Provider

Plot

Angel is suddenly very desperate for money. He feels that he should be saving and scrounging in order to provide for his son’s future. In order to get more business, the gang puts up a web site, passes out flyers, and gets in the yellow pages. Unfortunately, the first set of flyers had the wrong number on them and some poor chap being chased by a monster ends up calling a pizza parlor while the gang waits expectantly by the phone.

After the flyers were corrected, Angel tells Gunn and Wesley that their main priority right now is to make money. He later modifies the main priorities to making money, finding Holtz, and helping people. He tells Lorne to use his contacts to find out what Holtz is up to. They suddenly start to get a lot of phone calls.

Holtz is at a secret lair with Justine. Justine is kind of upset because Holtz has stuck an ice pick in her hand. He is testing her commitment. If she stays with the pick in her hand until he comes back, he’ll be convinced she’s loyal.

Back at the Hyperion, business is booming. Cordelia is swamped with calls, Wesley talks to some Nahdrah demons that want him to solve a puzzle for their prince’s birthday, and Gunn talks to a girl who is being stalked by her dead boyfriend. Angel leaves Connor in Cordelia’s care so he can go see a man about a job. When he arrives, the man tells Angel he’ll give him $10,000 to clear out a vampire nest. It turns out the man’s a fake, but Angel doesn’t know that when he leaves.

When Holtz returns to the lair, Justine is sitting around with the pick in her hand. Holtz tells her that he wants her to find people like them, those with hate and who have been hurt. When he takes the pick out, she wraps her hand and decks him one. He seems kind of pleased by it.

Drunken Lorne returns with the info on Holtz’s recruitment of human henchman. The Nahdrah also return with an offer to use Fred to solve the puzzle for $50,000 dollars. Angel accepts and she and Lorne leave to go to the barge where the Nahdrahs live.

Wesley and Gunn go to the woman’s home in order to protect her from her stalker. There they find out that her ex-boyfriend is a zombie. He keeps coming back in order to get back together with the girl. It turns out he was too needy, so she poisoned him. He said he would forgive her for it if she would take him back. They kiss and make up as Wes and Gunn watch in amazement at the bizarreness of the situation.

In the meantime, Angel dispatches the vampires at the warehouse and returns to the company for his payment. He finds out that the guy was a fraud. The guy, Sam, goes to the warehouse himself. Angel returns to find out why Sam set him up. It turns out that these vampires killed Sam’s friend Jack and he wanted revenge. Angel’s not pleased at being cheated and refuses to help Sam fight off the remaining four vampires without payment. Eventually Sam’s dedication to his friend convinces him to kill the vampires, although he isn’t pleased about it.

During all of this, Fred is working on the puzzle and coming close to solving it. Lorne looks for the bathroom and overhears that the Nahdrahs plan on cutting off Fred’s head and reattaching it to their prince’s body. He is whacked over the head and tied up before he can warn her.

Back at the hotel, Cordelia has a vision about the danger Fred is in and sets out with the $50,000 to make a trade.

When Fred finishes the puzzle, the Nahdrahs cheer and drag her off. They strap her to a chair and get ready to cut off her head when Cordelia comes in. She says that it was a misunderstanding and that she’ll give the money back for Fred. They don’t quite agree so Cordelia tries kicking one in the groin. It doesn’t work, but Gunn and Wes show up in time to help her, save Fred, and to decapitate the prince with the briefcase. This makes the other Nahdrahs very angry. When they attack, Angel shows up and saves the day. He admits that he got carried about the money and that family and the mission are more important. Cordelia says they earned every penny of the $50,000 since the Nahdrahs tried to cut Fred’s head off. The gang gathers up the money and leaves.

At the end, Angel, Connor and Cordelia are all on a bed at the hotel, fully clothed. Cordelia is feeding the baby while she and Angel talk and slowly drift off to sleep.