Previously on Angel, Angel accidentally tried veal, Justine attempted to make Wesley into a kosher meal, Holtz turned rustler, bugs stampeded the hotel, and Connor cowabunga-ed home.
Speed ramp in on Angel's lack of expression as he stares at Connor. It's so tempting just to say, "They all fight," and skip to the scene, but what the heck. Most of this is in slow-motion with the camera moving in and out of the action, and some of it works, and some of it shows off some nice fight choreography, and some of it really irritates me. Groo hops out to defend Angel while Gunn runs for the weapons cabinet. Angel turns and waves at the MoG while shouting, "Waaaaaaiiit." See, that's the trouble right there. People shouting in slow-motion never, ever works. Connor fires his stake-gun, and I wonder if Gunn wishes he had one of those. The stakes pop out toward Angel and zoom past the camera in full Matrix-vision, which is the second thing that irritated me. Angel shouts "Nooooo," see above, and twists so that one stake hits his shoulder while he turns to swat a second stake out of the way. I believe this is what Cordy's vision from the last episode showed. Something that works very well indeed is the fact that as Angel's doing that, Groo is behind him throwing his battle-axe at Connor, so as Angel moves one way, the battle-axe goes spinning by in the other direction. I liked that a lot, because slow-motion is useful when there are several things happening at once. Connor swats the axe away, and we can finally see that he's got a cool scythe-y blade strapped over his arm. I want one! We go back to normal speed as the third stake (I guess) clatters to the floor. Connor once again raises his stake-gun to aim at Angel and says, "Interesting." The main problem that I see with the stake-gun is reloading. I can't see where there'd be room for more than three stakes in there, so now he's just got a bulky set of tubes weighing his arm down. Think about that during the credits. Alternatively, you can try to decide whether every act will end with Connor about to attack Angel that way.
When we return, Angel gets as far as saying, "It's you. Connor." Then Connor fires three more stakes. I guess he reloaded during the commercial break. Angel avoids the stakes with the dazzling action-hero move of backing up a step, but then does a gratuitous shoulder roll to regain credibility. Cordy tosses her sword over to Angel while Connor throws off his stake-gun. Ah, it's a six-shooter! Okay, I can accept that. Take it, Gunn! It's cool! Connor slashes at Angel a few times with his blade, and then does a nifty one-handed flip backward. Groo and Gunn are standing by the counter with new weapons. I think Groo has a mace, and Gunn picked up his sharpened baseball bat. A cabinet full of weapons, and he takes the baseball bat. Fred really did suck out his brain. It doesn't matter, though, because Connor leaps up and spins to kick them both in their faces. Cordy picks up the other sword and stands to defend Cary and Fred, who are cowering in the office doorway. Angel manages to get as far as "Will you just stop for a --" before Connor attacks him again. Connor sure spins around a lot. I wonder if that's Angel's love for ballet coming out. Some more whirling, and Angel and Connor stand back to back for a moment. Then Connor gives Angel an elbow punch, knocking him over. Connor yanks Angel through his legs and across the floor, then prepares to slice into Angel's head. Angel blocks the blow and kicks Connor away. Connor spins into a backwards somersault and lands...on his ass. Ha! He quickly hops back up again. Angel tells everyone to calm down, like that'll work. Groo, Gunn, and Angel take turns getting knocked around for a minute. Gunn says, "Angel, if Peter Pan here doesn't stop --" and gets kicked in the head. Again. Poor Gunn. Connor rushes over to slice Gunn, and Angel gives up on the idea that a soothing chat will solve this problem. He rushes over and pulls Connor away, throws him down, and then pushes Connor's arm so that the blade is creasing Connor's throat. They stare at each other, and Angel finally eases back and tosses the blade across the room. Without looking at where it may go. Boy, I wish it had accidentally hit Fred. Angel leans over to give Connor a hand up, but Connor cowers back and then jumps up and races for the door. Because the wild boy is running on his way back from the fiery hell dimension. Total elapsed time for that scene: 1:46. Pretty cool stuff. Props to Tim Minear. For that fight and just in general, because this episode looked terrific.
Cut to the bright, sunny courtyard. Which is funny, 'cause it sure looked like night outside when Cordy made everything glow last week, and that was maybe ten minutes ago in the show's universe. Maybe she didn't make everything bright, she just made the rest of the world go much darker. Connor races out, Angel chasing him. In slow motion. Shouting, "Noooooooo!" See, that's no good. Gunn and Groo are right behind Angel, pulling him back inside before any expensive sizzling flesh FX become necessary. Although a little smoke would have been nice. Once Angel's in the shade and in no more danger of becoming a dust cloud on the rise, they let him go and chase after Connor.
Connor stands in the middle of the street, on the razor's edge he trails, as honking cars race past him. Gunn and Groo stand on the sidewalk, looking for a way to dodge the cars. Suddenly we're playing Frogger. A city bus goes by, and Connor runs after it and climbs up onto its top with the help of some nice CGI.
Everyone hurries back into the Hyperion. Angel exclaims, "Did anyone get the number of that bus?" Ha! That was funny. I'm hoping it was intentionally so. Gunn did, and Fred goes to find its route online. Cordy takes this opportunity to tell Angel that this is what her vision was about. Angel whines, "But you never mentioned Connor!" Cordy explains that she only saw Angel, because if she'd seen Connor, it would have ruined the suprise at the end of last week's episode. Although, why she had such a useless vision to begin with is a valid question. Gunn asks whether Angel's sure that really was Connor, what with his sudden growth burst. Cordy mutters, "Tell me we don't live in a soap opera." I'm not convinced that acknowledging the cliché excuses it, but fine. Cary is more concerned with Connor's reason for returning. He asks Angel, "You sure he said, 'Hi, Dad,' and not, 'You're dead.'" Well, those things don't really sound alike so I don't...oh. Angel insists that Connor is just angry and afraid, but that a chat with poppa will make everything okay. I'll buy that for a dollar. Fred tells Angel that the bus goes downtown to Union Station. He prepares to head out through the sewer tunnels, and tells the others to take the more scenic route. As he leaves, Groo supportively says, "We will not fail...man!" Is he going to start calling Angel "bro"? That would amuse me.
Cordy turns to give everyone their marching orders, but is interrupted by a crackle of energy. The air over the pentagram is still makin' like Rice Krispies. Cary suggests that they close up the portal from Quor-toth before they get any more visitors. I don't think they should assume this stuff is coming from Quor-toth. It probably is, but I don't see how they can just assume that. Groo wonders if Cordy's new glow-power can close the portal. I've been meaning to mention that she's wearing a nice, plain, white shirt and jeans. It's refreshingly normal. And it would look especially nice if she were still a brunette. Oh well. She steps into the pentagram, raises her arms, and says, "I command you: close!" It'd be funny if a pile of clothes fell out in response. And Cordy would love it, too. She might do the new-clothes dance again! Predictably, the air keeps on sizzling, and Cordy admits she's got nothin'. Fred nervously mentions that there might be someone else who can help, but Gunn interrupts, "Already went to Wes's. Can't do that again." Cary admits that he knows someone who knows someone, but complains, "It's just awkward. This guy's all hands. I mean, all hands -- like, fifty of them." Sounds like it's that thing from Labyrinth! Cary asks if anyone knows sign language, and Cordy wonders how they can go after Connor when more monsters might land in the hotel any minute. Gosh, what a lot of C-names. Admittedly, one of them's my fault. They finally decide that Groo and Cordy will stand guard, Cary will go for portal sealant, and Gunn and Fred will go to meet Angel. As they head out, Fred stops to confirm that Gunn got the instructions for de-crawdad-ing her from Wesley. Can't they talk about this on the way? I just imagine Angel sitting around at Union Station, tapping his foot and checking his watch. Gunn tells Fred, "[Wesley] made it clear: that's a door none of us is ever gonna be knocking on again."
Which, of course, means we're cutting to Wesley, opening his door. To Lilah. She explains that she didn't think he'd take her call, so she thought she'd just come by in person. She asks whether Wesley's going to invite her in, and when he says, "No," she casually pushes his arm aside and walks into the apartment. She looks around and notes the lack of flowers, get-well cards, or "those balloons with the smiley faces on 'em." Off Wesley's stare, Lilah says, "I guess when she slit your throat, she nicked your sense of humor." Wesley deadpans that he finds Lilah's presence "extremely funny." He guesses that she's there to offer him a job. Lilah needles Wesley about the MoG rejecting him. Wesley and Lilah go back and forth, with Lilah praising his intelligence while Wesley notes that she wants his "knowledge of Angel Investigations." See, here's my problem: what's to know about Angel Investigations? Lilah knows where they are, she knows how they work, she's got the Nyazian scrolls. What secret knowledge about them can Wesley provide? Apart from where they all get their money. Lilah tries to tempt Wesley with Wolfram & Hart's occult library, not to mention a "medical, dental, 401k package." Hey, Angel didn't offer dental insurance. Go for it, Wesley. Lilah finally says it was worth a shot, and gives Wesley a present. Which turns out to be a copy of Dante's Inferno. Lilah notes that it's a copy from the 1500s, "in the original Tuscan." Wesley casually tosses it across the room. He threw a rare book. He. Must. Die. Then Lilah and Wesley go on an expositional journey about Dante's description of Hell, to make sure we all know that in the deepest level in Hell -- in Satan's center mouth -- is Judas. Lilah sums things up: "The worst spot in Hell is reserved for those who betray." She heads for the door and leans in close to add, "So don't pretend you're too good to work for us."
Whee! Connor's riding on top of a bus. For a while. Boy, that went on too long, didn't it? He waits until he's out of frame before leaping off the bus in a way that, I'm sure, was extremely athletic.
In the tunnels, Angel's on the phone with Gunn. Gunn says that Connor is "leaving a trail." Angel asks whether Connor hurt someone, and Gunn says no, but that "a kid in animal skins riding on top of a bus" does attract attention. ["In Los Angeles? Not necessarily." -- Wing Chun] Angel figures that Connor wouldn't head downtown: "He'll jump off, head for someplace less populated." He tells them to keep going, but to let him know the minute the trail gets cold. And that'll give him a clue as to where Connor is. That makes sense! Angel made a good plan, there! Gunn asks what they should do if he and Fred find Connor. Angel answers, "He's my son and he's alive. He's gonna stay alive." Um, I don't think that really answered Gunn's question. "Don't kill him" doesn't suggest any positive action they can take instead, you know? Gunn asks whether there's anything else they can do, and Angel grumps, "Make the sun go down." I think he should ask Cordy for that one.
It is all kinds of crazy to see this much daylight on Angel. Connor is on a road near an overpass. And further down, in a culvert, he sees a girl arguing with someone. He hops down to investigate.
The girl, Sunny, is offering some CDs called 80's Pop to a drug dealer named Tyke. Sunny. And the sunlight. And a guy impropably named "Tyke." And Angel's son! It's a whole motif. Tyke's not impressed, and says, "They suck!" "They rock!" she insists. Think they're arguing about Duran Duran? As Connor sneaks up on them, Tyke tells the girl, "You're embarrassing yourself," and finally throws the CDs away. She pummels him pathetically, and he grabs her and says, "That you get to work off," before shoving her into the handy abandoned car. Tyke spots Connor, and I think we all know what's going to happen here. Tyke reminds me a little of Charles Rocket. Something about the eyes and hair. It's confusing, because any second I expect him to take over Network 23, or get Bruce Willis into trouble. Tyke looks at Connor, and as he steps away with his back to the vehicle, Sunny makes a break for it. Except she doesn't, because she's not very bright. Tyke tells Connor, "An entire suit made of chamois? That's different." Tyke doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd use the word "chamois." Not that I want to stereotype evil raping drug dealers as uneducated. He asks Connor about his bandolier of teeth and claws, and Connor explains, "Things I killed." That's the longest sentence he's said so far. He's like the anti-Fred. Which is why I'm starting to like him. Tyke doesn't, though, so he whistles for his flunkies, who come out behind Connor. Tyke giggles, "Aren't you all scary? Chamois and teeth. Wanna know what else is scary?" Connor turns, and one of the flunkies cracks his head with a crowbar. Connor collapses, and Tyke finishes with the obligatory "Me." Oh dear. It looks like there's murder by the roadside in a sore, afraid new world.
After some ads, Tyke steps over to the unconscious Connor and pulls off his bandolier. I swear to you, I think there's a rabbit's foot on there. Hee. Tyke instructs his flunkies to "get rid of him," and then walks back over to the car. Where Sunny has stayed. She is so very dumb. Tyke takes off his leather jacket and puts it on the car's trunk, along with the bandolier. Connor opens his eyes just as the flunky prepares to smash Connor's skull with the crowbar, and rolls out of the way. They tried to break him, looks like they'll try again. Connor then kicks the flunky, grabs the crowbar, and then there's fighting. More twirliness from Connor, and a nice bit where he climbs on a fallen flunky's back in order to kick another flunky in the head. Tyke just sorta watches uselessly for a minute and eventually pulls out a gun. But Sunny finally remembers how to move, so she opens the car door to hit Tyke just as he fires. The bullet hits a flunky instead. D'oh. Tyke turns to shoot Sunny, and Connor goes after him. Eventually Tyke gets flipped onto the hood of the car, and I feel bad glossing over a lot of nice fight choreography here, but I did my part in the opening, right? While Connor tosses a knife into the wrist of a recovering flunky, Sunny pops out of the car and grabs Tyke's coat full of money and drugs. She spots Connor preparing to slit Tyke's throat, and pulls him away, insisting that "the police are probably on their way." I'm skeptical, since it's not like there are a bunch of witnesses around, but okay. Sunny heads off, and Connor grabs his bandolier and follows. Then he stops, goes back, and cuts off Tyke's ear. "So he won't forget me," he tells Sunny as they leave, while Tyke screams in the background. Dude. He cut off a guy's ear. That's awesome.
City-vert takes us to the Hyperion. The air is still sizzling occasionally. Groo is standing, ready for battle, looking up at nothing. If this kind of thing is going to keep happening, maybe they should get a portal detector. With a little alarm that goes off, like a radon detector. Actually, given how old the hotel is, one of the latter wouldn't be a bad idea, either. Cordy is sitting on the steps, watching him. Cordy marvels at Groo's ability to stay still for so long. Groo tells her he's trained for just this sort of thing, and then tells her a story about how he was once trapped in a herd of burbeasts, adding, "As you know, an engorged burbeast will couple with anything that moves." "Engorged"? Ew. Groo tells Cordy that he had to remain perfectly still for eleven days. Cordy confirms, "You were never...?" Groo smiles, "That honor was yours, Princess." Is it just me, or is there an implication there that Cordy.... Well, you know, that they...that Cordy has a.... Um. It's probably just me. Cordy says that Angel is also a master of not-moving, and she isn't just talking about his facial muscles. Groo speculates that "Angel has regaled [Cordy] with his many exploits," and Cordy fails to note the bitterness there. Instead, Cordy says she finds Angel's war stories boring, and then unconvincingly tells Groo, "They're nothing like your thrilling tales of adventure!" Cordy assures Groo that she loves Groo for himself, and Groo points out that she's always talking about Angel. She explains that Angel's had a bad couple of weeks, adding, "He needs me. And you do, too." They kiss, but Groo's worried that he should be keeping watch. Cordy smooches him some more, and then Groo tells her, "I was worried that your affection for the Groosalugg had waned." He went from first to third person all in one sentence! Cordy kisses Groo again, but this time with her eyes staring off somewhere else. Uh oh. And then they both get zapped by a burst of energy from the portal, and are knocked across the floor. That'll teach 'em. Or something.
Cops are all over the culvert where Tyke and his pals were earlier. Gunn finishes talking to a cop and walks over to Fred. She reports that Connor was spotted nearby; they then go over to a shadier spot where Angel is lurking. Angel insists, "He was here. I can smell him." The boy definitely needs a bath. Gunn says that someone got killed, but that Connor was neither the shooter nor the victim. Gunn also mentions the ear-slicing. Fred winces, and Angel defensively says, "He was raised in a hell dimension, okay?" Angel says it'll be dark soon, so Fred and Groo should go back to the Hyperion. Angel explains that he'll have a better chance of finding Connor if Angel's alone. I'm not sure that's true, but Angel adds, "I don't want to scare him. He's all alone in a strange world."
A strange world full of negative swirly blipverts. It's finally nighttime, twenty minutes into the episode, which has got to be some kind of record. Sunny and Connor are wandering into a rubble-ized motel as she asks where he learned to fight. "In Quor-toth," he says, and Sunny asks if that's in Mexico. Sunny is wearing Tyke's jacket and carrying a bag of groceries. She opens a door, finds the room already occupied, apologizes, and moves on. She tells Connor that most of the squatters are cool, but "if a fat guy wearing furry slippers asks [Connor] to play 'teddy bear in the hole,' just tell him to get lost." Sunny goes on chit-chatting about Quor-toth, and asks what Connor did for fun there. "I hunt," he answers, and she says, "Big surprise." I liked her delivery there. She looks in another room upstairs, and she and Connor enter.
Inside, Sunny lights some candles and stuffs Tyke's drugs into her pocket while telling Connor that he's welcome to crash there. Connor pokes around at the kipple, and Sunny picks up some abandoned clothes and asks Connor if he wants to lose "the whole dead-animal thing." She tosses the clothes over and then turns her back while Connor starts to change his outfit. Sunny pulls out a selection of junk food, and says it's a good thing Connor didn't kill Tyke. Connor asks why, and she turns to answer, then stops in astonishment at his full-frontalness. She finally says, "Because it's wrong." Oh great, another Buffy. Connor stares at her because, see, he doesn't have a nekkidness taboo, or possibly because they're trying to get squealing teenage girls to tune in. I hope it isn't because they want to make me feel creepy, because the kid's supposed to be sixteen. Sunny turns back to her dinner of Ding-Dongs and blathers that the police are even worse than Tyke. Connor finishes pulling on clothes as Sunny asks if he's ever had a Ding-Dong. He shakes his head in that exaggerated way that little kids do, and she holds the junk food out for him. He takes a bite and muches happily. I spend a second wondering if someone who's never eaten processed food would just find that disgusting, but it's not really important so I move on with my life. Connor looks at the offerings and picks up a soup spoon and an individual packet of what I think is applesauce. Sunny takes the spoon away because "that isn't for food." Shouldn't she have gotten more than one spoon? How was she planning to eat the applesauce? She holds up a baggie of heroin, and explains that she needs the spoon for it. When Connor goes on staring, she says, "It's medicine," and says it helps her when she's sad. Johanna thought it would be more realistic if she'd said, "It keeps me from getting sick." Although I can squirm my way into the rationalization that, given how purty Sunny is, she hasn't been using very long. Of course, that means I would have liked it if she'd said, "It makes me feel really good." Not that anyone would allow that kind of line to air on TV. And then they go back to eating Ding-Dongs. The wild boy's fallen far from glory, reckless and so hungered that he'd eat that garbage.
As they return to the Hyperion, Fred frets about how scared Connor must be. Gunn says, "Yeah, he looked scared, kicking my ass." They step inside and stare, and we see that Cordy and Groo are still unconscious on the floor.
In a food coma, Sunny dreamily notes that she's had worse days. "How 'bout you?" she asks, and Connor shrugs and looks away sadly. He's brooding! I had no idea that was genetic. Connor's also put his bandolier on over his new (to him) t-shirt. Sunny asks why Connor is in Los Angeles, and he says, "To find my father." See, he wonders where is glory, and where is all you Angel. Or something like that. Sunny says she's trying to get away from her father. Because dads? Are bad. Sunny complains that parents who are abusive or evil should be sterilized. Connor quietly says, "If they're evil, they should be killed." Sunny, understandably, doesn't have much response to that, so she settles for kissing Connor. Connor looks nicely bewildered by her first attempt, but he picks up the idea rather quickly. Make that very quickly. Wow, he's precocious! Sunny pulls back and says she'll be right back. She walks away and Connor looks dumbstruck.
Wesley types away on his laptop, then stops to look at the book Lilah gave him. He flips through the pages to a picture of nasty devils gobbling down traitors, then slams it shut.
Connor is asleep on the floor. A passing siren wakes him, and he immediately pulls out a knife and looks ready for action. He's got sirens for a welcome, and I'm willing to be there'll be bloodstain for his pain. I'm not sure where the ringing phone and the rain dance come in. He walks through the apartment, looking for Sunny, and it's weird because in some lighting he looks like an adult, and then he goes back to looking like a kid. Creepy. At this point I was betting myself ten bucks that Sunny had overdosed. Connor goes down the hall to the bathroom, opens the door, and I win ten bucks! From myself. But still. Sunny is on the floor by the tub, and Connor shakes her gently for a second. Then he picks up the packet of heroin, looks grumpy, and turns to see Angel in the doorway as we go to commercial.
When we return, Angel angrily grabs Connor's arm to check for needle marks, asking if Sunny "put any of this crap in [Connor]." No, but she did give him a lot of junk food. Now he's going to be on a sugar high all night. Connor says no, and pulls back, and Angel tries to calm him. Angel insists, "We'll take care of this, okay? Together." What's to take care of? Connor says, "Too late," and walks out into the living room. You know, this looked like a motel from the outside, but then it turns out to be spacious apartments. I guess it's like Melrose Place. Angel says, "You must feel like you traded in one hell dimension for another," as Connor picks up Tyke's jacket and sniffs it. Angel sees what Connor's doing, snatches the jacket away, and then sniffs it himself. Which is just funny. Bunch of coat-sniffers. Heh. Angel asks who Connor is tracking, and then figures it out himself: "You're going after the guy who gave her the junk." Angel asks what Connor plans to do, and Connor spookily says, "Punish." Connor tries to leave, and Angel shoves him back, and things get a little strange as they start tossing each other around the room while Angel insists that he's not going to let Connor get into more trouble. Eventually, Angel throws Connor to the floor and says, "You just don't understand how this world works." Connor growls, "Sunny was nice, and now she's dead." Angel says, "Connor --" and Connor screams, "Stop calling me that! My name is Steven."
Cordy and Groo are recovering as Cordy explains what happened: "Standing, talking, and then -- boom! -- knocked on our butts." Gunn wonders if something else came through the portal. Fred rushes out to say that she found a picture of the monster Connor killed in his big entrance, and adds, "It says that these things usually have a mate." Aw, it's nice that monsters can find love, too. Cordy wonders why it's taking Cary so long to come back with the portal repairman. Fred brings up the Wesley option again, and Cordy says, "I don't think Angel's gonna go for that." Groo unexpectedly develops a personality, and smirks, "We must always consider Angel. He is our leader. We must obey his wishes." Ha! Cordy turns to stare at Groo, and Fred declares that she's going to call Wesley. Gunn barks, "No, you're not," and then Cary returns. With a blue-haired goth! And Cary's wearing the trenchcoat and hat again! Whee! Cary apologizes: "Mistress Meerna is a very difficult woman to find." And then Mistress Meerna is gone. And then she's walking into the lobby from upstairs. "See what I mean?" Cary adds. He walks across to Mistress Meerna while declaring, "What I wouldn't do for a lasso and some Crazy Glue."
Angel tries to adjust to his son's new name. Luckily, I don't have to. Connor pulls on the jacket while Angel grumps, "It's a good name-- not Irish, but..." Angel tries to make peace, and what's nice here is that while he's saying all kinds of soothing things, both he and Connor are tensely shifting back and forth, waiting for someone to make a sudden move. It gives a quiet scene a lot of energy. Even though not much actually happens in the ongoing story in this episode, it's very strong technically. And if Connor continues to provide some grit and darkness, I might be reconciled to his existence. Anyway, Angel stammers, "Don't run away from me, all right? I lost you once already," and goes on about how he wants to know what happened to Connor. He cruises the thin line between plaintive and laughable as he asks, "What was it like there? Do you have any friends?" Then he corrects himself and notes that "it's not like [Connor was] at summer camp," and apologizes for not being able to find a way in to rescue Connor. "I found a way out," Connor says hoarsely. Angel admits that he should have tried harder, like maybe if he'd killed Wesley, or possibly Fred, that might have helped, and, okay, he doesn't say that part; it's just a stray thought from me. Angel insists that the important thing is that Connor's back, and says that he wants to know everything about his son. Connor finally says, "No. My father told me everything!" Angel goes growly as he figures it out and insists, "Holtz isn't your father!" Connor slugs him and shouts, "You don't get to say that name! You don't even get to think it! I know everything." Connor says that he knows what Angel is, and Angel looks simultaneously angry and hurt, which is amazing because normally it's tough for him to get one emotion across. Connor lists the ways to kill vampires, and then notes, "You have a second face. A face for killing. Show it to me." Angel seriously looks like he's about to explode. I'm quite impressed with him here, which is making me question everything I've ever known. Connor shoves Angel repeatedly, saying, "Show me the face you used to kill my father's family!" Eventually, Angel gives in and vamps out. Connor recoils, saying, "That's what you are!" Angel admits that it's a part of him, adding, "A part I hope you'll be able to accept one day." Connor sneers, "You'll have to kill me first." From the doorway, Tyke chirps that he's cool with that. Commercials.
I keep trying to decide what's more horrifying: Robin Williams trying to be menacing, or those new Oreos that are half-filled with peanut butter. Blech to both.
When we return, Tyke -- with a newly bandaged ear -- asks where Sunny is. Angel wonders, "Would that be the dead girl in the bathroom?" which is such a matter-of-fact response that it amuses me. A flunky goes to check the bathroom while Angel explains that he's Connor's father. Connor doesn't cotton to that, but Angel shushes him and asks Tyke if they can "work this out" peacefully. He insists, "There's no need for violence." He's lost his mind, you know. Tyke punches Angel and explains, "Did you say no need for violence? You may want to speak up, you see: I don't hear so good any more!" Hee hee! The flunky returns and confirms that Sunny is dead, and Angel goes on trying to find a peaceful solution, because he's crazy. Completely crazy. Tyke asks, "You can give me a new ear?" Angel basically gives up and says, "Maybe you can wear a hat." Tyke demands his jacket back, and Angel tells Connor to give it up, but Connor's not going along with that. Another flunky enters and announces that the cops are outside.
Mistress Meerna asks whether the pentagram was part of a dark attempt to close the portal. Gunn says, "No, that was a dark attempt to open one." No, it wasn't. It was an attempt to solidify Sahjhan! And it worked! Mistress Meerna tells Fred that she wants to know how the portal opened, and adds some menacing words about Quor-toth. She says that it's not really a portal, but "a tear in reality -- big cosmic no-no." Mistress Meerna says that "something punched its way through," and then scares everyone by vanishing again and abruptly appearing behind them. Cary brings her a bowl of stuff as she puts on safety goggles. Cary asks if everyone should take cover, but Mistress Meerna assures them, "It's pretty routine. Just sometimes I get a little schmutz in my eye." I like her, but I don't ever want to see her again. Remember Skip, people. And learn that it's better to miss someone than to have her overstay her welcome. A lesson that also applies to babies. I wish they'd traded baby Connor in for the teenage version a lot sooner. Mistress Meerna waves her hand over the bowl, says some Latin, and the air sizzles with purpleness. After a moment, she turns, takes off her goggles, and says, "It's closed." Cordy asks if anything else came through the rift before it was closed, and Mistress Meerna chirps, "Not sure. And not sticking around to find out. Bye." Exit, stage blipvert.
Cops are poking through the building, talking to the squatters. Angel notes that things don't look good for Tyke, and turns to offer a moral to Connor: "Violence just always ends up badly." And then he makes with the kicking, and Connor goes after another flunky. After some pummeling, Connor goes for Tyke and punches him on the ear. Or on the spot where his ear once was. You get the idea. The point is: ouch! Outside, the cops are approaching the room full o' fu-ing. Having completed his gratuitous violence, Angel suggests that it's time to go, but then Tyke grabs Connor and holds a gun at the ready. I don't know why Connor can't repeat the elbow trick he used on Angel here. Angel stops (un)dead, and tells Tyke, "Use me. I'm bigger." That seems like dialogue from a very different show. It turns out that Angel means he'd be a better shield against the cops. Phew. Speaking of the cops, that's when they start breaking through the door. Shouldn't they have started by identifying themselves and asking everyone to come out quietly? Oh, right: it's Los Angeles.
Connor breaks away as Tyke starts shooting through the walls at the cops, and the cops respond in kind. For a second there, it looks like Near Dark. But only for a second. Tyke and one flunky go on shooting away, and soon enough, one flunky gets hit. Tyke pauses to reload, at which point I realize he's got a revolver. Dude, get an automatic. Although it seems to have been pretty well established that Tyke's none too clever, or he would be trying to escape instead of thinking he could shoot his way past a dozen cops. Bullets smash through a window, which inspires Angel to view it as an escape route. Let's go over that again: he thinks the window that was just hit by several bullets is a safe way out. I worry about him. He tells Connor to go first, and maybe he's not that dumb after all. As Connor runs to the window, the cops finally burst in. And they're not wearing vests! Or helmets, or anything. Well, they're wearing uniforms, obviously. This ain't NYPD Blue. I guess the cops are as dumb as the drug dealers in this town. Connor is silhouetted in the window as a cop with a shotgun takes aim. Angel jumps up and blocks the shot. In slow motion. Again. That's a bit much. Although it's worth it for the part where you can see a mist of blood as he falls to the floor. Connor pauses to look down at Angel, and Tyke figures this is a good time to open fire on the dumb vestless cop. Angel tells Connor to get a move on, and finally leaps up and pulls Connor through the window with him. They escape into a convenient blipvert.
Hey -- we didn't see Tyke get shot or arrested. Huh. It would be fun to do more stories where Angel and Connor just pass through a totally unrelated plotline, and we never find out how it's resolved.
Angel and Connor run down a street, then hide behind a car as a police car races by, driven by a singularly unobservant cop. Angel goes for a soft sell as he tells Connor, "If you want, you can come back to the hotel. No pressure or anything, but if you need a place to stay...." Aw. He's being such a dad! For real! Connor looks uncomfortable and starts to walk away, saying he has to go. Angel says, "You're not alone. You know that, right?" Connor nods and says, "I know," kinda significantly. And then he runs away. Angel watches after him, and finally turns to go home.
Have I mentioned all the crane shots in this episode? They look nice, too. Connor runs through an alley and approaches an abandoned house. A shadow moves in the doorway, and out comes...Holtz. Looking considerably the worse for wear. Aw, man, I was afraid that would happen. He's wrinkly and white-haired, and he's still clean-shaven. Dammit. Holtz greets Connor, who responds, "Hi, Dad." Without pointing any weapons at all. Wild boy? Always shine.
time, Cordy and Connor hug. And then he pulls a knife on her. And her hair is even shorter. Good grief.