I’ve been generally positive about this season of Angel, but the fact is, it’s been wearing. Doom, gloom, and the loss of the happier sides of Wesley and Cordelia has resulted in one pretty depressing season — even if it has been well written and realised sometimes.

So it’s an incredible relief to get a (largely) standalone episode, with Gunn suddenly transformed — and believably so — from gloomy, grumpy ex-boyfriend of Fred to sharp, witty action hero. And doesn’t he just get the best day ever? He gets to put his movie knowledge to good use, he gets to have one of the best fight scenes on Angel ever with two stick-wielding blokes, and he gets… well, that would be telling.

Seeing Gunn so relaxed gives J. August Richards a chance to shine, and shine he does — and not just the top of his head. The character’s description of the past year — a “turgid demon soap-opera” is pretty much what we’d all been thinking, but comes across better than Fred’s repeated “Isn’t their relationship kinda…. icky?” lines. He also benefits from having Gwen as a foil, and she gives his character some much needed support.

This story also gives Gwen’s story some nice closure, and cements her as a very successful addition to the Angel world. Plus, her last scene with Gunn could be the sexiest thing ever done in the series. And I’m counting Angel and Cordy in ‘Waiting in the Wings’.

Meanwhile, of course, back at the Hyperion, things are still a little peculiar — though it looks like the characters are beginning to wise up. It’s nice to hear that Angel agrees with me about the Beast-Master’s ‘voice’ and how lame it is. It’s even more nice to see Angel putting all the pieces together, and proving that he’s deserving of his leadership of the group. I tried watching specifically to spot the point where Angel works it all out, but I’m none the wiser — perhaps when Cordy starts her hypothetical “I’m the Master” routine? But surely everyone has to know by the time Lorne comes in with his cape. Perhaps the whole inscription thing was just a test to see if Cordy would try to stop them? Surely no one could have missed the coffee-moving.

So in short, one of the better episodes this year by virtue of its simplicity, the intelligence granted to (most of) the characters within it. And a very good ending.

And, one assumes, the end of evil-Cordy. Thank goodness for that.

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This entry was posted by the illustrious Tom Charman on Friday, July 4th, 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.