Angel: Darla (2.7)

One of the most interesting angles to this episode is the implication that Angel and Darla's entire relationship has been founded on a misunderstanding. Darla believes that by siring Angel she freed him from a terrible existence, while Angel insists that she did nothing but 'damn' him. At its heart, vampirism (is that even a word?) equals two vastly different things to the two of them. Darla uses her pre-vamp days as an example of how terrible mortal life is, while Angel can only acknowledge the pain and misery being a vampire has brought him and others. It's a wonderful contrast, made even stronger by Darla's reaction to her soul.

Angel and Darla both experienced a form of madness when they received their souls. Angel was tormented by the pain he had inflicted on his victims as Angelus, while Darla's madness is derived from the difficulty she's finding in differentiating the various forms of her identity. The dying prostitute of the 1600's, the vampire, and the resurrected human in the modern day. Unlike Angel and his eagerness to become something strong and heroic, Darla immediately wishes to give up on being human, begging Angel to sire her. It's romantic tragedy at its finest, as they both expose their true selves and their true feelings on being vampires.

As the second part of the Buffy crossover, Darla does a great job of integrating the flashbacks, but playing them from varying perspectives, so it's fun to see Drusilla's reaction to stumbling into William, and Angel's sadness during that awesome 'slow-motion stride through the carnage' shot. I didn't think Darla was as strong an episode as Fool for Love, mainly due to the more overt romanticism of the Spike character growth, but it's another epic hour which fills in a lot of holes in the Darla backstory. A

Credits
Guest stars Mark Metcalf (The Master); Christian Kane (Lindsey McDonald); Sam Anderson (Holland Manners); Julie Benz (Darla); Juliet Landau (Drusilla); James Marsters (Spike)
Writer Tim Minear Director Tim Minear