The new football season kicked off at the weekend and Newcastle managed a decent opening result with a 1-1 draw away to West Brom. As we're now in the second tier of English football it's unlikely anyone outside the UK will recognise the names of any of the teams we'll be playing. Hell, most folk inside the UK might not recognise them!

Anyway, that's enough of that, here's the next part of my Angel countdown.

41. Awakening

Season 4 Episode 10

One of the worst story-telling techniques on TV is the "it was all a dream" ending. It happens when an episode is written into a corner and the writers aren't talented enough to come up with a suitable resolution. Here however that concept was turned completely on its head by having that technique used to brilliantly drive forward the main plot. It was a great mislead that I never saw coming and it made perfect sense that Angel would have to be tricked into feeling perfect happiness for the spell to work. As for the events of the fantasy they all flowed nicely. The magic sword was pushing it a bit, but made enough sense that it didn't spoil the surprise of feel unbelievable. The Indiana Jones type traps worked well and any time Cordelia wants to make jokes about her breasts I'm not going to complain! The way all of Angel's team came together and he made up with Connor could've felt forced, but it all worked great and never felt out of place. So when the end reveal showed that it was all a dream we could've felt slightly cheated, but due to the genius way it brought forth Angelus it just made for one of the best endings of any episode, of any show!

42. Carpe Noctem

Season 3 Episode 4

What would happen if a creepy old man got Angel's body? Well it would give a great episode! The body swap idea is hardly an original one, but instead of just two different people having to live out each others' lives, here Marcus finds himself as a completely different creature. The episode gets a lot of fun out of him discovering the different vampire abilities and strengths and David Boreanaz is on top form playing it. As well as after Marcus discovers his powers there's some great moments like him thinking he and Wesley were gay and being shocked at not having a reflection (which was a nicely done shot). The flip side of the story had Angel stuck in a human body. Having to come to terms with things he'd never thought about, such as needing glasses and heart attacks was done nicely, but Rance Howard's performance as Angel stuck in Marcus's body wasn't on the same level as DB's. Of course to be fair it's a lot to ask of a guest star to pull off, even for an experienced actor like RH. The gang figuring out what had happened was a great ending showing that they're just as capable as Angel of saving the day. There was the secondary story of Fred's infatuation with Angel, which seemed to come to a successful resolution here. Oh and Angel got news of some old girlfriend coming back to life too.

43. Expecting

Season 1 Episode 12

So this episode's victim-of-the-week was in fact Cordelia. That the case involved one of the main characters gave a bit more of a connection to the episode as we already cared about Cordy. This episode could easily have gone the "sex is bad" route, and while you could argue that's in here a bit (they make a joke about it at the end), it wouldn't really fit the theme of the episode. It's well established that Cordy had been out with Wilson a few times so she isn't painted as being easy which could've undermined the story a bit. Seeing how much Angel cared for Cordy was great and humanised him a bit more. When he finally found Wilson we got a great action sequence including a fantastic response from Angel after getting shot. Of course it wasn't just Angel, but Wesley who was working hard on the case, so it was great to see the two being equally useful. The giant demon at the end was a bit cheesy, but as it wasn't the main focus of the episode it didn't really hurt it. While the story revolved around Cordy, and she did have some strong moments, the focus seemed to be more on Angel and Wesley giving a great episode. Also of note is that this is the first time we see Wesley use a gun. While seeming a little out of place here it makes perfect sense given his weapons of choice later in the series.

44. Quickening

Season 3 Episode 8

Already in season 3 we'd discovered that Holtz wanted Angel and Darla dead for killing his family, but here we got to see the heinous act. It was appropriately brutal and scary and hearing the baby crying just capped off the scene. In the present the gang were continuing to try to find out about Angel's baby and what to do with it. Despite the reveal in the previous episode that it had a soul it could still be evil, so seeing that it was a boy on the ultrasound was very nice. The fight scene with the vampires that followed was Ok, but not great. What was the point of the ninja assassin guy who got taken out instantly!? Still Angel taking out the leader before escaping was a cool moment. After the slightly random reveal of Holtz being revived in the present day this episode nicely showed us how that came about. It was handled very well and ended up making perfect sense. Also brought into the story were Wolfram & Hart, who never saw the baby coming. A big deal was made as to how they could've missed this which gave legitimacy to it. There was some good stuff, however some of it seemed a bit random like the doctor with the weird small demon feet thing. Still overall this episode told a cool self containing story that expanded on the arc as well as nicely set up the next part.

45. Salvage

Season 4 Episode 13

Here we got the long awaited return of Faith, and it didn't disappoint! So we now knew that Cordelia was the Beast's boss and yes that story was still poor. What was also a little disappointing was that after three and a half years of always saying they'd kill Angelus if he returned they barely even considered it. However what was considered instead was so awesome that I let it slide. Choosing Faith made perfect sense and didn't just seem like a ratings ploy. Considering what Angel did for her there was no way she would kill him and that was awesome to see. Her breakout from jail was both simplistic and fantastic, brilliantly showing how much she thinks of Angel. Meanwhile Angelus was trying to find the Beast and as usual his scenes were a lot of fun. DB plays Angelus fantastically, the dark humour's always there but you never forget that he'd brutally kill anyone who came near him. Connor was really getting on my nerves by this point, so seeing Faith kick his ass effortlessly was brilliant. It had a superb older sister vibe that worked very well. The gang hunting for Angelus was also very cool with some very cool action sequences as they took out the vampires in the streets. Faith's end fight with the Beast was appropriately brutal, but Angelus taking him out seemed a bit weird at first. Still it made sense that he'd want to finish off Faith himself. Faith showing a nice bit of ingenuity to break the blacked out glass and save herself from Angelus was great too and a superb way to end the fight. Also as a side note this has the single most vampires seen killed in any episode, with a total of six. In case you were interested!

46. To Shanshu In LA

Season 1 Finale

As the first season had been mostly stand alone episodes they'd put a bit more emphasis on Wolfram & Hart in the last two episodes to give a bit more significance to the finale. Specifically this episode introduced Vocah to work as a season ending villain and he did the job. He allowed for a physical force to act out W&H's plans and be a physical match for Angel. The episode was set up nicely with the revelation that Angel would die. This was where Cordy and Wesley worked brilliantly as more than just the side-kicks. Due to Angel not being the most forward person they need to figure out why he wasn't bothered about dying as well as find a way to help him. Of course this got overshadowed a bit by Vocah's attempts to destroy his team. Him unleashing hundreds of visions on Cordy was painful to watch and very dramatic. Wes was the next to get hit as he was in the Angel Investigation offices when they blew up. How he survived I was never quite sure about, but I'll just put it down to him being awesome! With his team disabled it was up to Angel to take out Vocah and get back the Prophecies of Aberjian. A few cool vampire dustings during a ritual and an awesome fight scene later Angel was standing opposite Lindsey who was ready to burn the scroll. Angel slicing off his hand was equal parts awesome action hero and bold statement for the show. Yes Lindsey was human, but that wasn't going to stop Angel saving his friends. The reveal that Angel wasn't going to die and actually become human was done nicely and the error made sense. It was a great way to end his story and nicely wrapped up the season. On top of that we got a cool cliffhanger ending to keep us excited for the second season.

47. Destiny

Season 5 Episode 8

Incorporeal Spike was great but ran the danger of being dragged out a bit. Fortunately that didn't happen and he was back touching things at the start of this episode. The idea that the prophecy could be about either vampire with a soul and that it was having a big affect on the world (or Wolfram & Hart at least) was very cool. The translated prophecy seemed a bit cheesy even by Angel's standards (a magic cup, really) so I was glad when it was revealed to be a set up. Of course the main part of the episode was Angel and Spike's epic battle. After making snide remarks about each other since, well pretty much always, it was about time they came to blows. The fight was superb and rightly took up a good portion of the episode. The two venting their issues worked superbly with the fight as well as some appropriately interspersed flashbacks delving even more into Spike and Angel's relationship. The final scene revealing the return of Lindsey was great (probably would've been better if someone hadn't spoiled it for me) and a great way to end the episode.

48. Orpheus

Season 4 Episode 15

First off I was never a fan of the evil Cordy thing, it felt forced and poorly executed. Her scenes in this episode in particular are quite annoying. Her leading Connor on makes sense but just makes the two of them more irritable and her scenes with Willow were weak too. Still the bad stuff far outweighed the good here, for starters Willow was in it! Ok I have a slight issue with how much powerful magic she used here considering she was terrified of doing anything too strong all throughout Buffy season 7 in fear of going evil. Still with the two shows separated by network at this point it's acceptable. Angel and Faith's mystical mind walk was the highlight of the episode and handled superbly. It could've come off as incredibly cheesy, but worked. That Faith and Angelus couldn't touch each other (at first anyway) made it believable that they'd sit together watching moments from Angel's past. There were moments of humour, horror and drama here which were all great. Angel saving a puppy was hilarious followed by the very dark feeding off a murder victim. The fight between Angel and Angelus at the end looked awesome and was great to see. After the strong evil Angel arc him getting his soul back was a great payoff.

49. The Prodigal

Season 1 episode 15

Seeing Angel sired in the opening scene of Becoming Part 1 was a superb scene and obviously a very iconic one for the character. One of the best things about a TV show is that it can revisit large moments like this and give more to them by showing the events that led to it, as this episode does so well. The story of Angelus being made also involved his bad relationship with his father, which nicely paralleled the present day story of Kate and her father (so many things in that sentence alone have been ripped off by Lost!). Trevor Lockley didn't seem like a bad guy when we met him in Sense & Sensitivity, but here he's seen to be doing dodgy dealings. His justification for it was done well enough that you can still sympathise with him making his death more affective. Of course really it was Kate we felt for as she was the character we'd come to know over the season. It was made more tragic as she seemed to be getting back on terms with Angel until this incident put her over the edge. The episode also had an interesting sub plot about a drug that made demons more powerful. It would've been interesting if this had been developed more as it was a cool concept but sadly not. Either way this episode still had enough with great stories set in both the past and present.

50. Apocalypse Nowish

Season 4 Episode 7

Angel tended to go for the more personal stories than the end of the world ones, so their first proper apocalypse story began partway into season 4. And it started in a great way. The Beast was a very well designed and cool looking enemy. The more old fashioned kind of demon look was cool and he still managed to be very scary. There were a few portents of the coming end with rats bursting out of pipes and birds flying into the hotel. While some of these things had been mentioned on Buffy before apocalypses this was the first time we really saw it. The episode was well set up, but it was the ending battle that was awesome. The large fight against the Beast was brilliantly done and had some great moments. The different characters different ways of attacking were great such as Gunn with his axe and Wes with his pistols and shotgun. While we'd seen Angel injured before, it was never to the point where he was coughing up blood like he did here, really emphasising the defeat. Then things got very end of day-esque with the rain of fire which was very impressive. And if things couldn't get any worse for Angel he saw his own son having sex with the woman he loved. Truly epic stuff throughout.