Fredless

Fredless is the fifth episode of the third season of Angel and the forty-ninth episode overall. Written by Mere Smith and directed by Marita Grabiak, it was originally broadcast on October 22, 2001 on the WB network.

Fred's parents, Roger and Trish Burkle, arrive in town from Texas for a visit and plan to take her home with them, prompting Fred to run away. Angel and the gang go in search of Fred. But are these really her parents, and what is it about them that scared Fred so much that she felt she had to flee? And what is that strange beast with glowing eyes that is following Angel around?

Synopsis
Wesley, Cordelia, Fred, and Gunn joke around in the lobby, while Fred works on some kind of strange contraption that nobody can figure out. Wesley and Cordelia act out a summary of Buffy and Angel's relationship. Angel is in Sunnydale visiting his resurrected one true love. Angel returns, and Cordelia attempts to get him to talk about what went on with him and Buffy, but Angel won't talk, so Fred and Angel go out for ice cream. They run into a monster so they chase it into the sewers, then Fred returns to the hotel alone while Angel goes after the monster.

Back at the hotel, a middle-aged couple show up looking for Fred--they are her parents and had thought she had been missing for the past five years, until they got a letter from her a short time ago. Fred espies them without them noticing her, and she runs to her room and starts trying to erase all of the writing she has made on her walls. Angel arrives, carrying the severed head of the monster he just killed. The crew find Fred's dropped ice cream cone, but she is not there--she has fled. Cordelia feels something is "off" about her parents. They all go to great lengths to conceal from her parents anything about the supernatural or magical, while the parents act with confusion and ire at the many strange things they encounter--severed heads, weapons, demons, men wearing bathrobes in public, and other strange behavior. They all go in search of Fred, while she seeks refuge at Lorne's--he lives at Caritas, which has not been cleaned up since the massacre of several weeks earlier. A sarcastic Lorne, hanging around in pajamas and robe, tells Fred that she thought she could outrun her monsters, but they've hunted her down. He tells her she hasn't run far enough.

Angel searches for Fred in the sewers, and, unbeknownst to him, is being followed by a creature that looks like a giant fly with glowing blue eyes. Everyone heads on over to Lorne's to talk. Lorne treats Gunn with hostility due to the massacre, so he goes and waits outside, and Lorne doesn't tell them he knows where Fred is. Her father treats Lorne's appearance and clothing with hostility, and Lorne is in no mood to humor anyone. Angel convinces him to help them find Fred.

Meanwhile, an agitated Fred is at the bus station, talking to herself and trying to decide where to flee to, when her parents find her. They greet her with love and tenderness, and it becomes clear that she didn't want to see her parents because she didn't want them to know where she had spent the past five years and didn't want to relive those horrible experiences when telling them about her ordeal. They hadn't been menacing at all, and there had been nothing "off" about them--they were exactly what they seemed: loving parents distressed about the well-being of their daughter and confused by the many odd things they kept encountering. They all embrace, with love, and just then, the giant fly creature descends upon them in the bus station and starts attacking. The crew fights it, but it is a losing battle, until Fred's mother, who is a bus driver, hits the creature with a bus from the lot that she commandeered, squashing it.

Back at the hotel, they all talk with Fred and her parents, who take the knowledge of supernatural beasts and monsters in stride, just happy to see their daughter. Fred decides to go home with her parents, believing that she doesn't have a place with Angel Investigations.

Fred and her parents leave, but then Fred puts together some information that makes her realize that the severed head Angel brought back is full of the offspring of the giant fly-like creature who had attacked them at the bus station. Indeed, a whole group of fly creatures start attacking the hotel. Just then, Fred walks in and sets off her strange contraption, which turns out to be a hands-free device that flings an axe across the room. The axe bisects the severed head, releasing hoards of bugs. Seeing this, the fly creature leaves. Fred ultimately decides that she does have a place with A.I. after all, and her parents respectfully accept her decision.

The crew paints over Fred's wall scribblings while Angel and Fred's dad bond over the knowledge that Spiro Agnew was a demon.