Props to Salamander & llexuus.
Previously on Angel, I taught Word to recognize "necrotempered." There are no actual "previously"s. I don't think they're ever helpful, but it seems like a slightly disturbing acknowledgment that nothing that happened in the past will matter. Maybe they should just give the show some memorable opening narration where a mysterious voice explains the premise. I love those things, you know.
We slowly pan past three cars and a motorcycle. Based on the dialogue we can hear, the MoG are having an nighttime picnic. I hope Gunn remembered the glow-in-the-dark Frisbee. We pan past the cars some more. They keep making a big deal about these freaking cars. I think we're supposed to be telling all our friends, "Yeah, you may not have liked the show last time you watched it, but this season, oh my God, it's amazing, because they have a whole lot of cars! Let me lend you my tapes, because once you see these cars, you'll be totally hooked!" I mean, who cares? They do know that Fastlane was on last season, right?
We finally finish admiring the vehicles and see that the MoG appear to be near a monument of some kind. Or maybe Los Angeles is littered with cement chairs in gazebos. I don't know. They are still talking about Chinese food, we but now we can see that there's no actual food. Instead, Fred is waving around a gizmo. She declares, "We're clean, nobody's listening." Angel immediately snaps that Wesley was late, and Wesley sniffs that he thought he was being followed. Gunn wants to know why they're hiding from the company they run. Angel says they're just being careful. Hey, he's wearing a leather jacket again. With a hoodie under it. Odd. Fred reminds the others that not everyone at Wolfram & Hart is evil: "Some of them, I see more than I see you guys, at least lately, anyway." Wesley butts in, "And you think you can trust him?" Off Fred's confusion, Wesley offers, "Them." Then he faces away from the group and clarifies, "Knox, for example." I just can't believe we have to go through all of this again. It wasn't interesting the first time! I'm not kidding, this had better end with Spicule getting kidnapped. Or at least Darth Burger. Fred single-entendres that she and Knox are just co-workers, and insists that he isn't evil. Angel wants to know what the Senior Partners are up to, and Gunn mentions that they haven't been able to find out much, but they've only been there a month. Wow, time flies. Soon they'll be in the present. So, yeah, they're all very busy, although Wesley has enough free time to be jealous of Knox and paranoid about Gunn. Wesley's worried that Wolfram & Hart might have done something evil while making the "alteration to [Gunn's] mental capacity." Gunn quickly says, "My capacity's the same as it's always been." And I appreciate their clarifying that Gunn wasn't dumb, except then Gunn adds, "The good doctor just revved up some idling brain cells." Oh, that's much better: "I'm not dumb, I just wasn't using most of my brain!" I'm all full of hate again. Anyway, Gunn says, "Everybody got something out of this." Angel sniffs, "Fear, mistrust, a great motor pool." You left out depression, anger, and potential liver damage, but I didn't get any moto-- oh. He means they got that stuff. Got it. Cary chimes in, without the sarcasm, to mention that he's now the proud owner of a Nancy Sinatra collection. Well, it is an evil company. And Wesley got: a pen. He even takes it out and shows it to us, adding, "Sterling." Plot point! You can tell, because after that the conversation shifts back to Gunn and how nobody trusts him. Fred and Wesley repeat that they're very busy with their departments and clients and good ol' Spicule. Angel insists that they'll "release" Spicule from Wolfram & Hart, but Wesley says, "That could take years." I need a drink. Actually, I think we all do. This round's on me. Then there's some Spicule-exposition, and Fred says "He's more than a ghost. He's unique." Yes, Spicule is the very special-est being in the whole wide world. I heard. Angel -- bored by all the Spiculation (ho ho!) -- abruptly borrows Wesley's pen and walks off.
“ We wonder if Wesley is acting so infatuated with his pen because he's trying to make Angel and/or the amulet jealous. Johanna says, 'I think Angel carries the amulet in his hoodie the way some people carry their ferrets.' ”
Cut to a girl in pink sweats running through the park and screaming. An unseen scary monster rawrs at her. She trips and falls. We get a quick shot of a wolfy head. She screams.
Credits. Johanna and I discuss Angel's outfit, because I'm glad he gets to wear leather occasionally. I'm still confused by the hoodie, though. I suggest that he's wearing it to hide the fact that he's wearing the amulet. Theirs is a forbidden love. We wonder if Wesley is acting so infatuated with his pen because he's trying to make Angel and/or the amulet jealous. Johanna says, "I think Angel carries the amulet in his hoodie the way some people carry their ferrets."
Oh, we're back. The girl squeals as the werewolf attacks. You know it's a werewolf, right? Cool. It slashes her arm, and she clubs it with a handy branch. POV-shot of the wolf-mask being jabbed at the camera. Angel rushes in where fools fear to tread, tackling the werewolf and rolling it off the girl. He does his usual spin-kick thing. There are a lot of fast cuts, which could be intended to hide the stuntmen or the werewolf costume. Or both. I mean, it's not a bad costume, and I'm glad they went back to a wolfier face instead of that Lon Chaney-as-King Kong look, but the mask isn't very articulate, which means the mouth is always half-open. I started wondering how it could bite anyone when the poor thing's clearly got bone wedged in its jaw. The werewolf gets knocked down, and as it gets up, Angel stabs it in the neck with Wesley's pen. And then we're looking down at a naked Grizzly Adams. Yikes. Angel looks around as we hear a car start and tires squeal. "Dammit," he says mechanically.
At Wolfram & Hart, Angel shows Gunn the nice sketch he did of the girl. Angel says that he's sure she was bitten, because he smelled her blood. Or smelled her X chromosomes. Something. Gunn expositions that there are still two more nights of full-moon-ness, so they have to find this chick before she hurts someone. Angel is worried about the girl herself, since she won't know what's happening to her. Gunn says she'll figure it out: "McManus did, the guy you --" "Killed," Angel sighs. Gunn's tracked down McManus via police records and credit reports, which would have been Fred's job except that she's doing Wesley's job. I hope they're all keeping their rsums up-to-date. Anyway, McManus left his family a few years ago and has been traveling around the country since then. Gunn adds, "The first year or so, a few mangled bodies showed up here and there, but [for] the last six months, guy was leaving corpses like bread crumbs." Angel guesses McManus tried to fight it for a while and gave up. More awkward looping as he pontificates, "Thought he had to fight it alone -- ended up with nothing worth fighting for." As they step into the elevator, Angel adds that the girl won't have to face it alone: "She's got us."
“ Spike says that the disappearances are getting worse, and lasting for longer periods. Fred asks, 'How long?' Not long enough, obviously. ”
Fred's working in her office. Spicule steps inside through the closed door, because he's a ghost, and immediately gets peeved because Fred isn't making his problem her top priority. He snits, "I'm a bloody phantom. And you and your serious-girl spectacles were gonna help me with my bloody little problem." Fred says that she "bloody will." She mentions having some ideas, and Spicule yaps, "Really? What? What ideas?" He says that the disappearances are getting worse, and lasting for longer periods. Fred asks, "How long?" Not long enough, obviously. Can anyone explain to me why she cares? All she knows is that he's the yappy ghost of a vampire with a soul, and that Angel doesn't like him. He's not offering to do anything for them; he just keeps insisting that they have to help, and gets pissy when he's not the center of their universe. He says, "If you don't do something soon, one of these times, I may not come back." And then their problem is solved. ? Fred suggests asking Wesley for help. Spicule nixes that, claiming that they have a history. Johanna thought that Fred should have said, "You used to date?" Ominous music starts up as Spicule says, "He was a young Watcher, fresh out of the academy, when we crossed paths. It was a, what-you-call, battle of wills. And blood was spilled. Vendettas were sworn. It was a whole..." Fred interrupts, "You're so full of crap." Thank heavens. I was terrified for a minute there. Spicule says that he doesn't want anyone else to know about his "condition." They know he's a ghost; they know he vanishes sometimes. What's the secret? Maybe he doesn't want them to know that he's going to hell, because then they might think, "Well, perhaps you deserve to." Fred heads for the door while explaining that she will try to help him, but right now the were-girl is a bigger priority.
Cut to the lab, where Fred and Wesley are fussing over computers while Angel just fusses. He's whining that, despite Wolfram & Hart's resources, they still haven't found any leads on the girl. Suddenly, Spicule says, "Bloody shame, letting the girl run off like that. Somebody's slipping." Angel ignores Spicule, and I follow his lead. Wesley says, "Psychics are working on traces of the girl's blood. They picked up images -- imprints." He shows Angel a blurry image of a bedroom. Angel asks if they can make it clearer, but Wesley says it isn't like a photograph. So then, what's the point of doing it? In a corner of the room, McManus's body is being examined by John Billingsley as Dr. Royce. Wesley introduces Royce as "the cryptozoologist on [his] staff." Why would he be on Wesley's staff, and not Fred's? What exactly is Wesley's department, anyway? Oh well. Royce says that McManus was a rare breed of werewolf, which is intended to placate people who wonder why these werewolves aren't exactly like Oz, as if "he looked like a monkey" isn't a good enough reason. Royce goes on about the differences among the breeds, and Angel says he just cares about the girl. Spicule says the girl is "in the kill-or-be-killed club." Shut up, Spicule. He doesn't, though: "Catch her after she goes all growly, won't be easy taking her out. I had a wee spat with a werewolf myself once. Fought for over an hour. Brutal, vicious. Almost lost my --" Fred interrupts: "Angel killed him with a pen." Ha.
“ Fred is telling Cary that the fine lines on the tire prints suggest that I need to plunges a needle full of adrenaline into my veins to stay wake. Oh, sorry, that was me. It wasn't enough for them to show us a lot of shiny cars; now we are also spending time watching them talk about cars. Cars! And forensics evidence! Woo! ”
Cut to the girl in her bed. Her name is Nina, by the way. She moans and shifts uncomfortably, and then finally gets up. Close-up on her ear as she hears a girl giggling nearby. She gets up, and holy cow her bedroom is huge, and then she wanders out of the room.
Nina walks into a kitchen. A woman in scrubs is cooking with her young daughter. Nina asks, "How long was I out for?" The woman says "All day. I figured you must be sick." She slyly adds that Zach called, and that he missed seeing her in their art class. Nina is distracted by the overly-loud buzzing of a fly at the window. The daughter asks what happened to Nina's neck, which has a purple bruise on it. Nina pulls her hair back and tries to check out her neck in the reflection of a shiny kettle. Right. "I will look at distorted and unhelpful reflection here, rather than walking ten steps to the bathroom, because then we'll need to build another set." The woman wraps some ice in a towel and hands it to Nina while searchingly asking, "Is there something you wanna tell me?" Nina says, "I must've tripped on my run." See, the problem with treating the supernatural monsters with great seriousness is that then the everyday elements become more inexplicable. Nina knows she went out for a jog, a monster attacked her, and now she's got cuts and bruises and feels funky. I could understand why she wouldn't want to mention the monster, but rather than saying, "A mugger jumped me, I ran, I fell, I hurt myself, and maybe I should see a doctor because I feel funky," she's lying about parts that don't matter. And not lying very well, either: "I don't exactly remember tripping and falling onto my neck, but clearly, I must have." Then Nina's distracted by the hamburgers sizzling on a griddle. The woman asks if Nina can babysit the girl, Amanda, that night. Nina, still distracted, says she can, and goes on watching the burgers. Amanda says, "Aunt Nina," helping to clarify the relationships. Nina looks at her and sees nasty claw marks suddenly materialize across Amanda's throat. She gasps, and the marks are gone as Amanda asks, "Are you okay?" Nina insists that she's fine.
Back at the lab, Fred is telling Cary that the fine lines on the tire prints suggest that I need to plunges a needle full of adrenaline into my veins to stay wake. Oh, sorry, that was me. It wasn't enough for them to show us a lot of shiny cars; now we are also spending time watching them talk about cars. Cars! And forensics evidence! Woo! Spicule says some stuff. You could completely cut his lines out of this scene without making any significant difference to the story, except that it would speed it up. Maybe the writers hate the character at this point. I can't say that I'd blame them. Anyway, then Cary says, "Color me clever. Sister gets slammed around by a werewolf, she's putting pedal to metal. I mean, red light, green light, same diff." Gunn translates that and realizes they should look for traffic-camera footage of a car running lights in the area. Big Brother saves the day! Gunn sits down at a computer saying, "You get set to run with it if I find a match. 'Course, I might leak the info to the senior partners, 'cause we're tight." "Just do it," Wesley grumps. Fred tells Angel that "the van" is ready, and he expositions that they have less than an hour till moonrise. Spicule talks. Angel finally acknowledges Spicule's presence long enough to say, "You know that woosh thing that you do when you're suddenly not there anymore? I love that." Heh. I'd like it if Spike became corporeal just long enough to get bitten, so he could be a ghostly were-vampire with a soul. Gunn finds a car driven by a blonde on the traffic cameras, and hands Angel a printout of Nina's address. I just realized something. Nina apparently left her suburban neighborhood and drove to a park to go for a jog through a park at night. Huh? Maybe the park is to where she takes her art class, so she goes to class, changes into sweats, and then jogs in the evening before driving home. I don't know if that makes a lot more sense.