Belonging
| Cordy, Wes, Gunn & Angel all go to a fancy-schmancy restaurant to
celebrate. Cordy just got her first national commercial. Although Cordy is excited about
her first real break, she feels a bit guilty leaving them while in the middle of a case.
They all hasten to reassure her that they have it all under control. Angel, however, feels
a bit exposed out in the middle of the restaurant (which features mirrors which don't
feature him). He also is a bit uncomfortable with the prices that the restaurant charges. Angel jokingly tells Cordy that she has to promise not to leave them when she becomes rich and famous. She promises that she won't leave - she can't as long as she has the horrible visions to contend with. Angel isn't very mollified by this explanation. He looks as if he feels responsible for her visions. As Gunn & Wes talk about the case (revolving around a Haklar Demon, which might or might not require a flame thrower to kill), Angel apparently thinks he sees something that he doesn't. He flashes across the restaurant and accosts a lady, thinking she's wearing some kind of shroud made from skin of dead children (eew!). Cordy comes to the rescue, the lady is wearing an expensive designer shawl. Angel realizes his mistake and tries to backtrack - Cordy intervenes, telling the lady that she's very sorry, her friend is French. When they get back to the table, they end up sticking out more when Cordy gets sick from her expensive appetizer. She throws up all over the floor. Gunn and Wes wonder if they could have attracted more attention if they'd had a flame thrower at the table. Back at Angel Investigations, Wesley sits in his office talking to his parents in England. He's telephoned them to wish his father a Happy Birthday. While on the phone with his father, he proudly tells them that he is now the leader of their office. It's clear that his father isn't impressed. He proceeds to remind Wesley of all the times he's failed in the past. After a minute or so of listening to his father deflate his ego, Wesley hangs up. Gunn comes in to ask who it was, Wesley tells him it was his father, who sends his greetings to everyone (obviously Wes doesn't want anyone to know his parent's opinion of him). The next morning, Angel visits the set of Cordy's commercial. He needs some more information about her vision. Cordy, who's dressed in a bathrobe, is a bit embarrassed to have Angel there. Especially so when the Seth, the director of the commercial approaches. Cordy attempts to make nice with the director by thanking him for casting her. Seth pays this next to no mind and instructs her to take off her bathrobe. Flustered, she does so - Angel looks quite shocked to find that all she was wearing underneath was a bikini made out of shells. The director asks her to turn around and he blatantly checks her out. He asks when she's going to go to make-up and Cordelia replies that she's already been there. Seth rudely says she needs to go back and get the circles out from under her eyes - she looks like "a refugee from an abused woman's shelter." Cordy weakly replies that she had food poisoning, and Seth cracks a joke about not believing she actually eats. He makes a few more demeaning comments when Angel steps in. He informs the director that he's out of line and should apologize to Cordelia. Cordy, of course, is mortified and tries to get Angel to back down. But Angel is in full on older brother you-messed-with-my-sister mode and isn't going to back down. Seth tells Cordy it was pretty stupid of her to bring her loser boyfriend with her to the set. Cordy tells him that Angel won't bother him anymore, to which Seth replies that Angel is going to be ejected from the set. After the director stomps off, Cordy rounds on Angel. How dare he come to the set and embarrass her this way. Was he intentionally trying to ruin her career? Angel tells her he just needed some more information about the vision. He asks her if she saw the demon eat his victim whole or just rip out the liver, 'cuz apparently there are two different species of Haklar demon. Cordelia decides there and then that she hates her entire life (and really, who can blame her?). Back at the hotel, Gunn and Wesley discuss the Haklar demon. When Wesley begins reciting the complete history of the demon, Gunn mentions that he just wanted to know how to kill it. Wesley tells him it's just the standard slice and dice. As they talk about the situation, Rondell and George (Gunn's friends), come by to talk to Gunn. They tell him there's a situation back in their neighborhood. Some vamps are feeding on defenseless homeless people in the area. Gunn gets excited, talking about a plan - they cut him off. They already have a plan, all they need him for is his truck. It's still outfitted to dust vamps. Gunn wants to be a part of it but Wesley wants to know what they're supposed to do about the Haklar. As Gunn replies that Angel can page him when he tracks down the demon, Angel walks in. He does know where the demon is. Gunn tells his friends to wait for him - he has to go with Wes and Angel. Disappointed, Rondell and George leave. Gunn & Wes can tell that something is bothering Angel. As they get the weapons together for the Haklar, they ask him what's going on. He tells them it's Cordy. Immediately they're concerned - is it the visions? Angel explains that nothing happened, he just doesn't like the way the director treated her. He doesn't understand how this is her dream job when the director treated her like crap and she just took it. He asks how long it's been since Cordelia took crap from any of them. They all agree that she NEVER takes crap from them. Angel then shares with them that he didn't think her outfit was appropriate either. After they all ponder the thought of Cordelia in a shell bikini, they decide that the best thing to do is go kill something and head out to get the Haklar Demon. Meanwhile, at Caritas, The Host is performing a number. As he performs, the curtains behind him shimmer into a portal. The patrons all think it's part of the show and are wowed. The Host finally sees the portal and panics - a large demon jumps through the portal. It knocks down people and tables on it's way out the door. After it goes, The Host placates his patrons by telling them that it was just part of the show. Cordy, in the meantime, is not having a good day on the set of the commercial. Her job is to say some lines while rubbing suntan lotion on a guys back. But she keeps getting in the guy's light and Seth is furious with her. He tells her to bend forward more and get out of the guy's light. Cordy says she's going to fall out of her top if she bends forward more. The director tells her not to argue - this isn't Shakespeare - show the cleavage, say the line. That's her job. Humiliated, Cordy complies. That night, Angel and Wes return from the battle with the Haklar to find Cordy at the hotel. She looks beat and depressed. Angel, assuming that she's angry at him and begins to apologize. She tells him that he most definitely was out of line today and he embarrassed her. But she stops and says that it's not just him, she embarrassed herself today. All she wanted was to act and for people to like her because she was good. She didn't want to feel like she did today. Noticing that Gunn isn't with them, she asks where he is. Wesley tells her he had some business to take care of. She asks how the fight went with the demon. They tell her it was horrible. They were accosted by some "power walkers" when they were fighting the demon. Apparently, the walker felt they were "disrespecting the demon's culture" by killing it. Cordy thinks this town sucks. Just then, The Host bursts in, wanting to know if Angel is still a warrior for hire. There's a big nasty in town that Angel must kill and it's called a Drokken. Wesley heads for a research book but the Host stops him. He tells them that they'll never find it in their books, it's not from this dimension. He then explains that right in the middle of one of his numbers at the club, a portal opened up and the Dokken came through. He is adamant that they hunt it immediately and kill it. Angel wants to know where it is but The Host doesn't know. He does know one thing - it's probably hungry by now. And right he is. At that very moment, the Drokken is attacking people outside a nightclub. Devouring them - it's pretty nasty. Back at the Hotel, the others want more information. Where did it come from? Why is it here? Those sorts of things. The Host doesn't care - he just thinks it should be taken care of and soon. Angel begins to suggest a plan of attack. Cordy gently reminds Angel that Wesley is in charge now (which the Host applauds). Angel, chastened, defers to Wesley who nobly agrees with Angel's plan of attack. Just then, Cordy doubles over in pain. At first, they think it's food poisoning, but it quickly becomes clear that it's a vision. In the vision she sees a young woman wearing glasses. She has a pendant around her neck that's in the shape of an apple. The young woman grabs a book off a shelf in a library and reads from it. A portal opens behind her while the girl keeps reading, oblivious. Cordy comes out of her vision and Angel asks if she's alright. She barks out that of course she's not alright, does she look okay to him? Why does everyone ask her that. She relates the vision, which, to The Host, seems not very important next to his Drokken thing. When Cordy mentions the portal it becomes obvious that the two are connected. They, over The Hosts objections, decide to head to the library to check it out. Back in his neighborhood, Gunn finds out the bad news. While he was off fighting the Haklar with Angel and Wes, his friends went ahead and attacked the vamps. George was bitten and they don't know if he drank or not. Gunn, blames himself for not being there. At the library, they find out that the girl in the vision, Fred, has been missing for about 5 years. The librarian shows them a missing persons flyer that they had made up. She has never been found. Cordy confirms that it's the girl from her vision. Claire, the librarian, tells them it was spooky, she was working in the foreign language section and then she was just gone. The gang heads over to the foreign language section to check it out. Cordy picks out the book that Fred was holding in her vision. She opens it up and reads a few words from it (which are curiously lacking in vowels). Cordy reads some more from the book and a portal begins to shimmer in the library. The Host is freaked out by it - even more when someone he recognizes comes through. The demon that comes through and Angel approaches it. They exchange blows before The Host recognizes him, calling him Landok. Landok, in turn, recognizes The Host, calling him Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan. Angel and Cordy are a bit put off by his name. They didn't even know he had a name. Landok wants to know where he is, The Host tells him he's in Los Angeles. Landok thinks that Angel, Cordy and Wes are his jailors which the Host hastens to refute. The Host convinces the demon to put down his weapon and introduces all to each other. Cordelia notices that they both share the same clan name, Deathwok. The Host reluctantly admits that they're cousins. Landok tells The Host that his disappearance was a great mystery to their family. Landok say they had hoped that he had "sought atonement by forfeiting his[sic] life in the Sacrificial Canyons of Trelinsk" Landok wants to know if the Host was abducted as well, The Host tells him that he came through a portal, just like Landok. Landok swears that they will find a way back into their world, but The Host doesn't want to go. Landok admonishes him that The Host's mother's burden is terrible. The Host asks wistfully if she misses him. Landok replies that she tears his pictures to shreds and feeds them to pigs and then does horrible things to the pigs. It's not pretty. The Host wryly notes that it sounds like his mother. Landok is not pleased that his cousin is not willing to return home with him and remove his shame. The Host mentions that they're a bit busy looking for a Drokken at that moment. Upon hearing about the Drokken, Landok immediately offers to assist in killing it (which doesn't please the Host). However, it can only easily be killed by something dipped in a substance that doesn't exist in this world. It will be difficult to kill without it. Angel mentions that they'll have to find it first. Landok says that won't be a problem, he can track it by the waves of negative hostility that it leaves in it's wake. This is a skill that is taught on their home world. Meanwhile, Gunn and Rondell build a funeral pyre for George. They have to burn the body to make sure he won't become a vampire. Gunn angrily wants to know why they didn't wait for him. Rondell, just as angry, tells him that they've been waiting for him for months. Elsewhere, the rest of the gang and Landok find the bodies of the first two victims of the Drokken. Angel wants to know how Landok can track the Drokken. The Host tells him it's much like how he reads auras. Yet on their home world, Landok, a hunter, is a hero while he, the Host, is a freak. The Host says they've got screwed up values in his world - it's only black and white. There's no music or art and no one ever admits to having emotions or talks about them. He asks Angel if he could imagine that kind of a world. Angel looks as if he wishes he did live in a world like that. In fact, it seems tailor made to Angel's tastes. Cordy and Wes are concerned that Gunn has not responded to their pages. They hope that everything went alright with him. Cordy is still looking at the book - she thinks they're missing something, like chasing after this monster isn't enough. There's something else they're supposed to be seeing. Landok, meanwhile, knows where the Drokken is headed. It's taken more food to eat later. More food, meaning a human that he hasn't eaten yet. Landok and The Host continue their bickering as they follow the trail. They arrive where Landok says the Drokken will be. Sure enough, it's there and dragging a moaning woman behind it. While they discuss what to do, Landok becomes impatient, grabs his scimitar and races after the Drokken. Landok and the Drokken fight and the Drokken takes a bite out of Landok. Apparently, it's bite is poisonous but Landok won't stop. He will die later, now he must fight the Drokken. The Host tells the others that the antidote for the poison is only found on their world. Angel tells Wesley to find the girl and get her out, while he goes after the Drokken. Wesley finds the girl, but the Drokken also finds Wesley. Luckily, Angel saves Wesley by throwing his sword through the Drokken's neck, killing it. The gang rushes back to send Landok back to his home world. Cordy has figured it out. If Landok reads from the book where they know there's a portal, he can go home. They want to know how she can be sure that he'll go to the correct world. She says she doesn't know how she knows, she just does. They head back to Caritas, Angel hands Landok the book and tells him all he has to do is read from it and it should work. Landok tells Angel that he must be very strong to defeat the Drokken - Landok is proud to have known him. Angel is kinda "aw shucks, don't mention it" about the whole thing, but you can tell he's proud. The Host tells Landok to tell his mother that he sacrificed himself like he was supposed to. Landok reads aloud from the book and the portal opens. There's a flash of intense light and Landok is gone. The gang regroups for a moment and then they realize something. Cordelia is gone. Elsewhere, Cordelia wakes up in a field. She looks up at the sky and realizes she's not where she's supposed to be. The sky is a different color and there are two suns. She suddenly feels very alone. |
| Rating and Comments: I'm conflicted about this episode. It was good in that I liked seeing the Host and the introduction of a family member of his. It gave us some background for him. However, this begins the Pylea episodes, which weren't my favorites. Although, the power walkers that attacked Angel & Co for "disrespecting the demon's culture" was brilliant! |
| Rating: 7/10 |
| Written By: Staff Writer - Christine |