Bah, bastards, all of you! MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!!!
Seriously though, here's what I hope to see in tonight's episode (and into February).
Team Angel hauling Eve's skanky skinny bum back there and tearing her a new one. Alright, until now it's all been circumstantial but this was flat out proof she's evil. Plus she never sang for Lorne that I remember. What happened to the "no exceptions on evil" policy?
Spike getting over himself, telling "Doyle" off, and doing what's right because it's right. It's the point Spike keeps missing, and the reason Angel is the chosen one and not him. Angel did good deeds because he was a good person, Spike just does it for his own gain.
On a similar note, Angel needs to snap out of his idiocy and realize everything I just said.
The teams needs to start repairing the gaps between them. Although I don't expect that to happen until Cordy returns and slaps them all back to sense. Look for that in February, is my guess. Yay sweeps! Yes, that was sarcasm (and if you're a mod and reading this, this is where the eye-rolling smiley would be perfect, and yet not offensive).
More long term...
The actresses that play Eve and Fred seriously need to take a page from Harmony and EAT. Seriously, the actress that plays Harm is sooooo much hotter than either of them, and it's because she doesn't look like a stick. Charisma Carpenter was hot too, for much the same reasons. Of course, that's just my opinion.
While I don't like Connor one bit, Eve needs to tap his as an emergency resource, should things start to go south for her. I wouldn't mind seeing an epic battle between him and Team Angel, with him dying in the end, of course.
Finally, this is very long term, but they
seriously need another female in the cast. Fred is just not that great. I'm sure Amy Acker is doing the best she can with the role, but it's just not enough. Fred is just a weak character, and I don't think even the inclusion of a stronger female character on the show would help fix it.
Her multiple "romances" are going nowhere, the growth into a strong woman that was hinted at last season has disappeared (and would be
completely unrealistic now), and she doesn't have the charisma to be the group matron like Cordelia was (and they
keep trying to shove it off on her). It's as if the character just kind of floats there going nowhere, much like Gunn did through the third and fourth seasons.
Now, they managed to inject a little life into Gunn, and they need to do the same for Fred. But what I would
rather see is her and Lorne relegated to secondary characters much like Harmony is this season. That leaves a core group of Angel, Wesley, Gunn, and Spike. Bring in a stronger female character that can hold her own with characters as strong as they are. Unfortunately this would
probably have to be a new character, but there's not much you can do about that. Personally I liked Gwen, but the special effects would be too expensive, I think.