Written by: Tim Minear
Directed by: James A. Contner

Cast: David Boreanaz as Angel, Charisma Carpenter, as Cordelia Chase, Glenn Quinn as Doyle.

Guest stars: Elisabeth Rohm, as Detective Kate Lockley, John Capodice, as Little Tony Papazian, John Mahon, as Trevor Lockley, Ron Marasco, as Allen Lloyd.

Original broadcast date: November 9, 1999

It’s a dark night in downtown LA and a guy, who’s dressed in a black leather jacket and carrying a duffel bag, is being chased by someone. He makes it to a parked car, but he gets kicked in the back from behind when he tries to open the driver's side door. He falls to the ground and looks up to find Kate standing over him. "Gosh, Spivey, sorry. - I guess I just have trouble expressing myself verbally,” she says, and kicks him again when he tries to stand up. She says he was supposed to come by the station and answer some questions for her, but apparently he forgot. She grabs him again and tells him they’ll just skip the informal invitation now and do the more formal thing. She cuffs him and begins reading him his rights.

Down at the station, she has him looking through some pictures. She asks him to tell her what’s in the pictures and he says it’s him and Tony Papazian. He claims he doesn’t know where he is and asks her how long they were going to keep doing this. She asks him if he’s seen him since the day County Supervisor Caffrey was found murdered, but he just looks away and says he heard it was a suicide. Kate says Caffrey was shot in the back off the head and then wrapped in plastic and locked in the back of his car. She asks him where Little Tony is again and he says he has no idea, but he’s beginning to lose his patience with her. She says she isn’t – she’s just getting started. She tells him to look at the pictures again, but he refuses so she grabs him by the throat and slams him into the wall. “Where is he,” she says as some guys from the other room come charging into the room. They pull her off him and she walks out of the room to talk to Detective Harlan. She apologizes to him for what she did and says she doesn’t think Spivey will ever talk. He feels that Little Tony is as good as gone then and says if they can’t find him, he doesn’t know anyone who can.

Meanwhile, Angel is busy defending himself against some snake-like creatures and Doyle and Cordy come running in with a sword. Angel slices off one of the tentacles and then slices it’s stomach. He hands the sword to Doyle and tells him to cut up all the limbs and both heads this time then bury the parts separately. He says he’s going to clean out the rest of the nest and he’ll see them back at the office. Cordelia complains to Doyle that Angel should’ve said thank you and Doyle assures her he appreciates them – in his own unappreciative way. Cordy pulls a knife out of her bag and continues talking as one of the tentacles wraps itself around Doyle’s neck. She doesn’t even notice what’s happening to Doyle as she slices into the creature and continues to ramble about how Angel ignores the people closest to him. “Can you say clueless,” she asks as the creature continues its hold on Doyle.

In the office the next day, Doyle and Cordy come in looking tired from their adventure the night before. Angel comes in and starts to tell Cordy about something she needs to do, but she interrupts and says she isn’t doing anything until he asks how it went. Angel says she needs to call her mother and that he assumes it went okay because they are both there. Doyle tells Angel Cordy thinks he’s being insensitive, “but consider the source,” he says. Then Kate comes and says she needs to talk to Angel.

They head into his office and Kate show’s him the pictures of Little Tony and fills him in on the story. She says all of her sources are dry and they need to find him before he skips town. Angel asks if she wants him to look into it and she says she’ll pay him for whatever he can get. He says she doesn’t need to, but Kate says this is a job and that’s how they do things. She gives him her direct number and tells Angel to find him, but not to do anything more. Angel assumes she doesn’t want to get a reputation for going outside the department for help, but Kate says she doesn’t want to get a reputation for getting him killed.

A little later, Doyle, Cordelia and Angel are doing research on Little Tony. Cordy doesn’t think they’ve uncovered anything that the police don’t already know, but Angel says it’s important that they know it anyway. Upon Doyle’s encouragement, Angel thanks Cordy for going over the coroner’s reports, citing that he knows it couldn’t have been fun stuff to read. Cordy says that was a lame attempt and Angel gives up. Then Cordy finds something about victims and victim parts washing up all over the southern California coast. Angel tells Doyle to pull up the tidal flow charts for the last few months and match them with the dates of the murders. Doyle asks Angel if he thinks this guy has a primary dumping ground and if he thinks the victims originate from the same spot. Angel acknowledges that he does and says it’s somewhere Little Tony feels safe.

At the police station, a white haired guy in uniform comes walking into the room. “Dad,” Kate says and asks when he was planning on saying hi. He says he’s just going to be there long enough to turn in some pension forms. Their talking about his retirement party when another officer comes in and tells Kate she has a call. It’s Angel and he tells her to come to the Max Salvage Depot, which is near Pier 39. She says she’s on her way and tells him to get out of there. Angel hangs up the phone and picks up the binoculars when he hears a noise. He gets frustrated when he realizes a yacht is coming to pick up Little Tony.

Meanwhile, Tony is giving instructions on what should be done while he’s away to some of the goons standing around him. Then Angel, dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and white hat, walks up next to one of them and says this is all very exciting – he just loves boat trips. Tony asks the other guy, Benny, who Angel is and Angel introduces himself as Herb Saunders from Baltimore. He says he’s been driving around all day trying to find the place, but the brochure said the boats leave every two hours so he should be okay. Benny says he must still be lost because the boat that’s coming in isn’t the one he’s looking for. Angel says he thought he had the right place, but Benny gets tired of his talking and tells him to go away. Tony says he doesn’t like this guy, referring to Angel, and Angel asks if it’s the hat as he punches Benny. The goons then attack Angel, but he takes care of all of them. Tony begins to run, but police cars start arriving and he has to stop. “Hi Tony,” Kate says, as she steps out of her car and aims a gun at him. Once Tony is in the back of the car, Kate reprimands Angel for getting involved. She says he put both their tails on the line and she’ll have to figure out something to tell her boss. Tony and Angel stare at each other as the car drives away.

At the station, Little Tony demands to have his one phone call and he uses it to call his attorney at Wolfram & Hart. Lee Mercer, his attorney, tells him they are already aware of the situation and he can say with some confidence that the thorn in his side, Kate, is about to be removed. Looking over the fax with a picture and information about Kate on it, he says, “permanently.” Mercer then heads down to the precinct where he talks with Little Tony, Kate and her lieutenant. He gives them a court request to transfer Tony out of their precinct – for his own protection, of course. Kate mouths off and Mercer says he wants her comments stricken from the record because Mr. Papazian is under a lot of stress, thanks to her and her un-named assailant. Then he says he wants her verbal abuse entered into the record and if they keep pushing it, he’ll take this case to the court of public opinion. Little Tony smugly says everybody should have a lawyer like this one.

At AI, Cordy asks Angel how it feels to have the case over and done with, but Angel tells her he isn’t sure it is. Cordelia clears her throat and tries to draw his attention to her new shoes. He starts to say something, but Doyle comes in and notices her shoes right away. Then he tells Angel he was right – Little Tony is planning something.

At the Blue Bar, several off-duty officers are greeting Kate as she walks up to the bar. The bartender sets a beer in front of her and Kate reaches to get some money, but he tells her not to worry about it – her dad paid for the drink. She goes over and sits down at the table with him and they talk about Little Tony for a bit. Then Harlan walks over to the table and drops a piece of paper in front of Kate. Kate reads through it and then says, “sensitivity training?” Harlan says it’s because of what she did to Little Tony. Kate’s dad says he’s glad he’s getting out because in his day, they didn’t need to be sensitive.

In the training session, the teacher, Allen, asks everyone in the group who’s glad to be there to raise their hand. No hands go up and he says he won’t waste their time. He says what he is going to do is help them experience a whole range of human emotions because in the end, it will make them be better cops. He holds up a stick and says it’s called a talking stick. He tells them it’s their contract with each other and that whoever holds it has the right to express themselves completely without judgment within the confines of the room. The pass the stick around and it eventually makes its way to Kate. She doesn’t want to touch it and Allen asks her if she’s afraid. She finally takes it and Allen tells her that her inappropriate sarcasm masks anger, which he says is just fear. Fear of being hurt or of loss and he knows she’s been hurt before. He wonders if she’s afraid of being hurt again.

In the meantime, Angel and Doyle have found out that Little Tony is going after Kate, so Angel heads down to the station to let her know. When he walks in, Kate apologizes for the other night and then invites him to her father’s retirement party the next night. Angel agrees to go and then he tells her he believes Little Tony is taking a contract out on her. He assures her that he’s going to stay on it and Kate says he must be in some kind of pain to strike out at others in that way. Angel asks her if she’s okay and she says yes. She believes she’ll be back to her normal level of cynicism in no time, but Angel isn’t so sure.

In a dark mansion, Allen & Mercer are meeting. Allen says he’s sensing some tension from Mercer and asks him to tell him how he feels. “Concerned,” Mercer says, but Allen assures him that everything is working fine and after tomorrow’s session, he should see results. “Incredible results,” he says as he walks over and looks at an altar covered with red cloth and burning candles.

The next night, Angel and Kate attend the retirement party as planned and Kate delivers a speech for her father. Unfortunately for the crowd at large, Kate’s speech turns emotional and she tells them about how her father forgot how to be anything but an officer after her mother died. What was supposed to be a congratulatory speech soon turns the party into a group meltdown as the officers take out their anger and fears on each other. Angel decides he needs to get Kate out of there and he takes her back to his office. Doyle and Cordelia come in and agree to watch her while Angel goes to find the trainer. He goes to the mansion where Allen & Mercer met and sees the offerings on the altar. Allen asks him what’s going on and Angel says that’s a very good question.

Back at the office, an incredibly emotional Kate sits in a chair and rocks herself back and forth. She says she needs to go find him and they tell her Angel will be right back. She says she needs to find her father and they try to convince her to stay. Then Kate pulls out her gun and tells them she’ll blow them away if they try and stop her from finding her daddy. Cordelia and Doyle let her go.

At the mansion, Angel is trying to find out which demon gives Allen power. Allen says a whole bunch of them do – he’s a polytheist. Angel wants to know what he did to Kate, but Allen starts giving him his anger is fear speech and then asks him what his parents were like. Angel grabs the talking stick, pushes Allen against the wall and says his parents were great – they tasted a lot like chicken. Then he says it’s Allen’s turn to talk.

Down at the precinct, the cops are overcome with emotion and one of them decides to set the prisoners free – all of them, including Little Tony. They beat the officer down to the ground and Kate comes running into the station looking for her dad.

In the meantime, Angel, Cordelia and Doyle have arrived at the station. Angel, who doesn’t seem quite like himself, asks them why they are there and they tell him they followed Kate here. Cordelia and Doyle start freaking out because the whole place has gone nuts and Angel says he thinks they need a hug. He pulls them into a hug and then they manage to push him off.

Cordy and Doyle figure he must’ve whammied by the stick and Angel tells them that anyone who touches the stick becomes infected by it, but it will eventually wear off. They try to get him to snap out of it because Kate needs him, but Angel says he doesn’t want to vamp out. “You both withdraw when I go vamp. I feel you judge me.” They tell him they won’t, but he doesn’t believe them. Doyle says they need to get inside and goes over to the door only to find it locked. A cop looks at him through the door and tells them the station is now closed. They decide to break out a window and go into the station that way.

Inside, Little Tony tells the cops that they work for him now and it’s time to kill Kate. He goes over to Kate and tells her that nobody beats him – not even a bitch like her. Kate says she isn’t a bitch – she’s just protected. He says no one is protecting her now, but Angel walks in, followed by Cordy and Doyle, and says he’s feeling some negative energy in the room. Tony says he’s been wanting to see Angel again and Kate says Angel would probably say the same thing if that gun in his hand didn’t make him come off as hostile. She and Angel do a little talking and Doyle tells Angel to fight – not talk. Tony smarts off to Angel, so he grabs the chair and smashes it in Tony’s face. Kate shoots one of the other guys and then asks how they think that makes her feel. Angel continues to beat Tony up and then he and Kate share a hug. They look down at Tony and Kate declares that some people really just need to live in the problem.

Back in the slammer, Tony places a call to Wolfram & Hart, but this time, they won't help him. He's become a liability, but more than that, they have a new issue that concerns them - Angel.
The next morning, Angel heads down to the station to check on Kate. She says other than feeling a little foolish, she’s okay. She tells Angel she should get back to work and Angel starts to leave, but he hears Kate talking to her dad and stops to listen. Kate’s dad says he got her messages on the machine last night and she starts to say something, but he interrupts her. He doesn’t want her to say anything now because she made an idiot out of herself the night before and embarrassed him in front of the guys. He says as far as he’s concerned, it never happened. Then he leaves. Angel watches Kate slowly sit down at her desk and then he leaves.