“Wolfram and Hart arranges for Lindsey to get a new hand, but when it turns out to be evil, Angel investigates the firm’s source of body parts.”
Zelda’s Thoughts:
- Ah, the Lindsey Has An Evil Hand episode. Cool cool.
- Well, right now he has a prosthetic hand.
- We follow his morning routine of doing things one-handed – including all his ties pre-tied, and then the camera (and Lindsey) linger on his guitar, sitting unloved and unplayed in his closet.
- OMG IT’S DARRYL FROM CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND
- We smashcut from whatever’s about to happen with Darryl to Cordy suffering badly under a vision of it, weeping and gasping, as Angel tries to comfort her. Definitely moving forward on the arc of the toll the visions are taking on her.
- Evil Lawyers having an Evil Lawyer Meeting blah blah Lilah’s a bit skittish and Lindsey’s pretty blasé and cynical. She’s worried she’s about to be killed when he gets promoted, and he seems to care as much as he cared about potentially being killed by Darla that one time.
- Anyway boring not-Holland-Manners boss man made a mysterious all-day appointment for Lindsey. Evil Hand!
- Cordy’s troubled by the vision. Nothing seemed to be wrong, and suddenly there was a knife in the eye, and I’m supergrateful they didn’t really get very visual on that graphic.
- Meanwhile, over at the Hyperion, they’re failing at most of their detectiving to track down Darryl from CXG.
- Cordy, still shaken hours later, clutches her forehead. “I wish it would stop hurting … I just keep seeing it.” She’s not even looking for comfort, that’s how wrapped she is in the pain of it and the guilt at not being able to stop it.
- But over where the evils hang out, Lindsey pulls out his guitar and starts playing and oh right Christian Kane is also a musician so he can do that for realsies.
- And L&L are tag-teaming some Evil Lawyering, while Lindsey’s new hand idly jots down notes. Unfortunately, all those notes are just the word “KILL” over and over again. Awkward, that.
- Okay so Angel bought every kind of food for Cordelia, because he’s getting better at listening and she said she was tired of people asking her stuff. And she says “I love you” and it’s super sweet and Angel smiles the sweetest smile the man has literally ever smiled and THAT’S super sweet and okay I get why some people ship this.
- EVERYBODY SIT DOWN, CHRISTIAN KANE IS SINGING AT CARITAS.
- Everyone but Angel agrees with me that this is nice. Also I think Christian Kane and show creator David Greenwalt co-wrote the song he’s singing?
- Cordy: “We can’t sing after that.” // Lorne: “You won’t have to.” Luckily, Lindsey’s problem ties in with our gang’s problem. Everyone fanning over Lindsey’s performance is flipping adorable.
- At least Angel is showing better detectiving now they have a lead: he lifts the glass Lindsey was holding to get prints off the transplant hand.
- Back at the hotel, Angel gets complimented for his collected intel from the print but deflects how he got it … he hired someone else to detective … again. Wow he’s the worst.
- Lindsey’s so mad Angel came to question the same lead he’s questioning, then is mad at him for saving him. “Why aren’t you trying to kill me?”
- See? I ship Angel and Lindsey more than I ship Angel and Cordy. Their angry banter chemistry is good stuff.
- Gunn: “Is it me or are these vision hangovers getting longer and longer? It’s like she can’t rest in there til it’s done.” Wes is worried that she can’t carry it like Doyle did because he was half-demon, and remembers how she was delirious and in the hospital at the end of last season.
- Angel and Lindsey continue their date with a night drive as Angel wonders why Lindsey isn’t happier, now he’s got his new hand.
- Their date continues with beating up some randos. So romantic.
- Anyway, down into a basement and gulp. A bunch of bodies upright in some kind of cryostorage, all alive but many of them with missing pieces. So Lindsey’s hand, Darryl’s eye, they came from these “living” donors.
- Lindsey recognizes his “donor” – they worked in the mailroom together. And he’s alert enough to say “Kill … kill … kill me … please.”
- Angel sets about releasing the others while Lindsey unplugs his donor’s machine. He didn’t seem like he was missing more than his hand though? Why couldn’t they rescue him too?
- In the denouement, Cordelia finally admits to herself and the crew that the visions are taking a bigger toll. “It’s part of the job, right?”
- Denouement part two: Evil Lawyer Meeting. Lindsey stops Lilah from pulling out her gun in desperation. But Lindsey’s going out in a blaze of burn-this-shit-up monologue about his evil hand, grabbing the guard’s gun and shooting everywhere, blaming it all on the evil hand.
- He then tells Not Holland that he should have chosen Lilah to promote, with all the work she’s put in, and all the dirt she has on them. So I guess he’s an ally? “Me, I’m unreliable. I got these evil hand issues. And I’m bored with this crap.” NM he gropes Lilah on the way out, not such an ally.
- Lilah gets her promotion, Lindsey gets to actually leave in a way most W&H employees don’t, and if this were the last we see of him, I’d be satisfied with the arc. But hey, season five.
- Lindsey’s on his way outta Dodge with his old old truck. He and Angel have a tearful farewell. Well, maybe not tearful. “I hope you’re not waiting for me to tell you that I learned some kind of a lesson. That I had a big moral crisis but now I see the light.” // “If you told me that, I’d have to kill you. I’m just here to say bon voyage. Don’t come back.” // “To LA? Nah, you can have this place.”
- And one last tip from Lindsey: “The key to Wolfram & Hart. Don’t let them make you play their game. You gotta make them play yours.” So now we all just glare at season five together?
- …Angel put a COPS SUCK sign on the back of Lindsey’s car. I guess that was the immature thing he “didn’t have to do”?
Daniel’s Thoughts:
- Hello shirtless Lindsey with his “hand” hidden underneath the covers so no VFX has to be used.
- His stump is seen separate from the rest of his body, again, I’m assuming for practical FX purposes.
- He stares at his guitar longingly. How did he become a part of such an evil law firm, he thinks, as he remembers strumming his guitar (probably shirtless) on the prairies of flyover states.
- Cut to Typical American Family. Dad gets a kiss from his daughter and a “manly handshake” from his son. Gross.
- And then he picks up a knife.
- Cordelia meanwhile has the mother of all visions. It hurts so much she starts sobbing. She sees American Dad with a knife and blood.
- Meanwhile at Wolfram & Hart – they talk law stuff I don’t care much about. Lindsey & Lilah are there and whatshisface - the guy who is less interesting than Holland. (Nathan?)
- L&L also update him on Angel.
- They’re also going to be reevaluating Lindsey and Lilah’s department which means one of them will be promoted. Lilah is worried she’ll be cut & at W&H that’s literal.
- Cordelia’s vision is a little unclear. Apparently the dad in the family killed himself with that knife.
- Lindsey has been signed up for a doctor’s appointment but he doesn’t know what’s actually happening.
- Lindsey’s getting a new hand.
- “This is cause for applause and in just a few hours time, you’ll be doing the applauding.” Ha. Ha.
- Ok so creepy. This new hand is being magically put on by a weird demon in a red robe.
- I wonder if it’s the same hand that the dad used to stab his eye. Hmm. [it’s not - Future Daniel]
- Gunn is using a phonebook to call hospitals. How 2001.
- No one’s come up with anything.
- The elevator in the Hyperion looks like the Tower of Terror. I’m sure I’ve noticed that before but it’s so prominent here that I’m focusing on it.
- Angel convinces Cordelia to look into the vision again & she does. Revisiting her vision seems to be painful.
- Day two: Hello shirtless Lindsey in bed again. He’s in the same exact position like he’s stuck in a Groundhog Day loop. But this time he pulls out his covered hand…and it’s a hand!
- He looks at that guitar again and this time he plays it.
- At work, Nathan tells the client that he’s in….good hands. Wink Wink.
- Lindsey & Lilah have a meeting with the head of a company that I guess has been poisoning people with chocolate. He knows what kind of law firm it is because when Lilah mentions enchanting the jury, he doesn’t blink an eye.
- Lindsey’s new hand…is writing kill kill kill over and over again.
- Back at the Hyperion, Angel has ordered sandwiches. He tells the delivery man to keep the change and the delivery man (who is not listed on IMDB, credited or not credited) responds sarcastically: "Wow. A whole dollar just for me. I'm the luckiest delivery man ever.” And it’s hilarious.
- Ahh, we get a little more info on this guy who stabbed himself in the eye.
- Cordelia figures out that he was happy about his eye…like he just acquired it.
- Wes & Gunn find out that the family has been disappeared.
- At Caritas, Lindsey is singing and guitar playing. That’s not karaoke:
- Shazam tells me that this is an original song by Christian Kane.
- Lorne tells everyone that they’re all working on the same case: That Lindsey’s new murderous hand has to do with the guy who stabbed himself in the eye.
- “He’s got your case, forgive me, in the palm of his hand. “ All these dad jokes. Who wrote this? Greenwalt wrote this one. At least Lorne had the decency to apologize for his.
- Angel’s got an idea. He got Lindsey’s fingerprints off the glass of water he drank.
- But he doesn’t have a policewoman frenemy anymore. How’s that gonna work?
- Meanwhile Lindsey has his own plan – He uses Nathan’s computer.
- Fact: Nathan Reed’s password is ‘Zen’.
- And the computer and its contents look like this and….oh man. This was about 20 years ago?
- So Angel did it but doesn’t want to explain how. When he’s forced to, he says he hired a private detective…
- Angel says, “We did, she got fired, get over it.” Explaining away Kate’s absence who could have really helped this ep.
- They need another frenemy on the force.
- Lindsey, still at the office, finds Lilah looking through files. I’m surprised most of W&H isn’t still working. I mean lawyers, plus evil. I mean, more evil than usual. You work at least 100 hours a week at a firm like that.
- Lindsey visits a parole officer.
- Fact: Christian Kane doesn’t know how to pronounce Lawyer.
- The parole officer punches Lindsey and gets him in a chokehold.
- And then Angel attacks from the window. Neat way of getting around the home entering thing.
- “You’re choking my lead!” - Lindsey, to Angel.
- Angel & Lindsey act bad cop bad cop to get the info from Parole Officer Guy. It works.
- Cordelia is still really upset.
- Gunn & Wesley are concerned. Wes tells Gunn about what happened last year when Cordy ended up in the hospital.
- Fight time! Angel & Lindsey work on the same side. They seem to be fighting humans only. They knock all of them out.
- Ooh. They find a basement full of people in cryo-chambers being kept alive for their parts…
- Turns out Lindsey’s hand comes from some guy from W&H mailroom. And he keeps saying “Kill Me.”
- Angel saves some people.
- Lindsey kills Mail Room guy. Mercifully, I guess? I mean. He was just missing a hand. They probably could have saved him.
- Then they blow up the entire place.
- It’s time for the promotion. Long story short, too late. Lindsey quits & tells them to promote Lilah.
- He reminds everyone that he has an evil hand so not to come after him. And I guess it works? Kinda too easy. But I guess the powers that be - and by that I mean the producers - wanted Lindsey to live. For now. There is some light blackmail, too.
- Lindsey packs his stupid truck. Angel wishes him goodbye. I don’t know if this is the intent, but I ship it.
 |
| We ship it. |
Favorite Lines:
Zelda: Gunn: Angel’s gonna sing? // Cordy: Isn’t there some other way? // Wes: There has to be. Think, damn it! // Angel: Hey!Daniel: Cordy: "Why didn't you ask me?" Angel: "Well, you said, why is everyone asking you if they can get you anything, and-and I didn't wanna *do* that..." Cordy: "So you did this - instead." Angel quietly: "Yup." Cordy: "I love you."
Arc/Continuity:
Recurring: Lindsey McDonald, Lilah Morgan, Lorne, Nathan ReedGenerally Known TV Face: Michael Dempsey, Kavita Patil, Pete Gardner, Stephanie Nash
Whedonverse Hat Trick: Kavita Patil (Nurse on Angel, Mrs. Lee on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Stephanie Nash (Wife on Angel, Dr. Wilton on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)
Lorne’s Nicknames: Angel Cakes (Angel), Pilgrim (Lindsey), Sugar (Lindsey)
Lindsey’s Nicknames: Mr. Save-a-Soul (Angel)
Angel! In! History!
“Back in the 50s, we all thought life was gonna be like The Jetsons by now.”Also Angel is old enough to think $1 is a good tip on a whole bunch of delivery food.
Caritas Song List
“LA Song”
Stats:
Cordelia’s Hair – chin bob with highlightsDead Humans – 2
Dead Undeads – 0
Dead Flashbacks – 0
Dead Lawyers – 0
Cordelia Has a Vision – 1
Wesley Prat-falls – 0
Lawyered Ex Machina – 0
Evil Handed Ex Machina – 1
Evil Reveal – 1 (evil hand!)
Unevil Reveal – 1 (source of evil hand just wanted to die)
Shenanigans Called – 0
Apocalypse Called – 0
Prophecy Called – 0
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