Untouched

"Untouched" is episode 4 of season 2 in the television show Angel, originally broadcast on the WB network. In this episode, a vision from Cordelia leads Angel to Bethany, a runaway teen who possesses barely controlled telekinetic powers. Angel discovers Bethany was sexually abused by her father when Lilah - hoping to groom Bethany as an assassin for Wolfram & Hart - attempts to use Bethany's father as a "trigger" to drive Bethany to unleash her burgeoning power. Meanwhile, Darla continues to plague Angel’s dreams.

Plot

Lilah sneaks into Lindsey's office to rifle though his papers, but Darla is there. Darla reveals she has been using a drug called Calynthia powder to keep Angel asleep while she manipulates his dreams. Angel wakes to find Cordelia and Wesley bickering about whether they should offer to pay Gunn. Angel and Wesley begin to discuss Angel's sleeping habits, but Cordelia suddenly gets a vision that sends Angel out to save a young girl from two potential rapists. As two men are about to attack the girl, she telekinetically slides a dumpster across the alleyway and smashes the men against a wall.

At the crime scene, Angel pretends to be a detective in order to get information about the crime from an officer. He wanders inside an old building and finds the young girl from the alley. Scared, she sends a rebar through Angel's chest, although upon realizing that she didn't kill him, she seems a little less afraid. The girl returns to the apartment she's staying at, revealing her roommate to be Lilah. Gunn arrives to offer his help and Angel sends him out to find information on the men Bethany hurt.

As Bethany drifts to sleep, she dreams of her abusive childhood and unintentionally sends a bedside lamp flying into Lilah, who was watching her fitful sleep. Bethany seeks Angel's help and they discuss her lack of control over her telekinetic powers. Holland stresses that if Lilah's work with Bethany is unsuccessful it could damage their other projects. Wesley deduces that Bethany has been sexually abused; when he pointedly mentions her father she loses control, sending both him and Angel flying through the air.

That night, Bethany finds Angel in his bed and she offers herself to him, as the abuse she has suffered has led her to believe that she is just an object for use. He declines, and after they talk, he sends her back to her own bed. After Angel helps Bethany work to control her power, he meets Gunn at one of the potential rapists' apartment. He brings up the payment idea and Gunn agrees, meaning that Gunn is now officially part of Angel Investigations. They find evidence that someone paid for the attack on Bethany.

Cordelia talks to Bethany over lattes until she is kidnapped by Wolfram & Hart's men. Angel and Gunn go after the men and Angel is able to get Bethany back from them. At the hotel, Bethany's father is used as a weapon to set her off and, as her control breaks, she causes serious structural damage to the building and hurls her father out of a window. Eventually, Bethany is able to control her power and keep from hurting anyone seriously. Later, she packs up her things in the apartment while Lilah and Angel have a chat on the doorstep. Angel comments that Lilah needs to find someone else's mind to play with, and as he leaves with Bethany, Lilah mutters that they already have, referring to him and Darla.

Production details

The shot in which Bethany telekinetically explodes every window in the hotel was done using special effects, says production designer Stuart Blatt. The Angel production department built a set matching the superficial layout of the outside of the hotel, and filmed a window of the set exploding. The visual effects designer took that image and tiled it over the intact windows: "Through the magic of digital medium." Blatt says, "[we] created a whole wall of the hotel exploding."^[1]

Acting

Main cast

• David Boreanaz as Angel
• Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
• Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
• J. August Richards as Charles Gunn

Guest Stars

• Stephanie Romanov as Lilah Morgan
• Sam Anderson as Holland Manners
• Daisy McCrackin as Bethany Chaulk
• Gareth Williams as Mr. Chaulk
• Julie Benz as Darla

Co-stars

• David J. Miller as Man #1
• Drew Wicks as Uniform Officer
• Michael Harte as Detective
• Madison Eginton as Young Bethany

Writing

Continuity

Cordelia refers to the Buffy episode "Lovers Walk" when she was impaled by a piece of steel rebar.

Music

• "At the Fairground" - Opus1 Music Library
• "Dreaming of Darla" - Robert Kral
• "Untouched - Darla's Fire" - Robert Kral

Translations

• German title: "Außer Kontrolle" ("Out of control")
• Italian title: "Non toccarmi" ("Don't touch me")
• Spanish title: "Intocable" ("Untouchable")

References

External links

• "Untouched" at the Internet Movie Database

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Angel#Untouched

See also