Angel S03 E03 – Hangin’ Tough

Previously: Wolfram & Hart hired Kal Penn to give Cordy visions with super gross side effects, and Angel had to go to a hell dimension to break a mysterious evil dude out of a box made of fire. Seriously.
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That Old Gang of Mine

Kirsti: We open at Lorne’s bar with Angel apologising sincerely to someone off camera – he used them and he feels really bad about it. Said off camera person turns out to be Merl the snitch, who doesn’t believe Angel’s apology on account of he’s reading it from a piece of paper.

 

Merl doesn’t feel like it’s sincere enough, and Angel eye-rolls at the Fang Gang who are still sporting completely terrible hair. Cordy pulls Merl aside for a pep talk while Wes does the same for Angel. Angel eventually offers Merl a free shot at him, and then taunts him until he throws a bottle. At which point Merl gets hurled back by some kind of force field. Angel tries to keep a straight face while Lorne makes the sarcastic excuse that Angel must have “forgotten” that demon violence is impossible in his bar. Merl says he never wants to see any of them ever again, and then demands a lift home.

Lorraine: Merl makes me laugh. Like, I kind of feel bad that I’m enjoying his misery, but this brand of mean Angel is fun.

K: I can never decide if it’s funny, or sort of a dick move…

Cut to Gunn’s truck. He pulls up outside Merl’s, and the second Merl closes the door, Gunn drives away. Merl heads into his apartment and goes through his mail, then gets attacked by something that splatters his yellow-y blood all over the walls. Cue electric cellos.

Lor: Well, shit. Now I feel REALLY bad for enjoying his misery. RIP MERL. WE NEVER KNEW YE.

Sweeney: Always rough when we poke fun at people right before they die. There’s really nothing we can do about the dual forces of snark factor and body counts in the material we cover.

K: Also, I feel like Whedon often sets us up to feel really bad in these situations by creating funny situations shortly before he kills people off.

After the credits, we get a REALLY blurry (like watching a 3D movie without the glasses on kind of blurry) series of images reminding us all about Gunn’s sister – he was meant to protect her, he failed, she got turned into a vampire, he was forced to kill her. Gunn wakes from his nightmare screaming his sister’s name. The pager (LOL) on his bedside table beeps as he looks tearful. Cut to Gunn walking into Merl’s apartment where Angel is investigating. Apparently he stopped by that morning to try and apologise again and found Merl all over the room. Wes appears from a backroom and asks Gunn if he saw anything weird when he dropped Merl off. But Gunn is a little preoccupied with why they’re even there – Merl was a nice guy, but at the end of the day he was a demon, and they kill demons every day, so who really cares? Angel and Wes are taken aback, and Wes suggests that maybe Gunn should leave. He does so.

But he doesn’t go home as Wes suggests. Instead, he goes to the bad part of town to visit his old crew. There’s a small fight on account of he walks in unannounced, and then some new kid on the block sasses him because he’d heard that Charles Gunn was some big name vampire killer, and now here’s Gunn working for a vampire. Rondell – Gunn’s replacement as leader – tells NKOTB to get back to his post, and NKOTB sasses his way out the door, saying that they might want to have their little catch up outside in the sunshine, just to be safe. Gunn looks miserable.

Lor: Meanwhile, I can’t stop giggling over NKOTB.

Sweeney: A+

K: Sorry not sorry for giving him that nickname.

Cut to the Hyperion where ANGEL IS WEARING LEATHER PANTS OMFG AHAHAHAHAHAHA. Ahem. (S: My reaction as well.) He and Cordy chat about how he’s worried about Fred because she’s been back three months and still hasn’t left the hotel. Cordy doesn’t blame her, on account of the last time she went somewhere, she got sucked into a portal and ended up spending five years in Pylea. Angel asks Cordy to talk to Fred, but she’s not so keen on account of she doesn’t really understand Fred and her special brand of crazy.

She reluctantly agrees though.

Angel picks up a list from the desk and wants to know why his name is at the top of it. Cordy informs him that it’s the list of Merl’s enemies. He insists that he and Merl weren’t enemies. Cordy’s all “bitch, please,” and Wes says that the names seem familiar. Apparently that’s because they weren’t Merl’s enemies until the Fang Gang made him snitch on them. Womp womp. Meanwhile, Angel’s still pissed about being on the list. He tries to go for sarcasm – “Oh, sure. I went *dark* and I killed Merl” – but the others are all “Uh, totally plausible, yo.” Angel is unimpressed. Wes promises to work backwards through the alphabet so that he’s the last suspect they get to.

Lor: No one really wants to tell him that he’s a suspect because of the Bad Girl Leather Pants he’s wearing. Clearly, he needs to visit Faith and ask her how that worked out for her.

Sweeney: Love when the show makes these little self-aware nods like this, though. Nobody actually says it, but when Angel makes some sarcastic, defensive comment about everyone expecting him to be evil again, Cordelia looks at his pants and makes an awesome jokey, “Well, the pants…” face. It’s delightful.

K: Seriously. How has he not learnt by now that leather pants = evil tendencies?

Back on the bad side of town, Gunn and Rondell are talking. Rondell says that they haven’t seen Gunn in months, and he says that he never meant to turn his back on them. He brings up the gang member who got killed by a vampire at the end of last season, but Rondell says that things haven’t been the same since Gunn’s sister died. He agrees – if he couldn’t keep her safe, how could he be responsible for all of them? Rondell assures Gunn that there are a lot of people alive because of him.

In an apartment building somewhere or other, Wes and Angel are tracking down another of Merl’s enemies. Their method of working out if said enemies are demon or human appears to be as follows: 1. Have Angel kick door down, 2. If Angel can enter, enemy is demon. Uh, Whedon plays pretty fast and loose with the rules sometimes, guys. I’d find a more reliable method, personally…

Anyway, said enemy is also dead in the same manner as Merl. Angel and Wes agree that whatever they’re up against is big and mean and pissed off, and they should probably go find Gunn. We head down to the sewers where something big is shambling along making slurpy noises. A beam of light hits it, and it turns around to reveal that it’s a slightly cross-eyed and very mild mannered demon drinking an enormous soft drink. A group of guys come charging down the sewer and hack the cross-eyed demon apart. The one to fire the kill shot is NKOTB.

Lor:

Okay. I’m sorry. I’ll stop now.

Sweeney: Never stop.

K: Agreed.

After the Not Commercial Break, Wes is investigating the murdered demon’s apartment. He finds an arrowhead identical to the ones that NKOTB was using. Gunn turns up in response to Wes’ page and is pretty cranky when he finds out that the dead dude was a demon, because EW DEMONS GROSS. He demands to know why they’re there because it’s not like the Powers That Be (Contriving) sent Cordy a vision or anything. Wes says that sometimes real life has shades of grey and GODDAMMIT THAT PHRASE WILL NEVER BE USABLE AGAIN. Gunn still wants to know why he should give a fuck, and Wes points out that whatever is killing these demons is just killing them without taking into consideration whether they were good or evil. Angel enter-nounces that he found the cross-eyed demon hacked apart in the sewers just as Gunn notices the arrowhead in an evidence bag on the table. He pockets it while Wes and Angel are distracted. Gunn says he’ll hit the streets and heads out. Angel gives him a weird look as he passes.

Cut to the bad side of town. Gunn shows the arrowhead to Rondell, and tells him that he thinks NKOTB has gone rogue. Rondell is all “LOL, NOPE,” because the whole gang was in on the murdering. Gunn’s taken aback, and asks if the demon had hurt anyone. Rondell says that they didn’t give it a chance to. One of the other gang members calls out to Rondell, and the camera pans across to show the guy handing out some kind of machine gun looking thing to all the gang members. Rondell says that you can never be too careful. He heads off to supervise the machine gun dispersal. Gunn turns to leave, but NKOTB stops him and gets all up in his face about not being a hero any more.

Back at the Hyperion, Wes is going over the evidence bags and realises one is missing. He struggles to remember what it was. Fred, meanwhile, comes downstairs and slips out into the garden. Angel not-even-remotely-subtly sends Cordy after her. Things get off to a very awkward start because Cordy’s opening line is “Angel wants you to get out.” Fred says that she’ll pack her stuff and leave immediately, and Cordy somewhat reluctantly says that she actually meant out of the hotel for a little while. She suggests a girls’ night, and Fred’s fine with going somewhere with Cordy because it means no one will notice her. Cordy has other ideas though, saying that Fred will be on stage in the spotlight.

Lor: I cheer preemptively for Fred karaoke!

K: Be careful what you wish for…

Cut to the bad side of town. Gunn sits in his truck staring at the arrowhead as the Clarinet of Mopiness and Bad Decisions does its thing. He starts the engine, and we seizure cut (it’s been a while, seizure cut! Welcome back) to him walking in the door at the Hyperion. Angel’s the only one there. Gunn asks if he’s made any progress, and Angel says that he’s starting to think there’s a pattern involved, and that the overall purpose of the attacks is fun. Gunn looks shifty and says that he needs to see Wes. Awkward cut to Fred singing “Crazy” at Lorne’s bar. At a table in the back, Wes looks at Cordy in horror and she replies “I swear to God, she picked out the song herself.” Gunn walks in, and smiles when he sees Fred singing.

Lor: Oooh, someone’s got a crush!

Sweeney: Cuuuuute!

K: He heads to the bar, and gets all “Dude, knock it off” when he sees Lorne staring at him. Apparently he’s a Billboard of Feels. Lorne asks if he wants to talk about it, and Gunn asks if he has to sing. But before Lorne can answer, there’s a blast of machine gun fire and Fred gets splattered with demon goo. Gunn’s old gang storm in and start shooting up the place. NKOTB walks into the middle of the room and yells “PARTY!! WOO!” Fade to black.

After the Not Commercial Break, the shooting continues. Fred freaks out on stage, and Wes runs up and carries her to safety. Cordy asks what the hell is going on, because she thought demon violence was impossible there. Wes points out that the attackers are, in fact, human. Rondell yells that it’s time for the gang to leave, but NKOTB stops him saying that he’ll miss out on the good things in life. He calls out Gunn’s name, and Rondell looks shocked. Gunn stands up from behind the bar, and NKOTB is all “Hey boss, he’s been hanging out here with demons for months!” because he’s a little shit who needs to be punched in the dick repeatedly.

Sweeney: NKOTB is the worst. Why isn’t anyone asking why this guy is a total fucking stalker weirdo?

K: Right??? The gang turn their guns on Gunn as Rondell demands answers. Wes stands up from behind a table and demands answers too. Lorne stands up, and a couple of gang members grab him. Wes realises that Gunn knew the gang were behind the deaths, and gets pissed. Gunn apologises to Lorne, and the gang turn their weapons towards Lorne.

Lor: I was super nervous for Lorne. Ever since they faked us out by cutting off his head, I keep expecting that something is going to happen to him. Whedonverses are hard, man.

Sweeney: THIS.

K: Truth. Gunn gets between Lorne and the gang and tells Rondell that he’s lost the mission – breaking into people’s homes and murdering them isn’t what they’re about. Rondell replies that they aren’t people, and asks if Wes is. Wes BAMFs that he’d like a clean kill this time because the last time he got shot, it took months to heal and also IT WAS HELPING OUT RONDELL’S GANG. (S: And fucking Rondell doesn’t say shit to this comment. RAGE! WE REMEMBER WHEELCHAIR!WESLEY AND YOU’D BETTER START EXPRESSING SOME GRATITUDE, DICKFACE.) (Agreed, Sweeney.) Gunn demands that Rondell let the rest of the Fang Gang go, because this is between him and the gang, and tosses his keys to Cordy. Rondell turns back to Gunn:

Rondell: “How can you be sitting up in here with these things and tell me I’m the one that lost the mission?”
Gunn: “Because it’s true. We used to face death because we had to. Now you go chasing it down, man, for the fun of it. That ain’t right.”

Cordy starts to help Fred up and Rondell spins around again, saying that only Cordy can leave. The rest have to stay until Cordy comes back with Angel, because then they’ll really see who’s lost the mission.

Seizure cut to the Hyperion. Cordy’s pissed because Angel’s plan is basically to charge in and then not be able to fight back, which is a really fucking awful plan. He hands her an address and tells her to go see the three mystical sisters who cast the anti-demon violence spell on the club. He wants them to lift the spell so he can fight back. Cordy points out that that’s still a terrible plan, but Angel doesn’t have any better ideas. They have a joint moment of guilt over telling Fred she’d be safe, then Angel leaves.

Back at the club, NKOTB is cackling his way through Wind Beneath My Wings because apparently he’s a 14 year old girl? Fred is clutching Wes’ hand like there’s no tomorrow. NKOTB sasses Gunn some more, and then the microphone gets all feedbacky. He storms off stage and shoots out the speakers. Wes steps closer to Fred and she cowers in his arms. BRB, having feels about my AtS OTP…

Lor: Angel and art???

Sweeney: Angel/Art 4EVA!

K: Okay, fine. My OTHER AtS OTP. Lorne pipes up and says that he knows why NKOTB left Miami – that he couldn’t stay and that “she” had trusted him right up until the end. NKOTB punches Lorne in the face, but Lorne just looks back at him with a smile, despite the blood. NKOTB is taken aback.

One of the other demons in the club decides to make a run for it. He gets as far as the door before they grab him. NKOTB starts yelling that he told them to watch the door, and Gunn takes advantage of the distraction to hit one of the gang members and take his machine gun. The rest of the gang turn their weapons on Gunn. NKOTB gets cocky, saying that Gunn’s protecting the demon – which is apparently of the baby eating variety – over humans. The baby eating demon starts muttering in the background. NKOTB riles Gunn up some more, suggesting that maybe he wants to be a demon too and that maybe what happened to his sister wasn’t the truth because Gunn was the only one there to see it. Gunn snaps and screams “I SAID SHUT UP!!” as he shoots the baby eating demon. “Nice shot. Am I next?” says Angel from the doorway. Fade to black.

After the Not Commercial Break, Rondell hands Gunn a stake, and tells him to prove once and for all that Angel means nothing to him. Wes intervenes, saying that Angel has a soul, but Rondell has no fucks to give. NKOTB is all “what, like that makes him the same as us?” and Wes replies that it doesn’t. It makes Angel better than them, because he had no soul and therefore no choice when he was a deranged murderer. They did. Rondell gives Gunn an ultimatum, and Angel vamps out and is all “Come at me, bro.”

Cut to the three mystical sisters, who are floating around in the air as they pour Cordy tea. Any time Angel’s name is mentioned, their reaction is “Mmmm, Angel…“, which creeps Cordy out. She asks them to lift the spell at Caritas, because if they don’t, Angel will die.

Back at the club, Gunn drops the stake and says he won’t kill Angel. Not because Angel’s his friend – Angel’s a vampire, so they can never be friends – but because Angel’s got the mission and they don’t. Rondell is pissed, and NKOTB steps up to say that no one can leave unless they prove themselves by killing Angel. Fred slowly stands up and says that she doesn’t want to die. Wes and Gunn are all “WTF?!” while Angel looks resigned. NKOTB hands his crossbow rig to Fred.

Back at the Mystical Sister Apartment, Cordy says she’ll do whatever it takes to lift the spell.

 

The sisters reply that it’s not a debt she can pay, and that only Angel is equipped to do so. And they’re not talking financially equipped. Cordy’s grossed out. Back at Caritas. Fred takes the crossbow rig and apologises to Angel. He says that he understands. NKOTB says that she has to shoot Angel in the heart or it won’t work. She takes a step forward, then swings around and holds the arrow at his throat, because she may be crazy, but she’s a BAMF:

Fred: Although I thought I might just shoot you in the throat instead. Now, if I pierce one of your carotid arteries, considering the temperature in here, ’cause I think somebody shot the thermostat, the blood loss is gonna be heavy. And there’s a chance I’ll puncture a vocal cord and you won’t even be able to scream. But you’ll want to when the blood loss to your brain results in a cerebral vascular event.  That’s a stroke. I wasn’t trying to sound snooty.

Lor: I can’t get over how much I love Fred is so little time.

Sweeney: I know! She’s amazing. Amy Acker is just precious. She does this little hand motion when she realizes that “cerebral vascular event” needs clarifications and it’s just so darn adorable and endearing. She is an endearingly crazy BAMF.

K: Welcome to the world of “why Kirsti was excited when Fred turned up.” Angel tells her that it’s okay, that she can point the crossbow at him. She replies that she can’t, but turns towards him a little as she says it. NKOTB grabs the crossbow from her and shoves her at Wes. Just then there’s a flash of light, and Angel offers a quick thank you to the Mystical Sisters. He and Gunn jump into the fray while Wes leads Fred to safety. NKOTB starts yelling at the gang for not fighting back, and says that LA sucks and he’s going back to Florida. Behind him, a harmless looking demon suddenly turns into a giant insecty beastie. It bites NKOTB’s head off and swallows it whole. Rondell fires at it, and there’s a thud.

Seizure cut to Wes putting Fred into a taxi. He turns and sees Gunn talking with the gang, and heads towards him as the gang leave. Gunn tells him that the gang will stick to their territory from now on. Wes replies that it can’t be easy having divided loyalties, and then says that if Gunn ever withholds information again, he’ll fire him.Wes turns and gets in the taxi, which drives away as Gunn watches.

Lor: Wesley! It was so firm, with just the right amount of threat. Good on him.

Sweeney: Indeed. I would never cross bossman Wesley.

K: Nope. Gunn turns to find Angel behind him. He tells Angel that he was just stalling, and that he didn’t mean any of what he said. Angel disagrees – he meant all of it. Gunn apologises-ish, and says that maybe some day… Angel says he’s got time. Gunn says that at least he’s proved that Angel can trust him. But Angel disagrees – he’ll be able to trust Gunn on the day he has to kill Angel, and actually does. Gunn watches as Angel walks away. Fade to black.

This episode was kind of weird. I mean, they had to do something about Gunn’s conflicted loyalties at SOME point. But I feel like there were better ways to handle the “not all demons are evil” thing. And now I’m kind of sad that they effectively managed to ostracise Gunn from the entire Fang Gang in one fell swoop. So yeah. I have no idea how I feel about it right now…

Lor: I enjoyed it, for the most part! I agree that they had to do something about Gunn to wrap up his in-between status. And I liked the demon parts because it was complicated and messy. Some of the demons Gunn’s old gang killed on their spree were evil. That baby killer demon was sitting right beside the Fang Gang as they enjoyed their karaoke. Angel may have a soul, but he’s shown a capacity for evil despite that fact. Nothing is clear cut, and there are no easy answers. This ruffles Gunn more than any of the others because he’s always had that clear cut distinction of good and evil.

Gunn has every reason to be wary of Angel.

Sweeney: Agreed! Gunn’s trust of Angel before CrAngel was hard-earned. Having the deepest vampire issues of the lot, and feeling the least a part of the group, it makes a lot of sense that he would be so resistant to resume that level of trust now. I think this was most effectively presented during his bits where he was bratting to Angel about who is in charge, because it was a reminder that trust was earned and then lost.

Lor: The real pitfall for me was NKOTB. He was annoying and almost cartoonish in his single minded evilness. Worst of all though was the delivery, which was over done. I’m not saying I cheered when his head was bitten off, but I wasn’t sad either.

TV watching moral gray.

Sweeney: Extra agreement here. It was just an obnoxiously heavy-handed way to deal with the demonic gray-areas. Gunn’s story has so many parts that are sort of extraneous to the Fang Gang and they seem to be dealt with in a very clunky fashion time after time. I like Gunn as a character, and I like that he’s taking a lot longer to get over certain things. It’s fitting and appropriate that he’s still having nightmares about staking his sister. I even like that he’s resistant to some of the moral gray of the Fang Gang. It’s sort of like what they did with Kate, only a million times better handled, because we see him sucking it up and dealing with it more often than we see him whining about it. NKOTB just felt like such an aggressive attempt at a foil for Gunn’s issues that it actually undermined the effect in a lot of ways and I wasn’t a fan. I did like all the NKOTB gifs, though, so there’s that.

Lor: WELL IN THAT CASE:

K: Yeah, NKOTB was a terrible character. There was no explanation behind why an outsider could suddenly come into such a close-knit group and be in a position of authority. I mean, he’s not their leader or anything. But he’s pretty damned bonkers, and to suddenly have convinced an entire gang of hardened fighters that they should follow his plans and get into serious weapons and whatnot seemed pretty dodgy to me.  The gifs were fabulous though, so I think it’s a win overall

 

Next time: A string of mysterious deaths leads Angel to an unfortunate body swap. Find out all the details in Angel S03 E04 – Carpe Noctem.