LogFAQs > #870376718

Honestly, Angel vs Connor at the climax is really good - Season 4 is (I was gonna say 'for better or for worse,' but let's be real - it's for worse) Connor's coming of age season. His stint in Season 3 is as a bitchy, hateful, punchable child. In Season 4 he gets shot down and hated and punched in the face a lot (especially by Dad). He loses his virginity and falls in love. He tries his hardest to belong. And he never does. It's never going to work out for him. It's impossible to heal the psychic wounds left by a childhood in Quortoth under the guidance of a man who plotted to pit Connor against his biological father. The Connor that enters 4x22 is a bitchy, hateful, punchable man.

And the thing is, I kind of admire the showrunners - not for creating, but for sticking with such a disgusting character. Despite that he should never have been in the show, this is the only way that it could ever have 'worked' for Connor from a storytelling perspective. And that final scene in his new home, with as punchable a face as always... it's a phenomenal bookend to a season that began with Angel's deluded fantasy of a dinner with his makeshift family.

In conclusion: Fuck Connor.

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* Angel's sojourn in the insect-ish world is truly uninspired, but visually at least it's unusual.

* Angel's meeting with Jasmine in the streets, as equals, actually works pretty damn well.

* I'd forgotten all about the hype of 'guest starring Stephanie Romanov' until the end of 4x21. Nice!

* CHEKOV'S BATMAN SLEEVE-GRAPPLNG-HOOK YA GO MY WYNDAM-PRYCE.

* 'There is no Council.'

* Just realized I have half a dozen moments related to Lilah, so...

* 'It's a lie.' / '- Lah. It's a Li-lah.'

* 'It's alright, lover. I never felt a thing.' / 'I'm sure that's true.'

* 'Because this is... the offer of a lifetime.' (dramatic swell of the music, camera zooms up on Lilah's face... a beat...) '... Just not, you know, mine.'

* That long, awkward silence after the credits when everyone stares at Lilah - so good. Made all the more anxious by the camera's insistence on cutting between them all, seeing who's gonna crack first.

* Gunn: 'You wanna give us your evil law firm? We're not lawyers!' / Fred: 'Or evil.'

* Love the silly scene with everyone slowly gathering at the limo - topped by Lorne already being in it.

* 'Just because we've tried to kill or corrupt every one of you at some point or the other... doesn't mean we can't be trusted.'

* 'Watch the head - comes off easy.'

* 'Goodbye Mr. Sunshine, Helloooo Gloomy Avenger!'

Glad we got to appreciate Stephanie Romanov a little in death after her unceremonious demise.
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness