Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are two classics of the vampire genre, but both series had their share of misfires. It’s somewhat inevitable when producing 22 episodes per season for several years that not everything is going to work: there’ll be some filler, some bad decisions, and not everything can be on the level of “The Body.” Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 6 in particular comes in for a lot of criticism, ranging from Willow’s dark turn to the Trio to the general darkness and misery of things, but it’s not the worst story in the franchise.
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Instead, I’d argue that honor belongs to Angel Season 4, which comfortably has the weakest run of episodes across both series. And, more specifically, it’s the poor handling of Cordelia Chase – otherwise one of the strongest characters across both shows – that really seals its fate. The early episodes of Season 4 saw Cordy return to Earth without her memories, but the problems really started in Episode 5, “Supersymmetry,” which finds her living with Angel’s son, Connor, and is where things begin to take a more romantic turn.
Angel Season 4’s Cordelia Storylines Are The Buffyverse At Its Worst
“Supersymmetry” sees Connor and Cordelia kiss, following him training her to kill vampires, which itself is a weird enough moment given her previous feelings for Angel and relationship with Connor from being a child. The series might have been able to get away with that as a one-off moment, especially as Cordy pulls away and is unsure about who she is and what her feelings are. When her memories are restored, she even remembers that she was in love with Angel, but the show nonetheless doubles down on her and Connor having a romance; indeed, just two episodes later, they have sex.
It’s incredibly creepy, forced, and the rest of the arc doesn’t make things any better: there’s a mystical pregnancy (done in part as Charisma Carpenter was pregnant in real life, but the story handled it horribly), possession, and it culminates with Cordy being in a coma and effectively written out of the show (following Season 4, she’d only return for one episode in Season 5). It’s the absolute nadir of the Buffyverse; it’s not entertaining to watch, and feels like an egregious, near-ruination of one of the best characters that hurts the show overall, too.
Even on rewatch, it’s a struggle to get through it all and there are frustrating decisions at every turn. Carpenter, who has discussed Joss Whedon’s “toxic” behavior on set (including calling her “fat” while pregnant and asking if she was “going to keep it”) also previously spoke about the Connor and Cordy story on TikTok, saying:“It was so difficult. It was a very difficult storyline. I thought it was so awful, and so creepy, and predatory of Cordelia. Just destroyed me. I was just so ardently against it.”
The storyline remains incredibly controversial for what it depicts on-screen, though knowing the behind-the-scenes issues, of course, make it so much worse. It’s an undoubted low-point of the Buffyverse, and the legacies of Carpenter and Cordelia deserve much better. The actress created one of the series’ most compelling characters, with development better than most. For that reason, it’d be great if the Buffy reboot could find a way to bring her back, even if it’ll be difficult to erase the mistakes of Angel Season 4.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are available to stream on Hulu.
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Image courtesy of Stage 6 Films -
Image courtesy of Lucasfilm.
