Untouched

Season 2, Episode 4
Written by Mere Smith
Directed by Joss Whedon
Original Airdate: 17 October 2000

“The time I’ve lived, I’ve seen some horrors, scary behaviour, and a couple of fashion trends I constantly pray to forget.”
Angel

REGULAR CAST

David Boreanaz as Angel
Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
J. August Richards as Charles Gunn

GUEST CAST

Stephanie Romanov as Lilah Morgan
Sam Anderson as Holland Manners
Daisy McCrackin as Bethany Chaulk
Gareth Williams as Mr. Chaulk
Julie Benz as Darla

CO-STARRING

David J. Miller as Man #1
Drew Wicks as Uniformed Officer
Michael Harte as Detective
Madison Eginton as Young Bethany

SYNOPSIS

Lilah sneaks into Lindsey’s office and searches through some of his papers, but Darla is there and the two talk about dreams. Angel wakes to find Cordelia and Wesley bickering. Angel and Wesley begin to talk about Angel’s sleeping habits, but Cordelia suddenly gets a vision that sends Angel out to save a young girl from two potential rapists. As two men are about to get to the girl, a large dumpster slides across the alleyway and smashes the men against a wall.

At the crime scene, Angel pretends to be a detective in order to get information about the crime from an officer. He wanders inside an old building and finds the young girl from the alley. She’s scared and she sends a rebar through Angel’s chest. The girl returns to the apartment she’s staying at, revealing her roommate to be Lilah. Gunn arrives to offer his help and Angel sends him out to find information on the men Bethany hurt.

As Bethany drifts to sleep, she dreams of her abusive childhood and unintentionally sends a bedside lamp flying into Lilah who was wondering in her room. Bethany seeks Angel’s help and they talk about her power of telekinesis and her lack of control over it. Holland recommends that Lilah continue her work with Bethany but it is necessary for her to be successful as it could damage their other projects if she is not. After doing some reading, Wesley brings up the subject of Bethany’s father to her and she looses control, sending both him and Angel flying through the air. Wesley had a good reason for bringing up Bethany’s father, but Angel still insists he leave as so not to upset Bethany any more.

That night, Bethany finds Angel in his bed and she offers herself to him. All the abuse she has suffered has led her to believe that she is just an object for use. He’s not interested and after they talk, he sends her back to her own bed. After Angel helps Bethany work to control her power, he meets Gunn at the apartment of one of the potential rapists. They find that Wolfram and Hart was behind the attack on Bethany.

Cordelia talks to Bethany talk over lattes until several men working for Wolfram and Hart kidnap Bethany. Angel and Gunn go after then men and Angel is able to get Bethany back from them. At the hotel, Bethany’s father is used as a weapon to set her off and as her control breaks, she causes serious structural damage to the hotel. Eventually, Bethany is able to control her power and keep from hurting anyone seriously. Later, she packs up her things and leaves Lilah and Wolfram and Hart.

TRIVIA

There’s a reference to Cordelia’s being impaled on a spike in Buffy‘s Lover’s Walk, a real-life event that once happened to Charisma Carpenter.

CONTINUITY

Darla mentions a bound and gagged gypsy girl, a reference to the flashback events of Five by Five.

Angel mentions he’s been ‘sleeping weird,’ a reference to his dreams for Darla, and something that has concerned Wesley since Penn’s appearance in season one’s Somnambulist.

Cordelia mentions that she was impaled once, as one of the ‘benefits of a Sunnydale education.’ This happened in Lover’s Walk.

GOOFS

Cordelia is pierced in the bicep by the nail, and she starts the scene holding her bicep. But in the next shot, as she stands up, she is clutching her forearm instead.

When Bethany’s father arrives her telekinetic powers cause an explosion smashing windows in two floors and hurtling Angel and Cordelia into the wall, yet her father wasn’t affected in any way. Surely her subconscious would have either aimed the blast at her father, or uncontrollably aimed the blast in all directions.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

EPISODE
First Impressions / Dear Boy

STORY ORDER
The Replacement / Out of My Mind