"Angel" Harm's Way (2004)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Vern Gillum

Writers:

Joss Whedon (creator) &
David Greenwalt (creator) ...

TV Series:

"Angel" (1999)

Original Air Date:

14 January 2004 (Season 5, Episode 9)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Fantasy | Thriller

Plot:

Harmony is having trouble adjusting to working for Angel. The other employees of Wolfram & Hart ignore her and she's feeling depressed about her life...

Plot Keywords:

Bound And Gagged | Vampire | Vampire Slayer | Redemption | Actress

US TV Schedule:

Wed. Nov. 11

7:00 AM

TNT

Harm's Way

#5.9

Cast

David Boreanaz	...	Angel
James Marsters	...	Spike
J. August Richards	...	Charles Gunn
Amy Acker	...	Winifred 'Fred' Burkle
Andy Hallett	...	Lorne
Alexis Denisof	...	Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
David Gangler	...	Danny
Christopher Gehrman	...	Rudy
Jennifer Haworth	...	Brittany
Brendan Hines	...	Eli
Nick Jaine	...	Sahrvin Leader
Rob Lanza
Mercedes McNab	...	Harmony Kendall
Bryce Mouer	...	Tobias Dupree
Danielle Nicolet	...	Tamika
Stacy Reed	...	Charlotte
Olga Vilner	...	Vinji Leader

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Company:

Mutant Enemy

Trivia:

Another corporation under the Wolfram and Hart umbrella is "Yoyodyne". This is the company run by the evil Red Lectroids in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) as a cover for their activities on Earth.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In a close up, the corpse Fred examines to determine who killed him, takes a breath and his eyes move behind his closed eyelids.

Quotes:

Winifred 'Fred' Burkle: My lab managed that upgrade to the weapons scanner like you requested.
Angel: Fool proof?
Winifred 'Fred' Burkle: I'd say yes, but then some fool would just come along and sneak something past us.

Movie Connections:

References Alien (1979)

Soundtrack:

NEVER BE THE SAME

Harmony gets an episode

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I really love Harmony. She's been wandering around the Buffyverse from the very beginning: Torturing the Scoobies, hanging out with Cordy, dating Spike, kidnapping Dawn, trying to kill everyone... Really, it's about time she got an episode. This isn't the most important episode of the season, but it does have some really funny parts. I recommend that you give it a shot.

"Harm's Way" revolves around Harmony. She's having trouble fitting in as Angel's assistant. He's distant and often annoyed with her. Plus, since losing that fight with Spike in "Destiny" he's been in a really bad more. None of Harm's co-workers like her either and Team Angel ignores her. When Spike leaves to find Buffy without even saying good-bye, Harm is sad. Feeling like she doesn't matter, she decides to have drinks with the one person too soft hearted to turn her down... Fred. At the bar, Harm flirts with a guy and, the next morning she wakes up to find him dead in her bed.

Harmony panics, sure that Angel is going to kill her. To make matters worse, the dead guy is a lawyer who Wolfram & Hart need to make peace with a warring clans of demons. Harmony begins to suspect that she's set-up and starts investigating the dead guy. People grow suspicious of her behavior, (Lorne, Fred, etc...) so Harm knocks them out and locks them in a closet. It turns out that another vampire secretary had framed Harm in an effort to get her job. Harm ends up staking her, right in the middle of the demon summit. Angel, luckily believes her story and tells her that she should have come to him. Harm is still feeling depressed, though. She runs into Spike who says that he can't go find Buffy because it would blow his heroic sacrifice. (Really, I think he's just scared) Spike then proceeds to cheer up Harm by telling her that she does matter. After all, that other vampire nearly killed her. Harmony smiles, pleased to be so important and hated.

There are some good parts to thins episode. Harmony is just so funny and cute. She's putting unicorn stickers on her thermos of blood and fighting with chop sticks. She's hanging out with Fred, who's just the sort of woman that Harm aspires to be...except not so flat chested. She's brushing her vampire fangs with an electric tooth brush and ordering camels from the catering company. Then when she tries to explain things to Angel, she says, "I don't have a soul. I have to try harder" and I feel so bad for her. Honestly, I think she's a great addition to the show. I wish Harmony had been made Angel's assistant seasons ago. Plus it's pretty funny that she can't remember the other girl's name or even who she is. Harm's always been bad at that. She couldn't even keep her minions straight when she was trying to take over Sunnydale. Finally, I like Spike saying good-bye to Angel. "You want me to tel Buffy anything?" Spike asks. Angel's reply, "Yeah, tell her you're an idiot" cracks me up every time.

On the down side, why do Wolfram & Hart own the police? Throughout season's one & two of "Angel" Kate made it pretty clear that the police hated Wolfram & Hart and all they stood for. Also, I'm not sure that Harm is a "right biter." Just last episode she bit Spike on the left.

My favorite part of the episode: Wolfram & Hart's recruitment video. Angel's inspirational slogan, "If you don't kill, we won't kill you" must fill all their clients with a lot of confidence.