Line #96 Recap/AngelS03E04CarpeNoctem


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/angel_carpe.png]]
2
3	While the gang hangs out in the lobby of the Hyperion, Angel gets excited about a Charlton Heston double feature at the Nuart Theater. No one wants to go but Fred, so she and Angel decide to go, but Fred thinks it's a date. Elsewhere, a musclebound man has sex with two women, and is so vigorous that he tires them both out while he's still raring to go. Suddenly, he says time has run out, recites a spell and a glowing force leaves his body, and then his skin folds in on itself and collapses as if it was only a rubber suit.
4
5	Cordelia tells Angel to straighten Fred out about their relationship as soon as possible, and reminds Angel that he's a "eunuch," much to his annoyance. Angel goes to talk to Fred, but stalls by pointing out to everyone an article pertaining to a young dead man found in expensive hotel rooms in such a condition that it looked like their insides had collapsed. Wesley recalls a similar case the previous week, so the gang decide to investigate the matter. They find that several men over the last few months have died in a similar matter, but the only connection between them is that they were all members of the same health club. Angel and Cordelia leave to check out the health club, while Wesley and Gunn go after other leads.
6
7	At the offices of Wolfram & Hart, Lilah and Gavin discuss scenarios for attacking Angel on various legal fronts. Lilah and Gavin's mutual contempt for each other is apparent, and neither attempt to disguise it. Lilah tells her assistant to look up the contact information for a graphics artist and forger, named Carter Williams.
8
9	Angel and Cordelia go to the health club, and Angel manages to get a look at the files of the dead men after questioning a member of staff about their stance on steroid abuse. Cordelia gets distracted has fun interviewing the handsome men exercising there, while Angel spots someone in the retirement community across the road using binoculars to spy on an exercise class. Feeling something unusual, he goes to investigate and meets an old man named Marcus Roscoe. He quickly realizes that the old man is practicing some magic to switch bodies, but when the man starts to recite a body-swap spell to use on Angel, Angel contemptuously starts to tell him it won't work... but it does. Angel abruptly finds himself in the body of the old man, and Marcus now has Angel's body, and also knows that Angel is a private detective investigating the deaths of the young men from the health club. He knocks Angel unconscious and leaves.
10
11	On the street outside Marcus's retirement home, misunderstandings begin to occur as Marcus walks around in Angel's body. First, he thinks Cordelia is trying to pick him up when she tells him to get in her car, until he realizes that she works for his agency. When they get to the hotel, he assumes it's an actual hotel and that Cordelia has taken him there to bed him. When Gunn arrives with breakfast, he thinks Gunn is a delivery boy, and pays him, plus he eats, puzzling everyone. And when Cordelia says he needs to have a talk with Fred, he assumes Angel is gay and that Wesley is Angel's lover, so he has the talk with Wesley. When he realizes Fred is a woman, he starts romancing her and invites her "out on the town," delighting the lovelorn Fred. After everyone leaves, he starts shredding the file of information on the health club deaths in order to cover his tracks. Meanwhile, the real Angel uses the nurse's phone to call the hotel, but Marcus answers, gloats, and hangs up, and Angel gets caught and gets his phone privileges taken away. He ends up staking out the entrance, hoping to go through it when the guard has turned his back.
12
13	Meanwhile, with the help of the forger she contacted, Lilah straightens everything out with the housing authorities for Angel (and foils Gavin's plans of threatening Angel with code violations in the process), then stops by the hotel to tell Angel about the favor she has just done him. Marcus starts to romance her. She responds to his seduction attempts and they start tearing each other's clothes off. But then Angel vamps out and bites her neck, as Fred wanders in, ready for their night out together. Fred flees in distress, and Lilah pushes him off in a fury and threatens him. He ends up confused as he feels his changed face and new teeth, and then finds he cannot see himself in a mirror.
14
15	Back in the retirement home, Angel in Marcus's body has a heart attack, Marcus's fourth, foiling Angel's attempt to escape . Marcus in Angel's body then goes out to a club to dance and pick up women. He bites another woman, and has fun beating up three men with Angel's vampire strength. He's done some research and figured out that he's in the body of a vampire, and now knows that he won't burn this body out with his carousing as he had previously with the other victims' bodies. He heads on over to the retirement community where his old body is, in order to kill its current occupant, Angel, and have his new body permanently.
16
17	Back at the hotel, Cordelia find Fred crying in an elevator. After hearing that Angel was kissing someone, the gang worry that he has lost his soul and Angelus has returned, but Wesley notices that Angel was apparently researching vampires, something he wouldn't do regardless of if he was good or evil. Remembering that all the dead men had acted out of character, the team starts to put together what has happened to Angel. Cordelia remembers separating from Angel when he went to the retirement home and they head there
18
19	Getting there, they find Marcus just about to kill Angel. He tries to convince them that Angel is the one casting the spell, but they know better and knock Marcus out (with Fred getting in an extra hit for good measure). Wesley figures out the spell and they switch the bodies back. Afterwards, Angel destroys Marcus's Algurian Conjuring Orb, preventing Marcus from ever doing it again. Marcus suffers another heart attack as the group leaves and possibly dies.
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21	After their business with Marcus concludes, Angel goes to have his delayed talk with Fred, but Fred already knows that Angel is not free to love because Cordelia has explained the whole story, so Fred ends up being the one giving the talk. She talks poignantly about the beauty and the pain involved in loving, but she is interrupted as Cordelia rushes over to tell Angel the good news: Buffy is alive. Without another word, Angel runs to the phone leaving Fred wondering who Buffy is.
22	----
23	!!Tropes
24	* AHouseDivided: Gavin points out that Angel can be taken out by his lack of proper documentation. Of course soon after he says this, Lilah gives Angel all the documents he needs, purely to spite Gavin.
25	* AllMenArePerverts: Wesley and Gunn get into an argument over who should conduct inquiries at a high-class escort agency. They keep snatching the address from each other until Cordy takes it herself.
26	-->'''Cordelia:''' I'll interview the hookers. Are there any men who aren't just dogs?
27	* AllThereInTheScript: Marcus' friend at the home is named Jackson, although it's not mentioned in the episode.
28	* BackhandedCompliment:
29	-->'''Cordy:''' [Fred]'s got the big puppy love. I mean, who wouldn't? You're handsome, and brave, and heroic, (Angel starts to preen) emotionally stunted, erratic, prone to turning evil and, let's face it--a eunuch.\
30	'''Angel:''' Hey, how can you... I'm not a eunuch!\
31	'''Cordy:''' Angel, it's just a figure of speech.\
32	'''Angel:''' Find a better one.
33	** It's also inaccurate, because Angel ''can'' have sex without triggering his CurseEscapeClause as long as true love isn't involved.
34	* BaitAndSwitchComment:
35	** Angel finally sits down with Fred to give her the BetterAsFriends speech, only to discover Cordelia has already filled her in, feeling Angel would just make a mess of it anyway.
36	** Angel's PatrickStewartSpeech turning into a "right behind you" gag.
37	* BodySurf: Marcus shuttles his consciousness in and out of young men in order to experience the joys of youth, but the spell destroys any living body he possesses. Then he ends up in Angel...
38	* BrickJoke[=/=]CallBack: To "[[Recap/AngelS02E06GuiseWillBeGuise Guise will be Guise]]" (an episode which was also about someone impersonating Angel) with "I'm not a eunuch!"
39	* {{Catchphrase}}: Marcus says "Have I ever told you, you are a very beautiful woman?" to Cordy, Lilah and Fred. Cordy is unimpressed by the tacky line, assuming 'Angel' is just trying to butter her up so as to avoid discussing the Fred issue. Fred and Lilah are more susceptible to Marcus's charms.
40	* ChekhovsGun: A male nurse tells Angel-in-Marcus that he's suffered his fourth heart attack, and he may not survive another one. We last see Marcus (back in his own body) undergoing another heart attack.
41	* ConvenientlyTimedAttackFromBehind: Angel is giving Marcus the PatrickStewartSpeech.
42	-->'''Angel:''' ''(in Marcus's body)'' "You may have the attitude, and you may have the power, but there is one thing you don't have, and never will. Friends. ''([[RevealShot The shot widens]] to reveal Cordy, Fred, Wes and Gunn walking in through the door behind Marcus)'' Four of them, standing behind you ''(Marcus spins around to look)'' with big, heavy things."
43	* CornerOfWoe: Cordelia finds Fred crying in the elevator after seeing 'Angel' making out with Lilah.
44	* CovertPervert: Marcus [[InfractionDistraction uses this excuse]] to explain why he's looking at the gym club through binoculars -- he's actually selecting his next victim.
45	* DescriptionCut: Angel snarking about his colleagues, "Some people don't know how to have fun any more." Cut to [[ThreeWaySex Marcus in bed with two beautiful women]].
46	* DistractedByTheSexy: Cordelia interviewing witnesses at the gym.
47	-->'''Cordy:''' (talking to four hunky guys) There could be follow-up questions. I'll need some home phone numbers. Why don't we start with you, Benny?
48	* DontSneakUpOnMeLikeThat: Fred on Cordelia -- apparently it's happened before because Gunn says, "Hi Fred" without even looking up from his video game when Cordy shrieks.
49	* DramaticIrony: Fred tells Angel that the pain and heartbreak of love is something to be avoided. Then Cordelia bursts in with the news that Buffy is NotQuiteDead.
50	* EnemyMine: On discovering Gavin's plan to have Angel Investigations cited for building code violations, Lilah Morgan has the requisite documents forged and hands them over to Angel just to screw her rival.
51	* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Except Cordelia, who can't resist getting in a jab at [[HasAType Angel's liking for 'cheap blondes']] (e.g. Series/{{Buffy\|the Vampire Slayer}} and Darla). When Fred tells her Angel was actually making out with a cheap brunette, Cordy agrees he's definitely NotHimself.
52	* FakeCrossover: Angel learns that Buffy's alive! And we'll never see that reunion, because they're on different networks.
53	* {{Fanservice}}: The teaser features a {{shirtless\|Scene}} {{hunk}} [[AThreesomeIsHot in bed with two lingerie-clad escort girls]]. Becomes FanDisservice when the hunk turns into a heap. Of collapsed skin.
54	* FoeRomanceSubtext: Lilah Morgan doesn't take much convincing to start tearing open Angel's shirt and make out with him on Wesley's desk (was it even ''sub''text at that point?).
55	* FreakyFridayFlip: Marcus swaps bodies with gym hunks, with the side effect that the bodies eventually melt under the strain. But when he takes over Angel, he realizes he has a body that will last. Angel is stuck plodding around a nursing home, being restrained by orderlies, until his friends figure out what's happening and fix things.
56	* GameFace: Marcus vamps out and bites Lilah in the heat of passion. Lilah isn't prepared to get that kinky, even if VampiresAreSexGods.
57	* GrandTheftMe: This includes a unique self-MistakenForGay, when Marcus briefly believes Angel is gay.
58	* HasAType: How Cordy clues in on the fact that something is seriously wrong with Angel.
59	-->'''Wesley:''' This isn't like him.\
60	'''Cordelia:''' What? This is ''totally'' like him; getting all freaky with some cheap blonde.\
61	'''Fred:''' Brunette. She was a cheap brunette.\
62	'''Cordelia:''' You're right, this isn't like him.
63	** Of course, this isn't even accurate, as Angel has also been with Drusilla and had tension with Jhiera, and two of the three Transuding Furies are brunettes.
64	* HellBentForLeather: After realizing he's a vampire, Marcus changes into the Black Leather Pants of Evil. Clearly it was mentioned in one of those books on Angelus he looked up.
65	* HijackingCthulhu: Marcus is an aged sorcerer who can BodySurf and takes over younger bodies that would eventually burn out. He hijacks Angel's body who, as an immortal vampire, will never burn out. He then tries to do everything in his power to keep this new body.
66	* HollywoodHeartAttack: Angel tries to sneak out of the old people's home in Marcus's body, but the stress gives him a heart attack. He later lies in bed [[IJustWantToBeNormal staring at his blipping heart monitor]]. When Marcus is put back in his own body, he gets so angry that he has another heart attack, [[SelfDisposingVillain implied to be fatal]].
67	* HypocriticalHumor:
68	-->'''Cordelia:''' You know, there is your business life and then there is your social life, and everybody knows that you keep those two things sepa--\
69	''Cordy trails off as a hot and healthy member of the health club walks by.''\
70	'''Cordy:''' I'm gonna go see if ''he'' knows anything.
71	** Angel gets snarky when his friends won't join him for a Charlton Heston double feature.
72	-->"You may not know this, Fred, but certain friends and co-workers have been known to accuse ''me'' of being the quiet, stay at home, sulky one."
73	* ICantSeeMyself: Marcus can't understand what happened with Lilah until he [[GameFace feels his suddenly bumpy face]], then looks in a mirror to find out why he changed--and sees nothing there.
74	* IdiotBall: Angel's investigating a series of mysterious deaths, and walks in on a peeping tom who had been looking in on the Pilates class all the victims shared, and sees that the old man had a serious interest in the occult. Then the old man starts chanting, and Angel just looks at him like an idiot and claims he's not scared of spells before falling victim to the BodySurf.
75	* ItsAllAboutMe: Marcus is regularly using a spell to swap bodies that he ''knows'' will kill the other party just so that he can basically live out his youth again for a few days at a time at best.
76	* KirkSummation: Angel to Marcus at the end.
77	-->"I tell you why you have a weak heart, Marcus. You never use it."
78	* KillAndReplace: Having found a body that will never wear out or die, Marcus returns to the old people's home to kill his old body so he can stay in Angel's permanently.
79	* LadyInRed: Marcus tells Fred to put on something pretty so they can go out. Fred comes down in a little red dress.
80	* LivingForeverIsAwesome: Marcus once he finds out he's a vampire.
81	* LoveHurts: Fred's DespairSpeech when she realizes a relationship with Angel can't happen.
82	-->'''Fred:''' "It's like [[Literature/TheGreatGatsby something out of Fitzgerald]]. The man who can have everything but love. Well, maybe in some ways you're better off, because love is... Well, in a way it's everything. But it's also heartache and disappointment. And those are good things to avoid."
83	* ManHug: Marcus joyfully hugs Wesley when he realizes that Fred is a girl. With lots of manly back-slapping.
84	* MistakenForGay: Marcus hears from Cordelia that he's supposed to let someone named "[[GenderBlenderName Fred]]" down easy, looks down at what Angel is wearing, and mutters, "Obviously." This causes him to [[MistakenIdentity try to break up with Wesley]], who he assumes is "Fred", before he figures out that "Fred" is a girl.
85	* MistakenForServant: Marcus assumes Gunn is a delivery boy when he turns up with burritos, gives him some money and tells him to keep the change. Gunn looks mildly confused for a moment but just assumes Angel's covering the tab.
86	* MostDefinitelyNotAVillain: Marcus talks in PrivateEyeMonologue cliches, though not enough to get more than a few odd looks.
87	* TheMovieBuff: Angel gets excited over seeing ''Film/SoylentGreen'' and ''Film/TheOmegaMan''.
88	* MustBeInvited: Angel has a problem when Marcus only motions him into his room, until he says impatiently, "Come in if you're coming."
89	* NotHimself: Angel eats burritos ([[TheScrooge which he pays for]]), flirts with women, complains about the gang getting hold of telephone bills illegally and has a rather 'odd' talk with Wesley. All he gets is a few puzzled glances until he a) hurts Fred by b) making out with a brunette, and c) the clincher--when everyone else assumes Angelus has returned, Wesley points out that, whether Angel or Angelus, he wouldn't need to look up books about vampires.
90	* ObliviousMockery: Fred is raving over going to the movies with Angel--a [[NotADate date in all but name]].
91	-->'''Fred:''' And even though he didn't talk a lot, it was still okay. It was comfortable. It wasn't that awkward kind of quiet. You know that awkward kind of quiet?\
92	'''Wesley:''' [beat] No. That's never happened to me.
93	* OhCrap: Angel-in-Marcus's body is told his son has signed in. He looks up and sees Marcus-in-Angel's body grinning at him.
94	* OneDialogueTwoConversations: Cordelia tells Marcus-as-Angel to talk to Fred about her crush on him, and because of her gender blender nickname, he assumes Angel is gay, and later mistakes Wesley for the "Fred" she spoke of. He also initially gets the wrong idea when Cordelia says they're going to "the hotel" together.
95	* PunchCatch: Marcus trying out his new SuperStrength by fighting at the disco.
96	* PrecociousCrush[=/=]RescueRomance: Fred is smitten with Angel, who is reluctant to confront her over it, first because he doesn't want to hurt Fred and secondly because he appears to enjoy the flattering company.
97	* ProfessionalsDoItOnDesks: Angel makes out with Lilah on Wesley's desk.
98	-->'''Wes:''' "I do not believe it. On my desk?"\
99	'''Gunn:''' "Well, it did used to be his. Maybe he was just kinda...reclaiming it."
100	* ShipSinking: Fred/Angel dies an early death. [[FanFic In canon, that is]].
101	* SmashCut: Cordelia can't work out when the GrandTheftMe happened.
102	-->'''Cordy:''' "I was with Angel pretty much the whole time...except for when he went across the street to the--" (Cut to the Monserrat retirement community)
103	* SorryToInterrupt: Fred is devastated when she thinks Angel is asking her out, only to walk in on him making out with Lilah. Afterwards, Cordy finds her babbling, "I should've knocked. I always forget to knock because, you know, I didn't have a door for so long."
104	* SpotTheImposter: Team Wesley barge in on Angel vs. Marcus.
105	-->'''Marcus-in-Angel's body:''' Guys! It's about time. It's ''him'' -- he's the one who's been casting that spell.\
106	'''Cordy:''' ''You're'' Angel? With ''that'' cologne? I don't think so.
107	* StaticStunGun: Cordelia uses a taser to knock out Marcus-in-Angel's body. "God, I love technology."
108	* StatingTheSimpleSolution: While most other Wolfram & Hart employees used mystical means or assassins to try to deal with Angel, Gavin points out that they could easily put Angel Investigations out of business by simply informing the government of Angel's [[UndeadTaxExemption ID issues]].
109	-->'''Gavin''': The guy has no social security number, no tax payer ID, no last name as far as I know. How can he go down to the building department, or anywhere else in officialdom for that matter? He's the rat and we're the maze.
110	* TakeThat:
111	-->'''Cordy:''' If Creator/JuliaRoberts ever makes a realistic movie about being an escort, it should be called ''[[Film/PrettyWoman Pretty Skanky Woman]].''
112	* TemptingFate: Angel just laughs when Marcus starts casting his spell, thinking [[YouHaveNoIdeaWhoYoureDealingWith it won't work against him]].
113	* TroubleEntendre: Inverted; Lilah tells her secretary at Wolfram & Hart to call the 'graphic artist'. She doesn't understand until Lilah just tells her to look under F for 'forger'.
114	* UnPerson: Gavin points out that Angel doesn't exist officially--[[UndeadTaxExemption no social security number, no tax payer ID]], [[OnlyOneName no last name]] -- so he can't use official channels to fight Wolfram & Hart's petty harassment.
115	* VampiresAreSexGods: Marcus in Angel's body has little trouble seducing both Lilah and a woman at a club ''who's there with her boyfriend''.
116	* WhamLine: "Angel, Willow's on the phone... She's alive! [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E1BargainingPart1 Buffy's alive!]]"
117	* WomanScorned: Fred gives an unconscious Marcus an extra wallop. Angel has to live with the sore head afterwards.

Context Recap / AngelS03E04CarpeNoctem