As Darla builds a relationship with Angel within his dreams, causing him to lose his edge in fights, Cordelia gets a vision of Gunn in serious trouble and sticks with him as he tries to remove a demonic presence from his neighbourhood.

Angel and Wesley are more superfluous to this episode, whose trailer gave utterly the wrong impression: it appeared it was going to be a Darla story, but this is really merely a subplot to the main story of Gunn and Cordelia forging an understanding.

We know very little about Gunn, so it’s interesting to see what he gets up to on a regular basis outside of being approached for help by Angel. Providing a careful breakdown of what makes him who he is, we also get a more in-depth look at Cordelia than has been the case up till now, out of her depth a lot of the time, but determined to wipe out the evil around her. Although she is taken out of fights quite quickly, the fact remains that she’s actually giving her all, and the assistance she gives Gunn’s friend shows a different side to her that hasn’t been evidenced before. Hopefully it’ll be Wesley’s turn for some character background soon.

The fight sequences are superb, especially the one where everyone is sat recovering afterwards, something you don’t tend to get in Buffy, where most of the fighting is done by supernatural people like Buffy herself. The Darla elements make an interesting side-story, and I look forward to finding out where it develops from here. It’s just a shame that Angel’s early malaise doesn’t seem to be in evidence later on in the episode.

Focusing on Cordelia and Gunn is a great idea, allowing the two disparate personalities to understand each other a little better and bringing the latter more into the team as part of Angel Investigations. It’s shaping up to be an interesting season…

****

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