Angel S05 E07 – Shut your stupid mouth.

Previously: A weird racist Mexican-themed thing happen.

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Sweeney: Zoomy cameraman winds us through a warehouse as a disembodied voice monologues about the importance of trust in shady demonic business dealings. Our cameraman friend finds his way to the voice and the Shady Demonic Businessman is giving this monologue to Wesley who snarks about how he ain’t got time for this shit and would like to get to the shady demonic business dealings. He waves a hand to bring in Fred who Wesley refers to as his muscle. He mostly means the gun she developed and is carrying in a case, but I appreciate it all the same. They made this gun to order, but Wesley isn’t giving it to them because Shady Demonic Businessman is just a Shady Demonic Middleman. Unfortunately, just as the Shady Demonic Middleman is about to hook Wesley up with the man he wants to speak to, one of his henchmen gets all murdered. Fighting ensues. Wesley dives out with two guns and Fred quips, “Yes, Wesley, I’d love a gun!”

Kirsti: Fred’s “I am so sick of your macho protect-the-girl shit” attitude this season is phenomenal.

Lorraine: Though, Fred, you could’ve brought your own gun to the shady demonic business dealing…

Sweeney: Just a thought.

The dude who presumably got that henchman to end up with a hook in his throat drops in wearing a black ski mask. Shady Demonic Middle Man backs the fuck off. More fighting. Angel pops in just then (where were you a few seconds ago?) and kills Ski Mask Man. Underneath his ski mask he has a metal face, which is an even better descriptor and also makes the ski mask a little pointless, doesn’t it? Regardless, all is not yet well because it turns out that Fred has a major chest wound.

Lor: When Angel snapped ski mask’s neck, it started to spark and my first thought was, “OH NO. NOT GWEN!” Not Gwen, just a robot ninja. Cool.

Sweeney: That would have been THE SADDEST. I would have emailed to complain.

Electric cellos.

After the credits, Angel is yelling at Wesley about how Fred could have been killed and shouldn’t have been there at all. UGH. Shut your stupid mouth, Angel. (K: SERIOUSLY.) Wesley needed her to explain the gun and he felt that Fred had more than proven herself in the field. TRUE. Angel yells at Wesley some more and dismisses him. Eve was there for all of this and tells Angel to chill the fuck out since Fred is fine. Eve suggests that maybe this isn’t really about Fred so much as lingering bitterness about the whole Wesley-kidnapped-Connor thing. Angel halfheartedly defends Wes’s kidnapping escapade, and Eve says that everything worked out in the end, so whatever. Eve suspects that Angel is worried about the next time Wesley betrays Angel in an effort to do “the right thing.”

I hated Wesley’s period of gross self-righteousness in the too-many-episodes-long aftermath of the baby kidnapping, but he finally got to a point where he had really grown from that and while wiping everyone’s memory eliminated everyone’s (but Angel’s) seeds of mistrust from the fallout, it also robbed them all of some major events in their own lives and the corresponding growth. Terrible events, to be sure, but terrible events that they were all finally getting to the other side of – a choice Angel really had no right to make for them. I know this has been brought up before, in bits and pieces, but it’s worth repeating in this particular context. Angel’s habit of making decisions on behalf of other people is fucking annoying. Consistent, I suppose, but fucking annoying. It’s an act of betrayal all its own and he has no one but himself to blame for his current paranoid status. He’s terrified because, ironically, post-betrayal Wesley would probably be an easier person to trust right now.

K: A+ and 1430, Sweeney. 

Sweeney: Fred and Wesley encounter each other and he apologizes. She says it’s no big, but he won’t let up. He apologizes for not being able to protect her better and for even letting her be there in the first place. She rightly points out how patronizing and bullshit that is. She says that his attempt at valiance comes across as self-pitying child. Someone pass this word along to Angel. Unfortunately, it’s time for Wesley’s childhood trauma to arrive: his dad catches the tail end of that conversation, saying there’s no use in telling Wesley to grow up. Fred pretends she was prepping a speech for someone else and excuses herself.

We haven’t seen too much of Wesley’s dad, but you lot have brought him up about a million and six times so I’m going to go ahead and use the Traumaland terrible father moniker of Shitbag from here on out. (K: LEGIT NICKNAME IS LEGIT.) Shitbag Pryce is there to say that he and a few others have decided to restart the Watcher’s Council. You know, because the patriarchy has to find a way to re-oppress all those girls Buffy empowered. Shitbag Pryce gets in a dig about how Wesley’s tenure as Watcher was an embarrassing failure, adding that he’s there to evaluate Wesley in order to decide if he should be reinstated. Wesley politely tells him to fuck off, since he’s content with his new gig. They go back and forth about the current state of Wolfram & Hart and Wesley is still visibly shaken by his father’s presence.

Lor: He runs into a door and a person. Do you remember super clumsy Wesley? Apparently it was all childhood trauma induced! AND IT’S COMING BACK.

Sweeney: They run into Lorne and you know Shitbag is evil because he’s not charmed by Lorne! How do you not be charmed by Lorne? He mocks the value of the Entertainment Division in the fight against evil, which is Gunn’s cue to make a not-the-right-audience joke and introduce himself to Shitbag. Gunn also tells Wesley that he’s needed in the lab because they’re picking away at the cyborg they ran into. Wesley reluctantly invites his terrible father along.

Evil Radio Shack. Fred is telling Angel that Robocob was human but was so heavily replaced with robot parts that it’s not entirely clear. Spike is there because of reasons and also to remind everyone of all the sex he had with Buffybot. Thanks for that! Fred “anywaaaays” them back on track to say that she thinks that maybe all the robot business in the brain hole should help them crack Robocop’s memories. With that, Wesley and Shitbag Pryce enter. They see Spike first, and Shitbag Pryce apparently watched Spike slaughter an orphanage in Vienna forever ago.

K: Spike’s “I have no memory of this” reaction was oddly hilarious for me.

Sweeney: Then he gives Angel, “Bitch please,” face when he offers up a hand to shake. Fred ushers Wesley and Shitbag over to Robocop’s body and Angel sees himself out.

While they go over the body there is some Fred/Hat Trick flirting, which Wesley eyes, but he’s got bigger problems right now. Fred says that she spotted some crazy looking symbols and wanted him to give it a look before they did anything further. He gets a little more proper, eager to impress his father, explaining that he’ll have to come up with a counter-spell and then starts poking around (Not wearing gloves! So unsanitary!) and inadvertently activates a bomb in the process. Womp. It’s just not his day.

K: Of course not, there’s a parent from whom he’s seeking approval present!

Lor: You know, it was probably his desperate need for approval that tripped the bomb. I hear that shit’s heavy.

Sweeney: After a Not Break, Wesley is evacuating Evil Radio Shack while he keeps trying to find the solution. Spike excitedly realizes that one of the perks of ghost living is that he has nothing to worry about. As Wesley is pushing Fred out the door, Shitbag Pryce dismantles the bomb. It seems Wesley misidentified the origin of the symbols and Shitbag Pryce worked it out in .2 seconds.

Up in Angel’s office, he’s trying to figure out what’s going on. Spike is giddy that Shitbag Pryce said something about Wesley having been Head Boy because he’s just kind of hanging around doing nothing right now. Also, Spike calls Wesley “Percy.” Percy Weasley was Head Boy too. (L: A+) Anyway, Fred and Wesley explain what happened. Angel asks where Shitbag Pryce even is and we get a quick shot of Lorne keeping him “entertained.” Fred runs off to rescue him and Spike sees him out. Wesley apologizes and Angel says that his father’s visit just rattled him. Angel doesn’t want to dwell on the fathers and sons thing so he hands Wesley a report about something potentially related. Wesley looks at it and thinks that the Robocops might actually be good guys. Angel sends Wesley off to investigate further.

Later, Shitbag Pryce is regaling Fred with stories from Wesley’s childhood. Seven-year-old Wesley once tried to use a resurrection spell on a dead bird. I want to make a Pushing Daisies reference but I’m not sure how to go about it. That was clunky, but I guess I just did. Anyway, Wesley takes a deep breath and asks Shitbag to help him with his research.

In Wesley’s magic library Shitbag tries to make small talk about Fred, but Wesley isn’t having it. When he finally opens up and explains how things truly ended with him and Lilah (how does his memory explain why all of that started if he has no memory of the betrayal?) (K: Shhhhhh, don’t poke the plot holes, Sweeney. The whole universe will unravel!) (S: Sorry, sorry, “because of reasons,” of course!) Shitbag doesn’t take it seriously. As Wesley explains the power of the books, Shitbag Pryce chastises him for leaving the books out in the open because it’s dangerous. With all this talk of the safety of the books, I’m pretty sure Shitbag Pryce isn’t actually there to recruit Wesley so much as steal his shit. Wesley helpfully explained that all the good stuff is in his vault.

Lor: Well, damn. My thought was, “oh someone’s going to steal that!” but I didn’t think it would be Shitbag.

Sweeney: The inclusion, “AND ALSO MY VAULT!” bit was the major tip off.

Up on the roof, half a dozen Robocops drop in.

Eve gets into an elevator and finds Spike there. He says that Eve has been watching him closely too. He figures that part of his being trapped there has to be connected to Eve. He goes on to say that if the amulet was given to Angel then ghost-ifying him must have been the goal, meaning his continued confinement makes negative sense. Eve asks who said the amulet was really meant for Angel. Before Spike can really consider that question, the power goes out. The elevator stops and it goes dark. At first Spike thinks it’s Pavayne again, but no. Just a power outage.

Spike ghosts up to the main lobby where Angel and Gunn and trying to figure out what’s going on. An alarm which had been going off cuts out, which Gunn speculates means that they’ve lost security. Theory seems legit as a bunch of robocops drop in. Shitbag Pryce comes out to whine about it a bit.

The contentious father-son duo fight a robocop into the library. Wesley takes it down and Shitbag grumbles a bit about order, a helpful reminder of why The Watcher’s Council sucks ass.

K: Because of everything ever, right? (*Except Giles)

Sweeney: Shitbag then adds that robocop was after Wesley’s important books, so if they’re leaving, the books need to be put away first. In the super secret safe. As Wesley is putting the books away, Shitbag disarms Wesley a bit with a compliment, which buys him time to knock Wesley out and steal his keys so he can go to another locked box to steal the thing he came to steal. He radios to someone else that Phase One is complete and Phase Two can now begin.

Back in the lobby, Gunn and Angel are still fighting robocops. It’s not going well.

A bit later, Wesley wakes up to his headache and missing stuff. (A headache and he’s WITHOUT HIS STUFF? Worst!) Elsewhere, Shitbag is walking around and comes across Fred. He lies that Wesley is doing something on the roof and sent Shitbag to tell Angel, but he got lost. Fred questions this for a second, but agrees to take him to Angel.

In his library, Wes sees that the robocop he stabbed is still alive. He pulls off the face mask to reveal that robocop has a fairly human, if mutilated, face.  The lines on it kind of remind me of the cannibals from this week’s Game of Thrones. Wesley pulls out his power-core-bomb thing, threatening to kill them all if robocop won’t reveal what Shitbag stole and what his master plan is.

In the lobby, Angel is fighting. You know, the lobby that Shitbag would have had to walk right past. Spike is able to narrowly save Gunn from being choked to death by taking out a robocop after a great deal of concentrating.

The last of them are taken out just as Fred and Shitbag come running up to tell Angel that he’s needed on the roof. Shitbag insists on going with Angel.

Roof. Angel goes up there to find that Wesley isn’t there. Shitbag says that his presence there was never about Wesley, so much as Angel. He pulls out the big stick he stole and then some crazy CGI glowy aura-ness (soul?) comes flowing out of Angel and he collapses. Shitbag radios to someone else that the next step is done and they’re ready for extraction. Just in time (or, like, a few minutes on the late side, but whatever) Wesley shows up with a gun. (K: For a British dude, Wesley is weirdly reliant on guns these days…) (S: It’s all that time in ‘MURICA!) He steals the stick and points the gun at Shitbag (who has one pointed at him in turn), helpfully explaining to the audience that the plan was to steal Angel’s will and make him their slave. This will-stealing mechanism sounds like a lot of bullshit, but is slightly more sensible than another remove-Angel’s-soul plan. Shitbag says Angel’s just a puppet – first to The Powers That Be (Contriving), then to Wolfram & Hart, and now The New Watcher’s Council, I guess.

Wesley asks why Shitbag didn’t just go to him and they have a big standoff about how Shitbag has been constantly humiliated by his son. Fred comes in to sit by Angel. Wesley says that Shitbag never had any use for him as a child and can’t stand the thought of him as an adult. Shitbag snarks that this is Los Angeles so they have to talk about their feelings and maybe hug it out. A helicopter looms overhead and Wesley backs up to the edge of the roof, threatening to drop the staff. Shitbag says he’ll shoot Wesley for it, but if the staff drops, it breaks. Angel gets restored and the plan fails. Wesley knows his Shitbag father would kill him, but at least this way his plan will still fail. With that, Shitbag tries to grab Fred as leverage. That’s Wesley’s opening; he fires a whole bunch of shots into his father’s chest and then walks off to vomit. A fair reaction. But then his father’s corpse starts to flicker because he was himself a robocop. Womp.

Seizure cut to later in Angel’s office. Wesley asks if he’s all right, and he’s mostly just nauseous. Still no theories as to who these guys are and why they wanted Angel. Angel theorizes that the many people who hate them perceive as weak. Wesley says he thinks it’s just him who is weak. Angel says that’s bullshit because Wesley is someone who will make hard calls in defense of what he believes is right. Like kidnapping and killing his dad. NBD about that last thing, though, because it was just a robot. Angel guesses that the reason the robot knew so much about Wesley is that if the robocops are actually affiliated with The New Watcher’s Council, then they probably had a psychological profile on Wesley at some point or another. Angel tries to help by mentioning that killing his dad was the first thing he did as a vampire. Wesley points out that this is not, in fact, helpful.

In the lobby, Spike stops Wesley to share that he also killed his mother. Twice over, having made her a vampire and then having to off the vampire version.

K: Not gonna lie, I giggled over the fact that Angel and Spike both tried to cheer Wes up in the same I-killed-my-parent-too way.

Sweeney: Wesley tells everyone to stop helping and goes to his office. Fred comes in to comfort him without stories of parental murder. Fred tries to insist that part of Wesley must have known, even if he can’t admit it. Wesley identifies that for the bullshit it is and that it’s not just threatening his friends but her specifically. Fred is processing all of that, when Whedon Hat Trick drops by to be a cockblock and remind Fred that he was going to give her a ride home. Wesley tells Fred that she should go. She gives him a longing look back and then carries on.

Once they’re gone, Wesley picks up the phone and calls home. His mother answers and he asks to speak to his father who doesn’t even let him speak because he’s too busy bitching about the time. Wesley says he just wanted to call and see how his father was doing. End credits.

K: I’m going to declare Shitbag to still be a shitbag on account of not being able to work out/not giving a crap about the fact that his son is calling at stupid o’clock because he’s upset. Sure, getting a phone call at stupid o’clock is the Worst Ever because it requires you to Person hours before you were prepared to Person. But only negligent shitbag parents would react with what’s basically a “FUCK OFF.” So…yeah.

Lor: Plus, all previous mentions of Roger have made him seemed negligent. I think we heard he locked Wesley up under the stairs for long periods of time.

This was probably the best episode of the season for me. It isn’t perfect and I think the reveal that Roger is a robot kind of cheapened everything that happened here, as far as the story goes. For poor Wesley, it probably feels like he’s killed his father, whether or not he actually did. He thought he did. He proved he would. He still has to deal with that guilt.

I still have a few issues with how Fred is being used within the plot, and with Spike’s characterization, and this episode wasn’t without faults, but considering how badly this season started, yes this certainly will be a highlight.

Sweeney: Agreed on all counts. Fred’s usage by the S5 plot is driving me nuts. This episode actually addressed that in a few places which was good. (You know, before it continued to keep doing what it was doing.)

This was the first episode that I recapped that I kind of enjoyed! Struggle bus episodes are even worse when you’re the main recapper, so this was nice. There was a lot going on and there was an actual acknowledgement, however subtle, of the major fast one Angel pulled on everyone at the end of the least season. Interesting, too, to have Wesley find his way to making a brand new soul-crushing hard call.

Hopefully all of this means that this season has finally found it’s groove and is ready to get rolling with some good stuff.

I still stand by my lone enjoyment of Lorne’s cracked out Halloween party, though…

 

Next time: Spike gets a mysterious package and everyone at Wolfram & Hart gets possessed in Angel S05 E08 – Destiny.