Habeas Corpses

Airdate: January 15th, 2003

Special Guest Star: Andy Hallett

Guest Starring: Stephanie Romanov
Daniel Dae Kim
Vladimir Kulich

Written by: Jefferey Bell
Directed by: Skip Schoolnik

Teaser

We pick up where we last left off, it’s raining fire over Los Angeles, Cordy and Connor are having sex in his home. Angel, battered from his fight with the Beast, is watching all of this from a rooftop. He storms away, kicking and hitting stuff on the way, screaming, venting out anger. The rain of fire goes on.

ACT I

Fred worries about the others, as she’s alone inside the hotel, fielding calls from panicked civilians when Gunn, Wes and Lorne, bruised and bloodied walk in. But no Angel, yet. Gunn will bring Fred up to speed but first he thinks they should regroup and face the Beast again, Wes thinks otherwise but then Gunn didn’t ask. Lorne confirms that it’s the Beast he saw with all the pain and suffering and despair in Cordelia. Angel comes in, brooding, saying they’ll talk about it in the morning. Fred asks if anyone checked in with Connor and Cordy, Angel mumbles that they’re fine. All notice extra broody-ness.

Morning at Connor’s: Cordy wakes up, surprised and aghast at what she’s done. The world hasn’t ended after all. Connor wakes up, obviously expecting some more. It’s difficult for her, last night was special, they needed it, but it happened under unusual circumstances. He doesn’t understand, Cordy explains that I can’t happen again, after all he’s Angel’s son. With the previous night’s prophetic events, Connor interprets it as it’s all his fault, fire, demon, all of it. he storms out.

Wesley’s apartment: Lilah comes in looking for him. She hugs him, concerned. She slept at Wolfram & Hart, the safest place to be in case of an apocalypse. She hoes to make him feel better, but he says it’s over: he believes a day of reckoning has arrived, and he’s chosen his side. She tells him he’s making a mistake. He says there’s a line, good and evil, right and wrong, black and white. Lilah says that when you mix them you end up with grey and no matter how much white you add, you still end up with grey.

At A.I., Fred’s research turns out nothing when Cordelia drops by, looking for Angel. She goes to his office wanting to talk about Connor, but he already knows about it and doesn’t want to talk about it. But she insists that they have to talk about the fact that the Beast rose from where Connor was born, obviously not what Angel was referring to. He dismisses it as coincidence, even though it’s the same spot that Darla gave birth. And now Connor’s stormed out from his place believing he’s connected to the Beast.

Wolfram & Hart: Lilah is threatening death to those who can’t find the Beast. Gavin confirms to her that the Beast triggered the rain of fire, they’re just not sure why. Lilah understands that it did it because it can, and that since it doesn’t appear to gave an agenda it makes their job a bit tricky. The Senior Partners want to cut a deal with it. Gavin’s surprised but Lilah goes on that it wants the same thing they do: apocalypse, end of the world, it could speed things along and save a few bucks. Lilah is confident that she can convince it to see their way. Gavin leaves but walks back in when Connor waltzes in, he has questions. He wants to know why he’s here, what he is, Lilah tells him that there only happy to oblige at W&H. she pushes a secret button and some guards come in; he may not survive the answers. Connor takes out both guards in one punch and grabs Lilah by the throat: he has a different idea. He thinks he’s connected to the Beast, he wants to find out how. She asks Gavin to hand over the report of the Beast to Connor when the power fails (emergency lights come on) and the ground shakes. It’s here.

ACT II

Lilah is sure it’s only an aftershock, but the phones are out. Gavin tries a guard’s walkie-talkie and calls the front desk, but we only hear screams and it stops. Connor has his “I told you so” look and grabs a knife. Lilah has Gavin check the front desk, after all what’s he more afraid of: a giant murderous demon or her? Gavin leaves. She asks Connor what this thing wants, he says everybody dead. She grabs a gun.

The W&H lobby: bodies are flying and littering the floor. The Beast stands there triumphantly holding a severed head. The rest of the building evacuates through the stairwell as the elevators don’t work. Connor and Lilah separate when he aims to find it and kill it. The Beast kills all those who emerge on the 3rd floor, he keeps walking around until he senses something and opens a stockroom door. Gavin is in there, frantically searching for something. The Beast grabs him, snaps his neck, and throws the body aside. Meanwhile, Connor lurks around, the floor full off of bodies and blood everywhere, when he hears gunshots. Lilah is futilely shooting at the Beast, which sets her on the table, and starts digging in her abdomen with its claw, then tosses her aside, still alive. Connor stabs it, the blade breaks off. It calls him by name before sending Connor through a column, shattering in a dropping a ton of debris on him. Lilah flees, clutching her stomach, when Wes grabs her in a room. She doesn’t understand why he’s here, he explains he had a man on the inside. She informs him that the building shuts down when it comes under attack: doors, windows, air vents, everything; and as she says that steel sections cover the windows. The Beast smashes through the door Wes carries Lilah and runs. She directs Wes to a backdoor, while the Beast slows down to kill some hapless employee. Wes stops and throws a grenade at it, long enough for them to buy some time. They notice the dead Gavin and enter the utility closet. They pull a hidden switch and a small door opens. By the time beast arrives at the closet, they’re gone. It moves on

Wes and Lilah drop down to the sewers. He tells her to disappear, get patched up and leave town. He doesn’t think it’ll stop until everyone at Wolfram & Hart is dead, she has to go underground, change her name. He leaves and she calls his name, almost pleading with her eyes. She tells him that Connor is trapped in the building, last seen in the 3rd floor conference room, but there’s no way in. They part ways, Lilah hobbling away.

Fred, Gunn, Lorne, Angel and Cordelia are turning up nothing in their research about the Beast. Gunn reminds the gang that the alley is right behind of what’s left of Caritas, a known interdimensional hotspot. Cordy points out that the Beast came out of a pothole, not a portal. Wes walks in, a bit more beaten, and informs them that the Beast is at W&H, killing everything in sight. Gunn’s heard worse news, until Wes adds that Connor is trapped in the building. Cordy doesn’t understand why he’s in there, Angel’s going back in for Connor. Wes says it won’t be easy, there’s no way out, but Angel bets there’s a way in.

Connor, walking around the dead corpses, passes by Gavin’s body, his eyes open up.

ACT III

The team readies their weapons as Fred is impressed with the fact that Wes has inside info on W&H, Wes tells her it’s part of the job. Cordy goes to Angel and assures him Connor will be fine: he’s special, like his father. Angel trips on those words. Lorne volunteers to stay behind and mind the store while Gunn asks what’s going to stop the Beast from beating them to a bloody pulp again? Angel says they’re going in for Connor, not to fight the Beast. But will the Beast see the difference? Angel doesn’t know, he doesn’t have the answers, or even know most of the questions. What he does know is that he has to go in there and rescue his son. Angel goes that that if they see the Beast, they run like hell. He asks of Cordy, insists, that she stays behind, citing that it’s different and then takes Fred with him. Cordy is seething.

The A.I. crew walk the sewers to the point where Wes and Lilah had dropped down, but the door is 30 meters up a shaft. Gunn goes on Wesley’s case, but Angel tells them both to shut up: he doesn’t care what’s going on between them, they’re there for Connor. Angel jumps and climbs the shaft and when he’s reached the top, throws them a rope. Reaching the lobby, they slowly make their way through the bodies. They go up the stairs to the 3rd floor, a random corpse opens its eyes. Gunn still doesn’t understand the Beast went after W&H, aren’t they on the same team? Angel speculates that it wanted to eliminate the competition. They pass by the 3rd floor stockroom/back exit and Wes curiously wonders what happened to Gavin’s body, it’s gone. They make their way to the conference room and remove the column debris, Connor’s not there. Angel does smell him, he was here, and that means he’s still alive. Angel separates from the group: he’ll take one stairwell, they’ll take another one. Angel cautiously searches the 7th floor, shadows pass by, he keeps moving. Connor attacks him but stops when he realizes it’s his father, Angel’s glad his son is alive. Connor says it’s his fault and he has to kill it. Angel tells him it isn’t and they’ve thrown everything they’ve had at it, it’s not enough and they need to regroup. Gavin suddenly attacks Angel, he tosses Gavin aside easily, he’s a zombie. Connor asks what’s a zombie and Angel unsuccessfully tries to tell him the differences between vampires and zombie. Gavin attacks again, but he’s again, tossed aside. More zombies rise, they need to find the others.

The others are still searching for Connor, when a body that was there a minute ago has disappeared and suddenly several zombies attack, the trio retreats to a room.

ACT IV

Gunn, Wes and Fred are surrounded by zombies and barricade the door, the back one is locked. Gunn was scratched by a zombie, but doesn’t know if he was bitten. He asks Wes to make sure he doesn’t turn into one. The zombies burst through the door, Fred hits the lock and breaks it, but Gunn is surrounded by zombies, and screams for the others to go. They do so and close the door behind them.

Elsewhere in the building, Angel lists the way to kill a zombie and tells them they have a chance since zombies are slow and stupid. Angel looks at the slowly moving throng of them, dozens upon dozens.

Wes needs to get both him and Fred to safety and barricades the door behind them. Behind the next door are more zombies and Wes locks that one. They wait and then they’ll fight, he doesn’t know why the zombies are there, security voodoo or something the Beast can do. Gunn comes though the barricaded door, unharmed, Angel and Connor through the other, and no zombies are there. They got what they came fore but both the 3rd floor and lobby exits are too far. Angle says there’s another way out: the White Room, an interdimensional gateway with something old and evil, pretending to be a little girl. He met her when he was looking for Connor and he’ll need Fred’s help to get to the White Room. The group runs to the elevator banks with zombies slowly converging on them. Fred hotwires an elevator while the others battle the zombies. She activates the bypass command and the elevator has power. They retreat inside the cab and Angel begins pushing the buttons in the sequence he remembered with his photographic memory, but nothing happens. He tries again, while Gunn chops off Gavin’s head. The doors close and the White Room button appears. They’re in the white room and the beast is there, draining some black fog like energy from the little girl. It came for this, for her. there doesn’t appear to be another way out. The girl points at them and says that the answer is among them. The Beast has finished draining her and moves toward the A.I. crew, they raise their weapons, ready to fight. The girl opens her fingers towards them and chants. They’re sent back to the Hyperion, Lorne does a double take when the crew is suddenly there. Cordy goes to Connor and hugs him, she was worried about him. Fred says it’s awful what happened to that girl, Wes says it was something ancient and evil dressed like a little girl. If the Beast can just waltz in there and suck the energy out of her, it’ll take a force far smarter and superior than they to defeat it. Angel’s in his office sorting files when Cordy comes in, she was worried, he gives her the cold shoulder. He tells her to “take your new boyfriend and get the hell out here.” Cordy connects the dots “Oh my God.”

Summary By Dannyboy

Quotes

(A=Angel C=Cordelia W=Wesley G=Gunn F=Fred L=Lorne Cn=Connor Li=Lilah Gv: Gavin Parks)

W: “That’s not what Angel would do.”
G: “Thanks for your opinion! And I don’t remember asking.”

L: “Oh, I believe he’s referring to the big bad, possibly invincible, demon-y thing that nearly killed us all before he ring-mastered tonight’s Cirque de Flambe’.”

L: “He looks like he was hit by a tank.”
G: “I don’t remember ever seeing him that down after a fight.”
W: “Can’t really blame him. No one likes to lose.” “Whatever the circumstance.”

Cn: “Morning. Did the world end?”
C: “Not exactly.”

C: “Don’t do that.”
Cn: “Do what?”
C: “That. The Look. The Happy Puppy Look. It makes it harder.”

Li: “I left you a couple hundred messages last night. Don’t feel obligated to return any of them.”

Li: “You know it’s weird. Rain of fire. Whole city burning. Why do I feel a chill?”

Li: “Yeah, yeah. I heard it a million times, cowboy. We both know how this song ends: You. me. Broken furniture.”

W: “After what I saw last night, I believe a Day of Reckoning has arrived.”
Li: “And you just _reckon_ you’ll toss in with the good guys?”
W: “I’m choosing a side.”
Li: “And the girl of your dreams just happens to be on it. hmmm what are the odds.

W: “It’s about right and wrong.”
Li: “And you have such a clear grip on those concepts.”
W: “I’ve made mistakes.”
Li: “You’re making a big one now.”

W: “There is a line, Lilah. Black and white. Good and evil.”
Li: “Funny thing about black and white: You mix it together and you’ve got gray. And it doesn’t matter how much white you try to put back in, you’re never going to get anything but gray.”

Li: “And I just don’t see your Texas gal-pal wearing that color. Come to think of it, she prefers Black.”

F: “How can a creature with that kind of firepower not leave behind some kind of a parchment trail?”

G: “You guys survived the night all right?”
C: “Yeah, you know, it was….”
F: “…scary, nasty, and nervous-making?”
C: “The sky should not be made of fire.”

Li: “Listen Frank, I don’t care if you have to lo-jack the damned thing…”
Gv: (“Sugar?”)
Li: “…Find that beast, or I swear to God I will…”
Gv: (“‘…boil you alive…’”)
Li: (“Shut up!”) “Boil. You. Alive.”

Li: “How hard can it be to find a giant horned thing… or a decent cup of coffee?”

Li: “Other than charbroiling everything in sight, I don’t think it has an agenda.”

Li: “Gavin, ask yourself this question: Which are you more afraid of, a giant murderous demon… or me?”
Gv: “I’ll be right back.”

Li: “And you’re just gonna kill it.”
Cn: “I’m gonna try.”
Li: “…and we’re heading towards it right now…” “Best of luck!”

Gv: “Uh….hi!”

F: “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap.”
C: “I’m ready to crackle-pop myself. The last 24 haven’t exactly been normal. We’re all tired.”
A: “I wonder why.”

W: “It’s killing everything that moves in there.”
G: “I’ve heard worse news.”

C: “It’s going to be fine. You know. Connor’s a Champion, like you. He’s special.”
A: “Right. Like me. Special.”

A: “Someone should stay here and mind the store.”
L: “Uh, me! Me, me, me! Sgt. Stay-At-Home volunteering for duty, sir.”

G: “Assuming we can even get inside the Evil Empire, same big beasty’s in there who spanked our asses six ways to Sunday. What’s going to be different this time?”
A: “What’s different is we’re not going for the monster, we’re going for Connor.”
G: “So you phoned ahead so the Big Bad understands that?”

A: “As far as the Big Bad’s concerned, there’s only one smart way to play it: We see it, we run like hell.”
C: “Works for me!”

A: “Cordelia, I don’t want you there. It’s too dangerous. Way too dangerous. I can’t risk it. Fred? Get a move on!”

L: “Happy hunting! We’ll, uh, stay here and keep the home fires burning. Bake some nice, healing muffins.”

G: “You _believe_ or you _know_? ’Cause everytime you show up ‘believing’ something it seems someone gets their head drilled or falls into a portal….”

A: “Will you guys shut up? I don’t give a rat’s ass what’s going on between you. Put it away. We’re here for Connor.”

G: “Just so we’re clear on the plan….”
A: “Third floor. Get Connor. Get out.”

Cn: “What’s a zombie?”
A: “It’s an undead thing.”
Cn: “Like you?”
A: “No! Zombies are slow-moving, dim-witted things that crave human flesh.”
Cn: “Like you!”
A: “No! It’s different! Trust me!”

G: “What was that?”
W: “Zombies.”
G: “Yeah, thanks for the news flash, Captain Obvious.”

A: “Luckily they’re slow and stupid, so we have a chance of beating them.” “Unless, of course, there’s hundreds of them.”

G: “So, fight seven floors of evil zombie lawyers or sweet-talk a nasty little girl. You know where my heart’s at.”

G: “Hold up.” “Hate seeing someone I know like that. Even someone I know I hate.”

EvilLittleGirl: “The answer is among you.”

G: “So what’s it say about the Big Bad Wolf if he can just stride right in and suck the energy out of Evil Red Riding Hood?”
W: “I don’t know. Other than it’s going to take a force far smarter and stronger than us to defeat it.”

C: “I’m just glad that everyone’s safe and together again.”
A: “Me too. Now take your new boyfriend and get the hell out of here.”

C: “Oh God.”

Please credit Hellmouth Central with these quotes when using them for any publication.