Review of Conviction

There is one thing more powerful than conviction. Just one. Mercy. - The last season opener is also the weakest, but it's still excellent on it's own. It has plenty going on but sadly some of it is negative. Watching this episode is like watching the pilot of a completely different show, a very good show, but not as good. In the credits, both 'Charisma Carpenter' and 'Vincent Kartheiser' are out and 'James Masters' takes over CC's spot which kinda sickens me to begin with. Luckily he appears at the end of the episode so I didn't have to sit through his constant b!tchin',.. yet. The rest of the cast also lost most of their character development during the last year, 'Fred' had turned into a pretty tough character but is now back to being an annoying geek and 'Knoxy' really doesn't help making her more interesting. 'Wesley' falls completely into the background, 'Lorne' is as useless as usual but nothing beats 'Gunn' becoming a lawyer, I think it was meant to be a good idea and it did change him, but sadly It turned his character into a bigger unbearable mess. I'm sounding pretty negative but I still liked this episode a lot, the dialog has plenty of memorable one-liners, I love how 'Angel' and 'Fred' kept turning around in the elevator and especially 'Angel' dealing with Wolfram & Heart which was an obvious confusing mess for him. 'Harmony's addition to the season was a good idea at first, I really enjoyed her intro and also liked 'Eve's introduction, the whole 'Eve-giving-Angel' an apple irony was not lost on me. What I liked most about the episode was the actually main story, with the gang having to keep an ass out of jail or else he would blow up his kid and expose a deadly virus, which hit 'Angel' hard as it reminded him of his own son. The way 'Angel' killed the main bad-soldier with his own weapon was also pretty damn neat. A pretty nifty episode that falls a little short compared to the other four. SPANKY: You know what I'm doing now? I'm applying pressure to your windpipe. You'll pass out, and then I'll let Mr. Fries decide if he wants you to wake up again. ANGEL: Do you know what I'm doing now? Not using my windpipe. SPANKY: Vampire. ANGEL: Capital "V." And there's something else you should know about me. I have no problem spanking men. (8.0 out of 10)