The Thin Dead Line

Plot

This episode starts with Angel alone in his hotel. In a sudden fit, he knocks everything off the counter.

Wesley, Cordelia, and Gunn are in their office wishing for a little action when a woman comes in with her daughter. She tells the three that the girl was bit by something on the way home and is now growing an eye in the back of her head. The three agree to take the case to find out who did it and how to reverse it.

Two teens are seen running down the street from some unknown pursuer. They show up at Anne’s teen shelter and beg her to let them in. She reluctantly agrees because she sees they are clearly very frightened. A silhouette of a police officer is seen in the alley.

Merl is packing up his belongings in his lair when Angel interrupts. Angel asks what’s going on and Merl tells him he is quitting and the reasons why. He also tells Angel that Wolfram and Hart are planning on getting some new demon account the next night. Merl also decides to give Angel a guilt trip about not even checking up on his friends after he fired them.

Anne asks Kenny (one of the scared teens from earlier) why he was so frightened. He tells her that the cops have been hassling them. The night before, one had punched him in the face and nearly broke a girl’s arm without provocation. Anne says she might know someone who can help.

Anne shows up at the Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn’s office to see Gunn. She tells Gunn about the police terrorizing kids at the shelter. Gunn decides to go back with her to the shelter. Angel is outside and watches Gunn and Anne leave.

At the shelter, the kids tell Gunn how the cops have been terrorizing them. Angel is outside watching and listening. When he turns to leave, he runs into a policeman who starts beating him. Angel fights back and ends up kicking the cop’s head clean off, but the head continues to read him is Miranda rights.

Two friends of Gunn show up at the shelter with a video camera to help. They argue with Gunn about his new life but they agree to help.

Angel shows up at Kate’s office. He tells her that he just killed a cop, but it kept talking after being decapitated. They find out that the cop has actually been dead for six months.

Gunn calls Cordelia and tells her about his plan to have someone videotape him while some cop starts to attack and/or kill him. Cordelia and Wesley decide that it is a dumb plan and that they better go stop him.

Kate and Angel go to the cop’s grave and Angel notices that the ground has recently been disturbed. Angel thinks that someone is making zombies out of cops. Kate runs to her father’s grave, but the ground has not been disturbed. She cries and Angel looks concerned.

Cordelia and Wesley go to the shelter. Wesley decides to go find Gunn while Cordelia stays to help Anne out. Some guy named Jackson, who is obviously bad news, shows up and wants to stay. He goes in and it is implied that others who used to run drugs for him are scared by his presence.

Gunn and his friends are approached by a cop. While Gunn tries to get the cop to say if they are being arrested or not, Wesley shows up and tells the cop to stop. The cop turns around and shoots Wesley in the stomach. Gunn fights with the cop until one of the friends shoots the cop several times. They pick up Wesley, and the cop gets back up. The four of them hide in an alley and call for an ambulance.

Angel and Kate go to the police station where the dead cop worked. There are only a few people there. Kate tells one officer she is investigating the actions of some policemen in this precinct. The officer gets defensive and tells her that they have a tougher policy on crime now.

The ambulance shows up and Wesley and Gunn get in. When they try to leave, police cars block them. The ambulance driver gets out and is shot down by the policemen. Gunn drives the ambulance away while cops are shooting at him. He drives back to the shelter.

The cop that was shot follows them in his car to the shelter. He radios the chief and tells him “all the passengers are on board.” The chief tells him to wait for backup.

Gunn sees Jackson and asks him what he is doing there. They argue about what Jackson does (apparently as a drug dealer) to hurt the community. Anne breaks it up. Cordelia and the other medic insist on taking Wesley to the hospital. When she tries to leave, she sees all the police cares lining up. Everyone in the shelter starts locking doors and blocking windows.

Angel appears in the police chief’s office and asks him about his “dead” cops. The chief shoots Angel who then vamps out and grabs him by the throat and asks how to stop the zombies.

The police zombies are attacking and breaking into the shelter while everyone is trying to fight them off. Jackson tries to leave and is attacked by a zombie, but Gunn rescues him. Just as all the zombie cops get all the way in and are attacking, Angel finds the police chief’s zombie idol and smashes it. All the police zombies turn back into corpses.

Angel goes back to Kate’s office and tells her that the problem is taken care off. She quotes some crime statistics for that neighborhood and says that is what they gave back to the people there by stopping the zombie cops. She is given a report about Wesley being in the hospital and asks Angel if that is the guy that worked for him.

In the hospital, Gunn is watching over Wesley, who wakes up. Angel is watching outside, and when he turns to leave, he runs into Cordelia. Cordelia tells Angel that none of them need him and that since he walked out he should stay away. Angel leaves the hospital looking dejected.