Angel S3-22: The Short Review

'Tomorrow'

Written and Directed by David Greenwalt

"All I'm saying is, stay open. Connor's back - your whole life's coming together. Sometimes things do work out" - Lorne.

Well, that was...actually, I'm really not sure what I think of this one. I've watched it three times, and my opinion keeps changing. 'Tomorrow' is a mixed bag, that's for sure; some undisputed great moments, but also some outright terrible ones. So, this week, I don't have an opinion to outline; I'm just going to start writing and see where I end up.

First, I should say that I'm not one of the people who automatically expects something extra from the season finale. All I want is the same thing I want every week - a good story, well-told, preferably one that's about something. Anything more is a bonus. So I don't agree with those who say that 'Tomorrow' didn't feel like a season finale; indeed, it reminds me of a couple of other finales, notably Babylon 5's 'Objects At Rest' (OK, not technically a finale, but it's as good as), and Farscape's 'Dog With Two Bones'. Like those, there's a subdued melancholy about the whole piece, a sense of people moving on, to whatever's next for them. I actually like that; I liked it in the two episodes above, and I liked it here. In fact, stylistically, I would probably go so far as to say that I prefer 'Tomorrow' to the stylised fantasy of 'There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb', or the action-adventure of 'To Shanshu In LA'.

However.

Whilst I didn't go into the episode expecting things to be resolved, and whilst I don't object to season-ending cliffhangers on principle, I wasn't quite expecting as open-ended a finish as we got. It strikes me, for instance, that having written Wesley's fall, the writers wanted to save the repairing of the rift in AI for season four (which will presumably also involve the Gunn/Fred tension over Wesley actually going somewhere, and deal with the Angel/Connor story for the remainder of season three. That seems an odd choice, but it does make the last few episodes that bit more comprehensible once you realise it's what's going on. Even so, there's a problem; there's no development for Wesley here, it's just a reiteration of how low he's come. With all of the other characters moving on, there needed to be some development to tie Wesley in with the rest, and there wasn't. Wesley sleeping with Lilah feels oddly pointless; sure, it's plausible, but why show it to us now? What does it add to our understanding of Wesley?

Then there's the Angel-Connor plot. I actually liked this a lot, with the exception of the ludicrous Wolfram and Hart raid at the drive-in; again, it was all very consciously putting things in a holding pattern until next season, but it's nice to see that the neither writers or the characters (well, Wesley) have forgotten that Connor is a miracle child of destiny. In fact, since a typical ME story pattern is to do the unexpected thing, then come back and do the expected thing later, I'm starting to wonder whether Connor might not turn out to have a dark destiny after all. Aside from that, I still enjoy watching Boreanaz and Kartheiser play off each other - they have a real, natural bond. I liked that Connor took the time to send off Holtz properly, and that he took the time to come up with a proper plan for hurting Angel, rather than just rushing in wildly.

Then there's Angel and Cordelia. Given that the last time Greenwalt wrote this relationship was 'Offspring', I was dreading what might take place in 'Tomorrow' - but the reality turned out to not be nearly as bad as it could have been. In some of the early scenes, notably when they're checking out Connor's bedroom-to-be, I even thought there was a definite vibe - they were vibe-y. I was almost at the point of being able to believe that Cordelia did, in fact, love Angel.

The Skip showed up, and things went all to hell.

No, that's not quite fair. I understand that the metaphor was Cordy's job getting in the way of romance, which ties in neatly with the duty/desire and free will/destiny themes that have been running all season; but nothing Skip said made any sense - if we're to be expected to believe that Cordelia's powers were a test, we needed to be shown Cordelia actually having control of said powers, and we never were. Even so, to start with, I could still get on board with the idea of Cordelia being called to a duty elsewhere. It was when Cordelia said "I'm a higher being" that I switched off. Completely. It was that binary - one minute I was involved in the story, the next, a detached observer. For whatever reason, I'm fine with other people telling Cordy she's got all noble and wise - 'cause hey, she has - but as soon as she accepted it...it stopped working for me. That's a real stumbling block with the episode, given the importance of that scene (he said, with masterful understatement), and even some nice visual parallels with Angel's descent couldn't bring it back for me, with the result that the resolution of the episode felt strangely unsatisfying. All those who wanted Angel to suffer personal consequences for his reckless actions must be dancing for joy, however; if Angel hadn't done that dark magic, Connor wouldn't have been able to break out from Quor'toth, and Angel would not be locked in his box right now.

So I wasn't impressed by the Wesley stuff, or by Cordy's ascension, but I liked Angel/Connor and most of Angel/Cordelia. Which brings us back to where I started, I guess: What do I think of 'Tomorrow'? To be honest, I don't think I'll be fully able to answer that question until the season four premiere airs; there's so much here that depends on where they go next, and how they handle it when they do (in particular the Cordelia parts; it's interesting to note that the Powers set up the whole thing - if she hadn't had a vision of herself saying she loved Angel, chances are she wouldn't have rushed off to tell Angel she loved him. And visions are not noted for being about good things, so is this another case of Cordy accepting that she's just destined for greatness, as she did in Pylea, without thinking things through?). And yet, most of the first three acts are fine - good, even; it is, as I said, only when Skip shows up that things fall apart. Checking around the net, it seems that 'Tomorrow' is inspiring more-or-less universal criticism, and whilst I have to agree that David Greenwalt has produced yet another episode that fails to be as good as it should have been, and that season three deserved an awful lot better, I can't get on board with the condemnation. A great ending does not a great episode make - so a bad ending does not a bad episode make. Most of 'Tomorrow' is good, solid, if decidedly unspectacular work...it's just that at the end, when it counted most, Greenwalt didn't deliver.

(Still can't decide on an actual mark for the episode, though)