Angel/Recap/S02 E16 Epiphany

Angel: I'm sorry.

Angel sleeps with Darla and feels much better afterwards. His former friends however are in deep trouble.

• All Is Well That Ends Well: Averted until Angel tells the Fang Gang he doesn't want to come back as their boss, but to work for them. Cordy then has a vision and they're off on another soul save-age!
• An Axe to Grind: Wesley suggests "hack it to pieces" is a good way to kill a Skilosh demon. Angel takes this advice to heart.
• The Anti-Nihilist: Angel's epiphany.

If nothing that we do matters, then all that matters is what we do.

• A Shared Suffering: Angel tries to bond with Wes over their recent gut wounds. Wes is unimpressed.
• Bait and Switch: Angel appears to have lost his soul again, but his Restraining Bolt is still intact, as sleeping with Darla was an act of despair, not happiness.
• Bait and Switch Comment

Wesley: (with a smile) "We came to rescue you." Cordy: "I knew you would!" [Two Skilosh demons push Gunn and Wes inside — their hands are bound] Gunn: "But then they caught us coming in the back door."

• The Berserker / Car Fu / Drop the Hammer: Hell hath no fury like a lawyer scorned.
• Call Back: Several to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Innocence", including Angel staggering out into the rain after having sex and Darla's Meaningful Echo.
• Captain Obvious: Even the Powers That Be aren't immune to this trope. Cordelia finds the massacred Sharp family and has a vision of herself being attacked by a Skilosh demon...only to open her eyes and see that same demon charging at her.

Cordelia: [yelling at ceiling] THAT WAS HELPFUL!

• Car Meets House: Angel does his Big Damn Heroes thing by driving Lindsey's pickup into the house where the demons are holding the Fang Gang.
• Cool Car: Averted with Lindsey's pickup.
• Continuity Nod: Cordelia mentions she's been impregnated with demon spawn before.
• Covered in Gunge: Wes after giving a demon both barrels.
• Deus Ex Machina

Kate: "I don't know what I believe, but I have faith. I think maybe we're not alone in this." Angel: "Why?" Kate: "Because I never invited you in."

• Dramatic Thunder
• Evil Costume Switch: Lampshaded by the Host when he says that he'd prefer Angel went evil than broody again — at least he'd be wearing leather pants.
• Evil Sounds Deep: The Skilosh demons.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There
• Failed Attempt At Drama: Wes determined to charge in and save Cordy, then keeling over when he tries to stand up.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Averted; Wesley starts to smile after Angel fights the Skilosh demons alongside him, then remembers he's supposed to be angry and scowls instead. Lampshaded however with Wesley and Gunn who pointedly show off their friendship with an elaborate handshake ritual.

Angel: "So, ah...I see you guys have bonded." Gunn: "Happens when you fight shoulder to shoulder." Wesley: (laughing) "Or rather hip to shoulder these days." Gunn: "This man took a bullet for me!" Wesley: "Ah, it was nothing!"

• Getting Crap Past the Radar: Inevitable in the episode where Angel gets laid for the first time in three years.
  • Darla is flummoxed that she didn't give Angel his perfect moment of happiness.

Darla: "But we..." Angel: "Yeah." Darla: "And you..." Angel: "I know." Darla: "Then I..." Angel: "Three times."

• • A grumpy Host goes to see who's constantly ringing his doorbell in the middle of the night.

Host: "Jeez, keep your pants on!" (Angel enters) "Well, I see we're a little late with that advice."

• • And this beauty.

Gunn: "So, you had an epiphany, did you? So, what you just wake up and 'bang'?" Angel: (smirking) "Well, it was sort of the other way around."

• Gory Discretion Shot: Angel hacking up the Skilosh demon behind the sofa is shown only by its splattered green blood.
• Green-Eyed Monster / Kubrick Stare: Lindsey is furious that Angel slept with Darla, insists that Darla provide him with details, then goes berserk on Angel with a truck and sledgehammer — even the Skilosh demons run at the sight of him.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: The demons fail to search their prisoners before tying them up — they later free themselves with a hidden clasp knife.
• Grudging Thank You: After Angel revives Kate from her overdose she says only, "Thank you. Now get out." She does however thank Angel properly at the end of the episode.
• Head Full of Demon Wing Wong
• Humiliation Conga: Lindsey finds out that Darla slept with Angel, gets his ass kicked by Angel, gets his fake hand smashed and his truck stolen by Angel, gets same truck returned in a smashed-up condition and then finds Darla has run out on him. Also Darla — her years of professional experience aren't enough to give Angel his moment of perfect happiness, and the Band of Blacknil doesn't even work because Wolfram & Hart have done a disenchanting spell.
• Idiot Ball: Cordelia enters the Sharp house even though the lights are out and the door ajar. Her reasons are lampshaded later on.

Angel: "Guys, guys; does it make sense that she would go there in the middle of the night without calling either one of you?" Gunn / Wesley: "They owe us money."

• Last-Second Word Swap

Wesley: You'd have known that, if you hadn't had your head firmly up your... place that isn't on top of your neck."

• Look Behind You!: Cordy finds you can't sneak away from a demon with eyes in the back of his head.

Cordy: "I'm guessing 'hey! Look behind you!' is really not gonna work, is it?"

• Made of Iron: Lindsey runs over Angel, repeatedly bashes his face and ribs with a sledgehammer, then goes to his pickup to get a stake only to turn around and find himself facing Angel who proceeds to beat the bejezus out of him.
• Meaningful Echo: Darla's reaction to Angel still having his soul echoes that of Buffy's when Angel lost his soul.

Buffy: "I-I don't understand. Was it m-me? (meekly) Was I not good?" Darla: "You're not evil. I-I don't understand. Was I... Was it... not good?"

• • Darla accuses Angel of deceiving her into thinking he wanted to lose his soul, saying, "You made me trust you! You made me believe!" Angel then remembers Kate's drunken message on his answering machine saying the same thing and realises Kate has been Driven to Suicide.
• Mundane Solution: Angel suggests rubbing the notepad Cordy left behind to get an impression of what she last wrote. Wes points out that they can just look at the carbon paper underneath.
• Oh Crap: Cordelia wakes up and finds a Skilosh demon standing behind her.

Cordy: "Oh God. You're still here. You're not leaving, are you? And no one's coming for me. No one's expecting me any place. No-no one's gonna miss me...and how come I can see you? (Reaches around to the back of her head and finds an eye) Oh. Oh, no!"

• "Previously On...": Includes a narrator doing exposition.
• Put on a Bus: The final appearance of Kate Lockley, though she does come back in the Angel: After The Fall comic series.
• Revenge: The Skilosh want payback for Angel Investigations exorcising their spawn. They've also killed the entire Sharp family, presumably for the same reason.
• Run or Die: Lindsey warns Darla that Wolfram & Hart has ordered her to be staked on sight.
• Shout-Out: "I've done...questionable things."
• Spell My Name with a "The": The Skilosh demons call Wesley "The Wheeled One".
• Telepathy: The Skilosh demons know instantly when their colleagues have been killed.
• Twisted Echo Cut: Angel being run over by a pickup truck to Gunn saying (while looking at the eye in Cordy's head) "Man, That's Gotta Hurt."
• Vampire Invitation: Angel has to get Wesley to invite him into his house before fighting the Skilosh demons, yet charges into Kate's place even though she's unconscious and had pointedly refused to invite him in earlier.
• What the Hell, Hero? / Character Development: Angel is skeptical that Cordy is out working on a Friday night. Wesley takes the opportunity to make a few cutting remarks.

Wesley: "You don't know her at all. For months now you haven't cared to. Otherwise you might have realized that our Cordelia has become a very solitary girl. She's not the vain, carefree creature she once was... Well, certainly not carefree. It's the visions, you see. The visions that were meant to guide you. You could turn away from them. She doesn't have that luxury."

• Your Head Asplode: Apparently what happens when a Skilosh demon spawns from the back of your head.
• You Need to Get Laid: Cordy was right — having sex does make Angel feel better.