Meanwhile, on Angel

Since I always watch Angel alongside Buffy, I watched the season three finale of Angel last night after watching the season six finale of Buffy a few days earlier (the Angel episode aired on May 20, 2002, while the Buffy episode aired on May 21, 2002). Written by series co-creator David Greenwalt, the Angel finale is a little more suspenseful than the Buffy finale, with tighter writing, though the annoying kid character is a little more annoying.

Connor is Angel's answer to Buffy's Dawn. Dawn works slightly better when the writers are giving her realistic sibling banter with Buffy but Connor's just ornery, his vague backstory involving life growing up in an ill-defined Hell dimension. Maybe the best thing about the episode is that it's the last one with the increasingly dull Cordelia.

She and Angel realise they have feelings for each other and she calls him on the phone to arrange an appointment with him at a scenic location where she can confess her love. It's funny she didn't just come straight to the hotel but, naturally, one doesn't want to have such a conversation over the phone. I thought, what a charmingly dated plot element. Yes, people used to feel it was better to conduct such matters in person. Now I think people prefer to do it via texting and online communication. Why is that more acceptable than phone conversations? I suppose it's because people now feel more like they're their true selves on the internet and via text. It leaves out all that messy biological stuff like blushing, stuttering, and the possibility of exposing unflattering or politically inconvenient instincts.

This episode also features a Pogues song when Lilah goes to meet Wesley at a bar where he's drinking alone. This was the phase when Wesley really becomes the grim hardass, following his attempt to kidnap Angel's son because he was afraid Angel would kill the child. He has a sex scene with Lilah with dialogue that feels like it came from a noir.

LILAH: Don't go making more of this than it is. I'm not one of the doey-eyed girls of Angel Investigations. Don't be thinking about me when I'm gone.

WESLEY: I wasn't thinking about you when you were here.

Angel is available on Disney+ or Hulu in various countries. I had to use my VPN to watch it on the UK's Disney+. It was on Japan's Disney+ for a while but then it was removed, though Buffy's still on.