Ep by ep; Long Days Journey

LONG DAYS JOURNEY

The Good; Gwen, hooray! Also like Lorne mocking Angel's brooding.

The Bad; You can visibly see that CC is preggers. Why not stick Manny on the first plane to Outer Mongolia?

Best line: Gwen; "Where were you when they taught stealth in superpower
school?"

Apocalypses: 5

Angel Clichés Inverting the Hollywood cliché; Gwen's attitude of 'get the hell out of dodge' is very atypical but frankly sensible.

In disguise; 8

DB get's his shirt off; 12

Cheap Angel; 6 Angel can't resist telling CC that the item he gave up for her cost $30million.

Fang Gang in bondage: Cordy: 5 Angel: 12 Wes: 6 Gunn; 4 Lorne; 4 Fred; 2

Fang gang knocked out: CC and Angel get slipped a mickey (or does she?) Cordy: 13 Angel: 16 Wes: 5 Doyle; 1 Gunn; 1 Lorne; 4 Groo; 1

Kills: Cordy: 5 vamps, 3 demons Angel; 41 vamps, 57 and 1/2 demons, 5 zombies, 8 humans Doyle; 1 vamp Wes; 12 demons+3 vamps, 5 zombies, 2 humans Kate; 3 vamps Faith; 16 vamps, 6 demons, 3 humans. Gunn; 11 vamps+ 12 demons, 5 zombies, 1 human. Groo; 1 demon Fred; 3 vamp+ 1 demon, 5 zombies Connor; 8 vamps, 5 zombies, 2 demons

Fang Gang go evil: Cordy: 2 Angel: 2 Gunn; 1 Wes; 1

Alternate Fang Gang: Cordy: 4 Angel: 10 Fred; 2 Wes; 1 Gunn; 1

Characters killed: 250

Recurring characters killed; 8;

Total number of Angel Investigations: 5 Angel, Gunn, Fred, Lorne, Wes

Angel Investigations shot: Angel: 11 Wes; 1

Packing heat; Wes; 7 Doyle; 1 Angel; 3 Gunn; 1

Notches on Fang Gang bedpost: Cordy: 5 ?+Wilson/Hacksaw Beast+Phantom Dennis+Groo+Connor Angel: 5; Buffy, Darla and The Transcending Furies Wes; 3; Virginia, the bleached blonde and Lilah Gunn; 1 Fred Fred; 1 Gunn Groo; 1Cordy

Kinky dinky: Manny intends to spend his final hours in a strip club called the Pink Pony. Gwen is still the queen of PVC (Spandexia)and it has the desired effect of making CC jealous when Angel takes her on their road trip. CC refers to Gwen as 'Supertramp', maybe she should have 'Breakfast in America'?

Captain Subtext; Gwen calls Fred 'cherry'. Lorne says evil demon's can't pull off wearing lam'e like his as it just looks 'camp'. Manny asks Gwen if she'd like him to buy her a lapdance and she doesn't seem too offended. Gwen and Gunn start bonding on sentry duty and she refers to him as Denzel again which is quite a compliment.

Know the face, different character; 4

Parking garages; 6,

Buffy characters on Angel; 16 Wetherby, Collins and Smith. Angel, Cordy, Oz, Spike, Buffy, Wes, Faith, Darla, Dru, The Master, Anne, Willow and Harmony

Questions and observations; Unless Fred and Gunn filled them in Wes and Lorne have never met Gwen but they seem unphased by her arrival. Connor gets the living daylights beaten out of him by the Beast. Love the fact that the Beast knocks politely before smashing it's way and trashing the place AND Connor. The manner in which it's suggested Angel/Connor is being controlled by the Beast is similar to The First and Spike on Buffy. This ep sadly dedicated to Glenn Quinn.

Angel seems to sketch as therapy which we have seen him do many times. Interesting that here in season 4 we see Angel and his son Connor competing over Cordelia when we also have had Buffy and her 'offspring' Dawn competing over RJ (but with much less long term implications). Ashate wanted Gwen to steal some protective amulets for him, presumably to ward off The Beast, wouldn't it be a good idea to chase those up? Angel tells CC how much he gave up just to check on her, you'd think she would be flattered. Connor really has his brooding skills down, like father like son. CC doesn't want to seem to spend much time around the gang, perhaps scared of Lorne reading her? Jack Kehler who plays Manny was terrific as 'The Man who Invented Scrabble' in The Last Boy Scout and will recur in Bones and with Alex Davalos in The Man in the High Castle.
Of course watching this all is so much more entertaining when you know CC is evil, just the little twists and turns.

Marks out of 10; 7/10