Angel - "You're Weclome" Review
By: Michael Hickerson

Written and Directed by David Fury
Original Airdate: February 4, 2004

Plot: Cordelia has an extremely powerful vision concerning Angel that brings her out of her coma and she is stunned to learn what has happened in her time away. As Cordy tries to put Angel back on the path of his destiny, Lindsay is forced to accelerate his plans…

Warning: “You’re Welcome” to turn back now if you don’t want to see SPOILERS for the 100th episode of Angel. If you’ve not seen it, I strongly suggest you turn back now. You have been warned..

In short: A nice coda to a lot of simmering storylines.

There’s an old adage—never piss off a writer.

J. Michael Strazynski made this statement on-line during season three of Babylon Five. During that time, an actor who played General Hague took a two-episode stint on DS9 (I think most of us are aware of the rivalry between DS9 and B5..if not, just search the Net and you’ll find details of it) and couldn’t be on Babylon Five. Unfazed, Strazynski killed off the character, off-screen and gave the lines to another actor.

In another example, most of us are familiar with the Friends episode where Joey tells Soap Opera Digest that he can make up better lines than the writers can and is promptly killed off Days of Our Lives in the next episode.

So, the adage is true—don’t piss off the writers. They have the power of life and death over the characters that we see on screen each week. And while we do have some phenomenal actors and actresses, one things we’ve known about the Mutant Enemy universe is that pretty much no one is safe (Heck, we killed Buffy twice and she was the title character of the show!)

And now, the latest victim of the Mutant Enemy universe and of ticking off the writers is Charisma Carpenter. Now, I have no idea what went on behind the scenes with her leaving, her being given time off and the rumors that she was a diva on the set. Honestly, all that doesn’t matter to me that much unless is affects the on-screen performances in the show and I don’t ever feel that if any of this was going on that it really drug down the show that much. Certainly, we’ve seen actors play on the off-screen tension in on-screen stuff, such as the Scotty/Kirk scene in Star Trek: Generations.

I honestly don’t know why Charisma Carpenter left and I’ve certainly not been one to stand up and say Angel ain’t quite the same without her. One thing I’ve learned from the Joss universe is that it’s very adaptable and just like reality—sometimes things change even though we really don’t want them to. I doubt seriously that Angel wanted Cordy to die—in fact, we get from the last scene that he was hoping for more. He wanted Cordy to come back, to stand by him and help him in his fight and to help him continue to find the path he needs to follow.

But Cordy’s journey is done. She’s done what she needed to do—she’s gone from the selfish rich girl we met seven years ago to a champion. And she’s given up parts of herself to fight the good fight and do what needs to be done. It’s also interesting that on some level, Cordy knows her fate and she asks one last thing—to come back and put her friend Angel back on track. A lot of that probably comes from her memories of season two when Angel lost his way and how hard he had to work to get back on track. But part of that also has to be her two encounters with Angelus as well as having access to all the memories of Angel as Angelus. She knows what Angel has had to overcome to get this far and she knows what it will take to put him back on the right road.

It’s hard to imagine the Cordy we met all those years ago taking a chance to come back and help anyone except herself. And yet, now she has and does. And it makes for a nice coda to a character and a great goodbye to a character that a lot of fans out there loved and enjoyed. Certainly, I don’t know why exactly Charisma left the show, but I think that the fact that she had the integrity to come back and to give us a proper and necessary send-off to the character she played and to support those creative people who put her on the map speaks volumes about her. And I wish her the best and I hope she has success in whatever roles she gets from here. Certainly, I hope she will have the wisdom not to take a part in Scooby Doo 3 and turn her back on the Mutant Enemy universe should they need her again in the future. (Yes, huge dig on SMG there…)

But I don’t want to get off on that tangent too much.

Overall, I have to admit that I really enjoyed what we got here with “You’re Welcome.” For a 100th episode of a series, it had just what it needed to be—a bit of the past, a bit of the present and possibly some set-up for the future. Certainly, this one felt a lot like a season finale in some ways. We got some wrap-up to the Lindsay plotline (which, honestly, I felt came a bit too soon since he was only in here four episode), we found out that maybe Spike’s quest isn’t Angel’s quest and we also had the Cordy storyline wrapped up. We had a nice homage to the past with the Glenn Quinn video tape from Hero (and the echoes of Hero and how both Doyle and Cordy sacrificed themselves at the moment when needed for the greater good are all over this one. In fact, if you look at with Angel as the general in this fight, he’s now lost his two second-in-commands to help him get on the right path…and that has got to weigh heavily on him as he continues to struggle and battle for what his destiny is—whatever it may be.) and we had some good nods to the overall story of the series.

Also, we may have seen the last of Eve (loved Cordy referring to her as Lillah Jr) though with her swearing revenge, who knows? Honestly, as appealing on the eyes as Sarah Thompson is, I am not sure she has the range needed to go all out evil and really pull it off. Honestly, the scene where she threatened revenge on Angel and company just rang a bit false. But this may be due to the fact that she is overshadowed by such great actors as Alexis Denisof and James Marsters each week.

But you’d think maybe she could pull a David Boreanaz and bring her game up to their level.

And we got some seeds sewn for some dissent among the regular crew. Interesting to see that Angel is willing to walk away from the deal at Wolfram and Hart and everyone else is a bit more reluctant. And to see the obvious mistrust of Gunn after being downloaded with all that lawyer knowledge. I am wondering if that is something that will be simmering and coming to a boil in the next couple of episodes (if you know SPOILERS, don’t tell me…I don’t wanna know!)

Also, we had Spike losing what he sees as his purpose. But maybe his purpose now is to step into the role of Angel’s second-in-command. Certainly we saw some hints of that last week in the hospital scene between Angel and Spike. To see the two old friends who became enemies and now must become allies again—now that could make for some interesting and great drama there and some great character growth for both of these characters.

So, I guess that’s about it for now, except a few small things…

--Obviously Charisma Carpenter and David Boreanaz have attended the same school of “look how hot I am with my shirt not buttoned up all the way!” Jeez! Cordy’s cleavage got more screen time than Fred did!
--Loved Spike playing Donkey Kong, though part of me says—man, you need an X-Box for that?!?
--So, if Lindsay ain’t the big bad for this season, who is? I wonder if this will be like season six of Buffy where it was about fighting the inner demons and then a big bad emerges from within the trusted group? (I have ideas who it could be, but I leave those out so this won’t get too SPOILERy).
--I have to say that I will miss Cordy. But this is the Mutant Enemy universe and she can return anytime, I’d imagine.
--Harmony getting to watch Eve was classic.

So, overall, this was a strong episode for a 100th one. It celebrated why Angel made it this far and it showed there’s still a whole lot of life left in it.

My rating: 9.0 (out of 10.0) (If this was a season without Destiny and Lineage, it might have rated 10, but those two set a high standard for the season and series)

Next up: Angel and Spike on a sub in World War II. Honestly, the preview didn’t do much for me and I’m really afraid we’re in for a letdown after two big episodes.