Now that Angel is a father, he is much more concerned about making money than he was before. He pushes the team to develop Angel Investigations into a profitable business. Fred designs and launches a website, while Gunn posts fliers all over town. Despite the excitement, Cordelia reminds Angel that he and the rest of the AI team work for the Powers That Be and asks him not to forget the mission. While the team waits for the phone to ring, a vampire finds their flyer and rushes to the nearest payphone. However, a pizza place, rather than Angel Investigations, answers the phone, and Fred points out that the phone number on the flyers isn't actually theirs.
The next morning, Wesley reports that 6,000 new flyers have been distributed all over L.A. Cordelia checks the website to see that it already has a few hits, and the phones begin to ring.
At his hideout, Holtz is scolding Justine, who, against his orders, dusted two vampires. Her hand is pierced by an awl and fastened to a table. She could remove it at any time, but Holtz would take that as proof that she was not committed to his cause.
The lobby of the Hyperion Hotel is full of Angel Investigations clients, both human and demon. Lorne uses his special skills to communicate with various non-humans, like Mr. Bleeshusengrung. A group of Nahdrah demons wants to hire Wesley, as they read some articles he wrote about demons. Gunn takes Allison, a human client who is being stalked by her ex-boyfriend, to a private office to discuss her case. She says she's gone to the police, but they think she's crazy, and Gunn sympathizes with her, mentioning that sometimes the police don't take cases seriously until someone ends up dead. Allison then mentions that Brian is dead, which leaves Gunn thoroughly confused.
The Nahdrah demons meet Wesley, and request to borrow Wes's mind: they want him to solve a puzzle that they can give to their prince. Fred comments on the geometric shapes on the demons' tunics, which happen to be arranged in a specific mathematical order that fascinates her. After Lorne translates what she's said to the Nahdrahs, they excuse themselves to consult with the prince.
Angel visits Harlan Elster, a businessman, in his office. He says a group vampires of are extorting money from him, and asks for their nest to be destroyed. Elster shows Angel a case file, mentioning that the last guy on the case was "mussed" before he could finish the job. After offering him $10,000, half of which the company will receive beforehand, Angel takes Elster's check and leaves. Another man enters from a back office, who turns out to be the real Harlan Elster: the man who talked to Angel is an impostor.
Holtz returns to find Justine still at the table, albeit weak. After ordering her to go find other humans with the same rage she has, he removes the awl and throws her a bandage. When she finishes nursing the wound, she punches Holtz in the jaw and leaves.
At the Hyperion Hotel, Angel returns from Elster's office, excited that he's being offered so much money for such an easy job. Cordelia reminds him that they shouldn't be taking on so many cases at once, but Angel dismisses her comments. Then, Lorne, drunk, walks in the lobby, returning from a consultation with his Gaw-wawk snitch. He says Holtz is no longer using Grappler demons, but looking for humans instead. The Nahdrah demons come in, and Lorne says they now wish to hire Fred instead of Wesley. They live on a barge at the marina, and estimate the job would take one to two days, depending on how long Fred takes to solve it. They offer $50,000, which Angel accepts with enthusiasm.
Meanwhile, Wesley and Gunn are at Allison's house to protect her. She wonders how Brian can stalk her if he's dead, and while Wesley is explaining how such a thing could be possible, Brian, who is a zombie, tries to break in. Luckily, Gunn and Wesley are able to keep him out.
Lorne accompanies Fred to the houseboat where the prince of the Nahdrah demons is staying. They take the duo's picture, offer them hors d'oeuvres, and Fred gets to work on the puzzle.
Angel invades the vampire nest he is hired to clean out and easily defeats the three vampires inside. He returns to the office, looking for Harlan Elster. The actual Harlan Elster tells Angel that the man who hired him was an impostor, so the check he received was no good. Elster explains that the man pretending to be him was Sam Ryan, an ex-employee who was fired six months prior. After Ryan's friend died, he tried to convince Elster to hire someone to clean out the vampires' nest, but Elster thought Ryan had gone insane and didn't believe him. As Angel is leaving, he learns, thanks to an off-hand remark by Elster, that there might be some kind of treasure in the vampire lair.
At the houseboat, Fred makes progress toward solving the puzzle. When a sick Lorne leaves to visit the restroom, he accidentally overhears the prince and his minions, and learns that they intend to cut off Fred's head and sew it on the prince's shoulders once she has completed the puzzle. Before he can sneak away, however, he is caught, and one of the Nahdrah demons knocks him out.
Back at the hotel, Cordelia is tending to Connor, trying to demonstrate that she can levitate. When she is unsuccessful, she explains the history of her visions, and then reminds the baby how much his father and "Aunt Cordelia" love him.
Angel returns to the vampire lair he just cleaned out. The man who fraudulently hired him, Sam Ryan, shows up and picks up a watch, which Angel takes from him. It turns out the watch has only sentimental value, as the vampires at the lair killed his friend. Angel also learns there were seven vampires in the lair; since he only killed three, there are still four to deal with.
Cordelia is about to lock the $50,000 from the Nahdrah demons in a safe when she has a vision that shows her what is about to happen to Fred. She attempts to call the rest of the team to no avail.
Meanwhile, Gunn, Wesley, and Allison wait at her house, with Allison getting impatient: she has plans that evening and wants to leave. Brian gets in through the kitchen skylight, which is the one entrance Wesley and Gunn had not secured. The two knock Brian out, and, along with Allison, retreat to her bedroom. Brian makes his way in, and he and Allison talk. It turns out that Allison was fed up with Brian and poisoned him. Despite the issues between the couple, they make up and get back together.
At the vampire lair, four vampires are beating on the door, but Angel refuses to fight until he is paid.
At the houseboat, Fred finally solves the puzzle. The Nahdrah demons immediately drag her into the presence of the prince, where she sees Lorne tied up on the floor. The demons bind her to a chair and prepare to cut off her head. Before they are able to, however, Cordelia appears, carrying Connor. She offers to return the Nahdrahs' money in exchange for Fred. When Lorne translates, he adds the message that the houseboat is surrounded by killer warriors.
At the vampire lair, Angel relents, kills three vampires while one flees, and then leaves without being paid.
Wesley, Gunn and Angel appear in the nick of time to rescue Fred and Lorne from the Nahdrahs' houseboat. When the battle is over, Angel apologizes for getting carried away. He now knows that family and the mission are the most important things. Although he is willing to leave behind the $50,000, Cordelia surprises everyone by declaring that, considering the demons nearly cut off Fred's head, they deserve every penny. Therefore, Angel Investigations takes the large sum of cash and leave.
Safely back at the hotel, Angel and Cordelia lie on a bed with Connor between them and talk about what to do with the money.
Tropes
- 555: the number on the leaflets is the wrong one....
- Ahem: Fred declares to her heroic saviours, "I could kiss you both!" Gunn and Wesley are clearly hoping she would, when Lorne ahems to let them know he's still tied up on the floor.
- 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 SufferingAlly: "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.
- Beast and Beauty: 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 — apparently Ryan showed him how to work his voicemail.
- Bond One-Liner:
- 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 Justine 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."
- Boy Meets Ghoul: Gender inverted.
- Breather Episode: Inbetween the dark Story Arc involving the birth of Angel's son, we get an episode focusing on the character dynamics.
- Briefcase Full of Money:Angel: Fifty...
Cordelia: ...thousand...
Fred: ...dollars? - Broke Episode: Angel becomes particularly anxious about money now that he has a son to support, so he begins to take dubious actions in search of profit.
- Cellphones Are Useless: Cordelia gripes over how she can't call Angel because he doesn't know how to use his voicemail. Later Angel's cellphone 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!"
- 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 BananasLorne: "Either they're going to talk to their Prince, or they're going to go and eat a cheesemonkey."
- 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)
- Keep the Reward: Averted 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.]
- 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-TruthSam 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 enough to transplant into the Nahdrahs' prince.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Cordy spends some time in the office with baby Connor, jumping gently in an attempt to recreate her Power Floats from the previous episode.
- Impaled Palm: Holtz does this to Justine as a punishment, but also a test of her determination. When she refuses to remove the awl pinning her hand to the desk and leave, Holtz knows she has what it takes to join him in his Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
- Love Triangle: Wes and Gunn catch each other casting Longing Looks at Fred.
- Mix-and-Match Man: The Prince has another person's head on his shoulders.
- Mock Millionaire: Sam Ryan pretends to be the owner of his former employer's company so he can hire 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: Angel stakes a vamp while bitching to Ryan 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: Angel goes dangerously close to this in his desperation to provide for Conner. Fortunately, his more altruistic side wins out.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Definitely. 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.
- Rage Breaking Point: 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.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Wesley re Fred.
- Ship Tease: Includes moments between Wes and Fred, Gunn and Fred, Angel and Cordy, Cordy and Gunn, and especially Wes and Gunn.
- Sleep Cute: A sleepy Angel and Cordy cuddled up with Baby Connor.
- 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."- Amongst our priorities are such diverse elements as... I'll come in again.
- Weird World, Weird Food: Lorne turns down the Nahdrahs' offer of eyeballs and insects on crackers.
- Yubitsume: Holtz 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.