It might not necessarily appear on a list of the top Buffyverse episodes alongside such familiar and popular choices as “Hush,” “The Body,” “I Will Remember You,” and “Smile Time.” But “You’re Welcome” – the twelfth episode of “Angel”’s fifth and final season and the show’s 100th episode – is one of my favorites. Why? Because it’s a love letter to the character of Cordelia Chase.
Unlike Buffy, Cordelia is not someone the audience meets as a self-sacrificing heroine. And unlike Angel, she’s not someone seeking to atone for their past. What’s different about Cordelia is she’s someone who – across two shows and seven seasons of television – becomes a better person without losing the lack of tact and sense of self that made her fun in the first place. It’s one of the best examples of the kind of character evolution that you can only get from serialized television.
But towards the end of the third season of “Angel,” things starts going horribly wrong for Cordy. She becomes half-demon, resulting in a set of ill-defined superpowers like…glowing really bright. In the season finale, she ascends into the sky, allegedly to fulfill her destiny as a higher being. She returns in season four with amnesia and horrifies the audience by sleeping with Angel’s sulky son Connor. Eventually, it’s revealed that an entity hijacked Cordelia’s body and mind for evilness, leaving her comatose after giving birth to itself (oh, that Jasmine!). Plus, bad hair.
So it’s super gratifying that “You’re Welcome” sees Cordelia spring from her coma – seemingly awoken by a fresh vision from The Powers That Be – with a bounce in her step and biting retorts on her tongue and, as Wesley exclaims with awe, looking really hot. She’s remorseful about what Jasmine did during her possession, but she’s also Cordy in all her glory and she’s revved up to get her vampire guy back on track.
And Angel certainly needs Cordelia. Halfway through the fifth season, Angel is still struggling with being the CEO of the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram & Hart, trying to leverage the law firm’s resources to do good, but often forced to make compromises for his evil clients. And due to the machinations of longtime nemesis Lindsay McDonald and his lady love Eve, he believes that Spike is The Powers That Be’s new champion and the true subject of the Shansu Prophecy that promises humanity for the vampire with a soul.
Cordelia’s vision of tattoos – and after comparing notes with Spike – leads our heroes to Lindsay, whose master plan was to unleash the Senior Partners’ fail-safe weapon against Angel. One soaring sword fight and a magic spell later, Lindsay has been defeated and sucked into a dimensional portal, Eve is thrown out on her keister, and the gang is ready to grab drinks. It’s not the show’s strongest plot and the MacGuffin is lame, but “You’re Welcome” makes up for that in the character moments, in Angel and Cordelia getting their groove back.
Given it’s also the 100th episode of “Angel,” there’s a lot of fun callbacks. Her vision leads Cordelia and Wesley to hit the research books like they used to, which Wes (in a moment of dorkitude infrequent in the later seasons given the darker turn the character took) deems “kicking it old school.” Doyle gets a rare and much-deserved mention as Angel catches Cordelia watching the Angel Investigations commercial (“Our rats are low…rates…it says rats!”) he filmed back in the show’s ninth episode. I liked how angry Angel and particularly Cordelia got when they learned some evildoer was masquerading under his name. And smartly, Spike, Wesley, etc. are peeled away from the action so the three characters that appeared in the pilot – Angel, Cordelia, and Lindsay – are alone together for the climactic fight scene.
There’s also a good amount of humor. A red-skinned demon wanders up to confirm a racquetball date with Angel right when Cordy is berating him for making a deal with the devil. Cordelia is stunned silent by Gunn having hair. Another snarkfest with Spike results in the immortal Angel line, “Did you call me a tit?” But my absolute favorite comes about halfway through. With time running out, Cordelia super casually advises Angel to “have at it” and torture Eve. He responds to this request with amusing befuddlement, but the day is saved by Harmony, who reminds everyone that she’s technically evil and doesn’t mind torturing Eve for the team, which Angel signs off on with a hilarious shrug. The line readings and facial expressions by David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, and Mercedes McNab in this sequence are a scream.
But sadly, the fun can’t last forever. Watching it again, the clues to her fate are obvious throughout the episode – Cordelia hurriedly pulling the curtain around her “roommate” at the hospital, her new appreciation of Doyle’s sacrifice, her final remark to Wesley, etc. But that doesn’t mean I still didn’t get a little lump in my throat when a tearful Cordy told Angel, “I’m just on a different road…and this is my off-ramp.” Or when she spun on her heels for a “why the heck not” smooch (I never 100% bought Angel/Cordelia as a couple, but this was a great kiss). Or when Angel finally took his phone call and learned that Cordelia was dead, having never woke up from her coma after all.
She may have had to bow out (though she does reappear as a spirit guide in the comic book continuation – and has a dragon named after her!), but as befits her, she went out in style. So thank you, David Fury. Thank you, David Greenwalt. Thank you, Joss Whedon. Thank you, Charisma Carpenter. And thank you, Cordelia Chase.
So that’s my share for Throwback Thursday. What did you think of “You’re Welcome?” What’s your favorite episode of “Angel?” Do some sharing of your own in the comments section.
