Angel is probably a sociopath. That would surprise some people, because he’s also an utter coward. But that’s one of his symptoms—literally the only person he cares about is himself. He’s scared of Jim, so he does things for Jim. He claims that Jim is his friend, but he never does anything for Jim out of the goodness of his heart. He does things for Jim because he expects things from him. He never sees a situation that he can’t use as a con. He’s screwed over Jim, he’s screwed over Rocky—the two people most inclined to help him out—and probably the only reason he hasn’t screwed over Beth or Dennis is that they’ve never given him the chance.
Jim’s moderately curious about what happened to Angel. He hears that someone has a hit out on him and discovers that Angel has moved into a fancy penthouse. Someone Jim knows named David Marcon (Vincent Baggetta) mentions Angel’s upcoming demise, then calls him to tell Jim that he shouldn’t have said it and that he shouldn’t mention it to anyone. Angel tells Jim that he’s got a major percentage of a real estate development, and that’s immediately fishy, because why would Angel have a major percentage of anything?
Is there anything more petty than screwing up someone’s golf stroke after demanding under pressure that they are betting with you on golf? And of course no one’s going to call you on it if you’re a mob boss, because why would they call you out on it? Further, I’m not sure we’ve ever seen Jim play golf. He’s certainly not dressed for it. I used to hang out with my grandfather when he played golf, and I don’t think I ever saw anyone dressed the way Jim is here.
I realize this is a seldom-discussed aspect of the mob as far as its downsides, but man, imagine being in a profession where you’d literally kill a beloved nephew because he talked about work to somebody. There is no one you can trust. There is no one you can talk to. I mean, okay, I guess we did kind of have a TV show about this, but I didn’t watch much of it—it doesn’t work for me. Now, I understand wanting to kill Angel; as Jim says, the list is long and could easily be arranged alphabetically or by importance. David, though, is simply friends with Jim, and he can’t be, because mob.
I wonder what it would take for Jim to just cut Angel loose. He’s been useful many times over the course of the show, I grant you, but how useful does he have to outweigh some of what he puts Jim through? He routinely ends up putting Jim into situations where he’s in legal trouble or physical danger or both. Sure, sometimes what Jim is doing requires a sociopath around, but maybe he could find one who’s a little smarter, at least. Because Angel’s problem is that he is nowhere near as smart as he thinks he is.
Take Care of Rockford Files: Hustled into an elevator by a couple of mob enforcers. Held at gunpoint. Brief car chase. Gun fight.