10 TV Shows Ruined By One Dumb Decision

8. Angel - Connor & Cordy

Season 4 made a lot of missteps, and especially so with the character of Cordelia Chase, but no one moment is more ruinous to the show than the decision to write Cordelia having sex with Angel's son, Connor.

Cordelia, who by this stage had become a higher power, comforts Connor while the city around them burns, which leads to the pair making love while Angel looks on. Yes, that's Cordelia, who at the start of the episode said she still loved Angel, having sex with Connor, who by rights should be the world's least shagged man. That's Cordelia who was, for all intents and purposes, a mother to Cordelia when he was a baby. That's Cordelia who became a higher power despite the cost.

And sure, you can spin it as the work of Jasmine or whatever else sh*tty writing Joss Whedon wants to twist it as, but the fact is the person we're watching looks like Cordelia and, for a lot of it, feels and thinks like her too. It's a betrayal of the character, because the reveal that it wasn't Cordy comes too late (and also doesn't absolve things, because Cordy is still in there, powerless to do anything about it), until she's eventually shoved into a coma. Season 5 of Angel was pretty good, but the Cordelia stuff remains a huge black cloud over happy memories of the show.