Redefinition

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"Redefinition" is episode 11 of season 2 in the television show Angel. Written by Mere Smith and directed by Michael Grossman, it was originally broadcast on January 16, 2001 on the WB network. As Wesley, Cordelia, and Gunn reel from the shock after Angel fires them, they end up at the Caritas demon karaoke bar. They talk to the Host about their uncertainty until a vision of Cordelia's leads them to a woman who has been abducted by a demon. Meanwhile, Angel reinvents himself as a cold-hearted, one-man weapon of mass destruction to find and take out Darla and Drusilla, who are recruiting demons for a rampage through the city. Meanwhile, Lindsey and Lilah, the only survivors of the office-party massacre, fear for their lives when the unseen Senior Partners of Wolfram & Hart want to meet with them to replace Holland as chief of the Special Projects division.

Plot

Just fired, Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn remove their gear and discuss their future as Angel prepares for further actions. They visit the Host in hopes of learning clues to their future. Lindsey and Lilah are the only survivors of Wolfram & Hart slaughter; Darla and Drusilla have spared them to be their new connections with the law firm.

Angel strongarms a demon to get information about Darla and Drusilla. He spies on them at a demon club while they recruit new associates, but concludes that he's still too attached to Darla to defeat her. The Host can offer little help to Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn, who then must act on one of Cordelia's visions.

Darla and Drusilla are unable to agree on a course of action. Angel slaughters their new gang of demons before they arrive at their planned meeting, then ambushes them and sets them afire, although they narrowly survive and realize that Angel's personality has changed radically. Lilah and Lindsey are forced to compete for Holland's position. Wesley defiantly informs Angel that he and the others will continue to "fight the good fight" even if he won't. "Someone has to fight the war," Angel replies to himself.

Production

To get the effect of Darla and Drusilla being lit on fire, Makeup Artist Dayne Johnson says he put full-face burn makeup on Julie Benz and Juliet Landau. "We were like, 'Well, okay they just got torched and they both have perfect hair,'" Johnson says. "'Can we put a wig on, a ratty wig? Can we do something else?' They were like, 'No' – oh great, alright. TV land, okay, don’t do everything completely realistic." Johnson explains that because the scene was shot on a cold night, the water to douse the flames was warmed before it was pumped from the water-truck to avoid freezing the actresses.^[1]

Continuity

• This is Drusilla's final present day episode on Angel. Directly following this episode she returns to Sunnydale in "Crush" in hopes of bringing Spike back to LA to continue on the path to reuniting her family of Darla, Spike, and Angelus (though Spike rejects her). Drusilla only later appears in flashbacks in the Season 5 episodes "Destiny" and "The Girl In Question".
• Lindsey and Lilah have both survived the massacre of the Wolfram & Hart employees and are named the successors to Holland Manners by the senior partners, making them Acting Co-Vice-Presidents of Special Projects.

Trivia

• This is the only episode in which Angel never speaks onscreen. He only narrates over the episode.

Writing

Crossover with Buffy: After this episode, Drusilla visits Sunnydale in "Crush".

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Redefinition

• "Redefinition" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Redefinition" at TV.com