Previously on Angel: The gang are working LA to fight demonic crime and help the helpless. In the process, they find themselves on the wrong side of a bunch of lawyers determined to bring Angel down, resurrecting Darla as part of their plan. Angel has formed an unlikely alliance with a vampire hunter named Gunn.
Since the explosion that destroyed their offices last season, Angel Investigations has been working out of Cordelia's apartment, complete with assistance from Phantom Dennis who has been very keen to help. When Cordy has a vision of a horrific monster, Angel goes on the hunt to track it down, but discovers that, when he kills it, it's not an evil demon. It's protecting a young pregnant woman whose fate is to be decided by a mystical tribunal and Angel just killed her champion. Wracked with guilt, Angel sets about trying to help, taking on the role of protector himself in order to save the young woman and right the wrong he committed.
If ever there was an episode that functions as a microcosm of Angel's ongoing mission, then Judgment is it, boiling down to Angel kills someone and then has to atone for it. One thing Whedon shows (and films) have always excelled at is the reintroduction of the show's MO and key themes, as well as sometimes expanding the world beyond what we're used to. After the Shanshu Prophecy revealed that he will become human again once he achieves his redemption, Angel's been going after the demons in LA hard and fast, but quickly learns over the course of the episode that this isn't about keeping score, but doing the right thing. We're introduced to The Host and his sanctuary nightclub, swiftly confirming the idea that not all demons are evil and that safe places exist within the downtown area.
Within just a few scenes, Angel has reasserted everything we know, reiterated Angel's ongoing quest for redemption and widened the world out to explore something more in how the demon world works. Lorne's introduction and narration is a key part of that, reminding us all of the kind of city LA is in this world (and singing Gloria Gaynor is a cracking joke). Likewise, Angel, Wes and Cordy interrupting the sacrifice in the gym swiftly asserts their respective roles. It's an astonishing bit of exposition that never feels like it, but instead feels like we're cosying back down with a few friends we haven't seen for a while.
Judgment also contains two of the most memorable images of the series' run. The first is David Boreanaz absolutely slaughtering 'Mandy' in order to get information out of Lorne and admitting he's a fan of Barry Manilow's hit because he thinks it's pretty. Then, there's the big joust itself. I've only seen this episode once prior to this rewatch viewing, but the sight of Angel, on a horse and kitted out like a Knight of the Round Table on an LA street is one so incongruous that it sticks like glue in the memory. Not many shows could pull of that kind of image.
The last scene with Faith is a lovely moment to end on. She and Angel share their respective roads to redemption and support each other accordingly, a nice continuation of the relationship that was touched upon back in the third season of Buffy and cemented in Angel's first season. It offers up a different, more vulnerable dynamic to Angel's character that isn't often seen in his more leadership role with the Angel Investigations crew. It fits nicely into the undercurrent of the episode, around second chances and the ability to change your nature and go against it.
A strong return then for Angel in the second season. I didn't even touch on Wolfram & Hart, but their Darla plan is already rumbling along nicely in the background. Now, if you don't mind, I need to go and listen to something catchy to get that damn 'Mandy' out of my head.
Quote of the Week:
Angel: There are three things I don't do; tan, date, or sing in public.
Let's Get Trivial: The closing credits feature outtakes from Angel's hilarious performance of 'Mandy'; stay to the very end post "Grrr, Argh" to hear David Boreanaz's Elvis impersonation: "Thank you, thank you very much."
LA Who's Who: The late Andy Hallett joins Angel's revolving cast of regulars as The Host, later known as Lorne. J. August Richards is bumped up to series regular and Eliza Dushku makes a quick appearance as Faith, her name hidden in the closing credits rather than the opening ones to keep the surprise.
- Becky
You can check out Becky's look at previous episode, To Shanshu in LA, here.
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Previously on Angel: During a daring raid on Wolfram & Hart with the help of Lindsey McDonald, Angel grabs a scroll for no discernible reason. Meanwhile, Lindsey had the opportunity to leave his employers alive, but instead opted for a considerable raise.
Wesley continues to work on the prophecy that Angel brought back with him from Wolfram & Hart and reveals that it is possibly fated for Angel to die. Rather than worry about it, Angel simply carries on with his usual occupation of saving people. However, the lawyers have a plan on the horizon, something called 'The Raising' and summon a big bad wormy dude to take care of Angel. When he promises to strip Angel of his connection to the Powers That Be, he really goes to town and Wesley and Cordelia's lives hang in the balance.
As finales go, To Shanshu in LA is not your typical, but then, the first season hasn't been particularly typical at any point. There's no real Big Bad to rally against, nor is there a discernible apocalypse to stop. Instead, the focus is on how Angel has now become reliant on his team, having moved from the loner that Doyle clung to in the beginning to the man concerned for his friends and willing to save them at any cost. It's also a pretty big hint towards his growing feelings for Cordelia, something that will bubble under the surface for a while yet.
That intimate focus gives the episode a stronger purpose than simply fighting a bad guy. It makes the world feel bigger, the stakes higher and the consequences more severe. David Boreanaz has to do some emotional heavy lifting here and it really works to illustrate Angel's concern for his friends. I love his final brush off to Kate, partly because it's a good measure of his determination and also because Kate has become such an irritating little role, cropping up at weird crime scenes to pseudo-moralise and look a bit peeved. She's the only weak link in this episode, but thankfully, Angel gives her a good talking to.
The character work elsewhere is lovely and neatly done too. Cordelia, so often seeing her role with Angel as a paycheck rather than a lifestyle, is suddenly subjected to the howls of pain in the city as her mind is opened up by Wormy Dude. It gives her a new sense of perspective, a much more selfless one that shifts her to see her work with Angel as both a necessity and a calling. It's a big development for her. She spent much of her time with the Scoobies resenting her role within the gang, often only helping out begrudgingly when it became clear the end of the world is at stake. Here though, she finally rises to the challenge and even starts making sandwiches.
The wider ramifications of the Shanshu prophecy add to the finale's sense of urgency. Wesley's little mistranslation of it to suggest that Angel is careening towards his death is a brief loss of meaning for Angel. He's already dead so it has no consequences for him and in this frame of mind, redemption is for little more than quenching his own guilt. However, discovering that it might lead to him becoming human again gives both the character and the show something to work towards. It's a positive, heroic endpoint. Naturally it becomes a little complicated as Angel's story to develop, but it gives the show a more concrete focus, something which will only benefit it as it moves forward.
Finally, there's that Darla reveal at the end. It's such a cool season cliffhanger that I almost wish I hadn't seen the rest of the show, just to get really excited about the first episode of the second season. Julie Benz has always been one of the Buffyverse's more memorable recurring characters and I'm looking forward to seeing her around again. Plus, it also means Drusilla will show up some point soon and that's always good for a laugh.
So we have reached the end of Angel's first season. Like the companion fourth season of Buffy, there has been quite the variation in quality, largely due to its need to establish itself as something of the same world, but also very different. Naturally, Angel couldn't go for the same kind of experimentation we see in Buffy''s fourth season, but it's something that has worked well to balance the two shows. The second season will be a little dodgy, but the show does begin to grow in confidence now that it has set out its parameters and darker, bloodier atmosphere. Poor Lindsey eh? Someone give him a hand...
Sorry.
Quote of the Week:
Wesley: Uhh... oops. I may have made a tiny mistake. The word 'shanshu' that I said meant you were going to die? Actually I think it means you're going to live.
Cordelia: Ok as tiny mistakes go, that's not one!
Let's Get Trivial: The episode title is a reference to the film To Live and Die in LA as 'shanshu' is revealed to mean 'to live and to die.'
You can read Becky's look at previous episode, Blind Date, here.
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Previously on Angel: Angel's been causing problems for some shadier-than-normal lawyers from Wolfram & Hart whose previous efforts to stop him have been thwarted. Angel's also made an unlikely ally in the form of homeless street fighter, Charles Gunn.
Angel's on a routine patrol when he witnesses a blind woman, Vanessa Brewer, assassinate a man in front of him. He finds out that she's on trial and attempts to demonstrate her abilities by throwing her sunglasses back to her, which she catches without seemingly ever knowing they're coming. Of course, she's represented by Wolfram & Hart, Lindsey specifically, and she is acquitted of all charges. It turns out Lindsey's a bit of a rising star in the firm and as a result of this victory, he's offered another case when he's told that Vanessa will be employed to kill three children for undisclosed reasons. It's a step too far for the lawyer and he turns to Angel for help.
One of the main reasons I like this episode so much is that it gives me a chance to talk about Lindsey. Lindsey is one of the more fascinating characters of Angel's world, simply because he never quite operates within the same boundaries as everyone else. He can move freely between being good and evil as his situation dictates, but in the end, he will always be a slave to his ambition. Take this episode for instance; standing by whilst kids are killed is not something his rather dubious morality can tolerate, so he switches sides. However, in doing so, he witnesses the real power over life and death that his bosses wield and when they offer him a second chance, he takes it, returning to the darker side of the fence because it's tactically advantageous to do so.
It makes him unpredictable as the show continues because his boundaries are never quite clear to anyone but himself. He knows what he does is wrong, but he also knows what standing by looks like as this episode illustrates. He's a child of poverty and misfortune, someone who has had to claw their way out of a hole in order to have the kind of freedom denied to him. He's the dark, twisted embodiment of the American Dream, one of the few examples of this that the show offers us.
Blind Date is a more sombre affair than we've seen recently, but it has a couple of really cool set pieces at its heart. The big one is of course the Wolfram & Hart heist that we see Angel and Lindsey pull off with the help of the returning Gunn. It's an elegant mix of comedy (mainly from Gunn's angry black man routine) and the kind of suave burglary you'd expect from Angel. Rather than beat up the demon guarding the vault, he simply blows a Wesley-concocted powder at it and tips it over. It's a nice comic beat in the heart of an otherwise dark episode, but one which will also prove to be a defining one.
Yes, as he goes to exit the vault, Angel notices an old scroll and picks it up for no other reason than he thinks he should. As Wesley reveals at the end of the episode, it contains writings on a vampire with a soul and possibly more information about Angel's place in the world. It's something that he's been struggling to find, particularly since his return from Hell, and this could point him in the way. Earlier in the episode, he finds himself frustrated by the powerlessness he feels in the face of a human world that Wolfram & Hart have got rigged. His vampirism hampers him from doing the best he can, but it also allows him to operate outside that system.
Somewhat helpfully, it's the first episode in a while where all successful parts of Angel have been firing at the same time (it certainly gives me far more to talk about than War Zone did). Though we don't see much of Cordy and Wes, they're both settled into their respective roles and work their way through the exposition with ease. But it's in the dark morality at the heart of the episode that the show really finds its feet. Angel chooses to fight his fight because he can and because it can offer him the redemption he seeks. Lindsey fights only when he has to. Their different views clash spectacularly here, but the two final scenes, where Lindsey accepts his new job and Angel watches over his city, is a perfect encapsulation of both.
Quote of the Week:
Lindsey: I get myself killed, that'll convince you I've changed?
Angel: It'll be a start.
Inventive Kill: Angel suspends a vampire by the neck with a chain and then uses the pulley system to stake the vampire on a slat sticking out of a pile of pallets. Mad skillz.
LA Who's Who: Jennifer Badger, who plays Vanessa Brewer, was a stunt double for both Charisma Carpenter and Eliza Dushku across both series.
The Sunnydale Connection: When Cordelia comes up against encrypted files, she naturally calls in the wiz, Willow. The half-heard conversation is lovely; "Willow says hey!"
- Becky
You can check out Becky's look at previous episode, War Zone, here.
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Previously on Angel: Faith arrived in LA after putting Buffy through hell in Sunnydale, looking to throw down with Angel and is employed by Wolfram & Hart to kill him. She beat Cordelia and tortured Wesley to get to him, but Angel quickly realised what she needed was help.
Sanctuary picks up from where Five by Five left off as Angel brings Faith back to the office in order to keep her safe. Naturally, Cordelia and Wesley are far from impressed; she uses the company expenses to take a vacation whilst he goes drinking. He's soon approached by the Watcher's Council hit squad, fresh from being beaten by Buffy-as-Faith in Who Are You, looking to finish their business with Faith. Angel's plan to rehabilitate her hits a stumbling block when an exceedingly angry Buffy arrives, demanding to know why her ex is cuddling her nemesis on the sofa. Meanwhile, Wolfram & Hart are attempting to cut their losses by hiring a demon to assassinate the rogue slayer and Kate at the LAPD is also trying to track her down.
I spoke in last week's post about how the show deals with Faith as a person who causes so much chaos but who refuses to deal with the consequences of such and it's a pattern reflected across the two episodes. In Five by Five (and Who Are You), we see the damage done whilst in Sanctuary, Faith takes a backseat as everyone else decides what to do with her. Her conversations with Angel are all theoretical, pondering how she could possibly begin to make up for the damage caused, whether 'sorry' will ever be enough (I love that Buffy won't let her apologise yet - forgiveness is about timing here). As such, it makes her first practical effort, to hand herself into the police, land better as a dramatic finish. It's the first choice she makes entirely on her own and it's her first step on a path to the redemption she, like Angel, will always be fighting for.
There's something about having Faith around that seems to make everyone involved up their game, whether it's on Buffy or Angel. The writing gets tighter, the acting gets better, the drama cuts keener. This episode is no different as the show continues to ponder the question of whether Faith is worth saving or not. Everyone splits into two camps depending on how much Faith has tortured/maimed/switched bodies with you. On the one side is Angel, seeing so much of Faith in himself that he is confident he needs to at least try and save her. On the other side is everyone else, each feeling the effects of the destruction Faith is capable of wreaking, led by Buffy.
Given the last time Angel and Buffy saw each other, it was the end of I Will Remember You (sob) so naturally feelings are still running a little raw, exacerbated by Angel's decision to help Faith who Buffy is, quite rightly, still furious with. This episode though, perhaps more than any other, marks the break between Angel and Buffy quite violently; it's the first time he hits her in his ensouled form and the shock of it, for both Buffy and us, is palpable. Likewise, his speech at the end to her about how she no longer gets to bark orders at him is on point, but so is her belief that Faith cannot be saved and doesn't deserve to be. There's no real wrong answer, but their positions are too different to be reconciled and that final exchange of verbal barbs will have long-lasting effects, particularly spilling over into Buffy.
Sarah Michelle Gellar is a force of nature in this episode, operating on a level of rage that we don't usually get to see from Buffy. "I've lost battles before, but no one has ever made me a victim" is such a great line and it reinforces the trauma that Faith inflicted; Buffy's weakest moments are when she loses her agency, the empowerment that naturally comes from being a Slayer. I love how unyielding she is too, having learnt nothing from her experience as Faith, but also from her experience with Angel. It's only a few months ago that she was arguing with Giles that Angel could still be redeemed, after all. Tim Minear brought in Joss Whedon to write the Buffy scenes and it pays off enormously, allowing the character to operate on the darker level that Angel allows whilst embodying Faith's capacity for destruction.
When speaking of this episode, Whedon states that it's the moment "the training wheels came off" and that he understood "what Angel is and it's not Buffy." That scene feels like a clean break for the audience too, a swift delineation for the new show that's finally standing on its own. The evil in Buffy, for the most part, tends to be easily categorised. People do bad things and Buffy dispatches them accordingly as the good guy, not resorting to anything particularly underhand to do so. The waters will muddy in the later seasons of the show, but it operates on that basic level. In Angel, nothing is defined in simple terms and Faith's involvement here illustrates that perfectly. He's in the business of saving now and will resort to whatever methods he can to do so (I'll definitely touch more on this in the fifth season).
Fittingly, it's the last time we see Buffy on the show, though Angel will return to Sunnydale a few more times. Although it would become an issue of scheduling difficulties rather than intent, it works to Angel's benefit. Sanctuary might not have a happy ending, but it's the right one. And I didn't even get to talk about the rooftop fight scene, which is so damn good (notice how Buffy immediately moves to protect Faith; she ain't all bad kids).
Quote of the Week:
Faith: I've got to be the first Slayer in history to be sponsored by a vampire.
The Sunnydale Connection: This episode follows on from the events of Who Are You and features the most crossover characters (five) in one go: Buffy, Faith, Collins, Smith and Weatherby, with eight if you count Angel, Wesley and Cordelia, considering they originated on that show.
- Becky
You can read Becky's look at the previous episode, Five by Five, here.
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Previously on Angel: And Buffy technically. Faith is out of her coma and has already terrorised Buffy. Angel once tried to save her, but Wesley's intervention with the Watcher's Council destroyed her trust in any of them completely.
Faith arrives in LA and promptly beats a guy up, putting her on Wolfram & Hart's radar. After Angel convinces a witness to testify against a client of the demonic lawyers and loses them the case, they set Faith on his tail, paying her to kill him. She immediately starts messing with them and kidnaps Wesley, torturing him to tempt Angel into coming after her. Meanwhile, we get more flashbacks, this time of the curse as Angel's soul is returned to him and he struggles to cope with the initial guilt of all the people he's killed.
Oh, this episode is a bit good, isn't it?
Bringing in a lot of the things that have been developing over the course of the last few episodes such as Angel's redemption, Wesley's own desire to prove himself and the machinations of Wolfram & Hart all colliding as a result of the Faith catalyst. The episode's flashbacks serve a great purpose here too; it's not so much about Angel's own development, but allowing the audience to understand how well-positioned he is to work with Faith. He knows exactly what she's going through right now because he's been there himself, dejected, suicidal and alone. It provides a strong core through the episode that builds into the impressive climactic fight.
There's also a brutality here that is rarely seen in either Buffy or Angel except when Angelus is on the prowl, which solidifies further the comparisons between Angel and the rogue slayer. That final fight is an intense one, two incredibly strong beings fighting it out to the death, one reluctant to kill the other who is desperate to die. It's powerfully done too; the storm at the end that rains down on them and Angel's reluctance to fight back until the crucial moment builds that intensity to almost unbearable levels. When Faith finally breaks down, it's a relief for the audience too. Sure, she's a bad guy at this point, but she's too damn fascinating to want dead.
I love Wesley's trajectory over the course of the narrative too, occurring more in the background, for obvious reasons, than Angel and Faith. Angel makes it clear early that the former watcher is at fault for how Faith is now, something Wesley realises and clearly feels terrible about, to the point where he keeps trying to save her, only to be tortured for his efforts. He grows a little more backbone each time he's faced with adversity and this is no different, standing up to Faith admirably. It even pushes him to the point of being prepared to kill her in order to save Angel, but like the rest of us, doesn't want to see the act happen once he realises just how broken she is.
Eliza Dushku really owns the role here, channeling all of Faith's external arrogance and internal self-loathing into one huge, violent and unpredictable cocktail. It's easy to forget how few episodes Dushku actually appears in because she makes such a big impression when she does. Though her initial function was to be placed as an opposite to Buffy, she works hard to dig deep into the implications of that as well as transcend what could've been a simplistic alt-Slayer role.
The scene in the club is a perfect encapsulation of the character's act. She's fully prepared to start the fight and cause chaos, but utterly not fussed about the consequences happening around her. The beauty of Five by Five's narrative is that it breaks down that barrier, proving that not only is she paying attention to the consequences of her actions, but that they're affecting her deeply. Wanting to die is the only way out she can see for herself at this point. It's up to Angel to try and bring her back from that.
As we've seen in the first season, Angel's at its best when it dispenses with the procedural style affairs and instead uses the stories to focus on the characters we already care about. Sending Faith into Angel's world is a genius move; the two characters have so much in common (placed continually in parallel even beyond the TV series and into the comics). I didn't even get into the Wolfram & Hart stuff, but hey there Lindsey and Lilah, I love your sparring.
Quote of the Week:
Lindsey [as Faith kicks the crap out of his colleague]: Jesse, I think you'd better make it three for dinner instead of four...
Let's Get Trivial: The violence proved a little too much for our British censors and it lead to this being the only Angel episode to receive an 18 certificate in the UK.
Demonology 101: I love that Phantom Dennis tries to protect Cordelia from Faith. He's such a babe.
The Sunnydale Connection: The experience that Giles describes to Angel as "rough" is of course the events of This Year's Girl and Who Are You in which Faith swapped bodies with Buffy via a magical doohickey.
- Becky
You can see Becky's look at previous episode, Eternity, here.
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Previously on Angel: Angel's activities in Los Angeles have attracted the attention of a bunch of evil lawyers, Wolfram & Hart, running up against them a few times since he moved in.
A beaten man, Darin MacNamara wanders into the office during a standard Wesley-Cordelia bicker and asks Angel for his help solving the disappearance of his brother, Jack, who was captured by a group of demons. During his investigation, Angel discovers an underground demonic gladiator-type deal going down, not realising that Darin and Jack laid a trap for him until it's too late. He becomes one of the fighters, leaving it to Cordelia and Wesley to find out what's happened to their boss.
After last week's dull, paternal affair, The Ring offers us a tale of something considerably more entertaining, continuing with the darker, demonic underbelly of LA with the added bonus of gladitorial combat and an attempt at a Spartacus-style uprising. It's a simple story idea, but a solid one for a filler episode that mixes in the action thrills with the comedic skills of the main cast. It also presents Angel with the central 'kill or be killed' dilemma, something which goes against everything he's been fighting for since getting his soul back.
Taking Angel out of the picture and trapping him within the cages means that the bulk of the episode's investigating is done by Cordy and Wes, which is every bit as hilarious as it sounds. Watching them try and maintain their cover as undercover cops ("something's going down tonight... something with the man!") is brilliant, but it also shows how well they're starting to work as a team. Although it'll be a while before we see full action Wesley, we get a glimpse here that he's not as bumbling as the impression he tends to give, something that he uses to his advantage at various points.
Boreanaz is a lot of fun here too, given a chance to do both the heroism bit and the comedy bit, particularly in his early scenes in the cages with his more laconic counterpart. And to be more laconic than Angel is quite something. It's another step further away from the rather two-dimensional persona that Buffy Angel was characterised by, moving him into scenarios in which he has to do more than simply look concerned. He also gets to do a lot of action scenes, get his ass kicked and brood about in his vest a lot. So that's nice.
We've known for a while how powerful Wolfram & Hart are, but the episode starts to peel back a little more of their veil through the presence of Lilah and her attempt to free Angel from the fights to get him onside. Their tricksy relationship with him, something that continues right through to the end of the series, is starting to build too. Here, they try the softly-softly approach, but it won't be long before they're back trying to kill him again.
The Ring may be a filler episode, but it's a good one and it keeps the show carving out its own identity, even if it still doesn't quite know what it wants to be just yet. The beginning's a bit noiry, the middle goes a bit comedic and the end gets all Gladiator, but it's entertaining throughout.
Quote of the Week:
Cordelia: Someone ought to create an intra-demon dating base. You know like... archfriend.org, where the lonely and the slimy connect [or Tinder, as it's now known]
Let's Get Trivial: When Wesley asks Cordelia if the 'Demons Demons Demons' has the Vigories of Oden Tal, he's referring to the patriarchal bad guys from She.
LA Who's Who: This episode marks the first appearance of Lilah Morgan, who goes on to be increasingly influential throughout the series.
- Becky
You can read Becky's look at previous episode, The Prodigal, here.
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