Angel: Waiting in the Wings

"We all know you've got a thing for ex-cheerleaders..."

Here we have an episode both written and directed by the man himself, Joss Whedon, which immediately tells us that it's special episode. What we get, though, is surprisingly subtle; a meditation on jealousy and unrequited love, where both Angel and (especially) Wesley take rejection much more honourably than the villain of the piece. It's also about ballet, of which I know nothing, and has a young Summer Glau in a guest role; I never noticed her before.

It is, of course, an episode all about relationships. Yes, there's a plot with a baddie- this is the exact same ballet troupe that Angel(us) last saw back in 1890, as the rather sulky Count Kurskov, a wizard, has reacted rather badly to his prima ballerina wanting to be with another man by cursing her to do the same performance every night for more than a century. Rather spiteful of him. And this petulance of a Russian aristocrat contrasts with Angel's disappointment when a suddenly deposed Groosalugg arrives just as he's about to declare his feelings for Cordelia.

More heartbreaking, though, is how we're shown the extent that Wesley has his heart set on Fred, only for her to fall hard for a newly ballet-loving Gunn. This is all the crueller for the fact that Gunn is such a good friend and hasn't done anything wrong. Our team ends the episode very much still friends and as strong a unit as ever, though, because they're all good people and better than the likes of Kurskov.

Having said that, though... this is an excellent episode, and a brilliantly well-constructed drama about jealously and heartbreak, but it's not quite as much of an "event" as you'd expect from a Joss Whedon episode.