Lizbet's Synopsis

We pick up directly from the previous episode, with Angel still in his tux, leaning over Connor's crib. Lorne comes in and humors him as Angel pouts about the Groosalug. Angel claims that he doesn't care if Cordy takes Groo home, and Lorne points out that there is perfume on Angel's jacket that wasn't there when he left, hinting that he and Cordy got personal. Angel passes it off as magic... really magic, not the romance hearts-and-flowers kind. Lorne scoffs at Angel's claim that there is nothing between them. Angel pulls the old "I'm too old and have done too many horrible things in my life, Cordy deserves better" schtick that was what hauled him out of Sunnydale. But as soon as Lorne's back is turned, he sniffs his jacket again to catch her scent.

Meanwhile, back at the Haunted Apartment, Cordy is undressing (and suddenly wearing a bra that accounts for the lift-and-thrust of her boobs but was *so* not there during the Magic Makeout Session) and is chattering at Groo. She finally gets into comfies, and they finally start getting, ahem, comfortable, when all of a sudden Groo is an unpleasant color and has spikes growing out of him (not the peroxide blond kind, either). Cordy blinks, and sudden Groo is re-Grooed.

The next morning, Angel comes downstairs with Connor and asked Wesley if Cordelia is there yet (and that's a heck of a lot of personal names for one sentence). Wesley, with exquisite British tact, says that Cordy and Groo were probably up late "catching up." Wesley takes advantage of the emptiness of the office to talk to Angel about his sudden arrival and how that is going to affect things. Angel asks if he might be evil, and Wesley is startled, and finally asks if they are both talking about Connor. No, they weren't, and it was a badly-constructed setup to make Angel look dumb, since there was no discussion of Connor previous in the scene. Angel argues that Connor's birth was foretold when Wesley says that Connor shouldn't exist, and they both agree that research is needed. (Reviewing this after the end of the season just makes me go ow, ow, ow, you know?)

Cordy comes in on the tail end of this to report her vision and her lack of sex with Groo. Apparently, his turning into a spiny creature in front of her was how the visions display themselves now, and it was kind of a mood killer. And it gave her pause to fear that she might lose her visions, since that was the whole point of the royal comshuck in Pylea -- for her to transfer her visions to Groo through sex. (Which isn't a crazy idea, since Doyle transferred his through a kiss...) Angel is enthusiastically behind any idea that prevents Cordelia from having sex with anyone. Wesley, helpful soul that he is, posits that her recent half-demon transformation could keep the comshuck from working the same way, or there could be a "paranormal prophylactic" that could protect her. Cordy mourns that no one in the office gets any.

As Fred and Gunn stare goobily across from each other at the diner while eating breakfast. Their conversation isn't worth recording, because it is the sort that is fascinating to new lovers and amusedly tolerated by everyone else. Fred does make the point that she and Wesley are "just good friends." Their beepers go off simultaneously and they head back to the office.

Wesley has identified Cordy's vision as a Senhi'd demon who will rise for the purpose of furthering the plot... er, to eat, sometime before nightfall. Angel will take the sewers to track it while everyone else heads directly to a park where they can get in the sewers on the other end to trap it. Groo declares that this creature looks like a kind he has killed a lot, and Wesley sends him with Angel, to Angel's great disgust. Cordy hands Groo Angel's favorite broadsword (sticking it straight up into the air) and then tosses Angel an itsy-bitsy axe. No, no symbolism here, no, not at all.

Groo and Angel do some male bonding in the sewers. Which is to say, Groo senses that Cordelia is not quite happy, and broods that he is the cause, and because Angel is a nice guy he reassures Groo that it's not his fault. We interrupt this touching scene for some violence, as Angel and Groo find the creature and proceed to beat the snot out of it. The creature, not terribly happy to be pounded on by two Champions, breaks through the fourth wall... I mean, breaks through a wall and escapes out into the bright, sunny day. Groo waits for Angel to join him in chasing as Angel gets the heck out of the sunlight, and then finally takes off after the creature himself.

The demon has attacked a remarkably Cordelia-with-long-hair-alike, and Groo rescues her as the rest of Angel Investigations arrives. He stabs the creature and it turns into a puddle of goo that evaporates into the air. Everyone is congratulating Groo, and Wesley notices Angel standing in the shadows.

Back at the Hyperion, Angel is in the office interviewing a woman who thinks her fiancé is cheating on her with a witch -- who goes by the screen name HotBlonde37159. Out in the lobby Groo is reenacting his defeat of the monster for an adoring audience. Wes is behind the counter, on the phone with a bookstore digging up research materials on Connor, and manages to put one of the lobby pillars in his line of sight so that it blocks out Gunn and leaves a laughing Fred in his view. Angel tells Wes their client wants someone to stake out her boyfriend and Wes knows the perfect AI employee -- Gunn. But Fred ruins Wes's plan by automatically assuming that she'll go with Gunn. On the stakeout. Together.

Angel and Wes go to the rare books shop together. Angel is talking about (what else) Groo and Cordy, saying that maybe they should just go ahead and do the comshuck, if that what makes her happy. Wesley (after getting a line about office romances being a bad thing shot down) points out that Cordelia might lose the visions, and Angel accepts that. "Are you suggesting Groosalug could replace Cordelia?" Wesley asks. "Maybe not Cordelia," mopes an exceptionally sulky vampire. Groo is a lover and a fighter and can go out in the daylight with Cordelia, which is two things more than Angel can do. Wesley tries to reassure Angel on his uniqueness by comparing him to the rare manuscripts that they are searching for -- as the bookstore proprietor comes up with three copies of the volume they were looking for.

Cordy and Groo seem to be playing doctor for a moment, but it turns out that Cordy is just giving Groo a makeover. Groo earnestly asks if his new look will allow her to love him, and Cordelia comes off the frustrated-hormones cloud she's been stuck on to actually look at Groo and reassure him that it won't change how she feels a bit -- which isn't terribly comforting, since he can sense the distance in her.

Gunn and Fred pull up at what I assume is a rendezvous point referred to in the e-mails given to them by the fiancée and wait for her fiancé Jerry to show up. Once again, their conversation translates as, "I love you more. No, I love you more. No, I love you *more*." They keep getting distracted from the stakeout thing, and finally lose track of Jerry. After poking around the roots of the tree that he was standing under, they finally get the bright idea to playback the video camera they had recording the whole thing, which shows Jerry getting pulled underground by the tree they are standing under. And promptly get pulled under themselves.

Returning to the Hyperion, Wes reassures Angel that he'll get started translating right away (ow, ow, ow). Angel thanks Wesley for the conversation in the bookstore, and Wesley attempts to reiterate that while Angel and Groo can do many of the same things, they are two separate people...

...as they find Groo standing in the lobby, hair cut in an Angel buzz, wearing the dark jewel tones and black that Angel favors and a black leather jacket. Angel goes into Wesley's office where Cordelia is sitting with a smile on his face that says, "It's okay if I kill him, right?" and Cordy blithely says she didn't think Angel'd mind if she borrowed clothes for Groo. She asks Angel for help, and Angel goes into immediate protective mode, reassuring her that he'll do anything to help her. It seems that there is a potion she can take to protect her visions, and it is available at a demon brothel in LA, and she wants Angel to take Groo there to get it, because Groo can't be wandering around on his own. Groo thanks him heartily for his help as Angel looks like he'd like to be sick.

Lizbet's Review

Swear to Joss, I will catch up on synopsizing. I swear.

SunSpeak