Here for your enjoyment is the penultimate part of my Angel countdown.

11. A New World

Season 3 Episode 20

Connor's return was one of the many highlights of season 3 (just a shame how season 4 went because of it), and gave a fantastic episode to reintroduce him. So he returned a teenager due to time moving differently in Quor-Toth sporting a very Jumanji-type outfit. It was expected that bullet-time (or projectile stake-time) would appear on Angel eventually, but it worked brilliantly with the fight scene and managed to give it a bit more than the usual which helped enhance the fact they were fighting Connor. Similarly seeing Angel run into the sunlight after Connor was a great visual way of showing how much he meant to him. Connor's (or Steven's) confusion about the world was nicely handled and thankfully didn't come off as cheesy. It was great that he did manage to connect with someone, a junkie named Sunny, but unfortunately couldn't stop her from ODing. When Angel eventually found him their conversation was excellently written and very well played out, even ending with a cool shoot out. With the episode seemingly ending positively between Angel and Connor it was a nice touch to reveal that Holtz had managed to come through from Quor-Toth too, nicely leading us in to the final part of the season.

12. Sanctuary

Season 1 episode 19

This was the major episode for Faith that saw her change and it was handled superbly. Having her legitimately and realistically turn good(ish) again was a hard thing to pull off, and it helped that she'd always been characterised as not really wanting to be evil, just finding that easier. With Cordelia absent for most of the episode it meant that more focus could be placed on Wes and his reaction to being tortured. While fully condemning her at the start of the episode he had come around by the end, mainly thanks to the Watchers' Council's mercenaries. They were far more entertaining to watch here than they were in Buffy as I felt they were characterised a bit better. One of the best things about this episode was that we finally got to see Buffy and Faith air out all their issues which was brilliantly written. That the scene was on Angel rather than Buffy I actually thought worked really well. Despite starting on Buffy, Faith's rehabilitation felt more in tone with Angel and worked better there. Then we got an awesome action sequence against the mercs. It was great and the helicopter helped make it very different from anything seen before. It culminated fantastically with Angel's super-jump through the skylight and forcing the chopper to land. It was one of the best action sequences the show's ever done, and that's saying something! On top of all that Wolfram & Hart and Kate all had major roles which all added to make an absolutely superb episode.

13. Sleep Tight

Season 3 Episode 16

This wasn't exactly the happiest episode, but it was a brilliant one. There was a lot happening here and it all worked together brilliantly. Wesley's worries of Angel killing Connor came to a head here as he planned to abduct the baby. Meanwhile Angel started acting very strange due to his pig's blood being spiked with Connor's by Lilah and Sahjhan. On top of this Holtz was getting ready to make his move and attack Angel Investigations. The brilliance of Wes' story is that while you can see he's making the wrong choice, from his perspective he really was trapped. He couldn't tell Angel where Holtz was for fear of what he'd do and similarly couldn't tell him about the prophecy that he'd kill Connor. While the episode was fantastic throughout it was after Connor was abducted that it really took off. Angel stopping at nothing to find Holtz was great and genuinely looked like he was ready to tear Holtz's men apart. Justine slitting Wesley's throat was a hugely stunning twist, and while I'm still not sure someone could survive that, it was an amazing moment. The climactic ending perfectly finished off the episode. Wolfram & Hart marines and Angel facing off against Holtz and Sahjhan was great to see. Holtz running into Quor-Toth with Connor was devastating and an incredibly emotional moment to end the episode on.

14. War Zone

Season 1 episode 20

Here we're introduced to Gunn and his vampire fighting gang. It was a good idea that extended the show's mythology nicely. It made sense that there would be other demon fighters and it's well established that the gang had been doing this for a long time. The obvious analogy of wealth and poverty was clearly on display here as the gang of homeless kids were fighting vampires while Angel's case of the week was a billionaire worried about photos of him in a demon brothel getting out. However both stories worked very well by being a lot more than just stereotypes. David Nabbit was very likeable which, despite the seediness of his case, made Angel and co seem like they were doing the right thing helping him and it wasn't just for the money. Similarly Gunn's gang clearly weren't helpless as they're fighting vampires. There was a lot of great action in this episode, but it was all fully relevant to the plot. Seeing various members of Gunn's gang getting killed gave a real-life feel to the violence that is sometimes missing. There was some great stuff between Gunn and Angel too as he was clearly confused about the good vampire. Despite only being introduced this episode Alonna's death was very meaningful, as was Gunn having to stake her. On top of that there were some great funny moments as well as the joint awesomeness of Angel both being beat down and being a total badass all in the one episode. Simply brilliant.

15. Lonely Hearts

Season 1 Episode 2

This episode introduced us to the formula that most season 1 episodes would take, and by doing so provided us with a very exciting episode. As only the second episode of the show it still seemed to be trying to make sure its image was very different from Buffy's and did so very well. The bar setting was a good one and worked well for the story. It was very different from The Bronze and that everyone in the bar seemed very lost and lonely reinforced the show's main theme. The murder-mystery aspect of the episode was done well and Tahlmer worked as a good resolution as it burrowed from victim to victim. We also got introduced to Kate here, nicely setting up a superb recurring character. Her part in the story is great, from thinking she could be the next victim, all the way to her ending up saving the day. As for the action all the fight scenes were brilliant and showed that the quality from Buffy would continue on Angel. All in all this was a very successful second episode for this incredible show.

16. Not Fade Away

Series Finale

The very last episode of Angel, which while not as epic as Buffy or having the same satisfying ending, was still a fantastic ending to the series. The Circle of the Black Thorn seemed to come out of nowhere a bit in the previous episode, but their link to the senior partners and that they were comprised of most all the villains that had been seen over the season made them a legitimate enemy for the season finale. While Angel's plan of "kill everyone" may have been a fairly simple one, it was the idea behind it and the characters that were important here. The "perfect day" everyone had (while ripping off Armageddon) were all done very nicely including the great return of Connor and a surprise reappearance of Anne. Once the individual battles kicked off the episode really got into gear. While only showing small segments of many of the action sequences it was enough to get the idea that this was a major attack on all fronts. The most focus went on Wesley as he took on Vail which ended in him being stabbed. This led to the spectacularly emotional scene between him and Illyria in Fred's form where she admitted her love for him. The exceptional scene was then brilliantly punctuated by her literally punching Vail's face in which looked awesome! Having Connor come to Angel's rescue was a great way to show how their relationship had evolved and how Angel killed Hamilton was superb. That it wasn't his strength but drinking blood, the main concept of being a vampire and what he thought was his curse, that won the battle was amazing. It was a great note for both the show and the character. Despite ending on an annoying cliffhanger there was really no other way the show could've gone. It managed to superbly sum up both the situation the show found itself in as it was cancelled and the main theme brilliantly.

17. Harm's Way

Season 5 Episode 9

Considering that Disharmony was my lowest rated episode it might seem odd that Harm's other feature episode is so high. The main reason is that this episode is simply better written, better executed and a Hell of a lot more fun! The story was a nice little murder mystery involving Harmony thinking she'd killed a guy after a drunken night. Through her eyes we also got to see how Angel handled demons who didn't follow his rules, which is what resulted in her trying to solve the case on her own. There was a lot of fun stuff here and it was great to see Harmony on edge throughout the episode. While not the deepest character (even before becoming a vampire) she'd always been a nice secondary character. Not every character needs to be dark and tormented and this episode was a great way of showing that. The end reveal of the vampire who had set Harmony up worked well enough and gave a very nice fight scene. That said fight scene saved the truce in the B-story was a great and funny resolution. Also the episode opened with a hysterical Wolfram & Hart company video which helped bump this episode up an extra few places.

18. You're Welcome

Season 5 Episode 12

Cordelia returned here with the mission of setting Angel back on his path. There's lots of fun here with the return of Cordy. Her charm and humour, that had been sorely lacking for almost two years by this point, were great to see. Her reaction to them being at Wolfram & Hart was great and she was even more appalled than any of the cast were in Home. Lindsey's plan came to a head here brilliantly too. Sending Spike to Angel may have seemed a bit dumb as they'd obviously start talking and put the pieces together; but Lindsey's plan was almost at its final stage so it all worked. To be able to bring not only Cordy, but Doyle too in a way into the 100th episode really made it feel like something more than a usual mid season episode. Lindsey's demon strength thing seemed like a bit of a cheat at first, but ended up working nicely so he could have a good brawl with Angel. With the plot nicely wrapped up it was for Cordelia to say her final goodbye to Angel, which was done very nicely with a (seemingly) spontaneous kiss. On first viewing I was annoyed with the way they killed her off, but after taking a step back and watching it again I realised it was actually a fantastic way to end her story. They clearly didn't expect her to be awake at the start and they had said that there was almost no chance of her surviving Jasmine's birth. So ultimately we got a clever and great ending to Cordelia Chase's story.

19. That Old Gang Of Mine

Season 3 Episode 3

During season 2 Gunn was a full member of the Angel Investigations team, but still had clear ties to his old gang. While these were addressed in a few episodes a clean break from them was needed. Here we saw Gunn fully leaving his old gang and it was great to watch. Having been a snitch for Angel for most of season 2 it was a bit surprising to see Merl killed here. However it was a great way to set up episode, by having the first victim be someone we knew but wouldn't really miss. Gunn's loyalties and beliefs are brought right to the front of this episode and it's handled brilliantly. While the various demon species had been characterised brilliantly over the course of Angel it made sense for Gunn to question whether stopping these demon killers was the right thing to do. Add to that Gunn is also stuck with divided loyalties which leaves him even more confused as to what he should do. The episode culminated brilliantly in Caritas as Gunn's old gang burst in and started killing various demons and vampires before holding everyone else hostage. This allowed Gunn's loyalty to be stretched to the limit when he was given the ultimatum of whether or not to kill Angel. It was a superb and powerful scene and Gunn's monologue was great. The end resolution of the protection spell being lifted and the giant CGI demon taking out Gio worked well enough to give a satisfying ending to an awesome episode.

20. Shells

Season 5 Episode 16

While the previous episode was very heavy on emotion, this one had action, a great resolution to the initial Illyria storyline and still managed to get in a fair bit of emotion. Again special mention needs to go to Alexis Denisof's acting in this episode. He was just as brilliant as in A Hole In The World with the love of his life now gone. While it did seem feasible that Fred could've been brought back that they confirmed that was impossible early on was a good touch. By being able to accept that she was gone meant the focus could switch to stopping Illyria. While her stop-time effect didn't look quite as good as on Smallville, it still did the job nicely and gave her more threat than just another demon with super-strength. That her army was destroyed seemed like a bit of a cop out at first, but made sense when you thought about it. After tens of thousands of years without a leader it was unlikely they'd still all be as they were before she died. That Illyria was left alive after this episode was a great way, as one episode wouldn't have been enough for her story.