Conviction (1)

Plot

Angel saves a woman from a vampire attack in an alley. As he leaves the thankful woman behind, a bevy of Wolfram & Hart types arrive. The special ops team, which secures the area, and media types who take photos, get the woman to sign a release, and make it all look like a press event. Angel discovers he's been wired and they've been following him. He's disconcerted.

Two young boys are walking to class and talking about comic books. One is called Matthew and his father won't let him read Punisher. Cut to the Wolfram & Hart offices where a mail cart goes buy with an envelope addressed to Angel. Fred gets off the elevator, a bit confused, and Wesley comes to her assistance. They talk about the size of the offices and how hard it is to get their bearings. She says her lab is enormous and she doesn't even understand the equipment in it. He wonders why they are there. She admits it's odd being crusaders against evil and running the LA office of an organization which represents most of the world's evil and which likely is trying to corrupt and divide them. Knox arrives and takes Fred to her office. She calls him Knoxy.

Gunn shouts at Wesley and tosses him a basketball. He tells him you have to think fast. Wesley thinks it's unseemly to add Ys to people's names. Gunn asks if that means he has to call him Westle. Gunn says he's made up his mind, he's chosen an office. He notes he has a view of the mountains and never even knew there were mountains. Wesley says he's not comfortable there and Gunn says he's not either. He thinks it will be a long time before any of them is. Cut to Lorne walking down the corridor, on the phone, clearly in his element. Angel shows up and tells Gunn and Wesley what happened to him the previous night. Angel says they will shake the place up. He enters his office to find a woman there. She says she just wanted to see his face. He says she likes to make an entrance and she points out he opened both doors to enter the room. She says she doesn't need to make an entrance, she needs to make an impression. She's their liaison to the senior partners. Her name is Eve, she tosses Angel an apple. She says he's head of the LA office, but it is a multidimensional corporation. She says almost all of their clients are evil demons and they could start hacking away at them, but then the company would go out of business and they wouldn't have it any more. She says that's the catch. In order to keep the company, to keep tabs on evil, to stop the worst of it if they can, they have to help evil prosper. She asks Angel if he's scared. He takes a bite out of the apple. She tells them they should start going through the client files.

Later, we see the gang disgusted by what they find in the files, including records on the Kennedys and Bushes. Gunn reads the file on Corbin Fries, on trial for prostitution, gun running, and drugs. His trial isn't going well which Angel takes as good news. Gunn believes the staff are opportunistic, they'll go with the flow. Fred says they'll have to check all the staff to see which are die hard evil. Angel says they are doing the right thing. Lorne says he has to sleep and Angel tells them all to go. Gunn goes to his office where Eve is waiting. She asks if he's ready for the next step. He says yes and she hands him a slip of paper saying he'll feel like a new man. Wesley asks what it's about and Gunn says it's a tailor.

The next day, Angel is at his desk. He puts aside the envelope. He tries to buzz his secretary and get some coffee, but gets a voice menu for ritual sacrifice. He tries again and gets a rather ditzy woman who seems to be his secretary. He asks for coffee or blood. She says right away. He hangs up, but gets the voice menu for sacrifice again. Wesley calls and asks if he can drop by. Angel's blood arrives, carried by Harmony. She's his secretary. She says she got a job with Wolfram & Hart and claims to be a great typist. And incredibly sycophantic. Angel wonders why he shouldn't kill her. She points out how good tasting the blood is. A mix of pig and otter. Wesley enters. It turns out he's the one who picked Harmony from the steno pool. He says he thought a familiar face would help. Angel says he turned evil pretty fast. Harmony starts talking about how Cordelia will react to her being there. Angel tells her about the coma. Harmony is upset, saying Cordelia was her best friend her entire life. But she quickly gets over it. Wesley asks her to bring in the men from his office.

Corbin Fries enters with his attorney. He's about to be convicted and he wants them to do something. He knows who Angel is and doesn't care. He says if they don't save him, he'll say the magic word and bye bye California. Only the already dead will be left standing. Harmony is relieved.

Lorne is interviewing the staff. He has a sheet with names and 5 categories beside each name: okay, on the bubble, evil, to be fired, and yikes! They each sing for him so he can read them and report. Fred is explaining this to Knox, who says he's ready to go sing for Lorne. He says he wants her to be comfortable there and she says that'll never happen. The phone rings. Cut to the gang discussing the Fries threat. They think the threat is mystical, maybe a virus. Fred will see if they created it at Wolfram & Hart. Wesley will research the mystical element. Lorne will go to the court room and keep on eye on things. Harmony enters and says she has paged Gunn but he hasn't answered. She also has Spanky's address. Spanky is a mystic whose name was in Fries' file. Angel will visit him.

Angel goes to the garage where his cars are. He really likes them. Hauser, the head of special ops, shows up. He knows about Spanky and says he can bring him in. When Angel says he'll handle it, Hauser says his team handles the wet work. Angel says this time he'll go alone. At Spanky's, Angel identifies himself as from the firm and is invited in. The house has a bunch of s&m paraphernalia and Spanky notes he doesn't spank men, thinking Angel might be there for that. Angel asks about his work for Fries. Spanky doesn't want to talk about it, but admits he built a mystical vessel although he doesn't know what Fries put in it. When Angel asks where he put the vessel, Spanky grabs Angel by the throat and tries to choke him. Angel knocks him over.

Gunn is in a waiting room. He's called in and complains about being kept waiting 5 hours. He's asked about the white room and the conduit, but refuses to talk about it. It looks like a mystical medical office and the man who looks like a doctor or dentist asks him to take off his shirt. Cut to Fred and Knox going through files. Knox finds a lab technician who worked with Fries. The technician was later set on fire. He belonged to a cult which created viruses. The phone rings and it's Angel. Fred tells him about the virus. He says he found where the container is. Cut to the school and the boy who we learn is Matthew Fries, Corbin's son. He contains the virus.

Gunn is in a chair with equipment attached to him. The procedure clearly hurts, but he insists on continuing until it is finished. Fred tells Wesley they don't know what the virus is or what the antidote might be. He says he can't disable the trigger without knowing the magic word. Eve is in Angel's office. She knows about Connor and why this case is bothering Angel so much. She tells him he won't last a week if he continues this level of emotional involvement. He tells her to get out of his office. Fred's department isn't working at getting an antidote fast enough to suit her and she yells at them saying that when the virus hits and they all die she'll have the intense satisfaction of knowing she's dying with the only people in the world who deserve it. She yells at them to focus.

In court, things are not going well. Lorne calls Angel to tell him to get the child into isolation. Hauser and his people secretly listen to the call. Hauser heads to the school intending to kill the child and everyone in the class. No witnesses, he says. Harmony tells Angel that special ops left for the school and called for the cleaners, meaning lots of bodies. They have a 10 minute head start and Angel can't beat them there. Cut to the school, cut to the special ops team heading there, cut to Wesley entering the court room and showing Lorne he has brought a gun, cut to special ops arriving at the school. They break into the classroom only to find Angel there. Harmony told him he had a helicopter and he beat them there. Hauser realizes the boy is nearby, in isolation. Angel says they're fired. Hauser orders his men to fire. A fight ensues.

In the court room, Gunn enters, very nicely dressed. He takes over the defense and moves for a mistrial. He asks the judge to recuse herself. He says she owns stock in a company connected to a company owned by Fries. His conviction would diminish the company to an extent where she would have a controlling interest. She says she'll see him in her chambers.

Angel has beaten up the special ops team, but Hauser is still standing. Hauser is going to shoot him. He says he's pure, he believes in evil. But that Angel and his friends are conflicted. He says they possess the most powerful thing in the world, conviction. Angel says there is something more powerful, mercy. He kicks the gun, it goes off blowing out Hauser's brains. One of the special ops team asks what happened to mercy. Angel tells him he just saw the last of it.

At the office, Eve explains that they fed the entire knowledge of the law into Gunn's brain. He explains he spoke to the guy in the white room and says the guy is scary but doesn't lie. He offers to sing for Lorne to prove he wasn't turned evil. In addition to the law, he also has the complete works of Gilbert and Sullivan. Lorne says Fries is free and his son returned to him. Wesley says he and Fred can disable the bomb now. Gunn says he can draw out the trial for months and Fries will have to tone down his criminal activities in that time. Fred asks if that's their life from now on. Angel says they will make it work. That eventually Wolfram & Hart will tip its hand and they'll discover why it brought them there. He picks up the envelope and opens it. The amulet from Home falls out. Spike materializes. Harmony says 'Blondie Bear'.