「情けない反応ねぇ　まぁ、天使がいないだけ空気がいいんだけど」

Context: He notices that she (the angel) hasn't showed up for dinner and and she notices that he's thinking about this.

My question is about what kind of 反応 counts as a 情けない反応 as I'm not sure whether it refers to his initial reaction(when he was told a bit earlier that the other person would be eating dinner separately from them, which was what led her to make that initial comment) or whether it refers to his lack of reaction to her verbal jab at him.

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    情けない反応 = (a) miserable reaction. Probably that refers to his being upset and uttering え、な、なにを. – eltonjohn Jul 1 '15 at 8:07

Japanese still have gender awareness and often push gender role (or bias) against someone unconsciously. Expected behavior of man are being confident, deciding quickly, and hiding feelings, especially, negative feelings. In Japanese, these behavior are called 「男らしい」.

In ウィズダム和英辞典,「情けない」is translated as below:

〖みじめな〗miserable, ｟書｠ wretched (!後の方が程度が強い) ; 〖哀れを誘う〗pitiful, ｟やや書｠ pitiable (!軽蔑の感情を含む) ; 〖恥ずべき〗shameful; 〖嘆かわしい〗deplorable.

In this context,「情けない」 means "shameful or deplorable as a man"-- in Japanese,「男らしくない」, i.e. "You are less confident, slow in deciding, and upset." Her second comment contains a word 「男」 would support this interpretation.

Since he could not make any comment between her second and third comment, she described this behavior as 情けない. So, your expectation "it refers to his lack of reaction to her verbal jab at him" is correct.

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