Welcome to Rewatching Angel, the part of the blog where I rewatch the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off: Angel. Each Tuesday evening, you’re invited to join me as I attempt to rediscover what made me love these shows so many years ago.

Conviction

• Ah… here’s a familiar scene.
• An innocent girl is walking down a dark alley and she encounters a vampire.
• She cries for help… a cry that is answered by Angel.
• Angel easily dusts this vampire and tries to console the girl.
• But Angel can’t be anonymous like he used to be…
• Because as he walks away, he’s surrounded by a Wolfram & Hart tactical team and various attorneys.
• Apparently, the vampire Angel killed works for a W&H client.
• But, you know… it’s still his first week on the job, so there are bound to be some hiccups.
• We see a kid named Matthew at school…
• I’m guessing that’ll be important at some point.
• Wes and Fred are still trying to get their footing in this new gig.
• He’s about to offer to help Fred with her box of personal effects when they’re interrupted by her second in command, Knox.
• Gunn arrives and calls dibs on his office, but feels like he doesn’t belong.
• Meanwhile Lorne is fitting right in with the entertainment division.
• Angel walks into his office to find a girl sitting on his desk waiting for him.
• She’s Eve, Angel’s liaison to the Senior Partners.
• Eve answers to the Senior Partners, not to Angel.
• She explains that Angel could take the client list and start hacking his way through them all.
• But if that happens, business dries up and the connections they suddenly have through the firm are gone.
• So what it comes down to is that Team Angel will have to make a lot of compromises in order to keep the business going.
• The gang stays late to look over client files.
• Before Gunn leaves, Eve gives him a business card and tells him he’ll feel like a new man.
• The next morning, Angel ignores a padded envelope that’s come for him.
• Angel asks his new assistant for a mug of blood… turns out it’s Harmony that’s working for him.
• She has to talk Angel out of killing and/or firing her.
• And she assures him the blood is that of a pig… not human.
• Wesley stops by and admits to being the one who picked her for the job, thinking a familiar face would be nice.
• Harmony was unaware of Cordelia’s condition.
• Wesley brings to Angel the case of Corbin Fries.
• Fries is a scumbag whose case is not going well in court at the moment.
• The attorney on the case makes it clear that if they win, it’s got to be on the merits of the evidence.
• And Fries makes it clear that if he loses, he will activate a bomb that will basically destroy California.
• Elsewhere, Lorne is reading the current staff by bringing groups of people in to sing for him.
• I guess the plan is to get rid of the most evil on staff.
• Angel is ready to go and find a mystic that showed up in Fries’ files, but he’s stopped by Hauser, leader of the tactical team.
• Hauser says his team typically deals with wetwork fieldwork.
• Angel turns Hauser down and visits Spanky, who explains he built Fries a mystical container that is meant to hold anything until the magic word is used to dissolve the container.
• Meanwhile, Gunn is in a waiting room before being called into what looks like a mad scientist’s lab.
• Fred discovers that Fries might be dealing with a virus, not a bomb.
• Angel calls, having found out what the container is.
• Cut to Matthew in his classroom… his last name: Fries.
• So Corbin Fries has turned his own kid into a biological weapon?
• Father of the year.
• Gunn is undergoing some intense… something.
• Looks a lot like Neo learning Kung Fu.
• Eve drops by and reveals to Angel that she’s aware of Connor, even though no one else remembers him.
• Lorne reports that things are going worse in the courtroom and warns Angel it might be a good idea to get the kid in isolation ASAP.
• Hauser’s team is listening to the call and decide to go after the kid themselves.
• Their plan is to take out the kid and anyone else within 50 yards.
• Harmony reports that the team is already en route and there’s no way Angel will beat them there.
• The team arrives and throws gas into the classroom and finds Angel instead of students.
• He gets to use a helicopter.
• Angel informs them that they’re all fired… so they all open fire on him.
• Bullets against a vampire? Nice try.
• Angel fights the team and I’m pretty sure he snaps a couple of necks…
• But I can’t be sure… These guys are human.
• Does Angel kill humans? Even if they’re evil?
• Gunn arrives in the courtroom and asks for a mistrial.
• He cites that the judge has business dealings with Fries.
• Whether she knew about those dealings or not pretty much means this trial is over.
• So now we know what the mad scientist was shoving into Gunn’s head.
• Back at the school, Hauser gives Angel a speech about conviction and how evil will triumph because Angel’s people are conflicted.
• Angel points out that mercy is stronger than conviction…
• Then he shows no mercy by kicking Hauser’s shotgun up so that he accidentally blows his own head off.
• Guess that means Angel is cool with killing evil humans.
• In which case, I definitely saw three get killed on screen.
• Back in the office, Eve explains Gunn’s new legal knowledge and Gunn tries to convince the rest of the team that they only gave him the law, not the evil.
• Angel is in a better mood and is ready to use Wolfram & Hart as a weapon against the evil it represents.
• He figures that, eventually, the Senior Partners will tip their hats and they’ll learn why they really wanted Angel’s people there.
• Angel grabs that padded envelope from earlier and finally cuts it open.
• Out falls the amulet from the Buffy finale.
• Suddenly, Spike rematerializes in agony.
• Body count: Vampires – 1; Humans – 3