Buffy and Angel Rewatch part 58

A4.10 Awakening
When I first watched this episode, up until the Beast killing, I mostly bought into the Angel's dream fantasy. Now it's hard to see why I did. To bring about Angel's happiness, a lot of wounds and fractures needed to be dealt with, resulting in a very sentimental and speechy episode. There's Angel's motivational speeches, Cordy's guilt, Wesley's contriteness, and Connor accepting Angel and Cordy all of which are glaring evidence that this episode is just a dream. The Indiana Jones style quest to get the sort is neat however and balances out some of the mushiness. Overall though, the concept of the episode is excellent; Angel's soul couldn't just be taken away from him by a simple spell, it had to take some kind of journey and it pays off when Angelus' haunting laugh closes out the episode.
My main problem with this episode is the dichotomy the show places between Angel and Angelus. I didn't really like the concept the show used to bring Angelus forward; ie Angelus knows something Angel doesn't. This basically says that Angel and Angelus are two different people, which is annoying. However since Angelus is such a good character and it does make for a good arc, I won't let it bother me too much! (8/10)

A4.11 Soulless
The best thing about Angelus is, that without his pesky conscience, he's unfiltered and says whatever the hell he likes. This means that he can be pretty funny with what he says. He has Angel's inside knowledge on all the gang, so can hit their sore points and hurt them in ways they didn't imagine. He also says a few things that the other characters might want to say but never would- Wes' love for Fred, Connor's Oedipal complex for example. It all makes for some pretty thrilling and enjoyable one-on-one time with Angelus, for both characters and audience. The episode is much less action packed than a typical episode, but with Angelus back and causing trouble, it isn't really needed. We do get some action in the form of Wes and Gunn's fist fight, which was a long time coming. Its nice to see Wes finally take control and admit to his feelings for Fred; it was his hesitance that lost her in the first place, though I do feel sorry for Gunn here. (9/10)

A4.12 Calvary
Finally Angelus is released. As Angelus was prowling the streets and the hotel at the end of the episode, its easy to see how enjoyable he is to watch. He has the vicious personality of a vampire and the swagger that David Boreanaz brings to the character(s). This episode is highly significant in the course of the season and I forget how much. There's the disintegration of Gunn and Fred's relationship, Lilah's death, the revelation that the Beast has a Master and that the Master is Cordy. The first event is somewhat of a relief as the pair (Gunn and Fred) never quite worked well together and their relationship has been strained for so long, it was best to put it out of its misery.
Lilah's death is a sad one for me; she's always been such an interesting character, though her death is a better end for her than just her disappearing (the parallels between her and Lindsay's death are startling; killed whilst fighting on the side of good and by one of Angel's team). Finally the reveal that 'Cordy' is evil is a startling one, no matter how many times you watch it. (9/10)

A4.13 Salvage
What an excellent episode. bringing Faith back to the Buffyverse was a dead cert considering the goings-ons over on Buffy, but bringing her back to Angel first was just perfect. With her borderline morality, the character of Faith found a natural home on Angel; even here she fits in perfectly with the characters and all their flaws. He escape is one of my favourite moments of the show, its interesting to see how far both Faith and Wes have come so that they're now fighting evil together. Seeing Faith beat down by the Beast was also pretty sensational; it was more of a contest than any of the others have been for the Beast, but still she couldn't beat him. The knife forged from his own bone killing the Beast was a neat trick, though I can't help but think that it was perhaps too soon? At least it lays the foundations for a proper Angelus/Faith in the next episode.
A lot was packed into the episode, including Wes having to decapitate Lilah which was a chilling and gut wrenching couple of scenes. It was nice to see the two work out some issues, and also to see how much he cared when he sobbed after doing the act. Less enjoyable was the Cordy stuff. She's more tolerable regarding her as Jasmine, but the Beast kissing and especially the Connor/pregnancy thing was icky. (9.5/10)