Angel/Recap/S02/E12 Blood Money

Angel investigates why Wolfram & Hart are involved in a charity fundraiser for a home for runaways.

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Tropes used in Angel/Recap/S02/E12 Blood Money include:

• Accidental Public Confession: Subverted; Lindsey and Lilah think Angel has tape-recorded them discussing their Evil Plan to steal the charity money. Angel points out that it's very difficult to bug someone as Properly Paranoid as them. The 'tape' was only meant to be a distraction so Boone could steal the money himself.
• A MacGuffin Full of Money
• Amusing Injuries / Hypocritical Humor: Wesley is talking about the new agency they'll create. "We'll catch you when you fall!" Vision Girl promptly keels over in the background without anyone noticing.
• An Axe to Grind: Wes & Gunn hunting the two-headed fire-breathing thing.
• Armour Piercing Slap: Anne slaps Angel when she finds he used her as a distraction to steal the money himself.
• Bad Bad Acting: Cordelia is shown on tape rehearsing for an audition by using a coat rack. One of the celebrity actors quips that he finds the coat rack more convincing.
• Bald of Evil / Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Nathan Reed, Holland Manner's successor.
• Battle Discretion Shot: Gunn & Wes fighting the two-headed tunnel creature. Angel's final battle with Boone.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Anne Steele was last seen in the BTVS episode "Anne", where she called herself Lily and was a runaway herself.
• Continuity Nod
  • Anne mentions how she used to be a Vampire Vannabe until she met an actual vampire, referring to the events of BTVS "Lie to Me".
  • One of the fundraising celebrities recognizes Wesley as "the guy who's dating Virginia Bryce." Likewise the 'Wyndham-Price Agency' argument—both callbacks to "Guise Will Be Guise".
  • "We'll catch you when you fall!" is from Cordelia's proposed advertisement for Angel Investigations in Season One.
• Crash Into Hello: Angel uses this to lift Anne's wallet as well as get an introduction.
• Creator In-Joke: "This thing where your character's gay...is that just for ratings?" How many times do you think Alyson Hannigan was asked this? Also Wesley doing a James Bond impersonation—his character was first described as "Thinks he's Sean Connery when he's actually George Lazenby."
• Danger Takes a Backseat / Nothing Good Ever Happens in A Parking Garage: Angel does this to put the frighteners on Lilah Morgan; it's not as if she can see him in the rear mirror.
• Door Judo: Poor Merle.
• Fartillery: Wes and Gunn are about to take on the creature Cordelia saw in her vision.

Wesley: "No, no, wait. Wait. Wait until its back is turned...Now!"
[They jump out into the main tunnel only to flinch back from a jet of flame]
Gunn: "I thought she said he breathed fire!"

• Grey and Gray Morality: The Senior Partners are deliberately setting out to blur Angel's moral boundaries.

Nathan: "Which side he's on is the gray area, and we're gonna continue making it as gray as possible."

• Have We Met?: Averted; Angel (posing as a human) and Anne (then calling herself "Chantarelle") had a brief encounter in "Lie to Me", but neither of them appear to remember each other.
  • Writer Mere Smith explains: "Joss was like, 'Do you remember everybody you met three years ago, and shared three sentences with?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, fine, use logic.’"
• Honor Before Reason: In their first fight back in the 1920's, Boone let Angel leave because the sun was coming up, and he wanted to defeat him personally rather than watch him get dusted. In the present day Boone has a chance to walk away with over two million dollars, but he returns to challenge Angel to single combat, winner takes all.
  • Inverted by Anne.

Anne: (referring to the sticky red substance all over the money) What's this?
Angel: Blood.
Anne: It'll wash.

• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Angel is surprised that Anne isn't afraid of him, given that she's met vampires before.

Anne: "Well, I've seen worse things since. A fourteen-year-old girl sitting in her own blood after a rough trick and dozens of people just walking right by, so no, vampires, demons, even lawyers pretty much don't impress me."

• The Informant: Merle
• In the Hood / Dressing as the Enemy: Angel takes the place of the vampire-detecting demon.
• Ironic Echo: Angel says there's "blood on that money" that Wolfram & Hart are raising for the shelter. When Angel gives the money to Anne, it's literally true as he had to fight and presumably kill Boone to get it.
• Is This Thing Still On?: The fake tape shows Wes and Cordy arguing and goofing off in front of the camera.
• Meaningful Name: 'Anne' is Buffy Summers middle name; Lily asked if she could use that name at the end of "Anne". 'Steele' shows how her character has changed from that Cloudcuckoolander runaway who would attach herself to any strong protector, to the motivated and self-confident helper of runaways she is now.
• Multiple Head Case / Playing with Fire: The unseen creature in Cordelia's vision.
• Noodle Incident: That "disagreement over a senorita" in Juarez in the 1920's that caused Boone to challenge Angel in the first place.
• Not So Dire: Wesley and Gunn staring each other down and talking about "facing the odds." Turns out they're playing a board game.
• Oh Crap: Gunn & Wes sneak a quick peak at whatever's roaring away in the tunnel ahead. They duck back with terrified expressions.

Gunn: "The tunnel is almost twenty feet tall. It was crouching!"

• Perp Sweating / Rule of Three: Poor Merl again.
• Posthumous Character: The late-unlamented Holland Manners appears in a video promoting Anne's shelter for runaways. Aren't Wolfram & Hart wonderful people?
• Power Fist: Boone has steel cords that magically wrap around his fists to make knuckle dusters.
• Power Trio: After disposing of the double-headed fire-farter, Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn realise they do in fact make an effective demon-fighting team without Angel. If only they can agree on a name.
• The Reveal: The Senior Partners want Angel alive because "the vampire with a soul" is meant to play a key role in the Apocalypse. They just don't know which side he'll be on.
• Running Gag: The stylised angel on the Angel Investigations card being mistaken for a lobster.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Angel donates Cordelia's clothes, saying they were left at his place by someone who won't be returning. Anne naturally assumes he means an ex-girlfriend—Angel immediately blurts out, "God no!"
• Shout-Out: When Angel examines her driver's license, Anne's address is listed as "Willoughby Ave." Anne Steele and John Willoughby are characters in Sense and Sensibility.
• Sinister Surveillance: After Angel's apparently innocuous meeting with Anne, we discover he has extensive photographs of her in his apartment.
• Stealth Hi Bye: Angel somehow vanishes from the backseat of Lilah's car without opening the door.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: The Angel plot and the Wes/Gunn/Cordy plot—a trend that continues until "Epiphany".
• Vampire Invitation: Angel doesn't need an invite to walk into Merle's place because he's a demon. He does make sure to get an invite to the charity fundraiser from Anne so he can sneak into the joint.
• Villainous Demotivator: When Lindsey complains about how they're not allowed to kill Angel, Nathan says the aim is to bring Angel over to the Dark Side and if Angel killing Lindsey and Lilah achieves that, that's just too bad. "You're expendable. Angel isn't."
• What the Hell, Hero?: Angel says the Wolfram & Hart intend to steal the 95% of the money raised but then he lets Boone steal all of it. Fortunately Boone has his own sense of honor.
• Worlds Smallest Violin: Lilah says that if Boone kills Angel the Senior Partners will be pissed.

Lindsey: "Boo-hoo. Let me wipe away the tears with my plastic hand!"

• You Have Failed Me...: Nathan tells Lilah and Lindsey that he's not as fond of them as Holland was, and if they want to save themselves they need to start "piling up wins, fast".

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