Also: why was Connor allowed to survive the series? He was a really shitty person who took every opportunity to spout off lines that read like an emo kid's Live Journal entries. And there was the time he rigged up several innocent people with explosives and tried to kill them all because his feelings were hurt. This is gonna sound harsh and simplistic, but in my opinion Angel should have killed Connor the moment he tried to murder innocents. It would have given Angel another excuse to brood (given that he spends most of the series doing just that), so it works out.
I think that it goes along with the series' theme of fatherhood in Seasons 3 and 4 to have Angel do everything in his power to save Connor. Although I'm not a fan of Connor at all (at least until Season 5), the most intriguing thing about Connor was always his effect on Angel. Think about it: Connor's been akin to a super-delinquent teen up to this point, and Angel still feels love for him, like a good father should. Then Connor does something that goes above and beyond mere rebellion, and Angel is torn: his love for Connor, despite everything, prevents him from just killing him. At the same time, Connor has harmed innocents, and Angel recognizes that Connor is no longer fit to be a member of society. There is no hope for Connor to fit in. So Angel makes a deal and takes a job at Wolfram and Hart, so that Connor can have a second chance at life. All throughout Season 5, characters second-guess why they took the W&H job, but for Angel, it's always been one thing and one thing only: a sacrifice, for his son.
Leave a Comment:
The Jasmine Arc
This was probably my least-favorite story arc of the series, for multiple reasons (and remember, this is just my opinion, and it's okay if you disagree):
1) Jasmine's secret manipulation of everything the individual members of the team had gone through was so convoluted and convenient that it made it hard for me to believe what was going on.
2) Bitch!Cordelia was a pretty lame villain — all she did was smirk, secretly slide her fingers over knives, and whine. She's probably the least proactive of the villains, and her sudden change in character (in-universe) should have clued her friends off to the fact that something weird was going on.
3) Connor. Holy crap, Connor. By far the weakest of the main characters, Connor started out as a brash, but effective, warrior, caught between his loyalty to the man he thought of as his father (Holtz) and his biological father (Angel). By season 4 Connor was Flanderized into a cocky, headstrong teenage stereotype who randomly picked fights with people. It's like the writers couldn't decide how to characterize him, so they just made him really one-note and ended it at that. Not only that, but the resolution to his storyline, while a good emotional development for Angel, was a little too convenient — not that I'm really complaining, given that Connor was basically written out of the storyline after that and we didn't have to deal with him.
Now for something positive about the arc: the villain. The writers did a good job of tricking viewers into believing the Beast was going to be the Big Bad (not a difficult feat, given that the guy was a nigh-unstoppable monster with big horns and rock skin), only to have him be the flunky of a greater power. That this powerful being took the form of a very attractive woman with a soft voice, upbeat attitude, and calming presence was even better. Jasmine was actually one of the best villains of the series — a being who was altruistic, kind, and loving, yet also sought to control the world, was willing to kill anyone who opposed her, and, well... ate people. She provided a great contrast to previous — and future — villains: whereas the Circle of the Black Thorn, Wolfram & Hart, and Darla knew their actions were evil and reveled in it, Jasmine veiled her actions with love and kindness. She was a Dark Messiah, in a way, and a pretty fun one at that.