Perri's Review

An episode that could have been the cliche from hell is actually reasonably pointy and quite well done, introducing what I can only hope will be a new recurring character.

Plot:
A girl in her very early twenties walks down a dark street, alone. Behind her stalk the menacing forms of three can-only-be vampires. She stumbles in front of them, then stops to face them as they go into game face. And from behind them, dark shoes, a sword and a flowing dark coat stride up the street. "You expecting somebody else?" asks... a complete stranger. Cute though; not much older than the girl, but with muscles and a grim, competent sort of expression.

We cut to credits, then to a swanky L.A. party across town. Cordy, with Wesley and Angel in tow, is delighted to be attending a nice party with lots of money in the air. She homes in on their client, David Nabbit, a geeky yet sincere software type with no apparent social skills, no real friends, and a big problem. Seems he got in with a bunch of role playing, D&D types who took it to a higher-level of reality, reality equaling a demon brothel in Bel Aire, Madam Dorian's. And pictures of David's visits to said brothel have turned up, and are being used for blackmail. He needs Angel to track down Lenny Nichols, the blackmailer, and retrieve the material. No problem, Angel assures him.

Meanwhile, the brother-sister team of Gunn and Alonna have escalated their vampire confrontation into one big-ass fight, a gang of street kids against an equally big gang of vamps. The kids are outmaneuvered, but have the equipment to even the odds, including a truck-mounted gatlin crossbow and enough weapons to attend the Sunnydale High School graduation. One of the boys is severely injured before the vamps finally head for the hills. The kids retreat to their 'stronghold', an old abandoned building, but can't save the injured boy, who dies in 's arms. Gunn only watches for a moment, before standing to continue organizing his people.

Angel heads into Madame Dorian's, to be informed that they don't do vampires. A few dropped hints about blackmail and discretion later, she introduces him to David's 'steady', who directs him to Lenny. Back in the headquarters, Alonna confronts her brother about his ongoing fight back against the vampires who prey on the street kids. "You just couldn't go another day without getting a little death in, could you?" He's not listening, fairly firmly convinced he's going to die anyway, and just wanting to do as much damage as possible first. It's outside this lovely atmosphere that Angel decides to confront Lenny. With threats, menace and a display of his game face, Angel convinces Lenny to give up the pictures at a meeting the next day. Unfortunately, the part Gunn and his people see are Angel (a vampire) informing some guy he's moving in and taking over. Not happy people.

The next morning, David hands a check over to Cordelia and Wesley for expenses. It's a check big enough to make Cordelia stutter -- he's added extra in gratitude for them hanging with him at his party. And that night, Angel shows up to collect the pictures from Lenny -- who, of course, brought some demon buddies as bodyguards. A fight scene ensures, and Angel makes short work of the muscle; Lenny runs for it, of course, so Angel is alone when the stake plows through his shoulder. It's Gunn and the Gang, in their Pickup Truck O' Vampire Doom, and they start chasing Angel down the street. He ducks into a nearby building, only to find himself in a booby-trapped dungeon, being attacked from all sides by people and gadgets. He survives, and lets one of his attackers live, which isn't enough to put him on Gunn's side when he is finally trapped and surrounded. Especially since he starts out with Gunn's sister as a human shield. He releases her, of course, then blocks a booby-trap arrow with her hand, saving her life. "I'm getting the impression you don't like me too much." But Gunn isn't willing to believe Angel isn't like the rest of them, or that he and Gunn are fighting on the same side. Gunn lets Angel walk, crossbow on him the whole time, and warns him not to come back.

And of course Angel isn't going to let it go at that. While Cordelia patches up Angel's wounds, and Wesley stutters at the blackmail pictures, Angel is busy trying to figure out a way to save the kids from themselves. That means locating their hideout, and locating the nest of vampires they are fighting, which he heads out to do, even the huge check not enough to quite take the pain away. Said nest of vampires, by the way, is on a tear, wanting to get rid of the kids who have made dinnertime a bit too exciting lately. It's time to take the war to the kids, the head vamp informs them, and wipe out their leadership. And in their own conference of war, Gunn and James decide over Alonna's protests that they can't trust Angel.

Which isn't the best of decisions. As they plan their next attack, and even try to eat a cache of stolen food, the vampires launch their own attack in broad daylight. Smoke grenades force the kids outside; before Gunn realizes no vamps are coming inside, it's too late. He emerges onto the street just in time to see fully-covered vamps in a blacked-out van grab Alonna. He clutches at the back of the van, but can only see his sister struggling and screaming before the vamps knock him off. The van drives away, taking his sister with it.

Since it's daylight, the task of tracking the kids down falls to Wesley and a fervently-denying-reality Cordelia. They apparently give Angel enough information to walk straight into Gunn's headquarters, where Gunn is preparing for war. Angel tries to warn him off, but Gunn is determined, regardless of the price he and his people will have to pay. "People die all the time," James informs Angel. And when Angel offers to help, he gets trapped in a meat locker instead, and the kids head out. Gunn. displaying the combination of courage and stupidity that has brought him this far, heads into the nest after his sister alone. He finds her, free and seemingly fine -- if you discount the whole 'now a vampire' thing.

As Angel fights to escape the meat locker, Gunn faces his sister. He's broken hearted, but Alonna's fine with the whole thing. And she wants her brother to join her, to stop grieving and start living, as it were. "I was supposed to protect you. You were my sister." "I still am," Alonna responds, daring him to kill her. He can't and she asks him again to join her, to keep their family together (as Angel is quite embarrassingly rescued by Cordelia and Wesley, despite the fact that he forgot he had his cell phone and could call them).

"I wanted to be like you so bad," Alonna tells her brother, recalling a time he saved her life, catching her when she fell. Gunn seems to be listening, to be believing his sister's pleas. "You're the one who's falling now. Let me catch you." As she leans in towards his neck, he whispers good-bye -- and stakes her. Dust. Angel gets there just in time to see, but his attempt to pull Gunn out is interrupted, first by Gunn's people... then by the vampires. Angel intercedes, warning the vampires to get out of his territory. When he kills the leader, those threats take on just a little bit of weight. The kids aren't any happier with the idea of a truce, but Gunn, unexpectedly, has had enough of death. The truce stands. The killing is over.

In the sunlight of the next day, Cordelia muses on her life, its comparison with the lives the kids lead, and the life she wants. Her attempt to talk herself into becoming David's mistress is cut off firmly by Wesley's affectionate amusement and her own common sense. And Angel tracks down Gunn, staring out over the dark city, alone. Gunn tells him to go away, he has no intention of stopping the fight. Angel understands that, and understands Gunn's guilt over his sister; he tells Gunn he'll be around. "I don't need no help," Gunn lies. "I might," Angel responds quietly, before walking away.

Continuity:
Essentially a stand-alone, although Gunn will hopefully be back for another appearance.

Relationships:
Wesley and Cordelia are getting along pretty well, actually hanging outside the office.

Characters:
Normally, an episode that focuses this strongly on secondary characters, particularly their first time out, should be doomed to failure. But Garry Campbell does a masterful job of making Gunn quite real and very sympathetic, and an equally good job with Alonna David Nabbit. You know, I really, really do hope that Gunn returns for more appearances next season. He could have been a very cardboard, static kind of character -- street punk substituting fighting for life, refusing to believe in anything. And he's not, due both to the writer and the actor. He has taken responsibility for a large group of other kids, is making damn sure all of them eat, and is trying to keep them from turning into vamp food. His methods aren't the best -- but I doubt ore of them died fighting vampires than would have died anyway. Alonna's not entirely wrong, mind you; he does like the fighting. It gives him a purpose, something to pummel in revenge for whatever reduces his life to this level. But he's also using that energy, that anger, for something good, rather than turning into just another gangbanger. He's not concerned about building a better future, no; but he's concerned about living the best he can in the present, and keeping his sister safe as well. Angel's intervention will, hopefully, keep him from going on some guilt-stricken revenge suicide crusade, but it remains to be seen. Regardless, he's a helluva good ally, and a strong, smart, compassionate kid who most definitely deserves all the chances Angel can give him.

Alonna gets less development than her brother, mostly because she's a red-shirt from the get go. She's the standard little sis, adoring her brother but not blind to his faults. She's got a much more focused vision -- she believes in The Cause but, first and foremost, she wants her brother alive. Alonna humanizes Gunn; without her, he would be much less sympathetic than he is. The actress carries off her 'recruiting' speech very nicely, and the chemistry between Alonna and Gunn makes the brother-sister relationship starkly real. A bit derivative, and more than a bit predictable, but no less well done for that.

David Nabbit is much more of a stereotype (will the real Bill Gate raise his hands?), but even he gets some definition. His gratitude to Cordy and Wes for hanging out with him at his own party, and willingness to admit that yes, he knows how pathetic he is, lifts him a long way in my books. While I'm not as desperate to see him return as I am to see Gunn, I wouldn't mind an appearance or two. A little time with Cordy would be good for him, and god knows the money and contacts can only help Angel Investigations.

As for the usual gang, Cordy gets to have fun teasing her boss and Wesley, and both of them spend the episode being quite amused at her. It's not as good as having Cordelia owning a fully-functional brain, but I'll take what I can get at this point. The last bit, where she seriously considers trying to seduce Nabbit into being her sugar daddy is entertaining, and fully in character -- particularly when she admits without prompting that she could never do it. She's come too far, got too much pride in herself -- and her accomplishments with Angel Investigations, I think -- to sell herself. But I'll lay a lot of money that she's thought of it before. (In fact, we know she has; think back to the pilot, and what she was prepared to do for Russell Winter.) Luckily, she's got Wesley and Angel to keep her common sense in control.

Wesley is competent and entertaining; for once, everyone else is the butt of the jokes and he's the cool one. In fact, he doesn't have much to do except be amused.

Angel can relate to Gunn, in oh so many ways. He understands guilt, and responsibility, and fighting the good fight. But he also knows the cost, which Gunn had yet to internalize. I'm glad he'll be keeping an eye on Gunn; the kid desperately needs someone he can trust, someone he can rely on instead of having to carry everything himself. And Angel's just the guy for that. We got the delight of seeing Angel forget about his cell phone, falling in love with the hard choice of breaking out of the meat locker instead of calling for help. He does that a lot, have you noticed? Doing it all himself instead of sharing the responsibility? Like I said, he and Gunn have a lot in common. And it's also delightful to see him being human and fallible -- no steel superheros here.

Best Moments:
Angel teasing Cordy about the whole 'sniffing money' thing. That's the kind of byplay I loved when Doyle was around, that we've lost the last several episodes.

The fight between the kids and the vampires. Nicely choreographed chaos.

Angel in the brothel. It's a great idea, carried out with straight faces by all concerned.

Wesley and Cordelia getting the check. Fun to watch her going nonverbal, more fun to hear her babble. And Wesley giving her trouble about it afterwards is great!

Cordelia patching Angel up. His wincing and Wesley's comments on the pictures are funny as hell, and Angel's request to see the check one more time is another nice, human touch.

Wesley being snarky at Cordelia in the car. Have I mentioned how much I loved the interaction between the trio this episode?

Wesley and Cordelia breaking Angel out. ROTFL! A truly, truly classic scene, going back to the wonderful self-mockery of the first episodes, something else that's been missing, and missed.

Alonna trying to convince Gunn to come across. Not having seen Blade, I have no idea if this is the ripoff that's been claimed, I only know what it was beautifully written and played.

Wesley and Cordelia talking in the park. He's getting quite good at dealing with Cordelia on the level of friends, and she's finally starting to trust him.

Angel and Gunn's final scene. Good directing, and the connection between these two is already almost visible. We need to see Gunn again.

Questions and Comments:

Rating: 4 out of five stars. Like I said, predictable, but the guest characters, particularly Gunn, were beautifully drawn and executed. Nice directing, some seriously good giggles, and the kind of entertaining by-play among the trio we haven't seen for quite some time.

SunSpeak

Well, there really wasn't much SunS comment on this episode, as most of the focus was on the Buffy episode, with it's big Scooby Gang fight and the Angel/Riley meeting.

So I'll just take this chance to say that I adore Gunn and thought the episode--while a bit slow and filled with obvious, well, filler to account for DB being on the Buffy set--had some wonderful acting from the guest actors, a truly frightening and heartbreaking scene with Gunn and Alana (ignoring the parallels to Blade...), and some cute interplay between the gang. The cell phone scene, especially, made me laugh out loud.

I didn't particularly like the hamhanded way they handled Cordy's decision not to pursue David Nabbit for his money. It's nice she's grown and all that . . . . but it seemed a rather flat scene because, well, I've thought Cordy moved beyond all that a long time ago (oh, say, after being impregnated by a demon-worshipping psycho....). Okay, so maybe this was when *she* finally realized she'd moved on. . . but still. Again . . . filler. Not too effective filler.

Mostly the episode served to introduce two possible (well, now we know Gunn is definitely signed on for next season--and may I just say YAY!) recurring characters that could prove useful and definitely, in the case of Gunn, liven up the place a bit. Thank goodness. I want the focus to stay on the main three characters, definitely, but a few more peripheral people to help Angel in times of need could be good, not just for the fun, but for the realism. There's only so much a vampire, a former watcher, and a former prom queen can do. --MB