Angel: Underneath

"Underneath" is the seventeenth episode of season five of the vampire television series Angel and the 105th episode of the series overall. It was directed by Skip Schoolnik with a script written by Sarah Fain and Elizabeth Craft. It first aired on the WB Network on Wednesday, April 14th, 2004.

Notes & Trivia

 * Angel was created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt. It is a spin-off of the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which in turn, is a soft remake of the 1992 feature film of the same name.


 * This episode is production code number 5ADH17.


 * This episode is included in the Angel: The Complete Series DVD collection as well as disc six of the Angel: Season Five DVD collection.


 * Actress Mercedes McNab is bumped up from being a recurring guest star on the series, and is now part of the main cast.


 * Amy Acker's opening credit montage scenes change from Winifred Burkle to Illyria with this episode.


 * Actor Christian Kane is given a "Special Guest Star" credit in this episode.


 * This is the first appearance of Marcus Hamilton. He is a recurring antagonist throughout the remaining episodes of the series.

Allusions

 * Reference is made to Holland Manners in this episode. Holland Manners is a former lawyer for Wolfram & Hart and Marcus Hamilton's predecessor.


 * Spike makes reference to Knight Rider in this episode. This was a 1982 action television series which featured an invulnerable black sports car called K.I.T.T., which had a talking A.I. interface.


 * Wesley Wyndam-Pryce calls Illyria a Smurf in this episode. Smurfs are a race of fictional blue-skinned creatures and the eponymous protagonists of The Smurfs multimedia franchise, which includes comic strips, a cartoon series, an animated movie, two live-action films as well as various licensed merchandise. The Smurfs were created by Belgian cartoonist Pierre Culliford under the pen name Peyo and were introduced in comic strip form in 1958 under the name "Schtroumpfs".


 * Benjamin Franklin was an American statesman and inventor. His image is on the one-hundred dollar bill, which has often been referred to as "Ben Franklins", or "Benjamins".

Quotes

 * Illyria: I traveled all of them as I pleased. I walked worlds of smoke and half-truths, intangible. Worlds of torment and of unnamable beauty. Opaline towers as high as small moons. Glaciers that rippled with insensate lust. And one world with nothing but shrimp. I tired of that one quickly.

....
 * Angel: This is weirdin' me out. Is this weirding you out?
 * Spike: What, you never heard of Knight Rider? Knight Industries 2000? KITT? Never mind.

....
 * Illyria: I lived seven lives at once. I was power in the ecstasy of death. I was god to a god. Now... I'm trapped on a roof... just one roof, in this time and this place with an unstable human who drinks too much whiskey and called me a Smurf.

....
 * Spike: Spike: Welcome to the planet. We all paint on our happy faces every day, when all we really want is to pound the neighbor's missus, steal his Ben Franklins, and while we're at it *not* think about the third of the world that's starvin' to death.

....
 * Lorne: What do I think? I think I'm tired. I think I'm sick and tired of wearing bells on my toes and making like everything's gonna be OK. I think it's pathetic that lately I'm too scared and sad to tell people the truth so I just say what they wanna hear instead. Most of all, I think the term "Happy Hour" should be banned from the English language. There's nothing happy about this hour or any other.

Crew

 * Skip Schoolnik - Co-producer
 * David Greenwalt - Consulting producer
 * Steven S. DeKnight - Supervising producer
 * Ben Edlund - Supervising producer
 * Sandy Gallin - Executive producer
 * Gail Berman - Executive producer


 * Fran Rubel Kuzui - Executive producer
 * Kaz Kuzui - Executive producer
 * David Fury - Executive producer
 * Jeffrey Bell - Executive producer
 * Kelly A. Manners - Producer
 * Joss Whedon - Executive producer