I can’t remember why I promised myself not to put Buffy and Angel stuff in blogs exclusively for my reviews, but I know that these decisions were backed-up by thorough thinking and time–as I take my blogging quite serious sometimes–so I trust my past-self and back up her decision.
So Angel’s second season’s second episode:
One of those episodes that makes me flashes my hands and scream BEST EPISODE EVARRR.
It’s kinda like a puzzle. The ‘who died horribly ’cause Angel screwed up 50 years ago’ game?- Cordelia
1. Is it me or would they be starting the mood of the second season with courtly-like trials aka Law and Order Style. The pilot of second season takes this very literally and though the pilot is boring, it makes a pretty good set-up of the second season pushing The Tribunal’s essence to more humanely (and well, more ugly and maybe the reason why it’s more beautiful) facets. But maybe that’s just me, I mean, Angel has always been about judgment, guilt, redefinition of innocence, and redemption so…
Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m stuffed! God I love people! Don’t you? They feed me the worst and I kinda serve it right back to them, and the fear and prejudice turns to certainty and hate, and I take another bite and mmm-mmm-mmm! What a beautiful, beautiful dance! Oh, you got your feelings hurt, didn’t ya? See now what happens when you stick your neck out for ‘em? They throw a rope around it! And you thought you’d made a friend. - Thesulac Demon
2, Forgiveness. Even though Whedon is a card-carrying aesthetic, he’s also a humanist, which is very religious based if you ask me. But being religious based doesn’t have to be bad, I think. I mean, there *are* reasons why such religions sprout all over the world. And Angel has always been about the philosophical as Buffy has been more about the psychological. Besides, Tim Minear writes best when he’s dealing with religious-self-righteous-like fanatical angry mobs which ups the sins, and also upping the stakes of redemption. I love it when the villains are humans. Also, the idea of forgiveness being the only savior of those who are guilty (and all the ugly side of humanity) rings the weepy cheesy bell of the audience (unless, of course, you’re a psychopath, but that’s a whole different discussion).
3. If there’s a reason why I keep coming back to this old vampire is he can conjure up episodes solely on his past. I LOVE properly executed flashbacks.
4. I think it’s cute that Angel told Cordelia and Wesley to do research on the hotel knowing what they would eventually find out about it. It kinds of represent Angel’s whole obsession on being mysterious. He likes to stay quiet but he still has the desire for people to actually know him.
5. Form! Oooh, how I love these types of episodes. The panning of the camera interlocking every characters and extras’ backstories and personalities. The stillness of their everyday lives, but the there’s-more-to-the-surface feel, and then of course, the impending doom and boom. And oh, the panning of the camera. 
It focuses on other characters wherein Angel’s actually always in that shot, just behind the scene–though probably unconscious of being part of the scene and minding his own business, he’s still actually part of it–the camera leaves the-characters-and-scene-of-the-moment then follows and focuses on Angel. LOVELY. It also gets lovelier when the camera follows Angel, as usual, and when he enters the lobby of the hotel, he double-takes as he gets hit with the reality that there’s no one there, which is (duh) unusual. There are no other characters, no scene of the moment. BIG OBVIOUS SIGN: The place, the hotel, has totally flipped out. Angel now has the undivided attention of the hotel, and everything’s gonna rain on him. Hello, calm of of the storm. Hello, arrived doom and boom.
6,Which brings us to the importance of SETTING. Yay, meaningful places! Yay, humans bring places to life! I loooooooooove the hotel. I think it represents the show more than anything. Part sexy, part old, part creepy, part beautiful, part mysterious, part brooding, part smiling, and part what-Angel-is. I think the hotel left the mood of the first season in a good way (not that the first season was not any good, it seemed like it didn’t know what it was yet–hi puberty–and with the second season, it now does), and I think that’s one of the reasons why season five totally went downhill (although the downfall of who Angel represents–hero by walking the path to redemption– is actually on purpose–that’s also a whole different discussion where I could talk about Spike as a better hero 
). When they switched from the Hyperion Hotel to snazzy icy capitalist lawyer’s Wolfram and Heart building, the whole world of Angel flipped flopped. They couldn’t even live up to their super apt theme performed by Darling Violetta. (I got to mention Darling Violetta! Points for me! )
Wesley: Angel, surely you more than anyone must appreciate, how for the better part of the last century this place has been host not only to a malevolent demonic presence, but the very worse faces of humanity! This is a house of evil.
Angel: Not anymore.
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