Birthday (Angel)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Birthday"
Angel episode
Episode no.Season 3
Episode 11
Directed byMichael Grossman
Written byMere Smith
Production code3ADH11
Original air dateJanuary 14, 2002 (2002-01-14)
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
← Previous
"Dad" 		Next →
"
Provider
"
Angel season 3
List of episodes

"Birthday" is episode 11 of season 3 in the television show

network. In "Birthday", Cordelia
has a precognitive vision so painful that she goes into a coma. She is met by a demon guide who allows her to go back in time and choose a different path, so that she can avoid becoming afflicted with the visions that are killing her. Although in this alternate timeline Cordelia is a successful sitcom actress, she decides to accept the visions once again so that she can help people.

Plot

During

party where she first ran into him
, she would have instead become a famous actress – and she can choose to have that life instead.

Skip brings Cordelia's astral body to witness Angel demanding that the

Hyperion Hotel, and heads over there after the show wraps. She makes her way up to the room she recognizes as Angel's, which triggers her memory of the vision that knocked her unconscious earlier – a young girl in danger. She goes to the girl's house, Cynthia, who confesses she was trying to use magic. A demon materializes, and they try to defend themselves, until a one-armed Wesley
and Gunn burst in to kill the demon. When Cordelia explains what has happened, they take her to see Angel, who – in this timeline – inherited Doyle's visions instead of Cordelia, which appear to have driven Angel insane, mostly because Cordelia was not there to help him. However, depressed and saddened by her friend in such a horrific state, Cordelia takes the visions back by kissing Angel.

Skip appears, reminding her of their deal. He argues it is the fate she chose and that it is not easy to shake it off. Cordelia disagrees, saying she is too valuable to the Powers. They come to an agreement: since the visions are going to kill her as a human, Skip turns her into a half-demon, so that she can keep the visions and not die. When Cordelia wakes up, she has another vision – and to everyone's astonishment she experiences no pain. The demon aspect becomes clear when Angel points out that Cordelia has accidentally begun levitating.

Production details

The theme song to Cordelia's television show Cordy! was written and sung by executive producers

Buffy musical episode "Once More, with Feeling". A 7-minute excerpt of Cordy! was filmed on the redressed set of Dharma & Greg, to give it a "true sitcom feel". Producer Tim Minear explains, "When you look at Charisma Carpenter, she does bear a resemblance to Mary Tyler Moore and she's so funny, and we all sort of had this fetish fantasy of seeing her on a brightly lit sitcom stage with people laughing at her jokes." However, the scene "wasn't quite as funny as we wanted it to be," admitted Mere Smith, and so all but the opening credits were ultimately cut from the final episode, although the clip is available as a Deleted Scene on the DVD release.[2]

"People are insane for Skip", says David Greenwalt of the enormous fan reaction after Skip was introduced in "

That Vision Thing", which is why his character was brought back to be Cordelia's guide in this episode. David Denman, the actor who plays Skip, says that when Charisma Carpenter told him how excited she was to work with him "I thought she was kidding with me."[1]

Arc significance

  • Cordelia becomes part-demon. Her transformation, and the motivations behind it, play an important part in the events of season four.
  • Cordelia learns that her receiving the visions wasn't part of the Powers That Be's plans.

Continuity

  • Wesley says he lost the arm in an encounter with a Kungai demon, which refers to the first Angel episode he appeared in, "Parting Gifts".
  • The uprising of a demon in Reseda was actually predicted by Wesley in the
    finale
    of the first season.

Cultural references

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 1-55022-654-1
  2. ^ Bratton, Kristy, Angel Season 3 DVD Collection REVIEW, archived from the original on 2007-12-08

Further reading

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Birthday.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Birthday_(Angel)&oldid=1218143929"