It is epic bullshit. Like, the worst ever in TV history -- and, as a principle, I hate any time the writing of a show is affected by cast availability or off-camera politics.
By the way, did she and Joss really have a spat? From your previous explanation of things, I thought you were saying it was executive meddling and that the network or somebody over Joss ordered her gone because they were pissed about her pregnancy.
It was executive meddling that stopped Amber Benson returning as the first - something to do with a breakdown in talks between her agent and the production company (Fox) - not Charisma. I might have thought that before watching this video though.
It wasn't that someone ordered her gone, simply that no one told her what was happening with the character. From 4:00 in the video in my previous post, she seems to be really open and honest about it:
"What happened was... my relationship with Joss became strained when... (we all go through our stuff) and I was going through my stuff and then I became pregnant... and I guess Joss had a different way of seeing the season go at the end of the 4th season."
So basically her becoming pregnant meddled with Joss's creative plans for Season 4 - I think I read somewhere that she was still to become a villain (possessed) but it wouldn't have involved a pregnancy arc. There was to be a big showdown between her and Angel in the final epiosde, fitting with her having grown more powerful - not sure if the Jasmine possession would still have been a thing. The pregnancy was what they had to write in. That's all just speculation of course.
I had read her and Joss had a spat but didn't mention it before because I didn't know how true it was, but she definitely confirms it in that video.
She goes on to talk about how "I think Joss was really really... mad. He was really mad at me. And I say that in a loving way" - about how it was a complicated dynamic between her and Joss having worked with each other for such a huge length of time. From that I got, there were obviously certain expectations from her with regards to loyalty to the show and narrative (don't get fat or pregnant at the wrong times, etc) and I'm assuming she kind of broke the unwritten rule and said "fuck it", because she also talks about having to also live your life outside of work. She was off for a few episodes during season 3 when she got married and went on her honeymoon (in the show they say she's on vacation with Groo) - but they creatively tied that in with Wesley kidnapping Connor - if Cordelia had been there this probably wouldn't have happened, he might have discussed his fears with her.
Another rumour is that she left it until the last possible moment to tell them she was pregnant, which seems to fit with all of this.
So now I'm really pissed off with Joss Whedon
I can understand his and her points of view, but Joss took his retribution by giving her an abomination of a storyline in Season 4 and writing her out in season 5. I don't believe for a second they couldn't find a way to write around her pregnancy, shows do it all the time. This is combined with the fact that she was the other showrunner's character in the first place (David Greenwalt) and he left the show at the end of Season 3.
There are aspects of Season 4 that make up for that rotten storyline (the constant apocalypse-ness, Angelus, Faith, Willow... and sometimes evil Cordelia is badass) but when she doesn't actually wake up from her coma and you realise you don't see real, alive Cordelia at all after the season 3 finale... yeah, to me there just isn't a payoff. I kinda wish they'd just left her in a coma. Killing her in season 5 after one shiny episode is just too painful to me.
The main point is: if Joss hadn't had a bitchfit and she'd stayed in the show for Season 5, we wouldn't be having this conversation and wouldn't know or care about what happened behind the scenes, which says that his treatment of her character is a colossal mistake. I'm willing to pretend parts of canon aren't actually canon, because the show just wasn't right without Cordelia.
CORDY POWER!!!
But yeah it really would fall flat if the episode hadn't been so awesome otherwise.
