Okay y'alls, I gotta be odd man out. I couldn't really decide on some of em, so I've A.) put some eps together, and B.) came up with a list of Fifteen. In no particular order:
Home Charlie in the Chocolate Factory, Wesley genuinely saying goodbye to Lilah, and The final moment when Connor has peace of mind and a new start. My list couldn't be complete without this one.
Smile Time Puppet Angel beating the hell outta Spike, need I say more?
Disharmony Okay, fun ep all around. Harmony at her best. I'm sorry, but she was just a bit too annoying for my taste in all of S5, this is the purest essence of Harm.
Fredless I had to include this one, it's just so much fun! Plus the whole Angel/Buffy reinactment at the beginning!
Hellbound As messed up an ep this one is, it really shows (even more so than what was on Buffy) some of the more depth's of James' talent. Plus it was genuinely scary, one of the scariest eps I've seen.
Soulless Love the whole "Silence of the Lambs" homage in this ep. Plus, a Hobbit (Sean Astin, "Sam" LOTR) directed it, pretty cool, eh?
Spin the Bottle Okay, where to start. Everyone was completely hysterical (except for Gunn, he was kinda just... well, himself). We get to see Wesley act like a complete idiot again, The whole thing with Angel and the masturbation analogy (where he's in the bathroom switching from vamp to human guises and it's making that all too familiar squeaking noise, Brilliant!) and who could forget Fred's endless search for Weed?
5 x 5; Sanctuary Faith in her darkest hours, and Angel pulling her from the abyss. You can't have one on the list without the other, of course. The shining moment of these two is when Faith is hitting Angel and the music rises and disappears and all we hear are the rain and her tears. Beautiful.
Damage Okay, who didn't gasp when Spike raised his new non hands. And his plea to Dana, I started to cry, really started to cry and cried all the way thru to when there is that brief shining moment between Angel and Spike. "She's a victim." "We were too, once upon a time."
Oh... and of course, Andrew and his tale of the VamPyrs.
Why We Fight Okay, first of all, I'm a sucker for the flashback eps. I love digging deep into the mythology and seeing how these characters evolved into what they are today. Second of all, I'm a sucker for anything WWII, especially pertaining to the German front, so this ep was an extra special treat for me. Plus, the message, is there as well, Why We Fight.
The Faith Trilogy: Salvage, Release, Orpheus Wonderful showing of Faith, once again. The scene where she's beating the shit outta Wes' shower, who cannot identify with that? You need to vent, sometimes, that's the way it goes. Oh please, like you've never gotten so pissed off that you just halled off and punched a wall. We all have, it's not just you. Plus, Willow on AtS, party bonus!
The Prodigal Like I said, I'm a sucker for flashback sequences. But this one is pretty close to me because A.) I've had to watch it numerous times and once I actually start working on Doorway some more, you'll understand why, plus we get to see the relationship between Angel and his own father and it kinda foreshadows events to come in the series.
In The Dark Spike's first appearance on Angel and not his last. I loved how it opened with the cheesy monologue (You see, I was once a bad ass Vampire, but love and a pesky curse defanged me. Now I'm just a big fluffy puppy with bad teeth. No, not the hair never the hair.) and how they went on and on about how scary and dangerous and what not Spike was, and from an Audience point of view it's like, Spike's not scary at all, he's kinda cute.
Best line:
Marcus: What do you want Angel?
Angel: “A house in the country, a pair of good running shoes that you can also wear out to dinner.”
Not Fade Away Do I really have to explain why?
Okay, there you have it. Sorry it was long, but that's what I've got. See ya in the Buffy Top 10 (yeah I got 15 of em too.)
Peace Love and Hobbit Songs, B