Airdate: October 1, 2003

Season Credits: David Boreanaz Angel
James Marsters Spike
J. August Richards Charles Gunn
Amy Acker Winnifred “Fred” Burkle
Andy Hallett Lorne
Alexis Denisof Wesley Windam-Pryce

Guest Starring: Sarah Thompson
Mercedes McNab
Jonathan Woodward
Dane Northcutt
Jacqueline Hahn
Marc Vann
Michael Shamus Wiles
Rod Rowland

Written & Directed by Joss Whedon


Teaser

Los Angeles, night. A dark alley and a woman in trouble, seems familiar enough. Angel comes to her rescue in a dramatic cable-swinging way, knocking out the threatening vampire. Angel fights it and in short order, stakes it. The victim doesn’t understand what happened, he tells her not to try and just go home. As he leaves a special ops unit surrounds him. It’s his, Wolfram & Hart’s, special ops team having tracked his movements via tracer on his lapel. A lawyer among them suggest that he doesn’t lead the “rescue scenarios” until the scene is contained. Another lawyer has the victim sign multiple forms and having them pose together. Angel’s just stunned and confused, the victim thinks he did it for the publicity.

ACT I

Daytime. At the firm, Fred is still navigating her way through the office, with Wesley helping her as she’s talking about her new, confusing, lab. Wes is still stuck at why they’re at Wolfram & Hart. Knox comes down to help Fred with her stuff, to Wes’s chagrin. Gunn, now with fuzz on his head, is all chummy with Wes again, and shows him the office he’s chosen (next to Wesley’s), with a view on the mountain. Gunn doesn’t even know if he’ll be able to fit in, at least Wes has the mystical element going for him. It’ll be a long while before any of them feel comfortable in their new setting, except Lorne, who’s already setting up celebrities for movie parts. Angel comes up, still pissed off at the previous night’s events. Wes and Gunn follow Angel in his office only to come across a beautiful young woman sitting on his desk. Her name’s Eve, and throws Angel an apple to get the irony out of the way. She answers only to the Senior Partners and Angel can’t use her to get to them, she doesn’t lunch with them after all. Wes says it’s a powerful position for such a young woman, she asks him how he can be sure she’s either of those things. She tells them how it works: Angel may be in charge of the L.A. office and multidimensional corporation, but it’s still a business. He could hack away at the mostly evil client list and shut the place down, but then sources would dry up and evil would go next door. The catch is that they have to run the business as a business, and keeping most clients happy. Gunn gets that as letting people get away with stuff, she points out that they were getting away with it back when they were at the hotel. Now they’re actually in a position to stop the worst of it and change things. It’ll be fun: the most powerful evil around has given a pivotal position to its sworn enemy. She asks Angel if he’s scared, he takes a bite out of the apple. She point to the client file cabinet, first place to start.

Nighttime. The entire A.I. crew is still sorting out the files but are getting increasingly tired. Gunn reads up on a client, Corbin Fries, a human accused of running drugs, gun, smuggling young Asians women as cheap slave labour and prostitution. But nothing stuck until now; the current trial isn’t looking good for Mr. Fries. Fred voices a concern that they need to check the entire staff for any hardcore evildoers. Angel finally dismisses them, and keeps rifling through the files.

Gunn comes in his office to find Eve there. She says that it seemed a lot simpler for him when he was on the streets on a tripped-out pickup with a loyal gang, only us against them. He hopes she doesn’t jump out of the shadows too often, she wonders if he’s ready for the next step. He finishes that thought for her: he’s not going back to the streets, eating garbage and watching his buddies getting picked off one by one. She asks if he’s not backing out, he says she really doesn’t know him or she wouldn’t have to ask that. She can see why the SPs chose him, and gives him a card: he’ll feel like a new man. AS she leaves Wes, next door, wonders what she meant by that. She gave Gunn a card to a tailor; he’s not dressed for success.

Daytime, L.A. Office. Still sorting through mail and files, Angel calls his new assistant to bring him a cup of blood. Angel’s assistant turns out to be Harmony, former cordette. He wonders why he shouldn’t kill her right there, but more importantly, what’s she doing at W&H? She says she’s a single undead gal living in the city, she had to start out somewhere and W&H is evil so they don’t judge. They also have necro-tempered glass for filtered sunlight, and a great dental plan. She also points out that she’s strong, quick, she types fast, they keep the same hours and she’s off human blood, offering Angel his cup. Wesley comes in, explaining he chose Harmony for her familiarity with them, she insists they’ll have fun. Both Wesley and Angel drop their heads when she talks about Cordy, Wes thought she knew, and Angel tells her about the coma. Harmony’s momentarily saddened before returning on her not-getting-fired speech. Wes has her get the men in his office and when she’s gone, he tells Angel that if there’s a way to bring Cordelia back, they’ll find it. Angel asks about the new case, and Wes tells him that Fries is about to get 20 years in prison for kidnapping and pimping, threatening them that they should help. Fries comes in with his lawyer (a W&H employee) and he’s royally pissed off: the D.A. has him, this defence attorney is incapable and the prosecution has all the evidence they need. Angel says it’s because he is guilty, but that’s not the point for Fries: Holland Manners (former CEO of W&H) would never have allowed this to reach trial, and he gives a lot of money to the company so that he can remain untouchable. Angel doesn’t care at all, Fries knows who he is and his new direction for the office and doesn’t care either, but they’re his lawyers and if they don’t do every last thing to keep him out of jail, they’ll regret it. The lawyer explains that they’re not in a position to have anyone killed and the jury is mystically tamper-proof. Fries doesn’t want to be made an example of. If there’s a conviction, he says the magic word and drops the bomb, it’ll be bye-bye California.

ACT II

Lorne has assembled together many W&H employees, and has them sing one by one to read their auras…

…Which is what Fred explains to Knox in her lab office while unpacking. They want to weed out the evilest. Knox will go up there right now to make her feel comfortable in running the office, something that she’s not sure will happen in her lifetime. She’s not the running things type, she runs away from things, which Knox has a hard time believing.

Fred, Wes and Lorne are in Angel’s office, assessing the situation. They need to find out about the bomb in case the jury comes by with a conviction; Angel and Wes believe it has mystical elements, a magic word. They believe Fries won’t risk his life so it’s most likely a virus. Wes has Fred check W&H lab record, and has Lorne go to the courtroom to check on the case’s progress. Harmony comes in; confused that Gunn isn’t answering her page, and got Spanky’s address. Spanky is a mystic that Fries has had prior dealing with.

Angel goes to his garage, looking at his expensive and beautiful cars, like a kid in a candy store. Hauser, the special ops unit leader is there, he got word of the floater Angel wants brought in. Angel wonders how they found out, but it’s Hauser’s job to know. Angel doesn’t need them to get the mystic; Hauser argues that it’s traditionally their role to do the fieldwork. But Angel will take care of it, and drives off in his GTO.

At Spanky’s, Angel comes in on W&H business. Spanky is a middle-aged buffed man with an impressive collection of paddles, floggers and whips. Angel asks about what Fries wanted from him, but Spanky doesn’t talk about old jobs, mystic-client privilege. But Angel wants to know, now. Spanky says he built him a container, a mystical vessel that can hold anything until the magic word dissolves it. Spanky rushes Angel and crushes Angel’s windpipe, too bad he’s not using it. He breaks free and hits Spanky with a paddle.

Gunn’s waiting at the “tailor” when finally he gets Gunn in after five hours. The tailoring room seems like a twisted dentist’s den.

Knox and Fred are sorting though files and Knox finds some work they did on illegal pesticides with Lopez until he was set on fire. It relates to a cult that specializes in quick-fire diseases scenarios (Sarin, VX). This appals Fred; Knox says they’ve contained more diseases than they’ve created. Angel gives her a call, and she tells him what they found out, Angel’s got the location of the container. It’s in Fries’s son.

ACT III

Gunn is strapped in the chair, exhausted and in pain, but asks to go on.

In the lab, Fred has narrowed down a few strains that Fries has had access to, but only Fries would have the antidote. Wes meanwhile can’t disable the device unless he knows the magic word and killing Fries might set it off anyway.

Angel, in his office, is visited by Eve. Angel is horrified that Fries stuck the virus in his son. Eve can understand that it’s getting to him, after he lost, well gave up, his own son. He says he gave up Connor to give him a life, which Eve agrees he did and no one but him knows about him now. Angel will isolate the boy; contain him if he has to. Ave tells him if every case hits him that hard, he won’t last a week. He doesn’t want to hear another word from her unless she’s helping; she asks how he knows she’s not?

The lab team has identified the strain, Fred is demanding answers and snaps at them. She needs them to focus.

Daytime, courtroom. Lorne, in trench coat and sunglasses, reports to Angel on his cell that they should contain the boy, the verdict is almost guaranteed to be bad. The special ops team is monitoring Angel’s conversation from a mobile command position, hearing Angel’s plans to isolate the boy. Hauser will show Angel how it’s done: they’ll take out the kid; wipe out the class to leave no witnesses. They rush off.

ACT IV

Wes reports to Angel that it’ll be days before they have an antidote or crack the container, and the trial won’t get suspended, Angel must get to the school while Wes will help Lorne out at the courthouse if anything goes wrong. Harmony comes in and tells them that the special ops team already left for the school, along with “cleaners” and they have a ten-minute head start. He’ll never beat them on the streets. Harmony has another idea.

Wes arrives at the trial, and sits at the back with Lorne. One look from Fries confirms how bad the trial’s going. Wesley has a backup plan, and shows him his hidden gun.

The special ops team, now masked, is at the school, weapons at hand. They kick down the classroom door and gas it, there’s no one there but Angel. He also owns a helicopter as part of the deal with W&H. Hauser deduces that since the boy is still a threat, he has to be contained nearby. Angel enjoys telling him he’s fired, Hauser, pulling off his mask, tell him that’s not how it works. Angel remembers, tradition, and asks that they show it to him. Hauser orders his team to take Angel out. Angel ducks and rolls as they fire their submachine guns at him. They close in, Angel fights and disables two of them, another takes a shot at him, Angel kicks a desk at the grunt. He uses one of them as a human shield from shotgun fire and breaks his neck. Angel runs on the desks and dropkicks Hauser, knocking away the bottle of holy water. Angel fight hand-to-hand with him, until a grunt pulls him off

Just as the judge is ready to hear final summations, Gunn walks in, dressed in an expensively tailored suit. Fries’s lawyer cedes the floor to his new colleague and Gunn immediately moves for a mistrial, his grounds being the judge herself. He approached the bench and shows her tax records to her, a paper trail leading back to one of Fries’s companies. She has backers take care of her stock, she couldn’t have known. He brings out a case where it was deemed that any financial dealings shall be deemed the responsibility of the owner, regardless of number of employees. He approaches the bench again and tells her that if Fries is convicted, she’ll have a controlling interest in his company. She’ll see him in her chambers; both Gunn and Fries smile at Wesley and Lorne.

Angel knocks the last two grunts out only to have Hauser point at him with a shotgun. Angel unvamps, that won’t kill him. Hauser knows, but it’ll still be fun to hurt him. He doesn’t think Hauser’s part of the solution, Hauser thinks Angel’s pathetic, thinking he can change W&H. He’s little while Hauser’s pure: he believes in evil, he’s not conflicted like Angel and his friends. That’s why he and the others like him will win, they posses the most powerful thing in the world: conviction. Angel says there’s one thing more powerful than conviction: mercy. He kicks the shotgun up, pressing it against Hauser’s face and sets it off. Hauser drops, dead before he hit the floor. A grunt asks him what happened to mercy; Angel says he just saw the last of it and walks away.

At the office, Eve explains to Angel, Fred, Wesley and Lorne that Gunn agreed to have his mind enhanced with a comprehensive knowledge of the law. Gunn knew they’d freak if he’d told them, but it’s still him, non-evil. Angel asks how can he know, Gunn answers that he saw the Conduit in the White Room and while scary, the Conduit doesn’t lie. Eve says they needed a lawyer to get by and Gunn had the most unused potential. His degrees may be forged, but he’s the real deal and he did save the day without killing anyone, can Angel say the same? She thinks they’ll make it work and leaves. To Lorne it meant getting a scumbag off and returning his son to him. Wes can disable the child now and Fries will have to tone down his criminal activities until the next trial, which Gunn can stretch for moths. Fred wonders if this is how it’s going to be for them: fighting their own clients and employees. Will they do any good? Angel says they are, they’ll change things, W&H is a powerful weapon and they’ll figure out how to use it. Sooner or later they’ll trip their hand they’ll know why they were really brought here, they just have to be ready for whatever they throw next. Angel opens an envelope with no return address and an amulet falls out. It pulsates, and ass comes out of it, forming bones, muscle, skin and clothes, a screaming blonde-job. Spike. Harmony’s Blondie bear.


Summary by Dannyboy