Previously: Spike was being haunted by the reaper who was really a murderer who ate ghosts. It didn’t make much sense but it wasn’t bad to watch.
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Life of the Party
Lorraine: My lovely closed caption tells me we are starting this episode with “disco woman vocalizing.” Lorne is strutting down the hallways of Wolfram & Hart trying to sell The Grapes of Wrath in space to someone named Jerry. He hangs up that call and his assistant hands him another cell phone. Lorne tells this person that Big B (Jerry Bruckheimer then, yeah?) (K: YUP.) wants to know more details. He keeps up the showbiz talk until he finally makes it to Harmony’s desk, greeting her warmly and complimenting her dress and hair. She does look lovely in pink.
Sweeney: I adore the fact that a Lorne/Harmony friendship is clearly a thing. I’m already completely sold on this episode.
K: I love the Lorne/Harmony friendship. It’s reminiscent of the Anya/Andrew friendship.
Lor: Lorne asks Harmony when he can expect Angel and she reports that he’s heading back in from a field mission, but that he sounded like he was in a mood. Lorne is up to pulling the Broodster out of a(nother) Brood Fest, and that’s Angel’s cue to come squishing it. Actually squishing, as he’s covered in some slimy gunk. Wesley asks him how some bomb worked and apparently, it didn’t. Wesley offers to take the remains of the failed bomb to Fred.
Next Lorne tries to talk to Angel about a big party but Angel is exhausted and covered in Thraxis blood. Nothing is going to be discussed until he’s had a shower. (K: Legit.) Angel closes the door in Lorne’s face and without missing a beat, Lorne asks his assistant to scratch the Thraxis off the invite list. They walk and talk until Lorne ends up at his office. It has a large vanity. Of course.
Lorne sits at his vanity and takes a number of deep breaths when suddenly, his reflection turns to face him. Lorne won’t look at his talking reflection and Mirror!Lorne says he won’t be ignored forever. Mirror!Lorne says Lorne has to put on a smile and get back out there. In fact, he’s going to count to nine. Mirror!Lorne starts counting, dragging it out with interjections like, ‘the show stops for no demon, Lorne,” and “they’re all waiting for you!” Lorne gets more and more agitated and just before Mirror!Lorne gets to 9, Lorne freaks out and breaks his mirror. Because his vanity is a supernatural vanity. Of course.
Sweeney: He’s a green showtune belting empath demon from another dimension who runs the entertainment department of an evil law firm. OBVIOUSLY his vanity is supernatural.
K: A+, Sweeney.
Lor: Lorne gets up and then BrokenMirror!Lorne starts singing “Don’t Leave Me This Way.” Lorne looks into the mirror for a moment and next thing we know, he’s bursting out of his office lip synching to the same song.
The sounds of which fade into the Electric Cellos.
Sweeney: It made for a really awkward transition.
K: I kind of wanted the Electric Cellos to be replaced by a Lorne-centric credits sequence, like when Jonathan was suddenly all up in the credits in Superstar.
Lor: I would’ve supported this random want.
Angel is getting out of the shower when Eve shows up in his room. He makes no move to cover himself up and she admits that she let herself in with a key. He silently asks for the key with a hand outstretched at nearly penis level and she hands it over. Eve notes that that was a long shower for a guy and wonders if he was having “gentlemen’s time.” Angel says there was no releasing, just bathing, what with the aforementioned yicky blood. Angel asks what she wants and she reminds him that they had a 7:30 meeting. Seemingly chastised, Angel runs off quickly to get his pants.
K: Meanwhile, I stop to wonder why the fuck you would want a bathroom THAT DIDN’T HAVE A DOOR. Because that seems like the worst idea ever.
Lor: Apparently Angel has no issues with greeting guests naked.
Cut to Wolfram & Hart proper. Eve asks how it’s going and he gives a rambly answer about second guessing all his moves, wondering if he’s playing into the Senior Partner’s hands. Eve says at least he can still protect people from things that go bump in the night. Angel says it’s like she said: everyone needs a release. Eve corrects that she said Angel needs a release because he bottles things up. He doesn’t think so, but then the elevator doors open, there’s a big monster face there and Angel immediately reacts by punching it. Turns out it was just a big Halloween decoration.
Angel looks around the busy office and asks why it looks like they are having a party. Lorne is holding a disco ball and tells him that they are having a party. The Wolfram & Hart Halloween Bash. Makes me nostalgic for Buffy’s Halloween episodes. (K: Except for All the Way, because that was crap.) Despite all the memos Lorne has sent, Angel had no clue a party was happening. Lorne says there’s a problem, though, because no one important is coming. Angel thinks that’s good and this pisses Lorne off. He holds his head as Angel goes on about how he wasn’t happy about this party in the first place (in the first place… in the last few seconds?) and Lorne laughs out loud kind of crazily before snapping that Angel is killing him. He calms down a bit in the end, saying that Angel is obviously in a mood, and they’ll talk when he isn’t.
Evil Radio Shack. Wesley presents Fred with the defective bomb and she wonders if Angel was mad. Wesley thinks Angel probably has a right to be since they sent him out into the field with defective weaponry. Fred is all, “we?” and Wesley more calmly says that techno-mystical hybrids are hard work. Knox appears to say it’s actually super simple, since either the techno or the mystical part failed. Wesley says the magical core looks intact and blames the trigger mechanism. Fred and Knox giggle a little flirtatiously about how they crafted an awesome machine and couldn’t possibly be to blame. Wesley gets frustrated and blames them some more, until Lorne comes in with a chipper, “Happy Halloween!”
K: Wes also eyerolls over Fred and Knox’s giggling. I know because I did too.
Lor: Lorne asks about the Halloween party and both Fred and Wes admit they weren’t planning on going. Lorne is upset about this, and absolutely insists that they delegate their work and come have some fun. Knox volunteers to work on it, so Lorne says he’ll see Fred and Wes in Angel’s office in 15 minutes.
Next Lorne goes to check in on Gunn and enlist his help. Gunn’s busy but at least says that’ll he eventually get to whatever Lorne needs. Lorne needs him to be in Angel’s office in 10 minutes.
Sweeney: He also makes a point of telling Gunn to be more assertive and start staking out his all-important territory now that he’s got all that legalese in his brain.
Lor: Cut to Angel’s office. The gang’s all here. The gang’s also all really bored as they wait for Lorne. Spike’s here and he makes a comment about the good ole days when no self-respecting creatures of the night celebrated Halloween. Nice callback and also it seems Spike’s going to say this line and then inexplicably leave the office as Lorne enters.
Sweeney: Writerly machinations of moving characters here and there just to get a line in become painfully obvious when you start describing what’s happening on your screen.
K: YUP. And while I like the callback, I feel the need to remind Spike of season 2, episode 6 in which he tried to take over the town on Halloween with Ethan Reyne’s help…
Lor: Both excellent points.
Lorne stresses the importance of this Halloween party for the 87th time in this first 15 minutes, and this time Gunn backs him up, saying it’s important to present face as the new owners of Wolfram & Hart. Angel’s worried about the danger associated with inviting a bunch of evil people to a party, but Lorne reminds everyone that this is his expertise. Remember Caritas? Actually, maybe if you remember Caritas right now you might start crying as you think about everything this series has put you through. Maybe just me. Put me through.
Sweeney: Us. Put us through. I moved blissfully past that moment while watching but, you know, THANKS.
K: Yeah, it’s definitely not just you, Lor.
Lor: Total slip of the keyboard, because I should’ve known that would’ve been an us.
Eve says that Halloween is like Christmas for a bunch of evil lawyers and co., so this party is a moral thing. Harmony, who came in with Angel’s cup of bloody joe, adds that morale sucks right now as everyone hates Angel and lives in fear of being fired or killed. (K: She also says “here’s your blood, bossy!” and then realises that “bossy” probably isn’t the best term of endearment for your boss. It’s kind of adorable.) Angel is defensive, but has to admit that he did indeed killed some of his employees. And some of his clients. And some of his potential clients. Angel gives in, but Lorne clarifies that he needs Angel to not only sit back and let this party happen, but to help with it.
We cut to a limo. Lorne is giving Angel information on an evil Archduke who is the peak of the A-list. They need to convince him to come to the party. Angel notes that this matters a lot to Lorne, personally. Lorne admits that he doesn’t have the skills of the other Fang Gang, but this is how he can help Angel. He tells Angel to leave all the talking to him when they meet Evil Archduke.
We cut to Archdukey Lair of Evil. The Evil Archduke [EA] sits on a high throne and Angel and Lorne are sitting below the platform in front of him. EA is flanked by demons on either side. Angel is visibly uncomfortable especially when EA drinks the last bit of a blue liquid in his wine glass and the demon to his left steps forward, unstoppers his WRIST. Blue blood flow into the wine cup.
K: Mmmmmmmmm, slave blood… O.o
Lor: Lorne visibly pushes his discomfort aside and asks about why the EA is not coming to the party. EA offers Angel something to drink and Angel’s all, “LOL. I’M GOOD.” EA thinks he shouldn’t be judgey since Angel drinks pig blood. Angel starts to get defensive but Lorne covers for him by taking a sip of his blood wine and telling the slave demon he tastes really good.
Sweeney: Slave demon gives him, “Fuck you,” face.
Lor: As well he should.
Pause: I’ve been writing this recap across two days now. It’s late, I got sleepy, the usual excuses etc, etc. Anyway, the point is that I was writing that paragraph, it really hit me how much this show especially suffers because of the blogging process. I wrote that paragraph divorced, almost, from the rest of the episode. When you examine each part that way, it’s really easy to see how insane (sometimes silly) (sometimes awful) these episode can be.
The moral of the story is: the Evil Archduke decides to come to the party and this is all ridiculous.
Party time! The disco ball is spinning and Thelma Houston sings on. Unfortunately, the dance floor is empty except for one person. A random Wolfram & Hart employee (K: TJ THYNE AGAIN!) is complaining about the lameness of the party and Lorne comes over to yell at them to mingle, damn it. Then Lorne is called by a demon who is wearing human skin on his face as a costume. Let’s hope he bought that human skin mask on Amazon. Probably not though.
Fred and Wesley are by the food table admiring Lorne’s people skills. We cut back to Lorne who asks the same, “is that rubber?” thing I just asked and gets a creepy non-answer from the But Maybe He Has Amazon Prime! Demon. Lorne pulls a, “ha… ha… well gotta go!” and we jump back to Fred and Wesley. Fred is describing every wallflower’s life at a party, saying, “I’m just here for the food.” JUST KIDDING. That line come from an awesome movie, ahem ahem. (S: #SNARKATHON. SATURDAY, APRIL 5TH. EVER AFTER. BE THERE. Oh, wait, sorry – you were going for subtle. Oops.) (K: We’re not good at subtle. Everyone knows that.) Lorne comes over to tell them to help the dead party. The only person dancing is Harmony, which I didn’t realize at first and is fantastic. She is having a great time. Lorne tells Fred and Wes to hurry up and get drunk.
Sweeney: This was probably my favorite Fred and Wesley scene in a long time. It’s the first Fred/Wesley scene since the introduction of Fred/Gunn that actually made me go, “Yes, this is a pairing I could root for.” It’s hard to separate that from all the stuff that I hated, but their mutual wallflower status was adorable.
K: I felt their pain, because I’m the person who stands awkwardly in corners at parties wondering how long I have to be there until I can leave without anyone getting judgey. Needless to say, I don’t go to parties very often.
Lor: Lorne finds Angel who is sitting alone in his office, brooding. Lorne says the guests want to meet the big man in charge but Angel says he’s busy. Lorne looks at his empty desk. Angel says he’s brooding. Lorne turns around and sees that the TV is on to a hockey game. He’s watching hockey! “Yeah,” says Angel. “But my team is losing.” HA. Alright show. You got me. I thought he was for real brooding too. Lorne starts having another freak out, saying he can’t “steer this ship of fools” by himself, all while hold his head. After a second, Lorne looks up and tells Angel it’s time to boogie.
Party. Lorne is pointing out guests and leading Angel around. More people are dancing and Harmony is still out there, having a grand time. She spots Spike standing just near the dance floor and shimmies over to him. She asks him to dance with her, but he refuses, claiming his Halloween spirit is dearly departed. Harmony asks why he’s even at a HALLOWEEN PARTY then, and gets back to the dance floor. Spike: What am I doing here?
On his way out, Spike runs into Angel and Lorne who also ask him WTF he’d be at a Halloween party. All this fun chat about Spike’s perplexing existance is interrupted by the arrival of Evil Archduke. Lorne tells Angel to get schmoozing.
Sweeney: It was around the point of the extended, “Why are you here?” conversations that I started giggling enough to make the woman next to me on the plane uncomfortable. That’s usually a sub-goal of doing Snark Squad things on airplanes but it’s even better when I can do it by pure accident.
K: EXCELLENT work, Sweeney.
Lor: Achievement unlocked.
The Evil Archduke extends his hand for Angel to kiss, but Angel grabs it instead and starts shaking and babbling about how awesome the demon looks. Lorne greets the lackey and compliments his jacket. Turns out it’s made out of someone from a Pylean’s skin. That’s enough of that conversation for Lorne, so he pulls Angel away before things can get more embarrassing.
Fred took Lorne’s advice, as she’s now slurring through a story about dressing up as Raggedy Ann for 8 years in a row during Halloween. She’s distracted by the food table again, though a passing Harmony warns them about some pee just near the food table. EW.
Lorne is greeting more people on his way to the bar. Gunn’s up there, and notes that the party is picking up. He asks how Lorne does it and Lorne admits that he had Wolfram & Hart remove his sleep, which is apparently a service they offer. AND ALSO SOUNDS LIKE THE WORST THING EVER. This coming from a girl who regularly wishes for all the hours in the day for TV watching and blogging and reading. BUT NO, LORNE. NOT AT THE EXPENSE OF SLEEP. Gunn is all, “WHAT?” but it turns out he’s shocked in an, “that is awesome!” way because he’s also deeply disturbed. #teamsleep
Sweeney: This is your regular Snark Squad reminder that we sacrifice a lot of things in terms of work and family time in our quest to blog all the things, but it is a strong internal rule that naps are always of a higher priority than blog things.
K: As I’ve said before, I’m incapable of napping, but SERIOUSLY. WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU REMOVE YOUR SLEEP. WORST. IDEA. EVER.
Lor: Meanwhile, Evil Archduke still thinks this party is a trap and is on high alert. Then we get a thing where his slave is touching a plant, smells his fingers and says, “pee pee.”
Eve finds Angel to (excuse the word choice) ride him about “banging it out to the cheap seats.” Angel says she’s doing the same in that dress. Lorne walks by to tell them to get a room.
Cut to Angel and Eve making out back in his office. Between kisses, Angel says this is a sudden development. He asks if Eve even has a last name. She asks, “do you?” GERALDO. DUH.
Sweeney: #NEVERFORGET
Lor: The Skin Jacket Guy is using the toilet when the stall door starts rattling. Someone busts open the door and Skin Jacket’s blood splatters across the stall.
K: Killed on the toilet is a terrible way to go, and has kind of terrified me ever since Jurassic Park.
Lor: Party. Much dancing and fun times, except for the Evil Archduke who stands on the sidelines watching. He sends another dude to go find Skin Jacket. That dude bumps into Fred on his way and she’s all YOU WANNA GO? He barely acknowledges Fred and Wes pulls her away.
Wes says she can’t hold her… wait. What is she drinking? Fred says she isn’t drinking anything. Wesley says he’s had 1/3 of 1/2 of the beer he’s been carrying around. They agree that this is weird. They find Gunn and want to ask him about the weird development. Wesley puts his hand on Gunn’s shoulder and turns him around, but it turns out Gunn was a facing a wall because he’s the pee-er. He pees all over Wesley’s shoe. Spike joins them and he announces what a great party this is. That’s the final straw. Now they all know that something weird is DEFINITELY happening, and trace it back to Lorne.
The Fang Gang usher Lorne into Angel’s office, though he’s protesting the whole way, saying he didn’t do anything. They call out for Angel who pops up from behind the couch.
K: Me neither. Also, Naked!Angel twice in one episode is too much Naked!Angel.
Lor: Wesley susses that Angel is also under the effects of Lorne, as is Eve, though Wesley stumbles over the word “presumably” and Fred cutely snort laughs. Wesley explains that everything Lorne’s told them to do, they are doing. Like, not everything, but apparently just selected things to make this episode entertaining! Because. So, like Fred and Wesley are drunk. Gunn is peeing all over the office. Spike is thinking positively. Angel’s all, “Lorne told Gunn to pee all over the office,” and Gunn says he sure hopes so. A bit later he remembers that Gunn told him to “mark his territory.” That wasn’t even during the party, but okay Gunn!
K: Clearly, Angel’s super-smelling powers are broken at the moment that he can’t smell all the pee.
Lor: Ew.
Gunn shares with everyone that Lorne recently had his sleep removed. Wesley says that an empath demon going without sleep for so long is bad news. Lorne says he did it because he couldn’t keep up at work, and Angel berates him for not saying something before. Angel charges Wesley and Fred with finding Lorne’s sleep, Gunn with going around and seeing if anyone else is under the Lorne spell and Lorne with sitting tight and not talking to anyone. Meanwhile, he’s going to stay put and have more sex with Eve. With Spike and Lorne in the room.
Sweeney:
K:
Lor: Evil Archduke finds the bloody stall where Skin Jacket died.
Fred and Wesley are looking for Lorne’s sleep, but mostly giggling about how fun being friends is. Fred says they should do this more often and Wes agrees. He always thought they’d be better friends than they are. Fred hugs Wes (K: Awkward Wesley Boner??) and after saying he can be her confidante, asks what he thinks of Knox. Wesley is devastated. Me too, Wesley. They dropped Fred from one love triangle into another. Devastating.
Angel’s Love Shack Office. (S: BEST. New permanent name.) The Evil Archduke barges in.
The dance floor clears out and we see But Maybe He Has Amazon Prime! Demon dead and spread out across the buffet table. This is the least hygienic party ever. Angel says he’s had nothing to do with these deaths, abut Evil Archduke doesn’t believe him. Lorne tries to smooth things over, but the Archduke cocks his weapon.
Sleepy Time Lab. Wesley is reading about the effects of sleeplessness on an empath just as Fred finds Lorne’s sleep. Effects of no sleep are catastrophic (I tried to tell you) and can include writing people’s destinies and a manifestation of the subconscious.
Dirty Party. Lorne tells Evil Archduke that he’s doing these things and proof soon comes in the form of the lovechild of Lorne and the Hulk which is apparently his subconscious. Spike compliments his bitchin’ big suit and Hulk!Lorne starts smashing things, including Lorne himself, who tries to stop him.
Fred and Wesley wait for the elevator.
Hulksmash Party. Angel tells Evil Archduke to run as he and Gunn take turns trying to take out Hulk!Lorne. Things aren’t looking good, but Wesley and Fred arrive and Wesley gives a hilarious half run out of the elevator and an exaggerated, “it’s manifested!” It’s all in the delivery. One of the few times this whole fake drunk spiel was entertaining to me.
Fred has a big sleep gun (which, can we talk about how I’d carry that shit everywhere?) and points it at Hulk!Lorne. Gunn tells her to shoot, but at the last second, she turns to Lorne and shoots him in the head. Harmony exclaims that they’ve shot “Lorney Toons” but sleepily, Lorne says he’s fine. He just needs to rest a bit. He drifts off to sleep and Hulk!Lorne bursts into a bunch of butterflies. Or confetti. Or butterfly confetti.
Sweeney: AMAZING. Of course Lorne’s subconscious explodes into butterfly confetti.
K: I thought it was sparkles. Maybe it’s sparkly butterfly confetti.
Lor:
The spells on everyone seem to be instantly broken as well because Fred has mega awkward face.
Morning. People are passed out all over the office. Fred is cleaning up when Knox finds her. He fixed their grenade but is confused as to why he agreed to do it on the party night. Fred smiles knowingly and says she wished he’d attended. Knox invites her for a cup of coffee, then, and she says she could actually use a drink.
Wesley tucks Lorne in on the couch of Angel’s office. They rehash the premise of the episode and the fact that Hulk!Lorne wasn’t trying to kill everyone, but rather solving conflicts and issues with people. Namely, ones who like to wear skin, I guess.
Angel follows after Eve and asks if she wants to talk about the fact that they sex with weird fuzzy consent undertones. She brushes him off, saying it’s not her first time at the mystical sex rodeo. “I went to UC Santa Cruz,” she jokes. She walks away, a bit of a pained look on her face and Wesley asks how Angel’s doing. He says he doesn’t know. Wesley, looking out into the office, spots Fred and Knox and the schmaltzy music starts up because of sadness. He walks by and Fred doesn’t even look his way.
Gunn says he spoke to the Evil Archduke people and explained what he could. Thankfully, these kinds of demons enjoy blood sport at parties so there will be no lasting consequences. That Great Contrivance Spirit always comes through in the clutch.
Angel’s worried that they’ve been so focused on the outside evils, they haven’t been tending to the evils within. #deep.
Gunn tells Angel not to sit in his chair and Spike thinks it’s fantastic that he pissed in Angel’s chair. Gunn asks him to turn off the warm fuzzies, but Lorne’s spell already worn off. Spike just really likes the pee thing.
We end the episode with Lorne mumbling in his sleep about how hard it is to be the host of the party. Angel whispers back that he should stop trying to be.
As I mentioned early in this episode, it isn’t one that stands up to scrutiny. It features one of my favorite (but tragically underused) characters in the series, but it was entirely superficial. I long ago gave up on assuming the episodes would make story sense, but there is very little here in terms of character as well. I suppose if you found it funny, you can enjoy it on that base level, but save for a few chuckle moments (which I pointed out) it wasn’t funny enough to save it from the lows: the straight stupid side plot, rehashing of things we already know and even an outright acknowledgement that the writers don’t even know what Spike is doing yet.
Sweeney: That bums me out because this is actually the most fun I’ve had watching this show in a LONG time. This is my favorite of the five episodes we’ve now covered this season. We have discussed the struggle with plot failure when you’re the main recapper, though. You mentioned it in your Buffy vlog, too – the way the stuff you recap sticks with you for better or worse. The only really serious season thing for them to be focusing on is Spike and I don’t care, so this total distraction episode played pretty well for me. It actually played pretty nicely into the larger, “Hey, there are about a million ways the evil law firm can change us,” issue, though I enjoyed it independent of that.
This is a fluffy filler episode and since it wasn’t taking us away from anything more important (because what the fuck even is this show?) I had fun at Lorne’s party. SO WHATEVER, LOR. WHATEVER.
K: I think a lot of the problem with the show this season is exactly what Lor said – while it’s funnier, the funny doesn’t stand up to watching it in anything other than a straight run-through. If you’re stopping and starting and recapping it, the funny rapidly becomes annoying and not even remotely as funny as it seems on face value. Watching it and just taking notes, it’s funny. Recapping it? It’s more “That one line made me snigger a little, but OMG I HAVE WRITTEN A THOUSAND WORDS AND THERE ARE STILL 35 MINUTES OF EPISODE TO GO.”
Lor: That in combination with all the shit that just doesn’t make a lick of sense. It swallows the humor at points.
So, contrary to what we’ve been accused of, the Snark Ladies do actually have differing opinions sometimes, and this time we’re split on Lorne’s party. I’m going to call it a bust.
Next time: Angel is losing heart and meets a demon that actually eats hearts, so that’s a thing in Angel S05 E06 – The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
Nicole is the co-captain of Snark Squad and these days she spends most of her time editing podcasts. She spends too much time on Twitter and very occasionally vlogs and blogs. In her day job she's a producer, editor, director, and sometimes host of educational YouTube channels. She loves travel, maps, panda gifs, and semicolons. Writing biographies stresses her out; she crowd sourced this one years ago and has been using a version of it ever since. She would like to thank Twitter for their help.
I'm a 30-something librarian and I still live with my parents because I'm super broke. Leader of Team Heartless Cow. I have an inexplicable love for 90s television, eat too much chocolate, and read more than is good for me.
