Angel/Recap/S04/E06 Spin the Bottle
A spell meant to help Cordelia recover her memory causes the Fang Gang to revert to their teenaged selves.
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Teen!Cordy: (groping her own boobs) I've filled out.
Teen!Fred: (looks down at hers) And I'm... apparently not gonna.
- All's Well That Ends Well: Lampshaded by Lorne -- and averted.
- All Women Love Shoes: Cordelia knows the name of every shoe store in the Beverly Center.
- Alpha Bitch: Who else would be mean to Fred?
Teen!Cordy: Oh, we're both in school. Oh, gosh, let's be best friends so I can lose all my cool ones.
- Amnesia Danger
- Angry Black Man: Teen!Gunn was one militant little tyke.
"I got no problem believin' that The Man is messin' with us!"
- Blade Below the Shoulder / Impossibly Cool Weapon: Wesley's wrist-mounted collapsible swords.
- Bottle Episode: Appropriately enough, "Spin the Bottle" has at least the tendencies of a Bottle Episode -- most of the episode takes place in the hotel, with no guest stars and an "amnesia" concept that makes for a low need of special effects.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Lorne speaks directly to the audience, narrating the plot, and even going as far as to say "Well, those were some exciting products. Am I right?" after one of the act breaks.
- Breather Episode
- Call Back: The gag about mistaking cars for demons was used in the Buffy episode Halloween, where Buffy took on the personality of an 18th century noblewoman.
- Calling Me a Logarithm: Teen!Wes dubs Teen!Gunn a pugilist after catching his fist to the jaw.
Teen!Gunn: Oh, your ass better pray I don't look that word up.
- Comically Missing the Point: The whole point of the episode.
Teen!Wes: Judging from the amount of facial hair I've grown, we've all been unconscious for at least a month.
Teen!Cordy: (touches her short hairstyle) Oh, God. Oh, God. My hair. My hair. (crying) The government gave me bad hair.
Teen!Wes: It's...eh...very attractive. But a clue, nonetheless. Perhaps the whole point of this experiment is hair.
Teen!Gunn: I vote he's not in charge.
- Teen!Fred running the cross over her body like a metal detector wand.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Teen!Fred
- Continuity Nod
- Cordelia and Wesley in their Buffy the Vampire Slayer personalities.
- Lorne complains about being tied to a chair again.
- Teen!Wesley mentions a test done by the Watcher's Council which involves being locked in a house with a vampire.
- Teen!Cordy exclaims "salty goodness" on seeing Angel, as she did the first time she laid eyes on him in Buffy.
- Corpsing: They had to structure a comedic scene so that Angel and Wesley didn't have to look at each other because neither actor could keep a straight face.
- Curtain Camouflage: Teen!Fred hiding from Vampire!Angel.
- Description Cut: Loads as we switch between Narrator!Lorne and the events he's describing.
- Dirty Coward
Teen!Gunn: (introducing self) Gunn.
Teen!Wes: (ducking) Where!!!
- Duct Tape for Everything: Including tying up Lorne.
- Easy Amnesia
- Everybody Must Get Stoned: The trippy sequence when the spell is first cast. Fred asks for weed afterwards, just in case you didn't get the point.
- Fake Irish / Not Even Bothering with the Accent: David Boreanaz never really got the hang of the Irish accent. Joss Whedon states that they chose not to use the accent because there was no way that Boreanaz could do it for a full episode.
- Failed Attempt At Drama: Teen!Wesley, of course.
"The simple fact is... the fiend has been under our noses the entire time, waiting for the moment to... (takes cross out of his breast pocket, and puts it in Gunn's face) strike!" (Gunn punches Wesley in the face)
- Fish Out of Temporal Water: Liam/Angel.
Teen!Angel: (after Cordelia turns off a radio) How did—? You stopped the tiny men from singing.
Teen!Cordy: You really are far from home, aren't you?
- Five-Man Band: Lampshaded by Gunn.
Gunn: So, I guess I'm the muscle, huh?
Wesley: Sorry?
Gunn: Angel's the man on the card. It's his world. I'm not a leader no more. Don't got that champion's heart like Cordy. And the brains - that was you. So that leaves muscle.
- Foreshadowing: Our first glimpse of the Beast.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar
Teen!Wes: Wyndham-Pryce. (grabs his lapels, puffs up with pride) I am from the Watcher's Academy in southern Hampshire. In fact, I happen to be Head Boy.
Teen!Cordy: Gee, I wonder how you earned that nickname.
Teen!Wes: A lot of effort, I don't mind saying.
Lorne: Well, the fact is, I had every reason to believe that the spell would work. And it did...after a fashion. (sips drink) Well, what happened during it and what came after... Ooh, I'm gonna need a bigger drink.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Connor re Angel/Cordelia. And Gunn tells Wes to back off from Fred or else.
Wesley: I'm glad to see you have such faith in your relationship.
Teen!Wes: (overly dramatic) All right. I'm going to let you all in on something you may have trouble comprehending. I assure you that however—-
Teen!Gunn: Vampires are real.
Teen!Wes: I was telling!
- Ho Yay: Teen!Wes is arguing with Teen!Gunn.
Teen!Cordy: Hey, you two want to stop the homo-erotic buddy cop session long enough to explain this?
Teen!Angel: (looking in the mirror) "I'm invisible!"
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Teen!Angel needs an ale.
- Incredibly Lame Pun / Shaped Like Itself
Lorne: We can stop this talking and cut to the Cordelia Chase in two ticks of a... ticking thing.
- Is This Thing On?
- Kung Fool: Teen!Wes ka-rate technique.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia
- Mistaken for Masturbating: Teen!Angel morphing in and out of Game Face in the toilet sounds to Teen!Cordy like he's having A Date with Rosie Palms.
- Modesty Towel: Cordy.
- Mood Whiplash: From wacky teenage hijinks to our first glimpse of the first major antagonist for the season, Cordelia leaves the group and Angel is alone and heart-broken, and Lorne, who's also been directly addressing the audience the whole episode closes things out by delivering one of the most somber, heart-breaking monologues on the series.
- Mundane Solution: Everyone assumes they've been locked in -- halfway through the episode Teen!Angel just opens the door and walks out of there (fortunately he's unable to cross the street because of the terrifying 'demons', and nobody goes to check his story).
- My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: Fred says something to Lorne in his native language that she thinks means "may your words please the gods." Lorne informs us that what she actually just said was "may you orally pleasure the gods."
- The Narrator: Lorne
- The Nicknamer: Teen!Cordy really goes to town -- Teen!Fred is "Scarlet O'Please-Shut-Me-Up". Teen!Wes is "Princess Charles" or "Head Cheese". Teen!Gunn is "Hair Club For Men". Teen!Angel is "Tall-Dark-And-Slightly-Less-Pathetic-Than-You-Two".
- Not Helping Your Case: Cordelia thinks she might have been the subject of workplace harassment from Angel.
Angel: I was never—in the workplace, I— Well, there was that one time with the ballet and the stripping and the roundness, but that was a spell.
- Not So Different / Freudian Excuse: Teen!Angel doesn't recognise who Connor is, and starts ranting to him about his relationship with his father. Connor does notice how similar Angel's complaints are to some of his own complaints about Angel.
- Nothing Up My Sleeve: Played for Drama (Wesley threatening Gunn) then Played for Laughs (Teen!Wes' numerous accidental discharges).
- Once More, with Clarity: Cordelia getting her memories back.
- Ontological Mystery: Lampshaded
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: "Liam's" confusion at his sudden lack of an accent.
- Percussive Therapy: Connor working off his sexual frustration (by beating up vamps) and parental issues (by beating up Dad).
- Pratfall
- Reliably Unreliable Guns: Teen!Wes keeps having accidental wrist-weapon discharges.
Aargh! (finally getting his weapon under control) All right! Nobody scream! Or touch my arms...
- Reveal Shot: Lorne has been narrating the story to an empty room.
- Rescue Sex: Connor saves a blonde in daisy dukes who's eager to show her appreciation. Unfortunately she turns out to be a prostitute who insists on being paid fifty bucks which Connor doesn't have. Later when Teen!Cordy hints at being very grateful if he kills Vampire!Angel stone dead, Connor is more than eager to oblige.
- Sarcasm Mode: Cordelia faced with Angel's waffling over last weeks' cliffhanger question.
Angel: Well, I'm not sure.
Cordelia: Now, I think that's the sort of thing I'd remember. Hey, maybe you wrote it down somewhere -- a note on the fridge, maybe?
- Screaming Woman: Teen!Cordy's superpower.
Vampire!Angel: That really is inhuman.
- Something Else Also Rises / Visual Innuendo: Teen!Fred thinks that aliens are responsible for their predicament.
Teen!Fred: I can just see myself lying on a table — no clothes, no will — while they probed and explored and did whatever they wanted to my naked, helpless body. (Wes's dagger accidentally shoots out of his forearm).
Teen!Wesley: [later] Well, let's not give up probe. (beat) Hope. Give up hope.
- Spin the Bottle: Duh.
- Spot the Imposter / Holy Burns Evil: The gang pass a cross from hand to hand to find out who's the vampire. No-one notices Angel's hand smouldering because Lorne happens to wake up.
- The Stoner: Teen!Fred keeps hoping to cop some weed.
- Take That
Cordelia: I know my ABC's, my history, I know who's President, and that I sorta wish I didn't.
- Talk to the Fist: Angel tries to knock out Lorne who's about to blurt out that he's a vampire, but only gives himself away.
- Ten Little Murder Victims: Teen!Wes plays up this trope for all it's worth.
Teen!Wes: Five people, each unknown to each other, far from home, trapped together at night-- (Angel eyes Cordelia's neck as she listens intently to Wes) I submit that the blood-sucking fiend may be closer than we dared suspect. That it may be—
Teen!Angel: (stands suddenly) I'll search the rooms.
Teen!Wes: I was getting to the good part!
Teen!Angel: But we can't just wait for the vampire to appear. I'll just flush him out--
Teen!Wes: (jumping up and down) ...that it may be one of us!
- Tomato in the Mirror: Teen!Angel finds out he's the vampire that everyone is talking about staking.
- The Unpronounceable
Teen!Wes: (re Lorne) It's... a demon. Probably of the Karathmama...nyuhg family.
- The Vamp: Teen!Cordy
- Vomit Discretion Shot: During the acid-trippy sequence the camera cuts to Fred, who is petting a potted fern with fascination. Right before she vomits off to the side.
- We Used to Be Friends
Gunn: What happened to you, man?
Wesley: I had my throat cut and all my friends abandoned me.
- What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Lorne introduces the Phlebotinum.
Lorne: A memory spell — provided by one of my clients —- that is guaranteed to bring our Cordy back to the way she was.
Angel: Guaranteed?
Lorne: No pain, no side-effects. I'm telling you, swingers, there's no way this can fail.
Cut to Lorne, narrating
Lorne: So, I'm an idiot. What are you —- perfect?
- You Are a Credit to Your Race: Teen!Wesley and Teen!Gunn are grappling each other.
Teen!Cordy: Aren't you going to stop them?
Teen!Angel: It's about time the English got what was coming to them. I'm rooting for the slave.
- Back to Angel