Mary Beth's Synopsis

Galway, Ireland 1753
A forlorn violin plays as a young maid named Anna fetches water from a well. She's startled by a man lurking in the shadows. He looks familiar -- long unkempt hair, mussed clothes, pale as a ghost. Yup, that's Angel. Except she doesn't call him Angel. She calls him Master Liam. (Liam?? Fine. A good Irish name. But let's just hope he doesn't have a young friend named Ewan or the Phantom Menace fans are going to have a field day. But I digress.)

Master Liam calls to young Anna to come closer. She hesitates -- worried Angel, er, Liam's father will spot them. Liam reminds her that he'll be off to church and continues to woo her toward him in an eerily-familiar, teasing manner. She wonders why he keeps to the shadows, and he tells her the light is bothering his eyes. Wait a second, didn't he try this bit on Willow, back in Innocence? Just when we're starting to worry for poor Anna's fate, however, Dear Old Da shows up and shoves Master Liam into the sunlight. Nope, no fangs yet -- just a hangover. This must be B.D. (Before Darla).

Dad berates Liam for his carousing and debauchery -- not an unusual occurrence it seems. He's a disgrace to the family and corrupting the servants. (At least now we know bad Irish accents run in the family . . .) Angel, er, Liam reminds his father that they have one servant and continues to mouth off about the inherent pleasure of some forms of corruption, when Dad cuts him off with a good backhand across the face. He tells him he's ashamed to call Liam his son. He's a "layabout and a scoundrel" (scoundrel? I like the sound of that. . . . ) and he'll never amount to anything. Stung, physically and emotionally, Liam brushes the blood away from the corner of his mouth. . . .

~*~

Just as present-day Angel does the same. He's in the midst of a battle with some raggedy looking demon (literally... lots of rags) outside a stalled subway car in one of the subway tunnels. Meanwhile, Kate arrives at the nearest station as a uniformed cop fills her in -- crazy homeless went nuts on the train, tearing things up and threatening passengers. One of them pulled the emergency brake. But by the time the cops got there, the hostage crisis had passed and the guy had disappeared. As the passengers are unloaded from the car, he tells Kate that the details are unclear, but all the passengers insist that the suspect was yanked out of the top vent while train was still moving. Exasperated with the lack of real information, Kate storms down the tunnel.

Angel finally bests his opponent but before he can do any killing of his own, the demon clutches it's chest and collapses to the ground -- dead. Just then, Kate arrives on the scene, stunned, but not so much she can't come up with a witty line to send us to the credits:

"Well, I guess I can forget about reading him his rights."

~*~*~*~

Back in the tunnel, Kate tries to process the fact that her latest suspect is a demon and also that her latest suspect is now dead. She's still "having trouble with this otherworldly stuff." Angel tries to lighten the mood a bit, but Kate isn't having any of it. She storms back down the tunnel toward the station; Angel pauses, takes another look at the demon, then follows her.

"So do I call the coroner or hazardous materials," Kate asks him. He advises her to treat just like a normal case. She reminds him that there's nothing normal about this. "You've seen this kind of thing before," he tells her, she just didn't realize it at the time. She isn't buying it; she thinks she'd remember such things.

"People have a way of seeing what they need to," he says -- witness one witness, the delivery man who pulled the emergency brake and how has described the suspect as "average height, average weight, average build." Not the most observant guy, especially since the suspect came right at him. Although, he insists he doesn't know why. Angel listens with interest, then notices Kate's father has arrived on the scene.

Kate approaches him to find out what he's doing there -- and accuses him of sitting at home, listening to his police scanner again. Someone's not adjusting to well to retirement, it seems. Kate assumes that her dad heard that she was the officer in charge and came down to check up on her. She's touched. Her dad is less than enthusiastic with his praise and walks away. Angel approaches again, but Kate brushes him off -- he doesn't get to kill a demon in front of her and then "act like they're gonna have a cappuccino together." Things don't work that way. In fact, she's not sure things between them work at all. She tells him that while she's sure he's probably a nice guy, for what he is, she wants to keep things business. Nothing personal. For some reason, I don't think Kate's quite come to terms with Angel's vampness yet. Call it a hunch.

~*~

From one icy blonde to another -- back in a familiar Galway tavern, Darla looks on as Master Liam participates in the evening's recreation -- bar room brawl. She's impressed with this magnificent man. She asks a barmaid who he is. This particular barmaid, it seems, is quite familiar with the town scoundrel -- " Oh, his lies sound pretty when the stars are out. But he forgets every promise he's made when the sun comes up again." Luckily for Darla, that's not a problem for her. She makes eyes at Liam across the room. He pauses long enough to grin goofily (and drunkenly) back, before he's knocked when one of his opponents breaks a bottle over his head.

~*~

"Snap out of it!"

Angel has been sitting at his desk, doing that tell-tale, far-off flashback gaze, and Cordelia is having none of it. She's trying to go over the new security system they've purchased (with all that money they have rolling in . . .), and they need to choose a password. Something easy to remember, like... oh.... her birthday! Which Angel says he doesn't know. Something Cordy is well aware of as it seems he's recently missed it. (Oops. Never forget your Gal Friday's birthday or she'll start interpreting her visions incorrectly and you'll end up with egg on your face at the next Oracle Picnic for TPTB.) Thankfully, Angel is saved from making excuses by Wesley's arrival.

Wes has been researching the demon Angel fought in the subway tunnel. He's been looking for body disposal information, and has come across something rather perplexing. This particular demon -- a Kwahini -- is a peaceful, gentle and articulate creatures. Not fighters by nature at all, and not usually capable of the kind of strength it demonstrated with Angel. Something's fishy.

Angel and Wesley brainstorm, while Cordelia stands around rather uselessly (probably wondering why she's even in this scene), about what would make a peaceful demon attack a subway train. Obviously, they decide it was after something..... or someone.

Angel takes this train of thought over to the police precinct to talk to Kate about the demon from that morning. There, she rather amusingly demonstrates the level of denial she's trying to maintain about this whole "otherworldy thing" when she asks him that if he's going to insist on talking about demons not to say that word. It makes her uncomfortable. "Just say. . . Evil Thing, okay?" Angel agrees and tries valiantly to abide by her wishes.

"It's just that the ... uh... Evil Thing -- turns out that it wasn't an evil Thing," he tells her.

"The Evil Thing wasn't an evil Thing?" she asks.

"Well, it was an Evil Thing, in terms of that word," he responds. "It just wasn't an evil Evil Thing."

"There are not-evil Evil Things?" She seems genuinely surprised. Angel is a little hurt by this. She changes the subject briefly to ask Angel how he got there in the middle of the day, so he can once again explain for the nitpickers that he uses the sewer system to get around. But back to the topic at hand. . . He wants a list of passengers from that subway train.

"I think that the demon," he starts, then shifts, "I think the *train* may have been targeted for a reason."

Again, Kate's not remembering her sensitivity training when she responds, "An Evil Thing needs a reason?"

He's sure it was after something or someone. And he wants to start with the delivery guy. Kate tries to convince him that they've checked everyone out, but Angel persists, much to Kate's annoyance. She finally cuts him off. "Angel, there's nothing here. You're not evil Evil Thing was just evil, okay?"

Later that night, Angel is parked outside the delivery warehouse talking to Wesley on a cell phone. How he found this warehouse without Kate's help is a mystery. He's worried about Kate. "Ever since she ran me through with a 2x4, things have been different," he tells Wesley, who is deep in the subway tunnels with Cordelia. They're on disposal duty. He tries to reassure Angel that sometimes people -- women especially -- take time to adjust to the dark forces . . . Not Cordy, though. She's already sawing away on the demon's body. How lovely.

Angel is just worried that if Kate doesn't get past the big picture, she'll miss the details.... like what a guy who drives a delivery van would be doing on a commuter train during his shift. As the delivery guy pulls up to the warehouse and gets out of the van, he gets a cell phone call and has to climb right back in. Angel signs off with Wesley, and follows.

Delivery Man reaches his destination -- an apartment building -- and Angel watches from the shadows around a corner as the guy knocks on a door and makes an exchange with his client -- Kate's father.

~*~*~*~

A short while later, Kate's father answers another knock at his door to find Angel on the other side. Angel reintroduces himself as Kate's friend and gets to the point -- he wants to know what was in the package he just gave to the delivery guy. For some reason, Mr. Lockley doesn't take to kindly to Angel's nosiness. Angel tells Lockley he knows Lockley wasn't at the crime scene to check on Kate, but to remove something so the cops wouldn't find it. Lockley tries to shut the door on Angel, but Angel is getting good at this persistence thing. He asks Lockley who he works for. When he doesn't get an answer, he tells Lockley that he will find out what's going on. Lockley accuses Angel of threatening him -- but Angel insists he's just trying to protect Kate from finding out her dad is into dirty dealings.

"You got any kids, Angel?" Lockley asks. When Angel responds that he doesn't, Lockley tells Angel that until he does, he can't know how a father feels or why he does the things he does. Cue flashback.

~*~

Liam is moving out. Dad tries one last time to get his son to toe the line, but Liam isn't listening. He bids good-bye to his young, teary-eyed sister, Kathy, and a silent farewell to his mother before turning to face his father. The elder tells Liam if he leaves, he'll not be allowed back. Liam has no problem with that. "As you wish, father, always as you wish." Father looks at him with disgust. "'Tis a son I wish for. A man. Instead God gave me you -- a terrible disappointment." Liam has had enough, strengthened by his resolve to leave, he finally lets his father have it. "A more dutiful son you can't have asked for," he spits. "My whole life you told me in word, in glance what it is you required of me, and I've lived down to every expectation, haven't I?"

"That's madness!" Dad responds, taken aback a bit.

But Liam isn't done. "No. The madness is that I couldn't fail enough for ya. Well, we'll fix that now won't we?"

His father shakes his head, "I fear for you lad."

And finally Liam moves in for last blow "And is that all that you can find in your heart for me, father?"

Stunned, Dad asks who would take Liam in. "I'll not lack for a place to sleep," Liam assures him and tells him to get out of his way as he heads for the door. His father grabs him, trying one last time to get through to his son. They lock eyes as dad tells him, "I was never in your way, boy." Then Liam is gone. His father watches, then calls out "If you go courtin' trouble, you're sure to find it!"

And find it he does. In a series of quick cuts, we watch as Young Master Liam drinks and revels in his freedom before wandering into the night, encountering Darla in the familiar alleyway from Becoming 1, meeting his maker, and meeting his destiny.

~*~

Back in the present, Kate and her dad stroll along a beach community, enjoying hot dogs. He says he wanted to spend a little time with his daughter. This catches Kate by surprise. Unfortunately, he doesn't take long to switch the subject to Angel. He pumps Kate for information about him, in the guise of thinking they're an item, which she insists they're not. "Angel's just not my type. Or I'm not his type. There's definitely a type involved, and it's the wrong one."

Kate tells him Angel is a P.I. -- and a good one, Kate tells him. One who "doesn't mind working nights." Kate wonders why her dad came all the way out there to ask about Angel. "He made an impression," the elder Lockley states. Kate asks if he liked Angel. "No. Not really," he responds. And with that the conversation is pretty much over . Lockley grows quiet for a moment, and introspective, before he tells Kate that "It's not good to be alone." Kate is perplexed. She's not the only one.

Back at Angel's place, Wesley is playing Scully with demon parts. He's got one of those goofy, old-fashioned mirror thingys on his head and big rubber gloves on, as well as a lab coat. He looks silly. But he's able to tell Angel that the Kwahini's adrenal gland was enlarged -- caused by a synthetic substance with PCP-like, but metaphysical, qualities. In other words, these demons were flying high. Wes and Angel ponder what a drug like this could do with already powerful demons if it made the peaceful Kwahini so dangerous.

They're interrupted by Cordelia, wearing big shades and a short blonde wig, who arrives to first criticize them for not activating the new security system and then to complain about how icky "trailing detail" is. Especially in L.A. traffic. She finally shows them video she made of the delivery guy ... making deliveries. The only clue she got was the place he spent his lunch time -- a warehouse for "Exotic Auto." Angel recognizes the packages he carries into the place. They've found their source.

Meanwhile, Ex-Sgt. Lockley is at Exotic Auto filling in some smarmy lackey type on Angel's inquisitiveness. He gets inquisitive himself, actually, trying to find out more about what was in the packages. Seems Lockley isn't really that knowledgeable about the goings on here. He's just been using his police connections to facilitate the moving of illegal auto parts, and he's not happy that he's been asked to remove evidence from crime scenes and pump his daughter for info. But when lackey-guy brings out the cash payment, Lockley still takes it and leaves. Once he does, though, lackey guy turns to talk to his Big Boss -- a large ugly demon who comes out of the shadows to order them to kill Angel. Kill Lockley. Kill them all.

~*~*~*~

It's a bright, sunny day when Liam is buried. His mother and sister sob while Dad looks on stoically during the grave side service. He continues to stand there, unmoving as they fill the grave of his "Beloved Son" (born 1727, died 1753 -- for the trivia buffs).

Night falls, a chill fills the air, and a cloaked Darla approaches the fresh grave. She watches as a hand pushes up through the dirt and the vampire Liam rises from the grave. She reaches tenderly for him and welcomes him to her world. He is disoriented, in pain. He tells her he could feel his family above him when he was in the earth -- their heartbeats, their blood coursing through their veins. A gravedigger happens upon them. With Darla's encouragement, the newborn vampire moves in for his first kill. Darla looks on like a proud mother. Fresh from the kill, vampire Liam is eager for more. Darla tells him he can have anyone he wants. And he thinks big -- he wants the entire village.

Back at Angel Investigations, Cordelia show Wesley how to set the security system (code 0-5-2-2), which will ensure no lurking minions from hell can get in without them knowing about it. Angel, of course, walks right in from his office. He's heading out to the auto warehouse to see what he can find out. This is strictly recon, though, so he tells Wesley to stay behind. Before he can leave, though, Kate walks in the front door (much to Cordelia's chagrin).

She's brought Angel the names he'd asked for -- having changed her mind after her conversation with her father. Having told her father that Angel is good at what he does, she realized that she needs to trust Angel's instincts no matter what she thinks of him or what he is. She also wants to be involved in whatever he finds out. Angel questions whether she's sure about that -- she tells him she has to face those demons sometime.

Later that night (I guess Angel scrapped the recon duty), Wesley is trying to convince Angel not to let his need to protect Kate get him into hotter water. Angel wants to have another talk with Kate's father -- this time to fill him in on the real nature of the people he's dealing with. Wesley is arguing that Lockley has made his choice to deal with these people, but Angel tells him that "sometimes the price we pay for one bad choice isn't commensurate with the offense." Cordy is there to hand him the car keys he's been looking for. He heads downstairs to his car, and Cordy sets the alarm. Just in time for a Kwahini demon to crash through the front door (the alarm works though) and attack. Another pulls a Beatle and comes in through the bathroom window. Wesley and Cordy rather lamely hold them off until Angel, I guess having heard the commotion from downstairs, comes to their rescue by distracting the demons with some of the drugs Wesley discovered. Another demon crashes in the window, but Angel takes them down pretty easily. He finally gets one in a choke hold and demands information.

A short while later, Angel is on his way. Having discovered the demon's are after Kate's father, too, he calls her and leaves her a message to get hold of her father and get him out of his house. Too late, Lockley opens his door to the lackey and his lackey. They ask to come in and have a talk about his daughter. Angel, meanwhile, finishes his message to Kate: "He doesn't know what they are Kate. He won't understand."

Liam's father is frantically hammering boards up in the window, when he's started by the voice of his dead son. "You're no better than the rest of them, are you father? Cowering in their houses. Boardin' up the windows. Smearin' that foul herb in the doorways. They think something evil and vile and monstrous has taken to terrorizing this village and everything in it." As he talks the vampire circles his prey, taunting him.

His father shakes with fear, moving away from what used to be his son, but he tries to stand up to him. "Begone, unclean thing! A demon cannot enter a home where it's not welcome. It must be invited!"

"That's true," the vampire smiles. "But I was invited." His gaze shifts and his father's eyes follow to find the body of little Kathy slumped in a corner, drained and lifeless as a ragdoll. A small cry escapes his lips, as the vampire gloats. "She thought I returned to her -- an Angel."

Angel's father charges him, but Angel easily shoves him aside. "Strange," he comments curiously. "Somehow you seemed taller when I was alive." His father stands frozen against the wall, praying for his life, for his soul, while Angel moves in for the kill. "To think I ever let such a tiny, trembling thing make me feel the way you did. You told me I was a man. You told me I was nothing. And I believed you. You said I'd never amount to anything. Well you were wrong," Angel growls, as he morphs into vamp face in front his father. "You see, father, I have made something of myself after all."

~*~

Back in Lockley's apartment, the lackey guys refuse the hospitality of their host and get to the point -- they want to know if he's mentioned his association with them to his daughter. Lockley tells them she's clueless. And Lockley wants it to stay that way. Turns out he's been saving up the money for Kate, to provide for her future. Reassured, the baddies start to move in on him while he has his back turned, but the reason his back is turned is that he's reaching for into a drawer for his gun . . . They're all interrupted by a knock on the door.

Lockley opens it to find a rather anxious Angel on the other side, asking to be invited in. Lockley tells him to go away, but Angel sees the lackey over Lockley's shoulder. He tries to push in, but can't. He grows more frantic and insists that Lockley invite him in. He refuses and behind Lockley, the baddies morph into vamp face. One of them grabs Lockley and pulls him away from the door, while the other taunts Angel. Angel tells them that if he dies, the second his soul leaves his body, he'll get in and kill them both. They are undeterred.

Helpless to stop them, Angel is forced to watch as they drain Lockley's body. True to his word, as soon as Kate's father falls dead to the floor, he charges in and dusts one. The other bolts, bumping into Kate as she arrives. She cries out and runs to her father's lifeless form. She bursts into sobs as she cradles him in her arms; Angel looks on in pain.

~*~*~*~

Shaken, Angel tries to explain what happened -- that he'd invited them in without knowing what they were. She tells him he knew. Angel tries to tell her that he couldn't get in, that her father was involved in something he didn't understand, but she's not hearing him. She tells him to get out. He does, leaving her to grieve.

Back at his apartment, Angel prepares for battle, strapping on just about every cool weapon he's got and picking up a great big axe for good measure. Wesley watches calmly, wondering what happened to being cautious and careful. Angel tells him that was Plan A. They've moved on to Plan B. Plan B looks like a lot more fun to me anyway.

Kate is curled up in a corner in her father's apartment when she spots an envelope full of money and the Exotic Auto business card. Soon, she arrives at the warehouse, gun in hand. She shoots down one of the lackeys, then looks the one who ran from her father's apartment in the eye. "My father didn't know what you are, but I do." She shoots him once and he vamps out. "I know it won't kill you," she tells him. "But this will." And she surprises the vamp by staking him in the heart. She whispers to the pile of dust that forms, "I told you I knew."

Unfortunately, she's not prepared for the large ugly demon that emerges from the shadows. She shoots him several times with no effect. This does not look good for our heroine!

The demon gloats (why do they always gloat?) "You have no comprehension. You don't understand what stands before you!"

But Angel does -- "A big, ugly drug-running demon who thinks he's a lot scarier than her really is, maybe?" I think he nailed it.

Mayhem ensues as Angel takes out most of the henchman. One of the remaining ones grabs Kate, but Angel holds the axe to the demon's neck. They both walk out of there now, or he dies. They start to let Kate go, but one grabs her again as a couple others jump Angel. Kate bests her opponent though and notches her second kill, while Angel does maneuver wherein he throws the axe in the air, shoots two vamps with the sling-stake things that are in his arms, catches the axe, and beheads the baddie -- all punctuated with some witty repartee. Damn, he's good.

He approaches Kate, who's kneeling on the ground fighting back tears. She nods that she's okay, but when he tries to tell her to "never trust an evil Evil Thing," his efforts fall flat. He tries again. "Kate, I know what happened with your father. . . . "

She cuts him off. "My father was human. And you don't know anything about that." To that, he can only watch her go.

~*~

Darla finds Angel enjoying a bit of ale at his father's table, the bodies of his family strewn about. "This contest has ended," she asks him.

I've won, he tells her. Proven who had the power.

"You think?" she asks, smiling deviously. Angel is perplexed.

"Your victory over him took but moments," she points out. "But his defeat of you will last lifetimes."

"What are you talking about? He can't defeat me now."

"Nor can he ever approve of you," Darla explains. "In this world or any other. What we once were informs all that we have become. The same love will infect our hearts, even if they no longer beat. Simple death won't change that."

"Love," Angel wonders. "Is this the work of love?"

Darla smiles at her innocent pupil, "Darling boy. So young. Still so very young."

~*~

In a graveyard in Los Angeles, Angel watches from the shadows of a darkened crypt as Kate places flowers on a grave and bids a quiet farewell to her "Beloved Father."

Mary Beth's Review

Well, this was interesting. The return of the bad Irish accent, more information about how Angel came to be, well, Angel; Darla!; more great stuff for Kate -- a character Tim Minear obviously loves to write and writes well (too bad the same can't really be said for Cordelia); and not much for anyone else to do. Once again, Angel proves that it's a show trying hard to find it's niche, but not always succeeding. It has some stellar moments and good execution, but often doesn't seem quite to know what to do with itself.

Characters
Angel -- Not a lot of character development for Angel in this one -- but tons of exposition as we finally see more of what Angel's life was like before he became all Scourgey. There have been so many theories about what made Angelus such a bad-ass vampire -- many stemming from his childhood and home life. So it's kind of anti-climactic to discover that he was your basic layabout son, inspired to such depths by a father who didn't know how to be loving and supportive. It is interesting to see, however, how killing that father (in part because of the mind games Darla was already beginning to play with him) and discovering how completely unfulfilling that turned out to be could have spun him off in the direction of sadistic torturer yearning to find some way to take his hate and pain out on others. I hope this is (or something similar) is the direction they mean to head in when (if) they continue to explore the depths of Angel's past. I know it's tough to have a protagonist on TV who is essentially a murderer, but I don't want them to soften Angel's past for no real good reason -- it cheapens the power of not only what we've seen before, but also what's to come.

Kate -- Fresh on the heels of finding out the deep dark secrets of what really goes bump in the night, Kate has the rest of the rug yanked out from under her when she finds out first that her father isn't quite the stand-up cop she thought he was, and then loses him before she can resolve any of this with him. Throughout the episode we see that the calm and collected Kate in "Somnambulist" who dealt so well with learning about vampires (to the point of smartly doing her own research) has back stepped -- understandably perhaps -- into a form of denial. She got the job done when it counted, but now she wants nothing to do with Angel's dark world -- refusing even to use the word "demon" in a bit that's quite amusing, but that has an undercurrent of desperation to cling to the norm. Unfortunately, that world is more pervasive than she'd care to believe. She's also still as hopeful as ever about her relationship with her father, sadly nothing much has changed since the heartbreaking ending of "Sense & Sensitivity." Now with his death, at the hands of the very things she's been trying to deny, her world is in a tailspin. She does well to use the pain and anger over her father's death to kick some vampire butt, and she's tough and she's smart -- but in the aftermath she pushes Angel away and heads out on her own. It will be interesting to see how she comes through this.

Wesley -- Wesley seems to be more and more comfortable working with Angel -- and he's exhibiting some serious Scully-like traits in doing so. He's Angel's devil's advocate and sounding board, demonstrating a keen mind and sound judgment. And we see he's got more hidden talents when he plays Demon Autopsy on the Kwahini to find out just what went wrong. He looked goofy in the outfit, yes. But he was also pretty darned confident in what he was doing.

Cordelia -- Well, she was in the episode. I'm not sure why . . . . The bits with the security alarm and the surveillance were fluff, pure and simple. And not even very good fluff, at that.

Relationships
Angel & Kate -- Angel may need to get a warmer coat to wear whenever he interacts with Kate. She gives him several brush-offs in the episode, but a rare candid talk with her father (well, at least on *her* part) reminded her that Angel is good at what he does and has never let her down in that department. So she renews the business relationship. Just in time for Angel to, seemingly, let her down in that end, too. Kate was smart enough to know that Angel didn't kill her father, but it may take her some time to reconcile events. Angel didn't tell her about her father's dealings sooner, and in her mind, he did nothing to stop the vampires from killing him. I think she'll come to remember the rules (I'm sure Angel won't do anything to explain them....), but how long will it take before she can even stand to work with him again.

Angel & Darla -- It's fascinating to see how Darla chose Angel -- for his "magnificence" it seems. A beautiful man who loved to live life to it's fullest -- a scoundrel. Someone she could have fun with -- but also someone she could mold and play with. As a newborn vampire, Angel looks to her as he would a mother, and Darla plays the part so well. But as soon as Angel has had his fun at the expense of his family and village, Darla reveals she's been having as much fun at Angel's expense. I do hope we'll get more Darla someday. I want to see the part she played in forming the sadistic killer and torturer Angelus supposedly became.

Angel & His Father/ Kate & Her Father -- The parallels between Kate and Angel and their fathers is the most interesting thing about this episode. Both yearned for love and support from a father who didn't know how to give it. Both discovered at their deaths that these men were mere mortals who made their own mistakes and loved their children in their own ways. And neither Kate nor Angel will ever have a chance to reconcile their pain and hurt.

Continuity
Angel's birth name is Liam. He was born in 1727, making him "six and twenty" when he was vamped in 1753. This makes him 273 years old now. Gosh, I love Jossian math.

Vampires can enter a home uninvited once the soul of the owner has left the body.

Kate is having trouble dealing with the darker forces at work in her city. And while she did lots of research in Somnambulist and showed signs of really preparing herself, she's gone into denial since then.

Best Moments
* Darla watching Angel, er, Liam with interest. It was just nice to see Darla again, period, actually.

* Angel's quip about things not being the same between him and Kate since she ran him through with a 2x4. Gee, Angel. Ya think?

* Angel being forced to watch as the vampires killed Kate's father. Ouch!

* Angel confronting his father as a vampire and his subsequent realization that he hasn't killed that particular demon, but has only made it stronger.

* Kate kicking some vampire butt.

Rating
More great Kate stuff. Poor use of the rest of the cast, but interesting character development and history for Angel. Still, I can't get excited about this episode, but neither did I hate it. It just sort of .... happened. I'll give it a solid 3.5 out of 5.

SunSpeak

"Loved the flashbacks; loved that he *did* have a little sister, like we always suspected. Hated Darla with a passion, so that was familiar."
"Darla was Darla, and I rather enjoyed having her around in the very safe flashbacky sense." -- Kiki & Val

"I've heard that Elisabeth Rohm is doing another show on TNT pretty soon, but she'll be guest-starring on Angel still. This was a great way to ease her out of the forefront of the show. You know, if Joyce had died back in "Angel," a *lot* of things would have ended differently. There never would have been a Buffy & Angel. I feel for Kate, she has to lash out at someone, and Angel is just the most perfect target you could ask for. I hope we do see her again soon."
"And yet she understood immediately that he didn't do it himself--she gets major points for that in my book, even if she hadn't processed yet that he didn't stop it because he was physically unable to. Once she gets to the mental point where she can think that through properly, if she doesn't virtually simultaneously realise that he was forced to *watch*, I'll stew and eat my lucky purple boots." -- Kiki & Val

"Wesley was the most *amazingly* competent and laidback I've ever seen him while playing with the demon's insides. He _would_ have been good at his Watcher job, you know? (If he hadn't gone into it with completely the wrong attitude, I mean.) Finally they've got him doing something completely separate from what Doyle used to do, and what Cordelia does. Giles may always have more of the history and magic in his head and at his fingers, but Wes is no slouch at this icky stuff."
"And, shock of all shocks, I not only didn't want to kill him this week, but actually rather liked having him around! All ya gotta do is write the poor guy like a human being, folks!" -- Kiki & Val

"Okay I'll just say this bit and no more. Yes they have finally given Wesley a glimmer of personality. Unforuntately I see it as too little, too late. I'm completely uninterested. I'm still using his screen time for restroom breaks or to get more tea. < /b*tch >" -- Julie

"Grubby nit-pick that I'm sure will get shot down shortly: Didn't that cottage seem to not match the clothes Angel's family was wearing? They were heading for upper-middle class with their clothes, and yet the cottage was very much solid-middle or wealthy peasent. Between that and, 'Don't debauch the servants.' 'We only have one servant, faaaather,' maybe they were either aping their betters or (more interesting) on a downward spiral of affluence?"
"Um...possibly lost everything (money, land, title) if they refused to convert to the Church of England (I'm assuming from what we've seen that Angel & his family were Catholic). It happened at lot there & about then." --Lizbet & Julie