Recap / Angel S 02 E 19 Belonging

Cordelia has won a role in a national commercial and the Angel Investigations team celebrates at an expensive restaurant. They jokingly ask Cordelia to not forget them when she becomes a big star. She assures them she could never do that as long as she continues to receive the increasingly-painful visions. Angel shows his discomfort with the modern world when he balks at the menu and the cost in the restaurant. Angel makes a scene when he grabs a woman wearing a shawl that he mistakes for a witch's garb, forgetting the mundaneness of the restaurant. Moments later, Cordelia discovers that the food she had aspired to eat is not all that great as she throws it up on the floor of the restaurant.

The next day, Wesley speaks with his parents on the phone, and his father disparages everything Wesley says, showing how disconnected their values are. Angel makes an appearance on the set where Cordelia's commercial is being shot, enjoying the fake sunlight effect of the beach scene. The director asks to see Cordelia in just her bikini costume, and then makes rude comments about her appearance, diet, and desirability. Angel is ready to kill the guy for Cordelia, but she just wants him to leave and stop damaging her career, as Angels does not realize the rules are different in this world that Cordelia wishes to work in. In his world, Angel and Cordelia are saving the world. In the acting world, Cordelia is a piece of meat and Angel is an "unemployed musician".

Gunn's friends, George and Rondell, arrive at the hotel, requesting Gunn's assistance with a vampire problem. They are a little annoyed with Gunn that they have seen so little of him recently in their world since he is always helping Angel now. Gunn is willing to help, but just then, Angel returns with news on the Haklar Demon they're tracking and Gunn's friends are put on hold. Angel expresses his worry for Cordelia to Wesley and Gunn. At Caritas, an ugly gray demon enters through a portal that opens in the club while the Host is singing "Superstition". Angel and Wesley return to the hotel after killing the Haklar demon to find Cordelia in the aftermath of her embarrassing job experience. The director made it clear that she was really just there for visual purposes, not her acting abilities.

The Host visits the hotel. He is there to request the aid of Angel Investigations to kill the Drokken demon that arrived unexpectedly at Caritas. He stresses the importance of killing the demon, as it is a man-eating demon and probably very hungry. They agree to help but just then, Cordelia gets a vision of a woman in a library and a portal opening up behind her. Gunn returns to the hideout of his gang to be met with angry, accusatory stares. George has been bitten by a vampire and they don't know if he'll be coming back undead or not.

At the library, a description of the woman and pendant Cordelia saw in her vision is given to a librarian. The woman recognizes it, but says that its owner, a woman named Fred (short for Winifred), has been missing for five years. While investigating the area where Fred disappeared, Cordelia finds a book in an odd language and reads some of it aloud. The Host is worried as she sounds out the text and he tries to say something a few times, but doesn't. Suddenly a portal appears in the library and a large green demon, similar to the Host, appears.

The Host recognizes the demon as Landok, but he isn't excited about it in the least. Landok identifies the Host as Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan and the Host admits that the two demons are cousins. Landok questions the Host's disappearance from their home dimension, but the Host has no interest in returning. He is at home on earth, while his cousin just wants to get back to his own home dimension, where everyone is expected to engage in hunting and gathering , and other pursuits have no place. The Drokken demon becomes the focus again as Landok offers his help and expertise to track and kill it. On the streets, Gunn confronts Rondell, saying they should have waited for him to attack the vampire nest, but Rondell makes it clear that they've been waiting for him for far too long.

While searching for the Drokken, the Host tells Angel about his homeland, painting a very interesting picture. With the help of Landok, the gang is able to locate the Drokken and Angel and Landok go after it. The demon has a woman he's holding for food, and the gang must save her. Landok is fatally bitten, the bite being venomous to his kind. A big fight ensues with the demon as it runs off after the woman. Wesley and Angel battle as best they can against the demon and Angel finally kills it by throwing a sword through its throat.

Outside, Cordelia reveals that they can get Landok back home for a cure by reading from the book. She's not sure how she's positive about it, but she is. Gunn and Rondell burn George's body on top of a stack of wood, sad for the loss of their friend. At Caritas, Landok reads from the book and after a portal opens and closes, Landok is gone. As the gang muse over the latest adventure, they find that Cordelia has vanished.

Cordelia wakes up in unfamiliar territory, realizing she's in a whole new world.

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Tropes:

• Alien Sky: Cordelia looks up and sees Binary Suns. She's not in California any more.
• All Part of the Show: How the Host tries to explain a portal to another dimension opening in the middle of his club, emitting a rampaging demon.
• Aura Vision: Landok can track the "waves of hostility" the Drokken leaves behind.
• Bait-and-Switch: Team Wesley is apparently out at a restaurant without Angel, when we hear Angel speaking and the camera pans over from the mirror to where they're actually sitting.
• Battle Discretion Shot: The fight with the Hacklar Demon isn't shown.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Cordy's acting career isn't all that she hoped. Angel finds himself tempted by the Black-and-White Morality of Lorne's dimension.

• Buffy Speak:
  Cordy: How was the big fight? All big and... fighty?
• Call-Back: When Lorne comes by Angel Investigations for help, Angel starts breaking down a plan before being reminded that Wesley should be doing this since he's in charge now, with Wesley then admitting that the suggested plan should work out. The exact flip of this situation happened when Wesley pretended to be Angel in "Guise Will Be Guise". Also, Lorne points out that he and Angel are searching a library again.
• Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are: Angel stalking the Drokken.
  Angel: Hey. You want food? I can be food. Pretty tasty here. [quietly] Come on, where are you? [louder] Here kitty, kitty, kitty. Here kitty, kitty, kitty.
• Department of Redundancy Department
  Wesley: Angel's informant will lead us to the demon's feeding grounds where we manly men will gather round and kill it to death.
• Disproportionate Retribution
  Landok: Your mother's burden is terrible.
  Host: Misses her little green boo, does she?
  Landok: She rips your images into tiny pieces, feeds them to the swine, butchers the pigs and has their remains scattered for the dogs.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Angel squeezes his axe handle while describing Cordy's skimpy bikini.
• Embarrassing First Name: The Host's full name is "Krevlorneswath of the Deathwok Clan" in his native dimension, and he isn't too fond of his shortened name either — the Host has has green skin, which apparently made some people think of Lorne Greene from Bonanza.
• Foreshadowing: Several moments on the set of the commercial subtly foreshadow the next episode. The director snidely refers to Cordelia as 'princess'. He also dresses her up in a bikini and treats her like shit. Angel also pretends to be standing outside in the daytime without catching fire. More distantly, Angel acts like a very unhappy boyfriend (which the director assumes he is).
• Funny Foreigner: Cordy excusing Angel grabbing a woman's expensive shawl and accusing her of being a witch. He's French.
• Ye Goode Olde Days:
  Angel: I'm not cheap, I'm just old. I remember when a few bob got you a good meal, a bottle, and a tavern wench.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation
  Landok: To defeat the Drokken, you must be a great and noble warrior.
  Angel: [looking both pleased and embarrassed] Well, you know; I try.
• Horrible Hollywood: The director submitting Cordy to a little Hashtag MeToo avant la lettre
• Humiliation Conga: Every member of Team Wesley appears to be going through this.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  Angel: [Cordelia's] wearing this... flimsy swimsuit that covers like... nothing.
  [for a moment everyone's eyes unfocus, then they glance at each other]
  Wesley: Appalling.
  Gunn: Disgusting.
  Angel: Right.
• I Will Tear Your Arms Off: Furious over the patronising way Cordy's Smug Snake director is treating her, Angel offers to rip his head off. Literally.
• Kill It with Fire: Averted — Wesley shoves a lit road flare down the Drokken's throat. The Drokken bites the flare in half. Earlier Wesley and Gunn debate the wisdom of using a flamethrower. They decide it might draw too much attention.
• A Lady on Each Arm: One of the many reasons why the commercial is portrayed as degrading to Cordelia is that it uses this trope, with Cordelia and another hot-chick character claiming that the product is "the only one good enough for our man."
• Leeroy Jenkins: When Wesley shows uncertainty over how to go about killing the Drokken (his confidence having been severely shaken by his phone call to his father), both Landok and Angel grab swords and go charging in.
  Host: Patience not really a virtue with my people.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Turns out to be a case of Tempting Fate. Lorne asks "What's say we all forget this ever happened?" after sending his cousin back through the portal. The others agree: Angel, Wesley, Cordelia...where's Cordelia?
• Mundane Solution: Gunn asks Wesley about the demon they're tracking. Mr. Exposition immediately starts rambling on about Hacklar demons until Gunn cuts to the chase.
  Gunn: I meant, how do we go about killing it?
  Wesley: Oh... Your standard slice and dice.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: At Cordelia's shoot, Angel walks right past a voluptuous bikini-clad blonde smiling invitingly at him, to stand on the desert island backdrop and pretend he's out in the sun. Averted when Cordelia removes her bathrobe to reveal her skimpy seashell bikini.
• Oh, Crap!: Cordelia uses those exact words when she wakes up in another dimension at the end of the episode.
• Political Overcorrectness: Wesley has a black eye after saving some power walkers from being devoured by a Hacklar demon. The injury wasn't inflicted by the demon.
  Wesley: Apparently she felt I'd disrespected the Hacklar's culture by killing it.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Angel can't believe he's the only one of the Fang Gang who's heard of Lorne Greene:
  Lorne: Though I generally don't go by that because — Green. [points to his face]
  Cordelia: Huh?
  Angel: [smiles] Right. Lorne Greene. [Cordelia and Wesley stare at him] Bonanza? Fifteen years on the air not mean anything to anyone here? Okay, now I feel old.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Landok, and indeed all of the Host's race, except him.
  Landok: The same Krevlorneswath of the Deathwok Clan who refused the ancient tradition of hunting and gathering.
  Host: I'll let you in on a little secret, Landok. While the rest of you boys were out hunting I was down at the waterhole chatting up the senioritas, gathering a little love.
  Landok: Your cowardice even extended to the sacred joust.
  Host: For the last time: not a coward. I just saw both sides of the joust. [to Angel] How you're supposed to joust someone when you partially agree with their point of view?
• Remonstrating with a Gun: Well, with an axe: Angel, still fuming over Cordy's director, startles his friends with his wild gesturing when describing the incident.
• The Reveal: The Host's name is Krevlorneswath of the Deathwok Clan. "Lorne" for short.
• Sex Sells: Cordelia finds she's solely on stage for her gigantimous boobs.
• Shadow Discretion Shot: The Drokken making its first kill.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: How Angel kills the Drokken.
• Vomit Discretion Shot
  Cordy: Oh God.
  Gunn: What is it? What do you see?
  Cordy: Moo...
  Wesley: Moo? Some sort of cow monster?
  Cordy: Move. I think the sashimi is coming up.
• Weirdness Censor: A woman bumps into the Host at the library and assumes he's there in makeup for a children's reading. The Host slips into the role quite easily.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Wesley calls home to boast of how he's now head of Angel Investigations, only to have his father bring up the whole business of being fired from the Watcher's Council. And then another thing. And then another thing.
• We Will Meet Again
  Landok: I feel we will meet again some day.
  Host: Oh God. I hope not.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Gunn finds that his gang have gone ahead with their anti-vampire rumble without him, and George has been killed.
  Gunn: Why didn't you wait for me?
  Rondell: We've been waiting on you for months, bro.
• Your Costume Needs Work: Lorne's "costume" looks great... except for the horns, but those are probably tough.

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