Summary
Angel, Fred and Gunn take a road trip to Las Vegas to enlist Lorne's help in finding Cordelia, but when the get there Lorne doesn't even acknowledge their presence. It soon becomes clear that Lorne is being held against his will, and that his popular casino act is actually a way for his captor to read the futures of people in the crowd. Angel and the gang must find a way to help Lorne escape without sacrificing their own destinies in the process.
Plot
Angel watches Connor from a rooftop as he fights a vamp. Angel gives advice that he can't hear. Cordelia watches Angel from her higher dimension and talks about how she wants to get out of there. Fred and Gunn then approach Angel and tell them that they are worried about how aimless and distracted he's been acting.
Angel decides to take Fred and Gunn on a trip to Las Vegas to get away from all the Connor-stalking and Cordelia-missing. While there, they plan on paying a visit to Lorne, who is a headliner at a top Vegas casino. When Lorne blows them off, they all start to get suspicious. It turns out that Lorne is being held captive and forced to read the destinies of those in his audience. When he finds a good one, he tells the owner of the casino. The owner then gives the people with good destinies a chance to play a special game. When they lose the game, they lose their destinies, which are trapped in the chip they used to play. The owner then sells the destinies on the black market.
While Fred and Gunn sneak up to Lorne's room to bust him out, Angel investigates the phony game. He accidentally flips a chip onto the game and loses his destiny. He becomes a kind of zombie. Fred, Gunn and Lorne are caught and brought up to the room. Cordelia, watching from on high, sees Angel playing the slots like a zombie and feels like she must find a way to get him in the room with the others. She somehow manipulates the machine makes him a big winner at the slots. The employees at the casino are suspicious and take him up into the room with the others. When Angel sees the others in trouble, he kind of wakes up out of his zombie state and beats up the bad guys. Lorne takes the opportunity to smash the chips and everyone's destinies are returned.
Lorne and the others drive back to L.A. When they walk into the hotel lobby, they see Cordelia who turns to them and asks, "Who are you people?"
MEANWHILE: While the gang was in L.A., Wesley jumped on the opportunity to steal Angel's potential clients.
Dialogue
>> The House Always Wins
I know you're there - watching me.
Oh my god! Angel, you can hear me? I so love you! You don't know what it's been like!
We weren't spying.
Ah, for crap's sake.
I just thought we could all use a little getaway to decompress. I know I haven't had a vacation in a while - not counting my recent ocean cruise.
They must think it's all makeup - like the blue man group. You don't think the blue man group...
Only two of them.
Hey! Love ya.
We love you t... Wait. That was him being superficial, wasn't it?
Hey, if it'll make my honey feel better, put her mind at ease, my fun can wait.
It's because you're out of chips isn't it?
Yeah.
This place was so much friendlier when the mob ran it.
Man. Heads of state don't get this much security. Something's starting to feel a lot 'not right' about his.
That's what I've been saying - only with better grammar.
Fluffy! Fluffy, the dog? The dog you don't have? The universally recognized code for 'I'm being held prisoner. Send help.'
Oh. Okay. I'm hip now.
Right. And I'm your friend.
I know. I'm not stupid.
He's won a little over three hundred thousand dollars - and a car.
Pretty good haul for somebody with no destiny, huh?
Angel?
You're my friend. I know. I'm not stupid.