Angel finally sees Darla in his waking everyday life and sets out trying to prove that he’s not imagining things. However, when the pair do meet, ‘Darla’ claims to be a woman who’s just arrived in LA. Is Angel being tricked by his senses or his sire?

A very interesting episode as we start to get some insight into the reason for Darla’s return. What we’re not expecting is the big twist that should have been noticeable from the start. By keeping Darla out of the action until now, she’s never had to show her vampire face outside of flashbacks. And the reason is: now she’s human.

It’s an extremely clever twist for the show, as it makes her impossible for Angel to kill. Firstly, she can escape him in daylight, secondly, she knows exactly what and who she’s dealing with, and thirdly, Angel will not harm a human. Presumably his only recourse is to change her into a vampire again and stake her. While having a certain air of history repeating about it, it remains to be seen whether he will do it.

What’s especially good about all this is that we don’t know what plans Wolfram & Hart have for either Darla or Angel, but it does mean that being a vampire, traditionally somewhat easy to kill, isn’t going to be the undoing of Darla, and we’ll get to see just how intelligent she is, something she didn’t appear to be to any great extent in Buffy.

There’s some powerful drama in this story and some clever work to make the viewer think that although Darla is around, the person Angel meets may just be a different woman, especially when she walks into broad daylight without a care. The plan itself is simple but effective as Angel is perfectly framed as a vicious killer, bringing the police force down on him and Detective Lockley as well. Not only does Gunn learn some of the darker aspects of Angel, we also get to see his less savoury side as Lockley tries to get her man. Her prejudice against Angel isn’t exactly personal anymore, although that’s part of it, but it’s interesting to see the expansion of her character as she points out that she wants to protect humans getting caught in the crossfire of Angel’s crusade to help, something of a fair point.

It’s well-written, wonderfully acted, and although the team solidarity thing is getting a bit old now, it’s good to see Angel inspire emotions in others when he didn’t seem to relate to anyone other than Buffy before. An episode that bodes well for things to come.

****

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