Angel S3-17: The Short Review

'Forgiving'

Written by Jeffrey Bell

Directed by Turi Meyer

"You know, maybe the way to start forgiving yourself, is by starting to forgive him" - Lorne

Despite having been involved in the writing of more episodes than anybody else this season, up until now I would have said Jeff Bell is something of an unknown quality. He's never been less than solid, but there was no way of knowing how much of the good stuff in his two most character-heavy episodes ('Billy' and 'Couplet') was his, and how much was Tim Minear.

I think he's earned his wings now, though, don't you?

'Forgiving' is a very good episode, both confident and atmospheric. There are a number of first-rate scenes - Angel threatening Linwood, for instance, or the showdown with Sahjan - but it's the little touches that really make it for me. Fred's fear of portals. Sahjan still being concerned about his masculinity. Using the same elevator music as 'Reprise' (and in fact another great score from Rob Kral generally). Overall, it adds up to just about the best followup to 'Sleep Tight' that I could have hoped for.

(You'll notice I don't include the White Room in the above lists; that's deliberate. Whilst I think it was impressively executed, and an intriguing addition to the Wolfram and Hart mythos (I wasn't the only one thinking 'embodiment of lawful evil', right?), there was something about it that didn't quite grab me as much as it seems to have others. Maybe it was the nagging feeling of having seen it all before; a child-oracle is not the most original concept in the world, after all. And certainly in no way as cool as a giant talking burger).

For me, one of the things 'Forgiving' illustrates is a benefit of having a large pool of characters to play with - it's easier to cover a story from several angles without things feeling contrived. Here, we have Gunn, Fred, Angel and Justine all trying to come to terms with what happened. Some are more ready to forgive than others; some have more guilt to deal with than others. I particularly like the fact that they played up the Justine angle; it would have been easy to concentrate solely on AI in the aftermath of 'Sleep Tight', and I appreciated the perspective that using Justine brought to the episode. After all, she lost somebody as well. Similarly, I like the scene where Angel talks to the devastated truck driver; it's a small moment, but one that helps to bring out the heart of the episode more clearly.

My other favourite thing about the episode is that once more Angel demonstrates the virtues of economical arc plotting, because to a great extent the Sahjan plot is resolved. There was nothing to be gained by witholding his motives any longer, now that our favourite manly timewalker had achieved his objective; clearing up some of the outstanding questions helps both to give new momentum to the remainder of the season, and to provide a welcome sense of clarity. For the record, here's how I see Sahjan's plan as working:

Sahjan visits Holtz in 'Loyalty', and realises that the vampire hunter isn't going to do what he wants fast enough. So, he comes up with a new plan - manipulate Wesley into taking Connor - and enlists Lilah to help with spiking Angel's blood whilst he himself heads off to rewrite the prophecies. However, because this is a plan involving time travel, we see its effects - Wes translating the fake prophecy - before we see the plan put into action. As for the McOracle, well, Angel did "consume hungrily" (devour) "Connor's blood" (his son, by MEverse logic). The Loa spoke the truth; he just didn't answer the question Wesley asked (voodoo gods being a capricious lot, after all). Wesley may well have worked this out if he'd been given a chance...but events moved too rapidly for him.

Of course, the big implication arising out of all this is that no prophecy can be trusted ever again (Sahjan specifically mentioned he polished some other prophecies, and there are bound to be other timewalkers). I'm in two minds on this matter. On the one hand, it makes for a good twist to this story, and provides an excellent reason to never use prophecy as a plot device ever again. The characters are already skeptical, as shown by the lengths Wesley went to in investigating this example; now, they should be even more so. On the other, I'm not sure that's where ME want to go; I have a feeling they aren't quite done with the prophecies yet, and the obvious cliche would be to have the next prophecy disregarded by AI but then come true, with devastating consequences of some kind. Alternatively, it may not actually make any difference at all; it could be argued that the events foretold in most prophecies are so important that AI cannot afford to ignore them on the offchance they are faked. In the end, I suppose I'm not too worried, because the writers have used prophecies well this season, and I suspect they're building up to a defined end-point.

All of which are concerns for the future, however, and should not be taken as black marks against 'Forgiving' itself. It's a mark of how pivotal the episode is that I have barely scratched the surface in this review; I have not, for example, discussed Angel's actions (which I think are shocking, understandable, and have interesting similarities to the events of 'That Vision Thing'), or considered what Cordelia will make of events when she returns. Suffice it to say that I would now go so far as to say that although no single episode has yet outshone 'Reprise', the S3 arc has now proven itself to be at least the equal of the best S2 has to offer. And if the current momentum can be maintained until the end of the season...well, it looks like we could be in for something truly special.