The Angel Investigations team is stunned when the senior partners of Wolfram & Hart give them control of the L.A. office. The gang quickly moves in, and although everyone is delighted at the amazing resources they now have at their command, they can't stop wondering what the catch is. But the biggest mystery of all revolves around a small package Angel receives containing an amulet and a handful of dust - which coalesces into a very-much-alive Spike.

From The Case

The Bottom Line

The one good thing that came out of the death of Firefly was this season. Watch it.

01 - Conviction: As the Angel Investigations team moves into the L.A. offices of Wolfram & Hart, two old friends from Sunnydale come back into their lives: Harmony and Spike.

02 - Just Rewards: Spike struggles with the fact that he has returned as a ghost and finds himself tempted by a promise made by a necromancer that he and Angel have gone to confront.

03 - Unleashed: As Angel tries to help a young woman bitten by a werewolf, Fred tries to help Spike who as begun to fade in and out of existence for longer and longer periods of time.

04 - Hell Bound: Fred tries to build a transformation device that will turn Spike back into a corporeak being and prevent a ghost called "The Reaper" from dragging him into Hell.

05 - Life Of The Party: When Lorne foregoes sleep in order to prepare for the firm's big Hallowe'en party, the dark side of his subconscious begins to manifest itself, and affect the gang in strange ways.

06 - The Cautionary Tale Of Numero Cinco: Feeling disconnected from his real mission to be a hero for the people, Angel befriends an elderly mail clerk at the firm who was once a hero too and who feels the same way.

07 - Lineage: While the gang does battle against a troop of Ninja-like cyborgs, Welsey finds himself battling with the sudden appearance of his father who is a member of the Watchers' Council.

08 - Destiny: Spike opens a package that makes him corporeal again, turns the firm's employees into bloody-eyed monsters, and pits him against Angel in a race to drink out of the Cup of Perpetual Torment.

09 - Harm's Way: Harmony finds herself in over her head and desperate to keep her job after she wakes up in her bed next to a dead man with vampire bites on his neck.

10 - Soul Purpose: While Spike assumes the role of vampire-killing vigilante, Angel begins suffering from horrific dreams that seem to center around his inner fears and insecurites.

11 - Damage: When Angel and Spike try to help a young woman who escaped from an asylum, they discover she's actually a potential slayer empowered by the spell Willow cast back at the Hellmouth in Sunnydale.

12 - You're Welcome: Cordelia returns to help her friends one last time after an old nemesis shows up determined to defeat Angel by overriding a secret failsafe created by the Powers That Be.

13 - Why We Fight: A World War II sailor - who Angel turned into a vampire in order to save the crew of a German submarine - returns to make Angel pay for all his years of pain.

14 - Smile Time: While Wesley and Fred's relationship heats up, Gunn makes a deal to ensure his mental powers are made permanent, and Angel gets turned into a little felt-covered puppet.

15 - A Hole In The World: After breathing in the air from an ancient sarcophagus, Fred falls deathly ill and the rest of the gang races to find a cure before it's too late.

16 - Shells: As Illyria, the ancient god now occupying Fred's body, gets used to her new world, Wesley uncovers Gunn's part in approving the customs document for the sarcophagus.

17 - Underneath: Angel takes Gunn and Spike with him on a mission to rescue Lindsey from the hell dimension created by the Senior Partners, totally unaware that Gunn has his own hidden agenda.

18 - Origin: When Connor and his new parents show up at Wolfram & Hart asking for help, Angel refuses, leading Wesley to uncover how Angel had everyone's memory altered.

19 - Time Bomb: Although Illyria rescues Gunn, Angel realizes she must be killed after her body begins a deadly physical breakdown which could unleash enough power to destroy the world.

20 - The Girl In Question: As Fred's parents arrive to visit their daughter, Angel and Spike fly to Rome to save Buffy from her new evil lover who they're convinced has her under his equally evil spell.

21 - Power Play: Angel's strange behavior convinces the gang that he's joined an elite group of evildoers called the Circle of the Black Thorn - a group he could have only joined by killing one of his own.

22 - Not Fade Away: The gang prepares to attack the true powers of evil by attempting to take down the Circle of the Black Thorn - a battle none of them expect to survive.

Season Recap information taken from the Episode Guide on the DVD release.

After the networks pulled the plug on Angel after Season Four, and the fans responded with a Save Farscape-style campaign, the networks decided on one final season, albeit at a reduced budget. And what Joss and crew produced was easily a season of Angel that was one of the best.

This season really pushed the limits of what was acceptable on network tv, and definately had episodes that had their share of Farscape-style writing. (In the sense that it took chances with the content, and the genre in general.)

As with the previous seasons, save 3/4, the episodes were mainly episodic in nature, and the overall story arc was not the focus of the shows. Mind you, the final few airings had were heavily intertwined, and the final ending leaves room open for at least a min-series/movie style conclusion.

I'd watch it, would you?

I have a hard time deciding which is better, Season 5 of Angel, or Firefly. Part of that might be that the crew and writers of Firefly moved over to Angel after it was canceled, but I don't think it could have worked without the cast and history that the show already had.

But what can I say about this? It takes a ton of chances, and hits on most of them. The addition of Spike works surprisingly well, and the characters continue being people that you'd actually hang out with. Wesley is further destroyed, leading me to wonder why Joss Whedon hates him so very, very much.

Long story short, it's great, and everyone should watch it. Once you're done with that, you might want to check out the comic that follows it.