Just watched the Angel episode Billy with my parents and I was wondering your opinions on this episode!
Shortopinion: Who THE FUCK let this episode happen?!!
Longopinion: This episode is so incredibly gross, ohmy god, the amount of violence towards women on display in this episode is appalling, just re-reading the synopsisto refresh my memory was starting to trigger me, I mean honestly, it’s just sounnecessary and makes one wonder if the writers aren’t somewhat getting offon it. From Lilah’s brutal beating atGavin’s hands (which, of course, ends up being coupled with a healthy dose ofvictim blaming from both Angel and Cordy),to the police officer repeatedly punching his partner in the face, to Wesley’sslow and menacing sexual threats towards Fred (more on that bit of grossnesslater) this episode might as well be labelled “We hate women and want to seeexactly how brutal we can be towardsthem before the censors stop us”.
All this violence aside, it’s really hard to figure out exactlywhat the point of this episode was.If they were trying to prove that all men are misogynists there were many, many other ways they could have goneabout making their point without being so unnecessarily violent or victimizingtheir female characters so much. But honestly, I’m not sure that was the point of the episode, as theexplanation given for Billy is that he brings out not misogyny but rage. Ofcourse, no one’s buying this, especially since all the men only go after women in their rage. So, honestly, I have no ideawhat this episode was trying to say or explore. Do the writers just honestlybelieve that deep down all men want to beat the ever loving shit out of the women in their lives?That’s horrifying and says a lot about their mind frames. I just can’t figureit out.
The events of this episode are so traumatising, honestly,there’s no subtlety in any of the scenes. Gavin’s horrific attack on Lilah kicks off the violence in this episode andCordy’s vision of the man beating his wife because “she talked too much” isequally horrifying. But honestly, the worst offender in this episode is Wesley,whose misogyny/anger is the only one tocome out in a sexual manner and towards someone whom he’s expressed a romanticinterest in, which is just so vile Ican barely comprehend it. Keep in mind that it is stated that Billy does not plant rage/misogyny he simply brings out what’s already there, meaningWesley’s attitude towards Fred is actuallyhow he feels on some level. His disgustingcomments about her clothing makes my skin crawl, especially when hedeliberately slides down the strap of her sundress, and his slow, patient chasethrough the hotel is beyond disturbing.
What’s worse than Wesley’s disgusting behaviour is the factthat the final scene of the episode focuses not on Fred and her trauma and whatWesley did to her, but on Wesley andhis self-indulgent manpain, as he wallows in his apartment and cries over how “hedoesn’t know who he is anymore” which, whatever, we all know Wesley has alwayshad misogynistic tendencies, this really isn’t news. But now, we’re supposed tobelieve that this kind of behaviour is outside of the norm for Wes, that he isreally struggling with this “new” side to him, which you know, even if he was,I don’t care. If he truly felt bad, he would come to work and face Fred, makesure she wasn’t too badly traumatised and hold his head high and work every dayto be his best self, to overcome these misogynistic impulses. Instead he hidesin his apartment and forces Fred to come tohim and coddle him and tell him he’s a good man and completely sweep aside her trauma to make him feel better (hmmm, now where have I seen that play out before*cough*spuffy*cough*). Joss and hiswriters are so gross.
Billy is one of those episodes which never should haveexisted. It’s obtuse, it’s gross, it’s degrading, it’s disgusting, it’s traumatising,it’s triggering, it’s a million other vile adjectives I can’t be botheredlisting. It engages in victim blaming, it asks us to feel sorry for the perpetrators,its’ themes are murky and confusing, it is entirelytoo comfortable showing graphic depictionsof violence towards women and it is just an all-around gross episode which I wish I’d never watched. There are no words inthe English language strong enough to describe how much I loathe this episode. Brain bleach is definitely in order.
