Recap / Angel S 03 E 14 Couplet

Angel and Lorne talk about Cordelia's relationship with the Groosalugg. Angel claims there is nothing between him and Cordelia and that he prefers being a solo act. Lorne does not believe him.

At Cordelia's apartment, the Groosalugg briefly explains how he was overthrown. He says he was bored with government and is glad to be out of power. The two kiss, but Cordelia sees him for an instant as a demon speaking with his voice and pulls away.

The next morning, Angel comes downstairs carrying Connor. Wesley is the only one already at work. He takes the opportunity to talk privately with Angel about the strangeness of Connor's birth, though Angel, at first, thinks he is talking about the Groosalugg. Wesley acknowledges that, without the Nyazian prophecies, information will be hard to come by, but he hopes that he can find something in scholarly commentaries.

Cordelia and the Groosalugg come in. Cordelia tells Wesley she has had a new vision, of a spiny demon, the same one she saw earlier speaking with the Groosalugg's voice, that will rise later that day. She also complains that she is unable to have sex with the Groosalugg for fear that her visions will pass to him. Wesley suggests that a paranormal prophylactic might be devised.

Gunn and Fred are sharing breakfast in a beachfront diner. Fred says things are different now that they have kissed. They are about to kiss again when both their cell phones ring. Wesley is calling them to work.

Back at Angel Investigations, Wesley has identified the demon from Cordelia's vision as a Senih'D. He says it will rise before nightfall in the mid-city area and will immediately seek to feed. The Groosalugg says he is familiar with this kind of demon from his days in Pylea and knows how to track and kill it.

Angel and the Groosalugg track the Senih'D demon through the sewers. The Senih'D finds them and attacks. When the demon escapes to a city park, where it is broad daylight, Angel cannot follow, so the Groosalugg pursues and kills the demon alone. The AI teams arrives just in time to see his heroics. Angel must remain in the shadows while the Groosalugg receives hugs and thanks.

Later, as Groo reenacts his fight with the Senih'D, Angel Investigations is hired by Ms. Frakes, a woman convinced that her fiance is under a love spell (which is the only reason she believes that he would speak to another woman online). With only a username to follow, the best course of action appears to be to trail the fiance. Wesley, eager to get Gunn out of the way for a while, assigns him this job. However, this idea backfires when Fred tags along.

Angel and Wesley visit a rare book store to purchase an ancient commentary that may help them understand Connor's significance. Angel confesses to Wesley that he feels inferior to the Groosalugg, who can do everything he can some things he can't, and fears the Groosalugg might replace him. Wesley attempts to console him.

Back at AI headquarters, Cordelia prepares to give the Groosalugg a haircut. They discuss the reasons Cordelia feels she cannot have sex with him.

Gunn and Fred are parked in Gunn's truck near Plummer Park, staking out their target, who is standing by the roots of a large tree apparently doing nothing. They kiss. When they look up, their target has disappeared.

Angel and Wesley return to AI headquarters, where they meet the Groosalugg, who has had a haircut and is wearing some of Angel's clothes so that he now looks much like Angel. Angel finds Cordelia behind her desk. Cordelia asks Angel to help her have sex with the Groosalugg. She needs Angel, along with the Groosalugg, to visit a demon brothel, where there is a woman who can provide a potion that will enable Cordelia to have sex without losing her visions.

Fred and Gunn search around the tree where their quarry disappeared. Their camera shows the tree dragging their quarry underground. As soon as they learn this, the tree extends roots above ground and drags them underground as well.

At the demon brothel, Angel and the Groosalugg buy the potion. Angel receives a cell phone call from Gunn, who along with Fred is trapped underground, held by the roots of a tree. They see Jerry, the man they were tailing, with a root stuck into his body. The tree has a computer with a DSL connection and a dating site showing on its screen. Fred says its game is to lure lonely people to within its reach and then pull them underground to feed on them.

Angel and the Groosalugg walk through the sewers toward the place where Gunn and Fred are trapped. Angel warns the Groosalugg not to be too hasty. The Groosalugg hands the bottle of potion to Angel for safekeeping, then rushes headlong toward the tree, which impales him on one of its roots.

After ascertaining that the tree is made of flesh and not real wood, Angel taunts the Groosalugg and hits him several times, while claiming to be superior to him. The tree takes the bait, releases the Groosalugg, and attacks Angel, not knowing he is a vampire. Angel's dead body saps the tree's strength, until Gunn and Fred can get free. They attack the tree with the Groosalugg's sword, killing it.

At AI headquarters, Wesley debriefs Gunn and Fred. As the two of them leave to clean up, Wesley asks Gunn to stay. Wesley says he is concerned about Fred. Gunn promises he will not hurt her.

Cordelia dresses the Groosalugg's wounds. The Groosalugg confesses that he was reckless and endangered everyone, adding that Angel is the true champion. Cordelia is impressed that the Groosalugg would renounce the credit that way, asks for the potion, and drags the Groosalugg out of the room. Angel hands Cordelia a roll of cash and asks Cordelia to take a vacation with the Groosalugg.

Angel goes upstairs to relieve Lorne at Conner's crib.

Downstairs, Wesley has finished translating a passage from the book that he and Angel purchased earlier that day. He is joined by Angel with Conner, who is happy as, since he has his son, he knows he isn't truly alone. As Angel leaves, Wesley can only look grimly at his translation:

The Father will kill the Son

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Tropes

• After Action Patch Up: The UST vibes of this trope are lampshaded when Cordelia patches up Groo, but Angel turns down the opportunity to have Cordy patch him up.
• Almost Kiss: Fred and Gunn — then their pagers go off.
  Fred/Gunn: "It's Wesley."
• All Webbed Up: Fred and Gunn are held in the flesh-eating tree's roots.
• Always Second Best: Groo seems to fit the Champion role just as well as Angel, plus he can fight in daylight and have sex with Cordelia without turning evil.
• Analogy Backfire: While going to buy a Tome of Eldritch Lore, Wesley rallies Angel's spirits by telling him that he is in fact special.
  Wesley: You're like one of these rare volumes. One of a kind.
  [Angel smiles. The proprietor walks between them, carrying three old books.]
  Proprietor: I've got three of 'em.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: Plenty by Cordelia.
• Call-Back: One of the Pylean holy books (the "wolf" volume) from "Through the Looking Glass" is seen at the book store Angel and Wesley visit.
• Cliffhanger: At the end of the episode Wesley translates the prophecy regarding Connor — The Father Shall Kill The Son.
• Comically Missing the Point
  • Angel gripes that the Hyperion is turning into a hotel.
  • “Angel, your coat is singing.”
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Angel towards Cordy/Groo, Wesley for Fred/Gunn.
• Dance Battler: The Dance of Revolution?
• Damsel in Distress: Groo saves an Innocent Bystander from the Senih'd demon, while Angel is forced to stand by watching as it's broad daylight.
• The Day the Music Lied: Cordy tells Angel there's a problem that only he can help her with. Cue serious music. She wants his help to have sex with Groo without losing her visions to him. Cue comedy music.
• Decapitation Presentation
  Groo: "I shall present this beast's head to my princess as a token."
  Angel: "Right. 'cause she'll love that."
• Distracted By The Smoochies: Fred and Gunn on surveillance. Good thing they had a video camera pointing at the subject. Too bad they didn't check it until they were standing on the same spot he disappeared from.
• Double Entendre: Loads of it; sometimes Cordelia drops right into Single Entendre.
  Cordy: "There is a potion, a protective potion. I take it and bang! I can."
  Angel: "So you and Groo can..."
  Cordy: "...com-shuck like bunnies. You betcha."
• Dresses the Same: Angel thinks that Groo is taking over his life. Wesley is in the middle of saying they are two completely different people when they enter the Hyperion and find Groo with Spiky Hair dressed in Angel's Badass Longcoat.
• Erotic Eating: Gunn enjoys watching Fred eat.
• Fantasy Contraception: Not to avoid pregnancy but to avoid the visions passing from Cordelia to Groo
• Friendship Moment: Between Angel and Wesley.
• Funny Background Event: Angel standing on tiptoes during the Mission Briefing to make himself taller than Groo.
• Golden Moment: Again spoofed when Groo confesses that Angel was the real champion who saved them from the tree demon. Cordelia is touched... that Groo would hand over the credit like that.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Angel towards Cordy/Groo and Wesley towards Fred/Gunn
• High-Class Call Girl: an entire upmarket bordello full of them.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Wesley to Gunn.
• I'm Cold... So Cold...: The tree demon once it plugs into Angel's dead heart.
• Important Haircut: Played for laughs.
  Cordy: Oh, wait. It's not like your strength is in your hair, or anything like that, right?
  Groo: No. I believe it is in my muscles.
• Innocent Innuendo: Cordelia appears to be suggesting an alternative to com-shucking, one she practised on her cousin Timmy all the time. It turns out she's giving Groo a haircut.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Angel tells Cordelia to take a long vacation with Groo. Someplace in the sun.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Groo's strategy consists of charging in with a big war cry waving a sword.
• Life Drinker: A life-sucking tree demon with a DSL connection that lures lonelyhearts to their deaths by pretending to be a person on the Internet and getting them to come meet it.
• Miss Kitty: the bordello madam shows our heroes around her establishment.
• Mistaken for Gay
  Anita: "Oh, I love your outfits."
  Angel: "Well, I really wouldn't call them 'outfits.'"
  Anita: "But you are together."
  Groo: (puts a hand on Angel's shoulder) "Yes! Two champions here together."
  Angel: (pushing Groo's hand off) "Not 'together' together. Just 'get the potion' together."
• Moment Killer: Cordelia goes to kiss Groo and finds a hideous demon standing in his place — it's a vision, naturally. Kind of a mood killer, as she puts it later.
• Multiboobage: A triple-breasted whore is seen in the demon brothel. Unfortunately she also has a Glasgow Grin. Yeesh!
• Oblivious Mockery: Again, loads by Cordy to poor Angel.
  Cordy: At least I won't be upsetting the average around here. Nobody in this office is ever gonna get any. [leaves Angel and Wesley looking crestfallen]
• Oblivious to Love: Cordelia regarding Angel's affections; Fred regarding Wesley's.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Almost a Running Gag.
• Orbital Kiss: Groo/Cordy
• Oh, Crap!: Gunn and Fred look at their video camera to find out what happened to the man they were supposed to be watching. The replay shows him being pulled into the ground by tree roots at the exact same spot they are now.
  Fred: "Well, that can't be good." [Tree roots pull them both underground.]
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Angel tells Cordy and Groo to take a long vacation. In the next episode, things start getting a lot darker.
• That Came Out Wrong
  Wes: "Why can't you have sex?"
  Cordy: "I could lose my 'visionity.'"
  Wes: (smirking) "If you wanna play it that way."
  Cordy: "VISION-ity! The visions."
• Tome of Eldritch Lore: Grammaticus Third Century Greek Commentaries or G.T.C.G.C.
• Unseen Pen Pal: A life-sucking tree demon with a DSL connection that lures men to their deaths by pretending to be a woman on the Internet and getting them to come meet "her."
• Unusual Euphemism: "Com-shuck" gets used again for all it's worth.
• Unwanted Rescue: Groo sees a client chained up at the brothel and tries to free him.
  Angel: "Groo! Groo, I think he's happy there."
  Groo: "As a slave?"
  Client: "Don't judge me."
• Wham Line: "The Father will kill the Son", which doubles as a Wham Shot.

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