Gwen enlists Gunn's aid in rescuing a kidnapped girl, while Angel, Wesley and Fred attempt to find a reason for Cordelia's rapid pregnancy.

It's heading towards the end of the season, it must be time for the Gunn episode. Not that there's anything especially wrong with that, but they're never among the highlights of the series however good it is to see J August Richards given some good material to work with. After not only giving the impression of being 'the muscle' of the team but going round freely admitting it, this is actually a rather interesting look into who the man is outside Angel Investigations. Without the rest of the team performing their assigned roles, he is actually pretty cool; suave, stylish, effective, and an excellent fighter. He continues to demonstrate hidden depths here, and finally finds someone who appreciates him in the form of Gwen.

The pace is a bit off with the story, and it's pretty clear that Gwen isn't playing by the traditional roles, especially when you see her reaction to the device she's been after. It seems a story more constructed to put Gwen and Gunn together than to make an especially coherent plot; as Gunn points out, he's not vital to Gwen's efforts, and it's quite surprising that when he catches her in the act he's so forgiving. Indeed, the fact that he finds her when the house's security force can't is a particularly impressive bit of work. When picking sides, he's choosing between the best of a bad bunch, but it still seems a little odd to go with Gwen. His willingness to so easily slip into Gwen's bed once her new device is slotted on also seems a little out of character; while it's possible that he's seeking an evening of the score since Fred kissed Wes, considering they seemed to be back on the right path again, he falls off the trail awfully swiftly.

All this aside, Gwen remains a sympathetic and conflicted character, we get a better look at Gunn, and the pair do seem realistically drawn to each other. I'm still not sure it's an especially good episode as it's too predictable in places, but there have been worse Gunn efforts.

Of course, we then have the sub-plot as Angel and the gang attempt to uncover the 'Beast Master'. Connor continues to show an amazing degree of stupidity here, as he has all the pieces yet somehow fails to put them together and is drawn into Cordy's web once more as she tells him he might be asked to do odd things, but there will be a good reason. Angel's demonstrated himself to be a pretty intelligent man; why his son doesn't seem to follow in his footsteps is a bit of a mystery.

Then again, just as it's looking increasingly likely Cordelia will somehow give herself away, the team gets wise to her manipulations and use Lorne as bait to trap her. Once it's clear that the demon will die or Cordelia will be revealed at last, there's a tense sequence where it's not clear what will happen leading to a suitably conclusive ending. Again, however, it would be good to see Connor there with the others, having told what he knows, but more likely I suspect he'll wander in and screw everything up. Of course, there's already the puzzle of why, if Cordelia is so powerful, she hasn't just zapped everyone and made a break for it; then again, who's to say she won't next episode?

The only other problems I have are simply the pieces of missing time; one is Gunn finding Gwen, but the other more odd one is when someone from the team works out who is responsible for everything, works out a plan to catch her, tells everyone, then somehow contacts Lorne and gets him to fake up a ritual to draw her out. It's an impressively foresightful plan, but I'm not sure when it was put into action! Again, though, the ending would certainly have me coming back for more, even if the Cordelia story could do with the addition, like the main story, of a little more pace.

***

Would you like to go to the Angel Season Four guide, head back to the main TV reviews page, read older reviews in the Reviews Archive or return to the front page?