Angel: Forgiving

"Oh. There is no happy for you."

And so we have the aftermath.

Connor and Holtz are gone, it seems for good: Quor-Toth is unreachable. Angel must deal with his loss, and he does so by getting back at those who dd this to him-making very clear from the start that this includes Wesley. But first, the puppet master: Sahjahn. plot-wise, this episode is primarily about Angel trapping Sahjahn in a jar, either for all eternity or until the writers want to bring him back. But the episode is, of course, about much, much more.

Fortunately, we also have Fred and Gunn, who manage to piece together why Wesley did what he did, and the terrible moral dilemma he laboured under- but Wesley, it seems, is dying or dead. We are shown this clearly as the camera dwells on him. We therefore know, from the laws of television drama, that he'll be fine.

The creepy little girl in the "White Room" at Wolfram and Hart is a nice touch, as is Lilah's keeping her cool. But best of all is the killer reveal; Sahjhan falsified the prophecy, moving back and forth in time to do so. It was in fact Connor who had been destined to kill him, and he wanted the baby dead.

The final twist in a horrifyingly gripping episode, though, comes at the end, between Angel and Wesley, good friends until so very recently. Angel understands, he genuinely does- and yet he wants Wesley dead, and has to be prised off him...