"Sense and Sensitivity" (Angel 1.6): Psychotherapy is ridiculous and usually evil

My first thought as the first moments of "Sense and Sensitivity" commenced was, "Ugh, a Kate episode." I thought I might warm to the ersatz Buffy during this re-watch but it sure hasn't happened yet. In these early episodes the series is still trying to find its feet, and the Angel guide to getting in touch with your inner child is a waver, though not a stumble.

DON'T quit your day job. 
Or night job. However it works for vampires. Angel follows up his crack undercover stint as "Brian Jensen" with an impromptu performance as Herb Saunders.

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I'm pretty sure this is how vampires think all humans dress.

He is much more successful slaying a Chthulu-esque demon before the credits, and leaving the clean-up, i.e., dismemberment and burial, to Cordy and Doyle.

DON'T trust shrinks. . .
Angel's less-than-diplomatic assignment of said duty leads to the thrust of the episode--that he lacks sensitivity. This is rather clumsily paralleled with Kate the Boring, who is deemed a volatile cop likely to fly off the handle due to her rough treatment of a suspect. Though to my mind she is less like a volatile cop likely to fly off the handle and more like a post-op McMurphy, Kate is assigned to mandatory sensitivity training. Little does she, and her fellow rage-aholics, know, but Allen the group leader has enchanted his trust-stick. And that's not nearly as raunchy as it sounds. All the cops, and eventually Angel too, become compulsive over-sharers, spouting psychobabble and encouraging victims to "see the muggers' side." This part is actually pretty funny.

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Hug it out, bitches.

but really DON'T trust lawyers.
The season-, and series-, wide implications come with the reminder that Wolfram and Hart, law firm of the damned and depraved, is super-evil, and now Angel is on their radar.

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Lindsey McDonald is in there somewhere, just waiting to be bad-boy hot.

A fine enough episode, but sort of a letdown after "Rm w/a Vu." I blame Kate, or, as I now think of her, the Riley of Angel, and her blah humbug daddy issues. In my idealized version of the Whedonverse, she and Captain Cardboard will get together and put all of SoCal to sleep, leaving Angel and Buffy to resume their romance.