Angel/Recap/S03 E12 Provider

Angel Investigations is swamped with people seeking help, while its Champion becomes obsessed with putting aside money for his new child.

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• Ahem: Fred declares to her heroic saviours, "I could kiss you both!" Fred and Wesley are clearly hoping she would, when Lorne ahems to let them know he's still tied up on the floor.
• An Aesop: Spoofed when Angel keeps glancing at the Briefcase Full of Money while telling the others that money isn't everything. Eventually Cordelia steps in to save him.

Cordy: "They tried to cut Fred's head off. We earned every penny." Angel: "Hold the baby." [Cordy takes Connor from Angel as everyone else rushes over to the spilled money and starts to stuff it into their pockets.]

• Alien Lunch: Lorne turns down the Nahdrahs offer of eyeballs and insects on crackers.
• And Now You Must Marry Me: Lampshaded by Fred as she's being clamped into a chair next to the Prince.

Fred: "Oh god. I don't have to marry him, do I?"

• A Shared Suffering

Ally: "And the sex — God, do I miss the sex." Wesley/Gunn: "Tell me about it."

• Badass and Baby: Averted; Connor-toting Cordy is smart enough to negotiate Fred's release. Unfortunately Lorne is not so smart.
• Beauty and The Beast: Ally agrees to give her romance with Zombie!Brian another spin. He didn't even hold his fatal poisoning against her. D'awww.
• Big Damn Heroes: Cordy turns up in time to save Fred, then Wes and Gunn turn up in time to save her, then Angel turns up in time to save everyone — I guess Ryan showed him how to work his voicemail.
• Breather Episode
• Brick Joke: Cordelia gripes over how she can't call Angel because he doesn't know how to use his voicemail. Later Angel's Cell Phone goes off and he's trying to answer it but only getting a beeping sound, causing Ryan to yell out to him. "I think it's your voicemail!"
• Briefcase Full of Money

Angel: Fifty... Cordelia: ...thousand... Fred: ...dollars?

• Decapitated Army: Lampshaded, averted and spoofed after the Prince gets decapitated.

Gunn: "Well, I guess you cut off the snake's head..." (All the Nahdrahs start clicking and raise their weapons.) Wes: "You piss the other snakes off." (Nahdrahs knock Wes and Gunn to the ground and start beating the crap out of them.)

• Decoy Damsel: Subverted; Sam Ryan cons Angel into cleaning out the vampire nest so he can get to the loot the vampires have taken from their victims — it turns out though he only wants a watch taken from his dead friend.
• Description Cut: "This town is full of people who have problems." Cut to a man being chased by monsters.
• Either World Domination or Something About Bananas

Lorne: "Either they're going to talk to their Prince, or they're going to go and eat a cheesemonkey."

• Groin Attack: Cordy asks if the Nahdrahs have groins. When Lorne confirms this, Cordy kicks one between the legs, only to get a metallic clonk and a sore foot. I guess those metal plates don't just go on their faces.
• Half Truth

Sam Ryan: "Have you ever had any experience with vampires?" Angel: "Some"

• Hidden Purpose Test: The riddle Fred is asked to solve is a test to see if her brain is intelligent enought to transplant into the Nahdrahs prince.
• Impaled Palm / Yubitsume: Holz punishes Justine for ignoring his orders by sticking an awl through her palm. He gives her the option of removing the awl and walking away from his cause; when she decides to stick around he knows she has what it takes to be The Dragon of his team of vampire hunters.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Holtz asks whether Justine has the commitment for the work at hand. She retorts, "At hand? That's a joke, right?" We find out why when the Reveal Shot shows she has an awl stuck through her hand. Holtz leaves telling her that if she lacks the commitment, she can just pull out the awl and walk away. When he returns she's still impaled on the table. "I decided to stick around."
  • After the Prince gets his head cut off Fred quips, "If you can keep your head when those about you are losing theirs, I guess you're pretty lucky."
• Longing Look / Love Triangle: Wes and Gunn catch each other casting such glances on Fred...simultaneously.
• Mix-and-Match Man: The Prince
• Mock Millionaire: Sam Ryan pretends to be the owner of his former employers company so he can pay Angel (with a bogus check) to clean out a vampire nest.
• My Fist Forgives You: After Holtz yanks the awl out of her hand, Justine wraps it up and then backhands him. With her injured hand.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The pizza parlour gag in The Teaser.
  • Cordelia tells Lorne her offer to return the money in exchange for Fred. Lorne throws in some threats assuming the rest of the gang are with her (he's tied up on the floor and can't see). They're not.
• Oblivious Mockery

Harlan: "Whoever heard of a vampire out to make a buck, right?"

• Oh Crap: Seven vampires. Not three.
• Offhand Backhand: While Angel is bitching about the costs of being a champion.
• Off with His Head: The Prince gets his head knocked off when Wes throws the Briefcase Full of Money at him.
• Only in It For the Money
• Our Zombies Are Different: I'll say. This one's a Stalker with a Crush.
• Parental Substitute: Can there be anything more overt than Mummy Cordelia and Daddy Angel lying in bed together, feeding their baby and trying to figure out what to spend the money on?
• Piggy Bank: The opening scene has Angel stuffing the coins he found down the sofa in a piggy bank that's sitting on the table next to a hatchet and a machete. He then locks the piggy bank in a safe for Connor's college fund.
• Put Their Heads Together: What happens when you have demons with chrome faceplates. They make a nice clonk sound.
• Rant-Inducing Slight: Angel going off at Ryan about the costs of being a champion while fighting vampires.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After seeing Angel kill his fellow vampires without even looking at them, the last one takes off before Angel can turn around and notice him. Clever guy.
• A Shared Suffering / Eyes Never Lie: Holtz delegates the task of recruiting more soldiers to Justine.

"I want you to go out and find others like you. People who have suffered as we have, people with the same rage, the same fire. You'll know them when you see them. Their eyes — will look like this feels." (Justine screams as he yanks out the awl)

• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Wesley re Fred. Ironically this becomes Foreshadowing for the next episode, when he loses Fred to Gunn.
• Ship Tease: Includes moments between Wes and Fred, Gunn and Fred, Angel and Cordy, Cordy and Gunn, and especially Wes and Gunn.
• Split-Screen Phone Call: A Victim of the Week is being chased by an unseen monster, stumbles in the rain, finds himself clasping an Angel Investigations flyer, rushes to a phone booth and begins to dial frantically. We then Split Screen to Team Angel staring at the phone waiting for a call — only for the screen to split again to show a pizza parlor cook picking up the phone. Turns out the wrong number was printed on the flyer.
• Tempting Fate: Wesley saying there's no reason to be frightened of the zombie only for it to do a Barrier-Busting Blow. Subverted when Cordelia says some poor fellow might stumble in here needing help — a drunken Lorne comes in instead.
• Verbal Backspace: Angel declares that making money is the "No. 1 Priority" of Angel Investigations.

Angel: "Lorne, I need you to use your contacts to find out what Holtz is up to. He's out there somewhere. We can never forget that. Finding him is our number one priority." Gunn: "I thought you said..." Angel: "Finding Holtz and making money are our two number one priorities. (Cordelia clears her throat) Helping the helpless, finding Holtz, and making money are our three number one priorities."