Harm's Way

Plot

We see a cheesy recruitment/orientation film for Wolfram & Hart telling the firm's history and the new Angel zero tolerance policy of not killing people. Cut to Harmony getting up (is it 7 am or pm ?). She showers (be your best is on her wall), brushes her teeth, does her hair, dresses, and heads off for work. She passes a lady with a dog. The lady doesn't return her greeting and the dog barks. At the office, she brings in Angel's dry cleaning, then goes to the lounge where she bumps into a girl. She tries to talk to two others, but they ignore her. She heats up some blood for Angel (the mug says #1 Boss). She takes a bowl out of the microwave and the guy who put it in complains, but she blows him off pointing out her boss is his boss's boss.

Angel comes by and she tells him about his schedule, the cleaning, and the catering she took care of for the coming demon confab. But he's been listening to his demon language tapes (his clicks are all wrong) and hasn't heard anything she said. He asks about the catering, but when Gunn comes up he walks off ignoring her and basically slams the door in her face as she tells him she went above and beyond over the catering. At her desk, a guy called Rudy comes to check that she hasn't been drinking human blood. She comes up negative. Eli, a sleazy accountant demon, shows up saying he has an appointment with Angel. Gunn calls him in. She realizes Angel forgot his blood and takes it in only to see him cut off Eli's head.

Gunn and Angel explain Eli was killing virgins for amusement. Harmony is still upset at his beheading. Fred, Lorne, and Wesley come up. Spike walks in and says he's been out drinking and enjoying his new corporealization. He says he's off to see Buffy. Wesley thinks he should stay until the prophecy is resolved, but Spike says Angel is welcome to the prophecy. He asks for money and Angel refuses, so he asks for a ride and Angel says any car except the Viper. Spike says he'll take the Viper. He thanks Fred for having believed in him and for having tried to help him. Harmony is upset he doesn't talk to her and asks if he's mad at her for trying to kill him when they were having sex. He tells her to keep it simple.

Angel is explaining about the demon confab. Two demon clans have been at war. It started 5 generations ago when at a feast a guest from one clan used the wrong fork. Gunn says the clans are finicky about manners. Tobias Dupree, a demon rights activist, is the only man both clans trust and he is brokering a peace and the talks are to take place at Wolfram & Hart. Wesley wonders why they don't let the clans slaughter one another, but Gunn says if they can make the peace work, it will impress the demon world. Wesley has a list of their rules and suggests they memorize it. Lorne's assistant, Dan, shows up. He's the one from the lounge. He has a seating chart and Lorne praises his work and calls him an up and comer. Fred says they have an upgrade to the weapons scanner and it is state of the art. Gunn says he'll do the talking since his brain upload included some demon languages. Angel says in addition to the etiquette issues, the demons are very superstitious. Harmony starts talking about what she's learnt (they think poodles are bad luck), but Wesley cuts her off saying they should order lunch. Fred says not Thai.

In the lounge, Harmony over hears two others talking about Fred and speculating about her and Gunn. Harmony says she thinks Wesley and Fred are involved and the others quickly disagree. Dan arrives with muffins from Lorne and the others think he's being groomed. Harmony says Angel grooms her as well, the others act as if they don't believe her. She gets an angry call from Angel and goes back to the office. He's mad because a camel has been delivered. She says she researched the demons and a camel is what they would want to eat at the meeting. She says Angel can ceremonially slaughter it. He tells her to get dip instead and get rid of the camel. Fred walks up during this and when Angel leaves she tries to be nice to Harmony who starts to cry and says Angel hates her. Fred tries to comfort her and ends up agreeing to go out for drinks with her. Over drinks, Harmony explains how sad her life is. She wasn't good at being evil and she's not good here and she has nowhere to go. She says she wishes she were like Fred, only not so flat. She says Knox and Wesley are after Fred and Fred says yes, then no, then wonders why she's telling this to Harmony and Harmony says they are bonding and are gal pals. Harmony admits she has no friends. Fred says she has to put herself out there. Harmony thinks one of the guys at the bar has been checking her out and Fred says she should go over to him. She does and while she's awkward, he offers to buy her a drink.

Cut to Harmony waking up in bed with the guy next to her. She can't remember his name. She tries to wake him, but he's dead and there are bite marks on his neck. Cut to Harmony carrying the body (wrapped in something) to the trash chute. The lady with the dog walks past, the dog barks. She pushes the body down, but sees it bounces out of the dumpster. She runs downstairs and tosses it in the dumpsters. The lady walks by again and the dog growls. Harmony tosses some garbage on top of the body.

At the office, Harmony spots Rudy the tester and slumps down in her chair to hide from him. Angel comes and asks for his blood, he wonders what she is doing and she says desk crunches. At the microwave, she takes out the bowl again and heats the blood. She can't remember what happened the night before. She blames it on her drinking and blames that on Fred for going with her to the bar. She reasons it is all Fred's fault. Dan shows up and complains about her taking his bowl out. She gets her thermos out of the fridge and starts gulping down blood. She says she's stress eating. Angel phones, wondering where his blood is. At her desk, Harmony is ordering dip from the caterer. There is a call from the police for Angel. They found the body. Angel calls Gunn and Wesley. The dead man was the demon rights activist, Toby. Harmony remembers he told her he was an astronaut. Angel and the others wonder whether this was an attempt to derail the demon summit. They call the demons who want revenge. Angel tries to talk to them, but he doesn't have a grasp of the language yet and insults them. They call him whore man. Gunn calms them and promises they'll find the killer and punish him. Angel says the body is in the lab and Harmony rushes down there. Fred is already examining it. Fred thinks Harmony was sent by Angel who wants quick results. Harmony plays along and says couldn't the killer have had a blackout and not known what he did. Fred, not understanding, agrees. She says the vampire was female. Harmony says maybe he was gay, but Fred says it doesn't work that way. She says she actually enjoyed the previous night and would do it again. She asks about the guy at the bar. Harmony says he was a loser she dumped and tells Fred he told her he was an astronaut.

Harmony leaves and walking down the hallway she plans to flee to Mexico. Then she realizes Fred said the man was bitten on the right and realizes that means she is innocent. Rudy comes up and tests her, she's positive. She knocks him out and dumps him in a supply closet. She bumps into Lorne and asks what happens to the test results. He says they get transmitted immediately to the lab. He hears Rudy moaning. She knocks him out and dumps him in the closet. At the lab, Fred knows she tested positive. Harmony explains what happened, but says she was drugged and didn't do it. She points out she's a right biter, she leans right when she bites which means she bites you on your left. Toby was bitten on the right. She says her thermos must have been spiked with human blood. Fred wants to tell Angel, she says he'll help. Harmony disagrees. She knocks her out and dumps her in the closet. She has put tape over the mouths of her three victims and promises she'll buy them dinner once she clears her name.

Harmony figures there are fingerprints on the thermos. In the lobby, the demon clans have arrived and want a sacrifice. They'd like the killer, but will settle for anyone. Angel calls for Harmony, but he just wants her to get an update from Fred. She goes to the lounge where she sees Dan touching her thermos. She thinks he's getting rid of the evidence, he says he's getting Lorne's protein snack. She shoves him against the wall and shouts at him, accusing him of framing her. Others try to stop her, but she puts on her vampire face and scares them off. He's crying and suddenly another woman hits him on the head with a bottle, knocking him out. She says she did it to make it look like Harmony did. Harmony realizes this woman is the killer, but she doesn't know her.

The woman sat next to Harmony in the steno pool. Her name is Tamika, although Harmony thought it was Sambuca. Tamika says Harmony was only there for 5 weeks, Harmony says it was 4 and a half. Tamika was in the steno pool for 5 years. She types 80 words per minute and has a pleasant telephone voice. She's angry that Harmony was fast tracked. She believes Harmony is one of the in-crowd. Harmony puts on her face, ready to fight. Tamika puts hers on, she's a vampire, too. They fight. Tamika slipped a roofie into Harmony's drink at the bar, then followed her home and killed Toby when she passed out. The girls pick up chopsticks and attempt to stake each other with them. Tamika seems to be getting the better of her, but then she says the first thing she'll do is trash all of the unicorns at Harmony's desk. This gives Harmony the motivation she needs and she soon is pulling Tamika down the hall to Angel's office. Meanwhile, the demon clans are demanding a sacrifice. Harmony and Tamika crash into the room and Harmony stakes her on the table. The demon clans say it works for them.

Later, Angel has everyone in his office, including Rudy, Lorne, and Fred. He says Harmony should have come to him. Harmony apologizes and says she was scared. She says she knows Angel never wanted her as his secretary. Gunn comes in and says the meeting is going well. Fred says Harmony could have handled it better, but she didn't kill anybody. Rudy says she'll be clean in two days and he'll be watching her. Harmony says she knows he won't have to and she'll clean out her desk. Angel tells her just to bring them coffee. That night at the bar she's complaining to the bartender that she saved the conference and all she got was 'bring us coffee'. Spike walks in. He decided he couldn't go to see Buffy because he made such a great exit how can he come back from that. She says girls don't care about that. That when Buffy sees him she'll get all tingly and forget how horribly he treated her and how he took her for granted. He starts to say he never took her for granted, then realizes Harmony was talking about herself. He says if he shows up now his grand finale won't matter. Harmony says she understands about not mattering. He says she mattered to the girl who framed her, she hated Harmony. Harmony realizes this is true, she does matter. She smiles.