Oh man, this has got to be one of the two or three best episodes of “Angel”.

First of all, it’s directly painful to watch, because you have so much sympathy for Wesley. He tries incredibly hard to make his dad proud of him, and he hardly gets anything but scorn in return. He is also under a lot of pressure, as Angel doesn’t really trust him yet (even though Wes can’t remember why), and Fred is spending much time with that creepy little doctor whose name I can’t remember at the moment (Ben something?). Luckily, though, he gets at least some recognition by the end of this episode.

Second, the episode has an unusually tense atmosphere. This does of course have a lot to do with Mr. Roger Wyndham-Pryce and his plans and actions, but also, somewhat amazingly, with this week’s monster. After all, we’re never really shown whether they’re good or evil (although much points towards the latter), something which helps raise the suspense level a bit.

Third, it’s very arc’y. Spike ( “Sex with robots is more common than most people think” ) confronts Eve; more doubts are raised about whether they’re doing the right thing; and stuff like that. Always fun.

And fourth, the episode is incredibly fun. The jokes are much better than I remembered them to be, and that’s saying something, seeing as I remembered them to be rather good.

Awesome episode, I can’t wait to watch it again in a month’s time or so.