I get to start off with the Fury episode, which is good as it will clear my general annoyance out of the way nice and quickly.

4.3- 'The House Always Wins'

One of these days, Fury is going to write an episode which will make me repent of my sins and believe in him again. This ain�t it. I think it may not be entirely his fault in this instance- it came across as one of those horrible episodes in TV where the staff blow the budget on the big exciting location, and then attach the flimsy plot on later. At times, this episode felt like one of those do-it-yourself Ikea wardrobes where you put everything together, it doesn't quite look right, and then you realise that you have left two sections off, and fit them wherever you can. In this particular episode, I felt this was true of the Lilah/Wesley scene and the Connor scene. Both perfectly fine scenes, but with no reason to be there whatsoever. Incidentally, as much as I admire Alexis Denisof for being a great charismatic actor of a superbly written character, could somebody please tell him that it�s details in America but details in Britain. I have no idea why this annoys me so much, but he repeated it in 'Supersymmetry'. OK, that's it with the pickiness, here goes with some things I enjoyed.

-Connor replying to the question 'Who are you?' with 'Don't know yet'. That's a really rich three words. The character hasn't quite established an obvious niche on the show yet- he's floating enigmatically around the borders. Further, it draws attention to the fact that more than a year after Darla�s pregnancy was revealed in 'Heartthrob', we still have no real idea how or why.

-It was nice to see Fred smiling a lot in this episode- the heavy grind of losing people being replaced momentarily by entertainment and relaxing. The songs out of Lorne's show seemed excessively long- perhaps they were padding a little, which is something I don't think I've ever said of an episode before, so it's quite a harsh criticism if so.

-We have the patriarchy in the Lorne story. Lorne is apparently the big star, the one in control, with the money and the fame and the riches. In reality, he is being controlled for evil purposes. If in doubt in finding anything interesting in an episode, I tend to revert to the old 'Lorne is Greenwalt' thing. Here, it�s not as entirely obvious as usual. Yet consider the talented writer leaving to produce his own show, only to find that he can�t do what he wants because he's tied down to contracts and rules and negotiations. The whole episode looks a little prophetic if we consider the moronic, (I'm guessing, I haven't seen it, but it's a fair bet), decision to cancel 'Miracles'. Now Greenwalt may well scuttle back to the fold just as Lorne did at the end here- defeated by the nameless suits who appear unimportant but actually control everything that goes on. It�s a rather Greenwaltian message, like 'Reptile Boy' and Wolfram and Hart, about who is really running the country. A secretive patriarchy are behind everything.

-What to say about Cordelia in this episode? Not a lot really. Obviously she acts as Fate when Angel is playing on the slot machines, making the impossible happen. Are we supposed to believe that this action was somehow wrong of her, and she was expelled, or something else entirely. The final shot of her standing there is one of those shocker endings- although I might have expected it to be sorted out a little quicker than it evidently is being.

Frankly, I felt like I could have been watching an episode of Friends. I'm not a big fan of Friends. Let's take a second to pray for David Fury.

4.4- 'Slouching Towards Bethlehem'

I like Jeffrey Bell a lot more, although I would be interested to know anything about the politics of him getting the show-runner title ahead of a superior Mere Smith. In any case, anyone who puts a Yeats' reference in the title has me happy. I remember this being discussed before, but I'm afraid you're getting it again. Here's 'The Second Coming':

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot find the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere 5
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand. 10
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight; somewhere in the sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze black and pitiless as the sun, 15
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reell shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Where vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, 20
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? 22

I include this in its entirety for three reasons. Firstly, I wondered how much I could get of it by heart, (about three- quarters, with a few mistakes). Secondly, regardless of what you think of Yeats as a prophet, or the poem as a vision of Hitler or whatever, the sheer power of this poem makes it one of the greatest of the 20th Century. Thirdly, because I thought it might be fun to do the review in a slightly off- centre way, by looking at some of the lines and free associating. Sometimes this will inevitably lead to non sequiutrs, but it may be occasionally revealing, and certainly sounds fun to write, so here goes:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
Here we have the idea of a gyre which has been used by more intelligent minds than mine to consider the Buffyverse, and which was a recurring symbol in Yeats' poetry. The idea of the slowly widening spiral gives the idea of repetition, (of course the poem is 'The Second Coming') in history, but also of the consequences getting larger each time. Lorne's depression in this episode seems to be of that consequence- the idea that the thing coming is something truly dreadful. There is the same tone of threat as in the beginning of the Buffy season- both seem to be heading towards a particularly devastating apocalypse, [cause some are worse than others?].

The falcon cannot find the falconer;
Who's the falcon and who�s the falconer? I am tempted to associate Cordelia with the falcon- she is the one who has been up in the air all summer, after all, and is now directionless and vague. Cordelia�s re-integration is fairly well-handled, I thought. I loved the different styles of hair being gone through- who doesn�t yearn for the days of the simple, long brunette look?- and this represented the confusion about her life. It's difficult to explain someone's life to them- and on the level of metaphor for real amnesiacs, the nuanaces of Cordelia's life seem impossible to breach again. Angel's vampirism, Lorne, the killing of demons- all correspond to the strabgest things that are encountered when trying to allow someone who has forgotten everything to understand their old life. In a way, it may be easier to understand starting from nothing; at least Cordelia doesn�t have all the events in her life mixed up, like my Grandfather did shortly before he died. He had a habit of segue-ing instantly from his lunch that afternoon to an important contract meeting with Welsh Glass in Port Talbot that most probably happened 30 years ago. It was horribly simultaneously wrenching and still funny. Cordelia is spared this- but the odd details rarely seem to correlate, until some things are explained by Connor- the truthful narrator. Yet oddly enough, his tabula is almost as rasa as Cordelia's; his lack of understanding is almost as great- particularly of Angel and Cordelia's relationship.

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world
This is one of the major themes of the episode. We see at every stage the attempts made by people to stay together as a whole are failing. The causes of this effect are many and various; Cordelia's return, and her state; the continuing fall-out of Connor's return, and the new story of things to come. Each of them seems to tie into an idea of Fate or Destiny however, and it is encroaching.
-Wesley is of course still isolated from AI, and thus is able to be played by Wesley. At the end of the episode, Angel realises that there can be no proof that it was Lilah's intentions, not Wesley�s that led to Lorne being injured, and thus he becomes less trustworthy. Simultaneously, the way that Lilah plays him destabilises their 'relationship' a little.
-Angel has regained the two other constituents of his family in 'Provider', only for them not only to disappear again, lacking trust of him, but worse, disappearing together. The Oedipal parallels start to develop more fully in the next episode, but for the moment it is clear that the two characters who have had their early lives torn from them, (either by Quortoth or by forgetting what has happened), come together in shared experience, as well as Cordelia trusting Connor for his intense honesty, and Connor being attracted to Cordelia, the acting Mother in the Greek myth.
-Lorne does not feel happy with Angel- although he still trusts him to a degree, the way that he was attacked, the fact that he will not do what Angel might, because he is too self-interested, [in an understandable way] to be a Champion and his general pain, isolate him a little from the gang.
Overall, there's a fragmentation in the characters in the foreground, even before considering the other things that have fallen apart- Cordelia' mind, Cordelia's mission, AI as a family. Of course, we see Connor again in the teaser, and he is rather affected by the family strong together in the car. Yet by the end of the episode, the integration of Connor to the fold, that might have been expected in a lighter series like Buffy, has not taken place.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity
Well, there's the slightly facetious use of the word 'passion' for the Lilah/Wesley relationship, but the main point is just about Lilah. While Angel is frankly bamboozled by the weight of odd events happening all together, and is wrong in attempting to shelter the new Cordelia from reality, thus making her lose her trust, we see Lilah's plans working perfectly. Her tryst with Wesley has never been anything to do with collusion in life, and of course we see Wesley hiding Justine from Lilah in 'Deep Down'. This is the first time that either has manipulated the other deliberately for a certain end, though- and perhaps we start to see why Lilah is fairly keen for Wesley to be relatively close to AI, so that he can (unknowingly) help her disrupt their plans. Lilah is certainly full of 'passionate intensity' in this episode. Firstly, there is the obvious mislead that Wesley is the one over-hearing. So Lilah's plan would not work without Wesley being as keen to double cross Lilah as she is to cross him. The scheming of the morally ambiguous characters plays in marked contrast to the general dithering of the 'Good Guys'.

Surely some revelation is at hand.
Surely the Second Coming is at hand!
There are two Second Comings, which interplay here- the second coming of Connor from Quortoth, and the second coming of Cordelia as amnesiac. Of course, the main second coming may be yet to come!

Hardly are those words out
When some vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight;
This is the most obvious reference to the poem- Lorne's vision is as painful as Yeats' ostensibly was.

That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Weere vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle
The image of the rocking cradle is an interesting one for Connor, as much as anything. We see how his presence is difficult for Angel in this episode. The baby in the cradle becomes the son tussling for the Father's lover's affection. There is the lovely awkward father to son line 'I like what you've done with this place'. Of course, it is a dump, but it becomes a necessity for Angel to continue to act the supportive Father. Furthermore in the relationship, Connor's blindness to the dynamic between Cordelia and Angel the previous year is a key component to the confusion. When Connor says of his past that 'I had nothing to lose', he is in fact being untruthful, although he perhaps does not realise it. He tells Cordelia she is brave for losing all her memories and being strong. What Connor lost was the sapling family of 'Dad' to 'Provider', with Cordelia as the mother. This is a role that she doesn't understand she had, and Connor certainly doesn't.

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Now come on. I'm not that unspoiled...

4.5- 'Supersymmetry'

This is an excellent episode. I don't know whether it aired at a similar time in the US to 'Selfless', both of which are the fifth episode of the Season, but it has the same kind of vibe going on- characters who we imagine know each other well, trying to tease out the roles between them, how they interact, how they cariacature real, living people in their life. There are a multitude of decisions made in the episode, some arguably morally right but deeply unfair on a perspn�s right to choose, some morally wrong but perhaps in the best interests of a character's self-determination. I�m sure the different nuances of the character's created a lot of shall we say discussion, (argument is such a strong word) after this aired. I shall try to take each character slowly and carefully, and avoid too much personal identification here.

Basically, there is a very interesting chain being built up here, vaguely along the lines of Lilah-Wesley-Fred-Gunn. It would be simplistic to argue that the line goes from Baddest to Best- although I suppose that in some senses Gunn is the one who has the best intentions, and Lilah the worst. The chain here though sees everybody interpreting the characters' motivations and traits somewhat differently.

Lilah: Exactly how Lilah sees Wesley at the moment is a moot point. There is no doubt that she is physically attracted- but there appears to be a further feeling of slight possessiveness in this episode, as she watches him entranced by Fred�s reading of her thesis. This is perhaps the first sign that Lilah really has invested a little more in the meetings than she is happy to let on- she is, as Angel tells Gunn, frankly stalking him, and it is no longer simply the case that the sex is everything. I wonder how much Lilah is enjoying living a cliche- enjoying the 'wrongness' of the coming together of Good and Evil, the idea that the Bad tries to corrupt the Virtuous and vice versa. Does she feel threatened by Fred? There must be an element of that, as well as a feeling that any end to the relationship is going to be worse for her than him- Wesley has the possibility of a place to return to in AI, while Lilah�s job would be weakened by the loss of the influence over an opposing pawn, (or perhaps bishop- he's more important to the game than those little pieces).

Wesley: On one side, there's Lilah. Wesley is to an extent using Lilah, as Lilah is using Wesley. Currently, however, it appears that Wesley may be the one slightly less invested in the relationship. This is an interesting twitch. In the classic path, Good is perverted by Evil, only to be cast aside as evil has other thoughts. Wesley's intentions, while full of the idea that he can never come back from his deep moral ambiguity, (as he expresses to Fred), seem clear in terms of Lilah- that she is sex and information, and little more.

On the other side- we have Fred. Wesley has been attracted to her since before that conversation at the start of 'Billy', then let time elapse as he got over his horror over what he said while influenced by Billy, and then lost out to Gunn in 'Waiting in the Wings'. Here, we see a kind of collusion re-kindled. When Wesley welcomes Fred, she treats her as a woman able to make her own decisions, is clearly impressed by her work, and allows her the opportunity to enact the vengeance she wants. This is perhaps not the correct thing to do- it encourages Fred's emotions to rule her mind- because Seidel hurt her as deeply as she has been hurt in her life- banishing her to a Pylea that seemed to her like hell. Yet Wesley sees Fred as an intelligent, collected woman, and has decided since 'Loyalty' that Good is harder to have a grasp of than it may seem. His attraction to her seems to be more to do with her intelligence than her facade of innocence..

Fred: Fred has been stuck between Wesley and Gunn ever since she finished her complete reliance on her saviour Angel after Pylea. The Fred/Gunn relationship is a fairly happy one with relatively few bumps except the downright silly 'Double or Nothing'. Yet Gunn's view of Fred is far from completely healthy. I believe he may be using the same brand of pedestal as Xander uses for Buffy, if a slightly different design. Gunn sets Fred up as the more intelligent of the pair, but also the more innocent. This is ultimately why he snaps Seidel's neck at the end of the episode. He is unable to allow Fred to taint herself. He is unable to recognise that Fred�s intelligence and innocence do not fit easily together. She is perceptive, and as able to think and commit horrors as any of the other regulars. This is, I believe, the reason why we see Fred and Gunn having sex for the first time in this episode. Fred is not just the genius little girl.

As for Wesley- Fred still admires his intellect, and goes to him as the person more likely to understand her mission. She perhaps sees his actions around 'Loyalty' as an incidence of moral recklessness on his part, and therefore decides he will help her in doing the same. Fred and Wesley have much in common- academia, their tendency to hide their real selves underneath a visage, their attractions to people they consider as opposite poles, but who are actually much more complex. It will be interesting to see if this relationship is developed any further.

Gunn: As I mentioned above, Gunn does not have the greatest grasp of Fred. He is very perceptive in some ways; notice how he immediately identifies Fred's writing on the wall as being a sign of her insecurity about going back to Pylea. But by committing an act that is morally reprehensible only so that Fred doesn't, he makes the wrong choice on two levels. He doesn't do what Angel would do- save Seidel from the portal. Yet he neither allows Fred to reap what she has sown. He chooses a halfway house that is corrosive to his mutual trust with Fred, his camaraderie with Angel, and obviously to Seidel's future.

Who was right? Who was wrong? Angel seems the most consistent in the episode, but of course he's not caught up in the crazy chain above. In fact, discounting Lilah for a moment, he is on the tip of another triangle: that being set up between Cordelia, Connor and Angel. Cordelia is self- aware enough to explain to Connor that the kiss cannot signal a relationship while she doesn't know who she is. Yet the triangle is confusing, all the more so when Cordelia asks Angel the question that highlights how painful her amnesia really is 'Were we in love?' Angel was, at times, in love with Cordelia. Underneath the displacement of the Groosalugg, Cordelia was perhaps in love with Angel. But without her won angle, how is Angel possibly to answer that question? She is stuck between the two stools of Connor and Angel, desperate not to betray her former trust in the vampire, and yet unsure as to just where she stands in all this.

A couple more bits:
-Fred is the wise physicists to the baffled laymen Lorne, Angel and Gunn early on. A nice gender subversion from ME, in a show that often flees from Buffy's remit.
-Who can resist 'chatty rooms'?
-I was starting to wonder whether Masq was mad with the whole 'The Voynok demon has nine lives' thing, but now I understand properly. Not a bad metaphor for the crazy, archive monster.

Excellent stuff from the new writing team. Look forward to more from them. And once again, it�s turning into quite a Season.