Angel S05 E12 – Head bitch in charge

Previously: Andrew came to town and a mentally ill vampire slayer chopped Spike’s hands off. In short, good times.
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You’re Welcome

Kirsti: Holy crap, you guys. We have FINALLY made it through 100 episodes of Angel. Which feels like it took approximately 500 years longer than covering 100 episodes of Buffy. Let’s have a gif party and get started, shall we?

We open with the Fang Gang kicking down a door and walking into a room featuring a big ass crucifix and a bunch of lit prayer candles. The guys stare in horror as Fred talks to the screen of her scientific gadget about how the guy they’re looking for has been there but he’s gone now and she’s picking up lots of blood that’s not his. She finally looks up to see the room is filled with dead nuns. The perp, apparently, is one of their clients. He was up on a racketeering charge, and didn’t really agree with Gunn’s “shut it down and we’ll make the charges disappear” argument. So he went on a nun killing spree. Angel is bitchy about it, because UGH ANOTHER EVIL CLIENT.

Fred tries to placate Angel by saying that they’ll find him, but Wes is on hand to LOL NOPE. Apparently killing five holy women is part of a ritual to jump between dimensions so the guy could be anywhere. Fred’s equipment is of no use because it’s not calibrated to hang out with Jerry O’Connell. #bad90sjokes

Angel cracks the sads and announces that he can’t do this any more. “I quit,” he says before storming out. Dramatic zoom out of the…house? nunnery?? who the fuck knows? and across Los Angeles to a hospital. We get a bunch of seizure cuts of Lindsey’s tattoos and the symbols on the walls of his apartment, and then Cordelia(!!!!!) awakes with a gasp.

Lorraine: The episode description gave this away but still! ALL OF THE SQUEES! HAPPY 100TH EPISODE AND CORDELIA COMING BACK!

 

Sweeney: BEST BEST

K: Electric cellos.

After the credits, we’re in Angel’s office. The Fang Gang try to tell him that things will change and he should un-quit immediately. But Angel has no fucks to give. Gunn points out that there are probably a shit ton of ramifications waiting to strike them down if they leave, and Angel sasses that maybe Gunn just doesn’t WANT to leave on account of now he knows how to play golf and lawyer things. (L: Probably mostly the golf!) (S: I hear country club memberships are expensive. And racist. That W&H clout is probably super essential to Gunn’s golf fun times.) Gunn snaps that they all got something out of the deal. (S: Except that none of them know what Angel got out of the deal. Does Gunn know? Does he just know to play along?) (K: Angel got all those fancy cars and the vampire-safe glass?? IDEK.) The phone rings, cutting the tension. Angel answers, and looks shocked with what he hears. Wes asks what’s up. “Cordelia,” Angel replies.

Seizure cut to the hospital. Angel and Wes walk into the room to see someone lying flat in a bed. “Cordelia?” Angel says, hesitantly. She pops up from the other side of the room, and says that she thought they’d have given the other girl a private room on account of her being mostly dead and all. Her hair, incidentally, is AMAZING. (S: And the show makes a self-aware joke about this – that mystical coma status spared her the usual coma makeup.) (K: YES.) She sasses about the “ammonia-soaked death” aroma of the hospital before Angel tackles her into a bear hug. They grin at each other as Wes jumps in on the hugging action.

 

Lor: FEELINGS ALREADY. STUCK IN MY THROAT.

Sweeney: THIS WAS ALL SO ADORABLY SWEET AND AWKWARD AND PRECIOUS. Both Angel and Wes have this awkward-giggling-I-can’t-believe-this-is-real-I’m-so-happy thing going on and it’s adorable.

K: I loved that it was just the two of them who went to get her. The original Fang Gang back together! They discuss how hot she looks, and how weird that is given the whole coma situation. She makes a comment about Jasmine having hijacked her body, and Angel’s all “Skkrrrt, you remember?” YUP. He then looks awkward on account of Wes not remembering because Angel wiped Connor out of their memories. This raises interesting questions about why the Fang Gang think Cordy’s been in a coma…

Lor: It appears that they remember the Jasmine parts of the story, sans Connor. So, I don’t know who they thought knocked Cordy up or who murderpunched Jasmine, but the basic premise is probably intact.

K: True!

Angel suggests that they bust Cordy out of the coma ward. She’s totally on board, especially when she twigs that this will mean going shopping for something that isn’t a hospital gown. She says she’s not ready to go back to the hotel yet, leading Angel and Wes to exchange glances. “Not a problem!” Angel says cheerfully.

Cut to the three of them walking out of the elevator at Wolfram & Hart. Cordy is understandably hesitant. Luckily, the Fang Gang are on hand to do some more hugging. Cordy asks where Connor is, and they’re all “…who?” Womp. Luckily take 2, Harmony squeals her way into the room. Cordy’s confused about Harmony’s presence and gives Angel epic side eye when he reveals that Harmony’s his secretary. He looks a little shifty and hurries everyone out of the room and back to work.

Finally alone, he tells Cordy that he knows all the changes are a lot to take in, but things are going great and there’s no one they can’t save with their limitless resources. “Except maybe yourself,” she replies and OH MY GOD she has an awful lot of boob on display right now.

Lor: When you started recapping this scene, I quickly scanned down to see if you mentioned the boobs on display. The show is all, “ALRIGHT Y’ALL. WHO MISSED CHARISMA CAPRENTER’S BOOBS? WE ALL DID, AM I RIGHT?”

K: She tells Angel that a vision from the Powers That Be (Contriving) is what woke her up, and that she saw weird symbols on walls and as a tattoo and…she trails off when Eve appears from Angel’s personal elevator.

Lor: She said the Powers That Be. I… I thought we were done… with that? No? OKAY SHOW.

K: NOTHING IS EVER DONE.

Eve informs Angel that the senior partners are suuuuuuper pissed about their client skipping dimensions. Not because of the dead nuns, but because they’re out $10 million in bail. She then turns her attention to Cordy, asking who she is. Cordy coldly introduces herself, giving Eve the once over. Eve starts to introduce herself, but Cordy interrupts with an “I didn’t ask,” and goes to stand by Angel. LOL. (L: Yep. A+.)

Sweeney: I have missed this snarky bitch so very much.

K: ME TOO. Eve brings up that time they had sex at the Halloween party, and Cordy looks at Angel. “And I thought Darla was rock bottom,“‘ she snarks. Best. Angel tries to explain, but no one gives a fuck. Eve sasses her way out, and Cordy tells Angel that he’s made a deal with the devil. Conveniently, a dude who looks a lot like a cartoon Satan is on hand to prove her right.

Cut to Spike’s Rent-a-Hero Apartment. Spike’s sitting on the sofa, losing at Donkey Kong.

Sweeney: Excellent limb-reattachment therapy choice. I LOL’d.

K: The camera pans around to show that Lindsey – who I THINK is wearing his Cowboy Boots of Revenge – is standing by the door. He’s there to deliver a “get back in the field” pep talk, but Spike has no fucks to give on account of his hands got chopped off last week. He also says that Lindsey (who’s still claiming to be Doyle) has no idea what it’s like to have your hands chopped off. Lindsey’s all “Yeah, kinda sorta do know what that’s like.”

Lor: It’s like having your worst moment STILL be one of the best moments on the show.

Sweeney: LET’S REFLECT:

K: Aaaaah, the good old days…

Spike grabs a beer and goes back to playing Donkey Kong. Lindsey gets all “GO SAVE PEOPLE, BITCH,” and Spike tells him that he will once “Doyle” gets a vision. Just then, Lindsey’s phone rings. It’s Eve. He asks if it can wait on account of vampire super hearing, but she’s all “Yeah, no.” She informs him that Cordy’s awake, had a vision, and is steering Angel straight towards him. Lindsey decides a change of plan is required as Spike loses some more in the background. Fade to black.

After the Not Commercial Break, Angel walks into his apartment to hear Doyle’s voice. Like, Actual!Doyle, not Lindsey!Doyle. Cordy’s sitting on Angel’s bed watching the commercial that they filmed way back in season 1. Both she and I are a little teary. (L: “Our rats are low.” Teary? Check.) (S: HAYFEVER.) Angel joins the feels party when Cordy refers to Doyle as “the first soldier down.” She says that Doyle pissed her off but he knew that he had to die like that to keep Angel fighting, and she gets that now. Angel says that there’s stuff about the Wolfram & Hart deal that she can’t possibly understand, but she says she understands perfectly: they seduced him with shiny things and magic vampire-friendly windows.

He tells her that he made the deal because of Connor, that Wolfram & Hart gave Connor a real life and a family and that no one remembers him but the two of them and, for some reason, Eve. “So, not only did you strike a deal with your worst enemy to give up your son, you let them rape the memories of your friends who trust you?” Cordy replies. Not sure that’s a good enough reason to use the word ‘rape’, show… (L: I’m pretty sure it’s the same word I used when we were talking about it…) (S: It’s a hard balance because it’s not rape and it’s bad to trivialize it, but there are some major issues of violation and consent in this memory wipe trick that Angel/W&H pulled – as there were when Willow did it. Thinking about it now makes me uncomfortable with the way we’ve used it in the past, but I also don’t know what other words to use.) (K: YES, THIS. Language is hard…) Angel insists that Connor was about to kill himself and her, and Angel did what he had to do to save them. Plus, Connor’s happy now so it all works out.

Sweeney: That makes it rather directly analogous to what Willow did – POOF, EVERYONE’S HAPPY! I think Willow’s actions were worse because it came from a far more self-serving place, but the same basic elements of, “I decided that I wanted a thing to happen and am willing to completely change large chunks of your life, without your permission, in order to make it happen.” Wesley, in particular, had some huge personally defining moments (not necessarily good ones, but defining moments all the same) wiped out.

K: Excellent point, Sweeney.

Cordy snaps that giving her the “everything’s fine” speech won’t work, because she’s not buying it. And neither are the Powers That Be (Contriving). She says that the PTB(C) woke her up to get Angel back on his path. He sad pandas that she’s wrong. The PTB(C) don’t care about him any more, because they’ve got a shiny new champion in Spike. Cordy’s all “LOL WHUT.” He fills her in on the Spike-has-a-soul thing, and she replies “Spike’s a hero, and you’re C.E.O. of Hell, Incorporated. What freakin’ bizarro world did I wake up in??” Indeed, Cordy. Indeed.

Lor: We still don’t know, girl. We have no answers for you.

K: He says that he’s lost without her, and she says that he just needs to remember who he is. She reminds him of all the good he used to do, how hard he used to fight, how he always did the right thing. Then she asks if he ever thinks about the night they were supposed to meet. “All the time,” he replies. She sadly says that maybe they missed their moment. He thinks that people like them aren’t supposed to get a moment. Cordy replies that there are no people like them, and Angel looks sad.

Sweeney: This scene made me sad too, Angel. Remember how much better everything was with (real) Cordelia around?

K: SO MUCH BETTER.

Cut to the balcony at Eve’s apartment. She and Lindsey are curled up under a blanket in a patio chair. Eve asks if he’s worried, but he’s actually pleased that the PTB(C) are getting involved. He says that he couldn’t let that “Eurotrash vampire” get everything he’d worked for and I stop to laugh and laugh because BRO. Do you have any idea what Eurotrash looks like? Oh God. ANYWAY. Basically, he has a big fat revenge boner for Angel. Eve gets jealous because she wants all the boners to be for her. He placates her with smoochies.

The next day, Cordy and Wes are researching. She hates Past!Cordy for wanting to do the research themselves rather than having Wes’ staff do it for them, much like how I hate Past!Kirsti for loving Spike. Wes tells her that he missed it – the two of them together, researching stuff. She asks why no one is talking about that whole Cordevilia thing, and he tells her that it’s because they know it wasn’t really her doing those things, so there’s nothing to talk about. He says that he knows she’s not the one responsible for Lilah’s death, but she apologises for it just the same. Then she conveniently spots the tattoos from her vision in a book that she almost knocked off the desk. YAY CONTRIVANCE!

Lor: She either apologizes or says, “I’m sorry,” in condolence. Or both. And it reminds me how much Cordy was the heart of this group. Wesley didn’t get a lot of sympathy for Lilah’s death, but a little while into her return, Cordelia is already on it.

Sweeney: ONE OF A MILLION REASONS TO MISS HER.

K: Wes look the books over, and declares them to be protection runes from the Enochian alphabet used for concealment. Silly Lindsey. You didn’t go hardcore enough with your concealment runes. Get on Supernatural’s level, yo:

Wes says that the spell would keep someone hidden from higher powers, seers, mystics and modern surveillance equipment.

With that, we cut to Lindsey dressed in a boiler suit walking down a hallway at Wolfram & Hart. He swipe cards himself into a maintenance section and heads down a staircase. There’s a maze of green laser beams at the bottom, but he walks through them without anything happening. He waves to the security camera and we cut briefly to the security office to show that he doesn’t appear on the screens. Cut to a demon in a lab coat playing on his phone. He gets stabbed from behind by Lindsey, who proceeds to steal a crystal from the demon’s throat, and kick his corpse to one side.

Upstairs, Cordy’s lost in the maze that is Wolfram & Hart. She turns and sees Spike coming towards her. She laughs a little, and says that she heard about his whole not being evil any more thing, and says that it makes his hair a little silly. He vamps out. She back pedals, saying that the hair is great. He stalks towards her, and bites her neck as she screams. Fade to black.

After the Not Commercial Break, Spike is suddenly pulled away from Cordy and thrown across the room. The cavalry – in the form of Angel – has arrived! Spike and Angel fight, which comes to a rapid end when Spike says that Cordy’s evil. There’s some name calling that leads to bickering that leads to headbutting before Spike says that he was just doing a taste test to see if what his source said about Cordy being evil was true. Because apparently now you can taste evil in someone’s blood? Clearly, it’s time to break out our Whedon you are using sunlight to confuse me tag!

Sweeney: I actually have a vague memory of this being introduced before. They’ve definitely discussed different tasting blood before so this doesn’t strike me as wholly implausible. It does make me wonder whether chipped Spike could have subsisted on demon blood, though.

K: Clearly, I’ve blocked all of that out for the sake of my brain remaining intact.

Angel asks about Spike’s source, and he says that he’s got a guy who gets visions from the PTB(C), and they said Cordy was evil. Cordy sasses that Spike’s guy gets rerun visions. Spike refers to him as “tattoo guy,” and Cordy’s all “O RLY??” Angel asks what the guy’s name is, and when Spike tells them he calls himself Doyle, both Cordy and Angel get the same face that the Snark Ladies got when Lindsey first called himself Doyle. Otherwise known as “OH BITCH YOU DID NOT JUST DO THAT YOU ARE GOING DOWN SO HARD.”

Lor: I feel validated.

K: Down the hall, Eve is filling Lindsey in on what’s happening. He tells her to get out of the building because he’s almost to wherever the mystical basement leads. She hangs up and turns to find Angel and Cordy smirking at her. Cordy calls her “Lilah Junior” and drags her into Angel’s office for a chat. Shortly thereafter, they interrogate her as the Fang Gang look on. Angel twigged that she was involved because it was “Doyle” who told Spike to save Angel from the hallucination parasite, and Eve was the one who planted said parasite. Eve makes excuses and says she has to leave, but Cordy and Angel have no fucks to give on account of someone is shitting all over the name of their dead friend, and they want to know who it is.

Lor: I’m a huge fan of Cordy’s no fucks given attitude during this scene. Let her know who the HBIC will always be on Angel, girl.

Sweeney: Bow the fuck down, Eve.

K: Bow down so hard.

Just then, Harmony bursts in and asks if she gets the afternoon off too. Angel’s all “Dafuq?” and she informs him that everyone in the whole building up and left a few minutes ago.

Cut to the mystery basement, which looks kind of like where the big showdown would take place in a Pierce Brosnan Bond movie. Lindsey flips a switch and a console panel lights up. He places the crystal from the demon’s throat into a tubey thing, and the tubey thing closes over it. The control panel starts doing a bunch of stuff, and some big metal bars that remind me a lot of the door locks in Jurassic Park start to slide back. “Wakey wakey,” Lindsey says.

Angel’s office. Gunn says that a message went out to all staff declaring a Code 7. Angel asks Eve what that means, and DUDE. Surely the CEO should know things like that if, like, the mailroom staff do? Whatever. Eve says she has no idea, and Cordy says they don’t have time for her crap and should jump straight to the torture. Angel’s all “….dude, no.” Fred chimes in about how they can’t stoop to W&H’s level, but Harmony jumps – literally – in and gets straight to the face punching because she’s excellent. And also evil, and willing to “take one for the team.” She’s a little disappointed when Eve crumbles almost instantly and says that it’s a failsafe.

Lor: Which explains why Angel didn’t know about the Code 7. It’s “in case of Angel emergency,” which means you would probably want to keep it from Angel. Or else that would be awk-ward.

K: True! Apparently the Senior Partners decided that despite them handing over control of the LA office to Angel, they couldn’t trust him. So they put something big and evil in the basement to take him out if necessary. Angel asks how to stop it, and Eve says that you can only shut it down from within the Bond Showdown Chamber. The gang wonder who activated the chamber in the first place, and rapidly come to the conclusion that it must have been “Doyle” on account of his tattoos making him invisible to security systems. Angel asks Spike what “Doyle” looks like, and Spike replies “Average size. Dressed like an urban cowboy. Got his hand chopped off once.”

Angel, Cordy and Wes all join the dots instantly, and get simultaneous expressions of “Ugh, seriously?” Fred, meanwhile, is all “Who the fuck is Lindsey?” Cordy gives her/anyone who joined the show late the Cliffsnotes version. Wes says he might have a way to make Lindsey show up on the cameras again, and sets off with Lorne. Angel tells Harmony to guard Eve and eat her if she tries to escape. Harmony’s thrilled.

Lor: I don’t think eating people has ever been more precious.

K: She finally has a purpose!

He then says that he’s going to the Bond Showdown Chamber alone because he won’t risk anyone he cares about. Spike volunteers, and Angel immediately agrees. He tells Fred and Cordy to be ready to evacuate, but Cordy just grabs a samurai sword and says that she’s going too.

Sweeney: Literally every single thing she did in the episode made me cry, “I MISS HER!” at my screen, even this cheesetastic line about knowing her rights and wanting to see a lawyer.

K: Pretty much exactly. Downstairs, Angel, Cordy and Spike have reached the green laser room. Angel walks into the laser field, which sets off alarms and frees a bunch of zombies. They all start fighting, but Angel yells that there’s no time. Spike tells them to leave him to deal with the zombies. Cordy and Angel rush on.

Bond Showdown Chamber. Lindsey – who I am disappointed to say is NOT wearing his Cowboy Boots of Revenge – pats the tank that’s risen from the floor affectionately. “Bye-bye Angel,” he says. “Hello, Lindsey,” says a voice from behind him. He turns to see Angel and Cordy. There’s a sass off, and Angel goes to backhand Lindsey. But Lindsey grabs his hand, punches Angel, and throws him across the room. Angel smacks into the wall as Lindsey looks smug. Fade to black.

After the Not Commercial Break, Angel tells Cordy to leave. But Lindsey waves a hand and a metal door closes, sealing them in the Bond Showdown Chamber. Lindsey pulls out a pocket knife and steps towards Angel. Cordy tosses Angel her samurai sword. Lindsey sasses some more and transforms his pocket knife into a broadsword, because apparently he spent his Revenge Planning Time at Hogwarts? IDEK. Angel tells Cordy to shut down the failsafe, and she runs for the control panel as Angel and Lindsey start fighting. Cordy stares at the panel and pokes at a button, which promptly gives her an electric shock.

Back in fight land, Lindsey pins Angel against the wall. Angel shoves him away, and Lindsey Mario Jumps up to the top of the tank. He sasses that the Mario Jumping is a little trick that he picked up in Nepal. Angel promptly Mario Jumps up to join him. They resume fighting until Lindsey whacks Angel in the knee. Angel falls back so that Lindsey has time to consult the Big Book of Villain Gloating. He says that a fight to Angel’s death was a good enough reason to come back. Angel eyerolls that he’s seen Lindsey’s act before, going right back to the pilot episode when Lindsey ranted about how Angel couldn’t touch his client and so Angel kicked him out of the window. “Good times…” Angel says. I concur, Angel. Season 1 was a much happier time for all concerned. (L: And that was such a good pilot.) (S: MEMORIES.) Just then, the tank jerks and starts to rise further into the air. Cordy looks over to see some kind of giant crab claw waving around. “Oh crap,” she says.

Cut to Wesley’s office. The Fang Gang gather ingredients for their spell. Gunn’s sulking about not being included in the fighting. Wes announces that the final step to the spell is to “sprinkle the ingredients with the arterial blood of an unclean” and turns to stare at Lorne. Lorne grumpily asks why they can’t ask for the urine of an unclean, because he’s got plenty of that. Especially when Gunn pulls a knife a second later.

Bond Showdown Chamber. The sword fighting continues. Angel manages to chop Lindsey’s shirt open for literally no reason other than to ensure his tattoos are visible. They fight some more, and Lindsey manages to take Angel’s sword. Angel kicks out, and Lindsey’s sword flies through the air. Angel does a Mario Jump Backflip (it’s a thing now, just go with it) up to the balcony above the door and grabs the sword out of the air. Lindsey follows him. They fight some more, and Lindsey manages to stab the sword right through Angel. ANGEL GETS IMPALED SHOTS!! It’s been a while since we’ve had shots. Cordy calls out to Angel as Lindsey kicks him off the balcony. Angel sprawls across the top of the tank.

Lindsey jumps down and consults the Big Book of Villain Gloating some more. He also rips off his shirt because apparently they couldn’t think of a way to make James Marsters take his shirt off in this episode and they had an Abs Quota to maintain? (S: It’s how they attempt to bring balance to the sausage fest. “Ladies, we know this show grossly under and misrepresents you, but if you’re straight, have some abs!”) (K: A+.) Angel yanks the sword out and says that it might have done more damage if it had been made of wood. He jumps up and the (now hand-to-hand) fighting starts up again. Meanwhile, Cordy starts randomly jabbing buttons on the control panel until the tubey thing that swallowed the crystal appears again. She grabs the crystal smugly and the machine makes a shutting down sound.

“No!” Lindsey yells. The tank starts to sink back into the ground. Angel immediately gains the upper hand, dodging Lindsey’s punches with ease and giving a Good Guy Monologue as the Brass Section of Heroism strikes up in the background. The speech is so ridiculous that I giggled all the way through it, so I’m going to give it to you in its entirety:

All those tattoos, all those new tricks you’ve learned… just don’t matter. Doesn’t matter what you try. Doesn’t matter where I am or how badass you think you’ve become. ‘Cause you know what? I’m Angel. I beat the bad guys.

LOL. In the pause after “I’m Angel“, he throws Lindsey across the room.

Lor: Seriously a cheese fest. So much cheese.

K: At the end of the Good Guy Monologue, Lindsey chuckles and tries to pull himself upright. Cordy crosses to stand next to Angel. Lindsey does the obligatory “You haven’t seen the last of me!” routine, but Cordy sasses that “your epidermis is showing.” His tattoos float off his body.

Upstairs, Wes chants in Latin over the potion ingredients. Fred stares at him adoringly. Back in the Bond Showdown Chamber, Lindsey’s tattoos poof into nothing. “I think the Senior Partners would like a word,” Angel sasses. A vortex opens up over Lindsey’s head and sucks him up. The vortex closes behind him.

Cut to the lobby. The Fang Gang usher Eve into the elevator and Cordy tells her to “never keep in touch.” Eve promises revenge on her way out. After she’s gone, Lorne proposes that drinks are in order. The Fang Gang rapidly agree. (L: Cordy is back for one episode, and they are already acting like more of a gang. Dammit I miss her.) (S: SO MUCH.) (K: YES.) Angel says that he’ll grab his coat. The elevator arrives and Cordy tells the others that she and Angel will catch up.

Angel’s office. Cordy asks how he’s feeling, and he says that he feels kind of bad about feeling good because he didn’t really help anyone, he just beat up Lindsey. Again. Cordy says that this time around, he was the person who needed saving. He replies that she was the one who saved him. She perches next to him with a proud little shrug. He says that he knows it’s nowhere near over, but he feels like he can deal with whatever’s coming. Cordy replies that she knows he can, she always knew. She just needed HIM to know too. “You’ll win this in the end. I, uh, just wish I could be there to see it,” she says.

Angel looks confused. She says that she can’t stay, and that he should say goodbye to the gang for her and explain things. He insists that he needs her, and she tears up. “Don’t make it hard, Angel. I’m just on a different road…and this is my off-ramp. The Powers That Be owed me one, and I didn’t waste it. I got my guy back on track,” she says. He tries to say something, but she interrupts with an “I’ll be seeing you.” She heads for the door, then turns and says “Oh, what the hell. One for the road?” before rushing over and kissing him. The Orchestra of Feels strikes up as the camera spins around them.

 

The phone rings, and Angel says to ignore it. Cordy insists that it’s a call he has to take. He heads towards the desk, and she tearfully says “Oh…and you’re welcome,” earning herself a last minute gold star:

Angel answers the phone and it’s clear the hospital is on the other end. He insists that it’s impossible because Cordy’s standing right… He trails off as he turns to see that she’s gone. He chokes up and asks when she died. “She never did wake up?” he asks plaintively. He hangs up, and looks over to where Cordy was standing. “Thank you,” he says quietly. Fade to black.

Lor: “You’re welcome,” they titled this episode in which we got on final moment with Cordelia. Thank you, indeed.

K: This episode got off to a rough start, but I was well and truly on Team Feels in the last couple of minutes. And now that Lindsey’s dastardly revenge plot has been revealed, things are definitely starting to ramp up to the season finale. In short, I love this episode if only because it means Cordelia being on my screen again.

Lor: That was of course definitely the highlight, and wonderfully placed at the 100th episode. Putting Cordelia and Lindsey here injected a certain amount of nostalgia into the episode, and we got lots of little reminders about where we started, from Doyle’s video, to Angel talking to Lindsey about their first confrontation. I don’t think I’ll ever count this show amongst my top of anything, but it was nice being reminded that it had some really great moments too, and what drove it along for so long for me, were the early group dynamics.

We discussed this some then, but I pretty much believe that we never truly saw Cordelia in season 4. It was a nice moment when Cordelia apologizes to Wesley for the things she did as Cordevilia, because it would be (and is!) hard to separate her from her possessed counterpart.

Sweeney: Indeed. That little exchange felt very natural and appropriate for them but also had this little meta component of saying to the fans, “IT’S NOT CORDELIA! WE PROMISE WE DIDN’T RUIN ACTUAL CORDELIA!” We respond with a side-eye and an, “MMHMM. SURE.” but we appreciate the effort.

K: Very true, Sweeney.

Lor: The other details surrounding the mere presence of Charisma Carpenter have bit of that characteristic Angel slop. The fail-safe thing is kind of dumb, and everything is tied up a bit too neatly, considering what a major crisis of self Angel’s been dealing with for the past 12 episodes. It’s a very light issue, however, because did we mention Cordelia? I think we did.

Sweeney: It’s a bittersweet thing, though, because her presence in this episode was an extended reminder of what the show was and could have been. I loved this episode for Cordelia’s presence and I’m glad that we’re advancing towards the finale – I said before that the Lindsey subplot made something far more useful out of the Spike/Angel dynamic and I’m trying to be optimistic about what they’ll do with it next. That said, I’m reluctant to move forward after this reminder that the team is missing its heart. #teamcordelia

K: #teamcordelia always and forever.

 

Next time: Terrible Brylcream Flashbacks to World War II! Find out more in Angel S05 E13 – Why We Fight.