My Top Ten Favourite Angel Episodes

This is tough. After finishing Buffy (my top ten episodes can be found here) i began on Angel more or less immediately. I needed more of the Buffyverse, i simply wasn't ready to leave it, to an extent maybe i'm still not - it's a good thing that there are comics, i suppose. I wish i had watched Buffy and Angel concurrently, like how it was meant to be done, but I wasn't even sure if i'd enjoy Buffy, let alone another show that i had seen all of one episode of that i could barely recall.

It was silly of me, at this point I should have learned that Joss Whedon probably wasn't going to disappoint me (in fact, aside from Dollhouse's shaky start he hasn't done that yet at all) but I always viewed Angel as the Torchwood to Buffy's Doctor Who. That it was never going to be as great as it's parent, that it would suffer in comparison to the groundbreaking pop culture titan that spawned it. I think that belief might still hold some weight (even if Angel is a better show than Torchwood) but it's not very accurate. Angel had flaws, I'll never forget my anger and disappointment in season 4, when they turned one of my favourite characters into a mere vessel for evil for the majority of her screen time (and the uncomfortable sex scenes were just... no), but it was also capable of tremendous depth and emotion. It's true that season 4 brings down Angel's batting average considerably, that as weak and ridiculous as Buffy could get it never went that far down (what? I'm a defender of season 6, if Dark Willow had been better handled i think it would be more highly regarded), but ultimately I fell in love with these characters. I loved Angel, Doyle, Cordelia, Wesley, Fred, Gunn and Lorne just as much as I loved the Scooby gang.

Angel at it's best was dark, funny, and packed with character development and emotional nuance. Let's hear it's for Angel Investigations (or Angel's Avengers, if you'd like.)

10. The Trial (Season 2, Episode 9)

No photo will ever do justice to this

Julie Benz as Darla is something i don't think I could tire of, from her very first appearance on Buffy The Vampire Slayer (and she had the first lines ever heard on the show too) to her death(s) she gave us such glee and intrigue. Which is why Darla being returned to life - as a human - is so horribly painful. She feels every piece of guilt and shame and on top of that she's dying from the disease that was meant to kill her 400 years ago before The Master stepped in (on a side note, how great is Mark Metcalf?) Seeing Angel try in vain to save Darla's life is bad enough but then there's THAT final scene. I'd enjoyed Angel before and just as Passion pushed Buffy into new and exciting territory The Trial commits a similar feat AND creates one of my favourite end scenes of a Buffyverse episode. Drusilla coming through that door is haunting, beautiful and perfectly executed. Juliet Landau, how do manage to look so menacing and so gorgeous at the same time? HOW?

9. Orpheus (Season 4, Episode 15)
Cordelia and Connor's entire storyline is something I hate so much that I found myself yelling at the TV several times. So why does a season 4 episode make the list? Well for one thing Faith and Angelus sharing a dream space gave way to some pretty cool (and often hilarious) stuff and, brace yourselves, Willow is here! Willow in general I really a like lot, ever since I first began on Buffy I knew she would be my favourite Scooby, and her interactions with everyone are priceless. Cordelia (except... it's not. God, that storyline sucked) and Willow had a fun yet tense interaction, then there was the 'darkness off' with Wesley ("I had a woman chained up in my closet... but that doesn't even compare to-" "no! you've been to a place.") And my (normally nonexistent) shipper heart simply fluttered when she and Fred started to talk. I don't know why i never thought about it before since they have so much in common - Frillow for the win. But then, both Alyson Hannigan and Amy Acker could have chemistry with a squashed cockroach.

Side note: season 4 grossly mistreated Cordelia and Connor (i'm not that into his character but geez i felt sorry Vincent Kartheiser and Charisma Carpenter in that storyline) but there are still episodes I really liked, so it's not a complete loss - even if the way we got to the finale was unfortunate. Maybe season 4 is better on rewatch, but i don't think i'll regard it as highly as any of the other seasons. Still, even if i hate that story, that has little bearing on the fact that a fair amount of episodes in season 4 are great.

8. Fredless (Season 3, Episode 5)
Amy Acker rightly gets a lot of praise (there's a reason Whedon says she's the best actress he's worked with) and Fred is one of my favourite Buffyverse characters, i know i say those words a lot but i can't help it if a I gravitate towards awesome. She's just a loveable character through and through. I was impressed with how this episode took a plot I was already familiar with (and that Whedon had already used in Buffy's 'Family') and twisted it on it's head. Fred spent most of the episode retreating from her parents, of course that would lead the gang to think there was something bad about them. But then when we finally get the confrontation things are revealed to be far different - Fred didn't want to believe that what happened to her in Pylea was real. This girl wasn't the same person she was five years ago and didn't want her parents to see how the experiences had changed her. That just gets to me. That's not to say the episode is all emotion, all the time. The scene where Wesley and Cordy parody Angel and Buffy is hilariously spot on. What can i say? I love when a show can laugh at itself.

7. Reunion (Season 2, Episode 10)
Darla and Drusilla should have had their own series or something, or at least a whole episode where they wreak havoc that has nothing to do with the plot of the show at all. Just a day in the life of Darla and Dru. Their fight,  their reconciliation, the girly shopping (Drusilla and her phone was all kinds of wonderful), the playful chatter, the everything. Reunion is an out and out pleasure to watch. In general i love the Darla arc, it's hard to believe that a character that was dusted in the first season of Buffy became a character I adored when she returned years later. Actually, it's the same with Drusilla - apart from the dusting thing. With the double bill of Trial and Reunion i think she too became one of my favourite vamps in the whole show. Can Darla and Dru please just show up randomly in TV shows, call people out on their shit and then eat them? Please? It doesn't even have to make sense.

Pictured: Badass vampires

Since this episode wont be making my top ten i need to give a shout out to Darla and Dru's flashback appearances in season 5's The Girl in Question. They were great fun.

6. Harm's Way (Season 5, Episode Episode 9)
Let me say first off that this isn't a list of best episodes. If it were this wouldn't be on here. Just as The Zeppo does for Xander, Harm's Way positions Harmony as the lead of it's story. I guess i just have a soft spot for Day in the Limelight episodes. Now, I became a fan of the self absorbed valley girl turned vampire in Buffy's fourth season, and it's interesting that an underdeveloped character who barely registered on my radar in the first three seasons would become something I looked forward to so much. Not because she was a particularly fascinating character, just that she was so much fun. Mercedes McNab is the only person in the main cast of Angel's fifth season, aside from Boreanaz, to have been in the first season of Buffy (she appears in The Harvest and a fair amount of subsequent season 1 episodes). I bring this up to illustrate just how long she's been around, so it's fitting that she finally got an episode where she is in the drivers seat. McNab really brought all her comic chops to the table and imbued Harmony with a sense of sincerity, sure she's a soulless vampire but she still works hard for Angel and she's right: he doesn't appreciate it. This is a rewatchable and entertaining episode, and it's down to her.

5. Waiting In The Wings (Season 3, Episode 13)
The gang goes to the ballet and some weird shit is going on. Normal, in other words. Written by Joss Whedon this episode is enjoyment of the highest order, while I can't say I'm a fan of Groo coming back (i like him, but Cordy and Angel were about to tell each other their feelings damn it!) when the rest of your episode is so good, i can deal with that one thing and it helps that Mark Lutz is adorable. Summer Glau makes an appearance as a ballet dancer, I believe this was how Whedon discovered her for Firefly. This episode became a personal favourite the second I watched it - Gunn loves the ballet! I feel like they should have brought that up again because J. August Richards has amazing facial expressions in this episode.

4. You're Welcome (Season 5, Episode 12)
"I swear, one of these times you're going to wake up in a coma." BTVS, season 3 episode 11. This one off joke will forever be tinged with my tears.

Get ready for an onslaught of season 5 episodes guys. As you know, Cordelia is one of my favourite characters in the Buffyverse, hell - in the Whedonverse. From the moment i saw Buffy - the first time - I liked her. She was a self absorbed cheerleader who could send you back to where you came from with a well timed quip but when push came to shove - she would save your ass in a fabulous fashion. This is why so much of season 4 pissed me off. But You're Welcome helped. It didn't undo the past mistakes, but it reminded me why i loved Cordelia Chase. She comes back one last time before her death to get Angel back on track, she kicks some ass - she has a freakin' samurai sword! - quips about Spike's hair, fights the bad guy and says *sniff* "you're welcome." This was the first of many times i cried in season 5. That conversation with Angel is just heartrending, even more so when you think about how far, both separately and together, these people have come. Now I pose a question about Cordy: Great person? Or the greatest person?

3. A Hole in the World (Season 5, Episode 15)/ Shells (Season 5, Episode 16)
These deserve to go hand in hand.
Ladies and gentleman I introduce you to the episodes that broke me. You know that Fred is one of my favourite characters in the Buffyverse (Joss Whedon loves to kill my favourite characters), so her death was brutal for me. Even more so though, it was awful watching the characters try and fail to rescue her. In most Whedon shows the deaths are quite quick (Tara, Joyce, Jenny, Anya, Doyle, Wash OH GOD WASH) and when we look at Buffy's death (both times) she was prepared to face it, she was noble, the same as Doyle and Cordelia were. But Fred didn't want to die, another creature was consuming her from the inside, she was in agony and she refused to be cut down by it - she wanted to live. I don't know when i started to tear up exactly, maybe it was Spike's hole in the world monologue (special props to James Marsters in this scene) about the, literal, hole in the world. Maybe it was everything with Fred and Wesley (Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker are fantastic here). I don't know. But Fred's death will never be okay.

Then there is Shells. Which is a brilliant follow up in every possible way, it's the kind of thing that made me ridiculously impressed for the 40 or so minutes it ran. I cried again in this one. The Buffyverse makes me cry too much, it's unnatural. Every single member if this cast brought it, from the usual heavy hitters to the actors who were never really given much to work with. No other show has ever given me such a painfully emotional and well written two parter.

2. Smile Time (Season 5, Episode 14)
A Hole in The World/Shells are better episodes, but Smile Time doesn't destroy my soul, so i've put it ahead of them. Angel being turned into a puppet is adorable, hilarious and I love everything Smile Time chooses to be.  Is there much else i can say here beyond that? How about that those children's faces are creepy as all hell!? Oh also: look at the Angel puppet! He has a scowl and his hair is all fluffy! This episode is the epitome of happiness.

1. Not Fade Away (Season 5, Episode 22)

Illyria: Worlds most badass Smurf

The final episode. Now, i think it's been made abundantly clear that i loved season 5 of Angel so it makes sense that this would make it. Whereas in Buffy i put Chosen on the honourable mention list because I found the way it wrapped up the show extremely satisfying, NFA is simply a better episode. This is such a deeply amazing final stand for Angel that i can't even begin to tell you about how great it is unless you yourself have seen every episode preceding it. Including Buffy.  I love this finale. I love that each characters 'final day' is spent doing something so perfectly 'them'. Angel visits his son, Gunn visits Anne from the shelter, Wesley patches up Illyria, (though it's sad that outside of wanting to be close to Fred in any way Wesley doesn't have much he desires), Lorne sings,  and Spike recites his poem (which we heard some of in Fool For Love) to an adoring audience. I loved every part of it. I take you to the fourth time i cried in Angel season 5: Wesley's death hurts so much. The bumbling goof we met in season 3 of Buffy became a tragic hero on Angel and there was really only one way he could go, but damn it if it didn't make me still feel all the emotions. "Would you like me to lie to you now?" When "Fred" comforts Wesley in his dying moments I just cried, it occurs to me now that Wesley and Fred are probably the only characters in history to comfort each other as one of them dies. Wesley has the best character development in the entire Buffyverse, I'm saying this right now. There's competition but none to this level. Can these people please stop hurting me?! And then there's that end scene, well - it's perfect isn't it? Angel's redemption was always about the fight against evil, not the overcoming of it, so (like the Buffy finale before it) this was a thematically and emotionally appropriate ending for Angel Investigations.

It just hit me that Angel is the only original AI member standing in that alley. *sobs* 

Honourable mentions -
Damage - a dark and haunting look at the ramifications of Buffy's finale in regards to a very unstable woman turned slayer.
Spin The Bottle - a narrow avoid, it's Angel's answer to Tabula Rasa, though unfortunately it's not quite as good (still hilarious though.)

Let's all take a moment to adore Alexis Denisof

To Shanshu in LA - Buffy does season finales better, at least it did before Not Fade Away came along, that is just my opinion but there it is. In fact, Angel's season finales had a way of disappointing me when compared to it's parent show, but Shanshu simply doesn't do that. Not at all. DARLA.
Lullaby - An emotional roller coaster.
Hero - The death of Doyle was Angel Investigations' first big loss, it's even sadder in hindsight knowing that Glenn Quinn is no longer with us.

The Buffyverse has drawn to a close, on television anyway, and I'm glad i watched it all. Both Buffy and Angel went to places i didn't always care for, sometimes they mishandled a few things and lost their way, similar to the characters i suppose, but the shows eventually found their way back where they were meant to be and ended in a way that felt right. Angel's quest for redemption has been a fascinating, at times frustrating, sad and hopeful journey filled with characters I grew to love. I'll miss this universe and i'll miss these people. So what do i do now? Well personally, i kinda want to slay the dragon.