EPISODE 4.07

APOCALYPSE NOWISH

(AKA: Reign of Fire)

Written by:  Steven S. DeKnight

Directed by: Verne Gillum

Signs and Portents

I have referred previously to a technique that ME writers use in structuring some episodes.   They create two storylines within the episode.  At first sight these storylines are quite separate but the writers use the parallels or contrasts between them to point in a certain direction, thus creating the theme of the episode.  In “Apocalypse Nowish” - a much better title then the insipid “Reign of Fire” - we can quite clearly see this technique in practice.  Running throughout the episode is an awareness of the impending Apocalypse.  First we have the reminders of Cordelia’s visions.  Lorne mentions the

“thing-a-ma-bad that Wolfram and Hart sucked outta my noggin.”

And then Cordelia herself refers to them:

Cordelia: “Every time I close my eyes, I...”

Connor: “What?”

Cordelia: “See it. Something horrible moving deep down, clawing it's way up.”

Connor: “Just a dream.”

Cordelia: “I can taste the blood of all the people it's going to kill, smell the burning flesh.”

But this is just the starting point.  Every self-respecting Apocalypse must be preceded by signs and portents – indications that something out of the ordinary is about to happen.  And throughout this episode we see just such portents arriving with increasing frequency and ugliness.  So, first we have what initially seems a routine enough call about strange noises in some pipes in a bathroom.  But when Gunn and Fred investigate the bathroom, the mirrored medicine cabinet breaks above the sink, revealing rats. Then suddenly the vermin are everywhere - in the cabinet, coming up through the drain, in the tub and on the floor.  The numbers and speed with which they appear clearly show that this is no natural phenomenon and even Gunn and Fred are intimidated enough to flee.  In this too there is a warning.  When they first arrive Gunn in particular is full of confidence:

“Yep, Casper's dealing with the big boys now. We're very persuasive.”

And yet, in the end, they admit defeat.  If two members of Angel Investigations cannot even cope with the portent of the arrival of a creature simply known as "the Beast", what hope do they and all the others have in dealing with the real thing?

But Fred and Gunn’s little adventure is only the start as calls come into the Hyperion about all sorts of strange phenomena from the appearance of abnormal snakes to flights of birds crashing into the windows of the hotel itself.  Eventually the portents arrive in such numbers that Lorne gives up on them altogether.

Then there is the reaction of Wolfram and Hart to the strange happenings of the day.  Even they are caught by surprise by the portents although they have no doubt as to their meaning 

Lilah : ”A 300% increase? In the last hour? Uh-huh. Oh, ya think? Well, don't. Just shut up. Get me an incident report cross-referenced by region, socio-economic backgrounds, and species. Oh, and get Gavin up here. Somebody's trying to muscle in on our apocalypse and that is not gonna happen while…”

And all of these phenomena do indeed lead up to the arrival of the Beast and the significance of that arrival is soon made clear.   From the information obtained by Wolfram and Hart from Lorne’s head, our little band reconstruct the symbol of fire and destruction.  The focal point of this symbol lies, not where the Beast himself appears, but rather in a place called the Kimball building.  It is what occurs here, and not the mere arrival of the Beast himself, that provides the climax to "Apocalypse Nowish".  This is shown by the timing of the most powerful of the portents – the earthquake.  This only occurs after the Beast breaks through the surface but before he has accomplished his first task at the Kimball building.  So, it's a portent not of his arrival but of that event.  Angel Investigations arrives at the building only to find that the Beast has slaughtered a lot of people and arranged them into a formation which reflects the fire symbol – a square with the cross-arms of an “X” bisecting each corner. Then, after comprehensively defeating the best that Angel, Gunn, or Wesley can throw at him, the Beast summons a column of flames from which a veritable rain of fire, or perhaps that should be reign of fire, descends.  The Apocalypse has apparently begun.

Coming Apart – Gunn and Fred

If this is one of the two storylines then what is the other?  In the preceding few episodes, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”,  “Supersymmetry” and “Spin the Bottle”, the writers have spent a lot of time on characterization.  We have seen them set up the Angel – Cordelia - Connor triangle and build further upon the separate Wesley – Fred – Gunn triangle.  There are undeniably soap opera elements to these relationships.  But they are rather more important than that.  And in this episode we see the potential significance of these triangles for the development of this season’s arc. 

For Fred and Gunn the slow disintegration of their relationship continues.  When they arrive at the house with the strange noises the tension between them is already evident.  The bathroom so impresses Gunn that he allows himself to wonder out loud:

Gunn: “It's the kind of place I imagine us moving into one day.”

Fred: “Yeah. “

Gunn: “Well, I'm not saying tomorrow.”

 Fred: “I know, I…”

 Gunn: “Just, be nice one day. That’s all.”

When even such inconsequential musing produce that kind of awkwardness, something is wrong.  And this feeling is reinforced by what starts out as an even more inconsequential comment:

Fred: “I'm gonna take a long bath and scrub 'til my skin stops twitching.”

Gunn: “Can we have bubbles?”

Gunn: “I was kinda looking forward to a quiet soak alone.”

As far as Gunn is concerned he wants the relationship to continue, as far as possible in the way that it had before Professor Seidel’s death.  What Fred is saying in no uncertain terms is that is cannot.  She is not prepared to make any assumptions about their future together and it is clear that anything that reminds her of the physical intimacy they previously enjoyed makes her deeply uncomfortable.  She feels that something has changed between them and that something is all too obvious:

Gunn: “We don't talk. We sleep on opposite sides of the bed. We haven't even touched each other since…”

Fred: “Since we murdered Professor Seidel.

Gunn: “No, since I did.”

Fred: “For me.”

Gunn: “I couldn't let you carry that.”

Fred: “It wasn't your choice.”

Gunn: “Fred, it's not who you are. It isn't in your heart.”

Fred: “But it's in yours?”

Gunn: “It is now.”

Fred: “I'm sorry.”

Fred still cares about Gunn and doesn’t want to hurt him.  She also feels responsible for his actions.  Hence her apology at the end.  But she knows that killing Professor Seidel was wrong and she cannot overlook Gunn’s part in that.  She tried to shut him out from her plan in “Supersymmetry” because she thought that murder was not in his heart.  But not only did he arrogate to himself the choice of Professor Seidel’s fate, he made a choice that, in her eyes, made him a different person to the one she thought he was.  Her “it’s in yours” was less of a question and more of an accusation.

What she now sees she does not like and doesn’t think that she can cope with.  But at the same time her feeling for Gunn and her feelings of responsibility for his actions will not let her simply walk away.  That is why we see her at the diner where they used to share romantic moments (the waitress obviously recognized her and remembered him).  She is alone and unwilling to talk to him so to that extent is separated from him.  She is unwilling to commit to a future together but  cannot separate herself from their past.  She can, therefore, do neither one thing nor the other – break up nor reconcile.

Wesley and Lilah

Wesley too is confused.  He is clearly attracted to Lilah.  But she knows that deep inside him there is a yearning for someone else.  So, partly to tease him, partly to test how strong his feelings for Fred are but also partly as a desperate attempt to get his attention, Lilah does a more than passable impersonation of the Texan nerd:

Lilah: “ Did it turn you on? Watching her up there in front of all those braniacs knowing she was the smartest one in the room?”

Wesley: “Her theories deserve attention.”

Lilah: “Just her theories? I saw the way you looked at her. Oh, come on. Do you think I care about your little crush? Moon all you want of the Texas twig 'cause I know whose bed you'll be crawling into at the end of the day Or the middle of it.”

To me this has an air of bravado about it rather than the ring of real confidence.  But in any event the truth is soon revealed.   When she tries to remove her glasses, Wesley stops her.  When confronted by the choice between Lilah herself and even a faux Fred he seems to prefer the latter.  From Lilah's point of view that’s not good.  From the point of view of the brittle relationship between Fred and Gunn, it’s even worse.  We have already seen the suspicions that Gunn harbors on the point.  Then Wesley turns up at the hotel for no apparent reason

            Gunn: “Fred's not here.”

Wesley: “Didn't ask. “

Gunn: “Didn't have to.”

A few words here convey a wealth of meaning with challenge being laid down and accepted.  Gunn knows that Wesley is a threat, Wesley knows that he knows and neither are about to back down.  The question is: what comes next?
 

Angel, Cordelia and Connor

But the travails of Fred, Gunn and Wesley are only straws in the wind compared with the real signs of coming trouble.  These are to be found in the increasingly complex relationship between Angel, Cordelia and Connor.

The ending of “Spin the Bottle” was a nice mirror image of its teaser.  There, Cordelia had asked Angel about their feelings for one another.  It’s worth reproducing this exchange in its entirety:

Cordelia: "Were we in love?"

Angel: "Mmm."

Cordelia: "Were we?"

Angel: "What?"

Cordelia: "In love?"

Angel: "With each other?"

Cordelia: "Mister, if you start giving me the run around..."

Angel stands up: "I'm not. I'm not."

Cordelia: "Then tell me the truth!"

Angel: "I don't know."

Cordelia: "You don't know?"

Angel: "Well, I'm not sure."

Cordelia: "Now, I kind of think that's the sort of thing I'd remember. Hey! Maybe you wrote it down somewhere. A note on the fridge maybe?"

Angel: "I had feelings for you. I thought that maybe you... But you never told me. You asked me to meet you - to talk and - I never saw you again."

It’s seems to me that Angel was pretty clear about his own feelings for Cordelia from “Waiting in the Wings”.  What he was far from clear about was Cordelia’s feelings for him.  Of course for Angel it was how Cordelia felt that mattered.  So, initially he deferred to Groo, even going so far as to procure the means for him and Cordelia to “cum-shuk”.   He also paid for them to have a vacation together.  It was only when Cordelia called that he came running.  It is noticeable that, when Angel was asked whether “they” were in love, his answer focuses on how Cordelia felt.  He doesn’t know whether “they” were in love because he didn’t know how Cordelia felt.  There is a very telling contrast with Cordelia’s own attitude: saying that whether they were in love was the sort of thing she would remember.   This implies that the important thing was how she felt about it.

But this was the amnesiac Cordelia.  Let us fast forward to the end of the episode when she had recovered her memory:

Cordelia: "I remember all of it.  All of it. And I have to be alone. Please? For a while. It…it's too... I..."

Angel: "Cordelia? Were we in love?"

Cordelia:  "We were." 

This time it’s Angel asking and Cordelia answering.  This time the answer is definite.  And, as implied by the teaser, this time it is Cordelia recounting her feelings rather than Angel’s.  After all she was in no better a position to speak for Angel than he was to speak for her.  But here we have in a nutshell the central dynamic between the two of them.  Cordelia sets her own agenda and he follows it.  At the beginning of "Apocalypse Nowish", Lorne is trying to persuade him to at least talk to Cordelia but he will hear none of it:

Lorne: “But she got her memory back. Aren't you a weensy curious if Cordy remembers anything about her little stint as a Miss Higher Power. Oh, say, maybe something about the thing-a-ma-bad that Wolfram and Hart sucked outta my noggin.”

Angel: “We need to give her time to adjust before we start coming at her with a million questions.”

Translation: Cordelia told Angel to leave her alone and he was doing just that – against it has to be said all logic and common sense.  As we have just seen, Lorne’s concern here wasn’t remotely sentimental.   True he had always been sympathetic to the Angel/Cordelia relationship but that was not why he was badgering our "Champion".  There was very good reason indeed for Angel to talk to Cordelia now that she had regained her memory and the fact that he was refusing to do so indicates the severity of the personal demons now haunting him.  As I have already said, he knew his own mind on the subject of Cordelia.  What he didn’t know was her attitude to him.  The indication from her that they “were” in love seemed simultaneously to give him hope and suggest he had none.  Clearly he did not want to take the matter beyond those few ambiguous words, to find out why Cordelia had expressed herself in the past tense and why she had seemed so downcast about it.  And it obviously never occurred to him that he could do something to resolve the issue himself, that if he found out what Cordelia meant he could do something to change her attitude.  So, his fear paralyzed him both in this personal sense and in the sense that it led him to ignore what was plainly the right thing to do in helping to prevent the threatened Apocalypse.

And this impression is confirmed by the way in which they are brought together and what happens when they do meet.  At first when Connor asks Angel to visit Cordelia he is reluctant to do so.  But what changes his mind is obviously the news of the way the visions are affecting her.  It is therefore concern for her well being that brings Angel to her.  Even so he is reluctant to engage fully with her on a personal level:

Cordelia: “Oh, Angel... I love you. I always will. You know that.”

Angel: “I don't suppose we could stop there.”

It was Cordelia herself who forced the issue:

“When I was up there, I could look back and see everything you ever did as Angelus—more than see, I felt it. Not just their fear and pain. I felt you and how much you enjoyed making them suffer. I love you, Angel, but I can't be with you. It's just too soon. Maybe if we just give it a little time...”

And it was also Cordelia, or rather the vision that she had, that forced Angel to concentrate on the Beast and its arrival.  Up until that point he had been uncertain, indecisive.  But once he was given a clear task to perform, then things changed.  He went to the right place to obtain the information he needed, he got that information, assembled the team he needed to make use of it and then went out to challenge the Beast in the best way he knew how.  The problem was, of course, that even after giving it his best shot Angel still ended up on the receiving end – battered, bruised and helpless as he watched what must have seemed like the end of the world.  Of course, by that stage he was only dimly conscious of the Rain of Fire because it is clear that, unfolding in front of his eyes, was what must have seemed to him to be an even greater catastrophe.  Not only that but it was also an even greater indication of his own worthlessness.  Having been told by the woman he loved to get lost because she was frightened of the demon within him, having then been thrown about like some rag doll by the Beast, he now sees Cordelia having sex with his own son.  Is there anything more calculated to make a man feel inadequate?  Not only inadequate but also alone.  When facing defeat by the Beast where did Angel go – to Cordelia, not to try to regroup with Wesley, Gunn or Lorne. Now he must therefore feel separated from the two people closest to him who are now united in betraying him.

Connor too feels alone.  When Connor lost Holtz he lost the only real family he had ever know.  Justine too had lied to him and ultimately betrayed him.   As we saw in “Spin the Bottle” Connor sees his real father as a self-righteous bastard who has done his fair share of sinning but assumes an air of moral superiority with him.  And the way we see him bulldoze his path through the streets  in the opening shot of him in that episode shows how isolated he is in LA.  But perhaps above all, there is a sense of being patronized and unappreciated just because he is a kid.   And it is in these feelings that we see the motivating force for Connor’s actions.  We first see him bringing Cordelia something to eat.  In this action – and indeed in the choice of food – we see a reflection of the way he brought food to Holtz when he first arrived from Quortoth.  And yes, I know that this was all part of Cordelia’s dream.  But nothing suggests that this dream isn’t a faithful reflection of the real relationship between the two of them.  So when he hands Cordelia some junk food what we are seeing is Connor’s inexperienced but sincere way of trying to help:

Connor: “Chocodiles. And some other stuff.”

Cordelia: “What?”

Connor: “Thought you might be hungry. Want something else? I could—“

Cordelia: “No. These are great.”

Connor had been paying attention and he had learned what Cordelia liked, even if it wasn’t what was actually good for her.  And that’s not all.  When Cordelia expresses her appreciation, it’s for more than just the food:

“Thank you for...God, thanks for everything. I don't know what I would have done without you, Connor.”

And the extent to which he is genuinely thinking about her is amply demonstrated by the fact that Connor goes to Angel and asks him to help her.  And let’s just consider how much of a sacrifice that was for him, given how much resentment he feels for his father and the fact that he already sees the two of them as rivals over her.  So it’s hardly a surprise when Connor gets very protective of Cordelia, following her as she searched for the Beast and trying to save her from it, no matter what it cost him.  As he says himself:

Connor: “Because you're important.”

Cordelia: “Oh, yeah. The world's really stopped turning without me.”

Connor: “Well... you're important to me.”

Cordelia is important to him partly because he is attracted to her, partly because she was once kind to him but mainly because she is someone with whom he has forged a personal connection, unlike any he has ever had.  We may surmise that Holtz and he didn’t have a normal father/son relationship and his relationship with Angel certainly isn’t going well.  So he brings her food, he looks after her and he protects her.  This is all about Cordelia. For Connor this has nothing to do with mission or preventing the Apocalypse or anything else.  He doesn’t go looking for the Beast.  He finds it simply because he is following Cordelia.  He doesn’t fight the Beast for any other reason than to protect her:

“All I know is that that thing can hurt you, and if it tries again, I will find a way to kill it.”

Now it will be readily apparent from the forgoing that the central figure in all of this is Cordelia.  She told Angel that she loved him and then ran away from him.  When he eventually did speak to her, she was initially encouraging:

Cordelia: “How do you do that?”

Angel: “What?”

Cordelia: “Make everything feel like it's not spiraling apart.”

Then, she explained her actions by reminding him of the subject that he was most sensitive about – his vampire past.  She effectively told him that she could not come to terms with the evil inside him.  So while her words encourage him, her actions only serve to increase his sense of worthlessness.  And as I have already said these actions culminate in the scene in which Angel is confronted simultaneously by his failure as a Champion (still hate that word though) and as, for want of a better word, a man.  As the skies turn red he watches as Cordelia and Connor have sex.

With Connor too she is always encouraging:

“Getting pretty good with saying the right words, too.”

But she was the one who put the idea into his head that he had a connection with the Beast:

Connor: “What if that thing is…chose the place where I was born. Is that why it's here - because of me?”

Cordelia: “No”

Connor: “I was never supposed to happen. The child of two vampires. What if…”

Significantly it is at this moment, when Connor’s feelings of isolation and uncertainty are at their height that Cordelia makes her move:

Cordelia: “Connor, it’s not you.”

Connor: “You don’t know that.”

Cordelia: “Yes I do. In my heart. It's not you, baby. It's not you. Not you.”

Connor: “Why?  Why do you…?”

Cordelia: “Because I don't think it matters anymore. I know how you feel about me, Connor. When I think about what you've…never had a childhood, or a family or friends or anything that's real, and if this is the end, I want you to have something that is.”

For Connor of course Cordelia here hit exactly the right note.  She tapped into not only his own attraction to her but more importantly his feelings of isolation, of not having a connection to someone.  And having just planted in his mind the idea that he might in some way be connected to the Beast, that human connection becomes all the more important to Connor.  So what she has done is to further cement the connection between the two of them. But at the same time she has driven a wedge between both herself and Connor on the one hand and Angel on the other.   

Through A Glass Darkly

It seems almost too obvious to say that all of these actions will have consequences.  The writers have spent too much time and trouble creating the various points of conflict for it to be otherwise.  So half the pleasure lies in simply watching the slow build up and half lies in waiting for the pay-off and trying to guess what that pay-off will be.  And in this context I have to say how much I appreciate the attention that the writers have paid to the continuity.  Everything that happens here has been clearly foreshadowed in the glimpse that they gave us of our principals in earlier episodes, especially "Spin the Bottle".  There we see how Fred might come to idealize Gunn.   But at the same time her strong sense of right and wrong meant that she had a hard time handling her feelings for him when he disappointed her by falling short of her ideals.  Gunn's sense of insecurity also means that he would be only too sensitive to any suggestion that she no longer loved him.  And we can also see how his and Wesley's equally strong insecurities rubbed off against one another, especially over Fred.  And Angel's sense in "Apocalypse Nowish" of being a helpless victim at the hands of others also echoes his state of mind in "Spin the Bottle" while Connor's resentment, isolation and growing attraction to Cordelia are also strongly features in both this and the earlier episode.  Finally too in "Spin the Bottle" we see a Cordelia who has, in contrast to the others, is sufficiently self-possessed and self-confident to drive the agenda rather than being buffeted about by others.

It is  in  these feelings of jealousy, resentment and insecurity that we see the parallels between the portents of the coming Apocalypse and  the apparent disintegration of Angel Investigations.   The portents themselves are ugly but more significantly  they point to the coming apocalypse.  And in understanding that we also see that

are themselves all portents.  They point towards problems within Angel Investigations that will in some important way play their own part in the coming Apocalypse.  They make it clear that this will not be simply a battle between Angel Investigations and a powerful outside force.  The real battle will be for the soul of Angel Investigations itself and, if the enemy is to be defeated, that battle must be won first.  And not only is that structurally neat and clever; it places the emphasis where it must always be in an ANGEL episode.  I have said it before but I make no apologies for repeating it here.  Meeting the external threat merely gives us the context in which we can explore the internal dynamics of the team.  Thus, ANGEL is first and foremost a character driven series where ultimately a character's actions are determined by something in his or her history or psychology.  That is not to say that, where the motivating force comes from an external source, you necessarily have poor drama.  But the subtleties and outright contradictions of human psychology renders the drama more complex and more unpredictable and therefore inherently more interesting.  So following the way in which Angel and the others struggle with their internal demons will, I think, be ultimately more satisfying than watching them struggle with the Beast.

Having said that, however, there are certain aspects of the writers' set up of these internal struggles that have left me somewhat concerned.  First of all I am apprehensive about the overtly soap opera feel to what we are witnessing.  Seeing people fall out because of mutual jealousies doesn't seem to me to be a particularly compelling characterization.  But more than that, as I have already said, the overarching theme of ANGEL seems to me to be the need for him to connect to the world.  And to an extent this involves developing human relationships.  And naturally this would include romantic relationships.  But  Angel is not intended to develop his connection with other human beings just for his own personal fulfilment.  He is seeking redemption by helping others.  He is intended to make those connections as a way of making him more fully human and therefore better able to empathize with and help others.  But there is a degree of exclusivity about a romantic relationship that can actually interfere with helping others.  So, where the writers intrude such a relationship into a storyline they need to tread very carefully.   This is something they have not always done successfully.  As I tried to point out in my review of the episode,  "That Vision Thing" has a very different meaning depending on whether you think that Angel's personal commitment to Cordelia leads him to rescue Billy, even though he was warned of the dangers of doing so, or that in a situation where telling good from evil was very difficult, he did the right thing by helping someone in trouble.  And that is just one example of the way in which relationships can cloud an issue. But  in "That Vision Thing", even if you were to conclude that Angel saving Cordelia at the expense of releasing Billy was wrong, you can understand his motive and so you can accept the credibility of his actions.  For Angel or anyone else in the team to put jealousies over thwarted romantic feelings before preventing an Apocalypse, that is an altogether more problematic scenario.  Here there is something of a straw in the wind.   In one scene Lorne tries to make Angel talk to Cordelia because she might know something important that will help them fight the coming Apocalypse.  Angel's answer:

            "We need to give her time to adjust before we start coming at her with a million questions."

is frankly absurd.  By acting this way Angel is potentially sacrificing the lives of the people he is supposed to protect on the alter of his interest in Cordelia.  Importantly we see Lorne call him on this attitude.  But it is a worrying sign nonetheless.

Finally I have to comment on Cordelia.   She is the driving force behind the events which seem likely to created divisions between herself, Angela and Connor.  So, if this set up is to be successful, we must find her actions credible and, frankly, I don't. She admits to Angel that she continues to love him.  But then, as we have already seen, she tells him of her recovered memories about Angelus and what he had done. And those memories seem to make a huge difference to her, so she tells him that they can't be together at least for the time being.  Now first of all her reasons here do not make a whole lot of sense.  She actually did experience Angelus at first hand - in Sunnydale.  And she has certainly experienced what other  vampires can do.  But she has always been able to distinguish between them and Angel. Why do her memories make such a difference now?  Moreover,  she doesn't actually leave Angel without hope.  She suggests that perhaps in the future everything can be all right.  But then she sleeps with Connor.  And the reasons that she gives for this are every bit as weak as the reasons she gave for breaking up with Angel. Feeling sorry for Connor is no sort of explanation for her actions.  It is almost as if she deliberately engineered the situation in order to come between father and son.  But that makes no sense.  Why would she want to do that?  And even if she did, there was no way she could ensure that Angel saw what happened between herself and Connor.  None of this makes any real sense.  Nor is it in character.  For someone as self-possessed and self-confident as Cordelia to act so thoughtlessly and indeed so inconsistently simply doesn't ring true.  And that is a real problem.   For what it is worth, however, early on in the episode, Connor enters the attic of the LA Natural History Museum to find Cordelia watching an old movie on TV.  He asks her what she is watching and she replies:

"Some old movie. Pod People or Mutant Pod Mushrooms or something, I don't know. I can't remember. I mean, I don't remember 'cause I was a kid when I saw it, so it's a little on the foggy, but natural fog."

Is this a hint that all is not right with Cordelia?  I wonder.

The Plot

But perhaps the best thing about the plotting of "Apocalypse Nowish" was the build up to the Apocalypse itself.  This works at two levels.  First of all there is the element of mystery.  Lorne had given the first warning of something bad coming in "Slouching Towards Bethlehem."  Now, at the beginning of this episode, what appears to be a perfectly normal conversation between Cordelia and Connor turns nasty as suddenly Connor rises and turns into a large red demon with giant horns who grabs her by the neck and says, "I know!"   This is our first sight of the Beast itself.  And his words here beg the question: what does the creature know and why is he telling this to Cordelia?  Later, Cordelia has another vision of the creature:

"Big, powerful, clawing its way up through the bowels of the earth to slaughter us all. Yeah, that pretty much covers it."

Only it doesn't because as she herself later admits:

There's something...I don't know. I think I know more about this thing...or, I knew more when I was all high and mighty, but I just can't get at it.

Clearly there is more to the Beast than simply being a big powerful killer.  And a good deal of our attention is focussed on trying to find out more about it.  There is then a very nice piece of continuity from "Slouching Through Bethlehem" when Angel goes to Wolfram and Hart and gets from them the information that they had deciphered from Lorne's memories.  But initially the ancient languages and symbols refuse to give up their secrets  until Gunn has a breakthrough. He pieces together the sheets that create a puzzle of a square with an "X" in the middle. Angel recognizes it as the "Eye of Fire" an ancient symbol of alchemy symbolizing fire and destruction. Lorne discovers that his mapping out of the portents that have been plaguing the city have also resulted in a square on a map of LA. This map reveals the focal point as the Kimball building and that is where Angel Investigations now go.  In the meantime the Beast itself has  appeared at the very same spot where Connor was born and there it and the teenager have a confrontation.  Interestingly, in spite of the fact that the Beast is clearly stronger than Connor, he flees from him, heading instead to the Kimball building  where he meets Angel and the others.  In the fight, the team is clearly overmatched but instead of killing them all the Beast asks Angel a cryptic question:

        "Do you really think she's safe with him?"

Then he punches the focal point of the human square and a giant fire appears taking the Beast with it. The team all watch the fire grow tall enough to reach the sky and open a portal that brings down a rain of fire onto Los Angeles.  At the moment we have, therefore, more questions than answers. 

Clearly there is a lot more to discover about the Beast and what his purpose is.  And that is a good thing because this drip feed of information about a season long arc is what keeps our interest in it alive.  But the story engages more than just our curiosity.  The element of mystery would not have worked nearly so well if it were not accompanied by the distinct feeling of menace because it is that feeling that suggests that the events we are watching are important.  And the thing that I liked best about the development of the Apocalypse was the way in which this feeling of danger was developed.   I have already referred to the early warning signs provided by Lorne's memories and Cordelia's dream.  But from that point on the momentum of the show was driven by the portents.  These started off slowly and were not too menacing.  But then, as the episode wore on they started to come more and more quickly and were more and more menacing and freakish.  This  lent the episode an air of approaching doom that I thought was very effective.  And of course the appearance of the Beast itself was a very powerful manifestation of that doom.  Physically he seemed just right, being both massive and almost stone like in its solidity.  It is not at all hard to believe that such a creature would have little difficulty in despatching the best that Angel Investigations can throw at it.  And indeed the final confrontation between them was beautifully choreographed.  And here I am not only referring to the fight but rather to the whole sequence in which the Beast kneels down on one knee, punching the floor at the center of a square of dead humans he had laid out, sending a trail of fire out along the arms of the “X” and forming a column of fire rising straight into the sky with the Beast ascending on it.  And this in turn leads on the very striking visual image of the reign of fire.  This was a very powerful symbol of the coming of the Apocalypse and the way in which the flames fell to earth all around Cordelia and Connor as they made love said everything.

My most serious criticism of the development of the plot is that it involves more than its fair share of characters acting stupidly or thoughtlessly, especially Cordelia.  I have already mentioned a number of issues here, including the fact that, while there is a potential Apocalypse pending, Angel won't talk to Cordelia about it because he wants to give her time.  And Cordelia for her part can't find the words to warn Angel about what she has seen in her vision.  This really makes no sense at all.  But worse than that Cordelia suddenly decides to head off on her own and find the Beast.   What did she think to accomplish by such an action?  She couldn't have hoped to defeat it on her own.  In fact, the only thing she did manage to do was to discover that the Beast broke out of the earth at the same spot in which Connor was born.  But having discovered this potentially important fact, she seems to be in no hurry at all to tell anyone else about it.  Nor is that all.  When Connor begins to suspect that the Beast might be in LA because of him, she says that she knows it isn't him:

            "Yes, I do. In my heart. It's not you, baby. It's not you. Not you."

Again this is a very odd statement to come from anyone, but especially from a woman whose hard, practical streak and instinct for self-preservation have been her hallmark since Sunnydale.

But worst of all was her seduction of Connor.  So, having admitted her love for Angel and then put (at least a temporary) end to his hopes because of his past, she then has sex with his son for really no good reason at all in the face of all the responsibilities to someone who was not only much younger, much less experienced but was also highly unstable and the son of the person she claimed to love.  "hard to believe" doesn't really cover this.

Overview (-A)

In many ways this episode is set-up for what is to follow.  As I have said before careful set-up is always good to see.  Proper set up helps ensure that a storyline works properly.  And here we see many rich possibilities for the internal divisions within Angel Investigations thwarting its members' attempts to combat an obviously powerful opponent.  These divisions revolve around the romantic relationships that have developed within Angel Investigations.  Normally that is something that doesn't really recommend itself to me.  But here the nature of the divisions seems driven by well established character flaws.  In particular we see Angel's insecurities and Connor's feelings of isolation.  There should therefore be some depth to our characters' actions and reactions. The most problematic part of "Apocalypse Nowish" is that Cordelia's actions are hard to account for.  She is behaving in an almost wilfully irresponsible and capricious way and I have difficulty accepting this as a credible characterisation.  But this aside, the episode sets-up the forthcoming arc in a way that was both entertaining and full of tension.  The questions are starting to come thick and fast but as yet there are few answers.  This season's arc promises a strong and deep mystery.  And a great deal of the power of this mystery lies in the sense that there is something big at stake.  And this was largely due to the well delivered build up of tension.  And at the very end the episode certainly pack a very considerable punch with on the one hand a defeated Angel Investigations licking their wounds and on the other Connor and Cordelia making love under the gaze of Angel while all about them the fire falls, portending who knows what doom.