Angel S04 E05 – I don’t get it.

Previously: Still NOPE.
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Supersymmetry

Lorraine: I brought up my recapping method in today’s Buffy post. For Angel, it’s become a different thing. Namely, I have to power through the episode in a sitting and then come back and recap from memory/skipping around Netflix/transcripts/notes. It’s the only way.

That said, I’d be a terrible Internet friend if I didn’t tell you that about 5 minutes of this episode are rated BB for [FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY PLEASE STOCK UP ON THE] Brain Bleach.

Sweeney: I can’t believe we didn’t make this rating sooner, really:

Lor: Indeed. And really, YMMV, but you’ll probably still be thankful to have extra brain bleach around the house anyway.

Kirsti: Accurate. You can never have too much brain bleach, especially with what’s still to come.

Lor: Onto the episode:

We seizure zoom through LA and finally to the Brooding Hotel where Fred is straight squealing. Turns out it’s happy squealing as she’s had an article published in “Modern Physics Review.” Gunn looks at the magazine and reads the title of the article, earning him a gold star!

Fred says he doesn’t have to read it, but he gamely says that of course he will. Fred pretty quickly puts him out of his misery, however, with sexy kisses.

K: I can relate to Fred’s “I GOT SOMETHING PUBLISHED!!” squeals, but I just hovered behind people to make sure they actually read it and didn’t just look at the pictures…

Lor: We cut to Lorne in bed and Angel bringing him a food tray. They have a “previously” session of their own and it includes the phrase, “Cordelia shacking up with your hell-spawn.” Lorne heads Angel off and says he won’t read Cordelia again. He’s not a CHAMPION! He’s just a “regular” empath demon. Lorne’s worried that reading Cordy again will just set Wolfram and Hart after him again.

Sweeney: I didn’t think I could find new things to hate about this whole Lorne-reading-Cordelia plot. I should have known.

Lor: Angel gets distracted as he hears something out in the Brooding Hotel. He leaves Lorne to go investigate. Turns out it’s just Connor, rustling around in Cordelia’s room, collecting her things. Angel grabs Connor before he realizes who it is, but then lets him go and apologizes. “I’m used to it,” Connor brats, and maybe that’s because you keep creeping, asshole. Sorry. I know some of you have Connor sympathies, but I don’t so far, and I’ll get into why that is a bit at the end. In the meanwhile, I might call him lots of names.

K: Fair.

Lor: Angel tries to inquire about Cordy. Connor gives him quick answers about how she’s safe and doesn’t remember anything about him. Connor wants to go and Angel first gives him Cordelia’s fuzzy slippers because her feet get cold. Connor: I know. She’s always stealing the covers.

K: Add in extra brain bleach to get rid of Angel’s kicked-puppy-dog expression.

Lor: Electric Cellos.

The next day, Angel finds Gunn lounging on the couch in the Brooding Lobby. Fred is in the office talking animatedly to Lorne. Gunn warns Angel off going inside the office, saying that Fred kept him up all night. Angel’s mind goes dirty places but Fred soon skips over to explain that she’s been asked to present her article at the Physics Institute. She asks to practice her speech on Angel because Lorne is tired out.

Back in the office, Angel and Gunn settle in to be Fred’s audience and she soft-pedals the significance of her discovery. She confides in them that before Pylea, she looked up to all these people and just wanted them to notice her. In Pylea, she spent all her time keeping her head low, not wanting anyone to see her at all. Gunn says that everyone will be watching her now, and she gets nervous again. Gunn says they’ll be in the audience cheering her on, but Angel and Lorne are silent on the matter. Lorne chalks up Angel’s awkward silence to the fact that the hell-spawn dropped in for a visit the previous night to pick up some things for Cordelia. Fred offers that Cordy is just trying to piece her life together, like she is, post-Pylea trauma that is now physics breakthrough.

Wesley’s Trapped in the Closet Apartment. He’s reading a magazine and it’s probably Fred’s article because Wesley learned his stalking skills from the best in the biz. (K: I’m really REALLY torn between “Dude, stop being a creeper” and “Aww, that’s kind of sweet.”) There’s a knock on the door and it’s Lilah, bearing a big gift, though Wesley thinks it’s either a bribe or a set-up. It’s an antique helmet and Wesley is pretty impressed. Lilah says, “we seem to be butting heads lately. Now you’ll have the advantage.” It’s an expensive, thoughtful gift complete with a life-applicable cheesy line. A+ gifting, Lilah. She wants to be thanked (*eyebrow waggle*) but Wesley says he’s got somewhere to be. After he’s gone, Lilah notices the magazine on the table open to Fred’s article.

Brain Bleach Attic. Cordelia is pinning up some pictures of the Fang Gang and they are all labeled with names. It’s kind of a weird image because it looks more like a suspect board than anything else. Cordy asks Connor why there aren’t any pictures of Angel. He claims he didn’t find any. Cordy says it’s fine as all her nesting is starting to make the Brain Bleach Attic more homey. She leans over a table and Connor looks down her shirt.

K: The zoomy cameraman’s “check out her boobs!” zoom didn’t help the need for brain bleach here. Not only do we have pervy Connor to deal with, but a pervy cameraman.

Lor: Cordy says that something is still missing and Connor thinks it’s demon-ass-kicking, seeing as how that was a big part of her life before. He hands her an axe and offers to train her.

Physics Institute. Fred is nervous and Angel and Gunn are noticeably out of their element. Fred soon spots a professor she recognizes and he praises her work. Gunn gives a pointed throat clear, and Fred introduces him and Angel both as her friends. There is some physics joke in here about taking on WIMPs, but it’s just all in an effort to make sure that we know that Gunn does not get it. Gunn doesn’t get it, get it? Just in case you were wondering, Gunn totally doesn’t get it.

Sweeney: I’m not entirely sure I’m following. I hope we get a few more lines of dialogue to establish FOR SURSIES that Gunn does not, in fact, understand high level physics.

Lor: Moving on.

Professor Seidel invites Fred to his office the next day to discuss her work.

We cut to inside the auditorium where Angel and Gunn are settling into their seats and talking about how much they don’t get Fred’s work, thus granting Sweeney’s request. Angel notices Wesley, picking a seat in the back. Professor Seidel introduces Fred and she opens with a joke about how her work might be a joke. She gets nervous for a second, but soon launches into her full speech. During this time we see Lilah walk in and watch Wesley watch Fred appreciatively.

Lilah takes out her cell phone and dials as she exits the auditorium. On stage, a portal opens above Fred’s head and a multi-headed snake-beastie comes through and grabs Fred. After a cut to black, Gunn and Angel rush on stage and wrestle with the snake-beastie. Everyone in the audience freakouts and runs away, accept for one dude who takes pictures with some silly looking pint-sized camera.

K: I guess in a world before mobile phones had cameras, you just never knew when you might need a teeny tiny camera doomed to produce slightly shitty photos??

Lor: Even the immediate past is a scary place.

Angel reaches for the knife he keeps tucked away in his shoe and manages to chop off one of the snake-beastie’s heads. The snake retreats into his portal. All during this, Wesley was trying to also jump into the fight, but he was too late. He watches as Gunn comforts Fred.

Lilah drives through a parking garage when suddenly the cloth roof of her convertible is ripped off. She sticks her head out and finds Angel standing there all, “HUH. THAT JUST RIPPED RIGHT OFF.” I’m sorry but I just get an admittedly evil joy whenever Angel is mean to Lilah. (S: Samesies.) Sometimes you just have feelings, readers, and they are hard to control. My evil joy is short lived, though, because after about one second of questioning I think Angel smells the truth on Lilah (0r something) and deduces that she wasn’t the one who opened the portal. She was just creeping on Wesley. Angel vaguely threatens Lilah a bit more and she’s all, “yeah, yeah, Hulksmash,” and drives away.

K: AVENGERS SHOTS!!!!!! Sorry. There has to be SOMETHING to get excited about in this show.

Lor: Back at the Brooding Hotel, Gunn is trying to sleep, but Fred is up and muttering to herself as she draws on the walls. Gunn tries to assure her that she’s safe, but Fred reminds him that she felt safe until she picked up a strange book and read strange words in front of it. Then she found herself in Pylea. Gunn thinks everything will look less like a portal may swallow her at any moment in the morning, and she’ll go visit her old professor and he will deal with the demon-y stuff with Angel.

The next day, Angel has recreated the auditorium seating with chairs he’s collected from around the hotel. Gunn snarks at him while he tries to remember who was sitting where. As he remembers and lists the people, we flashback to the actual auditorium. Angel probably spent more time collecting all these chairs that he did remembering that the guy sitting right the fuck behind him wearing a THWACK shirt was taking pictures with his itty bitty camera. Gunn knows where they’ll find this kid.

Thwack Comics. Gunn is throwing Thwack Guy around, making comic book references to truly convey how much he’s capable of hurting him. Thwack says he was just there to see if Fred was really “one of them.”

K: Gunn making a million comic book references made me so many different kinds of happy. 

Lor: Cut to Fred meeting with Professor Seidel. She’s wrapping up her explanation of Pylea and he seems slightly unconvinced. Seidel pauses to introduce Fred to his TA and then leads her to his office. There, Seidel shows her the last test she took. She got an A- though any other student would’ve gotten an A+, which pretty much sounds like this professor is a dick. Professor Dick says he’d like to teach Fred again, though she hesitates because she’s got a new life now.

Back with Thwack, he’s saying that sometimes you hear stories and Gunn offers, “like the story about the girl, the cat and peanut butter.” Angel says that one’s true. Welp. Thwack also reveals that there are forums in chat rooms (and snarky websites!) dedicated to Angel (K: LOLOLOLOLOL.). (S: THE CHARACTERS HAVE FOUND US OUT. QUICK, BURN IT ALL DOWN.) Anyways, the point of all this is that Thwack heard there were three disappearances of nerdy types before Fred and one since.

Professor Dick’s office. The TA needs the professor’s help and he leaves Fred alone in there. She starts poking around in his books and finds a drawing of the snake-beastie who attacked her earlier. Told you the professor was a dick.

Gunn and Angel are putting that together themselves at the hotel. Fred arrives to confirm. Angel says they’ll get him to pay, but Fred wants him to die. She opens the weapons cabinet and starts rifling through it. Gunn tries to calm her down, but she won’t be soothed. Professor Dick sent her to hell and she’s set on making him pay. Gunn says this isn’t what they do. They help people and kill monsters. Killing the professor will condemn her to living with different kinds of demons every day. Fred seems to calm down and heads upstairs to lie down. Angel says they have to go after Professor Dick and soon. Gunn: We gotta get to him before Fred changes her mind. ‘Cause vengeance—it can get ugly. I’m calling Ugly Vengeance our Whedonverse Crossover of the day.

Trapped in the Closet Apartment. Wesley opens a beer and hands it to Fred. DAMN FRED. YOU WENT TO WESLEY? She complains about how Angel and Gunn want her to turn the other cheek when Professor Dick has proven time and again his full capacity for evil. Wesley reveals that he was there when the portal opened up during her speech and they start talking physics because Wesley gets it, get it? Anyway, Fred came to Wesley for help and ideas on how to deal with Professor Dick. He says that Angel and Gunn are right about how this might ruin her forever but she’s pretty okay with that.

They look over some books and Fred’s phone rings. On the screen are a bunch of weird symbols and apparently you can open portals by cell phone! THE HELL? I’m pretty sure I’ve been in a terrible class where something like that would’ve been handy. Wesley saves Fred.

Connor and Cordelia fight off a vampire and she’s got some slayer-like moves. She kills the vampire and in the excitement pop kisses Connor. He takes this opportunity to pull her into a longer, deeper kiss. She pulls away from it and touches her lips and in my head, she’s wiping the cooties away.

K: A+ gif usage. Seriously.

Lor: Gunn and Fred have discovered Fred’s empty bedroom. Angel heads out the window to go after her. Gunn will meet him there.

Fred is riding shotgun in Wesley’s car, loading a crossbow as they go. Wesley makes sure she remembers everything they went over and then loses a million points with me when he tells Fred, “not that I don’t get his point—but I’m surprised Gunn’s not here, no matter what the consequences.” SURE, SURE, WESLEY, THE EXPERT IN BEING THERE FOR PEOPLE. RIGHT. Whatever. Wesley drops Fred off.

Angel gets to Professor Dick’s office first and finds him packing some stuff. He throws his desk aside and threatens him with jail. It’s enough banter to allow Professor Dick to grab a book and open a portal. A demon comes out of it and Angel fights it.

Professor Dick runs out of his office but doesn’t get very far because he runs straight into Fred and her crossbow.

 

I’m confused for a second because I’d managed to forget about CoGAGnnor and CorGAGdelia but alas. Here we are, back at the Brain Bleach Attic. Connor hugs up on Cordelia but she says she has to go motorcycle to Africa, and it’s not him, it’s her, and she’ll probably be back soon. Connor is pissed.

K: I think I like “Sorry, I have to motorcycle to Africa” even better than “Sorry, I have to shave my hands tonight”. 

Sweeney: They have very different connotations and effects. Much of the appeal of “I have to shave my hands” is that this person will never ever try to contact you again because you’ve grossed them out. Motorcycling to Africa is likely to cause sufficient confusion to make someone stick around to ask questions. BUT THE JOKE’S ON THEM BECAUSE THEY’RE NEVER GETTING ANY. Sorry, that got away from me.

Lor: We don’t use these excuses willy nilly. We have reasons, people.

Angel is having a hell of a time with the demon. He thinks he kills it but then it just brushes death off its shoulders and stands up again. Outside, PD tries to appeal to Fred, saying she isn’t capable of murder, but she says that after five years in the hell he sent her to, she’s capable of plenty. She chants in Egyptian and a portal opens up near Professor Dick. Gunn’s finally made it to the lab and she asks Fred not to do this, though she claims she’s not technically killing the professor. They rehash their argument: Gunn asks her not to do this to herself and Fred holds that Gunn doesn’t understand what she went through.

As they argue, PD is being pulled into the portal. Fred thinks this is the only way to stop him. Gunn: If you kill him, I’m gonna lose you. Gunn grabs the professor just as a desk is sucked into the portal. He breaks the professor’s neck and throws him into the portal.

Well, shit.

K: Yup. It was pretty damned brutal in its suddenness.

Lor: Angel finally makes it out of the professor’s office and asks what happened. Gunn only says, “it’s been taken care of.”

The gang head back to the hotel. They’ve lied to Angel and told him that the professor was sucked into his own portal. Sad and both resigned, Fred and Gunn excuse themselves upstairs. Angel regards them warily, but is soon distracted by Cordelia, waiting for him in the lobby. They head out to the garden to talk. Out there, Cordelia tells him that he should have someone look at the cuts on his face. Cordelia was always the one to look after his cuts, though. And she’s missing. Angel recoils from her touch. She knows they were friends, and not only from pictures. She understands why Angel lied to her initially but she’s asking for the truth now. Angel promises it to her. She says she needs to know if they were in love.

Cut to black.

If he says no, I’m going to motorcycle to Africa.

I’ve got all kinds of feelings about Fred wanting to kill Seidel and Gunn ultimately deciding to. I think storylines like these are best when you can see the side of both characters, and I truly do in this instance. I love Fred, and how intelligent she is, and how her bad experiences have shaped her. She’s come a long way from hiding out in her room and drawing on the walls. Even though we see that from her again here, briefly, as soon as she knows that Seidel is responsible, she sets after him. I get her, and her need for vengeance, but I can’t really cheer her on for wanting to send a man to hell. Not with my head, you know?

That’s where my understanding for Gunn comes in. Wesley insinuates that Gunn should be there no matter what, but I don’t think I agree. I mean, I love my family a ton, but if anyone of them every decided to murder a person, I wouldn’t be driving them to the crime scene. You’re on your own for shit like that. But then, at the end, Gunn kills Seidel himself. This action really depends on how you interpret it. Was it a spur of the moment, protecting Fred thing? Was he robbing Fred of something that was her “right?” Was he protecting Fred because he loves her or because he sees her as a weak? I tend to give Gunn the benefit of the doubt.

Finally, I don’t like Connor so far. Yeah, yeah, rough life, etc, but he’s just a brat 97% of that time, and that’s grating. If I have to remind myself that a character had a rough childhood every time he opens his mouth? Not my kind of character.

 

Next time: Lorne makes with a magic spell and it makes everyone think they’re in high school and also hunting Angel in S04 E06 – Spin the Bottle.