I think he was purposeful. His big mistake, IMO, was to forget the agency of the other characters, and it was when that went badly (c.f. Wesley in Origin) that he really seemed to start flailing, in a broody way.

I have trouble using the word "calculated" to describe Angel. "Desperate" doesn't work for me too well, either. Maybe I don't understand the question, or maybe I'm just too fussy about words.

A lot of S5 is certainly about Angel feeling like he's lost his identity and his purpose. As far as I'm concerned, that's the main arc for the season, even if it's not handled so well. At the end I guess he's calculated, in that he actually has a goal again. So... either neither one is right, or both are, depending. (I'm helpful!)

For me it hinges on Angel's motivation for accepting the deal -- it seems he did it for Connor, and then tried to make it work out. Calculated would have had him planning (coldly) how to save the world from W&H up front, but I think he took the deal out of desperation, and tried to make the best of it.

The plan, good or no, came second.

I wouldn't describe Angel in S5 as "calculated," although "calculating," sure. {aside, Angelus is also calculating and that, IMO, is what makes him more scary than almost any other vampire}. And not exactly desperate, although desperation--as ita says--got him into the S5 situation. It really is a return to whatever season it was when Angel realized that you can't defeat evil, you can only fight it. He relearns that lesson and channels his frustration into a clever way to do maximal damage. Actually, I'm not sure I've ever understood quite what was going on there at the end, but it was epic. Dragons.

Way late. But I could not let the whole "network, episodic, consequences discussion" go by utterly without H:LOTS getting props. Both for the Adena Watson case(boyish hottie lead gets a *loser* first case, and may have had to let the murderer go free, and is probably haunted by that forever, despite all the scum he locks up.)

And The Mahoney Shoot(season 5): Detective Kellerman acts to save his partner's life against a man that has shot police in the recent past...Is Mahoney all bad? Would they even be there if Lewis hadn't gone in looking for frontier justice? Kellerman never stopped paying for a split-second reaction. I read that the network pushed Simon into killing Mahoney so as to not seem to condone drugdealing so Simon retaliated by making the fallout as extensive as possible to cheat us of the "Good riddance," vibe.

Camcam, wouldn't that be season 1? You know -- post- lawyers in the wine cellar.

Season 2 is the wine cellar season.

The most recent People magazine has two pages on DB, with pictures of him, the wife and cute kid, and stills from Bones and Buffy.

Apparently he's fond of Whoopie cushions on set, though the article said nothing about any clothing-optional tendencies.

Thanks, everybody! I have some responses and the like, but I seriously lack any computer time this week, so they'll have to wait. Sorry.

I have finally started my rewatch of Angel season 5. Watched Lineage last night. When robo!dad tells Angel that he is "just a puppet", I died laughing.

It has been a while since I have watched Angel and I had forgotten how truly slashy it was. I guess I had convinced myself that folks were just reading between the lines and exaggerating subtext - but no, it was there. Commando!guy telling Angel he is an old fairy and Angel just arguing the old part.... Angel saying he has no problem paddling guys...