This episode represents the point of no return for Angel. Throughout the second season after Angel loses his soul, there's always this lingering feeling that maybe somehow they'll be able to fix it and bring the nice, defanged version of his character back. That ends here. Jenny Calender, computer teacher/Romani witch, is trying to translate a spell that will restore Angel's soul and as you might imagine, he doesn't take kindly to that. Joss Whedon made a really significant decision in this episode that when Angel kills her, he just snaps her neck and doesn't even drink from her, which hammers home the fact that this is a murder rather than an animalistic killing. And then when he takes her body to Giles's house, setting up an intricately romantic scene only to have Giles discover her body...well, there aren't a whole lot of characters on the show who are more stone cold evil than that. Passion is a darkly brilliant episode from a time when the show was really firing on all cylinders.
Audrey Fox is an ex-film student, which means that she prefers to spend her days in the dark, watching movies and pondering the director's use of diegetic sound. She currently works as an entertainment writer, joyfully rambling about all things film and television related. Add her on Twitter at @audonamission and check out her film blog at 1001moviesandbeyond.com.
