Release

Previously on Angel, Cordy looped her line about how the rain of fire and sun-loss were "the first steps to something bigger." I wonder why they redid that, because her reading is really flat. Much like the way she said "you stupid bitch" a few weeks ago. Now I wonder if that was looped, too. Right, so last week, Faith broke out, broke hearts, and almost got broken.

Wesley's feet walk into Wesley's apartment. Faith's feet follow. Was this episode directed by the Fear Demon? Blood drips down onto the floor by Faith's feet. Artsy. The camera operator suddenly wakes up and tilts the camera back to eye level as Wesley returns with...a hand towel. Shouldn't he at least have a first aid kit? After getting another look at Faith's bloodied face he finally decides bandages might be appropriate, but Faith insists that she just needs a shower. He asks if she's okay. Faith says, "A little sticky," and within minutes that becomes the title of several extremely disturbing fanfic stories. Poor Faith. She returns the towel before leaving the room.

The foot-cam briefly returns in the bathroom. Faith undresses. But it's actually pretty tasteful, and effective, as we see her bloody skin and various welts and...well, blech. She gets into the shower and there's a Carrie-esque shot of blood dripping down her legs. My goodness, she has teeny little feet. Then there's a long, strange shot of Faith with the water rushing past the camera. I think it's meant to look like she's under the spray when she isn't. And the water would probably wash away the bloody makeup, so I understand that part. But this shot goes on for a while and it looks stranger and stranger the longer I look at it. Faith stares into space, and suddenly punches the wall of the shower. And then she freaks out, busting up the wall and shrieking. And then she stops. A guitar riff starts up as she finally puts her head under the water.

Cut to the demon/vampire bar. A vamp chick sends the waitress over with a glass of blood for Angelus. He accepts it with a wave and turns back to the vamps at his table with a sneering "As if." He goes back to telling the gang about how Satan beat up Faith, and then he killed Satan. From the bar, a demon snaps, "Yeah, soul-boy, nice job bringing the sun back." Angelus smiles around the table.

The demon looks up to see Angelus to him, and nervously offers to buy Angelus "a warm one." Heh. Angelus says that can wait until after he rips out the demon's windpipe, "so it stops making that annoying talky sound." The demon suddenly starts barking and insists that he has Tourette's Syndrome. Angelus says, "[Tourette's] causes uncontrollable impulses -- like yankin' out throats." As he squeezes the demon's neck, a spooky (but not that spooky) voice says "Hello, Angelus. It's time we had that talk." Angelus looks around, puzzled.

Credits. Praise the lord, we've finally lost the crazy shot that makes all of Los Angeles look slimmer, because Andy Hallett has joined the credits. In pink. Heh. This week's Boreanaz quote: "I'd just like to see [Angel] grow. Honestly, everything he's done so far I've enjoyed, so there's not really one thing. Maybe, like, golfing or something." During the ads I call Johanna. We agree that Faith's getting beaten half to death is more affecting than Buffy getting similarly stomped, and briefly wonder why that is. Then we decide it's probably because we haven't seen it happen to Faith fifty times already.

Angelus, still holding the demon's neck, asks the voice where it is. The demon answers: "I'm wherever you want me to be, buddy!" The voice says it's somewhere warm and soft. Angelus releases the demon and walks around, trying to find the voice's owner. Everyone else looks at Angelus much in the way you would look at a crazy vampire who's talking to himself. As the voice chides Angelus for killing "[its] favorite pet," Angelus leaves the bar and enters a back room. A girl hops up and tries to cuddle, but he's not in the mood. He moves into another room, where a helpful young man is helping a girl try on some boots. After tossing them out, Angelus says, "Now that I've killed your pet rock, how about a little face-to-face? Assuming that you've got one." The voice says, "Don't worry --"

Cut to a white-eyed Cordelia, who says, "-- we'll meet when you're -- " in her normal voice.

Back to Angelus, who hears the voice finish, " -- ready." I think this would have worked better if Cordy was talking with the spooky (but not that spooky) voice. Although I guess this way it's more like Cordy's disguising her voice, and the other way it might seem like that was the real voice of whatever Cordelia is now. And presumably it isn't. I think. Angelus expositions that the voice whipped up all the big events this season just so that Angel would be de-souled. That's one complicated plan. You'd think that if Cordelia can control Satan, cause fire to rain down from the sky, and blot out the sun, she wouldn't really need Angelus. Maybe she's just a fan? The voice says that sometimes destruction is its own reward. We cut back to Cordy mid-sentence, and see that she's in her room, talking to a little glowing orb. Angelus says, "You're preachin' to the guy who ate the choir." Cordy says that she has "wonderful plans for [Angelus]." Angelus, less than flattered, says that he makes his own (incomprehensible) plans. He starts to leave, with a closing, "Thanks for stopping by my head!" The voice huffily asks, "You would dare to defy me?" although it hasn't really asked Angelus to do anything, so it's sort of a theoretical defiance. Maybe Cordy should wait until she has something for Angelus to do, and then make contact. What if Angelus had immediately agreed to do whatever she asked? I get the impression she'd have said, "Oh, great, why don't you just...hm. Tell you what, take the night off, I'll get back to you on that." Angelus wants to know who, exactly, he's defying, and demonstrates his own scary (but not very scary) voice as she says, "You can kiss my vampire ass!"

At the hotel, Connor enters Cordy's room. She quickly closes her hand around the orb and blinks till her irises reappear. Connor tucks Cordy in and asks if she's okay. She says she's woozy, probably from the wound in her leg. "Or," she adds, "it could be the baby. His way of saying --"

"Hello!" Angelus shouts. Wait, was that a hint that Angelus is, in some way, the baby Cordelia and Connor are having? I mean, if it is a baby at all, without getting into what species, and if that is, in any meaningful way, still Cordelia, and if Connor really is the father, which seems very unlikely. Thank heavens that Wesley is still a jerk, or there'd be no solid facts left for me to cling to. Where were we? Oh yes, I'm pretty sure that the "Hello" was just a bit of fun juxtaposition without significance, but you can see where it's hard to be sure. Angelus keeps ranting at nothingness: "I've got places to go, friends to kill! Well, not actually my friends, but you get the idea." Silence. A dazed vampire in the corner, who is holding a semi-conscious girl, says, "Dude, whatever you're on, I'll give you the girl for a gram." Angelus leaves.

Connor strokes Cordy's hair while telling her about the latest developments: Wesley called and said that Faith was hurt, but that she'd recover. Cordelia observes that, since Angelus killed Satan, maybe they did the right thing by de-souling him. Connor moves away and scoffs. Cordelia looks at him and says, "Angelus has made the world a little safer. For our family." Connor quickly insists that he won't let anything happen to Cordy or the baby. She smiles at that, then tells Connor that "nobody else needs to know how lucky [they] are." Connor asks if she's ashamed of him, and Cordy explains, "Our baby is growing so fast, it would scare them. And that fear might make them want to kill it. Like they wanted to kill you." She happily assures him that it won't be a secret for long: "They're all gonna know what's growing inside me." Creepy!

Down in the lobby, Gunn gives Fred a tranq gun to be used just in case the sanctuary spell doesn't work. Cary gets one as well, though he sighs, "The only shots I'm good at involve tequila." Gunn's about to head downstairs to make sure the sewer entrances are closed when Fred suddenly spins to aim the gun at something. Which turns out to be Connor, coming downstairs. Connor sniffs, "I thought you were more of a taser girl." Fred apologizes, and lowers the gun. Gunn asks how Cordelia is. Connor hedges that Cordy's tired, and discourages Fred from going to pay a visit. Then he unconvincingly insists that Cordelia wants some soup, and marches off. I'm unhappy that Connor's not lying very smoothly here. He used to be really good at that. The rest of the MoG look at each other. Fred asks, "You don't think he and Cordy are still..." Cary isn't sure, saying, "Whatever it is, I just can't get a good read on it." You'd think Cary would express more concern about that, what with his Angelus-reading and all. Fred guesses that Connor's upset because Faith sent him home, and wonders if that was a mistake on Faith's part. Gunn says, "Connor's better off playing nursemaid, or whatever he's doing with Cordy that I really don't wanna know about." Fred goes on worrying that Faith won't be able to deal with Angelus on her own.

Wesley closes up a nifty case o' tranqs as Faith comes out, ready to go. Wesley looks at her searchingly, and she curtly apologizes for trashing his bathroom. He dismisses that, but asks if she's "in the game." Faith picks up a duffel bag and insists, "Five by five, boss," then heads out the door.

Fred is trying to translate something in the office, and leaves the gun under some papers on the desk as starts looking for a book. She mutters, "If I were a runic transcription guide, I would be...shelved wrong." She pulls the book out as Angelus asks, "Talking to yourself, Fred? Lot of that going around." Heh. Fred quickly tells Angelus that he can't hurt her because of the sanctuary spell. Angelus pretends to be worried, and then pulls out a sparkly little key chain which, he explains, "lets [him] be as demony as [he] want[s] to be." He takes the book from Fred as she claims not to believe him. He slams a hand into the wall to her and leans in close to ask, "How 'bout now?" Fred asks what he wants, and Angelus says he wants to know about Satan's boss. He's nicely menacing as he invades Fred's personal space, but Fred says she wouldn't tell him if she knew anything. Angelus moves away and starts picking up all the papers from the desk. Fred starts to reach for the gun, but he turns around before she can get to it. Fred decides to try out this taunting thing that all the kids today are into, and says that whoever Satan was working for will "make [Angelus] his bitch." She then tells Angelus that if he's going to kill her, he should just get it over with. As Angelus approaches her again, she looks down at the key chain he's holding and reads "Made in China." What, the Chinese can't make magic doodads? Angelus looks down, and Fred quickly knocks a pitcher over his head. The key chain falls to the floor, and Fred grabs the gun and fires. Angelus ducks the dart and dashes away. Fred gives chase.

Cary is strolling down a hall toward lobby as Angelus runs out. Fred fires again just as Angelus moves to dodge the couch. The dart hits Cary, who immediately collapses. Angelus leaps up to the second floor, which is cool. Fred fires a third time, but Angelus uses the book he stole as a shield. Fred's a pretty good shot. Fred tries to shoot again, but the gun's empty. Or jammed; I'm not sure. Angelus pauses to gloat: "I was just starting to have fun." "Why stop now?" Connor asks. Angelus looks up as Connor runs down the hall toward him. Connor tries for a mighty punch, because he has no weapons, because he's not the brightest kid. A blast of blue magical shininess stops the blow and knocks Connor back over the railing. He falls down to the floor, and Fred runs over to him. Angelus looks down and says, "Well, isn't that interesting?" It is, actually. Because we know Connor has a soul. Or we're pretty sure he has a soul. Or, I guess, we're pretty sure he had a soul. There was that incident with the Souleater. Hm.

After the ads, Angelus leaps back down into the lobby. See, I really don't get why all the leaping about at the end of this episode bothered some people, considering that nobody seems to mind this stuff. Angelus pulls the dart out of the book and tosses it to the floor, telling Fred, "Think about how close you came to stopping me when I'm slaughtering all your friends." With a cheery "Toodles!" he calmly heads for the door.

Wesley and Faith enter the courtyard. Faith is going over their plan: "We track him, we find him, we --" "Get your asses kicked?" Angelus asks as he walks out of the hotel. Faith looks shocked for a second, then quickly drops her bag and starts with the kick-fu. Wesley tries to get a shot with the rifle, but Faith is in the way. And he can't move more than two feet from side to side, apparently. Sometime, Fred should sit down with Gunn and Wesley and go over the many possibilities for movement available in three-dimensional space. Angelus knocks Faith back into Wesley, and the rifle ends up in the bushes. By the time Faith has gotten up, Angelus is holding Wesley in front of him. Angelus notes, "Sucky spell, huh? You'd think it'd at least go to the sidewalk." Faith tries to negotiate for the release of the hostage, and then goes about as well as you'd expect. Angelus asks if Faith's fast enough to get to him before he snaps Wesley's neck. Try, Faith! No matter what happens, you'll be a hero. Wesley hisses, "Do it!" Angelus tightens his grip on Wesley's throat and asks, "What's one more dead body to us? Come on, where's my girl?" Suddenly, Gunn shouts, "Faith!" and throws her a rifle as he runs outside. He pulls out a dart-pistol, and starts to aim, but Angelus throws Wesley at Gunn, knocking him down. Faith aims the rifle, but Angelus leaps up over the fence and away. Gunn hurries out past the gate while Faith goes to check on Wesley. Wesley stops writhing in pain long enough to tell her to go, but Gunn announces, "He's gone."

Inside, Connor runs into Cordy's room, calling for her. In retrospect, I realize that he's supposed to be worried that Angelus got to her, but at the time he just looked excited, and I thought he was about to say, "The funniest thing just happened!" He looks around the empty room, and then a toilet flushes and Cordy comes out of the bathroom. She explains that she's suffering from "morning sickness that can't tell time." Connor's relieved, and turns away as he explains that Angelus came a-calling. Cordy growls, "Excuse me?" Connor turns back and Cordy adopts a more inquisitive tone to add, "He was?" Connor explains that Angelus took all their research about Satan's boss, and Cordy hisses, "That son of a bitch." Connor adds that Faith and Gunn chased Angelus away, and Cordy unconvincingly says, "Yay for our side." She asks whether the sanctuary spell worked, and Connor sulkily admits that it did.

Cary sleeps off the tranq-dart on the couch. Gunn blusters while Fred angsts about Angelus getting all their research. Gunn says it isn't her fault, but Fred claims that Wesley and Faith don't agree. They look over to the couch, where Faith is watching while Wesley gingerly swallow some water. "Like they were any help," Gunn snips. Hee. Fred says that Faith wouldn't have fallen for the magic key chain trick. Gunn's just glad that Fred's okay. Fred starts to reply, but she's interrupted by the sound of a shotgun being cocked. With Faith around, you'd think there'd be a vice-versa joke there somewhere, but I can't find it. Wesley's checking the shotgun as Faith asks what he's doing. Wesley explains, "If we get another chance, I want to slow him down long enough to tranq him." "By blowing his legs off?" Fred wonders. Gunn chimes in, "You want some help with that?" Wesley says that Gunn needs to stay on guard at the hotel, because he was so effective ten minutes ago. I guess checking the sewer tunnels takes a while. Or maybe Wesley just wants to keep Gunn away from Faith. Jerk. Actually, you'd think he'd want to encourage them to get together, just to alienate Fred some more. Wesley reminds them to be careful, because time Angelus might have more than just a key chain. He might even have a laser pointer! With that, Wesley and Faith exit.

Outside, Faith says they should start with a "perimeter sweep" and I wonder, "The perimeter of what?" She says, "If he's still in the area --" "You'll let him escape again?" Wesley asks. Faith stops and asks, "This coming from the boy hostage?" Wesley says that Faith should have taken the shot without worrying about him, and I agree, although probably for slightly different reasons. He continues, "Angelus is an animal, and the only way to defeat him is to be just as vicious as he is." So Faith should talk a lot more, is what he's saying.

Blipvert to the wittily named "Occult Books" store. The camera pans past some displays and over a blazing fire. In the fireplace, just to be clear. Yes, in Los Angeles, even the commercial buildings have fireplaces, because it's so chilly there. And firewood is so common. I don't know. The camera moves on to a lovely leather armchair I covet, in which Angelus is seated. He's looking very Alistair Cooke as he flips through the book he stole. And he's wearing reading glasses, which is pretty funny. We hold on that just long enough for me to think, "It's funny, but why would he be wearing glasses?" Then he lifts the glasses up to look at the papers again, and finally removes them and tosses them at the store owner, who is cowering on the floor. "These aren't helping" Angelus complains, and I laugh and laugh. Johanna agrees that it's entirely plausible that Angelus would think "Well, people with glasses are usually better at understanding this stuff, so maybe the glasses help somehow." Which just makes it funnier, because whether he's good or evil, he's a little dim. Angelus walks over to the terrified shopkeeper as he whines, "Half of this crap is written in some archaic proto-demon cuneiform, and I don't want to be rude, but I think the other half they just doodled." He sits to the shopkeeper and does something that causes the guy to squeal in pain. It also looks like their are bloodstains on his vest collar. Angelus says, "Now don't make me puncture the other one, Reg." Ack. He explains that he wants to know about Satan's boss, adding, "This is an occult shop, right? Like, your job is to help me!" Hey, he just wants some good customer service. I think we can all get behind that. Reg, terrified, says he doesn't know anything. Angelus is displeased, and starts punching Reg.