The end of the Season has come again for me. Unlike Season One, which I found generally underwhelming rather in the style of Season One Buffy, this season is as well-written, well-directed and well-acted as any of the Buffy seasons. I think I fall on the same side as Rufus and Rob, rather than Masq on personally preferring to watch Buffy. But this is not really relevant- the view I really want to address is that Angel is not an inferior show, is not worse written, and is certainly not unengaging or unphilosophical.

In fact, the last three episodes which I review here are going to be the hardest reviews for me to write to date. This is because I think that the Pylea arc is extremely clever and insightful and carried off with trademark Greenwaltian surreality- but I also think that, due to the amount of exposition necessary in each episode, I was spending more time watching the developing plot and thinking about the consequences of the Pylean society than fishing for those character parallels and thematic resonances. It's definitely an arc which needs re-watching, because I believe there is a lot going on under the surface wackiness. Anyway, here goes on the few things I did pull from the conclusion to Season Two.

2.20- 'Over the Rainbow'

As you probably all know by now, I'm never going to let a title like that go by without drawing several unwarranted comparisons. Let me first mention that I think this title and the next one is revealing about the focus of the episodes. In 'The Wizard of Oz', Dorothy is the main character. In 'Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There', Alice is obviously the main character. So there are question to be asked about Cordelia, and if she is particularly girl-like or immature in this arc. I'll return to this.

The most obvious reference to Oz is Cordelia clicking her heels together three times. Cute. Also, we clearly have the idea that Cordelia has been yamked unintentionally away from tedious reality towards something bright, colourful and very different. In Oz, of course, there are apparently very simple manifestations of good and evil, rather similar to how Lorne describes Pylea in 'Belonging'. There are the Good Witches and the Wicked Witches, and the great ruler in the Emerald City. There are valiant warriors. Cows are cows and are inferior. The social system is unchangable.

However, Cordelia's coming, like Dorothy's house falling on top of the Bad Witch, throws everything up in the air. Initially, Cordelia is just another cow, but when it is revealed she has the sight, we see how her arrival has affected the system. The mislead is a fairly obvious one- I doubt too many people were surprised by the Queen twist at the end. Like Dorothy, Cordelia is adopted as special, and allowed special privileges. Eventually, however, like Dorothy, Cordelia's very different-ness is going to shake up the system. Dorothy is the person who discovers the Emperor's supposed power is a scam. And Cordelia in turn catalyses the overturning of the Pylean society.

OK, title done. Now the actual episode.
-You have to feel a little bit sorry for Andrew Lloyd Webber sometimes, don't you? You don't? OK, then.
-When Angel was on the 'phone talking to somebody, I imagined it to be Buffy. Not for any particular reason, just that he was talking deeply and intimately, and it seemed the most obvious choice of person to leave the 'terra incognito' explanation to. This had the effect on me of making the fact that it was actually Gunn a very powerful expression of his value to Angel and his group. I don't know whether that was the play ME were going for, (I'd be interested to hear if anyone else thought the same as me), but it showed to me that Gunn has really become an important member of the group to Angel. And it certainly made Gunn realise that as well, which is why his about turn was not too contrived from my perspective.
-Cordelia's 'Isn't anyone gonna ask if I'm OK?' is a nice subtle play off her complaining that everyone always asks that a couple of episodes earlier. A good case of 'you don't know what you got until it's gone'. Now Cordelia is alone, and perceives herself as being a slave, she has lost all that support, which seems comforting even if rather suffocating at times
-I loved the battle scene subversion. How many times do we see our gallant heroes valiantly beat off an enemy numbering tenfold the size of the Good Side? When Wesley says he thinks they might win, and then we cut to them tied up, it is a tidy cutting down of a cliche used too often in film and TV.
-The whole cow thing reminds me of 'South Park', where the humans of the USA believe they are superior, but in fact aliens decide that cows are the most intelligent life on the planet. The point frm Parker and Stone is that we constantly over-value ourselves in comparison with animals. Here, we see the ruling race just assuming that the humans are cattle, rather than coming to the opinion through enquiry.
-Lorne has another 'writer' line: 'You know, your classic film noir'. Shows that Angel is based upon that genre, (cf Slain's marvellous essay) but also that in doing the Pylea arc, ME have gone off in a completely different direction. -Now Cordelia really is 'Queen C', the thing she's always wanted to be. The question really is: will Cordelia realise eventually that Pylea, like Oz, is only a dream, and has as many good points as bad points. In some ways, despite its obvious flaws, Pylea is not better or worse than Earth, just different. This is backed-up by the varying reactions of the characters to being there. Lorne, the bohemian, is as a character out of place in this Fantasy Genre world, and thus detests it. For Cordelia, the bowing and attention seems, at least for a while, just what she's always wanted. For other characters, it's just the little things. Angel's reflection. Wesley's ability to lead. Even Gunn as a noble warrior for freedom, identifying with the slaves without the difficult concepts of belonging and moral ambiguity in death.

Interesting episode by Mere Smith. Not top quality, but nicely done.

2.21- 'Through the Looking Glass'

There are two Alice's in this episode- Cordelia and Fred. Both are continually faced with things that seem entirely random and dream-like, and both have an innocence, trying to play the role.

In 'Through the Looking Glass', the story is at the end explained ingeniously by Lewis Carroll as a chess game, (he's another one of those crazy maths types. Don't trust them). The idea is that there's a formality to Alice's movements underlying the supposedly random finding of 'Jabberwocky' and meetings with Tweedledum, Tweedledee and Humpty Dumpty. This is played out carefully in the episode. Minear loads the episode chock-full of meaty revelations and plot turns, but behind it all is the supposed prophecy about exactly what will come to pass. Cordelia will mate with the Grooselag [?]. All is planned out by Wolfram and Hart, who I was genuinely surprised to find in this episode, and who are the literal power behind the throne.

Non-episode title thoughts:

-Numfar. The dance of joy. I can't imagine another series creator and all-round genius finally making a cameo in his show and giving himself a part this ridiculous. It sums up who Whedon is really. And of course, his dance is just an entertainment in reaction to his and others' lives, just like Whedon's show is. Only the stoniest heart wouldn't melt at the Dance of Joy.

-Initially, we appear to be setting up people as their ideal perceptions of themselves. Wesley is the ultimate Bard, mastering the trionic of the books. Angel has human attributes, but is celebrated as a bone fide champion and do-er of good. Cordelia is the Queen with the respect and the power. But all these sour. Wesley is betrayed by the arbitrary whims of Cordelia, and becomes an exile again, just as he is originally an exile from his family in England. Angel realises that his sides have been polarised, not the monster just cancelled out. Cordelia realises that she doesn't really have power- but is instead part of an arcane prophecy which appears to be controlling everyone. Again, Pylea isn't paradise, it's just different.

-Loved Lorne's 'audience' moment here. The Deathwok clan's spokesman asks him to recount the tale of the man who could detach his limbs at will. Lorne quips sarcastically, 'Yeah, that's a good one'. A metanarration on the audience's dislike of the episode. Good stuff.

-I really like the character of Fred. We haven't really seen a truly nymph-like, child-like character in Angel's run. At the beginning of Buffy we have Willow as the apparently sweet and innocent one. Then we get Dawn. There were several moments in the final two episodes where I felt compared to go 'awww!' rather like I would do many times in 'Doppelgangland' or 'Real Me'. I think she'll be a really interesting character, partly because, as we've seen with Dawn and Willow, the sweet and innocent persona isn't really who they are. On top of this, of course, Amy Acker is just exceptionally pretty. Which is always good.

-Fred assuming Angel is an hallucination is a lovely, really sad twist- and the idea that her old life has become just a story is as beautiful a moment of writing as anything. Fred doesn't really understand the pattern of what's being played out in front of her, rather like Alice. She is the 'little girl lost' as much as Cordelia, and when Angel compares the two of them, and Fred responds 'They didn't treat me like that' [Awwww!] we see both the parallel Alices of Cordelia and Fred, and her lack of understanding. She doesn't have the full story, because she doesn't know about the visions or the prophecy.

-Organised religion is bad again. Organised religion is usually bad in the Whedonverse.

-The Lorne's beheaded twist is a little silly, although it does sum up well Cordelia's dilemma. She wasn't to know that Lorne would be beheaded, but she is responsible. This dream, as she tells Groo, can't continue for long. It must end. She likes playing queen, but it is all too surreal, like Alice thinks. Not her real life.

I think Minear struggles just a touch in this most Greenwaltian of settings with keeping his trademark over-arching themes from coming through. Greenwalt demonstrates how Pylea is much more suited to his more haphazard, inspired or awful approach with the finale. But still a good episode.

2.22- 'There's no Place like Plrtz Glrb'

And so here we are at the last episode of the Season, and another Greenwalt classic. And once again we start with Lorne. In particular, with Lorne's head. There's a certain tidiness about starting the season with the bizarre singing moment, and starting the final teaser being surprised by Lorne again. It's silly. It's there for virtually no reason. But it's funny and bizarre and completely in the style of the Pylea arc. Greenwalt does extremely well in this episode because Pylea is a Greenwalitan place- full of random customs he can make up, plot twists that only work because it's another world, and weird character nuances.

There's a clear parallel being made between Groo and Angel in this episode. And the reason why the whole battle very much sums up the effect AI have had on Pylea is that it is fought between two morally ambiguous positions. Before they came, Pylea was a simple land with understandable, (if in some cases oppressive) customs. By the season finale, Groo fights Angel. Angel is battling for the rights of the cows to be free- anathema to the prophecy and to the Wolfram and Hart evil monks, yet with some element of self-interest in finding Cordelia. Meanwhile, Groo is fighting because that is his life. He is a Champion, even though born to look like a human. It is interesting that certain cases of 'deformity' appear to count as positives in Pylea. Despite Cordelia being a cow with the rather damaging Visions, the fact that she is special and different elevates her to Queen status. Similarly, Groo's human half has not stopped him from becoming a well-respected champion. Pylea is not as black and white as it appears, and the Groo/Angel fight demonstrates this.

Of course, at the core, both Groo and Angel are fighting for Cordelia. Groo is a very obvious parallel to Angel. Originally, we are expected to believe the rather trite conclusion that Groo is what Angel should be. However, as Cordelia explains to Groo that saving Lorne was his greatest act of courage, he starts to understand that it is a personal struggle, not just a grandiose mythic fighting, which wins real respect. So Groo starts out as what Cordelia would like Angel to be. But she realises eventually that Angel is the more whole, more rounded Champion, even though deeply flawed. Groo would never survive the machinations of Wolfram and Hart in LA. Groo becomes to Cordelia just one side of the whole Angel. Similarly, Angel has his own identity problems. He has been split into the human-like side and the demon-like side. Initially, he thinks he can eat his cake and have it too. That he can be the supernaturally endowed Champion and yet walk in sunlight experiencing the simple joys of a human that he has not been able to for 250 years. but it becomes clear that Pylea has just aggravated his necessarily schizophrenic character. It is a wake-up call that the integration of the two parts of him, despite all these years, is still only just beginning. Beast!Angel summarises all that Angel does not wish to show Wesley- the animalistic urges that he feels in his id, and tries to suppress. Human!Angel is the kind of person Angel would like to be in an ideal world- mortal yet still powerful. But it is clear that he can't have this- he knows from both 'In the Dark' and 'I Will Remember You' that this vision is unrealistic and can never happen.

Other haphazard ponderings:

-I liked that cut from the bottom of the basket to the moon. Don't know if both of them are supposed to symbolise womanhood- the abundance of the basket and the traditional lunar cycle metaphor- but even if not it was a lovely bit of editing.

-Wesley's question 'Why does everyone keep making me leader?' is a question he actually knows the answer to. He is a great leader, given a little confidence, as he has already demonstrated in 'Guise Will Be Guise' and during the 'Redefiniton'-'Epiphany' arc. He is intelligent, brave, calm under pressure, and not all that bad a fighter. He is sometimes a little too self-belittling for his own good. Wes and Gunn's battle, as 'rebels' is telling. They are the two 'normal people' in the show [not Everyman, that's Cordelia, but non supernaturally-endowed], and they show how personal confidence can win over corrupt regimes with their uprising.

-W+H are the First Evil in Pylea. Unseen, melting through the consciousness, pretending not to be there at all, but actually perpetuating a very particular idea of Fate.

-Declaration of Independence is a nice touch. If I had to give you one thing that the US has done for the world, it would be the Declaration of Independence. Cliche I know, but at this time when they are acting as the world's grumpy teacher with their big, scary cane, it's nice to see that at least the foundations of the country repsonsible for these great shows has its heart in the right place. That's just my withdrawn Lorne-like English perspective.

-Gunn explaining to Groo what he must do to remould the country is powerful, particularly when the audience knows how hard he's been on himself about losing one of his own community. He's not just saying the struggle is going to be hard. He's lived it.

-Alyson Hannigan's 4 seconds worth of acting is wonderful. Those big, distressed eyes really do the trick. And it's very important that she doesn't have to say anything- Angel instinctively knows. Last Season ended with a surprise return of an old flame. This Season ends with the surpirse loss of an old flame. How will Angel respond? Some of that question is possibly swallowed by the Summer Hiatus, but there should definitely be some follow up in 3.1. Which I'm looking forward to already.

Which just leaves the ratings out of 10. I repeat as always two things. First that these ratings have changed in the context of the Season's later episodes, and therefore you may not always be able to match up my review to the number. Second that the numbers don't mean a lot to me really- the responses I've already posted mean a lot more.