Origin

Props to 2MuchTV and CoolHandFluke.

We open with Wesley, up in Fred's old office, staring down at the lab, where Illyria is standing. Angel enters the office and eyes Illyria. Wesley explains, "She's either counting oxygen molecules, or analyzing the petri dish she just put into her mouth." What, she can't be doing both? I wait for Angel to suggest that Wesley should keep Illyria in a nice kennel or something during the day. Instead, Angel just says, "You don't have to do this all yourself." Wesley sniffs, "Who else is there? We're running out of people." Ouch. Wesley says that they haven't found a way to rescue Gunn. Hey, I've got an idea: take Lindsey back to the hell dimension. From what we've seen, his special info wasn't really worth more than a day's vacation. Angel insists that they'll get Gunn back, but repeats that Wesley can't deal with Illyria by himself. He adds that they need to determine what her powers are. Wesley ominously notes that "testing her might be hard without getting someone seriously hurt." Angel suggests that they put Spicule on the case. Wesley nods, "Good." Heh. Illyria goes on staring around. Wesley leans toward the window creepily and says, "She needs someone to guide her. She needs..." Angel interrupts, "When was the last time you slept?" Wesley's bleary gaze pretty much answers that question. Angel snaps, "I need you here, working. Not off drinking yourself into a coma, chasing ghosts. Fred's dead, Wes. You're still alive. Start acting like it." Exit Angel. Jeez, he was kind of a jerk there. But I suppose that the sensitive approach doesn't really get Wesley's attention.

Cut to Wesley, at his desk, interviewing new clients. A middle-aged couple, who will eventually be introduced as the Reillys, are explaining that their son was hit by a van in front of their home. Wesley says that the cops don't think it was an accident, and asks if they've traced the van, but then the couple explains that their son is fine: "Barely has a scratch on him!" Oh, I know this one! Because Lex saw the whole thing, and freaked out about it, right? The police said the kid was just lucky, but one cop called them later, said that the kid might be "different," and suggested contacting Wolfram & Hart. Before they've even finished their story, Wesley picks up the phone and asks Harmony to send Angel over. You know, for a second I wondered where Illyria is while Wesley is working, and now I can't quite escape the unpleasant idea that she might be under the desk. Mrs. Reilly explains that the kid is downstairs; they said they were arranging a trust for him. Trust. Get it? She asks if Wesley will help, and he reassuringly says, "Of course."

Angel is grouching his way through the lobby. The elevator dings, and we hear Connor, off-screen, call, "Hey Dad!" Angel freezes for a moment, and then turns to see Connor by the elevator, all clean-cut and preppy. Creepy! Angel stares, and inhales quickly like maybe the sight of his son makes him sneeze.

Credits. Johanna screams, "Aaaa, creepy kid!" I figure she means Connor, but it turns out that there was an ad for Godsend. After she's recovered from that, Johanna says that Wesley and Angel are both being jerks. I agree, and say that I expected Angel to be more sympathetic. Especially considering how often he's had to mourn his own girlfriends. Or maybe the problem is that he's used to it. Some of them died several times, after all; it probably gets to seem routine.

When we return, Angel stifles his urge to sneeze and instead gasps, "What are you..." He looks sort of stuck in between terrified and delighted. Hee. And aw. Connor repeats, "Dad?" and of course he's talking to his dad, Mr. Reilly, who is waving him over from across the lobby. Connor tells his folks, "You know they have dried scorpions in the vending machines downstairs?" Heh. Wesley calls Angel, and introduces him to the Reillys, explaining that they want to discuss something about their son. Angel interrupts: "No." Wesley blinks as Angel says that there's been a mistake: "We can't help you." Angel walks away quickly while the Reillys look uncomfortable.

Angel's office. Wesley tells Angel about the hit-and-run while Angel stares through the windows at the Reillys, out in the lobby. Angel insists that they don't have time for "small stuff like this." Wesley argues, "This is what we do. Or what we're supposed to do," and adds that the Reillys seem like good people. Angel sits at his desk and grumbles, "All the more reason to get them out of here. We know what this place does to good people."

A fresh heart lands on the pile in suburb-hell. Gunn lies on the table as the big demon marches away and wipes the blood off his knife. Zoom in on Gunn's bloody chest, which is ripped open and ew ew ew! Then CGI magically slurps the wound closed, the blood vanishes, and there's a brief shining moment of semi-shirtless Gunn before he suddenly sits up with a scream. Gunn gets off the table and looks around, muttering, "I was lookin' for something...." The demon hold out a small lightbulb. Heh. Gunn takes the bulb and calls, "It's okay, found it!" as he heads upstairs.

Cut to Spicule, getting knocked across the floor by Illyria. Illyria smirks, "You break so easily. Why do you bother getting back up?" Spicule says that they're going to set some ground rules. He does some kind disco-move hand gesture as he grrs, "No more punching me in the face!" The rule is, don't talk about how great Fight Club is. Because it wasn't. Wait, that's my rule, sorry. Spicule's other rules are that Illyria should describe what it feels like when Spicule punches her, and that she shouldn't touch his clipboard. Illyria interrupts, "I enjoy hurting you." She's growing on me. Spicule says, "We're gonna have to fix that, 'cause --" and that's when Illyria kicks him in the head. Wow, I wouldn't have thought that her outfit allowed for a very wide range of motion. And then Spicule hits Illyria, and then Illyria knocks Spicule across the room, and she'd better be careful that Spicule doesn't get a crush on her. Wesley enters and asks how it's going, and Spicule insists, "Don't worry, I'll break her." Wesley says that Illyria's not a horse, and points out that Spicule could use the equipment to test Illyria instead of using his face. Spicule says, "We're working on the basics. But don't worry, I'm writing it all down." Yeah, scientific research goes pow. Illyria says that Wesley reeks of frustration, and Spicule corrects her: "We call that scotch." Wesley explains that he had a disagreement with Angel. Spicule calls Angel "old broody-pants," and says, "Keep in mind, he can't get laid without maybe going crazy. Makes it funny." Illyria says that in her time, insolence was punished with death, and Wesley starts to explain that they aren't being insolent. Spicule pipes up, "I am." Illyria starts to question Wesley about his loyalty to Angel, and Wesley says, "He's earned it." As Wesley adds, "I trust he knows what he's doing" we cut to....

...Angel pacing in his office. Hamilton enters, and Angel shouts, "What the hell is going on?" Angel, we've been asking that for months now. Angel rants that he doesn't want Connor anywhere near Wolfram & Hart. Hamilton pleasantly suggests that Angel should have gotten a little more information from Connor before shoving him out the door, so that they'd have more information. Angel thinks the Senior Partners are behind the reunion, and finally Hamilton says, "Let's be clear about this. Things run differently now. I'm not a little girl, and you and I won't be making love on that couch anytime soon." I demand that we get to see the outtakes of that line. You know Boreanaz couldn't keep a straight face through that, even if Baldwin could. Having made his feelings clear regarding the couch, Hamilton asks how he can help. Angel says that he'd like Hamilton to provide some exposition about the mindwipe and Angel's deal to give Connor a new lifer, and Hamilton happily obliges. Hamilton adds that the deal has worked out very well for Wolfram & Hart, and that they wouldn't want to screw it up now. He concludes, "Somebody out there's trying to send you a message."

Cut to the Reilly family in their SUV. The folks are wondering where else they can look for help with their trust. From the back seat, Connor ahems that he knows this is all about "the van thing," not their finances. Mrs. Reilly starts to apologize, and Connor cheerily says, "It's cool. I mean, my parents are liars and I can never trust them again, but it's cool." He reassures them that he's okay and that they shouldn't worry. As they pull into a motel parking lot, Connor concludes that it's weird, but nothing to be scared about. And, of course, that's when a demon rips the door off the SUV and yanks Connor out. More demons appear. They look kind of like red Hare Krishnas dressed up for a Renaissance festival. The demons pull Mrs. Reilly out of the car as well, and Mr. Reilly tries to rescue her. Seeing his mom in danger, Connor suddenly wallops one demon, knocking him across the parking lot. Connor looks at his hands, baffled, and I really wanted him to say, "Nice!" here, but he doesn't. The demon hops straight back and knocks Connor down. And then Angel leaps into battle from behind a car. There's fighting, and neck-snapping, and this shot that I think must have been reversed, where Angel picks up a demon, because it looks really gravity-defying and cool. I liked that fight a lot. Having dispatched the demons, Angel turns to Connor, who boggles, "You almost broke that guy in half! That was awesome!" Well, that was okay, but it was the flippy pick-up thing that was really impressive.

Commercials. I tell Johanna that if she wants to have revenge for all the mean things I say about Xander, she could say mean things about Connor. She replies, "But I don't want to say mean things about Connor. I want to adopt him."

When we return, Connor is still being a big Angel fanboy, and Angel is eating it up. Angel tries and fails to sound modest as he says, "I do stuff like that a lot. There was this one time in France --" Heh. They're interrupted as the Reillys call for Connor, and he rushes over to make sure that they're okay. Mr. Reilly has a nasty cut on his temple. Angel suggests that they take him to one of Wolfram & Hart's doctors, adding that he and Connor should chat.

Traffic-vert. Angel leads Connor out of the medical facility, and assures him that Mr. Reilly is "in good hands. Or claws, as the case may be." Dr. Zoidberg works there? Well, it's good that he found work. Connor asks what the Hare Krishnas were, and Angel says that they were demons. Connor stops suddenly and asks if he is a demon, too. Angel says no, Connor's a normal kid with "enhanced abilities." Connor asks, "And you're a vampire?" I guess that bit of exposition happened off-camera, which I'm okay with. Angel nods really smugly. Hee! Connor processes that, and summarizes the situation by saying, "I'm some kind of...superhero. Okay!" They pedeconference as Connor wonders how he'll explain things to his folks, and asks whether Angel has any family. Angel looks at Connor and quietly says, "No." Aw. Connor realizes that was a silly question, and asks, "What are you, like five hundred years old?" Angel stammers and asks if he looks five hundred years old. Connor's question is, "Do you spend all your time making out with other vampires, like in Anne Rice novels?" Angel just says no, which could mean that he only spends some of his time doing that. I'm just saying. And then Angel adds, "I used to, but...." Connor asks whether Angel has a girlfriend, and when Angel says no, Connor figures he must be lonely. Angel says, "I keep busy." As they turn down another corridor, Connor continues his interrogation, asking if Angel and his co-workers "fight crime and save the world." Angel grimly says that's the idea. Connor asks if everyone at the firm is a superhero. Angel answers, "It's mostly paralegals and secretaries; pretty boring, really." Naturally, that's when Spicule is knocked through a set of nearby doors and out into the hall. Spicule screams, "You filthy harlot!" and rushes back into the room. After a beat, Angel asks if Connor would like to meet some of the staff, and leads him into the lab.

Illyria is standing with her foot planted on Spicule's head when Angel and Connor enter. Angel introduces Illyria as "some sort of ancient demon." Connor asks if Illyria has special powers, and Spicule says, "So far I've established that she can hit like a Mack truck, selectively alter the flow of time, and, uh, possibly talk to plants." Illyria tells Angel, "I'd like to keep [Spicule] as my pet." Take him. Angel introduces Connor, and Connor compliments Illyria on her outfit. Illyria reports, "This one is lusting after me." Connor stammers and quietly tells Angel that he has a thing for older women. Angel mutters, "They were supposed to fix that." Then Cary enters, and Connor boggles at him, saying, "This place is way better than college." Cary tells Angel that Wesley has information for him. As they troop out of the lab, Angel asks where Connor goes to school. Connor says he goes to Stanford. Hey! My brother went there. I wonder if Connor's in the marching band.

In the conference room, Wesley says that the demons work for a warlock named Cyvus Vail. Cary says that Vail is powerful, and has "tendrils stretching throughout L.A." Angel asks, "Tendril tendrils?" Cary clarifies, "Metaphor tendrils." Angel says he'll go have a chat with Vail. Connor offers to go along, but Angel vetoes that. Wesley protests that it could be a trap, and urges Angel to take some backup. Angel snaps, "I said I'd take care of it, Wes. Drop it!" Exit Angel as Wesley bursts into tears.

Well, actually Wesley just marches into his office, slams the door closed, and sits down to ponder. It kind of looks like he was late getting to the scene and they just started shooting without him, because he was all urgent at first, and then he just sat down and looked pensive. After a moment, though, he picks up his phone and asks for all available information on Vail. Er, shouldn't he have done that when he found out Vail was connected to the demons?

Vail is a red demon of the non-Hare-Krishna variety. He's sitting in a big empty ballroom, and he's hooked up to a...thing. Well, there are a bunch of fluids with drips hanging from some kind of jazzed-up IV trolley. And the fluids are slightly different tints, and honestly? It looks like they're different kinds of maple syrup, like you get at IHOP. Mmm. The drips all wind up in a tube that's plugged into Vail's neck. Vail is savoring the sweet syrup when a Krishna-demon is suddenly knocked into the room. Angel enters, and Vail asks if Angel killed all the guards. Angel says, "All the ones I could find." Vail ruefully says, "I should have given them the day off." As Angel advances, Vail says, "I wasn't trying to kill your son, you know. I simply needed him to understand what he is capable of." Angel asks how Vail knows about Connor, and Vail rasps, "I built him." Vail's voice is like Yoda's, but deeper. And he doesn't do the backwards-talking thing, thank goodness.

Harmony brings Wesley a pile of files about Vail. She says, "And this was down wandering around Human Resources," and turns to reveal Illyria in the doorway. Harmony exits, and Illyria stares around as Cary discovers that Vail is listed under Wolfram & Hart's "accounts paid." Cary looks over the papers and says that Vail specializes in "memory restructuring, mind-control, temporal shifts...." He pauses and says, "You could buy Bolivia for what we paid him on this one." Wesley looks over the records and observes that Vail was supervising a team of powerful sorcerers on "some kind of reality shift." He reads further and rather numbly adds, "It happened on the day we took over Wolfram & Hart."

Vail asks Angel to help him get up, and Angel does so. And then Angel yanks the syrup-drip out of Vail's throat and maybe starts choking him, although it's not entirely clear. Vail gasps out a story about how, when Connor was five, he got lost in a department store. Angel grunts that it didn't happen, and Vail agrees, adding, "But he remembers it happening." Angel releases Vail, who falls back in his chair and plugs his syrup-drip back in. Vail adds, "He remembers screaming in the middle of the store. He remembers his mother rushing towards him, and he remembers his father sweeping him up into his arms." Angel finally figures out that Vail created Connor's memories, and asks what he wants. Vail gets to the point, finally: "I need someone dead. A demon. Named Sahjhan." Uh, can you hang on a second?

Yay! I've been waiting two years for Sahjhan to reappear! Well, I haven't been, because I didn't think he ever would, so it's more like I've been whining about that occasionally for two years. But the point is: yay! Just had to get that out.

Vail decides against asking for help again, and climbs out of his chair by himself. He notes that Angel's tangled with Sahjhan before. Angel says, "I trapped him in a bottle." Way to steal the credit from Justine, dude. Granted, it's not important enough to exposition about. Vail opens a cabinet and reveals a completely different jar from the original one, but again, not really that important. Angel says that Sahjhan is trapped, so why not leave him in there? Vail says, "Urns tend to break. Long-lost enemies tend to return. I need finality to my affairs." Then Vail gestures, and a little glowy box materializes in his hand. Vail explains that the box is an Orlon Window: "It allows warlocks such as myself to see the past as it once was. You have to be careful with it, though. If it were to break around someone whose mind had been altered, then all his old memories would come rushing back." Angel starts to move toward Vail, but Vail warns him off. "I gave Connor his happy life. Are you certain you can kill me before I can take it away from him?" As he says this, the box vanishes, and Vail moves back toward his chair. Angel finally agrees to kill Sahjhan. Vail brushes that aside and says that, according to prophecy, the only person who can kill Sahjhan is Connor. Vail sums it up: "I turned your son into a healthy boy. And now I need you to turn him back into a killer." Dun dun dunnn!

Commercials. Must be all that stuff about syrup, but suddenly I have a terrible craving for waffles.

Angel's office. Connor asks why he has to be the one to kill Sahjhan. Angel says, "Because you're special," which is his default response when he doesn't know what the real answer is. It's probably just as well Angel didn't raise Connor; the kid would have been woefully ignorant. "Why is the sky blue?" "Uh...because you're special!" Wesley huffily asks why they're doing what Vail wants, and Angel vaguely says, "Vail's made some convincing threats." Wesley isn't satisfied by that, but Connor assumes that Vail is threatening his family. Wesley says that they can't trust Vail, adding, "Angel, he did a massive spell the day we took over Wolfram & Hart!" Angel looks uncomfortable and doesn't respond. Maybe Angel should have gotten Connor to teach him how to be a better liar. I mean, if he'd jumped up all surprised here and said, "Really? Wow, we should investigate that!," it might have thrown Wesley off completely. Of course, then Connor would have gotten killed later. So I guess it's all for the best that Angel's pretty dumb. Connor interrupts to ask if Sahjhan is strong, and Wesley says that Sahjhan nearly killed Angel the last time they met. Angel concedes the point, but reassures Connor: "This is different! Like I said, you're special." Then he makes a note to himself that maybe he shouldn't have asked Wesley to sit in on this chat. Connor looks startled at Angel's insistence, and says, "We don't have a choice, do we?" Wesley says that they do, if they figure out what Vail did. Angel says that there's no time. Connor confirms that if he kills Sahjhan, Vail won't bother Connor's family anymore. Angel nods, and then Connor gets up and asks, "What are we waiting for?" Angel and Connor head out while Wesley stares after them, looking like a mother who just lost an argument about what kind of fast food to pick up for dinner.

Suburb-hell. The burly demon pulls a poker out of the fire and stomps over toward Gunn. Gunn is coughing and begging the demon to stop, wah. Poor Gunn. The demon is about to skewer Gunn when Hamilton appears on the stairwell, and apologizes for interrupting. Hamilton tells the demon, "I'll just need a minute," and the demon moves away. Hamilton leans over and yanks away Gunn's necklace. Gunn sits up and pants while Hamilton admires the decor. Hamilton asks whether Gunn's been in the gibbet yet and, when Gunn shakes his head, cheerfully says, "Well, he'll get around to it." Hamilton introduces himself as the new liaison and says that he has a proposition for Gunn. Hamilton says, "It occurs to us that you might want to get out of here" and reports that Angel isn't doing much "on the rescue-Gunn front." After a moment, Hamilton says, "All we need you to do --" Gunn interrupts, "Can I have my necklace back?" Hamilton returns the necklace, and Gunn reties it around his neck while saying, "Come on, Sparky, let's go. This heart ain't gonna cut itself out." Aw, Gunn. Hamilton says, "Thank you for your time," and turns to leave while Gunn lies back down on the table. We follow Hamilton climbing the stairs while, behind him, Gunn screams. Oh, I don't like Gunn screaming.

Angel and Connor are in the lab for a quick battle tutorial. Angel reassures Connor that he won't be alone, adding, "Prophecy doesn't say you can't have a little help." Connor doesn't think that would be fair, and Angel smugs, "Fair's not something we worry about." Connor doesn't like that: "I'm not a bully. If I'm gonna do this, you gotta let me do it my way." Angel accepts that, but offers to show him a few tricks. Connor agrees: "I'm all noble and stuff, but I'm not an idiot." Connor eyes the weapons lining the walls and takes one, but drops it, knocking several more off the rack. Yikes, Vail turned him into Wesley! That's so mean. Angel suggests that they skip the weapons, tells Connor to use his speed in a fight, and notes that Sahjhan talks a lot. Heh. He tells Connor not to let Sahjhan distract him. Connor asks whether Angel thinks he can do this. "I know you can," Angel says.

Wesley hurries into a file room, with Illyria trailing him so that he has someone to exposition at. I guess the Files and Records clerk is off for the night already. As Wesley digs through the files, he tells Illyria that reality's been changed. Illyria philosophizes that she doesn't see the big deal. When Wesley insists, "We're more than just memories," Illyria says that Fred changed when her memory did. Wesley pauses at that, and asks if Illyria can see what Fred's original memories were. Illyria blinks thoughtfully, and then reports that the original memories are gone. As Wesley pulls out a file and flips through it, Illyria asks if Fred is still who Wesley thought she was, if her memories were changed. Wesley scans the papers and gasps, "No. None of us are." He drops the file and rushes out, and Illyria follows. We zoom in on the contract he was looking at, signed by Angel. His handwriting isn't at all what I expected.

Wesley accusingly repeats, "You changed the world." Angel says, "He's my son, Wesley. Connor's my son." Wesley looks appropriately nonplussed by that. And then he decides that an explanation might get in the way of his feeling righteous, so he asks if Angel traded Fred for Connor. Angel, predictably, says, "What?" Wesley wonders if everything that's happened at Wolfram & Hart, including Fred's death, was part of the deal Angel made. Angel says that it wasn't, and asks Wesley to put down the glowy box. Wesley asks why Angel's afraid of the glowy box. Well, who wouldn't be? It's a box, but it's all glowy! Brrr, scary! Wesley says, "[Vail] said it would bring back the past -- will it undo what you've done?" Angel quietly says that it won't bring Fred back. Wesley wants to find out, and gets ready to hurl the box to the floor. Angel jumps forward and begs, "Please! You have to trust me." You know how sometimes I'm surprised at how affecting I can find Boreanaz? This week wasn't one of those times. He's not awful, but eh. He doesn't seem desperate enough to me. On the positive side, as I said in the forums, what I like here is all the reversals. Angel kept a secret and decided he knew best. Wesley is willing to change everyone's past to save someone he loves. Angel can't really explain, and Wesley won't listen to any explanation because he feels betrayed. And there's the bonus that Wesley really isn't going to be happy when he gets those memories back. Props to Goddard for getting all the nasty little levels in like that. Anyway, Wesley replies, "I can't. Not anymore," and throws the box to the ground. It explodes in a burst of FX that sends everyone flying.

Commercials. I laugh while dialing, I laugh while the phone rings, and when Johanna answers the phone I finally stop laughing long enough to say, "Once again, with the best of intentions, Wesley is a complete dick! Hee hee hee!" You know, I used to think that this show was all about how Angel's so doomed that anyone who gets involved in his life winds up miserable as well. I'm starting to think that actually it's the story of how Angel would get along just fine if he went back to avoiding people.

We return to a mega-ultra-blipvert. It starts with Angel holding baby Connor, Angel handing Connor to Wesley, "The father will kill the son" on the notepad, and we gradually speed up through a montage of throat-slitting, portal-hopping, pillow-smothering, Angel-sinking, yuckiness, and...well, Season 4. It's a cool montage and all, but I'm not going to spend an hour identifying every scene. Okay, I might have made Johanna listen to me while I looked at it and identified them, but I didn't have to do all the links then. It winds up with a lingering shot of Connor from "Home," with Angel standing in the background. Sniff. And then there's a giant eyeball, yikes! Sauron? Oh, it's Wesley. Wesley looks appropriately horrified. I wait for him to say, "Whoops." Or for Angel to say, "Happy now?" Sadly, neither of those things happens. Angel does look at Wesley rather sympathetically for a moment before gasping, "Connor!" and jumping up to check on his son.