Recap / Angel S 02 E 20 Over The Rainbow

"Can everybody just notice how much fire I'm not on?"

Cordelia finds herself in a new dimension, where she is chased down by a green demon who declares her a "cow", or human slave. She is sold at the market, and her demon owner forces her into a collar that can be used to shock her when she doesn't obey. As she later mucks out the stables, wondering aloud if she can remove the collar, a runaway slave warns her through a hole in a wall that she shouldn't bother fighting. Cordelia is unable to see that the woman is Fred from her vision, crazy after all her years in Pylea. Before any more information can be exchanged, Fred is caught and taken away. Later, Cordelia follows her owner, carrying purchases from the market, until a vision causes her to fall and drop everything. She reveals she saw a villager being attacked by a Drokken in her vision, and a crowd gathers and declares her to be cursed. Cordelia is brought before Constable Narwek and explains she has precognitive visions.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the group realizes Cordelia has been sucked into the Host's home dimension of Pylea, which the Host says he was glad to leave and will never go back to; he also cannot provide information on how to access Pylea from Earth, since his coming from the former to the latter was most unintentional on his part. Caritas, the bar he runs, was once the abandoned building where the portal from Pylea deposited him. Angel, desperate to save Cordelia, reads from the book to reopen the portal, but nothing happens; Wesley's research discovers that portals can only be opened so many time before they become "cold". This means that the gang must find a new hot spot to open the portal. The Host seeks help from a psychic friend in order to find a hot spot, but she won't provide the information until he agrees to go with the others to finish his business in Pylea. Wesley finds out that the portal scatters multiple people who go through, and they realize that Cordelia won't have arrived in Pylea with Landok. Gavin Park, a lawyer from Wolfram & Hart, appears at the hotel with a colleague and informs Angel that the law firm plans to buy the hotel when the current lease expires. Angel, uninterested in dealing with lawyers, vamps out and Gavin takes his leave, but not before promising to make Angel's life difficult. Angel leaves a message on an answering machine for Gunn, who has elected to go reconcile with his old gang, with key information in case they don't make it back from Pylea.

Angel pulls his car up to the gate of Paramount Studios, following the Host's information that it is a psychic hot spot. Wesley's research revealed that if the gang use the car to travel through the portal it should allow them to stay together. Although Gunn had initially stated that George's death made him realize he's needed in this dimension, Angel's distressing phone message persuaded him to join the mission. Wesley reads from the book, and with final good-byes to L.A., Angel drives his car through the portal however the book is left behind. As the car arrives in daytime Pylea, Angel rushes to cover himself before realizing that the two suns are not fatal to vampires. Happy and amazed, Angel goes off to gather branches to hide the car while enjoying the rare opportunity to be in sunlight. After covering the car, the guys realize that the book is gone and Lorne is horrified. Wesley realizes the book must have been bound to Earth, and Angel points out that they can't return home without Cordelia anyway, so finding another way to open a portal will have to wait until after she's rescued.

Meanwhile, Cordelia is taken before a tribunal and tested to see if she is afflicted with a curse. They test her using hot pokers and sharp needles, and unanimously decide that she is indeed cursed and take her away.

In town, the Host advises Wesley, Angel, and Gunn to stay to the shadows, as humans are treated as slaves. He tries to get help from an old friend but is met with a hostile reception, as he is considered to have deserted his people. Chased by villagers, the gang is eventually caught and tied up in the middle of town. They are taken to a dungeon and chained up, and eventually taken to be sentenced to death by the Monarch. Instinctively, they try to escape, but discover that the Monarch is a very contented looking Cordelia wearing a sequinned bikini and many jewels.

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• Always Save the Girl
  Wesley: We might never be able to get back!
  Angel: It's Cordy.
• Bound and Gagged: Cordelia — she talks too much.
• Breaking the Bonds: Averted
  Gunn: It's no use. This thing's made out of some magical alloy.
  Wesley: Really? (looks at his chains) How can you tell?
  Gunn: I can't. I'm just making myself feel better.
• Buffy Speak: The portal "swirly-hole thingy".
• Casual Kink: On being told they would split up going through the portal and maybe end up on opposite sides of the planet, Angel suggests handcuffs to bind them together, only they don't have handcuffs. Wesley starts to cheerfully disagree, then quickly shuts up.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Wolfram & Hart attorney Gavin Park will return in Season 3, taking the role of Lilah Morgan's rival previously held by Lindsey.
• Cliffhanger: Our heroes are hauled before Pylea's matriarchal ruler to be executed. They decide to go down fighting and jump their guards as they're hauled inside the throne room, only to find Princess Cordelia giving them the hairy eyeball.
• Comically Missing the Point
  Lorne: Just remember, keep your heads down. Xenophobia's kind of a watch-word where I'm from.
  Gunn: I don't get it. Why're they afraid of Xena? I mean, I think she's kind of fly.
  Wesley: Xenophobia. Fear of foreigners?
  Gunn: Oh. Then can we pretend I didn't just say that?
• Cool Gate
• Damsel in Distress: Cordy, who after landing in the dimension is quickly captured by a slave trader and tied up. Her problems multiply from there.....
• Daywalking Vampire: Angel finds to his delight that he can walk around in the sunlight, due to the different laws of physics.
  Angel: Let's start gathering some branches, some brush; anything that'll cover up the car. Oh hey, look. There's some over in that patch of sun... I'll get 'em!
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Averted. Two Wolfram & Hart lawyers arrive to inspect the Hyperion. Angel puts on his Game Face and tells them it's a bad idea. One of the lawyers gets an Oh, Crap! look, but Gavin Park calmly points out that they'll just go to the real estate agent and compel his co-operation and if he still refuses, "I'm sure that somewhere in your lease agreement there must be one or two loopholes to be...exploited."
• "Eureka!" Moment
  Angel: I'm just waiting for Wes to have that Eureka moment.
  Wes: [off screen] Eureka!
  Lorne: You mean he actually really says "Eureka"?
• Evil Is Petty: Wolfram & Hart intend to buy up the lease on the Hyperion when it expires.
  Angel: "You got to be kidding me. You guys couldn't get me to turn evil, so now you wanna evict me? You know, they're trying to annoy me to death."
• Evil Lawyer Joke / Stealth Insult
  Angel: Lawyers. Don't you people sleep during the day?
• Gilligan Cut:
  (Angel and the gang get into a fight with the demon villagers)
  Wesley: I think we're winning!
  (cut to them tied up in the town square)
• Hands Off My Fluffy!: A nice Double Subversion — Cordelia is chased by a vicious beast who catches her and... licks her face?. Whew. Then the pet's owner shows up, congratulates the "dog" and chains up Cordelia. Unfortunately, it turns out that while the beast is a pet, it's also a hound used for hunting humans.
• He Will Come for Me
  Cordelia: I have friends back in LA. They're gonna come rescue me. (not quite convinced) Any time now.
• Hope Spot: Wesley's hilarious "I think we're winning!". Cut to shot of the good guys tied up.
• Hypocritical Humor: The fake psychic is talking to her client on the phone.
  Aggie: It's like you feel cut off. [hangs up the phone]
• I Need a Freaking Drink: On realizing that Cordy has been accidentally sucked through the portal, the Host laments the fact that he can't get drunk. On realizing he's stuck in Pylea without the book that can get him back to Earth, he laments the fact that there's no gin and tonic in this dimension to get drunk on.
• In the Hood: The priests of the Covenant of Trombli.
• Ironic Echo: Back on Earth, Cordy got upset that everyone kept asking if she was okay. When she gets a vision on Pylea, she's upset that no one asks if she's okay.
• Lock-and-Load Montage: Subverted with a 'buckle up' montage as the Fang Gang drive Angel's convertible through the portal.
• Made a Slave: And to add insult to injury, Cordelia is only worth one pig.
• Mundane Solution: If more than one person goes through a portal they could end up on opposite sides of the planet, but metal averts this. Angel suggests handcuffs, but Wesley says they could end up as a "freakish four-man Siamese twin". So they just drive through the portal in Angel's car.
• Noodle Incident: Angel was once imprisoned in the Tower of London.
• Not-So-Phony Psychic: Spoofed when Lorne consults a psychic for the location of the next portal; she's earning money working a psychic hotline.
  Aggie: "Ah, you know the business. Vague predictions, lengthy pauses; anything to keep the numbers rolling."
• Now You Tell Me: Gunn is pissed no-one told him about the "freakish four-man Siamese twin" possibility.
  Gunn: That was a risk? How come nobody told me that was a risk?!
• Off to See the Wizard: The Literary Allusion Title and Cordy clicking her heels three times to see if it helps her get home. "Worth a try."
• Oh, Crap!: The book used to open the portal doesn't come through with them.
• On Second Thought
  Fred: I'm not crazy. Well, crazy, but I'm not wrong.
• Running Gag: Angel is not on fire.
• Phony Psychic: Invoked. Loren's friend is an actual psychic but makes a living by giving vague predictions and the like.
• Screaming Woman: Lampshaded by Cordelia.
  Cordy: "Right. Good one, Cor. Scream very loudly so the hellbeasts come to you."
• Shock Collar: All 'cows' on Pylea are forced to wear them. Though the pain seems to have little effect in getting Cordy to shut up, presumably because she's used to much worse pain from her visions.
• Shaped Like Itself: Averted.
  Wesley: I'm afraid these impenetrable stone walls are proving im—
  Gunn: You say "impenetrable", I'm gonna kick your ass.
• Stealth Pun: A non-speaking version when Trensiduf and Vakama are arguing over how much Cordelia is worth. Vakma points out that Cordelia is too skinny, "and ugly too." Cordelia (who's Bound and Gagged) immediately emits a squeal of protest, whereupon Vakma offers one pig for her.
• Super-Senses: Angel listens in on two guards talking outside their cells who handily fill him in on the plot so far.
• Speak in Unison: The gang realise the spellbook to get them home is missing.
  Gunn: "Who had the book?"
  Angel: "Wesley."
  Wesley: [same time] "Angel."
  Wes and Angel: "No I didn't!"
  Wes and Angel: "Yes you did!"
• Titled After the Song: The title comes from the famous song from The Wizard of Oz.
• The Triple: The Host on travelling back to Pylea.
  "I'd rather have a hydrochloric acid facial. I'd rather invite a hive of wasps to nest in my throat. I'd rather sit through a junior high school production of CATS!"
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card: The Venerable Monarch of Pylea, General of the Ravenous Legions, Eater of Our Enemy's Flesh, Prelate of the Sacrificial Blood Rites, and Sovereign Proconsul of Death.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: In this dimension it's What Measure Is A Human. Or rather — Cow.
• Your Head Asplode: Well, implode according to Fred, if you take off the collar.
• You Talk Too Much!: A Running Gag with Cordelia, even after she has the Shock Collar put on.
  Vakma: "Shut up, Cow! Trensiduf of the Gathwok Clan was right. You talk too much."