Cordelia's back, but she has no memory of who she is, or who any of the other hotel residents are; Angel and company attempt to bring her memories back without terrifying her out of her wits with the weirdness surrounding her.

After the end of last episode, I was concerned that the old amnesia trick was going to be the disaster it is 99% of the time. It's not, but it's hardly a huge success either. At the start it's being played entirely for laughs, as Cordy finds herself meeting up with demons, monsters, vampires and the whole back-story of Angel while the team tries desperately to protect her. Angel running around and hiding things as Cordelia moves is really funny, not to mention her rediscovery of her Sunnydale High yearbook and some pictures of herself, then the part when Gunn and Fred get home covered in blood and talking about the babies they've just murdered.

The problems come later in the story when Cordy still has no memory at all despite their efforts. I don't know that I really want this to go on long, and considering how much time is spent dealing with it at the beginning, it looks like it's all going to be solved quickly. It isn't. This is where the rest of the main cast comes in. Cordelia runs, and bumps into Connor, who takes her in. For one horrible moment it looks like there's going to be some kind of romantic thing going on between them, but it doesn't happen. However, I'm not convinced it won't, sadly. Meanwhile, Wesley gets information from Lilah about Cordy's return and where she's gone, and tells Angel.

This is where things go a bit south. When this story starts, it looks as though it's going to finally be the one where everyone gets back together and things move on. What it actually is is the episode where things get even worse and fall apart. Cordy moves in with Connor, Wesley is tricked by Lilah (although frankly, he's had it coming to him) in a clever turn of events, and the segregation of the group continues. As Wesley himself says, "It's never easy, is it?"

The thing is, it's still quite absorbing, so I can't really class it as a bad episode. It's funny, it's scary, as you expect things to leap out and attack Cordy every five seconds, and it provides an interesting revelation about the ever-imminent apocalypse. I just think we've milked this group split thing enough now, as Angel Investigations can't function properly with its staff scattered across LA. We need to get back to the cases, the more standalone storylines, and we need everyone back now. It's continuing to do favours for Fred and Gunn, who are much more prominent, but too much longer and it'll really bug me. Plus, how did Cordy get amnesia in the first place? Indeed, how did she get back? We'll see if they adress some of this in the weeks to come.

***

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