The basic plot goes something like this.  While Angel and company have a secret meeting outside the law offices to discuss their circumstances in private, Angel stumbles upon a blonde girl (aren’t they always?) being attacked by a werewolf.  Angel deftly saves the girl, but not before she gets bitten and runs away herself.  The chase is then on to find her before nightfall and the subsequent wolfing out.  Of course, they do find her and manage to help her come to terms with what she is becoming, to a degree.  There’s also another level to this plot as a wealthy socialite has a taste for werewolf flesh.  A squad attacks Nina and garnishes her up real good in preparation for her transformation so they can munch down on her.  She’s saved of course, and leaves Angel with the promise they’ll see each other again next month.

The interest Angel shows in saving this girl and not allowing her to be hurt simply because she was a werewolf doesn’t really jive with his previous action of killing her werewolf attacker, though, and is a bit of a concern.  Angel knows that werewolves aren’t in control and are quite innocent people when they’re a little less hairy.  It’s just odd he was so quick to kill the first wolf while going through incredible lengths to save the girl.  Then again, he did have little recourse when fighting the first wolf armed with only a silver pen.  More to the point, I suppose the big issue I’m having here is that Angel is dropping humans left and right so far this season when in seasons past it would have been a major source of problems with Angel himself.

One little tidbit of note about the werewolf this episode was the explanation that the show gave for wanting to thankfully improve the werewolf look established in Buffy.  The show’s doc called it the rare breed lykanthrOpos exterus.  Apparently it’s “undocumented in North America until now”.  It’s a bipedal, long armed, long toothed werewolf essentially.  In short, it’s again just an excuse to make the creature look better and not so much like a person in a hairy suit.

This episode also furthered the Spike side-plot.  I’m quite happy that this wasn’t a major issue of another episode and was kept very much to the side.  Spike is apparently disappearing for longer periods of time, and Fred can’t seem to find much to do about it.  Despite Fred’s pleads to take the situation to Angel, Spike insists that they keep it quiet.  The plot ends with Fred promising to find a way to bring Spike back for good.  I also have to say that Spike’s presence on the show is being handled nicely so far.  It’s not so overt that it overshadows the main story.  It’s a chunk of the story for sure, but it’s nice that it’s not THE story.

While the episode might not sound overly dense as far as its plot is concerned, it was a very good episode.  Angel sees a lot of himself in Nina as she’s learning to struggle with her new inner demon.  Angel even references his past of running away from everything when it was too much for him to bear.  Speaking of references, the small one Wes made to the Initiative was nice and could have been over looked if you weren’t a fan of both Buffy and Angel.  Little things like that help make these episodes a bit stronger.  Oh, and Spike revealing to Fred the past that he and Wesley share was worth a few chuckles.

The character interactions at the episode’s beginning and end were welcome as well.  Just seeing the gang at the beginning stressed out and even suspecting Gunn of some kind of betrayal (conscious or otherwise) and then having that book ended by them at Angel’s place for the first time just hanging out was a nice touch.  You don’t really get to see that all too often.  Hell, I can’t remember the last time we had the whole gang just in one place enjoying one another’s company.  

The negatives for this episode were quite minor.  The end scene between Angel and Nina went way too WB-ish with the pop mood music going in the background.  Once again, the rest of the Angel gang got less than an ideal amount of screen time.  The beginning and end of the episode were nice touches, but when all is said and done, I’m still missing seeing Wes, Gunn, and Lorne.  While their absence didn’t necessarily hurt the episode, it would have been nice to see a bit more of them.

While this season is still very early, it’s drawing more than a few comparisons by some to Angel’s first season.  I would have to say that so far I’m agreeing with that assessment.  It’s just a feeling these episodes seem to have so far.  They’re very self contained (outside the Spike plot) and function well on their own.  It’s a safe way for the show to draw in new viewers as well, which I’m all for.  If this is the format that is necessary to bring in new watching eyes, I’m happier having it this way than to have one of my favorite shows cancelled. 

This episode gets a score of 8.5 out of 10.

Next week, Spike’s going to hell.  I’ll bring the popcorn

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