Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Pre-review note: It is impossible not to have season spoilers when doing an episode guide. If you do not want any spoilers, skip that section of this review! If you don’t care, or if you’ve already seen these episodes, read on. Some of the quotes are hilarious.

At the end of Season 3, Connor had trapped Angel at the bottom of the ocean, and Cordelia had decided to accept an offer to become a higher being, and that is exactly where Season 4 starts.

Angel has always been a dark show, but it doesn’t get any darker than this Season. There is a demon who literally blots out the sun and a five episode arc where our favorite brooder is his former soulless self. People die miserable deaths. Wesley turns into the exact opposite of the stuffy British watcher we’ve known and (grudgingly) grown to love. Favorite characters are suddenly evil. It’s enough to make a fan’s head spin.

Excepting Season 1, Angel has always had great long-arcing stories. Season 4 is the best of these, bringing arcs to a close that started as far back as Season 2.

All in all, Season 4 would be a five star season, if you could just ignore the last six episodes. Since that’s hardly feasible, I have to rate it a four star season, and say that even “bad” episodes of a Joss Whedon show are better than the “good” episodes of almost every other series I’ve seen!


* * * * * Season Four ~ Episode Guide * * * * *

4.1 ~ Deep Down Original Airdate: October 6, 2002. Written By: Steven S. Deknight. Directed By: Terrence O'Hara. Rating: 10 - 10.
Justine: The great Wesley Wyndham-Price, the shining beacon of all that's good and pure. But wait, no! That's before he started banging the enemy and keeping slave-girls in his closet.

Fred and Gunn are trying to hold Angel Investigations together, all the while searching for Angel and Cordelia, who have been gone for 3 months. Connor is playing nice with Fred and Gunn. The New and Improved 007 Wesley is doing what he can to find Angel, all the while boffing Lilah! Higher Being Cordelia isn’t reveling in her newfound position. She’s bored, and trying to call out to her friends to save her.

4.2 ~ Ground State OA: October 13, 2002. W: Mere Smith. D: Michael Grossman. Rating: 7 - 10.
after sex pillow talk…
Wesley: I had to raise him. Angel is necessary.
Lilah: For what?
Wesley: Fighting people like you.

Angel locates an artifact that can help him find Cordelia. When the gang breaks into an auction house to steal it, they run into Gwen, a cat burglar who wants the item herself.

4.3 ~ The House Always Wins OA: October 20, 2002. W: David Fury. D: Marita Grabiak. 8 - 10.
Fred: (talking about Lorne) They must think it's all make-up, like the Blue Man Group...You don't think that Blue Man Group's...
Angel: Only two of them.

Angel goes to Vegas to find Lorne and enlist his help in locating Cordelia, only to find Lorne is being held captive and forced to use his empathic abilities to steal casino patrons’ destinies.

4.4 ~ Slouching Toward Bethlehem OA: October 27, 2002. W: Jeffrey Bell. D: Skip Schoolnik. Rating: 7 - 10.
Angel: I know it's a lot to take in.
Cordelia: Says a vampire with a soul and his wacky gang of sidekicks.
Gunn: Ah, not a sidekick.

Cordelia returns with no warning… and no memory. Angel et al. decide it would be better for her fragile state of mind to shield her from the strange goings on of Angel Investigations, which only leads her to be more suspicious. Lorne reads Cordelia and sees apocalyptic visions.

4.5 ~ Supersymmetry OA: November 3, 2002. W: Elizabeth Craft And Sarah Fain. D: Bill Norton. Rating: 10 - 10.

Fred is invited to speak at a Physics conference (like Xander once said: Smart chics are hot.) when she learns something very disturbing linking a favorite professor and her exile to Pylea. When Gunn fights to save her innocence, she doesn’t know if she can forgive him.

4.6 ~ Spin The Bottle OA: November 10, 2002. W&D: Joss Whedon. Rating: 8 - 10.
Fred: Its Pylean. He said "My words will work miracles" and I answered "May your words please the gods".
Lorne: She didn't say "May your words please the gods" so much as she said "May you orally please the gods".

Willow, I mean, Lorne casts a spell that goes wrong when everyone reverts to their teenager mentalities. Cordelia regains her memories… all her memories.

4.7 ~ Apocalypse, Nowish (Rain Of Fire) OA: November 17, 2002. W: Steven S. Deknight. D: Vern Gillum. Rating: 9 - 10.
Lorne: I hate to be the little demon that cried Apocalypse, Nowish, but…

Angel and the crew prepare for the demon Cordelia saw in her vision last episode. Signs of the impending Apocalypse get worse and worse. Angel pairs up with Lilah to fight the common enemy. Cordelia pairs up with Connor to… fight, yeah, fight crime, that’s it.

4.8 ~ Habeas Corpses OA: January 15, 2003. W: Jeffrey Bell. D: Skip Schoolnik. Rating: 7 - 10.
Cordelia: I'm just glad everyone is back together.
Angel: Me too. Now take your new boyfriend and get out of here.

The Beast has decided to purge the world of all things within the Wolfram & Hart building, and Angel learns that Connor is inside the W&H building.

4.9 ~ Long Day's Journey OA: January 22, 2003. W: Mere Smith. D: Terrence O'hara. Rating: 8 - 10.
Lorne: (to Angel) Room service. Hey. I brought you some nice O-positive here, freshly nuked for that right out of the jugular taste.

The Beast is trying to keep the sunlight from ever returning by killing five totems. He has killed four and it’s up to Angel and gang, with the help of electro girl, Gwen, to guard Manny, the fifth totem. Cordelia has a vision in which she sees the Beast talking to Angelus.

4.10 ~ Awakening OA: January 29, 2003. W: David Fury And Steven S. Deknight. D: James A. Contner. Rating: 7 - 10.
Angel: Was that an apology?
Wesley: I was careless. Made a mistake that almost cost you your life. Would've made pulling you out of the ocean a big waste of my time.
Angel: Yeah, that would've been a drag.

The gang decides to use a Shaman to extract Angel’s soul so they can ask Angelus about the Beast. Things don’t go quite as they had planned, however.

4.11 ~ Soulless OA: February 5, 2003. W: Sarah Fain And Elizabeth Craft. D: Sean Astin. Rating: 8 - 10.
Angelus: Now Cordy, theres a rack to write home about. Too bad about the personality though... yap yap yap...

Angelus uses all of his Angel memories to emotionally hurt the gang. He leads them on a wild goose chase and they decide that he needs to have his soul restored. You know, the soul they locked in the safe? The soul that isn’t there anymore? Uh-oh.

4.12 ~ Calvary OA: February 12, 2003. W: Jeffrey Bell, Steven S. Deknight, And Mere Smith. D: Bill Norton. Rating: 9 - 10.

Lilah, the only survivor of the Wolfram & Hart massacre, comes looking for assistance in killing the Beast, only to find out who the true Big Bad is. The gang tries a little black magic to restore Angel’s soul… and it seems to work.

4.13 ~ Salvage OA: March 5, 2003. W: David Fury. D: Jefferson Kibbee. Rating: 7 - 10.
Angelus: Ahh...crap. You mean killing the beast really brings back the sun? I thought that was Angel's retarded fantasy.

Wesley recruits Faith to help tracking down the escaped Angelus. Faith breaks out of prison (after an attempted murder with a Harbringer’s knife) and goes to the Hyperion. Cordelia drops a bombshell on Connor at the very end of the episode.

4.14 ~ Release OA: March 12, 2003. W: Steven S. DeKnight, Elizabeth Craft, And Sarah Fain. D: James A. Contner. Rating: 8 - 10.
Angelus: Hey, you're preaching to the guy who ate the choir.

Angelus is hearing the voice of the Beast’s master… and someone near and dear to our hearts is that voice. Cordelia is using her leverage as the mother of Connor’s baby to get him to do her bidding. Faith takes on Angelus in one on one combat.

4.15 ~ Orpheus OA: March 19, 2003. W: Mere Smith. D: Terrence O'Hara. Rating: 9 - 10.
Wesley: A lot has happened, not just Angelus. I've been... I've changed. I've seen the darkness in myself. I'm not sure you would even begin to understand.
Willow: I flayed a guy alive and tried to destroy the world.

The gang decides it’s time to bring in some help with their little problem, so they call in a certain red-headed powerful witch from Sunnydale. Angelus is held captive again and Faith is in a coma, and we are taken into Faith’s mind where she and Angel fight together against Angelus. Cordelia drops her bombshell on the whole gang.

4.16 ~ Players OA: March 26, 2003. W: Jeffrey Bell, Sarah Fain, And Elizabeth Craft. D: Michael Grossman. Rating: 7 - 10.

Angel et al. get into serious research mode to figure out how Cordelia could be 9 months pregnant, and what could she possibly be carrying. Gwen asks for Gunn’s help in rescuing a child, but realizes that she’s using him as “muscle” to steal yet another artifact.

4.17 ~ Inside Out OA: April 2, 2003. W&D: Steven S. Deknight. Rating: 8 - 10.
Skip: Cordelia was chosen to be a higher being because she's such a pure, radiant, saint....puh-lease!

After the gang realized Cordelia is bad and Connor rescued her, they’re doing all they can to figure out just what’s going on. Angel learns that everything that has transpired thus far has been leading up to the creation of a being more powerful than the higher beings. Darla appears to Connor, trying to make him see just what he’s allying himself to.

4.18 ~ Shiny, Happy People OA: April 9, 2003. W: Sarah Fain And Elizabeth Craft. D: Marita Grabiak. Rating: 7 - 10.

Cordelia lay in a coma as her offspring, to be named Jasmine, casts a spell of calm serenity over all who come in contact with her. After scrubbing some blood off a shirt, Fred no longer feels the serenity.

4.19 ~ The Magic Bullet OA: April 16, 2003. W&D: Jeffrey Bell. Rating: 9 - 10.
Lorne: I can't believe little ole Fred managed to sway Angel back to the dark side.
Gunn: Evil, not evil, evil again - I wish he'd make up his mind.

Fred tries to figure out a cure to break the spell before it spreads any further than it has already. The title, The Magic Bullet refers to (literally) when Fred shoots the bullet and to the famous Magic Bullet theory regarding mass communication and the conspiracy theory of the Magic Bullet in JFK’s assassination.

4.20 ~ Sacrifice OA: April 23, 2003. W: Ben Edlund. D: David Straiton. Rating: 8 - 10.
Lorne: Does anyone else here feel like the last feisty Stepford Wife?

Wesley figures out that Jasmine’s true name is the only thing that can have power over her. Only one living creature knows this name, and he is in a dimension without oxygen. Guess who gets to make the trip?

4.21 ~ Peace Out OA: April 30, 2003. W: David Fury. D: Jefferson Kibbee. Guest Stars: Gina Torres As Jasmine, Stephanie Romanov As Lilah Morgan. Rating: 7 - 10.
Jasmine: Why do you hate me ao much?
Angel: Let's run down the list, huh? Rain of fire, blotting out the sun, enslaving mankind, and yeah, oh yeah. Hey! You eat people!
Jasmine: Like you never have?

Jasmine prepares for a worldwide broadcast that will end all suffering and bring peace… her kind of spell-cast peace. Angel fights for the name that can stop her.

4.22 ~ Home OA: May 7, 2003. W&D: Tim Minear. Rating: 10 - 10.
Wesley: It's a lie!
Lilah: Lah. It's a Lilah.

Lilah shows up as a liaison to the Senior Partners of Wolfram & Hart to make a very interesting offer to Angel Investigations.



* * * * * * DVD Extras * * * * * *

~ Commentary on The House Always Wins with writer David Fury and actor Andy Hallett (Lorne).
~ Commentary on Spin The Bottle with writer/director/creator Joss Whedon and actor Alexis Denisof (Wesley).
~ Commentary on Apocalypse, Nowish with director Vern Gillum and writer Steven S. Deknight.
~ Commentary on Orpheus with director Terrence O’Hara and executive producer Jeffrey Bell.
~ Commentary on Inside Out with writer/director Steven S. Deknight.
~ Commentary on The Magic Bullet with writer/director Jeffrey Bell.
~ Commentary on Home with writer/director Tim Minear.
~ Featurette: Prophecies: Season 4 Overview
~ Featurette: Last Looks: The Hyperion Hotel. This featurette looks back at the hotel as the cast prepares to leave it and set up camp elsewhere.
~ Featurette: Fatal Beauty and The Beast. A detailed look at the two main Big Bads of the season: The Beast and Jasmine.
~ Featurette: Malice In Wonderland: Wolfram & Hart. We get a look at Wolfram and Hart right from the beginning of the first season. A lot of insight into Lilah Morgan.
~ Featurette: Angel and the Apocalypse. An in depth look at one of the best episodes of Season 4, Apocalypse, Nowish, focusing on the special effects and stunts.
~ Unplugged: Season 4 Outtakes. Too short at a mere 3 minutes.
~ 11 cross-promotional trailers. Booooooring.


* * * * * * Cast and Characters * * * * * *

in the opening credits…
David Boreanaz as Angel/Angelus
Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndham-Pryce
J. August Richards as Charles Gunn
Amy Acker as Winifred "Fred" Burkle
Vincent Kartheiser as Connor
Andy Hallett as Lorne (from Episode 4.14 Release )

recurring characters…
Stephanie Romanov as Lilah Morgan
Vladimir Kulich as The Beast
Eliza Dushku as Faith
Gina Torres as Jasmine


* * * * * * Miscellaneous Notes and Trivia * * * * * *

~ Episode 4.2, Ground State, is chock full of comic book references, from Superman to Batman, to the special school Gwen attends, reminiscent of the X-Men academy.

~ The title of Episode 4.4, Slouching Toward Bethlehem comes from a poem by William Butler Yeats called "The Second Coming."

~ In Episode 4.6, Spin the Bottle, after-the-spell Cordelia says about Angel Hello salty goodness, which was the first thing Cordelia said when she first saw Angel in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episode 1.5, Never Kill a Boy on the First Date. Also in this episode Fred mentions taking a personality test where they ask you if you want to be a florist. In BtVS episode 3.16, Doppelgangland, Buffy and Willow talk about an insanity test that asks if you ever hear voices or if you ever wanted to be a florist. Incidentally, Joss Whedon wrote and directed this episode.

~ Episode 4.9, Long Day's Journey is dedicated “In Loving Memory of Glenn Quinn.” Glenn Quinn played Doyle in the first half of Season One, and died of a Heroin overdose on December 3, 2002, about six weeks before this episode aired.

~ The actress playing the woman who attempted to kill Faith in jail in Episode 4.13, Salvage, also played the assassin cop in Episode 2.9 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, What's My Line?

~ Joss Whedon once stated that he had hidden several dirty jokes throughout many of the episodes in Season 4. One such joke occurs in Episode 4.16, Players, when Angel remembers something that was written about the Beast's Master in a demon book, and it translates into "strangling poultry" (choking chicken).


* * * * * * Related Reviews * * * * * *

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season One, Season Two ~ Season Three ~ Season Four~ Season Five ~ Season Six ~ Season Seven

Angel, Season One ~ Season Two ~ Season Three


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age