When we last left dear old Angel, he was being encircled by a large bunch of the insect like monsters we were introduced to last week. How does he get out of this one? Why, by waving a key at them.

I must try that one on muggers.

This is an episode mainly focussed on Angel and Connor — well, everyone else is either locked up or unconscious. And Connor’s almost interesting. He comes damn close to being vaguely interesting. His talk of lies and his life sells his near psychosis to us, generally, but after almost a season of watching him act like a wanker, or mindless evil-Cordy stooge, it’s probably too late to expect any major empathy from the audience. Angel’s issues are more interesting, but having them spoken directly out loud by a teeny weeny comic relief monster man was possibly not the best way to explore them.

Perhaps the most interesting stuff this episode comes from our favourite demi-god, Jasmine. During these last two episodes she has managed to come across at times as genuinely altruistic, if just a little too willing to eat people. Her plaintive arguments to Angel were almost heart rending, and I found myself really caring for her. Right up to when she started throwing cars at him. Then kissing him. I really didn’t get the kissing bit.

Speaking of things I didn’t get, the brief dialogue between our incarcerated friends concerning using Cordy against Jasmine seemed peculiar. I mean, I wasn’t desperate to see Cordelia wake up after some of her more average acting this season. But those few moments might’ve really gotten the hopes up of fervent Charisma Carpenter fans — who would then have them dashed by the whole thing being wrapped up without her.

So what might have been a really brilliant episode if placed on more solid foundations, ends up simply a solid, occasionally insightful story. It certainly lacked the freshness of last week’s — an example being the disappointingly normal speech patterns used by the high priest. But it was full of nice touches, such as the cool cinematography inside the church, Angel coming back and finally taking the wind out of smug ol’ Jasmine’s sails, and some more very nice demon make-up.

And, of course, one of your bigger surprise endings. Oooooh.

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This entry was posted by the illustrious Tom Charman on Saturday, July 26th, 2003. It concerns such pressing issues as . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.