n last season's cliffhanger, Angel (Boreanaz) was sent to the bottom of the ocean in a box by his son, and Cordelia (Carpenter) ascended to a higher plane of existence, while Wesley (Denisof) found himself sleeping with the enemy. As Angel's fourth season begins, Gunn (Richards) and Fred (Acker) have spent the summer trying to track down leads to find Angel and Cordelia, but with no luck. Angel's son, Connor (Vincent Kartheiser), has joined them as they search, but his pretense at being concerned about his father is actually a show to make sure they don't find out where he really is.
Fred and Gunn do manage to hunt down one lead, someone who may have seen what happened to Angel, but Connor orchestrates it so the vampire with the information can escape, only to catch up to her later to kill her.
When Wesley, still estranged from Angel Investigations, isn't sleeping with Lilah (Stephanie Romanov), he's using his spare time to search for Angel on his own. Lilah is busy with her own problems at the evil law firm of Wolfram and Hart, when her boss decides to review her file.
Meanwhile, as his friends desperately continue their search, Angel lies at the bottom of the ocean, trapped with little possibility of a rescue. While his prison may not end his existence, it may well destroy his sanity—and his time is running out.
Angel comes into its own at last
Since the beginning, Angel has lived in the shadow of Buffy the Vampire Slayer—and, at least for the first two seasons, rightfully so. Yes, the series was more adult and darker, but it was still built on Buffy's world. However, last season, Angel truly came into its own, with a powerful storyline that offered the impossible situation of two vampires having a baby, but done in a dramatically viable way that cut to the bone of every character on the show. It was simply a tremendous season for a series that had finally found its stride.
While Angel has sudden changes to contend with this year, which include the loss of one of its primary creative forces, David Greenwalt, and a big move to Sunday nights, the fourth season picks up the emotional cliffhangers without missing a beat. In "Deep Down," each actor gets to dig deep into their character in the most interesting ways. The subjects of love and betrayal and loyalty are all tested profoundly, and last year's fans will find themselves ready to sign on for another year.
As for the writing in "Deep Down," it's another fine script for this consistently edgy series. While this episode is more serious than most of them, there is still a fair amount of humor, and the ending moments are just great.
Boreanaz and the rest of this amazing cast, as always, are more than ready to take up the acting challenge. In looking back at each character's beginnings—especially Angel, Cordelia and Wesley, who originated on Buffy—it has been a true journey for each character that has taken them to amazing and terrible places. The mix of great writing and acting has created terrific characters, which is what Angel is all about. And while creator Joss Whedon is also busy with Buffy and his new series, Firefly, this new season of Angel is starting off on the right foot.
