David Fury wrote this one. You can tell because it's a perfectly magnificent episode with a perfectly unmagnificent title. ('You're Welcome' was the other one). Just when the scab was building over the wound inflicted by the news of cancellation, this episode goes and tears the scab apart. Left behind is a bigger scar and more blood and more infection.
This was one riveting hour of TV. My house could've been on fire and I wouldn't know. For the first time this season, Angel was interesting because we all thought he was on the verge of becoming Angelus. But as he insisted to the Archduke, it's still Angel. In that schmooze scene after Angel's initiation, there was a nice recap of all the villains introduced in s.5. They'll probably stick around long enough to die next episode.
The whole theme of power. The Senior Partners have it. Angel and his Fang Gang don't. And Angel is doing an Alias thing by infiltrating the Circle of the Black Thorn so he can go in and destroy them all. Before we knew what Angel was really up to, he was pretty convincing when he was pretending to be all evil. All that stuff about absolute power and good and evil don't matter when power is at stake...you don't get that outside of Buffyverse.
Funniest parts: Illyria and Drogyn playing video games. Illyria says "This task is pointless and annoys me. Yet I feel compelled to play..."
The St. Crispin's Day speech was solid, considering the guy who read the entire thing is known more for his furrowed brow and wooden expressions. That red thing Angel flashed was like.."where did he get that thing? That's so cool!" The part where Angel says heroes don't just accept the world and they must fight it, then outlining his plan for a major battle to bring the wheels of evil to a grinding halt, even for a second, was just the best 5 minutes of TV this season. The Senior Partners will always exist, but Angel is determined to show them they'll not always be the boss. The glory may be short and there will be casualties. But it's something worth fighting for. And it's something worth dying for. Besides, a St. Crispin's Day speech directed to a select group of guerilla fighters who actually understand the stakes of this crusade is more inspiring than one directed to a whole lot of loud, annoying Potentials.
Angel sending that message to Wes via that book? Who knew he could be so clever?
Sounds like the writers are still peeved: all those not-so-subtle references about taking care of business, absolute power, not worrying about the small things bit, and evil politicians with vampiric spin doctors.
Looks like that spoiler bullet I was unable to dodge was right. It was pretty clear from this episode who will be carnage in the finale.