"A New World"
Picking up right where “The Price” left off, Gunn runs to grab a weapon while Groo raises his axe to throw it at Connor. In slow motion, Angel yells, “Wait!” and tries to stop them. Connor launches a couple of stakes at Angel, who yells, “No!” and bats them away. Groo throws the axe at Connor, but Connor bats it away like Angel batted the stakes. At regular speed, Angel and Connor face off again and Connor comments, “Interesting.” He shoots a few more stakes at Angel, who dodges them and grabs a sword that Cordelia throws to him. They start fighting, though Angel just wants to stop and talk. Connor fights Angel, Gunn, and Groo easily, but Angel stops him and holds his own blade to his throat. Angel backs off and starts to help Connor up, but Connor runs off. Angel tries to go after him, but the sun’s out and Gunn and Groo have to hold him back. Gunn and Groo go after Connor instead, but Connor runs up to a moving bus and jumps on top of it. As the other MoG check to see where the bus will end up, Cordelia tells Angel that the fight he had with Connor was the one she had in her vision in “The Price.” Gunn isn’t sure that Connor really is Connor, but Angel is sure it’s him. He thinks that Connor found a way to get back to this dimension and escape Quortoth. Fred announces that the bus will wind up at Union Station, so Angel heads underground, telling the others to hit the regular streets. The MoG are about to split up when they see the ceiling start to act up again, like it did before Connor came through. Fred notes that the portal from Quortoth must still be open and Lorne suggests that they close it before anything else can come through. Groo wonders if Cordelia’s newfound demon powers can close the portal and she agrees to give it a shot. “I command you - close!” she calls up at the air. It doesn’t work. Lorne says that he may know someone who can help; Cordelia sends him off, tells Gunn and Fred to go to the streets, and says that she and Groo will stay back in case anything else comes through the portal. As Fred and Gunn leave, she notes that he went to Wesley to help her.
Speaking of Wesley, Lilah is paying him a visit at his apartment. He thinks she’s going to offer him a job; she thinks it’s funny that the people he tried to help out turned their backs on him. He tells her he’s not interested in a job at Wolfram & Hart. She gives him a copy of Dante’s Inferno, pointedly reminding him that the ninth circle of Hell is reserved for traitors. As Connor disembarks his bus downtown, Angel calls Gunn to find out if he’s seen him. Gunn says that people are talking about Connor and he seems to still be heading downtown. Angel says that if he finds Connor first, he has to make sure he stays alive. Near an overpass, Connor encounters a girl named Sunny who’s trying to trade CDs to a guy named Tyke so she can get some drugs. Tyke gets irritated with her and tries to put her in the back of his car; he spots Connor and tells him to go away. He notes that Connor wears a necklace made of teeth and Connor tells him it’s from things he’s killed. Tyke summons his minions, who start to fight Connor and knock him out with a crowbar. As Tyke is leaving, Connor gets up and takes on all of the minions. Tyke pulls out a gun to shoot him but Sunny manages to stop him. Connor battles Tyke as Sunny takes some of his drugs and money. Just before Connor can slit Tyke’s throat, Sunny stops him and tells him that they need to leave before the police arrive. Connor takes one of Tyke’s ears as a trophy before they go. Back at the hotel, Groo stands still, watching the portal with complete concentration. (Cordelia’s impressed.) He notes that Cordelia talks about Angel a lot, but she claims that she’s just been worried about him lately. Cordelia and Groo start to get a little friendly but are interrupted by thunder and lightning from the portal. Angel meets up with Gunn and Fred in the overpass; they note that Connor was there and took Tyke’s ear. Angel sends Gunn and Fred home, wanting to find Connor on his own.
Sunny takes Connor to a motel, telling him that he can spend the night if he wants. She tells him that she’s glad he didn’t kill Tyke, since he would have gotten into a lot of trouble. They eat some junk food and Sunny talks about drugs as they bond. Fred and Gunn return to the Hyperion, where they find Groo and Cordelia unconscious. At the motel, Sunny and Connor talk about parents and share a kiss. At his apartment, Wesley sneaks a peek at The Inferno. Connor awakens in the motel to find Sunny in the bathroom, dead from an overdose. Angel arrives and confirms that Connor didn’t use any drugs, then tells him that they’ll figure things out. Angel figures out that Connor wants to go after Tyke and kill him for hurting Sunny. Angel stops him from leaving and tells him he won’t let him get into more trouble. Connor tries to attack Angel but finds that he can’t match him. He gets irritated that Angel calls him Connor and insists that his name is Steven (see “Sleep Tight”). Back at the Hyperion, Gunn wonders if something else came out of the portal; Fred learns that the monster Connor followed through the portal might have a mate. The MoG wonder where Lorne is and Fred tries to suggest that they go to Wesley for help. No one else is in favor of this idea, but Fred thinks it’s a good one. Before she can call, Lorne arrives with a woman named Mistress Meerna, who, because she specializes in “dimensional magic,” moves very quickly. Back at the motel, Angel tries to get used to calling Connor Steven and asks him to stick around so they can talk. He asks about Connor’s life and laments that he shouldn’t have stopped trying to get him back. Connor refers to Holtz as his father and says that Holtz told him about vampires, especially how to kill them. Connor starts hitting Angel, urging him to show his vamp face, so Angel does. Connor isn’t happy to finally come face-to-face with his demon father. Tyke chooses this moment to arrive and pull a gun on Connor.
Angel tries to start off the confrontation with some talking, but Tyke is more of a violence man. He wants his coat and drugs back, but Connor doesn’t seem to want to give them to him. One of Tyke’s minions announces that the police are there. Back at the Hyperion, Meerna studies the pentagram and wants to know how the portal to Quortoth was opened, since it’s supposed to be impossible to open one. She says that it’s actually “a tear in reality” and that she doesn’t want to meet whatever made it. Meerna does an apparently simple ritual and closes the tear, but she can’t tell if anything else came through it. The face-off continues at the motel and Angel decides that it’s time to resort to violence. Tyke wants to use Connor as a shield from the police, but Angel tries to convince Tyke to use him instead. The cops try to get into the room and Tyke starts shooting. Angel pulls Connor out of the way as Tyke and his goons have a shoot-out with the cops. While everyone else is distracted, Angel and Connor make a break for it through a window. Angel takes a bullet in the back but he and Connor get out. He invites Connor to come to the Hyperion, but Connor says that he has to go. “You’re not alone. You know that, right?” Angel asks. Connor says that he knows, then runs off. He winds up in an alley, where he encounters Holtz; they greet each other as father and son.
MORAL, or CRAMMING COMPLEX ISSUES INTO A NUTSHELL: Demons can be more interesting than humans.
GRADE: C+ Connor should’ve stayed a baby.
MEMORABLE QUOTES: Gunn: “Couple of weeks ago he was wearing diapers. Now he’s a teenager?”
Angel: “We can make this right.”
Written by Jeffrey Bell; directed by Tim Minear
Cordelia: “Tell me we don’t live in a soap opera.”
Tyke: “You can give me a new ear?”
Angel: “Well, maybe you can wear a hat.”