Previously: Wesley locked Justine in a closet and then used her to locate Angel. He was rescued and he promptly kicked Conner out of his house.
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Ground State
Lorraine: We find ourselves in Gills Rock, Wisconsin on October 28, 1985. There’s an 80’s wash on this scene. That is to say it’s soft and light jean. Something like that. (S: A+)
A car pulls up to Thorpe’s Academy. A little girl in a way too puffy track suit is with her parents. They are greeted by Lydia Thorpe. The conversation between the Raidens and Mrs. Thorpe tells us that the little girl, Gwen, has some sort of “special needs.” The Raidens made a nice donation to the school, partly for some accommodations for their daughter. The Raidens are all, “WELL OKAY LOVE YA, SEE YA.” Gwen says nothing and is led away by Mrs. Thorpe who says she must stay away from the other children. She gives her parents one last, “thanks for abandoning me,” look and they leave. Gwen tries to hold Mrs. Thorpe’s hand but she swats it away like she knows Angel’s track record with children.
Later, at recess, Gwen in her puffy suit struggles with some lunch, as she eats alone. She removes one mitten because a girl’s gotta eat her pudding, you know? A little boy approaches Gwen and asks if she’s a freak. Gwen doesn’t know, but the little boy at least offers that she doesn’t look like a freak. IDK, this puffy jacket situation is kind of out of control.
A bell rings and Mrs. Thorpe calls everyone in. The little boy tells Gwen she can hold onto his toy car. She reaches for it slowly, allowing Mrs. Thorpe to see her and yell, “NO!” Too late. Gwen touches the little boy and hits him with an electric current. He’s thrown back and the Zoomy Camera Man focuses on the charred and smoking toy car.
Sweeney: I googled it because I wasn’t sure if Raiden was actually their last name or if you were just nicknaming that. I know Raiden as a Mortal Kombat character who shoots lighting at people – one who I have actually already had occasion to reference here on the blog because of reasons. My flaily excitement was shot down when Wikipedia informed me that this name actually means “lightning and thunder” BUT WHATEVER.
This is also a thing that exists:
Kirsti: Meanwhile, I’ll be having X-Men related flashbacks. At least Gwen didn’t accidentally maim her boyfriend while they were making out??
Lor: Electric Cellos.
Present Day. Angel is sniffing around Cordelia’s apartment, in the literal, using his nose to smell stuff way. He smells Cordelia (THIS IS NOT A DESCRIPTION. BAD ASSOCIATIONS.) and lots of lemons. Fred claims responsibility for the lemons- she overdid it with the floor polish while she was cleaning out the place. The landlord is getting ready to show it to new buyers.
BUT. BUT. PHANTOM DENNIS! This is the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.
Sweeney: PURE TRAGEDY.
Lor: Fred makes an unfortunate joke about the dust bunnies under Cordy’s bed being more like dust sperm whales. It’s been three months since Cordy’s been gone. Fred and Gunn paid the rent at first but money’s been tight. THEN, ANGEL REMEMBERS ABOUT PHANTOM DENNIS. More because he’s wondering if Dennis knows anything about Cordelia. He doesn’t. Angel says they’ll find her. Soon. Fred unconvincingly adds, “absolutely” and heads out to the living room.
There, Gunn is repairing the TV. Angel asks about their attempts to reach Lorne, as the TV sparks and shocks Gunn. He curses the fancy ass surround sound and I laugh and laugh because this TV is clunky as hell.
K: It looks a lot like our TV which blew up EARLIER THIS YEAR. Getting it to the car to take it to the dump was a nightmare.
Lor: Fred continues the previous conversation: they’ve only reached Lorne twice and both times he confirmed that all is quiet on the psychic front.
Fred points out a box of personal things that were on the table the night Cordelia disappeared. She didn’t see anything in it, but maybe Angel will notice something. They also tried going to the LOLPD but this is basically a missing persons case and the police had nothing further to see.
Angel finds some pictures in frames. One is of Angel and Cordy and the second is Angel, Cordy and Wesley. (K: Anybody else miss season 1?) Angel says something big must’ve happened that night. He knows why he didn’t show up to Make Out Point, and that’s all it takes to get Fred seething about Connor.
Fred: Sure. Banished to the ocean depths by your ungrateful snot of a son.
Gunn: Not that she’s bitter.
Angel: I appreciate you guys looking out for Connor all summer. It’s just—he’s confused. He needs time. That’s all.
Fred: Right. Time, and some corporal punishment with a large heavy mallet. Not that I’m bitter.
Fred looks at the mantel and three books she just packed are back on there again. She yells at Phantom Dennis that Cordelia is not coming back. She pauses for a second as her words sink in and apologizes to Angel for the outburst. She only meant coming back to the apartment. Angel says it’s fine. They can keep all of Cordelia’s stuff safe at the Brooding Hotel. Fred: It’s just—you count on stuff, you know. Things being where you left them. What happens if you get back and they’re not there?
So, when we were in Dallas, Sweeney, Sara and I got back to our hotel late one night only to find that we were locked out of our hotel room. We had the key, it was just not working. There was only one girl on duty at the hotel and she had no idea what to do. She tried calling her boss and the maintenance guy, all to no avail. At one point, she was banging on the door with a tape dispenser wrapped in a towel. I still have no idea what that was about.
So, we were locked out of our room. She got us a new room we could sleep in but… WITHOUT OUR STUFF. We were really bummed to be without our stuff, seeing as how we were all dolled up, in make-up, wearing contacts, etc. That night, as we tried to go to sleep, we just kept taking turns remember all the stuff we couldn’t get to. It would be silent in the room for a minute or two before one of us piped up with a, “I miss my stuff.” It was rough.
The next morning, Sara was the first to wake up and she went straight downstairs to see if we could get into our room again. She came back into the room and excitedly announced, “guys, I just saw our stuff. It looks really good.”
The best part was that we told the shit out of this story and when we got to the, “and she offered to let us stay in another room” part of the story, just about everyone would stop us and ask, “without your stuff?” YES WITHOUT OUR STUFF. EXACTLY. WITHOUT OUR STUFF.
I feel like Fred would appreciate this story. I feel like what she just said was another version of “without your stuff.” Additionally, I feel bad for Fred. You can really see in this scene how she’s coming apart at the seams. Angel and Cordy both left, but it must’ve been a tragedy all its own to be left behind, with real life.
Sweeney: (1) I’m glad you just told that rather long story because more people need to understand the severity of the words “without your stuff. (2) I died laughing when I saw that was the post title. (3) Fred gets it. (4) Being without your stuff is also pure tragedy.
K: This reminds me of the time I flew from Denver to Los Angeles and then my red eye flight to Melbourne got cancelled. The airline put us all up in hotels, but they wouldn’t let us have our luggage, because STUPID REASONS THAT MADE NO SENSE. Thank God the hotel gave me a cookie when I checked in, or there would have been hell to pay…
Lor: We didn’t even get a cookie.
Angel says that you have to always go look for your stuff.
Cut to Wesley in a darkened factory with two other guys. They are fighting a demon and he’s barking out orders. Someone drops a battle axe. Angel steps into the frame, picks up the axe and asks Wesley if he needs help. Wesley chops the demon’s head off and is all, “nope.”
Wesley tells his Weslettes to finish the job. Angel realizes that Wesley’s running his own show. Wesley’s response is to glare. Just assume he’s glaring like this whole entire time. He is (or is trying to be) so much cut off from this situation. It’s all business. It’s all unemotional for Wesley.
K: Except for anger. Good thing there’s no gamma radiation around or Wes would be big and green and smashing up LA in no time!
Lor: Angel thanks Wesley for his hand in fishing him out of the ocean. He had a lot of time to think while he was down there. He doesn’t say, “about that one time you kidnapped my kid and I smothered you with a pillow,” but it’s implied. No worries though, because according to Angel, they are even now. Wesley glares.
He also grabs a file out of his briefcase (K: Because obviously, you take a briefcase when you go demon hunting) and gives it to Angel, as he’s guessing that’s what Angel really came for. It’s a file on his own investigation of Cordelia’s disappearance. He’s deduced that Cordy’s off on another plane, and he’s also found someone who can help, a creature called Dinza. Only dead people can go see her, and she won’t be able to say where Cordy is, only point them in a general direction. And also she may trap Angel forever. Wesley warns that Dinza is untrustworthy and walks off. Angel calls after him, “What should I do, then? Send her a gift? Sacrifice? Unholy fruit basket?”
We seizure cut to Angel lowering himself into some sewers. Behind him, the opening he entered through disappears. He spins to see it and a hand grabs the back of his neck. Angel turns back around and doesn’t see anything. Dinza grabs his neck from the other side. My grandpa used to play this game with me BUT I ALWAYS KNEW IT WAS HIM TAPPING ON ME EVEN IF HE PRETENDED IT WASN’T.
Right. Back to the show. Dinza is some sort bat thing and she’s either shedding or she’s wearing a skin veil.
K: She looks kind of like the love child of a Dementor and a Weeping Angel. Or something.
Lor: Definitely something like that.
Dinza references Angel’s time at the bottom of the ocean and the fact that he lost love. Cordelia is far from him (she calls him CHAMPION!) and doesn’t need him anymore. Angel needs her, though. They are momentarily interrupted by suspicious growling and whispering. Dinza’s collection of dead things think she should keep Angel too. But, she doesn’t. She tells him that he can find what he seeks with the Axis of Pythia. Angel asks why he should trust her, and she suddenly appears behind him, nasty hands around his neck, creeping that she’d love to keep him, but he still has much more to lose.
Any other kids you want to tell us about, Angel? No? Just checking.
Bar. Some girl wearing Faith’s Bad Girl Leather Pants, matching red top and BLACK ELBOW LENGTH GLOVES (no, girl. Stop it.) sashays up to a man sitting and drinking alone. She looks super familiar but IMDB tells me I haven’t really seen anything she’s been in. It must be the pants. I feel like I know them.
K: Leather pants and curly hair? This can’t end well.
Lor: Man we’re good at TV.
The man wanted grow up Gwen (come on. We know this is her, right? We know.) to make a discreet entrance. She looks down and asks if you can see nipple. No, girl, we see those satin gloves. Surely, there had to be a better outfit to pair with it.
Anyway, it seems that Gwen is going to steal the Axis, though this man was way lowballing her; she works on commission and he undervalued his merchandise. The man, named Elliot, babbles about market values and such, but in the end, it seems Gwen is going to get her higher rate. She collects the information she’ll need for the theft, but Elliot does say he thought she’d be more professional. She’s professional enough to have stolen his watch from under his nose. And then she electrocutes it.
Lor: White lights. We zoom in on Cordelia’s face and that takes us down to Earth, insinuating that she’s watching the Fang Gang as they prepare for their heist. Fred is talking through the plan with them and she’s got a flip chart and drawings about as precious as she is. The first is of the Axis and she describes it. Angel is sitting a little bit behind Gunn, drawing on a pad propped against his knees. He turns the pad around and shows them all a much better drawing of the Axis. Fred looks deflated.
But, like, Angel/Art OTP.
Sweeney: Fred getting “without your stuff” makes up for it, but I’m bummed that she doesn’t yet understand that Angel/Art is the true series OTP.
K: Truth. Though she needs to understand that her drawings are not without merit – they’re completely adorable. Angel’s just had years of sitting in sewers eating rats to practice.
Lor: Fred keeps explaining that the Axis has mystical qualities. Her charts says, “mystical qualities” and there is a little ghost drawn at the bottom, saying, “boo!” The Axis can find entities across dimension. Angel turns his pad around again and he’s drawn a picture of Cordelia. Gunn is super impressed, but he notices Fred’s reaction and is all, “but your ghost is cute too.” Fred hilariously answers back, “I haven’t slept, Charles.” I love everything that is happening right now. (S: +1) (K: YUP)
Gunn asks how they are going to get the Axis. Fred flips to the next page where she’s drawn a plain square building labeled, “Chandler.” The Axis is being held at the Chandler Auction House. Angel’s already procured the building blueprints, which is only the first step. They probably also have to deal with security systems, gates, armed guards, etc. Gunn asks if they can just buy the thing, but it costs 33 million dollars and if I understand correctly, even their Alien Suitcase of Money has run dry. It’s time to do another job for another morally questionable entity with money!
Gunn chokes on his coffee when he hears the amount of money. “I think my lungs have coffee.” I LOVE THIS SCENE.
Oh, sorry, I should’ve held that exclamation for after Fred’s next line: We’re still working on a plan, but so far, it involves being sent to prison and becoming somebody’s bitch. Angel is confident that no one is going to jail because he’s stolen things tons of times. Or like two times. And he’s counting the time he stole the Ramen Noodle thing that made everyone crazy. Fred just grabs all the papers and says she’s going to go try and whip up a plan. Angel calls, “I’m really strong, if that helps.,” and Fred only calls back, “OK.”
Gunn is impressed by how teensy-weensy and in charge Fred is and Angel is too, though he ties that back to Cordelia. They are going to do whatever it takes to get her back. Gunn asks what they are going to need and Angel goes through a list: repelling hooks, flashlights, and aerosols. As he names these things, we see a black clad person arming themselves with these things. It’s Gwen and it’s super apparent that she’s a lot more polished than the plans going on at Brooding Hotel. But she probably doesn’t have adorable ghosts and flip charts, so there. She also gets served her lipstick by a maid. Weird.
Sweeney: Probably not first on the list of things I’d have a maid for, but I respect her commitment to being a stylish thief. Gotta look good, you know?
K: I’m more impressed that she can turn her computer screen into a mirror.
Lor: Wesley’s apartment. I hate to make myself even less popular here, but this whole Villain Gloating over making-out is super weird. They are pushing each other and rolling all over the place, all while Lilah brings up the fact that Wesley was keeping Justine in a closet. He says he has soundproof rooms, but that Justine did say Lilah was unbearably loud. Ew. Lilah is pretty impressed that Wesley was lying about not caring this whole time and he claims he had to do it because Angel is necessary. Lilah thinks the good news is that Angel let Connor go, leaving him open to encountering an older mentor or perhaps a Mrs. Robinson. BAD ASSOCIATIONS. BAD, BAD. BAD.
Finally, Wesley says he doesn’t need to hear her evil plans, but Lilah thinks he gets off on knowing she has them. He tells her to shut up, she says make me, and he goes down on her.
K: I spent the duration of this scene trying to work out what the hell their ship name is. Liley? Weslah? Wyndgan? Every option is crap. Just like their relationship!
Lor: Gwen is at Chandler. She uses a combination of finesse and electrocution to make her away inside the building. Just behind her, Angel climbs the fence with Fred and Gunn struggling behind him. Once on the roof, Angel rips off the cover of the control system, and basically just tears out all the cables. Fred gets them inside the doors.
In the basement, Fred is going over the blueprints and the plans. Gunn is tasked with disarming and containing the guards, Fred’s going to take out the security system and Angel is going down to the vault to do the stealing. Gwen is in an air duct, watching all of this by tapping into one of the security cameras. She’s mildly concerned.
Sweeney: But see – you never know when you’re going to run into other thieves on the job! Her priorities were in order with that lipstick.
Lor: Wouldn’t want to be caught pale lipped while stealing!
We cut to Fred sneaking into the server room. She sighs, “please, let my cellmate be gentle.”
K: BEST.
Lor: Gunn knocks out a security guard and drags him away.
Angel is down in the vault and uses an aerosol to reveal the security sensors. He asks for a little help from Fred, but instead, a thick, metal gate falls. Angel bends down and tries to lift the gate up, but it shorts out. Inside the vault, a hatch opens and Gwen lowers herself into the room, saying she dropped the gate for a reason. From there, we cut to Fred realizing someone has already hacked into the system and Gunn realizing someone has already taken out the rest of the security team.
Back in the vault, Angel asks Gwen who she is and she returns the question. He asks if she’s there for the Axis and she fibs about it, because she claims fibbing is lying except classier. Gwen sticks her hand into one of the laser beams and they all bend up and out of her way. She explains to Angel the blah blah blah ELECTRICITY! thing she just did, and in the explanation she says, “ground state.”
Sweeney: I like her a lot and am glad to see she’s collected this great honor.
Lor: Angel asks what she is and she answers, “freak.” Gwen walks into the vault as Angel struggles with the gate again. Gunn comes running in. Gwen has the Axis and she says goodbye to the boys. Angel tries to explain that it’s a mystical relic but Gwen doesn’t care. Angel says please, but that doesn’t work. She calls Gunn “Denzel.” Angel tries the, “I’m trying to find someone I care about,” route too but that doesn’t work either.
Finally, Fred comes through with the security and the gate is lifted. Gunn slides in first and grabs onto Gwen, but she shocks the crap out of him. Fred runs into the vault in time to see Gunn fall. Angel runs over to him, looks back at Fred, and says he’s dead.
After a cut, Fred is crying over Gunn as Gwen flashes back to the little boy she fried in the teaser. She sighs, approaches Gunn and uses her electricity to jump start Gunn’s heart. Angel starts fighting with Gwen, but Fred calls him off because they need to get Gunn to a hospital. Angel stands down and Gwen leaves.
Connor walks the streets alone while a little bit of feelsy music tentatively asks us to feel for him. It’s not fully committed. It knows that Connor dropped his father to the bottom of the ocean, and is just kind of like, “but we can all agree that sleeping outside sucks, right?” Right Feelsy Music. Right. We pan out of the shot some to reveal Lilah standing a ways back, watching Connor with binoculars. We hear Angel’s voice before we see him asking, “miss me?” Lilah says not at all. He asks if she’s still “knocking ’em dead” at Wolfram and Hart and Lilah smiles that you could say that. Angel wasn’t sure, seeing as how she’s suddenly really interested in the homeless.
Lilah notes that Angel let Connor off pretty easy and finds his “guilt is its own punishment” method eye roll worthy. It doesn’t matter because Angel is actually here for Lilah, not Connor. He wants information on the buyer for the Axis and he knows Wolfram and Hart keeps tabs on these kinds of clients. Lilah is all, “HELLO? EVIL.” and it’s cute that she’s so darn stubborn and bad ass that she doesn’t get that Angel is capable of fucking her shit up. And like, most of the time he won’t because of morals and stuff, but every once in a while HE GOES STRAIGHT CRAZY. Lilah’s got lady balls.
K: She really, really does. Except that sometimes it goes to her head and she walks into stupid situations that can’t possibly end well for her.
Lor: Right.
She asks what’s in it for her and Angel leans in and creepy whispers that just this once he’ll ignore that she is within fifty yards of his son. Lilah says it’s super interesting that he came to her for help and Angel is all, “hey know what’s interesting? I can smell you and Wesley all over each other.” Um. Ew. But also OWNED by Angel’s super sense of smell. He expects the information in an hour.
Brooding Hotel. Gunn is in bed looking over his EKG printout. He’s marveling over it as Fred moves nervously about the room, asking if he’s taken his pill and what dying was like. Fred is clearly upset by the fact that her boyfriend was dead, even though Gunn says that Fred could’ve done CPR or Angel could’ve run him to the ER. Fred: Sure, but, then again, it could’ve been too late, and Angel would have had to swear blood-lusty vengeance on the woman that killed you, and we all know how well that one works out.
Gunn asks what the hell and she spills her feelings: I am so sick of holding everything up around here. First Wesley leaves, then Angel, and Cordy. I-I’m sick of taking care of everything and paying bills and making peace and plans and keeping my chin up— God, I am so sick of my chin being up!
I HATE Gunn’s response that he doesn’t understand this crazy female thing. SHUT UP, GUNN. IT IS NOT A FEMALE THING. SHE IS USING HER WORDS AND EXPLAINING. (K: A+. Gunn is a total douche for his response.) Fred thought things would get better when Angel got back and though no one asked her to take on this responsibility, someone had to. And then she watched Gunn die, and for that moment, she was left all alone. She breaks down in tears and Gunn finally stands, holds her, and lets her cry.
Gwen has changed into black leather pants but the same red top. She looks at herself in the reflection of the elevator doors. Angel is behind her but she can’t see his reflection. They start fighting and Gwen appears to hold her own, though Angel seems like she’s going a bit easy on her. Gwen doesn’t get why her shocks aren’t working on Angel. She manages to get him down, climbs on top of him, rips open his shirt, places both hands on his chest and shocks him. We zoom inside Angel’s body and see that his heart is all shriveled looking and quiet. The electricity jump starts it though, and it gives a few pumps. We zoom back out and apparently the blood coursing made Angel a little happy in the pants, if you know what I mean, and he kisses Gwen passionately.
Angel carries Gwen out, puts her down and promptly fights through all of Elliot’s lackeys. Gwen has recovered and she’s approaching Elliot menacingly. She isn’t taking issue with being double crossed, but rather with being called a freak. Only she can call herself a freak. (K: SO. MANY. X-MEN. FLASHBACKS.) Gwen’s got murder all over her face and Angel stops her with a, “so you’re a freak. Boo-hoo. So what?” He also knocks Elliot out before Gwen can shock him. Thus robbed of her fun, Gwen says it’s too bad Angel is using the Axis to find a girl and saunters off. Despite a questionable wardrobe, I enjoyed Gwen. Any chance she joins the Fang Gang? No? Okay.
Sweeney: She’s fantastic! I’m glad commenters warned me that this likable guest star wouldn’t be returning because I would have gotten my hopes way up. Definite missed opportunity.
K: Seriously. I’m still bummed about the fact that they didn’t recruit Gwen to the Fang Gang. Because it would have been AWESOME. And season 4 would have been SO MUCH BETTER OMG.
Lor: Brooding Hotel. Fred and Gunn stand outside of a room, watching the glowy lights from under the crack of the door. Fred wonders if Angel found Cordelia. A beat later, Angel exits the room, frowning and walks past them. Gunn figures yes.
Cut to the Brooding Lobby. They are sitting on the entrance stairs, and Angel’s already told them he saw Cordelia in her higher plane. She was bathed in light made of pure joy and warmth. Fred thinks they should’ve figured something was up when all of that crazy glowing started happening.
Angel: To tell you the truth, it doesn’t surprise me. In some small way, maybe it even makes it easier, knowing the good she’s doing up there. Even if I can’t see her or talk to her, it’s like… she’s still on my side.
Fred: Doesn’t mean you miss her any less.
Angel: No. All those months, under the water, I kept thinking to myself I gotta get home… to Cordelia. I get back and I find out that she’s gone. I keep thinking, I gotta get Cordy back home. Finally I find her, and I realize she already is home. Where she belongs.
Aw, guys. It’s so touchy feely.
K: Also, the Scoobies should probably have tracked that thing down to locate where Buffy was before they brought her back to life. #justsaying
Lor: Anything to avoid season 6.
We zoom up from the hotel into the higher dimension, where Cordelia is watching. We end on Cordelia yelling, “What are you? Deficient? Get me out of here!”
This episode has all the makings of an average episode as, apart from finding Cordelia, it doesn’t do a whole lot to forward any plot or characters. I liked it, though. I enjoyed watching it and that sort of, “hey, I just sat back, watched and enjoyed” feeling doesn’t happen often for me in Angel. It’s watchable and it takes just a bit of a break from the WHAT THE HELL? we’ve been doing for the past couple of episodes, which is nice. It allows you to breathe, while still seeing a bit of the fallout of everything that happened over the summer, from Fred’s breakdown, to Lilah and Wesley’s ever-warming relationship, to Angel’s confessions of needing to find what he lost while he was gone. I usually prefer a little more substance, but in this case it worked for me.
Sweeney: Yes to all of these things. Also Gwen. She’s pretty fantastic.
K: I hate the half-inclusion of Cordy. It drives me nuts, plus I know where the storyline is going, and NOPE. But this episode is still pretty great for me because it’s a return to basics – research, tracking stuff down, a little fighting. Plus, Gwen.
Next time: Lorne is being held prisoner in Vegas and it’s the Fang Gang to the rescue in Angel S04 E03 – The House Always Wins.
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.
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