the finale could have been a two-hour thing... but it was a great send off... and the "Your Friends at The WB" at the end... uh, my ass WB.

the ending was great.. I want more but then it just made me hate The WB a little more... actually a lot more.. I'll rewatch... now.

I liked how it ended. The little bit of uncertainty.

Also on a practical note - plenty of room to let anyone they want survive if they need to for a future series or TV movie - with only minor asspulls.

Having seen it I'm absolutely certain Lorne killed Lindsey on Angel's orders. The bitterness , the "one last thing", Angel knowing Lindsey was not coming back.

Lorne was always on Angels side because of friendship - not because he was deeply committed to good in the "good vs. evil " thing. But Lindsey was a friend too - obviously not as good a one as Angel, but a friend nonetheless. Yeah killing a friend for the cause would make anyone bitter - but especially Lorne. So totally against everything he is - and yet in character for him to do it under the circumstances. And hate himself, and hate Angel for it afterwords.

I've wept before for fictional characters. Wesley Windham-Price is the only one for whom I wept silently, hands over mouth to hold my heart in, knees pulled up to my chest....

I wish I could have been there with you , milady.

{{{{{{{{{{{{Andi}}}}}}}}}}}}}

t goes back to holding her hand in IM

Lindsay's death just slays me (and btw we've been given no reason to think that was Lorne's personal choice). How he was devastated to be reduced to a second string death-- he'd pinned everything on Angel, good or bad, and he was betrayed by him (but who wasn't?). I just loved that it was his last word. It sure as hell wasn't whatsherface.

It's not hopeless if they win.

Indeed, indeed.

For someone who claimed to have "pretty handwriting," Angel's signature on the Shanshu prophecy scroll was a nasty scrawl. Was he trying to fudge?

It's supposed to be a triumphant ending, one way or the other.

For some reason, these two quotes keep coming to mind:

"For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground

And tell sad stories of the death of kings;" (Richard II)

and (arguably more appropriately) this:

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;

Or close the wall up with our English dead.

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man

As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger;

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,

Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;

Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Let pry through the portage of the head

Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it

As fearfully as doth a galled rock

O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,

Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.

Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,

Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit

To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.

Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!

Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,

Have in these parts from morn till even fought

And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:

Dishonour not your mothers; now attest

That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.

Be copy now to men of grosser blood,

And teach them how to war. " (Henry V)

'Scuse the length of the post. But I could hear him as Henry V. Henry V won against terrible odds. Angel hasn't any such hope. But he fights the good fight nonetheless, and so the speech resonates.

Now I'm thinking:

SPIKE
Not exactly the St. Crispin's Day
speech, was it?

GILES
(sardonic agreement)
"We few..."

GILES/SPIKE
"we happy few…"

SPIKE
"We band of buggered..."

broken

didn't think I would be... but I am.

That was a heroic tale.

Buffy was a twisted/fracture fairy tale. the helpless tiny blond saves the day.

Angel was every western/police drama/space opera rolled up with just enough twists so you forgot which way you were looking. and it ends with the last stand.

I would be crying but the WB pissed me off.

Out, out brief candle!