Angel/The Girl in Question

The Girl in Question
Season 5, Episode 20
Airdate	May 5, 2004
Production Number	5ADH20
Written by	Steven S. DeKnight & Drew Goddard
Directed by	David Greenwalt
← 5x19 Time Bomb	5x21 → Power Play
Angel — Season Five

The Girl in Question is the twentieth episode of the fifth season of Angel, and the one-hundred and eighth episode overall. Spike and Angel race off to Rome in order to retrieve the head of a deceased demon clan leader and to save Buffy from their archnemesis, the Immortal. Meanwhile, Fred's parents drop in to visit at Wolfram & Hart.

David Boreanaz (Angel), James Marsters (Spike), J. August Richards (Charles Gunn), Amy Acker (Illyria), Andy Hallett (Lorne), Mercedes McNab (Harmony Kendall)

and Alexis Denisof (Wesley Wyndam-Pryce)

Special Guest Star: Julie Benz (Darla), Tom Lenk (Andrew Wells)

Guest Starring: David Lee (Alfonso), Gary Grubbs (Roger Burkle), Jennifer Griffin (Trish Burkle), Carole Raphaelle Davis (Ilona Costa Bianchi), Juliet Landau (Drusilla)

Co-Starring: Vikki Gurdas (Bartendress), Rob Steiner (Pietro), Andrew Ableson (Italian Man), Dominic Pace (Bouncer), Irina Maleeva (Old Demon Lady)

Plot Overview

Angel and Spike are off to Italy to retrieve the head of the leader of a clan to prevent a demon war. However, they get distracted in a quest to find Buffy when they learn she's involved with an archenemy of theirs known as the Immortal.

Meanwhile, Wesley finds Illyria taking Fred's form when her parents make an unannounced visit at Wolfram & Hart.

Notes

Monster of the Week

• The Immortal: Although he does not appear in any scenes of this episode, it can be inferred from the descriptions of him that he is a highly diplomatic man who Angel only casts as his archenemy because he knows that the Immortal is so much more capable than he is. The Immortal's only powers seem to be his immortality, but he has a legion of followers who do his other work for him.

Body Count

#	Whom	By Whom	How	Where
1	Immortal's Lackey	Angelus	Snapped Neck	Dungeon

Music

Music is listed in order of appearance in the episode:

• Dean Martin - "Take Me in Your Arms"

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Wolfram & Hart: Although it has been mentioned in the past that Wolfram & Hart has offices in all major cities and dimensions, this is the first time that any of them are seen. Angel and Spike go to the Rome branch and everything is more or less the same.

Characters

• Illyria: Illyria confirms that she could communicate with plants, as mentioned by Spike in previous episodes. She calls it "the song of the Green," which may be a reference to the mystical "Green" life force in the DC Comics series Swamp Thing. She also retains the ability to alter her physical form, in this episode she takes on Fred's appearance.

Referbacks

• 5x15 - A Hole in the World: Angel's comment mirrors a similar one made by Spike in a previous episode. Spike was attempting to get drunk off of the miniature bottles of liquor while on the jet returning from the Deeper Well, where they failed to find a cure for Fred that wouldn't kill thousands.

Angel: Really can't get drunk off these things.

• 3x05 - Fredless: Fred's mother, Trish, helped Angel and the others kill a bug demon that followed them to the bus station by hijacking a bus and running the bug over with it.

Trish: Have we not seen each other since I ran over that bug demon with the bus?

• BtVS - 5x07 - Fool for Love: Spike's fight with the Slayer in the 1970s was shown in his flashback episode, along with his fight with the Chinese Slayer during the Boxer Rebellion. After killing her on a subway car, he stole her leather jacket.

Angel: You stripped it off a body of a dead slayer.

• 5x04 - Hell Bound: Pavayne was a mystic who was killed in California by Wolfram & Hart to deconsecrate the land where a mission had been. Pavayne continued to haunt the building, sacrificing souls to the hell dimension in order to keep on living. Angel gave him a corporeal body and locked him in the basement.

Spike: Can't we just... lock her away in a box where no one can ever touch her? You know? Like we did with Pavayne?

Trivia

The Show

• Final Appearances: Andrew, Darla, Drusilla, Roger Burkle and Trish Burkle all make their final appearances of the series in this episode.

• Meta-Reference/Mistake: When Angel is describing Buffy to the bartender, he mentions that she has blue eyes. In the series Buffy has green eyes but, due to some copyright issues with using Sarah Michelle Gellar's likeness, in the comic books she has blue eyes. Either this is a mistake, or a sly reference to not being able to use Gellar in the episode.

Behind the Scenes

• Ratings: On its first airing, this episode scored a 3.8/5 in the overnight Nielsen ratings. This episode was watched by approximately 4.7 million viewers.

• Back to the Well: After leaving the series in season three to work on Miracles, a failed pilot for ABC, series co-creator David Greenwalt returns to the show in order to direct and co-produce this episode.

• Crossover Casting: Producers asked Sarah Michelle Gellar to appear in this episode, but due to scheduling conflicts with the filming of The Grudge in Japan, she was only free for the final episode (in which she didn't appear at all). Michelle Trachtenberg was also asked to reprise her role of Dawn in the place of Andrew, but scheduling conflicts with filming Ice Princess caused her to back out.

Quotes

• Spike: How do you say "wank off" in Italian?

• Spike: About Buffy. How did you know she was in trouble?

Angel: I got word.

Spike: From who?

Angel: A source.

Spike: You have been spying on her?

Angel: I just wanted to make sure she was all right.

Spike: Sending your lackeys to do your stalking for you. That is really pathetic.

Angel: All right, fine. I'm not proud of it, but it's... it's Buffy.

Spike: How many you got on her?

Angel: Uh, just the one. But he got spotted. Called me from the hospital after he regained consciousness.

• Angelus: That's why he had us tossed. So he could violate...

Darla: He didn't...

Angelus: Violate our women!

Spike: Violate in succession!

Darla: Concurrently.

Angelus: Concurrently? You never let us do that.

• Spike: The man has no sense of indecency. You remember Frankfurt. He hatches the Rathruhn egg personally and then just decides to give those nuns safe passage.

Angelus: Those were my nuns!

Spike: Yeah. Nuns are your thing. Everybody knows that. They respect it. They respect us.

Angelus: We are the reason men fear the night!

• Spike: The Immortal?!

Angel: I mean, come on!

Spike: She's smarter than that!

Angel: She'd never fall for a centuries old guy with a dark past who may or may not be evil.

• Angel: Ours is a forever love.

Spike: I had a relationship with her, too.

Angel: Okay, sleeping together is not a relationship.

Spike: It is if you do it enough times.

• Spike: Every time he shows up, I either lose my girl, get beaten by an angry mob, or get thrown in prison for tax evasion. Long story.

• Angel: I helped save the world, you know.

Spike: Like I haven't.

Angel: Yeah, but I've done it a lot more.

Spike: Oh, please.

Angel: Closed the Hellmouth.

Spike: I've done that.

Angel: Yeah, you wore a necklace. You know, I helped kill the Mayor and, uh, Jasmine...

Spike: Do those really count as saving the world?

Angel: I stopped Acathla. That saved the world.

Spike: Buffy ran you through with a sword.

Angel: Yeah, but I made her do it. I signalled her with my eyes.

Spike: She killed you. I helped her. That one counts as mine.

• Alfonso: Oh, look. The Americans are relying on violence to solve their problems. What a surprise.

• Spike: Can't we just... lock her away in a box where no one can ever touch her? You know? Like we did with Pavayne?

Angel: I don't think she'd let us. She's pretty strong.

Spike: We could do a spell. Some sort of mind control.

Angel: Oh, she'd figure it out. You know, she's pretty smart.

Spike: So, what? We just have to live with it? Get on with our lives?

Angel: 'Fraid so.

Spike: Fine. No problem. I was planning on doing that anyway.

Angel: Yeah, me, too.

Spike: Actually, I'm doing it right now. As we speak, I'm movin' on.

Angel: Movin' on.

Spike: Oh, yeah.

Angel: Right now.

Spike: Movin'.