Sense & Sensitivity (Angel episode)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Angel episode | |
| "Sense & Sensitivity" | |
 Angel undercover |
|
| Episode № | Season 1 Episode 6 |
|---|---|
| Guest star(s) | Elisabeth Rohm (Kate) Ron Marasco John Capodice |
| Writer(s) | Tim Minear |
| Director | James Contner |
| Production № | 1ADH06 |
| Airdate | November 9, 1999 |
| Episode chronology | |
| Previous episode | Rm w/a Vu |
| Next episode | Bachelor Party |
"Sense & Sensitivity" is episode 6 of season 1 in the television show Angel. See List of Angel (series) episodes for a complete list.
Contents |
[edit] Plot synopsis
[edit] Summary
Angel fears that Kate’s life is in danger after he helps her nab mobster Tony Papazian, a dangerous murder suspect. But the next day, after a retirement party for Kate’s father Trevor; a veteran police officer, Kate and all her co-workers become distracted due to seemingly innocuous sensitivity training. The training was led by a warlock working for Papazian’s lawyer Lee Mercer, another evil and soulless lawyer from the evil law firm Wolfram and Hart, and turns the entire police precinct into one big wound. The resulting chaos gives Papazian an opportunity to escape with a group of inmates and attempt to kill Kate. Cordelia and Doyle must come to the rescue after Angel himself becomes infected with the sensitivity spell.
[edit] Expanded Overview
A guy clad in black and carrying a duffel bag is chased through downtown L.A. by a woman. He reaches a car and starts to get inside but is stopped by the person pursuing him. It’s Kate, and she wanted the guy, Spivey, to come to the police station for questioning. Since he wouldn’t come in voluntarily, she has no choice but to arrest him. In an interrogation room at the station, she has him look at photos of himself with a guy named Little Tony Papazian. Kate reminds him that the photos were taken the day a sheriff was murdered, but Spivey claims that he hasn’t seen Little Tony since then. Through a one-way mirror, some other officers watch the interrogation, wondering how Kate can keep it going for so long. Kate gets fed up with Spivey and ends up slamming him against a wall, demanding to know where Little Tony is. Other officers enter and pull Kate away from Spivey, announcing that if he won’t give Little Tony up, they won’t be able to find him. Elsewhere, Angel battles a snakelike demon, receiving help in the form of a sword in the nick of time. He gets Doyle and Cordelia to dismember the dead demon and bury its parts away from each other so that it won’t come back to life. After he leaves, Cordelia complains to Doyle that Angel treats them insensitivity and could at least say “please” and “thank you.” She continues to mention his cluelessness, not noticing that one of the demon’s tentacles is trying to kill Doyle.
Cordelia and Doyle arrive at Angel’s office covered in green goo and Cordelia refuses to take any orders from Angel until he asks them how their dismembering went. They banter a little until Doyle speaks up that Cordelia thinks Angel is insensitive and wants him to demonstrate some human characteristics, like compassion and concern. Kate arrives and pulls Angel aside for a conversation, causing Cordelia to quip, “Mr. and Mrs. Spock need to mind-meld now.” Kate shows Angel the photos of Little Tony and asks him to look for him. She tells him that she’ll pay him for his work, but that he can only call her when he finds him and can’t get involved beyond that because it’s too dangerous. Cordelia and Doyle search for information on Little Tony and Angel awkwardly thanks Cordelia for her efforts. They find information on victims washing up on the coast and Angel wonders if they’re all originating from the same place. At the police station, Kate’s father Trevor Lockley (John Mahon) enters her office and they discuss his in-progress retirement. Kate receives a call from Angel telling her that Little Tony is near a pier in San Pedro. She tells him to get out of there, but he spots a yacht arriving and decides to take matters into his own hands. He dons a Hawaiian shirt and approaches Little Tony and his goon Benny, introducing himself as Herb Saunders and pretending that he thought the yacht was for a trip to Catalina. Benny tries to get rid of Angel, who hits him, asking if the hat he was wearing was over the top. Kate and some other officers arrive, pleased to be able to catch Little Tony.
After Little Tony is cuffed, Kate berates Angel for not leaving after he called her. He tells her that he didn’t want Little Tony to get away, but she’s upset that he put both himself and her at risk. At the station, Little Tony demands a phone call and Kate reluctantly grants him one. Little Tony calls his lawyer, Lee Mercer (Thomas Burr), who works for Wolfram & Hart and is already on top of things. He assures Little Tony that they’ll work things out as he receives a fax with information about Kate. After Mercer arrives at the station, he asks for Little Tony to be moved from the station, claiming that he was abused by the police and by an “unnamed assailant” possibly working with Kate. He threatens to reveal the department’s bad treatment of his client if they don’t do what he wants. Back at Angel’s office, Cordelia is pleased that Angel was able to do his job quickly and successfully, but Angel isn’t sure that everything’s completely over. She complains that he’s able to figure out when things aren’t quite right with regards to evilness, but he doesn’t even notice her new shoes. He tries to explain that men don’t pay attention to women’s shoes, but Doyle enters and ruins his point. He announces that, according to a source, Little Tony is planning something. Kate heads to a bar after work and is congratulated by a number of officers, including Trevor, for her work on the Little Tony case. One of her co-workers, Harlan, gives her information on a sensitivity training seminar and tells her that everyone at the station has to attend because of the way she treated Little Tony.
The seminar begins at the station with the leader, Allen, noting that no one actually wants to be there. He introduces them to a talking stick, which ensures whoever holds it the ability to talk without judgment. He begins a conversation with a cop named Heath, who opens up a little until Kate makes a sarcastic comment. Allen notes that Kate must have been hurt in the past and won’t open up because she’s afraid of being hurt again. Angel and Doyle meet with Doyle’s source, Johnny Red, who says that he doesn’t know what Little Tony is planning. However, through the reiteration of a conversation Johnny Red overheard, Angel figures out that Little Tony wants to go after Kate. He goes to the station, where Kate apologizes for getting mad at him and asks him to go with her to her father’s retirement party the next night. He accepts quickly and warns her that she might be in danger. She notes that Little Tony must be hurting if he wants to lash out at her. She realizes that she’s talking like a psychiatrist and promises that she’ll be back to her “usual level of cynicism” soon. Allen meets with Mercer in a mansion and tries to get the lawyer to open up about his feelings. Mercer is concerned that Allen won’t succeed at the station, but he promises that after the next day, Mercer will see results. Nearby is an altar with burning candles and a red cloth.
Kate and Angel arrive at the retirement party the next night, Kate admitting that she’s nervous and is glad that Angel came with her. He thinks that she’s worried about Little Tony, but she’s more concerned with having to speak in public. Angel congratulates Trevor on his retirement, and when Trevor tries to dismiss it as not being a big deal, Kate asks him why he always pretends that important things are unimportant. Trevor asks Angel how long he and Kate have been dating and remarks that, even though they’re not, he prefers seeing Kate out with a man to thinking that she’s a lesbian. Kate gets up to make her speech and, after saying some vaguely nice things, turns on her father. She accuses him of shutting down after her mother died and not letting her grieve the way she should have been able to. She’s jealous of the way he acts around his friends and wishes that she could spend time with him the way he spends time with them. Harlan encourages Kate to keep talking and congratulates her for being brave enough to come clean. Their lieutenant disapproves of her choosing the party as the place to open up but the other officers are starting to express their feelings to each other. They begin crying and fighting, and Angel and Kate decide to leave.
Cordelia is summoned to Angel’s office, where Kate is telling Angel what a sincere “old soul” he is. He asks her about the sensitivity training and she tells him that he should go to it. She notes that Doyle has a crush on Cordelia and that Cordelia doesn’t know what to do about it. Kate encourages her to allow herself to try a relationship with Doyle, something which Doyle is definitely in favor of but which just makes Cordelia try to get Angel back in the room. He heads out to talk to Allen while Cordelia and Doyle stay with Kate. Angel arrives at the place where Allen has his altar, noticing the talking stick on top of a book. Back at the office, Kate laments that her father walked out on her, then decides that she needs to find him. Cordelia and Doyle try to get her to stay put, but she pulls out her gun and says that if they try to stop her from leaving, she’ll shoot them. Of course, they let her go. Angel asks Allen which demon he worships, but Allen would rather talk about fear and anger. He asks Angel about his parents (who “tasted a lot like chicken”) and attempts to hit him with the talking stick. Angel grabs the stick, vamps out, and tells Allen that it’s his turn to do some talking. At the station, the cops are having a sensitivity marathon, apologizing and having epiphanies and letting prisoners out of their cells. Heath tries to talk to the prisoners about kindness, but they jump him. Kate enters the madhouse and tries to find Trevor. Out on the street, a cop talks to victims of a car accident about “emotional whiplash” as Angel runs past them towards the station. He encounters Cordelia and Doyle, who warn him that Kate might be about to do something dangerous. “Okay, I think someone needs a hug,” Angel says with a big smile. He embraces them both, ignoring Cordelia’s “eww”s.
Cordelia wonders what’s wrong with Angel and Doyle tells her that he thinks he’s found “Mr. Sensitivity.” Kate leaves a message on her father’s answering machine, begging him to talk to her. Angel happily tells Cordelia and Doyle that Allen’s talking stick is cursed (“there’s a stick that talks?” Cordelia asks), then reveals that Allen was hired by Wolfram & Hart to cause chaos in the station so that Little Tony could escape. He confirms that killing Kate wasn’t part of the plan, just something that Little Tony decided to do, and expresses sympathy for the guy. Cordelia asks Angel to get back to his darkness so that they can save Kate, but Angel is more concerned with closeness. The three try to get into the station but find that it’s locked. Inside, wackiness continues to ensue until Little Tony grabs a gun and organizes some of the prisoners to help him go after Kate. Outside, Cordelia and Doyle throw rocks at the station, trying to break a window so that they can get inside. (Angel disapproves.) They finally get inside just as Little Tony gets to Kate. Angel and Kate try to reach Little Tony and Cordelia and Doyle encourage Angel to fight instead. Angel and Kate start up the violence, still talking about their feelings, and Cordelia and Doyle join the fight. Once Little Tony is unconscious, Angel and Kate share a hug, much to Cordelia’s disgust. Later, Little Tony calls Mercer, who tells him that he can’t remain on his case, since he tried to kill a cop. While they talk, Mercer watches Angel on a tape of the conversation. The next morning, the cops are back to their independent, closed-off selves, believing that they acted strangely because someone spiked their drinks at the retirement party. Trevor arrives, having gotten Kate’s message on his machine, and blasts his daughter for embarrassing both of them. He tells her that as far as he’s concerned, none of it happened.
[edit] Episode Cast & Factions
Angel, Cordelia Chase, Allen Francis Doyle (all Angel Investigations)
Lee Mercer (Wolfram & Hart)
Allen Lloyd
Tony Papazian, aka "Little Tony"
unnamed squid-monster
Detective Kate Lockley, Detective Harlan, unnamed lieutenant, officer Heath (all LAPD)
Trevor Lockley
unnamed officers and detectives
Johny Red
Spivey, Benny (both henchmen of "Little Tony")
unnamed inmates
unnamed thief
L.A. citizens
[edit] Bestiary
[edit] Unidentified squid-like monster
Angel, Cordelia and Doyle fight a two-headed squid-like creature of enormous size that dwells in the sewers and could only be killed with an enchanted sword.
[edit] Tony Papazian aka "Little Tony"
Tony Papazian, street name "Little Tony", is a dangerous criminal and mobster wanted for the murder of County Supervisor Caffrey, whom Papazian shot in the back of the head, wrapped in plastic and locked in the trunk of his car. Little Tony is also a client of Wolfram & Hart, and as such, he enjoys the benefits of Wolfram & Hart's "full service", which also include methods to get jailed clients out of police custody. However, instead of merely taking the chance to escape, Papazian attempts to murder Kate in front of surveillance and a number of witnesses, which ends up being his undoing.
[edit] Wolfram & Hart - Lee Mercer
Lee Mercer is a young associate at Wolfram & Hart and the lawyer that represents Papazian. Scheming, confident and cold, Mercer's aim is to ensure Papazian's release by disrupting the Los Angeles police with the aid of Allen Lloyd.
Despite the great lengths Mercer goes in order to secure Papazian's escape, he abandons Papazian at the command of W&H's Senior Partners when he proves to be too much of a liability because of his attempt to murder Kate.
[edit] Allen Lloyd
Allen Lloyd is a demon worshipper masked as a sensitivity trainer, secretly in league with Lee Mercer. When Lee files a complaint on abuse to Papazian, Lloyd is sent to give sensitivity sessions at Kate's precinct. He uses a cursed "Talking Stick" as a talisman to infect his victims, making them more expressive of their feelings. This is just the first stage, as while some victims are paralyzed by their feelings, others unleash their repressed anger in violent ways, which was Lee Mercer's plan.
[edit] Writing and Acting
[edit] Production Details
[edit] Music
- Solomon Burke - "Everybody Needs Somebody"
- Solomon Burke - "Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)"
[edit] Quotes and trivia
[edit] Continuity
[edit] Arc Significance
[edit] Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
| Location, time (if known) |
Buffyverse chronology: Fall 1999 - December 1999 (non-canon = italic) |
|---|---|
| L.A. 1999 | Angel comic: Doyle: Spotlight |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.01 City of |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.01 The Freshman |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.02 Living Conditions |
| L.A. 1999 | |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.02 Lonely Hearts |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.00 Unaired Angel pilot |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Not Forgotten |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.03 The Harsh Light of Day |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.03 In the Dark |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.04 Fear, Itself |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy graphic novel: Blood of Carthage |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel graphic novel: Surrogates |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel comic: Strange Bedfellows story, Angel #4 |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy video game: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Game Boy Color) |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Tales of the Slayer: All That You Do Comes Back.. |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.04 I Fall to Pieces |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.05 Beer Bad |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.05 Rm w/a Vu |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy books: Lost Slayer series |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.06 Wild at Heart |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy graphic novel: Oz |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy book: Oz: Into the Wild |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.06 Sense & Sensitivity |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.07 The Initiative |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.07 Bachelor Party |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Close to the Ground |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Soul Trade |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel graphic novel: Earthly Possessions |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Redemption |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Shakedown |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Hollywood Noir |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Avatar |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Bruja |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: The Summoned |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.08 Pangs |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.08 I Will Remember You |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.09 Something Blue |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.09 Hero |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.10 Hush |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.10 Parting Gifts |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.11 Doomed |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.11 Somnambulist |
