Review of Darla

I gave you eternal life. Now it's time for you to return the favor - This is exactly the reason why I think that 'Tim Minear' was by far the best writer/director of ANGEL. He wrote the only flawless ANGEL/BTVS crossover. The first hour is called 'Fool For Love', it's the 7th episode of BTVS' 5th season, he made me love 'Spike' even for just 45 minutes. His second hour was even better, 'Darla' brought out the best performance of Julie Benz that i've seen. What I most love about these two episodes are the repeated scenes that you'll only get after watching both episodes. Most notable is when 'Darla', 'Angelus' and 'Dru' are talking about vamping someone for 'Dru', then 'William/Spike' bumps into them which leads 'Dru' to turn him, in the 'Fool For Love' episode you only see him bump into some people and later getting vamped by 'Dru', on the 'Darla' episode you only see those three talking about turning someone. Another thing I loved was that both flashbacks and the normal scenes were both spectacular, while the flashbacks are usually a lot more memorable. The most important flashbacks are the ones where 'Darla' gets vamped by 'The Matser' and when she leaves him with 'Angelus', although 'The Master' didn't seem to be fond of 'Angelus' while he seemed to be fond him him during the first BTVS season. The normal scenes were also just as brilliant, I loved the scene where 'Darla' asks 'Lindsey' what they brought back and when she kisses and bites him, that scene alone made me a 'Dinsey' shipper for more than a year. Also loved the scene where 'Darla' calls 'Angel' and he can hear her heart beat through the phone. But the most powerful scene was probably the last one with the flashback and normal scene put together, in the flashback 'Darla' wants 'Angel' to eat a baby but he can't and flees with it, in the normal scene 'Darla' begs 'Angel' to turn her back into a vampire but 'Angel' refused. This whole episode is just a huge masterpiece, it makes me wish that the show only had Darla-centric episodes. DARLA: Now do you know what we've become? LINDSEY: Enemies. DARLA: Oh no. Much worse. Now we're soulmates. (10 out of 10)