At the hotel, Angel tutors Cordelia on swordfighting techniques. They have a little disagreement as Angel teaches her only defensive maneuvers to use until he can "swoop in to save her," while Cordelia wants to learn how to finish her opponent off. Plus, she points out that Angel himself might be the one that she has to fight.
At Wolfram & Hart, Billy, the misogynistic young man that Angel freed from his own cage in Hell in order to save Cordelia from her increasingly violent visions, is in Lilah's office. It turns out that he is the nephew of congressman Nathan Blim and part of one of the most distinguished political families in the United States. He has been missing for three days, and Wolfram & Hart has just recovered him. Lilah finds him in her office, talking to Gavin. Once Billy is safely back with his family, Lilah starts arguing with Gavin for coming into her office and "sniffing around" one of her clients, and for trying to take credit for Billy's recovery when he actually had nothing to do with it. Normally mild-mannered, Gavin abruptly turns on Lilah and starts punching and brutally strangling her. Billy hears this and smiles as he walks away.
The gang are all having dinner at Wesley's house, and they're having a good time. It turns out that Wesley is attracted to Fred, and invited her over for dinner... but he also invited everyone else over so that he wouldn't be alone with her. Cordelia suddenly has a vision of a man beating his wife to death in a convenience store. But the events from the vision actually occurred one week earlier. They investigate and find that the man had no history of violence, and his only explanation for turning on his wife was that he was trying to get her to listen to him as she wouldn't stop talking. Reviewing the security tape, the gang find Billy was in the store at the time of the attack. Cordelia blames herself because Billy was freed by Angel to save her. Angel tells her that she shouldn't feel guilty, as he was the one who freed Billy from his prison.
Angel goes to confront Lilah about Billy in her apartment, and finds her drinking, with a badly beaten face. She explains that Billy can never be caught because he never lays a hand on the women that he's responsible for hurting. She also reveals that Billy is extremely rich and that his powerfully connected family protects him. She points out that Angel's chivalric concern is misplaced, since she knows he wants to kill her; she then slams the door in his face without inviting him in.
Angel sneaks onto the Blim estate and confronts Billy. He walks right into the house without needing an invitation, indicating to him that his hunch is correct; Billy is not fully human. The police arrive, presumably to arrest Angel for trespassing, and breaking and entering. But "no," an unperturbed Billy explains; they are there to arrest him, and that the police had found a body right where he said it would be. He set it up as a way to get off of the family estate, since they have been trying to keep him there. As they take him away, Billy touches one of the cops, and the place where he is touched glows for a moment. It turns out that Billy has some kind of demonic power such that when he touches men, he brings out some kind of "primordial misogyny" in them, causing them to attack and perhaps kill nearby women. On the way to the police station, the male cop who was touched by Billy attacks the female cop who is driving the police car, until she is forced to shoot him to protect herself. Billy is able to escape when the police car crashes during the fight. At the crime scene, Angel smells that Billy's blood is not fully human. Wesley takes some blood samples, accidently touching Billy's blood in the process and getting infected. As Angel tracks Billy, he comes across some non-demonic misogyny on the path, as he meets men who speculate that the women just had it coming, or were nagging and "deserved it."
Meanwhile, Cordelia goes out to stop Billy, explaining to Fred, "How can I not [go]?". Cordy first visits Lilah, and connects with her despite being on opposing sides as Cordy mentions Lilah's face, and that she's been crying. She cleverly uses Lilah's own pride and ruthlessness to fuel Lilah's desire to rebel against the horror that is Billy, against the interests of Wolfram & Hart.
Billy has made his way to a party of some kind where he meets his cousin Dylan, who is very uneasy around him. After he leaves, Angel arrives and has a talk with Dylan who is more than obliging with information once Angel states that he's looking to kill Billy. He explains that the whole family has a set of rules when dealing with Billy with the most important being that you don't, under any circumstances, touch him. Billy is heading to Santa Monica to get away on a private plane. Dylan also reveals that Cordelia visited earlier and he gave her the same information.
Back at the Hyperion, Wesley and Fred do some sleuthing. They figure out that Billy's misogyny is transmitted by blood, as Wesley, already infected, slowly starts to treat Fred with hostility. He tells her that she has been dressing too provocatively, that men are wired a certain way, that she secretly mocks men, and then he slaps her, knocking her down. Fred flees, and Wesley starts chasing her with an axe, repeating common misogynistic statements as he goes. Gunn arrives and helps Fred escape, but because he knows he has been infected (having also touched the blood which Wesley was examining), he gives Fred a chair leg and begs her to knock him out. At first she refuses, but when Gunn's attitude starts to turn for the worse and he tries to get the chair leg back so he can beat her with it, she knocks him out cold. She then subdues Wesley with a trap.
Cordelia, armed with a crossbow, finds Billy at the airport waiting to get onto his private plane. She confronts him, but before she shoots him, Angel arrives, and Billy infects him and goads him to attack Cordelia. Instead, he turns and attacks Billy (much to Billy's surprise); he is not affected by the hatred. Unfortunately, it is revealed that Billy has other powers. Using them, he is able to easily outmatch Angel when they fight. Cordelia picks up the crossbow and prepares to shoot, but can't get a clear shot of Billy. Suddenly, Billy is shot dead—by Lilah.
Later, as the entire gang have decided to take a few days off to reflect on everything that happened to them, Angel talks with Cordelia and they speculate as to why he was not affected. Angel thinks that the anger was something brought out in men, a primordial hatred that was always there but that Angel lost a long time ago, back when he was evil. Angelus never killed because of hatred, he did it for the sheer pleasure of it. Cordelia notes that, in a very strange sort of way, the demon inside of him is less petty than humans.
Meanwhile, Wesley has isolated himself in his apartment, as Fred tries to coax him to come back to work. He is too ashamed, feeling that Billy brought out a hatred that he didn't know he had. She argues that what he did was not his fault, that it was something that was put there, rather than something was let out. Wesley agrees to return to work, but as Fred leaves he starts to cry. Fred, hearing this, considers returning but decides to leave him be.
Tropes
- All Women Love Shoes: Half of an entire scene is devoted to Cordelia and Lilah bantering about shoes.
- Axe Before Entering: Wesley goes insane and goes after Fred with an axe. Parodied on the blooper reel, when the blade comes off the axe mid-chopping. Alexis Denisof, without missing a beat, continues... politely tapping on the door with the axe handle.
- Anti-Climax: Some fans were disappointed that the ominous ending of "That Vision Thing" ultimately just resulted in this single episode that might as well just be another Monster of the Week story. Ironically it's the originally one-off character of Skip — not Billy — who turns out to be more important over the next couple of years.
- A Shared Suffering: Cordelia gets through to Lilah by bringing up the humiliation of being a helpless victim, something she knows all too well from Lilah's last Evil Plan.
- Bait-and-Switch CommentCordelia: Wesley, if you like [Fred], tell her. Just go right up to her and...hack her into little pieces!(Collapses from a vision of a man hacking his wife to death)
- Big Fancy House: Billy's Gilded Cage.
- Blatant Lies: Cordy tooling up with crossbow and taser, then telling Fred's she's going to run an errand. A normal, everyday errand.
- Bloody Handprint: Billy leaves one on a wall after escaping police custody. Wesley presses a piece of paper on it so he can analyze the blood back at the Hyperion.
- Can't Spit It Out: Wesley is attracted to Fred but won't make an overt move, despite Cordelia's urging. After this episode Wesley's shame over his behaviour further distances him from Fred, causing him to dally too long when he realises Gunn is also interested in her.
- Clashing Cousins: Billy terrifies his cousin Dylan (albeit less out of anything he does to Dylan himself as what he does to the people around Dylan without any remorse) to the point where after Angel states his intention to kill Billy, Dylan tells him what he wants to know.
- The Commandments: The Blim Family has three for Billy. Don't touch him, and don't leave him alone with any pets or girlfriends.
- Corrupt Politician: Billy's uncle (the one who had him busted out of hell) is a congressman who does nothing to reign his sadistic nephew in; and is a Wolfram and Hart client.
- Damsel in Distress: Averted — Angel is only teaching her strictly defensive moves, so Cordelia points out that Angel may not be there to deliver the Coup de Grâce, and what if he's the one she needs saving from? Fred too is apparently saved by Gunn, but then has to knock him out and take matters into her own hands to stop Wesley. And when Angel expresses concern for Lilah, she instantly calls him out on his hypocrisy.
- Dissonant Serenity: Wesley stalking Fred through the Hyperion with a huge battle axe.
- The Dulcinea Effect: Angel is all too willing to damage Lilah until he sees her bruised face, then he's all-to-eager to do the same to the man responsible. Lilah goes into Sarcasm Mode.Lilah: I'm sorry, but this deep chivalric concern coming from the only man I know who definitely wants to kill me, is a bit much on a day like this.
- Dynamic Entry: Angel smashes open the door to Lilah's apartment. She's not impressed, given that she never actually invited Angel in.Lilah: "That's a very dramatic entrance... except for the part where you can't enter."
- Emerging from the Shadows: Lilah with her bruised face.
- False Reassurance: Billy's full of it.
- "I have never hurt a woman in my life...I just like to watch."
- "I don't hate women. I mean, sure, you're all whores who sell yourselves for money and prestige, but men are just as bad. Maybe even worse. They're willing to throw away careers or families, or even lives for what's under your skirt!"
- Fighting from the Inside: Gunn, having been alerted to the affects of Billy's Hate Plague, is able to briefly fight it off long enough to coach Fred through what to do. He's clearly losing the fight right when she knocks him out.
- Flipping the Bird:Sanchez: "You think you can talk to me like that?"
Woman cop: "I'd talk to you with my finger, but I like both hands on the wheel while I'm driving." - Flynning: Angel teaches Cordelia to use a sword, and all he's describing is this trope. Although this is also a possible subversion/aversion, since his idea is to teach her to stall until he can get there to rescue her.
- Get Out!:Lilah: Oh - by the way - get out.
Gavin: I wasn't finished.
Lilah: No. You really were. - Groin Attack: Cordelia confronts Billy at the airport.Billy: You're here to whine about the injustice of it all.
Cordelia: No, asswipe. [[taser to the balls]] I'm here to take you back. - Hands-On Approach: Angel teaching swordfighting to Cordelia. While lacking the overt UST that occurred between Angel and Buffy in their Tai Chi scenes, it's a definite Ship Tease moment.
- Hate Plague: Billy Blim, a vicious misogynist, causes any man he touches to hate and attack any woman they came near. Angel is immune, since even as Angelus, he never felt hate or resentment toward his enemies and victims, much less women specifically.
- He-Man Woman Hater: Contact with the blood/sweat of Billy triggers male characters to murderous hatred of women. This causes men to assault women close to them, and almost drove Wesley to kill Fred.Wes: What do you tell a woman with two black eyes? Nothing you haven't already told her twice.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Averted; Angel assumes Lilah will help him to get revenge for Billy causing Gavin to beat her. Lilah snaps back that she's not like Lindsey, swapping sides whenever it gets tough.
- Played Straight in the end though when Lilah does ultimately show up to shoot Billy and save the day. Before promptly leaving to go back to her usual evil ways, of course.
- Hilarious Outtakes: In the scene where Wesley is chopping through Fred's door, the axe breaks. Alexis Denisof, not missing a beat, politely knocks on the door with the broken axehandle.
- Hit Me, Dammit!: After becoming infected, Gunn tells Fred to knock him out so he doesn't hurt her. It takes a couple of tries.
- Humans Are the Real MonstersAngel: "Well, that thing that Billy brought out in others? The hatred and anger... that's something I lost a long time ago."
Cordy: "Even when you were evil?"
Angel: "I never hated my victims, I never killed out of anger, it was always about the...pain and the pleasure."
Cordy: "Huh. So I guess you could say that your demoness makes you less petty than humans. Almost noble...I mean, in a twisted, dark and really disturbing kind of way." - I Didn't Mean to Turn You On: Not Played for Laughs when Wesley starts talking about how Fred is taunting him with her 'provocative' dress.
- I Know Madden Kombat: Cordelia claims that her past cheerleading experience allows her to remember the swordfighting moves Angel is teaching her. Angel doubts this, so she does a "cheerleading routine" with her sword and ends up about an inch away from him, holding the sword to his throat; whereupon Angel laughs nervously and says "Go Team!"
- In a Single Bound: The Fang Gang are confronted by the high walls and gate of the Blim estate. While they're discussing what ploys they could use to infiltrate the place, Angel just leaps to the top of the gate and drops down to the other side.Gunn: "So...wanna go next?"
Wes: "I guess we wait here."
Gunn: "Yeah." - I Resemble That Remark!Dylan: "There was a chick here. She was cute, brunette. Well, she said that a melodramatic guy named Angel would eventually show up."
Angel: "Cordelia...thinks I'm melodramatic?"
Dylan: "Well, you did say that you were gonna kill my cousin."
Angel: "That's not melodrama, melodrama... (Grabs Dylan by the shirt front) She was here?!"
Dylan: "So you're saying that melodrama is exaggerated emo--"
Angel: "This isn't a demo, this is real!" - Insult Backfire: At one point, Cordelia calls Lilah a "vicious bitch." Lilah retorts, "So you know me."
- It's All My Fault: Angel and Cordelia both blame themselves for Billy's actions. The Powers That Be send Cordy a vision of Billy's first victim just to ram the point home.
- Karmic Death: Billy's first act upon being sprung out of his Prison Dimension by Lilah is to induce Gavin into beating the hell out of Lilah for kicks. Fittingly, Lilah is the one who finishes Billy off, shooting him In the Back while he's fighting Angel.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Back in "That Vision Thing," Lilah tortured Cordelia and blackmailed Angel into breaking Billy out of his prison in exchange for healing Cordy. This bites Lilah in the ass when she becomes the first victim of Billy's Hate Plague.
- Last-Second Word Swap:Lilah: Gavin, why don't you go...close an escrow or something?
- Manly Tears: Wesley cries in his apartment after Fred asks him to come back to work.
- The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating LifeWes: The last thing any of us should be doing is...coupling. With each other, I mean. Office romances, even under the most normal circumstances...
Cordy: We don't live in normal circumstances. I mean, what are the odds of any of us actually finding someone out there who can deal with the kind of stuff we have to deal 0with? I don't know. Maybe we are meant...
Wes: For each other?
Cordy: Actually I was gonna say 'to be alone'. - Mood Whiplash: Lilah and Gavin appear to be engaging in their usual Snark-to-Snark Combat, when Gavin suddenly grabs Lilah By the Hair, throws her against a glass shelf and starts to savagely beat her.
- More than Mind Control: According to Lilah, this is how Billy's Hate Plague works. In her words, all men hold a bit of primordial resentment/hatred towards women deep, deep down; Billy's power just removes their inhibitions to express and act on it, in the most vicious ways.
- Must Be Invited: Angel notes that he can enter Billy's home and realises he's part demon.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Wes's equally one after he went literally Axe-Crazy. He was under a spell, but it didn't matter, he still hated himself.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The episode invokes the Kennedy Family—-who also have prominent political connections. William Kennedy Smith was a nephew of former Senator Edward Kennedy and was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a 1991 Palm Beach Florida case. Smith was acquitted of the charges. Dylan Blim invokes John F. Kennedy Jr., who was a member of the family himself—but adamantly disliked the conduct of relatives. Dylan is aware that Angel is a vampire with the potential to kill Billy but still invites him into the family compound. Kennedy also openly criticized relatives who were engaging in 'bad behavior'.
- No-Sell: During the climax of the episode, Billy tries to induce Angel into attacking Cordelia... only for Angel to reveal himself to be immune to the Hate Plague and attack Billy instead. Angel later explains to Cordelia that he gave up on hate a long time ago; even as Angelus, he killed and tortured people For the Evulz, but was never angry with his victims and never hated them.
- The Nose Knows: Angel can tell Billy's blood isn't human from when he spills some in the police car crash.
- Not Himself: Wesley, and briefly Gunn. Averted with Angel — he turns out to be immune to Billy's touch.
- "Not So Different" Remark:Cordy: "Angel feels responsible for this guy because he brought him back from hell. I feel responsible because he did it to save me. You, who are actually responsible for the entire thing, feel nothing at all, because you are a vicious bitch."
Lilah: (shrugs) "So? You know me."
Cordy: "Please, I was you. With better shoes." - Oh, Crap!: Wesley has gone Ax-Crazy thanks to the bloody handprint he was analyzing.Fred: "Somehow he got infected. All I can figure it happened while he was working with Billy's blood from the handprint."
Gunn: "You mean, that...that fingerprinty-looking handprint downstairs is Billy's blood? (Fred nods) So you're saying that Wes turned into a psycho killer because of that bloody handprint that...I picked up and looked at?"
Fred: "When you put it that way, it kinda worries me." - Ontological Inertia: Even though Billy is killed by Lilah, Wesley continues stalking Fred until she knocks him out.
- Phallic WeaponBilly: "So, you can dress like a man, talk like a man? Does that make you feel superior?"
Cordy: "Actually, I'm feeling superior because I have an arrow pointed at your jugular. And the irony of using a phallic shaped weapon? Not lost on me." - Politically Incorrect Villain: Billy can uncover the latent homicidal-hatred-of-women in other men, like a virus. This power is explained as bringing a primordial part of the male psyche to the surface and putting it in charge of his brain.
- Preemptive Apology: Fred before clonking Wesley with her rigged-up weapon.Fred: "I'm sorry, Wesley."
Wes: "You're sorry?"
Fred: "You were right about me liking dark places to hide in. But you forgot I also like to build things."
(Fred yanks on a rope — a fire extinguisher swings from the wall and hits Wesley in the face) - Sequel Episode: Billy Blim, the freed prisoner from "That Vision Thing", turns up again to bring mayhem.
- Self-Disposing Villain: Billy induces Gavin into beating Lilah, the one who sprung him from his prison, purely for the hell of it. In doing so, he sows the seeds of his own demise; Lilah is the one who finishes him off.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Billy is the nephew of a powerful senator, making him untouchable even without Wolfram & Hart's help.
- Shout-Out: Wesley chasing Fred through an abandoned hotel and breaking a door down with an axe is referencing the "Here's Johnny" scene from The Shining.
- Super Window Jump: Averted by Angel who throws a chair through first. Has he no respect for tradition?
- Suspiciously Apropos Music: "Clint Eastwood" by Gorillaz is playing when Billy goes to see his relatives, specifically the lyrics Finally someone let me outa' my cage.
- Tap on the Head: Gunn actually requests Fred knock him out with a chair leg to the head to protect her from him before he loses himself. While it does take two taps, it's still very jarring that hitting someone on the head is considered a fairly reliable way of safely knocking someone out.
- Teach Me How To Fight: Cordelia is learning how to fight.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Lilah fights tooth and nail to free Billy Blim from a Prison Dimension, going so far as to torture Cordelia to blackmail Angel into breaking him out for her. How does Billy repay her for it? He thanks Gavin, her rival, instead and induces him into beating the ever-loving shit out of Lilah while he walks away with a Psychotic Smirk.
- Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: After getting infected, Wesley starts blaming Fred for "making" him attack her.
