Angel: Loyalty

Gunn: "Wesley's a good man. He'll do the right thing. He always does."

Excellent episode, starting with an effectively creepy Buffy-like dream sequence, and ending with a chilling cliffhanger.

I'm finally getting into this year's plot arcs (except for Angel/Cordelia, but hey, one step at a time). They finally managed to make Holtz sympathetic; I actually liked him for the first time in this episode, and I didn't think that would ever happen. Sahjhan the demon was cool, too, and the dynamic was even more interesting with him and Holtz at odds and Lilah in the picture. Why does Sahjhan want Angel dead? I wasn't curious before, but I'm curious now.

I'm starting to get into the baby thing, too. We got some heavy, conflicting info in this episode; at one point, Angel told Aubrey, "When somebody becomes a vampire, there's no turning back. No matter how much you want to believe there's some part of them you can save, all that's left is an evil thing." But later, Wesley told Holtz, "Angel is no more responsible for the crimes of Angelus than I am." They're both right, and they're both wrong. Angel is a vampire, but there is a lot more to him than the evil thing that is Angelus. And Angel will always feel responsible for anything he did as Angelus, whether he could help it or not. Angelus killing Connor is simply unthinkable. Angel would never, ever recover from it.

So. Sahjhan and Lilah have Connor's blood, Angel is predestined to devour his own son, and they showed Angel drinking blood twice in this episode, something he rarely does on screen. Can we put one and one and one together here and make three? Can we surmise that somehow, Connor's blood is going to end up in Angel's fridge? Do you think? What did Angel mean when he said, "Thought we were going to be trapped in there. At least I would have had something to snack on"? I thought he meant Connor, but Dan thought Angel meant his own blood dripping on the baby blanket. Hmm.

Moving on to poor, unshaven, lovelorn Wesley, may I say, wow. I am loving what they're doing with Wesley this year. Alexis Denisof has had some seriously good acting to do, and he has more than risen to the occasion. He's become the emotional center of the story; whatever action Wesley takes from here on out is crucial. (And I absolutely, positively loved Wesley with Loa, the talking hamburger statue; it made this episode. Much better than the oracles under the post office.)

Bits and pieces and questions:

— Gunn and Fred really haven't gotten very far with their relationship, have they? Is she keeping the brakes on, breakfast but not bed? Gunn seemed a lot readier to commit, to dive in, than Fred. Is the relationship going anywhere, and do I care? So far, Wesley's reaction to it was more interesting than the relationship itself, but I like both Gunn and Fred and that could change.

— Lilah has a mother? Somehow one doesn't think about someone like Lilah actually having a mother.

— Is Holtz falling for Justine? Is that what is making him more likeable?

— Gunn gets tingles when a vamp is around? How spidey-sense of him.

— Lilah didn't get the two ice cubes she asked for in the bar.

— Cordelia wasn't in this episode. Neither was Lorne, the green nanny.

— Just two weeks ago, I was on the Santa Monica pier and rode on that very carousel. Sometimes I really love living in L.A. Sometimes.

Quotes:

Gunn: "You got to admire the loyalty. All night here, hitting the books. Logging serious alone-time, delving into the secret mysteries of... Man, Wesley needs a life."

Sahjhan: "That's it? No 'wow, how did he do that?' No screaming in terror? You twenty first century types are so jaded."

Loa: "Your insolence is displeasing."
Wesley: "You try chatting with a cranky hamburger."

Loa: "The first portent will shake the earth. The second will burn the air. The last will turn the sky to blood."
Wesley: "An earthquake? That's the first portent? We live in California."

Sahjhan: "Sorry I'm late. Kind of ironic, my being a time-shifter and all."

Lilah: "The only reason I met you here was so we could talk freely."
Sahjhan: "So, let's talk freely. Would it impress you if I told you I invented daylight savings time?"

Really good. Three out of four stakes, and I'm excited about next week's. Although if there's a five week hiatus following it, wanna bet it's a cliffhanger?

Billie
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Billie Doux reviewed all of Buffy and Angel, so she knows the plural of apocalypse.

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