aired on: November 9, 1999

written by: Tim Minear

directed by: James A. Contner

Detective Kate Lockley is trying to track down the murderer of County Supervisor Caffrey. There's an indictment out on Tony Papazian, aka Little Tony, for the murder, but nobody can find him, and all Kate's sources are dry. So she pays a visit to Angel, to see if maybe he can lend a hand.

Angel agrees, and sure enough, he tracks Little Tony down, on a pier in San Pedro. He calls Kate, who rushes over, and tells Angel to get out of there. But far be it from Angel to just get out of the way. Instead, he dresses up like a tourist and heads down to the pier, where Little Tony and two strongmen are waiting for a boat. When Little Tony gets suspicious, Angel takes out the sidekicks. Little Tony turns to run, but Kate and the cops have just pulled up to welcome him.

With Tony's one phone call, he rings up the law firm of Wolfram & Hart - the same firm that represented troublemaking ghouls Russell Winters and Ronald Meltzer. The man at the law firm tells Tony that they've already made plans to take care of his current problem - Detective Kate Lockley - permanently. Because Kate was, well, rather rough with Little Tony, his lawyers demand that the cops in the precinct take sensitivity training, or they'll go public with charges of police brutality. So a sensitivity trainer is brought in to work with the officers. But all is not as it seems - the trainer is in cahoots with Little Tony's lawyer from Wolfram & Hart, and his intentions are far from altruistic.

Meanwhile, Kate's father Trevor is retiring from the police force, and she's been recruited to make a little speech at the retirement party. She's asked Angel to come along for moral support, and Angel, feeling certain that Little Tony has put a contract out on Kate, agrees to join her.

In her speech, Kate reveals that her mother had died years ago, and that her father had raised her by himself. But when her mother died, her father tried to be tough, unemotional. He wouldn't laugh with her, or tell her that her mother was in a better place. What was supposed to be a congratulatory send-off turns into group therapy for Kate, as she unloads a childhood full of emotional baggage. Kate's speech soon turns a party at a bar into a group breakdown for an entire precinct of cops. As some of the officers take out their anger and fears on each other, Angel escorts Kate out of there and back to the office, where Doyle and Cordelia can keep an eye on her while Angel goes hunting for a sensitivity trainer.

Unfortunately, Kate's not quite emotionally stable, and she wants to go find her daddy. Doyle and Cordelia encourage her to stay until Angel returns, but Kate really wants to find her daddy, and when she pulls out her gun, Doyle and Cordelia decide not to stand in her way.

Back at the police station, cops are unraveling emotionally, one of them so much so that he decides to set all of the prisoners - including Little Tony - free. His act of kindness is rewarded with a very kindly beat-down. With this extra-sensitive police force on the streets, the streets turn to bedlam.

Angel, who's found the sensitivity trainer and had a few words with him, rushes to the police station, where he meets up with Cordelia and Doyle. But Angel doesn't seem himself, either. "Okay," he says. "I think someone needs a hug." It turns out that the talking stick the sensitivity trainer had used to get the cops to speak their feelings infects anyone who handles it - including Angel. He explains that Wolfram & Hart hired this guy to neutralize the police so Little Tony could escape - and kill Kate himself.

Little Tony, now on the loose in the station, is after Kate. Cordelia and Doyle finally convince Angel, who's gotten a bonus dose of the sensitivity stick, to break into the building. There, Little Tony's about to shoot Kate, but Angel, sensitive guy that he is, won't have that. He cracks Little Tony with a chair, and with a little help from Kate, Doyle and Cordelia, they put him away again.

Tony makes his one call to Wolfram & Hart again, but this time, they won't help him. He's become a liability, but more than that, they have a new issue that concerns them - Angel.