Was it just me, or was that one of the most incoherent and inconsistent hours of television ever aired? I'm so disappointed because Drew Goddard and Stephen S.DeKnight wrote this one. Damage was infinitely better.
There are too many problems with this episode.
1) The most memorable lines were: Angel (to Spike) "You're a Nazi?" Spike: "No, I just ate one." The second most memorable line was Spike calling Lawson 'Popeye' for a reason I can't even remember. Grrr..Did Goddard and DeKnight write this thing two hours before the deadline?
2) Spike looked really wrong with the slick black hair. It was such a relief to see him blonde again at the end.
3) Um, why exactly did Lawson show up at W&H in the first place? At the end, Angel branded it as 'no reason'. Huh? I thought Lawson was all about avenging the stereotypical all-American life that Angel took away from him.
4) The scenes in the submarine where Angel teaches the ways of the world to Lawson were interesting. There was some deep and thoughtful dialogue going on there. But the writers either ran out of ideas or had university midterms and Lawson transformed into a bigger wimp than Andrew. Lawson obviously didn't believe in what he was saying nor did he seem so hell-bent on revenge as one would have presumed.
5) Why did Lawson wait so damn long to attempt his revenge? This detail was blatantly ignored. Angel was more vulnerable at Angel Investigations than running the W&H gig from behind a corporate fortress. I thought W&H had massive security that only Lindsey's runes could make anyone pass through undetected.
6) The fight scene between Lawson and Angel was way too short. Rule #1 in Hollywood: If the dialogue isn't great, cover it up with blood spilling and heads rolling. But nooo.. the fight scene stopped so mid-fight it was as if the producers decided that they didn't have enough money to break and build another door or coffee table.
7)The last scene of the show also ended embryotically. Spike and Angel have pretty decent one-on-one conversations when the writers let it. I want to know who the hell cut this scene off. The last shot of Spike and Angel staring off into the LA skyline could've used some of the serious dialogue that the Ultimate Drew is known for.
I'm trying to think of good things about this episode. But I can't. So I'll stop. The 100th episode last week raised the bar by about ten thousand metres. This one doesn't even get off the filthy ground.