Guest Starring: 
     
 Kristine Sutherland: 
 (Joyce Summers) 
   
 Saverio Guerra: 
 (Willy the Snitch) 
   
 Eliza Dushku: 
 (Faith) 
   
 Robia LaMorte: 
 (Jenny Calendar) 
   
 Cornelia Hayes O'Herlihy: 
 (Margaret) 
   
 Shane Barach: 
 (Daniel) 
   
 
 
  10. Amends.  
   
  It's Christmas; ghosts of past murder victims plague Angel and drive him to consider suicide..  
   
  Great quotes:  
   
 
  • Willow on Christmas: "Not everyone worships Santa." and "Hello, still Jewish! Hanukah spirit I believe that was."
  • Willow vainly attempts to seduce Oz: "We could do... that thing."
  • Xander at Willy's bar: "Let me get a double shot of... information pal!"
  • Faith tells Joyce that he gifts are "...crappy." at least twice, she swings between confident and insecure like the toss of a coin doesn't she?
  • Buffy: "No wonder you like this stuff, it's like reading 'The Sun'." Do they have 'the Sun' in America? Is it the same as here in England?
 
  Fantastic moments:  
   
 
  • When Buffy asks her mother if they should invite Giles over for Christmas dinner she responds in the negative a little too quickly... (see 'Band Candy' and 'Earshot')
  • Willow's extremely over-eager effort to seduce Oz is great, especially when Barry White kicks in and Oz makes his dramatic 'standing-up' gesture.
  • I loved Buffy's 'I've seen all this before' reactions to the first evil's speech about how 'bad' it is: "All right I get it: you're 'evil'.".
 
  Duff Bits:  
   
 
  • Why do they continue to persist in making David Boreanaz do that abysmal Irish accent? Someone dub for him please.
  • Dead Christmas trees that Buffy spots and remembers later? Now that's a lame plot advancing device if ever I saw one.
 
  Dean's comments:  
   
 
A perfect Christmas or a cop-out?
I think that this is Joss Whedon's worst episode. The dialogue seems pompous and trite (especially between Buffy and Angel), and while the ending is very pretty and hopeful, it all just seems like one long pilot for Angel's own show. On the plus side, at least we finally have an explanation for Angel's return from hell (other than as a plot device to get Buffy to confront her inner demons), the 'powers' sent him here to do good so the 'first' is trying to get him to kill himself. The main theme seems to be that 'Love is hard' and that talking about it helps. I enjoyed the ambiguous and resolution-less ending too; Buffy saves Angel for one night (or at least the powers do by sending a snowstorm to Sunnydale), but how the story will eventually end still hangs in the balance.
 
   
 6/10 
 
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