The Host visits Angel with terrifying news: a young man who has recently sung at the karaoke bar has no future after a couple of days, and neither does anyone else. Can he and Angel stop the apocalypse together?

The Host has been a fun new addition to the cast this year, and it's way past time he got more screen time. His free-living attitude is a breath of fresh air next to Angel's current depressing mood, and he allows us to find out more about what lies behind Angel's current attitude. The pair work off each other very well, providing a subtle counterpoint to the poor genius scientist in love being unwarily assisted by demons in his efforts to freeze time.

The problem really lies in the way the characters are used here. Angel's sour attitude still doesn't stand him in good stead for being heroic, and the Host is something of an unknown quantity. Although his abilities are well-used, he still seems superfluous after a while, even if he lightens up what could have been a really depressing atmosphere. Having the end of the world caused by demons abusing the scientist's invention is a little too easy when the scientist could have been inadvertently responsible himself. The demons are there more to give Angel fight scenes than anything else and the idea of a man who knows he's about to be dumped trying to preserve his last moment of passion for ever is rather sweet. Without any major threat, however, there's little tension in the story, making it feel a little flat.

What does help is watching the rest of the Angel Investigations team kick off their own business. Wesley's Poirot-esque resumé of a dastardly deed in typical murder-mystery style is spot-on, and superbly played by Alexis Denisof with comedy and intelligence. Between that and the disco they hold after their first successful case, there's some fun moments to break up the Angel storyline. You just can't help feeling that the rest of the gang got more screen time when interacting with Angel, though, and their presence in this episode, though welcome to see that they're not being ignored entirely, is rather limited. Maybe we can see a story where they take the central role...

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