A bunch of cloaked figures are beating the hell out of guy with a sack over his head. Kids, that isn't how piñatas work. The victim is lying on a symbol we'll be seeing a lot of later, and the only doorway is filled with flames
Outside, Angel appears from around a corner and eyes the flaming doorway like he's thinking, "I can't smash that, it's made of fire. Crap." So he just jumps through it instead, landing in the piñata-room. The beating stops as we see that the cloaked baddies are also wearing masks left over from Eyes Wide Shut. They don't interfere as Angel helps the victim to stand up and pulls the sack off of his head. We don't see his face, but the victim gasps, "Thank you." Angel vamps out and bites the victim.
Credits. Wow, that wasn't even a minute long. This was a hard episode to grade, because it's really all set-up. It's like trying to judge Buffy's "Surprise" before you've seen "Innocence." Plus, the things that really don't work are things that haven't worked all season, so it's too late to fix them now. But I do think the first half could have been less...you know, dull.
Angel lies in bed, staring into space, as a caption appears: "19 hours earlier." Oh, I don't like that. The flashback device seems pointless, honestly. As the camera pulls back, Nina suddenly appears. In bed. With Angel. Eek. She sighs, "Where did you learn how to do that?" and Angel replies, "Which part?" I'm too busy chanting "Please don' t answer that, please don't answer that," to hear if she actually does, and let's just move on to when Nina asks how Angel is, and he says, "I'm good." See, it's a thing. Nina teases him about being perfectly happy, and crawls over him to root through a nightstand drawer. Which explains why she's still wearing a nightgown of some kind, I guess. She's really moving around too much for the usual L-shaped sheet. She reaches inside, claiming she's got a stake in there, and then says, "Oh, that's not a stake. Well, I know we brought it..." Angel reassures Nina that she's safe. Nina teasingly asks if Angel was thinking about "[his] little Roman friend," and Angel assures her that he hasn't had a coherent thought in quite a while. Seriously, eight years has to be a record for that, doesn't it? Angel gets pensive, and says there's "more than usual going on." Nina urges him to take a vacation with her, but Angel stammers that he's got to do things and stuff, and sits up for a speech: "I've spent years fighting to get somewhere, to accomplish...something. And now that I'm close to it, I don't like what I see, what I am." Nina says he's a hero, and Angel moans at the word, so she amends that to "my hero." Apparently Angel was objecting to the word "a," there. Angel strokes her cheek and says, "I may not always be."
Wolfram & Hart. Oh, crap, it's Illyria. It's really amazing how uninteresting she is. I never thought a character could make Riley seem compelling. Actually, they have the same problem: characters who feel pointless tend to seem equally pointless to the audience. Illyria strolls through the halls and is interrupted when Spicule decides to engage in a lot of projection, because she used to be fearsome and now she wanders around this place she doesn't want to be in, with nothing to do but deliver pages of exposition and reflect another character's anxieties. He winds up by urging Illyria to take a break from Wolfram & Hart and go out somewhere. Where's she gonna go, Spicule? The mall? They start pedeconferencing, and Spicule asks why Wesley isn't getting Illyria up to speed on the humanity shtick. Illyria says, "He and I no longer have intercourse," which makes Spicule gibber until she clarifies that Wesley has stopped speaking to her. She adds, "My recent reversion to the Burkle persona disturbed him, and he will not tell me why." Spicule very, very seriously tells her, "You may not be as powerful as you were, highness, but looking like Fred...for some of us, it's the most disturbing power you have." And yet, for others, it's just as dull as everything else about her.
In the lobby, Angel and Gunn meet up with Hamilton and a Kate Mulgrew-ish woman that Hamilton introduces as Senator Brucker. Brucker has an assistant named Ernesto, who Angel quickly identifies as a vampire. Brucker calmly explains that she believes in diversity on her staff. Angel asks Harmony to get them all some coffee, but Ernesto would prefer blood: "Virgin, if you have it." Harmony cheerily explains the no-human-blood policy, and offers Ernesto some "fruity, unassuming vole" instead. Hamilton quickly suggests that they make an exception for the senator, and Angel obligingly asks Harmony to get something from the lab's blood bank. Harmony exits, and Hamilton says goodbye to Brucker and does the same. As the others head into the conference room, Wesley pulls Angel aside and tells him, "There's been another fatality in Funville." Hee hee. Funville turns out to be an abandoned amusement park. Wesley thinks there's a Boretz demon lurking there that has killed three people recently. Spicule and Illyria wander over and join the discussion. Well, Spicule just talks about how Boretz demons suck, and Illyria stares at Wesley. So "joins" might be overstating things. Angel sniffs that people are dying every day, and he can't be bothered with small stuff like this. Wesley looks shocked, and Angel sighs, "I got a United States Senator waiting for me, so just find out everything you can about this Boretz thing and we'll talk later." Angel enters the conference room. Spicule tells Wesley that he'll go to Funville and look for the demon, and Wesley agrees and bustles off. Illyria whines that Wesley is ignoring her, and Spicule asks, "Wanna go find something to hit?"
In the conference room, Angel and his visitors are watching a campaign ad for Senator Brucker's opponent, Mike Conley. The ad ends with "Your home is his work. He's looking out for your children's interests." Brucker and Ernesto explain that Conley has broken Brucker's lock on "the chick vote." Brucker sneers, "I didn't claw my way up from hell and get installed in a human body just to have some pedophile steal my Senate seat." Gunn is shocked to hear that Conley is a pedophile, and Brucker explains that he isn't, yet. She wants Dr. Sparrow to brainwash Conley into thinking he's a pedophile. Or being one. Or, I guess, both. Gunn says, "Holland Manners doesn't live here anymore," and snarls that there's no way they'd do such a thing. Plus, is Dr. Sparrow still alive? And on the payroll? Angel interrupts, "We can do it." Gunn asks Angel what he's doing as Brucker says, "You've just made yourself a very loyal ally in Washington." Gunn jumps up and tells Angel, "We need to talk!" Angel snaps, "I'm with the Senator now, Gunn."
Wesley's in his office, but he's not crazy. Crumbs. He pulls open one of his magic books and looks up information on Boretz demons. As he's reading, the words on the page vanish and are replaced with a message: "You're looking in the wrong place." On the facing page, the same circular symbol we saw in the teaser appears. Gunn sweeps in, saying there's a problem with Angel. Wesley looks back down at the book, and the mysterious message is gone.
Angel and the devilish demon from "You're Welcome" are playing racquetball. No, I swear. Angel's wearing a black Wolfram & Hart t-shirt and workout pants. That's all kinds of wrong. Though he looks better in the t-shirt than he does in the never-tucked-in shirts. He's also wearing a headband and goggles, which is the most disconcerting part. As they play, the devil-guy, whose name is Izzy, says that he ran into Ed. Angel doesn't know who Ed is, so Izzy clarifies, "The Grand Potentate Whatchahoozit of the Fell Brethren." Izzy sighs that all the Brethren talk about is the baby: "The baby's doing this now, the baby's doing that, what a wonderful ritual sacrifice he'll make, yak yak yak." Heh. Izzy reports that Ed thinks highly of Angel, and adds that Angel's doing a good job. Angel is pleased, and significantly asks how long he'll have to wait for an answer. Izzy says it won't be much longer.
Spicule and Illyria go to Funville is going to be the name of my first children's book. Funville turns out to be a very pretty location, especially when they move out into an open space so that we can see the coaster they're climbing about under. Plus it's actually nighttime. Oh, nighttime shoots, how I've missed you. The visuals here almost make up for the audio. Because Spicule and Illyria are, as usual, expositioning at each other. Here's the news: Angel didn't care about the Boretz demon, and maybe he's been corrupted by all the goodies at Wolfram & Hart. Thanks for that reminder, because I almost forgot those vital plot points while I was beating my head against a wall. Eventually Illyria insists that rulers like Angel start to see treachery everywhere, and "cannot suffer intimates." Spicule chuckles, "Guess I don't have to worry about that, 'cause Angel and me have never been intimate. Except that one --" He's interrupted by millions of squeals across the country. Oh, and by Illyria, who says, "Mark me. He will murder one of you."
And then Drogyn, who has apparently been lurking in the darkness all this time, seizes his opening and lurches into view gasping, "Actually, he already has." Instead of shouting, "What? Angel's killed someone? Who? Where?" Spicule pauses for a calm round of introductions, and then the Boretz demon suddenly attacks. Spicule tussles with it briefly, and then Illyria smashes it through some beams and kills it. Spicule and Illyria return to Drogyn, who says that he came to find Spicule: "I can find anyone who has visited the Well, be they in this world or any other." What an odd power. Seems like it wouldn't be useful most of the time, except, of course, right now. Drogyn gasps that he came to warn Spicule, whereupon Spicule, the vampire, finally notices that Drogyn has been wounded and is bleeding all over the place. Spicule asks Drogyn if the Boretz attacked him, because I guess Spicule really wasn't paying attention to Drogyn's dramatic entrance. Instead of asking "Did you hear what I said?" and wondering if he should have just stayed home, Drogyn replies, "It was Angel." Then Spicule says, "That's a coincidence! We were just talking about Angel. Illyria thinks he might be corrupted, but I say no. What do you think?" And then Drogyn says, "Yes, I think he's corrupted! He tried to kill me!" And then Spicule says "That's awful -- who tried to kill you, again?" And then Drogyn dies of frustration.
Commercials. Johanna asks if we're really supposed to believe that Angel is evil, or we're just supposed to wonder what his plan is. I'm not really sure, but I think we're supposed to be fooled, too. But then why include the scenes with Nina, which seem to undercut that idea intentionally? It's confusing.
Wesley marches across the lobby, grabs a marker from Harmony's desk, and sketches the spikey circular symbol on a page in appointment book or something. Doesn't he have paper and pens in his office? Harmony looks at the drawing and says it'd make a nice tattoo. Wesley ignores her and marches off again. Seriously, what's with that? Maybe they don't let him use sharp objects like pens without supervision anymore.
Wesley enters Angel's office and immediately starts to talk about how he found something unusual, but stops when he sees that Hamilton and Angel are chatting. Wesley starts to ask Hamilton to leave, but Angel smarms, "Actually, Wes, we're kind of in the middle of something. Why don't you try me later?" As Wesley turns to leave, Angel asks him to close the door on his way out.
Back in the lobby, Wesley runs into Cary, and they pedeconference. Cary grumbles that Angel dumped six of Cary's clients, and whines that he's spent all day "talking them off ledges and out of pill bottles." As they reach Wesley's office, Gunn joins them and asks what Angel said. Wesley growls that Angel didn't say anything, because he's busy discussing business strategy with Hamilton. Wesley is totally jealous of Hamilton. Cary gets in his obligatory name-drop by comparing Angel to Leona Helmsley. Johanna points out that the "contemporary" references have regressed back to the 1990s again, and wonders if eventually Cary will start making allusions to the Teapot Dome Scandal. The phone interrupts their fretting about Angel, and Wesley answers, listens, and gives everyone a shocked look.
Spicule's apartment. How's he paying for it, again? Oh, maybe all those mysterious comments about Spicule officially joining the MoG meant that he's getting paid now. All righty. And apparently he redecorated, too. Anyway, all of the MoG (except Angel, obviously) have gathered there so that Drogyn can tell them his story. I guess Drogyn got patched up in the meantime, because he seems fine as he explains that a Sathari demon tried to assassinate him last night. Spicule helps Drogyn to make a long story short, and Drogyn says he tortured the demon "for hours" to find out who sent him: "It was Angel." Drogyn says that Angel was afraid he would find something in the Deeper Well: "Something that would uncover the truth about his involvement." Gunn asks what Drogyn means, and Drogyn says that Angel helped Illyria to escape the Well. Wesley says that he thought Illyria's escape was predestined, and I grumble to myself yet again about what "predestined" means. Drogyn's all, "I thought so, too, but maybe not." Swell. Cary asks why Angel would want to set Illyria free, but Drogyn thinks Illyria wasn't the point: "Before he died, the assassin said something about a sacrifice. Someone trusted and dear." Wesley asks Drogyn if he thinks Angel deliberately sacrificed Fred. Any second now, Drogyn is going to demand that they all get their hearing checked. Drogyn insists that he thought Angel was an ally, and so he's sad to report this. Gunn asks if maybe the assassin was lying, and Drogyn huffs, "No one lies when they're at the mercy of my wrath." , Gunn wonders if Drogyn is lying, but Spicule explains that Drogyn can't. Wesley adds, "This is Drogyn, the Battlebrand. Given eternal youth a thousand years ago. Demon-bane, truth-sayer." Off everyone's looks, Wesley explains, "Watcher's Council."
Wesley goes on to show Drogyn the sketch of the mysterious spikey circular symbol, but Drogyn doesn't recognize it. Wesley tells the others how the symbol appeared in his book. Cary still can't believe that Angel would be involved in any of this, but Wesley points out that Angel's been acting strangely. They wonder what caused the sudden change in his behavior, and Illyria explains, "They've only got two episodes to wrap this all up." Oh, sorry, no, she says, "He's preparing to make his move." Wesley proposes a daring plan: they should ask Angel what's up. Hey! That's practically smart. Especially on this show, where characters never talk to each other when they can leap to conclusions instead. They head out, but Wesley says that someone should stay behind and guard Drogyn. Spicule volunteers Illyria, since she doesn't care about all this stuff anyway. As everyone else leaves, Spicule shows Illyria the amenities and suggests that she might enjoy playing Crash Bandicoot. Shut up, Spicule.
Wolfram & Hart. Angel is asking Harmony to fax a contract off when the MoG appear and say they need to talk to him. Once everyone has trooped into the office, Angel asks what's going on. He's got just a little bit of Angelus-style sarcastic delivery throughout this scene, which is nice, because I think we determined last year that a lot of Angelus is really far too much. Spicule says that Drogyn's in town, and that someone tried to kill him. He gets all muttery again as he asks if Angel knows anything about that. Angel says that he doesn't, and strolls over to the window as he oh-so-casually asks where Drogyn is. Gunn says that Drogyn is safe, and Angel turns and says, "Good. Now is there anything else, or can we get back to business?" Wesley asks what kind of business, and Angel lectures, "The business of business. Oil, software, world-wide wickets. The product doesn't matter, it's the game that matters. Get to the top. Be the best. Have the most. Win." Wesley asks what they'll win, and it'd be funny if Angel suddenly turned game-show host here and said, "An exotic cruise!" But he just says that Wesley is missing the point. Gunn says that Angel sounds like Angelus, which isn't true, because he's not blustering nearly enough for that. Angel says that if he were evil, half of them would already be dead. That doesn't seem likely.
Angel snits that the only one who understands how things work is Cary: "You didn't judge. You didn't spend your life obsessed with good and evil. You do that, you get swallowed, lost in the minutiae." "Minutiae" is an impressive word for Angel to use, don't you think? He goes on about how nothing they do matters, and says, "An ant with the best intentions or the most diabolical schemes is just exactly an ant." There's a reaction shot of Spicule looking amazed here. Johanna thought maybe Spicule was trying to figure out where this evil ant was, and what it was up to. Angel says that there's only one thing in "this apocalypse we call a world" that matters, and that is power: "Power tips the scales, power sets the course. And until I have real power, global power, I have nothing. I accomplish nothing." Okay, that reads as megalomaniacal, but the delivery was matter-of-fact, which is good. And the other nice thing is that Angel's telling the truth. He's genuinely explaining what his goals are here. That's fun. Angel admits that maybe Wolfram & Hart have gotten to him, and points out, "From day one, they've been calling the shots, and all we've done is get shot at. I have a chance to change that." Cary asks if he'll actually change anything once he's in control, and Angel repeats that he can't worry about the small stuff. Harmony enters and announces that Angel has a call. Angel says, "We're done here. I have to take this, and the MoG head for the door, looking shell-shocked. At the door, Wesley pauses to ask, "The small stuff that you can't worry about. Would that include Fred?" Angel says he loved Fred, and Wesley replies, "That's not an answer." Angel snaps, "Then I guess you don't get one," and slams the door in Wesley's face. Ha!
Commercials. I wish I could take the episodes and rearrange them so that the episodes with Angel at his creepiest were right before this, and it would make a bit more sense. The character has been all over the place from week to week, and now that his state of mind is supposed to be terribly significant, it's really hard to forget that a week ago he was acting like a doofus in Italy.
In a different conference room than usual, Wesley is muttering that there must be a reason for Angel's behavior. Everyone sure got muttery this season. Oh, maybe being around Illyria makes people mutter. That would explain why it's mostly Wesley and Spicule who've been affected. Wesley tells Cary, "It could be a ploy!" Whoa, Wesley was almost right there for a second! Cary says that he thinks Angel believes everything he said. See! I still like that. Wesley mutters that Angel never cared about power, but Cary says that Angel never had any power to care about before. Then Gunn and Spicule burst into the room, dragging a shackled Lindsey along with them. Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrists? And what's with the shackles, anyway? They must have retrieved him from Angel's apartment. Lindsey raises his manacled arms and smirks, "You boys look like you could use a hug!" And you could use a haircut, Lindsey. Is there a reason he has to look like that?
The Southern California School of Art & Design (or SCAAD, as the sign says, and may I say that is an awesome acronym). Angel is lurking outside and catches Nina on her way from class. They hug, and then Angel hands Nina some plane tickets. She's all excited that Angel's going on vacation with her, but then she realizes that the ticket are for her, her sister, and her niece. Angel says he needs her to get somewhere safe, and Nina insists that she wants to be with him. She asks if he's afraid she'll get hurt, and Angel says, "I'm the thing that'll hurt you." And they argue for a while. I don't know what to make of this scene. It pretty much destroys the idea that Angel's gone all evil. Maybe we were supposed to think that this means even Angel realizes he's been corrupted, but that he can't resist the temptation or whatever. It really doesn't play that way, though, and seems terribly unnecessary. I just don't get this subplot at all. Angel unconvincingly says, "If I get through this intact, I'll come for you. We'll have time." A piano plinks as Nina tells Angel that he's a crappy liar. Angel tells her to go, and Nina sighs, "I'll go. Why on earth would I stay?" And off she goes to hook up with the Immortal. Probably.
Illyria and Drogyn are playing Crash Bandicoot, and having a meta-conversation about the game and life, so that Illyria can talk about how she doesn't know why she keeps on going the way she does when she has no purpose, but she does it anyway. Just as I'm about to fall asleep, Hamilton smashes the door open and enters. It was a nice door-smash, too. Shame Angel wasn't there to enjoy it. Drogyn and Hamilton apparently know each other, and Hamilton says, "So, I hear you're living in a tree now?" Hee hee. Drogyn sniffs that he lives in a cave; the tree is just the entrance. Hamilton grrs that Drogyn won't be going back there, and then tosses him into a wall. Illyria steps up to defend Drogyn, and Hamilton beats her and beats her and beats her, and finally stomps on her. So that bit at the start of the scene was there to explain why Illyria bothers protecting Drogyn when she's not invested in anything that happens to the MoG. Fair enough. But it'd have been funnier if Hamilton had marched in and grabbed Drogyn, and Illyria had kept playing the game and said, "Go on and take him, I don't care." Incidentally, were we supposed to worry that Illyria might be dead? Because, well, speaking of not-caring...I don't.
Lindsey asks the MoG, "You gonna beat it out of me?" Spicule is fine with that, and Lindsey leaps to his feet like he is too, and that is a fight I would enjoy. Although it'd probably wind up with "I hated Angel long before you did!" "But he hates me way more than he hates you!" "He does not!" "You're jealous 'cause Angel hates me more!" "Funny, he never mentioned your name when we were punching each other!" Five years from now, Spicule and Lindsey will do their own version of "The Girl in Question" where they're stalking Angel.
Where was I? Right, Spicule shoves Lindsey back into his seat, and the MoG suggest that they skip the fisticuffs portion of the interrogation. Lindsey insists that he doesn't know why Angel's doing what he's doing: "Me and him? Not too close." Wesley shows Lindsey the mysterious spikey circular symbol of doom, and Lindsey blinks and asks where they got it. Wesley asks what it is, and Lindsey giggles and finally says, "No way they'd take Angel." He finally explains that it's the symbol of the Circle of the Black Thorn, a secret society. Gunn says he hasn't heard of it, and Lindsey sneers, "That's 'cause they're secret," and totally redeems the rather obvious joke with his sneering "I just cannot believe how stupid you are" expression. Apparently, the Circle of the Black Thorn is an elite group of powerful evil folks. Insert Skull & Bones joke here. Lindsey says, "But evil's not the point. Power is." Then Wesley says, "Powerrrr," in this whispery voice, and I can't really explain why it's so funny. I didn't notice it the first time, but after the show was over, Johanna made me go back and listen to that line again, and I couldn't breathe for a minute or two.
Gunn asks what the Circle actually does, and Lindsey giggles and asks, "You guys always this slow?" Oh, Lindsey. Need you ask? He continues, "Starts with 'A,' ends in '-pocalypse.'" Lindsey says that the Circle "makes sure that man's inhumanity to man keeps rolling along." Wesley says he thought the Senior Partners did that, and Lindsey explains that the Circle's members are the Senior Partner's agents on this plane. Wesley says, "That's why you came back to L.A., tried to kill Angel. To get into the Circle." Hey! We finally learned what the hell Lindsey was doing, and it makes sense! You know, mostly. As much as most things on this show do. Yay! Gunn observes, "It looks like Angel succeeded where you failed." It's weird to taunt Lindsey about how they Angel's better at being evil than Lindsey is, because they aren't really that proud of him for it. Are they? Lindsey says Angel couldn't get into the Circle, because he'd have to stop helping the helpless. He adds, "Probably wouldn't even make it on the Circle's radar 'till he killed one of his lieutenants." Lindsey grins around happily at everyone while they exchange shocked looks. Cary sighs that the Senior Partners are "killing Angel by degrees." Wesley mournfully adds, "And we all watched it happen." Dude, they are so dumb. Seriously. I can't believe they still don't realize it's a trick. Gunn moans, "The guy I knew wouldn't want this, wouldn't want to be this." Wesley says that Angel dedicated his life to helping others, and that if he's changed his goals, they have to try to bring him back to the side of goodness and whatever. Wesley insists, "He'd do the same for any of us, regardless of our actions." Er. Well. If you say so. Cary asks, "What if he's skipped too far down that evil brick road?" The MoG stare around at each other. And Lindsey stares around, too, looking sulky. I think Spicule's still trying to figure out where that evil ant figures into this.
Angel walks down a dark stone corridor somewhere. He sees the no-longer-mysterious spikey circular symbol of doom on the wall, and gazes at it for a minute. We hear sounds of a beating going on nearby. Angel turns the corner, sees the flaming doorway from the teaser, and leaps through it.
And so we're back where we started. Angel enters the room and the Black Thornites back away from the guy they're pummeling. Angel pulls the victim up and removes the bag from his head, and this time we see that it's Drogyn. Angel looks mildly surprised. Or maybe he's just shocked to discover that they pulled Drogyn's toupee off as part of the torture, since most of his hair is gone now. Drogyn whispers, "Thank you." This time we see Angel shake his head slowly while looking at Drogyn, before he vamps out and sinks his fangs into Drogyn's neck. Angel finishes drinking, and snaps Drogyn's neck, and looks around, reacting like Drogyn's blood delivers quite a rush.
Commercials. I tell Johanna, "It's so sad that the basis of Angel's whole plan is that his friends are idiots. I wonder how he feels about that." Johanna reads me bits of an Entertainment Weekly interview with Joss Whedon and summarizes it at follows: "He's dumb. And so unprofessional! Every time he complains about someone, my respect for the people he's bitching about goes up, because they just ignore it and I wouldn't be able to."
When we return, Angel has opened his shirt. The Thornites chant, "Ooooh, suits you, Sir!" Not really. One of the Thornites holds his hand over Angel and intones, "The Circle entwined," and the no-longer-mysterious but still spikey circular symbol of doom appears on Angel's chest. The Thornites chant, "We've got power, yes we do, we've got power, how 'bout you?" Or, again, perhaps they don't. A Thornite shakes Angel's hand and welcomes him to the cabal as the lights come on and they all remove their masks. There are probably a dozen or so Thornites, among them Archduke Sebassis, Senator Brucker, Vail, and Izzy. As glasses of champagne are handed around, Izzy cheerfully asks, "How 'bout that lamb we got you to slaughter -- any idea who that was?" Angel identifies Drogyn, and Izzy says, "We got you some supercharged warrior juice, not some schmuck." Izzy starts introducing Angel around. Sebassis says, "I must say, it's gratifying to see you've returned to form, Angelus." Angel menaces, "It's still 'Angel.'" Senator Brucker interrupts their chat. Angel says that he didn't know she was so well-connected, and Brucker smiles, "I'm not gonna take the White House in 2008 on just my sparkling wit and funding from hostile governments." She giggles, and Angel giggles back and says, "I expect not." He's doing a good job of looking at everyone hatefully while he schmoozes. Izzy brings Vail over, and Vail chuckles that Angel has been looking for him. Angel insists, "Actually, I've been lookin' like I'm looking for you. Appearances, you know." Izzy encourages them to shake hands, and Angel admits, "Ultimately, everything worked out for the best," and shakes Vail's hand while looking disgusted. Vail chuckles and adds, "Your son -- he kills quite well!" Angel thanks him and turns away. Izzy tells Angel that there's a great turnout: "Everybody's here." Angel looks around at the Thornites.
Night-to-day-vert. Angel strolls into his office, and I guess it's early, since the lobby is empty. Once Angel is inside, Gunn ducks out from behind the door with a sword, and Spicule pops out from somewhere and punches Angel, knocking him down. Cary and Wesley run in from the conference room armed with a crossbow and, well, guess what Wesley brought? If you said "gun," have a cookie. Boy, I hope that's the tranq gun. Spicule warns Angel to stay down. Of course, Angel gets up, none too limberly, and nobody does anything about it. Gunn says they know all about the Circle of the Black Thorn, and Cary mentions "a little jailbird we know and loathe." Lindsey was in chains because he's been in jail? I thought the MoG did that for some reason. When did that happen? Angel says, "What I do here is my business," and moves closer to Wesley as he adds, "You don't like how I conduct it, you can leave. Before I kill you." Wesley points out that threats aren't doing much for their trust. Wesley doesn't move back, though, so of course Angel grabs the gun and yanks it away. Melee! They fight, and Angel knocks Spicule and Gunn down before Cary fires an arrow into his shoulder. Angel tosses the shotgun down, and Wesley pulls out another gun because he's a slow learner. Angel kicks it away and grabs Cary by the neck, holding Cary in front of him as a shield.
They all pause, and Angel tells Cary to pull the arrow out of his shoulder. Cary does, and Angel says, "Let's finish this," and pulls a big red gem out of his pocket. He says some magic words, and a bright light washes over the room. Angel releases Cary and says, "All right, we have six minutes." He explains that the gem created an illusion, adding "As far as anyone outside this room is concerned, we're still at each other's throats." He says that everything the MoG know is a lie. But given how dopey the MoG usually are, that's probably not unusual. Angel explains that he planted the message in Wesley's book, and sent the assassin after Drogyn. He says, "I knew Drogyn could handle himself. I told the assassin just enough to lead Drogyn to think I played a part in resurrecting Illyria." That was a complicated sentence. Wesley asks why he wanted them all to think Angel killed Fred, and Angel says that the Circle needed to think that the MoG distrusted Angel: "They needed to believe that a person as good and as pure as Drogyn considered me an enemy." Spicule asks when this all started. Angel says, "Two months ago. With a kiss."
Flashback to Cordy kissing Angel. Aw. Poor sad Angel. Angel narrates, "It didn't hit me till later that night." Shot of Angel suddenly jumping awake as he's attacked by a blipvert. Images include the, um, circle, Izzy's mask, Drogyn getting beaten, a few inexplicable shots of Satan's casualties, and the fiery doorway.
Angel's office. Wesley ask whether Cordy gave Angel the visions, and Angel says, "One-shot deal. She put me on the path, showed me where the real powers are." But he still didn't know who they were. He says that when Fred died, he decided that it wasn't going to be "another random, horrible event in another random, horrible world." I don't think he meant to use that second "another" there. He goes on to say that he wanted to make Fred's death matter: "And it worked. I'm in." Now Angel knows exactly who's behind the apocalypse. Gunn brings up Angel's speech about power, and Angel says it's all true: "We're in a machine. That machine is gonna be here long after all our bodies are dust." Angel's talking really, really fast throughout this scene. Which goes with the six-minute time limit, and plus I understand that the script was long, so it's fine, but yikes. Angel says that the Senior Partners will always be around, "because mankind is weak." Cary asks if Angel's going to start talking about ants again. Angel ignores the interruption and continues, "The powerful control everything. Except our will to choose. Lindsey's a pathetic half-wit, but he was right about one thing: heroes don't accept the way the world is. The Senior Partners may be eternal, but we can make their existence painful." He says that if they take out the Circle, they can "bring their gears to a grinding halt, even if it's just for a moment." He grrs, "I'm talking about killing every. Single. Member. Of the Black Thorn. We don't walk away from that." Cary asks if they crawl away, and Angel huffily says that the Senior Partners will "rain their full wrath." Or wrath their full rain. Gunn says that they're used to that, but Angel insists that the Senior Partners will want to destroy them if they do this. He says, "We can't bring down the Senior Partners, but for one bright, shining moment, we can show them that they don't own us." I was actually okay with the speech until there, when Boreanaz got all squinty to convey how serious he is. Angel says they need to decide if this is worth the price they'll pay: "I can't order you to do this. I can't do it without you." He asks them to think about it, and vote. The MoG ponder. Spicule raises his hand and says he's in. Angel probably starts to reconsider his plan right there. Then Wesley smiles as the music starts to swell, and whispers, "I'm in."
The camera pulls back as Gunn raises his hand, and I think Cary starts to do the same, and then we've moved out through the illusion's field and go back to seeing the MoG facing off against Angel, who's holding Cary by the throat. Which is good, because in another second they were gonna start saying "I serve at the pleasure of the President," and that's no good for anyone. The illusion is actually making me sad, though, and I have no idea why. I think part of it's the music, which is the sad "Someone melted my sidekick!" theme. Wesley says, "Angel, you don't want it to go like this!" and Gunn tells Angel that he's not the boss. Cary moans, "Wes, help." Aw. Actually, that might be the part that makes me sad. Spicule shouts, "Angel, we've got three people here, drop it!" They go on shouting as we reverse, and see Hamilton in the lobby watching the illusion. Or is he? Dun dun dun.
While waiting for the promo, I tell Johanna that this would make a little more sense if only Angel hadn't already decided to stay at Wolfram & Hart before Cordelia kissed him. And, well, there are probably twenty other things that make no sense, but that's the one nagging me at the moment. Johanna wonders if it's all a double-bluff, and Angel's real plan is to take out the Black Thorn, get the MoG killed, and then rule the world with nobody to stop him. I tell her that if the show ended like that, it would obviously be the Greatest Finale Ever. She elaborates that Angel's probably sick and tired of the hero biz, especially with Cordelia gone. And then I say "Aww!" so Johanna adds that the final scene could be Lindsey greeting Angel with, "We did it, baby!" and I cheer up again.
week: Rain! Alleys! "His purpose will become clear. His fate will become legend." Blood! Smashing! "The final key to the Angel saga." Gosh.