I love what they did with Darla in Angel. She had more depth here than she had in Buffy. She was more of a mustache twirling villain on Buffy.

1) I didn't realize until your summary that Angel retained all his memory from I Will Remember You. He remembers what it is like to have a heartbeat and have it taken away from him. To be forced back into his vampirism. 2) "You damned me." is one of Angel's best lines. David Boreanaz gives phenomenal delivery. It's so honest. His voice even cracks a bit as he says it. As though he can't believe he's getting the chance to speak the words.

I like to think this episode does more to make the Master more compelling than Buffy's first season

"This is the bad place" is also Angel's realization at the end of Holland's elevator ride, which leads him to his existential dread and to bed Darla to lose his soul in apathy and despair.

Just had a spine tingling moment: 15:36 : "You think you did me a favour?" I swear David B puts an Irish inflection on favour. I LOVE the idea that he's so broken with memory and emotion he slips into his human voice, the voice he had as a victim. The voice he had when he first met his abuser Darla. 😭

Whoa, that episode of The Twilight Zone must have surely been a huge influence on The Good Place.

I don't know if anyone else mentioned this (and it is one thing I noticed you didn't mention) was how much this story also follows the arc of a drug addict trying to rescue the person that first got them addicted. Darla was his enabler and the one who gave him his demon, but he still feels a connection to the person because of a shared past and the belief they can save them from the same demons. Her begging at the end can be read like someone desperate for a hit, and trying to convince the other person to give them it no matter how much the other person is trying to talk sense into them.

Every time I rewatch Buffy and Angel I can’t believe how much more I love Angel. Don’t get me wrong I will always love Buffy, but having gone from someone who took a few tries to get through season 1 of Angel, to someone who now prefers Angel I’m always surprised at how I ended up in this state.

I actually love they got Mark Metcalf back for the Master, he sat down for five hours for the makeup. That shows dedication.

The only reason we thought the flashback scenes were “retcon-y” when this first aired was because in Fool For Love, which aired right before Darla, it showed the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 and seemed to present an evil, pre-ensouled Angelus even though we knew from Becoming he was cursed with a soul in 1898. Then Darla aired and revealed it was an act by Angel and it was all good. As far as an ensouled Angel trying to rejoin the Fang Gang? Seemed perfectly plausible to me. It’s not like he knew anyone else or had anywhere else to go. It was all he had known for 100 years. And he never crossed the line by killing an innocent.

Regarding Angel's "never fed on a living human again" thing: Oh, you mean a guy told a fib to a girl, to make himself look better? Soooo shocking! Haha

Buffy is like stepping stone,but Angel is the in depth of these characters. Whether Angel himself, Cordelia, Wesley ,Darla is each step the more you get.

i think the scene in the confessional could be read as Angelus stalking Dru after already seeing her from afar with Darla and then killing her priest (she probably went to him regularly at least for sunday service) and this was the start of Angelus killing everyone around her, he probably even let her find the body

I love that you weaved The Good Place into your point

I was thinking about how Ian called Darla “vampire Harley Quinn” but in a way? Darla is actually the Joker, and Angel is Harley. Darla turned Liam into a monster like her, like Mistah J turned Harleen Quinzel when he threw her in the acid. Darla abused and manipulated Angelus and called it love, and it was only when Angel got his soul (his agency) back, that he realized it was never love, and now he’s reclaiming his own identity independent of her, same as Harley does when she leaves Joker. Oh wow. Analogies are fun.

Darla was actually my very first Buffyverse episode ever so it will always have a special place in my heart

"A single donut is a luxurious thing. A diet of ONLY donuts is a meaningless hell." TOP NOTCH analogy of a complex issue, memorable and applicable to various concepts, 10/10 want on a poster

"To feel that heartbeat, to know (...) that you're alive. It's a gift." I can't believe I didn't pick up on that before. It wasn't long ago since "I Will Remember You" happened, was it? Sure, Angel was human before, but I think he was too much of a "drunken whoring layabout" to appreciate life, to see it as a gift. But having spent one day as a human, alive and in love, after centuries of being un-dead, he is now able to appreciate life the way he does. Coming from him it's not just an inspirational Facebook post.

I love this episode so much. Darla was so uninteresting on "Buffy", but the flashbacks and following Darla's response to being human again is just so interesting. She's one of my favorite Buffyverse characters, in large part due to this episode.

That end credit montage was one of your best yet! I also love this episode's ability to give more weight to Spike's last moments in "Fool for Love." This episode shows how thoroughly vampires are creatures of selfish action; even Drusilla made Spike purely because she wanted a companion who was all hers (and Darla / Angelus didn't want to have to care for her 24/7). But Spike did perhaps the most selfless thing he could for Buffy and just sat there with her, no judgement, no ribbing.

lindsay is fascinating in that he gives us a real insight into how grace in the face of injustice, doesn't always inspire nobility. I can totally see how lindsay's father, who has lost 2 children, could treat another man like someone "just doing what he has to" when he takes their family home as part of his job. And I can also see how a child in their formative years could mistake his father's social decency for weakness; and vow never to put themselves in that situation no matter the emotional cost.

I love the hell commentary. If vampirism is a kind of hell, it makes it even darker to think that people don't do bad things and deserve damnation in this universe. They're just damned because they were... unlucky victims?

This year was my first watching angel. I had avoided it because as a 14 year old I thought angel (the character) was insufferably boring. I honestly couldn’t have imagined how much I’d love this show. Not only did it change my opinion on angel, but sometimes I almost prefer it to buffy. Anyway, I’m glad I waited. I needed this show this year.

I LOVE the association you make to Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? , and would really enjoy for that entire play to be rewritten to star the fanged four. They could be drinking blood instead of brandy.

One of my favorite written lines in any tv show, “You damned me.” and you got it! Love your work, dude. You are seriously one of the most thoughtful and insightful essayists on this entire platform.

2:00 As a native of Fairfax, Virginia native, I greatly appreciate you calling out this detail.

I appreciate this show for the depth it gave Darla. What a great character

A great episode of Angel; loved your take on Lindsey, he feels very underrated despite being one of the most complex and magnetic characters across the entire Buffyverse (in my opinion).

Oh man your speech on the currency of time is so poignant (that resonates with me so much) and the cuts to Doyle are the icing on the cake I got a little teary-eyed. I can’t help but feel like as the series progresses we tend to gloss over Doyle’s pivotal role and importance to the verse so I’m loving any and all callbacks to him nearly a season after his demise. I expect you’re covering this sooner or later but it certainly rings true to the iconic “if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do” line from Epiphany. In all it’s timey-wimey shenanigans and retcons Doctor Who covers very similar ground I love realising these subtle connections between universes. I’m particularly mulling over David Tennant’s 10th Doctor’s dialogue “It’s not about the time, it’s the person”. It’s a much simpler rendition of this theme and hell maybe Russell T Davies was directly inspired by Angel in the very same way but I feel it still carries a similar weight. You’ve knocked it outta the park again Ian!

Season 2 and Season 5 of Angel are nearly flawless. And your episode guides are just getting better, and better, and better.

The way you explain Darla's power over Angel is excellent. I never thought of it that way. On another note. I LOVE ANGEL over Buffy. I really can't wait for you to do a character breakdown of Connor.

16:45 JASON?? JASON FIGURED IT OUT?

I hoped Ian would explore why the master was interested in turning Darla and keeping her so close to him. I've always wondered. The master seemed picky about who he sired.

I finished my yearly Buffy-thon about 2 months ago, and am working though Angel with my partner now. I agree that the brighter, more upbeat Buffy definitely gives a completely different experience than Angel. Since my last Angel-thon, I’ve started reviewing The OA on Netflix, which completely changed how I watch my favorite shows. It wasn’t until I started watching Angel more as a reviewer rather than a passive experience that completely changed the entire experience of this show (in a positive, more analytic way). Thank you for these guides, as it’s given me a new perspective on my favorite series’s’s, and opened up my own creative processes...ses...

I always like the similarity of the two moments between Angel and Darla where each one tries to have the other one 'save' him or her and both of them rejecting each other.

The slow motion shot of the vamp quartet, where Spike hops off the barrel, is my favorite shot of the entire Buffyverse.

Season 2 is just so damn meaty.

2:00-2:25 was interesting despite being a history lesson. If I had been told that information in a history class or from a textbook I wouldn't have cared, oddly enough. I always looked at Angel telling Buffy he hasn't fed off anyone since then as a blatant lie so he would get her to trust in the good guy/soul thing that Buffy was still on the fence about. Had he tried to explain the nuances of the scene in this episode telling Buffy he didn't bite Joyce would have been for nothing. And I personally think Angel still works on that "code" well into S2 with Buffy needing to give him a look over the hospital bood in _The Dark Age_ as he still drinks from those in the episode _Angel._ I didn't know the composer chose not to collaborate, despite knowing the music for the companion flashbacks were different. I always looked at the episode the way I an does in this video, just never with the complexity he did. The ending moment from _The Good Place_ TV Show was exactly what I was thinking all the way through the video. It would be a great show to study the way Ian does BtVS and AtS.

A reference to one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes makes an already good review even better.

Angel has almost been a show I always have pockets of unclarity from time to time and you seem to remedy that with envious ease. I love this episode but you explained, even more than I realized, why I love this episode. Another excellent for the books. Also love the ending of this video. Perfection.

I am constantly looking for more on Lindsay McDonald. There is so much there, but so little info on it

I don't remember a lot of fan opposition to this but I could be misremembering it. Then again, how you reacted to "Fool For Love"/"Darla" often depended on what your position on B/A was. Personally I've always loved these two episodes. This is ME writing at it's very best, IMHO and the acting is painfully good.

This episode was the sole reason why I watched Dexter. "While Spike - *Spike* - was killing a Slayer, you were saving missionaries... from me." Illyria, Julie Benz knocked it out of the park.

Wow, cutting to Doyle when you talked about the currency of life being time... that is some amazing editing.

17:30 “this is the other place!” Is as chilling as Michael’s laugh from the season 1 finale of The Good Place

C.S. Lewis wrote several fictional versions of hell, one of his most popular took place in "The Great Divorce," where Hell is a vast empty wasteland of abandoned houses, and rundown pawn shops. It's an ever-expanding ghetto, because the damned cannot stand other people and they hate themselves. They are forever caught blaming their state on everyone except for themselves. In this way, I imagine a vampire's hell would be forever lost in hatred, without any self-reflection (as evidenced by the lack of mirrors).

I was waiting for a "The Good Place" reference during the video. You did not disappoint.

Angel only tells Buffy that he hadn't fed on a living human being since getting his soul back. If he killed criminals and then fed on them (thus not making them suffer), he was still telling the truth.

Darla is 100% my favourite in angel and buffy!

Buffy and angel, ahhh the best shows💗💗they have really meant a lot to me growing up, and you making these videos has made me realize other people understand my passion for these shows!! Thankyou!!!

"This is the Bad Place" made me laugh so hard I scared my cats

The only retcon I don't like is Angel and Drusilla's meeting. I preferred them meeting at church where she confessed her visions. It was so much more poetic than this version where Darla points her out to Angel.

I was so hoping for a good place montage when you mentioned the bad place 😂 I always found lindsay super interesting and never considered that Holland knew just how morally conflicted he was at times and kept it as a tool

I just realized I want a “The Good Place,” review series now. 😂

I loved this episode, one of the best, I've been checking up since you started editing for the upload! I like how much we got of all the vamps and how fleshed out Darla and The Master are, as apposed to how comical they were in Buffy, yet they still have the characters we're familiar with, The Master is still classy and sassy and Darla is still easy to underestimate, like when she cornered the gypsy man, the scene is about a minute long yet she was direct, pleasant, reasonable and tragic all at the same time in managing to threaten, speak of her strife and offer a deal, we saw that she is a competent leader to Drusilla and Spike, though they're hard work yet Angelus's absence is felt, as if he's the fun parent and she's the serious one, you learn all you need to know about their dynamic. Darla seems the slick leader, yet she's happy to be the partner or sidekick/underling, she's happy to live in luxury, travel, hang out in hipster clubs with high schoolers, or live in the sewer, her survival over centuries makes sense. I never saw the retcon, Angel says he never fed on another living human, he never said he hasn't killed one.

Great analysis, Ian. Loved that you went more in-depth on Lindsey. I always loved that character & thought Christian Kane did a great job in the role. 😀

Oh wow I've never been this early 😍 I love these so much!!

The ‘friendly old man’ from The Twilight Zone is like a Bad Janet pretending to be a Good Janet

SPOILERS FOR BUFFY SEASON 5: I always assumed that in the afterlife, Darla went to the same empty place Buffy did at the end of The Gift. For Darla, it was "a great big nothing." Meanwhile, for Buffy, it was "No pain, no fear, no doubt". The opposite of "hard" and "bright". In both cases, the afterlife was defined by what it wasn't. Via Acathla, Angel got pulled into another world, apparently full of suffering. But he didn't cross over to that in death, just like Buffy didn't die in "Anne." Hell dimensions aren't the same thing as the afterlife, *probably* because Joss didn't want a concrete answer yet to the question of where we go when we die in the Buffyverse, as it would open the door to answering bigger questions, like about the existence, identity, and nature of the "Sky Bully."

This episode was sublime and one of my all time favourite episodes in both shows. It is beautifully put together and teases out the details of a previously opaque character.

this was soooo much more enjoyable because I watched you edit it. Kudos sir

These videos are always so enlightening, another great job

Thanks Ian, another great one!

Angel + Darla = OTP

1 week ago I found this video. I went back to the start and has consumed 4 years of your hardwork in that week. Great work man!

This was great. I always felt a little muddled about this arc and I’m enjoying your analysis so much. I appreciate all your hard work! I was particularly struck by your comment on Angel reclaiming his narrative. What a great observation!

Words can't describe how happy I was when I saw the notification for this in my inbox. Thank you so much for making these!

Was about to go to sleep, and then saw you had posted this. Well, looks like I'm going to rewatch an episode or 2 of Angel, now - because you reminded me (once again) how much I love this season.

Soo good thank you for another episode x

Lovely and thoughtful as always.

The Good Place audio at the end had me rolling

Love the connection to the classic TZ episode. Great work.

Angel flashbacks were everything to me!

One of my favorite episodes of ANGEL. Darla, both the character and this episode, are absolutely fascinating. Kudos to Julie Benz!!!! Great analysis and vid, Ian!!!!!

If you want to expand on the song/music metaphor: Buffy is a lot like a playlist of pop music. It can be bright and happy and, at it's best, hit us right in the feels. And the way pop music sounds always changes over time, but it usually uplifts us and sometimes mixes in different genres. Angel is definitely more like a playlist of dark, bluesy type of jazz music associated with noir movies, maybe mixing in some classical and rock songs. All the songs evoke a sad, contemplative feeling that's best enjoyed with red wine. Incidentally, the Spike-centric episode (Fool For Love) and Angel's parallel episode (Darla) feel like different songs in and of themselves. Spike, as we know, is often associated with rock music (especially one certain 80s singer from England) and his episode definitely evokes a lot of rock themes. In contrast, the music that comes to mind Darla is more reminiscent of classical music used for horror movies, with a very tragic undertone, foreshadowing what's to come.

Fantastic episode!

“Rapists, murderers, thieves” Yes one of these definitely or like the others. To put it in a modern context “rapists, murderers, shoplifters.” Why was killing thieves ok(ish) to Angel? Personal theory, he grew up rich, hundreds of years ago when thieves were hanged. And as a dumb, hedonistic member of the upper class, Liam never considered the immorality of executing thieves, so neither did Angel

Wonderful video as always.

9:00 Thomas Wanker is German, so I'm almost certain it's pronounced Vanker :) Fantastic review as usual ;)

Julie Benz is such an amazing actress.

I love when you post!!!!! 💗🌷✨🦄⭐️

I cannot possibly tell you how excited I was for this video to pop up on my feed.

Great video as always

i literally just finished the Good Place and then watched this vid haha

Love this episode and this recap does it justice

your videos are food for my mind

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

i LOVEEEEE when u talk abt the Old Ones on ur channel. gives me the heebie jeeibies in the best way possible

I just recently started watching The Good Place on Netflix ... I wish I had watched it on TV, it is actually hilarious.

Great guide as always and I also love this episode. I try not to bother getting hung up on lore with Whedon for the simple fact he admits he doesn't know how things work. There are so many inconsistencies if you try to nitpick. As you point out, the lore or metaphysics is the collection of metaphors they use for struggle and sometimes they change a bit if the story requires it. I'm fine with that so long as it's not just ridiculous. I do agree with your take that there is nothing for a vampire to experience, but I also don't know that it says anything that she can't remember the afterlife. Its usefulness to the conversation and establishing her mindset could be the whole reason. Hell, we still to this day don't know how Angel got out or why. I know the First took credit, but the explanation is so bland and vague that I've never really believed I'm supposed to believe it.

Loving the essays. Just rewatched some Angel during lockdown.Main take away was how amazing Lilah and Wesley were. How Lilah and Cordy were played by amazing actresses that should have gotten way more work.

Thank you 🙏🏽

Looking forward to an analysis of The Trial. Great episode.

Angel seems to have a cut, black and white moral compass. Yes, it looks "retconny", but actually, in a later episode, he defines Holland Manners as "not qualifying" as a human, therefore, not deserving to be saved, and he shows 0 mercy for him when Darla and Drusila kills them and leave Lindsey and his associate alive, by throwing Holland's sentence back at him and locking them up.

Ian this not Fool for love, was the ultimate master work, of the Buffy Verse vids you have shown so far. Thank you, & as always wish you well. Lei & CC This is the bad place. Welcome ye o welcome to the Hell mouth. Love Twilight Zone. Never saw the repeat of that episode tho. I watched the series, as much as I could. I loved one particular ep. It's the end of the world, man comes out of hiding. He made a wish, of course, he gets what he wanted. Enough time, & quiet from people, to read... But as he gets comfortable, on the ruined steps of the city Library, his glasses smash on the concrete steps, below & he cries out... Ridiculous premise, but we get the jist, obviously, be careful what you wish for... Buffy & Angel are full of this addage. But the way you pointed it out, was perfect. Hell is what you deal with, if you can't be happy with what you have. Your forever wanting something else, or more... Hell is to Always be wanting, needing. Un satisfied. UnForfilled. Nothing is perfect, yet we strive to make it so. Hell is the ever hunger a Vampyre can't sate. Blood is rich, & warm, metallic. But a body, that is without, is chilled & empty. Starving for sustenace, rabid ever thirsting,, ever hungry. Trying to ever complete, or Feel completed, but never finding peace, or that which soothes us. We always want... We always need... The ID does define, & doesn't give merci. It is Unrelenting, & Unquenched. When we think of another. When we look to assist another. Care, about more than ourselves. Grow in mind, & heart, but always feeding the child within. Do we feel anything at all¿ Can't Abstaining urges to hurt anyone A Villain We feel for filled, & given that which others should only known, when having thought & care for other's. Why did I save that woman¿ No reward was offered, I'm no hero. I didn't do it for praise, or rewards, I saved her, because she needed to be saved, there was alot of you standing around, but none of you acted. Talk a great deal, but you just show off. Boast about YOU but I felt good, Should I have felt guilty for the satisfaction in that¿ All I know is, I did what I had to. What we all should do! All my life I been a more anti then hero. People never bothered to know me. Or cared. I didn't care, I just kept trying. I still do. It's what fills me. It's what warms my empty heart. I just try... Darla wanted to give in. Give up. Angel thought, but Darla wanted to be reborne again into the Vampyre because she was sick, & like Ford from lie to me, she wanted to be saved from a fate worse then an Un death... When Angel found that out, finally Understanding her consequence's, he tried to save her a different way. He failed but just when Darla excepts her fate, Drusilla enters the fray, Dru is lonely & longing for the Vampyre fam she once had...🙍🏻‍♀️✨👁️✨ Understand we go hand, & hand, & but we walk alone in fear. 🙍🏼‍♀️I touch the fire, & it freezes me... This isn't real, I just want to feel. 🙍🏼‍♂️ I died so many years ago, but you can make me feel, like it isn't so... William never chose to be a Vampyre, he was tricked by Dru, & the Whirlwynnd of Angelus, & his monsterous games. Till he was ensouled. William had to protect himself & became Spike. After his bloody awful treatment, he received, when surrounded by the local Gentry, & Halfric, ah Cecily. In Fool- The dark musical asked Where do we go from here¿ The END?¿.. ❤️🌄❤️ Welcome to the Hellmouth, Everyone, Your guess is as good as mine. ❤️🌎❤️✨👁️✨Nov. We can make it better, growth, not Ignor-ance thoughtfulness not selfishness. UNITED STATES, NOT DiVISION, THIS IS THE BAD PLACE BUT IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE. BE CAREFUL PLEASE, VOTE WITH YOUR HEART THE PRESIDENT IS AN IDIOT. HE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT YOU OR YOUR FAM. HE CONTINUES TO WAIT & HOLD THE VACCINE TILL VOTING DAZE... JUST TO GET YOUR PRECIOUS VOTE. SERIOUSLY, WE'RE WORTH MORE THAN THAT. THANK YOU BLESSINGS SENT. UNITED WE STAND DiVIDED WE FALL... ❤️🌎❤️🤘🏻 LOVE TO YOU ALL.

One of my favorite episodes of Angel.

MADE MY DAY

Twilight Zone got to "The Good Place" - "this is the bad place" - first. I keep trying to get my friends to watch this Twilight Zone ur-episode. Thanks for pointing it out to others. Also, "The Good Place" is a truly didactic comedy and I am happy to see that you brought it into your analysis.

The last minute or so reminded me the lyrics of a song (ironically) titled “If We Were Vampires” by Jason Isbell (Alt Country/Folk) The song is about love and the idea that time running out giving that love meaning. In the song Isbell uses the idea of an “everlasting love” is something that a hypothetical vampire couple would eventually for granted... something that if time weren’t an issue that partners wouldn’t have to put effort towards. The fact that love has an expiration date, given the fact that death is inevitable, makes that love something a vampire could never appreciate

Dead End was what cemented Lindsey as a favorite character of mine, but this guide makes me realize how great a character he always was.