Angel: Salvage

"You ok?"

"Five by five..."

Talk about spoilers. When you click on this episode on the Season Four DVD you get a massive great big pic of Faith. Never mind; it’s great to see her.

It’s good to see the episode start by not minimising Lilah’s death;  of only does Stephanie Romanov get a screen credit but there’s an interesting sequence with Wesley prevaricating before he beheads her possibly vamped body. Did she love him, and is he in denial about it? Did he perhaps have hopes of reforming her? These are interesting questions, deepening Wesley’s character further and showing us what an actor Alexis Denisof is.

Anyway, Faith. The attempt to assassinate are her in prison may have more to do with what’s going on in Buffy, but she’s as badass as ever. Importantly, she’s determined to continue serving her sentence and atone for what she’s done, and it’s only when Wesley reveals the full seriousness of the situation- Angelus is loose- that she realises she’s needed and breaks out. Easily.

The first time I saw this I had objections; wasn’t this undermining Faith’s whole redemption arc by saying that she was, after all, above the law because she’s a super being? This time round I don’t see it that way. She’s truly needed. I just hope she returns to prison after all this is over.

It’s great to see her with Wesley, too; through her eyes we can see just how much her ex-Watcher has changed.

Angel may now be on a different network to Buffy these days, so it’s surprising to see some borderline crossover stuff as Angel rings Dawn briefly. But such things are brief as Faith swiftly meets the gang and takes charge, impressing Gunn by putting Connor firmly in his place.

Meanwhile, Cordy is usually “resting” upstairs in the hotel and during those times she’s off being the Beast’s evil “master”. We get to see the two of them together briefly, ending in her commanding the Beast to “give mama some sugar” and sings him. Urgh!

The climax is doubly interesting. The Beast defeats Faith, badly, and it’s Angelus who kills the beast and restores the Sun, not her, and for his own less than noble reasons. And then the big reveal- Cordy is pregnant not only in real life (apparently leading to big rewrites) but with Connor’s child...