As someone who isn’t particularly a fan of “You’re Welcome” for a variety of reasons, I do think there’s a strong argument that Buffy would have been a better choice than Cordelia to appear in the episode, particularly when considering Angel’s larger character arc throughout season 5.
My biggest issue with Cordelia’s role in the episode is that she doesn’t actually put Angel back on track. The audience is told, through Cordelia’s words and actions, that she has reminded Angel of his purpose. Yet the following episodes and storylines don’t actually show that. By the beginning of the episode, Angel is already disillusioned with Wolfram & Hart and has decided to leave. The season has repeatedly shown him struggling with the moral compromises of running the firm and questioning whether he's accomplishing anything meaningful. Cordelia’s return doesn’t change those feelings. Angel doesn’t suddenly regain a clear sense of purpose because of her. Instead, his disillusionment continues, and in some ways, he moves even further away from the purpose that originally drove him. I would even argue that the vision Cordelia gives him ultimately contributes to a course of action (going after the Circle of the Black Thorn) that goes against the show’s central philosophy. Angel chooses to take on an almost impossible challenge, knowing that it'll likely result in him and his team going out in a blaze of glory. That, to me, is a far cry from “If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do” and the idea of helping the helpless and saving souls, which has always been at the heart of his mission. I can understand how Cordelia simply being there after having been gone for so long reminds him of his original purpose and reconnects him with the ideals of Angel Investigations (especially with all the call backs to Doyle). However, to me, her impact is more emotional than transformational: she reminds Angel who he is, but doesn’t fundamentally resolve his disillusionment or restore his sense of purpose. Ultimately, the episode feels more like a tribute to Angel the Series and a goodbye to Cordelia than a major turning point in Angel’s character arc. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Cordelia needed closure, and for that purpose, the episode is very effective. It brings back one of the show’s original characters, gives her an emotional final interaction with Angel and the rest of the team, revisits the history of the series (Doyle, Lindsey, etc), and ultimately allows Cordelia to die after completing her journey, instead of leaving her in a coma indefinitely. But when I look at this episode as part of the larger season 5 narrative, the episode’s emotional purpose and its narrative purpose don’t really align, in my opinion. I think having Cordelia return later in the season, closer to the finale, would have made much more sense and ultimately been more impactful.
Buffy, on the other hand, had a very specific piece of unfinished business with Angel that the season had already established. In “Damage,” Andrew tells Angel that Buffy doesn't trust him anymore. I do think the validity of this is questionable consider the source but what matters is that Angel believes it and it clearly shakes him. Then, “You’re Welcome” opens with Angel deciding to leave Wolfram & Hart after wrestling with the decision for 12 episodes. This makes it plausible that learning Buffy had lost faith in him was the catalyst for his decision.This is significant because Buffy represents a fundamental part of Angel’s moral identity and her respect is something he deeply values because of their history and because she, of all people, knows the difference between the man Angel wants to be and the monster he fears becoming. It makes complete sense that this revelation forces Angel to seriously confront what he's actually doing and the excuses he's been telling himself to keep doing it. This gives his decision to leave Wolfram & Hart an immediate emotional and thematic connection to Buffy, while allowing “You’re Welcome” to follow naturally from the events of “Damage” rather than treating the episode as separate from Angel's emotional journey, which never made sense to me.
A Buffy appearance could have also challenged Angel in a way that Cordelia ultimately doesn't. Cordelia's relationship with Angel is very important, but her role in “You’re Welcome” is largely about reminding him of who he was and encouraging him to continue fighting. Buffy could have gone further by questioning who Angel has become. She could have confronted his decision to work at Wolfram & Hart, the compromises he has made, and the growing gap between his original mission and the way he has been operating. Rather than simply telling Angel that he needs to keep fighting, Buffy could have forced him to answer the question the entire season has been asking: What is Angel actually fighting for? That would make Buffy particularly appropriate for this story because Angel’s main conflict isn’t whether he'll continue fighting evil, because he never really stops. His problem is that he's lost sight of why he's fighting. Wolfram & Hart has blurred the line between doing good and becoming part of the system he once fought against. Buffy, as someone who has always had an unshakable belief in Angel’s capacity to do good and who deeply understands what it feels like to become disillusioned and lose sight of your own purpose (see Gingerbread, Season 5 and Season 6 of BtVS), would have been uniquely equipped to challenge him. More importantly, I think it would've been a great opportunity to explore how far Buffy and Angel have come as individuals and how they still have the capacity, and the similar experiences, to fundamentally understand each other.
I also think it would have made for a great full-circle moment. Angel spent a lot of his life believing that he couldn't become someone with a purpose, someone who could do good in the world, someone capable of redemption or even deserving of it, and Buffy was the first person to see that he was capable of all of those things, the person who taught him how to keep fighting in the first place. Having her return at a point when he's become lost again would create a beautiful through line: the person who once helped Angel believe he could be a hero could now be the person who forces him to confront how far he has drifted from that purpose.
prguitarman
amandla
yousharknotpass
turnnoffyourmind
