Supersymmetry

Previously on Angel, Cordy was sucked into Pylea, Fred said "Handsome man saved me from the monsters," and I screamed and screamed because I thought I'd never have to hear that line again, and I'd finally stopped hearing it in my head every time I see Fred, and now here it is again and I just can't stand it, and then my neighbors thought I was being killed, and I'm not sure what else happened in the previouslys, because there was a whole thing with the cops, and I couldn't stop screaming, and they finally had to use tranquilizers, and still the dreams come.

Let's move on. Someone's screaming at the Hyperion. Or is that still me? No, it's Fred. Which seems only fair, except she's screaming happily. She shows Gunn a copy of Modern Physics Review magazine, which contains her article. Gunn flips it open and we learn that the title is "Supersymmetry and P-Dimensional Subspace." Man, that's some kind of new record for getting the title in. Also: subspace. Hee. Gunn sits on the bed and starts to read the article aloud. Fred starts cuddling and kissing him, because technobabble is not the surefire ratings grabber UPN wants to believe. Gunn tosses the magazine aside, and Fred crawls on top of him so that we can see her shockingly short skirt. Gosh. Just as Gunn starts pulling his shirt off, and I think, "Finally!" we cut away. Damn.

Cary says, "Give it to me, sweetness." Eek. He's talking to Angel, but before you jump to any conclusions, he's just asking for his dinner tray. Cary's still convalescing, I take it. He asks if Angel just heard a scream, and Angel explains, "It's just Fred. I think it's a Texas thing." I suddenly feel very sorry for Angel, because he's got super-hearing and he's in the same building as Fred. He must hear her babbling all the time. I bet every night he thinks, "I know I did some bad things, but do I really deserve this?" Cary eats some soup and then puts it aside, claiming, "It's all too much Sturm und Drang for [his] appetite." Angel hesitantly asks if Cary's worried about "the whole slouching toward Bethlehem thing." Cary says no, and Angel suddenly looks eager, but Cary interrupts: "I jumped ahead. That 'no' was the one that comes after you asking me to read Cordy again." Angel insists that he was going to "build up to it subtly," hee, but Cary's mind is made up. He's afraid that if he reads Cordy, Wolfram & Hart will come after him again. Angel turns away and says, "I'm listening," as he walks to the door. Cary goes on talking about his unwillingness to get killed for another minute before he realizes, "When you say 'listening,' you don't mean to me." That kind of misunderstanding works on paper, but not as played. Angel didn't say, "I'm listening" the way you would if you meant, "I'm listening to something else." Oh well. Angel says that the noise is probably Fred, but goes down the hall to investigate. Cary pulls out a small axe and we hear him call, "I got your back," as we cut away.

Angel walks curiously down a hall. We hear something move in one of the rooms, and he quietly opens the door and enters.

Inside, we see Connor rummaging through boxes. I think they're trying to hide the fact that it's Connor, but it's really obvious, and Angel seems kind of dumb for not recognizing the kid in person when I can identify him in a split-second shot. But what else is new? Angel rushes in, pins Connor against a wall, and only then pauses as he recognizes his son. He lets Connor go and apologizes. Connor straightens his shirt and sniffs, "I'm used to it." Connor starts rummaging around while Angel reminds him that he doesn't have to sneak around in the hotel. Connor explains that Cordy wanted some of her stuff, and I'm just fascinated by the way he's putting all of the contents of one box into another box. He could just take the first box and save some time. Angel asks if Cordy has remembered anything, and Connor replies, "Nothing about you." Connor turns to leave, and Angel calls him back so that he can add a pair of slippers to the haul. Angel explains, "Her feet get cold." Connor heads out the window as he says, "I know. She's always stealing the covers." Ha! Angel has something to think about during the credits. Although he looks as if he may just be trying to puzzle out what Connor's implying.

Angel comes downstairs the morning to find Gunn sacked out on the couch. In the office, we can see Fred yapping away at poor Cary. Gunn mutters, "She kept me up all night. She is unstoppable." Angel winces at the TMI, and then Fred races out, asking, "Did Charles tell you?" Angel flinches and admits, "Well, he didn't describe it..." The actual comedy value here is minimal, but I do enjoy Angel's expression as he tries to hide his disgust. Fred babbles about the paper and her speech and rushes back into the office while Angel sorts out what she's talking about. He and Gunn follow Fred into the office.

Fred alternates between insisting that her paper isn't very important, and explaining that it was her childhood dream to "discover some revolutionary concept." She goes on and on and talks about Pylea a little for anyone coming in late, and finally asks if they'll all come to see her speak. Cary sneers, and Gunn enthuses, "Cheering you on! Right?" Resounding agreement fails to occur. Angel stares into space, and Cary explains that Angel's brooding about Connor's latest visit. Fred tries to reassure Angel that Cordy will come back and "it'll all work out for the best." She says that if she hadn't been sucked into Pylea, she wouldn't have worked out "[her] string compactification theory." It's not a good sign that they keep mentioning Pylea in every other sentence. Gunn agrees, noting, "Strings need...to compactify." Is it just me, or are they starting to write Gunn as if he's Xander? I don't approve of that at all.

Shut up, Wesley. Oh, he isn't saying anything. But I bet he will eventually. Right now he's sitting at home, reading his copy of Modern Physics Review, because his credit cards are maxed out and he can't pay actors to pretend to be his sidekicks anymore. There's an insistent knock at the door, which he finally answers. It's Lilah, holding a big box. Wesley says, "Oh look. A bribe. How thoughtful. "Lilah says it's a gift, and Wesley stops glaring long enough to open it. He pulls out a helmet as Lilah observes, "We seem to be butting heads lately." Wesley says that the helmet must have cost a fortune, and Lilah smirks and doesn't mention that she just snagged it from storage because Wolfram & Hart will never miss it. Instead, she says, "It'll take you hours to thank me properly," and starts cuddling. They kiss long enough to demonstrate that Wesley's a man of no principles. But then he grabs her wrists and pulls away, apologetically explaining that he has to go. He exits after thanking her more sincerely for the gift. Lilah stays behind to tidy up...and to spot the magazine that Wesley was reading. She picks it up and sees Fred's article.

We pan past labeled photos of Fred, Gunn, Wesley, and -- gasp! -- Cordelia's parents! I wonder if those are Charisma Carpenter's folks. The photos are, of course, being captioned and placed on the wall by Cordy in an attempt to jog her memory. I can't believe there's not a picture of Lilah with the label, "Don't believe her lies." Come to think of it, I can't believe Lilah isn't trying to take advantage of Cordy's memory loss to try to befriend her. I guess she's all distracted by Wesley. Which just proves that in the epic battle of good and evil, whichever side isn't saddled with Wesley has the advantage. Cordy finishes putting up a picture of herself and Cary and crosses the room to dig through a box. Connor's mysterious loft has undergone some redecorating in the past week. There's less of a Bates Motel feel now, which is kind of a shame. Cordy calls to Connor, asking why there aren't any photos of Angel in the box. Connor wanders out, fresh from the shower, which is such a shame because his hair's all wet and he's wearing a wifebeater and he actually looks even younger. Like, twelve. My inner teenager just lost interest in him. Connor claims that he didn't see any pictures of Dear Old Dad. Cordy shrugs that off and resumes homemaking. As she bends down to put a cloth over the table, we get a gratuitous Connor's-eye-view of her cleavage. Thanks. Cordy sighs and wonders, "Why does it still feel like something is missing?" Maybe because you're missing your memory? And your hair? Connor has a different idea, and hands Cordelia an axe. He suggests, "Maybe you miss the action, the thrill of the kill. You know you used to be a demon hunter." He offers to help "train" her, and it's a shame that Holtz didn't give him lessons in dating customs. That would have been funny. Imagine Connor running off to jail to ask Mr. Chase's permission to court Cordy. Cordy considers the idea of some training, then nervously asks, "What should I wear?"

The blippiest of verts takes us to the, uh, Physics Symposium. Or something. Did they explain what this event is and I missed it? Wait -- Fred spots a sign and races over to gasp that her speech has been placed "between Ed Witten and Brian Green" and by squinting at the sign, I can tell that this is the California Physics Institute. How generic. Fred explains what an honor her placement is by using a sports metaphor that I don't understand or care about. Fred panics at the pressure, Gunn reassures her, and things are finally interrupted before I nod off. Fred recognizes one Professor Seidel, and hurries to greet him. Seidel dismisses a blonde named Laurie, saying he'll meet her "back at the lab." Why was she there in the first place? Just escorting him to the door? Seidel says it's been "two years or so" since he last saw Fred, and Fred agrees, adding, "Heavy on the 'or so.'" Seidel explains that he's going to introduce her, and Fred burbles that he inspired her as she finally introduces Gunn and Angel. More physics talk and Gunn-humiliation ensues, and Angel finally excuses himself by insisting that he'd better go save them some seats. Good cover; I'll have to remember that one. Seidel asks Fred to stop by his office to chat sometime, and Fred plans to drop in for a visit tomorrow. They start inside, still talking, while Gunn watches, looking lost. Or maybe just bored.

Inside, Angel has no trouble at all claiming a few of the many, many empty seats. Heh. He surveys the crowd, and spots Wesley sidling in to take a seat near the back. "At least I got better seats than he did," Angel thinks. Fred, Seidel, and Gunn wander in. While Seidel introduces Fred to his colleagues, Gunn takes a seat and tells Angel, "I'm gonna need simultaneous translating on this thing. You know, like the president with the Russians, but just give me the highlights." Angel cheerfully agrees, then points out that he doesn't understand any of it himself. Gunn asks, "Will you tell Fred that? If she thinks we're both stupid, I won't stand out as much." Aw, poor Gunn. The lights dim, and Seidel and Fred approach the podium. Hang on, Fred just told us that she was going to speak in between two other bigwigs. And yet she's going first. Plus there's nobody else even on the stage, although there are several empty chairs. Is this all a big hoax, like the grant presentation in "Lisa Gets an 'A'" on The Simpsons?

Seidel introduces Fred, saying, "There have been many recent insights into string theory, but few have so elegantly tied together the disparate threads as the one you will hear tonight." Get it? String theory and threads! Physics humor! Yeah, you're not missing much there. Gunn and Wesley both look pleased by the compliments Seidel is heaping on Fred. Angel, already bored, looks around just in time to see Lilah entering the room.

Fred starts her speech. We watch Lilah watching Wesley watch Fred. Read that again and you'll understand it. Angel looks back just as Lilah pulls out her cell phone and leaves the auditorium. He ponders this development. As Fred goes on, and on, and on, the camera moves up to show us the morphy magic of a portal opening above the stage. The entire audience spots it pretty quickly, and begins gasping. Fred looks up just in time to see a bunch of long snakey things with pointy beaks reach through the portal and wave around. Seidel makes a run for it as a snake wraps around Fred. Gunn and Angel race to the rescue. Oh, and Wesley, too, I suppose.

Commercials. Johanna and I talk about how Cordy should have had a photo of Xander labeled, "Loser ex who broke my heart." The label might have just been my suggestion. Johanna is overcome with pity for Xander, and complains that mean everyone is to him. And then she's distracted by her new obsession with Eminem. Johanna is very comfortable with her inner teenager. In a good way.

When we return, Fred is being lifted off the stage, Gunn is trying to pull her down, and Angel is stabbing at the other snakes with the microphone. Good improvised weapon! Although not very good. By now you'd think that they would always bring a few weapons along. Given ME's ongoing fascination with serpentine monsters, I have to say that this may be the best job they've ever done integrating CGI and live action. I looked at it a few times and except for the close-ups of the rubber mouths snapping at people, it all looks pretty good. Wesley is still trying to get through the crowd so he can help. But it hasn't occurred to him to climb over the seats instead of going down the aisle. I'm just saying. Oh, and a geeky boy near the front is calmly taking lots of pictures of the action. Gunn struggles to help Fred as Angel gets grabbed and pulled into the air. And that's when Angel finally remembers that he did bring a weapon, after all. He pulls a very short knife out of his boot, and somehow manages to cut completely through the very thick snake with one quick slice. He also quips, but because I liked the effects so much, I'll ignore it. Angel drops to the stage just as Gunn pulls Fred free, and the snakes withdraw, snarling, as the portal closes. Wesley stares, knife at the ready, but nothing to do. Because nobody needs Wesley's help.

A very nice car moves through an underground garage. It's Lilah's convertible. There's a thump, and a rip, and the roof tears open above her. She stops the car, because that's a smart move, and pokes her head out through the new hole. Angel chirps, "That's cool -- the top just comes right off." Lilah gets out and sniffs, "If this is about the jolly green demon, I could have had him killed, but do I hear a thank you?" Angel summarizes the last scene and asks if Lilah had anything to do with the portal. Lilah chuckles, "Tragedy struck Gidget? Really? Did she go to that place in the big Texas sky?" Angel assures her that he and Gunn took care of it, and snarls, "Of course if we hadn't been there, I'm sure your good friend Wesley would have stepped right in." Lilah asks if Angel thinks she'd kill Fred in front of witnesses. She also refers to Fred as "the twig." Lilah just keeps getting better and better. I mean, except for her bad taste in men. After thinking about it, Angel is forced to admit that maybe Lilah wasn't responsible. Lilah cheerfully ducks back into her car, although Angel assures her that someday, gosh darn it, he's gonna have some words with her about what she did to Cary. Just when I thought I couldn't love her any more, Lilah chuckles,"You know, Angel, coming from you, idle threats are so...well, idle." Angel reaches one hand through the car roof and grrs, "Remember when I ripped your car in half?" That's a bit of an exaggeration. Lilah blithely says, "Yeah, yeah. Hulk smash," and drives away. Hee!

Later, at the Hyperion, Gunn rolls over in bed and gradually wakes up to the sound of Fred muttering to herself. This must happen a lot. But Gunn is topless! Finally! After that teasing earlier, too. He gets up and crosses the room to Fred as I applaud enthusiastically. Fred is sitting on a table, writing on the wall, and whispering mathematical formulae to herself. Gunn quietly says, "I never liked the paint in here. Hey, let's redo the place, really make it ours." Fred turns, hand covering her throat, and bashfully explains that she couldn't sleep. Gunn tries to reassure her, but Fred goes into a full panic attack about Pylea, and keeps rubbing her neck protectively as she mentions the collar she had to wear. She whines that Seidel was at the auditorium, and "he probably thinks --" Gunn steers her back to bed as he interrupts, "That you're incredibly brilliant. Just like I do." Aw. Gunn has a little bit of a tummy, and Johanna and I wonder if maybe he's been refusing to go shirtless all this time because he's seen all the comments about Boreanaz. That's sad. He's got nothing to be ashamed of! And he's so tall. Fred worries about what Seidel will think of her, and Gunn insists that there's nothing wrong with her. Fred sniffs, "Yeah, to you, maybe." Watch it, lady. Gunn breezes past that and insists, "Angel and I will take care of all the demony portal stuff. No problem." He kisses her shoulder and curls up protectively behind her in bed.

The day, Gunn descends the stairs to find that Angel has filled the lobby with chairs. Gunn grumps, "Great. My girl is not the only one redecorating." Hey, there's a whole decorating motif in this episode. Angel points to a seat and says, "You were there." Did he spend all night lining up chairs? Wait, it's better I don't know. At least he's got a hobby. Gunn sits down obediently and asks what's going on.

And then we go into, uh, Angel-vision? It turns out he's trying to place who was where the night before, so we suddenly transpose Angel and Gunn into the auditorium, and Fred's giving her speech with echoey effects in the background. Angel remembers/looks around and places various members of the audience, like "Nerdy guy. Older nerdy guy." Heh. He also singles out a goth chick. Gunn asks, "How come you never pulled out this parlor trick before?" Which makes it seem as if Gunn can see what Angel is remembering, which is a bewildering concept. I think it's just unclear dialogue, and Gunn's meant to be understanding what's happening, but then it's anyone's guess why Gunn is so surprised by Angel's magical power to remember things. Whatever. Angel says "It just kicked in when I saw Lilah," which sure doesn't clarify anything. Anyway, Gunn is immediately suspicious of Lilah. But then again, Gunn's immediately suspicious of everyone. Angel "remembers" seeing what Lilah was doing, and calmly decides, "She was just stalking Wesley." Hee. It'd be pretty funny if Wesley hired Angel to keep his stalker away. I guess he'd have to dye his hair first, since Angel only cares about blonde stalkees. Gunn is surprised to hear that Wesley was there, but Angel has moved on to the younger nerdy guy, who was sitting right behind them. Angel says that the kid was "waiting," and then recalls that the kid was taking photos of the snake attack. Angel also mentions that the kid was wearing a t-shirt that said "Thwack!" Heh. "Thwack." It's just fun to say. Gunn -- happy to have some new focus for his suspicions -- says he knows where to find the kid. He starts for the door, but Angel calls him back: "Daylight! I need a coat." That's all he needs now? Just a coat? They've kind of lost interest in him being a vampire, haven't they? Gunn urges haste, saying, "When my girl's not happy --"

Cut to Gunn yelling "--I'm not happy!" as he throws the "Thwack!" kid against a rack of comics. Because they're at a comic shop. The scared kid, who I'm going to call "Thwacky McThwackerson," sniffles, "We're kind of crushing the Dark Horses." Gunn asks why he was taking pictures of the portal. If you're looking for it, you can see writing on the door that indicates that the shop is called "Thwack!," which explains how Gunn knew where to look. It would have been nice if that had been established a little more prominently, though. Thwacky explains that he took pictures "'Cause the ceiling was, like, ripping apart!" I mean, duh! Angel asks if the kid usually goes to physics lectures, and Thwacky explains, "I wanted to see if it was true, if she was really one of 'em. You know, one of the students who disappeared." "'One of'?" Gunn asks. Meanwhile, I ask, "And you could tell if she was or wasn't by looking at her?" Is this some new geeky version of being able to tell how "friendly" a girl is by looking at her? I can just imagine: "Check out that babe! Dude, you can totally tell that she goes to other dimensions every night! Aw yeah!"

Meanwhile, Fred has apparently told her whole shocking story to Seidel as they go to visit his lab. He's taking it pretty well, apart from noting, "I'm a theoretical physicist, completely open to the idea of other dimensions, but you're naming them." Seidel introduces Fred to Laurie Drummond, the lady we saw him with at the auditorium. Turns out that was no lady, that was his Teaching Assistant! Sorry. Fred remembers Laurie as the TA for her class, and Laurie says she's still a TA, adding, "Not all of us are geniuses." Yeah, but some of us eventually graduate.

Seidel and Fred go into his office, where Seidel apparently has a little present for Fred. Uh oh. Wait, it's okay. He pulls out a blue book and hands it to her. Fred says it was the last test she took before vanishing, and then gasps because she only got an A-minus. Seidel flatters her, "I would have given another student an A-plus, but with you I had to use a different standard." I had a physics teacher like that in high school. But he did it to the whole class. He gave us tests that were incredibly hard, and there was a two-grade curve on most of them, and it turns out that he never expected us to do well on these tests; he just liked seeing how well we did at figuring out problems that were much too difficult. He was sadistic, but I liked him. Excuse the digression. Seidel goes on praising Fred, and wishing that she'd come back to school. If she wrote such a great paper, does she need to study more at this point? Fred says she has "another life now." Seidel touches on the demon attack and says, "I don't know what I saw yesterday. There are studies about subconscious suggestion, mass hysteria. But I know what I see right now." He says that Fred is "a very talented young woman who deserves to live in the world she was meant for."

Thwacky tidies the store while telling Angel & Gunn, "You guys know how it is. Like, you hear things from the friend of a friend's roommate. You don't know if they really happen." Gunn agrees, "Like the story about the girl, the cat, and the peanut butter." Angel looks up from the comic he's reading to say, "That one's true. Long story." I had to quote all of that, because it's dumb, but I laughed. This leads up to Thwacky telling Angel, "There are whole forums on you in chat rooms, man! Who knew you actually, like, existed?!" Forums in chat rooms? Well, they tried, I guess. Gunn tries to steer Thwacky toward a point, and Thwacky finally says that there were three other geek disappearances before Fred vanished, and one more since then. Thwacky's cute. And he might actually be age-appropriate for me. Where's the fun in that? Thwacky offers to be an intern for the MoG, but Gunn just offers him a decoder ring and heads out. Angel follows, asking Gunn, "They talk about me in the chatty rooms?"

Seidel is still chatting with Fred when Laurie steps in to say that the oscillator has "tweaked." Seidel says he'll take a look, and asks Fred to give him her phone number as he exits. Fred writes her number down and then peruses the bookshelves. She sneers, "Plasma and Fluid Turbulence in with nutrino books? That's just wrong." She pulls out the book and flips through it, but it looks as if the dust jacket is camouflaging a more interesting book, because she sees pages of what look like horoscope charts, and then a sketch of the portal-monster. She hears Seidel returning and quickly shoves the book back as he enters.

Back at the Hyperion, Angel is looking something up online while Gunn frets. Angel says that all of the vanished students had one thing in common. Gunn peers at the monitor and says, "Oliver Seidel. As in the guy [Fred's] with right now!" He turns, ready to race to the rescue, but Fred's standing there. Gunn starts to explain what they've discovered, but Fred's way ahead of them. She says, "It was Professor Seidel. And he's done it before." Gunn assures her that Seidel will pay for what he did. Fred grrs, "No. He's gonna die." I sure hope nobody's jumping to conclusions.

After the ads, Gunn asks for clarification about this "dying" business Fred's going on about. Fred looks through the weapons cabinet and pulls out what she identifies as a "halberd," and I guess I'll take her word for it. It's quite pointy. She feints with it, driving Angel and Gunn back, as she rants, "Acting like I'm all addle-brained talking about other dimensions. 'Pylea? Never heard of it.' Right! How about a flail whipping? Would that take a nice long time?" She heads back to the cabinet to change weapons as Angel helpfully says, "Hours if you do it right." Then he remembers that he's nice now and adds, "Not that you should do it. At all. Ever." Oh, maybe just once. Angel takes the flail away while Fred rants on about teaching her professor a lesson. Gunn tries to be the voice of reason, saying, "A few years ago I would have done in the guy myself. But this? It isn't what we do." Fred says they kill monsters, and Gunn counters that they help people. Gunn and Angel insist that if Fred goes after Seidel, she'll feel, like, really bad later and stuff. Fred finally gives up the halberd and apologizes for losing control in a completely insincere way that should have everyone on red alert, but they're kinda dumb. So instead, Gunn says, "You want a drink? I could make you some cocoa." Fred sidles away and says she's gonna go lie down. I chant, "Liii-ar, liii-ar!" Once she's out of hearing, Gunn asks Angel what they're going to do about Seidel, adding, "We got to get to him before Fred changes her mind. 'cause vengeance? It can get ugly."

Wesley opens a bottle of something that's definitely not cocoa and hands it to Fred as he chirps, "Vengeance? Sounds good." Shut up, Wesley. Fred complains that Gunn and Angel won't let her kill anybody, the big spoilsports. Maybe they don't think she has the wardrobe for it. Normally, you've got to invest in a lot of leather before you get morally ambiguous on these shows. Wesley manages to mention the fact that he was at the auditorium, explaining that he read her article. He says, "It was an excellent piece. Although I'm not sure I understand how Pauli repulsion is so readily reversed -- layman's opinion." Having made the point that he's a better match for Fred than Gunn is -- and I'd agree just on the basis of how annoying they both are -- Wesley asks what Fred wants to do to Seidel. Fred isn't sure. Wesley pauses to tell her that Angel and Gunn were right: "Vengeance will have a price -- and once you've acted, you can't go back. You'll have to live with your actions forever." Fred sniffs, "He's a serial killer," and Wesley ends his half-hearted argument. He gets up and starts flipping through a book, looking for ideas. Fred leans in close to peer over his shoulder as Wesley points out something "once practiced in ancient Egypt." Fred asks, "Is that his tongue?" as her cell phone rings. She starts to answer it, and sees odd symbols on the display. Suddenly her hair is blown around as a portal opens in Wesley's bookcase. Uh oh, she must have pissed off the "Can you hear me now?" guy. Wesley grabs Fred and pulls her back from the portal. He pulls her along with him as he jumps behind the couch.

Cut to Connor and Cordy, who are diving from some kind of threat themselves. They look up as a vamp races in to attack. Connor goes all Spider-Man with the hopping and ceiling-clinging, and then Cordy gets a nice kick in before staking the vamp. Cordy chirps, "I did that! I did that!" Connor taps her shoulder, and she spins and sweeps him up in an excited hug. She gives him a quick kiss, saying "Mwah!" Then Connor tries for a less-quick kiss. Cordy's into it for a moment before she pushes him away and looks embarrassed.

Gunn and Angel have discovered that Fred's skedaddled. They worry about whether Fred will kill Seidel or vice versa. Angel says he'll be faster alone, so he makes for the window with Gunn planning to follow.

Wesley's Shut Up Vehicle. Fred is loading a crossbow as Wesley asks if she remembers the plan. Fred thanks him for his help. Wesley thinks that it's been five minutes since he was a jerk, so he says, "Not that I don't get his point, but I'm surprised Gunn's not here. No matter what the consequences." Could he be any scummier? Y'know, when I'm plotting vengeance against someone, I don't want my partner to be distracted by attempts to get in my pants. Johanna says that she would, because her partner would be the Count of Monte Cristo. Fair enough. Fred ignores Wesley's assholery and simply says, "Charles doesn't have it in him. It's part of what I love about him." Shot down! Although I don't think Fred's take on Gunn is accurate, either. Wesley says there's still time for her to change her mind if she thinks that Gunn's right. Fred says, "It's not about what's right," and tells Wesley to pull over. He does, and offers to come along, but a Fred's gotta do what a Fred's gotta do. By herself. And off she goes.

Seidel is packing up some papers as Angel bursts through the door. Without breaking it, for a change. He asks if Seidel is planning a trip, and Seidel nervously says no and heads for the bookcases. Angel tosses the desk out of the way, which is fun, and makes with the lecturing while Seidel pulls out the book Fred looked at earlier. Angel says, "Fred's a friend of mine, and that little sabbatical you had planned for her? Not nice." I really like the way he says, "Not nice." He's like a disappointed dad. Seidel says that there's no evidence against him, and as Angel argues pointlessly, Seidel opens the book and whips out some Latin-fu. A portal opens, and a guy wearing a lizard outfit steps through it and snarls at Angel. "Great," Angel sighs.

Seidel ducks past the demon and escapes into the lab, but is stopped when Fred cracks him in the head with her crossbow. She aims at him and says, "You know what they say about payback? Well, I'm the bitch." I bet she was rehearsing that delivery in her head during the drive over.

Cordy is folding laundry and wearing one of those fake-tattoo-looking chokers. And a very ugly shirt that doesn't look like it fits her properly. Although it seems as if it might be cut to look that way. It's so hard to tell. Connor walks up wraps his arms around her from behind while asking, "How 'bout some more training?" Cordy uncomfortably steps away from him and says those four little words: "We need to talk." Connor cheerfully agrees. Oh, poor Connor. Not that I disagree with Cordy here, but most boys would know what that means. They sit on the bed, and Cordy nervously alludes to their kiss earlier. She says that it shouldn't have happened, and adds, "I don't know who I am, much less where I belong or who with. And there is a picture over there when you were a baby and it's only eight months old. There is a lot I need to figure out. I'm sorry." Cordy starts to add something, and Connor jumps up and growls, "You're going back to him. Aren't you?" Cordy says she needs time to think, and walks out. Connor punches a wall.

The lizard guy flies into the bookshelves in Seidel's office. Angel hurries over and smashes the demon repeatedly with Seidel's phone. I like the improvised weaponry in theory, but Angel's choices about what makes a good weapon are a bit questionable. Angel pounds the demon a few times, and then pulls demon-bits off his jacket with an expression of distaste as he turns to leave. But then the demon grabs his leg and trips him. A very surprised Angel is tossed against the wall.

Seidel slowly stands up and asks if he and Fred can talk about this. He insists that she isn't capable of hurting anyone. Fred advances on him as responds, "Five years of pain and suffering in a hell dimension will make a girl capable of a lot of things." Was her whole complex plan just to kill him with a crossbow? Why did she need Wesley's help with that? If she just needed a ride, couldn't she have called a cab?

Angel gazes happily at the demon's severed head. What makeshift weapon did he cut it off with, a ruler? He looks at the body, and then sees that its hands are moving again. Angel whines, "Come on! I'm holding your head!" Heh. The demon stands up as a new head emerges from its neck.

Fred asks if Seidel got rid of her and the others because he was threatened by them. She adds, "That's why Laurie is still around. She's not smart enough to overshadow you, is she?" Seidel stammers, "Why don't you just let me --" "Go?" Fred interrupts. I'm thinking the word was "explain," actually. But Fred has worked herself up enough to start speaking in tongues. She says some magic words, and a portal opens up in the floor. Oh, okay, she probably did need Wesley's help to figure that out. Fine. Seidel clings to the furniture as Gunn rushes into the lab. Fred tells Gunn to go away, saying, You asked me not to kill him and I'm not! Not exactly." Gunn says Seidel won't survive "that," although he can't possibly know what that is. Maybe it's a portal to a shiny happy world! Okay, he's probably safe in assuming it's not. Fred screams at Gunn, "How dare you! You don't know! You don't know what it was like!" Seidel calls for help while Gunn insists that they'll find some other solution. Seidel goes on shouting to Fred for help, although you'd think he'd maybe ask for help from the guy who wasn't pointing a crossbow at him a minute ago. Academics. They're so impractical. Gunn tells Fred, "If you kill him, I'm gonna lose you." Fred stares back numbly. Gunn finally races over and grabs Seidel's arm just before Seidel is sucked into the portal. In the captions, Fred shouts, "Charles, no!" And you can faintly hear her under the wind-machine sounds of the portal, so I can't tell if they wanted to obscure her shout or if it was badly mixed. Gunn looks at Fred and suddenly twists Seidel around in a way which, I guess, is meant to indicate that he snapped Seidel's neck. That seems to be the consensus, anyway. It's hard to tell, because usually neck-snappage goes with a dramatic musical cue of some kind, and this one just has the portal-swirling wind machine soundtrack. But it's definitely true that Gunn pushes Seidel into the portal. Holy crap. I didn't expect that. The portal closes. Gunn and Fred look at each other. The office door opens and Angel enters, looking a bit disheveled. He asks what happened to Seidel. Gunn says, "It's taken care of."

Apparently they shared some more details on the ride home, because as the MoG return to the Hyperion, Angel says, "Sucked into his own portal. Wish I could have seen his face." Gunn quietly agrees, and stomps upstairs, with Fred trailing behind him. Angel dopily watches them go, thinking, "But I didn't get to tell them about my fight with the lizard-demon! It was cool!" He turns his head and suddenly notices Cordelia across the lobby, looking at him. She asks if they can talk outside.

Cordy and Angel sit down in the courtyard. Cordy notices the cut on Angel's cheekbone and reaches a hand toward it, but Angel shies away from her. Aw, he doesn't even want her to bandage his wounds any more. How sad. He explains, "Run-in with a Voynok demon. Turns out they have nine lives." "Like a cat?" Cordy asks. Angel says, "Only less standoffish." Heh. Cordy gets to the reason for her visit, and says that she knows they were friends, and she understands why Angel lied to her before. She mentions her vamp-staking adventure, and Angel angrily interrupts, "Connor took you --!" Cordy presses on, saying that she doesn't need protection, and she doesn't want any more lies. Angel agrees, "No more lies." Cordy says, "Good. Because there's something I need to know. Were we in love?" Angel stares at her as he tries to decide whether exaggerating qualifies as a lie.

After seeing Lilah and Wesley, I honestly don't care either way about what happens with Angel and Cordelia. My sense of what's freakish and wrong has been overloaded. time, amnesia turns out to be contagious, Cordelia fondles herself, Angel discovers that he's a vampire, and, so help me, it looks funny.