Despite the whole question of whether Angel actually did the right thing, what I found interesting is that Angel was surprisingly confident in taking charge. Although he was forced into the mission, he didn't take long in keeping everyone in line, even Spike to a degree.
We also get how the story follows in AYNOHYEB. He's reluctant to intervene in human lives because, the last time he did well, it didn't turn out so well.
The main thing about this episode is I'm not sure what the mission is exactly. It could be speculated that, that's the whole point. Lawson didn't really understand the higher purpose and that kind of relates to Angel's mission with the PTBs. Lawson and Angel placed a lot of faith in the higher powers but did it damn them?
Lawson is a curious chap. People often talk about Spike being an anomaly but I've always argued that all vampires are special cases in their own right. The Angel/us dichotomy doesn't appear all that typical. We've seen other vampires and the human counterparts and they seem a lot more similar. Some vampires can overcome the nature to a degree (Spike, Harmony) and other show varying degrees of what we'd consider evil. Lawson's unique in that he didn't feel the connection that most vamps feel. Everyone from Darla, Spike, Angelus etc all felt the intuitive call to evil and took pleasure in it. The fact that Lawson doesn't feel guilt for his actions would lead me to believe what Angel said about his own soul not being a factor. Like human beings vampires are complex creatures and there is a diversity of traits that can almost seem to contradict their vampiric nature. However all this said, (and as I've often said) vampires are still mostly a psychological leap from their human counterparts and their difference in behaviour is proof of that for me.
Ok vampire metaphysics rant over.
In previous Seasons we have wonderfully relevent eps which tie in with the theme of the season. Season 2 is a prime example, with Darla. This ep in itself isn't that bad but get marked down on the whole "why is it here?" issue. Rather than deal with Cordy's death the writers become lazy place this ep here and have Angel move on to Nina (who I actually like but it's like Cordy was just forgotten). It made a lot of fans wonder if the gang remembered that day Cordy came. Not to get shippy (I'm not actually biased to any ship) but when Buffy dies Angel goes to spiritual retreat for months and moves on slowly with someone he's known for years but with Cordy, he blinks, gets over her and moves onto the next girl, he hardly knows. Like I said, Nina, the ep itself are all fine but it's the timing for me.
