Okay. I liked this episode. I did. And it was definitely the perfect timing for it. But I don’t always love when Angel goes totally comedic. My extensive (oh…I think I mean expensive) comedy training means I can usually guess the ‘ole bits before they happen. And something about them always seems cop-outty. I wish we’d actually seen whatever The Immortal was. Too much episode importance placed on something vague. (Well, the episode is really about Spike and Angel’s attitude toward Buffy so yes, you can make an argument that the Immortal doesn’t matter but still…whenever something isn’t shown it feels cheap.)

I did love Illyria coming back as Fred. I know they’re really, really trying to hit home that Fred is dead. This is not she. Your friend will not be coming back. But I need Illyria to somehow connect to Fred’s plot in order to feel like there’s a reason for her to be there and to feel closure to the concept of Fred, if not the character.

But there were a lot of great hat-tipping moments to Buffy. And it was first class to do that in the penultimate episode. Class.