Angel || 4x22 || Discussion

Poor Connor. First few watches i disliked him, he was written poorly for the majority of the time he was in the show. But as an adult, with my own very young sons, the entire connor story start to end breaks my heart. He was an innocent baby, who was loved and sadly, INCREDIBLY special… he was stolen and taken to an AWFUL hell dimension. Literal hell, as an infant! Just a few months old. Raised in lies, to feel hate, told his parents were disgusting and let him go… made to fight to survive, unable to have a real childhood at all… manipulated… he finds his way back to earth and its more pain, confusion, lies, manipulation… At the end here, his entire life is wiped and he is given a new life of love, security, family, support. All he never got to have. And we see he is a totally different person. Not because its not connor, but its what connor would have been if not for the 18-19yrs of trauma, hell and pain he endured and suffered… no amount of therapy and willingness would help connor. He would always be damaged psychologically and emotionally, he would always be in pain, always find it hard to love and trust (the thing he craves more than anything!) i think angel did the only thing he could do to save his son and give his son happiness, and the opportunity for happiness in the future - a future at all. Its heartbreaking in every sense. Angel has lost his one shot at being a father. No matter what he did, he kept losing. He agreed to take the wolfram hart deal in exchange for connor being happy, loved, safe… even without him 😭😭

Holi117

This could just be because I'm biased in favor of the show lol but I don't hate the Connor thing. You even mentioned him not comprehending his mother sacrificed herself for him... and then also Angel did nearly the same thing. He didn't give up his life but he gave up having Connor in his so that Connor could experience a better life. I think it makes sense that Connor would struggle to understand why they did this (even if he knew what Angel did and could see what had happened with Darla) because the kid was never raised around the concept of being lived. He was in a hell dimension with Holtz til he was pretty much an "adult"... could you imagine how utterly fucked your concept of love and accepting love would be after that 😳 Not to mention all the shit with Cordy and then his "daughter" who was going to be like the one good accomplishment of his life ending badly as well. My gosh. sadly also relate this to the real world... there are people in real life who struggle so much mentally and from so much trauma... can you really expect them to not lose it? To keep it together and

Amanda Huey

Same Connor, same...

John Alexander

The Lilah & Wesley stuff always gets me. I wish we'd seen more of their relationship (the signed dollar 😭)

Connor's ending is *both* kind of a cop out for the writers *and* a fitting end to his arc (especially Angel's arc with Connor).

They're big on drama at W&H

u know what, ur totally right about that! didnt fully see it as him sacrificing for his son, but it makes sense.

Alley Box

In my humble opinion.... lol, who am I kidding, my opinions are totally expert! :P

Hef

Saying the end of Connor's arc was a cop-out by the writers because they didn't know what to do with him sh!ts all over the sacrifice Angel made for the wellbeing of his only son.

Hef

The actor playing Knox is the same actor as Holden Webster, the psychology vampire from Conversations with Dead People

kelly mc

Yeah maybe it was a bit of a cop out from a writing perspective -- but the alternative would have been what -- have him kill himself? Then Angel spend a good chunk of season 5 in mourning? Or have Connor somehow brought back from that and then we spend season 5 dealing with more of his trauma? It's clear from this ep Season 5 goes in a wildly different direction and I don't think Connor would have fit into the new world they're in in any realistic way. I think Angel's choice makes sense for him as a character and I think taking Connor out of the group makes sense for the show from a writing perspective. Season 5 is wildly uneven, but has what are for me several of the best episodes in all of TV, ever, in it, and while I still have some grievances with it that can't be discussed until later, I cannot wait for you to get there!

Mary Kate

I can't get over the shot as they walk into W&H and like 250 people are just walking around like it's a shopping mall

Dusty

S4 may have its hiccups, but its got a pretty solid finale.

Shawn Skelton

It was definitely a cop out. Most viewers (myself included) hated Conner and show runners had to find a way to get rid of him.

Austin Silv

I'll take Connor's deal. Sounds good to me.

Andy

As problematic as this season can be (and that’s all been discussed plenty) I actually really enjoy this season and a major part of it is that last scene with them. The acting between David Boreanaz (heartbreaking) and Vincent Kartheiser (also heartbreaking) is some of the best of this show I think. But more beautifully tragic is how the last scene of this season perfectly bookends with the very first scene of the season: a family sitting together at the dinner table. Even the parallel of the toast (“To family.”) where in ep4x01 it’s Wesley who says it and now in the finale it’s Connor. It’s what Angel and Connor both needed and wanted with all their hearts. And this has been sprinkled throughout this season through Connor, like when he got so affected by the Svear family massacre, and in this episode where he gets so mad at that cop who was gonna kill himself and leave his family behind. In the end they were both fighting for family but unfortunately Angel came to realize that in order to give that to Connor he couldn’t be the father he needed. Ultimately, the same theme we’ve seen before in Buffy and even earlier in this season of Angel is that 'love is sacrifice'. And he literally had to kill his son in order to have him essentially be reborn to a new family and happy life. Also the ending music in this episode......so beautiful too, on par with the Buffy season 5 finale (interestingly titled ‘Sacrifice’).

Ariel17