"Deep Down"

Written by Steven DeNight
Directed by Terrence O’Hara


In which Angel is rescued from his underwater prison by an unexpected ally, while Gunn and Fred babysit bad little Connor as they search for Cordelia...

Synopsis - Analysis - Memorable Quotes - Observations


<----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->






Synopsis

As the episode begins, Angel sits at the head of the table as his friends and newfound family come together to celebrate Thanksgiving. Cordy and Angel glow in their newfound love, and even Wesley is back at the table. But as the food is passed around, nothing seems to find its way to Angel. As he swoons in hunger, he awakens to his watery grave, staring into the sea.

Perhaps at the same time, Fred and Gunn run back to his truck. As they try to drive away, a vampire jumps onto the hood and punches through the windshield. Gunn forces him off by slamming the brakes, just as a sports car full of Latin vamps pull up. When the Latins confront them, Fred reminds them that they’re only looking for a girl with information. The lead vamp gives them directions, and then decides to lead his crew against them anyway.

The requisite fight ensues, and at first, Gunn and Fred seem to handle things well. But the last vamp gets the drop on Gunn, grabs his axe, and tosses it at Fred. Before it can arrive at its target, Connor leaps out of nowhere, grabs the axe in midair, and sends it whizzing back at the vamp. Decapitation promptly follows.

Back at the hotel, Gunn and Fred chastise Connor for having left them earlier in the night. After Gunn sends Connor off to polish the axe, he and Fred discuss how desperate their situation is. They’ve spent the last three months or so looking for some sign of Angel or Cordelia, but nothing has turned up. Lorne has been out of contact in Vegas, and the only lead left is a vampire named Marissa. They manage to track her location down using the information from the vamps, just as Connor learns what they’ve been hiding from him.

Back under the sea, Angel dreams of what might have been, on the night he was betrayed. He dreams of Cordelia coming to him on the cliffs and proclaiming her love in sickeningly sweet words. At the same time, he remembers what really happened, how Connor betrayed him. But when he kisses her on the neck, his dream ends with her blood on his lips.

Back at the hotel, Connor confronts Gunn and Fred, wanting to know why they didn’t tell him about Marissa. They claim that they didn’t want to get his hopes up. When they try to find her themselves, Connor argues his way into coming along. When Gunn objects, Fred reminds him that Connor is hurting. Gunn counters that he’ll hurt more if this last lead turns out to be nothing. Fred mentions that they could always demand answers from Wolfram and Hart, but Gunn knocks that down. He’s even less pleased when she suggests calling Wesley.

At that moment, in Wesley’s apartment, he and Lilah finish their latest round of “mutual satisfaction”. Lilah leaves bed to dress for work, she tries not-so-subtly to find out if Wesley knows where Angel has gone. He makes it clear that he doesn’t know, and he doesn’t care; that part of his life is over. As soon as Lilah leaves, Wesley dresses himself and unlocks his closet door...where he has Justine caged and bound. He’s ready to resume the search.

Out on the sea, Wesley steers his boat along a search pattern, checking sonar for any sign of Angel. Justine mocks Wesley at every turn, reminding him that he will never be forgiven. Wesley counters with mocking reminders of his own, most especially his complete control over her situation.

Meanwhile, Connor and the others burst into Marissa’s place, and find it apparently deserted. But Connor senses her presence. Marissa tries attacking them, but Connor drives her against a post. Gunn and Fred question her, and she admits to seeing Angel on the cliffs. As soon as she admits it, Connor pretends to slip up, letting her escape his grip and jump out of the window. Before anyone can stop him, Connor jumps after her.

He chases her onto a nearby roof, where he stakes her before the others arrive. He fakes an injury, and claims that she attacked him. Gunn is incensed, and Connor runs to feign being upset. When Fred admonishes Gunn for his attitude with Connor, Gunn reminds her that Connor is not the nice, normal teenager she seems to think he is. But as far as she’s concerned, he’s Angel’s son, and that’s all that matters.

Under the sea, Angel dreams of finding Connor on a rooftop and confronting him. At first, they are ready to fight each other, but they are interrupted by a gang of vampires. Together, Angel and Connor deftly eliminate the enemy. When it’s all over, Angel puts his hands on Connor’s shoulders with a smile...and then effortlessly snaps the boy’s neck. Angel awakens, screaming into the darkness.

Meanwhile, Gunn and Fred finally contact Lorne. Lorne spares them a few moments, but he hasn’t heard anything, and he’s too busy to chat. Now they have no leads, and no idea where to turn next. At the same time, at Wolfram and Hart, Haywood informs Lilah that Gavin’s psychic team has managed to determine that Angel is safe and secure...and that Lilah has been watched very closely. Haywood believes that Lilah might have allowed herself to be compromised.

Out on the water, Wesley finds a solid sonar contact, and sends Justine down to investigate. Sure enough, it’s Angel, and Wesley quickly brings the metal coffin aboard. He breaks the seals and the chains holding Angel down, and Angel’s first act is to grip Wesley around the throat with one struggling hand. But Angel lets go soon enough, and Wesley begins feeding him animal blood as quickly as possible, to try and salvage what might remain of Angel’s mind.

Back at the hotel, Connor returns to find Gunn and Fred waiting for him. Connor expects yelling, but they’re just worried about him. When Gunn tries to compliment Connor by comparing him to Angel, Connor gets angry and storms off. Gunn is confused, and Fred tells him it must be simple male competition. Then the phone rings.

On the boat, Angel is slowly coming back to reality, but he still sees Lorne standing next to him. Angel mourns his apparently desolate world. When Wesley checks in on him, it’s obvious that animal blood isn’t what Angel needs for restoration. He efficiently provides from his own veins.

Back at Wolfram and Hart, Lilah anxiously awaits the beginning of a staff meeting. Haywood and Gavin arrive with the rest of the staff, and he begins the meeting by challenging Lilah’s record and current activities. Lilah strikes back by questioning Haywood’s tentative policies. More than that, she indicates that one of the Senior Partners agrees with her assessment. She promptly slices off Haywood’s head, and announces that she is now in charge. Gavin is left awestruck, very much aware of how he has been outplayed.

At the hotel, Fred stops by Connor’s room to bring him something to eat. She offers a few words of sympathy for his situation, after all he’s been through. But then she drives a stun gun into his chest, making it clear that he deserves much more for what he did to his own father. He awakens bound to a chair in the office, surrounded by Gunn and Fred. They tell him that Angel’s been found, and he’s on his way home. Fred emphasizes her points by playing “Fun with Electric Shocks”.

As Wesley places Angel in his car, Justine reminds him that Angel will eventually turn on all of them. Wesley lets Justine go to discover what she wants to do with her life. Back at the hotel, Connor begins taunting Gunn and Fred, but they wonder how long it would be before they were taken out in the same way. Wesley stops by long enough to drop Angel into the lobby, but then he turns and walks out, leaving Fred and Gunn thinking that he really doesn’t care anymore.

They hear a noise from the office, and realize Connor’s escaped. They rush in, but Connor easily takes them down. As he turns to leave, he finds Angel standing in the doorway. At first he considers fighting his way out, but Angel’s expression convinces him otherwise. Angel explains that he wasn’t the one who killed Holtz, but Connor doesn’t believe it. Connor still thinks Angel deserved his fate. Angel figures that’s open to debate; the question is, what does Connor deserve?

Connor tries to run, but Angel slams him down. All he wants to know is whether or not Connor did something to Cordelia. Connor denies it, and though the others don’t believe it, Angel does. Angel very carefully explains that he had time to consider his world, and how he and the others are there to make the world what it could be. Connor’s not a part of that yet, though Angel hopes he will be. But for now, Connor’s not welcome. He lets Connor run, because all he wants to do is find Cordelia.

Meanwhile, in a higher plane of existence, Cordelia shines in brilliant light, and bemoans how boring her life has become...


Analysis

Like most of the season premieres for “Buffy”, “Angel” has usually begun a new season by dealing with the fallout of whatever had happened at the end of the previous season. Even worse, last season began with an episode that not only dealt with the previous season’s baggage, but the end of the previous season of “Buffy”! So going into this episode, there was the worry that the series couldn’t move forward.

In terms of plot, that’s exactly what happened. The episode was all about resolving the cliffhanger at the end of last season, when Angel was trapped under the ocean after betrayal by his own son, Connor. At the same time, Cordelia had ascended to a higher plane, but none of the others were aware of that. With Lorne leaving for Las Vegas, and Wesley apparently turning to the dark side, only Gunn and Fred remained.

As much as this episode is about rescuing Angel and exposing Connor, the twists and turns along the way are more than enough to make up for the simplicity of the premise. When we last saw Wesley, he had been drawn towards Lilah, and she appeared to be leading him towards the darkness.

In a nice touch, Wesley appears to have been playing Lilah, not the other way around. He’s been secretly laboring to find Angel himself, having hunted down and caged Justine. Some might find Wesley’s treatment of Justine to be highly disturbing, but it should be remembered that Justine slit Wesley’s throat and left him for dead.

Wesley appears to have fallen into a hole that’s going to be hard to escape. There’s still a desire to do the right thing, but his methods show a degradation of this morality. He’s willing to put Justine in chains and use Lilah, but he also offers Justine a chance to turn her life around. He does all of these terrible things, but it’s all about rescuing Angel from a fate worse than death. Much to the contrary to what Gunn and Fred believe, he still cares very deeply about what happens to his friends. But having assumed that he can never be forgiven, he doesn’t bother seeking it.

I find that struggle between nobility and despair to be far more fascinating than the token arguments between Gunn and Fred. Their relationship continues to be the weak link of the series, especially since most of their dialogue is sugary sweetness that just about makes you want to puke. This is not just confined to that relationship, of course, since the dialogue between Angel and Cordy in his hallucinations was just as disgusting.

Even though Gunn and Fred still talk to each other like they’re reciting rejected Hallmark cards, they have some nice moments when dealing with Connor. Connor does a great job of playing on their expectations, though he oddly has trouble keeping his emotions at bay when it comes to Angel. While I can see Fred missing the clues that Connor is less than honest, given her tendency to believe the best of people, Gunn has never been anything but suspicious. I suppose we’re supposed to believe that Gunn is fooled because of his own insecurities of trying to work with Connor while thinking of the larger issues.

After all of the constant jockeying for position between Lilah and Gavin, it was nice to see something happen with that plot thread. Not only that, but we seem to be getting incrementally closer to some kind of revelation about the Senior Partners. Now that Lilah is in charge of Special Projects, she’s going to have to deliver. And it’s likely that Gavin will be forced to use his resources to undermine Lilah, just to survive. I expect Lilah’s relationship with Wesley to be central to both of their schemes.

Though I know that Angel is mostly concerned with finding Cordelia, the woman he now loves, I have to wonder what he thinks of Wesley now. As difficult as it might be for Angel to contemplate, Wesley has done a great deal to redeem his actions last season. And if there’s anyone who should be able to understand Wesley’s overwhelming remorse and self-damnation, it ought to be Angel. After all, he’s still looking for some sense of redemption for the things he’s done. Considering that Holtz was exacting revenge on Angel for his past sins, it comes down to a matter of fairness.

It might be this aspect of Angel’s personality that’s important to the rest of the season. Angel’s weakness appears to be his lack of self-reflection (no pun intended). He’s never been very good at understanding the larger implications of his actions, or he wouldn’t get so deeply entrenched in many of the situations he finds himself in. Besides his inability to forgive Wesley, which could very well undermine his larger mission as Champion, his growing love for Cordelia could easily lead to the return of Angelus. And that’s something that he ought to know better than to risk.

Speaking of Cordelia, I suppose the final scene does require some comment. There’s the old joke about how Heaven must be boring, since all the interesting things in life are chock full o’ sin. And here we have Cordy, hanging out in a heavenly, peaceful dimension, going all glowy…and bored out of her mind! It’s amusing as far as it goes, but I hope this turns out to be more than just a way to create tension for a few episodes. Like, say, some insight into the thinking of The Powers That Be?

Still, as the resolution of last year’s finale, this episode does a great job. Not only that, but there are some small hints for the future. If the series can manage to maintain the same kind of tight continuity that made last season work so well, this season has a chance to be even more impressive. The off-camera juggling of show runners might take away some of the focus, but only time will tell.


Memorable Quotes

CONNOR: “Did you see that? Wasn’t that cool? That was cool!”

FRED: “He’s lost the mission, bro.”
GUNN: “Well, we’re about to lose this whole place...and you know you can’t say ‘bro’.”
FRED: “Can I say ‘dog’?”

LILAH: “You thought you were doing the right thing. I hear that can be confusing...”

WESLEY: “You were always a slave, Justine...you just didn’t see the chains.”

GUNN: “And jumping off a six story without busting your coconut kinda sways me to the side of ‘not just a boy’...”

ANGEL: “What? No hug?”

FRED: “Oh...you don’t think that refers to anything of mine that’s fluffy, do you? Because that would just be really inappropriate...”

HAYWOOD: “Are you actually telling me you went over my head?”
LILAH: “Just under it, actually...”

ANGEL: “Daddy isn’t finished talking...”


Observations

- What exactly died and landed on Cordelia’s head...and why on Earth did she leave it that way? It looks like the effects of a wayward “80s revival” spell...

- Oh, and how would Angel know to hallucinate Gunn’s new facial hair?

- Is it possible that Fred actually lost weight over the summer break? Her face looks so angular, even accounting for her hair being up like that...

- She may be evil, but Lilah is one very sexy bad girl!

- Angel has to work on more upbeat fantasy material...the man even broods when he hallucinates!

- So one of the Senior Partners is named Suvarta. Sounds vaguely Hindi, or something from the same region...

- Fred’s kinda fun when she’s royally pissed!

Overall, this was a great continuation of last season’s finale, taking all of the plot threads and advancing them in directions that followed seamlessly with what we’ve seen before. The real question, of course, is whether or not the coming episodes can manage to maintain this level of tight continuity and intensity, especially after the shake-ups in the writing and production staff.

I give it an 8/10.


< -------------------------------------------------------------------------->

Next Episode

Back to Season 4

Back to Angel Investigations

Email: entil2001@yahoo.com