I’m not sure if the show Angel started off with an idea of where Angel was headed as a person, but it’s episodes like “I Will remember You” that make me think it did. This episode focuses on what would happen if Angel was turned human. The long and short of it is that he’d have lots of sex and eat lots of food, but he’d still have to fight. He’d fight poorly and inadequately but he wouldn’t stop fighting. In the Whedonverse, normal people who are introduced to the dark demonic underbelly of the world in which they inhabit can’t turn a blind eye again. It’s a plot contrivance that Willow, who had been offered positions at essentially every prestigious university in the world, would study at UC Sunnydale, but it’s rationalized by Willow wanting to fight evil. The evils of the world are not things you can simply ignore.

But at the same time, the first thing Angel wants to know of the Oracles when asking of his new fate is if he is “free.” In the third season episode of Buffy, Amends, Angel says that he’s a weak person and he always had been. He was tortured by his past actions for over a century and in the back of his mind perhaps he felt that if he did enough good, the math would even out. And it’s with this shallow idea that Whistler convinces Angel to fight for good and aid Buffy. And with this scene we can see that this idea still holds a place in Angel’s mind; as much as he does what he does to “show the world what it can be” he’s still a weak person hoping for redemption. In later years, he realises that there is no redemption for what he’s done and that fighting with that goal is fruitless. The goal of fighting evil is to fight evil; because the people who can, should.

I really love this episode not only because of the heartbreak Angel must endure — to give up what is surely his ultimate dream — to continue the fight against evil, but also because it shows us a point in Angel’s progression as a character that shows a sort of shallow heroism; but heroism nonetheless.