This is a ridiculous time to post this, but frankly I can't resist sharing any longer, so if it gets immediately archived, I will re-post it on Friday or something. 'A New World' is a good episode, 'Benediction' is brilliant, (all hail Minear, once again), and for me personally, 'Tomorrow' may be the best 22nd episode of a Season ever, because it really isn't in any normal sense a finale, and therefore manages to buck trends of 8 Seasons. Anyhow, I'll return to this later. Let's try to keep a semblance of structure.

3.20- 'A New World'

This new world is primarily Connor's, and also Wesley's and Angel's. There is an interesting resonance in the title- I think immediately of the Americas themselves when the phrase is mentioned, and for Connor Los Angeles, one style of American, is the representation of the whole New World. More by luck than bad judgement, he manages to speedily find himself in some of the worst places Los Angeles has to offer. Rather like Buffy in 'Bargaining', we look at him and wonder whether, despite the infamous Quortoth, he believes that this place, not his previous home, is Hell. There are the unfeasibly fast vehicles, the casual ambushes and threatenings, the dying of his first comrade, and the police with their guns. There appear to be consolations for Connor. Chocolate. Girls. More comfortable clothes. Yet ultimately the only thing that can save him from this strange environment is a sense of identity, provided by someone who understands both him and this surreal city. In all ordinary circumstances, Connor would believe this figure is Angel. And yet the indoctrination of versions of truth from Holtz has enabled Connor to come back as not only Oedipus, but an Oedipus aware of what he is doing. More complicatedly, he has an extremely difficult struggle to understand just who is Father is. One wonders whether the line 'Hi Dad' at the end of 'The Price', is a taunt from Connor. Because while it clarifies just who this fighter is at the end of the episode, and allows the perfect repetition to Holtz at the end of this episode, one does not suspect that Connor, while knowing that Angel is biologically his Father, really accepts it as a fact of the story. Holtz is his warden, his protector, and his real Father.

While this all becomes clear to the viewer by the end of the episode, the decisions that Angel has to make, based on a completely different perspective of events, are totally different. What we do see of Angel in this episode is a slice of genius by Bell. He makes Angel the Father of the child on the verge of independence. Angel suddenly becomes the parent of a son just about to leave home, and stride out for himself. In doing this, the metaphor of the clinging over-protective parent is wonderfully played out. In real life, we have parents who, refusing to believe their children have grown so quickly, (sometimes because they largely ignored them while they were growing up, like Willow's parents), cannot accept the child can possibly be old enough to function as an adult. Here, the metaphor is that Angel has literally missed the years of Connor's childhood. So when we hear him spouting all the clich�s to Connor, we see that Angel is the parent who has missed the kid's childhood, and must now let go. In this light, his ability to let Connor leave at the end of the episode is not just a right decision, but an extraordinarily brave and selfless one. He enables Connor to have the decision over what sort of contact to have, while keeping him completely informed that his hotel is always welcome for him. Of course, the Holtz twist slightly undermines Angel's logic, but for this episode at leat, we see him as an excellent father again, in a completely different way to his care for the baby earlier in the Season.

A couple of words on the Oedipus link, which I'm sure has been discussed at length before. There's a CMES, (classic ME subversion, I use the phrase so often) going on. In the Greek myth, Oedipus is taken away from his parents because of the Oracle's proclamation that the son shall marry the mother and kill the father. Here, the child is taken away because of a prophecy, (and a false one), that 'The Father Will Kill The Son'. So, while Connor is well away from Angel during his childhood years, the story has significant changes. Further to the them, Connor does know all about his Father, unlike Oedipus, who kills his father unwittingly. Yet while in the Oedipal story, the son is the strongest in battle, and finally kills the Father, in this story, for the time being Angel is stronger. This highlights the main difference between the myth and the programme, namely that while the myth of Oedipus is oddly enough about Oedipus not Laius, the series of Angel is about Angel not Connor. We are mostly focussed on how Connor affects Angel's life, not on how Angel affects Connor's.

'Steven. A good name. Not Irish'. I use Connor throughout here, but the struggle between the two names is important, basically referring to Holtz' child Steven and Angel's child Connor. Both exist. The line at the beginning of this paragraph is perhaps the crux fo rme. It suggests to me that Angel is thinking of the callow Liam, and how Connor's life is a chance to put right some of the failings here. Sometimes it appears that Angel, as well as ignoring Angelus' parenthood of Connor, prefers to think of Connor as a child of Liam than of Angel. But as was shown in the vampire face in 'Dad', and is echoed here, the vampire part of Angel is important, and is part of Connor's heritage, as well as Steven's. Angel as a Father is now more than Liam. Yet it is interesting if a little abstract to discuss whether Angel is American or Irish. I leave that for sometime else. The Irish name line though reminded me of the phrase in my title. A brief feeling of smugness for anyone who can fill in the preceding two lines. Connor's acceptance or otherwise of the face also recalls Buffy kissing Angel in vamp face all the way back in 'What's My Line I'. That acceptance of all of the being's nature, not just some of it. Also, the vamping out of Angel for Gunn in 'That Old Gang of Mine', so as not to make the decision any less obvious. Angel's vamp face is an important piece of symbolism through the series. Meanwhile, a few other murmurings. Wesley and Lilah are electric form their first moment together. The relationship works brilliantly through the end of the Season, and the whole Dante's levels of hell speech is a fascinating spin. Of course, what Wesley misses in Lilah's manipulative presentation is that Wesley didn't knowingly betray Angel as Judas did Jesus. He was attempting to do right by Angel. The concept of loyalty was a lot more complicated than selling Angel to be killed for thirty pieces of silver. Yet the seduction was perfect from Lilah.

Cordelia is more interested in Angel than Groo as usual. This is a story-line which was discarded when Cordelia went on holiday, and then brought back rather carelessly, only now reaching any real development form way back in 'Couplet'. As good a little story as it could have been, I find it hard to believe that the Cordelia who is so perceptive about others' problems and emotional angst is unable to see how she is side-lining the Groosalugg. I found it hard to believe they came back form the holiday together, but at least the story progressed in the sensible way in which it had been set up eventually. And those blue eyes are starting to scare me.

Talking of blue, we have Lorne's friend the blue hair woman, who sums up Angel's feelings. She has spent such a time in spatial altering that she keeps moving discontinuously. This is Angel's situation- the Lewis-like time differences leading to a jarring discontinuity in his life, just like the lady accidentally apparating behind Cordelia. The fighting was unusual too. I don't know stuff about fight scenes. Suffice it to say they slowed time down. Another weird warping of time. Such crucial moments in Angel's unlife happening with such speed.

Good episode, not spectular, certainly dwarfed by the might of Minear in

3.21- 'Benediction'

To what blessing does the title refer? Perhaps the most obvious one is the apparent blessing of Angel as Father to Steven by Holtz. This was one of the most charged and wonderful scenes in the Season, bringing together two characters who have in many ways had very parallel journeys, and yet by human and not-human frailty have injured each other physically and emotionally so much. I personally believed that Hotlz' transformation was complete, and was for a while loth to believe that the markings on Holtz' neck were more than co-incidence. I wanted to believe that, over the years in Quortoth, Holtz might really have understood that while 'My hate kept us alive', it is really true that 'love is much more powerful'. I think perhaps he did, and yet to the last he was bargaining, interested in an unfairly personal mode of justice, where he himself was arbiter. He needed to give Connor a final reminder of the his view of Angel. That he should do this is many times wrong. Angel has revealed his true self, and anyone who has done the quantity of obsessing over Angel's character [why am I thinking of myself not Holtz here?!] would know that this new character, Angel not Angelus, does not usually harm humans unless given no option. His vendetta was still too personal for it ever to become justice rather than vengeance, whatever he claimed. Holtz dies a character unredeemed- which is a sad conclusion on someone who appeared to have learnt so much form where he was before. In a sense, he really had learnt a lot. Yet his blind spot for Angel never cleared. If I had only one scene for Holtz,it would be the one where he tells Justine that not everything is black and white, there is good AND evil, and then, when asked about Angelus, tells her, 'He is Evil'. This was his eternal problem. His insistence on calling Angel Angelus is important. While he completely understood the importance of calling Steven by his own, new name, andthus creating a person strongly influenced by him, the fact that Angel is not simply Angelus was something he could never understand.

There's a lot of intelligent writing going on in this episode, as one would expect. Here's some highlights:

-The Groo/Lorne scene is brilliant. Yes, it's a setpiece talking about different things, but firstly Groo sets it up, and then Lorne acknowledges the game: 'There you are getting all sneaky with the subtext'. This truly signals the end of the relationship, with Groo finding strength enough to understand that he is not Cordelia's prime obsession. Despite a little criticism of his pointlessness as a character in some of the mid-to-late season episodes, I enjoyed here his ability to understand that the person he really saw as a Princess, a one true fairy tale love from a fairy tale Universe, was not to be a love that could last. It took courage and selflessness.

-We have the sweet scene where Connor re-appears, although prompted by Holtz. The acting between the two is classic adolescent son to confused parent. However, Angel does something that it takes Buffy a season to do with Dawn, albeit that Connor shows a greater aptitude- he allows Connor to come fighting with him- integrating him into all aspects of his life. This is what gives Connor the first glow of ambivalence- perhaps Holtz' stories are not all true. And yet, powerfully, it is not Connor who realises this. His prejudices against the vampire are engrained. It is Holtz who sees how Angel is good for the child, how their togetherness seems right somehow.

-Wesley and Lilah sizzle again. Lilah is showing herself to be as clever and sneakily manipulative as ever here. She does not approach Wesley head on, but instead by constantly twisting what Wesley expects of her, so the initial evilness is muddied by playfulness or moral ambiguity, (here meaning that Lilah may not be all bad, rather than not all good).

-I've written down 'Connor/Wesley parallel' and now forget what I meant. It may have been a little clearer than this, but for now let me say that both are surprised by how the new, supposedly evil sections of life opening up to them are in reality a lot more grey. Angel appears to be doing some good. Lilah isn't as straight-down-the-middle Evil as Wesley would like to be, and of course he has had his ongoing struggle since 'Billy' with the question of whether he is a Good Man. For the moment, like Dawn, he may believe that 'I may not be Evil, but I don't think I can be Good'. He is yet, as far as I have seen on screen, to help Lilah in any way, and his tryst with Lilah, while symbolic of a beige-ening, does not actually constitute helping the dark side as much as consorting with it.

-We have glowly Cordelia again. At this stage, it appears that she is able to dispel hate extremely easily, and act to dispel many problems. One wonders why she is thus so uncertain about her own relationship with Groo, and also why she has ignored Wesley. Although Angel is her primary concern, and he clearly does not wish to see Wesley again, one wonders why she decides not to go behind his back.

-We have Connor admiring the Sea; another New World. Yet his wonder is cut short by his excellent hearing. As usual, the wonders of the New World are not simple. There is always a cactus for every rose, (apologies to those who enjoy or even watch catci).

-There's the re-affirmation of the importance of the name to the perspective as Angel cheerfully proclaims 'Connor', Holtz worriedly mumbles 'Steven', and then Connor himself shows where his heart still lies when he again says 'Dad', this time referring to Holtz.

Brilliant episode. Haven't seen 'Firefly', but am starting to understand why people are grumpy that it was cancelled, because with Whedon and Minear at the helm, it cannot fail to be wonderful.

This just leaves Greenwalt's sortie episode:

3.22- 'Tomorrow'

I'd love to preface this outburst with the phrase 'I hate to crow', but it simply wouldn't be true. Lorne is Greenwalt!!! OK, sorry. I also am spoiled enough to know that Lorne returns to the show, although hasten to add I know nothing else about this. So clearly Lorne in Season 4 will not be Greenwalt. However, here is as big a confirmation as ever that he is. Lorne decides to pack up his bags and leave in this episode. He is going to a place where people gamble, in other words gambling his future on a new venture. He has loved being part of a team, but has decided to move on, to have a new individual life away from his old friends. I might even mention that the weird surreality embodied by Caritas, the wacky moments and bizarre twists, have been less self-evident than in previous seasons- in a sense, new writers have knocked down what his original 'Angel' stood for. Perhaps this is taking it a little far. In any case, I enjoyed the parallel, for Greenwalt's final adieu to the show.

The cityofangel review for this episode is frankly a little grumpy. It's all very well to have cliffhangers, it contends testily, yet to leave so much up in the air is just plain unsatisfying fo rus viewers. Well, I may not have the agony of the long summer hiatus after this episode, but I for one thought it was genius. Now we already now that Angel works a little differently from Buffy. There are those little arcettes rather than the sweeping season-long arc. Both finales have, after a cheery resolution, foisted on us a new revelation to keep the fanbase pondering. But this is rather different from Darla and 'Buffy...'. This time, it is not the tidbit, but the major direction of the show. Gunn and Fred, who, while Cordelia has slowly been turning into Mother Teresa, have become the every men of the show, finish off the episode by asking confusedly, 'Where is everyone?' To state the answer baldly, Angel is in a box on the sea-floor, Cordelia is in a star of 'higher' dimension, Wesley is sleeping with Lilah, and Connor has just exacted eternal vengeance on his Father. Not your average, all-tied-up finishing number. But brilliant.

I think, for me at least, a key aspect to understanding this Season, is Fred's little speech in 'Fredless'. I love that episode, one of those really cheery ones where a new group dynamic is instilled, and everyone seems in a happy state of equilibrium. Anyone who needs any evidence that happy state of equilibrium is not an ME staple need only consider Fred's simple summation: 'Angel is the Hero. Cordelia is the Heart. Wesley is the Brains. Gunn is the Muscle. And I'm...'. By the end of the Season, the first three of these have been shown to be grotesquely simplistic if not quite wrong. From the clear, well-defined roles, we are propelled into a Season of melt-down. That the Season should end in total confusion and characters literally worlds apart is for me a triumph of unexpectedness. I loved it. I'm pretty sure some people will disagree with me on this, but that's half the fun of it.

Here's some of the specifics that motored the Season to its conclusion:

-Holtz reaps the consequences of his life where hatred was more important to him than love. His final decision against this has come far too late to affect the lives of his one-time family. Interestingly enough, while Connor and Justine collaborate, they never really bond. Justine deceives Connor, still wishing to complete what she believed was Holtz' eternal mission statement, to dispense with Angelus. Connor is more devious, having understood better exactly Holtz' aim. So Justine keeps distance from Connor. And Connor accidentally keeps distance from Justine, by explaining the Steinbeckian farm in Utah, (think alfalfa), but without Justine as the mother. Justine once again feels excluded. And yet these two people who were closest to Holtz after he lost his first family, team up to enact Holtz previous wishes. It reminds me a little of that outrageously startling end to 'The Trial', where Angel is starting to make peace with Darla, only for one inalienable echo of his past to take it away from him: Drusilla. Justine and Connor become Holtz' legacy, in the same way Drusilla was Angelus' twisted gift the world.

-Cordelia and Groo finally break up, and we have the parallel conversations with Angel and Lorne and the other two. This apparent resolution has been tidily hinted at all the way through the Season, and I felt that Whedon and Greenwalt had earnt C/A because of the careful construction all the way from 'Heartthrob' through 'Provider' and 'Waiting in the Wings' to 'Couplet', and finally C/G's slow degeneration. That they didn't give it to the fans after such a perfect genesis was another reason why the ending worked for me- it eschewed what we might expect in virtually every way.

-There are some really good Greenwalt lines in the faux-happy sections in the second and third acts. It was clear by this stage that Connor having assumed Angel killed his Dad, and the lack of apparent struggle for resolution, that the happy ending was unfeasible, but it still felt lovely while it lasted. I particularly loved Fred's vampire impression and the response, 'You're a vampire, you're not in Cats'.

-The cinema scene is interesting. Greenwalt is gently playing on fantasy versus reality. Everyone seems to believe that taking Connor to the cinema is a good idea, but perhaps the last thing he needs is escapism. When reality mixes with fantasy, with the real helicopter, Connor's world is again confused. It's rather like the propaganda of Holtz, mixing turth about Angelus with falsehood about Angel.

-Linwood and Parks again attempt to do something fiendish and fail miserably. We're supposed to recognise how lame they are, and we do. This contrasts effortlessly with Lilah's relaxed, wonderful seduction of Wesley. The screen almost explodes every time the two are together. I'm really in danger of losing my 'I like watching the plot develop' status and becoming a shipper here, although it's certainly not good for Wesley in the long run, one imagines. But just look at them!

-Cordelia. I for one think this scene is not supposed to be the right thing to do for the character. I'm not quite sure why. Possibly because of the way both Angel and Cordelia are so excited about the imminent consummation. Certainly because of the way that Cordelia's absence indirectly triggers Angel getting locked in a submarine box. Surely if she is supposed to do mroe good, that could start by saving the Champion for the Powers? I don't know. I am a big fan of Skip's character, and I can see how Cordelia might take the option, but there are a lot of issues to be resolved in her journey next Season.

-And so we are left sans Lorne, sans Cordelia, sans Wesley and Angel sans everything with Fred and Gunn, the confused bystanders to the Season's ending, standing in the giant deserted Hyperion. A great end to the Season. Now this was to be the end of the Odyssey, but it's now not quite so simple, as I can probably go on to Season Four. Not quite sure if the Odyssey will survive in this form, as I will be watching some Buffy as well. Possibly I could do an Angel Odyssey and a Buffy Bumble, but I'm not quite sure yet. I'll keep you posted, literally.

Finally, here are the numbers. Usual disclaimers: the reviews are a better explanation of my thoughts: and any time I said I preferred one episode to another and have now reversed it is due to the hindsight of the rest of the Season.

Great Season. If I had a little time, I'd like to add up the scores from each Season to see whether it reveals more love for Season Two or Three, because I'm currently havng great difficulty deciding. Anyhow, thanks for reading.
TCH