Angel

THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS

The Good;
Lorne's performance is wonderful and love Fred's excited squeal. The Vegas stuff is all great

The Bad;
The actual story is not that good.

Best line:
Angel; "Boy, Vegas was a lot friendlier when the mob ran it!"

Jeez, how did they get away with that?
Apocalypses: 5

Angel Cliches
In disguise; 8

DB get's his shirt off; 12

Cordy's tatt; 10

Fang Gang in bondage:
Cordy: 5
Angel: 12
Wes: 6
Gunn; 4
Lorne; 3
Fred; 2
Connor; 1

Fang gang knocked out:
Cordy: 12
Angel: 15
Wes: 5
Doyle; 1
Gunn; 1
Lorne; 3
Groo; 1
Fred; 1
Connor; 1

Kills: 1 vamp for Connor and another human for Angel
Cordy: 5 vamps, 3 demons
Angel; 41 vamps, 57 and 1/2 demons, 8 humans
Doyle; 1 vamp
Wes; 13 demons+3 vamps, 2 humans
Kate; 3 vamps
Faith; 16 vamps, 6 demons, 3 humans.
Gunn; 11 vamps+ 11 demons.
Groo; 1 demon
Fred; 3 vamp
Connor; 6 vamps and 1 demon

Fang Gang go evil:
Cordy: 2
Angel: 2
Gunn; 1
Wes; 1

Alternate Fang Gang: Destinyless Angel
Cordy: 2
Angel: 9
Fred; 1

Characters killed:
46

Recurring characters killed;
8;

Total number of Angel Investigations: 4
Angel, Gunn, Fred, Lorne

Angel Investigations shot:
Angel: 11
Wes; 1

Packing heat; Angel uses the guard's gun to kill the casino owners' assistant
Wes; 6
Doyle; 1
Angel; 3
Gunn; 1

Notches on Fang Gang bedpost:
Cordy: 4 ?+Wilson/Hacksaw Beast+Phantom Dennis+Groo
Angel: 5; Buffy, Darla and The Transcending Furies
Wes; 3; Virginia, the bleached blonde and Lilah
Gunn; 1 Fred
Fred; 1 Gunn
Groo; 1Cordy

Kinky dinky:
Fred in her Lornette costume is a revelation. Hands up who else was thinking what a shame we don't get to see CC in the same? (and Charisma is a Vegas girl after all). Lilah and Wes have some pretty explicit phone sex.

Know the face, different character; 4

Parking garages;
5,

Buffy characters on Angel; 16
Wetherby, Collins and Smith. Angel, Cordy, Oz, Spike, Buffy, Wes, Faith, Darla, Dru, The Master, Anne, Willow and Harmony

What the fanficcers thought;
Once read an interesting one where Angel introduces Elvis to the delights of wearing black leather whilst Elvis teachers him karate.

Questions and observations;
Angel in pinstripes, interesting look for him. Good enough, esepcially the musical numbers, glad to have the gang back together and Gunn get's to achieve his ambition, as indeed does Lorne. But you want them to get back to LA and crack on with the season. Wes seems quite happy to take AI's business when they're out of town suggesting he was partly responsible for their lack of clients during the summer. Also Fred seems to win pretty good at the blackjack table which might explain why AI's money problems seem to be over. Weird to hear Andy Hallet's commentary when you know he's no longer with us.
Marks out of 10; 6/10

The House Always Wins was a really superb episode of Angel. I enjoyed watching this episode as Cordelia watches from the higher planes while Angel, Gunn, and Fred all go to Las Vegas to see Lorne. To their surprise he ignores them during his show and after. I thought this was a great story to bring a few characters back into the fold. Lorne's power is being exploited and Wesley continues his carnal relations with Lilah. The man holding Lorne captive steals Angel's destiny and it all culminates with a little divine intervention and the defeat of the soul stealer. I really enjoyed the ending and I can't wait to watch the next episode!!!!!!!

The House Always Wins is a light, fluffy episode that re-intergrates Lorne into the circle and brings Cordelia back from the higher plane.



The teaser was good; we had a good amount of Higher Plane Cordy and her lines were excellent and made me wish she was back. I like that she seems to be having her own conversation with Angel and he can't even hear her. Also she admits she loves him again. Woot! Another brilliant thing was the minimal amount of Connor here- all he does is slay a vampire and he's gone for this episode!



I loved the gang in Vegas and it was a great idea to get out of the hotel- we needed some new scenery and sets and Vegas is perfect! I loved Lorne's show and the Lornettes and it made me want to go to Vegas, haha!



The whole gambling away your destiny thing was a great, original idea and implemented well. The casino owner was a good, if completely unthreatening villain, and there was no doubt Angel would save the day- but who cares? The rest is all funny Lorne-centric goodness and exactly what we needed after what seems like an eternity of sorrow and pain and darkness. This episode is 90% filler and thankfully, it's great filler.



I was glad to see Lorne back in action here- I think he's a great character and he always makes me laugh. I love all the names he has for people e.g. "peach pie" etc. I don't know why but I find them endearing. Andy Hallett was excellent here as always and he can really sing! You can tell he has a great time playing Lorne and his performance is the better for it!



Fred pretending to be a Lornette was simply genius and I was laughing at her the whole time. Her anxiety was hilarious and her lines and delivery were spot on. Amy Acker is just an amazing actress- she can make you laugh out loud one minute and then reduce to tears the next. The House Always Wins was an excellent episode and a favourite of mine. It's fun, light and definitely what we needed.

the gang goes on vacation to las vegas, and find lorne headlinging at a major club on the strip. they go check him out, and he goes into the audience and completely ignores them. lorne is being held against his will in order to read peoples destiny's at his show. then they are given a chance at a million dollars in which the chip takes their destiny. they are left to spend the rest of their life in vegas. angel falls victim, and just sits there and plays to win. cordy kinda saves the day. and cordy returns home with no memory.



this episodde had a lot of funny parts. like the begining where cordy is trying to talk to angel. she is just too funny. and the blue man demon thing was cool. fred's lornette stage was funny. i loved the fluffy part. and angel was at elvis' wedding, with fried penut butter and jelly sandwiches.

The House Always Wins-Angel, Fred and Gunn take a road trip to Las Vegas to enlist Lorne's help in finding Cordelia, but when the get there Lorne doesn't even acknowledge their presence. It soon becomes clear that Lorne is being held against his will, and that his popular casino act is actually a way for his captor to read the futures of people in the crowd. Angel and the gang must find a way to help Lorne escape without sacrificing their own destinies in the process.



It's very rare when Angel travels outside it's normal settings let alone the city itself! Thankfully, Angel takes full advantage of the luxurious city that is Las Vegas. The cinematography of the city is stunning and all the extras involved are great. It's great to see Lorne again after his short appearance in the season premeire was so vague. The situation his involved is a great one, and the idea of a casino owner stealing the destinies of innocent by standers and selling them in the black market is played well here. Clayton Rohmon is great as Lee DeMarco as tortures and threatens Lorne. There are also some fun scenes like Cordelia helping Angel save the day, although the explaination of why he snapped out of his thrawl was vague. Also there's the scene where Lorne performs in front of the crowd with his Lornettes. Also, seeing Fred was cute in the Lorne make-up. The episode ends with Cordelia suddenly reappearing, yet she has not memory of her friends. All and All, a great setting with solid plot and stunning cinematography.

i was my season 4 dvd collection & looking forward to seeing this episode again!!! lorne is so funny & a great singer. i luv the scene where fred, gunn & angel are watching lorne perform. everyone knows gunn really wants to sing!!! & angel looks like he enjoys th show. just another great episode of angel !!!!

Angel finally listens to Gunns advice and takes himself and the gang to Las Vegas. He goes under the guise of needing a break but Fred and Gunn both know he wants to see Lorne and be read by him. Seeing Lorne is no problem as he is headlining the Tropicana...yep! His act is the talk of the town and he snubs Angel and Co. during his performance. He snubs them again afterward. We soon find out that Lorne is being held against his will and reads people for his boss who then steals their destinies. I love Lorne, so this was a great episode in my opinion and I LOVED seeing Fred dressed as a Lornette.

i dont like lorn much and think he is stupid but this episode was funny and cordelia was in some scenes and that was gret. i liked the lornettes a lot though they were funny and fred was a good charcater this time.



but nothing happen a lot here and the episode is not as good as most of the others but it was good enough i loved the end when cordy was finally back

The House Always Wins



A very original episode. It was full of great humor and it was a very fun episode to watch. It was Lorne at his best. even though it's pretty brainless (like Buffy 'Beer Bad') both are still really fun and underappreciated. and Cordy comes at at the end. yay!

cut to Connor fighting a vampire and Cordy is watching everything. Angel helps Connor and Connor kills it. Angel feels that someone is watching him and Cordy thinks he means her but he means Fred and Gunn. and they think Angel isn't ready with the loss of Connor and Cordy so he takes Gunn and Fred to Las Vegas.



the credits start



cut to the gang over going to Vegas and Angel has been thee before when there were dunes and they see that Lorne is performing so they enter and everyone thinks it's make up and Lorne sings and Fred is very exited and Lorne goes to the croud and makes them sing for him and he passes right through Fred, Gunn and Angel and they feel bad cause of that and Lorne keeps making some sing and then he goes to a girl named Vivian who is going to Paris and then the show ends. then everyone goes for an autograph and Lorne ignores them and then gets taken away and Lorne says that they're some old friends of him. cut to Lorne later and his boss comes in and says he was great but then he wants to know something but Lorne doesn't want to and get hit and he says he will kill a Lornette if he doesn't talk and then he tells the future of some of those people and the man tells him to prepare for more and leaves locking Lorne behind bars.



cut to Wesley in his house and Lilah calls and they talk over the phone and he tells Lilah to take off her clothes on the phone and he likes it. cut to the guys playing and Fred is still upset that Lorne didn't talk to them. Vivian gets a chip from a Lornette who tells her to play it and then Angel asks her to give Lorne and a note and she says she will try. Angel noticed that there is something wrong and Cordy is watching and she notice it too but she wants Angel to help her. cut to Fred and Gunn and they are gonna go to Lorne and don't notice some guys taking Angel behind them. and they take him outside but Angel vamps and knocks them out and then sees Vivian who almost gets killed by a car but he saves her and she is acting weird and she says she has to play to win.



cut to Gunn and Fred don't knowing how to get in but Fred thinks of something and dresses like a Lornette and goes to enter the room and she enters and Lorne attacks her but sees it's Fred and he's very happy and tells her that he's a prisoner and that Fluffy meant her dog that she doesn't have that means they have to rescue him. cut to Angel and he throws something on the board and then house wins and Angel starts to act all strange and the man gives him more chips. cut back and Gunn is waiting and Fred comes out screaming that Lorne attacked her and puked out his skeleton and the guards go inside and Lorne comes out and they close the doors. and run with Gunn.



cut to those guys talking about Angel's future and that he lost it now but they get a call. cut to the three and they see Angel playing and they tell him the plan and they leave but they don't know where to go and Lorne tells them the story that the ones that play lose their future cause house always wins and other people call for that future and the ones without a future don't have anything to do. then cut to outside and they realise Angel is one of them and some guards are after them but Lorne screams in a microphone and makes people almost depth and the escape. they have to go back and Gunn thinks that Lorne sold Angel out but he says that every time he said no the guy would blow up a girls brains out.



cut to the gang arriving and Gunn goes to Angel but Angel doesn't listen and the guards come with Lorne and Fred and take Gunn as well leaving Angel playing. cut to upstairs and they are gonna kill Fred and Gunn and Cordy feels helpless but then she makes the machine win so that Angel wins a lot of money and the man doesn't understand because Angel doesn't have a destiny and makes his workers bring him. he checks if Angel really doesn't have a destiny and he really doesn't have one. there is nothing in him. then he's gonna kill Gunn and Fred and Angel sees it and vamps out and kicks everyone and Lorne destroys something that kills that man and everyone gets their future back. then they go out and Angel remember the room cause it was Elvis and Pricilla’s wedding and Angel had fun. cut to the gang coming home and go to the hotel and Angel sees Cordelia 'Who are you people'?







Black Out

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Best episode quotes:



Vampire: Nothing human can move that fast. What are you?

Connor: Don't know yet. But I know what you are and what to do with you. That'll do for now.

Angel: You're talking too much. Gives him time to watch it! Don't let him box you in. That's it, Connor. No, don't go toe-to-toe. He's too big and faster than he looks. Wait for an opening. Stay sharp. You can do it. That's it.

Cordelia: Of course he can do it. He's his father's son. Same dark good looks, same lost-boy sweetness...And the broodiness boy, he's got that down stone-cold. You really don't have to worry about him, Angel. But maybe there is something you could be worrying a little more about. Like, for instance, me. Remember me? The one stuck in misty magic land for like eternity. You've got to get me out of here, Angel. Please! Help me!

Angel: I know you're there, watching me.

Cordelia: Oh my God! Angel, you can hear me? I so love you. You don't know what it's been like

Fred: We weren't spying...

Cordelia: Oh, for crap's sake!

Gunn: Well, actually we were.

Fred: OK, we were. It's just we've been a little concerned about you. Wondering where you've been skulking off to these last few nights

Angel: I'm not skulking.

Gunn: You should go after him talk to him if that's what you want.

Fred: What exactly do you want, Angel. I'm only asking because, well, you've been seeming kind of... distracted. Like maybe you're not as ready as you think to move on without Connor and Cordy.

Gunn: And, frankly, man, when you're head's someplace else, we are into some serious floundering. I mean, you act like a guy with a clear agenda, always on the move, but we don't know where we're going.

Angel: C'mon.

Gunn: For instance.

Fred: Um, Angel, where are we going?

Angel: On a little retreat. The three of us.

Fred: Oh, like a spiritual journey?

Gunn: Whoa, you mean like that monastery you went to in Tibet?

Angel: Exactly.



Gunn: No one seems to be bothered by the fact that he's a demon.

Fred: They must think it's all make-up, like the Blue Man Group. You don't think the Blue Man Group...

Angel: Only two of them.



Guard 1#: Whoa. What's this? He already got his drink.

Fred: Uh, yeah he He did. Right. I-I know. They told me I mean, they sent me to...

Guard 1#: Oh, I get it. A little pre-show diddle for the green guy, huh?

Fred: What? Diddle? I'm what?

Guard 1#: Oh, don't be nervous. The demon, he doesn't bite. Yeah, not with his mouth anyway.

Guard 2#: Wait a minute. You missed a couple of spots on your neck and behind your ear. You might want to fix that before you go out on stage.

Fred: Oh, right, 'cause 'cause that would have been really embarrassing.

Lorne: Oh, I'm sorry, peach pie. I thought you just might have been

Fred: Your diddle buddy?

Lorne: My what-le what? Oh, F-Fred? Winifred? Oh, hey, hallelujah. Oh, sweet cheeks, you don't know the hell I've been through.

Fred: Uh-huh. It looks like real torture.

Lorne: Yeah, well it took you heroes long enough to rescue me.

Fred: Frankly, Lorne, we weren't aware you needed rescuing.

Lorne: Weren't aware? I told you.

Fred: When?

Lorne: Well, every time you called me, I kept asking about Fluffy.

Fred: Oh, I thought you were just using some sort of show-business catch phrase I wasn't hip enough to get. Who's Fluffy?

Lorne: Fluffy. Fluffy the dog. The dog you don't have. The universally recognized code for "I'm being held prisoner. Send help!"

Fred: Oh. OK. I'm hip now. Who's holding you prisoner?

Lorne: Oh, the creep who owns this place. Lee DeMarco. Well, he used to be some second-rate lounge magician until he got his hands on something legitimately mystical. Yeah now he's a first-rate psychopath, and he's using me to destroy people's lives.



Fred: Ahh! Oh my God! It was horrible. He-he attacked me with these, um, laser beams that that shot out of his horns, and and he escaped. He's gone!

Guard 1#: There's no other way out.

Fred: Right. No. 'Cause, 'cause he went through some sort of of demon metamorphosis thing, and, and he spit out his entire skeleton like, like Like that, and then he just He slithered away. Down the drain. In the sink. In the bathroom. Hurry!

Guard 1#: Security One, we have a Code Green. Repeat: Code Green.

Gunn: Somebody wanna give me the lowdown?

Lorne: Later. Suffice it to say we're dead if we don't get our fannies out of dodge.

Gunn: Good enough.



Gunn: You said this DeMarco guy is destroying lives. How?

Lorne: By taking 'em.

Gunn: By killing people?

Lorne: No, worse, muchacho. He's been using me to read members of my audience. Find those with what he calls valuable destinies: power, wealth, fame, yadda yadda yadda. Then the ones I pick they get chosen to play this "Spin To Win" game. Only it's not a game. It's a big scamola. Then their destinies are imprinted on the chips and that old black magic wheel's tricked out to never pay off.

Game Operator: House wins!

Lorne: The house always wins, and everybody loses: their futures, their destinies... They get offered up to an extremely black global market and sold to anyone willing to pay big money to change his or her life.

Fred: Futures trading.

Lorne: Can't get any more literal than that, crumb cake.

Fred: What happens to 'em? Those people?

Lorne: Uh, nothing. Nothing happens to 'em, or will. They got no purpose, no direction. Unable to accomplish or succeed at anything ever again. Most never leave here. Some never get out of the casino. They just sit there shoveling coins into slot machines that never pay off, like zombies or

Gunn: Angel! They got him.

Fred: Uh-oh.

Gunn: Yeah, I'd say that's a pretty big uh-oh.



Fred: That was... brilliant, Lorne. I may never hear my upper registers again, but nice work.

Gunn: Yeah, great work. How you sold Angel out.

Fred: Charles...

Gunn: Boy, DeMarco must have wet his pants when you told him what a ripe destiny that was for the pickings. A champion to save the world or destroy it.

Lorne: You really believe I'd do that?

Gunn: I don't know, Lorne. I don't know why you did any of it. What, you were living so large, blaring Tony Bennett so loud in that sweet suite of yours, you couldn't hear your conscience screaming at you!

Fred: Charles, it doesn't matter.

Gunn: It does to me. I wanna know, Lorne. Why didn't you just say no to that piece of

Lorne: I did! The first time he asked me to, of course I refused. So he blew a girl's brains out right in front of me. And he said that's what I could expect every time I said no.

Gunn: Sorry.

Lorne: No more than I am, slick.



Gunn: You... you know who I am, right?

Angel: Gunn.

Gunn: That's right. And I'm your friend.

Angel: I know. I'm not stupid.

Cordelia: Oh. That's just great. I mean, what's the point of being an all-seeing powerful whachamawhoosit if I'm not allowed to intervene? My friends are gonna die. I mean, what am I supposed to Angel. God, look what they've done to you. If I could just get you into that room, maybe Think, bubblehead. How do I…





Lee: I'll-I'll start again. How did you win on the slot machine?

Angel: I put a quarter in the slot, and I pulled that little lever.



Angel: This room there's something familiar.

Gunn: Angel?

Angel: You're my friend. I know. I'm not stupid. Oh, now I remember that room! Elvis and Priscilla's wedding reception, 1967. Yes. All right. It's not that I was you know really invited. They just put me near the dais. I think somebody thought I was in the band. Probably because I was all drunk and surly. They had these little fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches.



Gunn: OK, no more road trips for at least six months.

Fred: I can't wait for a nice, hot bath.

Lorne: Hey, you OK?

Angel: Just thinking. Doesn't make any sense winning on that machine.

Gunn: Maybe DeMarco was right: glitch in the machine.

Lorne: Or maybe Lady Luck was smiling down on you.

Angel: Hmm. Lady Luck. I don't know. Just, I don't get why or how I was able to fight when I had no reason to, no destiny.

Lorne: Well, even without a flight plan, bucko, you're still a stealth bomber. You were fighting for your friends' futures. The people you love are part of your destiny. Nobody can take that away, not even you. Well, listen, I got a lot more insightful bon mots like that, but, um, I've been stuck in a car for five and a half hours, and I gotta pee. Excuse me.

Gunn: Hey, so that bath idea? Maybe I can help you with one or two of those hard-to-reach spots.

Fred: Or three.

Gunn: OK, but three is where I draw the

Angel: Cordelia?

Cordelia: Who are you people?



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Story: 9

Acting: 10

Writing: 10

Picture: 10

Gripping: 10

My Rank: 9

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Total: 9.7

Cordy the Higher Power is unconvinced.



She's been there for three or even four months. No one has stopped by with an orientation guide or presented her with a schedule. She has no defined duties. She's got this great perspective, looking out over the world, and she can't do anything with it.



But more to the point, she doesn't //seem// all that intuitive.



Skipping ahead to later, where she tells Angel, darkly, that she's been inside his head and knows everything that he has ever known or done, she is mysterious and omniscient. As Cordy, floating there, she doesn't seem to have any of that kind of insight.



This is why I'm pretty sure she's still Cordy.



Just ... Cordy in a bubble.



She's got no mechanisms to interact with the world she's left behind. It takes all of her concentration, in fact ...



But let's just come back to that in a bit, shall we?



High atop one of those anonymous buildings people always seem to be atop in this series, Angel watches over Connor fighting in an alleyway.



This could seem a little dull, but for Angel it's better than television. In fact, a lot of the armchair coaching he's doing could apply as well to Connor in a hockey tourney. He's such a proud papa up there. And Connor's superpower hearing doesn't seem to be engaged (Angel is no farther away than Fred and Gunn were -- even closer, in fact -- and there's no ocean roaring all around him). He provides a little help, but Connor was doing just fine.



It was a nice scene, a jumping off point, in fact. In that everything in Los Angeles is in a holding pattern, what better time to road trip out to Las Vegas and see if CYN! can pick up another prodigal.



Lorne is joyous! Vibrant! Deeply in his element. The consummate showman, and what a show! No wonder people are stopping in to catch his act -- what a great voice, and a great gimmick! A lounge lizard down to his toes.



And we get the backstory -- he's trapped. He's miserable. He reads people and they die. I don't even think he's aware that some of his "clients" are dying sooner rather than later. He balms his guilt knowing that instead of people being killed in cold blood, at least they get to stay alive and have //sort// of a life as zombies.



Gunn's confrontation with Lorne pulls both of them up short. Lorne knows what's going on, but when Gunn finds out that he's dispensing either a lack of destiny or actual death, there's perhaps too little discussion about what's the difference. Even so, it was a great escape, although effected perhaps too easily.



And we get a reminder about that old Shanshu -- that Angel has a step or two in the apocalypso. Not that I can imagine that that's such a hot future for them to try to market. But it is significant, and all of the baddies seem to link up somehow to Wolfram & Hart -- i.e. "that weirdo law firm in Los Angeles."



"Futures trading," heh.



Angel without a destiny is kind of blank. Destiny seems to be a motive force. If you take that away, people mostly sit around and drool, distracted by shiny things, or wander into traffic. I loved how they were going to pay Angel his Cordy-gotten winnings in 1.2 million quarters. I'm guessing he'd have been able to carry them.



And hey -- she //can// seem to nudge slightly the inner workings of a one-armed bandit. From being able to eradicate a hotelful of gift-with-purchase demons from the Qor'Toth and stop Connor in his tracks with a glow, this seems like a weak tradeoff.



Smashing the whatsit seemed like too easy a solve. Even if it needed to be out in the room in order to work (and I doubt that), they'd have put more security on it, I'd think. It was like Count Kuzco's ruby pendant in "Waiting in the Wings" -- for as vital as it is, it seems a little front and center.



But by the time Lorne smashed it, there'd really been too much running around and dressing up in silly costumes (Fred as a Lornette, tho -- rowr!) for one episode. It was fun, it never seemed like it was ever going to be really serious. Angel pointed out that Vegas seemed a whole lot friendlier when the mob ran it, and it was probably a lot more threatening. The baddie in this case was a schmuck, about as mystical as a dishcloth, and his toadying affected his abilities to menace.



And so far as I can tell, no one paid Angel his winnings.



But more valuable -- or so you'd think -- is Lorne's rescue and his return.



They're going to need him ... perhaps ...



Hmm ...



Maybe we're seeing //Lorne// for the last time in this episode, too.



JASMINE WATCH: She's standing in the hotel lobby at the end. Level of certainty, about 40 percent.



I don't get the sense that it was anything Cordy did. And it was certainly nothing anyone else did. But if you want a jumping off point for taking over the world, why not align your fortune with a few people who've got an apocalypse coming?



And as much "Cordy" as that vision in white ends up being, she could just as well have materialized in the W&H lobby.



Just sayin'.