Previously on Previously on Angel, we saw the exact same scenes over and over again in varying orders. Tonight things are no different, except we see bonus shots of Kate's dad getting killed as well. Oh yeah, and apparently Cordy's clown shirt is an important plot element, because its passage from the hotel to Anne's shelter is duly noted.
Angel arrives at the Hyperion after a hard night of...well, who knows. Plotting another wacky sting against Wolfram & Hart, perhaps. He looks around the lobby and thinks, "Silence! Blessed, comforting silence! No bickering happening! Firing those chatterboxes was the best thing I've ever done!" Just to prove the point, he shoves some junk off the counter so that it makes a nice thunking noise. "And no one complains when I make a mess! Ah, sweet solitude." Angel folds his arms and looks about the hotel triumphantly, lord of all he surveys.
Across town, we're not so lucky. Wesley's talking. He's wishing he had a band of demons for company, but alas there's just Gunn and Cordy. Gunn seems to be practicing sleight-of-hand. Odd. In Cordelia-fashion news, she's wearing a dip-dyed yellow and orange shirt. It's garish, but it's not really too horrid. I can't bear to talk about her hair anymore. Wesley picks up the newspaper from outside the office door and tosses it to Gunn. Gunn opens it and reads the headline, about some mass slaughter discovered on an Amtrak train in Sunnydale. Boring. He turns to the sports page. Huh? Oh, Wesley's still talking. He thinks they need to "make a name for [themselves]." He says that they need to go looking for evil to battle, people to save, adding, "We can't expect evil to just walk through the door." Remember in "To Shanshu in LA," when Nabbit said something about how at any moment a demon could walk through the door, and then they all turned and looked at the door and waited, and nothing happened? See, that was mildly amusing, because it's rare that evil misses a cue like that. This is the opposite of that, because the door immediately opens and evil enters. It's also the opposite of amusing because, well, we've talked about how "predictable" and "funny" don't really go together. Quite a few times. Anyway, evil, in this case, has taken the form of Francine Sharp and her daughter Stephanie. Francine says that she's friends with Virginia, who suggested she see them. While Cordelia burbles perkily about how professional the MoG are, she walks behind Stephanie and suddenly stammers to a close. Ew. Stephanie's got a Keeper! There's a bald patch on the back of Stephanie's head, in the center of which is a rather nicely done eyeball. Congratulations on your budget, FX people. Wesley and Gunn rush to check out Stephanie's third eye. Francine explains, "Something grabbed Stephanie on the way home from swim practice and bit her. When she woke up this morning, that was there." Wesley kneels by Stephanie and asks if she saw her attacker. Stephanie silently turns to Francine, who says, "It was dark, she doesn't remember much. She's been in a state of shock since it happened." Who suspects that the mother is evil? Wow, look at all those hands. Wait a second -- an evil mother? That can't be. It must be the father. Or else the whole world's gone mad. Wesley assures them that they'll take care of the eye, although it may take some time. He says, "You'd be surprised how many nasty things are on the streets these days." Like blipverts, for instance.
A guy and girl run down the mean streets, pursued by an unidentified nasty thing. Anne's plot device refugee center. Anne hands a worker a (rather small) pile of blankets and adds, "Tell Eva to go to the storage room. I bought a bunch of new sleeping bags last week, just in case we got crowded." Yeah, I'll bet she's got quite a bunch. Like, two million dollars worth! Johanna suggests that Anne bought some Prada fleece-lined sleeping bags. I suggest that they have platinum zippers. Anne's pretty. I have no opinion of her beyond that, since she hasn't demonstrated much personality. The two kids who were being chased earlier start pounding at the door. Anne answers, and the boy, Kenny, says he knows that it's past curfew, but Anne has to let them in. Anne insists on following the rules, and adds that the shelter is already full. The girl says, "Please, we'll sleep on the floor." She's totally angling for one of those Prada sleeping bags. The kids try to express fear, and don't really succeed, but Anne lets them in anyway. Hey, Anne's wearing sneakers! A girl! On the WB! Wearing realistic footwear! I give her an extra point for that. The camera pans over to a shadowy corner outside the building, where the shadowy figure lurks. In a policeman's uniform. Gasp, I guess.
Credits. I can't get that damn song I made up last week out of my head. Now I wish I'd spent more than five minutes on it.
Whoa, crazy spinning "Ray of Light" cityscape blipvert. Cut to Merl, packing. I don't think the iMac is gonna fit in that suitcase. He walks across the room and almost crashes into Angel. Merl moans, "Can't you knock?" Angel says, "You don't make that funny expression when I knock. Or if you do, I don't see it." That made me almost kinda sorta laugh a teeny bit. Merl explains that he's leaving town, Angel is unhappy to hear that. "Who's gonna tell me all the fun facts about my friends?" he grumps. Merl says, "Big meeting tomorrow night, some top-level Wolfram & Hart brass, I think it's a new demon account. 9:30, Diaghilev, and that concludes my career as a professional informant, all right? Consider it a freebie, just like every other bit of information I've ever given you." He sounds bitter. I suspect Angel is the wrong guy to try to out-bitter. Diaghilev is an upscale Franco-Russian restaurant. Thank you, Google. The Tournedos Igor Stravinsky looks yummy. Angel asks why Merl is leaving, and Merl whines about a steady stream of beings who threaten him to get information. He also complains about how at least Wesley understood what a working relationship was, by which he means, Wesley paid him. Like Wesley had a choice -- he couldn't intimidate a kitten, much less Merl. Anyway, Merl says, "You don't care about anyone but yourself," so that we get this week's obligatory "bad selfish Angel" reminder out of the way. Merl snidely asks about Angel's former employees, "They doin' all right? Aw, gee, lemme guess: you never even bothered to check." Angel broods about what a bad, bad man he is. Thanks a lot, Merl. We sure haven't seen that particular expression enough.
The sun does its march across the screen. Anne instructs another mute employee. Then she spies Kenny, and sits down with him and his girlfriend. She tries to find out what they were so scared of last night. Kenny insists, "It was cold out there, I was getting frostbit [sic]." Anne points out, "It was sixty-five degrees outside." Kenny explains that he's from Florida. Anne insists on the truth. Kenny finally explains that the he and Les (the girlfriend, I presume) were panhandling (which, when you think about it, is an odd word) when a policeman hit him and threw Les against a wall. Anne asks if the cop was trying to arrest them, but Kenny insists that the cop just attacked them. A light bulb goes off over Anne's head as she says, "I think I know someone who might help."
Cut to the MoG's office. Do they live there or something? Gunn turns to see Anne walk in the door and jumps up. "Annie!" he cries. They hug. Aw. Gunn introduces Anne to the others. Cordelia...oh, Cordelia. A black tube top and a leather bolero jacket. Not ugly, exactly, but not appropriate office wear. Gunn explains that Anne runs a shelter "not too far from my hood." Anne teases Gunn about his absence from his usual haunts lately. And what of his poor no-longer-Found Boys, I wonder? Did he at least leave them the crazy stake-shooting machine gun? Then Anne explains that she wants Gunn's help. Whoosh, time passes, and Anne has filled everyone in on their troubles with the police. Gunn notes, "Renegade cops...not exactly my usual." Anne says, "Oh, that's right. You used to hunt ---" and then looks around at Wesley and Cordy, who are doing third-eye research at a table. Gunn assures her that they know about vampires, and even worse things. Like karaoke bars. Anne says she should get back to the shelter, and Gunn offers to escort her, because he is gallant. He tells the others that he's going to try and help with the police problem. Cordy says, "Aw, gee, and miss out on this exciting case we're working on?" She explains about the girl who grew an eye in the back of her head, and Anne says, "Wow, that sounds...handy." She asks what kind of demon does that, and Wesley says that they're still trying to figure that out. He adds, "Once we know, we should be able to deoculate her. I mean, just the one in the back." Cordy quips for the sake of the plot, "Angel Investigations: home of the wicked high creep factor." Anne turns to Gunn and asks, "Angel?" Gunn starts to explain about their former employer, and Anne asks, "This isn't the guy in the long black trenchcoat, is it?" Which is an odd thing to say, since I thought that Angel gave up on his trenchcoat before he ran into Anne. The MoG stare at Anne, and she explains, "He tried to help me out a few weeks ago." The MoG exchange significant looks and Cordy asks, "He did?" Anne says, "But it turned out [that] it was just a scam to screw this law firm." The MoG are crestfallen. "He hasn't changed a bit," Cordy sniffs, and returns to her research. Exit Gunn and Anne.
As they walk down the street, we see Angel lurking on a rooftop, watching them. He strolls along the top of a building and I am once again reminded of The Dukes of Hazaard. Anne and Gunn arrive at the shelter in Anne's van. Anne's van. That's fun to say. Angel watches from around a corner.
Inside, one of the kids says, "Look, the cops are tripping, G." Gunn replies, "Define 'tripping' for me." I wait for one of the kids to say, "Well, it's a slang term, meaning..." But they don't. The kids share stories of being beaten and having guns pulled on them. Anne insists that something must be done. Gunn asks Anne if he could have a minute alone with the kids. She leaves. It's never good when dad sends mom out of the room. Eek. Once Anne is gone, Gunn asks, "You guys tryin' to play her?" Gunn says that they shouldn't take advantage of Anne's trust. He asks one kid, Ray, if he's still dealing, and if maybe that's why the cops are after him. Ray assures Gunn that he's a fine, upstanding citizen now, and that they're telling the truth. These are some clean, attractive, and well-groomed homeless kids. Sorry, I keep getting fixated on reality.
Outside, Angel finally gets tired of staring at a door and strolls back down the alley. He's stopped when someone says, "Keep your hands where I can see 'em." It's a cop. Oh, hey -- Angel is wearing the trenchcoat again. Or he bought a new one. I imagine that after sitting in a sewer floor for a while, the old one was a bit stinky. Angel plays innocent, and the cop orders him to turn and put his hands on his head. When Angel doesn't, the cop whams him with his baton and shoves him against a fence. It's time for those two little words that say so much: they fight. The cop dutifully continues reciting the Miranda warning while Angel pummels him. Angel knocks the cop down and starts to leave, but the cop stands up again and insists, "You have the right to an attorney." Oh, don't mention lawyers around Angel. More fighting, and then the camera goes into blur-o-vision as Angel kicks the cop's head off. Angel stares as the severed head drones, "Do you understand your rights as IIIII haaaaave..." Again, props to the FX team. Pity you can't go back and redo "I Fall to Pieces."Though that episode would still suck, so don't bother, actually. As Angel notes that the head, and the body, suddenly look a bit decayed, we zoom in on the badge and go to commercial.
Actually, Anne's shelter bears a certain resemblance to the building where Melissa lived in "I Fall to Pieces." Back inside, Gunn introduces Anne to George and Rondell, two semi-friends of his. George brought a camcorder, and Gunn explains that he wants to capture some police brutality on tape. George and Rondell are already aware of the problem with the cops, much to Gunn's surprise. He grumbles, "Somebody coulda filled me in!" Rondell snarks, "You ain't been around to tell nothin' to." George says, "You've been movin' on up, dog, playing demon detective with your new family." Rondell chuckles, "Deluxe apartment in the sky." So, abandonment issues and tension are in evidence, and I wonder if Gunn might end up sympathizing with Angel's decision to cut his ties to the MoG a little, since he seems to have done much the same thing with his old pals. I hope so, 'cause I don't want to have to accuse Gunn of hypocrisy. I think some more stuff happens, but Gunn and Anne are both so darn pretty that I just stare at them. Gunn finally explains his plan: "I want you to roll the camcorder, wait for the cops to hassle us." Anne wonders, "How do you know they will?" Gunn snorts, "'Cause we'll be the ones walking while black." They head out.
Police HQ. Hi, Kate. You've been visiting Cordy's hairdresser, I see. She discovers Angel sitting at her desk. They exchange awkward not-exactly-pleasantries. Kate tells Angel about her open cases: "Two women killed in a clothing store, thirteen lawyers from Wolfram & Hart, slaughtered in a wine cellar." Angel wishes her luck. Kate says, "Guess you never caught up with your vampire friends in time." Angel almost cheerfully says, "I did track 'em down later and set 'em on fire." Kate's not too impressed by that, and Angel finally cuts through the snarkiness by saying, "I guess, probably, this isn't the best time to tell you: I just killed a cop." Kate's not amused, and then Angel continues, "This is the kind of cop that [sic] keeps talking even after he's been decapitated." He hands Kate the headless policeman's badge and asks whose it was. Kate pulls up a file on the trusty computer, identifying the cop as Peter Harkes, who died six months ago. Angel asks, "You wanna take a ride?"
MoG's office. Wesley reads while Cordy talks with Gunn on the phone. She thinks Gunn might need their help. Gunn doesn't, and hangs up on her. Cordy tells Wesley about Gunn's plan to be a target for police brutality. She says, "Nothing says, 'Aha, I'm on to you,' like being on the receiving end of a vicious police beating!" Wesley agrees. "It's really a dumb plan." Cordy cracks me up when she says, "Gunn graduated with a major in dumb planning from Angel University! He sat at the feet of the master and learned well how to plan dumbly." Then Wesley and Cordy reassure each other that Gunn will be okay. They sit down to resume their eye research, and then Wesley says, "Right, let's get down there and save him from himself." Off they go into a super-duper blipvert. They're really jazzing these up. Angelmobile (with no sign of Kate in the car), graveyard, Kate's father's grave, Peter Harkes' grave.
Angel and Kate are taking a romantic stroll through a graveyard. Who knew Kate was goth? Kate points to Harkes' grave and says that the guy who shot Harkes is "up for the death penalty." The phrasing of that seems weird to me. Oh well. Angel says, "This ground's been disturbed in the past few weeks. Someone's done some digging." Kate asks how Angel can tell that. He gives her a "hello, vampire?" look. Which makes no sense. I don't remember "magical ability to tell how recently dirt has been moved" being one of the vampiric superpowers. Johanna suggests that maybe Angel's look meant, "Did you forget I have a degree in dirtology?" If the ground was disturbed, one could probably tell because the turf is turned over and there's new grass growing, or something like that. That would be fine. But Kate should be able to spot that, too. No damn sense. I'll move on. Angel asks if there are "a lot of cops buried here," which is an odd question, and Kate says there are. Angel takes about three steps, points down at the name "Kevin Helenbrook" and says, "What about him?" Kate confirms that Kevin was a cop. So Angel not only can sense when dirt has been disturbed, but can also correctly guess the profession of dead bodies. He should take this show on tour. Angel finally shares his explanation with Kate: "I think someone's unearthing dead cops and putting them back on the street." When Kate is bewildered by this, Angel rephrases his theory: "Zombies." Kate suddenly rushes away, and Angel galumphs over to where she's stopped by her father's grave. She asks Angel to use his dirtastic powers to tell her if he's walking the beat again. Angel says that her dad is still resting comfortably. Kate starts to get weepy. Angel stares awkwardly and finally asks, "You okay?" like a doofus. Kate ignores the dumb question and asks, "Who's doing this?" Both of them were pretty good in that scene. And in the dim lighting, Angel almost has cheekbones again.
Anne's place is packed. She's still carrying blankets around. Where are those damn sleeping bags? There's a pounding at the door. Anne answers it and finds Cordy and Wesley. Anne tells them that Gunn left a while ago, and that he and his pals were going to film Gunn's Rodney King impression on 45th Street. I mean, she doesn't just volunteer all that; they have to ask. I'm just trying to save us all some time. Wesley takes off, and Cordy calls, "Check in with me!" Why can't she go, too? Oh, because she has to help Anne fold laundry. Okay. Oh, and for this: a girl is coming down the stairway in Cordy's pukey pink clown shirt. Cordy is stunned. She finally growls to Anne, "That crook at the store said it was one of a kind!" Y'know, that would have been funnier if they hadn't reminded us of the whole shirt saga in the "previously on" scenes. Because then it would be a little giggle for people who remember, instead of being spelled out at great length as if it were something other than a dumb gag. Anne finally prepares to close the front door, but is stopped when a black guy with a moustache appears in the doorway. "You know it's not safe for man or beast out here," he croons, clearly not at all worried or scared, and why does he want in, again? Anne tries to slam the door in his face as she says there aren't any free beds. He pushes his way past her, eyes some girls, and says, "I'm sure I can find someone willing to share." He's all sinister, you see. Anne asks him to leave, and Cordy backs her up. Mr. Sinister says he needs shelter, and bumps into Cordy as he walks past her. Cordy starts after him, but Anne pulls her back, saying, "I don't want any trouble." Um, 'cause that guy won't make trouble? And shouldn't Anne have developed some ways of keeping undesirables out of the place? Cordy gets a fun bit of closed captioning: "[Huffs.]" Further inside, Mr. Sinister bumps into Ray, who helpfully provides Mr. Sinister's real name: Jackson. Ray's a bit afraid of Jackson, but Jackson reassures him by saying, "I'd never kill you here, Ray. Not in front of all the pretty ladies." Well, that's comforting.
Gunn and his pals are walking down a deserted street, going over their plan. Gunn complains, "I've never had to look so hard to find trouble before." They arrive at 45th Street, and George says that this is gang territory and that even cops don't come here. So, why are they looking for cops there, then? As Gunn looks at the empty street, he says, "Damn. Did someone have an apocalypse and forget to invite us?" On cue, a cop approaches behind them. He tells them to get against the wall. George has the camcorder semi-hidden inside his jacket. Gunn asks if they're being arrested. The cop repeats his instruction for them to face the wall. Gunn asks if they broke any laws. The cop menaces them with his baton, and that's when Wesley runs up saying, "Wait, officer! This man is a friend of mine." The cop turns, pulls out his sidearm, and shoots Wesley in the stomach. Wesley gets all blurry, goes negative, and collapses. I hope that cop gets a medal.
After the ads, Gunn finally recovers enough to shout, "Wesleeeeey!" As the cop starts to spin around again, Gunn grabs him, and the gun falls to the ground. They tussle, and Rondell picks up the gun. The cop reaches down to his sock, and George shouts, "He's got another gun!" Big help you are, George. Rondell shoots the cop. Twice. Gunn runs to Wesley, and Rondell drops the gun. Dumb-ass. Wesley just looks surprised as he asks, "Is anyone else cold?" Gunn yells at the others to help him pick Wesley up. Rondell is understandably a bit stunned, and says, "I shot a police officer! Look at him, he's dead!" And then the cop sits up. "Don't look that dead," Gunn comments, before he and the others quickly drag Wesley away. The cop looks after them and uses his radio: "We have witnesses. I need backup." Gunn directs them into an alleyway, saying, "I have to stop this bleeding." They stop, and Wesley sits down and insists on calling 911. Rondell shouts, "Screw the cops! They're the ones that did this to you!" Gunn clarifies, "An ambulance." "Oh," says Rondell, and Gunn pulls out Wesley's phone.
Kate and Angel enter a suspiciously quiet police station. A cop comes out to the front desk. Kate shows her badge and says that she's investigating some complaints. The cop correctly suspects that this is a job for Internal Affairs, but Kate points out that nobody wants to be reminded of that crappy Richard Gere movie, and besides, she's got a personal interest in this. She asks why the station is so deserted, and the cop says there's not a lot going on: "Crime's way down in this district. We're doing things right." He credits the captain for this change, and Angel asks if they could speak to the captain. Nope, he's not there. Kate asks, "This captain of yours, he running things by the book?" The cop chews his apple and says, "I don't have to tell you who used to rule these streets, Lieutenant. The scumbags did!" Scumbags? Harsh words. He adds that they have "a tougher policy now."
Cut to Wesley's bloody shirt. I'm sorry, I just keep remembering Tim Roth's agonized wails in Resevoir Dogs, and that makes Wesley's pale, quiet, "I've suddenly come down with galloping consumption," take on a shot to the gut a little hard for me to care about. Rondell insists that an ambulance won't come into this neighborhood. Wesley sighs, "I don't think I'm doing very well," as Rondell wanders away to look for the ambulance. Gunn lies about how he's seen lots of people with worse wounds who did fine. He does a fine job with "trying to hide how panicked he is." Rondell races back and says that the ambulance is there. They all drag Wesley out. Cut to Wesley being lifted into the ambulance. Gunn tells Rondell and George to meet him back at the shelter, and hops into the back of the ambulance as it speeds away. Or, actually, it doesn't, since the end of the alley is blocked by two police cars. The driver gets out and marches up to the cops, saying that he has to get through. Gunn tries to shout a warning, but he's too late, as the driver is cut down by the police gauntlet. Gunn hops into the driver's seat and throws the ambulance into reverse. As he starts to turn, another police car pulls up behind them. Gunn steers the ambulance down an alley and crashes through a fence. A car chase! Yeay! Oh, apparently not. Boo.
Blipvert of storm clouds and lightning. The hell? Oh, I guess they have to explain why it's raining in this shot, as the ambulance pulls up at the shelter. Er. Yeah, the shelter, not a hospital. Presumably Gunn's logic is that the cops would be racing to get to the hospital ahead of them. Gunn convinces the EMT to help cart Wesley into the shelter. Anne lets them in, and Gunn briefly summarizes the situation: "The cops, they're not human!" Anne backs up toward the door, then slowly reaches out to pull it shut. I totally expected a cop to grab her right there. But that doesn't happen. Instead, a police cruiser pulls up to the ambulance. Inside is the cop Rondell shot, who picks up his radio and says, "All passengers are on board, sir." Cut to the captain, who instructs the cop: "Wait for backup. Secure the entire section. Clean house."
Wesley grips Gunn's hand and mutters, "He had no right." Cordelia hurries up and the EMT tells her to apply pressure to the wound. Gunn peers out a window and Anne asks if they're safe. "Safer than out there," is Gunn's none-too-comforting response. He tells her to lock the doors and keep people away from the windows. He's seen Night of the Living Dead, of course. The kids are herded around, and Jackson wanders up to see what the fuss is about. He spots Wesley's wound and says, "Now that looks nasty." Gunn isn't happy to see Jackson. Jackson says, "I say let 'em come, bro. I know how to handle cops." He pulls up his shirt to show off the gun dangling from his pants. That looks like it'll fall out any second. That would be so embarrassing. They snarl at each other for a while, since Gunn's all about helping the community and Jackson's more of an independent kind of guy. Jackson says he's just doing his thing, and Gunn says, "Your thing hurts everybody! Why do you think nobody cares [that] they're clamping down on this neighborhood?" Jackson suggests, "Because they're racist pigs." Gunn concedes the point, but adds, "There's people like you: a thug with a gun, keeping the cycle going." He doesn't mean the happy, hakuna matada cycle, either. Gunn points out that Wesley got shot because of all this. Jackson replies, "Oh, yeah, a white man dying. Not exactly losing sleep over it." Gunn shoves Jackson against a wall, and Anne hurries over to intervene.
The cop tells the captain that all units are in place. The captain says, "Go. Keep it quiet. No gunfire." Inside, the EMT loudly announces, "He's goin' south." Shouldn't you say things like that so that the patient can't hear? The EMT says that there's internal bleeding, and Wesley has to get to the hospital. Gunn says that they can't risk it, and Cordelia snarls, "I don't care who's out there!" Gunn backs down, tells Cordy to get the door, and starts to lift Wesley up again. Cordy opens the door just in time to see several police cars pull up, blocking the ambulance. She shuts the door again. She tells Gunn, "They're here." As lots and lots of cops march out, Gunn instructs everyone inside to block the windows with whatever's handy.
The captain is sitting at his desk when Angel enters his office. As Angel strolls around casually, the captain asks what he's doing. Angel introduces himself. The captain suggests that Angel could find someone to help him downstairs. Angel says he needs to talk to the captain "about some of your more...dead cops." The captain laughs, stands up, and says, "Maybe we should talk about you, instead." With that, he pulls his gun out and shoots. Angel falls back, clutching his chest, and then straightens up in vamp-face. "How do I stop them?" he demands. He throws the captain around the office a little, then lifts him up by the neck and says, "I'll repeat the question." Meanwhile, cops climb up the outside of the building, crowding the doors and windows. They pull the bars off the window, pound on the door with one of them, uh, door-pounding things, and so on. "These are good cops!" the captain insists, as Angel pounds his head into a wall. "I won't betray them!" he cries, and shoves Angel away. The cop escapes through a hidden door behind a file cabinet, and disappears into John Malkovich's head. Well, not really, but wouldn't that be a twist? Angel hammers on the no-longer-secret door.
Cops are grabbing kids through the broken windows, dragging them outside. Glass breaks. Gunn tries to fight them off with a baseball bat. A cop grabs Anne's leg, and Cordy runs to the rescue. Maybe he's part of the fashion cops, and he just wants to replace her sneakers with some strappy pumps. Jackson pulls out his gun and opens the front door. Good idea, Jackson. He's immediately knocked down by a police baton. Gunn steps in and drives the cop away before re-locking the door. He pulls Jackson to his feet, and they share a moment of understanding and male bonding and all that, only not really, because they have nothing in common. At the back door, Cordy and Anne shout for help. Gunn and Jackson hurry to help them hold the doors closed.
The captain is in a nifty little voodoo shrine, with photos of dead officers, their badges & batons, and lots and lots of candles. The captain reaches into a trunk and starts pulling out a cross as Angel finally bursts in. Angel asks, "How are you controlling them?" He looks at a table, reaches into a bowl, and pulls out something red and drippy, like raw bacon. "The entrails?" he asks. The captain is nonplussed. Back at the shelter...well, more of the same, really. The cops are gradually getting inside. Doors are bursting open. Gunn is being grabbed, and not in the nice way that I would grab him. Etcetera. Angel spies a figurine and says, "Here we go, it's the idol of Granath. The zombie god!" The captain shouts, "Noooooooo!" as melodramatically as possible, and attacks. Angel smashes the captain over the head with the figurine, which turns out to be made of plaster as it crumbles to bits. The figurine is made of plaster, not the captain's head. At the shelter, all of the cops abruptly stop choking and fighting and menacing, and fall to the floor as if they're plumb tuckered out. We get to watch the cop who shot Wesley turn green with decay. Blech. Then there's an attempted fake scare as a cop's body suddenly falls to the floor from upstairs, but it's so fast and so blurry that it's just bewildering. Anne goes to check on the kids.
Cordy suddenly remembers that normally about now, someone would be talking about how they'd vanquished evil and didn't need Angel to help them at all. She realizes that, in contrast, the quiet is a pleasant change, but it's just not right somehow, and -- "Wesley!" she cries. She and Gunn hurry back to the sickbed. Or sickcouch. Gunn tells the EMT to get the ambulance ready. I didn't know ambulances needed a lot of prep-time. Jackson hurries past, and Gunn points to Wesley and asks, "Help me pick him up." Jackson smirks, "Sorry. Looks like the streets just got a lot safer for me. Time to go to work." Gunn and Cordelia stare at Jackson, horrified by this betrayal. Because of that time when Jackson seemed totally redeemed and willing to make sacrifices for the greater good. You remember that, right? No, me neither. Jackson leaves, and Cordy helps Gunn drag ol' Wesley back onto his feet for the thousandth time this evening. I think it's interesting that none of them spend even a second wondering why the zombies were un-zombified. I mean, nobody says one word about their incredibly lucky last-minute rescue. Maybe they knew it was 9:53 and things had to wind up.
Angel walks over to Kate's desk. He's changed into his leather jacket. That's a nice jacket. He sits down and cheerfully (for him) says, "I took care of our little cop problem." Kate nods and hands him a copy of the crime reports from that precinct. She proceeds to tell Angel what the report says, so that he doesn't have to puzzle out the pie graphs. "Up until three months ago, there was a murder every two weeks, a rape every two days, a robbery every hour and a half. That's what we just gave back to the people of that community." What does she mean, "we"? Angel says, "I can live with that." Kate says, "You learn to live with a lot of things, don't you?" The captioning says, "Yeah," but Angel doesn't. Apparently the captioning has it's own opinion on the issue. Kate says that her job is making her crazy. Angel knows the feeling. They look at each other ambiguously, and someone hands Kate another report. She looks it over and says, "Wyndom-Pryce, isn't that the guy that works for you?" So, Kate the super-detective is the only person in the entire city who doesn't know that Angel fired the MoG?
Wesley lies in a hospital bed, with all the beeping noises that involves. Gunn watches and leans forward as Wesley opens his eyes. "Heys" are exchanged. Wesley moans, "I have a feeling [that] I should be in a great deal of pain." Gunn agrees. Wesley eyes the tube connected to his arm and asks, "Is this morphine?" Gunn nods, and Wesley says, "Well, it's bloody lovely!" and giggles. Hands are manfully clasped. Outside, Angel lurks and stares at Wesley through those big windows that I've never seen in a real hospital room. He turns as if he's about to leave, but Cordelia's right there. And not happy to see him. She asks why Angel is there. Angel says he heard about Wesley. Cordelia says, "Too bad it takes a gunshot wound to make you give a crap! Wesley doesn't need you right now. We don't need you. You walked away. Do us a favor, and just stay away." Angel's his usual stoic self as he watches Cordy stomp off. To be fair, he didn't so much walk away as tell them to go away. He turns to watch as Cordy enters Wesley's room. And then he turns and leaves. Good, I was scared there was going to be a heartfelt reunion. Over Wesley. Which would be fine if it was in the "ding-dong, the fop is dead!" way, but since he survived, that didn't seem likely.