You know the series lost something when I’m more excited watching a kids show from 1975 than I am for sitting through this.  The whole Darla/baby/Holtz story has just come to a screeching halt for me.  I was so thoroughly enjoying the stand-alone episodes too.  The last few episodes have taken the wind out of my sails.  The rock-a-bye baby routine has me falling asleep outside the cradle.

This episode suffers horribly at the hands of a very late reveal.  The problem with it is just how tedious the episode was before that surprise.  When it’s revealed, it kicked into high gear and actually worked well, but it’s too little too late.  I’ve been slow to go back for the next episode because I want something faster paced to watch and I’m finding that in far older shows.

When Lorne moves into the hotel, since his club has now been demolished twice, he gets to provide the means of victory for Angel but we have to watch Angel being unrealistically obsessed with his child for the whole story.  At one point he’s chased into a mine, he leaves his kid in the car because there’s a big surprise coming.  Because Lorne realized the place was bugged, he slipped Angel a secret message.  Angel was putting on a show for Wolfram and Hart.  Good job because you sold me on the lameness of the situation, but bad job because I was almost asleep by the end.  Please let this season end…  The slow motion Quentin Tarantino shot at the end might have been good, but seeing the brooding vampire pushing a baby stroller just took the excitement down to the lowest level it could possibly find. 

Meanwhile, Lilah is trying to learn about Holtz the Tedious and she goes to speak to Data’s long lost Niece who works in Records.  She has little tv’s built into her eyes and can access information from all 35 rows of cabinets on Angel.  Give me a break!  35 rows?  What did they do, record every transaction the dude ever made?  Today he bought toilet paper and got a nap in… let’s add that to the file. Ate at Applebee’s and popped into DSW for new shoes… The worst part is that Angel wouldn’t have been that interesting that early or they’d need a file on EVERY character in the series because they all have history.  They’d need a Tardis to get all the files in for everyone!  Besides, when did Wolfram and Hart become Torchwood anyway?  I know they came first but they are still a pale comparison.  At least Torchwood had a mandate to find one specific person.  What’s their excuse?  How big is the file on Spike?

In other news, since Buffy is on another network and she can’t pop round anymore, Justine gets introduced and she’s out Kung Fu Fighting with vampires until Holtz shows up and wants to hang out with her by being really sexual-predatory with her first.  “I know everything there is to know about you and stalk you from the bushes, marry me, no don’t! I get confused after so much sleep!  Instead, help me kill the star of this series and then they we can hop networks and take out another star…”  Yawn.  

Thank goodness for Wesley and Cordy; they add a little comedy to the whole thing that at least made me laugh.  Wes is initially shocked to find Angel changing the baby’s diaper on his desk, but says that after Angel had sex there, he shouldn’t be surprised.  Meanwhile Cordy hears Wesley and Gunn talking about how they felt like characters in a movie to which Cordy says, “If we live through this, trade in the DVD players and get a life!”  That would save us from a season that took a serious turn for the dull…

I’ll get back to the show… eventually.  I’ve just been slow to put it back on because this storyline is doing nothing for me.  Did I mention how many times I yawned?  Why is it that the multi-season shows I’m following are turning into sleepers?  Like baby Connor, I need a nap…  ML