This is almost too much. Every single one of the four Angelsodes (doesn’t sound as good as “Buffysodes”, does it? ) I’ve watched tonight, have been fucking masterpieces. They’ve been thrilling, they’ve been emotional, they’ve been funny — everything the best of Whedonverse episodes always are.

This one falls into that wonderful category by merit, of course. Mostly because of the sheer presence that is Charisma Carpenter, and the emotional baggage she carries with her as the lovely Cordelia Chase — seeing her again is almost too much (and judging from the commentaries, it went beyond “almost” for some; Boreanaz supposedly broke down several times during the shooting of her last scene). (I had some clever thing to say here, but it was lost for me somewhere in that previous paranthesis.) This is further enhanced by the massive references made to past seasons of “Angel”. Most commonly these are made to earlier meetings between Angel and Lindsey, who comes fully into play this episode, but the ones that make the most severe impact are the ones referring to Doyle. Glenn Quinn’s impact on this episode more generally can’t be underestimated, I think. Because Christian Kane, on the commentaries, remarks that both he, Boreanaz and Carpenter had huge problems with referring to him; Kane felt uncomfortable calling himself “Doyle” (but sought solace in that at least he was paying homage), and the two others were uneasy about watching the old Angel Investigations commercial that Doyle starred in, again. The three of them were very close, off set as well, it appears, and the feelings the two survivors had for the deceased clearly rubs off on their acting, making their scenes related to this most intense.

Then there’s the whole continuity bit. Because these last few episodes, but this one in particular, have been among the most continuity heavy episodes I’ve ever seen of any show. (I’ll easily concede that this is probably just my bad memory acting up again, though.) They actually refer to the first time Angel and Lindsey met in episode one, amongst other things, and there’s no way in Hell anyone could have gotten much out of this episode if they hadn’t been with the show from the beginning. Which is probably one of the reasons the show was cancelled, but hey. Awesome while it lasted.

Much more in this episode was pretty damn fantastic, but to be honest I don’t feel I can do any of it justice. Just watch the fucken’ episode, will ya? ;_;