Continuing his vendetta against Wolfram & Hart, Angel stops two men employed by the firm from sacrificing goats. However neither men know what the sacrifice was for, only that it was to appease someone or something. Once they're frightened off, Angel begins to smash the place apart.
At Angel Investigations Wesley, Gunn, and Cordelia present Stephanie Sharp, who is now free of the third eye in the back of her head, to her mother. However, Mrs. Sharp informs the gang that she has no intention of paying the bill as she and her husband have decided that, as it is "impossible" for a third eye to grow out the back of the skull (despite having witnessed it herself and approached the group) she is clearly the victim of a scam. She and her daughter then leave successfully stiffing the gang for payment. Frustrated, Gunn leaves to patrol the neighbourhood where he feels he can be more useful.
At Wolfram & Hart, Lindsey and Lilah discuss the upcoming seventy-five year review and the fact all of the firm's employees are scared of literally being 'cut' and doing everything to make themselves look better (including one sacrificing her firstborn). Lilah is worried after their recent mistakes, but Lindsey is happy to let the record stand. He confirms to Lilah that Darla and Drusilla have not contacted him since Angel set them on fire.
Angel is becoming increasingly isolated and depressed as incidents conspire to remind him of his failures and shortcomings. He asks Kate for information on whatever is happening or at least file some charges against the firm but Kate bitterly refuses, telling him she's stuck on desk duty pending an disciplinary hearing due to Atkinson lodging a complaint against her for allowing Angel into his office. Angel apologizes, but Kate isn't done and tells him that she's now seen evidence that Darla and Drusilla didn't break into the wine cellar where they killed the Wolfram & Hart lawyers but out of it. Realizing that Angel locked the lawyers in to be killed, Kate tells him not to expect her help ever again.
Angel decides to head to Caritas to get information from the Host, however it seems to be a busy night for him as the place is full of lawyers. Angel tries to get some information, and the Host is unable to share much but does give him some details; Wolfram & Hart is due to undergo a review, and the employees are scared not by the review itself but the reviewer... a Senior Partner will manifest itself on Earth to conduct it. All the rituals that Angel has been interrupting are just the lawyers attempting to score brownie points before the Partner arrives. The Host also confirms that the Partner can be killed once it is on Earth, and the terms Band of Blacknill and Home Office are important. Before Angel leaves, the Host gives him one more piece of information... all the lawyers want to see him dead. However one doesn't have to be psychic to know that, as Angel realizes that everyone else in the room is giving him hostile looks.
Lindsey returns home, where Darla has been recuperating. He gives her a container of human blood. Darla thanks Lindsey before confirming that Drusilla will not be returning to LA. When he goes to the shower, she stops feigning weakness and searches his briefcase.
Angel tries to do some research, but finds that most of the books left the hotel along with Wesley. To rectify this, he walks into the office of his former employees and starts to search for the book he needs. When Cordelia refuses to let him take it, there is a tension filled moment as it becomes clear that Angel will use force to get her out of the way if he needs to. Wesley rises from his wheelchair and tells Cordy to let Angel have the book so he can remove himself from the premises. Cordelia vents about Angel until Wesley catches her attention: six stitches from his healing gunshot wound tore open when he stood up.
Kate faces the review board at her Internal Affairs investigation, who lay out all of her unusual actions over the last several months including her now supposedly morbid fascination with unusual cases. Kate cannot explain the true circumstances, and the board concludes that she has become unstable due to her father's murder. They fire her and demand her badge and gun.
Angel returns to the bookstore he had visited fifty years earlier when he had sought a way to exorcise the demon infesting the Hyperion Hotel. Now, he is in search of information on the Senior Partner. A decades-older Denver enthusiastically greets Angel, saying that seeing a vampire wanting to help humans against a demon changed his life. This reminds Angel of how he abandoned all of the humans to be slaughtered by the demon. Denver tells Angel that the Senior Partner wears a ring that allows passage to Hell and will likely manifest in the form of a Kleynach Demon since they can travel between dimensions at will. To take the ring, Angel needs a one-of-a-kind magic glove that will allow him to kill the demon without being incinerated by grabbing it by the throat. Denver gets the glove from his kitchen, as he continues to talk about the positive effect Angel has had on his life. But before he can give the glove to Angel, Darla kills him by running him through the back with the sword. Darla then takes Angel by surprise and stabs him too before taking the glove.
Virginia tells Wesley she is upset about the dangers he must often face. Having been raised by a sorcerer, she is used to monsters, but guns "make it too real". Wesley realizes that she is breaking up with him, and acknowledges how difficult it must be for her.
Kate returns to her apartment and immediately sets about getting drunk. She spots her shelves full of plaques and trophies celebrating her police career, which she smashes to the floor in total despair. She then sees a picture of her father and cries.
Wesley and Cordelia talk on the phone, both depressed about their lives and lack of work. They attempt to convince each other that things are going to get better, but its clear neither of them really believe it. Cordelia then gets a call from Mrs. Sharp, who now offers to pay if Cordelia will come over. What Cordelia doesn't know is that Mrs. Sharp was being threatened into calling by a demon, that has already murdered the rest of the Sharp family and kills her after she tells him Cordelia is on her way.
As Lilah heads to the review, she is approached by Angel who forces her to get him inside. Once there, he spots Darla in the crowd and the two fight while the Senior Partner materializes. Security guards attack Darla after Angel exposes her as a vampire by dousing her with holy water. In the confusion, Angel gets the glove away from Darla, dons it and flies at the demon's throat. The Senior Partner implodes, but the force of Angel's leap carries him crashing out the window.
When he hits the ground, Angel puts on the ring, causing elevator doors to open in the foundation of the Wolfram & Hart building. Angel finds none other than Holland Manners waiting for him inside. Angel initially doesn't understand, since Holland should be dead, however Holland explains that he is indeed deceased (complete with the vampire bite marks on his neck) but his contract with Wolfram & Hart lasts well beyond that. He then offers Angel his trip to the 'Home Office' but warns it is one way. By now Angel doesn't care; destroying the Senior Partners is his only purpose so he accepts. On the long elevator ride, Holland asks Angel what he thinks taking down Wolfram & Hart will accomplish in the end since even if he does stop the apocalypse the firm have planned they'll be another one eventually. Angel responds that he has no intention of letting Wolfram & Hart win, and Holland remarks that they don't plan to do anything as simple as winning which, for the first time in their conversation, catches Angel's attention. The vampire asks why they fight when they're not concerned with the victory. Holland explains that as far as he and the Senior Partners are concerned, there is no fight which is why there is no victory for them. Ever since the beginning of time, when the first caveman killed his neighbor, evil has existed in the hearts of humans and as long as that evil exists Wolfram & Hart will be there and can never be destroyed. As Angel considers this grim outlook, the elevator comes to a stop.
The door opens and Angel prepares to leap into hell, only to find that he is exactly where he started. Holland explains that after things that Angel has seen (and, in some cases, done), he shouldn't be surprised... the Home Office is Earth. Holland finishes by telling the vampire that every single human in the world has evil inside of them, and if they didn't then they'd all be angels. Angel lets the glove fall to the floor of the elevator and leaves, realizing there is no big final battle to be fought here. Holland pleasantly bids Angel goodbye as the doors close.
Angel walks away, feeling despair and hopelessness around him as he witnesses some of the darker aspects of humanity. Returning to the hotel, Kate is calling. When he doesn't pick up, Kate begins a message on the answering machine, in which she explains why she is killing herself. Angel mutes the machine. Upstairs, Angel finds Darla lying in wait for him and, realizing that he wants to feel something, anything, Angel kisses her. He has decided that nothing he does matters, so he might as well do what he wants. At first, she pushes him away, but he takes her roughly and soon the two are having sex. Later, as a storm crashes outside, Angel wakes with a gasp and clutches his chest.
Tropes featured
- All for Nothing: Angel severing his ties to his friends and embarking on a one-man war against Wolfram & Hart. He actually succeeds, destroying a Senior Partner's (temporary) body and summoning an elevator to take him to the root of their evil. The elevator just deposits him back on Earth.
- As Long as There Is EvilHolland: "Our firm has always been here. In one form or another. The Inquisition. The Khmer Rouge. We were there when the very first cave man clubbed his neighbor. See, we're in the hearts and minds of every single living being. And that — friend — is what's making things so difficult for you. See, the world doesn't work in spite of evil, Angel. It works with us. It works because of us."
- Back from the Dead: Holland Manners operates the lift to "the Home Office". As he tells Angel, Wolfram & Hart contracts continue beyond death.
- Back for the Dead: Denver
- Bait-and-Switch: Angel creeps down the corridor of an abandoned building, listening to what appear to be ghostly screams. He enters a room and switches on the light. My God, it's full of goats!
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: Virginia appears to be asking Wesley to leave his demon-hunting life for her, but Wes surmises she's actually working up the nerve to break off with him.
- Blood Magic: Spoofed with the two wannabe sorcerers following a list of instructions for a goat sacrifice subcontracted to perform the animal sacrifice.(reading from a booklet) "Make sure all troths are securely fastened and sacrifices tilted as shown in diagram F-12 to ensure full drainage into sacred offering bowl. Using a clean, diagonal motion, slit throat of sacrifice with the pre-blessed ceremonial dagger provided... I didn't see that in the box."
- Borrowed Biometric Bypass: Angel kidnaps Lilah saying that he wants the same thing from her that he took from Lindsey. Lilah clearly thinks she's about to have her hand chopped off, but then we cut to her sensibly pressing her still-intact thumb against the scanner as Angel waits menacingly by her shoulder.
- Call-Back: To the end of BTVS "Surprise" where Angel lost his soul after sleeping with Buffy — once again as Dramatic Thunder crashes outside, Angel wakes next to a sleeping Darla in evident pain.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Denver from "Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been" reappears - 50-odd years older. And is promptly killed.
- Creator Cameo: Writer David Fury as an unsuccessful goat sacrificer.
- Curse Escape Clause: Discussed; Cordelia rants about Angel's jerkassery and remarks that she can't tell him to "get laid" for this reason... then decides that may very well be better for them, since they'd finally have an excuse to stake him.
- Death Glare: Angel goes to Caritas and finds a bunch of Wolfram & Hart lawyers there, checking to see if they'll have a future post-review. The Host points out that they want one other thing — Angel dead. Angel turns to see every one of the lawyers glaring hate at him.
- Death Seeker: Or rather "un-ensouled seeker." After finding out everything he did to destroy Wolfram and Hart was completely pointless, Angel tries to get rid of his own human soul.
- Despair Event Horizon: Angel tries to break into their Home Office and kill them once and for all... only to discover said Home Office is Earth itself and Wolfram & Hart's power comes not from demons, but from from the evil within humanity itself. With his spirit broken and his resolve exhausted, he tries to shed his soul by having sex with Darla, an encounter he outright describes as "perfect despair."
- Destination Defenestration: No sooner does a Senior Partner materialize in front of its employees than Angel lunges for its throat and tackles it through a window.
- Dramatic Shattering: Darla starts to give an Evil Laugh as Angel kisses her passionately — Angel asks her why she's laughing and throws her through the French doors.
- The Dreaded: Every employee of Wolfram & Hart is terrified by the prospect that a Senior Partner is coming to town.
- Driven to Suicide: Kate gets drunk and takes an overdose of sleeping pills after being fired. In a way, Angel having sex Darla with the intent of losing his soul counts as a metaphysical one.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Kate returns to her apartment upon being fired and immediately sets about getting drunk.
- Earth All Along: The Home Office, the source of the power of the Senior Partners, is earth itself.
- The Elevator from Ipanema: The usual annoying music plays at the hellevator descends. Those Senior Partners really are evil!
- Exact Words: Lilah tells Lindsey what happened at the last 75-year review."Nearly half of mid-management was sacked. And Lindsey, they use actual sacks."
- Groin Attack: Once they're on the appropriate floor, Lilah elbows Angel in the groin and runs.
- Hellevator: Angel is invited to finally enter the "Home Office", the source of Wolfram & Hart's power, and gets into an elevator... which goes down. And down. And down. And down... and finally arrives at street-level, the exact same spot. Even Angel has to point out the Anviliciousness of the "Our world is Hell" moral.
- Heroic BSoD: When Angel realizes where the "Home Office" is, he wanders the streets, witnessing the everyday "evil" that is in each human.
- Hero Insurance: Averted; Kate loses her job — letting Angel rough up Captain Atkinson is the final straw for the police department.
- Hopeless War: Thanks to Holland's breaking him by talking, Angel sees his fight as this.
- Humans Are Flawed/Humans Are Bastards: If they weren't, they'd be angels.
- Human SacrificeLilah: "I heard Henderson actually pulled her firstborn out of company daycare to offer it up to... Brown noser. My mother was right. I should have had children."
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Denver, right in the middle of saying that this time things are going to be different.
- Limited Social Circle: Wesley suggest that, being an attractive woman on a Friday night, Cordelia should forget work and go out with her friends. Cordelia frankly admits she doesn't have any — things have certainly changed since Sunnydale.
- Loophole Abuse: The Host refuses to tell Angel what he saw in the futures of the W&H lawyers, but he can reveal what he overheard them talking about in the mens restroom.
- Meaningful Echo: Darla's "It's about power." — Arc Words from Season 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Mêlée à Trois: Angel vs Darla vs Wolfram & Hart security.
- Mundane Utility: Denver had been using the Blessed Glove as an oven mitt.
- Neck Snap: Mrs. Sharp, courtesy of the Skilosh Demon that infected her daughter. Doubles as You Have Outlived Your Usefulness
- Negated Moment of Awesome: When Angel shows up at his former friends' office to get some research material, Cordelia initially refuses to let him have it until Wesley rises from his wheelchair and tells her to just give Angel the book he needs so they can get him out of the office... and immediately after Angel leaves, he collapses and has to be rushed to the hospital because he tore open his stitches.
- Noodle Incident: The Christmas Purge of '65.
- Nothing Good Ever Happens In A Parking Garage: Averted; Angel notes that Lilah isn't using the underground garage any more. Not that it does any good.
- Obfuscating Disability: Darla is pretending to be more injured than she really is so she can hide from Angel and W&H and look through Lindsey's files.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: Prior to the appearance of the Senior Partner.
- Plot CouponAngel: Look, will the ring get me there or not?Denver: Well, you got to get it first. And to get the ring you've got to kill the Kleynach.Angel: How?Denver: You happen to be looking at the one guy who can tell you how.Angel: How?!Denver: To kill the Kleynach and get the ring you need the Glove.
- Plot Hole: It's never explained how the Captain knew that Kate was the one who invited Angel in to attack him, although it could possibly be that he investigated Angel afterwards and discovered Kate's repeated encounters with him.
- Power Fist: The knight's gauntlet used to kill the Kleynach.
- Punch-Clock Villain: The two wannabe sorcerers subcontracted to sacrifice the goats.
- Revenant Zombie/Back from the Dead: The undead Holland, who keeps his memories and personality, and the puncture wounds from being bitten by Darla.
- Ring of Power: The band of Blacknil is a plain-looking ring that enables the wearer to move between dimensions.
- Sex for Solace: A despairing Angel sleeps with Darla, not caring about the consequences.
- Sideboob: We get a nice Fanservice shot of Darla's sexy side when she jumps into bed with Angel.
- Single-Stroke Battle: Angel knocks out both of Lilah's bodyguards at once.
- Suicide Mission: Convinced he'll never be able to atone for his past sins, Angel decides to launch an assault on Hell itself and wipe out the Senior Partners.
- Super-Speed: Angel Perp Sweating the two goat sacrificers.
- Take That!: When The Host tells Angel about the 75-year review at Wolfram & Hart, he mentions the reviewer "ain't Rex Reed", but "it's evil. It's dark. It's merciless - Actually, now that I say it out loud, it sounds an awful like Rex, doesn't it?" In the same scene, he tells Angel anything on Earth can be killed, which is the downside of being there - "that, and the so-called 'musicals' of Andrew Lloyd Webber."
- Talk to the Fist: Lindsey punching Lilah when she urges the guards to "Stake the bitch!" (Darla)
- This Is the Part Where...: When Kate tells the review board that's terminating her they have no idea of what's really going on in the city, one of them responds, "Is this the part where you start to talk about monsters?"
- Throwing Off the Disability: Subverted. Wesley, confined to a wheelchair after being shot in the previous episode, literally rises to Cordelia's defense against Angel... and as soon as Angel is out the door, he collapses back into the wheelchair and asks Cordelia to call an ambulance, since he just pulled all his stitches.
- Turn in Your Badge: Kate faces the review board at her Internal Affairs investigation, who lay out all of her unusual actions over the last several months including her now supposedly morbid fascination with unusual cases. Kate cannot explain the true circumstances, and the board concludes that she has become unstable due to her father's murder. They fire her and demand her badge and gun.
- Ungrateful Bastard: After having successfully exorcised the demon hatching in Stephanie, the Fang Gang find that the parents don't want to pay — after all Angel Investigations can hardly take them to court and claim an eye was growing in the back of the Sharp's daughter's head.
- "Well Done, Daughter" Gal: After being fired, a member of the review board twists the knife by telling Kate that it's a good thing her father isn't alive to see this.
- Wham Shot: We get a couple.
- The elevator doors open to reveal the Home Office, the source of Wolfram & Hart's evil: it's Earth.
- Angel shoots bolt upright in bed after sex with Darla, just as he did after sex with Buffy. Smash to Black.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Kate leaves a drunken message on Angel's answering machine, cursing Angel for making her believe in him.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Lindsey is letting Darla recover at his apartment; once he's left the room to shower she throws off the blanket and starts going through his files.
- You Need to Get Laid: Lampshaded by Cordelia. By the end of the episode Angel seems to agree.Cordy: "What a jerk. I mean if it was anybody else I would just say 'get laid already!' But no, not him. One decent boff and he switches to evil psycho vamp."
