Angel 5x10 Soul Purpose

Lindsay reversed the roles, now Spike is what Angel use to be, a vigilante fighting demons, and Wess and Gunn are the mean ole Wolfram and Heart that used to come to Angel and the team taunting them as the big corporate enemy. See that, Lindsay put Spike in Angel's position back in Season 1, and made Angel and the team now the enemy to him. Lindsay is totally manipulating Spike in this episode, it's all a lie.

I don't know if you caught the reference... when Fred pulled the license plate from Angel and said, 'It must have followed the Gulf Stream.' It is a call-back to the movie 'Jaws' when they are dissecting a shark and pull out a Louisianna license plate and say that line. Implying that the shark somehow swallowed the license plate in the Gulf of Mexico and swam up the warm current of the Gulf Stream to New England. BTW, NOT the big, bad shark of the movie. A better question about Lindsay passing himself off as Doyle .... Spike met Doyle in the episode 'In the Dark' Season 1 Ep 3. I am not sure if Spike ever learned the full extent of Doyle's relationship to Angel. The events of that episode leave room to speculate that Spike didn't really know (or care enough to remember.)

Yes, Lindsay does not have the visions, he is just playing Spike.

His directorial debut, right after reconstructive surgery on his knee! I watched this before summer for a video essay and as you know with edits you can really get into the fine detail. Many TV dream episodes can end up samey, nonsense or overly inward looking. 'Soul Purpose' is one of the finest of this trope. (Babylon 5's 'Long Night of Londo Mollari' is a good comparable example of high quality in this type.) The Wikipedia page has a good entry on Continuity, Cultural References and Production, and is spoiler free. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Purpose_(Angel)