Nothing much happened and yet everything moved forward. Love it.

Oh - I’m so glad they’re bringing Lindsey back. They kind of abandoned the storyline they were building to with him and his master plan. (That Doyle stuff is still weird.)

I love Eve in this episode. I like her as kind of bratty and petulant and then losing out on her own immortality. I also love the minor exchanges between she and Lindsey.

I don’t know how I feel about the suburban holding pen for the Senior Partners. It’s a touch hokey but that really is just what Angel does sometimes.

I ended up with so many points for catching the switcheroos this episode. “Lindsey is in some hideous…awful hell.” and “This place is a fortress.” It feels like at this point they’re going one crazy idea or concept after another but NOT in the Season Four way. It feels like a series of big reveals and exploring worlds but not like it doesn’t have a game plan. They asked the question “What would a Wolfram & Hart holding cell be like” and answered it in a surprising but sensical way. Big fan.

I loved Angel’s speech to Gunn. I thought he was going to pull that “You’re mad at yourself…you should be. I hate you.” thing that always gets pulled when someone is in a hospital bed after failing on Angel. But he didn’t. He took it a step farther. Angel really is finally becoming the leader Angel, Inc always needed him to be. So I loved Gunn choosing to stay behind, even if it’s not any kind of full-circle or arc-appropriate fate for him. At least it’s a big decision about this charectar and his story.

I love having Lindsey back but he hasn’t necessarily been used in a big way that pays off. His plan got foiled and then the information he provided about the senior partners wasn’t factually revealing so much as it was perspective altering.

Lorne’s line of “Stayed behind? But you never leave a— or…I guess we do. That’s what we do now.” Killed me. There’s definitely strong storylines on this show but there’s not a lot of emotional heart left. Prediction: if anything is going to break me at the end of this show it will be Wesley declaring absolute loyalty and trust in Angel at the lost moment or Lorne … doing probably anything.

This whole season I’ve been pretty split down the middle on the question of taking over Wolfram & Hart. Yeah, it’s taken them away from the front lines but it’s not like they did any good during Season Four (or - they did as much harm as good since they all played a major role in an apocalypse) and before that they helped, what, like one person per week? And sure, they’re shaking hands with devils but they’re also capable of accomplishing some things on larger scales. They’ve definitely used the resources they’ve been given. They’re using the system for good.

Lindsey’s speech was the first time that anyone called out that heroes DON’T use the system - heroes rebel against the system. That was the real compromise. Regardless of the net outcome of good versus evil, the hero doesn’t play the game. Gah. Awesome.