Angel
"Blood Money"

Airdate: January 23, 2001

Oh, this is just getting mean. They're doing it on purpose. Here it is, handed to them on a plot-driven platter, and they just ignore it. They have the perfect opportunity to show us that stricken look in his eyes when her name is mentioned, and they do nothing. Why could they not do it for me? Oh, it's too predictable, I suppose. Too pedestrian.

How curious. He's smiling. Even though he knows he's in Valentine!

You must wonder what the hell I'm talking about.

Well, last episode's Angel had its "Anne" moment: this episode, damned if she doesn't show up. (And I swear I didn't know this was going to happen.) Anne, the blonde formerly known as Chanterelle and Lily, took on Buffy's middle name after being saved by the Slayer from the depths of Bedrock-style Hell in the Buffy Season 3 opener. Now she runs a shelter for teen runaways in LA, a lost soul redeemed not by Angel, but by his ex-girlfriend. And why they couldn't have had her point this out to him, I don't know. Yes I do! They hate me.

We first met Anne, then Chanterelle, in the wonderful second season Buffy episode "Lie To Me," which also was kind enough to show us the glorious image of Roswell's Jason Behr horribly, horribly dead. Funnily enough, Angel and the then-Chanterelle met in that episode, briefly, as he insulted her and her vampire-worshipping pack of suicidal losers... an incident they have both obviously repressed. And with good reason. (She was, after all, looking like a bad Elvira impersonator; it was also when Angel learned that he dressed like a wannabe.)

Anyway. Turns out that the chance reunion Angel has here with the lovely Anne was not chance at all -- he's actually been having her followed for some time, due to the almost foreseeable fact that funding for her Center is provided by... you guessed it... Wolfram and Hart. Angel's still so excited about bringing them down he just can't fight it, and the opportunity to fuck with Lindsey and Lilah's heads is just too tempting for him. One point sees Angel in Lilah's car, a slightly menacing Angelus Lite, congratulating her on her promotion and promising some serious celebration.

Angel does not spend a single scene with Cordelia, Wesley or Gunn in this episode.

His former staff are doing okay, though. Fighting demons and darkness and what sounds like a dragon, they have their eye on a new office and are involved in a highly predictable debate over the name for their new, Angel-less agency. And Cordelia is even fashion disaster free here, and looking pretty great. Well, as great as you can look, when your new haircut makes you look like that little girl from Matilda.

Okay, so this isn't from Angel at all, it's from that MTV movie Love Song, which is not nearly as cool, but hey look... Christian Kane! He's hot!

But back to the real action: Angel. He's hanging with Anne, revealing the truth of Wolfram and Hart's nefarious doings, when who should show up but Lindsey, all ready to protect and serve with a big blue guy in tow. His name is Boon, and he is an old adversary of Angel's. Paying a visit to Angel's sometime lackey, sometime informant Merle, Boon discovered that the two pretty lawyer-types are high on the Ensoulled One's hit parade, and so he presents them with a deal: when Angel comes for them, the vamp will find him instead.

Angel escapes Boon, but not before putting a doubt or seven in Anne's pretty head about Wolfram and Hart's double-dealings. The sight of demon Boon couldn't have helped Lindsey's case, since hey, demon! And at the gala -- rich person speak for "ridiculous" -- charity ball that the firm throws to raise money for Anne's center (and even more for themselves) Anne defies her benefactors by producing "the tape"; the proof Angel says he has of their infamy.

It's just Wes and Cordy being idiots, but it was quite the dramatic moment.

One of not very many. But after the conflagration of the last few episodes, it's good to have the intensity back off a bit. The only real complaint would have to be the over-use of Merle the Demon Lizard Snitch, who is just the poor man's version of Willy the Bartender (whom I had always considered to be the poor man's version of himself), and is getting increasingly plot-devicy. Oooh, let's check out what a badass Angel is these days! See Angel interrogate. See Angel torture. See Angel smirk.

However, it's still fun seeing Angel be weird, seeing his former playmates bond, and seeing Lindsey play Boris to Lilah's Natasha in some oddly compelling, yet cringeworthy, scenes.

However, I mentioned that Angel spent no time at all with Cordy, Wes or Gunn, right? It was cool last week, sure, as a kind of a new thing, but how long can this go on? Then again, perhaps we should be in no hurry for it to end. Increased Angel solitude can only mean one thing: more opportunities for him to be shirtless. Shirtless and brooding.

And, really, would it kill them to mention Buffy once in a while?

-- Rachel Hyland

Angel airs at 9/8c, Tuesdays on the WB.

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