In "You're Welcome," former series regular Charisma Carpenter returns as a guest star, when the character of Cordelia Chase miraculously awakens from her coma.
It is her duty to put Angel, who has recently been feeling ineffective at fighting the powers of darkness, back on the right path.
The original plan was for Sarah Michelle Gellar to return as Buffy Summers, but when she could not appear due to the death of her aunt[1] and work obligations, it instead focused on rounding off the character of Cordelia.
The episode proved generally popular with critics, who praised Charisma Carpenter's final performance as Cordelia and the sense of resolution for the character.
Cordelia emerges from her coma after experiencing a vision of the symbols painted on Eve's apartment door and tattooed on Lindsey's chest.
[5] Fury used tight camera angles during Spike's apartment scene with Lindsey to disguise the fact that the same set was used earlier for the opening teaser.
"[7] The return to the show's "original concerns" is echoed by the flashback to Doyle's first season advertisement; Sara Upstone points out aerial images of Los Angeles reappear at the same time Cordelia tells Angel "You forgot who you are," bringing back the show's link to the city.
"[10] In the original script, Fury wrote a conversation between Wesley and Angel while driving to the hospital that set up Cordelia as a possible vegetable.
[2] Christian Kane was genuinely upset when an addition by Joss Whedon in the script called for Angel to refer to Lindsey as a "tiny Texan."
[11] Creator Joss Whedon agreed, saying, "In seven years, we'd sort of run through our course of [the] character and didn't want to start just doing hollow riffs on what we'd done.
"[12] Since Whedon suspected this season would be the last, Carpenter says, "we didn't want to just leave Cordelia in a coma..this would be a very big story left untold.
"[13] Carpenter says the 100th episode was a momentous time to have her character die,[11] calling it "bittersweet...a love letter to Cordelia"[6] and the story "one of the sweetest they'd ever told.
"[15] Actor Christian Kane says he had a difficult time calling himself 'Doyle' because he felt on some level he was masquerading as deceased Glenn Quinn.
After being disgusted by Cordelia's fourth season arc, which she claims "destroyed Cordy's character and viewer trust", author Jennifer Crusie applauds this episode.
[19] Cordelia exits the series "needed, loved, and wanted"; her final words are "You're welcome," Janine R. Harrison argues, because "she knows her worth.