Are You Now or Have You Ever Been (Angel episode)
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Summary
Angel revisits the Hyperion Hotel, a place he has not been to since the 1950s.Expanded overview
Angel and co. are without a place to meet and investigate, so they temporarily use Cordelia's place. Angel takes to exploring an old abandoned Hotel, the Hyperion, and asks Cordelia and Wesley to find more information about it. They soon discover that the place seems to be haunted by something since a worker killed himself at the construction site. It also becomes clear that Angel knows more about the place than he's letting them know. Throughout the episode, past and present alternate to show the story of Angel when he lived in that hotel.In the past, the place was evil; some of the tenants could sometimes hear a voice muttering about their innermost fears and make them dangerously paranoid. This ends up being too much for one of them, who kills himself with a shot to the head. Enter a young lovely woman whom a detective is investigating. Angel helps her get rid of him and she tells him that she robbed a bank she used to work at. She's got a bag full of money and doesn't know what to do with it. She stole the money as revenge because her employers fired her because they and her fiancé discovered she was passing as white. Angel knows how it feels to be different and that's the reason he decides to help her.
But soon the evil presence that makes people paranoid begins to increase in power and before Angel can do anything about it, he's in trouble. The woman he helped out of her problems now turns against him, cornered by the detective, and tells everyone that Angel killed the man who supposedly had committed suicide. In a rapt of collective frenzy, many of the hotel hosts beat Angel unconscious and hang him from a rafter. He makes as if he was dead and when everyone goes away the demon makes his appearance. It's a tall, floating, cowled demon with tentacles. It sees Angel is different and tells him that humans are not worth the effort of trying to save them. Angel is in no mood to argue the matter, so he leaves the hotel and its crazed hosts to the demon and walks away. The demon keeps the woman who betrayed Angel alive to somehow enjoy her tortured mind.
In the present day, though, Angel has already make up his mind to forgive that woman and so he goes back to the abandoned hotel with Cordy, Wes and Gunn to invoke and do away with the beast. After a brief spell and some fighting, the demon is killed. When it's all over, Angel finds the woman, now very old, in a room upstairs. She begs to be forgiven and Angel agrees, so that she can now die in peace. Angel comes downstairs and to everyone's astonishment decides to make the hotel, now clean of its malignant aura, their new residence for Angel Investigations.
Writing and acting
Production details
Music
- Perry Como & Fontane Sisters - "Hoop-Dee-Doo"
Quotes and trivia
- Both Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt have cited this as one of their favorite episodes.
- The episode's title is based on the questions posed during the trials held by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations associated with Joseph McCarthy, the most famous question being: "Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?" Footage from one of these hearings features in the episode, and the themes now commonly associated with McCarthyism and the era (such as paranoia and fear of 'the other') are major themes in this episode.
Continuity
Arc significance
Angel's final actions in the 1950's segments are a prelude to his decision later in the season to allow Darla and Drusilla to slaughter the Wolfram & Hart lawyers.Both times Angel deems that the humans in jeopardy aren't worth saving.
Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
| Location, time (if known) | Buffyverse chronology: Fall 2000 - December 2000 (non-canon = italic) |
|---|---|
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.01 Buffy vs. Dracula (Buffy episode)>Buffy vs. Dracula |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.01 Judgment (Angel episode)>Judgment |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | Buffy graphic novel: Haunted (Buffy comic)>Haunted (by Jane Espenson) |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.02 Real Me (Buffy episode)>Real Me |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.02 Are You Now or Have You Ever Been (Angel episode)>Are You Now or Have You Ever Been |
| L.A., 2000 | Angel book: Image (Angel novel)>Image |
| L.A., 2000 | Angel book: Stranger to the Sun (Angel novel)>Stranger to the Sun |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.03 The Replacement (Buffy episode)>The Replacement |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | Buffy graphic novel: False Memories (Buffy comic)>False Memories |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | Buffy Graphic novel story: |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.03 First Impressions (Angel episode)>First Impressions |
| L.A., 2000 | Angel graphic novel: Long Night's Journey (Angel comic)>Long Night's Journey |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.04 Out of My Mind (Buffy episode)>Out of My Mind |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.04 Untouched (Angel episode)>Untouched |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.05 No Place Like Home (Buffy episode)>No Place Like Home |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.05 Dear Boy (Angel episode)>Dear Boy |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.06 Family (Buffy episode)>Family |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | Buffy graphic novel: Autumnal (Buffy comic)>Autumnal |
| L.A., 2000 | Angel graphic novel: Autumnal (Autumnal Comic)>Autumnal |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.06 Guise Will Be Guise (Angel episode)>Guise Will Be Guise |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.07 Fool for Love (Buffy episode)>Fool for Love |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.07 Darla (Angel episode)>Darla |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.08 Shadow (Buffy episode)>Shadow |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.08 The Shroud of Rahmon (Angel episode)>The Shroud of Rahmon |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.09 Listening to Fear (Buffy episode)>Listening to Fear |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.09 The Trial (Angel episode)>The Trial |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.10 Into the Woods (Buffy episode)>Into the Woods |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.10 Reunion (Angel episode)>Reunion |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.11 Triangle (Buffy episode)>Triangle |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.11 Redefinition (Angel episode)>Redefinition |
External links
| Buffyverse | ||
| Main | Canon | Index Chronology: Ancient | Modern | BS1 | BS2 | BS3 | BS4/AS1 | BS5/AS2 | BS6/AS3 | BS7/AS4 | AS5 | Future | Flashbacks | |
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| Powers | Angel Investigations | Circle of the Black Thorn | Order of Aurelius | The First Evil | The Initiative | Monsters | Old Ones | The Powers That Be | Ra-Tet | Scooby Gang | Senior Partners | Watchers' Council | Wolfram & Hart | |
| People | Adam | Amy | Andrew | Angel | Anya | Buffy | Caleb | Connor | Cordelia | Dawn | Darla | Doyle | Dru | Eve | Faith | Fred | Giles | Glory | Gunn | Harmony | Holtz | Illyria | Jasmine | Jenny | Joyce | Jonathan | Kate | Kennedy | Lilah | Lindsey | Lorne | The Master | Mayor Wilkins | Oz | Professor Walsh | Riley | Spike | Tara | Warren | Wesley | Willow | Xander | |
| Places | L.A. | Sunnydale Bronze | Caritas | Hellmouth | Hyperion | Library | Magic Box | Pylea | Sunnydale High | |
| Music | Complete Tracklist | Use of Music in Buffy & Angel | Dingoes Ate My Baby | Film | | | Once More, With Feeling | |
| Key Terminology | "Demon" | "Slayer" | "Vampire" | "Watcher" | "Werewolf" | "Witch" "Child of Senior Partners" | Shanshu | Sunnydale Syndrome | Tro-Clon | |
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