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| Episode 18, Season 2 Title: "Dead End" Directed by: James A Contner Written by: David Greenwalt Original AirDate: 24 April 2001
In another part of town, a family is preparing for their morning. The husband is reading the newspaper as he turns to leave but instead grabs a knife and tries to fish his eye out. At the same, Cordy has a vision of the same man. She sees the blood and the pain. She thrashes around, hitting a bookshelf. Angel quickly comes to help but she lies in a heap as he holds her against him. The vision was particularly strong and she sobs. Angel knows the visions are taking a toll on her. Act I At Wolfram & Hart, the Special Projects Team is holding a meeting with Nathan Reed at the head. He announces that the Senior Partners are ready to choose a single permanent vice president. After the meeting, Reed takes Lindsey aside and warns him about his unprofessional grudge towards Angel. He offers him a card and pats him on the shoulder, much to the shagrin of a watchful Lilah. At the Hyperion Hotel, Cordy is explaining her vision. She doesn't have much except that it's in a home. Gunn and Wes ask questions, but Angel can see she's doing her best and defends her. Gunn will check hospitals posing as a relative, while Wes will visit morgues and Angel will hit the streets, shake up some demons for any information. Gunn will keep an eye on Cordy, who doesn't look too well.
It's evening and Angel, Gunn and Wes are atill empty handed. Angel has no choice but to suggest that they ask Cordy to "dig her a little deeper", as Gunn puts it. After 'assigning' this job to Angel, Wes and Gunn leave him to the task, but Cordy pretends to ignore him. "I wish it would stop hurting", she remarks. She reveals that the vision has been with her all day and begins to talk it out. As she does so, more details come through, like the children's cereal bowls on the kitchen table and then a school name on a book bag – "Delaney". But as the vision finishes in bloody violence, Cordy covers her face in tears, clearly distraught. Angel can only offer, "Can I get you anything?" Cordy sobs, "Why does everybody keep asking me that?" It's morning again, and Lindsey rises from his bed with a complete hand. He goes to the closet for a tie and instead takes out his guitar. He sits on his bed and plays a few chords.
Act II Lindsey finally lets go of the pen. He steps out, leaving Lilah to assure their client that "nothing is wrong." Later that evening, Lindsey sits at his desk with a pen and paper trying to write, but his hand doesn't move. He takes out a letter opener and pricks it, drawing blood, but still nothing. He looks at his hand and asks, "Who are you."
The crew walks into The Karitas bar and find themselves stunned at a talented and soulful performance by... Lindsey? Apparently Lindsey was a regular until some guy chopped off his strumming hand. Angel is jealous, but Cordy is enraptured as is the entire room. At the song's close, The Host offers a drink and Cordy, Wes, and Gunn compliment Lindsey, as Angel sputters his weak protests. It seems he won't get his chance on stage after all, as The Host reveals that Angel and Lindsey are supposed to work together on this one. This causes Lindsey to storm out at such a ridiculous suggestion. Angel refuses to follow their only lead, instead suggesting that they go to the source of the killer body parts. He lifts Lindsey's glass and reveal faint fingerprints, "What we need to follow is his new hand." Lindsey is doing a little investigative research of his own. He snoops around Reed's office and checks his computer files and finds info on Fairfield Clinic.
As Lindsey leaves, he spots Lilah doing her own snooping in the file storage room. He sees her pilfer through files and retrieve a sheet, place it in her purse, and spots a gun and prescription pills inside. Lindsey quietly walks away. Moments later, Lindsey knocks on Bradley Scott's parole officer's apartment door. He steps inside and gets right to the point. He wants to know where the clinic gets their body parts. The parole officer doesn't know what he's talking about, but is tight lipped about revealing any information at all. The parole officer asks for the code, but Lindsey doesn't know it. The parole officer hits Lindsey with a handgun. ACT III Lindsey is pinned to the wall. He's about to take is last breath, when a garbage can crashes through the window. Angel is coming to the rescue. The parole officer drags Lindsey to the window to check out the intruder as he holds him in a chokehold with the gun to his head. He sticks his head out the window and Angel surprised him a rope around his neck pulling him nearly into the fire escape. Lindsey is free and gets the gun, waving it around in frustration at Angel's appearance. The parole officer refuses to reveal any info on Bradley Scott until Angel threatens, "Why would I kill you when I could live off you for a month!" with a vamp face. The parole officer spills. The firm had Bradley assigned to him. He took Bradley to an address given to him by the firm, no questions asked. At the Hyperion, Wes and Gunn spy on Cordy as she whimpers on the desk. They shut the door carefully and Wes rationalizes that the visions are tough on her because she is human. Doyle was a half demon. They hear Cordy talking, and believe the worst. They barge in and find her on the phone with Angel. He's checking up on her.
ACT IV Bradley begs, "Please!" Lindsey turns to Angel for a decision, but he doesn't offer any only that people will be arriving soon and he snatches the banner to wrap it around one of the victims. With an "I'm sorry" Lindsey shuts off the life support and begins to destroy the lab. Angel turns on the oxygen full blast. Before Angel exits the travel agency, he lights a piece of paper, throwing it down the stairs. As he runs out, Southern California Travel Agency blows up. It's Friday morning and at Angel Investigations the guys are checking on Cordy. She finally admits their deepest fears, "They're starting to take their toll. It's part of the job, right?" She tries to down play it, but all are concerned.
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Lindsey is awakened by his clock radio. He shuts off the music with the stump where his hand used to be. Shaving, putting on a tie – these small routines are a daily reminder of his missing hand. He shaves and then goes to his closet to put on a tie, then pauses to stare longingly at his guitar sitting against the wall, unused since he lost his hand.
A while later, Lindsey arrives at Fairfield Clinic. Surprised that Lindsey isn't aware of the reason for his appointment, Dr. Melman reveals that the firm is a source of funding for the clinic and for their other "less publicized aspects" of work that they do, namely Lindsey will be receiving a hand transplant. Lindsey takes it in stride like everything else. The surgery is done by Dr. Melman but a Pockla, a demon healer, adds the finishing touch in the form of a magic powder that reduces the scar to nearly nothing, healing it in just a few seconds. The demon then disappears and Lindsey is moved to a post op room.
At eleven, Lindsey and Nathan are greeting a client as Lilah walks up and notices Lindsey's hand. "That's an expensive operation. The shaman alone is a quarter mil. I guess they like you." Her co-vice president's new hand as a sign that she won't be the one getting promoted. They meet with Kraigle, regarding his chocolate selling company that is accused of causing cancer. Lilah plans to ensure their success in court via magic, but Lindsey offers a smarter solution. He points out the real culprit, a soon-to-be bankrupt company that makes the tin containers for the chocolate. The client is openly impressed and takes notice of Lindsey's hand, his new hand, furiously writing on his legal pad, "Are you getting all this down?" Lindsey looks at his hand, unaware that he had been writing and reads the words, "Kill, Kill, Kill," written over and over again all over the paper.
At Angel Investigations, Angel appears before Cordelia with a box full of sandwiches. She takes a sandwich and recalls another detail of the vision, offering a new perspective. The man was happy before he tried to stab his eye out, "He was happy about his eye, like it was new or something." Gunn and Wes arrive with news about the victim's identity and family. A thorough sweep of their abandoned and super clean home revealed nothing, except for a bit of boldy molding that Gunn brought back for Angel to sniff, which he declines. Once again the crew is at a dead end. They can only go to one place. A communal groan escapes them in dread of Angel's singing.
Meanwhile, Angel returns to the Hyperion with a file containing information on the previous owner of Linsdey's new hand, Bradley Scott. His record shows that he was paroled a month ago, but only visited his parole office once then disappeared. While Cordy goes into internet research mose, Wes questions how Angel got his info. Angel defends, "When I was in charge here, no one questioned my methods or my singing." He admits to hiring a private detective, which upsets Wes and Gunn. Cordy's quick fingers reveal that Bradley Scott worked with Wolfram & Hart while he was dumping bearer bonds on the black market.
Angel is driving Lindsey pull up to the address mentioned by the parole officer, who confirms the location from his position tied up in the trunk. Angel gets an ax out and proceeds to throw it through the glass door. He suggests to Lindsey, "Work out some of that aggression." Fighting off the oncoming vamps, the unlikely partners slip through a secret door in the floor leading to the lower level. There they find men and women in suspended life chambers, some partially hacked up, but still breathing and living, against their will. Angel recognizes the banner of Pockla hanging over the threshold. Finding Bradley Scott, Lindsey hears him whisper, "Kill... Kill..." Lindsey asks, "Who do you want to kill?" Bradley responds helplessly, "Kill... me."
At the same time, Nathan Reed is announcing the promotion of "one of their own" and the loss of one as well. Lilah is visibly nervous and before she receives the bad news, reaches for a gun hidden inside her purse. Before she can make a move though, Lindsey interupts, "You coulda had it, but you didn't have what it takes," and thrusts out his hand, startling Lilah, "an evil hand." He stands up, disarming a security guard and fires a few shots around Reed. "I just can't control my evil hand!" Lindsey claims with a psychotic smile. Pointing out Reed's error at choosing him over Lilah, he makes it clear that if anything happened to her, she's got enough dirt on all of them to bury them all. As he walks out, Lindsey's evil hand grabs Lilah's derriere. She knows he just saved her as Reed amends the minutes and announces her promotion.
That evening, Lindsey walks to his 1956 Ford truck with his guitar case and duffle bag. Angel drops by to make sure that he doesn't come back. Lindsey offers one piece of advice, "The key to Wolfram & Hart: Don't let them make you play their game---you gotta make 'em play yours. Angel offers his own advice as well, "Don't drive too fast now. Lot of cops out there." As Lindsey drives off, attached to the tailgate is a large white sign with big black letters, "Cops Suck." Nice to know Angel also got his sense of humor back!