Rank Angel Season 3 Episodes

[Priceless]

I love Angel in Season 3. His joy makes me happy and after such a brooding season 1 and the beige of Season 2, I've adored him in Season 3. Other characters, especially Wesley and Fred had sunk in my estimation, and my feelings for them show in my rankings. So . . .


1. Billy
2. Birthday
3. Sleep Tight
4. Provider
5. Dad
6. Waiting In The Wings
7. Benediction
8. Offspring
9. Lullaby
10. Heartthrob
11. Tomorrow
12. That Vision Thing
13. Quckening
14. A New World
15. The Price
16. Couplet
17. Forgiving
18. Loyalty
19. Fredless
20. That Old Gang Of Mine
21. Double Or Nothing
22. Carpe Noctem

[Stoney]

I'll come back and rank them when I've finished my current rewatch.

What is it about Birthday that you love so much Pricey, is it Cordy owning her path? I'm also surprised you've got Heartthrob that high.

[vampmogs]

This was hard for me. As I said in the other thread, there's parts of Season 3 where I have real trouble parsing what events happened in which episode. Even when I look at the episode synopsises I still have trouble differentiating between some of the episodes. And that's incredibly rare for me as I pretty much know the Buffyverse like the back of my hand So some of my placements are literally just there because it matters very little to me in what order I put them.

1) Forgiving - Incredibly gripping. The final scene of Angel attacking Wesley is probably the only moment of Season 3 which truly packs a huge emotional punch for me and I feel this episode is the rare occasion where Season 3 completely lives up to the potential of one of it's plot lines.
2) Waiting in the Wings - It's just a really pleasant episode to watch. It feels magical.
3) Sleep Tight - Again, this is one of the few plot lines in Season 3 that really works for me. The moment where Wes steals Connor and brutally attacks Lorne is both shocking and exhilarating. And Justine slashing Wesley's throat and Holtz jumping into Qor'toth are both equally as shocking.
4) Billy - A truly creepy episode with some brilliantly disturbing moments. It's at times quite on the nose but it's also the only episode that dares to criticise Team Angel's own paternalistic and sexist group dynamics. The Cordy/Lilah scene is particularly great.
5) Benediction - I'm not a huge fan of the last 3 episodes this season but this episode is by far the best. And it does contain some great moments. I love the confrontation between Angel and Holtz and it's one of Angel's finest moments in the series.
6) Lullaby - Darla's self-sacrifice is incredibly moving and the cinematography in that scene is amazing. The Angel/Darla rooftop scene is also pretty good but Julie Benz is a little OTT, as is the case with a lot of her acting this season.
7) Birthday - Definitely overrated in fandom and it's pretty uninspired, and dishonest, in terms of AU's and how Cordy would have actually been in that reality. Having post-Buffy Season 3 Cordelia gain fame and fortune would have magnified her flaws and yet she's practically the same girl she is after suffering from the visions for 3 years. However, it's still a fun episode and despite my problems with it I rate it this high as it's a nice reprieve from the Holtz storyline.
8) Heartthrob - I really like how this episode deals with Angel's grief over Buffy. I've never seen another TV series explore it from that angle and it really spoke to me. I also enjoy vampire-centric episodes in general.
9) Tomorrow - It makes my Top 10 purely for the Angel/Connor scenes alone. Charisma's acting in this episode is, to put it mildly, god awful. I also always roll my eyes at the idea that Cordelia would ever "ascend" as some heavenly angel because she's such a hero. I mean, she is a hero, but what makes her more heroic than the Scoobies? Or the rest of her team? It's silly.
10) Fredless - I've actually always enjoyed this one. I even enjoy the large bug puppets. And the final scene makes me teary-eyed. It also contains Cordy and Wes's hilarious impersonation of Bangel and Angel's endearing "why don't you both bite me?"
11) Loyalty - I'm not sure if I'm remembering everything right about this one, to be honest. It's one of the ones in the middle that all sort of blur together. It's here because the episodes that blur together in the middle are mildly more interesting than the episodes that blur all together at the beginning of the season
12)That Vision Thing - I think Charisma does a genuinely good job in this episode and I love the standoff with W&H.
13) Offspring - I like the fight scene between Angel VS Darla. I do find Cordy's entire behaviour throughout this episode utterly ridiculous, though. And the moment Darla collapses into Angel's arms is so cringeworthy.
14) Quickening - There's nothing really memorable about this episode at all and I have trouble parsing what events happen in this episode and what events happen throughout Lullaby. But I guess I enjoy it slightly more than some of the MotW's this season, so...
15) Couplet - Mmm. Another one in the middle. It has this place because I remember less things about it then the things I don't like about the episodes below it. Hm.
16) Dad - This episode I do remember but it has honestly always bored me. I always grow very tired of the chase scenes and I have no interest in the "miracle child" subplot which thankfully is dropped. However, it does have the adorable moment where Connor is pleased by the sight of Angel in vamp face. Considering how ashamed Angel is of his vampirism and how it also meant so much to him when Buffy saw past it in What's My Line I, I find that incredibly moving. It's also sad to think ahead at how horrible Connor will react to it in A New World
17) Provider - They completely forsake Angel's characterisation for comedy in this one. Angel comes across really badly when he debates letting the guy fend for himself against the 3 vampires because he cares so much about money. But it's entertaining enough.
18) The Price - There's some creepy moments in this one and I love that the writers use the exact same mythology established in Buffy's Afterlife to explain the repercussions of Angel's spell. I'm really impressed when there's solid world-building in the Buffyverse, especially spanning both shows, because it's so rare
19) A New World - This one has always really bored me. I thought it was always a really odd and misfortunate decision to focus Connor's entire first episode around him and this relationship he has with a girl we'll never see again. The opening fight sequence also looks really dated now and Connor - The Destroyer - gets bested in mere moments of coming out of the portal. He doesn't really live up to the hype if Angel can have a blade to his throat so easily.
20) That Old Gang of Mine - I don't really understand why the writer's apologised for this one. It's by no means the worst episode of the series or even Season 3. It has some moments I'm really fond of but it's pretty underwhelming overall.
21) Double or Nothing - Gunn selling his soul for his truck was lame and it's such an odd episode to place at the end of the season
22) Carpe Noctem - Yeah this one is pretty bad.

[Stoney]

Justine slits Wes' throat.

I always felt Cordelia ascending was really exposing her flaw that fell in with the whole 'we're the champions' attitude already seen and in it putting her in Jasmine's hold was really about her hubris. I really don't like the superior notion to it all.

[vampmogs]

Justine slits Wes' throat.

Doh! Thanks for letting me know. I actually did know that (I haven't totally forgotten Season 3! ). I've corrected it now.

I'm about to rewatch some of the Season 3 episodes now to jog my memory. We'll see if I like them any better this time around. I am looking forward to Sleep Tight & Forgiving, at any rate.

[Priceless]

I'll come back and rank them when I've finished my current rewatch.

What is it about Birthday that you love so much Pricey, is it Cordy owning her path? I'm also surprised you've got Heartthrob that high.

I've always been a huge Cordy fan, and felt she was the heart and soul of the show in it's first two seasons. Angel finally steps up in Season 3 and takes on that central role (imo) so Cordy is pushed into the background. I feel Birthday is the episode that allows Cordy to come to the fore again and show how important she is both to Angel personally and the other characters, but also to the show and it's success up to now. It's like a big 'thank you Cordy' before everything turns to crap and Cordy is destroyed as a character. Not that I'm bitter

[TimeTravellingBunny]

20) That Old Gang of Mine - I don't really understand why the writer's apologised for this one. It's by no means the worst episode of the series or even Season 3. It has some moments I'm really fond of but it's pretty underwhelming overall.

Probably because the entire premise of criticizing a group of inner city black demon-fighters for their "racism" against demons (?) is all sorts of weird and uncomfortable... One of the worst examples of the kind of bizarre writing that many SciFi/Fantasy shows fall into when they try to make real world parallels with Fantastical Racism (e.g. "let's have a metaphor about racism and how racism is bad by making it all about 'racism' towards aliens/demons/superpowered people who can shoot lasers from their eyes... isn't this a great metaphor?" Um....no), or try to make it... ironic or something (let's have a bunch of people of color be 'racist' towards, say, people who shoot lasers from their eyes,in a story about how racism is bad). I have no idea what they were going for.