"Parting Gifts"

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Episode 10 of Season 1

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"You help the helpless."

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Original US airdate: December 14th, 1999 (aired directly after the Buffy episode "Hush")

Rewatched: June 18th, 2022

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• Writer: David Fury & Jeannine Renshaw

• Director: James A. Contner

• Guests: Alexis Denisof, Maury Sterling, Carey Cannon, Randall Slavin

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With Doyle gone, Angel and Cordy try to find their way through their grief.

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Angel goes to the Oracles and tries to get them to bring Doyle back, however the Oracles refuse, asking if Angel wants to “nullify his noble death” or “leave his atonement unfulfilled”. Angel just wants Doyle back, so also raises the issue of visions. Without Doyle, Angel won’t get messages from the Powers That Be. However, the Oracles mention that “for every door that closes, another opens”. It turns out Cordelia is the new door. She gets her first vision, a gift from Doyle, in the middle of an audition. All she sees is something gray and lumpy. Which she tries to draw. She also tries to get rid of the visions by kissing Angel, Wesley and Barney.

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Barney is an empath demon who seeks Angel out for help as Wesley, now a rogue demon hunter after the events on Buffy, is chasing him. It turns out Wesley wasn’t chasing Barney, but another demon who was chasing Barney. Until Angel and Wesley track down the other demon, who is dying after having his horn cut off. Barney is stealing demon parts for an auction and Cordy is next, as she now as has the eyes of a seer. At the auction, Cordy’s highest bidder is Wolfram & Hart, but thankfully, Angel and Wes arrive in time, having been helped by Cordy’s drawing, which turns out to be a statue owned by the hotel the auction was taking place at. Barney dies (Cordy kills him) and evil is thwarted.

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Wesley is reluctantly ready to go his own way when he is invited to join Angel and Cordy for breakfast, hinting that he will be the new Angel Investigations member. Unlike Angel and Doyle, Wesley doesn’t have much to atone for, but like Cordy, he has a lot of growing to do. When Wesley arrived in Sunnydale, he was a stuffy, by the book, rule-bound Watcher who refused to go against the Council’s wishes. He lost two Slayers – Faith turned evil and Buffy left the Council – but started to show some growth when he stayed for the final battle during graduation. Wesley’s journey is about learning make decisions about right and wrong outside of the bureaucratic and patriarchal Council.

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And a final note about Cordelia. Getting Doyle’s visions is not something she is happy about (yet). Much like Buffy being called as to be a Slayer, Cordy had no choice in this. But it will cement her role in the good fight and help her continue on her path. Also, in this episode, Cordelia claims she has nothing to atone for, which is a bit different from her stance in “Rm w/a Vu”. I agree more with this episode: Cordy does not have a past of evil she needs to atone for, but she does have a very self-centered past she needs to outgrow. Doyle’s gift will help her.

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"Somnambulist"

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Episode 11 of Season 1

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"There's some things in this world you're not ready to face."

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Original US airdate: January 18th, 2000 (aired directly after the Buffy episode "Doomed")

Rewatched: June 25th, 2022

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• Writer: Tim Minear

• Director: Winrich Kolbe

• Guests: Elisabeth Rohm, Jeremy Renner

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Penn, a vampire Angel sired, is in LA wreaking havoc and Angel has to tell Kate who he is in order for her to save the day. Although Kate has perhaps noticed that Angel was a bit different, she has, in good Sunnydale style, not put it all together yet. In this episode, Angel forces her to understand there are vampires, which sends Kate to the Ancient Eye bookstore to research them and also equips her with what she needs to kill Penn. At the end of the episode, it is Kate (and not Angel) who kills him (and Angel gets run through with the large wooden beam as well, but Kate misses his heart). It seems all the blonde women who like him run him through with something in the end. So far, Kate and Angel have had a very up and down relationship. Kate’s knowledge of Angel will ultimately change their relationship, further putting their budding romantic feelings on ice.

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We also learn more of Angel’s past. First – where are Darla, Drusilla and Spike (and the Master) in all of this? This was Angel’s vampire family, yet he sired Penn and Penn doesn’t know them (he doesn’t know Angel has his soul, so he can’t have been in contact with the others). We do learn that Angel has a connection to those he sired (also Drusilla?) and that he dreams of Penn killing (and he likes it). But Angel has changed, in contrast to Penn, who has been committing the same killings of his human family ever since Angel sired him in the 1700s (including in LA in ’29 and ’63 and Boston in ’08). Angel inspires Penn to change is M.O. and Penn goes after Kate, as he realizes that Angel is actually his father figure and the one he should be making pay. While Penn is vanquished, it leaves Angel wondering how much he has actually changed, but as Cordelia tells him, he may always have the vampire inside of him who likes killing, but that’s not who he is anymore. The vampire is not the only thing Angel is.

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In fun facts, Angel steals a police radio in this episode.

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"Expecting"

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Episode 12 of Season 1

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"I learned that I have two people I trust absolutely with my life. And that part's new."

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Original US airdate: January 25th, 2000 (aired directly after the Buffy episode "A New Man")

Rewatched: July 1st, 2022

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• Writer: Howard Gordon

• Director: David Semel

• Guests: Daphnee Duplaix, Ken Marino, Josh Randall

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Angel Investigations is becoming a family and dating is evil (again). In our third dating-is-evil episode of Angel (after “Lonely Heart” and “I Fall to Pieces”), Cordelia goes on a group date with two friends and some guys, including Wilson Christopher. Cordelia has kind of been seeing Wilson and this is the night she invites him to sleep over. Everything is safe, but Cordelia still ends up pregnant. Nine months pregnant overnight, to be exact. Wilson and his buddies are working for a demon, impregnating women for him. The demon uses a telepathic umbilical cord to keep his spawn alive. Cordelia is, of course, shaken to wake up pregnant. 

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As a side note, while Cordelia is horrified to wake up pregnant, through the telepathic link between the demon and his babies, and between Cordelia and the babies, she eventually accepts them, trying to think of ways to make it work, and eventually becomes so protective of them, she hits Wesley with a book to keep him from finding out how to end the pregnancy. So while the initial pregnancy is unwanted and giving birth will most likely kill Cordelia, Cordelia also displays a love for her babies many women experience while pregnant, which also shows the positive side of motherhood. 

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Although Wilson and his friends sought out women they thought had no connections, they were wrong about Cordelia. She has Angel and Wesley. Angel continues to be Cordelia’s father figure of sorts, chastising her for being “young and carefree with the filing”, but not letting Wesley criticize her. He also interrogates her about going out and who she’s dating, upset Cordelia hasn’t brought him by. Wesley, on the other hand, still kind of considers himself a rogue demon hunter, but keeps hanging out at Angel’s office and when Cordelia has a vision while on her way out for her date, Angel just assumes Wesley will come along. When Cordelia is in need, both stand by her side to help her. Angel says to a bartender he questions that he’s not the boyfriend, he’s family. At the end of the episode, Cordelia is able to return to work, with the strength to overcome her ordeal and the knowledge that she is not alone.

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The family metaphor on Angel has never fully worked for me. With Doyle, Cordelia and Angel, the family metaphor did work well. Angel was the father figure to Doyle and Cordy, who were on the way to becoming a couple. The addition of Wesley is a bit problematic.  Wesley, a former Watcher, is already more involved in demon hunting than Doyle was, and while Wesley needs to grow, he doesn’t necessarily need Angel. And while the two can work well  together, there is ultimately more skepticism in Wesley towards Angel (in the previous episode, he was ready to kill Angel when he thought Angel was killing again). This skepticism means there will always be distance between Wesley and Angel. Later additions to the team (particularly Gunn) are also not able to fully accept Angel as part of the family. Ultimately, while Angel Investigations keep saying they are family, unlike the Scoobies on Buffy, they seem to stay more the in really good friends who have your back no matter what but will still stake you if you turn evil category.

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"She"

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Episode 13 of Season 1

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"We help the hopeless."

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Original US airdate: February 8th, 2000 (aired directly after the Buffy episode "The I in Team")

Rewatched: July 9th, 2022

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• Writer: Marti Noxon & David Greenwalt

• Director: David Greenwalt

• Guests: Bai Ling, Colby French, Heather Stephens, Sean Gunn

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This episode opens with a party at Cordy’s, highlighting what a great host she is, outgoing and happy. Wesley and Angel come. Wesley is a doofus, dancing like a clown and wearing a giant sweater, and Angel is having trouble connecting and ends up in the kitchen with Phantom Dennis. The next day, Cordy notes that Wesley was more of hit at the party than Angel was. Angel also finally realizes that Wesley is broke and offers him a job. The team is finally officially up to three again.

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The main theme of this episode is self-determination. A group of female demons from Oden-Tal, led by their princess Jhiera, seek refuge in LA. Unfortunately, they have the power to incinerate people. Thanks to a vision from Cordy, Angel finds a string of such murders in LA linked to them. The female demons are fleeing a form of lobotomy/female genital mutilation carried out in their dimension by the men in order to keep the women enslaved and when the women flee to LA, they are often unable to control their powers (and find men generally threatening), meaning the killings have been largely accidental. Once Angel finds this out, he is willing to help, although he wants to incinerations in LA to stop. The ending is somewhat open, with Jhiera managing to flee with her fellow refugees, and Angel and team helping fight off the male demons come to take the women home. Jhiera visits Angel after this showdown. They are both clearly attracted to each other, but their moral stances are somewhat different, with Jhiera willing to sacrifice to meet her goal, but Angel unwilling to do so. Angel helps the hopeless. He doesn't sacrifice to a greater good. 

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In terms of metaphor, it’s a bit mixed. Women shouldn’t be enslaved and should be strong, independent women is one clear take away message, but it’s complicated also by the implication that this should only be achieved without death, and since many things in the Buffyverse can be read as metaphorical, this could be implying that it’s okay to be strong and independent, as long as you don’t actually make anyone uncomfortable. It was originally planned for Jhiera to return to the series, but this never happened. Ideally, this would have given more room to explore the gray areas of morality and to flesh out the metaphor. But we are left with it as is, and it is a bit wanting.

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In fun facts, Angel has a cell phone in this episode for the first time. He does not like it.

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