Cordelia's child is a beautiful woman who causes everyone around to fall to their knees in worship. In her name, Angel and company set about cleaning up LA, but it seems there is more to the new arrival than meets the eye.

The mystery continues in this episode, as we meet Jasmine, a woman who apparently has the gift to make everyone do exactly as she says, thereby enabling her to begin ridding the world of evil. Gina Torres is simply magnificent in the role; graceful, elegant, beautiful and beatific, a far cry from her recent work in more action-orientated roles. She serves exactly the right purpose as well, making the audience fall under her spell as easily as those on screen do, to the extent that it's only as we're starting to believe the truth of her existence, and that everything that came before were simply trials as she forced her way into existence that it's all ripped away. Once again in a Joss Whedon show, it's the loonies who knows what's really going on, with one man apparently going insane and trying to kill the new arrival. It's only when Fred gets a glimpse of the truth that she realizes seriously bad things are on the way.

It's good to see that it's Fred who sees through the facade this time, although not entirely clear why unless it has to do with her mental state during her time in Pylea. There seems to be no rhyme or reason for those who see the truth except that they're 'called'. I'm guessing Cordelia knows what she's really unleashed, as she's being resolutely kept unconscious throughout. It's one of the many questions that still keep cropping up; at one point was Cordelia taken over, is she okay now, and when will we finally hear the truth of this creature's connection to Angel and Connor. To be honest, this could entirely be correct this time, only when she claims to have engineered a miracle, more likely she organized a nightmare. All these little niggling facts that don't seem to be properly explored are going to get to him before too much longer.

The only problem I can see now is that even in daylight, Fred can be easily tracked and discovered by the team. It's only the fact that Jasmine essentially gives her a head start that means she's on the loose. It's going to be ludicrous if she manages to avoid the whole population of LA until the end of the season. She needs to find some way of making the others see sense, not to mention that they have to work out exactly what they're dealing with and how to destroy it. The big question, though, is just why she's getting evil destroyed in her name, which presumably can't be an especially big part of the plan of something evil.

As an episode itself, there are some nice little bits and pieces. A vampire discovering that heads don't make good bowling balls is oddly amusing, and the sequences of Angel and co fighting the good fight are nicely done. Overall, though, there's a bit of a hollow centre to the whole thing, which seems odd. It may be because most of the main cast are doing little more than acting benevolent and lovely towards their fellow man, something that gets old fast. But after a season that's never seemed to be playing for time, as we head towards the finale it seems things have slowed down and taken a decidedly odd turn. I mean, okay, you couldn't have seen it coming, but it's still weird.

***

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