Rapid Reviews - Angel Season Two DVDs - Part VII

Angel [2-13]: Happy Anniversary: I was already getting the impression that a lot of people know about demons in this universe. It's even more clear as you move along through the episodes. Demons are an open secret. Anyway, this was a kind of standard "save the universe" episode with Angel, with a fun little subplot of Sherlockian silliness from the trio. Again, I kept expecting an intersect between the two plots, and I noted that they played on that expectation in the final scenes. Very nicely done.

Angel [2-14]: The Thin Dead Line: Wow, zombie cops. This one was nice and moody from the start, and nice and zombie film-ish toward the end. It also finally marked the intersection of the trio's activities and Angel's activities. They have no idea that Angel saved them, of course. I wonder what happened to the girl with the extra eye, though. With Wesley in the hospital, it would be difficult for Cordelia and Gunn to figure out how to fix the problem, I would think. Overall, a strong episode.

Lorne states outright what has happened to Angel while attempting to help him. He says that Angel has gone from helping the hopeless to taking revenge on evildoers. That's a big jump. It may not seem like it, since in both cases Angel would be beating up the bad guys. But it cut Angel off from what was making him more human. And Angel was doing things that good Angel never would. I think it was Darla who said that what attacked them wasn't Angelus, but it wasn't Angel, either. It's a fascinating progression.