Angel/Recap/S03/E06 Billy

The prisoner Angel rescued from a fortress demon dimension is causing men to attack women.

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Tropes used in Angel/Recap/S03/E06 Billy include:

• An Axe to Grind / Dissonant Serenity: Wesley stalking Fred through the Hyperion with a huge battle axe.
• A Shared Suffering: Cordelia gets through to Lilah by bringing up the humiliation of being a helpless victim, something she knows all too well from Lilah's last Evil Plan.
• Bait and Switch Comment (also Foreshadowing)

Cordelia: Wesley, if you like [Fred], tell her. Just go right up to her and...hack her into little pieces! (Collapses from a vision of a man hacking his wife to death)

• Big Fancy House: Billy's Gilded Cage.
• Blatant Lies: Cordy tooling up with crossbow and taser, then telling Fred's she's going to run an errand. A normal, everyday errand.
• Bloody Handprint: Billy leaves one on a wall after escaping police custody. Wesley presses a piece of paper on it so he can analyze the blood back at the Hyperion.
• Broken Heel
• Can't Spit It Out: Wesley is attracted to Fred but won't make an overt move, despite Cordelia's urging.
  • After this episode Wesley's shame over his behaviour further distances him from Fred, causing him to dally too long when he realises Gunn is also interested in her.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Skip would be brought back by popular fan demand.
• Damsel in Distress: Averted—Angel is only teaching her strictly defensive moves, so Cordelia points out that Angel may not be there to deliver the coup de grace, and what if he's the one she needs saving from? Fred too is apparently saved by Gunn, but then has to knock him out and take matters into her own hands to stop Wesley.
• The Dulcinea Effect: Angel is all too willing to damage Lilah until he sees her bruised face, then he's all-to-eager to do the same to the man responsible. Lilah goes into Sarcasm Mode.

Lilah: I'm sorry, but this deep chivalric concern coming from the only man I know who definitely wants to kill me, is a bit much on a day like this.

• Dynamic Entry: Angel smashes open the door to Lilah's apartment. She's not impressed.

Lilah: "That's a very dramatic entrance...except for the part where you can't enter."

• Emerging From the Shadows: Lilah with her bruised face.
• False Reassurance: Billy's full of it.
  • "I have never hurt a woman in my life...I just like to watch."
  • "I don't hate women. I mean, sure, you're all whores who sell yourselves for money and prestige, but men are just as bad. Maybe even worse. They're willing to throw away careers or families, or even lives for what's under your skirt!"
• Flipping the Bird

Sanchez: "You think you can talk to me like that?" Woman cop: "I'd talk to you with my finger, but I like both hands on the wheel while I'm driving."

• Freud Was Right (In-Universe)

Billy: "So, you can dress like a man, talk like a man? Does that make you feel superior?" Cordy: "Actually, I'm feeling superior because I have an arrow pointed at your jugular. And the irony of using a phallic shaped weapon? Not lost on me."

• Hands-On Approach: Angel teaching swordfighting to Cordelia. While lacking the overt UST that occurred between Angel and Buffy in their Tai Chi scenes, it's a definite Ship Tease moment.
• Hate Plague: By touching a man, Billy can bring out his 'primordial misogyny'.
• Heel Face Revolving Door: Averted; Angel assumes Lilah will help him to get revenge for Billy causing Gavin to beat her. Lilah snaps back that she's not like Lindsey, swapping sides whenever it gets tough.
• Hit Me Dammit: After becoming infected Gunn tells Fred to knock him out so he doesn't hurt her. It takes a couple of tries.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Or at least the men are.

Angel: "Well, that thing that Billy brought out in others? The hatred and anger... that's something I lost a long time ago." Cordy: "Even when you were evil?" Angel: "I never hated my victims, I never killed out of anger, it was always about the...pain and the pleasure." Cordy: "Huh. So I guess you could say that your demoness makes you less petty than humans. Almost noble...I mean, in a twisted, dark and really disturbing kind of way."

• I Didn't Mean to Turn You On: Not Played for Laughs when Wesley starts talking about how Fred is taunting him with her 'provocative' dress.
• I Know Madden Kombat: Cordelia claims that her past cheerleading experience allows her to remember the swordfighting moves Angel is teaching her. Angel doubts this, so she does a "cheerleading routine" with her sword and ends up about an inch away from him, holding the sword to his throat; whereupon Angel laughs nervously and says "Go Team!"
• In a Single Bound: The Fang Gang are confronted by the high walls and gate of the Blim estate. While they're discussing what ploys they could use to infiltrate the place, Angel just leaps to the top of the gate and drops down to the other side.

Gunn: "So...wanna go next?" Wes: "I guess we wait here." Gunn: "Yeah."

• I Resemble That Remark

Dylan: "There was a chick here. She was cute, brunette. Well, she said that a melodramatic guy named Angel would eventually show up." Angel: "Cordelia...thinks I'm melodramatic?" Dylan: "Well, you did say that you were gonna kill my cousin." Angel: "That's not melodrama, melodrama... (Grabs Dylan by the shirt front) She was here?!" Dylan: "So you're saying that melodrama is exaggerated emo--" Angel: "This isn't a demo, this is real!"

• It's All My Fault: Angel and Cordelia both blame themselves for Billy's actions. The Powers That Be send Cordy a vision of Billy's first victim just to ram the point home.
• The Nose Knows: Angel can tell Billy's blood isn't human from when he spills some in the police car crash.
• Oh Crap: Wesley has gone Ax Crazy thanks to the bloody handprint he was analyzing.

Fred: "Somehow he got infected. All I can figure it happened while he was working with Billy's blood from the handprint." Gunn: "You mean, that...that fingerprinty-looking handprint downstairs is Billy's blood? (Fred nods) So you're saying that Wes turned into a psycho killer because of that bloody handprint that...I picked up and looked at?" Fred: "When you put it that way, it kinda worries me."

• Last-Second Word Swap / Lame Comeback

Lilah: Gavin, why don't you go...close an escrow or something?

• Manly Tears: Wesley cries in his apartment after Fred asks him to come back to work.
• The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life

Wes: The last thing any of us should be doing is...coupling. With each other, I mean. Office romances, even under the most normal circumstances... Cordy: We don't live in normal circumstances. I mean, what are the odds of any of us actually finding someone out there who can deal with the kind of stuff we have to deal with? I don't know. Maybe we are meant... Wes: For each other? Cordy: Actually I was gonna say 'to be alone'.

• Monster of the Aesop
• Mood Whiplash: Lilah and Gavin appear to be engaging in their usual Snark-to-Snark Combat, when Gavin suddenly grabs Lilah By the Hair, throws her against a glass shelf and starts to savagely beat her.
• Not Himself: Wesley. Averted with Angel — he turns out to be immune to Billy's touch.
• Not So Different / All Women Love Shoes

Cordy: "Angel feels responsible for this guy because he brought him back from hell. I feel responsible because he did it to save me. You, who are actually responsible for the entire thing, feel nothing at all, because you are a vicious bitch." Lilah: (shrugs) "So? You know me." Cordy: "Please, I was you. With better shoes." Lilah: "These are Boracchi." Cordy: "Fall collection?" Lilah: "Next spring." Cordy: "He's widened the heel." Lilah: "And rounded the toe." Cordy: "That won't work with pink." Lilah: "The pink is out this spring."

• Preemptive Apology: Fred before clonking Wesley with her rigged-up weapon.

Fred: "I'm sorry, Wesley." Wes: "You're sorry?" Fred: "You were right about me liking dark places to hide in. But you forgot I also like to build things." (Fred yanks on a rope — a fire extinguisher swings from the wall and hits Wesley in the face)

• Sequel Episode: Billy Blim, the freed prisoner from "That Vision Thing", turns up again to bring mayhem.
• Self-Disposing Villain: Billy is shot by Lilah Morgan.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections: Billy is the nephew of a powerful senator, making him untouchable even without Wolfram & Hart's help.
• Super Window Jump: Averted by Angel who throws a chair through first. Has he no respect for tradition?
• Suspiciously Apropos Music: "Sunshine in a Bag" by Gorillaz is playing when Billy goes to see his relatives, specifically the lyrics Finally someone let me outa' my cage.
• Teach Me How to Fight: Cordelia is learning how to fight.
• Vampire Invitation: Angel notes that he can enter Billy's home and realises he's part demon.
• Why Did You Make Me Hit You?

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