My Top Ten Episodes of "Angel"

Well, I've done "Buffy," so it's only fair that her ex should get a list too. A quick disclaimer that I know I've seen every episode, but most of those were at the time of airing over a decade ago and I haven't revisited most of them in a while. Picks are arranged by airdate, and are not ranked. Lots of spoilers ahead:

In the Dark - "Angel" leaned heavily on crossover episodes with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in the early going, when it was still trying to find its footing. Faith was a great recurring villain, and Wesley, Spike and Harmony would join the cast more permanently. The first crossover remains one of my favorites, the one where Spike rolls into town to cause some trouble. The opening scene alone, where Spike offers his own snarky narration to Angel's hero activities, is worth a watch. And there's another fun "Buffy" cameo at the end.

Hero - The character of Doyle the half-demon was a big part of the first season, and his departure was one of the show's first milestones. Though it was sudden, Doyle goes out in a much more satisfying way than most characters in Joss Whedon shows, on his own terms. It was also a good reminder that nobody on the show except the title character was safe. My only quibble isn't with this episode itself, but the lack of impact on subsequent episodes - I think Doyle was only mentioned again once after this.

Darla - The counterpart to one of my favorite "Buffy" episodes, "Fool for Love," which aired the same night and shared several plot points and flashback scenes. The episode covers Angel and Darla's history together as vampires, told through the recently re-ensouled Darla's fever dreams as Angel is trying to rescue her from the clutches of evil law firm of Wolfram and Hart. The jaunts into the past are a lot of fun, especially the appearances by other familiar faces including Spike, Drusilla, and even the Master.

Billy - It took a while for Fred to grow on me, and I think that was helped along by Wesley being so smitten with her. "Billy" marks the first of many missteps in their romance, where a man named Billy who can induce violent misogyny in other men causes Wesley to nearly kill Fred. It's a strong character episode for both of them, and nicely incorporates a real-world fear. Also, this one features one of the better appearances by Wolfram and Hart villain Lilah, who gets to show her more vulnerable side.

Lullaby - Honestly, this one's only on the list for the ending, which is one of the most memorable death scenes I've ever seen on television. It's a pretty chaotic episode, with Darla in labor, Holtz on the warpath, and the gang still grappling with the implications of the prophecy baby. Julie Benz really delivers as Darla, wrapping up the whole Angel-Darla relationship in truly epic fashion. There's also the great use of demon bar host Lorne, who would become a regular in the next season, but was already acting like one here.

A New World - Everybody hated Vincent Kartheiser as Connor, right? Well I didn't, at least not for his first appearance as a teenager, just returned from a hell dimension to confront his father. The episode is a great introduction to the little hellion, especially in the way that it gives us a different perspective on the "Angel" universe from his point of view and sets up all these new quandaries for Angel. At ths point it wasn't clear how Connor was going to fit into the show's existing dynamics, which brings us to -

Shiny Happy People and The Magic Bullet - Yes, I'm cheating, but I think of these two as a single story. I really disliked most of Season Four and where it took Cordelia and Connor. However, the climax of the storyline with Jasmine nearly taking over the world and briefly enslaving the entire cast was a lot of fun. "Buffy" and "Angel" featured several different flavors of apocalypse, but this is one of the most intriguing versions. Also, it gave Fred a chance to be the hero, which never happened enough.

The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco - I know several people who hate this episode, but I can't help lighting up with glee at the thought of it. There's just something so goofy and wonderful about Angel teaming up with a Mexican luchador named Numero Cinco from a family of number themed luchadores to fight evil. I know that Ben Edlund wasn't in any way involved in this episode, but it feels like a live action version of "The Tick" - moreso than the actual live action version of "The Tick"!

Smile Time - I'm a sucker for theme and gimmick episodes, and so we have to have the episode where Angel gets turned into a puppet version of himself while investigating an evil children's show. Season Five is far and away my favorite year of "Angel" because they finally settled into a format that worked, and found a good balance between the genre elements and the soap opera elements. And they started to really embrace the ridiculous. Like puppet Angel's hysterical brawl with Spike.

Not Fade Away - The finale episode frustrated me to no end when I first saw it, because it ended on a cliffhanger and they killed off my favorite character to boot. However, there's so much good stuff here, so many good character moments and resolutions and callbacks that acknowledged how much the show had changed over the years. I don't think there was a better way for "Angel" to go out, with everyone still fighting the good fight, even though I'm still disappointed that it didn't get to continue.
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