ANGEL
Season 5

Available on DVD

1. Conviction
2. Just Rewards
3. Unleashed
4. Hell Bound
5. Life of the Party
6. The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco
7. Lineage
8. Destiny
9. Harm's Way
10. Soul Purpose
11. Damage
12. You're Welcome
13. Why We Fight
14. Smile Time
15. A Hole in The World
16. Shells
17. Underneath
18. Origin
19. Time Bomb
20. The Girl In Question
21. Power Play
22. Not Fade Away

Conviction

It's the first day of being in charge of Wolfram and Hart and Angel is forced to deal with a client who is holding the whole of California hostage to ensure that the firm saves him in court.

This opening episode sets out a tone that promises this season is going to be even harder and darker than those which have gone before. Quite apart from the whole dealing with the evil plans that the Senior Partners have for Angel's team now that they are running Wolfram & Hart thing, the client that they are dealing with is a whole new level of evil, an evil that is wholly relateable.

There's also a new liaison woman called Eve who is the most annoying character despite limited screen time. She almost makes us feel nostalgic for Connor. Almost.

There's plenty of action and genuine joie de vivre that was absent from much of the previous season. There's plenty of good lines an sparky interplay between the principals, along with the return of a familiar face from the past in Angel's outer office. Oh, and the twist right at the end that is a real doozy.

Just Rewards

Spike the vampire is reborn as a ghost and haunts Angel as he deals with the first of Wolfram & Hart's clients that he is dropping, a very powerful necromancer who can control Angel's very body.

James Marsters is back as Spike. Last seen destroying the Hellmouth in the final episode of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, Spike returns from the amulet that gave him the power to save the world, but as a ghostly presence. This puts him in less than the best mood and the resulting banter between him and Angel is joyously witty. This is the most fun that ANGEL has been in a long time.

The rest of the plot, regarding a necromancer using the recently dead to house paying demons, is fluff to give Spike a chance to double-cross Angel and disappointingly predictable, but it doesn't matter because it's just so good to have these two characters back together again.

Unleashed

Angel saves a girl from a werewolf, but not before she gets bitten. The race is on to find her before she turns and kills someone, but Angel's team are not the only ones showing an interest.

A story about the monsters inside, about controlling our animal sides, and a disappointingly slight one at that. There's nothing here that is surprising, other than exactly why the other team of arms-wielding balaclava-clad gunmen want her in the first place.

But this remains about the Angel/Spike double act. Their bickering elevates the episode and makes it enough fun for what is, essentially, filler.

Hell Bound

Spike is slowly slipping into Hell and Fred is the only person who has any chance of stopping it, but is someone hampering her work? And who are all these ghosts that Spike is seeing?

James Marsters takes centre stage in this story. There is plenty of spooky going on with some genuinely creepy moments. There's still some bright banter, with an amusingly rude medium who meets an unhappy spirit and an equally unhappy end.

The reaper turns out to be less fearsome than we might have wished for, but his fate is every bit as dark as the season to date has promised.

Life of the Party

The annual Hallowe’en Party is something else at Wolfram and Hart. Lorne is in charge of making it go with a bang, but things start going awry, starting with alchohol-free drunkeness, office sex and bathroom evisceration.

The effects of working at Wolfram are taking a toll on the team and Lorne has his sleep removed to give him more time to deal with the fragile egos and evil tendencies of Tinseltown's dream merchants. Without his own dreams, however, his subconscious becomes a bit of a monster.

Andy Hallett gets to step stage centre as the focus of this story. Sadly, it's not the best. The preamble takes up too much of the running time, so when we get to the party in question, there isn't enough time to deal with the fallout properly. Yes, Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof's drunk routine is fun, as is having J August Richards peeing everywhere, but the manifestation of Lorne's subconscious as Incredible Hulk appears and is despatched in seconds.

It feels almost as though this was a first draft script that needed a few polish passes to bring it up to standard.

The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco

An Aztec warrior who eats the hearts of heroes is too much even for Angel to manage, but one of the Wolfram and Hart employees has a story to tell.

It is a sign that a show is in trouble when the writers start using it as an excuse to write stories about incidental characters rather than the main players. This is the story of Number 5, an masked wrestler who fell from grace. It's framed in a theme about Angel losing his lust for the job of being a hero, but the interest is clearly in Cinco and his brothers rather than Angel and his gang. As for the Aztec warrior, that's just a disposable plot device that is quickly disposed of.

After Lorne's disastifaction at the job in Wolfram and Hart comes Angel's. Are we to be treated to individual episodes each detailing how unhappy each character is there? Hopefully not. There are, as ever, some good lines - specifically the moments after Angel is thrown through a window by an aging mail deliverer and the rumour mill chinese whispers that in to Angel beating up on a helpless old man in a matter of seconds. Apart from that, this is a lesser episode.

Lineage

Cyborg assassins attack Wolfram and Hart whilst Wesley’s father comes to ask him back into the Watcher’s Council.

After seeing how the rigours of working for Wolfram and Hart have affected Lorne, we get to see the effects on Wesley. He has doubts about his own goodness and his own talents and now he has daddy issues to go with them. Sadly, none of this illuminates his character any more than what has gone before. If anything, it cheapens him slightly and since the whole plot is a set-up for his soul-searching, it proves to be one of the lesser episodes, verging on filler territory.

Destiny

Spike regains his corporeal body, but the rest of the universe is thrown out of balance as a result.

Since getting his soul back, Angel's entire existence has been about gaining redemption and the Shanshu prophecy suggested that, as Good's champion, he would become human once more. That entire underpinning to his life is shaken by the idea that it might be Spike who is the one spoken of in the prophecy and the discovery that a mystical chalice lies in a nearby chapel seems far too easy.

As it turns out, it is too easy to be true, but the confrontation between Angel and Spike is one of the most epic that the show has brought us, not least in the emotional sense. It is a shame that is not in the service of a better story.

Harm’s Way

Harmony is Angel’s receptionist, but when she wakes up next to a fresh kill, her immediate future doesn’t look good.

Mercedes McNab has been good value fun as Angel's dimwitted secretary, but she has hardly been at the heart of things. Building an entire episode around her character shows a lack of interest in the main characters on the part of the writers or a need for filler episodes that don't tie into the overall arc of the season. In either case, it does not work to the benefit of the show. Yes, it's fun and yes, it's light, but coming so soon after The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco, it doesn't inspire confidence for the future of the show.

Soul Purpose

Angel gets sick, something that never happens to a vampire. He starts suffering fever dreams that suggest he really is no longer the champion for Good. At the same time, Lyndsey persuades Spike to be a hero.

Surreal you want, surreal you get. The dreams that Angel is subject to are interesting and illuminate the emotional turmoil that he is undergoing. In a way, it is disappointing when the true cause of the fever dreams comes to light.

More definition is given to the emerging season arc as well.

Damage

Lyndsey sends Spike after an unbalanced girl who escaped from a insane asylum and kills with ease. Angel is on the hunt, too, but he knows something that Spike doesn't, that the girl is a Slayer.

The nature of evil is examined, as is the nature of heroism and nature of prejudice. Angel adopts the cautious, intelligence-led approach whilst Spike blunders in, not knowing what he's facing. They are both being heroic, but only one of them is going to get the job done and only one of them understands who the true monster is.

It's a smart story and one that has a bit more depth than some of the others so far this season. It's darker and gritty and harks back to the early seasons of the show and is all the more welcome for it.

The story also ties in to the larger mythology established in BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, which is nice, but the presence of bumbling Andrew as the comedy relief undermines the general tone of the piece, which is a shame.

You’re Welcome

At the moment that Angel quits his job as the CEO of Wolfram and Hart, Cordelia Chase wakes up from her coma to find the world a very different place. Lyndsey makes his move against Angel.

And bang! - ANGEL is brought back on track and it only took the return of Cordelia Chase from her coma to do it. Charisma Carpenter is back and is given both the story and the the dialogue to make it worthwhile. She grabs the opportunity and is positively luminous as the reborn Cordelia. She's funny and sharp and injects a heart into the show that has been missing for a while. She is, quite simply, Cordelia Chase.

If there is any fly in the ointment at all, it is that Lyndsey's plan doesn't seem to make any sense. After all the time of messing with Angel and Spike and Wolfram and Hart, he decides to let loose a killing machine specifically designed to kill Angel once and for all that he could have released at any time. That's a pretty small fly, though, in some pretty fine ointment.

All good things must come to an end, however, and dedicated fans of the show will be left with a tear in the eye or a lump in the throat.

Why We Fight

A vampire intruder in the Wolfram and Hart building takes the gang prisoner and retells the story of what Angel and Spike did in World War II before challenging his sire.

This episode is more filler material and, coming immediately after the blissful You're Welcome suffers immeasurably by comparison. There is some fun to be had from the tale of two vampires in a submarine, especially from James Marsters as Spike, who is inevitably a nazi, but the overall tale lacks depth or any real point. Considering that this is the story of the only man that Angel turned into a vampire whilst he had a soul, it ought to have some resonance, but there is no connection with the villain, who pops up simply to ended.

Smile Time

A number of children are ending up dead and the only connection between them is that they were watching television at the time. They were all watching a Sesame Street style programme known as Smile Time. Angel's investigation is hampered when he is turned into a muppet.

It is an idea that is so simple and yet genius at the same time. Angel as a muppet? The execution is flawless. This is one of the funniest pieces of television there has ever been. Spike fighting the muppet Angel is priceless, almost matched by the ridiculously entertaining final battle.

A Hole in The World

Wesley and Fred are together at last, but an ancient sarcophagus infects her with something very deadly. The men of the team swing into action to save her.

Amy Acker's Fred has been the heart of the Angel team for a while, since before the Season Four storylines sidelined and ridiculed Cordelia. She is the most likeable of all the gang with the fewest dark secrets and so her failing health is all the harder on the audience than if it was anyone else. This is a season that has already taken one of the team and there is a very real risk that it could take another.

As well as Acker, the performances from the rest of the cast are pitch perfect, their concerns and fears ratcheting up the tension as the unthinkable grows ever closer. All of this makes for an extremely strong episode that changes the game completely.

Shells

The fallout from Fred's death and the rise of Illyria in her body continues. As Wesley struggles with his grief, Illyria struggles with the new world in which she finds herself. The truth about who is responsible, including Gunn, must emerge.

It is curious that so much time is being devoted to the wailing and gnashing of teeth over the death of Fred. It's not that she doesn't deserve to be missed, but only a few episodes ago, Cordelia departed the show with barely a shrug from the rest of the cast. That's probably down to factors outside the production, but it does unbalance the dramatic impact that the show is going for. The sense of loss if further undermined by having Amy Acker wandering around in blue facepaint and a seemingly impractical outfit. It's hard to mourn over a change of clothes.

That said, the performances, from Alexis Denisof and J August Richards especially, inform the episode and raise it higher than it possibly deserves.

Underneath

Looking for information on the plans that Wolfram and Hart’s Senior Partners have for Angel’s team they must save an old enemy from his own personal hell, but that means leaving someone behind.

Lyndsey knows stuff and so must be saved, but what he really knows proves not to really be worth the effort. What this episode is really about is the hell dimension that Lyndsey is being kept in. It's a pefect suburban existence with his wife and son, until he has to go down into the basement and finds that his heart isn't really in it, literally. This is a nice twist on the idea of personal hells and the pefect suburbian picture being torn apart by gun-toting postmen and children is a lot of fun, but it doesn't quite justify the existence of the episode.

That job is down to J August Richards as Gunn, facing up to his (really rather minor) part in Fred's death in the most surprising way. Lorne's reaction to being told of Gunn's fate 'Oh, we do that now' is a telling indictment on what Wolfram and Hart has done to the team.

Origin

Distraught parents bring their apparently invulnerable child to Wolfram and Hart for testing. That child turns out to be Connor and both his life and the suppressed memories of everyone else are put at risk.

Did we really need Connor back? The whole set up for season 5 got rid of him, but here he is, showing up like the proverbial bad penny. The sole purpose of this story is to sow doubt and disloyalty amongst the members of Team Angel. He did, after all, remove thier memories without their permission, altering who they are.

As such, the story of a sorceror who needs Connor to kill a demon that only he can kill, for reasons that are never adequately explained, seems false, unconvincing and dull. This is an story dropped in to fill up the episode listing and neither stands in its own right or moves the main story forward.

Time Bomb

Illyria, previously an almost omnipotent deity, starts to suffer from sharp pains and time jumps. Seeing in her future that Wesley will shoot her, she determines to kill everyone first.

A sort of, but not quite, GROUNDHOG DAY episode, Time Bomb unsticks both Illyria and Angel in time, making a very simple story more complicated by simpy chopping it up and showing it in the wrong order and more than once. It also allows for terrible things to happen because they can be taken back at any time (no pun intended)

This kind of thing has been done before in many other shows, but it's a conceit that works, which is why it is constantly reused. It also works here, keeping a few twists up its sleeve, but nothing that can't be predicted.

It also allows for light to be shone on Wesley's deteriorating sanity in the face of losing Fred. His hatred for, and connection with, the demon that wears her body makes him unpredictable and his arc throughout the seasons of the show has been the deepest and darkest, making him the most interesting character.

Now that Illyria's powers are greatly reduced, it will be interesting to see what the show does with her.

The Girl In Question

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is in Rome and spending time time with the Immortal, an enemy of both the vampires that loved her. At the same time as picking up a demon's head, they attempt to derail the relationship.

This a joke episode. Spike and Angel go on a road trip to Italy, meet some comedy Italians and bitch with each other. They also have to deal with comedy Andrew, which is not a good thing. It's fun and frivolous and completely filler material.

Also, the moments when Spike remembers his previous visit to Rome and the aftermath of Darla's visit from the Immortal are joyous.

Power Play

Angel is making decisions that lead his team to believe that not only has he been corrupted by their time in Wolfram and Hart, but that he was responsible for Fred's death. Drastic action is called for.

It's the penultimate episode and the writers introduce a whole new group of nemeses in order to set up a big finale. The fact that this has been done at the last minute undermines any real chance to build them up as a threat, or to really convince that Angel has turned to the Dark Side.

The Order of the Black Thorn fall for Angel's subterfuge with unseemly haste and end up looking stupid rather than the dangerous rulers of Evil that we are told they are. That said, there are plenty of smart lines and the performances remain top notch.

Not Fade Away

Angel tells his team to live the day as though it is their last, because for some of them it will be. He is going to take down the Order of the Black Thorn and when he does, the full wrath of the Senior Partners will fall upon their heads.

It's the final episode and the script does its best to build up a sense of impending doom. The number of times that we are told not everyone is going to come out of this alive, if in fact any of them will, is considerable. The problem is that, since this threat was only introduced last week, all the reminders don't make it feel any more threatening.

There is an epic battle between Angel and the Senior Partners' liaison and some shocks along the way, but this is a finale that has been cobbled together in the past couple of episodes and doesn't resonate the way that it should, even if no-one, however large or small their role, is safe.

Worst of all, the episode ends on a giant cliffhanger that may never be resolved.