"Habeas Corpses"
Written by Jeffrey Bell; directed by Skip Schoolnik

It’s still raining fire (see “Rain of Fire”). Angel is still watching Cordelia and Connor having sex. He’s not happy. Fred has returned to the Hyperion, where she’s listening to a report on the radio. Gunn, Lorne, and Wesley return from battle (see “Rain of Fire”) and Fred is especially happy to see that Gunn is all right. The guys tell her about the Beast and she wonders if they should wait for Angel to get back before they figure out what to do next. Angel arrives and announces that they’ll wait until the morning to discuss things. In the morning, Cordelia and Connor wake up in the museum and Cordelia breaks the news that they can’t get friendly again. He’s upset, of course, as well as anxious about possibly being connected to the Beast. Wesley heads over to his apartment, where Lilah is relieved to see that he’s okay. He tells her they can’t be together anymore - it’s time to choose sides between good and evil, and he’s choosing the good side. Lilah replies that there are always gray areas, adding that Fred “prefers black.” Back at the Hyperion, Fred wonders why there’s no information on the Beast. Cordelia arrives to see Angel; he tells her that he already knows about Connor, meaning his relationship with her, but she thinks he means that he knows about the Beast’s possible connection to Connor. She tells him that the Beast rose at Connor’s birthplace and he believes he might be responsible. At Wolfram & Hart, Lilah has the unenviable task of trying to track down the Beast in order to make a deal with it. Connor arrives, demanding answers to his questions. Lilah summons guards to do some tests and cut Connor open, but Connor beats them up and demands to know if/how he’s connected to the Beast. Before Gavin can get him any information, the building starts shaking and the lights dim. “It’s here,” Connor realizes.

Lilah sends Gavin to check and see if the Beast is really there, then grabs a gun and heads off with Connor. Elsewhere in the building, the Beast is leaving a path of destruction. Connor says that he thinks the Beast is following him, and he’s going to try to kill it. Deciding that it would be smart not to go straight towards the Beast, Lilah ditches him. The Beast continues its killing spree, coming across Gavin in a supply closet and snapping his neck. In another hallway, Connor hears gunshots. Lilah has encountered the Beast and is shooting at him, to no avail. He grabs her and she decides to try to make a deal to work with him. Instead, he stabs her with a finger. Connor runs and tries to stab the Beast; he gets thrown across the room for his troubles. Lilah tries to make an escape, getting pulled into a room by Wesley before the Beast can catch up to her. She tells him that the building shuts down when there’s an attack, so there’s no way to get in or out. Wesley carries her out and away from the Beast, trying to get her to tell him if there’s a secret exit for people at her level. She tells him that there’s a way out through a supply closet - the place where the Beast killed Gavin. Wesley pauses to throw a grenade at the Beast in an attempt to distract him. Lilah spots Gavin’s body, then heads into the closet with Wesley. They find a lever which opens a chute. By the time the Beast makes it to the closet, Lilah and Wesley are gone. They make it to a sewer and Wesley tells Lilah that she needs to leave town, since the Beast is going to kill everyone from Wolfram & Hart. She tells him that Connor is still in the building and he heads off to help him, even though there’s no way to get back inside. Back at the Hyperion, the MoG try to figure out what’s going on with the Beast and Connor. Wesley arrives and announces that Connor and the Beast are both at Wolfram & Hart. As Connor walks past Gavin’s body, the lawyer’s eyes open.

The MoG gear up to head over to Wolfram & Hart; Lorne quickly offers to stay back (“Sergeant Stay-At-Home, volunteering for duty, sir”). Angel tells the others that they’re going on a rescue mission, and if they see the Beast, they should run. Cordelia grabs a knife to join in, but Angel takes it from her and tells her to stay back with Lorne. She’s not happy about this. Wesley leads Angel, Fred, and Gunn through a sewer to where he thinks they can get back into Wolfram & Hart. He starts bickering with Gunn and Angel tells them to leave their personal problems at the door. The four of them wind up in the lobby and head upstairs, not seeing another body open its eyes. Gunn wonders why the Beast would take out Wolfram & Hart when they’re both evil. Angel wonders if the Beast wants to get rid of its competition. The MoG come across the supply closet with the hidden exit and Wesley notes that Gavin’s body isn’t there anymore. They search through debris for Connor and determine that he must still be alive. Angel sends the other three off and goes off on his own. On the seventh flood, Angel runs into Connor and lets him know that he’s glad he’s all right. He tries to get Connor to leave, but Connor wants to kill the Beast first. Angel says that they can’t kill it and starts to leave, but comes face to face with a zombified Gavin. He fights Gavin while giving Connor a tutorial on what a zombie is. Other zombies are rising, so Angel and Connor decide to skedaddle. Elsewhere in the building, just as Wesley notes that something strange is going on, Gunn is attacked by a zombie. The MoG head off to barricade themselves in an office.

Gunn and Wesley assure each other that if one of them is turned into a zombie, the other will kill him quickly. Zombies break in and Fred and Wesley make it out, but Gunn is stuck with the undead guys. Angel tells Connor to go for the zombies’ brains, but realizes that they’re outnumbered. Wesley and Fred hide out in another office and Fred wonders if the Beast is turning the dead people into zombies. Gunn makes it to the office and the three of them are soon joined by Angel and Connor. Angel decides that their best option for getting out is to go through the white room; he thinks that the girl (see “Forgiving”) might be able to help them. The MoG head to an elevator, where Fred does some science stuff to make it work. As Angel struggles to get them to the white room, Gunn decapitates the zombified Gavin. The elevator takes the MoG to the white room, where they see the Beast kneeling over the little girl. Angel realizes that the Beast was after her the whole time. The girl looks over at the MoG and announces, “The answer is among you.” The Beast pulls black smoke out of her, then starts to head for the MoG, but before he can reach them, they’re suddenly transported back to the Hyperion. Cordelia is happy to see that Connor’s alive, but Angel doesn’t want to watch them together. Wesley notes that if the Beast could defeat the little girl, who’s supposed to be ancient evil, then the MoG won’t be able to beat him. Cordelia follows Angel to his office and tells him that she was worried about him; he doesn’t seem to believe her. He tells her that, like her, he’s glad everyone is okay. Then he tells her to take her “new boyfriend” and get out. It doesn’t take her long to realize that he knows about her and Connor.

MORAL, or CRAMMING COMPLEX ISSUES INTO A NUTSHELL: Sooner or later, everyone winds up dead.

R.I.P.: Gavin, the girl in the white room

GRADE: B They’re killing all the good villains!

MEMORABLE QUOTES: Wesley: “There is a line, Lilah. Black and white, good and evil.”
Lilah: “Funny thing about black and white - you mix it together and you get gray. And it doesn’t matter how much white you try and put back in; you’re never gonna get anything but gray. And I don’t see your Texas gal pal wearing that color. Come to think of it, she prefers black.”

Lilah: “Find that beast, or I swear to God, I will--.”
Gavin: “Boil you alive.”
Lilah: “Shut up!” (into the phone) “Boil you alive.”

Gavin: “This is Gavin Park to the front desk. Over. Come in front desk.”
Guard: “Ah, this is the front desk, Mr. Park; we’re kinda--. Oh, no!…”
Lilah: “Tell him to stop whining and make a report.”

Lilah: “Go downstairs and check it out.”
(Gavin shakes his head)
Lilah: “Gavin, ask yourself this question: what are you more afraid of, a giant murderous demon or me?”
Gavin: “Be right back.”

Gunn: “What’s gonna be different this time?”
Angel: “What’s different is we’re not going for the monster, we’re going for Connor.”
Gunn: “So, you phoned ahead so the big bad understands that?”

Connor: “What’s a zombie?”
Angel: “It’s an undead thing.”
Connor: “Like you?”
Angel: “No, zombies are slow-moving, dimwitted things that crave human flesh.”
Connor: “Like you.”
Angel: “No! It’s different. Trust me.”

“So, fight seven floors of evil lawyer zombies or sweet talk a nasty little girl? You know where my heart’s at.” - Gunn


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