What a shocker, huh? I was screaming "Nooo!" at the television. Why did they do it? Why did they make Pacey shave? Apparently, I'm the only person in the world who liked the goatee. Well, fine. I hate you all. What? Oh yeah, this show.
Previously on Angel, Satan turned up, the sky turned dark, Angel's soul was turned loose, and everyone's relationships took a turn for the worse. And considering that their relationships weren't that great to begin with, it's impressive that there's a "worse" for them to sink to.
In a familiar, candlelit room, a familiar red-suited ninja is chanting over a familiar mystic circle. There are the familiar crashing noises of a fight outside. Didn't I already do this episode? A body is thrown through the beaded curtains and lands inside the circle. Wo Pang sighs, "Must acquire better guards." Or replace those beads with a door. Just a suggestion. Connor enters, followed by Wesley and Cordelia. Okay, so after desouling Angel, Wo Pang went home, but they were going to have him perform the resouling, right? So why do they have to fight their way in? Shouldn't they already have an appointment scheduled? Ah well. Wesley explains that they seem to have misplaced a certain glowy bottle. Wo Pang says he didn't take it, and after throwing the bones, says he can't determine where the soul is, but it's still in the bottle. Cordelia asks what else they can do to make Angel feel properly guilt-ridden. Wo Pang sums it up: "Without the [bottle o' soul], you're screwed." He adds that if the bottle is opened or broken, the soul could be returned...or destroyed! I bet that'll be important later. It'd be funny if the soul got out and started hopping around in different bodies, and the MoG had to track it down by finding people who were unusually moody and taciturn. With that, all the candles in the room go out. Which I guess is Wo Pang's way of hinting that his time is up.
Hyperion. This week's theme of "burning stuff" becomes apparent as Gunn pours gasoline into a flame-thrower. Neat! On the monitor, Angelus is taunting away. He insists, "I've had time to think, and I've realized something important. Being evil is wrong. I want to be good. I want to be Angel again." Gunn tests the flame-thrower. Fred figures that Angelus knows there's a hitch in the resouling plan. Gunn says that bringing Angelus back was a big mistake. Fred correctly points out that Gunn originally supported the plan. Gunn is man enough to say "Then maybe I did the wrong thing." On the monitor, Angelus asks, "Like smacking your girl around? I betcha Wes would never hit her." No, but he might pay visits to Justine occasionally.
In the basement, Angelus continues singing Wesley's praises: "And that accent -- ooh, chicks just love a good accent. Makes them all buttery in their nether regions. Isn't that right, Fred?" "Nether regions"? I know they pushed things way past the limit last week, but once you've established that he's crude, you can't go back.
Upstairs, Gunn looks at Fred. Angelus threatens to use his Irish brogue on Fred while he "rape[s] [her] to death." He's gotten a lot more sadistic over the years. He never threatened Buffy with his deadly accent. Gunn finally switches off the sound on the monitor. Fred nervously repeats that Angelus is just trying to scare them because "he knows he's never getting out." Fred hasn't gotten the memo about tempting fate, I see.
Downstairs, Lilah steps out of the shadows. So Angelus was trying to get them to turn the sound off so he could talk to Lilah? I'll just assume so, because otherwise it makes Lilah way too lucky. And it fits in with all the other hidden motives in this episode. Anyway, Angelus grins at Lilah. She looks into the cage and holds up a crowbar.
Credits. This week's Boreanaz quote comes courtesy of elishavah: "Rabbit? Whoa, a rabbit! Jumping in the grass. Woohoo. All right! Okay!" Please, nobody tell me what the context was, because I like making up my own explanation.
Angelus and Lilah get straight to the snarking. Angelus points out that, even though he's in a cage, she's the one looking unkempt. People are never just plain "kempt," have you noticed? Or "heveled," for that matter. He chides her, "All these years, wanting to meet me. You couldn't run a comb through your hair, maybe slap on a little lipstick? Evil doesn't have to mean sloppy." Lilah asks Angelus to stop Satan, but he's still not into the idea. He asks why she's so upset. Lilah madly cackles, "The Beast took everything! Killed them all" Whoa. I was just kidding about turning her into Gollum, I swear, but I like seeing her get unhinged. She explains that, in addition to his rampage through the office building, Satan has been wiping out all of Wolfram & Hart's employees. Oh. Poor Wolfram & Hart. I'm kind of sad for Greenwalt. Angelus watches Lilah comes a little closer to the red line marking his reach, while she rants, "Why is he picking on us? We're the bad guys!" Angelus comforts her, "You've got a devoted boyfriend who loves and cares for -- oh, wait. You don't." He giggles. Lilah repeats that she wants Angelus to kill Satan, and holds up the crowbar. While she doesn't have any particular reason to think Angelus will keep his part of the bargain, I assume her plan is to hand him the crowbar and skedaddle, so that she's gone by the time he gets out. So she's not totally dumb, at least. And still very pretty. The more they mess her up, the prettier she gets. It's like a superpower.
Fred and Gunn are sharing a moment upstairs -- an uncomfortable moment. Gunn explains that he didn't mean to hurt her, and I get distracted by the fact it took three people to write this episode. Fred tells Gunn, "I just can't help but [sic] think if you didn't attack --" "'Attack'? That's how you see it?" Gunn interrupts, kind of proving her point. He continues, "What do you call what [Wesley] was doing in the office before I walked in?" Fred stammers, and Gunn shouts, "He was kissing you!" And that's an attack on Gunn? Wow, they all need so much therapy. Gunn tells Fred not to lie to him, adding, "It's the one thing you're not good at." Besides shutting up. Fred disregards Newtonian physics and tries the old "It just happened," but Gunn plays the "you let it" card, and it's basically a tie until Gunn plays a trump card: guilt. He says, "I can't do this anymore, Fred. I'm tired of you looking everywhere but at me." Awwww. Then Wesley walks in, followed by Connor and Cordelia. Fred looks up, the way you do when someone enters a room you're in, and Gunn sighs, "Like that." That's not quite fair, because what if Cordy had been the first one through the door? Although I kind of like the way they had me ping-ponging back and forth about whom I agreed with. It's more interesting than just thinking either character is a total jerk in every way.
Speaking of which...shut up, Wesley. As Gunn stomps off, Wesley asks Fred if she's okay, but she claims she's just frustrated because she can't translate the Svear's spell. Connor sums up their unprofitable expedition to Wo Pang's, and Fred reports that Cary hasn't turned up any leads. Gunn suddenly curses and grabs the tranq-gun as he runs for the basement. Wesley turns to look at the monitor, where Lilah is visible talking to Angelus. Her back is to the camera, so I don't think anyone recognizes her.
Lilah looks up as Gunn rushes down the stairs. As she turns, Angelus quickly reaches out to grab the crowbar, but it's just out of reach. He takes a tranq to the arm. Lilah drops the crowbar and dashes back to the sewers as Angelus collapses. As Wesley and Connor enter, Gunn tells them that Angelus's visitor was Lilah. Wesley looks startled, then gives chase. Connor starts to follow, but Gunn calls him back, pointing out, "You should stay here; make sure it isn't a set-up." Good thinking! He du
mped Fred five minutes ago and already his brain is growing back.Dramatic music plays as Lilah runs through the sewer tunnels, clutching her side. The music might be overdoing it a little, because she's not running that fast. It's more like a slow jog. Perhaps she should have worn her sensible shoes for this expedition. She runs past the camera, and then Wesley appears. He's not really racing as fast as possible, either. Is he wearing high heels, too?
Gunn keeps the gun aimed at Angelus while Connor checks the locks on the cage and kicks the crowbar out of reach. Gunn wonders what Lilah was doing, Cordy wonders how Lilah knew about Angelus, Connor wonders if Lilah stole the soul, and Fred wonders how Lilah survived Satan's attack on Wolfram & Hart. They're just chock full o' questions!
Back to the overly dramatic jogging music. Wesley breaks in one of those doors you often find in sewers on this show. He enters the room, and Lilah attacks him with a pipe, but he grabs her arm and takes it away. She greets him by observing, "You're a son of a bitch." She crosses the room and sits down on a stool by some piles of clothes. Wesley looks around and chides her, "When I said, 'go underground,' I didn't think you'd --" Lilah is checking her side, because it seems that the puncture she got from Satan is still bleeding. Wesley offers to check the wound, but Lilah quickly pulls her sweater over her bloody shirt and insists that she's fine. She explains that she heard about Angel's desouling through the magical grapevine, and then guesses that it was Wesley's idea, because who else would come up with something that dumb? (She doesn't say that last part.) Lilah goes on to claim that she wouldn't have let Angelus out of the cage. Wesley is dubious, noting, "You always wanted Angelus." Well, there was that time on the desk, but this is no time to be...oh. He means Wolfram & Hart. But he's still wrong; the point of Season Two was that they wanted a souled Angel to choose naughtiness. Lilah tells Wesley that she wants her life back: "I'm selfish that way. That's why we wouldn't have worked out." She's wearing a shirt that exactly matches her skin tone in this lighting, which means it looks like the cardigan is all she's got on. Yow. Wesley says that her selfishness wasn't their only problem. Like, there's also his self-righteousness. During the ensuing awkward moment, Wesley notices a book and picks it up. Lilah says she was looking for a way to stop Satan. Wesley says that he looked through his own copy and there's nothing about Satan in it. He's startled as he finds a page with a nice clear drawing of Satan. Then, hilariously, he flips through a few pages, looks at the binding, and declares that his copy of the book is "identical" except for the part about Satan. Maybe a more thorough comparison is in order. Lilah says she picked the book up on the "pan-dimensional black market." Black market? Is there a legal pan-dimensional store? Wesley figures that all references to Satan were removed from this dimension, then wonders, "What would something that powerful need to hide?" It might not be hiding anything. Maybe it's just modest.
Cut to Gunn, who says, "Something is doing the Beast's dirty work." Cordy agrees that Satan must have had help to kill Manny, and Connor adds the Svear's family to the evidence. Fred doesn't think Lilah's the type to get her hands bloody, so Gunn speculates that Satan's got his own minions. From the cage, Angelus grouses, "Morons." He gets up off the floor and adds, "That big rock doesn't have minions. It is a minion." Cordy asks what he means, and Angelus tells her, "There's something bigger, something worse. The Beast has a boss." I bet Satan is working for Russ. Or possibly Lindsey's evil hand.
After the ads, Cordelia doth protest too much. Angelus asks the question on everyone's mind: "How could you survive this long being so retarded?" Angelus points out that Satan is more brawn than brain, and that the current situation is a little too complicated for him to have thought up on his own. And then there's some more ominous-ity.
Wesley and Lilah enter the lobby. I guess they made a side trip to get coffee or something, because why not come back through the sewers? The rest of the MoG glare at their visitor, and Lilah asks, "What, no..." before realizing that the "What, no hug?" thing is a little tired, so she quickly substitutes "...cake?" instead. It's still a dumb line, though. If she tried to check in to the hotel, and asked Connor to fetch her bags from the car, that would have been funnier. Wesley vouches for Lilah's...uh, well "innocence" isn't the right word, but he insists that she was trying to get information from Angelus, and that she didn't steal the soul-bottle and isn't working with Satan. The others mostly take Wesley's word for it, for some mysterious reason. Gunn asks how Lilah managed to escape Satan's attack on Wolfram & Hart. Lilah says, "Got lucky," and quickly looks at Wesley.
Cordelia lets Lilah and Wesley in on the latest news: "Everything that's happened -- it's part of a bigger plan, with something even worse than the Beast sketching the blueprints." Wesley blurts, "So that's what [Angelus has] been trying to hide!" He wasn't trying very hard, since he told them directly. Although I hope they've learned that the way to get information from Angelus isn't by questioning him directly, but by making dumb guesses in front of him until he gets frustrated enough to correct them. Now that the MoG have shared all of the other plot developments with each other, it's time for Wesley to repeat the news about Lilah's book. Sigh. I guess we needed to see the reactions everyone had to all the news, but couldn't it have been done a little more quickly? So much of this scene is just watching the characters tell each other things we already know. Wesley explains that something wiped out all references to Satan, and Cordy seems particularly startled. Gunn figures that Angel's memory was wiped along with everything else. Connor, quite reasonably, asks why Angelus remembers meeting Satan if Angel didn't. Fred explains -- if you use the word "explains" very loosely -- "Because his mind wasn't here when the spell, or whatever, was cast, right?" Wesley ignores her, because the audience is screaming, "What? What?! That's so dumb! They're the same person! They don't have different minds! Argh!" Instead, Wesley suggests that he and Fred compare Lilah's copy of the book to the information Wolfram & Hart got from sucking Cary's brain. Gunn grumpily picks up the flame-thrower and heads downstairs for some vamp-sitting. Fred starts to go after Gunn, but Cordelia stops her and gives a "buck up, little troopers" speech about how they have to stay focused.
Angelus tells Gunn that he respects the way Gunn sticks to his strengths: "You don't try to change. Because you know your place." The flame-thrower is on low simmer, much like Gunn's temper. The conversation turns to Fred, and when Gunn mopes that "It's her life," Angelus gasps and wonders if he missed Gunn getting dumped. He insists that everyone saw the breakup coming after their encounter with Dr. Seidel. Gunn looks startled, and Angelus says, "Come on, even Angel's not that stupid. The way things changed between the two of you. The furtive looks. All that guilt. Nothing like your first murder." Angelus promises not to tell anyone what Fred did, and Gunn blurts, "She didn't!" before realizing what he's said. Angelus chortles, "So it was you! Steppin' up and being the man!" Angelus adds that Fred should have been grateful for Gunn's help, but instead "she still goes for the broody, smart guy, all mysterious and tortured. I guess, when you think about it, for the first time in your life you just weren't dark enough." Gunn jumps up and blasts the flame-thrower into the cage, looking extremely angry and also kinda hot. Angelus jumps back, and when Gunn shuts the flame-thrower off, he laughs merrily. You have to admire his sense of humor. I think.
In the office, Fred frets that she could only use the Orb of Thesulah to restore Angel's soul if the soul had "moved on to an afterlife or something." Wesley assures her that they'll figure something out, "the way [they] always do. [With] skill, perseverance...luck." He adds that they'll be all right, and Fred almost sarcastically adds, "As long as we stick together." Wesley sounds like the repressed, maladjusted twerp he really is as he says, "What happened between me and Gunn...I didn't mean...That's not what I wanted. Could you tell him that?" Oh, Wesley. You're so pathetic. The words you want are "I'm sorry," not "That's not what I wanted," and the person to say those words to is Gunn, not Fred. Fred looks understandably bewildered by this request -- which would be inappropriate for Wesley to make even if Fred wasn't the topic of the fight -- and hesitantly says, "I don't think he'll listen. We're not together anymore." Wesley looks shocked, and I do give him a little credit for saying, "Oh," instead of "Yippee!" He asks if he's to blame for the breakup, and Fred non-answers that things "haven't been right" for a while. Wesley drapes himself in another layer of slime as he whispers, "This is the part where I'm supposed to say 'I'm sorry,' and I'm really trying to be, but --" Lilah and Cordelia suddenly enter. Cordy asks if Wesley's making progress, and Lilah smirks, "Sure looks like he's trying," while giving Fred a knowing glance. Wesley quickly decides that it's his turn to go watch Angelus downstairs.
Cary enters the lobby, and Fred hurries out to ask what he's learned. Which is nothing. Cary spots Lilah and asks, "What the hell is Succubitch doing here?" Cordelia non-answers, sparing us from a third trip through Lilah's story. Cary says that nobody's spotted a bottle of soul in a thrift store. Lilah insists that they should sic Angelus on Satan, which proves that she was totally going to let him out, and she was lying when she told Wesley that she just wanted information. Go Lilah. Cordy snaps, "Do you know what Angelus would do if we let him out?" Lilah says, "Kill you all in a bloody shower of violence, but hey: greater good!" Hee. Cordy spews cheery optimism, and Lilah snarks, "Don't go Watchtower on me, Saint Cordelia," as she heads upstairs. Cordy offers to punch Lilah's face in, which is a rather un-Cordy thing to say, and yeah, I know, but I can't decide if it's intentionally strange or not. Lilah stops and asks, "Are you trying to turn me on?" Cordy lectures Lilah about hope, and Lilah shouts back that they're all going to die, "and if anybody has scales on their eyes..." Cordy suddenly tilts her head back and then her eyes go all white. "...it's you," Lilah concludes in a puzzled tone. Cordy declares that she knows how to restore Angel's soul.
Fred enters the basement to tell Wesley about Cordy's vision. Angelus mocks Fred, Fred snaps back, and Angelus observes that "she really has put on spunk." Um. Is it just me? Angelus mentions that now that she's single, she can go for "the real prize." He eyes Wesley, and fanfic writers gurgle, as he says, "If I swung that way -- look at him. All rugged and handsome. And brains! Man, he's damn near perfect." Wesley gets a point for quietly saying, "Thank you." Wesley and Fred start upstairs and then Angelus quickly adds, "Except that part about banging Lilah for the past six months." Fred laughs at the ridiculousness of that idea, than spots Wesley's guilty expression. Hooray! Fred gets stammery again and goes upstairs while Angelus laughs.
Cut to Connor and Gunn, digging up something. They share some exposition about how, per Cordy's vision, they need to retrieve the head of a Souleater that was buried by the Chumash hundreds of years ago. Gunn says, "I don't expect it to put up too much of a fight," and unfortunately Connor hasn't been around long enough to recognize famous last words when he hears them. Gunn's very energetic and cheerful, possibly because it's the first time in ages he's gotten to interact with someone angst-free. Connor seems pretty happy, too, presumably for the same reason. They find a box, and as Gunn starts to pry the lid open, a hand pops out of the box and grabs him by the neck. It's not even his birthday, either! Connor quickly drives a sword down into the box, and frees Gunn. They both hurry far away from the box, which bugged me, but I guess they've assumed that Connor killed the demon. Gunn pants, "I so don't need that kind of crap." Naturally, when they turn back to the hole, the box is empty and the sword is gone. The Souleater suddenly grabs Gunn's shoulder, and he spins as Connor gets the other sword. The Souleater has the power of totally cool blurry moving effects, like the Flash. (The actual superhero, not Dawson's dad.) Gunn and Connor can't hit the (I guess) fast-moving target, and both are knocked about a few times. Not only is it a cool effect, but because you can't see it clearly, you're largely spared from thinking, "Oh, another guy in a rubber mask." Connor attacks it again, and it dodges his sword and then plunges its arm into his chest, but not in the gory way. Glowy stuff starts oozing out of Connor and along the Souleater's arm. Call it a hunch, but I'm guessing this means that the demon is eating Connor's soul. Gunn suddenly appears and hacks off the Souleater's arm. Connor falls back, and Gunn chops the demon's head off for good measure. Connor tosses the arm away, and then the Souleater's eye pops open as the rest of its body starts twitching. Gunn hacks away at the body. For a while. With squishy sound effects. Ick. He finally stops as Connor recovers enough to say, "Nice." Gunn explains, "Sometimes you just gotta keep whackin'." He picks up the Souleater's head and reminds us for the fifteenth time that they need to restore Angel's soul.
Blipvert. Spooky torch-lit cave. Satan kneels and makes a little welcoming speech: "Fire, death, and darkness I have bestowed in your name." Aw. He offers his mysterious leader a knife that was "forged of [his] unworthy bones." Sniffle. Sorry; it's like seeing my perfect Valentine's Day fantasy come to life. So romantic, with the bestowing of death and the mystical weapons. Sometimes I'm sentimental. Although I can't help wondering how one goes about forging something from bones. I know he's a demon and all, but it looks more like it was carved. Also, with the spooky darkness and the flickering light from the torches, it was really hard to tell that it even was a knife.
Beastvert. At the Hyperion, Cordy and Fred are finishing some knitting. Whoops, I mean, talismans. Fred's also taken this opportunity to curl her hair and change clothes. I understand that some time has passed, but it can't be that long, since nobody else has changed clothes. I'd accept the curls if she'd had her hair
braided earlier and just undid it, but in her last scene it was straighter than...uh. It's hard to think of things that are straight while watching this show. Anyway. Cordy and Fred complain that they've been dumpster-diving and declawing roadkill to make the talismans. Fred leaves out her side trip to a salon. Gunn and Connor arrive with the Souleater's head, which, Wesley observes, "looks rather fresh." Gunn says, "We moved up its expiration date," which isn't that funny, but Connor chuckles appreciatively. Aw. I wonder if they compared girl troubles while they were out unearthing monsters. Cordy ponders things and says that in her vision, they just had the skull. Wesley orders Connor and Gunn to do some serious exfoliation on the head. Gunn and Connor leave without complaint, I guess because while they're boiling the flesh off of the head, they can gossip about what a tool Wesley is.Lilah enters snippily. Are they letting her roam freely around the hotel? Sigh. Cary growls, "Wesley, can you please warn this walking infection that I haven't forgotten how she poked my head open like a Capri Sun?" He adds, looking directly at Lilah, that if he needs to, he will "smack her down!" Then he turns back to Wesley with a cheery smile and finishes, "Be a doll, thanks!" and marches off with his talisman. Hee. Wesley wonders why Lilah hasn't escaped yet, and I wonder what there is for her to escape from since there's no evidence that she's a prisoner. Lilah points out that she has nowhere else to go, and that she's just sticking around for the inevitable schadenfreude. She adds, "If [The Powers That Be] pull it through, well then, braid my hair and call me Pollyanna! The upside of being in it for yourself, Wes: you always end up on the winning team." Fred stumbles in, sees Wesley and Lilah talking, and stammers that Cordy needs to talk to Wesley. Then she quickly retreats into the office. Lilah grins and then turns her back so that Wesley can't see her giggling.
In the basement, the de-fleshed Souleater skull is put in a circle as everyone sets up various magical implements like candles and powder and...um, sticks. From the cage, Angelus complains, "You're going to use black magic to restore my soul? People, this never goes well. Am I the only one paying attention?" Hee. Lilah places odds that they'll end up sucking the hotel into a hell dimension. Angelus insists that they're doomed, dooooomed, and Fred sniffs, "That's your opinion." Lilah nonsupportively says, "You tell him, honey." Fred snaps, "Shut your fat mouth!" I like that Fred is terrible at snarking. Hey, it's a third thing that she can't do! And it helps to make everyone else seem funnier. As they prepare to start the spell, Angelus says that Angel let them take his soul because he'd given up on them all. Cordy approaches the cage and cheerily says, "You're right. Buh bye!" She tosses something into the cage, and Angelus is thrown back into the wall and collapses. Wesley starts reading the magic words. Angelus keeps protesting as the candle flames shoot up. Some smokey CGI effects ooze out of the skull and up around the talismans everyone is holding. Angelus moans, "I promise you, this isn't the end!" The smoke surrounds Angelus and pulls him up toward the ceiling, and then drops him as the skull shatters. Gosh.
After a moment, Angel (or is it?) looks up at them from the floor and says, "I'm so sorry..." Cary says that the spell worked, but Connor is skeptical. In response, Angel (or is it?) apologizes to Fred for attacking her. Wesley tells Angel, "We need your help to fight [Satan's boss], but first you have to sing." Tee hee. Angel looks confused, I chuckle, and Wesley explains that Cary has to confirm that the resouling spell worked. After a minute, Angel (or is it?) bobs his head a little and sings, "Raindrops keep falling on my head, doo do doo doo..." Snicker. Cary smiles and chirps, "Sweet fancy B.J. Thomas -- it's him!" He adds that "the vibe's totally changed, and the aura screams 'soul'!" Connor sighs, "He's back," with no enthusiasm at all. Fred says that they can open the cage, but Angel says he'll stay where he is. He explains, "For all we know, this spell is only temporary, and God forbid..." The "God forbid" part makes me think that it was actually Angelus the whole time, but then again... Oh, I just can't decide. It's like he's Schrodinger's vampire. Whoever he is, he insists that he can boss people around from the cage, and immediately demonstrates: "No more back-biting, fist-fighting, fraternizing, or vengeance." Wow, that was a mouthful. He gives a heartwarming speech about how he'd never give up on them, and Lilah smirks, "I can't believe we didn't crush you people years ago." Angel tells Wesley to get back to the research, Lilah to make coffee, Cary to look for leads on Satan's boss, and Connor and Gunn to go patrol the area.
As everyone else heads out on their tasks, Angel turns to Cordy, but she stops him before he can give her any orders, and tells him that he's hiding in the cage so he won't have to face the others. They exposition about their matching hair shirts, and Angel once again worries about the foreshadowing. Oops, I meant to say, "worries that the spell will wear off." Cordy says, "The Powers need a champion, Angel. And obviously, they need one pretty bad, the way things are going." I was going to put a "[sic]" because she should have said "badly," but then I suddenly wondered if she meant exactly what she said. I'm probably overanalyzing, though, right? Hm. Cordy adds that Angel might be "their only hope, Obi-Wan." Angel wonders why she's calling him a pale kimono sash, but assumes it's some kind of fashion-related compliment and smiles. Cordy makes yet another speech about how Angel isn't Angelus and unlocks the cage. Angel steps out, and Cordy repeats, "You're not Angelus." We get a close-up of her putting the keys to the cage in her pocket, and I have no idea why that was such an important point to make. Maybe it'll matter later. She takes his hand and starts toward the stairs. Angel (or is it? No, in fact, it isn't) vamps out and snarls, "Guess again!"
A commercial break gives Cordy time to form a plan, so when we return, she quickly kicks Angelus in the crotch, then punches him. He releases her as he's knocked back, and she quickly hops into the cage and pulls the door shut. Pretty smart. Except she has to hold the door shut, which means she's within reach. Angelus grabs her by the hair and slams her head into the bars. She drops to the floor, unconscious. "Stay down!" Angelus orders, and then heads upstairs rather merrily.
Fred is in the office, bent over a desk in the hopes that Wesley will notice her low-rise pants. She turns suddenly to see Angelus at the door. Only he's pretending to be Angel. Like this wasn't confusing enough to recap. He awkwardly explains that he asked Cordy to let him out, and then says, "You know what, never mind," and turns to leave. Which is just a bit of business so that he can give the camera some Evil Looks without Fred's seeing, but it's entertaining. Fred insists that she's sorry for what he's gone through. Angelus smirks, and then spins back to Fred with a guilt-ridden expression. Fred says that they're all stressed, and Angelus chirps, "I could use a drink." Fred starts, and Angelus whines, "Now see, that's what I was afraid of. For the rest of your life, you'll only see this evil thing." He moves closer to Fred, and she insists that it's all in the past. Angelus smiles and thanks her, and then asks, "Could I get a hug?" Fred looks more confused, and then there's a crash out in the lobby. Fred turns her head toward the sound, and when she turns back, Angelus is gone.
Lilah and Wesley look down at the tray of coffee which she apparently dropped. Lilah explains that her "inner megalomaniac" rebels at serving coffee. Which doesn't make sense. Until they look up to see Angelus, who is standing to the monitor. I think Lilah saw Cordy on the monitor and dropped the tray, then lied because, after all, she wanted Angelus set loose. Excellent. As Connor and Gunn enter, Angelus explains that Cordy talked him out of staying in the cage, adding, "Now I've got my own mission." He spots a leather jacket and grabs it, perhaps hoping he can find pants to match later. Connor asks what the mission is, but Angelus says it's too dangerous for anyone to join him. He hurries to the door, looks around shiftily, and deadpans, "I have to go save the world." Snerk. He exits quickly, and the rest of the MoG, and Lilah, look bemused. Fred enters and stands to the monitor as she asks if anyone's seen Cordelia.
Cut to the boys gathering weapons. Gunn says that Connor will track Angelus while he, Fred, and Wesley follow in the truck. And Lilah and Cordy can cook dinner, or something. For the most part, the characters have been pretty intelligent in this episode, so it's hard to understand why they'd be silly enough to split up. The fact that they're taking the truck helps, since they wouldn't all fit inside it. Wesley's SUV, on the other hand, should hold them all. Oh well. Cordy holds an ice pack on her head and wonders why the spell didn't work. Lilah describes it as "dud ex machina." Wesley says, "Our only advantage is [that] Angelus may think we'll want to capture him. I think we're all agreed, that isn't an option anymore." By way of agreement, Lilah loads her pistol, and while I get the bullets-still-hurt thing, it's not her smartest moment. Fred isn't sure that she can kill Angelus, which is funny, because I'm completely sure she can't. Connor leads the others out in hot pursuit.
Angelus strides along a chaotic street scene. Cars are on fire, corpses lay in the road, a vampire pulls a fireman out of a truck and kills him. Cool! I mean, in a nice, relatively inexpensive, apocalypse-establishing way. Angelus gripes, "Like shooting fish in a barrel. Where's the fun in that?" He spots a little girl running past and grabs her, then sees that she's already in vamp-face. Oooo. "What happened to pedestrians? Human pedestrians?" He drops the girl and asks, "Is there no fast food left in Los Angeles?" Even when there's nobody listening to him, he just can't shut up. I can see why they're worried about him: Angelus could talk the whole world to death.
At the Hyperion, Cordy is having a crisis of faith. "The Beast, and then Angelus, and now there's something worse." She adds, "It just makes me question --" "What's it all for, huh?" Angelus asks from the second-floor balcony. See, he just wants someone to talk to. I wonder if that's how he drove Drusilla insane. He makes a "Grr!" face that I find amusing, and then leaps down into the lobby. Lilah starts firing the gun at him, which causes slow-motion to kick in. She's also holding an axe, so she's not completely dumb. Angelus does a flat somersault on his way down, which seems inefficient. As he lands, Lilah gives her gun an exasperated look and throws it to the floor. Well, what did you expect, Lilah? Cordy fires a crossbow at Angelus, but he catches the bolt and throws it back at her. It lands in her belly, and Angelus repeats, "This time you stay down!" He turns to Lilah and offers her a ten-second head start, since she was going to set him free. Lilah races off as Angelus starts the countdown. Cordy loads another bolt into the crossbow, and fires. It lands in the wall near Angelus, who turns and says, "Don't be jealous, kitten. She's just the warm-up. I'll save the good stuff for you." He ducks around the corner and continues counting down. Hey, he's not really giving her a head start if he's already following her! My goodness, he truly is evil.
Connor leads Gunn's truck into the same street scene we saw earlier. The others get out of the truck as Connor stops to report that the trail ends here, "and it's not a highly populated area." Not anymore, at least. Gunn wonders if someone gave Angelus a lift. Connor guesses, "He would go to the place where he could wreak the most damage." Wesley says that doesn't mean he'd go to a populated area. Fred realizes, "He doubled back," and they race to the truck.
Angelus wanders the hotel calling for Lilah. Lilah wanders some dark rooms and hallways. Angelus walks past the room she's in, whistling. Once he's gone by, Lilah steps out and quietly heads down the hall in the other direction. Naturally, Angelus pops out at her, shouting, "Boo!" She tries to hit him with the axe, but Angelus knocks her down and takes the axe away. He suggests that they could have made a good team, and Lilah agrees, "Could still make." Angelus babbles for a while about how she's not looking too effective anymore, plus he's hungry, and finishes by saying, "You know, you're lucky I'm letting you yak this long." Good grief. You know who'd scare the crap out of Angelus? The Gentlemen. Angelus lunges at Lilah with the axe, but she kicks her legs up and flips him over into the stairwell. She tosses some furniture down onto him for good measure, and then hurries away.
As Lilah hobbles down a hallway, clutching her side again, an arm suddenly grabs her by the throat. She's slammed into a door frame by Cordy. "He's gonna kill us," Lilah gasps. Cordy says, "I know." Then she pulls out the Beast's homemade dagger and plunges it into Lilah's neck. Lilah drops. Cordy looks down at the body and sighs, "Why do you think I let him out, you stupid bitch?" Bad delivery there. But at least she's not as chatty as Angelus is.
time: Faith. Do you need to know anything else? I didn't think so.