You Could Be a Rainbow and Not a Painbow

Episode 1.06: Sense and Sensitivity. Original Airdate: 11/09/99

“An imprisoned criminal uses his connections to target Kate for elimination.” [This is possibly the worst imdb plot description we’ve run into]

Zelda’s Thoughts:

• Go Kate go! You chase down that criminal!
• Dang, she kicked him in the spine.
• And now she’s bantering Buffy-style about having difficulty expressing her emotions because also we’re setting up the theme for the episode.
• Kate’s boss says that Little Tony (aka human big bad of the week) is gone, and he doesn’t know who can find him. Kate’s eyes say that she does.
• Cut to Angel slicing up some gross demony thing and leaving Cordelia and Doyle to do the janitorial dismemberment of the remains.
• Meanwhile, Cordy has dramatic irony on her side, bitcaing about Angel ignoring the people around him while she ignores Doyle getting throttled by a tentacle. Don’t worry, guys, he’ll be fine until spoiler.
• This is a Tim Minear ep? But … he doesn’t kill any regulars in it.
• Aw fuck, it’s Kate’s dad. He’s the fucking worst and I hate him.
• It doesn’t help that the actor doesn’t bring a lot to the role.
• Angel tracks down Little Tony and tells Kate, but it looks like he’s about to skip. So Angel breaks out your favorite gag and mine: Angel the doof in a Hawaiian shirt and straw hat. 

• “That’s not the boat to Catalina? Are you sure?”
• Oops Angel punchy kicky.
• But Kate’s there before it gets worse.
• Little Tony, now in captivity, proceeds to patronize and sexually harass Kate. How fun.
• HEY IT’S LEE MERCER HI LEE MERCER.
• Lee Mercer of Wolfram & Hart got a fax from Little Tony about taking out Kate.
• Angel drinks a lot more coffee now that he’s a detective. Didn’t he say on Buffy that coffee makes him jittery?
• Kate’s dad paid for her drink, and then pulls a full neg, sounding impressed before he says “Here’s hoping the bust doesn’t fall apart before you finish filing the paperwork,” to make sure she doesn’t feel good about herself for too long.
• Papa Lockley “In my day, we didn’t need any damn sensitivity.” Kate’s face: I NOTICED DAD.
• But yeah his whole vibe is proto are-you-triggered-snowflake, which probably explains why WE HATE HIM.
• Kids, what’s the real lesson we learned from today? Don’t hold a magical talking stick or it’ll cause chaos in law enforcement.
• I mean yeah this sensitivity counselor is evil, but it’s also true that Kate’s got a lot of defensive shells up because of how shitty her dad is.
• Aw, Kate lowkey asks Angel out. But also oops she’s already under the influence of the magic stick with “He’s really acting out, isn’t he? … I’m just saying that he must be in some kind of pain to strike out at others in that way.”
• Gasp! W&H got the sensitivity counselor into the precinct, and his office is full of MYSTICAL THINGS OF MAGIC THAT GLOW.
• HEYO Kate just admitted to picturing Angel in his underwear.
• Kate’s father continues to be The Worst.
• And poor Kate, the only woman in the room, the only one not in a collared shirt, and under the influence of the magic stick, gives an emotional toast to her awful father at his retirement party. “After mom died, you stopped, you know. It was like you couldn’t stand the sight of me … But big girls don’t cry, right? … You couldn’t even tell a scared little girl a beautiful lie.”
• And all the other cops are talking their feelings. But see the problem is, a lot of cop feelings seem to be … anger. And the only way they know to express that anger is in violence. So, fighty cry fight.
• Kate, to Angel: “I see such an old soul.” Doyle: “He gets that a lot.”
• Welp, Kate outs Doyle’s crush on Cordelia.
• Don’t worry, the hijinks music tells us that Kate’s state should be read as a funny thing, and not deeply worrying.
• Angel’s feeling punky. When Sensitivity Alan asks what his parents were like, he says “My parents were great. Tasted a lot like chicken.”
• Meanwhile, one of the cops has decided it’s not right to imprison criminals, so he unlocks all the cells. This’ll be fun. And they all jump the cop.
• Question: is there a large presence of the Italian mafia in  LA? Am I stereotyping for assuming they’re more east coast based?
• Oops, Angel got whacked with the emostick and now he’s hugging Cordoyle. You don’t have to worry about that ship name for long, folks. 

• “There’s a stick that talks?” “Cordelia, do you have any idea just how precious you are?”
• “You both withdraw when I go vamp, I feel you judge me.” Snerk. He’s fun like this.
• Cop reads a poem about his bad feels to a prisoner: “I saw a leaf and I did cry.” That is … not a good poem.
• It’s too bad the idea of cops regretting violence is played for laughs, especially in LA.
• Nice to see that even when they’re in touch with their emotions, Angel and Kate are both still good at the fighting. And then they hug it out.
• Welp, W&H cuts ties with Little Tony after he went gun-happy in the precinct. But they’re also watching the cctv footage of Angel and helllllo new person crushing on Angel.
• Hey, Kate’s dad comes in to confront Kate about last night. And he advocates “it didn’t happen” and shut down those emotions and I hate him I hate him I hate him.
• I wonder what would have happened if Kate had been on the show longer than she is. Like, would they have gone there with an attempted relationship with Angel? Or was the plan always to introduce Darla to fuck things up?
• Um, spoilers?
• 
  

Daniel’s Thoughts:

• Guy running in the mean, lonely streets of LA. Detective Kate follows in hot pursuit. Kicks ass, but takes no names.
• Kate’s a hardball, no nonsense cop. Apparently she’s been in the interrogation room for hours. Her male co-workers don’t seem to appreciate her…
• Meanwhile Angel is killing a big lizard octopus monster. Cordelia & Doyle are left to clean up the mess.
• “JarJar is getting his own talk show…” What?
• “It’s like you don’t have a pulse.” “I don’t.”
• Kate has a dad. And this is where alllll her insecurities come from.
• Yeah, he’s a bit of a bastard.
• Angel found the mob guy for Kate. He wasn’t going to intervene…but
• Where did Angel even get this outfit?
• Angel says he got out of the car because the guy was getting away but… I mean he wasn’t? The cops got their in time before the boat even got to shore.
• I love these little Wolfram & Hart interjections… They’re the big bad but we don’t really know that yet.
• Kate’s Dad “In my day, we didn’t need any sensitivity.”  Me:

• Doyle “They got a thug discount rate?” Yeah Doyle, just insult the guy who is openly giving you information.
• Kate’s being all sensitive. What a change of character. I wonder if there’s a supernatural explanation…DUN DUN DUN
• And Kate’s dad continues to act like a prick at his retirement party.
• Kate gets all deep in her speech. This might be the spell talking but there’s definitely truth in it.
• All these tough cop guys are throwing out therapy terms and crying and I guess it’s supposed to be funny.
• Rohm’s doing some great work in this episode, though – the range of emotions.
• “My parents were great. Tastes a lot like chicken.” Wow, Angel. Is murdering your parents really something you want to joke about?
• I mean….what’s the message of this episode? If cops are more sensitive, things would be chaos? So they should continue to be hard-nosed brutal assholes?
• Cordelia does that Grr thing again and it’s pretty cute.
• Heh, everyone’s all embarrassed now that the spell wore off.
• Everyone’s back to their closed off selves now. So, Ok. We've learned nothing.
• And nothing’s changed with Kate’s dad. Still a bastard.

Favorite Lines:

Zelda: “You both withdraw when I go vamp, I feel you judge me.” – Angel

Daniel: “It’s like you don’t have a pulse.” “I don’t.” -Cordelia/Angel

Arc/Continuity:

First Appearance: Trevor Lockley, Lee Mercer

Recurring: Detective Kate Lockley

Generally Known TV Face: Alex Skuby, Steve Schirripa

Whedonverse Hat Trick: Alex Skuby (Harlan here; Vincent in Buffy ep “Bad Girls”), Kevin Will (Heath here; Officer in Firefly ep “The Train Job”; Gerry in Dollhouse ep “Gray Hour”)

Angel’s Alias: Herb Saunders

Stats:

Cordelia’s Hair – loose tumbling curls

Dead Humans – 1

Dead Undeads – 1

Dead Flashbacks – 0

Dead Lawyers – 0

Doyle Has a Vision – 0

Lawyered Ex Machina – 1

Evil Reveal – 1

Unevil Reveal – 0

Shenanigans Called – 0

Apocalypse Called – 0

Prophecy Called – 0