Lorne drops by with a memory spell which will cure Cordelia, but it manages to take everyone's memories back to their teen years.

I really, really want to like this more as it's a Joss Whedon episode. It looks fantastic; the sets seem to really come alive with his hand on the rudder, and the club set from which Lorne tells the story is gorgeous. However, after being irritated at Cordy's memory loss, making everyone else lose their memory doesn't seem like a great idea. Not only that but something similar was done last season on Buffy with much the same result: one of them realizes he's a vampire, one is English, one is convinced she's the coolest high school student. It works as well here as it did there; the episode is funny, although not hilarious, and it's fun to watch the characters we know in an earlier stage of their lives. I just don't understand what the point is.

If it's to dump the baggage for an episode, mission accomplished. If it's to bring the team back together, it's not going to change anything immediately. If it's to get Cordy's memory back, again, mission accomplished. The thing is, it doesn't do much more than that. We don't really learn a lot about the characters: Angel doesn't understand modern technology, Fred is keen to get hold of drugs, but the others aren't a big alteration. We knew Cordy at school and Wes fresh out of the academy, so watching the former lust after Angel and the latter do those pratfalls we love so much is hardly news. And as for Gunn, he's just more stroppy than he is now. In the end, all that comes out of it is Cordelia getting her memory back.

This brings its own questions, and we're still waiting for some other answers. As far as I can make it, we currently don't know how Cordy got back, exactly what she became, why she lost her memory, whether she's still part-demon and gets visions, nor do we know what the creature she saw was and how it was relevant to anything. This isn't The X-Files, so I hope we'll be getting some answers soon. Meanwhile, although I love Lorne's narration of the story and his asides, especially the bit about the adverts, I don't really see why any of this was necessary. I still say it's time to reform the team, but evidently I'll be waiting a while yet.

***

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