On Angel, Season 4, Eps. 1-13

 Angel Season 4: Connor and Cordie, Angelus' Return

 

Connor and Cordie

The entire Connor storyline was superfluous and ran its course far sooner than they kept it going. Him sleeping with Cordelia was so cringey and unnecessary, and only served to continually dump more gasoline on the whole "he hates his father" plotline that should have already been done by then. Even the creators were at a loss for Connor's inclusion after they resolved his Daddy Issues earlier in the same season, but they kept him around.

Cordelia did not need a bigger part nor did she need more power. Her position as a clairvoyant secretary fit the DIY, LA neo-noir, bootstrap agency they were going for from the start. As Angel Investigations grew, her character's prominence should have to, but making her a living avatar was a bit much. And, despite the fact that everyone dug her on the show, Charisma Carpenter simply lacks the acting chops to pull-off the mother thing, or the serious girlfriend thing, and they should have kept her where she was.

They could have focused on the growing strength and accuracy of her visions, the visions' importance to solving their cases, Cordelia's growing accuracy and efficiency as an administrator, her importance as a founding member, and more, without making her an emissary for the Powers That Be—a move which completely overshot the mark and overrode the storyline for seasons three and four.

Speaking of which, the entire first part of season four retreads old ground. Back in first-run, Angel was a weekly TV series which had just returned from an extended break between seasons, so it's understandable as a limitation of the format, but it is also just another example of having little for Cordelia or Connor to do, yet still having them around as centerpieces for a story the show literally just told.

Angel had way too much focus on interpersonal relationships at this time in the series, no matter who was involved. And all of the relationships were rather faulty ones to begin with, ensuring future troubles. Because Angel liked to traverse dimensions, this focus on two-shot relationships may have come down to budgetary concerns, but it was still anticlimactic for a show that liked to traverse dimensions. They should have done less with the character development and everyone's character arc and focused on wrapping-up the plotlines quicker.

 

The Return of Angelus

The literal forced return of Angelus was another unnecessary distraction possibly meant to stretch a season already thin on plot and heavy on forced (in this case, literally forced) character development. With a cast as large as Angel had, that resulted in a lot of forced character development. And all the old characters returned, from Lila to Wesley, who all had their moment in the spotlight. Hell, even Faith made a return appearance and this is all just by episode 13!

There were so many callbacks this season that one has to wonder if the producers thought it was their last one. 

This covers the last few episodes of season three through the 13^th episode of season four.

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