Really enjoying where “Angel” is going this season. Cordelia’s “get over it” speech was marvelous. No apologies. No explanations. It happened, get over it. For some reason, I could see Cordy setting up a Lucy Van Pelt-like psychiatric help booth and start dealing with everyone in the Buffy&Angel verse in the exact same manner. Come to think of it, that’s how she dealt with Buffy during her funk early in season 3. Remember? Something like, “Whatever’s bothering you, deal with it, spank your inner moppet, whatever. Get over it. Before you don’t even have the lame friends you have right now.”
Wesley is guardedly back, and if Gunn doesn’t cut the ‘tude, he’s going to drive Fred right to Wes, which would be interesting. Seeing Conner knocked out a window was nice. I’m still hoping that they can have him guest star on “Buffy” so she could knock him out a window (and Xander could fix it, of course.) And the slow reveal of the involvement of Angelus was pretty cool. Just, please God, don’t force Boreanaz to do an Irish accent again. Please.
PAD
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“Get over it” coming from the girl who dumped Xander for KISSING Willow when THEY thought THEY were going to die?
Speaking of inconsistencies, why is it that Faith going to jail for killing someone accidentally in the heat of battle is the right thing to do, but Willow skinning someone alive in cold blood doesn’t warrant prison as even a consideration?
The flippant answer is that Willow is sorry and promises not to do it again, so that’s okay.
The semi-serious answer is like the flippant answer: Willow was repentant afterwards, while Faith went on from the accident to cold-bloodedly working for the dark side. Sending Willow to prison wouldn’t have accomplished anything.
The considered answer is: How would Willow be prosecuted? She destroyed the body, so there’s no evidence, and the legal system in the Buffyverse just isn’t set up to handle legal issues involving the supernatural (hence, the only solution being the vigilante justice we see each week on both shows). If she went to the police and claimed to have killed someone with magic, but there’s no evidence, she might be institutionalized, but not imprisoned. And how do you hold a powerful witch in prison, anyway?
My thoughts on the Faith/Willow murder thing. Faiths murder was possible by human standards. Anyone could have done it. It’s easier to pin it on her. Willows murder on the other hand was supernatural and much much harder to pin to her as well as convince others that it really happened that way. The only ones who saw it happen were Buffy, and co. Try proving that Willow killed someone by waveing her hand in a courtroom. Somehow I think the case would be thrown out 🙂
“Speaking of inconsistencies, why is it that Faith going to jail for killing someone accidentally in the heat of battle is the right thing to do, but Willow skinning someone alive in cold blood doesn’t warrant prison as even a consideration? “
Several reasons I can think of.
First, simple lack of evidence. Willow didn’t leave a body. As far as the authorities are concerned, no murder took place and, unless Buffy, Xander or Anya rat her out, the cops got nuthin’ on Willow (except possibly all the assault & vandalism charges, BID). Faith left a body & a trail of evidence, then tried to frame Buffy for the crime. It almost worked, too.
Second, should Faith decide she’s had enough of prison life, the worst that might happen is she’ll beat up several guards during her escape efforts, and would end up either shot to death by the guards she couldn’t beat up yet, or out in the street looking for kicks. Reasonably low-level threat to the citizenry. However, should Dark Willow decide that prison grey just isn’t her color, she could conceivably take out the entire prison, not to mention several surrounding city blocks and, once done there, might just decide to pick up where she left off &again try to destroy the world.
Finally, prison is likely the best place for Faith to learn the lesson of responsibility she really needed to be taught. Despite her super-powers, Faith is really just a poor kid who fell in with the wrong crowd, the classic “juvenile delinquent.” She could have continued down the path toward destruction (of herself and others), but she chose to accept responsibilty for her actions, pay her debt to society, and “straighten up her act,” as it were. Willow, OTOH, (despite the ham-handed drug addiction metaphor) posesses a power which threatens the existance of all mankind. Unless there is a prison 12-step program for abusers of dark magics, the only thing that would happen to Willow is a few unfortunate encounters with a broomstick (think “Chained Heat”) and then she would go about destroying everything that moved.
No, I think sending Willow to “magic rehab” with the coven in England was probably the right call. It’s the only place she can try to deal with her powers (and they could most likely take her out if she showed any sign of becoming eeevil again).
No one seems to have caught on as to who the obvious bad guy is in the episode.
Everything makes sense when you realize that — it’s almost better than a “Sixth Sense” and “Fight Club” revelation. It also ties up many loose ends from even last season.
“The answer is among you.”
Think about it. It’s so dámņ obvious.
“Get over it” coming from the girl who dumped Xander for KISSING Willow when THEY thought THEY were going to die?
Yes, but Cordy was a teenager then. Its not inconsistency, its character growth. She’s mature enough now to know how traumatic events can lead to bad decisions and also to know when matters of the heart need to be put aside during times of crisis. Its not that this issue between her and Angel is resolved, its that it really shouldn’t matter when the world is thisclose to the final apocalpyse.
“The answer is among you.”
What was the question?
–your pal, Hoy
Actually, Cordelia’s advice to Buffy (including the gem “spank your inner moppet or whatever”) was in the 2nd season opener, before Buffy ground her enemy’s bones into dust.
With respect to the Willow/Faith dichotomy, another issue to consider is Willow’s culpability due to potential diminished capacity. She was acting under the influence of dark magics, so it could be argued that the “real” Willow didn’t act with the requisite intent. The defense seldom works with respect to the influence of other substances (i.e. alcohol or drugs), but a good defense attorney could make a compelling argument that “Willow” wasn’t herself when the crime occurred.
Additionally, it should be remembered that Warren was evil and a murderer and that justice was done when he was flayed alive and burnt to ashes, so I’m willing to forgive Willow.
That’s just my two cents.
I just want a show featuring Lorne (sp?). I mean he’s the greatest ambigiously gay/straight demon in the world.
I think a fair answer on Angel’s part to “get over it” would have involved his expectation that an adult woman he’s known for seven years and nearly had a relationship with would have better sense and judgment than to have a one-night pity stand with a hormome-crazed, moon-eyed teenager who has no basic socialization or understanding of social mores and whom she knew as an infant. It’s not like Angel DID anything in response to Cordy’s boinking Connor, just brood, which seems an understandable reaction, all things considered.
The whole issue of justice in the Buffyverse tends to go right out the window when it really gets examined, which is probably why it’s best not to look at it too closely. Even assuming “the police in Sunnydale are deeply stupid,” as Snyder once put it, it’s asking a lot when you think of stuff like the death of Eve the Potential Slayer a couple of weeks back: she was beaten to death in a hotel room with no witnesses, a bloody body left to rot, and Buffy and Xander’s fingerprints are all over the hotel room and the body. Odds are nobody’s ever going to come poking around asking about it, either. To me, Buffyverse law enforcement is kind of like thinking about where exactly Willow pays for college tuition or who’s paying the bills at Angel Investigations when they haven’t had a case in months: Best not examined too closely.
RE: The Faith vs. Willow/Justice thing
The difference? Wasn’t it a normal, innocent person Faith killed? (please correct me if I’m wrong).
Warren, on the other hand, was essentially a “big bad,” and a cold-blooded murderer besides. Willow was also clearly drunk on power when she killed him (though I suppose you could argue that Faith experienced some of the same). Nonetheless, I think there is a clear distinction between the two victims, and that is a significant difference.
The answer is among you..
The answer is Cordi..
I have to admit that I had been “spoiled” from reading an Entertainment Weekly fall preview in which the ANGEL producers mentioned that the big bad would be so bad that only Angelus could combat him… but I was pleasantly surprised at the way the whole thing came to a (horned) head.
Still… anyone notice that just like in BUFFY, a vamp had been working with the tv show’s big bad without being aware of it? First Spike, and now Angel, huh? I don’t know if that’s just synchronity or a vague connection between the two shows.
Maybe Giles isn’t even the First, it’s the Beast in disguise! Sure would explain why Giles is helping Buffy fight the First, and why he’s acting so funny!
I know… I know, I’m just being silly here.
One question- the Beast apparently has some portal-y travel powers since he made it back to Earth with nary a hoofbeat. Then he just goes and jumps out the window to leave. What’s the deal with that? Maybe Lorne’s not the only demon with a flair for the dramatic.
Oops, forgot to watch it again. Oh well.
Re: Angel
Eddie, we don’t know that Angelus worked with the Beast. You have the word of Cordy and the Beast — Angel, though, doesn’t remember it, and like he says, why wouldn’t he?
Am I the only one who saw “The Spanish Prisoner”? 😉
Let’s think this through, shall we?
Who informed The Beast of Manny’s location and prevented Angel from protecting him? What’s the most obvious explanation? Instead, we’re being misled to think either Gwen or a mind-controlled Angel, but really, what’s the most logical explanation?
Who “coincidentally” slept with the son of a man who loves her, which resulted in a rift between two potentially strong allies (Angel and Connor)?
Who was present when the Beast rose from the earth? Yes, it was at Connor’s birthplace, which could lead you to assume a connection to Connor, but what if that was just the *intention*? Who led them to Connor’s birthplace?
And whose “convenient” vision will result in the loss of someone who might have stopped the Beast (Angel, who will become Angelus — hardly a champion)?
And who just appeared out of nowhere with no memory of where she was? Again very convenient and the best con in the world — give people just what they want and they’ll never question where it came from.
Re: Willow and Warren
*If* you believe in the death penalty, then you can accept Willow’s actions, otherwise, you can’t ethically endorse what she did.
Actually, even if you do believe in the death penalty, what Willow did was abhorrent — even Warren had the right to due process, a trial before an unbiased jury of his peers (I think we’d all prefer not to be tried and sentenced by the lover of someone we killed).
Warren’s mother even deserves closure (was she even told her son is dead?). Also, Rack was just a dealer of magic — certainly not a capital offense.
As for Willow being “high on magic,” I don’t buy that for a minute. If someone gets drunk, drives a car and kills someone, their intent was not to kill (though they should be punished for reckless endangerment). Willow, perfectly “sober,” went off the “magic wagon” in order to kill Warren and intent follows the bullet (OK, I’ve watched too much “Law & Order”).
Anyway, “Buffy” used to be better than this — even when Angel, without his soul, killed people, the show contrived for him to spend a century in hëll — suitable punishment I think. Willow got a summer in the English countryside. We should all be so lucky.
re: Willow
Perhaps, going back to the heavy-handed drug-abuse metaphor, the powers that be of the show are trying to show that rehab might be a better option for drug abusers than jail time. But then, that would be a political statement, and they seem more like the types not to swim in those murky waters.
‘Sides which, Willow’s a total sweetie and Faith is freaking annoying, what with the catch phrases (“five-by-five”–arg! my brain!)and ubiquitous ‘ho uniform. So there! (No, that wasn’t an argument, it was an opinion stated in sub-juvenile terms.)
Interesting thoughts on Cordy – And the Spanish Prisoner is one of my favorite movies. I’m not sure anyone’s actually trying to endorse Warren’s murder, but at least in my opinion, it was the lesser of two evils…
Maybe they pushed the demon through the portal, he went to the past, met Angelus, placed a memory spell on him, and “portalled” back to fight again.
The other interesting twist about cordy is that everything she has described about being able to remember from her “higher being” days sounds pretty intense but everything we saw of her there was insanely boring.
I’m pretty sure she’s still up there stuck in the higher plane begging for someone to come save her and they’ve just stopped showing us the real cordy. This earthly cordy may also be made from part of the real cordy because she acts a _lot_ like her. But all the stuff everyone has been pointing out sure pegs her as the mole.
Then again, perhaps there is more than one mole.
Oh and furthermore, I don’t think it’s ever been at all clear what “the test” of her ascension was. Was the test whether or not she’d let her desire to meet Angel that night override her duty to ascend? Did she pass or fail that test? Which was more important? Or is the ascension itself the test? Is the test still going on? What exactly did she say “yes” to when all she had to do was say yes?
About Cordelia..
There has been no real explainantion as to why she returned from “Heaven”. She just popped up and claimed to have no memories.
Lorne reads her but gets so overloaded that his head almost bursts.
When they attempted the spell to restore her memories, she is the one who disrupted it, causing everyone to be a bit “confused” (During which she almost gets Connor to kill Angel)
Once her memories “Return” she claims that she experienced everything Angel did as Angelus and uses this as an excuse to distance herself from him (But doesn’t recall the whole “Beast incident” until last night)
She then sleeps with Connor. Insuring a rift occurs between him and Angel.
Last episode, She had access to shutting off the lights, leading the Beast to Mannie and drugging Angel’s drink.
I think either :
A. It’s not Cordelia – She’s really still in “Heaven” (or Prison)
or
B. She’s linked to the Beast, in that it may actually be manifesting from her mind/soul. Effectively she is projecting it into the world.
With all the nitpicking “Buffy” gets, I’m surprised no one has complained that there should have been a 16-minute delay before the sun was blotted out on “Angel.”
Is it going to be dark in Sunnydale all the time, now, too? Isn’t everyone on both shows just going to freeze to death before they have a chance to puzzle out what’s going on?
When Angel, without his soul, killed people, the show contrived for him to spend a century in hëll — suitable punishment I think. Willow got a summer in the English countryside. We should all be so lucky.
…As an Englishman, I’d put that a little differently.
“Willow got a summer in the English countryside– suitable punishment I think. When Angel, without his soul, killed people, the show contrived for him to spend a century in hëll. We should all be so lucky.”
Anyone who has ever spent a summer in the English countryside will understand…
I also think something is going on w/ Cordy. What I’ve been thinking about is that we’ve never really been told what it meant when she became part demon. Yeah, she is no longer in pain when she gets the visions and she could float and have white light come out of her (something we haven’t seen since she got back, hmmm) but what if the part of her that is now demon is connected to the beast? What if the demon part is evil and has changed her – maybe that’s why she got kicked out of heaven. It would be interesting to see how they would write themselves out of that one.
Cordy has been my favorite Angel character since the show started and I think I was one of the only ones who wanted her and Angel to get together since day 1. I loved last year how she was becoming a “champion” and could finally kick some @$$, but I’m really not liking her this year. She doesn’t do anything to help – heck she’s never at the hotel to even answer the phone. If the writers are so good as to purposefully make her unlikable for a specific reason, then my respect of them will go up even more. Did that make sense?
Man I love this show!
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Actually, it only takes 8-minutes for the light from the sun to reach the Earth. That and this was more of a mystical thing blocking the sun’s light rather than the sun actually getting put out.
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Manny said it would start in L.A. and eventually spread until eventually the entire world was covered in darkness. That says to me there’s something slowly covering up the sky to prevent the sun’s light. Right now it’s centered on L.A., but it’s growing outward from there. Depending on how long it takes Angel and crew to fix it would determine if it would become dark in Sunnydale or not. Also, while the sun’s light is blotted out, we don’t know if its heat is being stopped as well.
On a different note, I was happy to see Gwen back. She’s a cool character. Though did I hear it right, is her last name “Raiden”? I can only assume that’s a chosen name and not her real one.:) (Happening to be born into a family named after a thundergod and manifesting electrical powers seems too big of a coincidence. Although, on further thought, maybe one of her ancestors had a tryst with a god and now that heritage is showing up in her.)
With all the nitpicking “Buffy” gets, I’m surprised no one has complained that there should have been a 16-minute delay before the sun was blotted out on “Angel.”
Is it going to be dark in Sunnydale all the time, now, too? Isn’t everyone on both shows just going to freeze to death before they have a chance to puzzle out what’s going on?
I think we have to conclude that the sun hasn’t literally stopped burning. If that happened, the entire solar system would fly out of orbit, and all life on Earth would die out, which doesn’t seem to fit in with even The Beast’s plans. I suspect that the spell was designed to create something like a permanent total eclipse, blocking out the sun but not destroying it.
It would be appropriate for there to be some mention of this event on Buffy, though.
–Daniel
Remember, Faith didn’t just kill Deputy Mayor Finch in the heat of battle. That was bad enough, but it was dealt with. When she went bad she also killed the demon who had the Books of Ascension, the Courier carrying the Box of Gavrokk(sp?), and the Professor — the first two were marginal, but the Prof was a true innocent (his last words; “I’ll scream”), and she killed him in the coldest of cold blood.
So prison is completely appropriate for her.
Willow’s crime was one of passion and grief, powered by dark magicks. Unleashed, no earthly prison could hold her.
Given their bad blood in the past, their reunion should be really good.
The situation with the sun being blocked (not snuffed) out on “Angel” is supposed to gradually spread out from Los Angeles, so the effect may be stopped before it reaches Sunnydale, and Buffy and the Scoobies may just get the news and react to it off camera.
Another thought on whoever killed Manny: We’re led to believe it was Angelus who shut down the power and carried out the crime. But Angel himself — and presumably Angelus — has difficulty using voice mail on his cell phone, let alone a technically complex trick like shutting down all the power to Gwen’s security system.
Mind you, it’s not like he still couldn’t have done it, perhaps with guidance from the Beast, but it certainly points more evidence towards Cordelia.
Remember, Faith didn’t just kill Deputy Mayor Finch in the heat of battle. That was bad enough, but it was dealt with. When she went bad she also killed the demon who had the Books of Ascension, the Courier carrying the Box of Gavrokk(sp?), and the Professor — the first two were marginal, but the Prof was a true innocent (his last words; “I’ll scream”), and she killed him in the coldest of cold blood.>>
Faith was about 16 or 17, though, right? (I know she was younger than Buffy.) Would she even be tried as an adult? (Did she even have a trial?)
Apparently (and, mind you, this is just a rumour I heard), there was supposed to be a mention of the blackout in the Buffy episode “Bring On The Night.” But it had to be cut because of the WB’s wacky scheduling scheme that got Angel pushed back several weeks.
This makes a lot of sense — that was episode 9, so it would have occurred the week after the blackout in Angel. And nobody could figure out why that episode was called “Bring On The Night” — it just didn’t make a whole lot of sense in the context of the story. Usually Buffy episode titles tie the entire episode together thematically, so that was an oddity. A mention of the sun blotting out would’ve brought it all together.
Oh, the sense of right and wrong is all over the map on these shows. Angel’s allowed to go psycho every few episodes or so and people get over it, but Wesley makes one impressive screw-up and he’s ostracized for all time. Willow’s girlfriend was shot right in front of her (clear-cut case of temporary insanity), and people talk like she’s the second coming of Manson. But let’s look at some other examples…
In season 3, Buffy stalked and attempted to kill Faith so that Angel could drink her blood and heal from Faith’s poison. Nobody seemed to have a huge problem with that.
Xander cast the spell that summoned Sweet in Once More, With Feeling, during which at least one person danced themselves to death. He doesn’t appear to have any guilt from that. (Why should he? It’s not like they mentioned that in the spellbook, right? They never do.)
After the wedding fiasco, Anya went around to all of Xander’s friends, trying to trick them into wishing pain and death on him. This was “wacky.” And big mean Xander deserved it for calling off the wedding. (He said, venom dripping from his lips).
What about the Knights of Whatever at the end of Season 5? Didn’t Buffy kill several of them in “Spiral” or “Weight of the World?” I seem to recall big knighty death at Buffy’s hands before Glory got there and brought on bigger knighty death.
My take? Screw Warren. If Warren had scales or a tail or something, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. Warren deserved exactly what he got…and, indeed, if Willow had stopped there, I doubt she’d still be wracked with guilt. It was only when she turned to the relatively innocent Jonathan and Andrew, as well as her friends, that things got out of hand…
Weren’t we talking about getting caught making out with people you shouldn’t?
The “no sun” effect is supposed to gradually spread across the world. I assume it will be stopped before it reaches Sunnydale and that Buffy and the Scoobies will react to any news reports of it off camera.
Pete said:
Xander cast the spell that summoned Sweet in Once More, With Feeling, during which at least one person danced themselves to death. He doesn’t appear to have any guilt from that. >>
Have they confirmed this? The implication was that he was covering for Dawn. Sloppy writing either way, I would assume.
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It wasn’t “wacky.” It was depicted as Anya back on the evil vengeance wagon.
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Exactly.
See, there’s a difference between demons and humans. Demons don’t have souls, they’re monsters. And Buffy *is* the law, of sorts, in dealing with them.
Humans do have souls and there is a law in place for dealing with them. Willow went outside that law. Temporarily insane or not, she should have been tried within the confines of that law. That’s how the system works.
Again, you can’t compare killing a murderous human to staking a vampire. The latter is not even alive technically.
Two level spoiler for an upcoming Angel; the first tells of something in general that’ll happen, the next gets a bit more specific.
Top-level spoiler: TV Guide’s stated that a regular Buffy character will be appearing in an Angel episode (the bad news is that they say it’s because it’s Buffy’s last season and possibly Angel’s as well, the nets are giving Joss more leeway). As to which character…
Next-level spoiler: Looks like real-life lovebirds get to act together; Willow’s the one who crosses over, and Alyson Hannigan and Alexis Denisof are engaged.
Humans do have souls and there is a law in place for dealing with them. Willow went outside that law. Temporarily insane or not, she should have been tried within the confines of that law. That’s how the system works.
What, the extensive body of law and precedent dealing with the use of magic as a deadly weapon? *snort* I don’t see what sort of justice would be served by a scene where the police laugh at Willow when she tries to turn herself in, which is the best-case scenario. (The alternatives: Willow gets treated as being insane for telling the truth, or the police are clued in to the nature of Sunnydale and believe her, but knowing that it won’t come to trial, they arrange an “accident” for her in the holding cells before she changes her mind and kills them all…)
Let me play Devil’s Victim’s Rights Advocate here for a second. Stephen Robinson is saying that Warren was entitled to due process, a trial, etc. But let’s look at what’s really behind that.
The whole system is designed to have checks and balances. One group is entitled to take you into custody but another group has the responsibility of proving that you are guilty of the crime you’ve been accused of. The latter group then has to make their case to twelve of your peers and a judge who’s impartial, at least in theory.
The problem here is that there’s no question Warren was guilty. That’s not always the case. Genre fiction is full of stories where characters are framed brilliantly even though the hero or heroine ends up clearing their good name by the end but in this case, as viewers outside the reality, we know that Warren committed the murder. (And the fact that he didn’t know he killed Willow is incidental since he didn’t fire a gun in the air, he was attempting to kill Buffy.)
The next point may be that Willow was not empowered by society to exact justice but again, I think the reason that we as a society have made these rules is so they wouldn’t be abused. But Buffy and Angel, along with about every superhero ever created, go against this rule of society all the time. In the real world, would you want a teenage girl running around your town with weapons, answerable to no one and killing things that looked human while taking it on faith that she would never hurt anybody by mistake?
If you accept the death penalty as punishment, then Willow did nothing wrong except circumvent the system because what society would have done to Warren is what she did to Warren (society wouldn’t have done it in quite the same way, of course…) The difference is that society’s system of justice would have been forced to prove he was guilty while Willow already knew it.
Also no one has mentioned that Warren was also guilty of killing at least one girl before Tara and attempting to rape the same girl. With his level of power (and potentially competence) growing, you can make the same argument that is always made about Batman and the Joker: Batman’s obeying the law but is it really justice when he sends the Joker to prison knowing the Joker absolutely will escape and kill again?
Again, I’m just trying to add something to think about. In the real world, I’m a bigger fan of law and order the concept than I am of the TV show (and I *like* the show…)
Arguing for Stephen’s point, I would say that no one has mentioned the flip side of how hard it would be to prove and prosecute Willow’s actions: How absolutely easy it would have been to prove and prosecute Warren’s actions. Warren walked up to Buffy’s house in broad daylight and started showing. Xander and Buffy, *at least* would have been witnesses not to mention all the physical evidence Warren left behind when he was obviously acting so impulsively.
Fans are still talking about the Byrne Superman story where he killed the Phantom Zone villains. The X factor here is that conventional law enforcement was not equipped to deal with the problem. Willow has no such excuse.
“Actually, it only takes 8-minutes for the light from the sun to reach the Earth. “
I was thinking that it would take at least eight minutes for the magic spell to each the sun and start the effect, hence the 16 minute figure. What is the speed of magic?
I also forgot that, within the context of the shows’ universe, all this is just the imaginings of a mentally ill girl in an asylum.
Pack pointed out that if you believe in the death penalty, then what Willow did to Warren would have happened anyway.
I strongly disagree. For one, the death penalty is not imposed on cases of felony murder — if Buffy had died, that would have been premeditated but Warren shot Tara by accident (again, the only *premeditated* murder that took place was Warren’s).
If Warren had been given a trial –you know, the thing *Nazis* got — a pretty decent trial lawyer would have gotten him manslaughter one or at the most murder two. Warren also was pretty young and not that stable. No, I doubt he would have gotten the death penalty.
And even if he had, we don’t allow victims’ lovers to pull the switch. When the death penalty is enacted, it is enacted dispassionately. Also, there’s the whole cruel and unusual punishment thing. Willow tortured Warren and then flayed him alive. I think the chair is a better deal.
Xander cast that spell – He was shown mumbling about it in his sleep during Anya’s “origin episode.”
Speaking of “Law and Order, did anyone see that episode where this guy named Frank Miller was killing suspected terrorists? They kept saying things like “Frank Miller is a menace to society!” and “Frank Miller mist be stopped!”
Actually, I *didn’t* say that Warren would have gotten the death penalty. Or if I did, what *meant* to say was that society allows us to judge a person guilty of a crime and if they are found guilty, that person can be sentenced to death. Society demands that the government which we allow to represent us must follow certain rules and procedures so that this power can’t be abused (abused, easily that is) but as we know, Warren was indeed guilty.
I’m no lawyer but I have a hard time believing that the district attorney would be unable to ask for the death penalty in which a suspect shot one person in an attempted premeditated murder and killed another, especially when you add the previous victim to his list. Again, I’m not saying that Warren would or should have gotten the death penalty but I’m not sure it would have been out of the question.
The truth of the matter is that the whole thing is really a sub-section of the Law of the Red Shirt Security Guards which states that when the team first beams down to the planet any alien attack that is fatal will be directed at a red-shirt security guard we’ve never seen before. Alyson Hannigan is a regular on the show and Willow is popular with the fans so she’s not being sent away for any length of time. Trying to make sense of it is like asking why vampires don’t just move out of Sunnydale since Buffy never leaves town or why Buffy isn’t arrested for depraved indifference to human life for not saving all those lives that must have been lost just because she hasn’t bothered to tell the people of Sunnydale to carry bottles of Holy Water.
And Randall, if you want to check out the evil Frank Miller is really capable of, check out “High Noon” sometime.