Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Unaired Pilot

 "Hey, you forgot your... stake..."

Yep. Many years after blogging the entire Buffyverse I've finally managed to get access to the unaired original pilot. Where did I find it, you ask?

Oh, look, a squirrel.

Anyway, this is short, sweet and rather cheap-looking, but nevertheless full of the Joss Whedon wit and brilliance (regardless of his very serious flaws as a human being that have leaked in recent months) that we've come to know. It is, essentially, a very truncated version of Welcome to the Hellmouth, complete with the nice bit of misdirection in the opening scene.

The main differences involve the music (the opening titles are "Salvation" by Rancid, which is well cool) and the casting of Willow. It's encouraging that Riff Regan is no stick insect and is a rare example of a woman with a real body shape on television, but acting-wise, although solid, she's no Alyson Hannigan. It's understandable that they recast the part.

Otherwise, though, it's surprising how fully-formed this all feels, from the concept to the characters to the little details like "Dingoes Ate My Baby". A wondefrful little artifact.

Angel: You're Welcome

"She's evil, you gormless tit!"

So we finally get to say a proper goodbye to both the magnificent Cordelia Chase and the brilliant Charisma Carpenter. I will miss them both. Angel without Cordy was- perhaps is- unthinkable. I don’t know what happened behind the scenes beyond the pregnancy to enforce her departure, but I’m glad she came back for a good send-off.

And a send-off it is. We begin with Angel losing the will to continue at Wolfram & Hart and deciding to quit, despite strong opposition from a still very fulfilled Gunn, until he is interrupted by a phone call about the still comatose Cordelia, the details of which we don’t hear. And, when the gang visits her to find an awake and well and hugging Cordy we only get a quick dismissive mention of the dying woman in her room, a nice bit of misdirection.

It’s good to see all the touching reunions, but Cordy is somewhat appalled to see the deal with the devil that has taken place- I love the way that as soon as she says this a Red Devil shakes Angel’s hand and says “Racquetball Thursday?”- and perhaps even more disturbed to see an Angel who seems to be losing his Mojo. There’s a touching scene where Angel sees her watching that video Doyle made all that time ago, the “first soldier down”, she gets to apologise to Wes about Lilah, and it isn’t long before Cordy and co work out just how Spike has been used by Eve and Lindsey. The fight between Angel and Lindsey that follows is all a metaphor for Angel and his mojo; when he rediscovers it, he wins, and that’s because of Cordy.

Eve is in trouble, and I love Harmony’s cheerful offer to torture her. But as Lindsey is grabbed by the irate Senior Partners and Eve is sent away it seems that all is well for the moment, and it’s tome for the pub, the gang all in good spirits. Angel and Cordy have a quick hug before she tells him she can’t stay, and then they finally get a snog. And then the phone call happens, and she’s been dead all this time. She never woke up. Second soldier down. What an episode.

Angel: The Magic Bullet

"I've been so alone, so scared. I'm not like you. I'm not a champion."

The first few minutes of this episode are deeply effective; an old fashioned, happy LA with a prominent ‘50s car and a Beach Boys soundtrack. It all looks idyllic- until we see that Fred is being chased and is lucky to escape. Winifred Burkle, alone, against not only her friend but a city that is slowly becoming a hive mind, where everyone is the eyes and ears for Jasmine. Things seem hopeless, but despite the quote above Fred is a hero.

This is the episode that shows what a completely Jasmine-controlled LA is like, with the hotel crammed full of worshippers and a terrifying, stultifying conformity that is bad enough before we even start asking about the people Jasmine seems to take to her room. And when Connor asks where they went she simply says “I ate them”. She can do whatever the hell she wants and is clearly evil.

I like the interlude with the hand-eating demon, butvthe sheer hopeless drives Fred to seemingly surrender- only to shoot Angel Through Jasmine, thereby mixing their bloods and reversing the spell. It’s clever, she’s clever, and she and Angel are able to do what’s necessary for the plot and free the minds of the whole gang. Yes, it’s a stretch that the blood of Cordelia, comatose mother of the goddess  (what about Charisma Carpenter?) will do the same thing, butbthe rpisode gets awY with it, and is a bloody well-crafted 42 minutes of television.

It’s depressingly predictable, of course, that Connor should betray them even after they’ve seen the light. What are we going to do with that boy?

Angel: Shiny Happy People

"Even before you were born, I chose you to be my father."

Just as with two seasons ago, with the adventures on Pylea, the status quo has changed utterly for the last few episodes, with the baby of Cordelia (asleep all episode) and Connor turning out to be Jasmine, a good-nature’s paragon of virtue and a goddess whom everyone feels the urge to worship, including our heroes, who under her leadership swiftly free LA from all the vampires and demons which are oppressing it. Or is she?

This episode feels weird; first Angel and Connor fall under her spell, returning to the hotel to the horror of their friends, with Wesley trying to convince them they’ve been manipulated. Yet, as soon as Jasmine arrives, they all drop to their knees. It’s deeply disconcerting, as well as unusual to see Gina Torres (Firefly has just been cancelled) in a part like this.

Of course, a chink in her armour soon appears as just one of many worshippers suddenly shouts that she is a “monster” and “deserves to die”. This is rationalised as hate... until Fred randomly sees Jasmi’s probable true face, with maggots everywhere. This breaks the spell for her and she ends up on the run, the only person in the whole city not under Jasmine’s spell. Yep; finally we get a situation in which Fred is unambiguously the hero. The scene in which first Wesley and then the whole gang turns against her is chilling.

This episode consists mainly of set up and establishing a new status quo, so it’s best, I think, to reserve judgement for now. But yet again we see why Angel, with no status quo that can ever be relied upon, is indeed the televisual equivalent of Chris Claremont’s run on X-Men. And that is high praise indeed.

Angel: Inside Out

"Guy steps out for a few hours, half the place goes supervillain."

This episode is about as much a game changer as it’s possible to be. Cordy has been exposed and confronted as the baddie and is freed to spend all of her time quite openly mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ing. Except, that is, she’s still grooming (the word gets used) and gaslighting Connor.

Ah, Connor. We’ve discussed how annoying he is before, but he creaky crosses a line here, and seems as though he’s genuinely meant to come across as an annoying little shit. Even his mother’s ghost, sent by the Powers to speak to him, are unable to get through. He’s completely under the spell of whatever’s controlling Cordelia, and goes as far as to be an accessory to the cold-blooded murder of an innocent girl. His hands are quite literally dipped in blood.

We learn a lot, too; the thing controlling Cordy has been manipulating events for a long time, including Cordy’s ascension and an awful lot of recent events. Much seems to be depressingly pre-ordained, although Gunn gets a wonderful speech about how some amount of agency still exists. Skip, of course, has always been in on it and is, in fact, evil.

We also get a big montage of how it was in fact Cordy who did all sorts of unexplained things over the course of many episodes, and Wesley comes to realise that it was her who killed Lilah. It’s moving to see the renewed friendship between Angel and Wes here as Angel cares because Wes does, a nice moment.

It all ends with a flash of light as the baby is born and turns out to be Gina Torres, getting a compensation role after the cancellation of Firefly. And everyone kneels before her. Yet another twist in a series that glories in having no status quo. This is brilliant stuff and it’s looking awfully like a rather brilliant series with not long to go.

Angel: Players

"He's just making it up as he goes along!"

To some extent this is a quiet episode with time to breathe and enjoy a mini-break from full-on arc stuff, an episode the like of which we haven't seen much lately. But it's also cleverly titled, with both episodes about people being played.

This is first and foremost a Gunn episode, as Gwen (remember her?) suddenly turns up and asks for his help in a caper that she assures him is all in a good cause. The tricks him, a little, but he still has fun, and Gwen tells him firmly that he's far more than just the muscle, as he's been recently told by a manipulative Angelus and an angry Wesley. Even better, the damsel in distress turns out to be Gwen herself and the MacGuffin that is the subject of their heist turns out to be a devise that can cut off her electric charge, at least for a while, so for the first time in her life she can have physical intimacy. And she wants that to be with Gunn.This must be a rather confidence-boosting night for Gunn, and the fact that he gets no-strings rebound sex with a rather attractive and highly intelligent virgin who has risked her life to sleep with him can't hurt either.

Meanwhile, the gang all learn that Cordy is pregnant, Connor is the father and the pregnancy is abnormally far along, all very suddenly, and are somewhat taken aback. Given this baby's heritage, I'm not surprised. Cue lots of research, including a subtle scene where Fred and Wes discuss relationships, and why he got with Lilah. They are slowly coming to understand each other.

We get lots of disturbing gaslighting scenes between Cordy and Connor, and Cordy wandering around pretending not to be evil. But, as the last scene shows, she's been played, and is caught red handed. It's quite the hook, and quite the episode.

Angel: Orpheus

“You tell me, it’s your flashback!”

Angel has been awesome over the last few episodes, so it’s quite something to say that this episode stands out as being superlative. But it does. The structure seems simple at first and is easy to grasp; Faith is dying from the mystical opiate she ingested to trick and spike Angelus, while Angelus is under a lot of tranquillisers. They share an extended flashback of Angel’s twentieth century while guest star Willow (yay- it’s fantastic to see her interacting with everyone) re-ensouls Angel while evil Cordy tries to stop her.

But of course it’s more than that. It’s about redemption; the big twist is simply that the flashback of Angel’s redemptive life is not for the benefit of Angelus, but entirely for Faith. Dying is easy; redemption is hard. But these sequences work mainly because of the coolness of Faith, and the awesomeness of Eliza Dushku. Angel will miss her, but never mind; she’s off to Sunnyvale soon.

Incidentally, I thought that crossovers has been a big no-no ever since Buffy and Angel have been on different networks. What’s changed here?

There’s a lot else going on, of course. There’s the chat between ex-baddie Willow and Wesley that puts his dark side into perspective. There’s the increasingly and worrying nature of the relationship between the manipulative Evil Cordy and young, naive Connor, which this episode extends to physical abuse and unambiguous gaslighting. The kid may be annoying, but no one deserves that. There’s ‘70s Angel, with the hair.

Then there’s the last scene, with a rather kinky looking Cordy emerging. Is she about to drop that sprog? I for one have no idea what’s about to happen, which is precisely what I love about this season.

Angel: Release

"You made me lose my shopkeeper!"

Another gripping and desperate episode here as a badass, damaged Faith and a badass, damaged Wesley team up to hunt Angelus all the way to a vampiric opium den while competing entertainingly to see which of them is the most badass. Unexpectedly it turns out to be Wes who stabs a junkie for information and goes disturbingly intense on Faith. Ouch.

Meanwhile, Cordy is doing silly voices as the baddie whenever she's not manipulating the very teenage Connor with his silly grown-out hair (when I was his age at least I did long hair properly and, indeed, still do) and constantly mentioning that she's pregnant with a baby who seems to be growing at an abnormally fast rate.

Meanwhile Fred tries to get back together with Gunn, they kiss, and... it's still really awkward. That's awful, but what often happens when a couple split up and regret it; it can never be as though the bad stuff never happened.

We get an interesting cliffhanger, as Angelus seems about to bite Faith in the neck and sire her. This seems to cry out for a bit of a cheat resolution, but we'll see. I'm not sure how long this Angelus stuff will last, but I for one am hugely enjoying David Boreanaz's deliciously evil performances.

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...

Angel: Calvary

"Those evil geniuses- get you every time."

More Angelus fun this episode, so more menace, more discord, more superb oozing of evil from David Boreanaz, more despair. But we also get a twist- the Beast has a boss. Then, at the end, well... a bigger twist.

It's an awfully well-structured episode in highlight, with some superb scripting- Angelus' subtle racism to Gunn is as bad as anything he does, and the developments between Fred, Gunn and Wes are nuanced. The clash on the stairs between Cordy and Lilah harbingers stuff later on, of course, and Connor is a little snit but a useful one. A script like this needs both well-defined characters and a great cast, and it has both.

Angelus is in control here, pulling the strings, and we find that all reference and, indeed, memory of the Beast has been magically erased by something bigger, the actual Big Bad. And then the final shock; we think Angelus is going to kill Lilah... and Cordy does. What's going on? Is she the Big Bad? Whatever happens this season is on fire, never standing still. I love it.

Angel: Soulless

“Boning your mom and trying to kill your dad? There should be a play...”

And suddenly things get brilliant. The season was looking a bit aimless for a while, I admit I spent a couple of episodes getting a bit worried, but this episode pays off a lot of the things that seemed aimless at the time and does so in a way that gives each and every character some real development. The “previously on” at the beginning makes it clear just how much of a build-up there’s been, with the Gunn/Fred/Wes triangle and the Cordy/Connor shagging.

Cleverly, the pre-credits scene is entirely devoted to bugging up Angelus and how devious and evil he is, how he will use his verbal dexterity to sow discord and weakness so he can kill everyone. And the episode sees this largely play out as Angelus picks at various scabs. The love triangle is an obvious one, quickly leading to Gunn catching Wes kissing Fred, fisticuffs between the two men and Gunn accidentally hitting Fred. Then there’s the outing of the Cordy/Connor comshocking and of course the easy e ploitation of the ever-snotty Connor who, revealingly, sees Angelus as his real father; Angel is “just something that you’re forced to wear”.

Worse, though, is the eexploitation  of Cordy’s general ugliness; he will give them information to save the world and he can have her for whatever depraved purposes he wishes. Ouch. Of course, his information proves useless, but we get the definite sense that he’s going to be asserting his claim.

And he certainly can, as the cliffhanger shows: Angel’s soul is missing, and it looks as though he’ll be sticking around for a while...

Angel: Awakening

“What is it about evil that jacks up the IQ points?”

Ah, I begin to see where this season may be going...

The whole episode is a splendid piece of misdirection; first Angelus is coming back, then he isn't, then he is. And it's happening because Angel and Cordy finally get their moment of perfect happiness is perfect. Shame it was (mostly) all a dream, though; not sure how I feel about that. Still, putting that Dallas moment to one side, it's a good episode. And even the dream has a twist in Angelus returning precisely when he's no longer needed.

Interesting that the episode starts with Wes as only semi-part of the gang. And Connor has never been such an obtuse, annoying and unlikeable brat. But the episode oozes camaraderie, mainly because of Angel's charisma and will to keep the gang together- precisely the things that they've just lost.

It;s ironic, I suppose; this episode has one job, to turn Angel int Angelus at the end. But in order to get there it trolls us, manipulates us, just like Angelus himself. It's effectively done, if evil. And I'm getting the distinct impression that the Beast may not be the season big bad after all...

Angel: Long Day’s Journey

“We need Angelus..."

Obviously there's a lot of plot here- this big, apocalyptic demon is still loose in LA and up to stuff, rather fortunately giving our heroes room to mope and have character stuff happen, making this a good episode. It's unclear where all this is heading, though; it's done with skill and wit, but at this point the season arc feels a little... aimless.

Character-wise, though, a lot happens, not least a load of awkward but unavoidable conversations between Angel and Cordy. As predicted, Wes is now part of the gang again, smoothed over by a subtle comment by Lorne, and the verbal sparring between him and Gunn is toned down accordingly. Instead, Gunn feels very uncomfortable with Fred and Wes spending so much time researching together.

Oh, and our electric friend Gwen is back; it seems she wasn’t just a one-of character after all. I bet she dies next episode as her plot function seems to be for Angel to ostentatiously spend time with her to make Cordelia jealous.

Deliciously, though, all these little arguments between the characters add extra frisson to the probability that one of the gang is a fifth columnist working with the Beast, currently very busy murdering a bunch of typically Buffyverse eccentric yet powerful cultists of the god Ra, so he can blot out the Sun and make a more demon-friendly LA, as you do. And he succeeds completely, with a little help from his friend. Who is, it seems... Angelus. That explains Angel’s blackouts and gives us s better inkling of exactly where this season is going. We finish with Wes proposing a rather daring plan. Good stuff, but I have no idea what the season arc is going to look like at nearly the halfway point. Is good characterisation of scriptwriting hiding a cobbled together arc or are they being clever?

Angel: Habeas Corpses

”Zombies are slow moving, dim witted and crave human flesh.”

“Like you?”

“No!”

Plot-wise this is quite straightforward; Connor wants to know about his connections to the Beast, so he goes to Wolfram and Hart for some answers. Unfortunately he ends up trapped as the beast attacks and the staff (except Lilah but very much including the now-late Gavin) are all killed and turned into zombies, and needs to be rescued by the gang. Awkward.

As it happens this doesn’t work quite that well- much of the episode is dark and chaotic- but, as ever, it’s the character stuff that counts. After sleeping with Connor, Cordy makes it clear that, despite his “happy puppy look” there won’t be any repeat, which makes her look rather like one of those “lads” who gets a girl to have sex with him and then disappears, especially as he’s so young and naive. Angel certainly doesn’t approve, as he makes very clear at the end.

Wesley also finally dumps Lilah who, oddly, in spite of being evil is far more into him than vice versa, and seems to be subtly back with the gang again. It’s clear that the love triangle with Fred and Gunn is back on, hence bickering between him and Gunn that will no doubt come to an end in a couple of episodes as Wes redeems himself in Gunn’s eyes. Such is TV drama.

More immediately worrying, arc-wise, is that the Beast has reached the White Room and apparently killed the little girl who runs (or ran?) W&H. That one act proves Wes right when he emphasised just how powerful this creature is and how it seems to be above the pay grade of Angel Onvestigations to stop it. The episode itself is an odd beast; the concept doesn’t really come across well but the characterisation, dialogue and arc stuff largely carries it through.

Angel: Apocalypse Nowish

"It's not like the world's gonna end right this second!"

Well, that was sudden. It's all looking very apocalyptic in the space of one episode, with a big red devil beast thingy, rain of fire and the phones ringing off the hook at Angel Investigations. Is it only Los Angeles, though? None of this is happening in Buffy, and Sunnydale is not even in a different state.

Before this started, of course, we get two thirds of the episode full of foreboding, with Cordy having some scarily accurate dreams and Wolfram & Hart being quite aware that things are not going as expected. But it all feels rather fast and, unusually for the Buffyverse, unearned.

The uneasy atmosphere leads to some interesting character stuff, of course. Fred and Gunn haven't touched each other since Gunn took it upon himself to send that nasty professor tomPylea and, worse, Fred seems unhappy with the possibility of settling down with him. From no sex, though, there's weird sex; Wesley finds Lilah waiting for him mockingly dressed as Fred, but turns the tables on her by insisting she stays that way during sex. Ouch!

More awkward, though, in more senses than one, is the virgin missionary sex between Cordy and Connor. Cordy has already told Angel that she still loves him but, as a Power That, er, Bees, she saw what he did as Angelus. She knew before, but now she knows. Also, things are perilous and they all might die. All the same, deflowering Connor like that feels out of character and is really jarring, which is not something you'll often find me saying about either of the Buffyverse shows.

Still, clever Angel runs rings around Lilah to ensure her cooperation, tying up Gavin to boot. And it seems Wesley won't be seeing much more of her as plot expediency has him shackled up with Angel's crw for the time being- a subtle forced reconciliation? The whole episode feels a bit forced and awkward. On the other hand I'm genuinely enjoying the no-status-quo, Chris Claremont X-Men vibe. We'll see where this goes.

Angel: Spin the Bottle

"I know who's president. And that I sort of wish I didn't."

Oh, Cordy. Yes, I know. Back then we all thought George W. Bush was as bad as it could get, didn't we?

“We already know this episode is going to be both quirky and special when we see the words "written and directed by Joss Whedon" appear on the screen. And it doesn't disappoint on either score, being at once beautiful, witty, emotional and not entirely linear. It isn’t Whedon’s best, but it doesn’t have to be.

Oh, the episode has an obvious function to fulfil in returning Cordy’s memory and ambiguously wakening that demon thing that may or not have infected her, but it’s all about character. It’s about the pathos of Angel and Cordy’s last words to each other- “We’re we in love?” “We were.” It’s about the tension between Gunn and Wesley, leading Gunn to ask “What happened to you, man?” and Wesley to cuttingly reply “I had my throat cut and all my friends abandoned me.” And, yes, it’s about Angel being told “You don’t sound Irish”. Whedon really, really knows these people and makes their dialogue sing.

There are other nice touches- the framing device with Lorne, for one- but the important bits are about the conceit of reverting all the characters’ memories to their seventeen year old selves, so that Angel and Connor can bond over sanctimonious fathers and Fred can espouse conspiracy theories and keep asking for weed. Interestingly, we get scenes of Wesley being all badass before the spell reverts him to his older, klutzier, gentler self- is this a subtle precursor to a reconciliation?

All this and we get the scene where Fred tells Wesley all about being vulnerable and naked, and his stiff weapon extends, a lovely, subtle Whedon moment but if a slightly naughtier persuasion. Whedon doesn’t seem to have custody of his second child very much, but we certainly appreciate it when he does.

Angel: Supersymmetry

"Think Daredevil #181. I'm Bullseye, you're Elektra."

Wow. That was a bit good, A superb script, a quirky concept, geeky in-jokes, great character stuff, a Fred episode, and Amy Acker shows us just how extraordinary she is when really called upon to really act our socks off. She's always excellent, but she's extraordinary here.

It's an origin story, of sorts; dabbling in a bit of physics again sees Fred publishing "just a little breakthrough in quantum particles" in an academic journal, leading initially to screams of delight and getting a bit jiggy with Gunn, but ultimately to Fred being invited to lecture at her old uni, a daunting prospect indeed. Even more daunting is a portal opening in the middle of your speech and a worryingly phallic CGI demon doing rude things to you.

Of course, the main focus here is the fact that Fred's old professor sent her (and other promising postgrad students) off to Pylea out of sheer professional jealousy, and for the first time ever we see Fred getting all vengeful and scary, which Amy Acker gives us both convincingly and without holding back. It's up to Gunn to restrain her and Wesley, who blatantly still carries a torch (he just isn't that into Lilah although she, admittedly not without cynicism, blatantly at least fancies him), to gently aid her with her dish served cold. And it's the ultimate act of love for Gunn to throw the prof into Pylea himself so she doesn't have it on her conscience- although we don't really see her reaction.

We also get Cordy gently telling Connor that she doesn't like him that way and, seeming a little more herself, visiting Angel to ask him, in the last line of the episode, "Were we in love?" Naturally we are left hanging. We also get the clear implication, often hinted st, that while Gunn may not be a card-carrying geek, he knows his Marvel. Good man.

This is, so far, a bloody good season. But this episode stands out, it really does. A beautifully crafted bit of telly.

Angel: Slouching Toward Bethlehem

"You like shoes. And doughnuts. And you're very brave."

This episode has a simple job to do; ensure that the newly amnesiac Cordy ends up just a little wary of Angel and the gang, who clumsily say and do all the wrong things, and trusts Connor, who is at least honest. The result, perhaps, is a little over-contrived, although the acting is superb all round. This episode feels somewhat functional, fascinating though the events are.

There are some moments of humour, of course- I love Cordy's reaction to her old Sunnydale High yearbook- but the episode is oddly linear for something so focused on the season's already-fascinating story arc. I think, though, that this odd little realignment of this new Cordy with Connor, whom she trusts more than his simple honesty would warrant (hmm...), may be connected with the apocalyptic horrors in her future that so traumatise Lorne, and which Wolfram and Hart know all about, thanks to Lilah's tricking of her boyfriend.

Ah yes, Lilah and Wesley- at this point we see them looking almost lovey-dovey and almost like a real relationship (Wesley uses the "r" word), and then Lilah goes and uses him for Wolfram and Hart's purposes just to remind us (and him) that she's literally evil. There doesn't seem to be much else character development, though, in an episode that may have snappy dialogue (this is, after all, the Whedonverse) but seems unusually focused narrowly on plot,plot, plot.

Angel: The House Always Wins

"This place was so much friendlier when the mob ran it."

This episode is, I suppose, narratively necessary. It's three episodes in, we need to properly set up the season, so we need an episode whose function is to bring Lorne back from Las Vegas to rejoin the gang. And then we go a step further- it's a Las Vegas episode, so lets make the threat a rather blatant metaphor for gambling addiction.

Well, that's what we get. It isn't, on the face of it, a promising shopping list on which to hang an episode. It could he been terrible. It isn't. Oh, I'm sure there will be better episodes, but this is entertaining and above all fun, getting us out of all the ongoing angst in LA and varying the tone a bit. Las Vegas may not be one of my top fifty places to visit in America- it's not my idea of culture, But this episode I enjoyed.

The premise may be obvious, but the directorial style is impressive, and there are clever narrative touches which succeed in returning Cordelia from Powers-That-Be land by making her do something a bit naughty; Angel is a bit of an old bore, spending much of the episode name dropping; and Fred and Gunn are getting along much better. Oh, and Wesley has an obligatory scene of, er, phone sex with Lilah. Lovely.

Still, a solid episode and a nice change. Not a lot wrong with the season at this point.

Angel: Ground State

"Damn. This is so much harder than it looks on Batman."

This is, I suppose, an example of a functional, non-stand-out episode of Angel; the nearest it comes to a "meh" episode, to treading water. So it's saying a lot about the high quality of the show at this point that it's nevertheless bloody good.

We begin, unusually, with an introduction to a one-off character: Gwen. She gets a lot of prominence, and the pre-titles sequence also shows us a semi-origin; was she supposed to return? (I assume she doesn't; I have in fact watched the entire Buffyverse before and don't remember her returning, but it was a long time ago.) Or was this partly intended as some sort of pilot? I don't know, and don't want to look it up because spoilers. But she's a cool character- a cat burglar with deadly electrical powers and lots of it. But is she some kind of Marvel-style mutant or something? How do her powers fit into Buffyverse mythology?

Anyway, the plot is both her and Angel, Gunn and Fred competing on a heist for a valuable Macguffin called the Axis of Pythia (lots of Greek mythology this episode; we get hints that the Eleusinian Mysteries are more than just ritual, so do Pagan pantheons actually exist in the Buffyverse, and what are they?), all as a means for Angel and co to learn and accept where Cordelia has gone- which eventually they do, much to Cordy's annoyance.

We also get to see Angel trying to reach out to a cold Wesley, perspective having given him the will to forgive. We also see a bemused Angel find out that Wes is sleeping with Lilah in a fascinatingly and sexily twisted relationship, if we can call it that. And, of course, we see Fred begin to crack under all the pressure of holding everything together for the last three months.

That's an awful lot going on for an episode which, I suspect, is no one's season highlight.