It was important to me to come full circle with the canon subversion, since my overall project was to uphold "The Girl in Question" (one of my favorite Angel episodes) rather than to subvert or fanwank it, even though I needed the dates to be kidnappers so I could have a plot.

I'm glad the parallels to "Red Chief" worked for you; I expected it to be commented on quite a bit but in fact you are the first one to bring it up. Anyway, thank you; this feedback put such a large grin on my face that my parents had to ask me why I was so happy!