Should old acquaintance be forgot?

Written by: David Fury

Directed by: Terrence O'Hara

Wesley is visited by a couple worried about their son after a horrendous car accident left him without even a bruise. Angel refuses to help though - as their son is actually his son, Connor, living a new life due to his vampire father's deal with the Senior Partners.

When Connor and his parents are attacked, Angel is forced to come to the rescue, and investigate what's behind the threats to his son. It turns out that they were the work of powerful warlock Cyvus Vail - the same warlock who carried out the memory changing spell that gave Connor his new life.

Cyvus reveals that he is capable of destroying Connor's new memories, and his happiness with it. He makes a deal - he'll leave Connor alone if Connor kills someone for him - the demon Sahjahn.

Connor reluctantly agrees, but as he grapples desperately with Sahjahn, Wesley rushes in, having uncovered evidence of the memory changing spell. He confronts Angel, then trips the memory-restoring spell.

Angel approaches the victorious Connor carefully, but he appears unaffected. Wesley, however, must once again live with the memory of his own treachery.

Quiz: - ten quick questions.

Trivia

Prodigal Son: Angel's son, Connor, is back! But instead of the moody, psychotic teenager we knew back in seasons three and four, now he's a nice, sweet lad. Of course, he doesn't remember that Angel's his father at all, thanks to the memory mojo worked on him and everyone else in the episode Home.

A wee dram: Wesley's been knocking back the Scotch - 12 year old Lagavulin, from one of Scotland's oldest distilleries, located on the isle of Islay.

Loving the vampire: Connor mentions Anne Rice, the author of numerous vampire novels including Interview With The Vampire and Queen Of The Damned. Angel does bear a marked resemblance to some of her brooding, guilt-ridden characters.

Blue beginnings: The title sequence now shows Amy Acker in the role of Illyria, rather than as Fred.

Return of the urn: Also blasting back from the past is demon Sahjhan, last seen being trapped in a Resikhian Urn in the season three episode Forgiving. After all the effort he put in to trying to kill him, he finally meets his fate at Connor's hands.

Yummy: Rather than fighting Sahjhan, Connor had been expecting a meal at Tony Roma's. It's a restaurant chain, apparently "famous for ribs".

Review Yet again this season, Angel goes for a walk down memory lane, to bring back a character we thought we'd seen the last of. And yet again, it works superbly.

Now, I know a lot of people never really got on with the character of Connor, but I was never one of them, so I was already very pleased to see him back. What I hadn't expected was how damn likable the well-adjusted Connor was.

He was such fun to watch that I definitely didn't want to see him leave. In fact, Kartheiser's performance made a lot of his earlier stint on the show seem like a wasted opportunity. Why couldn't we have had a bit more of this sweet, sparky and charismatic chappie back in season four?

On top of that, we got the fabulous Illyria/Spike double-act - and for those two or three viewers who didn't think Wesley enough of a multi-layered and complex character yet, the ex-Watcher gets some supersized food for thought. Superb.