Angel

NUMBER SEVEN
Season One - Episode 8: I Will Remember You
Written By: Jeannine Renshaw and David Greenwalt
Directed By: David Grossman
Original Air Date: 11/23/1999

The character of Angel left ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ at the end of the third season, but that didn’t mean that fans weren’t going to get to see their favorite couple back together again. ‘I Will Remember You’ marked the first time that Buffy made her way to LA to see Angel. During the episode, Angel manages to become human and finally gets to be with Buffy. Angel spends the episode enjoying the sun, enjoying food, and enjoying the pleasures of Buffy since they can now have sex without him becoming Angelus. Angel finds out though that he can’t protect people like he could when he had his vampire powers, and so he decides to become a vampire again so that he may protect people and make amends for his past deeds. The final heartbreaking moment is when Angel tells Buffy that he chose to go back and that she won’t remember any of this happening. Buffy tells him over and over again that she won’t forget, but in the end she does. ‘I Will Remember You’ is a sad look at a man who chooses his purpose in life over his “special purpose.” If you don’t get “The Jerk” reference then I can’t help you.

NUMBER SIX
Season Three - Episode 13: Waiting In The Wings
Written By: Joss Whedon
Directed By: Joss Whedon
Original Air Date: 2/4/2002

This episode holds a special place for me since it was the first episode of Angel I really picked up and got me hooked. I had gone away from both Angel and Buffy at the time - why I can’t remember - but this episode got me back into the fray. The Angel Investigations crew head to the ballet, since Angel remembers seeing them before, but he had no idea that when he went he would see ‘the exact same people’ perform as he did so many years ago. The ballet is cursed. The episode is so well because of the Wesley/Fred/Gunn love triangle that finally comes to a conclusion. Fred chooses Gunn, much to the dismay of Wesley, who has to see them embraced in a passionate kiss. He hides his feelings well to the other characters, but he wears his heart on his sleeve to the fans and you really feel for him. The episode is also remembered for the creepy Comedy and Drama mask-wearing villains and for the first appearance of Summer Glaus (Firefly’s River) as the main ballerina who is being kept hostage by the spell.

NUMBER FIVE
Season Four - Episode 6: Spin The Bottle
Written By: Joss Whedon
Directed By: Joss Whedon
Original Air Date: 11/10/2002

Once again, nothing that is groundbreaking or revolutionary, but ‘Spin The Bottle’ stands proudly at the top as one of the funniest episodes of Angel’s run. The episode is about a spell that goes wrong - yeah, because we haven’t seen that before - and makes everyone revert to his or her personas when they were teenagers. Angel becomes the young punk of his Ireland days, Fred is the pot craving girl, Cordy is Cordelia from the early seasons of Buffy, Wesley is even more of a nerd than his first stint on Buffy, and Gunn is the old, belligerent guy he was when they first found him on the streets fighting vampires. We also learn in this episode, that if one masturbation joke is funny, then two are even better. Wesley gets a nice little rib while talking with Fred and Angel is playing with his transforming face in the bathroom mirror that sounds like something else is going on to Cordy who is standing outside. The episode is just plain fun because of the old Cordelia, nerdy Wesley, and the one-liners that come from such ordinary discussions as Wesley being ‘head boy.’ If you laughed at that you probably laughed a lot more at this episode too.