Angel: Why We Fight

"You're a Nazi!"

"What? Oh, no, I just ate one."

Meh. Well, there had to be an episode that failed to impress at some point during this otherwise excellent season. This episode, well it's just dull filler.

Submarines can be the scene of taut, exciting thrillers, but not here. I'm not sure whether it's the script or the direction, but the location is not so much atmospherically claustrophobic as limited, grey and dull. And, much as I love flashbacks, what's the relevance of all this? Yes, it's fun to see Spike interrogating Nazis. It's fun to see an old, supposedly powerful vampire who looks just like Nosferatu, an obvious reference. But none of this needs a whole episode.

Worse, the present day sequences, with Lawson taking Angel's mates hostage in a half-hearted sort of way before an obligatory so-so fight at the end, is token in the extreme. So what's the point of all this? Oh, it's to show that Angel once sired someone, in extreme circumstances, after regaining his soul. That's it. It has no wider relevance to anything lse and no doubt will never be referred to again.

So is there anything we can salvage? Well, it's confirmed Eve is gone, and the White Room liaison to the Senior Partners has indeed vanished too. And what's that lapse of memory from Gunn? Is his lawyer brain beginning to fade now the Senior Partners are cut off...? Interesting, but all this just reiterates stuff currently happening. There can be no episode duller and more skippable than this.

Buffy the Vampire: Same Time, Same Place

"I thought you were with Giles, studying not to kill people?"

This is, of course, an episode all about Willow and her return to Sunnydale. Naturally, Alyson Hannigan gets (and deserves) lots of screen time after the token cameos of the previous episodes. Naturally, there's a magical twist as neither Willow nor the Scoobies can see each other, and there's a nasty troll in town that flays people.

It's also a Jane Espenson episode and Espenson is, Joss Whedon notwithstanding, the other "name" writer on Buffy. This episode makes it obvious why; there's her trademark witty dialogue, of course, but that's not the only way she really gets Buffy. Unlike Whedon she tends not to do the format-busting episodes, but takes a very, very Buffy idea, traditionally, as here, a rather obvious metaphor, and moulds into something superbly crafted, funny and heartwrenching all at once.

This episode is awfully clever in how it handles the conceit that Willow and the others can't see each other- the opening scene in the airport, and the scene with spike in the school basement, are masterful. It's awfully convenient to the plot, though, that Anya can see everyone...

Other stuff happens, of course. Dawn is starting to not be an annoying teenager and actually do Scooby stuff, such as the solid research she does here, and Michelle Trachtenberg gets to show that she's rather good at comedy. Anya is still having trouble at work. But when it's all over, and Willow has suffered an awful lot, what makes your eyes well up a bit is Alyson Hannigan's bloody brilliant acting as Willow is so very happy to be accepted again by her friends. So, yeah, the season pretty much continues to be amazing.