“Thin Dead Line”

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Episode 14 of Season 2

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“Because we’ll be the ones walking while black.”

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Original US airdate: February 13th, 2001 (aired directly after the Buffy episode "Crush")

Rewatched: January 21st, 2023

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• Writer: Jim Kouf & Shawn Ryan

• Director: Scott Mc Ginnis

• Guests: Elisabeth Rohm, Julia Lee, Mushond Lee, Jarrod Crawford

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Angel is starting to feel some regret at kicking out his team. At least enough to tail Gunn on a case and enlist the help of Kate in helping to solve it. But Angel Investigations remains fractured.

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Angel Investigations gets another client sent their way by Virginia, a young girl bitten by some sort of demon who now has a third eye on the back of her head.  Wesley and Cordelia hit the books, but aren’t quite able to crack the case this episode, since they get another puzzle to solve.

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Anne Steele, who knows Gunn from before he joined the team, comes to get his help. The police are being particularly brutal in her neighborhood and the kids at her shelter are scared. Gunn goes to help, calling on his old crew for help. His old crew is feeling a bit abandoned by Gunn, but are still willing to help him in order to help the kids. They make a plan to go out and get video footage of cop brutality, which they are successful in doing. However, Cordelia and Wesley, on hearing of the plan, decide Gunn needs backup. While Cordy stays to back up Anne at the shelter, Wesley tracks down Gunn and is shot by the cop. When the cop is shot in return, and then gets up to continue the chase, it is pretty clear the cops aren’t human. Everyone retreats to the shelter to try to stay safe from the growing number of zombie cops chasing them.

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Meanwhile, Angel has discovered the zombie cops on his own while trailing Gunn. He goes to Kate and they discover several freshly dead cops have been exhumed and they visit the precinct in Anne’s neighborhood. They don’t come up with a lot of answers, but Angel returns on his own and destroys the magic enthralling the cops, just in time to save everyone at the shelter. The gang takes Wesley to the hospital. When Angel shows up to check on him, Cordelia sends him packing, claiming they don’t need him.

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So despite working the same case, they are still not united at the end of the episode.

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Finally, this episode deals with the themes of racism and whether heavy-handed police tactics work. The series rightly calls out structural racism in policing. When Anne questions how Gunn can be so sure the police will stop him, he says they’ll be the ones walking while black, a clear indication that every day life for African Americans may come with different considerations than for white Americans, and while not all the kids shown at Anne’s shelter are POC, they clearly outweigh, showing that it is these kids in particular who have been hit hard by the zombie cops. When Kate and Angel begin their investigation, the precinct with the zombie cops is proud of the work they are doing. In fact, once the zombies are gone, Kate laments about how the neighbor will now go back to their previous high crime numbers and whether anyone has actually been helped. Angel doesn’t say anything, but his face seems to disagree with her. He can perhaps understand more that an entire neighborhood being terrorized is not worth the drop in crime. This episode can be seen as a clear indictment of the stop and frisk measures and broken window policies adopted by many police departments in the 80s and 90s in the face of rising crime, where stopping people for no reason, statistically seen mostly young, male POCs, became the norm, as did the policing the petty crimes. Policies like these continue to be a current topic, with the Black Lives Matter movement putting them into focus.

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However, not every scene is perfect. In a scene reminiscent of Bill Cosby’s pound cake speech, Gunn confronts a known drug dealer who has taken refuge at the shelter, claiming that you can either lift up your neighborhood or bring it down, and while I am not arguing that drug dealing is good or uplifting, the argument that there are alternatives to drug dealing is perhaps an oversimplification, a way of blaming minorities for the issues in their own neighborhoods, rather than tackling the structural issues that lead to poor education in poor neighborhoods, a lack of employment opportunities, and the housing policies that routinely lead to concentrations of minorities in these areas. While certainly, there is a certain amount of choice at play, for many young people there may not be many viable alternatives either. So this episode lets its viewers down by simplifying the good/bad neighborhood dynamic down to the individual choices of people in those neighborhoods.

 

The Buffyverse is a very white universe, with many white producers and writers, and perhaps that is why this episode was able to deal with issue of policing and race fairly well, but was not able to fully deal with the ramifications of long-standing structural racism on low-income minority communities.

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“Reprise”

 

Episode 15 of Season 2

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“It doesn't matter. None of it matters."

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Original US airdate: February 20th, 2001 (aired directly after the Buffy episode "I Was Made to Love You")

Rewatched: January 28th, 2023

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• Writer: Tim Minear

• Director: James Whitmore Jr.

• Guests: Elisabeth Rohm, Christian Kane, Andy Hallett, Stephanie Romanov, Sam Anderson, Brigid Brannagh, Gerry Becker, Thomas Kopache, Julie Benz

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In this episode, Angel hits rock bottom, but let’s look at the rest of the Angel Investigations team. Although they don’t hit rock bottom, some of the euphoria of previous episodes is gone. The team has finally managed to help the Sharp family get the demon eye off their daughter’s head, but instead of being happy and paying, they assume the team is running a scam and leave. The team is a bit down. Later, Angel arrives to take a book from the team. Cordy tries to stop them, Wesley stands up to Angel (literally) but lets him leave with the book. Wesley has popped his stitches and goes home (via the hospital). At home, Virginia leaves Wesley. She didn’t sign up for him getting shot and she is scared. The break up is amazingly kind and adult, but still a bit sad to see her go. The episode ends, for team Angel Investigations, with Cordy getting a call from the Sharp’s that they do want to pay. However, the demons are actually setting a trap.

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Then there’s Kate. She’s angry at Angel for getting her stuck on desk duty after the events of last episode, and she has a hearing coming up. At the hearing, she is fired. She returns to her home a mess. She starts drinking. She takes some pills. And she calls Angel to explain herself, but only gets his answering machine. When Angel walks by it, he doesn’t pick it up.

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Angel starts this episode furthering his vendetta against Wolfram & Hart. He has been stopping dark rights all over the city, but can’t quite figure out what they’re trying to do. From Lorne, he learns about the 75 year review, in which a Senior Partner will manifest on earth from the Home Office using the Band of Blacknill. Angel doesn’t have the books, tries to get them from his team and still comes up empty, so he goes to see Denver. Denver says Angel changed his life, but Angel is very much not himself, and tells Denver he didn’t end up saving anyone back then. Denver still helps Angel, telling him that he’ll need a magic glove to kill the demon in which the senior partner will manifest and then he can take the Band of Blacknil and go to the Home Office.

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Darla, however, appears and kills Denver and takes the glove. After being burned by Angel, she and Dru stayed in the sewers. Dru went on to Sunnydale, but told Lindsey where to find Darla, who has now been living with Lindsey and seems to want to get some revenge on Wolfram & Hart, too. Or, perhaps just power, as Darla claims “the ring’s not about vengeance… it’s about power.” However, at the raising at Wolfram & Hart, Angel is able to get the glove, kill the demon and get the Band of Blacknil. Once he puts it on, an elevator with Holland Manners appears. Dead but still working for Wolfram & Hart (this foreshadows Lilah’s appearance at the end of season 4). They have a chat during the long elevator ride. Holland says that Wolfram & Hart have no intention of winning. Angel asks him why they fight, then. Holland tells him:

That’s really the question you should be asking yourself. Isn’t it? See, for us there is no fight, which is why winning doesn’t enter into it. We go on, no matter what… And that, friend, is what’s making things so difficult for you. See, our world doesn’t work in spite of evil, Angel, it works with us. It works because of us.

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And then the elevator opens on the same scene Angel left, indicating that the Home Office is earth. Angel has come face to face with that fact that maybe he isn’t so different from everyone else in his internal battle of good and evil. And that maybe he can’t win his fight against evil, since there is evil in all of us. Angel is in such a dark space, he is willing to believe Holland. This discounts several facts. First, the Senior Partners can’t actually come from earth. There must be some sort of Home Office outside of earth, otherwise why would they need to manifest in another form for the review? Maybe the ring doesn’t take just anyone to the Home Office. Also, it discounts the Shanshu prophecy, Angel’s return from the hell dimension and the miracle snow, and the fact that he has made the world a better place (and Buffy, too), as can be seen in the episode "The Wish". Just because you can’t fully get rid of evil, doesn’t mean the good fight isn’t worth fighting. In this episode, Angel is not ready to hear it.

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Instead, he returns home. Ignores Kate’s message and goes to his room, where Darla is waiting for him. They fight. They have sex. It is a scene similar to Buffy and Spike in season 6 of Buffy, but also an interesting parallel to Buffy and Angel themselves, clearly underlining that Buffy was about love, while he’s with Darla this time because nothing matters to him anymore. At the end of the episode, there is a storm brewing, with rain and lightning. Angel wakes with a gasp. It’s a déjà vu to the Buffy episode “Surprise”, leaving viewers wondering if Angel is losing his soul again.

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“Epiphany”

 

Episode 16 of Season 2

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“Because if there’s no bigger meaning then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world.”

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Original US airdate: February 27th, 2001 (aired directly after the Buffy episode "The Body")

Rewatched: February 4th, 2023

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• Writer: Tim Minear

• Director: Thomas J. Wright

• Guests: Elisabeth Rohm, Christian Kane, Andy Hallett, Julie Benz

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Angel finally has an epiphany and is heading in the right direction again. Sleeping with Darla did not make him lose his soul. As he tells Darla, it was “perfect despair”. Angel says he thought if he could save her, he could save himself, but he was wrong. He tells her he can’t do anything for her, not even hate her, and he tells her to leave. If he sees her again, he’ll kill her. Darla returns to Lindsey’s, upset that sleeping with Angel did not make him turn evil. Lindsey is angry with Angel and tries to kill him with his truck while Angel is on the way to save Cordelia. Angel beats Lindsey, smashing his prosthetic hand, and telling him he’s sorry he couldn’t save Lindsey when he came for help and sorry Darla won’t love him back. Angel steals the truck (which he does later return to Lindsey) and goes off to save the day. Lindsey returns home to find Darla has packed and left. It’s a bitter day for Lindsey.

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Before the confrontation with Lindsey, Angel saves Kate. Towards the end of the episode, they share a moment before Kate leaves town, at peace with her life and not being a cop anymore. Angel has realized that nothing matters, that there is no great, glorious end; no end where you get rid of all evil. As he says, “if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do.”  So Angel will help, because he wants to, because he doesn’t want people to suffer, not because he wants a cosmic payout. Kate says she’s convinced, because Angel saved her. First, she never thought he’d come, but also, she never invited him into her apartment. YetAngel was able to enter and save her. A small sign that there may be forces bigger than them in play. This doesn't mean Angel isn't also right, that there may be no ultimate win against evil. That’s not the reason to fight the good fight. Angel finally understands.

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Finally, there is the Angel Investigations team. Cordelia is at the Sharp's, hoping for payment, but only finds the demons who killed the Sharps. They implant spawn in Cordy’s head to make up for the spawn the team killed. After saving Kate, Angel ends up at Caritas, hoping for advice. Lorne is not happy to have been woken up. Lorne gives him some sage advice about not moving backwards but forwards from his epiphany. Angel can’t make things how they were, but he can move on from them. Lorne also tells him that he’s not Angel’s link to the Powers That Be, Cordy is, but she (and the rest of the gang) might not live through the night. This sends Angel out to find Cordy, who’s not at home, or at Wes’s (but Angel saves Wes from the demons). Together, Angel and Wes go to the Angel Investigations office, but Cordy isn’t there either.

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Angel assumes that Cordy is out having a good time and Wesley has a nice speech about Cordy being a very different person since she has the visions, that she’s become a very solitary person. “It’s the visions, you see, the visions that were meant to guide you. You could turn away from them. She doesn’t have that luxury. She knows and experiences the pain in this city and because of who she is, she feels compelled to do something about it. It’s left her little time for anything else.” This is a moment that really underlines how much Cordy has changes since season 1 and her days on Buffy. She has grown into someone who cares thanks to her visions. In many ways, how Cordy is shaped by her visions mirrors how Buffy is shaped by being the Slayer. 

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Gunn shows up at the offices, and finds a carbon copy of Cordy’s phone note with the Sharp’s address. The three head out to save the day. When demons attack on the way, Angel sends Gunn and Wes ahead, but his plan is thrown off by Lindsey, who arrives to beat him up. Gunn and Wes are caught by the demons while sneaking in to the house, but Angel does make it in time to save the day and kill the demons. Cordy, however, is not ready to forgive him, claiming that she’s not okay because Angel hurt her feelings. At the end of the episode, Angel goes back to the Angel Investigation offices to apologize. He tells them that since they’re not ready to work for him again, he’ll work for them. The team is back together.

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In this episode, many characters have to face the mess they have made. Darla leaves town angry she couldn’t beat Wolfram & Hart and change Angel, Kate leaves ready for a new page in her life, and Lindsey has lost his hand again and is facing an empty apartment and a job he doesn’t really like. Last, Angel is facing getting back the trust he destroyed when he turned away from his friends.

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“Disharmony”

 

Episode 17 of Season 2

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“Just so we understand each other, you and I, we’re not friends.”

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Original US airdate: April 17th, 2001 (aired directly after the Buffy episode "Forever")

Rewatched: February 11th, 2023

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• Writer: David Fury

• Director: Fred Keller

• Guests: Andy Hallett, Mercedes McNab, Pat Healy, Alyson Hannigan

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Angel Investigations is back together, with Wesley at the helm, but it’s not all smooth sailing. Angel is having difficulty being 2nd to Wesley, and can’t understand why Cordelia won’t forgive him and, because Wesley is less vocal with his feelings, completely misses that Wesley has not forgiven him yet. Angel spends most of the episode trying to get Cordelia to forgive him, before figuring out that buying her clothes might help, as she seemed most salty that he gave her clothes to the teen center. Wesley is put out that Angel is worried so much about how Cordelia feels about him. Angel does make additional one misstep. Cordelia mentions it was good Angel didn’t sleep with Darla and lose his soul, and Angel fails to mention that one of those things did actually happen. He’s not quite ready to trust his friends, either.

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Angel Investigations is, however, ready to solve Cordy’s vision of robed vampires attacking people. Just as they are setting out to do so, Harmony arrives in LA after her breakup with Spike in Sunnydale. She’s looking to hang out with an old friend and Cordy, not knowing that Harmony is a vampire, invites her over. They hang out and reminisce about old times. It’s clear Cordy is overall happy with her life in LA, but Harmony is not happy with where she is post high school. That night, Harmony nearly attacks Cordy in bed. Cordy, however, thinks Harmony has tried to seduce her. The next morning, Cordy calls Willow to ask why the Scoobies couldn’t have given her a head’s up about Harmony, only to learn that Harmony is a vampire and Willow is a lesbian.

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Cordy is not willing to abandon Harmony despite her vampirism and first takes her to the office and then to Caritas. The host tells Harmony to stick with Cordy, as Cordy will show her the right path. Harmony takes this to mean she’s supposed to be one of the good guys. When team finally tracks down the vampires and find out it’s a vampire pyramid scheme, Cordy convinces them to send Harmony in for recon. Harmony, however, double-crosses them. Angel Investigations still takes out the crazy vampire self-help cult, but Cordy can’t bring herself to kill Harmony, instead telling her to leave LA.

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Harmony may be slowly realizing she’s a vampire, but it’s not a smooth road for her. She’s not very good at being evil, in part because she was never good at being a human. She was a follower, not a leader, and didn’t have many ideas of her own. She never had a chance to find her place as a human, and now is stuck searching as a vampire. She will be seen again in season 5, still working on finding her corner of the world.

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This episode looks at the issues friends face. Cordy and Harmony’s relationship has been changed by time and space and the fundamental changes both have gone through. Angel Investigations is facing a similar issue. How do they recover from Angel turning on them and throwing them out? How can they return to trusting each other? In the end, only time will get them there.

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