Buffy and Angel Rewatch part 53

B7.03 Same Place, Same Time
This feels like a filler episode in a way, buts its a neatly written and produced episode. The scenes where Willow is actually in the same place as Buffy and Xander are really well done and I like the aspect of piecing the story together. Gnarl the skinning demon was creepy, especially when he was eating the skin and there was obvious Xander foreshadowing when Buffy squeezed out the demons eyes.
Its interesting to see Dawn getting so involved with the research and being so good at it, she's obviously learnt a lot in the past few months. Its also nice to see Anya helping the Scoobies, especially with her one-on-one time with Willow, since they've never really gotten on. (8/10)

A4.03 The House Always Wins
This was a really nice fun episode; a rarity in season 4. The road trip to Las Vegas was a lot of fun to watch. I did like Angel's quips about being in Vegas in the past though continuity wise I'm not sure if it fits really. Lorne's performance was an obvious highlight, and I love the songs he sings as well as the whole show they put on. The main storyline was a little blah as it turned Angel into a zombie like creature which was a bit boring. Having Cordy commenting and interfering was a neat little touch and a good way to bring her into the action.
Not much from Wesley, though his once phone sex scene with Lilah was a little creepy as he was doing it with the weapons guy still in the room- shows how dark Wesley has gone, stiff upper lip no more! (8/10)

A4.04 Slouching Towards Bethlehem
This episode felt a lot longer than it was, probably because of Cordy's amnesia thing. Amnesia when played for laughs, can be funny and lead to all sort of results. When serious, honestly its a bit of a downer, though it did have some funny moments like Cordy looking through the Sunnydale High yearbook.
The episode only really got interesting when Lorne read Cordy and saw something awful and then when Lilah and Wesley got into the mix with her double crossing. Lilah takes advantage of the fact that both Wesley and the AI team are predictable creatures; Lorne would read Cordy and Wesley would do the right thing and try and keep Cordy from W&H. The double cross was very interesting for Wes as it does put him on uneven footing with both Lilah and AI. (6.5/10)

B7.04 Help
This is a beautifully tragic episode. Having Buffy as the school counselor this season was an interesting choice. It allows her to mix with the students in a funny and sad way as shown in this episode, it brings back the Sunnydale high school years in a tangible way and when it brings about it episodes like this, you know it was a brilliant decision on behalf of the writers. Cassie's story was so sad and yet it was such a good and poignant one. Her death was inevitable but by at least trying to save her Cassie had an almost happy death, knowing that someone was fighting for her. The trying is the most important thing. The only thing that lets down this episode, id the fact that the demon looked exactly like the demon Skip on Angel. Very poor and lazy make-up decisions. (9.5/10)