Angel S4-01: The Short Review

'Deep Down'

Written by Steven S DeKnight

Directed by Terrence O'Hara

"What I deserve is open to debate" - Angel

This time last year, many fans were nervously awaiting Angel's season premiere. Nervously, because in the eyes of many Pylea had dealt a grievous blow to the show's integrity. The high fantasy and new lightness of tone were, in many quarters, not well-recieved; would the new season bring merely more of the same?

Then we got 'Heartthrob', which turned out to be probably the finest season premiere the show has had to date (yes, including 'Deep Down'; I'll get to that in a minute). It had a balance of tone missing from Pylea, and it was a finely crafted, engaging story. It was, in a word, solid; it engendered trust that things had not gone entirely off the rails, and that the writers still had some idea what they were doing.

This year, instead of Pylea, we had 'Tomorrow', in which it wasn't the tone of the show that inspired worry and frustration so much as it was the plot elements used. In many ways, that's a harder problem for the show to come back from. Over on Buffy, 'Lessons' managed it by basically glossing over the objectionable plot points from S6 (magic addiction? What magic addiction?).

'Deep Down' does it the other way. It takes plot elements many disliked - teen Connor, Fred and Gunn, Angel ostracising Wesley - and uses them as the foundation of a strong, compelling episode. It moves the plots forward in new and exciting ways, it turns situations we thought we understood into something foreign.

I don't think it's as good a season premiere as 'Heartthrob'. It relies too much on the ongoing story, and at times feels a little too much like 'stuff happening' rather than logical plot progression. It's no jumping-in point for new viewers, which is one of the things I look for in a premiere (in fact, in many ways it feels more like a season finale than 'Tomorrow' did. I can easily believe that the show could pick up the story three months down the line, if it wanted to). As an episode, however, it is excellent; in fact, it's possibly one of the best recoveries in the second part of a two-part episode that I've seen, comparable to the disparity in quality between 'Surprise' and 'Innocence'.

The one exception to this general feeling of satisfaction, sadly, is Cordelia's situation. Large numbers of fans seem to have greeted her 'I am so bored!' line with cheers, as somehow indicating that the old Cordelia is back and that all this higher being nonsense is going to be swept under the carpet and forgotten about. I hate it for precisely that reason. It smacks of pandering to disgruntled fans; of (to corrupt Joss Whedon's phrase) giving them what they want rather than what they need. True, it may be a bit premature to judge how Cordy's character arc is going to proceed this year on the basis of a single line, even if it is a line as obviously defining as this one, so I'm trying to reserve judgement; but there's no denying that it left a sour taste in my mouth after an otherwise excellent episode.

The Connor/Angel relationship is, for me, still the most interesting dynamic on the show, which is probably why the final confrontation works so well for me. Angel is not just restating his sense of purpose, he is subtly telling Connor: It doesn't matter where you've come from, what you've done, what you've suffered - you can still be a champion. You can still find a place here. It's a lovely piece of writing; I think Steve DeKnight will fit in nicely on this show.

Wesley, of course, is also fascinating; he's in a place very close to Angel's mindset between 'Reunion' and 'Reprise', I think, in which the ends justify the means and only he can see and do what has to be done. He doesn't bother telling Fred and Gunn he's looking for Angel; he doesn't even think they deserve to know that they could be in danger. I think he raised Angel, not because he feels guilty, but because he wanted to be done with AI; he didn't want to feel that they thought he owed them something, he wanted to be free of them. And as much as I find his callous detachment from reality chilling (I don't care what Justine did to him; it was wrong to lock her in a cupboard for three months), I have to admit that it sets up massive story potential.

As with all the best episodes, there is more, much more, to talk about than I have space for here - the evolution of Fred and Gunn, Lilah rising through the ranks, the symbolism of Angel's hallucinations (forshadowing Angelus, much?), and so on. In the end though, all that needs to be said is that Angel is back, and I can't wait for the next episode.

The Council of Watchers rating: