Cordelia can’t understand why she wasn’t chosen for her latest role and Doyle commiserates. The phone interrupts but it’s only her friend Aura from Sunnydale. Doyle asks Angel about Cordelia’s past and Angel tells Doyle her ‘riches to rags’ story. Cordelia, meanwhile, arrives at her awful apartment. Finding the place to be crawling with cockroaches, Cordelia calls Doyle, but he’s otherwise engaged, ‘entertaining’ a demon acquaintance. The demon has shown up to collect a debt, but Doyle isn’t willing to pay and escapes.
Angel is having a shower. An insistent knock makes him answer the door clad only in a towel. Cordelia thrusts her suitcases into Angel’s arms, telling him that she’s moving in until she can find a place of her own. Doyle arrives and finds Cordy drying her hair in the kitchen. Angel emerges from the bedroom, wearing a boxer and bathrobe. After a disagreement over who put peanut butter in the bed, Cordelia goes to get dressed. Doyle is angry over what he thinks is a tryst between Angel and Cordelia, but Angel explains that he slept on the couch. Cordelia tells Doyle that his ‘cousin’ called. Doyle says he would’ve appreciated a bit of warning. Angel breaks up the disagreement and tells Doyle that he has a visitor and Doyle heads out the back way. Suspicious, Angel is waiting at the top of the stairs. Angel grills Doyle and promises to lend a hand if Doyle will find Cordelia an apartment.
Doyle convinces Cordelia that his ‘guy’ can find her a great place and they look at a number of places. Angel visits Doyle’s apartment, looking for clues. The Kailiff demon, Griff, finds Angel and grabs him by the throat. Meanwhile, Doyle takes Cordelia to the apartment his guy found. Cordelia thinks it’s perfect and agrees to move in. Angel threatens information out of Griff. He gives his word that Doyle will pay his debts, while the demon pledges Doyle’s safety in return. Angel tells Doyle with the news that he must pay up, which Doyle is not happy about, but admits that Angel probably saved his life.
Cordelia is asleep in bed but is awakened by the radio, a whispering voice and drawers slamming shut. She insists that she’s not afraid - as her bed rises off the floor - though she sits up all night and is still awake when the bed hits the floor then next morning. She goes about her morning routine but has an encounter with the ghost of an elderly woman. The ghostly shenanigans end as Doyle and Angel arrive. Cordelia doesn’t want them to know about the ghost, but as scissors and trophies go flying, her friends see the evidence of the haunting. They pull her out, screaming that she’ll die before giving up the apartment.
Angel and Doyle research Cordelia’s new residence. Angel tries convincing Cordy that it’s only a place to live, but she insists she needs the place to become herself again as part of a redeeming process for the horrible person she was in Sunnydale. They discover the building was owned by Maude Pearson who died of a heart attack in 1946 on the same ay her son disappeared. Since her death wasn’t violent, there is some doubt that Maude is the ghost. Cordelia disagrees, telling Angel and Doyle that her apartment has a ‘little old lady smell’ and that they should do a cleansing spell. Doyle goes to fetch the ingredients. Angel cautions Cordelia to stay at the office as he leaves to seek further information from Kate.
Later that night, Cordelia receives a call from Angel instructing her to meet him at her apartment, but when she arrives, she finds the ghost tricked her. Angel and Kate investigate the apartment. The son, Dennis, was involved with a woman and had planned to elope, but Maude was against it. The investigating officer deemed Mrs Pearson’s death suspicious because of the enmity between mother and son. Angel and Kate discover a long list of suicides that took place in that apartment over the years. Worried, Angel calls the office but Doyle answers instead of Cordelia. Doyle plays back a message with Angel’s voice telling Cordy to go home.
As Cordelia confronts Mrs Pearson, trying to defend herself from the ghost’s attack, Angel and Doyle race to her rescue. Cordelia is strung up by a wire noose, but Angel and Doyle arrive in time to save her. Cordelia is hysterical and Angel tries in vain to calm her down. As they reach the door, Griff and two other demons arrive intent on killing Doyle. Mrs Pearson unwittingly helps Angel and Doyle fight the demons as objects are hurled around the room. The ghost traps Cordelia in the bedroom and continues to taunts and insult her, but goes too far when she calls Cordelia ‘a bitch’. Cordelia gives Mrs Pearson a dose of her own medicine. Cordelia seems to be rid of the ghost until, possessed, she makes a hole in the wall revealing a skeleton. Mrs Pearson walled up her son before collapsing. Dennis’s spirit takes vengeance against his mother. Angel promises Doyle long-term help in exchange for his life story. Doyle agrees, but asks for time. Meanwhile, Cordelia is on the phone to Aura, explaining that she shares with a roommate, but she hardly ever sees him.
For a more detailed description of this episode, go here.
