Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

As I'd hoped, last night's new 'Angel' episode, "You're Welcome," gave me something better to think about than my own insecurity. So, for that and many other reasons, I have to say "thanks" for Cordy's return visit. Since I'm still running on too little sleep, with my brain not firing on all cylinders, these initial comments on the episode will have to be brief.

First, the high points:

I admit, I didn't see the final twist of this episode coming -- even though I have fond memories of that classic "Twilight Zone" episode where the glamorous movie star somehow manages to appear in her home town and get everybody to stay away from the city park where a plane is about to crash (thus saving all their lives), and then disappears just as they hear the news that she was actually on that plane and died in the crash. The one-last-visit-to-save-those-I-love-before-my-spirit-moves-on idea may not have been entirely original, but I can't think of a better way to both bring Cordy back AND explain why she won't be around anymore. She and Angel had a chance to reconnect and remind us of how they were together BEFORE she got ascended and hijacked by Jasmine and he was plunged into the depths by Connor. It's been a LONG time since we've seen that, and I have really missed their matter-of-fact closeness and honesty with one another. Angel finally got to TALK to someone about Connor, and Cordy got to tell him what she thought of the whole reality-shift/mind-wipe deal (letting the senior partners rape the minds of the friends who trusted him, I think she put it). Then Angel got to remind us all how close Connor had been to blowing up himself, Cordy, and a lot of other people, and why his 'devil's pact' with W&H had 'seemed the logical thing to do at the time' (Sarek to Spock in "Journey to Babel").

(Of course, on the frustrating side of the ledger, we still don't know what -- besides the fact that Angel had a son named Connor -- has been erased from everyone else's memories. We know that Wes remembers possessed-evil-Cordy killing Lilah, but that's about the only detail we learned. But I'm focusing on the positive stuff, now.)

I was thinking that Cordy's whole "our-moment-has-passed-and-I-love-you-to-pieces-but-my-path-lies-elsewhere-now" spiel at the end was kind of artificial (where else would the gal with the guiding visions go, especially given the gang's current morally precarious situation?), but that final phone call made it all make sense. Come to think of it, there were shades of the final "Quantum Leap" episode there, too, where Sam Beckett's own version of the PTB, figuring he was owed a favor before moving on to even tougher assignments in the "setting things right" department, allowed him to go back and change the course of his friend Al's life, so that Al ended up happily married to his true love, etc.. But I digress.

I was less than thrilled by Lindsey APPARENTLY turning out to be garden-variety evil, after all, with no deep dark plan or hidden motivation beyond annoyance over Angel being given everything Lindsey himself had once wanted from W&H (or, possibly, repressed sexual attraction to Angel expressing itself as rage -- once again, Lindsey's make-out scenes with Eve looked like a trip to the dentist compared with his passionate interest in Angel's body and soul; and if it's obvious enough to attract MY attention, you know it must be REALLY blatant). But part of me still doesn't quite believe that we've heard the last of Lindsey, or that all his "Who is THIS?" taunting when he seemed to have kicked Angel's butt wasn't INTENDED to get Angel to re-assert his hero-ness: "...I'm Angel. I beat the bad guys" (or whatever the exact wording was). I like my delusions (that Lindsey's actually a complex and interesting character), so I'm holding on to them as long as I can.

Harmony continued to grow on me in this episode, when she charged in and expressed her willingness (since she is, technically, evil) to torture Eve "for the team". And I loved Angel's surprised but grateful response to her offer ("sure, go ahead"). I'm also impressed that Harmony, since she couldn't convince Eve to make a run for it and justify being eaten, resisted temptation and allowed Eve to survive. The down-side of that is, of course, that Eve is still alive (damn! We were THIS CLOSE!). And, since we were just reminded earlier in the episode that Eve is the only other person who remembers Connor, I'm very much afraid that the revenge Eve was talking about will involve an attempt to kill the now clueless and relatively defenseless son of Angel. I don't know how much more angsty Angel I can take, so I hope they don't bring Connor back in a later episode just so HE can die on Angel, too. If, however, Eve's vengeance-seeking results in Angel having to tell the rest of his crew about Connor, then there could be some small justification for her continuing to draw breath. I can be generous.

As a final note on the plus side, it was great to see kick-ass Cordy again, with the swordplay and the doomsday weapon defusing and the roughing-up of Eve and all. How I've missed you, Cordy, and how perversely grateful I am to be able to mourn you by remembering you in your prime, now.

On an unrelated (and possibly nonexistent) topic, I have to say that there was something about the way Fred's and Wes's faces were lit while they were doing that spell to nullify the "no-see-me" tattoos -- and especially something about the way Fred was staring at Wes -- that kind of gave me the creeps. At first I thought this was just some groundwork for Fred to once again discover an interest in Wes (as she had done last season, when she and Gunn were having problems and evil Angelus was doing his best to push everybody's buttons). But on second thought (and this is bearing in mind that I've only watched the episode once so far), I'm wondering if that really unimportant LOOK is going to turn out to be some sort of turning point or foreshadowing. Or it could have been poor directing, making something out of what should have been nothing. I dunno.

On the negative side (in addition to the various caveats and grumblings noted above), I wasn't all that impressed by David Fury's depiction of Spike last night. Sure, I like the comic relief provided by Angel vowing he won't risk anyone he cares about on this mission and then accepting Spike's offer to help without blinking an eye or missing a beat. And yes, I like the "you go ahead while I hold off the army of zombies by beating the undead crap out of them" Spike (well,...who wouldn't?). And OF COURSE I'm glad that the misappropriation of Doyle's name and mission finally came out and that Spike's not being manipulated by Lindsey anymore. But I couldn't quite buy the, "oh, well, I guess I was wrong about being a champion, 'cause that was just Lindsey using me to undermine Angel's confidence, and now I'm just embarassed" Spike. Not so fast, there, boy-o. I mean, I'm glad glad glad that Angel is feeling more like himself again and has recovered his sense of mission (yet again). And I can understand why, since the show is called "Angel", Spike being relegated to comic relief and sometime back-up singer (a paler, hornier -- you should pardon the cheesy pun -- version of Lorne) seemed like a good idea. But, as I think the final scene in last week's episode clearly demonstrated, Spike is most useful and Angel is most interesting when they're playing off each other, mirroring one another's strengths and weaknesses and irritating one another into greater self-knowledge and a deeper understanding of what it means to be a vampire with a soul who occasionally saves the world.

And now I'm REALLY tired and hungry, so I'll have to worry about filling in all the stuff I'm sure I forgot to mention later on. But thanks again, Cordy, just for being you and for being there for me, one more time.