[lunas_borednow]

Wolfram & Hart are prophecized to cut off Angel from the Powers That Be. They conquer Vocah, warrior of the underworld, to do so. He breaches The Oracles temple & kills them. He makes Cordelia see all the pain in the world. & he steals the scroll that Angel took from Wolfram & Hart, because they need it, & blows up Angel Investigations. Angel is distraught as he runs into Kate who is still miffed about her father dying. Kate is committed to ridding the world of "Angel's kind" & Angel tells her that is if she wants to be enemies then they'll be enemies. Angel goes to see the Oracles & finds them dead. The spirit of the Sister Oracle is there & tells Angel that it is Vocah who did all this. Angel stakes out Wolfram & Hart & follows them to a crept where they are doing a ritual. Angel kills Vocah & misses the opportunity to stop the ritual. Lindsey is there with the scroll- the Oracle told Angel he needs the scroll to cure Cordelia. Lindsey tries to throw it in a fire, so Angel chops off his hand & takes the scroll. Wesley translates the words needed to cure Cordelia & Cordy wakes saying that she's a changed person. She knows the evil that's out there & she is resigned to help the people in need- no more hating what Doyle gave to her. Later, Wesley, who translated a pivotal word in the scroll to mean death- that Angel was going to die- figures out that 'shanshu' actually means that Angel is going to be made human by the P.T.B. as a reward for his years of righting his past wrongs. At the end, Wolfram & Hart have in possession the thing they raised in the ritual, the thing that is supposed to bring Angel down to evil- Darla, the vampire who sired Angel.

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From Buffyworld.com

[tootyfnfrooty]

love this episode it was my favorite in s1 and one of my tops in the series.

[eternalfate]

This was a great, great episode it have to be in my Top 5 favorite episode of the series

[saturn5]

TO SHANSHU IN LA
The Good;
My all time favourite moment in Angel is when he walks up to Lindsey clutching his stump, the music swells and Angel looks on him with buggerall sympathy. Such a powerful scene, you realise how much Angel loves Cordy in that moment and would fight his way to hell on her behalf. CCs acting as stricken Cordy is also great and love the doughnut scene. And THAT ending!
The Bad;
Gunn's prescence seems a bit shoe-horned in, they're obviously thinking about making him a regular. Same for David Nabbit. Kate seems to want to make Angel hang around to make a statement which is weird as she's prepared to let him just walk away the rest of the time.
Best line:
"Don't believe everything your foretold, Lindsey" (why doesn't he just kick him in the head whilst he's at it?)
Jeez, how did they get away with that?
Severed hands. Voca's mask. Angel is also quite brutal with Kate. Lilah mentions a past WR&H employee who was made to eat his own liver as pennance for failing the senior partners.
Apocalypses: 4
Angel Cliches
Damsel in distress; 15,
Inverting the Hollywood cliche;
In disguise; 4
DB get's his shirt off; 7
Cordy's tattoo;3
Cheap Angel;
4
Fang Gang in bondage:
Cordy: 5
Angel: 8
Wes: 2

Fang gang knocked out: Wes by the explosion
Cordy: 9
Angel: 10
Wes: 5
Doyle; 1
Kills:
Cordy: 3 vamps, 1½ demons
Angel; 2 demons so 16 vamps, 12 and 1/2 demons, 3 humans
Doyle; 1 vamp
Wes; 1/2 a demon
Kate; 3 vamps
Faith; 16 vamps, 6 demons, 3 humans.
Fang Gang go evil:
Cordy: 2
Angel: 2

Alternate Fang Gang:
Cordy: 2
Angel: 6

Characters killed:
25
Recurring characters killed; bye-bye the Oracles which is a shame as I liked them, I didn't think they COULD be killed
4;
Total number of Angel Investigations:
3, Angel and Cordy and Wes

Angel Investigations shot:
Angel: 8,
Packing heat;
Wes; 2
Doyle; 1
Angel; 1

Notches on Fang Gang bedpost:
Cordy: 2 ?+Wilson/Hacksaw Beast
Angel: 1;Buffy

Kinky dinky:
Naked Darla in a box, bet you can't order that on Amazon!
Captain Subtext;
Know the face, different character; 2
Parking garages;
4,
Guantanamo Bay;
Buffy characters on Angel; 11
Wetherby, Collins and Smith. Angel, Cordy, Oz, Spike, Buffy, Wes, Faith, Darla
Questions and observations;
Wes once again makes a biblical reference which Watcher's are wont to do. The promise of great things to come, Darla in the box. Interestingly you can bring a vamp back from the dead as they attempted to do in 'When she was bad', a technique often used in fanfic for bringing back Angel and souled-Spike if they've been killed in a story. Cordy refers to 'The old me' indicating personal growth. Of course we assume the 'Vamp with a soul' is Angel but it could just as easily be season 5 Spike?
Marks out of 10; 9/10, very good ep with my all time favourite Angel scene.saturn5

[tootyfnfrooty]

love your analysys and it was a 9 out of 10 at the very least for me as well

[saturn5]

Thanks you're too kind

[livstevi21]

I enjoyed the S1 finale a lot more than the previous episode. Poor Cordelia being hit with visions of everyone's pain. Aww the way Angel held her hand and told her he needed her. Wasn't expecting the explosion at the Angel Investigations. Glad Angel got Wesley out ok. Kate may still be grieving her father's death, but she really shouldn't take it out on Angel. Even if she had never met him, her father would have still been involved in that shady dealing and ended up getting killed by vampires, and she wouldn't have known how he was killed. But because she does, she thinks that all vampires should be rid. Referring them to Angel's kind. Id've thought that with all she's seen of Angel he is one exception to the rule now.

Glad Angel managed to get the scroll back and Wesley read it over Cordelia to bring her back. I love how the experience in a way changes Cordelia and she wants to help everyone in her visions, to stop all their pain. Wesley getting the inscription wrong was funny. So...one day, the prophecy says that after all the battles he must face, and that he has reached his destiny, Angel will become human as a reward. Interesting. He already had a taste of being human again earlier in the season and events made him have to ask the oracles to turn back the time to before he fought that demon and changed.

I wasn't expecting it to be Darla who was in the box...that will be interesting. Can't wait to get stuck into S2! (in a couple weeks, I'll be away until the 30th).

[wickedrum]

Darla's appearance sure is a gamechanger.

[Arlius]

Angel became the "Prophesy Boy", like a counterpart to the Buffy season 1 finale, Prophesy Girl.

[sum1]

I hate the Shanshu prophecy. I'm sick of vampire stories in which they threaten to turn the vampires human.

The actor who played the masked demon Vocah, Todd Stashwick, played the M'Fashnick demon Buffy killed in her flooded basement in the season 6 episode Flooded. He also played Captain Liam Shaw in Star Trek Picard season 3.

[wickedrum]

Why would he want to be human anyway. He was already in I Will Remember You and gave it up.

[sum1]

Yeah, it makes no sense.