Angel 4/21 (spoilers)

[zyzzyr]

re: Connor

I think Hand of Evil makes a good point - Connor takes the happiness path, which will Wesley take?

BUT

I thought that it was deliberately vague writing - it amounts to a guess: Did Connor get his memory back or not? - there's no real evidence.

Take into account the magical barrier that was between Angel + Connor -- perhaps that magical barrier could have also blocked the impact of the magical item.

On the other hand, Connor has always been a master at lying, and perhaps he came up with playing the charade right away. Perhaps the line "I have to take care of my family. My father taught me that." is also a hint that Connor will come back to fight alongside Angel when he needs it.

Anyhow, I thought that the writing was deliberately vague so that later on, the writers can go either path and claim that everyone read too much into that episode.

zyzzyr

 

[Datt]

Take into account the magical barrier that was between Angel + Connor -- perhaps that magical barrier could have also blocked the impact of the magical item.

I thought about that, but right after Wes smashes the Plot Device Connor suddenly becomes kick ass again. He knows how to use his strength and wield weapons. He knew that Angel did whatever he could to make Connor happy and so Connor choose his happy life.

 

[Hand of Evil]

In the grand scheme of things it is interesting to note that the life Angel gave Conner is the one Wes was going to give him and if Conner knows both, he picked the life in the country.

 

[Pielorinho]

I thought about that, but right after Wes smashes the Plot Device Connor suddenly becomes kick ass again. He knows how to use his strength and wield weapons. He knew that Angel did whatever he could to make Connor happy and so Connor choose his happy life.

Yeah, plus, he got his old hairdo back .

I'm pretty sure Connor knew. When Wesley showed up with the Box o' Memory, I was thinking, "Oooh, Connor's gonna be pissed!" But the way they handled it was actually much cooler: Connor obliquely told Angel that he understood and accepted the difficult gift Angel hand given him, but that he couldn't be halfway: he had to leave Angel forever in order to take the gift of the good life, had to walk away without looking back on his old, suddenly-remembered life. Very poignant, without a single violin playing.

It's also gonna be interesting to see whether Wesley, suddenly remembering his rather unpleasant Season 3 behavior, will re-evaluate Gunn.

Great episode!
Daniel

 

[Vocenoctum]

Anyhow, I thought that the writing was deliberately vague so that later on, the writers can go either path and claim that everyone read too much into that episode.

zyzzyr

Remember also that there are 4-5 ep's left. The episode was designed to resolve Conner and remove him IMO. I doubt he'll be back, unless maybe there's a new season elsewhere, which seems unlikely. I thought it was a good ending to him, he can put aside his demom memory's and have a normal life.

 

[John Crichton]

Large spoiler about the future of Angel. Read at your own risk but it does "answer" some of the questions above brought about by this episode.

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Spoiler

IMdB. com has Vincent Kartheiser in the Angel finale.

 

[Crothian]

Okay, I read the spoiler above and that doesn't mean anything to me, should it??

 

[Crothian]

And again I liked the peisode but it wasn't that well done. Angle was too uncompronmising, even for him. And wesley was way too bitter for towards angel, even for him.

I thought Gunn had the best part in the epidoe with him choosing to remain in the hell dimension.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Okay, I read the spoiler above and that doesn't mean anything to me, should it??

It means that

Spoiler

Connor is in the finale, which presumably would only happen if he actually did remember everything, as was pretty heavily implied anyway.

 

[takyris]

I actually liked the ambiguity of it. We can argue back and forth all day, and I personally think that Connor did get his memory back, but I like the way that it was there just enough for people to get the ending they want either way:

1) Connor does get his memory back, understands what his dad did, forgives him, and obliquely agrees to use the old memories, pushing the anger away and being happy. "I learned that from my Dad," meaning that he's going to do what Angel would have wanted.

2) Connor doesn't get his memory back, really does just go into instinct mode when the BBEG (Sahjan? Horrible with spelling) grabs his neck, and sees a Smallville-like world but decides not to go for it. "I learned that from my Dad," meaning that he learned good wholesome values from his "parents", and Angel sits back and realizes that he still has his gift, and that they're teaching him the things he'd want Connor to learn.

They obviously hinted enough for there to be ambiguity, but I don't think they did enough for it to be definite -- and I'm glad for that. I'd have been a little annoyed with a "Bye, Father," as the elevator door closed or something. As it is, we can read as much into that eye contact as we want -- maybe it was Father and Son saying good-bye to each other as best they can, or maybe it was a young man telling a warrior that he wanted to go back to his peaceful life, and the warrior was letting him leave.