That's something delightful about evil laughing. My favourite evil laughing is the aliens from 'The Simpsons', whose evil laughs go on just a beat or two too long. Then there's the evil laugh of the evil contingent of this board, (I would write Bwhahahahaha!!, but I fear it's copyrighted), and Phoebe and Joey's evil scheme laugh on 'Friends', (if you haven't seen it don't worry- nothing's a good reason to watch 'Friends'), and of course, the King of the evil laugh, Harry Groener's The Mayor. At the end of 'Awakening', we get an evil laugh par excellence from Angelus, which lasts right into end 'Joss Whedon' screen. That reall ain't a mistake, folks. In fact, it seems like a perfect moment in a Season that is just coming to the boil. "Look how effortlessly I can trick you," the creator taunts. "And now for the real story!"

Annoyingly, just I have to switch tapes with yabyumpan again, the Season has caught my interest. I have to admit that after the wonderful start of 'Deep Down', only 'Supersymmetry' seemed right up there with the classics until the magic touch of Mere Smith cranked the Season up for me in 'Long Day's Journey'. Immediately before that came the showrunner's effort:

4.8- 'Habeas Corpses'

Reminded me in style very much of Season Three's 'The Price'. A big, tense haunted house thriller. These really aren't my sort of episodes, and although it was done perfectly well, there was too little philosophical and literary gristle to chew on for me to accept the long, long action sequences. I realise that for other people these episodes are an unmitigated joy. But it's my review...;-)

If nothing else, you've got to love zombie lawyers, and I have to stay that the long overdue demise of Gavin Park, joining the similarly tedious Linwood, was rewarding for me. From the stable who created the very satisfying Lindsey and Holland Manners, and the wonderful Lilah, these just seemed tedious and without bite- possibly to contrast with the filling out and deepening of Lilah as a character. By this point of the story, Lilah's is one of the most compelling character arcs on either show, and here we get a couple of wonderful scenes with her.

In Lilah's revelation to Wesley of Connor's presence in Wolfram and Hart's headquarters, she may have committed the first act in a redemption of her character. In context, the audience realises just what a big step it is. The idea that she is doing it for Wesley is quickly dismissed by the break-up earlier in the episode. The old, simpler Lilah would have undoubtedly let Connor die. His life is not protected by Wolfram and Hart, and it would be a likely reason to turn Angel into the kind of character who could become the lawyers' greatest asset. Yet here, sheerly for the connection with Angel, just because she knows, she tells Wesley, and enables him to help AI save the child. That this is possible is due to the beginning of the reconciliation between Angel and Wesley. This is the point where Wesley, jolted by the apocalyptic harbingers, decides that there is good and evil, and it is time for him to return to the side of Good. This is certainly not an easy job. He is still on pretty bad terms with both Angel and Gunn, and Gunn' suspicions for his return go little beyond possessiveness. The question for Wesley is how far does he believe Lilah's lovely metaphor about white and black paint. The idea is compelling; it's wonderful imagery. Yet by setting up an analogy which is unsustainable, it becomes merely nonsense- propaganda for moral ambiguity. It's interesting to refer to the metaphors of white and black, and quite where they fit into Angel at this point. It does not appear that black is very routinely associated with Evil- although obviously 'dark' is, with the sun, representing life being undermined, the forces of Evil can roam unfettered. Ultimately, we are not merely Good or Evil. Lilah's argument may be about people's motivations. Wesley has decided that he is still motivated to be in situations where there is the possibility of good acts more often than not. To have the tendency to do Good. Yet as we have seen throughout these shows, everyone is flaws, and everyone has the capacity for evil acts. Maybe everyone really is grey, even if a Whiter shade of Grey.

Talking of moral ambiguity, Josef Stalin was no beacon of light when it came to leading a country without massacring people on a whim. One of his most famous sayings came to me while watching the end of 'Habeas Corpses'. 'One man's death is a tragedy. One million deaths is a statistic'. Amid the carnage of Wolfram and Hart, it is difficult to conceptualise the damage that The Beast has done, and, as Fred does her own bit for blurring The Line, even though they were working for an evil company, it is hard to see the lawyers massacred. Yet it is possible, probable perhaps, that Angel would not have got involved if not for the one man; Connor. When we realise Connor is trapped inside, his very identity is enough to make us involved in the rampage again. It is not that we ignore the other people, but that the one person in danger is what engages us. While Stalin may have been talking blood-chillingly literally, he had a point about perception- there are personal tragedies and there is tragedy on a grand scale. This is one of the points this Season is making- behind the giant, world-threatening events, there are the little personal nuances of life, which can be harder to deal with than anything.

One of the nuances addressed in this particular episode is the apparently decaying partnership between Fred and Gunn. When Fred meets Gunn back at the Hyperion, the distance between them appears to snap out of the relationship immediately. It is only without what she has that Fred realises what she was on the verge of throwing away. But in the re-initiation of Wesley to the team, the tension is built up, allowing the uneasy stasis in the triangle to be expanded over several episodes. Gunn and Wesley came dangerously close to blows. Angel, the uneasy leader, as usual tied up in his own problems, tells them to stop the in-fighting and fight instead to save Connor. Ultimately, the petty differences must be put aside to hrlp the one man- the reason for Angel's joy and frustration at the moment- a perfectly apt description of a child to a father.

One of the nicest little portrayals of Connor as teenager comes in this episode, with the cracking little exchange with Angel about zombies: 'They're not like me. They're slow-moving, dim-witted things, with a lust for flesh' [pause] 'Like you'.

Meanwhile, the deeply confused triangle between Cordelia, Angel and Connor is seeming destructive again. Angel, unable to cope with his feelings for Cordelia while attempting to save Connor, not only does not allow her to come on the mission, but also gives a lame excuse about being worried about her, before unsmoothly telling Fred to get a move on. The strain in the relationship is showing, and it has to be said, considering Cordelia's morning after speech to Connor, that it is largely her fault. She has managed to confuse Connor before more or less betraying Angel, and her lack of clarity over her intentions and affections appear to be causing most of the harm of the situation. Whether she is disorientated or is merely trying to establish distance from Angel is unclear, but she certainly is becoming the enigma at the heart of the show, with her motivations quite a riddle.

Then comes the white room. This is a reaction to the rest of the episode, which is darkly lit to the point of being hard to watch except in pitch darkness. The reaction from one to the other is important, establishing the distance form the location of the Beast to the location of the lawyers, both physically and metaphorically. Notably, here white is used as discomfiting if not all out evil, so clearly the black/white imagery is not as clear cut as it might be imagined. The Beast has killed its first target, leaving the worryingly ambiguous phrase, 'The Answer is Among You'. Last time we had an apparently simple prophecy; 'The Father Will Kill The Son', it tunred out not even to be true. Yet the gang still appear to treat this prophecy as Gospel, [perhaps not the best expression]. It is working out precisely what it purports that becomes one of the major targets for the group over the next couple of episodes.

Finally, we see Cordelia start to realise the problems she has already caused. Her actions in the followng episodes are crucial in a beginning of reconciliation between the Father and the Son.

4.9- 'Long Day's Journey'

I may not be the biggest Jeffrey Bell fan, but on the other hand, I am one of the biggest Mere Smith fans around. After the departure of Tim Minear, she is probably my favourite regular writer on the show, and here she does a splendid job of taking a Season which, while plotwise hurtling at a breakneck speed, was idling in terms of character motivation and development, and giving it some real impetus.

Of course the conclusion of the episode is given merely by completing the title's source phrase; 'A Long Day's Journey Into Night'. By the end of this episode, the ideas of espionage that have been stewing inside the team since the White Room incident are really starting to tear at the very fabric of the fragile family structure, with anyone and everyone being suspected.

-There's an interesting foreshadow in Lorne's line 'You may not find perfect happiness with Cordelia, but there are plenty more fish in the sea'. Of course, in the very next episode, a relationship with Cordelia, at the apotheosis of the perfect day, becomes his route to the perfect happiness that see Angelus return.

-The followers of the sun God Ra is an interesting choice for this episode's victims. I suspect many people more versed in mythology than me, (cf Celebaelin's marvellous thread last month), can explain better than me, but on a really simple level, thinking about the sun in ancient mythology really reveals its integral importance, and hence the massive symbolism in blocking out the light. The sun controlled almost everything- the harvest, the hours of work and the hours of sleep, and gave the energy from which everything grew. It's still the case. When Cordelia realises that the plants will die without the sun, it's an indication of a what a primal evil is being faced- a force so powerful that it can blot out the livelihood of everything- a truly apocalyptic spectacle. Sun imagery is always interesting going on at the Hyperion hotel. Of course, there has always been the insistent irony going on about this. Angel, the creature of the night, finding refuge from sunlight in a Hotel named after a god of the Sun. Suns, sources and beginnings seem important to this season- we must of course remember the linked beginnings of Connor, still one of the mysteries of the show as a whle, and any possible link to the advent of the Beast in the same position. Light, source, sun, energy, growth. Big themes.

The distance between Cordelia and Angel is a major visual and written point in this episode. There is the marvellous scene between Cordelia and Angel, full of pauses and anger. Cordelia does something that might in other circumstances be selfless- tells him he must re-engage with Connor after their distrust, due to his instability, but considering Cordelia's part in destabilising both of them in the first place, it is rather less gracious. In this scene it is interesting to see several shots of Angel, wearing black, against a black background- so that all that is visible is his head. Further visual hints at his confusion- his lack of co-ordination with the group being a major factor here. He is the head, and the head had been disembodied, as Lorne tells him in his 'Champions Don't Get Days Off' spiel. He's quite right of course, and Angel's magnificent rallying speech is the result of his pep talk to Angel. There is a sly metanarrationb going on here. The military music is almost identical to that employed behind Buffy in 'Bring on the Night', and here we see how Angel's speech; direct, non-propagandaist, straightforward, works a little better, and is somewhat less tedious than Buffy's subsequent diatribes.

There are a couple of examples of the big events in LA being undermined. Of course, Mere Smith was the person who brought us the hamburger God in 'Loyalty', and here she again pricks any ridiculous pretensions that Angel might be building up. The fifth member of the all-important Ra Tet is the scruffy, hatted Manny. It is always nice to see that one member of the powerful clan is the average man, the one without powers except immortality, the everyman.

Furthermore, as Gwen Raiden's re-appearance perpetuates a James Bond-style path of receding bookcases and odd, deserted stairways, we get 'Never pass up a good cliche'. The programme is always knowing enough to side-step trite, over-used nonsense- or at least to apologise for it. The return of Gwen works well, allowing her to play off Cordelia and provide a threat to her for the first time in a while. This season has been surprisingly low on the admiring damsels who were so ubiquitous in Season One, and here a distance is quickly established between the vampire and his not-quite-lover. This is nicely expressed as we see them on watch, in the big comfortable chairs. As the camera pulls back, we are not focussing on either of them specifically, but more the space in between- the space which has grown since the wonderful 'I know you's of 'Heartthrob'.

Finally we have the last cliche of the episode, the misdirect on the door as used shamelessly by Joss Whedon in 'Hush'. Here we see Angel and Cordelia realise they must go to Connor, and then cut to him with a knock on the door. But the visitor is The Beast, not the concerned family. At this point it is debatable whether the initially commendable laissez faire attitude of Angel towards Connor from 'A New World'- giving him space and time to grow- has now gone too far. The stand-off approach, which Angel has been keen to espouse instead of his own father's protectiveness, seems to have alienated Connor perhaps too much. By this point, the doubts as to whether he has caused the Beast- whether it is his fault, have grown without re-assurance from Angel. We get the throwaway line 'Look how weird he's made her' about Connor on Cordelia- which may be an in-joke for some oddness in Cordelia entirely outside Connor's sphere on influence. In fact, it may be that Cordelia, in introducing an almost unattainable distance between Angel and Connor, has herself catalysed Connor's confusion.

The end of the episode, pretty much a straight forward revelation of information, nevertheless has the requisite effect, shifting the focus away from Connor and back to Angel, thereby expertly setting up 'Awakening' while subverting the viewer's expectation.

Which leaves me just the routine job of praising David Fury ;-)

4.10- 'Awakening'

Actually, I'm still not completely letting him off the hook, because I tend not to credit solo writers for their collaborative efforts because you can't tell who wrote what. However, for whatever part he was involved in, he did well, as this is an excellent episode.

Firstly, yes there's the Bait and Switch tactic employed, and of course I fell for it. I'm really bad at these things. Although there were a few things towards the end that I was ready to call badly observed or incredible, just before we flashed back to him on the table. It was a really good balance now looking back on it. All the problems of Angel's life were speedily solved, but none of it was done using a big red arrow or anything. It was done subtly enough that it was beginning to look silly by the end, but it didn't give anything away until then.

Given the ending, it is easy to classify the episode as a one-trick pony, a clever game that quickly becomes a waste of time once the punch-line is known. Of course in this case, nothing could be further from the truth. The whole section in the middle gives us a very valuable insight into Angel's psyche. This is everything which would have to occur for him to have a moment of perfect happiness form where he is now. Of course, it involves virtually every member of his team, and reconciliation, results of inner strength, and a romance played out. Examining each in turn cuts to the heart of Angel's problems this Season.

-The Angel/Wesley reconciliation
Angel clearly has a big problem with Wesley's lack of spoken remorse for his loss of Connor in 'Sleep Tight'. When he apologises for the mistake of trying to bring back Angelus when there is a sword, Angel is quick to jump on the word 'Sorry'. When Wesley brings up the Ship, we can see it as Angel realising that Wesley saved Angel for virtually no reward, and then allows an important and awkward reconciliation. These two men have allowed their pride to get in the way of their friendship, but notice how in this perfect dream, Angel is able to get away without any admission of his own fault from the time of 'Forgiving'.

-Cordelia's Choice
Cordelia explicitly chooses Angel over Connor, thereby, to Angel, annulling all the previous problems from 'Apocalypse, Nowish' onwards. In being told that he is superior, upper in Cordelia's affections, there is a self-validation process going on; if she, the heart, the emotionally adept, finds him better, then he must have something more than his child. This is a compartmentalisation from Angel, who is still interested in having a mature relationship with Connor, but as far as Cordelia goes, merely wants to be told his worth.

-The revelation to Connor
Of course, as a result of the mode of expression, we must always be in Angel's perspective, which is one of the reasons why we see Cordelia's explanantion to Connor in front of Angel, rather than elsewhere. But this is how Angel would like it, with him at the centre of the relationship between Cordelia and Connor, and nothing independent going on out of his sight, most of which he immediately suspects as romantic or sexual.

-Gunn as conventional muscle

Angel has a problem with Gunn's threatening presence, it appears. Here, Gunn is redrawn as the man gleeful about weapns, but thoughtless in using them. Happy to be told what to do, and not good with his mind. A neutralised Gunn over which he can preside so much more easily.

-Connor's complicity
When the Beast appears, Connor is there to help him fight it. They become kind of comrade's in the tussle to beat the Evil, but of course it is Angel who is able to give the final blow to the Beast with the sword. This links in neatly to

-Inspirational leader; solo wizard
Although Angel gives a speech about everyone being a Champion, he is actually, as ignored in his dream, being a blazing hypocrite. He allows everyone to take a part in the action, but finally, he goes to fight alone. While he likes to believe that he has a family and a team, all important, ultimately he is the lonely boss who is figurehead to everyone else.

-Fred's appropriation
Rather than whine about how she is a physicist, not a hisotry and linguistic researcher, as she did in 'The Price' and 'Deep Down', here we see that Fred has happily come up with the key to where the sword is, and how it can kill the Beast. She is just the cog that Angel would like her to be in the Team.

-The team's cohesion
Wesley and Gunn do the thing with their hands. There are no cracks any more in the Team.

-Connor's recognition of place
'She was too old for me anyway', he claims. Conveniently, and without further possessiveness, Connor allows Angel to take over. The son is the selfless person whom Angel can admire, but also who let's him have what Angel feels is his.

-Perfect happiness
Ultimately, it's always going to be sex. Suddenly, Angel is reminded of the experience with Buffy. Is this a betrayal? Who knows what Angel thinks in the moment before he loses his soul, which leads to this outburst. One interesting sidebar is that Buffy, so remote in his life now, is not needed to finish the dream of perfect happiness. Everything in his current life resolved is enough.

Angel is drawn as a complex, selfish, flawed, striving, reconciling, pleased, pleasing character throughout the dream. Some of the solutions to his problems are too simple or unbelievable, but they all shed light on his motivations and perspective at this time.

Other thoughts:

-Yet more fire imagery with the sword. The Beast also disappears in fire at the end of 'Apocalypse, Nowish'. The human made light of fire, of Hell, stands against the natural, pure light of the Sun

-Angel is portrayed as the centre of Connor's world early on, so that the rest of the episode has a certain solipsistic tendency which also applies to Connor. Connor's life is so much a reaction to his father's that he finds it difficult to establish a life beside it.

-There's a correlation made between the Beast and Angelus by Cordelia- the artistry, always being a few steps ahead, the single-minded destruction. Is that not present in Angel too? He is very quick to deny this side of him, the Angelus side, in this episode. Perhaps another flaw of his is not integrating some of what Angelus does to his other persona- so that it all becomes repressed, and so he merely broods.

-'Whatever the logic of the situation..' someone chimes in near the end. This is a lovely pun, just as we are starting to realise how illogical some of the goings on have been.

-It's 'Awakening', not 'Awakenings' as I almost wrote. That's very important. With a plural, it's about all the people realising how much they have wronged Angel, and making it up to him. Then we might believe this episode really was for real. But with 'Awakening', singular, it can only be Angel, who wakes from perfect happiness to find himself cast as Angelus...

And then the laugh, Joss Whedon's laugh at the joke, again the Creator surveying his Creation. There's been a lot of Joss stuff about the Creator in his programmes recently- it's an insistent trend: Sweet, the count in WitW, Lorne in 'Spin the Bottle', here, and in 'Storyteller'. Interesting stuff, as Joss falls to a serious self-examination through art.

Loved this episode because it was not just a trick, but an extended character revelation. I would be fascinated to read how anyone else distinguished Angel's dream universe from the real Universe he inhabits. I've picked quite a few above, but there may well have been more.

Thanks for reading.