We come back to an extended "War Zone" blurtastic blipvert, so that anyone who came in late knows that Gunn's sister Alonna was vamped and he killed her. Apparently some people think that the time-honored "blur the edges of the screen" effect is no longer a hip way to tell us it's a dream sequence, so they've invented a new ultra-gauzy blurred effect. It gives me a headache. Gunn wakes up, but manages to avoid the cliché of waking up shouting in fear. Because he's too cool for that. Gunn's room is pretty bare: bed, nightstand, gray walls. Although he does have what appears to be a decorative picture of a motorcycle pinned to the wall. His beeper starts, uh, beeping. Gunn looks sad. Aw.

The swinging light bulb from the teaser is now covered in yuck. Angel is sifting through the rubble that was Merl's as Gunn arrives. Gunn says that Cordelia told him where Angel was, then points to something we can't see and asks, "What is that?" Angel explains, "That's Merl." Gunn asks where the rest of Merl is, and Angel silently points at the slime-covered light bulb, a corner of the room, and a pile of furniture. Heh. Angel explains, "I stopped by this morning, thought I'd give 'sincere' one more shot. I even brought donuts, but this is what I found." So what happened to the donuts? Did Angel eat them all while sifting for bits of Merl's remains? That's so callous. But it was Merl, so it's okay. Maybe he dunked the donuts in Merl. Hee hee hee -- ew. Wesley wanders out with Merl's address book, among other things. Wesley gasps, "Gunn, you're here," like that's a big shock. He asks whether Gunn noticed anything unusual while dropping off Merl the night before. Gunn says he didn't, and then stares around for a moment before asking what they're doing. Wesley, confused, answers that they're examining the crime scene, and Gunn clarifies that he wondered why. "Is this really the kind of thing we should be spending our time on? I mean, he was what he was, right?" Angel looks irate and asks, "What's that supposed to mean?" Gunn says it didn't mean anything, but adds, "Somebody killed a demon. Hello, we do that every day." Point. Wesley says that Merl was harmless, and Gunn basically shrugs. Angel snippily asks whether Gunn's annoyed because he'd rather be doing something else, since it took two hours for him to respond to the page. It's taken them two hours to sort through Merl's place? Whatever. I think it's worth noting that we never ever get the slightest clue as to why Gunn took so long to reply to the page. And since that's the only hint of some ongoing tension between Gunn and the rest of them, I think that's pretty damn weak. Anyway, Gunn growls, "Excuse me, but did somebody put you back in charge? If they did, they forgot to tell me about it." Wesley steps between the inexplicable tension and tells Gunn that if he doesn't care about Merl's death, that's fine, and he can go home. Gunn leaves. Angel says that now he'll finally have to get to know Merl, to find out who killed him. Except he won't, so I don't know why that line was left in.