So what did I think of the Angel episode, “Not Fade Away”?

Read on!

What a finale. I don’t think there are words adequate to describe it. It was toyally awesome. It was the last episode of Angel, and it was also the last episode that would take place in the demon-infested Buffyverse. I thought this episode as a whole was really packed and perfect.

The episode picked up seconds after the exciting penultimate episode, when the members of Team: Angel decided to take down The Circle of the Black Thorn. It only picked up from there, too. Once it picked up from there, it never seemed to let up. Like I said, it was a really packed episode.

I think why I loved the Buffyverse finales (Chosen for Buffy and this one) because I think it is fun to see how far the characters have come in their series-long journey. This episode is really the final endgame for our characters, Team: Angel as they’ve been called. I have to say there really was a sense of foreboding throughout the episode for the fight that would commence between our beloved characters and the Black Thorn.

This episode also featured the conclusion of the Angel in Wolfram and Hart arc, which I enjoyed a lot this season. It seemed in that first half that Angel ost his way, but Cordelia really helped him find it again, and now he was going to take down the Black Thorn, and sort of redeem himself for sort of the evil that hye had done as Wolfram and Hart’s representative in Los Angeles. I think it would have been interesting where the writers were planning to go after the Wolfram and Hart arc in this season.

There is one scene that takes place in the Circle of the Black Thorn that is really poignant for the Angel character; that is the scene where Angel signs away (in blood) his chance of being human. Now, I know we know why he did this. He did it to prove to the Black Thorn that he had gone over and didn’t care about being human. But, you can see the pain that this decision Angel made; how much it hurts him. David Boreanaz played that scene wonderfully. It is very important for Angel, because becoming human after fighting the good fight was probably the one thing he was holding onto. Now that he wasn’t going to be human, he seemed like he had nothing to hold onto. You definitely felt the implications of that during his scene with Harmony. But then, as Angel left his office in that scene, you then felt his determination to take down the Black Thorn once and for all.

One relationship that really comes full-circle in this episode is the relationship between Angel and Lindsay McDonald. Lindsey has always interested me as a character. I always believed him to be the perfect foil for Angel. The way Christian Kane plays him, too, is remarkable. He and Boreanaz really have a chemistry onscreen, and it is fun to see that interaction between those two actors.

You have the scene where Angel and Lindsey are talking about bringing down the Black Thorn one-by-one, where Angel knows he probably won’t be coming out of this battle alive. Lindsey agrees to help Angel, which probably was a big deal for him. I almost start to wonder if Angel really trusted Lindsey to be on his side for this big final battle, due to the fact that he has him killed at the end of the episode. It just goes to show you how much Angel does NOT trust Lindsey, and I have to wonder if there was that much distrust on Lindsey’s behalf for Angel.

The next part of the episode focused a lot on the individual characters of Team: Angel. As early in the morning, Angel asks Gunn, Lorne, Spike, Wesley, and Illyria to spend that day as if it were their last. I think the writers knew these characters inside and out, because how they spent their last day was very. . . much like their characters. It really goes to show you how much these characters have improved and grown in the past five seasons.

The first one that is worth mentioning is Lorne, who obviously goes out and sings on his last day. I thought that really came full circle for Lorne, as the first time we ever saw him in the series he was at his karaoke bar singing a song. I don’t know the lyrics to the song he sang, but I’m told that the song he sang fit perfectly with the mood for the show. I think it was awesome to see Lorne in this light-hearted way to contrast with the somber mood that seemed to dominate this episode. I think Lorne was very somber in this episode. It was very weird to see him dark and moody, as he is mostly very much comic relief for Team: Angel, so this scene really helped bring his character full circle for the audience. I don’t think Lorne could’ve spent his last day anywhere else.

The next one is Gunn. The character of Charles Gunn has definitely been one that is evolved. He started out as a gangster slaying vampires, and now has become this exquisite warrior, that has been awesome to see. Helping out the shelter that helped him out was perfect for Gunn, especially with his lawyer arc that dominated season 5. I think this was the perfect way for Gunn to spend his last day. I think with being a lawyer in Wolfram and Hart had almost hardened him to the point where had forgotten his roots. So, getting in touch with his roots was a good thing for the character of Gunn. There is a really touching scene in the episode with Gunn and Anne (girl who runs the shelter, who made 2 appearance in Buffy and a total of 3 Angel appearances) where Gunn asks what Anne would do if she realized it was all for nothing, and that nothing mattered. Her response simply stated the mission statement of the show for those who had forgotten over the past five years: “I’d help these people. (paraphrasing, of course)” It really set up what that final moment should be for Gunn.

The next one is the moment for one of my favorite characters in the Buffyverse: Spike. Seeing Spike drink up with people at the bar was just fitting for Spike. But I don’t think even I was prepared for what came next, when it was revealed what Spike would be doing at this bar: reading poetry. I think it really came full-circle for his character as a whole, not just in his development on this show: which was shoddy at best. I would’ve loved to see Spike more on Angel. I think he really fit in with the rest of the cast on that show, as well as he did when he was on Buffy. But, I think it should be interesting to note that the poem Spike recites is the exact same poem he read to his dearly beloved Cecily in the Spike-centric episode of Buffy entitled “Fool For Love.” I think seeing those people in the modern century applaud for his poertry, when people in the 19^th century had ridiculed him for his bloody, awful poetry. SO, this was a great scene for Spike. Very humorous, which is Spike to a tee.

I think this “perfect day” scenario is the most interesting. This, being the one for Wesley Wyndham-Pryce. Now, I make it no secret to say that Wesley is my favorite character in Angel. I think he has had the most interesting character development of any character on the series. He started as a bumbling Watcher and is now this killer, kickbutt warrior. That development is awesome to see onscreen. But, I digress . . . His perfect day scenario really illustrates just how far the character of Wesley has come all those years. When Illyria asks him why he is spending his day helping her clean her wounds instead of going out and doing something that might be his last. Wesley responds by saying, “There is no perfect day for me, Illyria. There is no sunset or painting or finely-aged scotch that’s going to sum up my life and make tonight any… There is nothing that I want.” This just goes show how much Wesley has changed or evolved in the past five seasons. He truly has become the darkest character on Angel, and was definitely not when he was first conceived by the writers. When Wesley confesses to Illyria that what he really wants is to spend his last day with Fred, Illyria offers to change into her, as she has done so in episodes past. Wesley does not want to, as when he was first trained as a watcher, he was trained to know the difference between truth and illusion, and that he wouldn’t accept a lie, as he did not intende to die that night.

The last perfect day scenario worth mentioning is that of the title-character of this series, Angel. I think everyone watching this episode was wondering how Angel would spend his “perfect day.” I think it was a good thing that he spent it with his son, Connor. It just was a nice scene. It wasn’t deeply poignant or full-circle like all the other ones; it was just nice. I think this worked for the Angel character, though. I think he had to be on guard for all the twists at the end of the episode to work if it had been very poignant for the character. But I thought the interaction that Connor and Angel had was very nice and very family-based. It felt real. It seemed as if Connor had finally accepted Angel as his father, as he never did in the actual series. The best line Angel delivered, “was at the first taping of the Carol Burnett show. Tim Conway was on fire. It was special.” Very funny.

This brings us to our pre-fight meeting with Team: Angel, where every individual character is given a demon member of the Circle of the Black Thorn to take down. This seemed very gritty to me. Like it was a one-on-one fight, but I kept having to remind myself how big this fight was, as Angel had, because the Black Thorn was the most evil society in this planet’s existence. I think every demon that our characters seemed appropriate. Spike would be taking down the Fell Brethren (without any amulets or trinkets to carry with him ), Gunn would be taking down vampires (which was perfect for him, in my opinion), Illyria would be taking on demons, Wesley would be taking the top sorcerer in the Circle, and Angel would be taking on Archduke Sebassis (which at first, I thought it was kinda lame, but it paid off).

Like I said earlier, Lorne was very somber for the whole of this episode. When Lorne is asked to fight, he is very reluctant to do so. But you knew that he didn’t like fighting from episodes in season 2. The fact that he didn’t want anybody to go looking for him after this last fight kind of disheartened me. I wonder if we will ever see Lorne again after this. Perhaps in the exciting season 6 comic?

I do want to say something about this last scene between all the members of Team: Angel. It really had a dark, foreboding “we’re not going to make it out of this alive” feeling. I think what contributed to that the most was the fact that it really was the last scene the core Angel cast had together. You could definitely tell in that last longing look in between Angel and Wesley.

Now, onto the battles! I think these fights were great. They were really awesome to watch onscreen. They epitomized what the show has been about these past five seasons: Fighting, Keep on fighting, even when those odds are stacked against you. I was on the edge of my seat. I think that is what Angel (and Buffy, too) has done amazingly well with: its action scenes. They have the best on TV! Like I said, I thought each fight fit each character perfectly.

Now, there were several twists in this episode that seemed to work. The first is the twist that lead to the awesome TV battle between Angel and Marcus Hamilton. Now, I said before, how Angel taking on Archduke Sebassis was kind of lame. I am glad this is not the direction they decided to go with Angel’s final battle. I just am in full belief that the battle scene between Hamilton and Angel was simply awesome! I will be bold to say that it was my favorite fight in TV history. Why? Because both Hamilton and Angel are immortal, so none of them really has the upper hand. It was a real slugfest to me. Those are my favorite fights, and I have only seen them twice in the movies (Wolverine VS Lady Deathstrike in X2 and Jack Sparrow Vs Barbossa in Pirates of the Caribbean) and here on Angel, and it was just fun and exciting to watch.

The other twist that seemed very unexpected was the twist with Lorne and Lindsey. I don’t think anyone expected Lorne to pull out a gun and pop a few into Lindsey like that. I thought that this death was especially interesting for the Lindsey character, as it was very humiliating for him, to be killed by a flunkie of Angel rather than Angel himself. I think Angel knew that all along and that is why Lorne had to be the one to kill him because he knew Lindsey’s future because Lindsey sang for Lorne. It was all in Lorne’s last line to Lindsey, “You were never part of the solution, Lindsey, and you never will be.” I take that to mean Lindsey will never, ever, help out people or seek redemption, as the other characters would have. I also think Lorne departed well with his line of “Goodnight, folks.”

The one sad thing about this episode, for me, was the death of Wesley Wyndham-Pryce at the hands of the master sorcerer. I understand why it was done in the contest of the episode, and of the season, and even of the series. I know that had Mr. Whedon had been allowed extend Angel to a sixth season that Wesley would not have died in the fifth season finale. It’s just I had grown so fond of Wesley the past four and a half years that it was sad for me to see him go. But I think Wesley’s death scene was wonderful. I think Alexis Denisof nailed it out of the park.

But Wesley’s death scene wouldn’t have been complete without the performance of Amy Acker as Illyria and Fred. I think it was that final interaction between those two that really sold the scene as a raw, solid emotional scene. I found myself choking up at times. I really think that Illyria and Wesley had a solid connection as characters, highly due to the fact that Illyria had possessed Fred’s body. But I think it went beyond that, to the point that they had grown fond of each other, and Illyria definitely felt that. I would’ve loved to see more of that connection, had the series continued for three more seasons. But, I find it interesting that, although Wesley had asked him not to, Illyria lied to Wesley, with her taking on Fred’s appearance and allowing him one final moment with her. It really hearkened back to that Buffy episode in season two, “Lie to Me.” It was really awesome. I got chills and I choked up a bit. Then, when Wesley died, you really felt the emotion in Illyria when she smashed the sorcerer’s head in.

As I said, the Hamilton v. Angel fight scene was terrific. But, as any writer knows, the trick with any fight scene is not make it boring or repetitive, but to make it interesting or the audience grows bored. I think the fighting really escalated when Connor showed up onto the scene. I thought it was very interesting to see these two fight together as father and son. But Hamilton disposed of Connor quickly enough. Then, Hamilton revealed his blood had ancient power and Angel really was able to turn the tables on him by sucking his blood and using that ancient power against him, killing him with his own power basically.

After the fight, though, the senior partners realize what Angel has been doing and start to send all their forces to Angel and what is left of his team. They allt hen meet up in an alley, which is the same alley that Faith and Angel confronted each other in the rain back in season 1. Now, we come to our ending . . .

This is the most controversial ending of a series in television’s history, I’m sure. Don’t quote me on that, but I’m pretty sure. With this writer’s strike going on, everyone is talking about their favorite shows ending too soon and draw and interesting comparison to Angel, saying they don’t want it to end up like Angel.

I, for one, thought Angel had a great ending. I know many fans were left wondering what characters out of the four (Angel, Spike, Illyria and Gunn) would survive the battle against the evil forces of the senior partners, but I don’t believe that’s what Joss had in mind. I think the point he wanted to drive across with this ending was, once again, the mission statement of the show: Keep on fighting. I don’t think it mattered whether Team: Angel survived the battle. I think what mattered was that no matter what happened tot hem, these characters would keep on fighting until their last breath, and I think that was accomplished beautifully with that ending. When I first watched it, did I want to know who lived and who died/ Absolutely. That’s only human nature. But after subsequent watchings, that it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the fight.

In conclusion, I would like to say that I thought this episode was written beautifully. It was co-written by Joss Whedon, the creator of the Buffyverse and the wonderful characters in it. It was also co-written by Jeffrey Bell, who also directed the episode. Both these men have been on Angel for a very long time, so I think we can take comfort that this is the episode that they would have wanted for us, the fans.

I also thought this episode was very packed, and loved every minute of it. I think it is the perfect episode of Angel. It had everything an Angel episode should have: deep thought provoking statements, awesome fight scenes, and great character conflicts. It does make me sad that this was the last episode of Angel, and of the Buffyverse itself. And even though, we do have the comic books, there is still something about watching these shows on DVD that makes it different from the comic. This is why I anxiously await a Buffyverse movie. It is because I anxiously await the moment where I can return o these characters, as they are meant to be experienced.

RATING: 10/10