Angel: Birthday

"Well, as much as I enjoy this forced death march down memory lane..."

I know. It's been a while. But now I'm back and determined to finish Angel. (And Buffy.) The delay was caused by, er, a scratch in a DVD, but said DVD has now been replaced and the Buffyverse marathon resumes.

So Cordy's visions are finally catching up with her; in fact, they're killing her. On her birthday. Which is rude. Hence a splendid Cordy-centred episode full of typically superb dialogue and Charisma carpenter being awesome.

So many moments: Dennis' aborted birthday party, Cordelia's theme tune, the first appearance of the excellent Skip. It's all a cheat, of course; Cordy's visions are killing her because she's human so she finds a loophole of becoming part demon, like Doyle, with no ill effects apart from a silly punchline. But who cares; this is first class telly.

The alternate reality is interesting, though; this one-armed Wesley is rather badass. Foreshadowing? And it's instructive that the visions send Angel to pieces but Cordy handles them like a woman. Most importantly, she really does make a difference. Also, I like Skip. A lot.

I've missed this. I'm looking forward to proper re-immersion into the Buffyverse...