Angel/Over the Rainbow

Over the Rainbow
Season 2, Episode 20
Airdate	May 8, 2001
Production Number	2ADH20
Written by	Mere Smith
Directed by	Fred Keller
← 2x19 Belonging	2x21 → Through the Looking Glass
Angel — Season Two

Over the Rainbow is the twentieth episode of the second season of Angel, and the forty-second episode overall. With Cordelia trapped in Lorne's home dimension, Angel and the others must find a way in to save her from xenophobic demons.

David Boreanaz (Angel), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase), Alexis Denisof (Wesley Wyndam-Pryce), J. August Richards (Charles Gunn)

Guest Starring: Andy Hallett (Lorne), Amy Acker (Winifred Burkle), Susan Blommaert (Vakma), Persia White (Aggie), Daniel Dae Kim (Gavin Park), Michael Phenicie (Silas)

Co-Starring: Brian Tahash (Constable), William Newman (Old Demon Man), Drew Wicks (Blix)

Plot Overview

Angel and Wesley scramble to find a way to open a portal to Pylea to rescue Cordelia who is being treated like cattle. As the gang finds a hot spot to enter, Cordelia’s visions lead her to be taken before a tribunal to test if she is cursed.

Notes

Monster of the Week

• There is no monster of the week in this episode.

Body Count

#	Whom	By Whom	How	Where
1	Villager	Drokken	Devoured	Near a Yellow Rock

Music

No licensed music was used in this episode.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Wolfram & Hart: Two lawyers from Wolfram & Hart pop up to appraise the hotel. Since their lease on the Hyperion Hotel expires in 6 months, the law firm wants to buy it and evict them.

Characters

• Lorne: Lorne left his dimension (Pylea) when a portal opened in front of him five years prior to this episode and he leaped in, desperate to escape a place where music doesn't exist. This portal was likely opened by Fred on accident in the library.

• Cordelia: After being tested for the "curse of sight," Cordelia has apparently become the leader of the village.

Trivia

The Show

• First Apperance: This episode marks the first appearance of Gavin Park, played by Daniel Dae Kim. He is the newest of the Wolfram & Hart lawyers hellbent on antagonizing Angel.

Behind the Scenes

• Ratings: On its first airing, this episode scored a 4.7/7 in the overnight Nielsen ratings. It was ranked 4th out of the 17 WB shows which aired that week.

• Filming Location: The spot where Angel and the gang conjured up the portal is outside the Paramount Gate. They use this spot for filming because the series is produced at Paramount Studios.

• Guest star Persia White previously appeared as a different character in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Welcome to the Hellmouth" (as well as the unaired pilot).

Allusions and References

• Wizard of Oz: The title of the episode refers to the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz, where a Kansas girl finds herself in a strange new world after her house was caught in a tornado. Cordelia references this again when she clicks her heels together three times. Dorothy did this in the movie to return home.

• Cats: Cats in a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber (a musical theater composer whom Lorne showed disdain for in a previous episode) based on poems by T.S. Eliot. The play is one of the longest running musicals of all time and is lacking a deep plot, which many criticise it for.

Lorne: I'd rather sit through a junior high school production of Cats!

• Titanic: The Titanic was a passenger liner deemed to be unsinkable. On its maiden voyage in 1912, the ship carrying over 2000 people hit an iceberg and sank. In the 1990s, an epic movie was made starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, which went on to become one of the highest grossing movies ever made.

Gunn: Sounded like the captain of the Titanic getting ready to go down with the ship.

• Xena: Xena: Warrior Princess was a spin-off series from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys that aired on USA between 1995 and 2001. The series starred Lucy Lawless as Xena, a Greek warlord who sought penance for her past sins.

Gunn: I don't get it. Why're they afraid of Xena? I mean, I think she's kind of fly.

• Tower of London: Wesley's comments about the Tower of London most likely refer to Shakespeare's Richard III. In the play, the tower was a symbol of death and treachery where a tyrant rose to power and murdered many who stood in his way. He also may refer to the novel by William Harrison Ainsworth, The Tower of London.

Wesley: I was always horrified by those stories about the tower of London.

Quotes

• Angel: Start talkin'.

Lorne: About my dimension? Sure. Okay, let's see. Uh, I was there, I came here. I like here. I don't wanna go there.

• Angel: So you're saying that Pylea is a hell dimension, that Cordy's stuck in Hell?

Lorne: Oh, not literally... but it runs a close second.

Angel: I find that hard to believe.

Lorne: Do you? Well, try this: they have no music there. It doesn't exist. Do you know what that's like? No lullabies, no love songs. All my life I thought I was crazy. That I had ghosts in my head or something simply because I could hear music. Of course, I didn't know it was music. All I knew was that it was something beautiful and - and painful and right. And I was the only one who could hear it. Then I wound up here and heard Aretha for the first time. Well... Don't kid yourselves. Cordy's in a very bad place.

• Lorne: Remember when I said I loved this dimension and I'm never, never, never gonna leave? Well, exactly which "never" did you not understand?

• Wesley: I suppose I could try a binding spell of some kind, something that would fuse us together as we enter the portal.

Angel: Good. Let's do that. That’s...

Wesley: However, we could emerge on the other side as a freakishly hybridised Siamese twin.

Angel: Keep looking.

• Angel: What, we handcuff ourselves together? Who do we know that has handcuffs?

Wesley: Well, I... wouldn’t know.

• Angel: Lawyers. Don't you people sleep during the day?

• Cordelia: I want to go home. I want to be in my bed. I want to order some Thai food. I want to read the latest issue of Marie Claire. I want to be doing anything but shovelling demon horse poo!

• Lorne: How you holding up?

Angel: I want to go bad. I'm just waiting for Wes to have that "eureka" moment.

Wesley: Eureka!

Angel: Oh, jeez. Thank God.

Lorne: You mean he actually really says "eureka"?

• Angel: I'm not on fire.

Wesley: And we're together. And we didn't merge into a freakish four-man Siamese twin!

Gunn: That was a risk? How come nobody told me that was a risk?

• Angel: Can everybody just notice how much fire I'm not on?

• Angel: Let's start gathering some branches, some brush, anything that’ll cover up the car. Oh, hey, look, there's some over in that patch of sun. I'll get ‘em!

• Lorne: I think we're only a couple of miles from town, but we'll have to walk it.

Angel: No problem here, walkin' in the sun. Hey, do it all the time.

Wesley: Yes, we're all heartily aware that you're not on fire.

• Lorne: You know, ordinarily I handle bad news really well. I just drown my sorrows in an iced cold gin and tonic, little squeeze of lime... except for they don't have them here!

• Lorne: Just remember, keep your heads down. Xenophobia kind of a watchword where I'm from.

Gunn: I don't get it. Why are they afraid of Xena? I mean, I think she's kinda fly.

Wesley: Xenophobia. Fear of foreigners.

Gunn: Oh. Then can we pretend I didn't just say that?

• Gunn: (tries to break handcuffs) It's no use. Thing's made out of some kind of magical alloy.

Wesley: Really? How can you tell?

Gunn: I can't. I'm just making myself feel better.