not so easy is it?”

So now we have, at about 37 minutes in, Darla saying “Sure it is!”

Before that, Angel did not know Darla was there, Buffy didn’t know that. And this I see as the Three-Quarter Turn for Angel’s plot because it grows from his commitment, which he made with Darla. And that brings the plot to this point because Darla has come expecting that he is going to kill Buffy.

So it arises out of that commitment he made but it also turns the story in a new direction because Angel here does not attack Buffy. I guess the term really is what Angel does not do? He chooses to let Buffy live, and to embrace instead his humanity.

Darla coming in at that moment, though, came from both of those things, came from his commitment and will now turn the story. And she could not do that if he had not given her that hope. She might not even be there if he had not given her that hope that he was going to go forward.

Expressions of Love and Vulnerability

And Darla now says, “The saddest thing in the world is to love someone who no longer loves you.” And I love this because we are getting vulnerability from Darla. Yes, she’s the villain, we don’t want her to win. But I like that this is personal for her. It is not about just doing what the Master wants or freeing the Master.

It’s because she still loves Angel, still wants to be with him. She created him as a vampire and now he doesn’t want to be with her.

She says to Angel, “You had a chance to come home, you threw it away. You love someone who hates us. You’re sick, you’ll always be sick.”

When she says ‘You love someone who hates us,’ this is the true climax of the Buffy subplot because she realizes that Angel is in love with her. Someone else has told her that, but she realizes Angel loves her.

I find this a really interesting reflection because initially, well not initially, but in our scene between Buffy and Angel in that pivotal scene, Buffy tells Angel how she feels. But it’s also in a very indirect way. She doesn’t just say how she feels, she blurts it out because she thinks he’s already read her diary. So he finds out in a roundabout way for sure how she feels. And now she finds out through Darla, not by him saying it directly how he feels.

This gives both of those moments even more power. Because it seems more certain and more true when something comes out either in that roundabout way that Buffy tells him how she feels, or to have Darla point it out, because Angel might never have said that.

And the fact that Darla, who loves him and hates this fact, is the one who says it, is such a strong moment.

Guns in the Buffyverse

Now Darla pulls out guns, which seems really weird to me. We don’t see, I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say, we don’t see guns a lot in the Buffyverse.

And though the show has not been going that long, it already seems kind of jarring. Darla says something like, ‘You don’t think I came alone, do you?’ I always kinda wondered about the use of the guns and maybe it was just, they hadn’t quite figured out how they were going to handle the fact that guns and weapons exist. Or maybe this was their opening effort to show that guns don’t work in the Buffyverse.

But I also suspect, I was talking recently to a friend who loved the Dirty Harry movies. And I don’t remember which one this came from, but there was a line where Clint Eastwood said something like “I didn’t come alone” and pulls out his guns.

Maybe this was also just a call back to that. Because I believe Joss Whedon’s about my age and he may very well have watched those Dirty Harry movies. I watched them in black-and-white in reruns on — I live in Chicago — so on Channel 9, which is also the station that played Buffy.

I have to think that was somewhat of a purposeful call back to that Dirty Harry movie.

Anyway, we do get a little bit of comic, sort of campy, I don’t know what I want to say, because I’m blanking on the right word for it, but how the scene is blocked and how the scene is shot, because we have Giles flipping on a strobe light. (Because Xander, Willow, and Giles have come into the Bronze and yelled down to Buffy what she already knows. That it wasn’t Angel, it was Darla who tried to kill Joyce. And Giles throws this strobe on to confuse things.)

Buffy ducks behind this counter. And she’s kinda running back and forth and it looks very much like a shooting gallery scene which is kind of funny and add some lightness.

The Climax: Master Main Plot and Angel Subplot

The Climax of the Angel subplot is also the Climax of the Master’s main plot, which is that Angel kills Darla. And this is such a strong Climax for the main plot because it ends the Master’s efforts to get Angel back and also deprives him of his favorite, who is Darla.

But it is an even stronger Climax for the Angel subplot because when he kills Darla, he is also essentially killing his past as Angelus or, at least, I guess he can’t kill that, but severing his ties. She represents Angel as a vampire — his entire life as a vampire. She sired him. He was with her all his time as a vampire until this curse, and even as he struggled with that, because she knows something about him struggling against who he becomes when his soul is restored to him.

This is his point of no return in a way. He is killing part of his own life. It may be a part that he doesn’t want to embrace anymore, but it was such a huge part of who he was and he had this deep connection with Darla.

Falling Action

We now shift to the Falling Action which is about 40 minutes in.

We only have two or three minutes left and we need to tie up the loose ends and see the fallout from the Climax for our different plots.

So our main plot, we have the Master, he’s destroying things, he says Darla was his favorite. He mourns the loss of Angel. And Colin says, “Darla was weak. We don’t need her. I’ll bring the Slayer to you and when you rise you will kill them all.” Which makes the Master feel so much better.

We then get the Falling Action for both the Buffy and Angel subplots.

We’re at the Post-Fumigation party at The Bronze. Buffy and Willow are again talking about Angel. So it’s a nice bookend to the beginning of Buffy’s story with Buffy and Willow. Buffy says she feels like Angel is still watching her and Willow points out that’s because he is, and he’s right across the room.

Buffy goes over. They have this conversation about how this relationship can’t happen between them and how hard it is, and they kiss anyway. Her cross is burning him when they kiss. But she doesn’t know it and we only see that as she walks away. And that is the end of the episode.

It also does what we want, which is to draw the audience back in on two fronts.

One, this seems to have, in the main plot, raised the importance of Colin and hinted at things to come. And here, of course we want to know what will happen with Buffy and Angel.

Commentary on Angel

This episode wasn’t written by Joss but by David Greenwalt, which kind of surprised me because I just assumed Joss would’ve written this episode himself.

David Greenwalt went on to become the co-creator of Angel. So I looked him up to see what he had to say about Angel.

I didn’t find a commentary specifically on this episode. But I did find a lot about the show, Angel, on the BBC home page, the BBC UK homepage. So I’ll put a link to that in the show notes.

And here’s just one of his quotes about Angel:

He’s been around for 251 years and he’s done every horrible thing you can imagine, and then was cursed with a soul a little over 100 years ago. It’s a metaphor for being cursed with a conscience, for being cursed with “Oh my god I remember all the terrible things I’ve done.” So he’s on a road to redemption, he really wants to make up for his horrible past. He’d have to live 500 years to really do it, so it’s a one-day-at-a-time thing.

I like this quote for this episode because I feel like it really encapsulates the struggle that Angel has. That he does remember every horrible thing that he has ever done and he’s on this road to redemption, but it is hard.

He was very tempted to embrace what could be seen as the easier path, to basically, I think, try to kill his conscience by killing Buffy. And instead, he embraced his humanity by loving Buffy instead.

Next Week

That is all I have for this episode.

Next week will be talking about I, Robot. And it is probably like Teacher’s Pet, not a favorite episode of a lot of fans, but I think that it holds together better than Teacher’s Pet. Or at least, I always like it better when I come back and watch it. Maybe just because it’s a Willow-centric episode and I find it really fun.

So that will be coming next Monday night. In the meantime you can find me on Twitter @LisaMLilly #buffystory.

If you are open to hearing a little bit about spoilers, please stick around. And if not, thanks so much for listening.

*

*

Spoilers

And we’re back with a few spoilers. For one, Cordelia and Xander.

Cordelia and Xander

There is no way I would’ve guessed that they would eventually become a couple. We get this trading of insults both at The Bronze and then a little bit when they’re outside and Buffy is talking about being in love with Angel and the vampire/umpire thing.

You definitely get that they have this insult trading that could easily become banter. Also the fact that they keep doing that, it’s a little bit of a hint. Initially, I saw it just as comic relief. But I can, now knowing what happens with them, can sort of see it.

Buffy and Angel

We also get foreshadowing of Buffy eventually needing to kill Angel, because the first time she finds out he’s a vampire, this is set up that her duty, really, is to kill him.

I think that you have to deal with that. So it wouldn’t necessarily have foreshadowed that eventually she is going to be faced with that choice in a more devastating way at the end of season 2.

But there’s definitely a little foreshadowing there.

Season Arc Buffy

On a larger scale, as to the season arc, I find it significant that Angel comes in the middle of the season. So it is the Midpoint of the Season 1 story arc.

If we see the season arc being more about Buffy dealing with trying to live a normal life and be the Slayer, this is a reversal because this is when she realizes the man she’s falling for, who has been helping her fight, is a vampire. And is absolutely the wrong person for her, the worst person for her in that sense and not a person at all.

It is also a commitment for her and a ‘throwing of caution to the wind.’ Because even when she doesn’t know about the curse, all she knows is he’s a vampire, she is not willing to kill him. She resists killing him. And she only does it when she is pushed to it by believing that he attacked her mother.

She commits in that sense of saying, in essence, that her feelings matter more.

Not that her feelings matter more, once she sees or thinks she sees Angel is actively trying to kill people. But when the evidence is that he’s a vampire, but there is nothing he is doing right now, she doesn’t see him as a danger right now, she commits to instead following her heart and how she feels and her instinct to trust him.

Likewise, when she offers him her neck. She doesn’t know yet. He might still try to kill her. And he tells her, “I came here to kill you.”

So this is a commitment on her part to be more than just the Slayer. Because certainly the Slayer handbook — we’re going to hear more about much later in the series, kind of in a sort of funny comic way — I think it would definitely say ‘Yeah, hey, he’s a vampire kill him.’

In fact Kendra makes that argument, when she comes into the show.

So this is also commitment. And I feel something of a statement of the series, which is that generally Buffy is not going to kill vampires or demons that she has reason to believe are not actively trying to hurt anyone or kill anyone. The most major example of that is Spike, much later down the road.

Season Arc – Master

So back to the season arc. The Master commits at the Midpoint by calling in the Three.

This is the first time he has gone outside of his small group of vampires to bring in, kind of the big guns, the Three.

But more so at the end we see a shift to Colin, as the Chosen One, being more active, saying, ‘I will bring her to you and you’ll rise and you will kill them all.’ In our last episode, it is Colin who brings Buffy to the Master. So that is both a Midpoint in our story arc and a bit of foreshadowing. It tells us that Colin is going to be pivotal and sets us up for that.

That’s it for the spoilers and foreshadowing.

I hope to see you next week to talk about I, Robot.

FYI, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases made through this site, but that doesn’t change the purchase price to you as the buyer or influence my love for the Buffy DVDs and all things Buffy.

The post Angel S1 E7 appeared first on Lisa Lilly.

“None of them jumps out at me.” Joe glanced at his phone. Nearly eleven.

He’d spent hours researching online over the weekend, so he hadn’t thought finding the right ring would take more than forty-five minutes. An hour at most.

Now he worried he’d be empty-handed tonight. He had lunch plans with a new client at twelve-thirty and a conference call after that. He could fit in more shopping late in the day, but he needed to stop at the grocery store, too. To get steaks for dinner.

“Try a closer look,” the salesman said.

The man had a neatly trimmed salt-and-pepper beard and wore a powder blue sport coat. But he hadn’t introduced himself or asked Joe’s name, something Joe always did when he met a potential client. He was a good financial adviser, but no matter your track record people needed to get to know you before they handed over their money.

The salesman’s keys clinked on the glass as he unlocked the case. He took out the ring Joe had spent the longest time studying.

Its round single carat diamond shone under the banker’s lamp. Good clarity and color. Simple elegance in a white gold setting. Exactly what Joe had thought he wanted.

“You can return it if she’d rather choose her own,” the man said.

“That must be a big occupational hazard this time of year.” Joe set the ring down. “I read that a lot of couples break up right after Valentine’s Day.”

The article had been in today’s Wall Street Journal, front page, the small column in the bottom center that was always human interest. Joe looked at everything else on his phone or tablet, but that one newspaper he liked to read in print.

“On Valentine’s Day too,” the salesman said. “Took my wife to Geja’s last year. You been there? Perfect romantic setting.”

Joe nodded. He’d taken Heather there in December.

The light in the iconic Lincoln Park restaurant came mainly from flickering candles, small sparkling lights over arched brick doorways, and flames under fondue pots. He had no doubt a lot of people got engaged there.

“This young guy actually gets down on one knee and holds out the ring. The girl stammers, stutters, says no. Turns out he flew in her entire family to surprise her. They were in the next room over and saw it all through the archway. Embarrassing for everyone.”

Joe’s eyebrows rose. He couldn’t believe the man had told a story showing a reason not to buy a ring. “I’m not worried about being publicly rejected. We’re cooking in.”

The salesman got one part of selling right. He laughed.

***

Joe strode north, the opposite of the direction he needed to go for his lunch date, to the 900 North Michigan shops. He’d pay more there because of the high rent location. But maybe he’d get a salesperson who could help. At forty-two he’d had serious relationships, but he’d never shopped for a diamond.

No one but Heather had made him want to.

He’d started thinking about it the first time he took her to the ballet. It had been like magic the way her eyes had lit up. And at a White Sox game last summer, the last in a bad season, she’d cheered for every player, no matter how he played. He’d never heard her yell at anyone.

Soon after the game, they’d first talked about getting married. In a roundabout way. He couldn’t remember how it started, but they’d both agreed that if they ever moved in together they’d want to be engaged first.

A month or so later, Joe found himself searching real estate listings. If they did move in together, he decided he’d sell his condo. He’d owned it for six years and loved it. But he didn’t want Heather trying to fit into his space. He’d been on the other side of that in his thirties, and it had led to endless arguments about closet space. Which had probably been a symptom of the other issues, but he still thought getting a place together was the best way to start.

Heather agreed. The question was where.

He preferred the quiet enclave in the Fulton River District where he lived now. She liked the West Loop, a neighborhood too noisy for him. And too filled with condos built in a rush in the mid-2000s with cheap materials. Chicago developers back then had been scrambling to cash in on the housing market bubble before it burst.

They’d almost settled on River North on the border of the Gold Coast. Close enough to bars and restaurants for Heather, but a few blocks nearer the quieter, tree-lined streets leading to the Newberry Library for Joe. Then, in December, Heather had surprised him with a trip to Aruba when she knew he’d planned to spend the holidays in Chicago with Quille. They’d worked it out. Compromised. And had a good time on the trip, too, because Heather always had a good time.

But she hadn’t said anything since Christmas about moving in together.

***

“C’est magnifique.” Carole, the owner of Café des Livres, set an espresso on the small marble table in front of him, her thin gold bracelets jangling. “Valentine’s gift?”

“Yes and no. More like a placeholder.”

Joe turned the ring sideways. The ruby at the center, surrounded by small crystals, deepened to blood red in the sunlight streaming through the window. He’d bought it at Swarovski and been ten minutes late for his lunch.

“Ah, you propose and then you shop together,” Carole said.

Joe returned the ring to its box, shut it, and pushed it to the side of the bone white demitasse cup. “You think Heather will mind? That I don’t have the real ring?”

Carole slid into the seat opposite him. Her perfume’s sandalwood undertones mingled with the espresso’s dark roast, full-bodied aroma.

“No. If the man is right, the ring matters not. Also, every woman wants to choose her own ring regardless. And, finally, what woman does not love Swarovski?”

As Joe sipped the espresso his shoulders dropped and his jaw muscles relaxed. He’d had a long conference call in his office near the Board of Trade this afternoon, and through it he’d craved this taste. He’d passed two Starbucks and a Hero’s coffee bar on the way here.

“Quille might not,” he said.

To finish reading No New Beginnings join the author’s email list and get No New Beginnings and other bonus materials free.

Check out the Q.C. Davis mystery/suspense novels:

The Worried Man

The Charming Man

The Fractured Man (coming soon)

The post A Man In Search Of A Ring (Or Is He?) appeared first on Lisa Lilly.

This week The Awakening Complete Supernatural Thriller Series is on sale at a special price.

If you haven’t finished series yet (or started it for that matter) it’s a great time to get it. The ebook editions of the complete 4-book series are 99 cents through Sunday, June 30, 2019.

Kindle

Kobo

Nook

Apple

GooglePlay

If you’d like a doorstop (or just love print), feel free to check out the paperback edition (but sorry, that’s not 99 cents).

Then And Now

I finished the series in 2017 and released the box set edition in September.

It feels longer ago than that, maybe because lately I haven’t written in the supernatural, fantasy, or occult genres. I’m sure I will again at some point, but right now I’m well into the third book in my new Q.C. Davis Mystery/Suspense series.

Also, a lot has changed in my neighborhood. I live near Printers Row in Chicago, which is where one of my favorite Awakening series characters, Sophia Gaddini lives. (And where my new protagonist, Quille, lives.)

Happily, Dearborn Park, right down the street from Sophia, is still beautiful:

Why This Sale

Every once in a while I run a 99 cent sale on an ebook edition of one of my books. It’s fun to share the book with new readers.

It’s also fun to see it climb different charts. Especially when it hangs out for a while with books of favorite authors like Stephen King or Neil Gaiman:

More important, it’s a nice way for new readers to find my novels.

Whether you’re new to the series or a long-time fan, thanks so much for joining me in the world of The Awakening.

The post 4-Book Box Set, 5 More Days, 99 Cents (Sale On Awakening Series) appeared first on Lisa Lilly.

To figure out challenges for my protagonist, I kept asking What If? 

What If she’s determined to go to medical school and discovers she’s pregnant despite never having had sex? What If her parents, usually supportive, think she’s in denial about her situation? What If when she persists in her “story” they try to have her committed to a psych ward?

And What If someone finally believes her, but he’s from a religious group that warns that she’s about to trigger an Apocalypse? And will very likely die in the process?

Real Life, Anxiety, and Imagination

Those aren’t problems that relate to my life. But asking What If and coming up with the most disturbing possible answer was something I did on a regular basis.

Because in real life, a vivid imagination can send us spinning through endless negative outcomes. Often when we’re lying awake at night, trying desperately to sleep.

All of which is why I wrote Happiness, Anxiety, and Writing.

Using Creativity To Enhance Happiness And Calm

Happiness, Anxiety, and Writing shares ways to use your imagination and writing skills to create a calmer, happier life.

The book includes:

• Techniques to derail anxious thoughts you otherwise repeat;
• Ways to talk to yourself and others that promote calm rather than reinforce worry;
• Specific, targeted exercises to direct your creative mind and imagination in a positive way;
• How and when to write and rewrite the best parts of your life for greater happiness;
• And more.

A Scary Book To Write

It wasn’t easy writing this book.

I included so much of my personal struggles with anxiety and depression that I felt exposed as I wrote. But I wanted to share both my actual experience and what worked for me in the hope that others might find value in it.

That’s why it made me so happy when a reviewer said:

I spent the entire time reading this guide nodding my head because it was as if this book was written especially for me. I thought the solutions given to changing your mindset were simple to execute but had extraordinary results.

If you at times find anxiety plaguing you or interfering with your life, I hope it will help you, too.

Find Happiness, Anxiety, and Writing here:

Kindle
Workbook

P.S. Happiness, Anxiety, and Writing is a Five-Star Reader’s Favorite. Read the full review here.

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases made through this site, but that doesn’t add any cost to the buyer.)

The post Happiness, Anxiety, and Writing: Using Your Creativity To Live A Calmer, Happier Life appeared first on Lisa Lilly.

I’ll be there from 10 a.m. to 12:30 on Saturday, June 8, 2019.

The fest itself continues all day Saturday and Sunday. Tons of books, demonstrations, and events.

You’ll find the The Charming Man, the latest Q.C. Davis mystery (set in Chicago), my entire Awakening supernatural thriller series (with the new covers), workbooks from my Writing As A Second Career series, and more.

Plus, no crutches this year for me!

The books came while I was on vacation — both fiction and non-fiction:

The post Chicago Printers Row Lit Fest on June 8, 2019 appeared first on Lisa Lilly.

(Find out more about 3 tests that guide the conversation in Women, Men, and Movies or just read on.)

The Story

In Ex Machina, a programmer, Caleb, is thrilled and overwhelmed when he wins a week at the isolated mountain retreat and research compound of Nathan, the brilliant founder of the search engine company where Caleb works. Nathan wants Caleb to test Ava, an A.I. designed to look, speak, feel, and think like a human woman.

Who is testing whom and why, however, becomes complicated—and disturbing—as the movie plays out.

Chasing Bechdel

(Does a (named) female character talk to another named female character about anything other than a man?)

In a way Ex Machina is an odd movie to cover because while Nathan designed Ava to be like a human woman, she is neither. But regardless of her humanity, Ava clearly is a female character, a fact that’s key to the plot and the relationships.

Who’s Talking To Whom

Women To Women:

Even counting a female A.I. as a woman, there are no woman-to-woman conversations here.

Ava speaks to Kyoko, Nathan’s servant. Nathan tells Caleb early on when he’s berating Kyoko for spilling wine that she doesn’t understand English. Later events suggest she does, but that she can’t speak it.

Ava and Kyoko interact twice:

• The first time they meet Ava says to Kyoko, “Who are you?” but we don’t see her answer
• The second time they run into one another Ava whispers something in Kyoko’s ear that we don’t hear

Men To Men:

Nathan’s and Caleb’s conversations with each other always have an element of Nathan throwing Caleb off balance. Nathan often pretends to be joking with Caleb or says things designed to shock him or test his reactions.

Some (but not all) of the things Caleb and Nathan talk about together:

• Food, exercise, alcohol consumption, cleanses, and hangovers
• Nathan tells Caleb he understands Caleb’s freaked out about meeting him and asks him to get past it and just be two guys, not employer/employee
• Caleb’s access (and lack thereof) to different parts of the house and underground research complex
• A non-disclosure agreement granting unlimited access to Caleb’s devices pretty much forever (this happens at 9:56 minutes into the movie and is a good signal of what’s to come)
• The underground, claustrophobic nature of Caleb’s room at the complex
• The Turing test
• Artificial Intelligence
• Man, creativity, and the gods (Nathan later quotes Caleb saying Nathan is a god, which Caleb points out he didn’t say)
• Ava’s creation, personality, intelligence, and sexuality
• Why Nathan won’t explain how Ava works (he claims he doesn’t want to give a “seminar,” just have beer and conversation)
• How Caleb feels about Ava
• How Ava feels about Caleb
• Power outages and security lockdowns
• How best to test Ava
• Koyoko’s limited intelligence, sexuality, and love of dancing
• Why Nathan gave Ava gender and sexuality
• The nature of consciousness
• Sex
• Whether Nathan programmed Ava to like Caleb
• How to know if a machine is expressing a real emotion or simulating one
• Whether heterosexuality is programmed in people
• Jackson Pollock
• The contest that led Caleb to the compound
• Nathan’s view that humans will become extinct and A.I.s will exceed them
• Whether Ava is pretending to like Caleb
• The real nature of the test Nathan designed

Caleb also talks to the unnamed helicopter pilot about the estate, how to find Nathan’s building, and the helicopter.

Women And Men:

Including female A.I.s, there are conversations between males and females. Those between Caleb and Ava are fascinating, and how I view them has changed with each watching. (This time was my third viewing of Ex Machina.)

Caleb and Ava talk about, among other things:

• Ava never having met anyone before other than Nathan
• Caleb never having met anyone like Ava
• Ava’s age
• Ava always having known how to speak and the nature of language
• Ava’s drawings
• Friendship
• Where Caleb lives and his age
• Caleb being single
• Caleb’s family
• Nathan’s company
• A car crash Caleb was in
• Nathan’s programming skills
• Whether Caleb can trust Nathan and whether Nathan and Caleb are friends
• Where Ava would go if she went outside
• Ava’s clothes
• Going on a date
• Whether Caleb is attracted to Ava
• The difference between human and A.I. consciousness
• Caleb’s memories and preferences when Ava tests him (she says she can tell if he’s lying)
• Whether Caleb is a good person
• What happens if Ava fails the test
• Why anyone has right to switch her off if she fails a test and why Caleb doesn’t have to be tested to be allowed to survive
• Whether Caleb wants to be with her
• Whether Nathan is a good or bad person, has lied to Caleb, or is listening to all their conversations
• How Ava could get out of the complex

Nathan and Ava interact, though mainly we see it without audio. The conversations we do hear includes:

• Whether Caleb is watching
• Ava’s drawing
• Ava hating Nathan
• Whether Nathan will ever let Ava out

Nathan and Koyoko interact but don’t speak with one another, though Nathan yells at her.

Caleb and Koyoko interact:

• Caleb asks her where Nathan is (she doesn’t answer)
• Koyoko shows him her body and how it works without speaking

Conclusion

No question Ex Machina fails the Bechdel Test even if we include female A.I.s.

Women v. Sexy Lamps

(can the main female character be replaced by a sexy lamp without affecting the plot?)

The entire movie revolves around the nature of Ava’s consciousness. Nathan knows that she thinks, and her conversations with Caleb demonstrate that. Nathan wants to learn if she truly feels or if she is simulating emotions.

Ava, though, is not merely an object Nathan manipulates, though he may believe that’s the case. She drives much of the story. In fact, on third viewing, I can see an argument that she is the protagonist, though Caleb is our viewpoint character for almost the entire movie.

Kyoko, though she doesn’t speak and appears in relatively few scenes, also takes an active part in the plot. She reveals herself to Caleb, feeding into his fears and his views of Nathan. She also aids Ava in her plan to escape.

Conclusion

Ava clearly can’t be replaced by a sexy lamp. Nor can Kyoko, for that matter. Ex Machina passes.

Mako Mori

(does a female character have her own narrative arc that does not support a man’s story line?)

Ava begins as a captive and a subject for testing. She responds to Caleb’s questions, but she quickly turns the conversation. While she appears to be trying to learn about him or perhaps to mirror his way of speaking, she has a desire of her own—to escape the complex. She is simultaneously open and covert about it, playing a game and conducting a test of her own.

This story arc is her own. It requires her to subvert Nathan and Caleb, and it’s not about supporting a man’s story.

Kyoko, too, has a story arc, though she’s a far less developed character. She begins as a servant who appears to always do what Nathan requires, including sexually. But she become active and makes her own choices.

Conclusion

Ex Machina passes, as a female character has a story arc of her own that is not about supporting a man, and you can argue that two female characters have such arcs.

Quick Results:

Bechdel:        Fail

Sexy Lamp:    Pass

Mako Mori:   Pass

Did I Like It

I love this movie.

I first saw Ex Machina in the theater with no particular expectations, and I was drawn in immediately. The sweeping aerial views of the mountains and stunning outdoor spaces are juxtaposed with the isolated scenes in the compound. Every conversation is tightly written and each line has a purpose, yet never feels shoehorned in as if the writer needed it to make a point. I believed these character would say exactly these things.

Also, the story has many levels. It works as suspense on first watching. How you see the characters and what you think they want changes as the movie progresses. The tension remains high despite that most of the time all you really see is two people talking.

On additional viewings, the movie raises all kinds of questions about the nature and ethics of creation, the way gender is constructed, the power of a creator over his creations, what constitutes free will, and probably dozens of other major philosophical questions.

Yet it never feels like a treatise. It is a story about these characters. And each time I watched it I saw each one of them slightly differently.

Finally, it seems to me that the way the characters interact and don’t and who talks with whom are deliberate choices by the filmmakers. No female characters talk to one another because Nathan fails to see them as full persons. The restrictions on them and their actions to change that go to the heart of the points the film makes about gender, sexuality, power, free will, intelligence, and ethics. (And make it a great movie.) Because of that, while Ex Machina fails the Bechdel Test, it’s a failure that underscores why the test matters.

Next Week’s Film

Annihilation, starring Natalie Portman as a biologist who joins a dangerous military excursion into a section of jungle where natural laws don’t apply and from which almost no one has returned.

The post Ex Machina: If An A.I. Were A Woman (Women & Men in the Movies No. 3) appeared first on Lisa Lilly.

We were broke, but every week we went to the local second run theater and saw a movie. We also borrowed a movie on VHS tape at our library once a week. (Yes, VHS, it was that long ago.) We talked about what we watched, and I learned a ton about character, plot, and writing.

And had fun.

Sadly, I’ve yet to find anyone who likes to take apart a movie the same way. (When I tried it with the next guy I dated he said, “Can’t you just enjoy the movie?” But I was enjoying it.)

The screenwriter and I broke up, I later went to law school, life got more hectic, and I never quite watched as many movies again.

When I do watch movies, I’m often pulled out of the story by the way women characters are shown. I’ll find myself thinking things like, “Really? This woman has not a single female colleague?” or “Seriously? Not one woman friend she’d talk to about her mother’s death?” The lack of realism undermines the film for me.

Which in a way is progress.

Just out of college I never thought much about gender in movies.

Now, to combine work and fun, I plan to write about films here, particularly looking at how the way filmmakers depict women affects characterization and plot, as well as how much I enjoy each movie.

There are three tests I’ll consider:

• The Bechdel Test
• The Sexy Lamp Test
• The Mako Mori Test

The Bechdel Test

The Bechdel Test looks at how women are shown in the film, asking whether:

(1) two (named) female characters;

(2) talk to one another;

(3) about something other than a man.

If this test strikes you as not truly addressing characterization, you’re right. A movie can pass if Karen asks Jacinda if she’d like some tea and Jacinda says yes.

Which makes it more disturbing that so many movies don’t pass.

(If you’re a Star Trek fan you can check the Mary Sue to see how well all the Star Trek iterations do.)

The Sexy Lamp Test

This test, proposed by comic book creator Kelly Sue DeConnick, asks whether you could replace your female character with a sexy lamp and not affect the plot.

(Note: her language is a bit colorful, so don’t click if you prefer PG language.)

The Mako Mori Test

If a movie features only one woman–think of Pacific Rim, whose character gives the test its name, or Gravity–by definition it can’t pass the Bechdel Test. It might still, however, feature a strong story and a three-dimensional woman character.

To look at these types of movies, a Tumblr user, chaila, proposed the Mako Mori Test, described as follows in The Daily Dot:

The film features

a) a female character;

b) with a narrative arc of her own;

c) “that is not about supporting a man’s story.” (quoting chaila)

To start off my Women, Men, and Movies reviews, next Wednesday I’ll review the 2015 film The Invitation. In the meantime, feel free to share your thoughts on these tests in the comments.

The post Women, Men, and Movies appeared first on Lisa Lilly.

The trepidation came because I’m still not able to put weight on my foot, which has 2 broken bones.

I’m wearing a clunky Aircast, which is better than a regular cast, but still keeps me a bit off balance on crutches. With how crowded the book fair usually is, I felt nervous about getting through the crowds without incident after my 10-12:30 shift finished Saturday.

A friend suggested I rent a wheelchair for the day. It worked out–after a wild ride or two–and was a much better way to get back home. And I had a wonderful day.

Learning From Riding To A Book Fair

I’ve never been in a wheelchair before. It’s scary.

Two fantastic friends helped me. Despite trusting them, it was hard to ride in a chair with my injured foot in front of me down a sloping street next to traffic. It felt to me as if I were about to topple in front of cars at any moment.

Once we got onto Dearborn Street, which police had blocked from vehicle traffic, I felt much better.

Before any of that, though, we had to navigate the parking garage.

I only live 4 blocks from the book fair, and had I known what it would be like in the garage we would have walked/wheeled the whole way. The garage turned out to have a steep ramp going up into it, with a narrow sidewalk–again along a vehicle-filled space–to get out.

Happily, an attendant showed me the elevator, which was hidden behind a heavy door. The indoor ramps from the second floor where the elevator let me out to the ground floor, though, were daunting for someone who has never used a wheelchair alone. (My friends were outside with the boxes and bags of books and supplies.) I wasn’t that great at navigating.

Also, the ramps exited at an entirely different place. Lots of texting got my friends there to retrieve me.

Oh, and did I mention it was drizzling? Better than the downpour from earlier the morning. But as I waited I wondered if we were doing all this only to be rained out.

Sitting Behind A Table Of Books

The rain stopped about 10 minutes into the official 10 a.m. opening of the fair, and the morning turned to be the best ever of the five times I’ve rented a table under the Chicago Writers Association Tent.

In other years I’ve sweated through hours of 100 degree temperatures with no shade, ducked flying signs during high winds, and scrambled to secure plastic over the books in driving rain, only to find no one returned to the book fair when the sun came out again.

This year, once the drizzle stopped it was a perfect temperature. A bit cool, not too sunny, no more rain, and just enough wind to keep it comfortable under the tent.

The rain did keep the crowd a bit limited early in the day.

But I liked that too. Fewer people made it seem more relaxed. People felt happy the rain was gone, and stopped to chat about it. If someone came up to my table, it was because they’d been drawn in by a book cover or we’d started talking, not because they’d been basically pushed over to my side of a busy corridor by a crowd.

Standing on crutches turned out to be awkward and uncomfortable, so most of the time I sat in the wheelchair.

While most people suggest standing behind the table to be more visible, I discovered sitting worked better for me. I felt more relaxed. Also, more people stopped to talk to me than in previous years, I think because I wasn’t looming over the table like an overanxious salesperson.

Really Really Nice People

The best part of the book fair, and what left me feeling happy and energized though tired, were the people:

• A security guard in the garage wheeled me down the ramp so I didn’t have to try it myself;
• The other authors near me offered their chairs and anything else they could do to help;
• Book fair patrons were friendly, and we had lovely discussions about books, the weather, the historic Printers Row neighborhood, and my advice about getting a real ladder rather than climbing on a chair if you are getting something down from up high;
• Someone from Sisters In Crime, which had a tent across the way, came over to chat with me about the mystery/suspense series I’m writing;
• My two friends devoted half their day to lugging me and my books around and checking to see if I needed anything; and
• When I returned home, the doorpeople at my building opened the handicap doors for me. They also held onto the wheelchair until it could be picked up by the medical supply company.

Overall, it was one of the best days I had since I broke my foot. And I sold some books!

The post A Wheelchair, A Book Fair, And A Lot Of Nice People appeared first on Lisa Lilly.

Chapter 2

The detective sat across from me at the worn kitchen table. His tan suit jacket was large and too boxy for his frame, but his tie was knotted in a perfect half-Windsor. Between that and his silver crew cut he looked ex-military despite the ill-fitting jacket.

“What was your relationship with the deceased?”

During the time it had taken the police and paramedics to arrive I’d pulled the armchair close to the couch and sat. I couldn’t leave Marco alone, and I couldn’t look at his body. I’d scrolled through photos of him on my phone over and over.

It seemed like I sat on that chair in my new green dress for days. It also felt as if only seconds passed before lights and voices shattered my last moments with Marco.

A policewoman had led me out of the apartment and taken down everything I said. When she brought me back in, she gave me a glass of water and introduced me to the detective, whose name I couldn’t remember.

The glass sat in the thin layer of fingerprint dust that covered the scratched wooden table.

“Ms. Davis?” the detective said.

“We were about to move in together,” I said. In my head, my voice reverberated and sounded too loud, but the detective scooted his chair closer as if to hear me better. “He was moving in with me. Tomorrow.”

Some of Marco’s things had already migrated to my place, just as mine had made their way into his. Last weekend to make space for his clothes I’d filled paper bags with skirts, tights, and dress pants I hadn’t worn during the last twelve months to donate to a local women’s shelter. Marco and I had rearranged my bedroom and living room areas to clear space for his chest of drawers and armchair, the only furniture he was bringing. We’d bought a futon for the loft for Eric.

“I should call his son,” I said. “Or should I? Telling him on the phone, I don’t know.”

“You didn’t call him yet?” the detective said.

“I wanted to give him a little more time. Even a few minutes. To still have a dad.” I wound a section of my hair around my fingers, twisting the strands into a braid that I immediately unwound. “We just made a place for him to stay.”

I opened my phone and found the photo of the loft with the new futon against the interior brick wall. I handed the phone to the detective.

He put on silver-framed reading glasses, looked at the photo, and handed it back. “How old is he?”

“Thirteen. He lives with his mother. In Lincoln Park.”

“We’ll send someone in person to tell her. Better to let her talk to him. Mirabel Ruggirello, correct?”

I set the phone on the table and ran my finger over the photo. The image shivered. I started to swipe to look at the next photo but realized the detective had asked me a question.

“Yes. Mirabel. I don’t know if she still uses Marco’s last name.”

I’d spoken to her once on the phone about plans for a weekend with Eric, but I’d never met her.

“Is there someone we can call for you?” the detective said.

I rubbed my hands over my bare arms, which were covered in goose flesh. “Someone’s coming.”

I’d given the policewoman Joe’s information. I hadn’t called anyone myself. To do that was to make it real. To admit Marco was dead.

The detective set his phone on the table face down. “How long had Mr. Ruggirello been divorced?”

I stared at the Dinkel’s bakery bag. It had been shifted to the top of some boxes near the back door. All we’d had left to pack was the kitchen.

That thought kept coming back to me. Marco couldn’t be gone, he couldn’t have relapsed to drinking or started taking pills, because all we had left to pack were pots and pans and dishes.

“They’ve been divorced about nine months,” I said.

Marco and Mirabel had been married seventeen years counting three years of separation, but they’d dated since high school. A long time.

A uniformed officer came into the room. Embroidered on the right shoulder of his short-sleeved shirt was a white flag with six-pointed red stars sandwiched between light blue bars. He whispered something to the detective and left, camera in his hands.

He must have been taking photos of Marco, the couch, and the end table with the rum and soda and clear amber pill canister.

“The pill bottle, the label. What did it say?” I asked.

I’d looked at it without touching anything right after calling 911. I hadn’t been able to see the label. I couldn’t believe it was Marco’s.

The detective tapped one finger against the side of his chin. He looked like he’d just shaved despite that it was early evening. “It’s still being processed. When did you last talk to Mr. Ruggirello?”

“About six,” I said. “Last night about six.”

“What did you talk about?” the detective said.

“It was a text. Some texts. About tonight. Dessert for tonight.”

I sipped some water. The glass shook, so I gripped it with both hands. My fingers felt like ice.

I wanted to leave, to go home, except that home was a place with empty closet shelves and the King-sized bed I’d bought around Christmas when Marco had started sleeping over most weeknights.

“You still have the text?”

I keyed open my phone again, entering my passcode three times before I got it right, to double-check. “No. I clear them every day. So if I lose my phone, no one who finds it sees any messages about my cases.”

“Did he seem upset about anything?”

“He sent a smiley face and a soda emoji. Said he loved me and we’d talk later.”

My fingers tangled in my hair and I unwound them one by one. I wondered if I would have known something was wrong if we’d spoken rather than texted. If we’d talked, maybe it would have changed everything.

The detective made a note on a small yellow pad. I hadn’t noticed him holding it before. I stared at the pen as it moved across the paper. It made a scratching sound. “Did you worry when you didn’t hear from him?”

“Not at first. I was working late. I’m a lawyer. A litigator. But I file taxes, too, for theater people I know. I figured Marco was leaving me alone to finish. It only seemed strange when I didn’t hear from him today.”

I’d been so worried about getting the filing done on time, about the scanner working properly and my calculations being correct, that my heart had kept racing after I clicked the last few keys. I’d made herbal tea and sat in my office for a few minutes staring at the street below to unwind before walking home. Now it seemed insane to have been so concerned about filings. About things that could be fixed.

While I’d been sipping tea to feel calmer, Marco might have been drinking or taking pills. He might already have been dead.

The detective leaned back in his chair, crossed one leg over the opposite knee, and asked if I’d been alone in my office.

I told him yes, that I’d been sitting on the floor of the reception area, crinkled receipts, 1099s, and scraps of paper spread around me. A new client had brought them to me in a literal shoebox on April 13.

As I spoke, it hit me why he was asking.

I sat straighter. “You’re thinking murder? You’re asking me for an alibi?”

“We need to look into all avenues.”

I’d grown up hearing from my parents about police investigations. All their warnings flooded my mind.

My pulse pounded at my temples. “Could you tell me your name again?” I said. “And could I have a card?”

Buy The Worried Man Today in paperback

Coming May 1, 2018 to ebook retailers, but you can…

Preorder Today for:

Kindle

Kobo

Nook

iBook 

The post Sneak Peek: Chapter 2 of The Worried Man appeared first on Lisa Lilly.

My mother was 42 years older than me.

She grew up in a time when questioning church authorities simply wasn’t done. She and my dad memorized doctrine as children. They didn’t talk about what it meant or why it had been decided the way it had, and they certainly weren’t asked whether they agreed with it.

My parents as adults weren’t against talking about issues or examining their faith. They found it interesting to look at what was said in the Bible and what it might mean. They encouraged us to think about moral and ethical questions.

All the same, there were certain aspects of faith that for my mom were not negotiable or open to question.

I remember her once telling me, “Your problem is you ask too many questions.”

Personal Support And Comfort:

Part of the reason the Church meant so much to my mother was that it was a great source of comfort for her throughout her life. When she hit hard times, praying was one way she found to deal with them. Also, the Church had a structure and a predictability that she found comfort and beauty in.

For that and other reasons her religion was very personal to her and very important, and it was hard for her to understand anyone (especially an “anyone” who was her child) who didn’t share that feeling or belief.

Some of my mom’s feelings for religion are reflected in Cyril Woods, the initial love interest/antagonist I created for Tara. While Cyril’s experiences are vastly different from my mother’s, he too has a very personal connection with his religious beliefs.

Cyril And Religion:

Cyril joins a religious brotherhood because a man who serves as a mentor to him urges him to do so. This mentor saves Cyril from becoming a very troubled and perhaps violent young man. Cyril connects his better life with the man’s religious beliefs. That’s why he finds it so hard when he begins to question those beliefs.

It feels to him as if he is abandoning the man who helped him so much.

Conflicts Between The Heart And Faith:

Cyril’s love for and admiration of Tara eventually becomes a huge challenge to his faith. Before Tara, everything his religious order required of him fit with Cyril’s own personal values.

But when his superiors begin to see Tara as an enemy, Cyril is at a loss.

He has been an actual soldier, serving in the Armed Forces, and he sees himself as a soldier still. In fact, he tells Tara he is a “soldier for our Lord.”

Being a soldier means following orders without question because that is the only way the military can operate efficiently.

So at first Cyril listens to his superiors despite his misgivings. Next, he becomes determined to convince them that they are wrong. That in itself is a big leap for him, and he is uncomfortable with it.

Later he is so uncomfortable that he turns on Tara in an awful and almost unforgivable way. While he blames her outwardly, inside he feels that he is weak and a failure because he can’t reconcile the disconnect between his religious faith and his feelings for her. He’s also not yet willing to examine his own beliefs and choose them (or not) for himself.

Finally, all of it is mixed up with his gratitude to his mentor and his fear that his mentor will no longer be there for him if he changes his religious beliefs.

These types of conflicts are real ones that real people face.

Almost everyone has had times when a belief they held was severely challenged by a tragic life event or even a happy life event.

I believe this is why Cyril is the character about whom I get the most reader questions and emails. Readers who haven’t finished the series nearly always say they can’t wait to find out what happens to him.

I can’t say where he ends up without spoiling his ending for those who have not yet read The Illumination. But I will say that I believe Cyril is a good person and always was. He simply had a long road before he figured out what he believed.

The post Values v. Religious Beliefs (a/k/a Why Readers Ask About Cyril) appeared first on Lisa Lilly.