- Harmony... - I know.
- I called everyone. They're just... - Not here.
I can see that. If they were here, I wouldn't be alone.
Why am I alone?
Well, you can be super grouchy.
- The meeting? - Everybody's otherwise ocupado, boss.
Wesley's stuck babysitting...
Miss I Used To Rule the World, Bow Down Before Me, Minion Scum.
- Why are we not killing her again? - Gunn?
Maybe, if we had a really big one.
Where is Gunn?
Oh. The hospital still.
You know, from when Wesley... Krrr!
- And Lorne's kinda M.I.A. Since... - Fred.
Okeydokey, then.
Where's the rest of the crew?
Apparently not coming.
- But this is an important meeting. - At least somebody...
My first official parley as a very loosely affiliated member of the...
What are we? Tell me we're not Scoobies.
- We don't have a... - A name? That's probably for the best.
You'd wanna be "Angel's Avengers" or something.
"Angel's Avengers"? That's...
So, what's on the agenda?
Uh, I have assignments for people...
What?
I'm listening with beer.
Forget it. This isn't a meeting.
This is you being annoying.
- Oh! - Hey, bullet points.
Classy.
Why am I always reconnaissance?
I should get a decently flash gig like "save the girl,"
or "steal the emerald with the girl."
- "Handsome man saved me from the monsters." - Exactly.
Or... What's that, now?
That's the first thing Fred said to me in Pylea.
She was trapped, hiding, afraid.
Nearly crazy.
Crazy, but brave.
I should never have let her come here.
Bad things always happen here.
Hate to break it to you, mate, but bad things always happen everywhere.
Besides, she wanted to be here.
- It was her choice. - Was it?
Bugger.
You're fixin' to do something stupid, aren't you?
Done it. Came here.
Spend every day lying to myself...
about making the world a better place.
Welcome to the planet.
We all paint on our happy faces every day, when all we really want...
is to pound the neighbor's missus, steal his Ben Franklins...
and while we're at it not think about...
the third of the world that's starving to death.
I'm not saying that I can fix everything.
I just... I... I have to do better. The senior partners have a plan.
Yeah, the prophecy.
That ever-lovin' apocalypse you keep goin' on about.
Yeah, which apocalypse? The one last year, or the year before that?
No, the senior partners are up to something now...
and I'm not waitin' for them to spring it on us.
We're through operating in the dark.
Okay, then.
Might be easier if we knew anyone who had a direct line to the big guys.
No way. Even if my connection to the senior partners...
wasn't completely severed, I'm done helping you.
This isn't a negotiation, Eve.
Ooh, I'm intimidated. What could you possibly do to me?
- I've been trapped in this house for weeks like a... - Rat?
Snake? Beady little rat snake?
You're not trapped, Eve. You're hiding. You know the second you step out that door...
the second you don't have these symbols keeping you invisible to the partners...
they're gonna zero in.
So don't bother playing the pity angle.
The only thing you care about is saving your own ass.
The only thing I care about is gone.
You gave him up to the senior partners. Let them suck him into the...
Could do the same to you. Tell 'em how to see through your security system.
- You wouldn't. - Not if you tell me what I wanna know.
- You bastard! You told them! - Wasn't me.
Oh, God. They're coming.
Please, don't let them take me!
Angel, please! I'll tell you! I'll tell you anything you wanna know!
She's gonna say no, isn't she?
I should've gotten the bigger ring.
June wedding. There's rain, so get a tent.
- She's gonna say yes? - Ain't love grand?
- I'm gettin' hitched? - Yeah.
More sea, less breeze, huh?
- From now on, your money's no good here. - All right.
I was wonderin'... about the possibility of a Carlos Junior.
What do you think?
What do I think? I think I'm tired.
I think I'm sick and tired of wearin'bells on my toes...
and making like everything's gonna be okay.
I think it's pathetic that lately I'm too scared and sad...
to tell people the truth, so I just say what they wanna hear instead.
Most of all, I think the term "happy hour"...
should be banned from the English language.
There's nothing happy about this hour or any other.
Oh.
What I know is, I started drinking...
the moment that I found out that a girl I loved was gonna die.
And every time I get to the bottom of the glass...
I hope that that last drop is gonna take me the distance.
- Okay. - A simple plan that failed utterly.
Which is why I'm going to heave my tokus off this stool...
strap the bells on...
and with a smile and a quip go back into the belly...
of a very ugly beast and pretend like I can help.
Mmm.
'Cause that's what the green guy does.
- Harmony? - Yepper?
Call Security. Put 'em on red alert.
Nobody gets in this building without clearance from me.
I want a guard at every entrance, every elevator, every stairwell.
- Cover the whole building. - Okay, but you know how that never works...
- Harmony. - On it.
All right. Stay with Eve. Anything gets past Security, kill it.
- Where are you goin'? - To see my lawyer.
We have a problem.
Senior partners found Eve. They sent somethin' to take her out.
I need to know if I have jurisdiction to protect her.
What's protocol here?
- I don't know. - Right.
Well, when you're through reading about important things like...
"Trista and Ryan's Big Baby Plans"...
maybe you can put some thought into it.
- I'm just not sure. - Gunn.
You paid a high price for what's in that brain, so use it.
There's a proviso in your contract.
Says that as C.E.O. Of a Wolfram and Hart branch...
you can invoke a rapio salvus order.
Basically says you're taking custody of a wayward employee.
It's not usually used for protection, but it should work.
- Great. How do I... - I'll make a call.
Good.
Listen, Gunn.
I know you feel bad about your part...
what happened to Fred.
And you should.
For the rest of your life, it should wake you up in the middle of the night.
And it will...
because you're a good man.
You signed a piece of paper. That's all.
But I knew.
Not about Fred, but when I signed, I knew there would be consequences.
Thing about atonement is, you never run out of chances. But you gotta take 'em.
You can't hide in some hospital room and pretend it's all gonna go away...
'cause it never will.
You have a visitor.
I thought I was in isolation.
Whose fault is that?
Tell me a joke.
Two men walk into a bar.
The first man orders a scotch and soda.
The second man remembers something he'd forgotten...
and it doubles him over with pain.
He falls to the floor shaking...
and then through the floor and into the earth.
He looks back up at the first man, but he doesn't call out to him.
They're not that close.
Yeah.
You always know where you are.
It's my particular skill.
This is only the first layer.
Don't you wanna see how deep I go?
You've been sitting for a long time.
Yeah. Dozed off.
You drank a great deal of that poison.
You called me a lot of names meant to hurt feelings I no longer have.
And then you sat there for hours making noise with your nose.
I was dreaming, you twit.
You said her name.
Fred.
It was a nightmare.
I don't suppose you have nightmares or sleep...
or any of that human crap.
In my time, nightmares walked among us.
Walked and danced, skewering victims in plain sight...
laying their fears and worst desires out for everyone to see.
This to make us laugh.
I'll bet you were jolly as frat boys.
And now, nightmares are trapped inside the heads of humans.
Pitiful echoes of themselves.
I wonder whom they angered so to merit such a fate.
This world must be a terrible disappointment to you.
Grievous.
I'm not too impressed with it myself.
Why don't you leave?
Brilliant. Really.
They'll never look for me here. I'm gonna die.
You make it hard for me to wanna help you.
We don't wanna help her, but we will.
- You're under my protection. - Thank the gods.
But, you know, I can take it away with one phone call.
- Convince me not to, Eve. - How can I?
- Let's start with something easy, huh? You. - Me?
What are you? What do you do for the senior partners?
I'm a liaison. I liaise.
What do you want me to say? I'm a leprechaun. I'm from Brigadoon.
If I had a nickel for every time I heard that one...
There are layers upon layers at Wolfram and Hart, Angel.
Things you'll never understand. What am I?
I'm a child of the senior partners, created to do their bidding.
You're an immortal.
- Why are you here? - To watch.
Tell them what I see. Pass on messages to you, if there are any.
So you're, uh, middle management?
- What are the senior partners? Huh? What are they? - No idea.
- Eve... - Do you honestly believe...
the senior partners would let me have access to that information?
Angel, for someone so old, you're so young.
I only know what they want me to know, and only when they want me to know it.
- You don't know anything? - Maybe. Maybe I know a lot.
But I don't have access to it.
It's locked in my head somewhere, and I don't have the key.
Ready for the funny part?
There was someone who could have told you everything you want to know...
and you let the senior partners take him away.
Lindsey.
Lindsey's dedicated years of his life to the study of the senior partners.
No one knows more about them than he does.
- What they've done, what they plan to do. - I thought he was after me.
You're saying bringing Spike back, the fail-safe... that was all about the senior partners?
No, it's about you too. He really doesn't like you.
But he may know more about you than, well, than you do.
Which is why they snatched him up.
Yeah. They couldn't risk him and you havin' a sit-down.
And now, what he's going through...
- They didn't kill him? - They would want him to suffer horrors.
Lindsey is in some hideous, awful hell.
- Good morning. - Mmm. So far.
- Stop it! - Hey!
- That's how I get sisters. - Oh, really?
Is that right?
So, what are we gonna do today?
There's thousands of different kinds ofhells.
You got your fire hell, your ice hell, your...
ice hell, your upside-down hell...
Look, I don't care if he's in toy poodles on parade hell.
He's got information that we need.
According to the girl, whose only reason for being is to see...
- her little pookie bear again. - I'm not lying.
Tell him I'm not lying.
No one can fake it through the piña colada song, not once the chorus kicks in.
If Lindsey can tell me what the senior partners have planned, I want him.
You got a better idea how to do it, I'm totally open.
Didn't say that. Just pointed out that this one sucks.
We're lookin'for a hell dimension in a haystack. How are we supposed to know...
I know, and I can get us in.
Us?
Okay, from the top.
- The Earth's outer layer is called... - The crust.
- And what's underneath that? - Um, the mantle?
Yeah. And under that?
Come on. You know this one.
The outer core.
- And under that? - The inner core.
- And under that? - Underneath that? Nothing.
- Just a soft, chewy center. - Ha-ha.
Hey, hon?
Oven light just went out. I need a bulb from the cellar.
Should be some in the hall closet.
Just regular ones. Little ones are downstairs.
Well, Zach, uh... Zach was gettin' ready to fill me in on the lithosphere.
I kinda need it now.
All right. I'll be right back.
They're on that shelf where we keep those thingies.
I started flippin'through the brain files as soon as Harmony told me.
- Figured there had to be some kind of precedent. - And?
Senior partners had trouble with a guy in the Tokyo division way back.
Lindsey probably got the tattoo idea from studying up on him.
- And wherever they sent this guy, that's where Lindsey is. - Yep.
I hope it's Toy Poodle hell. I've had my fill of fire.
It's not hell. It's a Wolfram and Hart holding dimension.
Meaning what? The senior partners haven't decided what to do with Lindsey?
- Their version of a penalty box. - Great.
So, how are we supposed to get there?
Ever taken the Camaro?
This is weirdin' me out.
Is this weirding you out?
What, you never heard of Knight Rider? Knight Industries 2000?
KITT?
- Never mind. - Car's built to get us there.
Once we have Lindsey, it's on us to find the Wrath.
The Wrath? You know that's gonna be a giggle.
Whatever it is, we gotta go through it to get out.
I've never seen these streets before.
Where we're goin', not in the Thomas Guide.
There's gonna be fire.
This isn't hell. It's the burbs.
- Close enough. - This is Lindsey's punishment for trying to kill me?
Maybe it's a reward.
- You could go anywhere. You could leave. - That's not possible.
Of course it's possible. Are you telling me the great Illyria...
idol of millions, was limited to one small dimension?
I traveled all of them as I pleased.
I walked worlds of smoke and half-truths intangible.
Worlds of torment...
and of unnameable beauty.
Opaline towers as high as small moons.
Glaciers that rippled with insensate lust.
And one world with nothing but shrimp.
- I tired of that one quickly. - Then why stay in this one?
Surely there's a world more appealing.
Maybe not the shrimp one, but one where you'd be welcome like you never will be here.
Why don't you go?
You can go.
Why don't you go?
It's too small.
I can't breathe.
I can't live with these walls. I can't breathe.
There's no room for anything real.
- It's all right. - I should gut you where you stand.
You challenge me. But there's not enough space to open my jaws.
My face is not my face. I don't know what... what it will say.
Illyria, come with me.
Oh, so we just open with being on fire. That's great.
Well, we can put our coats over our heads and make a run for it.
Alternate dimension, remember? Sun's the non-frying variety.
- Figured that. - Oh, right.
Can we go?
Yeah.
We grab Lindsey and we get out.
- Kill anything in our way. - What's gonna be in our way, the family mutt?
This is Wolfram and Hart.
Odds are there's something ugly behind that door.
Can I help you?
Uh, is Lindsey home?
Sure. Come on in.
Honey?
- There's coffee. - No, we're fine, thanks.
Zach's hockey stick's gone missing. Oh.
I didn't realize we had company.
- I'll do search and rescue. - Okay. How can I help you guys?
Cut the act, Ward. June's gone.
- Excuse me? - You don't know who we are?
No. Do you play in the league?
No. Uh, I'm-I'm Angel. This is Spike and Gunn.
You might wanna have a seat.
Okay.
Please.
Is this about the, uh, free vacation I entered to win?
Does the name Wolfram and Hart mean anything to you?
It's a law firm. You used to work there.
Sorry. Gunn, is it? Yeah.
No, the only lawyer I know is the one that fixes my speeding tickets, so...
That guy... he's not real.
None of this is.
You're under some spell.
- What? - Nuts and bolts, you're in hell.
- We've come to break you out. - All right, who put you up to this, huh?
- Was it Fisher? - There's no joke.
You're in a mystical holding cell... an alternate reality.
So Trish is not my wife, and Zach's not my son?
Now he's gettin' it. Ever heard of something called the Wrath?
Seriously, is Fisher outside? I... Come on.
Lindsey, this whole life is a lie.
All right. This is startin' to get a little less funny.
I think you guys should leave.
What is taking so long?
- They should be back by now. - It's really hard to get a firm E.T. A...
on alternate dimension travel.
- I've tried. - I just want him back. And I don't wanna die.
Oh, calm down, Chicken Little. Nobody can lay a finger on you without Angel's permission.
Yeah, I got strict instructions. No torture. You're totally safe.
Look, you don't get it. Some stupid legal order isn't gonna matter.
- The senior partners... - Nobody can darken our bulletproof doors.
Not without our fearless leader's say-so.
This place is a fortress.
Uh-oh.
This thing comin' after you, how bad on a scale of, say, one to Terminator?
Oh, God. He's here.
That's the guy? He's just a suit.
Hey, you! Stop!
Put your hands up!
I can't believe I'm saying this, but we're here to help.
Okay, get out, now.
Look, we're tellin' you the truth.
You don't wanna believe it, that's your choice. Either way, you're comin' with us.
Get off of me!
Maybe this'll help you make up your mind.
Angel.
Make it quick.
If I was gonna kill you, it wouldn't be quick.
Oh, hi. Your hubby was just showin' us a thing.
Seems your wife's a little moody.
Get Lindsey in the car! Go, now!
Didn't we have a car?
- Our bloody ride's gone! - Get down!
We gotta find the Wrath! Where's the Wrath?
Where's not the Wrath? Wrath's all over!
- Lindsey, think. Do you know where it is? - I don't know.!
Door by the kitchen. Might be a way out through the cellar.
- No, we can't go down there! Not the cellar! - Cellar it is, then.
- Guess we found the Wrath. - Go!
Please, no! No!
We're all gonna die.
- Not today. - Every day!
Don't let me die.
Run, already!
- Close the door! - I'm not doin' the polka, beanpole.
What do you think I'm...
- Holy! - Nothin' holy here.
Heart?
- Whose are these? - Mine.
- Oh. - Try to find a door.
- Some way out. - With pleasure.
The faster we get out of here, the better.
Somebody has fun with these.
Spike.
The Wrath?
Could be.
What did I tell you?
The lock's mystical.
- Well, how do we... - He's coming.
- Who? - He knows. He always knows.
- Who? - Him.
Gunn, guard Lindsey.
Gunn, no!
- What the hell are you doing? - What needs to be done.
- I'm not leaving you here. - You don't make the rules here. Wolfram and Hart does.
If one leaves, one has to stay. A void is impossible.
You knew.
Thing about atonement.
Gunn...
- Let's go. - You're not bloody serious.
When I forget, the door closes. Go.
You have to.
This is where...
I was...
I belong.
I was...
What was I doing?
Why am I down here?
Honey, what are you doing down there?
I don't know. Must be losin' my mind.
We'll head up the coast to Canada.
- Keys! - Uh...
Come on.!
Oh, holy motor pool.!
- There! Hurry! - What do you call this?
- You'll like Canada. Lots of deserters. - Go!
What the daisy...
I'm on fire! Oh. Never mind.
Lindsey!
What did they do to you?
He'll be fine.
Whereas we got shot and almost killed by a juiced-up S&M demon. Thanks for asking.
- Let's get upstairs. - Be careful. He's hurt.
Angel, you should know, there's a very tall, well-dressed, uh...
Where's Gunn?
- Angel? - He, uh... He stayed behind.
Stayed behind? But you never leave a...
Or I guess we do.
That's what we do now.
- Oh, God. - Like I was saying.
Damn. He is well-dressed.
Please, don't do this.
Eve's under my protection. You can't touch her.
- Wow. I didn't see that coming. - You know how it works, Eve.
You could talk to the senior partners. Tell them it's a mistake.
- That's impossible. - I said, back off.
Don't bother, Angel.
- It's over. - Sign here.
- Good girl. - What the hell's goin' on?
Oh, sorry for the intrusion.
I'm Marcus Hamilton, your new liaison to the senior partners.
- And here. - You're what?
Along with her immortality and certain other privileges...
Eve has signed over her duties to me.
And... Oh, and initial there.
This is about a contract? I thought you said you were gonna die.
- And now, one day I will. - The senior partners felt it was time for a change.
Eve was too easily distracted. Lost sight of the big picture.
- I fell in love. - Yes. Congratulations.
Wonderful escape, by the way. Very clever.
We'll be in touch. Oh, I have some excellent ideas I can't wait to share.
This is my house. The only ideas that matter are mine.
Oh, absolutely. That's the policy.
The senior partners are behind you 100%.
I doubt that.
I'm looking forward to working myself into the mix.
Angel. Spike.
Welcome to the team.
Well, he's not so bad.
Are you all right?
I breathe easier.
The walls don't press in as hard when you can't see them.
- But they're still here. - Yes.
All I am is what I am.
I lived seven lives at once. I was power and the ecstasy of death.
I was god to a god.
Now...
I'm trapped on a roof...
just one roof, in this time and this place...
with an unstable human who drinks too much whiskey and called me a Smurf.
You don't worship me at all, do you?
And you really can't leave.
I... don't know.
I fear in any other dimension in this form, I'd be but prey to those I knew.
- I reek of humanity. - Don't flatter yourself.
Your world is so small...
and yet you box yourselves in rooms even smaller.
You shut yourselves inside, in rooms, in routines.
There are things worse than walls...
terrible and beautiful.
If we look at them for too long, they will burn right through us.
Truths we couldn't bear.
Not every day.
We are so weak.
Yes.
Yes, we are.
Ouch! Take it easy, Green Jeans.
Yeah. Fraid I don't have Fredikin's gentle touch.
- Just get on with it. - Mmm.
Look. It's the hero of the hour.
I'm not your hero. I'm your warden.
It's all how you look at the glass.
I'd have thought a few months of torture...
at the hands of the senior partners would've dug a little deeper.
Just scratched the surface. Turns out they can...
only undo you as far as you think you deserve to be undone.
I wonder how Gunn's gonna make out.
The senior partners... I wanna know everything you know about them.
About the apocalypse, about their plans for me.
And for me. Guy with the pen said, "Welcome to the team."
- Must've meant something. - You know what I know.
Look around. The world's a cesspool...
filled with selfish and greedy beasts.
We live. We die.
- Even you, babe. - Lindsey, don't.
- You still happy to see me? - Yeah, hell's on earth.
Holland Manners tried to sell me that line three years ago.
- Did you ever prove him wrong? - All how you look at the glass.
You know, Lindsey, we can philosophize all night.
Hell, we can do it forever.
I don't need to eat, sleep, drink. How about you?
That's what I like to see. Angel of yore.
Takes no prisoners. Suffers no fools.
How about this? It's here.
It's been here all along, underneath.
- You're just too damned stupid to see it. - See what?
The apocalypse, man. You're soakin' in it.
I've seen an apocalypse or two in my time. I'd know if one was under my nose.
Not an apocalypse. The apocalypse.
What, did you... did you think a gong was gonna sound?
Time to jump on your horses and fight the big fight?
Starting pistol went off a long time ago, boys.
You're playing for the bad guys.
Every day you sit behind your desk and you learn a little more...
how to accept the world the way it is.
Well, here's the rub.
Heroes don't do that.
Heroes don't accept the world the way it is.
They fight it.
You're saying everything we do...
it's a distraction to keep us busy from lookin' under the surface.
Ding. We got a winner.
World keeps sliding towards entropy and degradation.
And what do you do?
You sit in your big chair and you sign your checks...
just like the senior partners planned.
The war's here, Angel...
and you're already two soldiers down.
Come on. You know this one.
The outer core.
And under that?
- The inner core. - Under that?
Underneath that? Nothing.
- Just the soft, chewy center. - Ha-ha.
Hey, hon?
Oven light just went out. I need a bulb from the cellar.
Uh, should be some in the hall closet.
Just the regular ones. Little ones are downstairs.
Zach's about to fill me in on the lithosphere.
I kinda need it now.
Grr! Arrgh!