"Home"

Written by Tim Minear
Directed by Tim Minear


In which Team Angel is given an unexpected offer by a very unexpected former enemy, while Connor finally loses what little sanity he might have had left...

Synopsis - Analysis - Memorable Quotes - Observations


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Synopsis

As the episode begins, Angel and the gang are still shocked to find Lilah standing in the lobby of the hotel. Of course, Angel can tell that Lilah is still dead, given that her contract with the Senior Partners extends long after her death. Lilah claims to be a messenger from Wolfram and Hart. The Senior Partners have authorized Lilah to make Angel and the others a deal.

The gang is shocked when they learn that the offer is the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram and Hart, fully restored and staffed in the wake of the Beast’s little slaughter. According to Lilah, the Senior Partners concede that Angel has earned the reward, having effectively ended world peace. Angel and the others don’t want to see it that way, but Lilah makes a fairly convincing case. Before she leaves, Lilah explains that a limo will be waiting at dawn to give any of the gang a full tour, if they are interested.

Meanwhile, out on the streets, the city is still gripped by rioting and panic. Anarchy reigns. Connor walks the streets, until he sees someone pacing on a nearby roof. He checks on the man, and finds a police officer preparing to commit suicide. Connor stops the man, and implores him to go home. When the officer pulls out a picture of his family, Connor berates the man for being willing to abandon his wife and child. When the officer apologizes, Connor accepts the apology...and then turns around and beats the man to a pulp for even thinking about leaving his family.

Back at the hotel, Wesley tries to work out where Cordelia might be, based on where Jasmine was going before her death. Wesley figures they can begin searching using an ever-widening perimeter, but Gunn has another idea: the offer from Wolfram and Hart. Wesley, however, doesn’t seem to think that it’s a viable option.

Lorne returns from an attempt to find Connor, and mentions the general chaos. When Gunn alludes to the deal as an option, Angel makes it clear that he intends to find Connor without giving in to temptation. He also reminds everyone that if they do take the tour, even that will likely be enough to corrupt them. The others all decide to retire for the evening, weighing Angel’s words.

Of course, later that night, Fred sneaks out of the hotel, only to find Wesley and Gunn also making their supposedly clandestine way to the evil limo. They assume they are the only ones, but then Angel meets them at the gate. Of course, Lorne is already in the limo!

They arrive at Wolfram and Hart, and Angel is greeted as if he’s the boss. Lilah arrives on the scene, a guide for each of the gang in tow. When Angel insists on being given the tour as a group, Lilah counters by offering to allow everyone to arm themselves during their stay. Fred happily arms herself with a semi-automatic.

Lorne gets to meet with a representative from the Entertainment Division, which happens to have everyone on Lorne’s favorites list as a client. Wesley gets a slightly ominous old British man, vaguely Watcher-like, as his guide. Gunn gets a gorgeous young woman. Fred’s guide is a lab-coated nerd named Nox, the star of the science division. Angel, of course, gets Lilah.

Gunn thinks that the plan is to isolate Angel, but his guide suggests that Angel is only one priority. Wolfram and Hart has an idea of how everyone can fit into the organization, considering that they all have their particular talents. Gunn is not so sure, but his guide invites him upstairs to see what she means.

Nox takes Fred on a tour of the science division, and flatly reveals that Fred would be the head of the division if she were to accept the deal. Fred is clearly impressed by the sheer scope of the scientific resources, even when it is clear that the technology is hardly being used for nefarious purposes.

Wesley is taken to the “ancient prophecies wing”, which is a small collection of mystical tomes that access the text of the originals in the Wolfram and Hart archives. Wesley asks to see something very specific, which his guide gladly provides. Of course, Wesley asked for something that used to belong to the Watchers, confirming that his guide used to be a Watcher at one time. Wesley knocks his guide out with a single strike, and then uses a hidden wrist-grapple to access the ductwork in the ceiling.

Lilah takes Angel to what would be his new office, complete with private elevator. Not only that, but she reveals that all the windows in the building are equipped with necro-tempered glass, allowing Angel to survive exposure to the daylight. When Angel makes it clear that he has no intention of letting himself be corrupted by accepting the deal, Lilah starts to sweeten the deal.

She offers Angel a file on the situation in Sunnydale, complete with a rather crucial amulet needed for the final battle brewing in those parts. That’s not enough to sway Angel into taking the position. Then Lilah offers to reveal what the firm knows about Cordelia’s location. Still, as tempted as he is, Angel still refuses.

Just as Angel is about to leave, the Senior Partners authorize Lilah to show Angel the office’s hi-definition television...complete with a video feed of a news broadcast showing Connor taking people hostage at a local mall. Angel demands that Lilah or the Senior Partners stop messing with Connor, but Lilah makes it clear that it’s the product of Connor’s own madness and tortured upbringing. Finally, Angel gives in, taking the offer, but on what he considers to be his own terms.

Meanwhile, Gunn’s guide takes him on a little elevator ride to the White Room. Gunn is rather unhappy to find out that he’s not being seduced by the young woman. He finds himself stared down by a sleek black panther, but then something seems to pass between the animal and the man...and Gunn smiles.

At the shopping mall, Connor wires up his hostages with homemade bombs, forcing his hostages to treat each other like he thinks families should. He senses when Angel arrives on the scene.

Back at Wolfram and Hart, Wesley breaks into the archives, and begins searching the records. Lilah walks in on him, and assumes that he’s there to poke around through the records of every scheme the firm ever conceived. But Wesley has more than one surprise up his sleeve. He pulls out her contract and burns it, intending to set her free. Of course, it doesn’t work, but Lilah appreciates the effort.

At the mall, Connor straps a bomb to his chest, just as Angel triggers one of several explosives rigged around the room. Connor explains that Angel can’t save all of the hostages, or him...or Cordelia, who is lying on the floor, still in a coma and rigged with a bomb of her own.

Angel tries to get through to Connor by explaining that Jasmine’s love was a lie, but Connor angrily denies feeling any of that love. Connor doesn’t want to hear any of Angel’s apologies or declarations of love, because he thinks it’s all a lie. Connor figures that Angel just didn’t love his son enough to stop Holtz from taking him. Connor even sees Cordelia’s love as a lie, now that Cordy is out of touch.

Connor figures that Jasmine was the truth, because she always said that Angel would destroy her if Angel knew what she was, and that’s exactly what happened. He figures none of the hostages deserved Jasmine’s love, either. No matter what Angel says, Connor has decided that only one thing can change things for him...and that’s death.

As Connor lifts the trigger for the bombs, Angel leaps at him, ripping away the wires. He knocks Connor out of the way, so he can release the hostages. But before he can release Cordelia, Connor is back on the attack. Connor drives Angel into a nearby display case, and runs over to Cordelia to set off her bomb. But Angel grabs a knife from the case and throws it into Connor’s leg, bringing the boy down.

Connor struggles to reach Cordy, but Angel grabs him, pulling out the knife and lifting it over Connor, preparing to deliver the death blow. Angel professes his love for his son, promises to prove it...and then brings the knife down.

Back at Wolfram and Hart, Fred walks into the lobby, and finds Lorne gleefully singing showtunes. Lorne explains that he has decided to take the offer. Wesley also arrives, and his expression is hard to read. Gunn, however, makes it very clear that he is going to accept. Fred understands that she’s the only one still on the fence, but then Angel announces that he’s already accepted the deal for everyone.

Lilah arrives, and briefs Angel on the current status quo. With everyone accepting the deal, Angel is now the boss at the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram and Hart. Cordelia is still comatose, but the best and brightest at the firm are working on curing her condition. Lilah also delivers the Sunnydale file, along with the amulet.

However, Angel demands to see Connor. Lilah explains to Angel that seeing his son again wasn’t part of the deal, but Angel reminds Lilah that he’s only going along with the deal on his own terms. Lilah relents, and tells Angel that his limo will take him to see Connor on the way to Sunnydale. As Angel leaves, the rest of the gang watches him go...and wonders who Connor is.

When the limo finally arrives, Angel finds himself at a small, secluded home in the woods. Inside, a family is celebrating. Connor, the eldest son of a family with several children, has just learned that he has earned high scores on his standard tests and pretty much has the pick of any college he might want. The mood is jovial, and it’s very clear that Connor is incredibly happy in his new life.

Angel watches for another moment, satisfied with the sacrifice he has made for his son, and then he walks into the night, leaving his son in peace.


Analysis

With Jasmine’s arrival signaling the end of an era for “Angel”, her departure stands as the stringboard for the next phase of the series. With at least one more season now a reality, this season finale serves as the perfect transition, wrapping up the Connor story arc in an extremely effective fashion while also giving Team Angel a new and fascinating status quo.

There is an interesting dichotomy at the heart of the Connor arc. Stemming from some of the better elements of the second season, the Connor arc provided the series with some of the best material and serialized plot threads in recent memory. At the same time, Connor was a character that always felt out of place, almost as if the concept of Connor and his effect on Angel’s world was better than the reality.

Connor often came across as a punk, but in retrospect, that bitterness and quick temper was evidence of a deepening sense of fatalism and self-disgust. When Cordelia seemed to choose him over Angel, pretending that he was something special, it almost seemed as though he was far too gullible to be believed. But now it’s clear that it was a combination of Jasmine’s emerging power and his own driving need to believe that someone truly loved him for who he was.

This episode shows Connor after all of his hopes and dreams have been dashed. Everyone who might have loved him has either betrayed his trust or left him alone in some fashion, and considering what Connor must have endured as a youth, it’s not surprising that he goes insane. Insanity, after all, is the only way to describe his choices. In a matter of hours, he goes from saving a man from suicide to attempting his own.

All Connor has ever wanted is someone to love him, and in the end, Angel recognized that fact. More to the point, Angel realized that Connor could never find what he needed if he was still forced to live in Angel’s world. The only solution was to “kill” his son, thereby using the resources available through Wolfram and Hart to give his son a new life.

There are a number of interesting aspects to this, beyond the strength that it lends the overall story arc in light of the new direction. For one thing, the scope of the spell required to insert Connor into the world in a completely different family, while erasing nearly all existing memory of his former life, dwarfs the spell used to weave Dawn into everyone’s memories.

More than that, it echoes the altered prophecy from the third season, and brings up an interesting set of questions. Wasn’t Sahjahn supposed to be killed or destroyed by Connor in the future? Or was the alteration of the prophecy responsible for setting the timeline on a different path? If that’s the case, then who knows which prophecies are still valid.

As predicted after the last episode, Connor’s place in Angel’s world has been resolved. Cordelia’s fate is still left wide open, which is unfortunate. This season was not a good one for the character, and it would be sad to think that Cordelia might never recover from her coma. However, the overall conception of Angel standing on the fine line between good and evil has been realized in near perfect form.

If Jasmine was only a phase of the apocalypse, which would appear to be the case, then Angel’s decision to take ownership of the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram and Hart definitely fits the circumstances described in earlier prophecies. As Jasmine referenced, Angel’s part of the apocalypse was never truly defined; it was only certain that he would play a major role.

Not only does the new status quo fit Angel’s apparent destiny to perfection, but it gives all of the characters a new way to shine, while remaining completely consistent with their existing portrayal. Wesley’s character has been drifting in this direction since the beginning of the season, and it’s interesting that genuine love turned out to be the key to his corruption. Fred, a character deeply in need of proper definition, will never have a better chance to return to her budding techno-pagan roots.

Gunn, however, looks to be the one character with the most growth potential. After spending much of the season searching for something to call his own, something on par with the ability and power of the others in the gang, it appears that Wolfram and Hart has offered him a means to that end. It should be interesting to see how that power emerges, and whether or not that power manages to corrupt him.

It would also be nice to see Lorne get a character arc that involves something other than karyoke or showtunes. Unlike the third season, where his bad fortunes led to a direct involvement in later events at the hotel, the fourth season has not given him much to do. But he could easily become the character that helps keep Team Angel in balance, or alternatively, this involvement with Wolfram and Hart could unlock a darker side to his comic soul.

More speculatively, if James Marsters does join the cast next season as Spike, then bringing Wolfram and Hart more closely to the center of the action provides the perfect means to bring him into the picture in an unexpected way. This will be critical, because having two different vampires with souls on the same series presents a challenge, to say the least.

Of course, Spike’s arrival would also throw a bit of a wrench into the interpretation of certain prophecies. In many cases, those prophecies have only referred to “the vampire with a soul”, which nearly everyone has assumed is a reference to Angel. But now there is the potential to offer a new interpretation, especially if Spike’s arrival requires something other than an extended ride on the open road.

Besides providing for the perfect means to tie Angel’s new world into the end of “Buffy”, the new and more direct interaction with Wolfram and Hart also allows for the slow build towards a final confrontation with the Senior Partners. This would be fitting, since the first four seasons were essentially a slow build towards a realization of the nature and role of the Powers That Be. With that more or less answered, attention can now be turned towards the other end of the spectrum.

There is an irony in the possibility of returning to a more episodic format next season. When the series began, the writing wasn’t strong enough or distinct enough to give “Angel” its own voice. Beginning with the second season and the switch to more serialized story arcs, “Angel” slowly built its writing to a level that rivaled “Buffy”. Having completed a fourth season that found the overall season arc to be weak compared to the strength of its individual parts, “Angel” seems to be finding the perfect balance with strong episodes combined with renewed purpose and a fresh direction.

With “Buffy” now ending, leaving “Angel” completely on its own, the timing couldn’t be better.


Memorable Quotes

LILAH: “Because this is the offer of a lifetime...just, not mine...”

LORNE: “Hi, from another dimension, what the hell does that mean?”

ANGEL: “She was eating people.”
LILAH: “They knew what they were getting into.”
LORNE: “Her stomach?!?”

FRED: “We ended a nefarious global domination scheme, not world peace...right?”

GUNN: “Well now, I know that it’s an option, because I was standing there when the dead lady offered it to us...”

LORNE: “OK, it’s an evil limo, I get that, but does that mean you don’t restock the cherries?”

ANGEL: “There’s no way this is going to go well...”

LILAH: “Oh, you’re so cynical...see? This is gonna work out great!”

GUNN: “Do I get her?”

LILAH: “Just because we tried to kill or corrupt each and every one of you at some time or another doesn’t mean we can’t be trusted...”

GUNN: “You’re not going to try to corrupt me, are you?”
LACY: “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
GUNN: “We’re gonna have to work on that...”

NOX: “I can make practically anything out of a fully equipped, multi-million dollar lab...”

WESLEY: “Something about Watchers and libraries...”

ANGEL: “This is what you came back from the dead for, to play ‘Let’s Make an Evil Deal’?”

LILAH: “Helps keep those uplifting wholesome rays from char-broiling the boss! And 30% more energy efficient...”

LILAH: “Goodbye, Mr. Sunshine...hello, Gloomy Avenger!”

ANGEL: “Oooo...is that hi-def?”

ANGEL: “You’re not dead...you’re just starting your life.”
CONNOR: “No! You just weren’t there before!”


Observations

- As usual, Lilah looks damned fine...especially considering her lack of being alive!

- Gotta love that utterly stupefied moment of shocked silence as the opening credits roll...

- I have to say this...I’d love to work in that place!

- The actor who plays Nox also played the psychoanalyst vampire Holden in the “Buffy” episode “Conversations with Dead People”...

- So Fred would become the evil equivalent of “Q” from the James Bond films?

- When did Wesley learn about the elimination of the Watchers Council?

- Ah...the return of the secret gadgets up Wesley’s sleeve...

- As if there was any doubt that Angel is a typical guy at heart. Saving his true love, having the power to save thousands of lives, even stand in sunlight...not interested. But break out the HDTV...sold!

- I think that Angel needs to hire a new limo driver...that one doesn’t seem to know which side of the road he should be driving on...

- As ambivalent as I was over the character of Connor, the end of this episode never fails to put a lump in my throat. It’s an absolutely beautiful way to end it.

Overall, this was one of the best season finales ever written in genre television. Less a cliffhanger than a bold mission statement, this episode provided a fitting coda to the past four seasons, while laying down the foundation for a completely new status quo…all while staying true to what has already been done. This is the masterpiece of the season, as well as one of the high points of the series.

I give it a 9/10.


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