Good-bye Mr. Sunshine, hello Dark Avenger

Big spoilers for Angel episode May7, Home -- watch out!
Spoilers-o-rama round here

Now that, that was an ending. I like non-cliffhangery endings, to be sure, but I also like some emotional resolution and some bittersweet, and that was bittersweet to the max. This whole episode was incredibly well-paced, everything put in just the right spot (the early setup of Connor’s siege, then moving back to the other AI characters, that fabulous silence over the credits as they tried to grasp what they were hearing, just everything), a buildup that made sense for the denouement, a wonderful resolution to a continuing problem.

One of the reasons I haven’t been as into Angel as I have Buffy (just one, there are lots of reasons) is that for the past two years, I’ve hated two of the major characters, whereas on Buffy, I liked everyone most of the time (okay, until the SITs, and S6 Dawn wasn’t exactly a barrel of laughs). I hated what Cordy became over the past few years (the last real Cordelia we saw was in Pylea, I think), and I could never understand the appeal of Connor. What amazed me here was that they had a problem in the setup (hard for much of the audience to warm to a character who tries repeatedly to kill your other major characters, especially your titular lead, unless he’s really funny or offers something else to keep them interested, and hard for the audience to care what happens to someone who’d, for instance, beat a suicidal person nearly to death) and they found an interesting way to resolve it. When we’ve finally been drawn to Connor’s pain (whereas before, we might not have been), we’re left, in those scenes between him and Angel in the standoff, with the understanding that there really is nothing Angel can do to help him. That what’s wrong with Connor goes so deep that any resolution where he happily joins the fold of AI will seem cheap and forced, but as a character, he can’t exist outside the structure of the group for long. And this was a nifty, earned resolution to that problem — once again, Angel suffers by being the only one who remembers Connor, who knows the truth of what he sacrificed to make someone else happy and keep them safe (a la I Will Remember You), and it’s perfectly in keeping with his history of being the grim, lonely, sad hero. No one else knows of the sacrifice, not even Connor, who now has the thing he needed most and that Angel could never hope to give him.

This is probably in the TMI dept, but I’m adopted — my evil twin sister and I were adopted at birth. I didn’t end up having the greatest childhood, it was violent and demoralizing and not exactly overflowing with familial love, but I probably would have had a worse one being raised by a single woman in the early sixties. I could have had poverty and deprivation and violence! And I never really knew when or how we learned we were adopted — my parents were actually cool enough to have told us early enough that neither of us remember ever hearing it, we just knew we were, the way we knew we were twins and girls and whatever. It was a part of our identity, but not something we thought of much unless it came up. The thing it did leave me with, though, was an understanding that even if my birth mother gave us to someone else either through self-sacrifice or just because she didn’t want us, the truth is she gave us to what could most likely only be a better life, and there is an element of selflessness in that, no matter what her motivation, good or bad. To my admittedly biased eyes, that was what Angel was doing here — giving Connor to a better life, no matter how much it pained him. Because I think he knew in that moment at the store that Connor could never be safe from his demons. Angel would never be able to give Connor what he needed and wanted most, and this was a way to give his son to something potentially better, where at least Connor had a chance of happiness. So maybe I’m too emotionally attached to such storylines, but it really felt fitting for the character and for the series as a way to overcome a hurdle.

Anyway. Moving on from that. The rest of the episode worked incredibly well, too. I loved their way of dealing with Gunn’s issues, how he was convinced he was going to be marginalized and declawed, until he saw the black leopard (peeve dept. — they’re leopards, not panthers, as panthers don’t come in black, but yes, I realize there was a little nod to the black panther empowerment thing). One thing I wasn’t totally certain on, though — have Gunn and Fred officially broken up? Because he seemed shamelessly flirty with that guide, and in front of Fred, too. So I may have missed the official split, and maybe it was a mutual understanding between the two of them I didn’t catch before. I loved Lorne’s guide, his showbiz patter with the “peepers only” and all the other things in just the way Lorne would say them. And raise your hand if you’re happy to have Holden back, from the Buffy ep Conversations with Dead People! Oh, I do hope that he is a semi-regular next year, he was great with Fred and I loved the way he talked about the lab. He’s adorable and a great actor. More please.

But the best stuff was with Wes and Lilah. That scene in the basement (?) archives was one of the coolest since... well, he had to cut off her head. Everything they did together in this ep was sexy and cool and a little dangerous, but when he tried to burn her contract, and the look in her eyes... well, it was just magnificent. I love watching a couple of pros at work. In that scene where she thanks him for trying, there was more tender regard and affection and admiration for each other than a thousand other contrived “big” relationships on TV or in the movies. I can’t say enough about that scene. I also liked Angel’s faith in Buffy’s abilities. Even while acknowledging where he’s going, they show that he still knows her well enough to trust her.

I love how they’ve set the stage to move on. There will be constant conflict as AI takes over something that is a smaller part of a larger evil whole, and how they fight evil while working within it. There will be need for tricky thinking (Wes, Angel), intelligence (Fred) or unusual abilities (Lorne), men of action (Gunn, Angel, Wes), and maybe even some way to fit Cordy back in if that happens, and if potential danger comes to Connor, bring him back in somehow. And with luck, some guest stuff with Lilah and Lindsey (oh Lindsey, my Lindsey!). I think it’s going to be a lot of fun (or, I hope it will be, since it’s all we’ve got left!), and this was a fabulous setup to change.