

Season 2, Episode 14
Written by Jim Kouf and Shawn Ryan
Directed by Winrich Kolbe
Original Airdate: 13 February 2001
“Hello! Gunn, stubborn, synonyms.”
Cordelia
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
- Elisabeth Röhm as Kate Lockley
- Julia Lee as Anne Steele
- Mushond Lee as Jackson
- Jarrod Crawford as Rondell
CO-STARRING
- Cory C. Hardrict as Ray
- Kyle Davis as Kenny
- Camille Mana as Les
- Darin Cooper as Police Officer
- Brenda Price as Callie
- Darris Love as George
- Matthew James as Merl
- Geoff Koch as Street Cop
- Jerry Giles as Desk Sergeant
- Steven Barr as Captain
- Suli McCullough as EMT
- Marie Chambers as Mother
SYNOPSIS
A friend of Virginia brings her daughter who has an eye in the back of her head to the soon-to-be-renamed Angel Investigations. An unseen attack on the girl led to the abnormality and Wesley assures the mother that they will find a way to get rid of the eye. At the teen shelter, two teens show up after curfew in search of safety and their fear convinces Anne makes an exception to the rules.
Merl packs his stuff to leave his place and finds Angel looking for information. Merl brings up the subject of Angel’s former employees and Angel is disturbed. Anne talks to Kenny and Les about their reasons for showing up late to the shelter they haven’t been at in a while. Kenny explains that a cop attacked them for no good reason. Anne takes the problem to Gunn and his co-workers.
Anne reveals that she knows Angel and tells the others the story about him. Gunn accompanies her back to the shelter and questions the kids about the incidents with the police. Angel follows Gunn and Anne, but as he’s standing outside the shelter, a cop attacks him. The officer rises every time Angel knocks him down until the vampire kicks the cop’s head completely off and even then, the head keeps talking for a moment.
A couple of guys from Gunn’s crew, Rondell and George arrive at the shelter to help the kids deal with the police problems. Gunn is hassled about spending all his time killing demons and ignoring the people of his past. Angel asks Kate to looks up the dead cop’s badge and she finds that he’s been dead for six months. Angel and Kate visit a graveyard and Angel reveals that someone is taking the dead bodies of cops and putting them back on the streets.
Cordelia rants about Gunn’s stubborn plan to deal with the cops then she and Wesley resolve to go back him up. A man by the name of Jackson shows up uninvited at the shelter, but Anne and Cordelia are unable to prevent him from staying. Gunn and his friends encounter a cop and Gunn questions their crime while George records the events on a hidden camera. Wesley tries to save Gunn, but the cop turns and shoots him.
A struggle takes place and George shoots the cop then the three men help move Wesley to safety as the cop sits up, seemingly unaffected by the bullets. Kate and Angel investigate the precinct where the zombie cops are from. They get Wesley into an ambulance, but as they’re driving away, several police cars get in the way. When the driver is shot, Gunn is forced to drive the ambulance to the shelter and then carries Wesley inside with the EMT.
Gunn confronts Jackson about his violent actions, but Anne puts a stop to a fight between the two. The EMT reveals that Wesley needs to get to a hospital fast. The teens barricade the shelter with everything the can find as an army of dead cops gather outside. Angel visits the police captain at the precinct, and gets shot when he asks questions. He then forcefully demands information about how to stop the zombies.
The cops force their way inside the shelter while Cordelia tries to get through to the operators at 911. The zombie cops attack through the windows and doors hurting several teens in the process. Angel follows the captain into a hidden room filled with occult materials. The captain has been using supernatural means to return good cops to the streets and protect the neighbourhood previously filled with violence. Angel finds a zombie statue and smashes it, returning all the zombie cops to their respective dead, decaying statuses.
While Angel is with her, Kate gets a report about Wesley being shot. The gunshot wound proved not to be fatal as Wesley wakes up at the hospital, praising morphine. While standing outside Wesley’s hospital room, Angel encounters Cordelia who tells him off and informs him that he needs to stay away from them all.
TRIVIA
The episode title is a play on the “thin blue line,” a phrase used figuratively for the position of law enforcement in society as a bulwark between criminals and the potential victims of crime. It’s also a nod to the 1998 Terrence Malick film The Thin Red Line.
CONTINUITY
Wesley is shot in the stomach. He will later suffer a fatal stab wound in the same location in Not Fade Away.
The plotline of Stephanie Sharp’s extra eye will continue in the next two episodes, Reprise and Epiphany.
Anne seeks Angel after their first alliance in Blood Money. She will meet Gunn again in Not Fade Away.
Cordelia recognizes one of her shirts Angel donated to East Hills Teen Center in Blood Money.
Kate tells Angel she’s working on the cases of “two women killed in a clothing store” and “thirteen lawyers from Wolfram & Hart slaughtered in a wine cellar,” referring to the deaths caused by Darla and Drusilla in Reunion.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
EPISODE
Happy Anniversary / Reprise
STORY ORDER
Blood Ties / Crush









