"I've Got You Under My Skin" could have just been a cheese-y "Exorcist" rip off. Instead, it adds a twist at the end that makes it one of the most interesting episodes of the entire season. Throughout "Angel" there's the recurring idea that demons are sometimes not as bad as humans. This episode confronts that issue in a direct way and really gives viewers a cool, surprise ending. "I've Got You Under My Skin" also establishes Wes's rotten childhood and forces Angel to really deal with Doyle's death. You shouldn't skip this episode. It's one of my favorites.
"I've Got You Under My Skin" revolves around a seemingly normal family. Cordy gets a vision about them and Wes and Angel go to investigate. When they get there, they see a little boy wandering into the street Angel pulls him to safety before he can be hit by a car. When he speaks to the boy's parents, though, he's sure that something else is going on. They're acting strange and evasive, especially the father. After wrangling a dinner invitation for the next evening, Angel goes back to the car. Wes has been looking around the property and found the glowing green residue of an Ethros demon. Ethros demons possess people and make the do evil things. The Angel Inc. gang cooks some magic ingredients into Cordelia's famous brownie receipt. (It was passed down from her mother's former housekeeper.) When Angel goes to dinner with the family, he gives them the brownies and the magic ingredients reveal that the demon is inside the little boy.
Angel, Wes and Cordy get ready to preform an exorcism on the kid. His parents are worried, but Team Angel assures them that they know what they're doing. Which they do... Sort of. See, they need a magic box that's not available in LA. They have to make do with a substitute. To make matters worse, the local exorcist priest is dead. (They should have tried Sunydale. It's not that far away. With all the churches and demons, there's just gotta be a priest who's qualified to preform exorcisms in SunnyD.) Anyway, Wes says he'll do the ritual, but the demon starts taunting him about his rotten childhood and Wes ends up stabbed. Angel finally grabs the cross, which burns his hand, and finishes the ritual. The demon is expelled, but the substitute box breaks and Wes and Angel have to go looking for it.
The parents take their son home, but everything's not sunshine and penny whistles, yet. No, Wes and Angel corner the Ethros demon and discover that it wasn't making the kid do anything. In fact the demon has been trapped in the little boy, desperate to escape. The kid's an empty shell who been doing terrible things all on his own. Angel rushes to the family's house to warn them, but the little boy has already torched his sister's bedroom, with her in it. Angel saves the little girl and the police take the boy to child services for a complete evaluation.
There are some really fun parts to this episode. I like the scene where Wes and Cordy are bickering and Angel snaps, "Cordelia, Doyle, stop it..." Then he realizes what he's said and goes upstairs to brood in his office. It just a realistic little moment. Doyle's death is weighing on Angel. He still feels guilty that he didn't save Doyle and he's depressed that he lost a friend. I'm glad that "I've Got You Under My Skin" addressed Angel's grief. Also, I think that knowing about Wes's creep of a father explains a lot about Wesley's insecurities. His father used to belittle him and lock him in closets, for crying out loud. No wonder he has trouble adjusting. It's only with Angel Inc. that Wes has a place to belong and can feel secure in himself. Also, I love the end of the episode, where it's not the Ethros demon who's the Black Hat... It's the little boy. Seriously, having the monster be the victim of the human is just such a cool twist. The kid wasn't a soulless demon, he was just... empty. Somehow that seems even worse. He wasn't killing to survive or to wage a war against the PTB. He was just annoyed that his sister got more marshmallows in her coco. He scared the evil entity that possessed him and he was just a little boy. How cool is that?
On the down side, I sort of wish Angel had let Ethros demon live. I know that he's evil and all, but still, he's been through a lot being stuck in that kid. I would have cut him a break. Also, I wish the magic store clerk had been that beatnik guy from season two. That's not really "I've Got You Under My Skin"'s fault, but it would have been cool.
My favorite part of the episode: Cordelia's brownies. They're so terrible she has to use Wes's extinct-demon-killing sword to hack through them. And it's even funnier that Angel fed them to that poor family. "You'll have to tell us your secret, Angel," the mother finally gets out. It's just hilarious.
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