Angel: The Ring

"Why aren't Wolfram and Hart in here?"

"Because they're lawyers, not demons?"

"Fine line, if you ask me…"

The first rule of The Ring is- sorry, cheap joke. Actually, this episode owes nowhere near as much to Fight Club as I thought I remembered, certainly not as much as a certain episode of Torchwood. Roman gladiator movies and Raymond Chandler struck me as much bigger influences. No, really.

Obviously, we have Angel being Spartacus here, leading the revolt of the reluctant slaves and proving the moral lesson that banding together makes more sense that rugged individualism and all that. But he's never been more heroic or noble, turning down the promise of life and freedom just because of his moral principles. He's a man with the chivalrous value system of a knight from a mediaeval romance who lives in modern, urban California. I suppose it's odd, in hindsight, that I haven't noticed this blatantly obvious point before. Duh.

The other interesting character point is the continuing development of Wesley; he has some klutz moments, yes, but he also gets wittier dialogue and even a genuine badass moment as he beats up the bookie. Both he and the impressively resourceful Cordelia are shown to be an effective part of Angel Investigations, although this episode makes it even less clear exactly how the business stays afloat; they get their first client for ages and he turns out not to be genuine, or anywhere near as concerned about his brother's life as he claims.

Season arc-wise, though, this is fascinating. Wolfram and Hart (plus Lindsay) were introduced in City of… but we've seen pretty bugger all of them until now, rather close to the end of the season. But this time their actions seem to be leading to something, and the deliciously amoral Lilah Morgan gets her first appearance, getting herself a great scene with Angel where she does the Mephistopheles thing... Things are slowly becoming more and more like the programme Angel will become, but there's some way to go yet.

I was surprised just how much I enjoyed this episode. Yes, it was derivative, but the plot was well executed and the script sparkled.