Airdate: October 6th, 2002

Guest Starring: Stephanie Romanov
Alexa Davalos
Rena Owen
Tom Irwin

Written by: Mere Smith
Directed by: Michael Grossman


Teaser

Gills Rock, Wisconsin. October 28, 1985. A young girl in a snowsuit is taken to Thorpe’s Academy. The Raydens, fairly rich folks, are grateful to the academy for taking Gwen so late in the year; after all they’ve been through (they did make a generous contribution). They can only come back after classes end in June. The parents tell Gwen that they love her. Mrs. Thorpe takes her, and reminds her that she has to stay away from other children.

In the schoolyard, snow-suited Gwen takes off her gloves to eat her lunch when a boy approaches her, playing with a toy car. He asks her if she’s a freak, she says she doesn’t know and thanks him when he says she doesn’t look like one. The boy offers her to hold the car, Thorpe sees her too late, and a bold hits the boy, he’s thrown several feet away. The car is a melted heap, everyone rushes to the boy.

ACT I

Cordelia’s Apartment. Fred, Gunn and Angel are clearing out Cordy’s. They’ll be showing the place soon, Gunn and Fred paid the rent the first few months but with shrinking revenues and no one living in the apartment, they have to cut their losses. Fred and Gunn tell them about their unsuccessful attempts with the missing persons filed with the police and the near-impossibility of reaching Lorne. They’ve also left the stuff on that was on her night table for Angel to look up, he reminisces with a picture of Cordelia, Wesley and himself. Something big must have happened the night they were to meet; they know why he wasn’t there. He also says that Connor just needs some time, he’s confused; Fred thinks he needs time in jail. Phantom Dennis is hampering the moving process until Fred screams that Cordy’s not coming back, then stops to add, to the apartment. Angel tells her it’s all right and they’ve got plenty of room at the hotel.

In a dingy setting, Wesley is leading his own crew of demon fighters against a nasty looking demon. Angel finds him as he slices the demon in half, not needing Angel’s help. Wes finds a motel key on the demon and has one of his crew free the captive and another close the case file. Angel thanks Wes for rescuing him, and admires at his resourcefulness, amidst the difficulties. Wes gives him a look, Angel says he’s had time to think, and that they’re okay again. Wes gives him a file, it’s what Angel came for: his investigation on Cordy’s disappearance. Wes doesn’t think she’s dead, and may not be in our own dimension. There’s a road that Angel can take: Dinza, the dark demi-goddess of the lost, only the dead can enter her presence and those that do she often traps for eternity. And her lair is, conveniently enough, in the L.A. sewer system. However she’s not remotely trustworthy. Wes leaves as Angel wonders if she requires anything.

Down in the sewers, Angel enters a chamber, the door portals close behind him. Dinza teases him, touches him before he sees her, asking if he’s lost. She flutters up to a perch. Dinza is raggedy, flaky with tattered wings and sporting a wicked grin. She knows him, she knows all the lost things, like lost love. She tells him that Cordy is far from him and needs him no longer, Angel says that he needs her. The dead voice up in a chorus, she says they want him to stay with them, but then, who listens to the dead? She tells him that the Axis of Pythea is nearby and what he seeks can only be found inside of it. It’s an ancient power bridging all dimensions. He asks why he should trust her, and in an instant she’s behind him with her hand around his neck. She would love to keep him here but he has so much more to lose.

A classy restaurant. A sexy twentysomething girl dressed in red leather pants and top, with black elbow-high gloves catches the eye of everyone as she meets her contractor. This is not his idea of discretion. She tells him that he’s screwing her: the Axis of Pythea is worth thirty-three million dollars, not six, and since she works on commission it’s like getting her for eighty percent off. Elliot says street value is irrelevant; he wants it for his own private collection. She looks at the information he provided her, it has the art house specs. He tells her to meet him at a private high-rise downtown and he’ll transfer the money at his penthouse there. She expects more zeros at the end of her cut. He says that while she came to him “highly recommended” he was expecting someone more professional, she tells him she is and has picketed his ten-thousand dollar watch, and with her naked hand, melts it with a bolt of electricity into something surreal. All that time at the Academy sure made Gwen into a model citizen.

ACT II

We see Cordy in the higher plane before zooming in her eye and seeing Angel and Gunn watching a presentation by Fred at A.I about the Axis of Pythea. Forged from the tripod of the Delphic Oracle, it’s a metal arch set in a marble base, 2 feet high, weighs 18 pounds and is imbued with many mystical qualities, including finding lost and entities across dimensions. The axis is held at the Chandler’s Auction House, an establishment firmly rooted in the black market meaning lots of security. Angel’s already beaten the building plans out of a snitch, Fred says that’s not enough since the security devices include: surveillance cams, electric gates, laser sensors, handprint recognition and armed guards. And at its thirty-three million dollar value, it’s not something they can bid on. Angel assures them he’s done a heist like that a million times, well twice, but he’s good at it. Gunn wonders if he’s including their Shroud of Ramón caper from two years back. Fred takes the floor plans and goes to whip out a plan of action. Angel’s amazed at how she stepped up while he was gone, reminding him of Cordy. Gunn asks what they do if they find her, Angel says they’ll do whatever it takes to get her home where she belongs.

At Wes’s place, Lilah and Wesley are going at it, she says she can’t stay: she’s got a big meeting as new boss in a few hours. He says that’s if he lets her go at all, Lilah asks it if it’s just like he let Justine go at the end. She heard about it, and is sure Justine heard a few things too. Wes says that while the walls in her cell were soundproof, she did call Lilah “Impossibly loud.” She goes on about all that time of lying through his teeth about his not caring about Angel, Wes says it was necessary, to raise Angel to fight people like her. They fall to the floor, she says he did her a favour: when Angel came home, he kicked Connor out; friendless and homeless, he might need someone to look over him. Wes doesn’t care about her evil plans, she says it turns him on.

The Chandler. Gwen’s on the rooftop, opens the power box, and with a careful jolt, shuts down the security cameras. Her hand fools the key-card access: she’s in. Not long after, Angel, Gunn and Fred, arrive on the rooftop, Angel rips out the power box cables, shutting down the inside lot lights. Fred uses a card hack to gain access to the stairwell. A bit later in front of a darkened camera, Fred hands out assignments: Gunn will disarm and contain the guards, she’ll hack the vault security system and Angel will wait by the vault. As they leave the camera clicks on: Gwen’s watching from a vent and not liking the turn of events. Fred gets in the control room and begins hacking at the vault controls; Gunn knocks out a guard and drags him away. Angel’s at the vault entrance and sprays an aerosol, green lasers that crisscross the room are revealed. A big metal gate drops in front of him, separating him from the vault entrance. He tries to lift it but sparks shoot out, Gwen pops from a vent in the middle of the vault entry. She put that down for a reason. Both Fred and Gunn realize there’s someone else besides them breaking in.

Gwen’s here fort the axis too. She puts her naked hand in front of a laser beam; they all warp out, leaving her a clear path to the vault door. Angel asks what she is; she says she’s a freak. She leaves her hand on the scanner; it’s fooled too, and opens the vault. Gunn arrives behind Angel, not believing that girl took out four armed guards. She gets ready to leave, he pleads with her for the axis, saying he’s trying to find someone important to him, and the axis is his only shot. He just wants to borrow it to find her, and then she can do whatever she wants with it. That stops Gwen, of course it’s a “her,” the alarm goes off, Angel lifts the gate, Gunn rushes and grabs her legs, and she fries him with her hand. Angel rushes to him, as Fred comes in. Gunn has no pulse.

ACT III

Gwen thinks back to that kid she jolted, knocks Angel aside and uses her hand as a defibrillator until Gunn is reanimated. Fred says they have to get Gunn to a hospital, Angel hesitates but chooses Gunn, letting Gwen escape.

Connor walks in the slums of L.A., carrying only a blanket. Lilah observes him from an overpass and Angel creeps up on her. She says he let his son off pretty easy, Angel says Connor messed up and he knows he did. Lilah can’t believe he returned to the moral high ground and guilt-as-punishment, Angel admits it’s a specialty of his. Below, Connor tries to make himself comfy in a field, wrapped in the blanket; Angel’s not here for him, he’s here for her. He tells her about the robbery, and the “special” thief, he wants the name of the buyer. She does, after he says that he’ll ignore the fact this one time that she’s this close to his son. So much for the moral high ground. She finds it interesting that he came to her for help, he finds it interesting that he can smell her and Wes all over each other. That startles her, he gives her an hour to get the info.

The Hyperion. Gunn is lying down and looking at his chart, amazed. Fred’s obviously upset; did he see anything? White light? He doesn’t remember. She freaks, wondering what would have happened if Gwen hadn’t revived him. She’s sick of holding everything together, with Wes and Cordy gone, and Angel having gone once, she’s sick of keeping her chin up. She thought it’d be better when Angel came back. Gunn says no one forced this on her, Fred asks him who else was going to do it? After they left her alone, he died and left her all alone! Gunn holds her as she cries.

The Private High-Rise. Gwen goes to the elevator banks, Angel’s behind her. She wonders about his lack of reflection, and fights him. He doesn’t want to hurt her, she hits him more: they all say that. She’s wondering why he hasn’t fried yet, he says he’s not even warmed up and he’s kicked in the crotch. She takes off her gloves, and does a power-up, and zaps him. They keep fighting, she knocks him in the elevator. She straddles him and rips open his shirt and jolts him more. It jump-starts his heart and it beats, he bolts up and kisses her.

ACT IV

They stop kissing when suddenly bars block the elevator exit. She felt his heart beat, knowing now that it doesn’t. He thinks of Cordelia and has to get out. She wonders what’s going on and see Elliot and his henchmen standing outside: it’s a double-cross. She says the job’s done, he doesn’t need to do this. He says he does as the job she did was a train wreck with the noise, the publicity, and the stunt at the restaurant. She says that was a joke, he tells her professionals are discreet, she’s just a dangerous freak. He had the elevator retrofitted with six inches of Plexiglas separating her from any open power source, and the bars are tempered Lucite. After all, he’s not going to duke it out with Electro-Girl. The doors closes and the gas is released inside the elevator cab. Angel has her get down, he doesn’t breathe anyway, and begins breaking the thick Plexiglas at the utility panel. Gwen’s suffocating as Angel breaks through, he takes her hand and acts as conductor, shorting the system and opening up the elevator and bars. Angel carries her out and then takes care of the henchmen. Gwen’s up and about, moving towards Elliot. She expected to be screwed, occupational hazard, but she doesn’t like being called a freak, her word. Angel asks her to think about what she’s doing but she doesn’t listen. Angel belittles her problems, he’s not the poster boy normal either, and sometimes they have to let go. He then knocks Elliot out. She says she wanted to do that but he knows she wanted to kill the guy. She sees that he’s really going to use the Axis to find Cordelia. Anybody that bad at stealing has got to be in it for love.

A.I. a huge bright light dims from a room when Angel gets out of there. Fred and Gunn stare at the dimming Axis and follow Angel to the lobby.

A while later they’re there, all pensive. He says she was beautiful, and there was this light all around her made of pure joy and warmth. And it looked like a permanent gig. Fred says the should have known something was up when she started glowing. It doesn’t surprise Angel that much and in a small way it makes it easier, knowing the good she’s doing up there, even if he can’t see or talk to her, it feels like she’s at his side. Doesn’t make them miss her any less though. Angel, all those months under the water, thought that he had to get Cordy, then he comes back and finds out she’s gone and thinks he’s got to get her home, finally he finds her and discovers she’s already home where she belongs.

Up in the higher plane Cordy looks at them and exclaims: “What are you, deficient? Get me out of here!”


Summary by Dannyboy