Angel
"Judgment"

Airdate: September 26, 2000

Cordelia: Kick-ass chick and fashion guru.

So Angel's got this whole gig as the protector of the innocent and the big bad vampire who kicks demon ass. But even for the Dark Avenger, sometimes things still go wrong. When Cordelia has a vision about some sort of apparently nasty demon, Angel goes out to find it -- though the first stop along the way to location is a demon karaoke bar -- and ends up happening upon the demon as it chases a pregnant woman through darkened alleyways. Angel kills the demon, only to find that it wasn't evil after all, and he's responsible for killing the woman's protector.

I think the thing I like most about this episode, as a season premiere, is that it jumps right back in there: it doesn't waste an hour telling us what happened last season and easing us back into the flow of things. It quickly shows us that Angel isn't the perfect hero we might believe him to be, and that a new season doesn't mean entirely new chances. Suddenly the Angel Investigations team seem to be working very harmoniously, but it's not a strange and spontaneous transformation; it's clear that the events of the previous season, and the season one finale "To Shanshu in L.A." in particular, have affected the characters and the way they interact. Angel's been made sloppy by the promise of eventual humanity, Cordelia's realized that saving people is more important than acting badly, and Wesley's... uh... well, he's not so annoying anymore.

J. August Richards as Gunn: Obviously the casting department's tasty gift to you and me.

In an attempt to rectify his mistake, Angel appoints himself the woman's guardian in the stead of the demon he killed. Unfortunately his White Knight routine has gotten a little rusty, and once he finds her hiding place (with the help of returning character Gunn), he seems to be screwing up her life more than he's helping in it. She's bearing some sort of very important baby and there's lots of demons out to kill her; eventually she goes before the Tribunal, a sort of magical medieval court. Her champion is to face a demon challenger -- if her champion wins, she lives and is protected. If the challenger wins, he gets to kill her and her baby. Unfortunately for her, she's ditched Angel, so she doesn't have anyone to fight on her behalf, until the ol' Dark Avenger shows up just in time to joust for her honor.

Yes, you read that right. Joust. Like knights and armor and stuff. And I think the producers discovered that my ultimate weakness is a hot man on a horse. Maybe one day they'll discover that on Buffy, too, and they'll grant me the gift of James Marsters on a horse. A girl can dream, right?

So Angel kicks some ass, the chick's guaranteed protection, and he realizes that he shouldn't be keeping score and biding his time until he can become human: he's got a job to do, and he's going to do it not because of a reward but because it needs to be done. Again they're rehashing a bit of what Doyle told us in the pilot episode -- that it's not about ultimate reward, but rather about ultimate redemption -- but that repetition is really getting the show back on track.

Meanwhile, back at Wolfram & Hart, while all this stuff's going on with Angel, Lindsey is helping Darla to get back in the swing of things. (As you may recall, she returned to the world in the ceremony at the end of "To Shanshu in L.A.") I won't linger over that thought because my loathing of Darla renders me nearly speechless. But I did find it odd that while the commercials for this episode played it essentially as the "Darla returns to confront Angel" episode, her scene is very short, and she never even goes near Angel, so that whole storyline's left for another day. Hopefully it won't be anytime soon.

-- Lisa Kincaid

Angel airs at 9/8c, Tuesdays on the WB.

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