Written by series creator Joss Whedon and directed and co-written by Jeffrey Bell, it was originally broadcast on May 19, 2004 on the WB network.
In "Not Fade Away", Angel convinces his team that they must take out every member of the Circle of the Black Thorn in a defiant and probably futile stand against the Senior Partners of Wolfram & Hart.
When night falls, the team divides and sets out to eliminate the members of the Black Thorn, incurring the wrath of the armies of hell.
Back at Wolfram & Hart, Angel meets with his old enemy Lindsey McDonald and enlists him in the planned attack on the Circle.
Expecting a swift counterattack from the Senior Partners as the building begins to collapse, Angel directs Connor to leave; then heads to rendezvous with his surviving allies.
In the scene in which Mercedes McNab is in bed with Adam Baldwin's character, plastic inserts in her bra are clearly visible as she turns to the side.
Jeffrey Bell jokes in the DVD commentary that she is "not a special effect," that she is quite real, despite the digitally added fake blood on her lip.
"[3] Joss Whedon quashed the rumors that Sarah Michelle Gellar would appear as Buffy in an interview with TV Guide, saying he did not want the finale to "revolve around a guest star."
"[7] Writer Jeffrey Bell elaborates, saying Gellar was intended to appear in the penultimate episode of Angel but could not make it due to other commitments.
By the time the producers learned she was available for the finale, Bell says, "to force her into the very last episode to reread stuff that we already dealt with didn't make any sense.
"[9] A different criticism came from essayist Roz Kaveney, who argued that this episode was a classic example of "'Superhero Exceptionalism', the idea that superheroes are exempt from normal considerations and entitled to ignore consequences."
The Futon Critic named it the 4th best television episode of 2004, saying, "The series finale was filled with tons of great "holy shit" moments - Illyria's reaction to Wesley's death alone should be required watching for everyone - but the closing moments cut right to the heart of what the show has always been about: the good fight (and the quest for redemption itself) is always a constant struggle.
"[11] A Huffington Post article about series finales cites it as "one of the few dramas that ended in a way that felt emotionally, tonally and thematically appropriate.
[15] Matt Roush of TV Guide praised the series finale, finding it "incredibly inspiring" that Angel continues to seek redemption despite signing away the reward promised by the Shanshu Prophecy.