1.7 - Angel

Buffy finds out who and what Angel really is.


Oh, man! What a fantastic episode! I'll admit it, I turn into very girly puddles of angst over this whole thing. It's just so poetic and beautiful, yet tragic at the same time. The vampire slayer in love with the one thing she can't be with: a vampire. Seems almost cheesy now, but it's not.

Here there be spoilers.

There's so much going on in this episode, this is really the first one of this first season that blew me away and made me think "oh, wow, this show is great." First off, we find out who Angel really is. He's a vampire who is roughly 240 years old of Irish descent. Next we find out why he's helping her. He killed a gypsy girl about 80 years ago and the tribe restored his soul. He had guilt over every single murder he'd ever committed and vowed never to drink the blood of a human again. He's living on bottled blood.
Then, on top of this, we find out that Darla was the vampire who made him, and the legacy of terror that they created is hinted at as they speak about laying waste to Budapest.

Darla gets dusted in this episode, but thank heavens that they bring her back. She's just a fantastic character, and when you add this amount of depth to a show like this, you get something deeper, something you can sit there and think about for a long, long time. It's cool to have a slayer, but when you've got a character that you know is over 200 and who has a vast and checkered history just waiting to be explored, then you know you've added a great element to the show.

This episode really took a mediocre series with potential and launched it into fantastic TV. This show is still not what it will become, but it's pretty freaking great.

I'm going to start rating these.

9/10