In "Benediction", Angel and his son start hanging out and palling around the way a vampire with a soul and his kid would... by heading to an L.A. nightclub and beating up some vamps. Wesley continues to be recruited by Lilah and he discovers that Connor is back and all grown up. Cordy discovers more of her new demon powers. Groo continues to feel animosity towards Angel because of his jealous over Cordy's affections. The gang discovers Holtz is back in town. Angel asks Gunn & Fred to distract Connor while he goes and confronts the now elderly Holtz. The two have a tete-a-tete about Connor's future and Holtz tells Angel he's leaving again. He leaves Connor in Angel's hands, knowing they both love the boy.
Holtz asks Justine to mercy kill him. Connor shows up in time to see the body and mistakes two stab wounds for vampire bite marks. Vengeance fills his heart as the episode ends.
I'm watching this and BtVS concurrently, switching back and forth between episodes to stay in chronological lockstep. The last two episodes end extremely similarly: Connor seeing Holtz dead, filled with rage and Willow holding a wounded Tara and ready to perform some dark magic. Both episodes end on seemingly important moments moving forward.
One of my main critiques for the Buffy-verse through the years is that it falls for one big cliche over and over again: characters mishearing a conversation or misinterpreting events. This leads to future conflict. It always bugs me that everyone's lack of communication is the main driver for many major storylines. Here it has happened again.
It starts with Gunn and Fred not even thinking of Connor's vampire hearing. They have to know from living around Angel how good his ears are. Well this is his son! They should know better.
And the way that Justine stabs Holtz to kill him, accidentally making it look like a vampire bite mark. And that Connor conveniently shows up just in time to watch him die. I mean come on... It's all a little too much. Sure, it gets the plot where it needs to go, but I think the writers could have went in a different direction to get where they wanted this to go: a battle between Angel & Connor.
Also, how the heck did teenage Connor gain entrance to that nightclub? Where are the bouncers?
Holtz asks Justine to mercy kill him. Connor shows up in time to see the body and mistakes two stab wounds for vampire bite marks. Vengeance fills his heart as the episode ends.
I'm watching this and BtVS concurrently, switching back and forth between episodes to stay in chronological lockstep. The last two episodes end extremely similarly: Connor seeing Holtz dead, filled with rage and Willow holding a wounded Tara and ready to perform some dark magic. Both episodes end on seemingly important moments moving forward.
One of my main critiques for the Buffy-verse through the years is that it falls for one big cliche over and over again: characters mishearing a conversation or misinterpreting events. This leads to future conflict. It always bugs me that everyone's lack of communication is the main driver for many major storylines. Here it has happened again.
It starts with Gunn and Fred not even thinking of Connor's vampire hearing. They have to know from living around Angel how good his ears are. Well this is his son! They should know better.
And the way that Justine stabs Holtz to kill him, accidentally making it look like a vampire bite mark. And that Connor conveniently shows up just in time to watch him die. I mean come on... It's all a little too much. Sure, it gets the plot where it needs to go, but I think the writers could have went in a different direction to get where they wanted this to go: a battle between Angel & Connor.
Also, how the heck did teenage Connor gain entrance to that nightclub? Where are the bouncers?