Cyborgs threaten Wesley... and his dad.
Written by: Drew Goddard
Directed by: Jefferson Kibbee
Roger Wyndam-Pryce, Wesley's fault-finding father, visits the ex-Watcher to recruit him for the newly reformed Council of Watchers, decimated by the First and its army of Bringers.
Team Angel is more interested in the remains of a cyborg captured during a sting operation, but this turns out to be no more than a Trojan Horse in a plan to infiltrate the law firm with robot assassins.
This is in itself a ruse to allow Roger to steal an artefact that will control Angel from the Wolfram and Hart vaults.
Faced with a threat to Fred's life, Wesley is forced to kill his father - only to find that he too is a robot.
- ten quick questions.
Trivia:
Father figure: Although Wesley's dad has been mentioned before, this marks the first appearance of Roger Wyndam-Pryce. He's played by Roy Dotrice, father of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em actress Michelle Dotrice, and possibly best known to fantasy fans for playing Father in Beauty and the Beast. The episode also marks another debut, that of former Buffy writer Drew Goddard.
Cybersex: Spike notes that "having sex with robots isn't as unusual as people may think." This is a reference to season five of Buffy, where Spike ordered a replica of the Slayer - affectionately referred to as the Buffybot - do things for him that the real one wouldn't. And we don't mean cooking his dinner and the ironing…
The Smugglers: Why did Roger need to smuggle a gun in via the first cyborg but, despite being a dirty great robot himself, manage to pass himself off as human, despite all of Wolfram and Harts's physical and mystical detection devices?
Review:
You could cut the air with a mystical sword in this tale of Wesley and Roger's awkward father/son relationship. Hats off to Angel's casting director for choosing Dotrice as Price Senior.
Great cyborgs too, said by some to be based on Doctor Who's souless Cybermen. I doubt if Drew Goddard is a card-carrying Whovian, but they certainly looked cooler that Star Trek's Borg and could probably hold their own in a Kylie video.
Sadly, Lineage pulls its final punch. In a show as daring as Angel I'd prefer, if not expect, a genuine death in a situation like this.
