Babylon 5 was the first show that I encountered from the 90’s that really used continuity well.  To my surprise, Buffy came along much later for me personally, but I can tell the writers understood they were building a bigger world.  Angel continues that tradition and I am very happy indeed.  I love this kind of complex storytelling.  But frequent readers would probably wonder why I felt the need to bring up B5 in this review.  Fair question.  It’s down to something Holtz says. 

This is the episode where the hero loses all.  It’s a common plot point in series.  Angel’s son is kidnapped, Lilah and her militia have Angel pinned in what is commonly referred to as a Mexican standoff (a situation in which the parties face some form of threat from one another), Wesley has his throat slit (good lord, did that just happen?) and Cordy is off enjoying time with Groo.  Things are bad.  There’s no hope.  Except… Did Holtz just rename Connor to… Stephen Franklin Thomas?  Ok forget the “Thomas”, Stephen Franklin was the Chief Medical Officer on Babylon 5.  Maybe there is hope after all…

Or maybe not.  Dr. Franklin was the doctor that brings an unconscious patient back to his room right after she learned of her husband’s death, and wakes her by petting her hair.  Sorry, Connor… you’re screwed!  And then Holtz takes him to a demon dimension.  Wow… this episode packs it in!!

This show is utterly surprising.  Between last episode with Wesley getting information from a giant hamburger to this episode where Evil Dead singers are the opening act, one would wonder if this series was written for adults.  But then you get a series of events in the same episode that had Angel ripping arms off musicians, and you realize, this show really has no limits.  That’s a compliment.  You never know what you’ll end up with and you can go from silly to deeply traumatic in one episode.  I mean, I’m dying to find out if Wesley is even alive at this point.  

Even the dialogue has moments that are just inspired.  Whether Angel is telling Lilah that the trouble with a game-face is that if you wear it long enough, you can’t take it off or the “ethereal time traveling demon” has an unexpected win and walks off with “have a nice summer”, there’s moments that just stand out.  Perhaps my personal favorite is Holtz talking to Wesley when he says, “you may not trust me, but I trust you to do what’s right!”  I love when the enemies talk like they have intelligence and civility.  And when Wesley gets the jump on Justine early in the episode, it’s genuinely impressive.  

I’d wager that the most horrific part is the discovery that Angel’s heightened rage is brought about by Lilah and her people feeding Angel the blood of his own son.  What a wallop of a reveal.  Last week I commented that I didn’t think Angel’s comment actually meant his son as the “snack”.  I even speculated that it might not have even been said, but there we are: horror upon horror, he did mean his own child.  What a sick thing and yet it is wonderfully dark for the series.  Listen, this season has been a weird one.  The standalone episode have been far more interesting to me than the arc stories around Angel’s son, but once they rev things up, I’m all in.  And believe me, I’m all in now.  

Considering how many more episodes exist before the end of the season, I can’t see us getting better from where we are for a while.  I know the trope of the hero losing all means that we have to start winning now, but I have a feeling we still have not hit rock bottom just yet.  I just keep asking myself: how much worse could it possibly get?   ML