Angel S05 E22 – Forever ends tonight.

Previously: Angel was evil but it was all a secret plan to take down a secret society. Or something.
—

Not Fade Away

Kirsti: YOU GUYS. WE MADE IT TO THE END OF THIS RIDICULOUS SHOW. I honestly thought this day would never come. In some ways it’s been a million times harder for me than Buffy because so many of the episodes were meh-tastic and Whedon kept killing off all the female characters. Still, WE MADE IT. And that warrants a dance party:

Sweeney: ALWAYS DANCE PARTIES. ALWAYS.

Lorraine: This post is going up a little late because of timezone issues. So, Kirsti told me to celebrate the end while she went to sleep. I told her I was at work. She said I should have a dance party in the bathroom. I just wanted this to be here in case I get caught dancing in the bathroom, so everyone knows it was Kirsti’s idea.

K: I kind of meant, like, in a cubicle. But whatever. Nothing gets in the way of a celebratory dance party.

We pick up where we left off – the Far Too Many Penises Gang agreeing to take down the Circle of the Black Thorn. Angel says that they can’t take them down en masse because they’re too powerful. But individually, they’re just demons, and that’s totally doable. In the meantime, they have to keep up the pretext of ALL THE FIGHTING so that the Circle doesn’t know what they’re up to. Gunn asks about including Illyria, but Angel says they can’t know who she’d side with. The guys say that Illyria was fine babysitting Drogyn, and Angel says they have to go to Spike’s Rent-A-Hero Apartment immediately because Drogyn’s dead.

Spike asks how he knows and Angel says it’s because he killed him. Then he punches Spike in the face and there’s a brief fight just as Hamilton walks in the door. Angel snaps at the FTMP Gang to get out. He tells Wes to deal with Illyria and slams the door in Wes’ face. Cover story maintained, he turns to Hamilton who tells him that there are problems with the Circle. They want to see him immediately. “No rest for the wicked,” Hamilton says as he walks away. THE FINAL ELECTRIC CELLOS OMG. (L: And Phantom Dennis was there until the end! SO LONG PHANTOM DENNIS!)

After the credits, the FTMP Gang arrive at Spike’s where Illyria is still lying face down on the floor. They rush over, and Illyria regains consciousness in time to tell them that Hamilton’s responsible, and that he took Drogyn. Lorne frets that Angel’s lost the plot, and Gunn looks at him strangely, saying that he doesn’t think they’re being monitored there. But Lorne’s not keeping up the cover story. He’s genuinely worried that Angel’s gone off the deep end, and he doesn’t trust him. Gunn stands and says “We don’t have to trust him. We just gotta pray the Black Circle does.”

Sweeney: I don’t think your logic holds here, Gunn. I think you need both. If The Black Circle trusts him because he’s actually evil then you kind of have a problem, friend.

K: TRUE.

Cut to the Circle meeting at Archduke Sebassis’. After an Evil Pledge of Allegiance, the Circle inform Angel that they know about him fighting with the FTMP Gang, and that his people are a problem. They’re intrigued by Wesley and his instability, less so by Gunn now that he’s all “Ew, killing babies is wrong.” The greatest threat, however, is Angel himself. While he’s proven that he’s loyal to them, hope is stronger than loyalty. With that, Not!Satan pulls out that Shanshu Prophecy. The Circle, Sebassis says, thinks that Angel is trying to manipulate them into making the prophecy a reality. Angel says coldly that he has no interest in being human, and Sebassis is all “GREAT. Just sign here and you’ll get rid of all your chances to ever become human.” Angel signs in blood.

Sweeney: Well that seems…super fucking contrived. One for the road! Thanks, show! (JOKES. We all know there won’t be just one.)

Lor: I struggle with the idea that signing a prophecy makes a prophecy not so. BUT OKAY. GOOD TO KNOW.

K: No kidding. Especially given how vague his signature is. Like he plans on going “Nah, bro. That’s says “Angal”, that’s not me!”

Angel’s office. He stares broodily out the window. Harmony comes in and asks where everyone is. Angel asks her if she ever misses being human, because he can’t remember what it was like. Harmony says that she doesn’t miss the dandruff or the pimples, then wistfully pines for the way her heart used to thump when she kissed a cute boy for the first time. She tells him that she knows something’s going on, and she wants to help. He tells her to keep Hamilton distracted while he pays a visit to Sebassis.

Seizure cut to the conference room where Angel’s reluctantly meeting with Lindsey. Lindsey scoffs at the idea of teaming up, on account of all those times Angel tried to kill him and/or cut off his hand. Angel tells him that it’s not about them, it’s about the wolf, the ram and the hart. Lindsey says they can’t be defeated, and Angel says that they can be fought. Lindsey’s all “LOL, GOOD LUCK WITH THAT, BRO.” Angel sweetens the pot: if Lindsey helps them – which is the last thing the Circle will expect – the Someone who’ll need to step in and run the firm when it’s all over? Will be Lindsey. Better the devil you know and all that. Meanwhile, I’m confused about why they’re having this conversation at Wolfram & Hart where there are eyes EVERYWHERE and people constantly walking in the door unannounced. Whatever, show. Whatever. (S: RIGHT? I was waiting for another glamour, but no.)

Lindsey wants to know what will happen if they fail. Angel says that Lindsey can talk his way out of it, as per usual. Lindsey says that he’s in: “Everybody goes on about your soul. Vampire with a soul. Nobody ever mentions the fact that you’re really a vampire with big brass testes. This is gonna be a circus. I mean, win or lose, you’re about to pick the nastiest fight since mankind drop-kicked the last demon out of this dimension. And that you don’t do without me. If you want me, I’m on your team.”

     

Spike’s Rent-A-Hero Apartment. Wes lowers Illyria onto the bed as the rest of the gang watch from the doorway. He says that he needs to get supplies and tells the gang to watch over Illyria for him. Spike mutters that they won’t be much good if Hamilton turns up again. “Hamilton did this?” Angel enternounces. Lorne’s all “Right, you were too busy killing Drogyn to work that out.” Angel says that he didn’t have a choice. Gunn wants to know which of them will be picked off next, and Angel says that it won’t be any of them: “We’re killing them all tonight.” Fade to black aaaaaand I hand over to Sweeney.

 

Sweeney: After that break, we plot twist again because on the eve of some apocalyptic madness, he’s giving them all the day off! That sounds like something we’d write as a joke, but it’s not. They are appropriately confused, but Angel morbidly clarifies that they’ll be ready (there’s probably not a whole lot they can do in a day to prepare anyway) and what they need to do now is live this day like it will be their last – “because it probably is.”

We begin the LAST DAY party with Lorne doing a little singing. (L: Aw, honey. Sing your heart out.) Angel goes to find his son (wouldn’t be a finale without you, buddy.) Spike drinks himself silly at a bar (or, like drinks himself moderately buzzed because of that vampire constitution.) Gunn goes to see ANNE! OH ANNE! This is amazing. Such a delightful little recurring character and she’s kind of a bonus bit of crossover magic in the finale! She’s been fighting the good fight and running shit. After she catches Gunn up on all that, the orchestra of feels swells. Gunn asks her what she’d do if it turned out that none of this mattered because bigger, terrible forces would keep sending new, terrible shit. To that Anne says that she’d finish packing this truck before the new stuff gets there. Gunn smiles and helps her lift a couch. Keep fighting the good fight.

Lor: And it makes sense that this is where Gunn would go. It’s a good reminder for him before he jumps into the huge battle.

K: This entire thing gave me so many happy feels. I’m kind of thrilled that when the shit’s about to hit the fan, they all go back to their roots. Plus, Singing Lorne is the best Lorne. 

Sweeney: Agreed on all counts.

Spike’s Rent-A-Hero Apartment. He’s patching Illyria up, who definitely plans to fight after having been “broken and humiliated,” but announces this in grand Illyria fashion. Illyria doesn’t understand why, if Wesley can do anything he wants, he’s choosing to do this. He says it’s because there isn’t anything that he wants and there is no such thing as a perfect day for him. (K: Excuse me while I have more feels.) Illyria notes he wants to be with Fred. Wesley hesitates, but agrees, that yes, that would be his choice if he had that option. Illyria would assume Fred’s shape, bring her back a little for him, but knows Wesley would never ask. Illyria looks at the floor at this last bit – another bit of recognition of Illyria’s growing humanity. Wesley explains that the first thing Watchers learn is separating truth from illusion because that’s dangerous shit in magicks. “The truth is that Fred is gone. To pretend anything else would be a lie. And since I don’t actually intend to die tonight, I won’t accept a lie.”

Lor: OH HELL NO. WESLEY YOU TAKE THAT DECLARATION THAT YOU WON’T DIE BACK RIGHT NOW.

Sweeney: I KNOW. WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU THINKING, WESLEY?

Spike, nice and drunk, is doing a little throwback magic without the terrible wigs: he’s reciting a poem in a bar. I think it’s the poem he read to Cecily back on Buffy, yes? (L: Indeed! He says, “effulgent!”) (S: That was the part I picked up on too.) If so, that’s another amazing piece of crossover magic. Love. Unlike the Terrible Wig party that mocked him, this bar cheers for his poetry. Drunk people are awesome audiences, mostly on account of how fun it is to shout things when you’re drunk and in a drunk crowd.

K: We all know that I’ve gone firmly from “OMG BEST!!!!!!!” to “KILL IT WITH FIRE” where Spike is concerned. But this little moment of Spike doing drunken slam poetry and people actually enjoying it has resulted in me finishing the series somewhere in the murky middle ground.

Sweeney: I know exactly what you mean. I felt an appreciation for that scene that I would not have thought possible a few months ago.

At the father-son-pre-apocalypse-bonding-date, Angel’s filling Connor in on his new girlfriend. Connor jokes about werewolf sex and it’s awkward. Angel defensively insists that he understands humor, having been at the first taping of the Carol Burnette Show. Aww, Kirsti, remember Angel is old shots!? (K: GOOD TIMES. I call Nostalgia Shots!)(L: SHOTS ON SHOTS. SHOTS-CEPTION.) All the old hits are making appearances today! Connor cuts the crap and says he knows that Angel is his father – the old memories are mixed in with the new ones, largely like a long, very violent dream. Connor doesn’t want to make a big thing of it because he gets why Angel did what he did and that’s that. Then they go back to the teasing and it’s so cute. Man, I don’t want to watch another season of this show, but it’s a shame Angel didn’t get more time with New Connor. I really like New Connor!

K: I kind of wish there was a spinoff that was just New Connor. You know, college student by day, demon hunter by night. Kind of like Buffy season 4, except not crap.

Sweeney: A very big part of me agrees with you, but something in the pit of my stomach is telling me it’s the graduation goggles talking. Either way, we’re agreed that New Connor is pretty great.

Lindsey, meanwhile, is spending this potential last day making out with Eve. She interrupts because she’s afraid that Angel doesn’t really trust him. Lindsey said it isn’t about trust but what Angel needs (which I suppose is relevant to Gunn’s comment earlier) and that as long as Lindsey is on Angel’s side, he knows Angel will play him fair. Lindsey is being paired up with Lorne, which makes Eve antsy, due to him having predicted bad things in her future. Lindsey says he wants to keep her safe, which means she needs to stay far away from everything. That’s probably critical to how she dies, then.

Lor: Bet she wishes she still had that immortality now, huh?

Sweeney: Rent-A-Hero Apartment. Angel announces to the gang that somebody’s going to be Judas. Spike volunteers as tribute, but Angel gives that job to Wesley. Spike begs to deny him three times. LOL.

    K: NGL, that made me giggle. 

Sweeney: It was pretty fun. All the humor of S4 Spike with the added bonus of having an actual understood purpose for being there!

The red sorcerer guy already believes that Wes is going to make a play for Angel’s spot which Wes doesn’t find flattering, but it’ll get him in the door, which is important. Illyria is assigned to The Devil and three other members who have a dinner date. “I will make trophies of their spines,” Illyria says proudly. Gunn, happily, gets vampires! Full circle! Spike preempts his assignment by saying there will be NO amulets this time. No need – he’s assigned to retrieving the baby and taking out The Fell Brethren. The horned archduke is chief dude and he’s Angel’s. Finally, it’s Lorne’s turn. He regrets that he’s the weak link, but Angel said he only needs to back up Lindsey.

Lor: Lorne just looks so freakin’ sad. I have so many feelings for him.

Sweeney: It’s awful. Lorne’s sad face is depressed puppy face and you have to be next level heartless not to feel for that.

Elsewhere, we see Harmony post blood and sex (ew). And, OF COURSE, she’s with Hamilton. DAMN IT, HARMONY. “So, about Angel’s secret plan,” she says.

After a Not Break they discuss their eventual meeting place, now that the office is out: the alley behind HYPERION. OMG. MEMORIES! A better time, man. A better time. (K: I spent a lot time trying to work out if the alley behind the Hyperion is a different alley to the one where Connor was born and the Beast rose…) (S: I don’t think so, but I could be wrong.) Lorne says that he won’t be going to the meeting place because after this, he’s out for good. As they all leave, Illyria tells Gunn to try not to die. “You are not unpleasant to my eyes.” I LOL’d hard. I feel you, Illyria. Gunn tell Illyria to also try not to die. He and Wes just shake. Wesley and Angel exchange broody stares. Once they’re gone, Spike asks Angel what this means for Shanshu. Angel doesn’t tell him about his contrived blood deal, instead he says it’s irrelevant because they both know they’re not getting through this alive. Womp. “Well, as long as it’s not you.”

Wesley’s Mission. Red Sorcerer is eating and wants to know why Wesley doesn’t expect to be murdered for this. Wesley says that Red Sorcerer is smarter than the others and knows that Angel is unpredictable and, worse yet, has a conscience! His persuasive point is about to get even better, and we see something appearing in his hand. I think it’s the gizmo from the glamour, but we cut away before it finishes forming.

Spike’s Mission: He stealthily joins a bunch of guys marching in robes and chanting.

Gunn’s Mission: He storms into the evil senator’s campaign office and gets to fighting right away.

Lor: I loved that Wesley and Spike employed some cunning and Gunn just stomped in with guns blazing.

Sweeney: YES! They’re doing a great job of giving us believable final moments for these characters

Some demons are sitting around smoking hookahs when a sword comes through their door and then Lindsey kicks it down.

The Devil and his buddies get in their car and turn it on only for the headlights to shine on Illyria who does that creepy little head tilt.

Wolfram & Hart. Angel asks Harmony where Hamilton is. She claims in the records room, being kept busy like Angel said! He asks her to have his car ready and heads up to his apartment.

Angel’s getting a sword ready when Hamilton creeps up behind him. He knows who Angel’s bringing that sword to and it’s not likely it’s a gift. Hamilton throws Angel through his window and he conveniently crashes in the lobby. Harmony starts babbling about how Hamilton isn’t her boyfriend and she didn’t betray him. Angel tells her to cut the shit since he knew she’d betray him eventually. Harmony sasses that it’s only because he never had confidence in her. He tells her to get lost, but also there’s a letter of recommendation waiting for her in the desk. LOL. Weird, but sweet I guess?

Lor: I just… I get it, but I wasn’t a fan. Angel was confident that Harmony would betray him because she doesn’t have a soul, and people with no souls can’t do good things (unless they are Spike or, like, Lorne or Clem or others I’m sure I’m forgetting). Whatever. I just didn’t want Harmony’s last act to be a betrayal.

K: Harmony’s betrayal puts the Harmony-centric episode that we got earlier in the season in a whole new light. Because she talks in that about how he doesn’t have faith in her, no matter what she does. We see her trying really, REALLY hard and doing a crapton of work to make big important meetings go well for him. And all he can do is shout at her. So yeah, I don’t blame her for betraying him. If someone has zero confidence in you no matter what, you’d obviously turn to someone else. Doubly so if you have no soul, I guess…

Sweeney: The bullshit inconsistency of this universe and SOULS! is clearly nagging us up to the very last, which is sort of fitting. Setting that aside – as we often do, because the universe’s failings in presenting it as a thing which means something except for all the places where it doesn’t is fucking exhausting to wrestle with – there’s definitely some major significance to the fact that Angel refused to trust Harmony no matter what. But then, you know, Angel’s over there all like, “Remember how you said this was a thing that had rules and then you you tried to retcon that away?” And so I feel his struggle too.

Whatever. Moving on: as Harmony runs off, Hamilton arrives to kick Angel’s ass some more. “It’s all part of the job.”

And with that, the show goes to Not Commercial and I do the FINAL ANGEL THE SERIES SPIRIT STICK HAND OFF to Lorraine!

 

Lorraine: Hamilton picks Angel up and opens up to chapter one of the Big Book of Villain Gloating. See, the Senior Partners have spent a lot of time and resources on Angel, and Hamilton doesn’t get why. He punctuates this sentiment by throwing Angel upstairs and into the Wolfram & Hart logo. It really wouldn’t be a finale without major structural damage, you know?

Hamilton says that Angel is just trash that got turned into a vampire with a soul and a champion for the people. And yet, he’s still managed to fail a bunch of people, and he lists Doyle (!) (S: FEEEELS!), Cordelia and Fred specifically. Hamilton picks Angel up again and asks if he really thought he was going to kill Sebassis. “No,” Angel replies. “I think I already did.”

We flashback to Sebassis in his bubble bath (demons like bubble baths too! Bubble baths are universal). His slave pours him a glass of blue blood. Sebassis takes a sip and makes a face. When he looks back at his slave, he’s on the floor, bleeding from the mouth. We flashback again, this time to the Black Circle meeting, when the Slave got tangled in Vail’s tubes. Angel pushes him away, but this time we see he’s wearing a ring with a pointed end. Angel poisoned him. We watch Sebassis start to convulse and drop his drink.

Sweeney: BOOM. I loved the pacing on this and I also liked that Angel at least had the foresight to go after the #1 guy both early and from a distance. It makes this whole plan seem a good deal more solid.

K: TRUE. But at the same time, I don’t know how I feel about killing slaves to get to their masters. It says a lot about how much Angel has embraced the grey over the course of this season.

Lor: It feels only slightly different than everyone else who will kill a bunch of people surrounding the main bad guys. Angel has been a bit on the CrAngel side when it comes to casualties lately, but you know, war and apocalypse and stuff. I’m more with Sweeney on loving the pacing and thinking this a smart move.

In the present, Angel says his plan was really to be alone with Hamilton. He admits that he thought this fight would be going a little bit better for him. With that, Hamilton throws him downstairs.

Fell Brethren HQ. Spike’s found the baby. Unfortunately, when Spike turns around, a group of Fell Brethren are blocking the door way. Spike fights them off while still holding the baby.

K: While I appreciate the baby rescuing, I don’t appreciate the return-the-baby-to-his-mother plan. Because she flat out told Angel that she couldn’t afford to raise the baby, AND she gave him up to demons who she knew were going to sacrifice him. So…yeah…

Lor: Angel should know a thing or two about giving your kid up…

We get a brief scene of Lindsey also fighting over at his mission.

Wesley’s mission: Vail’s body flies across the screen as Wesley speeches that his time is over. We now know that that thing Wesley was forming was a fireball. Vail is not impressed, though, and tells Wes he has no idea who he’s up against. Vail holds out his hand and extinguishes Wesley’s fireball. Vail lifts his hand and Wesley winces.

Sweeney: The fireball does make a lot more sense – there’s really not time in the episode for the big mystical espionage that I was anticipating with that guess. (In short, I was thinking the gizmo would be some sort of proof that Angel was out to betray them.)

Lor: Wolfram & Hart. Hamilton doesn’t get why Angel is still fighting, since he signed away the Shanshu. Angel’s all, “nah, bro. That was Angal.” Not really. He says that people who don’t care about anything will never understand people who do. So much truth. It’s like how people who don’t get blogging or Internet friends, never “get” people who do. I mean, it’s almost like that. (S: Same, same…) Hamilton’s answer is, “yeah, but we won’t care.” Fair. I feel like this is a motto Team Heartless Cow can adopt.

K: It goes nicely with our existing motto: “No fucks to give”.

Lor: Hamilton finds a piece of wood conveniently fashioned as a stake and gets ready to kill Angel, but he gets punched IN THE FACE before he can. It’s New Connor! AW, NEW CONNOR, THAT WAS AWESOME. Angel asks what New Connor is doing there and he snarks, “Come on. You drop by for a cup of coffee, and the world’s not ending? Please.” So cute.

Sweeney: MAYBE IT’S NOT JUST THE GRADUATION GOGGLES? MAYBE I DO WANT THAT NEW CONNOR SPINOFF SHOW?

Lor: MAYBE. But I’m wearing those goggles too, SO WHO KNOWS?

Evil Senator’s Office. She seems unfazed as Gunn picks his way through her vampires. And then she seems fairly dead when he hurls his axe at her and it lands right between her eyes. Gunn says something cheesy about the vampires needing a new candidate, but there are ton more now. He keeps fighting his way through them.

Illyria is walking away from Not Satan’s car. The roof is smashed in and blood stains the concrete near it.

Eve is pacing in Angel’s office.

Lorne carefully steps around dead bodies in the Sahrvin HQ. He looks positively sick. Lorne calls Lindsey a master swordsman. Lindsey says he couldn’t have done it without Lorne’s high note in MacArthur Park. Lindsey asks if there is any word on the rest of the team. Lorne hasn’t heard anything. For all he knows, they are all that remains of the team. Lindsey muses about his using the word team, and meaning it. He likes the felling. “Yeah,” Lorne says with a pained look. “Today.” Lindsey asks if he’s really done with the Fang Gang then, and Lindsay says he is. The work has become too unsavory. Lindsey gets the feeling that Lorne doesn’t trust him, doesn’t trust that a man can change. It doesn’t matter what Lorne thinks; this is Angel’s plan. He’s following Angel’s instructions. Lindsey jokingly offers to sing for Lorne. “I’ve heard you sing,” Lorne replies AND THEN PULLS OUT A GUN AND SHOOTS HIM TWICE IN THE CHEST.

SHIT.

Sweeney: SHIT!

K: I understand why Angel did this – you can’t afford to have the Cowboy Boots of Revenge coming after you. But I am not okay with the fact that Angel turned Lorne into a murderer. 

Lor: That’s not something I’d say. Angel asked Lorne to kill someone and Lorne accepted. It’s a weird reversal. Wesley and Gunn are out killing demons and the demon was left with the job of killing the human.

Lindsey is as shocked as I am. He asks why. Lorne: One last job. You’re not part of the solution, Lindsey. You never will be. You just know that Lorne was absolutely gutted by his role in this final show down, but he still did it. As he said, this was Angel’s plan and for better or worse, he raised his hand and said he would be a part of it. Lorne survives the final showdown, but I think we see some part of him die here. He never makes it back to the alley with the others, and I think that’s symbolic. Again: all the Lorne feels.

Sweeney: Agreed. My heart is broken for him.

Lor: Lindsey spends his final moment in shock that Lorne was the one to kill him. Not Angel, Lorne. “A flunky.” Lindsey dies and Lorne sadly says, “Goodnight, folks.” And now I have to have all the “goodnight Andy Harlett” feels, so.

Wesley is clearly in pain as Vail holds him suspended in the air with magic. Vail says parlor tricks won’t kill him, so Wesley whips out a knife and says he’ll have to do it the old fashioned way. Vail floats a much larger knife over to himself and THRUSTS IT IN WESLEY’S STOMACH.

DAMMIT WHY?

Sweeney: WHY DID YOU SAY THE THING, WESLEY? WHY DID YOU DO IT?

K: SERIOUSLY.

Lor: Through his pain, Wesley creates an even larger fire ball. It sends Vail flying across the room again. We watch his body hit a wall and crumple to the floor. Wesley falls as well, but lands on his feet. He’s stumbling around when Illyria enters. She catches him in her arms and lowers him to the floor. She looks at his stomach and pronounces it a mortal wound. He smiles as he looks at her and says it was good that she came. She struggles to say that she was concerned for him, but Wesley guesses as much. Illyria says she can’t help him. He’ll be dead within moments. Wesley knows. Illyria asks if he would like to be lied to now. He would. He closes his eyes and when he opens them again, it’s Fred who is holding him in her arms. I’m about to lose it.

Fred cries as Wesley says he’s missed her. Fred kisses him on the lips and then on the forehead. She says it won’t be much longer and then he’ll be where she is. They’ll be together. Wes says he loves her, and she returns in kind. Wesley dies in her arms and she lays him gently on the ground.

Sweeney:

K: OH MY GOD, ALL THE FEELS. I ugly cried so hard at this moment that I had to stop the DVD to sort my shit out.

Lor: I suspected Wesley would die for a while there, because of certain comments that were made about him, especially about his arc. I forgot about that suspicion more recently, and here we are. Him dying really makes me understand why people approach him and his story the way that they do. I feel like it colors all of his other actions in sympathy when you have the full picture of what a tragedy his life is. Whether doing the right or wrong thing, it feels like life was constantly shitting on Wesley Wyndham-Price.

I feel like Wesley would’ve benefited from opening up to people more, but at the same time, I understand why he didn’t: abusive parent, made fun of in school, his entire struggle with being a Watcher, losing Lilah, losing Fred and a whole host of other things. Now, don’t get me wrong: I still don’t excuse Wesley at all for keeping a human in his closet and going behind Angel’s back to steal Connor, amongst other things. But I get why people are so sympathetic to him, even as he does those things. (S: I cosign all of this.) (K: YUP. A big fat A+ of agreement.)

As for Illyria, that was her as Fred. That was Fred’s face and form and voice, but Fred wasn’t in there. Those were Illyria’s emotions and her words and that is its own sort of heartbreaking.

Sweeney: There’ s a cyclical tragedy in that: Fred/Wesley happiness was torn asunder when Illyria came into the world. Illyria developed very deep emotions for Wesley just in time for him to die.

Lor: Plus there was the visual cycle of Fred dying in Wesley’s arms, and Wesley dying in her arms. JUST FEELINGS, ALL AROUND.

Vail is conscious again. He stands behind Fred!Illyria and says this fight was never for mortals. He tells the “little girl” to take her best shot. As she slowly morphs back into her form, Illyria does in fact take a shot, and MURDER PUNCHES the crap out of Vail.

Sweeney: I think we’re seeing the ancient all-power ancestor of IN THE FACE – a punch THROUGH THE FACE.

K: And can we stop and give a round of applause to the special effects team for this moment? We’ve given them a lot of shit over the past two years, but if the special effects were so consistently shitty because they were saving their entire budget for this, I am totally okay with it. 

Lor: Back at Wolfram & Hart, Connor and Angel are still fighting Hamilton. They both get thrown across the room by Hamilton who fixes his tie in order to start reading from the Big Book of Villain Gloating, chapter two:

Hamilton: Let me say this as clearly as I can. You cannot beat me. I am a part of them. The Wolf, Ram, and Hart. Their strength flows through my veins. My blood is filled with their ancient power. 

Angel lifts himself up and has thinky face. He asks Hamilton if he can think of one word he probably shouldn’t have said. Angel vamps out, bites Hamilton’s neck and gets a big gulp before Hamilton is able to push him away. That blood was super blood, so Angel is able to fight on a more even playing field. Hamilton says that he can’t win, because “they” (the Senior Partners, or Wolfram & Hart, or evil) are legion and forever. Angel delivers punch after punch to Hamilton’s face while saying that forever just got a little shorter. Finally, he delivers the murder punch and Hamilton dies.

K: LOLOLOLOL. The cheesiest cheese to ever cheese. Of COURSE being a vampire would be the ultimate solution to the problem.

Sweeney: I started singing a rewritten version of Total Eclipse of the Heart as soon as that “forever” was followed by deathpunch. FOREVER’S GONNA END TONIGHT, Hamilton.

SING WITH ME FRIENDS!

Maybe you just had to be there with me. It was good fun.

K: It’s a good thing I have an irrational love for that song because it’s going to be in my head for the next week…

Lor: There’s no time to revel in this win, though, because the building starts to crumble. (S: I mean, I just made time, but no, not so much for Angel.) The Senior Partners are pissed. Connor wants to know what they do next, but Angel sends him home. He says as long as Connor is okay, Wolfram & Hart can’t destroy him. Connor leaves.

Angel goes to get Eve. She asks where Lindsey is, and Angel says he isn’t coming back for her, but they have to go. “Go where?” she asks sadly.

We cut to Angel running through the rain into the alley behind the Hyperion, sword in hand. Spike is already there. Gunn is the next to arrive, his running becoming progressively slower. He says he was on point during his fight, and collapses as he sits. He has a stomach wound as well, almost a mirror one of Wesley’s. Gunn asks if there is any word on Wes and Illyria jumps down into the alley and announces that Wesley is dead.

      Sweeney: I forgot about it until I saw it again, but those last two gifs are also BROUGHT TO YOU BY TUMBLR moments that I’d seen before. (The last of the series!) It’s not surprising because that feeling is so damn relatable.

Lor: Spike says that wishes seem to be horses today, because a large group of hellbeasts are charging toward them. There is even a dragon. Gunn weakly says, “okay, you take the 30,000 on the left.” Illyria says he’s fading fast and only has 10 minutes left. Gunn says he intends to make them memorable.

K: While I’m glad we didn’t have to deal with Gunn’s death scene as well, I’m not sure telling us he has ten minutes to live was ENTIRELY necessary.

Sweeney: It hurts my heart, yes, but I’m still glad to see him vow to go down fighting. That was the whole point of his scene with Anne – load up this truck before the new shit arrives. Do as much as you can while you can.

Lor: Angel steps forward and he’s flanked by what’s left of his army. His only plan is to fight. Spike asks him to be more specific, and he says that personally he wants to slay the dragon. And wouldn’t that just be fitting for our champion?

“Let’s get to work,” he says and swings his sword. We hear it clank and fade to black.

The end.

K: I never quite know how to feel about the ending of this episode. On the one hand, I like that it was sort of ambiguous, because the last season has been, in a lot of ways, about the grey areas. Up until season 5, Angel always saw things in a very black and white way. In season 5, he had to deal with the stuff in between. And similarly, this ending is the grey area in between. Like I said before, I’m glad we didn’t have to deal with seeing Gunn die. But as the credits roll, I can’t help but think of how they could have wrapped everything up in a much more satisfying way if The Girl In Question hadn’t existed.

Lor: I’ve had about two days to process this and I’m pretty sure I love it. I love the ambiguity because it’s so damn Angel. I saw these two gifs lined up together on the Internet, and I wanted to post them here to highlight this point:

 

We talked so much at the beginning of Angel about how it seemed to be a much darker world than Sunnydale. In their final moments, that still rings true, as Buffy ends with Sunnydale gone, their mission complete, the whole world open to them, and Buffy’s whole future ahead of her. It’s sun and wind in the hair and a smile. Angel? Complete opposite. It’s rain, a never ending fight ahead of them, and 10 minutes to live. This show was never about happiness, but about the bleakness of fighting an unwinable fight, and about the way nothing ever feels done when you live forever. The more I talk about it, the more I love it and the more weirded out I am that I love such a bleak thing.

Sweeney: Agreed on all counts. We’ve faulted this show time and again for its execution of ideas, but there truly were some powerful, thoughtful ideas behind all of that.

The fact that Buffy lived as long as she did was a victory all its own. She had more shit thrown at her after each time she saved the world, but the very fact of mortality – her short expected lifespan even as humans go – meant that staving off a single apocalypse was always a job-well-done all its own. As an overarching, spanning-the-seasons phenomenon, this show was always hyper aware of the bleaker reality of the monotony that is Angel’s fight. That he lives forever and fights with humans who are likely to (and do) die young is fucking bleak, but it’s the sort of bleakness that the show had to build towards. You had to first take this character out of that other setting and then really drive that point home. They got sloppy on a lot of the details, but that concept was always there and a compelling one.

I love that the final note of the series harkens back to that show thesis moment: “if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do.” That’s very much the gist of Gunn’s vow to make those last 10 minutes count. I can’t say I don’t wish the show had better lived up to its potential, but I think this series finale was somewhere in the realm of that potential.

K: Valid points all around. Although now I’m wondering what their original end game for the series was. Would they have had Angel – who they’d spent so long building up as a champion – fulfil the Shanshu Prophecy and become human, despite the knowledge that he could no longer be a champion? Or would Spike have become human in his place, leaving Angel to brood in the darkness? Or would they have done another “LOL, FAKE PROPHECY” thing?? I JUST HAVE A LOT OF QUESTIONS, OKAY?! 

Lor: And perhaps this is why I didn’t mind the open endedness at all– I don’t have that many questions. I don’t have much curiosity beyond this moment, and found it a fitting end.

There was certainly action to be had in this episode, but I liked that this show remembered that most of what made it good (when it was good) was its characters. We spent time with each of them, seeing them both in their last day and in their last battle. I loved that none of them got overlooked. In fact, the person that took away the least from this finale was Angel himself.

We’ll talk about this much more in the week to come as we wrap up this show, but I struggled big time with Angel. I’m very happy, though, that it goes out on such a positive note in my head. It’s actually really confusing for my feelings.

So on that note: goodbye, Angel and goodbye Buffy-verse.

 

Next time: We rank all of the things and give you our final thoughts on this crazy ride!