It was heartbreaking, storywise, but my biggest thrill was watching AA's acting, being cheerful, standard Fred one second then whipsawing into calculating Illyria.

Mainly, though, it was that they took several possibilities with inherent, on-going conflict (Macqui vs. Federation on the same ship; re-humanized, de-hiveminded Borg) and did the least interesting things with them which resulted in draining all internal conflict (and, hence, the best potential for drama) from the show.

Wrod. Which is why IMO the real Voyager is the Talking Stick/Circle fanfiction cycle, which still reigns as my favorite fanfic ever, and among my favorite stories ever: [link]

Agree on the suckitude of the Angel/Spike/Buffy/Andrew storyline and the awesomeness of the Fred/Wes/Burkles storyline. That was really fun to type, what with all the slashes.

That was really fun to type, what with all the slashes.

Fred, Wes, & the Burkles? Aww, gross! Oh... you mean actual slashes. That's alright, I guess.

Well, Fred isn't really Fred. Illyria could participate for sure no problem.

Illyria could participate for sure no problem.

It might be a problem for the Burkles...

Hm. I was fine with the final scene between Illyria and Wesley, and I agree that Acker did a great job with all the shifts. If the Burkles hadn't been involved I could see it as a counterpoint to Spike & Angel's story, but since they were the only decent parents in the whole wide world, it seemed pointlessly callous.

And now I've been trying to say "Burkle Burkle Burkle." It's surprisingly difficult.

Oh, it's horrible TO the Burkles. They shouldn't cover up the heartlessness of not telling them about their daughter's death, but Angel's not there to take the moral high ground and let them know the truth.

Illyria's a demon. Wes is... well, end-of-season-five Wes was pretty scary, pretty crazy, not really the best person to expect good judgment from. His decision to go along with Illyria instead of exposing her had two purposes, I think: 1) he got to pretend, briefly, Fred was alive and 2) he got to research Illyria more. He didn't care about the Burkles.

But that didn't stop his pain from being amazing to watch, and analyze. Indeed, it makes it more interesting: Season 2 Wes would never, ever, ever have allowed the deception to continue. Also, AA's acting throughout was phenomenal, especially the transition scene. "Be blue," and the attempted... seduction? before it, is one of my favorite moments in all of season five, and probably in the entire series. So. Cool.

I also think that Wes' eventual rejection of the available Fred simulation also was the first step towards her (it?) eventually developing feelings for Wes. I don't think self-denial was something Illyria had encountered in any significant way before.

They shouldn't cover up the heartlessness of not telling them about their daughter's death, but Angel's not there to take the moral high ground and let them know the truth.

They = the characters or the writers? Wesley's nutzoid behavior made something like sense; it was trying to understand ME that took me out of that story. I felt like the Burkles were just a device to get Illyria to fuck with Wesley and we weren't supposed to see them as actual people. And the problem was, the Burkles are a lot easier for me to relate to than any of the main characters at that point, so I was horrified on their behalf and couldn't understand why the writers made that decision.

But thanks, all, for answering. I guess it's all meta-reasons that made it bother me so much.