Dianne's Synopsis

We open on just another typical night in LA: A guy meets up with his homeboys under a bridge around a trash-barrel fire-- only the three sitting around the fire turn out to be nasty-looking demons, and the odd smell from the fire would be what's left of the homeboys. The guy, not being stupid -- runs, shooting back over his shoulder with no success. Suddenly, whipping around the corner-- it's the AngelMobile! Westley's at the wheel, while Angel leans out the side with a pipe and decpitates the baddies. Then they screech to a stop in front of the guy, Angel confirms the his name is Marquez, and they offer him a lift.

Cut to the bus station. (Not the Sunnydale bus station, mind you, but an _L.A._ bus station. How can you tell the difference? Because you're watching Amgel, not Buffy -- duh! ;) Faith has arrived in the City of Angel(s). She's hassled by some skeezy guy who probably stakes the place out looking to take advantage of recent runaways, but before he can even get his schpiel properly started, she jumps him, beats him senseless, and takes his wallet, keys, and jacket. Now she's all set.

***

We come back into a flashback: Borsa, Romania, 1898. Darla leads Angelus into a nice cozy room. He's blindfolded so that he won't see the 'birthday' surprise she found especially for him -- a tasty gypsy girl, bound and gagged on the hearth. (Presumably _looking_ "dumb as a post"? ) These two have a serious Spike-and-Dru thing going here, and Darla watches lustfully as Angelus slides the gypsy's skirt up and drains her from the inner thigh.

Back to the present: The next morning Angel has Marquez in his office and is giving him the hard sell about 'doing the right thing'. From the outer office, Cordelia and (a half-asleep) Wesley take bets on whether Angel will convince this guy to testify. Wesley has faith in Angel, but Cordy's convinced you simply can't change a guy -- _any_ guy, as far as she's concerned.

Cut to a loud, crowded dance club. Faith is living it up, delighting in stealing another woman's guy in the middle of the dance floor. When the woman objects, Faith promptly elbows her in the face. The guy tries to deck Faith in return and a nice brawl is underway in no time. Faith keeps dancing, punching as necessary, perfectly in her element.

In a courtroom across town, one of the Wolfram & Hart lawyers (I can't tell them apart, can you? CCs say "Lindsey") is about to get the case against his (presumably scumball) client dismissed when Angel shows up with Marquez in tow, ready to testify. Cut from Angel and Lindsey matching glares, to the lawyer on headset in his office apologizing and groveling to a higher-up. Then another lawyer ("Lee") comes in with a "great idea" to solve the Angel problem. Lee is then tracked down by the W&H lawyer-chick (I do remember her, but not her name) in the hall, and questioned about his idea. Lee apparently discovered 'the rogue slayer' through routine tracking of police reports. Lawyer-chick insists on making the contact herself.

At Angel Investigations, Cordelia's on the phone trying to turn down a divorce case... until they apparently impress her with the amount of money involved. Wesley and Angel arrive to announce that with Marquez' testimony, they won their case. Cordelia tells them there's a new client to meet at lunch tomorrow, but fails to elaborate further.

That night (either some serious time is passing here or there's a slight problem with the cuts-- after the initial rescue run, all of Angel's scenes have been during the day, while all of Faith's seem to be in the middle of the night), lawyer-chick meets with Faith -- and immediately finds herself in almost over her head. Faith is ultimately more impressed with hints at being able to live the good life than at the suggestion that they can help with her legal difficulties, and climbs in the limo.

***

Back to the flashback: We see Darla coming back to the room, only to find Angel(us) huddled in a corner of the hearth murmuring in shock about how not all of their victims scream. At first Darla thinks he's playing a game, then when he gets up and there's obviously something wrong, she thinks he's found someone else. Through his stunned horror, Angel manages to tell her about the gypsy girl's people finding out and casting a spell. Darla realizes he has a soul and backs away in pure revulsion. Ready to stake him herself, she drives him out into the street.

In the present, at W&H, all three lawyers are watching Faith pace while they negotiate a deal: she kills Angel, they get her off (on the murder charge still outstanding from Sunnydale ). She wants cash as well, and when Lee tries to intimidate her with how important this is to him, she promptly beats his head into the desk (repeatedly). The other two simply stand back and look impressed with their find.

The next morning Cordelia, Wesley, and Angel are at the court building again, about to make that lunch meeting. Cordelia's having to explain that it's a divorce case and is also suggesting a small business loan, when Angel hears the sound of a crossbow bolt and spins around just in time to catch it inches from his own back. Faith is delighted that the chase is on, and ducks out into the sunlight. The three musketeers are left in shock that their least-favorite coma victim is not only conscious, but stalking them.

Back in the office, Angel's called Giles and established that Faith's been up and around for "about a week". Wesley is (justifiably) pissed that Giles didn't let him know there'd been a serious change in Faith's condition. Angel's plan is for Wesley and Cordelia to help track her down, then make themselves scarce. While Cordy's all for this, Wesley insists that he won't simply leave Angel to deal alone. Angel, pissed about the vague info he got from Giles about Faith's rampage in Buffy's life, is ready for a fight to the death; Wesley insists that Faith needs to be helped, not killed... which leads Angel to point out exactly how "some British guy" sabotaged him the last time he tried to help Faith.

Later, Angel is alone in his apartment. He takes a long hard look at the well-equipped weapons cabinet, then closes the door and walks up to the offices empty-handed. Sure enough, Faith is there. She tosses him a gun to "even the odds", but he calls her bluff by firing one of the blanks it's loaded with at her, then tossing it back. She taunts him, offering to let him "do her" right off, but to no avail. Frustrated, she shoots him in the shoulder with the next (real) bullet and takes off.

The next night, Angel walks into the W&H building, dressed in a suit, attache in hand, looking like every other cookie-cutter lawyer in the halls. He's stopped by one of the same who thinks they were at the same meeting, but bluffs his way through it and heads for the elevators. He's checking out Lindsey's office when Lindsey arrives. Angel wants to know about Faith, but Lindsey won't say anything. They toss verbal barbs back and forth for a while, until Lindsey points out that -- aside from the mystical barriers and such they've invested in -- the security system is taping the whole encounter, and guards and police are on the way. Angel accepts this and makes an unhurried exit.

Wesley and Cordelia are going over the police reports they've found while walking to Cordy's apartment. When they try to enter, however, Phantom Dennis (We love Phantom Dennis! :) forces the door back in their faces, trying to keep them out. Cordelia thinks he's just jealous and after a few attempts they manage to get in. Sure enough, Faith is there, looking for something she can do to really piss Angel off and "get him in the game". Wesley insists that he believes she's inherently good; so Faith knocks Cordy out with a well-placed elbow. Wesley then punches Faith, but is, of course, no match for her as a fighter.

***

Flashback again: Angel's stumbling through the streets when he happens upon a well-dressed group outside a tavern. Thinking he's a beggar, they toss him money, but he tosses it back, goes vamp-face, and tries to attack the woman. She screams "Monster!" (they speak in what is presumably Romanian), and as the two men in the party drag him back into an alley, Angel agrees, shouting "I'm a monster." However, the two men are soon knocked cold, and Angel comes back for the woman, drags her back into the alley, and starts to feed on her.

Present Day: Angel stumbles into Cordy's apartment to find her regaining consciousness and Wesley and Faith gone. Cut to Wesley -- bound to a chair, gagged, and already bloody -- in the apartment Faith's been using since she mugged the guy at the bus station. Faith's in full psycho torture mode, enumerating the things she has planned for Wesley and working over the cuts and bruises she's already inflicted. (And just what is it with tying up Watchers and torturing them half-to-death at the end of a season... is it a Brit thing? ) Then she breaks a picture frame to get a nice long jagged glass shard and goes to work again.

Cordelia is going over maps with Angel. They triangulate the week's attacks and realize that the first victim, Bus Station Guy, was mugged for his keys, and is still in the hospital....

Faith's apparently done with torture type #2 ("sharp") and we see her drop the bloody shard of glass out the window into the alley below, an unclear look (boredom? ennui? emptiness?) on her face. She turns back to the room and starts talking at an even-worst-looking-shape Wesley about Fate and Destiny. She announces that she believes in neither -- just as she's assembled an aerosol can of cooking spray and one of those long trigger-operated disposable lighters. Armed with this nice makeshift flamethrower, she taunts Wesley -- both with flame and with her contention that his failure as a Watcher contributed to her downslide. He's barely conscious enough to react, but manages a moment of defiance.

Faith looks like she's getting serious with the flameage, just as Angel breaks down the door. She immediately drops the toys and presses a switchblade to Wesley's throat.

***

Flashback: Angel stumbles out of the alleyway, mumbling "I can't", and leaving behind a still-alive victim as he wanders off into the night.

Present: Faith taunts Angel by toying with the idea of killing Wesley just for the hell of it. Angel's not phazed, though -- and when he tells her "I know what you want," we're pretty sure he does. Wesley seizes the moment and tips the chair backwards, away from her, while Angel jumps her. The switchblade lands point-down in the floor, and Angel and Faith start a good old-fashioned knock-down, drag-out, furniture-smashing, body-throwing fight. Ultimately, they both go through and out the window, falling from the second story onto a pile of boxes in the alley. They're both up and still fighting within seconds.

Intercut with this are shots of Wesley on the floor, still tied to the chair. We can finally see that he's making for the switchblade, rubbing his ropes against the blade in an attempt to free himself while the fight rages on below. Faith is shouting "I'm bad!" at Angel as rain starts to fall, and when she screams at him to fight back, we realize he's really only making defensive moves at this point. He tells her again that he knows what she wants "and I'm not gonna do it."

Meanwhile Wesley has freed himself, looked down at the fight, grabbed a kitchen knife, and is heading downstairs to help Angel. By this point Faith is doing little more than hammering at an unresisting Angel's chest in the pouring rain, screaming "I'm evil! I'm bad! Just do it!" Finally she outright begs him to just kill her. Instead he pulls her to his chest and she collapses against him crying hysterically as he reassures her. Wesley has come up behind them in the alleyway but, seeing this bit, lets the knife fall to the ground.

Review

SunSpeak

"Why do all the Wolfram & Hart lawyers have LM for their initials? (Lindsey McDonald, Lilah Morgan, Lee. . . something that I'm sure starts with M. . . . ) It makes me nervous. I'm getting Devil's Advocate vibes . . . and starting to picture Al Pacino and David Boreanaz squaring off. . . . *g*" -- MB

"Easily, the best episode since the Pilot. WOW."
"I agree with you, Mary Beth, this episode was one of the best since the pilot. And the flashbacks didn't bother me, as some have in the past. And I hate to admit it, since I've never really liked the character of Wesley, but my loathing of Wesley isn't loathing any more. I think the writers have finally given him an edge. I didn't think it was believable that Wesley could remain so unchanged from his experiences in Sunnydale, so I'm delighted we finally got to see him deal with Faith." -- MB & Leslie

"So, at some point Faith got on a bus... and bought some really bad eyeshadow." -- Kiki

"She doesn't *seem* to have changed much since "This Year's Girl." Kind of disappointing. I was hoping for... I don't know, something. Buffy gets depressed over all kinds of stuff. Faith just stays psycho." -- Kiki

"I don't believe in Fate either, but it doesn't make me reach for the flamethrowers. (I like them, but it's not a fate thing...)" -- Kiki

"She's looking to get killed, isn't she? I didn't quite get that before. (Perhaps I'm dense.) But it makes more sense now... If she'd really wanted to, she could've taken him out earlier. She wants to be dead. But she wants it to be someone else's fault." -- Kiki

"Liked it. Definitely liked it. :> In retrospect, as much harm and chaos as she caused, it wasn't anything irreparable, like before. All those guys will get out of the hospital eventually. Cordy is *SO* not going to be happy about this. Neither are Wolfram & Hart. Neither is the Council. Kewl. *wg*" --Kiki

"Actually, I was a bit surprised by how things went down in the flashback (with Darla, not the later bit). Not only did Darla *wig* when she realized what had happened to him (which I sorta expected, although not in that direction), but she put it together awfully fast, and had a very strong gut-level reaction of disgust (again, expected) and *fear* (not at all). *Very* not what I expected from her in light of her more recent attitude in Sunnydale; and puts an interesting spin on that behavior too. Obviously she'd had 90 years to get over the shock by then, but she had also somehow developed the idea that she could "save" him from the nasty curse. Wonder if she knew about the "perfect happiness" clause? But the sheer force of her reaction in the flashback (and kudos to Julie for turning on several emotional dimes in that scene!) makes me suspect Angel isn't as alone as he thinks, that she's seen (or perhaps experienced?) this before." -- Val

"I started out okay with the way things were going--TYG was her *hitting* rock bottom, but she needed another catalyst to do something about it. Which was why I practically stood up and cheered when I saw her in the Angel promo, because I have believed for ages that Angel was the most promising source of such a catalyst. And just when I was starting to despair of my theory, he delivered. In spades. He may still be developing his everyday social skills, but a mind in turmoil he knows exactly what to do with. One of my favorite moments has to be him opening the weapons cabinet, looking over the exceptional collection of lethality, picking up the ax, putting it back, and closing the door." --Val

"I didn't *quite* manage to keep up with his thinking--in the big fight at the end, Jack and I were both going "Break her leg or something! That won't kill her!"--but by the time he went *totally* the-best-block-is-not-to-be-there defensive, I figured it out. I think maybe even Angel was figuring out as he went along exactly how deep Faith's self-hatred runs and what to do about it, even though he told her at the beginning that he knew what she wanted. And then she broke down to the point of repeating "I'm bad, I'm bad", and I knew it had worked. And WOW!!! was I relieved. I've never been so glad to be half-right (I thought a calmer conversation might have started accomplishing something, but in retrospect, probably not) about where I thought a character was going." --Val

"Still the same Faith. Yup. Looks like no one called and told them she was conscious again... (Only a week?)"
If it was only a week, I forgive them somewhat. Yes, they couldn't have really expected her to cross his path. But come on, guys, LA was the single most logical place for her to head if she wanted to get loster than she already was...and I figured at least Buffy had figured out that much about her. They need to keep him up to speed on stuff like that. Then again, I can see where Giles (who was clearly still downplaying it when Angel called him) would be reluctant to call him up and say "Hi, Faith's active again, and just seriously screwed around with the love of your life whom you're trying not to think about." I can see where Giles might even have been afraid that Angel would respond by dropping everything and heading straight for Sunnydale, which would almost certainly have done nobody any good. But he still should have been told. *pout*" --Kiki & Val

"This was a great big "ow ow ow ow ow". Poor Angel, still quite a ways from striking a balance between demon impulses and still-disoriented human soul, starving and in no mental condition to figure out what to do about it. This was more pitiful and painful to watch than Apathetic Despondent Rat Guy in "Becoming". Really, really nice work all around--writing, acting, direction. This is the kind of angst I *enjoy* seeing served up (in part because it's past tense, but also because it's not the same old tired interpersonal stuff)." -- Val on one of the post-soul flashbacks

"She's clearly not having fun. How dumb stubborn about being evil is she?"
"Extremely. And even dumber stubborn about not deserving to have fun, but bright enough to know that if she says that outright instead of pretending this *is* fun, someone might succeed in convincing her there's hope, and then she'd have to care." -- Kiki & Val

"Eliza has always been fabulous, but this time she stunned me beyond words. I'm not sure I would have believed Angel reading her so accurately if it hadn't really all been right there in her eyes and her voice and the way she held her body. But it *was* right there, and it just took Angel's frame of reference to read it clearly. (Among those who live in her reality, that is; it's been agonizingly evident from out here for a long time.)" -- Val