Review: Excellent portrait of Darla and Angel's relationship, which is an excellent companion piece and sequel to the first season Buffy episode Angel, albeit a darker, more complex continuation. The flashbacks are the real treat, as is Angel and Darla's confrontation at the water tank which is unfortunately broken up into smaller chunks by scene with Kate at the Hyperion which ultimately water down the momentum of the confrontation, not to mention the fact that one minute it's perhaps midnight at the latest, and in the next scene, it's dawn. One has to wonder where the missing six hours went. However, despite the poor plotting and pacing in the last two acts, the emotional content is all first rate, and Darla is scathing and sultry and evil and pure fun. Gunn and Kate get some nice bits as well, although the Kate portion of the plot is unfortunately left hanging and has no real resolution. Her speech about the innocents caught in the cross-fire is however an excellent reminder that the good guys and bad guys both tend to view those innocents as canon fodder, although Angel will no doubt be haunted by the spectres of the real DeEtta and Stephen Kramer for a while yet, and hold their deaths against his now-human sire. Good resolution of the dream arc, and moves the plot along in a spectacular fashion, but the episode could have benefitted from some tweaking in acts III and IV to be tighter and flow better--and more logically--without watering down the explosive climax.

My rating: 8/10

In two weeks, Wesley's gone from rogue demon hunter to vampire with a soul in order to save yet another former cast member of Kindred: The Embraced...