Welcome to Wolfram & Hart. Coffee? Tea? Blood of the innocent? -- Home : The Rant

Warning: Spoilerish to the amount of 10.

- I can not begin to describe how much I loved this season's finale of Angel. To use the word "love" sounds like an understatement.

Where to begin. How about Lilah?

- You see, Lilah is dead...but she's here. When you sign a W&H contract, they're yours to do with what they see fit. They saught fit to bring Lilah back to recruit the Angel gang. Right then and there I wanted to kiss the writers of this series. I wanted to give Tim Minear a nice, manly kiss. You heard me. Subtley brilliant.

- The uncomfortable silence was terrific. I laughed after it went on for 15 seconds...and it just kept going.

- Notice when they seperated the gang out of a group, each individual was given what they really wanted. It makes you question whether or not agreeing to the contract was such a smart thing. Could W&H try and turn them all to the dark side if there's a season 5? Or is it exactly what Lilah said - imagine what they could do with all the resources they'll have. Something tells me there's more to it than that.

- And Wes was right. Jasmine was creating a "slave state". It wasn't *real* peace. Real peace should come from man's free will. It can't come from 4 billion brainwashed minions of an evil leader.

- Connor went nuts. How different. Another brilliant scene was the one inside the store with Connor basically kidnapping customers (including Cordy) and attaching them all to a bunch of car batteries rigged as explosives. When Angel came down from the second floor, it got real good.

- See...I can't even think of anything to say. It was that spectacular.

- Lorne in the limo already. Ha.

- The "loved one" line by Wes. Does Wes really *love* Lilah? I think it's obvious that he has real feelings for her, no matter what he says.

- Each individual gang member scene was great in it's own right, but I didn't really get the Gunn/leopard scene. We all know Gunn has low self esteem. He doesn't think he matters as much as the rest of them. Was he hypnotized by the leopard, or did the leopard speak to him? Because after he returned from the white room, he wanted desperately to hop on board the W&H train. His confidence seemed raised.

- Connor needed something different. He was a disturbed young man. He needed a change. Angel provided it for him. THANK GOD. Maybe I'll never have to see that whiny little shit again. BUT...I will say one thing. Out of the all the episodes I've seen Connor in, this one made him the most redeemable. I actually felt sorry for him during the argument and then the fight with Angel.

- Angel took the job on one condition - that Connor would get a new life. Unbelievable. The writing alone is a 10. The only thing about this episode that's questionable is Angel's decision to work within the belly of the beast itself. Would he really go for something like that?

- Angel's off to Sunnydale with a file on what's going down, and some sort of an amulet. Maybe he can bring some light after a really, really contrived and forced last 2 hours of BtVS ("Empty Places" and "Touched").

- Connor has a new family. It was actually a touching moment seeing Angel peek through the window, and I didn't even care about Connor. It shows how great this really was.

Final Verdict: I can't wait until next season. There will be a next season...I'll bet you anything. This episode wasn't only the best of Season 4, it was one of the best in the show's history. A new format for a new season. Maybe even some new (but familiar) characters as well. I've run out of words to decsribe my love for "Home". So we'll end this the way it should be...

Rating: 4 STAKES (Perfection.)

Rant Over.

- Mac