The best season of a stellar show, Jul 4 2004

The season picks up three months after the events of last season's finale: Cordelia is still on a higher plane of existence, Angel is still at the bottom of the ocean, Wesley is still sleeping with Lilah as she tries to recruit him to Wolfram and Hart, Connor is still seething with vengeance and hatred, and Fred and Gunn are still wondering where everybody went. Wesley is reintroduced into the fold after aiding in Angel's rescue, and the story arc of the season kicks off as Cordelia is finally "rescued" from the higher plane...with no memory. Her amnesia is eventually cleared up, but not until after she has slept with Connor. And then, the Beast rises.

Clawing his way to the surface of Los Angeles at the very spot where Connor was born, the Beast begins hunting the totems of the Ra-tet, five mystical beings linked to the sun god. He combines their essences to block out the sun, and the only discernible way to fight him is to unleash Angel's monstrous alter ego Angelus, who has a connection to the Beast. However, he escapes, prompting the release of Faith from prison and the mystical services of Willow. Eventually, however, one figures out that the Beast is simply a pawn in a much larger scheme, a scheme being perpetrated from within the Angel Investigations team. This scheme brings forth the season's true villain: Jasmine, a higher power whose goal is an end to war and suffering...at the expense of freedom of choice.

This season's story arc truly demonstrates that this is television that makes you think. The villains challenge your conceptions of good and evil, and you look at characters in entirely different ways because of some of the choices they make. Eventually, the season culminates in a choice, a choice that sets the stage for the excellent final season.

Angel Season 4 was not pretty. It was difficult to watch and difficult to handle, and was much, much darker than anything the show had ever done before. But it was good. My god, was it good. And now you can see it through the miracle of DVD.

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