Angel, Season 4 Disc 6

4x20 Sacrifice

Hiding from Jasmine in the sewers, Angel, Fred, Wes, Lorne, and Gunn run into a strange creature who claims that the beings of his world loved and worshipped Jasmine first. As Jasmine's forces close in, Angel realizes that he must travel to this other dimension to find the key to defeating her.

Lorne: I really hate today.
Gunn: I'm worried about tomorrow myself.

Ugh. Just a bad episode. Ok, the alternate universe where Angel goes to get more info was kind of cool, but other than that... bleh. There must be something about 4th seasons in the Joss-Verse. Cuz Buffy's 4th season sucked and it's happening with Angel as well.

For later reference, he finds out a dude called the Keeper of the Word seems to hold Jasmine's true name. Now he just needs to get the guy to talk... which is kind of hard with the dude's mouth sewn shut.

4x21 Peace Out

Angel comes back from that other world or dimension or whatever with the head of the Keeper of the Word. The word in this case is Jasmine's true name. He cuts the sewn-shut mouth and out the name is whispered.  As soon as that happens, Jasmine loses her power. People also start to see that same maggot-y face that I guess is her true face. So, they start running scared.

He and Angel end up having a big fight. She tries to throw a car on him. Guess her strength is still around. Connor saves the day by coming up behind her and punching her through the back of her head. It was gross. He then just walks away all mopily in true teenager fashion.

Jasmine: Why do you hate me so much?
Angel: Let's run down the list, huh? Rain of fire, blotting out the sun, enslaving mankind, and yeah, oh yeah. Hey! You eat people!
Jasmine: Like you never have?

Angel returns to the hotel, and the gang look beyond spooked. Just as Angel catches their vibes, Lilah walks out of the office.

This could be a good episode, I don't know. I just really really really REALLY hate season 4. It's just so hard to be unbiased.

4x22 Home

So, Lilah is back. And she's sporting a real nifty scarf thing. Wonder why? Oh, yah, that's right. Wesley cut her head off after she died. Silly Wesley. Since Lilah does work for the law firm from hell, death does not necessarily mean the end of her contract with them. She's been brought back to offer the gang Wolfram & Hart, LA Division. Yup, the whole shebang. They get to take over W&H and do whatever they like. They ask why, and she says cuz they just ended world peace, and that's just bad for business. They take a bit of offense to that, but ultimately realize that yes, they did indeed end world peace. Hard to argue with.

She says they just have to be outside the hotel at dawn, and there will be a limo waiting for them. They all act completely put out, and yet all of them end up out there waiting for the limo. They figure they will just see what's going on. Oh, and Connor is out wandering the streets being all emo and shit.

As they arrive at W&H, everyone greets "Mr. Angel". That was kind of humorous. Lilah greets them and wants to split them all up to see the various departments they would be working in. After some initial suspicion, they end up going. Looks like Lorne will head the Entertainment Division, Fred would be in the Science Division, Wesley would be an uber-librarian. Charles thinks he's being taken to security cuz all he ever seems to be good for is muscle. Seems like he is being taken up into that freaky White Room. Wonder what that's about.

Angel: I'm not bursting into flames.
Lilah: Necro-tempered glass. The whole building's fitted with it. Helps keep those uplifting, wholesome, rays from charbroiling the boss...and 30% more energy efficient.

Angel is shown his office, with his fancy new glass, and also told they have an amulet that will help Buffy with her current apocalypse. He can have it, if he agrees to takeover the firm. He seems completely bored until she shows him his big screen TV in his office, until he sees Connor on the news. He has taken families hostage from a nearby mall or sporting goods store or something. So, off he goes to rescue him, of course.

Back at W&H, Lilah finds Wes in the archives looking for something. He finds her contract and burns it, but it just appears in the file again. Lilah actually seems a bit moved by the gesture.

Back at the store, Connor is doing bomb-y things with batteries and such. Cordelia is there, still in a coma, and strapped up with a bomb too. He's mad at Angel for letting Holtz get him. Well, actually he's just mad about anything and everything. He did grow up in a hell dimension, so maybe that's natural. Connor goes to turn on his bomb, but Angel punches him and they fight. Angel frees everyone in the store, throws knife in Connor's leg, tells Connor he really loves him. Typical family issues.

Everyone returns from their tours and they look very impressed and wide-eyed. Angel enters and tells them all he took the deal. Lilah says they will take care of Cordelia, and try to find out how to get her out of the coma. She gives him the amulet, and mentions something about taking him to see Connor. The rest of the Gang don't seem to know who Connor is.

Angel's limo arrives in woods. He's looking at a nice big log cabin-y type house. He looks in the windows, and sees Connor at a table with a family eating dinner. They are talking about college and how well he did in high school. This is his family now, apparently.

Angel takes his amulet package and heads out... to Sunnydale.

Random observation. It's just weird that he's all about Cordy, "The woman he loves"... but he goes to Sunnydale and talks about his possible future with Buffy. He's a SLUT HO BAG. I'm just sayin'.

Angel, Season 4 Disc 5

4x16 Players

After discovering that Cordelia is pregnant, the gang go into research mode trying to determine what type of demon the offspring could be. It does seem to be their experience when women, namely Cordelia, get super preggers super fast. So, it has to be a demon of sort. Connor is taking the whole father thing to a creepy weird level. He's being super protective. There's even this really disgusting scene where the baby or whatever it is is poking and grinding all up in Cordy's belly. It's beyond hurlable.

Meanwhile, our rather electric girl Gwen is back in the picture. She's requesting Gunn's suave nature. Cuz when I think of Gunn, I think suave. No, not really. They end up at this uber-fancy party where Gwen tells Gunn they are trying to rescue a little girl from her kidnappers. Of course, since Gwen has never really been the 100% truthful sort, we find this isn't in fact, true. She used that to get Gunn there as her muscle. She's really looking for the plans for some government whosawhatsit that will allow her to not be quite so electrical.

Since Angel is now fully restore with his soul, he informs the gang that Angelus did not kill Lilah. He stumbled on an already dead Lilah and just took advantage of the available niblets. Lorne gets a spell together to clear up his mojo. He's worried about the fact that he couldn't tell Angel was really Angelus before. Our Evil Cordy is quite worried herself since she knows if Lorne gets his mojo back he'll probably realize she's not all she's cracked up to be. While she's busy trying to quietly creep up on Lorne during his spell casting, all the lights in the room get turned on and we see the whole Gang there watching Evil Cordy approaching Lorne with her very evil looking knife. Looks like they aren't as clueless as she was assuming.

Angel: Try this one.
Wesley: Something about strangling poultry.

Okay that is just funny cuz of the whole "choking chicken" reference.

4x17 Inside Out

Angel realized Cordy was the Beast boss cuz of some of the phrasing she used in his head and how she referred to her coming spawn. Angel wants to know where the real Cordelia is. While the Gang is trying to get answers from Evil Cordy, Connor comes in for the rescue and tranqs everyone, takes Cordy off to some romantic old meat processing warehouse. Evil Cordy keeps taking advantage of Connor's mushy pliable gray matter, and keeps telling him how much Angel hates Connor cuz of the love Connor and Cordy share. Gaw... worse storyline ever. Surely they could have come up with another way to work Charisma's pregnancy into the story.

Angel goes to visit skip since he Cordelia mentioned him as her spirit guide when she was in that quasi-coma before. Skip must not be so wonderfully perfect and gleeful as he comes across, cuz they end up in a big ol' fight. Skip admits to taking a dive the last time they fought cuz this was all planned from WAY back when. During the fight, Angel manages to break off some of Skip's horn thing and other bony parts. Somehow they end up back in the hotel lobby and they manage to bind Skip to this dimension while they get some more info. He finally ends up telling them that the demon possessing Cordy is going to give birth to itself essentially. That seems all kinds of wrong, even on top of the whole Oedipal Cordy/Connor thing.

Skip: It's going to be really hard for you to accept, but Cordelia has ascended to a higher plane.
Angel: I know. She's back.
Skip: Back?
Angel: Or at least something that looks like her.
Skip: Woah, wait. Nobody comes back from paradise. (pause) Okay, a Slayer once, but...

Cordelia has asked Connor to gather some things for her so that she can have her baby before anyone can get a hold of her. She wants her baby to be born free. One of the ingredients is the blood of a virgin, so off he goes to get him one. After he gets one off the street, cuz they are so readily available these days? As if. He has a bit of an internal struggle of the right/wrong issue with killing someone that isn't evil. He sees Darla as his little angel on the shoulder, or maybe it is really Darla showing up to lead him the way. Whatever. She's trying to persuade him to not kill her. In the end, Connor is about to set the girl free but Cordy interrupts and slices the girls throat. For a moment we see the Darla apparition dressed in all white, while Evil Cordy is dressed in all black. Interesting, and yet painfully obvious.

So, she gets her virgin blood, makes Connor get his hand all bloody and slap of that gooey liquid on her belly. And boom... looks like baby is on it's way. World is a-shaking', Skip manages to get away and then Wes kills him, Angel finds Connor & Cordelia and fighting ensues. Just as everything is coming to a head, big burst of light shoots out of Cordy's belly and then that light turns into a woman. Suddenly, Angel is quite bespelled.

4x18 Shiny Happy People

Cordelia's "child" is a fully grown woman, and everyone who sees or hears her instantly and rapturously begins to worship her.  The first who experience this are Angel and Connor. Now they are united in their disgusting adoration of the new lady.

Angel brings Cordy back to the hotel, and as the new lady comes into the hotel everyone bows to her in awe. Really this isn't new. I experience this every where I go. It is rough, but I accept the responsibility that comes with such reverence.

Angel: They don't understand.
Conner: No.
Angel: We don't want to kill her. We just... want to find her, so we can worship her.

Once the lady finds out what has happened in the area because of her birth, she wants to go out and have the Gang help fix as much as they can. They go off and attack vamps, and she and Fred sit on the sidelines. The lady wants them to come up with a name for her. This will obviously mean something. It just has that ring to it. Foreshadowing or something.

Everywhere she goes she keeps getting adored. She catches on to this quickly and makes nice little speeches to everyone about love, and goodness and blahblahblah. While she's giving a nice little speech someone in the crowd tries to attack her, calling her a monster, and he sees her face as all maggoty and decayed. She does get a bit of a cut and her shirt is cut and has blood. In Fred's complete devotion, she takes on the task of getting the shirt clean again. In what seems like days, she finally admits she can't get it clean and she bought a new one. When she finally sees the lady again, she sees the same maggoty face that the attacking guy did.

Later, Angel admits to the lady he's afraid that she could make him too happy and bring out Angelus again.

Everyone realizes that Fred isn't good anymore. She's evil cuz she can't see what they all see. Once Fred realizes that this isn't a good thing, she has to leave town. On her way out, she sees the lady, now named Jasmine, on TV sending her message to all of LA. Everyone watching the TV show gets just as awe-full.

4x19 The Magic Bullet

It's like a wonderful Beach Boy scored utopia. Everyone is so wonderful and happy and being nice to each other. Well, except Fred. She's busy getting chased by Wes and Gunn. She manages to get away in the sewers.

The hotel is now Jasmine central where all the devotees are gathering to just get a glimpse of their most wonderful lady of the perfectness.  After she addresses her followers, she grants two people with the ultimate privilege of visiting with her upstairs. This can't be good.

Random fact, we learn Lorne's heart is physiologically in his ass. Interesting.

Random observation... Gina Torres' lips are gigantic. Not necessarily in a bad way, but it's really hard to stop looking at them anytime they are on screen. HUGE.

As Jasmine is getting stronger it seems like she is getting more powers. She is able to use all her followers minds like cameras and track Fred down. She can even talk through them. She's finally tracked down and her and Angel go to her to get her back. During a little tussle, Fred gets a hold of a gun and shoots through Jasmine into Angel. She does this intentionally because she realizes that it was Jasmine's bloody shirt that made her see Jasmine differently. Once Jasmine's blood gets into Angel he sees Jasmine the same as Fred. It seems like one of the greatest things he's ever experienced has just been ripped from him. That has to suck.

After Jasmine gets all shot up by Fred she realizes what her blood does. She tells the store owner where Fred was tracked to to burn his store down so no one can get tainted by her blood. And so he does.

Back at the hotel, Jasmine tells everyone else that Angel is now lost too. And she continues to take followers up to her room. She then tells the people to take off their clothes.  We see glowing coming from her room and then she comes out and tells Connor she ate the people. She uses the energy to heal all her bullet wounds.

Fred & Angel break into Cordy's room at the hotel and they cut Cordy to get her blood. They figure that since she gave birth to Jasmine that her blood will also do the trick. They grab Lorne, then Wes & Gunn and expose them to the reality. No one seems happy about it. They seemed to miss their utopian version of things. They all finally get Connor and cut him and place Cordy's blood in the wound. Doesn't seem to work cuz he calls on Jasmine's security to get them all.

Connor: I'll kill you!
Angel: It'll pass.
Lorne: Yeah, right, 'cause Lord knows he's never tried that before.

Angel, Season 4 Disc 4

4x12 Calvary

While the gang is busy with other things, Lilah is able to sneak into the hotel basement to talk to Angelus.  She's interested in saving her own ass from the Beast and thinks Angel knows how she can do that. They get quite close to striking a deal, but then the rest of the Gang discover her presence. Wesley chases her through the sewers and manages to catch her. She tells him that she didn't seal Angel's missing soul and he, oddly enough, believes her. I guess wettin' your willy in someone makes you like a lie detector with them.  Wesley also discovers she has a book with her that talk specifically about the Beast. His copy of the same book doesn't have the passages because hers is from another dimension.

He figures out in true convenient nerd fashion that the reason there's no mention of the Beast or memories of the Beast is cuz all traces of his existence have been wiped out. And since Angelus' mind wasn't around when the spell was cast. He does have memories.

Angelus is having fun with the moron Gang cuz they didn't figure out that the Beast isn't the one calling the shots. He's a flunky, not the boss. This is later shown to be true when the Beast offers up a weapon fashioned from his own bones to someone.

Gunn and Fred are busy breaking up, and Wes almost gets a chance to declare his love for Fred. But then Angelus has to go and reveal the fact that Wes has been sleeping with Lilah. Tsktsk. Evil sex can come back to haunt.

Angelus: Hmm, I'm telling ya, man if I swung that way -- look at him. All rugged and handsome. And brains! Man, he's damn near perfect.
Wesley: Thank you.
Angelus: Except the part about banging Lilah for the past 6 months. Kinda takes the shine off.

Cordelia has a vision that shows her a spell that will restore Angel's soul. Once she gets the ingredients she needs, they all perform the spell and it appears to be a success. To test this, they have Angel sing and Lorne says that it's really Angel and he's back to his old brooding self. Angel insists he be kept in the prison though just in case the spell is only temporary. He orders everyone else about, but Cordelia stays behind. She accuses him of being a wuss and embarrassed by everything Angelus said. With Cordelia's continued prodding, he agrees to leave the cage. Cordy goes to set him free, and he knocks her out. Guess that's not Angel after all. He tells everyone he's got some plans and heads out.

Cordelia gains consciousness and tells everyone what happened. They take off after Angelus, but Cordelia and Lilah stay behind. Because of all the vampires out on the street feeding willy-nilly, Angelus heads back to the hotel to get his slurpslurp on.  There's a little chase between Angelus/Cordelia/Lilah. Lilah eludes Angelus, but then gets poked in the neck with a big weapon by Cordelia. Wait, isn't that the weapon from the Beast? mmmhmmmm.

4x13 Salvage

Like the old adage - waste not, want not - Angelus grabs him up some dead and still bleeding Lilah. He gets his slurp on. Connor, Gunn and Wes walk in on this and of course think Angelus has killed Lilah.

In an effort to be thorough, Wesley realizes he's going to have to behead Lilah so she doesn't come back as a vampire. Cuz she was so much better than that pre-death? Bah. But of course he can't just go and chop that noggin' off. He has to have a weird ghost-y conversation with Lilah. All about his time with her and blahblahblah.

Lorne is trying to get his Furies friends to put that anti-demon attacking spell on at the hotel. They eventually get that working.

Angelus is off talking to the Beast and letting him know he's definitely not up to taking orders from a peon like the Beast. he wants to talk to the main man/person/demon/it.

Angelus: That's right, brothers and sisters - the rumors are true. Angel has left the building and I am back. But hey, I'm no different from the next guy. I put my victim's skin on one leg at a time.

Cordelia is busy acting all injured and fainty. But, we see her reprimand her monster Beast-y minion too.

We get a bit of an update on Faith, the "other" Slayer. She's being all butch and macho in prison. And she's also busy almost getting killed by fellow prison mates with very nice ceremonial knives. Wes goes to visit her, once he realizes he's going to need all the help he can get to put Angelus in his place. When Faith realizes what Wes is asking, Faith immediately breaks through the glass at the visiting booths and escapes out with Wes. Guess only Faith was keeping Faith in prison. Maybe she has learned.

Faith goes in search of Angelus, and since he knows she's coming, he lets her find him. She ends up finding the Beast and Angelus, and starts in on the Beast. The Beast is very good at handing her ass to her. However, Angelus steps in and uses that bone weapon to kill the Beast. However, as soon as he does, the sun comes back out. He wasn't thinking too far ahead apparently. With the help of the sun and a big window breaking, Faith escapes.

Meanwhile, Cordelia tells Connor she's pregnant. I think I'm gonna hurl... again.

4x14 Release

Faith is quite beat up. Wesley takes her to his house to clean up, and she goes a bit psycho on his shower's tiled walls.

Angelus is at a bar drinking and bragging and then he suddenly starts hearing a voice that no one else is hearing. Turns out it's the Beast's master talking to him. However, we see that it's Cordelia speaking through some spelled stone or something in her room at the hotel. The same room she's been hiding out in cuz she doesn't want anyone other than Connor to know she's preggers quite yet.

Angelus: Now this is disappointing. You never used to bleed so easy.
Faith: Screw you!
Angelus: Mmmm. Maybe after. I like my girls to lie still.

Angelus heads over to the hotel to do the usual threatening, witty ridicule, and trying to figure out who the Big Boss is. They all try to attack him, but just as Connor is about to really get at him, the Furies' spell kicks in and Connor isn't able to hit Angelus. Oooops. Does that mean our precious boy is part demon as well as fully annoying whiny brat?

Faith and Wesley are out trying to track Angelus down, and they stumble on the bar he was at earlier. They get some information from a junkie in the back of the bar. A junkie that gets high, then vamps bite on her so they can get high too. K.

Faith & Angelus find each other and duke it out. Very nice looking fight. Great wire work and camera work. Very elegant looking.

In the end, he gets the upperhand and grabs at Faith and bites down on her.

4x15 Orpheus

Shortly after Angelus bites down on Faithy he stumbles back and looks at her in confusion. Looks like Faith learned a little something from those junkies at the bar. Just as the fight started, she drugged herself so that she could incapacitate Angelus. Of course, Wesley had something to do with it. he's not above hurting and using others to get to the end goal these days.

Angelus and Faith are both brought back to the hotel in pretty similar states. They both appear to be dreaming and they happen to be dreaming together. Or rather, Angelus is reliving Angel's past, and Faith is there for the ride.  This must be Angelus' version of hell, according to Faith, cuz he's seeing things like Angel saving puppies.

Wesley knows he needs some serious mojo help, so he calls on dear Willow from the other show on  that other network. Willow figures out a way to get Angel his soul back without necessarily finding the jar it's in. She'll have to break the jar, and immediately have it find Angelus or something like that.

Wesley: A lot has happened, not just Angelus. I've been... I've changed. I've seen the darkness in myself. I'm not sure you would even begin to understand.
Willow: I flayed a guy alive and tried to destroy the world.
Wesley: Oh. Well . . . I never flayed anyone . . . I did keep a woman chained in a closet. (pause) I know, it's not the same.
Willow: No, no, that's dark. You've been to a place.

Cordy, let's call her Evil Cordy, is really pissed about Willow's presence. She tries everything to get in Willow's way.

Faith and Angelus still stuck in Angel flashbacks. I thought the hair from the 1800s was bad. It has nothing on Angel's hair in the 1970s. Oh goodgawd it's awful. Really not flattering. Actually makes him look way chubbier.

As they continue to do the mystical dreamy mind tripping, Willow starts to get her spell on. The boss, aka Evil Cordy, slams some magic back at Willow. Don't think she/it realizes how awesome Willow is, cuz she gets past all that. Evil Cordy has also told Connor that it is necessary to kill Angelus, and him being the stupid feeble-minded teenager with hormones, says 'kay.  Just as he's about to do the deed, Angel gets his soul back and Faith wakes up.

Willow takes Faith back to Sunnydale to help with their apocalypse there, and Cordelia walks down the stairs with belly just a-showing. From this point on, Cordelia has some of the most hideous wardrobe. Is it like payment for having gotten pregnant while the show was going on? Or is it like payment for ballooning to three times her size in the first few months. Either way, I can only imagine that it's payment for something bad. Cuz the clothes are just beyond hideous.

Angel, Season 4 Disc 3

4x09 Long Day's Journey

The gang learns that the Beast is planning to rip five magickal totems from the bodies of the beings who are protecting them. If he gets them all, then he will be able to blot out the sun forever. When they learn that the Beast already has four of the five, they plan to protect the final one with the help of the electrifying cat-burglar Gwen Raiden. And I love me some Gwen. Although, she does resemble the villain Glory from Buffy Season 6, and I didn't like her much, look-wise. But, Gwen's definitely a hottie. She wears great leather, maybe that helps.

Gwen: Let's take turns guarding Manny. Angel you take Cordelia and I'll take Denzel here.
Gunn: Actually my name's Gunn. Not that that I mind the freakishly accurate description.

Lorne tells Angel he knows about Connor and Cordy. *shudder* But now he has someone to share that gross information with. Cordy tells Connor that Angel knows about them, and he doesn't seem phased really. Well, except for the fact that he's not really welcome at the hotel for the moment.

Oh, the protecting of the final totem doesn't go so well. They go to Gwen's manse and use this killer panic room to protect him and still they lose him. Tsktsk.

Also, they realize that the Beast knows Angelus. Angel can't seem to remember anything about him though.

4x10 Awakening

Cordelia has a vision, which reveals that the Beast once knew Angelus. Since Angel has no memory of this, the gang realizes that there is only one thing to do. They must find a way to bring forth Angelus. Ahhh, true friends. Let's take his soul! Sheeesh.

Wes goes out to find someone that can take Angel's soul, but also be able to return it to him once they get what they need. After much brouhaha, Angel agrees. He wants them to build this big super cage for him though. So they do.

Connor: You're the reason my life sucks.
Angel: Get over it.

Mystical ninja dude comes over to do the spell. He's in the cage with Angel. Angel is tied to a table. Right as ninja dude is about to do the spell, he goes to try to kill Angel. So, they have to kill him. Oh, ninja dude's name is Wu Pang I think. They pull Wu Pang's mask off and realize he has writing all over his body. It's all symbols, but of course Wesley can read it very well.

As they area reading through it, Cordelia gets white eyes and says something about a magical sword that can kill the Beast. They go through all these Indiana Jones-type puzzle/maze things but eventually get the sword.

When Angel and Cordy finally get a moment alone, Cordy tells Angel that she's sorry for the Connor boinking. She thought the world was ending, and she wanted to be with Angel. Since she couldn't, she sought comfort with whatever was nearby. Ew. They kiss. And for whatever reason, it's just not doing much for me. Leaving me cold here folks. Connor and Wes walk in as they are kissing. Connor goes pouty runs off. Angel and him fight, like fight-fight. Cordy then breaks up the fight and tells Connor that she was never his and he needs to understand that.

They go back to the hotel with the special sword. Beast shows up, big fight, sword breaks... but then Angel uses the broken pointy end to pierce the Beasts brain. Yay!

Random question... How many leather jackets must Angel own? He seems to get staked through them alot, and yet it always looks like the same jacket. hmmm.

The sun shines again, and everyone is happy. Even Angel cuz he has his Cordy. They get all smoochiesmoochie in his room and then start stripping each other. Hmmm. Hmmm. Hmmm. He's not supposed to be allowed to get too happy. Hmmm.

They are actually doing it, and they both appear to be very much into it, and then he starts to look pained. He yells out "Buffy!", aw snap, and rolls over on the bed. The next thing we see is his eyes open up and he's on the table in the cage, and he has quite the look about him. Oh, that look... that's Angelus.

How harsh is that? He has to go through all that, really feel like he's getting everything he wants and experience happiness to get his soul taken out. Cruel and unusual, man. Oh, so basically this whole episode didn't happen. Lame.

4x11 Soulless

Angel's soul has been removed, placed in a safe even, and Angelus has come to the fore. Wes tries to prep everyone for dealing with Angelus. He's gonna be sly that mean guy. Be careful. But, they have to go about interrogating him to find out what he knows about the Beast. Wes begins. The Gang looks on in the lobby via closed circuit camera.

One thing you have to say about Angelus. He's a lot of fun really. Well, dialogue-wise. He's snarky, mean, and just entertaining. Gotta love the wit, even if it is evil wit.

While everyone is watching on the monitor, Angel starts to pick at Wesley. He mentions things like being a bad watcher to Faith and stuff about him being a dork and all that. He also teases him about his ongoing Fred crush. And at one point he even starts to talk about Cordelia, and even brings up the Connor situation. Now everyone knows what went down.

Then Fred & Gunn go down there and feed him. He messes with their heads too, and almost gets a hold of Fred when she gets too close. Gunn manages to get her free with his handy threatening crossbow.

When Fred gets back upstairs, she's thoroughly freaked, but she does go talk to Wesley. Who then proceeds to kiss her like he's hungry for her lips. However, Gunn walks in on the tail end of this. He doesn't really see it, but he knows something went down. He gets very angry and loud. Angelus is down in his cell hearing the yelling and looking very smug.

He talks to Connor, and Connor thinks that Angelus is his real father and Angel is just a part he plays. Interesting.

Angelus: Doesn't it freak you out at all that she used to change your diapers? I mean, when you think about it, the first woman you boned is the closest thing you’ve ever had to a mother. Doing your mom and trying to kill your dad… hmm, there should be a play.

Cordelia finally comes down to talk to him. She unplugs the camera and she makes a deal with him. If he talks, and they save the world, he gets to have her. Do whatever he wants with her. He actually takes the deal. Yikes.

Angelus: You want to know about the Beast.
Cordelia: Everything you know.
Angelus: Oh...and in return I get what? Wouldn't mind a car, I hear the new mustang is nice.
Cordelia: Something better.
Angelus: What's a better ride than a mustang?
Cordelia: Me.

He gives up some info, they go out looking for some priestess but all they find is a house full of a dead family. This hits Connor hard for some reason and he goes outside to spew chunks.

Back at the hotel, Cordy goes back down to Angelus in his cell and tells him the deal is off. They didn't get anything and now they are going to put his soul back. When they go into the safe to get it... That's right... it's not there.

Angel, Season 4 Disc 2

4x05 Supersymmetry

Fred is super excited it would seem. She's jumping and yelling and hootin' and hollerin'.  Turns out a physics article of Fred's has been published in a nerdy mag. She is then invited to speak at a symposium. Angel and Gunn go to support her, but feel quite clueless about the advanced subject matter.

Lilah gives Wesley a really expensive gift of a knight's helmet or something. He's deeply touched, but he has to go. Bye! He could almost create his own wind tunnel with that exist. Lilah sees Fred's article on Wes' coffee table and gets those jealous eyes that women are known to get from time to time with someone they are boinking. Hey, I guess evil chicks aren't immune to the power of the penis.

So, with the gang all there.. including an evil eye giving Lilah.. Fred starts her lecture. Just as she's really getting into it, a portal opens, bringing her face to face with a demon that looks like a paranormal octopus. They rescue her, and Angel thinks it's Lilah, so he immediately goes after her. He quickly realizes that she didn't do it, and starts to think of who all was there.

During his investigation, Angel goes to a comic book store to visit one of the lecture attendants that seemed a bit out of place. I would say so. If he's to be found at a comic book shop, who is he kidding thinking he can hang with the mensa crowd. Just kidding... cute little scene in the comic shop where the guy tells them he knows all about Angel and his peeps. Ah, gotta love the cybernerds.

Angel: They talk about me in the chatty rooms?

Blahdy-Blah.. turns out it was Fred's ex-professor doing the portal opening. He also was responsible for sending her to Pylea. See, he was getting jealous of his really smart students so he would steal their work and send them away... far, far away. Fred wants some seriously major vengeance, and Gunn doesn't want to help her get all dark. She goes to Wes, who does help her. Then as she is about to throw her professor into a portal she opens, Gunn grabs the guy and throws him in it instead. That way Fred isn't a murderer. I guess that's sweet.

Cordelia visits Angel and they sit down and have a talk. She wants to know if they were in love. He doesn't really know the full answer to that question. Charisma Carpenter is pregnant during this particular season, and she is already filling out. Not really in the tummy area at the moment, but her boobs are really getting out there. And it's not like she had small ones in the first place. Connor is busy checking out her tatas too. Teenagers.

4x06 Spin the Bottle

This is an odd structured episode. It all kinda takes place as Lorne is telling the story of it on a performing stage. Seems like a weird thing to talk to an audience about... but that's a different story really. Ok, so he's telling the story of trying to get Cordelia's memory back. He stumbles upon a perfect spell, CLUE!, and gets everyone together to do it. Of course the spell does not go as intended. Everyone seems to revert back to their high school personas, which means they don't have any memories of each other.

Wesley: The cross obviously doesn't affect me, or our friend, the pugilist.
Gunn: Oh, your ass better pray I don't look that word up.

Eventually, Wesley-the-teenage-Watcher-in-training, theorizes that the only way to reverse the spell may be to kill a vampire. This is also about the same time that Angel realizes he is one.

Oh, Lorne got knocked out from the spell, so when they stumble upon him they think he's some sort of devil, so they tie him up.

Connor is out fighting and saving those distressed damsels. Turns out one wants to reward him for his bravery, but it'll cost him 50 bucks. Heh.

Lorne eventually wakes up, Fred unties him while everyone else is off doing other stuff, and Lorne figures out something to reverse the spell. It works. Cordy sees some weird demony thing in a vision/memory and wants to be left alone. Actually, she gets ALL her memories back, so Angel asks her the same question she asked him last episode. Guess she had the answer after all.

Angel: Cordelia - Were we in love?
Cordelia: We were.

Lorne finishes his tale on the stage, and he walks off the stage, and we just see an empty club/bar. See... Odd.

4x07 Apocalypse, Nowish

Cordelia's fragmented memories from the higher plane tell her that a horrific beast is coming, and that it will bring about the end of the world. Naturally.

Connor is always there to comfort her now when she wakes from her evil demony apocalyptic nightmares. I think I'm gonna hurl.

Later, Cordelia goes to talk to Angel and she tells him that she loves him, but she knows they can't be together. This poor guy will never catch a break, huh? Maybe it's written somewhere in the bylaws for champions that they can't know happiness or love. But they can know cheap sex (like when Angel slept with Darla).  Hmmm... I'm really not seeing anything wrong with this. Maybe they need to play up the cheap sex angle more often.

Connor and Cordelia are out trying to find out more information about this pending doom and gloom, when they happen upon Connor's birth place. A dirty alley among trash bins. At that same moment, in the same birthing spot, a big demony thing comes out of the ground. Connor tries to fight it, cuz he's an idiot. This sucker is HUGE and he looks like cooling lava, and he has hooves instead of feet. He's big, what can a wee Connor do. Connor takes his beating and the Beast shoots up into the air.

Lorne: I hate to be the little demon that cried "Apocalypse, Nowish," but..

Back at Angel Investigations, they are getting swamped with calls about the paranormal. Problem with what they do is, if business is good, things aren't so good. Paradoxical indeed.

Angel somehow gets some papers from Lilah at Wolfram & Hart. They are everything they got out of Lorne's head when they sucked him dry. heh. They can't make heads or tails of it, so they were just free with the sharing I guess. Eventually, they start to realize the papers are like a puzzle and put them together. It ends up making a big symbol with means something horrific I'm sure. Lorne's map of increased phonecalls appears to match their symbol.

Fred & Gunn are having issues in their relationship ever since Gunn killed that professor for her. Tension is thick, and Fred needs to think. She goes off to the diner they are always eating at.

All the mens figure out where the Beast is going with their weird maps, and they head off that way. They find the Beast and he's killed a bunch of folks. They try to attack, and the Beast just swats them around like flies. At the end of the fight, the Beast asks something like "Do you really think she's safe with him?" to Angel. Then the Beast punches the ground and fire starts shooting up into the sky. Thinks are looking very bleak.

So bleak in fact, that over with Cordy and Connor, she's decided to give him an end-of-the-world Oedipalesque boinking. This is where I truly want to hurl. Worst. Storyline. Ever.

Because of what the Beast says, Angel goes to check on them, and instead he gets an eyeful of virgin boy going at it with the woman he just realized he loves.

4x08 Habeas Corpses

Oooooh boy. Man, Angel is not taking kindly to that sight he had of his lady and his son going all horizontal. He is very angry. And really, aren't we all? Way to take a storyline and vomit on it, in it, under it, and through it. Yech.

Joining him in the miserable-about-a-lady realm, is Wesley. He's still crushin' hard on Fred.

And proving there is some slight sanity somewhere, Cordy is completely wigged out when she wakes up next to Connor. Connor gets the "happy puppy look", and Cordy tells him to quit it. She tries to tell him it was a one time thing, but he gets super pissy, like a teenager, and takes off.

After the evening's events, Lilah comes to check on Wesley to make sure he's alive and she actually seems super happy to see him. See, the power of the penis is strong in this one. However, Wesley doesn't appear to be as thrilled to see her. He breaks up with her, but she kinda begs. She tells him she could "wear the glasses again" and even that doesn't sway him. See, they did it once where she dressed up like Fred. It was totally Lilah's doing too. It just that Wesley seemed to REALLY enjoy it.

Cordy goes to find Angel, and she tells him about the Beast and the fact that it came out of the same spot Connor was born. Connor goes to W&H, Lilah specifically, and asks for her help. He wants to figure out what he is, and she's more than willing to open him up to figure that out for him. Good timing too, cuz the Beast is now at W&H and he's ripping heads off and wreaking all kinds of havoc. Somehow Wes is in W&H too. He manages to save Lilah and himself. He goes back to the hotel and tells everyone that the Beast is at W&H, and Connor is trapped in there with it too.

Oh, total sidebar here. Angel's old white trash orangey hair seems to be gone. It's much darker now, and he finally cut a cut. He was looking really shaggy there. Oh, and I've noticed they've slowly moved Cordelia's hair from nasty blonde back to a brunette that is more flattering.

Anyway, they all go to W&H, get Connor, and they go up to that secret special White Room that Angel visited once. They get there, and the Beast is already sucking the life out of the little girl that is usually in there. Right as the Beast comes towards them, the little girl reaches her hand out and the whole Gang just appears back at the hotel lobby.

First Angel seems really happy about this, then he sees Cordelia and the extra broody face comes back into place. She's excited to see everyone back and not hurt. Him, not so much.

Cordelia: I'm just glad everyone is back together.
Angel: Me too. Now take your new boyfriend and get the hell out of here.
Cordelia: Oh God.

Angel, Season 4 Disc 1

4x01 Deep Down

I remember SO hating the Season 3 cliffhanger ending at the time. Those kinds of cliffhangers are just so cruel to the viewer. But this time around, I can just pop the next disc in and go about my business without the 3-4 months of agony waiting to find out what happens. Yay.

This episode starts with a most beautiful scene. It appears to be Thanksgiving and the whole Gang is having dinner together all happy like. Even Wesley! So, of course it's not real. It's a hallucination/delusion that Angel is having while sitting in a box at the bottom of the ocean. He must be hungry, among other things.

Angel and Cordelia are still missing. Gunn and Fred are still looking for them, but not having much luck. Lilah and Wes still having the sexy time. The fact that they are always so sweaty when they show them as they are finishing the deed is kinda hawt. A little on the oh-so-kinky side... when Lilah leaves, Wesley opens a closet with a key and we see Justine bound and gagged in a big old cage. Man, that Wesley sure is going through some changes.

Lilah does a very Wolfram & Hart kind of thing, and goes over Linwood's head. Mostly cuz she gets the permission from the higher-ups to cut his off.

Back to Wes, turns out he knows what went down with Angel. He uses Justine, and they go out in the boat and bring him up. Wesley ends up having to give Angel some of his own blood to get him better. Such the sacrifice. He just wants to be back in the Gang, I'm sure.  Angel comes back to the hotel, where Connor has been fighting with a clued in Fred & Gunn. He seems very weak, but not too weak to put Connor in his place.

Angel: I love you, Connor. Now get out of my house.

Meanwhile, Cordelia is up in the clouds and she's apparently very bored.

4x02 Ground State

Wesley and Lilah are still heavy into the nekkid mambo. And, during a visit to Lilah, Angel tells her he can smell them all over each other. So, I guess that wee secret it out. Can't hide much from a vampire. Especially, when it involves odors.

Angel visits Dinza, a Goddess of the lost, who advises him that an item called the Axis of Pythia can help him find Cordelia. With Fred and Gunn, he breaks into a auction house to find the Axis, but a beautiful burglar with electrical powers seems to have had the same idea. She's like an X-men character actually. She can't touch anything without frying it with electricity.

Fred: I'm still working on a plan, but so far it involves being sent to prison and becoming somebody's bitch.

Oh, he name is Gwen Raiden. That totally sounds like something straight out of X-men. She even goes to a special boarding school as a kid cuz she's all weird and special. See... XMEN.

Anyway, Angel ends up with the device, and he sees Cordelia. He knows she's ascended and she looks happy. Cordelia is looking over them and seems far from happy. She's bored and she wants back on the mortal plane.

4x03 The House Always Wins

In a cute little scene, we see Connor on the street fighting vamps. Looking down at him from the roof of a nearby building, Angel is doing a running commentary on what Connor is doing wrong and right. Very father-like. Cordelia is up in the sky or whatever, looking down at both Angel and Connor commenting on the fact that no one is trying to get her out of her predicament.

Angel decides they need a break, so off to Vegas the three of them go. It'll also serve as an info gathering trip by seeing Lorne to see what he sees from their auras. They go to a very public show of Lorne's, very Liberace-esque, but he doesn't even acknowledge their presence.

It soon becomes clear that Lorne is being held against his will, and that his popular casino act is actually a way for his captor to read the futures of people in the crowd. Angel and the gang must find a way to help Lorne escape without sacrificing their own destinies in the process.

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

On the Gang's return to the hotel, they find Cordelia, but she's got a serious case of the amnesia. We're getting into major soap opera territory here.

Not the greatest episode, but it was interesting to see Angel dropping names, like Bugsy, Sammy, and Elvis. It was kinda cute.

4x04 Slouching Toward Bethlehem

Cordelia appears back at the hotel with no idea who she is or how she got there. She also cannot remember anything about her friends or her past. Worried that the full truth may scare her off, the gang attempts to hide the scarier parts of their lives from her until she is ready to deal with it. Things get even more complicated when Lorne reads her mind and sees a terrifying vision of the future.

Gunn: Well, how horrible is this thing?
Lorne: Well, I haven't read the Book of Revelations lately, but if I was searching for adjectives, I'd probably start there.

Connor is busy struggling to find his place in the world. He sees family, and you can see quite the yearning in him.

Cordy finally finds out the whole truth about them dealing with the demon world and creatures and monsters, and she gets pissed that they held the truth from her. It probably didn't help that one of Lorne's client tried to eat her.

Lilah gets a call while she's at Wesley's and he overhears. He finds out that Wolfram & Hart is after Cordelia, and he comes to warn them. However, after all is said and done, it turns out that W&H were after Lorne, and the readings he had of Cordelia. Sucked them right out of his head. Wes confronts Lilah, she intended for all that to happen as it did. He's not as bad as she thought he was.

After all the wiggy stuff going on, Cordy doesn't feel like she can trust the group, but she Connor seems very straight forward with her. So, she decides she would rather stay with Connor at his disgusting abandoned building than in the lush hotel with the Gang.

Ugh, memories of awful story line are hitting me. Gawd this gets so icky soon. You'll see what I mean soon enough. *HURL*

Angel, Season 3 Disc 6

3x20 A New World

Yes, Angel's wittle baby is now like 18 years old. He's come back, and he doesn't look too happy to see dear old dad. He starts attacking immediately. The fight scene is really cool. Very theatrical with the slo-mo action and then sped up movements.  After big awesome fight, Connor runs out of the hotel, and with the help of some seriously lacking special effects, jumps on top of a bus and goes for a ride.

Over in Wesley land, Lilah is busy stopping by his place to offer him a job at Wolfram & Hart. He finds it a bit humorous, and denies.

Fred: Connor's new to this world, alone...probably scared.
Gunn: Yeah, he looked scared, kicking my ass!

The Gang can't find Connor, but he's busy finding a damsel in distress. He saves her, cuts off the ear of the guy that was giving her trouble and she lets him follow her to her homeless hovel. She shows him some food he's never experienced, and gets him out of his Peter Pan outfit. Later she goes off to do some drugs in the bathroom, and then Connor finds her dead.

Angel sniffs out Connor's location and they talk a bit. The main thing he seems to want Angel to understand that his name isn't Connor, it's Stephen. But for the purpose of not confusing you, we'll just keep calling him Connor. During their talk, the earless dude and his buds also find Connor, and big fight ensues. Cops also find the spot... geeez, it's a regular party. Angel and Connor eventually escape, but Connor doesn't want to go to the hotel with him. They seem like they are on ok terms, so Angel lets him go.

Yah, he goes running off and finds his other father, Holtz. Guess he got through the tear in time too.

Side note -- Groo has started this weird sudden jealousy of Angel where Cordelia is concerned. It just seems out of nowhere.

Angel's son Connor is brought back from the Hell dimension a feral teenage warrior, and is hellbent on vengeance against his father for Angel's bloody past. When he fails, the confused teen escapes to the mean streets of L.A. Determined to set things straight, Angel searches for his son, who in the interim befriends a troubled but kind homeless girl. Meanwhile, the dimensional rift through which the young man traveled continues to cause trouble at the hotel.

3x21 Benediction

Angel and Connor successfully engage in some much-needed father-son bonding when they find themselves fighting side-by-side. Then foster-father Holtz stirs things up by suggesting Connor should leave him to live with Angel. Meanwhile, Lilah continues to work on recruiting Wesley for the bad guys; and Cordelia's closeness with Angel causes a rift in her relationship with Groosalugg.

Cordy: Wait! Angel! Before you go, we have to do that thing.
Angel: What thing?
Cordy: That thing we do? You know, that thing where I say 'Are you sure you know what you're doing?' 'Angel, please think about this' and then you ignore me and rush headlong into trouble?
Angel: Right, that thing. (pauses) ...'Kay, we done?

Couple of random observations... Angel's hair seems really light color-wise, and shaggy as hell. Don't know if I noticed this before, but Cordelia has really great eyebrows. Hey, it's a girl thing, one appreciates good eyebrows.

So, Holtz seems like he's all RahRah Angel to Connor, but he obviously has a devious plan. Justine is with him and she's promised him she'll help him. We find out what her promise involved. She kills Holtz by poking two holes in his neck with an icepick. Guess he just has to have the last betrayal.

3x22 Tomorrow

Angel tries to make Connor feel at home in the Hyperion, he's even busy trying to find the perfect room for him in the hotel. However, Justine tries to convince him that Angel is guilty of murdering Holtz. And since he's grown up with nothing but hate his whole life it really doesn't take him long to go with that. Poor thing even cuts off Holtz's head so he won't turn into a vampire. Isn't that so sweet? Yech.

Connor comes back to the hotel like lah-dee-dah, nothing's happened, and Angel is his Papa. Angel wants to take his son to an action movie. With Fred & Gunn in tow, they all head out to a drive-in... cuz those are still so common.  During the movie a real helicopter shows up and military guys try to get Connor. They finish that fight, and Angel realizes the van in front of them houses W&H. He opens it and smacks 'em around.

Angel: I found Holtz.
Cordelia: And?
Angel: I didn't kill him.
Cordelia: Maybe you're growing as a person.

Meanwhile, Cordelia seems to be the only person who does not realize that she has fallen in love with Angel. When the light finally dawns, she decides that she must find a way to tell him. Well, right after Groo leaves her ass. I wonder where he goes to live? Does he go back to Pylea? Or has he been around long enough to go out, get a job, and pay rent. Hey, just thinking of the practicals here.

Cordelia calls Angel, says she has to talk to him about her feelings for him and he looks kinda cute with the smile he has. They agree to meet at some ocean side place that is pretty. I'm wondering, really? Let's meet somewhere instead of just doing this over the phone. You've already said like 49% of what you want, just go with it. But, that's just me.

She's running late to her own scheduled rendezvous and suddenly everything goes all bright and lighty and freeze frame. Except Cordy, and her demon guide Skip. He's come to tell her she's graduated and outgrown this particular plane of existence and she needs to ascend. Our Cordy has come so far huh? Total teenage rich bitch with 'tude, to angelic lovely. Who'da thunk?

She doesn't want to leave without telling Angel how she feels, but she doesn't really have a choice about that. She starts floating up into the sky in a really bad cheesy way and it takes far too long.. so it looks cheesy for a long time too.

Connor finds Angel where he's waiting for Cordelia, big fight ensues. Connor is actually able to get Angel knocked out with the help of taser and something else. He signals a boat, and it starts to head toward him. Then, on the boat, him and Justine are basically sealing Angel up in a big steel box. Guess what's gonna happen? Yup.

There was a really cool juxtaposition between Angel sinking down to the bottom of the ocean, while Cordelia is ascending to that other spiritual plane. Well, it could have been really cool if that ascension didn't look so "Touched by an Angel". Heh. That's actually kinda funny. Cuz she WISHES she could be touched by this Angel. Get it? OMG! I slay me.

Oh, Wes is now having hot, sweaty, mean, evil sex with Lilah. If you can't beat 'em, bang 'em.

Angel, Season 3 Disc 5

3x16 Sleep Tight

Wes is continuing with his depressing self. The dude is bring me down. Geeez. I think he doesn't ever go back to a happy-go-british Wes we've known and not hated to much. Bummer. He's seriously bringing me down! I know, I repeated myself. But only to indicate the level at which he's bringing me down. I think you've got the point by now. Good. With the continuing darkness, he goes and visits Holtz again. Talking about Angel and the baby... something something. His darkness was so overwhelming I forgot to pay too close attention to the scene.

Lorne has a client visiting him at the hotel to get a reading. She's human yet, when she is singing for him she goes all weird demon-like with green foaming spit. Wasn't very attractive.

Angel: Yeah and you look like hell. Not the fun one where they burn you with hot pokers for all eternity...but the hard-core one...you know, Nixon and Britney Spears?

On the complete opposite end of the Wesley spectrum, we have Angel. He seems a tad bit overly amped. And he's amped about anything and everything. But he's really pumped at the thought of going to find Lorne's client fellow band mates that are a problem. He even ends up tearing limbs off. But they're demons, so no biggie there I guess. When he gets home from the fight, he can't seem to get enough blood. He's been drinking quite a bit of it lately. More than usual. The team realizes this, and Fred goes to analyze his beverages. Turns out there is a bit of human blood in his pig's blood, Connor's blood to be specific. Angel realizes that's why Connor has been smelling like food lately. Ew. And we know who's done this, right? Yah, the douchey lawyers.

Angel goes to visit Lilah, where she sits alone at a bar. Her life must be awesome. While he's there, Sahjahn appears to have a chat with Lilah too and gets mad when he sees her chatting it up with Angel.  He ends up giving away more information that he should have and now Angel knows stuff.

Wesley is back at the hotel and getting Connor ready to take for an "overnight" with Uncle Wes. As he's humming to Connor to get him to calm down, Lorne reads him. Lorne obviously sees something he doesn't like, and Wesley realizes it. Wesley knocks Lorne out, Angel sees Wesley on his way out with Connor and okays the overnight.

Just after that, Holtz makes an appearance, and his people attack Angel and friends. Lorne finally wakes up and tells them about Wes and the reading he got from him. As Wesley is leaving his own house after packing up to take Connor away, Justine drops by, slits his throat, and takes the baby to Holtz. Angel finds Holtz, Justine, and Connor. Then Lilah and her military brigade find all of them. When given the choice, he tells Holtz to take the baby and run. He knows that he's the better of two evils. Sahjahn shows up, gets all pissy, and rips open a portal or tear in the fabric of time and space to some hellish looking place. Holtz & baby run through it, and it seals up. I don't think that was what Angel had in mind when he told Holtz to take the baby. Poor daddy Angel :(

3x17 Forgiving

Gunn and Fred are at Wesley's place searching for clues to where he would take Connor. Little do they know that Wesley is just laying with his throat cut in the park next to his house. They arrive back at the hotel only to find out about Holtz taking Connor. Fred goes off to search for info on the portal and where it was Holtz ran off to.

After the whole portal/tear opening thing, Justine goes back to their shoddy headquarters and tells the rest of the team it's time to get serious. It's time to kill Angelus. Yawn.

Random info... I should have realized this early, but the Angel/Buffyverse is very Mac-centric. Go Macs! These look so old though. They're just so 2002. How gauche.

Lorne comes back with info about the world Holtz went to -- Quortoth. Sounds like it's not a very nice place. Apparently Angel has W&H's main man Linwood in one of the hotel's rooms, where he's setting up a nice little torture area. Doesn't take much, well, just really a threat of torture, and he spills. Angel is to go to a W&H special room called "The White Room". Lilah accompanies him to this room, where they are both greeted by a girl that looks about 8 years old. She tells Angel about Sahjahn, specifically that W&H is responsible for making him non-corporeal, and she tells him how to get him otherwise. He goes back to the hotel, does a spell with the dark magicks, and nothing seems to happen. However, Sahjahn pops up in the middle of a road and then proceeds to get hit by a truck. Heh, guess it worked after all.

Angel: I tell you what, you take me to the Quortoth world, help me find my son, we'll call it even.
Sahjhan: Really? You and me, buddy cops, summer release? We iron out our wacky differences and bond? Don't think so.

Fred & Gunn have found Wesley's diaries and realize why Wesley had done what he did. "The Father will kill The Son". When Sahjahn finds everyone, it turns out that Sahjahn is responsible for the prophecies. He was able to travel through time, so when he saw that Connor was responsible for his own death, he went back and had the prophecies changed here and there. Justine brings in magic urn which sucks Sahjahn inside. Guess that problem is on hiatus. Justine finally tells them that she slit Wesley's throat. They find him in a hospital.

Angel actually goes to visit, and he looks really concerned. He tells Wesley that he wants him to know that he's not Angelus, he's Angel. Then he proceeds to try to suffocate him, but he's stopped by the orderlies. Wow, he's extremely mad.

3x18 Double or Nothing

Let's begin this with a side note. It seems to me that Lorne's wardrobe seems to be taming down. Or maybe now that he's not in the club, he's trying to not be so conspicuous. I mean, he's already green, don't want to add to that natural shade of obviousness. Ok, I can get that.

Cordelia and Groosalugg return from their Mexican vacation. She looks so happy to see everyone, but with the things that have been going down, this bunch can't remember what a smile is. Cordelia's hair has changed yet again, and this time is definitely not for the better. It makes her look so much older.

Then we see some ugly, and not very well done, demons in a casino. Sigh. I already know this is gonna be a very bad Monster-of-the-Week episode. Bleh. Anyway, main big casino guys says "It's time to collect a soul" while staring at an Angel Investigations business card. So, naturally, we're supposed to think Angel. So, naturally, that makes me think of anyone but Angel. Angel would just be too obvious.

Groo: He is very fortunate to have such a woman looking after his weapon.
Lorne: I'm not touching that one!

While Gunn is out on a case, one of the casino henchmen find him (with Groo's help), and tells him his marker is up. They got notice that his soul might be at risk because of his new found love, and so it's time for him to pay up. He seems devestated, but he also owns up to his word. He has 24 hours to report to Jenoffs Casino. He then starts the next day by delivering breakfast in bed to Fred. He spends the rest of his day trying to cram every little thing that Fred loves to do and eat. She gets wise that something is up, and instead of telling her the truth, he gets all asshole-ish and tells her it's another woman cuz she's too damn skinny for his liking. So weak.

The rest of the Angel gang find out what's going down, and head to the casino. Angel says "double or nothing" over a game of high-card wins. Bad guy draws a 9... everyone ooooohs. Angel draws a friggin' 3. Cordelia slams a stake into bad buys hand, and Angel then swings a big slice-y weapon and cuts the bad guys head off. Gunn just looks at him in dismay. If it were that easy, Gunn would have tried that. The dude's head starts growing back. But of course. Then Angel gets the crows to take care of him, surely other people in the room owe him too. Gunn and Fred are finding an oasis of happiness amidst the pain around them, but all of it may be lost when a repo-man shows up to collect on a bargain that Gunn made years before. In order to make good, Gunn must surrender his soul.

And what did dear old Gunn sell his soul for, back when he was 17? His truck. Yes, his POS truck without air conditioning. He just figured he didn't have much time left in life anyway, so it wasn't like he'd need it. LAME.

3x19 The Price

In previous episodes, and something I forgot to mention, Angel had been spending entirely too much time in his old room where the earthquake induced fire ruined his and Connor's living quarters. He would just sit in the charred room staring. Cordelia would sit with him. Anyway, at the end of the last episode I believe, he finally starting taking down Connor's fried crib. So, now in this episode, the whole Gang is busy in his room trying to clean it up and fix what they can. There's a bit where Groo is trying to convince Angel to go with a different shade of paint that was just beautiful. He feels very strongly against the current shade of Pomegranate Mist. Good stuff.

Gavin: You know, despite our differences...when a coworker tries to pat you on the back...
Lilah: I check for the knife.

The rest of the episode is meh. Angel wants to just dive into work to help him forget about how much missing Connor hurts. They end up finding their potential client in a smoothie shop across the street from the hotel. He's been drinking everything he can find and his skin is still drying and cracking. He calls talking about "We are thirsty". Turns out that dark magick spell that Angel did... this is part of the cosmic payback. It's these weird invisible-ish slugs all over the hotel. They get inside people and just dehydrate the crap out of them. Fred ends up getting one in her, and so Gunn goes off to find out if Wesley knows anything that will help. At first he won't do anything, then he finds out it's Fred that is in trouble and then hands Gunn a bottle of vodka. He takes it back to the hotel, forces her to guzzle it, and the slug thing comes out.

While Angel and Cordy are in the hotel kitchen surrounded by these slugs, Cordy suddenly emits crazy insane bright light. It kills off all the slugs in the hotel. Guess this is part of her new demoness powers. She seems thrilled actually. Better than horns and a tail she says.

One of the creatures spoke through Fred while she had it, and told them all "The Destroyer is coming". After everything is cleared up, they all ponder what that means. Just then, a bit portal opens in the lobby ceiling. A big big creature falls through and looks all scary. Before anyone can even react, a human pops through and destroys the creature. He turns to the Gang, and specifically Angel, and says "Hi, Dad."

Oh snap.

Angel, Season 3 Disc 4

3x12 Provider

Angel is a daddy now. Angel's son has needs and a future to worry about, and all that costs money. So some of Angel's priorities have changed just a wee bit. He's now trying to advertise for Angel Investigations in every way possible. However, him and the gang don't seem quite prepared for the flood of business it all brings in, so they have to split up to cover more ground. Fred is offered major cashmoney to solve a seemingly harmless demonic puzzle. Angel takes a job from a high-paying businessman. Gunn and Wesley protect a woman who has a zombie ex-boyfriend stalking her.

Angel: (to baby Connor) How's my little magna cum laude, Notre Dame, class of 2020?

With the gang all spread thin like they are, some of the details get slipped by them. For instance, once Fred solves her puzzle, those demons are going to be removing her head from her body to place on their leader's body cuz his head is deteriorating. Angel's businessman isn't one. He needed help in getting rid of a vamp nest and posed as a guy that actually had money, when in fact, no money at all. Gunn and Wesley's woman client failed to mention the fact that she was the one who poisoned her ex-boyfriend in the first place.

Seeing Angel get all baby face, googoo gaga and all that, is just cute and yet utterly disturbing.

3x13 Waiting in the Wings

Since the Gang did get quite a bit of money from the wannabe head-stealing demons they slayed, Angel decides to give them all a treat. He takes them out for an evening at the ballet. Not everyone seems thrilled at this idea, but they all get dressed up and go. However, Angel becomes suspicious when the prima ballerina seems to be the one he saw dance more than a century ago. Just a bit of info here... the ballerina is Summer Glau from Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Joss Whedon's Firefly.  She is actually a ballerina too.

Lorne: You're a man of many limitations, Angel. But you're a man. You got a heart. And Cordelia is a hell of a lady. I mean, if I thought she'd like to wear green, I'd be elbowing you out of the way. But she's out of my league. She's a champion, Angel, old school. And besides, we all know you got a thing for ex-cheerleaders.

When Angel and Cordelia sneak backstage to investigate, they find themselves consumed with an unnaturally sudden and strong passion for one another. Convenient, no? Angel starts to get a bit of an attraction for Cordy and then they both get taken over by a weird spell that involves the taking off of clothes and licking in naughty places. Oh, I'm not saying that like it's a bad thing, but yes, very convenient.

Turns out it involves the ballerina and her ex-love. She chose ballet over him a very long time ago. Then the dude who runs the ballet company loved her so much he keeps her trapped in this performance for all time. Angel and Gang save the day, but she has to change up the performance a bit to be free. Angel talks her into trying, and she does it, and disappears after the show is over. All is well. Oh, and during the fight at some point, Gunn and Fred get a luscious kiss in. However, Wesley, who is also quite in lust with Fred, sees it and doesn't look too happy about it.

When they all arrive back at the hotel, Angel starts to talk to Cordelia about how he feels for her. But just as he is about to get his point across, the Groosalugg (from episodes at the end of Season 2) shows up and Cordy runs over to him and starts mackin' down. Ouch... that has to hurt.

3x14 Couplet

Angel feels isolated, obsolete and even a bit jealous when Groosalugg arrives in town from Pylea, immediately saves the gang in battle, and is welcomed into the loving arms of his former princess, Cordelia.

But it's not all suns and roses for Miss Cordy. While her and Groo are making out, she gets a vision of a big spiny demon thing. She also realizes that in Pylea, if her and Groosalugg were to have "mated", he would have taken her visions. So, now she's afraid to get with the bow-chica-bow-bow cuz she doesn't want to risk her link to The Powers That Be.

Cordelia: I couldn't go through with it.
Angel: You couldn't?
Cordelia: No. Not after seeing that disgusting, spiny thing!
Angel: Spiny?
Cordelia: Right up in my face!

However, she does find someone that has a "paranormal prophylactic" of sorts. It's a spell that will allow them to have sex without her risking her powers. Angel and Groo have to go to a demon brother to obtain said potion.

On the way back, they get a phone call from Fred and Gunn who are stuck in the roots of some tree plant demon thing. This may be the lamest monster ever, but I dunno, it could possibly get worse. This demon/plant thing pulls them down under a tree. Then they see that the roots are attached to a guy they are looking for and it's sucking the life out of him. Ok... with ya so far. Then, they see that the roots of the demony plant are typing on computers on online dating chat rooms and websites. No, lost me. It looked about 10 times worse than it sounds.

Angel and Groo go to save them, Groo gets sucked by the roots of the tree, and Angel saves the day. Back at the hotel, Angel gives Cordy a wad of cash and tells her to go. He wants her to take a couple weeks off and take Groo somewhere sunny and fun where they can spend time together. So selfless, our champion.

3x15 Loyalty

Wesley has discovered part of what the prophecy says and now he's miserable with stress about it. It says "The Father will kill The Son". That might stress me out too. But, of course, this is television, so it has to be melodramatic stress. He's not sleeping, he's trying to find out more specific details, and he has nightmares when he does manage to fall asleep about Angel eating his son Connor. He should know by now these prophecies are never literal. It wouldn't be any fun though if people actually learned lessons in tvland.

Fred: We should be getting back.
Gunn: Hang on! I'm getting a tingle!
Fred: Um, I thought we were gonna try to keep that out of the workplace.
Gunn: Not that kind of tingle.

A client comes in with some information about her son becoming a bumpy faced thing that burns up in the sunlight. She also has information about where he had been hanging out. So, Fred and Gunn go out to investigate said vampire nest, and everyone seems unaware that the lady who hired them is one of Holtz's new lackeys.

Later on, Wesley approaches Holtz on his own. He says he's willing to trade himself for Holtz justice. But of course that's not good enough for Holtz. He wants to make Angel suffer of course, and that is going to involve a wee baby coffin. So harsh.

While this does progress our main story, I just found it weak. Could be cuz Holtz just annoys me. Crazy awesome deep menacing voice though.

Angel, Season 3 Disc 3

3x09 Lullaby

With Darla's contractions getting closer together, the Angel Investigations gang is surprised when she flies into a frenzy and runs away from them. Now Angel must track her down in time to safely deliver their baby. However, their old nemesis -- the vampire hunter, Holtz -- is now in present day L.A., and after hundreds of years he is finally closing in on his quarry.

Darla: Angel, I don't have a soul. It does. And right now that soul is inside of me, but soon, it won't be and then.. I won't be able to love it. I won't even be able to remember that I loved it. (Starts to cry) I want to remember.

I remembered really being moved by this episode the first time around. Darla, who has been a mega monster bitch ever since we saw her in the first episode of Buffy, is so effected by the souled child she's carrying she stakes herself. After her dust settles, a wee baby is laying there. See, it should be all boohoo right about now. I know I cried the first time around. This time, not so much. I wonder why. Cuz I knew it was coming? I don't think that's it. Cuz I've been bawling like a baby with the Buffy stuff, and not only do I know what's coming, but I've watched Buffy's Season 6 twice. Probably cried harder the second time in some cases. So, dunno why... but that's that.

3x10 Dad

What do you have to do after you have a new baby? You gots to do lots of shopping. The pampers, and the food, and the blankies, and the teddy bears. So, they get all that done, and then a demon storms in to attack the baby, presumably. Gunn and Wesley take care of that lickety split. Cordelia finds three websites that are offering cash money for the baby. Angel wants 'em traced.

Elsewhere, our vamp-killer Holtz is getting the earful from Sahjhan, the demon that brought Holtz back. He's a bit pissed that he let Angel go after the whole non-birth birth of the baby. Holtz has bigger plans... make that Angel suffer.

Wesley: You nearly had sex on my desk so I shouldn't be surprised there's a baby on it.

Back at the hotel, which now has a mystical shield of protection, the Gang is gearing up for the attacks. See, a bunch of different groups are outside the hotel waiting to get their grubby hands on the baby. One of these groups is Wolfram & Hart, natch. They still have their cameras all up in the hotel spying on our peeps.

Angel takes the baby and flees. Leaving the crew all alone to take on all the factions that are about to attack the hotel. They do indeed attack, but the gang handle themselves okay. Some of the groups see Angel fleeing via auto and they go after him. They chase him to some old mine, where he tosses the baby at them and leaves quickly. Turns out he didn't have the baby after all. He had a bomb in a blanket.

The gang did a switcheroo cuz Lorne, who is now living in the hotel, was hearing the high pitch noise from all the cameras W&H have in the hotel.

3x11 Birthday

Go Cordelia, it's your berfday! No, seriously, it's her birthday. The Gang surprise her with a wee party and presents. While she's enjoying all the attention, she gets one of her visions. In the middle of her telling everyone what it's about, she collapses. She wakes up, but she wakes up being able to see herself on the floor with everyone surrounding her. She seems kinda ghostlike. She is then visited by a demon guide. It's Skip! Skip is fun. Skip was the guard that was responsible for Billy. Angel was able to kick his butt and free Billy.

Cordelia: The Powers That Be popped me out of my body and sent me to a mall?
Skip: Actually this is more a construct of a mall. You know, like in The Matrix.
Cordelia: You've seen The Matrix?
Skip: Loved that flick. When Trinity's all 'Dodge this!' and the agent goes and crumples to the...and I'm not really instilling any awe any more, am I?

This time around Skip is helping out Cordy. See, her visions have been slowly destroying her brain. She's been secretly taking all kinds of migraine meds and pain killers. Even has had some MRIs done. Skip is trying to tell her that she was never meant to have the visions Doyle gave her. She's human, and human's aren't quite equipped.  He says they can take them away from her, make her a huge acting star, and it would be like she never met Angel that fateful night.

After seeing Angel saying some stuff that was very out of context, she decides to take Skip up on the offer. She is suddenly on the set of her very own TV show. After filming, she suddenly has the urge to go to the Hyperion Hotel... FYI, that's where Angel Investigations were housed in her first alternate life. She goes there, finds a specific room, tears off the wallpaper, and finds a message she had written there. She goes to the address indicated, helps save a girl. After the saving, a one-armed Wesley and a scarred up Gunn show up. They then take her to see Angel. See, in this alternate timeline, Angel got the visions from Doyle. Which has to make you wonder. I mean, Doyle gave 'em to Cordy via the great sensual last kiss thing. I had a hard time not picturing the same thing, but with Angel in her place. Weird, and surprisingly not hot. Hey, it's not just guys that can envision the whole two girl thing, okay? Don't be sexist.

Angel has gone mad with the visions. They have him locked in a padded room basically. After hearing him ramble with the craziness, she kisses Angel... which was random... and she gets the visions transferred over to her again. Skip pops in at that moment and reprimands her. She made her choice, why isn't she sticking to it. Cordy demands they find a way to let her have the visions without suffering. The only way is to make her part demon. She agrees, she wakes up in her body, then suddenly has a vision. This time though, no splitting migraine. She tells them about it calm as can be... she just happens to be floating in the air while she does it. Love it.

Angel, Season 3 Disc 2

3x05 Fredless

Angel Investigations gets a surprise visit from Fred's parents. But Fred doesn't seem all that happy to see them though. So not happy in face when she sees them, she seems to get scared and she runs away.  Because of Fred's reaction, everyone doesn't seem terribly trusting of Mr. and Mrs. Burkle. They try to prepare to protect Fred from them, that is if they manage to find Fred. She's bolted over to Lorne's to see if he'll give her cash and an aura reading. The Gang manage to find Fred at the bus station, and she freaks when she sees her parents are with them. She isn't upset cuz these people are mean or demon-y or anything. She's upset cuz if they find out what's happen to her the past five years she's been missing, then it'll have all been real, and she doesn't want to face that.

Cordy: Fred can barely tie her shoes without Mr. Oh-You're-My-Big-Fat-Hero, around.
Angel: You think I'm fat?

As they are going about their tearful reunion, a strange insect-like demon attacks them. They eventually get it under control, mainly with the help of Fred's mom using a big bus to run it over. After all is said and done, Fred decides to go back home with her folks. She thinks maybe this is all too much for her, and she should go back to where it's more simple.

On their way out, she realizes some of the demon goo that got on her shirt matches some other demon thing they saw earlier. I dunno really. This episode was a bit on the dull side. Anyhoo, she figures something out, has to go back to the hotel to save the others. Which she does, then she figures out that maybe she can hang with the Gang after all, and so she stays. Well, I mean, she is in the opening credits right? So, it's not like she was gonna go anywhere. Big shocker, that.

3x06 Billy

A wave of unexplained and extreme violence against women is traced back to Billy, the young man that Angel was forced to free from a demonic prison a few weeks earlier. Billy's merest touch can cause an otherwise good man to become violently misogynistic, and the results can be deadly. The crew rushes to prevent another brutal attack, unaware that Wesley has already been infected -- and he's alone in the hotel with Fred.

Angel: Is Billy here?
Dylan: You a friend of his or something.
Angel: Actually I'm here to kill him.
Dylan: Oh come on in.

Cordelia is feeling uber responsible for the release of Billy, because it was the price they had to pay to get her crazy painful visions to stop. So, going off alone, she's determined to kill him to make things right again.

Wesley is hunting Fred in the hotel, and Gunn ends up coming to help her. But, he is a man after all and he gets infected too. But this is bad, cuz Gunn is hiding out in the same room with Fred. She finally has to knock him unconscious to keep herself safe from him.

Ok... having... hard... time... writing.... this... one... b.o.r.i.n.g.

Angel finds Cordy about to kill Billy, then Billy thinks he can infect Angel, but that doesn't work, and they go about fighting. Just as Billy is starting to recharge from the earth or something, a couple shots ring out and he's dead. Lilah has shot him. Guess she can have issues with some of the clients she has to work for sometimes too.

3x07 Offspring

Oh yay. We have more flashbacks. I always love flashbacks. Not.

The point of the flashbacks is to introduce us to an old adversary of Angel's and other vampires.. name of Holtz. In the past, he's hunted Angel and Darla, and all had a great dandy time of it.

Back in the non-annoying flashback time, Darla has arrived back in LA via bus, and everyone on the bus is dead and sucked dry. Well, except the driver of course cuz someone had to drive.

Angel is busy continuing to train Cordelia in some sword fighting skills. She's trying to brighten up his life, even if it is only with fake flowers sprinkled around his dreary hangouts. Wesley and Gunn are still messing with those pesky scrolls that talk about Angel's future and whatnot. Just as they figure out something big is coming, something big does come... Darla. Big as a house being all preggers. She's pissed and looking for daddy -- Angel.

Cordelia is very hurt that Angel didn't tell her about what happened with him and Darla, and takes Darla's side immediately. Everyone is very baffled at how this can even happen, so they all head over to Lorne to see if he can tell them anything.

Fred: Can I say something about destiny? Screw destiny. If this evil thing comes, we'll fight it and we'll keep fighting it till we whoop it. Because destiny is just another word for inevitable. And nothing is inevitable as long as you stand up, look it in the eye and say, "You're evitable." (pauses) Well, you catch my drift.

To try to make this shorter, cuz damn these are getting long or something... I seem to have a hard time writing reviews for episodes that don't sparkle for me. So they get wordy for no reason.

Anyway, Darla tries to snack on Cordelia, then escapes and goes to try to munch on some wee young folk, Angel stops her. Tries to explain to her that the reason nothing is sated her thirst is something to do with the baby being human and having a soul or something.

Elsewhere, someplace underground it looks like, a demon monk thing is changing and throwing dirt at a big stone statue and telling "it" to arise. Everything goes crumbly, and Holtz is revealed. His first question is where can he find him some Angelus.

3x08 Quickening

Again with the flashbacks. Why must they torture me so? Angel looks so awful in the past, with the nappy hair and the nappy accent. It's all about Holtz again. This time we see Angel and Darla eat Holtz's family and then he finds out cuz he's chased them somewhere that they aren't. They left him a note about not being able to protect his own.

Angel is trying really hard to protect Darla and the potential demon spawn from Wolfram & Hart. Then a weird vampire cult who believes the baby is The Miracle Child, starts being a bit of an issue too. So, they are just having to run and keep safe. They take Darla to a hospital and they do a sonogram thing or ultrasound or whatever that is. When she sees the baby, and it has a beating heart and it looks all normal, something seems to change in her.

Angel: How you feeling?
Darla: I haven't had blood in almost a day, and your devil's spawn is trying to rip it's way outta my body. How do you think I'm doing?

Angel leaves the Gang down the block from the hotel to grab the scroll they need. When he gets back to the hotel, he sees the lobby full of dead people. Holtz steps out from the shadows and tells Angel he's been looking for him. Over with the others waiting in the car, Darla's water breaks and she's gonna be in labor right about now.

I do believe this is leading up to something that doesn't suck too bad. But it just seems like it's taking a lot of quasi-sucking to get there. Yawn with me please.

Angel, Season 3 Disc 1

3x01 Heartthrob

On a routine patrol, Angel stakes a female vampire. Just before she crumbles to dust she calls him Angelus and he recognizes her from his soulless past. Now, her grief-stricken lover, Angel's old hunting companion, is out for revenge for both the present killing and for a betrayal Angelus committed over 200 years ago.

Cordelia: (about Buffy) Angel, she was the love of your life and she died, and you weren't there when that happened, you couldn't help her fight, you couldn't save her, you couldn't die with her.

Really not loving this episode. Buffy just died, and this is the episode we get after the fact? Lame. I mean, I don't want him to be the uber-brooder. Cuz, gawd knows we get plenty of that on a daily basis. But, this just seemed like a lame response to her death. I get the whole story line where they tied in the fact that this other vampire is all mad cuz Angel killed the love of his life. That's not obvious at all, really. But, just so weak. I know that Buffy isn't really dead, cuz they resurrected over there on the other show, but still. Show some damn respect for the vamp Romeo & Juliet here yo.

3x02 That Vision Thing

When Cordelia's visions begin to manifest as painful physical wounds, Lorne tries to use telepathy to find out why this is happening to her, and how the visions can be stopped. Meanwhile lawyers from Wolfram & Hart make another visit to Angel's hotel.

The two are not necessarily unrelated. Turns out Lilah is using some swami type guy to get at Cordelia and her visions. The swami type guy is played by Kal Penn. His part is like this || big. So, he takes off his hat while he's in his weird trancy mode, and it turns out he is missing the top of his skull and his grey matter is all just out there, sitting there, for the world to see. Yech.

Lilah: You're a remarkable man, Angel.
Angel: And you're an evil bitch.

This other lawyer dude is going after Angel and the Gang through the hotel... building violations and such. Such a typical bureaucratic thing to do. But, they are lawyers afterall.

3x03 That Old Gang of Mine

Gunn finds himself stuck between old and new allegiances when he learns that a string of brutal and indiscriminate demon murders is the work of members of his former gang. Even Lorne's usually peaceful club isn't immune to the violence. Cordelia, meanwhile, attempts to help Fred readjust to the world.

Gunn: No matter what else, I think I proved that you can trust me when I could have killed you and I didn't.
Angel: No - you'll prove I can trust you when the day comes that you have to kill me - and you do.

First things first. Those are some seriously sexy leather pants Angel is sporting all of a sudden. Yumlicious. Very few people can pull the leather off, and he's doing it quite well. Ok, yah, that's really all that stuck with me on this episode.

3x04 Carpe Noctern

Our man Angel is trying to be so helpful with getting Fred out and about into the world, they end up going to a Charlton Heston double feature together, since none of the other Gang folk want to join. Fred may take this a bit more serious than she should.

Later, In the course of searching out one of Cordelia's vision, Angel stumbles on an old man playing peeping tom across the street from a gym. When he goes to see what the guy is up to, the old guy casts a body-switching spell with Angel. The old man, Marcus, enjoys the many pleasures of being eternally young, handsome, and bloodthirsty in Los Angeles while a dying Angel tries to get his body back.

Angel: You may not know this, Fred, but certain friends and coworkers have been known to accuse me of being the quiet, stay at home, sulky one.

With Marcus as Angel, he doesn't help matters with Fred when he gets all flirty with her and telling her she's so beautiful. Then it really doesn't help when he gets a little more than flirty with Lilah from Wolfram & Hart. So flirty in face they get a little hot & heavy on Wesley's desk. But then Fred has to walk in on that. It just is not helping her self esteem. Poor wee little thing.

Eventually they get everything all situated and back to normal. Bah... Montster-of-the-Week (MoW). I really don't like these types of eps in the scheme of things. It's not like I haven't repeated that several time, huh?

Angel, Season 2 Disc 6

2x20 Over the Rainbow

This is the beginning of a very strange few episodes. They are a bit of fun, but still very strange.

Angel, Lorne and Wesley are left standing in Caritas and realize Cordelia is missing. Looks like she got sucked into the portal along with Lorne's cousin. Meanwhile, Cordy wakes up in a forest area that has animal skins hanging from the trees, with no clue where she's at. She's quickly found by some creature that starts chasing her, then she's eventually captured cuz she's "a cow" in this world and good for bartering apparently.

Back in the normal world, The Gang and Lorne are still trying to figure out where she's gone, and how they get there to save her. Eventually Lorne slips up and they realize he knows more than he's letting on. She's been sucked into Pylea, his home world. Lorne tells them how he got to this world and how much he loves it. He doesn't want to go back. They try to open the portal they used before, but it appears to be out of batteries. So, they have to find some place else that has a full charge to open a portal.

Over in Pylea, Cordelia is now a slave of sorts they call "a cow". How poetic is that? While doing some of her daily chores, like shoveling manure, another human finds her and hits her up for info on how she got there. The other cow gets found and they take her away for some unspeakable torturing I'm sure. While Cordelia is getting huffy about the girl getting captured, she gets a vision. She tells people to go save someone somewhere and they freak out. Then they find out she saw something happened before it happened and they are wigged out. Then they realize she's been blessed or cursed or something.

Angel: Ha, I'm not on fire.
Wesley: And, we're together. We didn't merge into a freakish four-man Siamese twin.
Gunn: That was a risk? How come nobody told me that was a risk?
Angel: Can everybody just notice how much fire I'm not on?

After a bunch of research in old books, they realize they need to travel in metal to not get separated. So, Angel and Gang arrive in Pylea via his car through a portal. When they arrive, with top down, the suns are out and Angel starts to scramble to get covered. But he soon realizes he's not getting all burned and stuff. He starts to act quite silly about being in the sun, which is so terribly cute. Just wanna squeeze his cheeks! (either set). They quickly get captured despite trying to lay low. While they are in their cell they overhear guards talking about Cordelia and thinks she's in major trouble. Then the guys are taken out of their cells, and they brought to a throne room and they try to attack the guards. A woman clears her throat which stops everyone in their tracks, and they look up to see that it's Cordelia all dressed fancy, and on a throne.

2x21 Through the Looking Glass

Yup, that's Cordy on a throne. Because of her cursedness with the visions, they've made her a Princess or something. Not sure what's up with that. I'm sure it's something awful and evil though. What would be the point otherwise. She pardons all her buds cuz she's all powerful like that, and then they go about researching. They realize their books are kept in 3s, and they find the ones they need. On the covers their are pictures of a Wolf, Ram, & Hart. Oooh, those fuckers are everywhere. Even other dimensions.

(seeing himself in a mirror)
Angel: Okay, this is because of going through the portal, right? (pushes down hair)
Cordy: No, it always looks like that.

Ok, Angel looking in the mirror in shock at his hair is hilarious. There's always been jokes here and there about his hair, but it's extra funny to see him get all worked up about it. Anyhoo... Angel is looked at like a warrior and he sits in the town center telling the tale of cutting off the evil lawyer's hand. Seeing him be all giddy and laughy is just weird. They then tell him he has the honor of wielding some weapon. But what he doesn't realize is he has to wield it to cut off the other lady cow's head. He refuses, fights the demony folk, Lorne sings a tune (they don't know music here), and it freaks everyone out. They are able to get away.

Meanwhile, Cordy is being all primped and ready for something big. It turns out she's to be mated to a Groosalugg. That doesn't sound very appealing. She tries to delay them, but then when she actually meets the Groosalugg, she is quite happy cuz he's a handsome man. They get to talking, blahblahblah, she decides she wants to be a real princess and start having some proclamations.

Angel ends up in a fight with some of the soldier dudes, and he turns into this weird ugly monster. Not a vampire like usual, but a very bumpy green thing that is just out of control. He even goes after Wesley and Gunn, and it's only the little lady cow that stops him and redirects him with a hand full of some blood of something. She manages to get him all under control in her own little private cave, and he is deeply shamed for what he's done to his friends.

Meanwhile, Cordelia and the Groosalugg are in the throne room on the floor writing out her proclamations. One of the priest dudes walks in with a silver tray and orders the Groosalugg out. The cover of the tray is lifted and we see Lorne's head all severed on the platter.

2x22 There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb

Um, yah, Lorne's head still on a tray. But as Cordelia is doing her "woe is me, it's all my fault" thing, his eyes pop open and he starts talking. Which makes Cordelia get all scream-y. Ya see, if his body hasn't been mutilated yet, he's still alive. So, she has to find his body. She trades clothes with one of her servants and goes on the search. She, with Lorne in hand, find a body with his clothes on, but it proves to not be him. The Groosalugg has saved Lorne's body for her cuz Lorne's her friend. Isn't he sweet?

Ok, let's try to shorten this cuz I'm beginning to bore myself. Let's see... Rebels capture Wesley and Gunn, they want to kill them. They talk them out of it and say they'll help them attack the weird priesty dudes that are basically trying to destroy Cordelia via her mating with the Groosalugg.

Rebel: Five cheers for the other-worlders.
Wesley: Oooo, in this world you get five.

Angel gets over his beasty-ness with Fred, the lady cow, and he ends up fighting with the Groosalugg to get Cordelia free. She ends up splitting up the fight cuz she loves the Groosalugg. Say wuh? Then she cuts off the main priests head and everyone is all happy and stuff. She makes some proclamations to the priest before she leave... no religious persecution, no slavery, the standards. She also leaves the Groosalugg in charge. But, before she leaves they get all lippy and kissy and stuff.

Fred has figured out the formula stuff for the portals, so off they go home. They arrive in Angel's car in the middle of Caritas, the karaoke bar. Now how are they gonna get that sucker out?

Back to the hotel, where they find Willow waiting for them. By the look on her face, he realizes it has something to do with Buffy... and it can't be good.

Angel, Season 2 Disc 5

2x16 Epiphany

After an empty night of passion with Darla, Angel wakes up with his soul still intact and has an epiphany. In a moment of clarity he realizes how deeply he had sunk into despair and how self-destructive his actions had become. See what sex with Darla does, versus sex with Buffy. Tsk Tsk. He resolves to reunite with his crew, but Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn may not be ready to forgive him, even when their very lives are at stake.

Darla: I don't understand. Was I...was it...not good? Well, I don't accept that. You cannot tell me that wasn't perfect. Not only have I been around for 400 years, but I used to do this professionally, and that was perfect.... We'll go again.

Cordy gets kidnapped by these demons with an eye in the back of their head, they want her to pay for the spawn she got rid of, so they make her be a spawn person thingy. So, now she has an eye in the back of her head, which is SO not attractive.

Lindsey seems to be going through another crisis of conscience. Mainly cuz he found out that Darla and Angel knocked boots, and he wanted to be the one knocking Darla's boots. So, he decides to run Angel over with his car. They duke it out, then Angel kinda steals his truck cuz he has some place to be.

The next morning after all is saved, or whatever is needed done, Lindsey walks out of his apartment building to find his truck, mostly intact, with a Thanks note on the windshield. I think they might be fast becoming friends. I kid.

Oh, and Kate tried to kill herself, but didn't. Which was a total bummer. She got fired as a cop and was all boohoo about it. She left a drunken message on Angel's machine, and he finally realized what she was doing. He runs over there, and saves her. The problem is she had never invited him into her house. So, how did he get in? Ponder that folks. Deep stuff.

2x17 Disharmony

So, Angel is having a bit of difficulty with the fact that he works for Wesley now under their new arrangement. Little things like the big office is now Wesley's and Angel keeps giving the orders. And now, he's having to get everyone coffee. Which is just so cute. Big broody guy getting lattes and cappucinos for his once-upon-a-time employees. Atonement's a bitch, he says.

Angel: She doesn't have a soul.
Cordelia: Oh. That's it, isn't it? You're better than her because you have a soul.
Angel: Well... yeah.

Cordy gets a vision, sends the guys on their way, and then Harmony shows up. Thing is, Cordy and Gang don't know that Harmony is a vampire now. After a bit of a misunderstanding, Cordy thinks she's just lesbian, until she calls up Willow and finds out that no, she's just a bloodsucker. Willow's the lez.

For half a second, Cordelia convinces the guys to give Harmony a chance at being a good guy and they send her in undercover at a vamp version of a Tony Robbins event. That turns out to be a problem since Harmony has no self esteem, and she ends up betraying the Gang cuz they have her all thinking she's worth more and better than how they treat her. Whatever. Cordelia tells her to leave town and not return. If only that's what really happens. I could definitely do without anymore Harmony I think. Sigh.

2x18 Dead End

Lindsey McDonald is given an amazing bonus by his bosses at Wolfram & Hart -- a new hand to replace the one he lost fighting Angel. When the new hand begins acting strangely, Lindsey becomes suspicious, and when he runs into Angel and the gang researching body parts that seem to be turning on their owners, he must make a life-altering decision.

Lindsey: (about Angel) Work with him? Work with him?
The Host: Hey, am I the only one who saw 48 hours?
Lindsey: I got a murderous hand on me and you're telling me to team up with the guy who cut mine off in the first place?

Just as Lindsey is starting to get me hot and bothered, he leaves the damn show! That is just messed up. He sings at the karaoke bar, but he sings-sings, instead of karaoke. Christian Kane is an actual singer, and he has a really great voice. I believe he even wrote the song he performed on the show. He's now on TNT's Leverage. Anyway, after he gets a new hand via the evil Wolfram & Hart folks and the hand turns out evil too. Wants to do all this evil stuff or something. He gets mad about it and ends up quitting his position at the firm, thus giving Lilah the position he was about to get. Buh-bye sexy man with the sexy voice.

2x19 Belonging

The crew is eating dinner at a fancy restaurant and we learn that Angel is a bit of a cheapskate. He seems to be worrying about every little thing they eat. Old man. Cordy starts to moan and everyone thinks she is getting a vision, but really she's just gonna hurl from some bad sashimi. Which really sucks for her cuz the next morning she has a commercial she's going to be shooting. Angel actually shows up on the set where she's at to get more info about her latest vision. While he's there, he witnesses the commercial director treat Cordy like a cheap piece of meat. He doesn't take that too well.

Angel: I'm not cheap, I'm just old. I remember when a few bob got you a good meal, a bottle, and a tavern wench.

Anyway, Cordy's latest vision involves a girl in a library that seems to be suffering. On their search, they find that it was a girl name Winifred aka Fred. She disappeared from that library years ago and no one has seen her since. Then a bloodthirsty demon emerges from a magickal portal on the stage in Caritas, the Host (whose name, we learn, is Krevlornswath or "Lorne" for short) asks Angel and the gang to find it and destroy it before it cuts a bloody swath through Los Angeles.

Gunn is trying to help his old gang o' vampire hunters, but he keeps getting called away with Angel Investigation stuff. This particular time he can't help, one of his buds gets bitten by a vamp. They don't know if he was made to drink any vamp blood himself, so they have to make sure he is really dead via an old school pyre.

Oh, that demon that came out turns out to be Lorne's cousin from his home world. He helps them open a portal back to get his cousin back home. The problem is, Cordelia is suddenly missing now. She wakes up laying on a leafy ground in a forest with two suns in the sky. This ain't Kansas anymore Toto.

Angel, Season 2 Disc 4

2x12 Blood Money

Wesley and Gunn are busy playing Risk at Cordelia's apartment. I guess Cordelia is getting tired of them spending all their time at her house. So she orders them out. But before they go, they decide they need a new office and new business cards. They just can't quite agree on a new name, so I guess it'll be Angel Investigations for now.

Lilah: So, what if this guy's actually as good as he says and actually kills Angel?
Lindsey: Boo hoo, let me wipe away the tears with my plastic hand.

Angel threatens to expose Wolfram & Hart's criminal activities when he discovers that they are stealing large contributions that were made to a teen shelter -- but an old adversary has other plans.

Blah show. Yah yah yah, Angel is kinda evil. Not full-on Angelus, but he's into some serious hating of Wolfram & Hart. That sucks. The other guys are still trying to do their good their own way.

2x13 Happy Anniversary

Angel and the Host search for a physicist who they fear will cause the end of the world, but they are hampered by two Lubber demons who are seeking to subvert the scientist's work to their own dark ends. Wesley, Cordelia and Gunn settle into their new digs, where Virginia brings them their first official case.

Angel: You want to know what my problem is? I'm screwed, that's my problem. I can't win. I'm trying to atone for a hundred years of unthinkable evil. News flash: I never can! Never going to be good enough. Now I got Wolfram and Hart dogging me. It's too much! 200 highly intelligent law school graduates working fulltime driving me crazy. Why the hell is everyone so surprised that it's working? But no, it's "Angel, why are you so cranky? Angel, you should lighten up, you should smile. You should wear a nice plaid."
The Host: Oh, not this season, honey.

Episode, meh. But, I liked seeing more of The Host. He's a funny guy. He's especially needed next to the uber cranky pants Angel. Not cranky so much I guess. He's just seriously lost his reason for fighting the good fight. I get that, I do. Still... nice to have the lighter contrast with The Host.

2x14 The Thin Dead Line

Angel investigates rumors of renegade cops out for blood. Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn hear the same stories and try to catch the crooked cops in the act, but their plans go awry when they realize that these cops are not what they appear. They end up being zombies raised by a police commander type dude. Granted, his motivations are good. He wants less crime on his streets. And that is what he gets. But it gets to be a bit extreme when his zombie cops are hassling pretty much everyone for everything.

Cordelia: Maybe we can buy one of those star maps, find out where Steven Seagal lives. You telling me he got to be a movie star without a little demonic assistance?

Downside to getting rid of this guy and his zombie cops is now the crime rate is gonna go back up. Just can't win for losing. And on the opinion tip... totally forgettable episode. Oh wait. Well, except that Wesley gets shot while him and Gunn are out chasing down the meanies. That was a pretty big deal.

2x15 Reprise

Angel learns of the impending visit of one of Wolfram & Hart's demonic "Senior Partners," and he plans to use the visit to launch a kamikaze mission to the beast's home dimension to take on evil at its very source.

Angel: In the larger sense, I really don't give a crap.
Holland: Now, I don't think that's true. Be honest. You've got the tiniest bit of "give a crap" left.

The quick and dirty... Angel attacks Wolfram & Hart kinda, Darla is there. She has this weird glove thing. They fight a bit, he manages to get it on his way out the window of the high rise office building. Right after he lands, a ring - Band of Blacknil - lands next to him. He picks it up, puts it on his finger and orders to be taken to the Home Office. An elevator near by opens with the once-dead Holland inside waiting. Angel gets in, they have a heart-to-heart, they arrive... only it's exactly where they left from. Holland has essentially taught him that evil is everywhere. Angel walks out of the elevator and his eyes are a bit moist. Could we be getting our Angel back?

Oh wow... completely forgot about this. I do not know how... After he gets back to his place from his elevator session, Darla is there waiting for him. She wants to fight, but he wants to fight with his groin-al area. They get it on, he wakes up gasping for breath. Oh, he best not lose his soul over Darla?!? True moment of happiness with Darla? Puh-lease.