Our story begins with Ninja Kate nabbing a guy named Spivey, who I think we can safely assume is a criminal of some sort. Kate knocks him down and complains, "You stood me up. You were going to come to the station and answer a few questions, remember?" He says he forgot, so Kate slams him against the car and cuffs him. She says, "You have the right to remain silent, but I wouldn't recommend it." Grrr. I bet Kate watches a lot of Dirty Harry movies. At the station, Kate shows Spivey some photos and he identifies the Central Casting mobster type in them as Little Tony Papazian, who has apparently vanished. ["From the bad-ass Greek Mafia? Whatever!" -- Wing Chun Ariano] "So you haven't seen him since the day this picture was taken?" Kate asks. "The day County Supervisor Caffrey was found murdered?" Spivey claims Caffrey's death was a suicide. Kate seems unconvinced, and mentions that Caffrey was shot in the back of the head, wrapped in plastic, and locked in the trunk of his car. We pan out of the box to some other detectives watching the interrogation. Spivey says he's not going to answer Kate's questions. She tells him to look at the pictures again. "Bite me," he responds. Kate shoves him against a wall and says, "Where is he?" The captioning has her saying, "You don't want to tell me? I'll make it so you can't." I don't know why they changed that, unless they decided that the LAPD has a bad enough reputation as is. The other cops race in, and the Jeremy Piven impersonator among them pulls Kate off of Spivey and out of the room. Cupid tells her that they don't know anyone who can find Little Tony. Oh, but I think we do.
And right now he's down in the sewers, battling something with a lot of big green tentacles. As Angel is knocked to and fro, Doyle and Cordy race up. "It's about time!" says Angel. Doyle says, "Not a lot of enchanted swordsmiths open on Sunday," and tosses a sword to Angel. Well, he has a point, I guess. Angel hacks off a tentacle and then stabs up, where we can see a lot of green skin through a hole in the ceiling. There's a demon death-wail as goo pours down. Angel says, "Make sure to cut off all the limbs and both heads this time. Remember to bury the parts separately. I don't want this thing coming back to life again." Heh. Angel strolls away, saying he's going to go "clean out the nest." Cordy complains, "Am I wrong in thinking that a 'please' and 'thank you' is [sic] generally considered good form when requesting a dismemberment?" While Cordy continues to complain about Angel's thoughtlessness, behind her a tentacle suddenly whips up around Doyle's neck. While Doyle gasps and struggles, she concludes, "He ignores the people that are closest to him, the people who matter the most, y'know? Can you say 'clueless'?"
During the credits, the audience is in an agony of suspense, wondering if Doyle will be killed before Cordy notices he needs help. We can only hope.
Alas, no. Cordy and Doyle, considerably gooier than they were, walk into the office. Angel immediately starts with, "Cordelia, you need to --" "No!" says Cordy. "I don't care what horrible thing's about to happen. Asteroids are hurtling toward earth. Unspeakable evil is rising in the San Fernando Valley. Jar Jar is getting his own talk show. Whatever. I don't want to hear about it. Not until you ask us how it went." Angel tells Cordy that her mother called, and Cordy should call her back. "Now, what are you talking about?" he asks. Cordy reminds Angel that he left them to deal with the squid-thing in the sewer, and Angel says that since they both returned safely, he assumes it went okay. Cordy says that's not the point, and Angel says, "So there is a point?" Doyle clarifies, "She thinks you're insensitive, and not to bring up the irony, but consider the source." Cordy glares. Angel says that just because he's reserved doesn't mean he doesn't care. Just then Kate enters and asks if Angel has a minute. Angel and Kate go into his office and shut the door. "Mr. and Mrs. Spock need to mind-meld now," comments Cordy. Heh, except I don't think Cordy's ever really met Kate before. Kate tells Angel about Little Tony. He offers to see what he can do, and Kate says she'll pay him for any help. Angel points out that he owes her favors but Kate insists, "This isn't a favor. It's a job, that's how we do it." She then tells him to contact her directly if she finds anything, and Angel asks, "You don't want to get a reputation for going outside the department?" "I don't want to get a reputation for getting you killed," she answers.
Cordelia blipverts through some files while Doyle mans the computer, where apparently he can pull up all kinds of information on Little Tony's hangouts and buddies. Sure. Angel enters, and attempts to make peace with Cordy. He rather insincerely tells her, "I wanted to, you know, thank you so much for going through those coroner reports, because I can imagine how not fun it is to read about, you know, coroner stuff." "Lame," Cordy points out. Doyle shrugs sympathetically. Angel gives up, and asks her, "What have you got?" "The weebies," she answers. Wasn't that a children's animated show? She says that there have been body parts washing up on the coast, which presumably are Little Tony's work and not just random medical waste. Angel asks Doyle to pull up tidal flow charts, to try and determine if all the bodies could have been dumped into the sea at the same location.
Kate runs into her dad at the station. Her dad's also a cop, and about to retire. Kate mentions that she's been asked to speak at his retirement party. He tells her not to go to any trouble. The plaintive flute informs us that perhaps relations are strained between them, and we speculate that Kate may have become a cop to try and win her father's approval and, dare we say it, love. Yawn. Angel phones her from a pier, telling her he's found Little Tony's hideaway. He watches Little Tony himself, who is far from little, standing on the pier with some gunsels. Angel can see them clearly using a video camera with night-vision. At least he doesn't have some Batman night goggles or anything, so I can accept that. Kate says she's on the way, tells Angel to leave, and hangs up. Angel notices a boat heading for the pier and curses.
Little Tony instructs his companions to take care of his plants while he's gone. Suddenly Angel is standing to them, wearing a bright red Hawaiian shirt and a white Panama hat. Which I guess he had in his car, just in case. "Hi!" squeaks Angel, introducing himself as Herb Sanders from Baltimore. One of the goodfellas tells Angel that he's in the wrong place, but Angel points to the approaching ship, asking, "That's not the boat to Catalina?" The goodfellas tell Angel to leave, so Angel makes with the senseless violence and knocks them down. "It was the hat, wasn't it? I knew the hat was too much," Angel says. Don't quip, Angel. Sirens, lights, cops. Kate jumps out of a car with her gun out and says, "Hi Tony." As Little Tony is loaded into a police car, Kate approaches Angel and starts yelling at him for getting involved instead of leaving as she asked. Angel says Little Tony was about to get away. Kate says, "So you decided to dress like a road flare and put my ass and yours on the line?" While Angel tries to think of a response to that, Kate gets into her car and drives off. Little Tony glares at Angel from the car. Two weeks from now, I'll bet Angel thinks of a really snappy comeback for Kate.
At the station, Little Tony leeringly tells Kate that if he'd known how bad she wanted him, he'd have let her catch him sooner. Kate responds, "If I'd known how badly you needed the exercise, I might have let you run a little longer." Ho hum, blipvert. Little Tony contacts the Evil Lawyers of Doom at Wolfram & Hart. The rather young-looking lawyer pulls out a fax with information about Kate on it and says he'll take care of the problem. Moments later, lawyer-boy submits a petition to have Little Tony moved to a different precinct "for his own safety." The lawyer mentions the "unknown assailant" they believe was working with Kate. Kate tells her lieutenant she doesn't know who the other person was. Little Tony says he saw Kate talking to him. Kate cleverly tries to change the subject, asking "Was that before or after you murdered Supervisor Caffrey, you fat piece of --" before the lawyer cuts her off. The lawyer threatens them some more, saying that the public will be given a view of "the brutality and callousness of this police force that will make Mark Fuhrman look like Gentle Ben." That's O.J. reference number four, if you're keeping score. Also: "Gentle Ben"? Memo to WB: Keep the pop culture references to shows that aired within your target audience's lifetime.
Angel and Doyle question Doyle's source, who is working out on a Nordictrack while they talk. He says that he overheard some of Little Tony's men talking during his spinning class, and they said that "no stupid bitch is going to get the best of L.T." Angel turns to Doyle and asks, "You know what that means?" "I think it stands for Little Tony," offers Doyle. "It means he's going after Kate," explains Angel.
Kate is filling her coffee mug when Angel enters the station and tells her, "We need to talk." Kate agrees, "I know. I want to apologize for the other night." Angel says she doesn't need to, but Kate insists, "That's not what my sensitivity trainer says. I know, it's pretty goofball, right? Still, thanks for what you did." , Kate asks Angel to come to her dad's retirement party the night. Angel agrees to go, and Kate says, "Okay, that was easy, I'm relieved." Angel finally gets a chance to talk, and tells Kate that she could be in danger, and that Little Tony may have a contract out on her. "Wow, he's really acting out, isn't he?" Kate comments. Angel blinks, and Kate continues, "He must be in some kind of pain to have to strike out at others in that way." Angel asks if Kate's okay, and she says that she'll be back to her usual level of cynicism in no time. At an ominous house, Allen meets with the evil lawyer, who says, "We went to great effort and expense [sic] to get you into that precinct. Is it working?" Allen insists that it is, and says, "After tomorrow's session you'll see incredible results." Behind Allen we can see a spooky altar. "That makes me feel all warm inside," says the lawyer.
The retirement party is in full swing at the bar. Kate tells Angel that she is scared, excited, and consumed with dread. Angel says he doubts Little Tony's men would try anything at the party. Kate is confused, and then says, "Oh, that death threat hanging overhead? No, I meant speaking in public." Angel suggests that she try picturing everyone in their underwear. Kate eyes Angel pointedly and says, "Way ahead of you." Ew! Angel looks bewildered, and I know I am. Kate walks up to her dad and introduces Angel. Angel congratulates Kate's dad on his retirement, but dad says, "All I did was live this long and not get shot." Kate asks her dad why he pretends that important things don't matter. Dad ignores her and asks Angel how long he's been dating Kate. Angel says, "We're, um, pretty new friends." Dad says, "Well, good to see her out with a man. I was starting to wonder if she didn't lean in the other direction altogether." Awkward pause. Kate sips her champagne. The lieutenant asks Kate to say a few words. Kate starts with the usual "end of an era" stuff, but then things take a less festive turn. Looking at her dad, she says, "After Mom died, you stopped, you know? It was like you couldn't stand the sight of me." Then we learn that apparently she's bitter because her dad didn't tell her that her mom had gone to heaven, or something. Kate bursts into tears and sobs, "You couldn't even tell a scared little girl a beautiful lie." Dad mutters, "What the hell'd they do to her in that class?" in order to give Angel a much-needed clue. Kate goes on to say, "Do you realize that you've never told me that I'm pretty. Not once in my life!" Cupid points at Kate and tells her to keep going. She concludes: "I can't campaign for the office of your beloved daughter. You closed your heart after Mom left us and that's it." "That was so damn brave," says Cupid. The lieutenant disagrees, saying that the party wasn't an appropriate place for these revelations. ["I'm with the lieutenant." -- Wing Chun] Nearby, a cop is crying while another rubs his shoulders and tells him, "Let it out, Dale." We overhear bits of other conversations, like "I'm passive-aggressive," and "I'm hearing a lot of denial." The lieutenant tells Cupid, "Your need for catharsis is not the issue here." "I'll give you catharsis," says Cupid, and lunges at the lieutenant. Angel pulls Cupid away, and dad drags the lieutenant out of the bar. Angel ignores all the other brawls breaking out and takes Kate out the back door.
Cordy enters the office, asking what the emergency is and complaining about the late hour. She gripes, "Why I ever thought it was a nifty idea to work for a vam --" and then sees Kate curled up in a chair. "--triloquist!" Cordy finishes. Good save. I guess. Angel hands Kate a mug of something while Kate looks up at him. "You have the most intense eyes. I see such an old soul," she sighs. "He gets that a lot," notes Doyle, lurking in a corner of the room. Kate points at Angel and asks, "You don't have an insincere bone in your body, do you?" Angel asks Kate about the sensitivity training. Kate asks if Angel wants to go to one of the sessions, and hands him the memo about it. Angel steps out of the room while Doyle gives Cordy some background. Kate wanders over to Cordy and Doyle and says in that sing-song way, "Someone's got a cru-ush." Cordy insists that she and Doyle "just joke around." Kate says, "Where is the truth? He's hiding behind Mr. Humor!" Kate directs Cordy to look at Doyle, and suggests, "Maybe you should try to open your heart to a new possibility!" Doyle says, "She's starting to make some sense," while Cordy calls, "Angel!" in a panicked tone. Angel returns with Allen's address, and tells Cordy and Doyle to keep an eye on Kate.
Angel enters the ominous house of therapy and quickly finds the room with the spooky altar. The talking stick lays on an open book on the altar. "What's going on here?" asks Allen. Cordy asks Kate if they can get her "some coffee, or valium, or both?" Incidentally, Cordy is wearing a white cropped sweater, under which is some kind of sheer pink shirt, which is also cropped so that we can still see her belly button above her low-rise jeans. Ugh. "He walked out on me, he just walked out," moans Kate. Cordy reassures Kate that Angel will be back, but Kate says that she meant her father. Suddenly, Kate jumps up and declares that she needs to find her dad. Doyle suggests that Kate stay with them at the office. Kate rummages through her purse as she says, "We could do that, but see, I have this..." "Personal problem you're gonna share till dawn?" asks Cordy. "Gun!" Kate announces, waving it around triumphantly. "And I don't want to come off as insensitive, but if either one of you try and stop me [sic] I'll have to blow you the crap away, because I'm gonna find my dad." Exit Kate.
Angel asks Allen which demon he worships to get his power. "A whole bunch, actually. I'm a polytheist," says Allen. Angel turns to Allen, who says, "You have rage. I get that." Allen tells Angel that stuff about anger and fear, and asks, "What were you parents like?" and then clubs Angel with the talking stick. "My parents were great," says Angel, before getting his vamp-face on. The eyebrows are a bit better this time, although that could be because of the dim lighting. "Tasted a lot like chicken," Angel adds, grabbing Allen. Um. That's disturbing. I like it. The police station is in chaos as everyone gets in touch with their feelings. One cop shouts, "I'm having an epiphany!" Heh. Heath carries some keys through the room as he mutters, "It's not right, trapped together that way, with the bigger ones picking on the weaker ones." Heath enters the hall leading to the cells and repeats, "It's not right." He unlocks the cells and opens them. The prisoners, including Little Tony, walk out into the hall. Heath enters the holding area and tells them, "Remember this, brothers. An act of kindness is just as manly --" Heath is cut off when the former prisoners tackle him.
Kate runs into the station, calling "Daddy!" Meanwhile, somewhere in the city, a cop lectures to motorists involved in a traffic accident. "You want to talk about whiplash? I'll tell you about whiplash. I've got emotional whiplash from having to deal with people like you day in and day out. If anyone's the victim here, it's me. I've alienated my friends, my family. My own children are afraid of me. I can't even make love to my wife!" Angel races down the road, past another cop who is telling a woman on a park bench, "I don't think you're listening to your mugger's feelings at all." As Angel rushes up to the station, Doyle and Cordy meet up with him and tell him Kate's inside. Angel cocks his head at them and says, "Okay, I think someone needs a hug." He pulls Doyle and Cordy to him as they groan, and Cordy says, "Ew."
After the commercials, Cordy pushes Angel away and asks the inevitable question: "What's your damage?" "I think you just found Mr. Sensitivity," says Doyle. Angel pats his chest and says, "He was right in here all the time, just waiting to come out. Gosh, what our folks do to us, huh?" That made me giggle. Inside, Kate leaves messages on her dad's answering machine. Cordy asks if Allen "put the whammy" on Angel. Angel nods thoughtfully, "The talking stick. It's cursed all right." "There's a stick that talks?" asks Cordy. Angel starts to tell Cordy how precious she is, but Doyle interrupts and asks Angel about the stick. Angel explains that the stick is a talisman, and anyone who touches it is affected. He hesitantly confesses, "He admitted it to me after I... threatened him with physical violence." Angel goes on to say that Wolfram & Hart hired Allen to take the police out so Little Tony could escape, and that the curse will wear off with time. "So there was never any contract out on Detective Lockley?" asks Doyle. Angel confirms that Little Tony plans to kill Kate himself. Cordy suggests that it is time for Angel to "get all vampy. Grr!" Angel shakes his head. "I don't want to. You both withdraw when I go vamp. I feel you judge me." Cordy insists that they won't, but Angel is adamant. "Closeness is too important to me right now."
Doyle rattles the station door, and a cop appears to tell him, "We're closed." Doyle complains, but the cop says, "Haven't we done enough for you people? It's always 'find this, rescue that' with you people. See how you like it!" The cop pulls down the shades on the door. Inside, another cop prepares to read a poem he wrote to one of the criminals. Cupid walks up to Kate and asks if it hurts to be rejected. He tells her, "For two years I've been saying with everything I have, 'love me, Kate. Need me the way I need you.'" Little Tony breaks into the armory with some of the other prisoners who were released. He tells them, "You'll find I'm stern," as he shoots a cop, "but fair." "Let's go kill us a lady cop," he directs them, and they head out of the room. We overhear Cordy saying "we need a rock" outside an office window. I've noticed that everybody wants a rock to wind a piece of string around. "I can't say I'm very comfortable with all this," says Angel. A rock shatters the glass. "Nice arm," says Doyle. There's a quick cut to Little Tony walking down a hallway, so that we don't have to watch everyone climb into the building. Safely inside, Angel looks at the broken window and says, "Wow. That's vandalism." He says they should leave a note, and Cordy says, "Would you come on." "What's the magic word?" Angel asks. "Urgh!" says Cordy, according to the captioning. "No, I don't believe 'urgh' is the magic word, if one would call it a word, and certainly not a magic one," says Angel. Cordy says there isn't time for this, but Angel insists that "There's always time to be considerate of others." "Oh, please," groans Cordy. "See, that wasn't so hard, now was it?" Angel says as he walks out of the room.
Little Tony and his two new friends enter the main office holding rifles, and most of the cops scramble to run away. Kate stands up as Little Tony tells her, "Nobody beats me baby, not even a stone bitch like you." "I am not a bitch!" cries Kate. Angel walks into the room and says, "I'm feeling some serious negative energy in this room." Little Tony smiles and says he wanted to see Angel again. Kate comments, "I'm sure he'd say the same thing, but that gun really makes you come off as hostile." Angel suggests that everyone sit down together to process this, patting a nearby chair. Little Tony says, "Seems that sensitivity training I paid for really took, huh Nancy boy?" Angel clobbers him with the chair and then throws it at one of the other prisoners, who falls over. Kate draws her gun and shoots the other prisoner. "How do you think that makes me feel?" she demands. Doyle knocks out the guy who was hit with the chair before he can get up, and picks up his gun. "Okay, now I'm feeling unheard," whines Angel, and punches Little Tony a few times. While Little Tony trembles in front of him, Angel says, "You can be a rainbow, and not a --" before clobbering him again. Little Tony falls to the floor, unconscious. Angel makes quote marks with his fingers and finishes, "Painbow." Hee. Kate looks at Angel and says, "You." Angel spins around, looks at her, and says, "No. You." They hug. "Anyone for vomit?" asks Cordy. Angel and Kate look at Little Tony sadly. "Some people really need to live in the problem," Kate observes.
Little Tony calls his lawyer and demands help. The lawyer tells him, "You shot up a precinct and attempted to murder a police officer in full view of witnesses." Little Tony complains that Wolfram & Hart set it up for him, but the lawyer says, "We opened a door for you. The point was for you to walk through it, not blast your way out." He adds, "We can't waste valuable energy on you when there are more pressing issues at hand." While Little Tony asks "What pressing issues?" the lawyer looks at some security camera footage of Angel at the police station. "Our relationship is terminated, as is this phone call," says the lawyer.
While the station is cleaned up, one cop says, "Morning" to the other. "Yeah, right," says the other cop, by way of confirming that everything's back to normal. Kate tells Angel that Internal Affairs thinks someone "spiked the punch" at the bar. Both Kate and Angel pretend not to remember last night's events very clearly. Angel starts to leave, but stops to lurk when Kate's dad comes in. Dad says he got her messages, and Kate begins apologizing. "No, don't say anything," her dad says. As the plaintive flute of estrangement toots, he says, "You make an idiot out of yourself, embarrass me in front of the guys, you don't bring that up ever again. Far as I'm concerned, it didn't happen." He leaves. Nice of him to come in and be horrible to her in person. Angel watches Kate sit down, and turns to walk away. Between Pacey and Kate, I'm starting to wonder if someone at the WB has an unhappy relationship with a policeman in their family. Or maybe they're all just using the same big book of clichéd characters. What do you think?