“War Zone”
Gunn! We’re introduced to his scrappy band of vampire fighters, trying to survive in a tough neighborhood.
“Blind Date”
Ostensibly, this is about an assassin hired by Wolfram and Hart - a blind woman, trained by monks to see beyond the visible spectrum. This makes her very dangerous and also really easy to get acquitted of murder charges. But it’s a Lindsey episode, and I really, really like Lindsey. I mean, I don’t like Lindsey, but he’s a morally ambiguous asshole and a great foil for Angel. Especially when he wants help.
Angel isn’t super impressed, but agrees to help break into Wolfram and Hart’s archives so they can save a trio of child seers. On his way out, he grabs a prophecy scroll just for funsies. Lindsey does help save the children, but his boss, Holland Manners (and I’m looking forward to him getting eaten) decides to offer him a promotion for his chutzpah and Lindsey gets to make a choice. So Lindsey has been promoted to junior partner, and Angel is totally vindicated in his distrust.
But that’s kind of interesting coming right on the heels of “Sanctuary”. Faith murdered people, tried to murder Angel, helped the Mayor’s ascension (that killed more people), brutally beat up people as soon as she woke up from her coma, tried to murder Angel again, tortured Wesley, and yet Angel pulls out all the stops to help her seek redemption. He can’t even be bothered to try for Lindsey. Holland Manners, on the other hand, really does put in the effort to gain Lindsey’s loyalty and it pays off.
“To Shanshu in LA”
There’s a prophecy about Angel! Or a vampire with a soul, anyway, and there won’t ever be more than one of those around. It says he’s going to die, though. That’s unfortunate, but Angel isn’t too fussed about it, and Cordelia and Wesley are worried he’s becoming too disconnected from humanity again, just like Doyle said he was at the beginning of the season. Anyway, Wolfram and Hart have summoned a demon, who is there to summon something else to finally take care of Angel.
The demon goes after Angel himself in order to get back the prophecy scroll that Angel stole from Wolfram and Hart. First he targets Angel Investigations, burning it down and injuring Wesley. He also goes after Cordelia, opening her mind to a nonstop version of her visions. With them in the hospital, Angel heads to Wolfram and Hart, tries to stop the ritual and chops off Lindsey’s hand in the process, then goes back to heal Cordelia. If anyone had told me at the start of Buffy that I’d end up shipping Angel and Cordelia…
And I’m not really sure that I’m shipping them at this point. I just really love their relationship. There’s something genuine, or maybe just non-hormonal, about the affection between them. He’s unguarded around Cordelia in a way that he never was with anyone in Sunnydale. So when she wakes up, and he smiles, I squee.
And what did the demon summon for Angel? Darla! Version 1.0, the human with a soul! I kind of get the impression Joss regretted killing off Darla in the very beginning of Buffy. Angel just taking his sire down in the first season ended up being kind of a wasted opportunity, but boy howdy will Joss make up for that.
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