Great Review.

I just wanted to comment on how much I loved the final scene between Angel and Connor.  I thought DB and VK both did outstanding jobs.  I was rooting for "both" of them in their crisis.  I also like that it was because of Connor that Angel took the deal.  He was not swayed by material items, by the power to help…

Loved him.  I loved how well adjusted he was. I think Connors "nature" was squashed by his "nurture".  Still there are three scenes that come to mind that showed IMO that Connor's nature was still good.  First in "Peace Out" he stops following Jasmine and finds Cordelia.  He admits he wanted the lie and in that…

Me too.

The DVD commentary covers that.  It was flipped shot. The footage they had showed the car going from right to left and they wanted everything to left to right to not confuse the viewer that Angel was heading away from LA. So they flipped a portion of the footage to be consistent in direction, not consistent on the…

I think it fares better on second watching.

I think Joss tried to represent Connor as a troubled teen and Angel was completely out of his league in dealing with him.

I so agree with this assessment.  I think Connor is the most abused person in ALL of the Whedonverse —- and that is saying something.

@ SamCA @avclub-13d7df3c17502af69aafccc758195f96:disqus I can totally understand your point regarding the speech.  BTW I just watched all of Angel for the first time in the last few weeks.  But I think his speech still works if he initially felt it but no longer applies to him.

Actually I disagree, I think Connor's blood allowed him to see Jasmine for what she looked like all the time but I think he got the bliss-dose until Cordelia's blood removed that.

It's a little sad too.  Connor, who I believe was in "the Bliss" for Magic Bullet but CHOSE Team-Jasmine in Sacrifice, actually had a happy episode with his dad.  He easily talks about learning to hunt in Quor'toth because Holtz tied him to a tree and ran away.  Although Angel reacts w/ horror, it's still a bonding…

I don't think she's meant to be Christ specifically (versus any other deity) but rather equivalent to Joss equating God to "the Big Sky Bully".   So IA the BigBad is God, but not necessarily Jesus Christ.

I think Xander is still Joss' personal stand-in for the dirty mind jokes.  It's like a 30 to 1 ratio for Xander by this point for the living arrangements —- this is Joss fantasy all the way.

That is an extra-double-bonus-point-with-a-lime-twist connection.  Well done.

New to the forum or I would have jumped in to help earlier.