Goodbye, Angel

[SPECIAL UPDATE: Since I’ve got people coming here while searching for Jonah Goldberg’s column about Buffy and Angel, I’ve decided to help them out by linking to it here. Enjoy. And feel free to look around here after you finish Jonah’s column.]

Tonight was the series finale of Angel.

Going into the seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, everyone knew it was the final season, so the whole season was geared toward providing a conclusion. With Angel, the cancellation was a midseason surprise, so the arc to its conclusion was shorter.

And how was that conclusion?

Surprising in many ways.

A main character does die, but that wasn’t such a big surprise — it’s the third main character they’ve killed this season.

And the very end of the episode… Well, let’s just say it leaves things open for a sequel. Not quite a Blake’s 7 ending.