"Time Bomb" is episode 19 of season 5 in the television show ''
Angel
In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God.
Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...
''. Written by
Ben Edlund
Ben Edlund (born September 20, 1968) is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, television producer, and television director. He is best known as the creator of the satirical superhero character The Tick.
Background
Edlund was born and raised in Pe ...
and directed by
Vern Gillum
Vern Gillum is an American television director.
After attending California School of Fine Arts and graduating from Art Center School in Los Angeles, He went into advertising at McCann Erickson, LA/NY. Assc. Creative Director, Director of West ...
, it was originally broadcast on April 28, 2004 on the
WB network
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematics
...
.
In "Time Bomb",
Illyria
In classical antiquity, Illyria (; grc, Ἰλλυρία, ''Illyría'' or , ''Illyrís''; la, Illyria, ''Illyricum'') was a region in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula inhabited by numerous tribes of people collectively known as the Illyr ...
rescues
Gunn Gunn may refer to:
Places
* Gunn City, Missouri, a village
* Gunn, Northern Territory, outer suburb of Darwin
* Gunn, Alberta, Canada, a hamlet
* Gunn Valley, a mountain valley in British Columbia, Canada
* Gun Lake (British Columbia), a Canadi ...
from the hell dimension he entered in penance for his role in
Fred's
Fred's Inc. (stylized ''FRED'S'') was a retail store chain headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, operating in 15 states in the southeastern United States. As of June, 2019 Fred's operated 396 locations, of which 155 are pharmacies, and the remain ...
death. While
Angel
In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God.
Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...
negotiates a contract between a group of demons and a pregnant woman whose unborn child the demons believe to be their Messiah, Illyria begins uncontrollably looping through time, until
Wesley shunts her excess power into another dimension.
This is a crucial episode in the Illyria arc, because Team Angel are able to diminish her powers until she can only help them and can no longer
destroy the Earth.
Plot
The episode opens with Gunn still being tortured by a demon in
a hell dimension, when he is suddenly rescued by Illyria, who uses her ability to shift between
dimensions
In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus, a line has a dimension of one (1D) because only one coordina ...
to return them both to
Wolfram & Hart.
Gunn enters Wesley's office, and both have so much emotional baggage, they are uncertain how to behave. Wesley acknowledges that he should apologize for stabbing him earlier but is unsure how as he feels it would just be awkward. Gunn replies he is not looking for an apology and he probably wouldn't accept one anyway, adding that his torture in the hell dimension was much worse.
Meanwhile, Angel grows suspicious of Illyria's continued presence at the Firm, and concludes that she is staying not out of loyalty, but because of an attraction to the Firm's power. He orders
Lorne to shadow her, and then turns his attention to a legal case involving a ceremonial demon pact. A pregnant woman named Amanda has agreed to allow a demonic cult called "the Fell Brethren" to adopt her baby, and Angel and Gunn start to advise her until they learn, to their outrage, that their client is not the innocent woman, but rather the seemingly benevolent demons who are secretly taking advantage of her and planning to sacrifice the child on the eve of its 13th birthday.
Meanwhile, Illyria enjoys sparring with
Spike
Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Books
* ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave
* ''The Spike'' (book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick
* ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter F. Hamilto ...
in the training room, perhaps because he does not kowtow to her, and is even learning to adapt to her fighting techniques, but she begins to act oddly even by her standards, and Wesley theorizes that she is growing emotionally and molecularly unstable as a result of her interdimensional travels. He realizes that if her energy excess continues to go unchecked, it will result in a catastrophic explosion.
As Angel, Gunn, and
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
argue over how to handle the Fell Brethren case, Illyria grows increasingly disoriented and paranoid, culminating in a confrontation in which she effortlessly kills Angel, Lorne, Spike, and Wesley in a matter of seconds. At this point, the narrative switches to her point of view, and it is revealed that Illyria's disorientation has been caused by the fact that her excessive mystical energy has been sending her uncontrollably
back and forth in time.
Illyria again
goes back in time to a point before she had killed the other characters, and she inadvertently begins taking Angel with her on her trips through time. Angel learns of the deaths of his friends and is horrified. After Illyria gives him advice about power, she explodes and likely decimates the
continental shelf
A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...
, but the explosion is so powerful it blasts Angel back in time to before Illyria killed everyone. This time, thanks to what Illyria told him, Angel is able to disrupt Illyria's attack and avoid the massacre. Illyria accuses Angel and Wesley of plotting to kill her with Wesley's massive ray gun, but Wesley reveals that the gun is not meant to kill her, but rather to disperse her excessive energy and thus prevent the fatal explosion. Spike briefly holds his own fighting Illyria until she uses her time control powers on him, giving Wesley the chance to activate the ray in time. Illyria is left emotionally devastated by the resulting loss of some of her super powers.
Angel returns his attention to the Fell Brethren case, and shocks Gunn by agreeing to represent the demons rather than the blithely naïve pregnant woman, having apparently taken Illyria's advice about power.
Acting
The role of Amanda was played by
Jaime Bergman
Jaime Bergman Boreanaz (born September 23, 1975) is an American model and actress who was ''Playboy'' magazine's Playmate of the Month in January 1999, its 45th Anniversary issue. In addition to her magazine appearance she has appeared in severa ...
,
David Boreanaz
David Paul Boreanaz ( born May 16, 1969) is an American actor, television producer, and director known for playing the roles of vampire-turned-private investigator Angel on The WB/UPN ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' supernatural drama (1997–2003 ...
's wife. Of the experience, Boreanaz says, "
t was
T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is deri ...
great to have her come on to the show, and have our son look at that, and see the two of us actually play opposite one another for a brief moment." He adds, "We had fun with it. It was nothing too serious, it was just a small little role, a laugh."
Production details
J. Sherman compares the scene in which Illyria descends into hell to rescue Gunn as a "riff on the
Orpheus
Orpheus (; Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: ; french: Orphée) is a Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion. He was also a renowned poet and, according to the legend, travelled with Jaso ...
theme".
Arc significance
Illyria's statement to Angel about how to win a war helps Angel to form his plan against Wolfram & Hart. It begins in the final scene, where he appears to forfeit the unborn child, but is not fully revealed until "
Power Play
Power play or powerplay or their plurals may refer to:
Sports
* Power play (sporting term), a sporting term used in various games
* Powerplay (cricket), a rule concerning fielding restrictions in one-day international cricket
* Power play (cur ...
". His plan ends in "
Not Fade Away" when Angel and his team go up against the Circle of the Black Thorn.
Critical response
Writing for ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'', Noel Murray writes that he finds two important issues for this episode: first, "Illyria's worldview sounds so persuasive: Raw self-interest is so much easier than trying to adhere to some kind of impossibly complicated code of behavior," and, second, "its structure":
References
External links
*
{{Angel episodes
Angel (season 5) episodes
2004 American television episodes
Television episodes about time travel
Television episodes about multiple time paths