If Connor doesn't kill them all, I will.

Groo and Wes get to live.  The rest can all die ugly horrible deaths.

Why bother killing them when they'll make it an elaborate plot to frame someone else and spend the next five episodes going through shenanigans?

Someone wake me when Minear has unpacked his bags for Firefly and is ready to concentrate on the project at hand.

Can I live in your world?

Oh, Holtz did that on purpose, you think?  Not Justine?  Damn - I was kind of hoping he'd died all redeemed and crap.

Me, during the Cordelia-and-Connor glowathon:  "Kill him!  No, wait, actually, I like him fine.  Die, Cordy!"  <beat>  "Ah, magical weapon-dissolving white light.  Right.  Convenient, that."  <beat>  "Oh, for the love of God, magical psychic-trauma-healing white light?  Someone kill her!  Please!"

I actually liked the episode fine as long as Cordy wasn't on the screen.  Still very fond of Groo, glad that he's still alive, and hoping that he's going to exit the world of AI intact.  Curious about what they're going to do with Wes.  (Very relieved that they didn't go for the "and then Angel sees Wes and Lilah together!" scene.)  Angel managed to not be violently annoying.  I promised myself that if they got Angel back to a place where I didn't cringe every time he came on screen I'd try to put up with A/C, so wish me luck, folks.

Am I the only one who thought the title of this episode should have actually been "I Know My First Name is Stephen"?

I liked it.  Not too many surprises.  I was surprised when Stephen/Conner went for Cordy (obviously, I missed the previews last week) but figured that if Conner could run like the wind, he had also inherited Dad's ability to hear a pin drop six blocks away.  I don't consider myself genius level or anything so why didn't Fred and Gunn get a clue?  I liked Holtz framing Angel for his death.  Now that guy is brilliant.

Liked the Host snarking on Conner and reminding him that it was just last week that he was changing his diapers.  Hee.

And poor Groo.  That's what happens when they just love you for your body, honey.  Sooner or later they toss you aside for a dark, brooding, stupid bicenturian.

One of the things that gets me about this new path is the sheer genius of the casting. That kid actually looks like an interesting combination of Angel and Darla. His features are less heavy than Boreanaz and less cutesy-poo than Benz. It works for me. Also, I never noticed until they were stationary and facing each other but there is a certain resemblance between Angel and Holtz. I'm not trying to make any kind of implication, but it adds to the parallel thing.

I did a lot of hopeful thinking about it, and I can only conclude that Holtz set Angel up. Which kind of sucks because I wanted Holtz to be all redeemed, too. However, it was the best way for him to go out, because it was the most consistent thing for him to have done. I don't care how love for a son could have changed him. With everything we know of Holtz, there's no way he would have let Angel go unpunished. I'm still hopeful that ultimately things will work out between ANgel and Connor, though, because I like them together. They were like a really cool version of Batman and Robin without all the homoerotic overtones. However, Connor needs to reject the name that his back-stabbing adoptive father gave him (hello? he used you to get his revenge on your real dad), and go back to his birth name. Because Stephen doesn't really suit him. Although, come to think of it, if Lorne could say, "Hey-ho, Steverino" before that happens that would be cool also.

Cordy. Whatever. You don't deserve Groo. Go involve yourself in some tortured and doomed love affair with a man who can't actually completely love you back. Hope you've enjoyed all the sex, because that way lies dry spell. Maybe Groo could go be a lifeguard on a beach. That would be a perfect job for him. Life saving, a nice view, a chance to flex his manly arms. Maybe he could find a nice, uncomplicated girl to rescue. One who doesn't glow, or drape herself over her boss's bed.

Go away, Fred. And let someone else talk once in a while. Apparently, Fred speaks for everyone now.  (Although, it is nice to see that Fred speaks for all of us dirty old women who find Connor "hot.")

The episode wasn't bad. Transitional, but not bad at all. Great fight scenes.

Well, apparently they're not very bright.  I thought the same thing.  "Uh, guys?  Guys, he's supernatural.  Did you notice that bit?  Maybe you shouldn't be talking about this without whispering... oh.  Never mind then."


Snerk.  Though I have utmost confidence that they'll find a way around the curse, sigh.

Incidentally, Tim posted over on Worldcrossing and said that VK's screen test will be part of the S3 DVDs.  Which the US should see any decade now, of course, but still, interesting.

It's just secrets and lies and betrayal all over the place. It took me quite a while to wrap my brain around just what Holtz was trying to accomplish. I guess it's hard to reconcile the fact that I truly believe he has a love for Connor with his willingness to use him for vengence. Nor am I sure how he planned to accomplish this without Justine's help. Unless he contacted her. Or...maybe it's a plan he came up with after seeing Justine in the nightclub when he followed Angel and Connor and saw their burgeoning closeness. Born of fear that Angel could once again take away his family.

Still, despite the brevity of their scenes, Groo and Wes stole the show for me. I don't know who he'd be discussing it with but I'd really love to know what Wes's feelings are knowing that Connor's back - even if he's a little more grown up than when he left.

I don't even want to talk about Cordelia's glowiness or hair but someone really needs to tell her esthetican that eyebrows aren't supposed to rise to a point.

Wesley probably thinks that AI successfully retrieved Connor rather than that he found his way out on his own.

RE Holtz:  I think he did love Connor.  I think he was essentially telling the truth when he said he wasn't really all that interested in vengeance anymore.  I also think he was afraid of what Connor might be, and wanted to isolate him from Angel's influence as thoroughly as possible.

Twisted, and I'm sure there was still a glimmer of satisfaction, but in a way I really think Holtz was trying to protect Connor.

I enjoyed the episode until the very end when Connor saw Holtz with what he thought were Angel bite marks.  It just made me cringe because it was so obviously coming, and it means more of this angsty, let's kill pop stuff.

I'll still remain in the tiny camp that likes Cordy's hair.

I must have gotten the best of all possible versions of this ep, because my tape totally skipped over all this glowy-Cordy nonsense.  I can't believe how much I want her to die.  I do like her hair though, especially now that it's got some body to it.  It's the color that makes me want to cry.

Otherwise, I really liked this episode.  Nothing about it shocked me, but I liked that Holtz was doing what he was doing out of twisted love, rather than twisted hate.  I even thought the scene with Justine and Holtz where she kills him was kind of effective.  And I loved Angel and Connor sparring in the alley.  They've totally sold me on that kid.  Hey, does anyone else think he looks a bit like Professor Creepy on Dawson's?  Something in the nose and the profile.

Mark Lutz continues to do more with Groo than this show even deserves.  I totally adore him.  I like Cary too.  And I awwed big time with Wes burnt his wittle hand on the tv dinner.  That man needs a girlfriend to take his mind off of the horror of his life.  Any volunteers?

Sorry, I'm not on board with that until he gets over this whole flirtation with evil thing that I think he's heading for.  (Note:  unspoiled.  And I know what eej is going to say, and yes, I agree, but they've only got one episode left in the season.  What are they going to do to have Something Happen with Wes other than have him take a fall?)

Man, now even the segues are being mean to Wesley. “He has to come back. He’s family.” And then Ye Ole Poor Wes, trying to eat a TV dinner. Why is it that whenever the writers want to signify Wesley’s desolation, they turn to a TV-related prop? Not that it’s not effective… and, um, I’ve eaten that brand of TV dinner pretty much every night for a decade. What are they trying to say?

Did you see Connor being horrified by Cordelia’s haircut? He so was. It’s worse than it was before — Mary Lou Retton meets a pro golfer. And when Groo is the deep one in your relationship, it’s time to worry.

Screen tests on the DVDs? That’s even worse taunting than most of these episodes.

Like kmm, I thought that Lilah (or the writer) was setting up Angel to see Lilah and Wesley together… so relieved it was Wesley seeing Angel with Connor instead. We don’t need another heap of undeserved guilt ladled over Wes’ bony shoulders. And this provides a nice opening for Wesley to think, “If the kid is returned and healthy, where the fuck is my welcome-back crumpet basket?”

Mj, so glad to find another fan of l’ouvre de Corin Nemec. I thought that last week, too. Hee.

Vampire hearing. Wicked. That was a cool scene. But Connor’s going to get fat eating that modern diet, just like those Frontier House people when they got back to the 21st century.

Holtz is evil? Say it isn’t so. I’m shocked, shocked, I tells ya. You guys are way more generous with him than I am: it seems to me that the “love love love” speech was all bull that he used to manipulate Angel, that the letter served the same purpose, and that everything he did was out of hate and vengeance, same as always. It was a good twist, but I’m still sort of fed up and glad he’s dead. Didn’t Darla pull the exact same trick on Angel with Buffy and Joyce back in Season One?