However, he is cut off as what seems to be the entire firm of Wolfram & Hart descend en masse, making the poor girl sign release forms, covering the area with their own special brand of NATO SWAT, and generally causing a ruckus of confusion and publicity photos, as well as informing Angel that the vampire he slayed worked for them. The girl is pissed. Angel’s just damn confused.

Cut to credits, which, may I say, rock my world. A whole lot more Wesley (and his grappling hook from “Home”!), Gunn in some gorgeous suits, plenty of ass-kicking, and NO CONNOR! YAY!

But, back to the episode. Fred enters W & H’s swanky suite of offices left to their disposal, and Wesley begins gabbing to her, obviously a bit nervous about why exactly they’re there. She pretty much sums it up with that they accepted an offer from Evil Inc. in about three seconds, and that law firm gave them total control, most likely to divide and corrupt them all. Wes is a bit stunned, but stunned turns to decided annoyance as Knox enters, chatting up Fred in that geeky way she obviously adores while Wes pointedly asks Knox how long he’s been evil. Knox shows Fred off to her office, and Wesley is promptly hit with a flying basketball.

From Gunn, who is in his normal clothes and looking mightily out of place. Wesley grumbles about Fred’s tendency to call Knox “Knoxy”, and wonders why people feel the need to put y’s on the ends of names. Gunn wonders if that means he should start calling Wes “Wesle”. They move to their new offices where they fret about everything from fung shui to running the corporation, to getting turned into puddings.

It’s about that time that Angel comes in, fuming about the incident of the night before. He says that they’re going to go through everything, that plenty of things have to go.

Starting with the chick sitting on his desk. In a sickening combination of Lilah and saccharine, the girl tells them that she is Eve, their liaison to the Senior Partners. When Wes wonders how such a young lady got that position, she asks him how he knows she’s either of those things. She goes on to tell them that they now have a business, and to run a business, you have to run it, and that means working with their clients, many of whom are evil. It means turning a blind eye. Then, she points them to the client files.

Cut to a few hours later, as all of our intrepid team dig through the rather sickening display of evil that is W & H’s clientele. At last, after getting thoroughly tired and disgusted, Angel sends his crew home. They all walk out, and as Gunn stops in his office, he is approached by Eve, who hands him a card as she asks him if he’s ready to take the next step. He tells her that if she has to ask, she doesn’t know him. She smiles and tells him that he’ll feel like a new man.

As she saunters off, Wesley regards Gunn from his door, asking what she was talking about (and acting mighty suspicious). Gunn tells him that it’s a tailor’s.

The next day, Angel wants blood. So, he calls his secretary. Instead, he accidentally reaches Ritual Sacrifice (thank you, Joss!), and hurriedly tries again as the recording pitches goats.

This time he’s successful, but his secretary definitely seems like a dingbat. He finally gets it through her head that he wants some blood, and is promptly called by Wesley, who says they may have a problem with one of their clients.

Enter Angel’s secretary, who is also known as Harmony (remember her?). Angel is shocked, and immediately threatens staking, but thinks better of it as she gives him blood (pig mixed with otter, for the taste), and tells him she’s a total asset: she’s strong, quick, and can type like a superhero.

At that moment, Wesley enters, and it is revealed that he, in fact hired Harmony (with no small amount of nasty humor, methinks). Angel is less than thrilled, while Wesley merely smirks. Harmony enthuses about them telling Cordelia, and the atmosphere immediately sobers. They tell her about Cordelia’s coma (apparently caused by illness) and Wesley sends Harmony away to get their client, telling Angel that he thought she knew, and that they will do everything in their power to help Cordelia.

Angel changes the painful subject to that of their client. It turns out that the problem client is one of the people they looked at the previous night. He kidnaps young girls and forces them to work as slave labor, or sells them out for prostitution, and, being that he’s guilty, the case is going badly for him. Wesley knows that they have to get him off, despite the fact he thinks “the man deserves to be eaten by weasels”. At that moment, of course, the very man storms in. he’s rude, crass, and unredeemably evil, and Angel’s perfectly willing to let him swing, but then the man, Mr. Frys, tells them that if they don’t get him off, he’ll “drop the bomb”, and when he says the magic word the only people that will be left alive in the city are those that are already dead.

That’s not good.

A meeting is called, and we cut in on Angel wondering why Wesley didn’t let him hit the guy. Wesley tells him that Angel can’t hit someone who’s threatening genocide, but Angel counters that that’s precisely the man he *should* be able to hit. The problem turns out to be that they don’t know what that bomb is, where it is, or how to disarm it. SO, everyone gets their jobs. Wesley will research possibly disarming it magically, Fred will check the lab to see if it’s possibly a virus, Lorne will watch the courtroom, Angel will go after a free-lance enchanter who worked with Frys named Spanky, and Gunn . . . is nowhere to be found. Unable to stop and think about this due to the impending disaster, the gang splits up and goes to work.

Angel is in heaven. He gets to the basement, surveys all of his beautiful cars and concludes that they are incredibly beautiful . . . right before the same special ops team from scene one shows up, and their commander, a man named Houser, explains that they are “traditionally” in charge of wet works. Angel corrects them with the word fieldwork, but Houser simply smiles. Angel tells them to stay put, and he’ll come back and talk about tradition.

When he finds Spanky, he figures out why the man might be known s such. He seems to have an entire wall simply of spanking implements. Definitely a boy into the BDSM, although he tells Angel he doesn’t spank men. Angel tells him why he’s come, and after a moment, Spanky tells him that he did work with Frys, and made him a magical container you could put anything in, and it would hold whatever it was until the magic word opened it. With that, he tries to throttle Angel. Angel, luckily, can’t be throttled with the back of breathing, and easily fight back, grabbing one of the paddles off the wall, knocking Spanky across the room and noting that he has “no problem with spanking men.”

Meanwhile, Gunn is in a waiting room, reading archaic magazines and listening to muzac. At last, the door to the inner room opens and Gunn is ushered inside . . . to a room that is most definitely not a tailors, what with all the contraptions and devices that look a great deal like instruments of torture. Gunn steels himself and asks if they’re going to do it.

Meanwhile, back at the center of evil, Knox has discovered that they and Frys have worked together, and, in fact, they created an extremely lethal virus with a cult called the Black Tomorrow. Angel calls and tells them (with barely controlled rage) that he knows what the container is: Frys’ son.

Things are not looking good for the A Team. Fred and Wesley have nothing. They can’t stop it, and they have no antidote. Angel, meanwhile, seems to be taking things very personally, as Eve notes as she appears in his office. She says she understands how hard it is for Angel to see all this happening when he gave up his own son for the boy’s happiness. Angel tells her never to say Connor’s name again, and that if it comes down to it, he’ll isolate the boy.

Fred’s pissed. Very pissed. Pissed enough that she yells at her entire team to get to work or they’ll be the only people on the planet who deserve to die from the virus. Knox is a little stunned, but as she leaves, he mutters, “You’re the boss.”

Everything starts to happen fast. Angel and Wesley both agree that he has to go to the school to get the boy before Frys triggers him, but Harmony comes in to tell them that the special ops team is already on the way, and called for Cleaners, which means that there will be a lot of bodies. Angel knows he has to move fast, but he won’t get there in time. However, it seems that Harmony might just have an idea

The ops team arrives at the school and bursts in, gassing the room and storming the place . . . only to find it deserted except one: Angel. Turns out, one of the perks of working at W & H is the helicopter. The ops team attacks, but Angel’s ready and starts to kick ass, taking no prisoners and killing each member as he goes.

Meanwhile, the court scene is bad. The defense is being eaten and Lorne is not happy. In slides Wesley to sit next to him and Lorne frets about having a plan. Wesley pulls back his coat to reveal a handgun in a side holster under it. Lorne sighs and says that he thought that the situation was desperate.

Just when all is looking dire, someone new walks in a snazzy business suit and a look of determination.

It’s Gunn, who calls for a mistrial and pulls some blinking lawyer pyrotechnics that leave the audience reeling in surprise, not to mention Wesley and Lorne. The mistrial is given.

But, back to the fight. Angel fights his way through the entire team until he knocks one man into the wall and faces off with Houser. Houser mocks him, telling Angel that he’ll never be as strong as him because Houser is pure. He believes in evil, and has the strength of his convictions.

Angel corrects him and tells him that there’s only one thing stronger than conviction: mercy. Suddenly, he lunges and we see him knock Houser’s gun up and we hear a crack. The gun hits the ground, and a soft rain of blood follows (for those of you interested, from the splatter, it seems likely that Angel fired it under Houser’s chin, up and back, effectively blowing Houser’s brain stem and a good deal of his cerebellum out the back of his head and onto the wall, killing the man instantly). The other soldier Angel knocking into the wall stares in horror and asks what happened to mercy. Angel informs him that he just saw the last of it.

As Angel walks off, Eve stands and regards the blood splatter in fascination.

Back at W & H, there is much to discuss. Gunn is trying to convince a skeptical team that he isn’t evil. They just gave him a complete knowledge of the law (and also Gilbert and Sullivan). He even offers to sing a little, or all of “Pirates of Penzance” for Lorne if he has to.

He isn’t the real problem, though, Eve is. She cheers them on mockingly, and really gets on everyone’s nerves before sashaying out. Fred wonders if this will be their life, defending those who don’t deserve it. She wonders if they’ll do any good.

Angel says yes. W & H is a powerful weapon, but they have to learn how to use it. In emphasis, Angel grabs a package that he received in the mail (unlabelled except for his address, of course), and rips it open. Out falls a very familiar amulet, which glows, then spew out a column of flame, the flame becomes a charred skeleton, which becomes a burning body, which solidifies into . . .

Spike.

Wesley is shocked. Angel is angry.

Also, of course, there was the handgun that Wes brought into the court-room, but I couldn’t get a good enough look to catch the make (by the way, *that* was plan C? Wesley shooting the guy was plan C? I know they were under pressure, but . . . that’s a dumb plan. Not really subtle, or even smart. What about security? Where were they? Hmm.)

Wear:
Gunn in suits! Rock on, boy! And may I say, he’s got hair! Gunn has hair! And Angel learned the meaning of the word brush (though the comb-over thing is something I haven’t decided if I like or not yet.

As for clothes, Eve fascinated me in that she was dressed for cutsie-slink. She is dressed like a girl instead of a woman, and it’s interesting. While Lilah always looked mature and powerful, Eve . . . doesn’t. She looks young and pouty. She gives me a toothache just looking at her. I don’t know. The costuming choice is fascinating, and I want to see where it leads.

Wesley:
I like him! He and Gunn are finally healing the rift and making tentative moves of friendship, but it doesn’t stop Wes from being highly suspicious of Gunn’s nocturnal visit by Eve. I really don’t think that Wesley trusts any of them any more. There’s a truce, yes, but no complete trust. It’s a fascinating character dichotomy. Then, there is he and Angel. This is beautiful. I love how they work together seamlessly, but at the same time there is a tension that exists between them, an urge to screw with the other just a little, just to get a rise. It’s the perfect example of two Alpha Males trying to work together. They can manage, but just barely, and there’s always stuff under the surface that happens.

For all you slashers out there, I have one line: “I have no problem spanking men.” Come on. It begs you to give it a go. What would Wes do if Angel tried to spank him? Give in? Kick ass? Kick ass and get off on it? So many possibilities, so . . . much fanfiction! Go! Fic!

For those of you who don’t slash, however, there are lots of other opportunities. How about Knox, huh? That guy needs to have a confrontation with everyone’s favorite Briton.

Or Eve? What does Wes think of her sweet-little-me act? Is he liking it? Does he think she’s trying to knock off Lilah and failing? Or is it something else entirely? You decide.