Angel, "Blind Date" Review (1x21)

Brief Synopsis: “Wolfram & Hart’s Lindsey McDonald has a crisis of conscience after a blind assassin is sent by Wolfram & Hart to kill some children. After going to Angel for help with the situation, Lindsey reaches as impasse. Does he start down his path to redemption and leave Wolfram & Hart or does he truly join the evil corporation in his quest for power?” 


"War Zone" (1x20) quick link here                                                                                                                         "To Shanshu In L.A." (1x22) quick link here

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With that being said, let’s get started, shall we?



For the second episode in a row, a member of Angel Investigations isn’t the primary character of the episode. “Blind Date” revolves around Lindsey McDonald, a young Wolfram & Hart lawyer that has been on the show sporadically since the pilot episode, “City Of”. Until now, Lindsey has appeared in a few episodes, yet we know nothing about him outside of the fact that he works for Wolfram & Hart. This episode delivers some much needed backstory on Lindsey as well as addressing his motivations for joining Wolfram & Hart. However, after Wolfram & Hart hire a blind assassin, Vanessa, to murder some children that are destined to grow up to be a thorn in Wolfram & Hart’s side, Lindsey has a moral crisis. He reaches his breaking point with Wolfram & Hart after discovering that they’d happily murder three young children. He goes to Angel for help with the situation.

One of my favourite things about “Angel” is the fact that the show isn’t afraid to put non-main characters into the limelight and be the focal point of an episode. Think about it...the last four episodes have focused on characters that aren’t in the opening credits – Faith, Gunn, and Lindsey. Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt believe in the show enough to move the main characters to the background a little more from time to time. Is this because the first season has no coherent season arc, so they’re relying on strong standalone episodes? It’s certainly a part of it, but it’s working for the show! “War Zone” told an interesting story regarding Gunn’s death wish and explored it in the most disturbing way possible (Alonna’s death) and “Five By Five” and “Sanctuary” are close to television perfection. Could season one have used a more traditional elaborate arc instead of relying on just standalone episodes? Of course! But there’s time for that in the next season. “Blind Date” almost feels like it’s a setup to season two, rather than the penultimate episode of season one. It establishes Lindsey and Holland as the forefront of Wolfram & Hart (alongside Lilah) and those are the two characters most responsible for bringing Darla back in the next episode to terrorise Angel throughout the second season.

My only major criticism of the episode is that Cordelia and Wesley have very little to do. They’ve been in the background for a while now, actually. Cordelia was barely in “Sanctuary” at all, she didn’t do a great deal in “War Zone”, and she doesn’t do a great deal here either. Wesley served much more of a purpose in “Sanctuary” than Cordelia, but he’s also done very little in the past two episodes. Having the confidence to put a non-main character as the focal point of an episode is great, but the main characters should still have something to do – especially when a non-main character is the focal point for four episodes in a row. It’s the season finale in the next episode and there’s no sign posts as to what the season finale will be about, which is incredibly rare. It’s obvious that Wolfram & Hart will play a part, but what else do we know? What else should we expect? It’s a very unique experience.

“Blind Date” is also noteworthy for holding the first appearance of Holland Manners. I will admit, I hold a huge amount of love for both Holland Manners and Sam Anderson. I saw Sam Anderson in a new episode of “Grimm” last week (also a David Greenwalt show! Watch it!) and he’s still phenomenal now at almost 70 years old. Holland is a fascinating character that I love to hate. My only criticism is that he’s only in half a season. Sam Anderson plays Holland Manners so well that I never wanted him to leave the show. He’s 50% father figure and 50% ruthless boss, but not in a way that’s charming or loveable like The Mayor on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. One of the most interesting aspects of “Blind Date” is the dysfunctional surrogate father-son relationship between Holland and Lindsey. Holland is able to so easily manipulate Lindsey without it actually coming across as manipulation! He knows just what to say to convince Lindsey to do anything he wants him to do. He knows Lindsey’s backstory, he knows Lindsey’s thirst for power, and he uses this information to his advantage. Holland has clearly learned his craft well at the hands of Wolfram & Hart.

Furthermore, “Blind Date” reveals the cracks in Angel’s resolve for the first time. How can Angel defeat evil and help the helpless if Wolfram & Hart stop murderers from ending up behind bars? Wolfram & Hart hold all the power. They have unlimited resources, unlimited knowledge, and unlimited numbers. What does Angel have? A small apartment, a small office, and three friends to help him. The power struggle against Wolfram & Hart is a 4-year battle for Angel that eventually results in Angel taking over Wolfram & Hart in an attempt to take them down from within...of course, it all goes terribly wrong. Angel has been slowly eroded over this season due to the death of Doyle, the memory of his perfect day with Buffy, and the people he’s been unable to save along the way (like Tina). Remember, Angel has an entire law firm dedicated to trying to turn him dark and mess with his life constantly to meet their own ends. When you throw Darla into the equation in the next season, it’s no wonder Angel snaps and fires all his staff!

I must admit, Lindsey going to Angel for help was a genuinely surprising plot twist. As far as character development and choices that will shape his future goes, this is Lindsey’s most pivotal episode on “Angel”. After Lindsey asked Angel for help, I was thinking, “Wow! A Lindsey redemption arc! That could be interesting! It’s a little weird right after Faith’s redemption story, but it’ll still be pretty cool to watch unfold.” I was convinced, completely convinced, that this was where the episode was heading.

Lindsey: “You’ve never seen anything like real poverty. I’m talking dirty poor. No shoes, no toilet, six of us kids in a room, then come flu season it was down to four. I was seven when they took the house. They just came right in and took it. And my dad, he’s being nice, ya know. He’s joking with the bastards while he signs the deed. So, yeah, we had a choice! You got stepped on or you got to stepping and I swore to myself that I was not going to be the guy standing there with a stupid grin on my face, while my life got dribbled out...”

Angel: “I’m sorry, I nodded off. Did you get to the part where you’re evil?”

Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m a big Angel fan. After he left Sunnydale, moved to Los Angeles, and developed a personality, I became very attached to him as a character. However, Angel’s response to Lindsey’s backstory here has always bothered me a great deal. I would go as far as to say that I wanted to smack him here. Angel is a character that is all about second chances and redemption. His entire life is dedicated to helping the helpless and saving souls. Yet, in this moment, Angel completely disregards Lindsey’s struggles and sacrifices and doesn’t care at all about Lindsey’s plight. The thing that pisses me off is that if this was somebody off the streets and not Lindsey, Angel would have cared a great deal more and would be helping the person sort their life out. In this one paragraph, Lindsey explains everything you need to know about his character for the next 5 years. Lindsey wants to be the antithesis of his father. He views his father as weak, cowardly, and poor. Lindsey is adamant that his life will not go in the same direction. Instead, Lindsey dedicates his life to gaining the things he never had as a child – money, respect, and power. He wants to make something of his life and Angel doesn’t give a shit. Not even a tiny shit. Not even a rabbit dropping. Faith was much, much more evil than Lindsey. She’d murdered people, which as far as we’re aware Lindsey hasn’t done yet. Yet, Angel sacrificed everything to help Faith. He alienated his friends and argued with Buffy to help Faith. Why not extend that same olive branch to Lindsey? Because Lindsey works for Wolfram & Hart? So you help the helpless unless they work for that particular law firm? Lindsey doesn’t deserve a chance at redemption? Sure, ultimately Angel did help Lindsey, but he treated Lindsey with loathing for the entire episode. Something he didn’t do with Faith and doesn’t do with other people.

It could be argued that Angel didn’t help Lindsey more because Angel knew that Lindsey wasn’t capable of changing, whereas he always knew that Faith had a spark of decency in her (as far back as “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” season three). After all, over the coming years, Lindsey proves time and time again that he’ll always take the easy, power-driven route over the harder redemption route every single time. However, who is Angel to make that assumption? Who is Angel to say what someone is capable of? Ultimately, the question I’ve always asked myself is this: would Lindsey’s choice at the end of this episode have been different if Angel had treated Lindsey with more care and consideration here? We’ll never know the answer, but it’s certainly an interesting discussion topic. Angel and Lindsey’s hate-hate relationship is one of my favourite from “Angel”. They despise each other, yet they have to work together more than once. Even though they’d never admit it, I think there’s a mutual respect between them if nothing else.

Wolfram & Hart have mind-readers as security and frequently kill their employees...why would you work there? Why would you want to work there? Other law firms give people the opportunity to gain power and money without the pesky might-be-killed-at-any-moment bonus perk. Once you get in too deep, Wolfram & Hart will presumably kill you if you try to leave, but why join in the first place?

Gunn: “Give me one good reason.”
Angel: “It’ll be extremely dangerous.”
Gunn: “Okay.”

It’s nice to see that Gunn’s sister’s death has eliminated his fascination with danger. I was pleasantly surprised to see Gunn appear in this episode. I thought he’d appear at some point down the line because Angel gave him his card in “War Zone”, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so soon. I like having Gunn around. He’s complex and I think he brings a relatability to the show that simply isn’t there with Angel because Angel is a vampire. The speech that Gunn delivers to Wolfram & Hart about how it’s true that ‘white folks’ really do have a Mecca is so funny that I literally cannot watch the scene without hysterical laughter. Is it Gunn’s funniest ever moment? It could just be. Also, Alonna died, what, a week ago? Why is Gunn so chipper?! 

After Angel and Lindsey decide to break into Wolfram & Hart to steal some documents, Angel is mystically drawn to the scroll of Aberjian. Without knowing why, he steals the scroll from Wolfram & Hart. The scroll contains the Shanshu prophecy that becomes the motivation for Angel over the coming years. In the next episode, Wesley translates the Shanshu prophecy, which states that the vampire with a soul will one day become human...there’s just a tiiiiiiiny mistranslation before that. Wesley kinda, maybe, potentially tells Angel that he’s gonna die. Oops.

After the scroll stealage from Wolfram & Hart, Angel is able to escape the building. Lindsey isn’t so lucky. The mind-readers confirm to Holland that Lindsey was involved. Instead of killing Lindsey, Holland kills Lee, who had been giving a rival law firm Wolfram & Hart’s plans for a while. I didn’t see that coming. Neither did Lee...he was shot from behind! Ba-dum-dum-tsh. At least his death was quick, I suppose. Holland killing Lee was his way of showing Lindsey what the repercussions would be if Lindsey were to betray Wolfram & Hart again. It’s a simple statement – make the right choices from now on or this is your fate. The follow-up conversation between Lindsey and Holland is equally as manipulative and insightful as the last one. It’s easy to see why Lindsey follows Holland so willingly at the end of the episode. Earlier, we listened to Lindsey explaining how weak and cowardly his father was. It was clear that he loathed him because he was weak. With that in mind, it’s easy to see why Lindsey would look to Holland as a surrogate father figure. Holland is everything that Lindsey’s own father wasn’t...confident, wealthy, powerful, commanding. These are all character traits that Lindsey admires and wants himself. Not only that, but Holland treats Lindsey with respect and like a son in a lot of ways. He has the utmost confidence that Lindsey will do the right thing.

The parallels between Lindsey and Faith are apparent, even outside of the different ways that Angel treats them. Both are highly flawed characters that have made a lot of bad choices. Both had a difficult upbringing and found a substitute father figure in their boss. The difference is that I believe The Mayor genuinely loved Faith like a daughter. I’m not sure I can say the same for Holland. I think Holland has ulterior motives with Lindsey. I do think he has affection for Lindsey, but I think his motivations are primarily to further his own cause. The other major difference between the two is that when Faith arrived at her ultimate crossroads, she changed her ways and started down her path to redemption, whereas Lindsey always chooses the path to power. Would Lindsey have changed his ways if he were able to live in “Not Fade Away”? I don’t think so. But, yet again, he should have been given the chance before he was eliminated. I supposed he’d already had three chances by that point.

Willow helps Angel Investigations decrypt the files that Angel stole from Wolfram & Hart, after having spent the day decrypting Adam’s files herself in Sunnydale. Oooh, continuity! Alyson should have been onscreen like she is in season two’s “Disharmony”! It’s nice to see that Cordelia and Willow are friendly towards each other after all the drama of boyfriend stealing in the last “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” season. Willow and Xander cheated on Oz and Cordelia, which caused a lot of friction between Cordy and the rest of the Scoobies. This tells me that Cordy and Willow exchanged telephone numbers at the very least. That’s nice.

Decrypting the files and discovering where the children are being kept leads to the terrific Angel vs. Vanessa fight. Due to Vanessa being ‘blind’ and only being able to see blurry moving colours, the fight scene is totally unique. Angel has to stand still so that Vanessa can’t see him and then attack when she least expects it. Hit and freeze, hit and freeze, hit and freeze. It made this fight one of the most memorable from “Angel” season one.

Lindsey betrayed Wolfram & Hart, stole some files that got Vanessa killed, saved some children that Wolfram & Hart wanted murdered, and worked alongside Wolfram & Hart’s nemesis, Angel. What does he get as punishment? A PROMOTION! Interesting way to do business. I think I’m going to trash the office I work in and see if it gets me a pay rise. What do you think? Winning idea? When Lindsey was forced into a choice, he went with the easier option that offered him power and wealth. It’s completely in character for Lindsey to do this after you listen to his backstory earlier in the episode. Holland is offering Lindsey wealth, power, and a place in the world. Sam Anderson is flawless with that performance. He literally tells Lindsey that he’s offering him the world. What does Angel have to offer Lindsey outside of doing the right thing and fighting the good fight? Poverty, suffering, redemption, and probably an early death. Lindsey cares far too much about self-preservation to take that route. That’s why Holland was so terrific in this episode! Through Lee’s death and reminding Lindsey of his poverty stricken youth, Holland is able to appeal to Lindsey’s sense of self-worth and self-preservation to encourage him to remain at Wolfram & Hart. It’s masterful! We don’t just learn that Lindsey is staying at Wolfram & Hart, we learn why he’s staying and that makes all the difference. Lindsey likes the idea of being good and playing the hero, but he never follows through on it because the benefits package that goes with a hero isn’t good enough. He’s more interested in what’s best for him, rather than what’s best for the surrounding world. Lindsey’s ultimate motivator has been power. It’s why he tries to join the Circle of the Black Thorn in the 5th season. What better place to gain power than Wolfram & Hart?


Quote Of The Episode 

Gunn: “They told me it was true, but I didn’t believe them! Damn! Here it is! Evil white folks really do have a Mecca! Now, now, now, girls. Don’t get all riled up. OWWWWW! Did you just step on my foot? Was that my foot you just stepped on?! Are you assaulting me, up in this haven of justice? Somebody get me a lawyer, ‘cause my civil rights have been seriously violated. Oh, I get it, I get it. Y’all can cater to the demon, cater to the dead man, but what about the black man?!” 



FINAL SCORE: 7.5/10

What are your thoughts on "Blind Date"? Did you enjoy this episode? Dislike it? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section below!

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