Episode Reviews   

"Deep Down," Sunday, October 6, 2002

by Anne

Episode Summary

Three months after being sealed in a metal box by Connor and dumped in the ocean, Angel is delusional. Connor has been fighting alongside Fred and Gunn; when they locate a vampire who may have seen what happened to Angel, Connor dusts the vamp then claims she tried to attack him. Lorne is in Las Vegas; Fred finally gets through to him by phone, but he isn’t able to help them. Wesley - who is apparently sleeping with Lilah on a regular basis - has been keeping Justine chained up in his apartment. They go out on a boat and are able to find Angel and free him; when pigs’ blood doesn’t help, Wesley cuts his arm and allows Angel to drink. Justine taunts Wesley that saving Angel won’t change anything. Wesley calls the hotel, where Fred and Gunn subdue Connor. Fred is furious about what Connor did to Angel and she’s hurt that he’s been deceiving them for months. Wesley brings Angel to the Hyperion then leaves. Connor breaks free just after Angel returns; he thinks Angel is too weak to fight him. Angel challenges him about that, and Connor meekly sits as Angel instructed. Angel rambles a bit, then wants to know if Connor did something to Cordelia. Connor says he didn’t and Angel believes him. He tells Connor that he loves him, then he tells him to get out. Meanwhile at Wolfram & Hart, Lilah goes over Linwood’s head to a senior partner; she kills Linwood and tells the others that they now work for her.

Episode Review

Given this episode’s title it’s fitting that much emphasis was placed on the characters’ positions as they relate to one another. The first example of this is Angel who is literally below the others. However, figuratively he’s above them: he’s their boss and, beyond that, he’s the one with the mission. Fred and Gunn know that he belongs with them; Fred even accepts Connor solely on the fact that he’s Angel’s son.

To say the least, Connor’s relationship with the others is questionable. As Gunn points out, someone that can do what Connor can is not just a boy; in the violent dimension that was his home, he earned the nickname "the Destroyer." Besides being super-strong, he is also very diabolical; I think he only hung around Fred and Gunn to throw them off the trail if they got close to finding Angel. After Angel returns, Connor is unrepentant, declaring that Angel got what he deserved. It’s fitting that Angel recognizes that Connor isn’t really one of them yet, so with a declaration of love, he turns Connor out into the street.

Wesley’s relationship with the others is less clear. In Angel’s dream of how things should be, Wes is there toasting "to family." Wes told Lilah that the part of his life with Angel Investigations is dead; someone could argue that his attempts to rescue Angel are an attempt to resurrect that life. The fact that he’s been hiding a captive Justine - who arguably ended his relationship with the others - suggests that he’s still holding on to the past. Fred refers to him as "an old friend" when telling Connor about a certain phone call, but when Wes heads for the door, she accuses him of not caring anymore. To that he merely responds with instructions on how to help Angel and a remark - probably lost on Fred and Gunn - that he’s fresh out of blood.

I thought this episode was very well put together. (Except for the cheesy girl vamp: did anyone not know that Connor would kill her then claim self-defense?) It served the purpose of catching us up-to-speed on what’s been happening, but it didn’t tell us everything. It also presented us with the familiar question of "Where do we go from here?" One thing is certain: it’s good to have Angel back.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

* The hallucinations were a clever way to bring the absent characters - Angel, Cordelia, and Lorne - into the action.

* It’s sort of poetic that Fred immobilized Connor the same way he defeated Angel.

* Did Fred say that Angel was "breathing"?(!)

* Since Connor knows Justine killed Holtz and tricked him, I expect to see Revenge Boy go after her.

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