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"Conviction" is the season premiere of the fifth season of Angel and the eighty-ninth episode in the series. Written and directed by Joss Whedon, it was originally broadcast on October 1, 2003, on The WB network.

Synopsis[]

Taking over the Los Angeles offices of the supernatural law firm Wolfram and Hart proves to be more challenging than expected for Angel and the gang, especially when their first case involves representing an evil client who threatens to destroy the city. As the gang settles into their new careers at the law firm, they meet new and familiar faces, including the mysterious Eve, who will act as Angel's liaison to Wolfram and Hart's senior partners, and the bubbly vampire Harmony who is Angel's new assistant. Most surprising of all is the arrival of Angel's old nemesis and fellow vampire-with-a-soul, Spike, who makes a miraculous appearance.[1]

Summary[]

In a dark alley, a woman is attacked by a vampire, but Angel appears and saves her. He advises her to stay out of dark alleys and, when he moves to leave, she asks who he is. He responds that it "doesn't matter," when suddenly an operations team from Wolfram & Hart turn up. The man in command, Agent Hauser, introduces himself and explains that they tracked Angel through a homing device, while lawyers get the woman to sign release forms. Angel then learns that the vampire worked for one of the law firm's clients, before he and the woman he saved are put together for photos. The woman asks if he saved her for the publicity, but Angel (who is offered coffee by an assistant) tries to assure her he helps the helpless, despite it looking the contrary.

At Wolfram & Hart, the gang starts moving in to their new setting. Fred gets lost en route to her office. Wesley finds her and she tells him that her lab is "giganormous" and she's unsure of the function of most of the machines in it. Her assistant Knox catches up to Fred; Wesley tries to make conversation by asking him how long he's been evil. After Knox leads Fred to her office, Gunn meets up with Wesley, who complains that Fred called her lab assistant "Knoxy." Gunn admits that though he feels completely out of place, they can turn things around and make them better even if its going to take a while to get comfortable. Lorne then passes by talking to clients on his phone, showing he's already more than settled in. Meanwhile, Angel's liaison to the Senior Partners introduces herself as Eve; she tosses him an apple to drive home the irony of her name. She points out that, if he wants to use Wolfram & Hart's power to do good in Los Angeles, he will have to be prepared to do some bad too, saying: "In order to keep this place running, you have to keep it, well, running."

In his office, Gunn encounters Eve, who says that things were a lot simpler when he was just hunting vamps on the street with his gang. She wonders if he's ready for "the next step" and he confirms that he is; she hands him a business card and says: "You'll feel like a new man."

The next day, Angel is unhappy to learn his new secretary is Harmony, who tried to have the gang killed during their last encounter; she tells him: "I'm strong, I'm quick, I'm incredibly sycophantic — if that means what that guy said — and I type like a superhero… If there was a superhero whose power was typing." Angel notes that the blood she's brought him tastes good; she tells him that the secret ingredient is otter. Wesley arrives, explaining he picked Harmony from the pool because he thought Angel would like having someone familiar around. Harmony's happy to be reunited with the group, especially Cordelia, but Angel breaks the news that Cordelia is in a coma and they don't know if she'll ever wake up.

Harmony brings in client Corbin Fries, who is on trial for smuggling in girls for prostitution and cheap labor. He readily admits he's guilty; when Angel says he has no incentive to keep him out of jail, Fries says: "Either you get me off, or I drop the bomb."

In a conference room, Lorne has each employee sing so he can read them for potential evil. In the science lab, Fred explains Lorne's skills to Knox; Knox tells her that if she wants him to, he'll go up and get read so that she can be sure he's not evil. Fred is still unsure that she'll be capable of running the whole lab. In Angel's office, the gang wonders if the bomb Fries threatened is mystical. Harmony says she has the address for a guy named Spanky, a "freelance mystic" whose name has shown up in Fries' file. Angel heads to the garage, which houses a fleet of expensive corporate cars, and takes one out to pay Spanky a visit. Spanky reveals he built a mystical container which can hold anything until the container is dissolved by a magic word. Back in the science lab, Fred and Knox look through Fries' file and discover he is linked to a cult which specializes in "quick-fire disease scenarios." When Fred tells him that Fries may be messing with a virus, Angel says that he knows where the bomb is: inside Fries' son.

Meanwhile, Gunn is enduring a stressful procedure at the doctor's office. Back at the firm, Fred tells Wesley that they've had no luck figuring out what virus Fries might be using. Eve pays Angel a visit in his office; she finds it ironic that Angel's dealing with a guy who put a virus in his own son when Angel just lost his son. She reminds him that Connor is happy and he's the only one who remembers him. Angel tells her that he doesn't want her to say Connor's name, and Eve says that if he takes every case this personally, he won't last long. Fred and Knox spend the night looking over files and photos while eating Chinese takeout. Frustrated, Fred accuses her crew of not working hard enough to save people. The next day, Fries' trial continues; Lorne calls Angel from the trial and says that he thinks they should isolate Matthew (Fries' son); as Agent Hauser listens in, Lorne tells Angel that Fries has no chance of getting off. Hauser tells his agents to take out the kid and anyone within 50 yards of him, and as Angel heads for Matthew's school, Harmony tells him that the special ops team are already on their way and they called for the Cleaners. However, when the special ops team gases Matthew's classroom, they realize it's empty except for Angel.

Fries' trial heads into final summations as Wesley reveals to Lorne that he's smuggled a gun into the courtroom, preparing to use it to stop Fries if necessary. Suddenly Gunn arrives in a nice suit and gets Desmond Keel to cede to him. Gunn moves for a mistrial and announces that the judge should remove herself from the case because, according to the judge's tax records, she holds stock in a company owned by a company owned by Fries'. The judge claims not to know about the connection, but Gunn says he discovered it in only six hours. The judge quickly calls a recess and holds an urgent meeting with the lawyers present.

As Angel and the agents fight, Hauser calls him a "pathetic little fairy" who doesn't have what they have — conviction. Angel replies that he has something more powerful than that — mercy. He demonstrates the last of his by making Hauser shoot himself.

Later, Eve explains to the group that Gunn agreed to let the firm put in his head legal knowledge. Angel wonders how Gunn knows for sure that nothing else was done; he said that he was in the White Room and is sure. Eve tells the group that they needed a lawyer, and Gunn had "the most unused potential" — and that he, unlike Angel, just saved the day without using violence. Wesley notes that they did disable the vessel, but Gunn says that Fries has to lie low until the trial comes up again, and when it does, he can drag it out for a long time. Fred wonders if they're actually going to do good while they're there, since they've not only helped save a criminal but also returned him to the son he was willing to kill in order to gain revenge. Angel assures them that they are, reminding them that Wolfram & Hart is a powerful weapon that they can learn to use for good and that eventually they'll find out why the Senior Partners chose to put them in charge.

As he tells the gang they'll handle whatever comes next, he opens an envelope from which an amulet falls out. As soon as it hits the floor, it starts to glow and suddenly resurrects Spike, to everyone's surprise.

Continuity[]

  • Fred suggests vetting the staff to "make sure we don't have any die-hard evildoers plotting against us." Ironically, her own assistant, Knox, was doing just that: plotting to use Fred as a vessel for Illyria ("Shells").
  • Angel threatens to kill Harmony because she betrayed the team in their last encounter ("Disharmony").
  • Harmony is excited to work with Cordelia, but Angel tells her that Cordelia is in a coma. They'll meet again when Cordelia wakes up in "You're Welcome."
  • Harmony says that Cordelia was her best friend all her life; they were together since Harmony's first appearance in "The Harvest."
  • The Amulet that falls from the envelope is the same Lilah gave Angel in "Home" and he gave Buffy in "Chosen."
  • Spike reappears in Los Angeles after dying in the Hellmouth in Sunnydale ("Chosen").
  • Harmony calls Spike "Blondie Bear," the nickname she had for him during their relationship ("The Harsh Light of Day").

Appearances[]

Individuals[]

Organizations and titles[]

Species[]

Locations[]

Objects[]

Death count[]

  • A vampire, staked by Angel.
  • Lopez, burned by Wolfram & Hart (only mentioned).
  • Hauser's henchmen, shot by Hauser.
  • Hauser, forced by Angel to shoot himself.

Behind the scenes[]

Production[]

  • The episode title "Conviction" is a pun; the Team Angel is trying to get someone off at trial while they are all losing theirs in the process.[2]
  • This episode begins the same way as the series premiere "City Of" began. Joss Whedon described: "Angel in a dark alley saving a damsel in distress from a vampire. We did this deliberately because we really wanted to call back what the essence of the show was. Angel is the kind of guy who goes into a dark alley, saves the woman, doesn't say what his name is and takes off. [...] We are going to work for Wolfram & Hart, the evil company we've fought all this time, and it simply means we can't be what we were, so all of his heroism is falling by the wayside and he's a little bit pathetic."[2]
  • James Marsters joins the regular cast as of this episode, receiving the second billing behind David Boreanaz in the opening credits, while Charisma Carpenter and Vincent Kartheiser have been removed.
  • Production designer Stuart Blatt says Whedon asked him to build the new Wolfram & Hart large enough so that he could "walk all around with a Steadicam and never have to cut"[3] then did exactly that; the second scene after the credits is a single, three and one-half minute shot introducing all the main characters in their new setting. According to Whedon, it took 27 takes to get this one long shot: "Inevitably one actor is always going to have trouble with their lines, and it's usually going to be the one who's at the end of the take, because that's just my fate."[2]
  • Alexis Denisof had a case of Bell's Palsy that caused the left side of his face to be paralyzed. Almost all the shots in this episode show Wesley from the right side or a three-quarters right shot.[2]
  • Whedon explains the decision to bring in Mercedes McNab as Harmony was because "she has been tirelessly funny, and engaging, and sexy, and delightful and it was very nice to bring her into the fold. She was long overdue to get into the mix, and we needed a blond, let's face it."[2]
  • Whedon, a fan of Law & Order, wrote Gunn's court scene using made-up legal jargon. However, when the scene was sent to a legal consultant, they only made a few tweaks. They thought McCraken vs. the State of Maine was a real referenced case, but it never happened.[2]

Broadcast[]

  • "Conviction" had an audience of 3.4 million households upon its original airing.[4]

Pop culture references[]

  • Sam tells Matt about comics of Punisher and the X-Men.
  • Lorne describes a project as a combination of the sitcom Joanie Loves Chachi (1982) and the documentary The Sorrow and the Pity (1969).
  • Eve offers an apple to Angel to get the irony of her name out of the way, in reference to the biblical story in which Eve shares the forbidden fruit with Adam and the two are expelled from the Garden of Eden.
  • Lorne reads that the politician Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. (1888–1969) apparently was a client of Wolfram & Hart, but the former president George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) read the "fine print."
  • One of the members of staff that Lorne is interviewing sings "There Once Was a Man," from the musical The Pajama Game.
  • Fred hangs up a Dixie Chicks poster in her office.
  • Lorne mentions that he had a scheduled lunch with the fashion designer and then actress Mary Kate Olsen, and that she would talk about her twin Ashley's new piercing.
  • Spanky explains that he is a fan of Our Gang comedy film series, which features a character also named Spanky.
  • Lorne says the jury is looking at Fries like he's O.J. Simpson, due to his highly publicized murder case in 1994.
  • Gunn says that, in addition to knowledge of the law, Wolfram & Hart also filled his mind with Gilbert and Sullivan works. He then offers to sing for Lorne one of their operas, The Pirates of Penzance (1879).

Music[]

International titles[]

  • Czech: "První případ" (First Case)
  • Finnish: "Vakaumus" (Conviction)
  • French: "Conviction" (Conviction)
  • German: "Adieu, Kalifornien" (Goodbye, California)
  • Hungarian: "Kezdeti nehézség" (Initial Difficulty)
  • Italian: "Convinzione" (Conviction)
  • Portuguese (Brazil): "Convicção" (Conviction)
  • Russian: "Приговор" (Sentence)
  • Spanish (Latin American): "Convicción" (Conviction)
  • Spanish (Spain): "Convicción" (Conviction)
  • Turkish: "Mahkûmiyet" (Conviction)

Adaptations[]

Gallery[]

Promotional stills[]

Behind the scenes[]

[]

Quotes[]

Knox: "Do you know how to get to your office from here?"
Fred: "Why? Did somebody eat my breadcrumbs?"
Wesley: "Pretty powerful position for a young woman."
Eve: "How exactly can you be sure I'm either of those things?"
Angel: "You know that won't kill me."
Hauser: "It'll hurt. That part's fun."
Angel: "Agent Hauser, I'm honestly beginning to suspect that you're not part of the solution."
Hauser: "You really think you can solve the problem? Come into Wolfram & Hart and make everything right? Turn night into glorious day? You pathetic little fairy."
Angel: "I'm not little."
Hauser: "That's exactly what you are. You're minuscule. A dust mote on the shelf of that great institution. Now, you think I'm just a trigger-happy jerk who follows orders. But I'm something that you'll never be: I'm pure. I believe in evil. You and your friends, you're conflicted. You're confused. We're not. That's why you're going to lose. Because we possess the most powerful thing in the world: conviction."
Angel: "There's one thing more powerful than conviction. Just one: mercy." (Angel kicks Hauser's gun up and Hauser shoots himself)
Special Ops Guy: "What happened to mercy?"
Angel: "You just saw the last of it."
Wesley: "Spike?"
Angel: "Spike."
Harmony: "Blondie Bear?"

References[]

  1. "angel: Conviction." TheWB.com. Archived from the original on October 19, 2004.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Joss Whedon. Angel Season Five on DVD; audio commentaries for "Conviction." 20th Century Fox, February 2005.
  3. Jeff Ritchie, "Angelic Designs for the Undead: an Exclusive Interview with Stuart Blatt and featuring Andrew Reeder." CityofAngel.com. Archived from the original on March 8, 2011.
  4. "Nielsen Ratings for Angel's Fifth Season." Nielsen Ratings for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, & Firefly. Archived from the original on February 16, 2008.
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