Okay, this is weird.

I'm rewatching Dear Boy.

Darla's fake husband's name is Stephen.
We see Angel looking through a window at an apparently happy domestic scene that's a lie.

Gives me shivers.

Guise Will Be Guise

In retrospect, this episode showcases something that Angel does better than Buffy: allowing the characters to change.

This episode starts off the beginning of Wesley's transformation. After assuming Angel's place, he later takes over as leader, and ends up taking his own parallel journey to Angel. And this is where it's most obviously set up.

This is Wesley's The Zeppo, only, on Buffy, Xander never got to have the kind of development that Wesley got after this. He got his Xander episode, then they went and turned him into comic relief. The same thing that they did to Anya after Selfless, I suppose.

Plus:
"You were in Virginia?"
"That's beside the point."

And I'm running across so much foreshadowing. In Untouched Angel says that his name is just a name. Wesley will also say, "It's just a name." after Angel leaves them.

The Darla/Angel relationship is so much deliciousness.

And I'm thinking of taking a closer look at the baby!plot in Judgement to see how it relates to Connor. ("To me, she's just my daughter.")

Moments of Reflection

Because I seem to be addicted to these post-Home drabbles. First set (finding home) here, second set (memory loss) here. Apparently all of these are happening in the same post-Home universe, and I'd like to smack my muse (Who is Angel, even though he's not talking here. Angel's been very loud recently. Jerk. Annoying, souled, twisted, hot, sympathetic jerk.) for not letting me know that sooner.

Anyway, yes. Two more drabbles, a look at a relationship.
( spoilers for 'Home' )

Random 'Trial' thoughts:

It is so weird that Darla 'gave birth' to both Angelus and Connor in alleys. I mean, weird in an interesting and cool way.

Also:
"But you're missing the crucial point here. Things fall apart. Not everything can be put back together, no matter how much you want it."

And Angel's "As a vampire [she had 400+ years], but before that she was... she-she never had a chance."

S4 much?

And Lorne knowing that he's going to regret his decision here? If we can believe Jasmine, this is where Angel earned Connor's life. And Connor brought everyone a heap of regret.

"You're about to face the hell and the high water."

Ocean! Apocalypse!

"Are you still ready to give your life when she can promise you... nothing?"

"Soon you'll have your whole life ahead of you. Use it wisely."

God, I wish that Connor had had the chance that Darla had. That he'd gotten to feel what it was like inside Angel's head.

"Angel, I've seen it now. Everything you're going through, everything you've gone through. I felt it. I felt how you care, the way no one's ever cared before. Not for me."

Old and New

More post-Home drabbles. Only something that mildly resembles a plot seems to be happening. And Angel insisted on taking another turn. He's a bossy sort. Any moment he'll insist on his own icon.

First set: Finding Home
Second set: Memory Loss
Third set: Moments of Reflection

( spoilers for 'Home' )

Hello, duh!

Hesitate and the moment is lost.

Angel hesistates before staking Darla, thus enabling Dru to get the drop on him.

And he hesitates before killing Cordy, thus enabling Jasmine to get born before he can stop it.

Angel! Stop hesitating!