Judgment

Angel Episode Review

In which Angel thought he was out of the tunnel.

What Happened

Cordelia gets a vision. leading Angel to a pregnant girl and a big scary demon. When Angel kills the big, scary demon, however, the pregnant girl yells at him. He's killed her protector.

Angel and Gunn find where the demon was living, and Angel sends Gunn to Cordelia and Wesley with a talisman he finds. Bad idea: the girl needed that Talisman for when she was called before the Tribunal. She's not exactly impressed with Angel right about now.

They wind up running through the sewers and up into an abandoned hotel. When a bunch of demons show up to collect the price on the girl's head, he tells her to run to Cordelia and stays to fight. She doesn't trust Angel, however, and disappears.

Angel admits that he's been getting cocky lately, looking forward to winning his reward and becoming human. Wesley learns that the Tribunal will appear and the girl will need a champion to defend her in a trial by combat.

Needing to know where the girl went, Angel makes use of one of Wesley's contacts: the owner of a karaoke bar who can read auras when people sing. The Host tells Angel where the girl will be, and Angel gets there just in time.

They start off with a joust. Angel does better once he's off the horse, and eventually wins. Lucky for her, Angel isn't the sort who dies from a sword through the gut. Having saved the day, Angel tells Wesley and Cordelia that he will stop keeping score and simply try to do the best he can.

What We Learned

• Wesley is really good at darts.
• Sloth demons don't sacrifice adolescents.
• Lindsey's not handicapped. He's handi-capable.
• There's more to life than eating your young.
• Merl doesn't have a tongue.
• Three things Angel doesn't do: tan, date and sing in public.
• Angel can't see everything. He's just a vampire like everyone else.
• There's not a destroyer of worlds that can argue with Manilow.
• Angel sure seems to bleed a lot.
• It's part of the job.
• The road to redemption is a rocky path.

Best Lines

Angel: "I thought I was out of the tunnel."
Cordelia: "Sure. Okay. Is it a real tunnel or symbolic? Just give me that much."

Girl: "I really appreciate you coming through for us like this, but you know how you're not really good at things..."

What Did I Think?

This is reminiscent of the pilot in that the answer isn't quite as easy as it seems. Making the monster the girl's protector is a typically Whedon-esque twist. She's a relatively advanced species of damsel, however, and doesn't fold neatly into a quivering heap like some others I've seen. Of course, it seems stupid of her to run off instead of going to find Cordi and Gunn, but she certainly has any number of reasons for distrusting Angel. It would be just as stupid for her to decide to quietly fall in line and go along with all his plans.

No one ever accused Angel of being an optimist. He even said it one time, "I've really honed my brooding skills." That's why it's so nice sometimes to see him relax and smile. This episode neatly reviews the premise behind the series, which is Angel's search for redemption, and the revelations of last season's finale regarding how that might end. At the same time, the torturous route he takes to actually saving this girl hints at all the trouble he'll have.