:eek:
You beat me to it- I was about to come here and post something similar. How can they end it like that? Or rather, not end it? Grrrrrrr!
I like the ending. It leaves their fate up the individual viewer, especially if they never do any of the movies. The Wesley/Illyria scene had me choked up. Damn. I’ll miss the show.
“I crap better majicks than that!”
Wuved ya, Wes and some decoy space 
Once I was able to close my mouth, I decided I like the ending. Really like it, in fact.
Oh yeah, it fits. But saaaaad!
Me too. While technically it might be a “cliffhanger,” it really is a suitable finish. It would have been impossible to tidy everything up nicely and have it be satisfying, so they did the opposite approach.
There were some great moments …
Angel having a cup of coffee with Connor.
Wesley’s final moment with Fred.
Angel biting and then crushing Harrison.
Every Spangel interaction.
And some moments that didn’t make me smile …
Lorne’s whole storyline.
Lindsey going out the way he did.
Wesley dying.
The fact that the end was really the end. (Although the dragon line was nice.)
But was anyone else as phenomenally pissed off as I was with that insulting “thank you” from the WB. How dare they try to play nice after killing my favorite show on TV. I’ll be going out of my way to hate the WB for a long time to come.
I disagree; it doesn’t fit–not for a series finale. It would be fine as a season ending, but ever since the end of Season 1 we’ve been knocked over the head with the Shansu prophecy, and they only mentioned it in the ending episode to say that Angel supposedly signed away his right to mortality. This wasn’t a series finale as much as it was a “Oh shit! We’ve been canceled, so we might as well cobble together some bullshit ending and hope that it sells. Maybe we can get those purported televsion movies!”
Nah. The very last part sucked. Big time. Plus, hell, they killed Wesley. (On the other hand, I loved what they did to Lindsey.) The ending was a mediocre finish to a season that could have been great, but wasn’t because it felt rushed after they announced its cancellation.
It’s like being laid off and having the boss say “we really value your work.” Oh, up your insincere ass!
Excuse me, I have other issues, as you can see
[aside]
Excellent and timely analogy!
I’ve been on a leave of absence for the past eight months, but today my (now former) employer told me they’d just as soon cancel that arrangement. There won’t be any going back to that job now.
“Oh, but the next time you’re in town, give us a call!”
Yeah. Right.
[/aside]
Come join me on the bitter bench…(scoots over)
I miss it already. I didn’t like it… I mean, I liked the episode, but not as a series finale. I hope they make a movie. Anyways, my favorite line was:
Angel (after hitting Harrison): Did that hurt?
Harrison (very calmly): Little bit.
We liked it, right up until the ending. The ending was just cheap, and my BF seems to recall a promise of “no cliffhangers” or somesuch. I don’t know if that’s accurate or not.
Cheap cheap cheap. I like the undefeatable evil. I like the dark twist for Lorne. I like Harmony. I could even potentially handle Wesley.
But a Dallas-esque series ending cliffhanger? Ugh.
But it’s not their fault. It’s not their fault at all. This show should never have been cancelled. That’s an utter crime.
It makes me hate the Italy show all that much more, though. The series was ENDING, and they wasted an hour and rushed the finale. This story would have worked better in three parts. Would have worked MUCH better if the black thorn circle had been MENTIONED prior to it.
If they have TV movies, I will watch them. Otherwise, the WB is dead to me.
Posted from my own thread which Mods, please close:
They killed my Wesley, mortal death, not coming back, grumblegrumble,
Hey, they can ebay one of those bring-Buffy-up-from-the-casket vases, ya? 
There are no more Urns of Osiris and it wouldn’t work anyway because Wesley died a natural death.
Ya know, this series was as much about Wesley’s growth and redemption as anyone’s.
'Twasn’t a cliffhanger. They all died. Angel? Dead.
Spike? Dead.
Gunn? Dead.
Illyria? Dead on multiple planes of spacetime.
Hell, they probably even tracked down Lorne and killed him too.
It wasn’t the “Dallas cliffhanger ending”, it was the “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid let the viewers fill in the inevitablility or else cling to desperate hope” ending.
They died but they still won. WR&H’s plans for teh apocolypse have gorund to a screeching halt. Their most valued agents on eartn are destroyed. They’ll recover, but tehy’ve been hurt like they’ve never been before.
It worked perfectly. I would’ve liked to see the Wolf, Ram, and Hart, but they never would have lived up to expectations (the best route would have had them simply be their animals, but Angel can’t fight a goat and a deer), so it’s just as well.
This post contains spoilers; in fact, if you’ve not seen the episode yet, what the hell are you doing reading this thread? Shoo, shoo!
Loved it! My favorite part was probably the Last Days: here Joss is wrapping up a five-year run of a horror/action show with teh ultimate fight, and what does he do? He spends twenty or so minutes quietly building character. Gotta love the guy.
HOwever, I’m happy it went out now: it was sad watching Buffy waste away like a senile old grandparent, and I was happy that Angel went out, if not in its prime, at least close to its prime.
So I’m ultimately glad it’s over.
But what if it’s not? How could they show the gang surviving this fight?
- Someone’s brought Illyria’s power capsule with them. If anyone’s equipped to fight W&H’s forces in this world, it’s Illyria at her strongest.
- Angel put in a call to Buffy, and the army o’ slayerettes shows up.
Any other idle speculation? I mean, c’mon, the show’s over, it’s our last chance to speculate. Please remember to keep any actual spoilers in spoiler tags ;).
Daniel
I liked it. It was sad to see Wesley go down, but his last scene was really nice, and I loved the following “Come on, take your best shot” moment.
I’m pretty suprised noone’s mentioned the fact that, even if they go ahead with the movies to continue the story, Gunn’s a gonner too. He had a mortal wound and was pretty much toast…he’s not going to make it through the battle. But hey, props to them for not killing off the token black guy first 
I liked the fight with Hamilton, too, but I figured Angel would have done a little something more just to be sure…like decapitated the bastard while he was down! Sorry, but a guy who barely flinched at all of your punches isn’t going to die from a few extra just because you had a little happy juice. I was so waiting for him to pop back up and punch his hand through Angel. Maybe if htey had more time…
Anyway, I enjoyed the episode and liked the ending. Hmmm…if there is a continuation, wouldn’t it be interesting to see Spike come back around as the fulfillment of the prophesy? I always figured that would happen at the beginning of the season and be the source of some good conflict, but alas, nothing.