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.

Lineage

• Wes is meeting with some sketchy men in an old warehouse.
• It’s a weapons deal of some kind and Fred comes in with the product.
• It’s a modified sniper rifle that Wolfram & Hart has created but Wes won’t work with him until he meets his distributor.
• The meeting is going well and is nearly over before things are interrupted by some kind of ninja.
• This ninja kills all three of the men Wes was meeting with and nearly kills Wes.
• Then Angel busts in and snaps the ninja’s neck.
• But when he does so, the ninja goes haywire and sparks fly.
• It was an android or cyborg of some kind…
• Oh, and somehow Fred got hit by the cyborg’s grappling hook during the scuffle.
• Back at the office, Angel is a little pissed that Wes decided to bring Fred along for that meeting.
• Once Wes leaves, Eve points out that Angel is still carrying a grudge over what Wesley did when Connor was a baby… even though Wes doesn’t remember that Connor exists.
• Fred comes by to let Wes know she’s in the clear and they get into a slight argument about her involvement in the meeting.
• Then Wesley’s father shows up unannounced for an awkward interaction.
• He is a former Watcher and lets Wes know that the remaining former Watchers have decided to take it upon themselves to reform the Watchers’ Council.
• Roger Wyndam-Pryce is here to evaluate Wesley to see if he is worthy to rejoin the Watchers’ Council.
• Wes turns him down, but his father just gives him a hard time about his position with Wolfram & Hart.
• Meanwhile, Wes is turning back into the basic wienie he was when he was first introduced to us in Sunnydale.
• Wes introduces Roger to the rest of his colleagues…
• He’s met Spike before.
• Back in 1963, Roger and several other Watchers came upon Spike slaughtering the residents of an orphanage in Vienna.
• Roger also refuses to shake hands with Angel…
• Fred has Wes and Roger take a look at the cyborg.
• Roger seems to enjoy getting little digs in at his son… no wonder he’s reverting back to his old self.
• While examining the cyborg, Wes accidentally activates a bomb.
• Wes panics and has the building evacuated.
• But in a matter of seconds, his father manages to defuse the bomb and makes it seem like a toddler could’ve done it.
• Angel gives Wes a file on some of the other cyborgs that are out in the world.
• They’re apparently the good guys…
• Wes enlists his father to help research, but Roger just continues to belittle his son.
• Particularly when it comes to the books that can be any books in the firm’s archives.
• Roger insists that those books are dangerous and is shocked that Wesley would leave them in the open.
• On the roof, a handful of cyborg ninjas silently land.
• Spike confronts Eve in the elevator, letting her know he’s on to her…
• About what, exactly?
• The cyborgs take down the Wolfram & Hart security grid.
• One of them heads straight for Wesley’s books, but he and his father take it down.
• Wes gets Roger to help him move the books into the vault.
• While Wes has his back turned, Roger knocks him out.
• He then takes Wesley’s keys and locates some kind of mystical object and radios to someone that phase one is complete.
• Roger runs into Fred, lying about how Wes went to the roof to determine the source of some spatial anomaly and sent him to find Angel.
• Meanwhile, Wes wakes up and goes back to the cyborg that he stabbed earlier.
• It’s still alive, so Wes is able to torture it for information about what his father is up to.
• Angel goes with Roger to the roof and he reveals to Angel that this visit was never about Wesley.
• Roger uses the object he stole from the vault to do something to Angel… not sure what’s happening yet…
• Wes gets there in time to stop Roger and grabs the staff from him.
• Apparently the staff can rob Angel of his will and make him a slave.
• They have a pretty painful father/son heart to heart that winds up being pretty cathartic for Wesley.
• When it comes down to it, Wes shoots his father to protect Fred, who came up to check on them.
• He immediately throws up… but then we learn that it wasn’t really his father at all.
• It was another cyborg in disguise.
• Wes struggles with the idea that he was willing to kill his father.
• Fred tries to reassure him and they very nearly have a real moment together…
• Then Knox interrupts again.
• I hate that guy!
• Fred leaves and Wes decides to call home.
• Of course, the first thing his father does is complain about the time of his phone call.
• Body count: Humans – 3; Cyborg Ninjas – 2