Rapid Reviews - Angel Season Two DVDs - Part V

Angel [2-09]: The Trial: Wow. Angel really would do anything to help Darla. And she was coming around, understanding what he wanted and why. So the ending... wow. I noticed that Angel was desperate to keep Darla from becoming a vampire again in part because he knew he'd have to kill her then. Wow. The ending was a nice shocker and reflected some comments made in earlier episodes. So, all in all, this was just wow.

Angel [2-10]: Reunion: That was surreal. I'd caught part of the episode following this one (I think) on TV, so as soon as we saw Holland in his wine room, I knew what was going to happen. I hadn't known who Holland was when I first saw him in the recap of the wine room sequence, but now I get the reference. This was pretty intense. I'm definitely curious about the next episode now, since I caught a bit of it before.

It just occurred to me how incredibly nasty Angel's curse is, as well as potentially stupid. I mean, Angel is cursed with a soul, right? Which makes him try to redeem himself for his rampage with Darla. But that's not the worst part... no, the worst part is that if he does manage to redeem himself and become at peace with the world, and have a moment of pure happiness, then BOOM! He's bad again. So the gypsy either didn't think this through, or really wanted Angel to suffer. I'm thinking the gypsy didn't think it through well enough. For a large part of the first years he had a soul, we learn that Angel tried to still be his nasty self. Had he somehow managed a moment of pure happiness, he would have become Angelus again. What kind of back-firing curse is that? And now, centuries later, if he does manage to redeem himself and get happy then he's just going to go bad again. How does that help anyone?