Angel

ANGEL-Wesley’s been a fifth wheel for the season thus far, but wow, was this worth waiting for. In the long term, there’s some definite set-up for some sort of Big Bad who’s targeted Wolfram and Hart in general and Angel in particular. In the short term, not only were the dynamics between Wes and his father fascinating, but the twists were unexpected and the shoot-out was a shocker. And the look on Fred’s face when she says that Wesley did what he did because his father was threatening a friend, and Wesley says significantly, “I shot him because he was threatening YOU.” Finally. Finally finally finally he’s making it clear to her just how strongly he feels about her. However, here’s my one problem. I can see why they revealed that it was, in fact, a robot that Wesley shot. They didn’t want to burden a human character with the knowledge that he killed his own father, no matter the provocation (and Angel and Spike’s endeavors to “comfort” Wes was some of the most darkly hilarious lines of the show.) But if it was a cyborg all along, what possible reason did he have not to snap Wesley’s neck in the vault rather than just knock him out. He had what he wanted, and Wes alive was only a liability. For that matter, why just hold a gun on him on the roof? “I don’t want to shoot you, Wesley.” Why the hell not? Someone programmed him to act so much like Wes’s dad that he was unaware of his own status? C’mon. You can’t have a cyborg as sophisticated as what we saw and simultaneously limited. The only reason Wes is alive is that he’s a regular. It was still a great episode, deeply emotional. But when it was over I thought, “Hmm. That bit didn’t make much sense.”

Additional thought—I just LOVED the trailer for next week. Previously, when Dru has shown up in flashbacks on "Angel," it presaged a Drusilla return in modern day. We can only hope that’s the case here. Hey, maybe they’ll call the episode "Dru Calling."