Angel: Not Fade Away (spoilers-probably for all of Angel season 5, and a random BtVS S4 spoiler thrown in)

Disclaimer: I haven't seen Not Fade Away, or in fact most of season 5 of Angel since it aired, so I'm probably swiss cheesing episodes a bit. And honestly, if you haven't seen the whole season, turn back now. Also there's some season 4 Buffy spoilers.

In the thread about Getting Into Angel, @QuantumButterfly and I were trying to explain why someone should in fact watch Angel, and they happened to mention that the finale was a reason. I said I disagreed, but not wanting to spoil the OP I said I disagreed "because reasons".

They wanted to know the reasons, but neither of us want to spoil the OP, so new post!

I hated Not Fade Away with a passion. Some of that has diminished, thanks to the Angel "After the Fall" and "Angel and Faith" comics, both of which I highly recommend.

My issues were as follows: 1) Wesley. And the way he said "lie to me" so Illyria was Fred. Who said she loved Wesley. Now, I'm notoriously oblivious when it comes to subtext (I figured out Willow/Tara at the same time Buffy did), but that was a pairing that downright squicked me. (Not as badly as Wesley/Cordelia, but STILL). This may have roots earlier in the series, before the Illyria arc, when there were Men Fighting Over Fred that got to me on a subconsious level. That scene annoyed me. 2) The ambiguous ending. I understand it was on purpose, that they did that to keep the characters out and fighting in the world, but I found it horribly unsatisfying and as a personal "screw you" to the fans. At the time, on my LiveJournal, I posted that it wasn't our fault we hadn't been able to change the WB's mind, that Joss and David had been given plenty of time, why hadn't we gotten an ending? (I'm worried about the Grimm finale for this reason.) This has been softened somewhat by the comics (if you read After the Fall for no other reasons: George the Betta), but to this day I'm still a little frustrated, and still need to buy a couple seasons of Angel on DVD.

So, yes, QB, because Reasons. :)

I mean, Angel wanting to slay the dragon was cool, but the rest kind of put a damper on that high point.