On The Angel Finale (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

OMFG, where to start?

I liked this episode a lot. A few episodes back I was starting to doubt that any kind of impressive finale could be pulled out of the hat, but as it turned out, I was wrong. Yes, I know 'In Joss We Trust', and all that fanboy shit. I'm not entirely convinced that Angel would be able to, erm, convince the evillest secretest society ever that he was actually evil, but since he did a good job in convincing us that he was straying from the So-Called Golden Path� I'm not sure I get to complain too much about that one.

It was nice to see Anne pop up again, even if I wasn't convinced it was the same actress until I'd looked it up on IMDB. It was also nice that she shrugged off the realities of the situation that Gunn revealed to her. Would have been nice if Faith could have put in an appearance, but I guess Ms. Dushku is far too busy reliving days to put in an appearance elsewhere. Too bad she couldn't go back a day and save Angel from cancellation. That would've made for an interesting story.

Spike at a poetry slam! Hee!

There were obvious things to amuse in the conversation between Angel and Lindsey, so there's no need to go over them again here. But there is a need to say "Hee twice!"

I liked the way that the episode began with Angel signing away his involvement in the Sanshu prophecy, nice way of blowing a raspberry at the viewers and saying "Haha, are you still sure about what's going to happen?" Although I wasn't sure if him signing it was meant to invalid the prophecy as a whole, or just his part in it. Spike's fate with regards to it remains a mystery.

Sad that Wesley died, but fitting under the circumstances. It was after all the only way the whole Wesley/Fred/Illyria thing could be resolved with any fairness. And the way Illyria changed and did away with the Red Palpatine Wannabe was fair and just and the sort of thing that has you whooping and cheering. Or was that just me? I did like RPW's line "Seriously, I crap better magic than this", too.

Can't decide if Lindsey's defection was genuine or not. I guess that was part of the point of Lorne shooting him. It did also demonstrate how Lindsey thought of himself as Angel's arch-nemesis, and expected Angel to be the one who killed him. Sad, and yet also pathetic.

I can't decide if the Hamilton/Angel showdown being a total ripoff of the Smith/Neo showdown in Revolutions is a good thing or a bad thing. We've seen before that Joss likes borrowing from The Matrix (especially demonstrated in Primeval), but this seemed a little more blatant, and maybe a little more tacky. I guess it did serve to underline the parallels between the situations. And I was genuinely surprised when Connor turned up to join in the rumble.

And so to the end scene. The Black Thorn is destroyed, and the Wolf, Ram, and Hart's apocalyptic wrath is unleashed upon Angel and his crew. My favourite line of the whole episode was Illyria's "I wish to do more violence" (and the lines leading up to it, obviously). Angel's last line "Let's go to work" is a nice reminder of the parallels between Angel and Batman that were drawn in the first two seasons. And then...

Fade to black.

Excellent way to end. Terry Nation would be proud, very Blakes Seven.

And another great show bites the dust. Sad.

Have to see if the Firefly movie leads to more things in the realms of TV. For now, Joss is gone from our screens (with the exception of reruns, obviously).

*raises glass*

"To Joss Whedon!"