Angel

THE WATCHER: ANGEL season five retrospective

It’s been almost a month since we saw Angel and his few remaining pals face off against ravaging demon hordes (and a dragon). Now that we’ve all had a chance to catch our breath and curse the WB yet again for canceling the show, let’s take a quick look back at the fifth season of ANGEL:

THE GREAT:

The 100th Episode, YOU’RE WELCOME: What made this great? Cordelia, in all of her snarky glory, ruling the room as only she can. It’s hard to know how much you miss a character until you see them back on screen. She was everything her character was before she was hijacked and controlled by a Power That Was: confident, irreverent, straight-shooting, and with her priorities straight... including truly fabulous shoes. Oh, and the CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON-esque swordfight between Lindsey and Angel was pretty darn cool as well.

The Finale, NOT FADE AWAY: This was the perfect conclusion to the series. The issue of shanshu was settled (well, for Angel, and it’s his show, so that’s what mattered), Hamilton and the suddenly-Big Bad Circle of the Black Thorn was destroyed, and the characters each had their own type of closure: Lorne walked away from a situation that was against what he stood for, Lindsey was definitively taken out, Wesley had the only type of closure the man could possibly have - death - and Angel, Gunn, Spike, and Illyria faced the aforementioned ravaging demon horde and likely died in the effort. The important part is that they fought. The odds were insurmountable, but they fought anyway. As Holland Manners made clear in REPRISE when he showed Angel the home office of Wolfram & Hart, evil can never be eradicated from this world. It is the struggle against it that counts.

Wesley: LINEAGE was the first episode of the season with any focus on Wes, and we saw exactly the man he had become, even without the memories of what had happened to Connor: a man capable of anything. Wesley briefly found happiness with Fred at the end of SMILE TIME (finally!), but, as that darn Whedon guy is prone to doing, that happiness was shattered the very next episode. For the rest of the season, Wesley had to deal with another entity in Fred’s body, and it was mesmerizing. Pile that on top of his restored memories and his shattered bonds with those (such as Gunn) who were once friends... by the end, his only peace could be found in death. Alexis Denisof’s work this season was fantastic across the board.

Illyria: Fred was adorable and well-loved, but Illyria presented challenges, conflicts, and issues. Fred’s death shattered all of the other characters, and Illyria’s presence confounded them. The introduction of Illyria shook things up, and the show was stronger and more fascinating because of it. Amy Acker demonstrated that she could be much more than perky and cute, giving the ancient god-king an amazing amount of presence. This was especially true in THE GIRL IN QUESTION, during which she flashed between Illyria and Fred with nothing more than a glance or a twitch. There was no question at any moment regarding which character she was playing, no matter how subtle the change. Illyria was a fantastic addition to the cast.

PuppetAngel: SMILE TIME was one of the creepiest and funniest episodes of any Joss Whedon show ever. The idea of transforming His Broodiness into a Muppet-like character was sheer brilliance. The villains (demons who were in puppet form) and their efforts to drain children were downright freaky, especially for the millions of us who were raised on Sesame Street. Mix it all together and you have one heck of an entertaining episode, as well as the perfect balance for the devastating A HOLE IN THE WORLD that followed.

Angel vs. Spike: Putting these two souled vampires together caused Snarkfest 2004. It was an extreme sibling rivalry, from their battle for the Mountain Dew-filled Cup of Perpetual Torment in DESTINY to the Puppet vs. Spike fight in SMILE TIME to their pursuit of Buffy in THE GIRL IN QUESTION. However, as much fun as their continual squabbling was, their best moments were the few when they truly did communicate, and one of the best of those was when they recalled their start as innocent victims in DAMAGE.

THE NOT-SO-GREAT:

Not Enough of the Green Guy: When there are six main characters, it’s tough for everyone to get their fair share of the spotlight. In this case, the character who got the shaft was Lorne. He was the focal point of one episode, LIFE OF THE PARTY, with his own Willowesque power of his will (or at least his words) being done, but otherwise? Many of his scenes could have been played by anyone. His best moments were his short Happy Hour scene at the bar in UNDERNEATH and his scenes in NOT FADE AWAY - otherwise, Lorne was sadly underused.

Eve: This character never solidified, and there was no true sense of who she was. I was far more invested in Hamilton than Eve by the end, and her Lindsey-less plight carried no weight for me. Child of the Senior Partners? Immortal Liaison? When her replacement was after her, I wasn’t all that worried. Truth? It was a bit of a let-down when she was only made mortal - and I’m not usually one for violence.

Lindsey: Who wasn’t thrilled to see his surprise appearance at the end of DESTINY? Aside from that, as nice as it was to have him back, his presence made no sense. Lindsey took credit for retrieving the amulet that contained the flambeed Spike and sending it to Angel, as well as Envelope #2 that recorporealized him. Why? As a distraction to Angel? Hoping they’d kill each other just out of spite? The reasons were never made clear. There were some very nice touches, such as when he called himself "Doyle" and set Spike on the exact same "mission" the real Doyle has sent Angel when he first arrived in Los Angeles. However, Lindsey’s motivations never made much sense. This was the man who gladly left L.A. in his pick-up truck back in Season Two, telling Angel, "The key to Wolfram and Hart: don’t let them make you play their game. You gotta make them play yours." (DEAD END). And then he comes back to wreak havoc, hides from the Senior Partners with those handy tattoos, then says he wants to join the group that’s the Senior Partner’s right arm? Um, okay. Good thing that he’s pretty.

THE END: What was worse about the season than this? I remember being dumbfounded when the news broke. Canceled? CANCELED? It came out of nowhere. The 100th episode had recently aired, reviews were rave, ANGEL was popping up on magazine covers left and right... This decision made little sense. It still doesn’t.