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Angel :1999 - 2004
Regular Cast
David Boreanaz .. Angel
Charisma Carpenter .. Cordelia Chase
Glenn Quinn .. Allen Francis Doyle (1999)
Alexis Denisof .. Wesley Wyndham-Pryce (1999-)
J. August Richards .. Charles Gunn (2000-)
Amy Acker .... Winifred 'Fred' Burkle (2001-)
Christian Kane .. Lindsay McDonald (1999-2001)
Vincent Kartheiser .. Connor Angel (2002- )
Andy Hallett .. Lorne/The Host (2000-)
Elisabeth Rohm .. Detective Kate Lockley (1999-2001
Stephanie Romanov .. Lilah Morgan (2000-)
Daniel Dae Kim .. Gavin Park (2001-)
James Marsters .. Spike (2003-)
Keith Szarabajka .. Daniel Holtz (2001-)
Julie Benz .. Darla (2000-2001)
Carey Cannon .. Female Oracle (1999-2000)
David Herman (I) .. David Nabbit (2000)
Matthew James (I) .. Merl the Snitch Demon (2000-2001)
Juliet Landau .. Drusilla (2000-2001)
Julia Lee (III) .. Anne Steele (2001)
Mark Lutz .. The Groosalugg (2001-2002)
John Mahon (I) .. Detective Trevor Lockley (1999-2000)
BJ Porter .. Dennis Pearson (1999)
Randall Slavin (I) .. Male Oracle (1999-2000)
Brigid Conley Walsh .. Virginia Bryce (2000-2001)
Season One
Turns out these guys aren't normal guys - they're vampires. But before they can do their worst, Angel steps in and slays them all. The girls thank him, but he sends them away - he sees blood dripping from cuts on their faces, and knows he must get away. After all, he's a vampire himself.
Back at his apartment, an uninvited guest drops in on Angel - a half-human named Doyle who's been sent "by The Powers That Be." He tells Angel a story, the story of a vampire who was the meanest in all the land. One day, he was cursed by gypsies, who restored his human soul, making him mad with guilt. Then a girl enters the story, a vampire slayer by trade, and our vampire falls madly in love with her. But when he achieves what Doyle calls "perfect happiness" with her, he goes mad again, and kills again. When he gets his soul back for a second time, he figures he can't be anywhere near his love, or he'll endanger them both, so he takes off to L.A., to fight evil and atone for his crimes.
Angel is annoyed - Doyle's just told him the story of his life, and reminded him of Buffy, the vampire slayer he loved. He asks Doyle what happens next.
This vampire thinks he's helping as he fights demons and stays away from humans, Doyle explains, but he's cut off from the people he's trying to help. Angel's responsibility isn't just fighting, it's reaching out to people; not just saving lives, but saving souls - possibly his own.
Angel, suspicious, wants to know who sent Doyle, but Doyle's not sure. But he's sure of the vision he had that morning of a person who needs help. He hands Angel a note: "TINA COFFEE SPOT S.M." Tina needs help. Angel must get involved with her life.
At the Coffee Spot, Angel spies Tina working there, and awkwardly strikes up a conversation. "Are you happy?" he asks. Tina isn't quite sure what to make of him. Angel explains that he's new in town; Tina tells him he shouldn't stay. But he convinces her to meet him after work.
Waiting outside by his car, Angel is surprised to find Tina coming at him in a little black dress - with a can of mace in hand. She thinks he's been sent by someone named Russell. Angel assures her he hasn't been sent by anyone. As they talk, Tina explains that she came to L.A. from Missoula, Montana, to be a famous movie star, "But they weren't hiring." Now she just wants to go home.
First they have to go to a party, where Tina needs to get some money from a friend. While Tina goes to find this friend, Angel spots a familiar face - Cordelia. She's acting now, she tells Angel, living in a small condo on the beach in Malibu.
Tina, meanwhile, is being harassed by a man named Stacy. When she and Angel try to leave the party, they're jumped in the elevator. Angel dispenses with the two creeps who jumped him, but the other two have taken off with Tina. A chase ensues through the parking garage, becoming a game of chicken that Angel wins. After he's disarmed one thug and knocked the other out, he drives off with Tina.
Back at Angel's apartment, Angel asks Tina about Russell. Tina explains that she knew a girl who used to hang out with Russell who tried to get away, but disappeared.
While Tina sleeps, Angel goes to the library to research Tina's missing friend. He finds that she's been murdered, and goes back to tell Tina, who's having a bad dream. He comforts her, then tells her what he's found out. But when Tina spots Doyle's note with her name on it, she again thinks Angel's been sent by Russell, and turns to run. Angel chases after her, but as he grabs her arm, he reaches into the sunlight, and flame bursts from his sleeve as he transforms into a vampire. Tina is shocked, but free of his grasp, and runs away. Angel can't follow her into the daylight.
Back at her apartment, Tina is packing up to leave town. She, too, has an uninvited guest - Russell. He says he only wants to help her. Tina says she only wants to go home. But Russell has something else in mind. He turns vampire on her, then takes a bite. When Angel finally finds her, she's lying on the floor of her apartment, dead.
Doyle and an angry Angel get to work tracking down Russell, but Russell, watching a videotape from the earlier party, has already spotted his next victim - Cordelia. Tina's "friend" from the party calls Cordelia to tell her that Russell Winters wants to meet her - and is sending over a limo.
That night, Cordelia talks with Russell at his mansion. She admits to him that the acting thing isn't working out quite like she planned. While those two talk, Angel and Doyle lurk outside, preparing to break in.
As Cordelia and Russell converse, Cordelia notices there are no mirrors in the mansion, but lots of curtains - and realizes Russell's a vampire.
Meanwhile, Angel has found his way into the mansion, and a fight between him and Russell begins. But before Angel can polish Russell off, his henchmen appear. Angel, taking bullets in his back, leaps from a second-story balcony with Cordelia in his arms, and once outside, Doyle drives them away. They're all alive - but so is Russell Winters.
The next day, Angel makes a visit to the downtown offices of Russell Winters Enterprises, where the entrepreneurial vampire is presiding over a business meeting. Russell smugly explains to Angel how things are done in L.A. - he can do anything he wants. Angel asks him if he can fly. He then gives Russell's chair a shove through the plate glass window, and Russell, plummeting to the ground and now exposed to light, bursts into flame. By the time Russell's chair crashes to the sidewalk, there's nothing left of him.
Later, Angel isn't exactly celebrating, but Cordelia is thrilled. And she's got a plan - she, Angel and Doyle will go into business solving people's vampire problems. She'll help organize things, and they'll charge a small fee - to pay her salary. Of course, this is just until her inevitable stardom takes effect . . .
There are a lot of people in this
city who need help, Doyle says to Angel. Are you game? Angel's
reply: "I'm game."
Cordelia arrives excitedly with calling cards for the new business, but suddenly Doyle doubles over in pain. He's got a splitting headache, a vision of a nightclub, and a feeling that something's going to happen there. They head out on the town after all.
At the club, boy, Kevin, meets girl, Sharon. They chat. Angel, Doyle and Cordelia arrive, looking for someone in trouble - or someone making trouble. Angel strikes up a conversation with a woman named Kate, who tells Angel she has a hard time trusting people. She asks if he'd like to go someplace quieter, but Angel says he's got to stay there.
Meanwhile, Cordelia's been handing out business cards at the club. One guy gets the wrong idea - he thinks she's a hooker. When he and his buddy make unwanted advances, Doyle decides to teach them a lesson. When a fight breaks out, Angel rushes over to take care of the problem. The troublemakers gone, Angel attracts the attention of a new girl. While he talks with her, Kate eyes him from across the room, and, upset, walks out. As the bar clears out, Cordelia, Angel and Doyle try to figure out why they were supposed to be there in the first place.
Kevin and Sharon, it turns out, have found a connection, and Sharon's found herself in Kevin's bed. The next morning, though, as Sharon's getting dressed, Kevin doesn't look so hot. In fact, he's dead, and his sheets are spattered with blood.
The next day, Angel, Doyle and Cordelia scour the papers and Internet for news stories that happened in or around the bar. Two turn up: one death and one missing girl. While Doyle and Cordelia continue their research, Angel heads back to the bar, D'Oblique.
Outside, Angel meets Kate again. He asks her not to go in, because he fears there might be trouble; she heads in anyway. Sharon's back at the bar as well, with a new guy in her sights.
While Angel's observing the scene, a friend of Kevin's asks the bartender if he's seen Kevin - he didn't show up at work, and isn't answering his phone. The bartender hasn't seen him. Angel, suspicious, dashes off to look up Sharon in the phone book. Sharon, though, is already in bed with a new guy she met in the bar. While he engages in pillow talk, Sharon has other plans - from her chest shoots a demon's head, which burrows into the new guy's back.
Angel arrives on the scene to find the guy alive, but Sharon dead - and the demon's tail slithering into the guy's back as he puts on his shirt. The demon has been moving from one body to the next, looking for the right body and leaving corpses in its wake. Angel tells it that the killing has got to stop. What's wrong with that body? he asks. This body's fine for now, the demon explains, but it's not the one he can live in. "Then it'll have to be the one you die in," says Angel. They battle, but the demon escapes.
Suddenly, Kate comes in the apartment, and she and Angel both look at Sharon's dead body on the bed. "I know what this looks like," says Angel. Says Kate, "So do I." And she flashes a gun and badge. She's LAPD, and she's been tracking Angel since the night before. But when she tries to cuff him, he jumps out the window into the night.
While the burrower demon stalks its next prey at D'Oblique (and successfully finds another body), Kate does some snooping of her own, into the offices of Angel Investigations. Angel prowls the city, demon hunting. Coming up empty, he arranges a meeting at the bar with Kate.
But the burrower is now in a new body - the bartender's - and doesn't want Kate meeting up with Angel. In fact, he plans to make hers his new body. Angel steps in before he can, knocking him away from her to start a fight. The powerful demon tosses Angel and Kate into the bar's basement, and locks the door. He must find a new body, so he's on the prowl again.
Angel and Kate break out of the
basement and chase after the demon. Before the demon can take
another body, Angel catches him, but this time Angel wins the fight,
as the demon, in flames after being tossed into a barrel of fire,
can't recover. As the police clean up the scene, Angel tells Kate
that if she ever needs any help, he'll be around.
Oz has also made a little trip to L.A., and he stops by the office. He came to town primarily for a gig, but also to give Angel something Buffy wanted him to have - the Gem of Amara. This gem, set in a ring, renders the wearer 100% unkillable, if he's a vampire. Spike dug up Sunnydale looking for it, but as Oz explains, he "got a fistful of Buffy" instead and left it behind. Buffy wanted to be sure it was in good hands, so she sent it with Oz to give to Angel.
Doyle, Cordelia and Oz head off to have a drink at the pub, but Angel stays behind. And instead of putting on the ring, he hides it, under a brick in a sewer tunnel outside his apartment.
Later, Angel takes a call from Rachel, the first client, and leaves his apartment to help her, but as he heads to his car, he's greeted by a two-by-four to the head, wielded by Spike. Spike, of course, wants the ring, but Angel's not about to give it up. Though Spike has the weapon, Angel wins this battle; Doyle and Cordelia show to see Spike down for the count. But Spike won't go away easily, and Angel, concerned that Spike is out for blood, sends Doyle and Cordelia to stay at Doyle's place, just to be safe. There, Doyle starts calling up everyone in his phone book, trying to track down Spike. Doyle gets a lead, and Angel goes to check it out.
The lead leads Angel to Spike, and Angel chases him down. But Spike's got a friend along - a friend with a chain-link lasso, which is soon around Angel's neck. Spike and his vampire friend, Marcus, take Angel to an abandoned warehouse, where they hang him by his arms and prepare to torture him. Marcus, a torture expert, goes to work, driving hot pokers through Angel's body.
Spike, meanwhile, heads to Angel's place to look for the ring, and Doyle and Cordelia find him there. Spike tells them Angel's being tortured, and that as stubborn as he is, he might die before he gives up the ring. If they find the ring and give it to him, he'll let Angel go - they have until sundown to save him.
Doyle and Cordelia search Angel's apartment for the ring, to no avail. Then it hits them - he's probably buried it in the sewer tunnels where he gets around during the day. Using his half-human, half-demon sixth sense, Doyle sniffs out the ring. But they don't want to just give it to Spike. They need a plan.
They tell Spike that the ring isn't on them, but they know where it is. Once they see that Angel's alive, they'll give up the ring.
Spike leads them to his little house of pain to show them that Angel's still alive, and demands the ring. Doyle tosses it on the floor, and demands that Angel be set free. But that was never part of Spike's plan. Fortunately for Angel, Oz is in town - he busts into the warehouse in his van, Doyle and Cordelia help Angel down, and they all drive away. Spike, frustrated, looks for the ring, but finds it gone as well. Marcus has picked it up, and he's enjoying its benefits with a walk in the sunlight. Spike is not a happy vamp.
As the van drives away, everyone is worried about Angel - except Angel. He's worried about Marcus. Oz turns the van around, and heads for the beach. There Marcus is stalking a pack of Cub Scouts. Oz rams him with the van, but he gets up. Then he shoots him with a crossbow. Marcus pulls out the arrow. After all, he's got the ring. Then Angel steps in. He jumps from the van into the sunlight, bursting into flame. But he tackles Marcus, and they both dive into the ocean. They surface, and in the shade of a pier, a fierce battle begins. When Angel impales Marcus on a rusty beam, it's Marcus who's being tortured. Angel slides the ring from his finger, and Marcus turns to dust. Placing the ring on his own finger, Angel walks out from under the pier and into the daylight, the first he's known in 200 years.
But Angel's not going to wear the
ring. He knows was brought back for a reason - to help the people
who need help in the night. He's enjoyed his day in the sunlight,
but he has a mission. He crushes the ring, destroying the Gem of
Amara
Doyle's latest vision takes Angel to an office building where Melissa Burns has just received a bouquet of flowers, with a note that reads, "My undying love. Ronald." She's so thrilled by this that she dashes to the ladies' room and pops a few tranquilizers, then leaves the building. On the way to her car, she's stopped by Angel, who gives her his card, and offers to help. Melissa, obviously unsettled, says she can't afford help, and drives away.
Her next stop is the ATM, where she tries to withdraw cash, but can't - her PIN is invalid. As she tries again, Ronald steps forward. He's changed her PIN (it was her birthdate - too obvious), and explains that he's looking out for her, seeing as they're in love. But Melissa's hardly in love with him - they only went on one date. Fully creeped out by this run-in with Ronald, Melissa decides she could use some help after all, and pays Angel a visit.
There she explains to Doyle, Cordelia and Angel about Dr. Ronald Meltzer, a neurosurgeon who seven months earlier operated on her, saving her sight. Afterwards he asked her out, and though she wasn't interested, she felt obligated, and joined him for a drink, just once. But he started calling her, and showing up at work, and her apartment, saying they had something special, and should get married. She rebuffed him, but that only made it worse. She tells them she can feel him watching her.
Later, while Melissa undresses back at her apartment, Ronald is watching her - with a floating eye he's removed from his head. Apparently, Ronald isn't 100% human. Angel decides to snoop around to find out more about this Dr. Meltzer. He sneaks into Ronald's office, but while he's browsing the doctor's bookshelf, Ronald enters the room and demands to know why he's there. Angel lies, making up a name and saying his wife needs neurosurgical help, and that he came because he heard Dr. Meltzer could give it. Ronald says that kind of surgery is too dangerous, and he can't do it, but Angel, picking up a photo of Melissa from his desk (Ronald claims she's his fiance) to emphasize the depth of his own love, says he's not willing to give up so easily.
While Angel continues his research, Ronald is spying on Melissa, lurking outside her apartment. A cop pulls up, points a gun at him, and asks him to put up his hands. But Ronald's hands aren't on the ends of his wrists - they're in Melissa's bedroom, crawling under the covers. Seeing that Ronald is handless, the cop lets him go. But when Melissa realizes where Ronald's hands are, her screams bring the cop running. He doesn't find anything . . . until Ronald's hands find his neck and strangle him to death.
To keep Melissa safe, Angel brings her back to his place. But he knows Ronald is starting to come undone, and that he'll come looking for her. When the phone rings, it's Ronald - looking for the guy Angel said he was when he snuck in his office. Ronald says he'll perform the surgery, but it has to be out of the country, and that he needs $100,000 up front. Angel says he'll be right over with the cash. But Ronald knows Angel's not who he says he was. He had seen him comforting Melissa outside her apartment after the disembodied hands incident, and he's jealous. When Angel arrives at Ronald's office, he's ready for him - with a deadly paralytic injector dart.
While Angel lies writhing on the floor, Dr. Ronald's body parts make their way over to Angel's place - and then his body makes a full appearance, taking care of Doyle and Cordelia, who'd been left behind to protect Melissa. But before he can put a scalpel to Melissa, Angel returns, and knocks Ronald to pieces - literally. With those pieces buried in cement in steel boxes, Ronald's days of neurosurgery and harrassment are through.
The next day, Melissa, feeling much
better about the world, stops by the office to drop off a plant -
and to pay her bill.
Since Doyle never answered the phone, Cordelia shows up at Angel's, luggage in tow, and invites herself in. But she's hardly a gracious houseguest. So Angel makes Doyle a deal - find Cordelia an apartment, and I'll take care of your demon. After a frustrating day of apartment hunting, Cordelia agrees to check out a place recommended by a guy Doyle knows. She loves it, and the price is a steal, so she takes it. There's just one problem: as they turn to leave, an unhappy face bulges from the wall.
As Cordelia lies sound asleep in bed in her new apartment, finally settled in, creepy stuff begins. "What do you think you're doing here?" whispers a voice. The glass of water on her nightstand boils. The bed levitates. The next morning, a very dead-looking lady appears in the bathroom mirror. When Doyle and Angel stop by, the creepiness continues; though Cordelia tries to pretend it's not happening, the guys catch on fast, and they get her out of there to figure out what to do next. Back at the office, the gang researches Cordelia's building to figure out who's haunting it, and why. Maude Pearson, who built the building, died there in 1946. The spell to rid the place of the ghost is complicated, but Doyle knows a guy . . . Later, Cordelia takes a call from Angel, who tells her to meet him at the apartment. Once there, Cordelia doesn't find Angel. She finds the ghost of Maude Pearson instead, who's become quite good at sounding like Angel. Cordelia tries to leave, but the door is locked. "Poor thing," the ghost says. "You just don't fit in around here, do you? Too bad you wouldn't leave my son alone."
At the police station, Kate helps Angel dig up some files on the Pearson death. It had been called it a heart attack, but the investigating officer mentioned problems with her son, Dennis. Maude and Dennis argued a lot about his fiance. Then Dennis skipped town with her - the same day Maude dropped dead. The cops never caught him. Looking further into the database, they see that no murders have taken place in the apartment, but there have been three suicides there since Maude's death. Back at Cordelia's, the ghost of Maude has a little conversation with the new tenant. Maude wants Cordelia dead, and fashions an electrical-cord noose for her. As Cordelia hangs from the ceiling, close to becoming another apparent suicide, Doyle and Angel bust in to save her. As they try to get rid of the ghost with a spell, things get a bit dodgy, with debris flying everywhere, and Maude still spooking Cordelia. Angel decides they need to leave, but at the door, they're greeted by Griffin and two thugs. All three have guns.
Then it really gets crazy. With things swirling everywhere, Angel and Doyle fight the thugs, and Maude gets in on the act, launching knives through the air. The knives fell one of the demons, and scare off a human-looking thug, but Maude grabs Cordelia and takes her back into the bedroom. There, Cordelia bargains for her life, while Doyle and Angel duke it out with Griffin in the living room. Then Maude pushes the wrong button, calling Cordelia a "stupid little bitch."
"I'm the nastiest girl in Sunnydale history," Cordelia says. "I take crap from no one." Cordelia's new-found venom seems to have scared off Maude, but there's something strange in her eyes as she returns to the living room, where Angel and Doyle have finally disposed of Griffin. Cordelia starts bashing at the wall with a lamp, and Maude reappears. But Cordelia doesn't stop until she's broken through the brick - and exposed a skeleton.
A flashback shows that Maude's son Dennis never ran off - Maude buried him alive in the wall, because she didn't want him marrying his fiance and leaving her. When she finally had him all sealed up, though, she keeled over dead. Dennis' ghost, now finally set free, finishes Maude off for good.
In the all's well that ends well
department, Cordelia's finally happy with her place, which she's
cleaned up nicely. And she's got a roommate now, but she never sees
him. It's the ghost of Dennis, and they get along famously.
Angel agrees, and sure enough, he tracks Little Tony down, on a pier in San Pedro. He calls Kate, who rushes over, and tells Angel to get out of there. But far be it from Angel to just get out of the way. Instead, he dresses up like a tourist and heads down to the pier, where Little Tony and two strongmen are waiting for a boat. When Little Tony gets suspicious (and who wouldn't get suspicious of a guy like Angel in a Hawaiian shirt waiting for a boat on a pier in the middle of the night?), Angel takes out the sidekicks. Little Tony turns to run, but Kate and the cops have just pulled up to welcome him.
With Tony's one phone call, he rings up the law firm of Wolfram & Hart - the same firm that represented troublemaking ghouls Russell Winters (in Episode 1) and Ronald Meltzer (Episode 4). The man at the law firm tells Tony that they've already made plans to take care of his current problem - Detective Kate Lockley - permanently. Because Kate was, well, rather rough with Little Tony, his lawyers demand that the cops in the precinct take sensitivity training, or they'll go public with charges of police brutality. So a sensitivity trainer is brought in to work with the officers. But all is not as it seems - the trainer is in cahoots with Little Tony's lawyer from Wolfram & Hart, and his intentions are far from altruistic.
Meanwhile, Kate's father Trevor is retiring from the police force, and she's been recruited to make a little speech at the retirement party. She's asked Angel to come along for moral support, and Angel, feeling certain that Little Tony has put a contract out on Kate, agrees to join her.
In her speech, Kate reveals that her mother had died years ago, and that her father had raised her by himself. But when her mother died, her father tried to be tough, unemotional. He wouldn't laugh with her, or tell her that her mother was in a better place. What was supposed to be a congratulatory send-off turns into group therapy for Kate, as she unloads a childhood full of emotional baggage. Kate's speech soon turns a party at a bar into a group breakdown for an entire precinct of cops. As some of the officers take out their anger and fears on each other, Angel escorts Kate out of there and back to the office, where Doyle and Cordelia can keep an eye on her while Angel goes hunting for a sensitivity trainer.
Unfortunately, Kate's not quite emotionally stable, and she wants to go find her daddy. Doyle and Cordelia encourage her to stay until Angel returns, but Kate really wants to find her daddy, and when she pulls out her gun, Doyle and Cordelia decide not to stand in her way.
Back at the police station, cops are unraveling emotionally, one of them so much so that he decides to set all of the prisoners - including Little Tony - free. His act of kindness is rewarded with a very kindly beat-down. With this extra-sensitive police force on the streets, the streets turn to bedlam.
Angel, who's found the sensitivity trainer and had a few words with him, rushes to the police station, where he meets up with Cordelia and Doyle. But Angel doesn't seem himself, either. "Okay," he says. "I think someone needs a hug." It turns out that the talking stick the sensitivity trainer had used to get the cops to speak their feelings infects anyone who handles it - including Angel. He explains that Wolfram & Hart hired this guy to neutralize the police so Little Tony could escape - and kill Kate himself.
Little Tony, now on the loose in the station, is after Kate. Cordelia and Doyle finally convince Angel, who's gotten a bonus dose of the sensitivity stick, to break into the building. There, Little Tony's about to shoot Kate, but Angel, sensitive guy that he is, won't have that. He cracks Little Tony with a chair, and with a little help from Kate, Doyle and Cordelia, they put him away again.
Tony makes his one call to Wolfram
& Hart again, but this time, they won't help him. He's become a
liability, but more than that, they have a new issue that concerns
them - Angel
But Harry hasn't come for a tearful reunion. She's about to marry someone else, a nerdy guy named Richard, and she needs Doyle to sign the divorce papers. Doyle, depressed by this surprise visit, explains his marital history to Angel. He and Harry weren't even 20 years old when they got married. They were madly in love with each other, but when things fell apart, they fought bitterly. She left him, Doyle says, because he wasn't the man she married. Part of it was that when he was 21, his demon self appeared. Doyle had never met his father (the demon in the family), and his mother, waiting to see if the demon genes would appear, never told Doyle about his demon lineage, so until he was 21 and found out for himself, he never knew. He and Harry had been talking about having kids of their own, but the demon part put a bit of a damper on the discussion.
Though he understands that he and Harry are now history, he's still got a bad feeling about this Richard guy, so he asks Angel if he'll do a little reconnaissance. Angel trails him into a restaurant, where he and Harry are having some wine and discussing their honeymoon plans. And then Richard turns into a big-browed, red-faced demon. That's when Angel busts in, and gives the guy a shot to the gut. But Harry screams at him to stop. She knows Richard's a demon - he's a peaceful demon, she explains, and his family owns the restaurant. Since leaving Doyle, Harry has become an ethnodemonologist, and she met Richard while she scouting clans in North America. Back at the office, Angel tells Doyle that Harry's new beau is a full demon. "Harry didn't leave because of the demon in me," Doyle admits, "she left because of me." And then he signs the divorce papers.
As if that wasn't difficult enough for Doyle, Richard invites him to his bachelor party. And Harry invites Cordelia to her bridal shower. But while Richard and his family are discussing bachelor party plans around the dinner table, it becomes apparent that they've got more in store than just drinking and a stripper. On the schedule, right before charades, is the ritual eating of the first husband's brains. At the bachelor party, Richard asks Doyle to tell him about Harry's past, and asks for his blessing on their marriage. Angel's come along for the party, but, not surprisingly, in a room full of demons, he has his suspicions. Snooping around, he discovers one of the partygoers casting a spell. He calls Harry to see if she can translate it, but as soon as he's hung up the phone, a few other partygoers get in his face, and a fight breaks out. It's four on one, and with Angel staying human, the four toss the one out a window.
Back in the bar, Doyle agrees to give Richard his blessing. But what he doesn't realize is that giving his blessing means he's given permission for the demons to cut into his skull and have his brains for a snack. Before he realizes what's happening, Doyle's locked in a box with his head poking out, and Richard's uncle is drawing a dotted line across his forehead.
When Angel gets up from his fall, he is one unhappy camper. He goes vampire, and busts back in the party. Doyle, seeing that Angel's a bit outnumbered, finally lets out his demon side, breaks out of the box and joins the fray. It's not until Harry arrives, though, that the fighting stops. She and Cordelia have figured out what the bachelor party was up to, and she's not happy about it. She's angry with Richard for not telling her about the brain eating, and she doesn't like their barbaric, ancient customs. Richard pleads with her, saying unless he completes the ritual, his family will never consent to the marriage. Harry looks at Richard, then at Doyle, then back at Richard. When she turns to walk away, she's left her engagement ring with Richard. The wedding is off.
Back at the office, Doyle is brooding, and Cordelia takes it upon herself to cheer him up. While she's making her best effort, Doyle has a headache - and a vision. And the main character in this vision is Buffy.
But it turns out that Buffy did know, and she's upset. She says so as she strolls into the office. She doesn't know what she wants from Angel, but she knows that when he's around, whether she sees him or not, she feels him, inside, and it throws her. Angel says it throws him, too. Buffy suggests they stick to their original plan, and keep their distance, until a lot of time has passed. As they agree to try to forget, an uninvited demon smashes through the window, brandishing a sword. Buffy helps Angel defend himself, but before they can finish the thing off, it jumps back out the window.
As they track it through the sewer tunnels, they talk about how confusing and difficult things are for them both. Talking draws them nearer, until they're close enough to kiss, but Buffy takes a step back. She knows nothing has changed, and that if something happens, they'll only have to leave each other again. Back to the demon hunting, Buffy suspects it's gone up into the daylight, where Angel can't follow. Though Angel doesn't like the idea of Buffy hunting alone, he suggests a demon hangout where the thing might have gone. But the demon isn't there - it's lurking in the sewer tunnels, and it jumps out after Angel. As they fight, the demon slashes Angel's hand, which starts to bleed. The fight continues, until Angel drives the demon's sword into its gut, killing it. As it dies, green demon blood oozes from its body. Some of the blood gets on Angel's hand, and sinks into his cut, surging through his body. He's in pain, but he's still alive.
And that's the rub - he's alive. The demon blood mixed with his, making him mortal. Some research into the demon reveals that its blood has regenerative properties, which explains what happened to Angel, but not why, and he wants to know. He wants to talk with The Powers That Be.
The Powers That Be can't be spoken to directly, but only through channels, so Doyle leads Angel to an oracle, where he seeks answers. There he's told that he isn't poisoned or under some spell, and that from this day, he will live, and die, as any mortal man. He is released from his duty, free to do whatever he wants. What he wants is Buffy. When he finds her, walking by the sea, in the daylight, they embrace in a passionate kiss.
Back at Angel's, the lovebirds talk. Despite the kiss, Angel feels they should be patient with the relationship, and "see if this mortal thing takes." Even if it does, things are still complicated. They agree to be mature and take their time, but as Buffy turns to leave, maturity goes out the window, and clothes fall to the floor. Buffy and Angel make each other very happy.
As Cordelia and Doyle lament their newfound "unemployment," Doyle's head slams to the bar with another mind-numbing vision. He rushes over to Angel's, to tell him that the blood of the demon has regenerated more than just Angel - the demon has regenerated itself.
As Angel and Doyle track it down, Doyle does some research. This demon not only regenerates, it comes back bigger and stronger. When they find it, the fight doesn't go as usual - Angel's a human now. Angel had left Buffy behind, fast asleep. When she awakes to find him gone, she persuades Cordelia to reveal where Angel went, and heads right over. Before the demon can plunge its sword into Angel's back, Buffy arrives, ready for slaying. But the demon won't go down easily. Finally, Angel remembers the key to killing it, and Buffy does the deed, saving them both.
Before it died, the demon said the end of days had begun. Angel goes back to the oracle, to find out if this is the truth; the oracle confirms that it is. And this means that the lives of slayers - Buffy in particular - are in danger. Angel begs for her life - and asks them to take his back. He says he can't protect her, or anyone, as a man. He knows they have it in their power to make it right. They offer to swallow this day, to take back the 24 hours from when the demon first attacked him. That would make it so that none of what happened between he and Buffy happened. Only Angel would stop it from happening again, and Angel alone will carry the memory of that day.
Back home, Angel tells Buffy that he
asked the oracles to turn him back. "Because more than
ever," Angel explains, "I know how much I love you. If I
stay mortal, one of us will wind up dead, maybe both of us."
Buffy, far from happy, tries to understand. In Angel's last few
minutes as a human, he and Buffy kiss, and they cry. When those
minutes are up, Angel and Buffy are back in his office, right before
the demon's first attack. Angel remembers everything that has
happened, but Buffy does not. When the demon bursts through the
window this time, Angel knows just how to kill it instantly. And
Buffy, impressed but not remembering a thing, walks out of Angel's
life yet again.
A bit later, Angel explains the events of the past 24 hours - at least as he experienced them. Doyle and Cordelia have no memory of any of it (see previous episode summary for full explanation). Knowing the truth, Doyle is even more impressed with Angel, and even more convinced he's a hero.
Angel's courage inspires Doyle to tell Cordelia the truth about him being half-demon. Just as he's about to tell her, though, a new vision hits him. Soon, he and Angel are investigating what looks to be an abandoned demon household. Then Angel sniffs out the demons themselves, hiding under the floorboards.
The demons are hiding because they're being hunted by the Scourge. Doyle explains to Angel that the Scourge is an army of pureblooded demons. They aren't big fans of mixed-heritage types, and they hunt them down. These demons can be killed, but they believe in what they're doing, and are ready to die for their cause.
He knows this because years earlier, he received a visit from a demon named Lucas, a Bracken demon, like Doyle. He and his clan had been living safely in the woods in Oregon until the Scourge came. Not all of them escaped. The Scourge tracked them to Los Angeles, where Lucas begged Doyle for help, but Doyle wasn't interested. Lying in bed alone after Lucas was gone, however, Doyle got his first vision. He didn't know what to make of it, but he had to know if what it showed him was real or just a dream. When he went to explore the vision he'd had, he found dozens of his demon brethren, including Lucas, slaughtered by the Scourge.
Now the Scourge is coming for these demons, and Doyle doesn't think they'll be able to fight them. But Angel says they won't have to - they'll get them out of the country. He knows the captain of a boat, and he arranges for their escape. As Cordelia and Angel work out the final details for the ship, the Scourge hits town, with Doyle and one of the young demons in their sights. But Angel's got a plan. When the Scourge comes looking for the demons in their house, Angel steps in, fully vamped, dragging a demoned-out Doyle with him. He tells these Scourgers how much he hates half-breeds (even though he is one himself), and that he wants to join them, and kill half-breeds for them.
At the pier where the getaway boat is docked, one of the demons thanks Cordelia for all the help. He also shocks Cordelia when he mentions that Doyle particularly understands their suffering, as he has to live with a certain amount of persecution himself - the kind you get when you're half demon.
While the demons load onto the ship and wait for Doyle to arrive with the youngster, the Scourge has a rally, where they prepare to eliminate the half-breed demons they're chasing in the name of purity and the greater evil. Angel's hidden among them, dressed in full uniform. But this is more than just a typical hunt-and-kill scenario. The Scourge has a beacon that, when detonated, will annihilate any creatures "contaminated" with human blood within a quarter-mile radius.
When Doyle brings the young demon back to the boat, Cordelia slaps him. She's angry that he kept his being half-demon a secret from her. She tells him she doesn't have a problem with it, then says, "Would you ask me out for dinner already?" But before Doyle can, Angel arrives. The Scourge is on its way, and the boat needs to shove off - immediately.
But there are bigger problems than
the Scourgers themselves - there's that beacon, which is armed to go
off. To shut it down, somebody will have to expose himself to its
light. Doyle decides that he is that somebody. He kisses Cordelia,
expresses his regrets, and leaps onto the beacon. As he struggles to
disarm it, its light begins to tear him apart, layer by layer. When
he finally pulls the plug, there's a flash of light. The beacon is
disarmed, and everyone is saved, but Doyle is gone. Back at the
office, Angel and Cordelia sit in the dark, watching the tape of
Doyle trying to make a commercial. "Come on over to our
offices," Doyle says, "and you'll see that there's still
heroes in this world."
Back at the office, Angel and Cordelia are still trying to deal with Doyle's loss. When Cordelia heads out the door for a commercial audition, however, a spiky-headed demon rushes in, looking for Angel. His name is Barney, he's heard that Angel helps the helpless, and he needs help. He's being chased by someone, or something, that he thinks wants to kill him. Angel asks why; Barney says that he's an empathic demon, and admits that maybe somewhere along the line he used his empathic powers to cheat a little bit at gambling.
While Cordelia's auditioning for the commercial, she's suddenly hit with a splitting headache - and a vision. When she returns to the office, the first thing she does is kiss Angel. She's figured out that Doyle passed along his power to receive visions with his parting kiss, but she doesn't want it, and she's trying to pass it along to Angel. But it doesn't work. Neither of them feels anything from the kiss. When Barney comes in the room, Cordelia kisses him, too, but that doesn't work, either. Angel decides to check out Barney's apartment for clues. As he opens the door, he's greeted by the man who's been chasing Barney. It's Angel's old pal Wesley, and he's armed with a crossbow. He no longer works for the Watcher's Council, so now he's a rogue demon hunter, working on his own, and he's chasing down a particularly nasty demon now. Angel's confused; if it's Barney that Wesley's after, Barney hardly seems dangerous. But Wesley says that this demon he's chasing has left a trail of corpses, human and demon, all mutilated. Each of the victims possessed some unique power; whatever the physical source of their power, it was ripped, gouged or torn from their corpses - this demon is collecting powers. Just as Wesley is explaining what it looks like, and that it's secreting some sort of yellow viscous fluid, some of that fluid drops on his shoulder - and the demon drops from the ceiling. Angel and Wesley battle it, and when Wesley picks up his crossbow, he shoots the demon, and it jumps out the window.
Back at Angel's, Barney's talking with Cordelia, not looking at all like the demon that jumped Angel and Wesley at his apartment. Then Angel and Wesley arrive, and explain that Barney isn't the demon Wesley's looking for - the demon he's looking for is looking for Barney. This demon is a Kungai demon; Angel heads to Koreatown to see if he can find it. When he does, it's lying in a Korean spa, dying.
Barney, meanwhile, is chatting up Cordelia, who's been left behind at Angel's. She explains to Barney about the visions (and accompanying headaches) that Doyle left her with. While she's making some coffee for them both, Barney calls a buddy of his on his cell phone. "Hank, it's me," he says. "Of course I got the Kungai horn - in a safe place. But listen," he adds, turning to look at Cordelia, "I think I just found something even better."
As Barney turns not-so-friendly on Cordelia, Angel, and Wesley, who's joined him, listen as the dying Kungai demon tries to speak to them. It says someone has stolen his horn, and that more will die. That someone is a demon, a heart reader. Angel realizes he means an empath demon - and that he means Barney.
Angel and Wesley head back to check on Cordelia, but Barney's already taken her away, and he has her bound and gagged. Piecing clues together, Angel and Wesley realize where Barney has taken her - and that he's going to try to sell her, and her powers, at a demon auction. There, a lawyer from Wolfram & Hart offers the highest bid. But she wants Cordelia with her eyes extracted.
As Barney's about to tear out
Cordelia's eyes, Angel and Wesley bust in. Angel does battle with
some demons, but it's Cordelia, set free by Wesley, who drives the
lethal stake into Barney's back to save the day.
Wesley, meanwhile, is a shaken by the newspaper story about the murdered girl. He explains to Cordelia that as a Watcher in Sunnydale, he did extensive research on Angel, and the story in the paper looks chillingly familiar. In the late 1700s, when Angel was known as Angelus, it was his custom to "sign" his victims, by cutting a Christian cross into their left cheek. Wesley fears Angel's committed these killings - which is why he's come armed with a stake.
Then Angel himself appears. He has no memory of doing any of these things, but he's been having killing dreams, and he's been enjoying them. He's also afraid that he's acting them out. To be sure, Wesley and Cordelia chain him to his bed for the night. While he sleeps, Angel has the same dream, this time set two centuries ago. He wakes, but can't break free from the chains. Just then, Cordelia comes in with the morning paper. There's been another killing, while Angel was chained in bed. Revisiting the dream, Angel realizes that he wasn't the killer in it - it was his prot¿, Penn. In the present day, Penn is assembling his many press clippings on the wall of his apartment.
At the police station, Angel and Kate talk in a room lined with the murder photos. Seeing them, Angel makes a realization - Penn is reliving a previous mass murder. He gives Kate a sketch of Penn, and describes the next victim, and the location of the next crime.
But Penn is crafty. Though police patrol the area, they can't stop his next kill - they arrive as he's feeding on the victim. Sirens wailing, Penn escapes into an abandoned building. When Angel and Wesley arrive at the scene, Kate has already entered the building in pursuit.
Inside, she finds Penn, and shoots him. But the bullets don't work; when Kate comes to cuff him, he tosses her away. Then Angel drops in for a reunion. He and Penn haven't seen each other in a lifetime, but Angel's not there for pleasantries - he's there to kill his former student. A wicked battle begins. Penn escapes, but Kate was watching, and she saw Angel in vampire form.
Angel tells Kate he knows details have been left out of the papers - like that the victims have been drained of their blood. He also knows she won't stop the killer, not this way. It'll take direct sunlight, decapitation, or a stake through the heart. But Kate doesn't believe him - she says that's all just children's stories. Penn, meanwhile, has turned up at the offices, where Cordelia makes him a sales pitch (and gives away too much information) before realizing who he is. She saves herself by pulling up the blinds, and then Angel arrives. The two trade verbal barbs across a sunbeam, when Wesley arrives - on Penn's side. Now Penn has a hostage. But he lets him go - and tells Angel to expect the worst possible thing he can imagine. Angel pays a visit to Kate at home. She's been doing her research; she now believes Penn is a vampire - and she realizes who Angel is, too. She says she knows how to kill Penn - a stake through the heart - and suggests that when she finds him, Angel not be around, or she'll kill him, too.
Angel, Wesley and Cordelia have also been researching, and they've figured out where Penn lives. When Wesley and Angel break in, they see pictures of a school bus laid out on the table, and realize who Penn's next victims will be.
But Penn has something else in mind. As Kate briefs detectives at the station, he barges in. Tossing cops to the side, he grabs Kate as she reaches for her stake. Angel and Wesley arrive at the station, and realize that Penn's there. He's dragged Kate down to the tunnels below. When Angel follows him there, the real fireworks begin.
The fight rages, until Penn has Angel
in a headlock. But Kate has found a stake, and she knows just what
to do with it. She drives it right through Angel's stomach - and
into Penn's heart. Angel is in pain, but Penn is mere dust.
Meanwhile, Cordelia and Wilson are enjoying their date. When he drops her off for the night, they kiss; she invites him in. Soon Wilson and Cordelia are in bed together.
The next morning, though, Cordelia finds herself in bed alone - and pregnant. Angel and Wesley, concerned when Cordelia doesn't show up to work, break into her place and find her in bed, scared. Angel convinces her to call Wilson, but when she does, the number has been disconnected. In fact, all his numbers are disconnected, with no forwarding information. Angel sets out to see what he can find, while Wesley takes Cordelia to the hospital for a pre-natal exam. Her ultrasound reveals there are at least seven heartbeats. When they take amniotic fluid from the womb to run tests, the syringe cracks, and the fluid, spilling out, eats through the floor. Wesley suggests they find Angel.
He's been checking out the club Cordelia was at the night before. The bartender suggests he talk to Cordelia's friend, Serena, so he pays her a visit. She's pregnant, too. And she can't reach the guy she was with, either. Back at Angel's, Wesley tries to put Cordelia at ease. He's just gotten her to fall asleep when Angel arrives with the news of Serena. As they formulate a plan, they hear a noise, and see that Cordelia's gotten out of bed for a snack from Angel's fridge - she's drinking blood.
Angel tracks Wilson down at a gun club where Serena said he and his buddies hang out, but Wilson's not interested in talking. Angel, however, has a way of getting people to talk. But he realizes that Wilson's human, and now he's confused. He wants to know how this whole thing works.
Wesley, meanwhile, is researching what's growing inside Cordelia, and he finds the demon in a book. He reassures her that now that they've figured out the species, they'll be able to stop what's happening to her. But this doesn't reassure her. Instead, she smacks him in the face with the book. "You're not going to hurt my babies," she says menacingly. "No one's going to hurt my babies."
Back at the gun club, as Wilson's buddies come to his defense, Angel starts to piece together the puzzle. The demon needs a surrogate to impregnate human women, and these guys help him out in exchange for fame, money and success. Angel wants to know where this demon is. Wilson thinks he's pretty clever when he shoots Angel instead of telling him, but Angel really doesn't like it when people shoot him. The bullets bring out his vampire side, and he quickly disposes of Wilson's buddies. Then he plants his boot along Wilson's chin. "Now you're gonna tell me what I need to know." In the meantime, at an abandoned industrial park, Cordelia and several other expectant mothers are gathering.
Angel and Wesley are starting to figure things out. Angel knows where the women are meeting, and Wesley has found out that if they kill the beast, all its babies will die - it would be like cutting a psychic umbilical cord. But this will not be an easy beast to kill. Fire won't kill it, decapitation won't kill it, and, as Wesley explains, "it's really huge."
At the industrial park, Cordelia and the other mothers-to-be put on white gowns, and wade into a pool of yellowish liquid. Wesley approaches, and tries to get Cordelia, and all the women, to come out, but they refuse - they serve their master, she says. Just then, they all turn to hear the sound of grunts and giant footsteps. The master has come, and he's not pleased to see Wesley there.
Wesley explains that he's come for
mortal combat, a battle to the death. And then Angel arrives. He
tosses a huge tank of liquid nitrogen at the beast. When he catches
it, Wesley pulls out his gun, shooting a hole in the tank. The
nitrogen sprays forth from the tank, freezing the demon and killing
it. As it freezes, the babies the mothers are carrying die as well.
Cordelia, relieved of her burden, steps out of the liquid, and
delivers the final blow to the demon - she swings an enormous pulley
its way, shattering it to pieces. "I really hate dating,"
she groans. Back at the office two days later, Cordelia's back to
herself. And she's learned something - she now knows two people she
can trust with her life.
While Cordelia and Wesley do some research, Angel does some snooping of his own, heading to the victim's office. The victim was in private security, and Angel wants to know who hired him. Breaking in, Angel finds a shipping order from the ice factory. And then something finds him. This something starts kicking the crap out of Angel, until she gets a call on her cell phone and takes off. Angel follows. She drives to an art gallery, where she slips into the crowd. Knowing Angel's on her tail, she tells the guard a man in a black coat is stalking her, but Angel's pretty crafty himself - he takes off his coat and acts like a tour guide explaining a painting. Slipping past the guards, he follows her to a back room, and tries to get answers. But she's not talking - she's there to receive another she-demon, who arrives via portal. He asks what they're running from, but she says it's not his concern - he is not one of them. Just then, Tei and a few pals burst in the room. But Angel can see this demon he was chasing needs help, so he takes on the thugs. Though Angel and the she-demon take care of most of them, Tei and the others make off with the new arrival.
Back at Angel's, the she-demon explains things. She is Jira, of Oldun-Tao, where she is daughter to a king. In her land, a person's personality, passions and impulses sit in an area of the body along the upper spine, called Ko. Once females of her people come of age, Ko controls their physical and sexual power. When it's removed, they can be easily controlled. But Jira escaped, with her Ko intact. When she first got to earth, she couldn't control her Ko - she burned with a fever, and needed ice to cool it off. She stayed on ice for months, until the worst of it passed, and she could learn to control her power.
Jira's father promised happiness and a better life for everyone, but that wasn't what the women of her land got. So she denounced him and came to Earth to see his promise come true for all the women of Oldun-Tao. She was the first to escape; now she helps other women escape to Earth as well. When the girls come to Earth, they can't control their Ko either, so she helps them cool off until they can. But Tei and his cronies have been sent to stop her, and to send her and her refugees back home. Angel wants to help, but Jira wants him to stay out of her way.
Wesley and Cordelia, meanwhile, do some snooping of their own, and find Tei and his cohorts preparing to send the new arrival - minus her Ko - back home through the portal. But the one they really want is Jira. Then one of Tei's assistants arrives - he's found an ice plant that's shipping two tons of ice a week to a spa in Palm Springs.
Cordelia and Wesley rush back to tell Angel; this information explains the shipping order he found earlier. They take off for the spa, where Jira has three girls on ice.
They arrive just before Tei and his gang, and warn Jira. As Cordelia and Wesley help get the girls out safely, Angel and Jira do battle with Tei. Jira escapes with the girls, and Angel shows Tei that he's not human - and suggests that he and his boys grab the next portal off Earth.
The next morning, Jira arrives at the
office to report that the girls are safe outside the city. She and
Angel come to an uneasy agreement - she'll do what she thinks is
right to protect her people, and Angel will do the same.
She sees a house, where Angel and Wesley find a boy named Ryan sleepwalking into the middle of the street. Angel saves him from a speeding car, and his parents rush outside. But something is amiss - earlier, the parents locked Ryan in his bedroom for the night.
Ryan's mother, Paige, invites Angel in to tend to his cut shoulder and thank him profusely. They've just moved in, she explains; Angel is suspicious. Though the father, Seth, clearly doesn't like him, Paige invites him to dinner. He accepts. Outside, Wesley's suspicious, too - he snoops around in the garbage, and finds plactazine all around the foundation of the house. It means someone in the house is possessed by a demon.
Research reveals that the family has moved a lot in the last three years. Reports of disturbances have followed them. Wesley suggests they'll need to do an exorcism. He'll look into finding someone who can perform one, but first they need to get the demon to reveal itself. The way to do that is to have him ingest eucalypsis powder. When Angel arrives for dinner the next night, he brings brownies.
After an awkward meal, the brownies are brought out - and they bring out the demon in Ryan. Angel tells the parents that Ryan's possessed. Paige is upset, but Seth sees that Angel knows what he's talking about. He asks Angel for help.
Angel brings Ryan and his parents back to his place. They lay him on a bed, placing binding powder around it to keep him there while Wesley and Angel track down a priest. But the priest they're looking for, Father Fredricks, is dead. He was killed six months earlier, by an Ethros demon, just like the one possessing Ryan. There's only one option - Wesley will have to do the exorcism. While he's researching the ritual he finds out how Father Fredericks was killed. When an Ethros demon is cast out, it immediately seeks another body to inhabit. The demon is expelled with such force that the newly-inhabited rarely survives.
Back at Angel's, Ryan lures Paige to him and begins to strangle her. Angel and Wesley have returned, and they break in. Wielding a cross, Wesley forces the demon back into Ryan, and Paige is set free. Things are calm, for the moment. While Wesley prepares for the exorcism, Cordelia reads about an Ethros box, used to trap an Ethros demon once it leaves a body. Without one, the demon enters the nearest warm body, but unfortunately, authentic Ethros boxes are hard to come by. Fortunately, Angel knows a place that might have one.
As Wesley goes to work, the demon taunts him, bringing up all his life's failures. He's trying to win the mental battle; when he enrages Wesley and gets him to cross through the ring of binding powder, he stabs Wesley in the neck with his cross. While Paige, Seth and Angel tend to Wesley's wound, Cordelia comes back with a box. It's not quite an Ethros box, but it'll have to do. Then the demon makes the room shake - and speaks to Angel in Doyle's voice. Now Angel's pissed. Wrapping a black cloth around his hand, he picks up the cross - he's going to perform the exorcism himself.
The exorcism works, but there's a problem: while the demon headed toward the box, it didn't go in it. It smashed right though it. Angel has an idea of where it might be. While Ryan enjoys hot chocolate back home, Angel and Wesley track the demon to caves by the sea. There he tells a chilling story - though he was possessing Ryan, Ryan had no soul. That boy's mind, he says, was the blackest hell he'd ever known. He tried to get Ryan to end his life, even if it meant ending his own, but didn't succeed. And now Ryan is still alive, unpossessed but evil nevertheless, back with his family.
Angel slays the demon, then he and Wesley race back to Ryan's house. There, Ryan has stolen his father's matches, locked his parents in their room and poured gasoline all over his sister Stephanie's room. Then he dropped a lit match.
Seth and Paige break free to find Stephanie's room in flames. Then Angel breaks in, saving Stephanie from the fire.
As the fire fighters put out the
blaze, Ryan is taken away by the police. Seth, in shock, tells Angel
he won't be able to cover for his son anymore.
Angel remembers this scene as he fights a demon in a subway tunnel. As Angel finishes it off, Kate arrives on the scene. Outside the tunnel, police are taking statements from witnesses; Kate spots her father there. He says he heard there was a situation, and thought he'd stop by. Kate thinks he's checking up on her.
Flash back to Ireland. Angel's remembering a bar fight, and two lovely lasses watching him and smiling. He's remembering smiling back at one when Cordelia snaps him back to the present. Wesley has checked the books, and found the demon in the tunnel, but he's curious - all the books say it should have been a peaceful, balancing demon. What would make a peaceful demon attack a subway train full of commuters? Angel visits Kate to see what she knows. Since the demon's dead, though, she'd rather just forget about it.
While Cordelia and Wesley find the demon's body and take a piece to run tests, Angel follows a suspicious-looking delivery guy who was on that train. While he's tracking him, the guy receives a phone call and drives off. Angel follows him to an apartment building, where he picks up a package - from Kate's father.
After the delivery guy is gone, Angel knocks on Mr. Lockley's door, and accuses him of removing something from the crime scene that somebody didn't want the police to find. He denies it, but Angel warns him - he will find out what's going on. When Mr. Lockley slams his door, Angel has another flashback - his father is kicking him out of the house. Later, when he walks into the arms of Darla, one of the girls who watched the bar fight, she takes a bite from his neck - she's a vampire. Slumped to his knees at her feet, Liam's face falls into her chest, where she's spread some of his blood. And he tastes it.
Back at Angel's (in the present again), Wesley is dissecting the piece of demon, and confirms the species. He also finds a substance in its system, a drug, that would explain why it attacked the subway train - it was jonesing for more. Then Cordelia, who's been tracking (and videotaping) the delivery guy, pops in. She has a tape of him at Kel's Exotic Auto, which Angel thinks is the drug source.
Meanwhile, at Kel's, Kate's father arrives. He's been smuggling for the people there, but he thought it was just auto parts - he doesn't know what's in the other packages. And he tells them Angel's been looking into their operation. After Mr. Lockley leaves, the boss appears. He's a bit demon, and he wants Angel and Mr. Lockley both killed.
Flash back to old tyme Ireland: Liam's family weeps at a funeral - Liam's funeral. But when Darla visits his grave later that night, he emerges a vampire. When he then goes to visit his father, he's out for blood.
Flash forward to L.A.: Angel's headed out to investigate Kel's, but he doesn't get far - two of the "peaceful" demons break into the office. Angel returns, with a vial of the drug, which he uses as bait. He tosses one demon out the window, and pumps the other for information.
Things look bad for Mr. Lockley. Angel calls Kate, telling her to go to her father's place and get him out of there; he's on his way. At Mr. Lockley's apartment, the two fellows from Kel's have already arrived. Then Angel knocks, and asks Mr. Lockley to invite him in; he tells Angel to leave. That's when the two guys turn vampire. Since Angel wasn't invited in, he can't enter until Mr. Lockley is dead; soon enough, he is. Angel leaps in, fashions a stake from a chair leg and slays one of the vampires, but the other gets away, just as Kate arrives to find her father dead. In the wreckage of her father's apartment, she finds a business card from Kel's. Angry, she heads straight there, and begins shooting. Then she pulls out a stake, and begins slaying. Soon the demon boss appears. But so does Angel, armed for battle. Together, he and Kate slay the crowd, but Kate, still upset, isn't very appreciative.
Flashing back to the past, Angel
reviews the carnage of his own family, which he has created. He
feels quite powerful, but Darla reminds him that while his victory
over his father took but moments, his father's disapproval will
haunt him for lifetimes.
While Darren writes down everything he saw, Angel goes to chat with Jack's bookie. The bookie suggests a place Angel might look. There, Angel finds two howler demons. Using force, Angel gets answers - Jack has been sold.
Angel's next stop is a private club, where spectators are cheering, and wagering on, a demon steel cage match. When Angel spots Jack in the crowd, he follows him toward a back room. When he finds Jack, he also finds that he's been set up - Jack and Dennis are waiting for him. Angel resists, but is subdued with electric shocks. Jack and Dennis are going to put Angel in the steel cage.
When he finally comes to, Angel finds himself locked in a cell. He's one of many prisoners, mostly demons, who will be used for sport. They've all been fitted with steel bracelets that will cause them to be disintegrated if they try to escape. The only way they can earn their freedom is to make 21 kills in the steel cage. Back at the office, Wesley and Cordelia start to worry about Angel. Wesley decides to follow in Angel's footsteps and go see the bookie. When Wesley arrives, the bookie is roughing somebody up, and laughs when Wesley asks for information. But Wesley knows how to play rough, too.
Back at the gambling club, the slaves on that night's fight card are warming up. Angel's being sent out for his first fight, and one of the other slaves tries to give him some pointers. But Angel says he won't kill anyone. In the ring, he doesn't really fight - he just defends himself. The crowd boos. Soon, that crowd includes Wesley and Cordelia, who, posing as detectives, duped two fightgoers out of their tickets. Once inside, they spot Darren, and then they spot Angel, fighting in the cage.
When Darren provides a knife for Angel's opponent, Angel can play pacifist no longer. Cut on the arm by the demon, Angel turns vampire, and makes the kill for the victory.
Back in the slave quarters after his fight, Angel tries to persuade his fellow prisoners not to fight. "We can fight them, but only if we stop fighting each other," he says. "I'm giving you another way out." But the slaves ignore him. Outside the club, Wesley and Cordelia discuss strategy. They can't call the police; the McNamaras would just destroy the evidence, and kill Angel. They need to get Angel out of his cuffs. Wesley thinks he might be able to make a key, if only he could get his hands on one of them. Conveniently, Cordelia has sticky fingers. Later, in slave quarters, Jack comes by to insult the demons. But Angel's not taking it - he reaches across the line and grabs Jack, pulling him over to the slave side and putting him in a headlock. But none of the other prisoners moves to help. Guards summon Darren, and Angel tries to negotiate for freedom. But Jack's life isn't that valuable to Darren - he shoots Jack through the heart, killing him. Two guards jump over and subdue Angel with electric shockers.
When Angel awakes, he's not in a cell, but in the office of Lilah Morgan, fight fan and Wolfram & Hart associate. She convinced McNamara to sell Angel's contract to the partners. He's free - as long as he pretends nothing happened. Lilah proposes they work together, but Angel's not interested, so he's taken back to the club, where he's scheduled to fight Trepkos, a demon going for his 21st kill.
As Angel and Trepkos fight, Wesley and Cordelia, who've made a key to the cuffs, sneak into the arena. Wesley tries to get one of the demons to help him, but the demon instead steals the key.
Angel gets the upper hand in the
fight, with the tip of a spear at Trepkos' throat. But Angel can't
kill him. He lets him up. But Trepkos, one kill away from freedom,
goes after Angel, battering him. Then, as Trepkos readies to deliver
a fatal blow, he holds back, sparing Angel. The crowd goes silent,
and Darren orders the guards to kill them both. But the demon that
stole Wesley's key has freed himself - and the other demons. Before
the guards kill anyone, the demons burst into the ring, killing the
guards and freeing Angel and Trepkos from their cuffs. The final
kill is Dennis, who's fitted with a bracelet, tossed from the ring,
and turned to a pile of dust.
The next morning, Rebecca comes to see Angel. Someone's stalking her, and she needs help. But Angel says he can't take the case. He gives Rebecca a folder with information on the car that ran her down, and suggests she give it to her people. "You don't need me," he says.
Cordelia can't believe it. Desperate for a Hollywood contact, she doesn't understand why Angel won't take the case. But Wesley can see that Angel didn't take it because he likes Rebecca, and he's afraid of getting close to her.
Later, Rebecca is home alone, party guests having just left. Actually, she's not quite alone. Someone's lurking. But before he can do any harm, another lurker - Angel - smashes through a window and scares him off. As Rebecca thanks him, she looks into a mirror across the room and sees no reflection of Angel. When she turns back to him, he's gone.
After the police have left, she goes looking for Angel. He hasn't left. She's figured out that he's a vampire, and she's not scared. And she doesn't want to be alone for the night. Angel is on the case after all.
The next day, Rebecca meets with her agent, Oliver, for lunch. He's set up an audition for her, for a new show. That night, Rebecca has a premiere to attend, and she wants Angel along as her bodyguard. At the theater, Angel, looking dapper in a suit, walks down the red carpet with Rebecca. But one of the security guards isn't concerned with looks - he's concerned with shooting Rebecca. When she and Angel walk into the alley behind the theater (she goes to premieres for the photo op, not the movie), the guy takes aim. Angel protects her, then goes after the goon and takes him out.
As the police take Angel's statement, Oliver appears. But Rebecca's not happy with him - she's figured out that he's arranged the attacks. Oliver explains that he did it for the publicity, to help her get the series. Then Oliver tells her that she didn't get the part; the network feels she's too mature for the role. "We're going to have to face it," he says, "that nobody stays young forever." But Rebecca knows someone who does. Smiling, she glances over at Angel.
The next day, Rebecca asks Cordelia out to lunch, and shopping. She wants to know Angel's story, and how he became a vampire.
Later, she stops by Angel's place for a visit, bringing a bottle of Dom Perignon to thank him. As they drink, she bumps Angel's glass, spilling champagne on his shirt. As he goes to change, she pours something in his drink. When he returns, she hands him the glass, and they toast. As the drug takes effect, Rebecca tries to seduce him - she wants him to make her a vampire. Angel tells her she really doesn't want that, then gets up to show her just what she's asking for. He pulls a pint of blood from the fridge and sprays it in her mouth, angry. When he sees Rebecca spattered with blood, he realizes she's put something in his drink. She starts to cry, and says she just wanted them both to be happy. Then Angel turns vampire, and takes a bite.
She's freed him, and now she's really scared. Angel chases her around the apartment, then disappears. Wesley and Cordelia then appear, and find Rebecca. She tells them that she gave Angel a tranquilizer that induces happiness. But it's synthetic, so Angel's not really free - the effects will wear off. Still, it's not a good idea to stick around, so they prepare to leave, but Angel cuts the power, and reappears.
Wesley tries to reason with him, and explain that he's feeling simulated bliss, mere chemical suggestion. Angel insults him, and tosses him to the floor. Then he comes after Cordelia, who whips out a bottle of water, claiming it's holy water. Angel thinks she's bluffing. She is, but when she throws it at him, it distracts him enough that Wesley, who's recovered, can toss him down the elevator shaft.
Angel awakes the next morning,
himself again, but chained to the bed. Wesley and Cordelia agree to
put the incident behind them - and leave Angel chained to the bed
for a while.
In another part of town, Faith steps off a Greyhound bus. As she's walking away from the station, a sleazy guy approaches her, trying to pick her up. Without much effort, she takes him down, and steals his jacket, wallet and keys. Flash back to Borsa, Romania, 1898: Darla has brought Angelus a birthday gift - a young gypsy girl.
Flash forward to the office: Angel is trying to convince Marquez to testify, but he's not interested. Angel makes him interested, and drags him into court, where he testifies - against one of Wolfram & Hart's clients.
Meanwhile, Faith is dancing the night away at a club. But it's not long before she starts a fight - one that becomes an all-out brawl. When word of this new rogue slayer in town gets out, the folks at Wolfram & Hart have an idea of how to solve their Angel problem.
Lilah, of Wolfram & Hart, tracks Faith down. She brings Faith back to the W&H offices, where a trio of attorneys reviews Faith's rap sheet. They tell her that if she performs a service for them, they can clear her record. When they tell her it's Angel they want killed, Faith quickly says, "No problem."
Romania flashback: Darla returns home to find Angel cowering in the corner. The gypsies have found him, and put a spell on him - they've given him a soul. Darla chases him away, out into the street. She doesn't want to see him anymore.
In the present, as Cordelia, Wesley and Angel talk in the lobby of an office building, preparing to meet a potential client for lunch, Faith arrives - with a crossbow. She shoots it at Angel, but before it hits him, he spins around and grabs it with his hand. Faith smiles, then scampers away. Clearly, she's no longer in a coma, as Angel had thought.
Back at the office, Angel has checked in with Giles, who reports that Faith left Sunnydale a week ago, in a borderline psychotic mental state. Angel tells Wesley and Cordelia to do some research into recent fights and killings, and then to get scarce - he doesn't want them out there as targets.
Later, Faith pays a visit to the office. To her, this is a game, and she's glad to play it. She fires a bullet at Angel, wounding him, then takes her leave - through the window.
Angel decides he's going to drop in for a visit of his own - at Wolfram & Hart. He pops into the office of Lindsey McDonald, W&H's lead attorney, and starts looking through files. Then Lindsey pops in himself, and when he won't tell Angel anything about Faith, a few verbal jabs are traded. But with security on its way up to take care of the disturbance, Angel leaves, peacefully.
When Wesley and Cordelia arrive at Cordelia's apartment to pack a bag, Faith is there waiting for them. She doesn't feel Angel's really in the game, but she thinks Cordelia and Wesley may be the key. Wesley tries to reason with her - he says it's not too late to let him help her. He believes in his heart that she is not a bad person. Of course, when she gives Cordelia an elbow to the face, he believes she deserves a fist to the jaw. Faith then believes Wesley is in need of a kick to the gut. When Angel arrives, Cordelia's on the floor, and Wesley - and Faith - are gone. Faith has taken Wesley to her adopted apartment, where she is torturing him, mentally and physically.
Flashback, Romania: A dirty, ragged Angelus roams the streets, hungry, and he doesn't want food, he wants blood. He attacks some humans - but he can't bring himself to feed on them.
Back in the present at Cordelia's, she and Angel review crime reports, trying to track Faith down. When Angel finds her, she's got a knife to Wesley's throat. Angel is ready to play.
A brutal battle begins, tearing apart
the apartment and spilling out into the alley below, where it starts
to rain. Though Faith fights viciously, Angel knows what she really
wants - for him to kill her. As the fight wears on, Faith wears
down. Finally, she breaks down in tears. "I'm bad," she
cries. "Just kill me." Angel holds her in his arms.
The next morning, at the office, a bruised Cordelia, and a bruised Wesley, recap the events of the previous night. Wesley isn't happy that Faith is lying in bed unbound and ungagged. He knows there is evil in her, and tells Angel that if he sets Faith free, she'll kill again. Back downstairs, Angel tells Faith that he understands what she's going through, and he wants to help.
Meanwhile, at the law offices of Wolfram & Hart, Lindsey finds out that Faith is at Angel's, and hasn't killed him. Lindsey's not happy about Faith making them look like fools; they hire a demon to kill her.
Back at Angel's, a rested Faith is packing up to go, and having murderous flashbacks. Angel says she can leave, but that doesn't mean she'll be free. He asks her where she'll go. "Back out in that darkness? . . . You thought that you could just touch it, that you'd be okay. Five by five, right Faith? But it swallowed you whole. So tell me - how'd you like it?"
At that, she turns and slaps him. "Help me?" she asks timidly. Angel says he will. Wesley has gone to a pub to drown his sorrows and throw darts. There, he's visited by three old friends - Watchers. They tell him the Council is willing to reinstate him, and return him to his position as Watcher - if he will bring them Faith. She is evil, they say, and must be stopped. The Council wants Faith alive, they say; they want to transport her back to England for rehabilitation. They give Wesley a syringe filled with a powerful sedative to do the job. But before Wesley agrees, he has a condition - he must have their word that no harm will come to Angel. The Watchers agree.
At Angel's, he and Faith talk about what she must do to set herself free. She can't stand the pain she's feeling, but Angel says she needs to deal with it - it's the pain she's caused, coming back to her. Then Faith realizes that she has to make things right with Buffy, too - and lets slip that Buffy has a new boyfriend. Later, as Faith is watching TV, she sees her face on the screen - the police (and Kate in particular) are looking for her. But they're not the only ones. The Wolfram & Hart assassin is crawling along Angel's ceiling, preparing to strike. It jumps down, and after a brief fight, Faith slays it.
And then Buffy appears. She's doesn't like what she sees, and when Angel tells her that Faith is trying to change, Buffy won't believe it. She wants Faith in jail. Angel sends Faith upstairs, but Buffy doesn't even want to let Faith out of sight. When Angel steps in between them, Buffy hits him, and he hits her back. Faith finally goes upstairs, so Angel and Buffy can talk.
Upstairs, a scared Faith tries to listen in when Wesley walks through the door. As Buffy plunges the verbal daggers into Angel, Wesley walks downstairs with Faith. He hasn't injected her; he explains that the Council's operations team is on the way, and they'll expect to find Angel gone, and Faith drugged. As Angel, Wesley and Buffy devise a plan of escape, Faith slips away.
At Wolfram & Hart, the lawyers can't believe their second assassin was killed. Lindsey suggests they stop trying to play outside the law, and bring this to their turf. So he heads to the police station, where he tries to get Kate to help, but she's not a Wolfram & Hart fan. Lindsey suggests they have a common enemy, and shows her a photo of Angel. He then tells Kate that the woman she's looking for - Faith - is with Angel.
Back at Angel's, Buffy chases Faith up onto the roof of the building. They argue about the past, and the future, until one of the Council operatives arrives and starts shooting. A second busts in on Wesley and Angel, a gun in one hand and a crossbow in the other.
On the roof, Buffy and Faith try to run to another building when a helicopter rises up, with the third operative, who begins shooting as well. While Wesley handles the first attacker (throwing the syringe into his neck like a dart), Angel rushes to the roof. Leaping from the roof onto the helicopter, he grabs the Council operative and tosses him to the roof. When the helicopter lands, Angel finds the police waiting for him on the ground. Kate asks him where Faith is; he doesn't answer. She has him arrested.
Wesley and Buffy race to the police station. When they arrive, Faith is already there, ready to make a confession.
Afterward, Buffy and Angel argue. Buffy says she came because Angel was in danger; Angel says she came because she was looking for Faith and wanted vengeance. Buffy insists she has a right to it. Angel's reply: "Not in my city." Buffy then tells Angel that she has someone in her life now that she loves. It's not what they had; it's new - new because she trusts him, and she knows him. Now it's Angel's turn to be angry. He's glad she moved on, but he can't, and it cuts him up inside every time he sees her. "You don't know me anymore," he snarls, "so don't come down here with your great new life and expect me to do things your way. Go home."
"See?" Buffy says as she
walks away. "Faith wins again." But Faith is locked in a
jail cell. Peace is not an easy thing to find, but at least now she
has a chance.
Meanwhile, Cordelia is in heaven, as she, Angel and Wesley make an appearance at a trendy Hollywood party. Billionaire software tycoon David Nabbit has invited them there to talk about his case. Back in high school, David and his friends were big Dungeons and Dragons nerds. Some of them got really into it, and found their way to Madam Dorian's, a Bel Air demon brothel. David went 12 times, and now a guy named Lenny is threatening to blackmail him. He doesn't want his stockholders to find out about this.
So Angel pays a visit to Madam Dorian's - just to investigate, of course. There he finds information on Lenny's whereabouts, and tracks him down for a conversation. Lenny's not so cooperative at first, but when Angel shows his vamp face, Lenny suddenly becomes a bit more talkative. While Angel helps Lenny understand things, a couple of the amateur slayers look on. To them, Angel is just another vampire - the enemy.
The next night, Lenny returns to deliver the photographs, and brings a little something extra - a demon. Angel handles the demon easily, but once he's through, the rogue slayer squad appears. They fire a stake through Angel's back, and the chase begins. Angel runs into a booby-trapped warehouse, where even more slayers await. As they close in on him, Angel grabs Alana by the neck, holding her hostage and keeping the others at bay. Angel asks who they are, and who they think they're after. Gunn, leader of the gang and Alana's brother, says he knows what Angel is, and that if he ever comes back there, he'll kill him. But Angel lets Alana go, and the slayers let him go.
Back at the office, Cordelia patches up Angel, and they all discuss this band of rogue slayers. Angel suspects they're all homeless, living together somewhere, and that they've been doing this for some time - they were very prepared. He also figures that if these kids are hunting vampires, there must be a vampire nest in the area, and he plans to find it before they do. Wesley heads out to find where the kids live, and Angel heads out to find the nest.
At their nest, the vampires talk. They ruled the neighborhood for 70 years, but they've gotten lazy, and let the "human street trash" become powerful. But they won't stand for that any longer. They're going to go after them, but not one by one like they have been - they're going to concentrate on the heart, and when they take the heart, the rest will fall.
Back at their hideout, Gunn, Alana and the others try to make sense of Angel. While they talk, smoke bombs rain in from the window. Thinking the vampires are coming in, Gunn sends everybody upstairs out into the daylight. But that's exactly what the vampires wanted - they're waiting outside in a van, covered from head to toe for sunlight protection, and they kidnap Alana. Gunn jumps on the back of the van to try to stop them. He can see Alana inside, about to become a victim, but one of the vampires punches through the van window, knocking him off.
After Wesley and Cordelia find the slayer hideout, Angel pays them a visit. He offers to help them, but they don't want help - not from him. Later that night, they go vampire hunting. Gunn runs ahead, checking out a warehouse. There he finds Alana, but she's not herself - she's a vampire, and she wants Gunn to join her. She makes a persuasive argument, but just when she thinks she has him convinced, Gunn slays her.
As her dust falls to the floor, Angel steps from the shadows. Then the other slayers arrive, ready to attack Angel. And then the vampires show up, to make it a real party.
But the fighting never really begins.
Angel tells the vampires that if they leave now, and he never sees
them again, he'll let them live. Their leader steps to him, trying
to be menacing. But Angel menaces back - with a stake to the heart,
making it clear that he means business. Some of the slayers still
want a fight, but Gunn, the leader, understands. He leads his gang
away, and the other vampires, now leaderless, turn to go as well.
Punching "Blind Woman Murder" into LAPD Online, Cordelia finds a match - Vanessa Brewer. This woman was arrested in 1999 as a suspect in a double homicide, for which she's currently on trial. She was out on bail when Angel ran into her. Of course, she's being defended by Wolfram & Hart.
In court, W&H attorney Lindsey McDonald makes an appeal to the judge, stating that his client, Ms. Brewer, is incapable of the acts she's been accused of. But then Angel steps into the back of the courtroom, and throws Vanessa's sunglasses at her. She snags them in midair.
But Vanessa isn't just a client of W&H, she's also works for them. Back at their offices, senior partner Holland Manners explains to Lindsey that he needs to "create" a very terrible childhood for Vanessa, because there are some children coming to town - and Vanessa will be doing some terrible things to them.
Back at his own office, Angel is raging - Vanessa was acquitted. As Wesley tries to console him, there's a knock at the door. It's Lindsey. "I need your help," he says to Angel. "I want out." Lindsey explains Vanessa's next job, and that these kids, coming from overseas, are in danger.
Lindsey, Angel, Wesley and Cordelia work on a plan to get into the W&H vault to gather more information. The next day, the plan works brilliantly. Angel gets into the vault, where he steals the necessary files. But on his way out, he spots something else - an ancient artifact. He nabs it, which sets off the alarm. He escapes, but before Lindsey can leave the building, the lawyers are corralled, and mind readers are brought in.
Angel races back to the office with the files, but they're encrypted, so Cordelia gets Willow on the phone, who helps them crack the code. They find out that Vanessa wasn't born blind; she lost her sight when she was 21, and she did it to herself on purpose. Her current assignment is to kill three blind children, who are seers. Together the children have the power to see into the heart of things, making them a particular threat to Wolfram & Hart. The file says they were to have arrived in the country that day, and are being kept in a safe house with a guardian until their mentor arrives.
Back at the W&H office, the mind readers turn up a traitor lawyer, who is shot, and it's not Lindsey. But when the others are dismissed, Lindsey is kept behind. Holland knows what Lindsey has done. But he lets him go, and tells him to take a few days off. He says he believes in Lindsey, and knows that he'll do the right thing. Meanwhile, it turns out the "safe house" isn't so safe - as the guardian is bringing dinner to the kids, Vanessa arrives, and kills him. But then Angel and Lindsey arrive. The fight begins, and Vanessa, tremendously strong, is able to sense their movements and attack. But when Angel lies still on the floor, she can't tell where he is, and Angel realizes the key to defeating her. He stands absolutely still, until she is right up on him, then delivers a blow. Vanessa can't stop this, and Angel kills her, saving the kids.
The next day, Wesley reports that the children have made it to their mentor safely. He adds that they have an important role to play, a role explained in the text of the artifact Angel stole from Wolfram & Hart. The artifact is the Scroll of Aberjian, prophecies that let W&H know the children were coming. When he had brought it back, Angel couldn't explain why he had taken it, but Wesley believes he knows why Angel was drawn to it - the prophecies also speak of a vampire with a soul.
Lindsey returns to Wolfram & Hart
to return the disks, and to resign, but he finds Holland waiting for
him in his office. Holland tells Lindsey he's impressed - he had the
guts to stand up to the firm, and to win. Instead of telling him to
get out, he offers Lindsey a promotion. Lindsey takes it.
A bit later, Wesley thinks he may have figured out what shanshu means - death. But Angel doesn't seem concerned by this.
Meanwhile, in a field behind their office, the Wolfram & Hart lawyers welcome a new demon to the world - Vocah. Vocah is not happy that they've lost the Scroll of Aberjian - he says the "raising" cannot be performed without it. Lindsey says he'll get it back, but Vocah prefers to get it back himself. When he hears Angel has it, he's even less happy: "I am summoned for the raising, the very thing that was to bring this creature down to us, tear him from The Powers That Be, and he has the scroll?" Vocah explains that being in possession of the prophecies, Angel's connection to The Powers That Be is complete. He vows that all avenues to The Powers shall be cut off from Angel - and that he will reclaim the scroll.
Back at the office, Wesley expresses concern to Cordelia that Angel had little response to the prophecy of death. He believes it's because Angel has nothing to look forward to, that he must go on forever in the world, but always cut off from it. When Angel arrives, Wesley says he hopes he's wrong about all this, but now might be a good time to consult the oracles.
Angel doesn't want to see the oracles, but Vocah does. The oracles tell him they do not counsel his kind, and will not speak to him. But he's not there for conversation. He's brought a weapon.
Later, as Cordelia is out shopping for a gift to cheer up Angel, Vocah walks past her, and brushes up against her hand. When he walks away, Cordelia has a screaming headache, and visions, and neither will stop.
Back at Angel's, the phone rings - it's the hospital calling about Cordelia. When Angel rushes out the door, Vocah steps in, and steals the Scroll of Aberjian from the weapons cabinet.
At the hospital, Angel finds Cordelia strapped to a bed, writhing and screaming from the visions and headaches, which haven't stopped. Meanwhile, Wesley has returned to Angel's, and discovered that the weapons cabinet has been broken into. He's also discovered something else.
As Angel drives up to the office, the building explodes. He rushes inside to find Wesley unconscious. Paramedics rush him to the hospital - just down the hall from Cordelia. Angel tells her he's going to make things right, that he's going to get her back. And then he notices a sign on the back of her hand, where Vocah touched her.
He takes a drawing of the sign to the oracles to ask for guidance, but enters to find the oracles have been killed. As Angel stares in disbelief at their bodies, the ghost of one appears. She tells Angel that the mark on Cordelia's hand is from Vocah, warrior of the underworld, who killed her and her fellow oracle. Vocah wants Angel weak, so he opened Cordelia's mind to all those who cry out in pain and need. She tells him that he needs the Scroll of Aberjian to stop Vocah. Only the words of Anatole can remove the mark and save Cordelia. "Like so many of them, he hides behind man's law," she says. "Stop him."
Vocah has already begun the ritual to bring about the raising. In the middle of the room a large wooden box sits atop a pentagram on the floor, with five vampires chained to the box and standing in the points of the pentagram. "As it was written," he reads from the Scroll of Aberjian, "they shall prepare the way, and the very gates of hell shall open . . . And the world shall know the beast, and the beast shall know the world."
Suddenly, Vocah senses something and stops his incantation. That something is Angel, who followed the Wolfram & Hart lawyers to the ritual site. He bursts in and begins to fight Vocah. Lindsey, knowing he'll suffer if the raising isn't completed, picks up the scroll and begins to read, trying to continue the ritual. He is successful, and soon the vampires turn to a swirl of dust that circles the box and is then sucked into it. Then a beam of light shoots from it, knocking Lindsey to the floor. As the other W&H lawyers remove the box from the room, Angel and Vocah continue their fight. Finally, Angel yanks off Vocah's protective mask, and puts his sickle through his face, killing him.
Now only Angel and Lindsey are left alive in the room. Lindsey picks up a weapon and approaches Angel. Angel asks him for the scroll, but Lindsey refuses. He says he sees that what happened there was foretold, which doesn't bode well for Angel. He knows that Angel needs the words of Anatole to heal Cordelia, and says it was foretold to sever all Angel's connections to The Powers That Be. With that, he puts the scroll over an open flame.
But Angel throws his sickle at Lindsey, taking his hand off at the wrist, and his hand, and the scroll, fall to the floor. "Don't believe everything you're foretold," Angel says. He picks up the scroll and walks out.
At the hospital, a mostly-recovered Wesley sits by Cordelia's bed, and reads the words of Anatole aloud. They work. Cordelia comes back, with a new appreciation for the amount of pain in the world, and the evil to be fought.
Days later, at their temporary office at Cordelia's apartment, Wesley continues to pore over the Scroll of Aberjian, hoping to figure out what the lawyers raised in that box. While he translates and cross-references, he determines he may have made a mistake - he thinks shanshu may not mean that Angel's going to die, but rather that he's going to live. "The vampire with a soul," he translates, "once he fulfills his destiny, will shanshu - become human. It's his reward."
To fulfill his destiny, Angel merely has to survive the coming darkness, the apocalyptic battles, a few plagues, and a few fiends that will be unleashed upon the world. To Angel, that doesn't sound so bad. For the first time in a long time, he has something to look forward to, and that brings a smile to his face.
But their work is not done - there is still the business of that box. In the bowels of the W&H building that box sits, and inside that box sits a naked woman, scared and shivering. That woman's name is Darla.
Season Two
On their way out, the Host, a green-skinned anagogic (psychic) demon, tries to get Angel to sing; he explains that when you sing, you bare your soul, and he can read your spirit. But Angel's not interested in karaoke. He's got a demon to find.
In the subway tunnels, Angel finds a scared pregnant girl - and then the Prio finds him. After a struggle, Angel snaps its neck, killing it. But instead of thanking Angel, the girl bends over the dead Prio's body, crying. She tells Angel that the demon was protecting her from things Angel couldn't handle - like the Tribunal.
Meanwhile, at Wolfram & Hart, Lilah and Lindsey talk with Darla, Angel's old flame, who they brought back in the box at the Raising. Darla senses that Angel is in town, and remembers that he killed her. Lindsey tells her that when she feels ready, she should start thinking about giving a little back.
Back at the office, the team tries to figure out what went wrong, and what to do next. Angel believes the Prio was an innocent soldier, like him, and that whatever its mission was is his now. Wesley and Cordelia get to work figuring out what the Tribunal is. Angel heads out to find Merl - he wants some answers. Merl says he lied about the Prio because there's a price on the daughter the girl is carrying. Local brokers are offering big bucks, but with the Prio around, nobody could get close; Merl wanted Angel to kill the Prio to make it easier to get to the girl.
What Merl doesn't know is where the Prio lived, so Angel recruits Gunn to lead him through the underground tunnels to find the demon's home. They find it, but the girl isn't there. Angel also finds a medallion, which he sends with Gunn to Cordelia and Wesley. After Gunn leaves, the girl arrives. She doesn't understand everybody's concern about her baby. Angel asks her to let him help; she agrees, and says first they need to find the coat of arms - the Prio said if she presented it to the Tribunal, maybe they'd call the whole thing off. What she describes is the medallion Angel sent to the office with Gunn. When he tells her he found it, but that it's not with him, she gets turns to leave, frustrated. "Stop helping," she says. But when she opens the door, a demon is waiting.
Angel slays the demon, and heads back to Cordelia's with the girl. When more demons attack, though, Angel sends her on ahead.
Gunn arrives at Cordelia's with the medallion, and Wesley gets to work researching it. But when Angel arrives, there's no sign of the girl.
Angel is frustrated; he thought he saw the light at the end of the tunnel, that he was almost human. Cordelia tries to encourage him; it may be a while until he works his way out, but he will, and she will be with him until he does.
Then Wesley rushes in the room. The medallion is a coat of arms to be presented when going before the Chair of Judgment - the Tribunal. But this is no court of law - it's a fight to the death. And there's no way to tell when it will happen; it can rise up whenever. Angel says they have to find the girl, whatever it takes.
What it takes is karaoke. Angel takes the mic and delivers a painful rendition of Barry Manilow's "Mandy." Reading Angel's aura, the Host tells him the Tribunal will appear wherever the girl is - and where to find the girl.
Angel finds her, and as she arrives, so does the Tribunal - three ancient mystics who rise from the ground on red thrones. There is also a man on a horse, who drops his coat of arms on the ground before them. They ask the girl where her champion is. She says he is dead, and asks for asylum, but they say it is not theirs to give. With no coat of arms and no champion, her life is forfeit. Then the other coat of arms is tossed on the ground next to the first. Her champion has arrived.
Angel mounts the other horse, and the two riders approach each other, ready to joust. After a few runs at each other, they are off their horses on and their feet. The challenger drives a sword through Angel's gut, doubling him over. As the Tribunal declares the champion defeated, and awards the girl to the challenger, Angel rises. He pulls the sword out, comes up behind the challenger, and slices off his head for the victory. The girl and her daughter are now under the protection of the Tribunal.
Later, Angel visits Faith in prison. She's having a rough time. Angel admits he sang Barry Manilow in public. "The road to redemption is a rocky path," Faith says. "You think we might make it?"
Angel replies, "I think we
might."
Flashback, 1952: The Hyperion is in its heyday, and the guest in Room 217 is none other than Angel. He steps out of his room to hit the ice machine, and returns to find a woman named Judy. Not interested in guests, Angel begins to escort her out, when she explains that she's hiding from her boyfriend. When the boyfriend comes to the door looking for her, Angel tosses him out.
Later, Angel's neighbor, listening to music in his room, hears a voice, but no one's there. He talks to the voice, then pulls out his revolver - and kills himself. The maid finds the body, and summons the hotel manager, who goes to inspect with a bellhop. The manager says that's the third suicide in as many months - and then he hears the voice. It tells him not to call the police; they'll shut the hotel down. He tells the bellhop to store the body in the meat locker.
Downstairs in the lobby, as guests gossip about the suicide, another man hears the voice - and it suggests that maybe it wasn't a suicide.
Judy spots Angel in the hallway, and invites him in. She's heard it wasn't a suicide, but a murder, which means police will be around. Angel knows she has something to hide - he's figured out that the guy he tossed wasn't her boyfriend, but a private investigator. Judy explains that she was a bank teller in Kansas - and they probably want back the suitcase full of cash she has. She had a job and a guy that she loved, but when the bank found out her mother was black, they fired her; when her boyfriend found out, he dumped her. Deciding she couldn't go back, she panicked, took the money and ran. Angel says he'll help.
He takes her down into the basement, where he hears the voice. He hides the bag above a ceiling beam and tells her to go back to her room and stay there - there's something in the hotel making people crazy.
Back in the present, research reveals that the hotel closed its doors in 1979, when one day the concierge made his wakeup calls with a 12-gauge shotgun. Wesley and Cordelia also find newspaper clippings of a woman (Judy) being tracked by federal authorities that checked into the Hyperion and was never heard from again. Meanwhile, Angel prowls the basement of the Hyperion. Reaching up above the ceiling beam, he finds the suitcase, still full of money. Angel calls Wesley, and tells him that the force at the Hyperion is a Thesulac, a paranoia demon that whispers to its victims and feeds on their insecurities. He wants Wesley and Cordelia to meet him there ASAP, and to bring Gunn as well - they'll need all the muscle they can get when they raise the demon. Angel says they have to force it to become corporeal before they can kill it; he's already researched the raising ritual.
1952: Angel knows that he's dealing with a Thesulac demon, and visits a bookstore to research the raising ritual. Back in her room, Judy hears the demon's voice. It tells her that they know about her, and they'll turn her in.
Down in the lobby, hotel guests speculate about the suicide/murder, when the private investigator returns, with a picture of Judy. The guests race upstairs and converge on her room. Then Angel walks down the hall, supplies for raising and killing the demon in hand. When Judy sees him, she points and says he's the murderer. The crowd jumps him and drags him to the lobby to hang him. They string him up, and leave him dangling from the ceiling. Of course, a noose won't kill Angel. When everyone leaves, he frees himself and jumps to the floor. There he meets the Thesulac demon, who thanks him for restoring Judy's faith - now he can feast on her for a lifetime. He says there's a hotel full of tortured souls who could really use Angel's help. "Take 'em all," Angel says, and walks out.
Back in the present, Angel, Wesley, Cordelia and Gunn raise the Thesulac in the Hyperion lobby. Paranoia, it says, is like fine wine - it improves with age. Angel realizes it's still feeding. But when Angel takes one of its tentacles and plugs it into an electric socket, its feeding days are over.
With the demon fried, Angel heads upstairs, where he finds Judy, still in her room, now an old woman. She recognizes Angel, and says she doesn't hear the voices anymore. Angel helps her into bed, to rest. Finally free, she dies peacefully in her sleep.
With the demon gone, Wesley, Cordelia
and Gunn can't wait to leave the Hyperion. Then Angel tells them
they're moving in.
Downstairs, Cordelia and Wesley are cleaning up the old Hyperion Hotel to make it the new offices of Angel Investigations. Then Gunn pops in. He has a meeting with a snitch who's going to lead him to Deevak, a demon that's been terrorizing his neighborhood, and he wants Angel to join him. Angel says the whole team is coming along.
When they meet up with the snitch, Jamil, he doesn't want to talk - he says he's more scared of Deevak than he is of Gunn. As Gunn tries to punch the information out of him, three of Deevak's vampire goons burst on the scene. The team disposes of them, but when the dust finally settles, Jamil is gone.
Relaxing back at her apartment later, Cordelia has a vision - and Gunn is in it. She calls Angel, but the ringing phone doesn't wake him - he's dreaming of Darla again, and in his dream, she tells him to just ignore it. When Angel doesn't pick up, she calls Wesley. When he doesn't answer, either, she picks up a weapon, jumps in Angel's car (he loaned it to her for the night) and decides to go to Gunn's on her own.
Entering his place, Cordelia hears noises, and bursts in. But Gunn doesn't need to be saved from any demon - he's practicing fighting with one of his crew. Not concerned about demons or Cordelia's vision, Gunn walks Cordelia outside to Angel's car, but the car is gone. Gunn thinks he might know where it is, but Cordelia, convinced she's his protector, says she's not leaving his side until she knows he's safe. They both load into Gunn's pickup truck to track down Angel's car.
Their first stop is to see Gunn's "friend" Henry, who "deals" in used cars. He says he didn't take it, and that they should talk to Desmond, who's a big convertible fan. As Gunn and Cordelia leave to go find Desmond, Deevak and two vampires appear. Deevak says he knows who Gunn is, and the trouble he's caused. "Tonight," he says, "it ends."
Gunn and Cordelia head to the party where Henry said Desmond would be. Soon after they find Desmond, three of Deevak's vampires find Gunn. He and the other partygoers chase off the vamps, but not before Gunn's friend Veronica is cut in the neck by a piece of broken glass. Cordelia helps stop the bleeding, and she and Gunn race her to the hospital, where the doctors say Cordelia probably saved her life.
Wesley gets the message Cordelia left him and goes to get Angel, interrupting his Darla dream. While Gunn and Cordelia are at the hospital, Wesley and Angel arrive at the party scene, looking for information.
At the hospital, Desmond tells them where Angel's car is, and Cordelia and Gunn take off to find it. When they do, though, they can't find the keys - Cordelia left them in the car when she ran in to save Gunn. Then Deevak appears - with the keys. As he grabs Gunn by the throat, strangling him, Cordelia steps forward with her axe, and Deevak grabs her by the wrist. Suddenly, Deevak morphs into human form - the form of Jamil.
With her free hand, Cordelia reaches into her purse and pulls out her secret weapon - a can of mace. She sprays Jamil in the eyes, and he lets go of them both. Angry, he morphs back into Deevak - just as Angel and Wesley arrive. The fight begins. They slay Deevak's vampire friends, then, as Deevak is about to put a knife through Gunn, Angel puts an axe through Deevak's skull.
As the gang heads to their respective cars to head out, Cordelia tells Gunn that Deevak wasn't the danger her vision was warning her about - the danger was Gunn himself. She says he doesn't just face danger, he creates it, and he's on a self-destruct mission unless he gets some help. Gunn doesn't want any help.
"Looks like I've got my work cut out for me," Cordelia says. "Better just plan on having me in your life for awhile, at least until you find some peace."
Back home, Angel is dreaming another
Darla dream, but this time she isn't just in his dream - she's there
with him in bed. "Mmm," she says to him. "I could
just eat you up."
Meanwhile, Wesley and Cordelia's bickering about whether to pay Gunn for his help wakes Angel - even though it's ten at night. He's been sleeping strangely of late; he sleeps more, but he's less rested. As Wesley asks if he's having dreams, Cordelia is hit with a vision, of a girl being chased down an alley. Angel races out to take care of it.
In the alley, two men chase down the girl, named Bethany, ready to attack her with a knife. But before they can, she does something - and a dumpster shoots across the alley, crushing them both against the wall.
When Angel arrives, he finds the crushed guys, but no sign of the girl. Exploring a nearby building, he finds her. When he tries to talk to her, a rebar shoots across the room, impaling him through the shoulder. When he stands up and pulls it out, Bethany is confused. He explains who he is and gives her a card, but she doesn't want help, and runs away.
Bethany heads home - she's staying at Lilah's apartment. Lilah befriended Bethany when she spoke at her school; she knew Bethany had a power about her. Later, as Bethany lies in bed asleep, Lilah tiptoes in her bedroom. Bethany's dreaming of her father - a bad dream - and in her fear, she shoots a lamp across the room, hitting Lilah in the eye.
Meanwhile, Angel is dreaming, too, of when he was Angelus, and he killed Darla. But he's not alone - Darla is there in bed with him.
Cordelia and Wesley's research determines that the girl is telekinetic, but they can't find her - and then she walks in the door and introduces herself.
The next morning, at the W&H offices, Holland is concerned that Lilah's losing control of Bethany. "She's got the profile," he says, "but an assassin's no good if it can't be controlled."
Back at Angel's, Bethany tries to explain what it's like when she unleashes her power; she's never done it on purpose. When Wesley comes in the room and mentions her father, she sends him and Angel flying across the room. As Bethany cools off and Cordelia applies ice to Wesley's back, he explains that he mentioned her father to see if it would set her off; the sort of trauma that can produce this level of psychic power usually involves abuse of some kind very early on.
Later that night, Angel is dreaming again, of he and Darla feeding on the gypsy girl. While he dreams, Bethany wanders into his room; she'd heard a voice and thought he was awake. Then she comes on to him, but he rebuffs her. She tells Angel that most men think she's fragile and innocent, and love taking advantage of that; then she suggests that maybe he's not qualified to help him with her problem. He says maybe he's the only one who is.
The next morning, Angel works with Bethany on her telekinesis - she's learning to control it. Then Angel gets a call from Gunn - his research has turned up something.
While Angel goes to investigate, Cordelia takes Bethany out to the plaza. But they're being tailed, and after one guy sticks her in the neck with a tranquilizer, three others grab her and throw her in a van. But Gunn and Angel are right behind them. Angel leaps onto the van, tossing the goons out, and saving Bethany.
Back at the Hyperion, Angel tries to tell Bethany that Lilah is not her friend, but she's frightened, and she's making things shake telekinetically. When Bethany opens the door to walk out, she finds her father standing there - and blows the windows out of the whole top floor of the Hyperion.
He tells Bethany that Lilah has called him, and tries convincing her to come back with him, to be a family again. But she's rattled - things are shaking and falling off the walls. As he steps toward her, though, Bethany shows how much control she has over her power - she launches her father out the window, stops him a few feet above the ground, then lets him fall the rest of the way.
At Lilah's, Bethany packs up her
things. Lilah tries to convince her to stay; she says she hired
those guys in the alley to attack her to make her stronger. When
Bethany closes her suitcase from across the room and it shoots into
her hand, she shows Lilah just how strong she is. Then she heads for
the door, where Angel is waiting for her.
The ascertaining leads the gang to a water tank built under a convent, where they dispose of a demon. But Angel still seems just a little bit off.
Later, as he's walking on the promenade, he sees Darla across the way - the first time he's seen her while he's been awake. When he tries to go to her, she's gone.
Flashback, Old Tyme Belgium: Angelus meets up with Darla. She's found Angel his next victim, a pure, innocent girl who has visions of the future.
Back in the present, Angel reveals to Wesley and Cordelia that he saw Darla, and that he's been dreaming about her like crazy lately. Wesley says it's impossible; Angel staked her to dust three and a half years ago, and vampires don't come back from the dead. "I did," Angel says, "and I saw her."
Back at the Wolfram & Hart offices, Darla reports to Lindsey that Angel's falling apart. When she asks what their plans are for him, he tells her that they don't want Angel dead, they want him dark.
As Angel, Wesley and Cordelia do some snooping for a client in a hotel lobby, Angel spots Darla. At least he thinks it's Darla. But when he approaches her, she claims she doesn't know him, and that her name is Dieta Kramer, not Darla. She then rushes off into the arms of a man she claims is her husband, and embraces him in direct sunlight.
But Angel's still convinced that it's Darla, and that she's human now. He has Wesley do a search for Dieta Kramer, while he heads off to the karaoke bar. There he performs a very painful "Everybody Wang Chung Tonight," then asks for some insight. The Host says Angel's headed for trouble, and says, "Let her go, bro. That way lies badness." Angel wants more answers - he wants to know where Darla is - but the Host isn't talking. So he calls back to the office, where Cordelia's found the address of a home for Steven and Dieta Kramer.
As Angel lurks outside the house, Darla, and a man who's acting as her husband, pretend to eat dinner. They're joined by a Wolfram & Hart thug standing just out of view, and both are connected to Lindsey via earpieces. Darla can feel Angel's presence.
Flashback: Angelus and Darla have just finished off a convent full of nuns. Now Angelus has plans for the visionary girl - he plans to turn her into a vampire.
Back at "Dieta's" house, Darla calls 911. Then the thug turns vamp and kills the actor; when Angel busts in to help, Darla plays dumb and cries, "What did you do?" as the police arrive, guns drawn.
Angel takes off, and the cops shoot at him, but he escapes. Kate arrives on the scene, where Darla tells her it was Angel, and that he's been bothering her for weeks. Kate says he'll pay for what he did. When she turns to talk to the other officers, Angel reaches down from the roof of the house and snatches Darla.
Back at the Hyperion, Kate busts in with a SWAT team to search for Angel. And she wants to know who Darla is.
Angel takes Darla back to the water tank under the convent. He's figured out that she is what Wolfram & Hart raised in the box, and they brought her back human because they don't think he'll kill a human. But they don't know him as well as they think. Angel goes vampire, and prepares to sink his teeth into Darla's neck, but just as he's about to, he pulls back - and kisses her. "There's my boy," she says.
Angel pulls back from her - he wants to know what kind of game she's playing. She says she just wants to give him one moment of happiness. But Angel says that despite all she did for him, she never made him happy. He couldn't feel happiness with her because when he was with her, he never had a soul. But Darla knows how dark Angelus was, and she wants to bring that boy back.
Then Angel grabs her by the neck, and
she plants a cross on his chest; it starts to smoke. "See? No
matter how good a boy you are, God doesn't want you." He lets
go of her. "But I still do," she says, and then she turns
and runs away, into the sunlight.
Back at the office, a man with a gun grabs Cordelia - he's looking for Angel. Wesley overhears the man, and comes to Cordelia's rescue - wearing Angel's cloak, claiming to be Angel. The man wants "Angel" to come with him.
He takes Wesley to a guarded house, where he meets a man named Magnus Bryce. He explains that he's a desperate man - he needs protection for someone very dear to him. Bryce has his name in the papers for software and cable, but that's all a front - his family's money comes from wizardry. But he has a lot of enemies, and someone is threatening his daughter Virginia, his only family. Twice they've caught intruders in the house. None of the spells they've tried have worked. "I'm gonna pay you a lot of money to protect her," Bryce says. "You'll do it, and get paid, and we'll both be very happy."
Meanwhile, Tish Magev is giving Angel something different from what he expected - a psychoanalysis. "There are two yous," he says. "The image you've worked so hard to create, and the real you . . . How do you expect to triumph over the soldiers of darkness when you're still fighting yourself?"
Back at the Bryce mansion, Wesley is introduced to Virginia. She decides they should go shopping. While they shop, for a 50th birthday gift for her father, two thugs approach Virginia, planning to take her away. But when Wesley tells them he's Angel, and that they better leave and tell their boss to forget about the girl, they turn and go.
At Tish Magev's, he and Angel stick fight, and the psychoanalysis continues. "Why are you holding back?" he asks. "Why can't you let go?"
Angel replies, "Because if I let it, it'll kill you." When Tish Magev asks him what "it" is, Angel says it's the demon.
"But the demon is you," Tish Magev replies. "That's the thing you've spent so much energy trying to conceal."
After their practice, while Angel broods, Tish Magev gets on the phone to one of Bryce's henchmen. But he's not the real Tish Magev - he's killed the real one and stashed the body, and he doesn't know how long he can keep Angel from finding out. Bryce's henchman is confused - if Angel's there, then who is the English guy?
As Wesley and Virginia head back to her room, two more thugs await - and Wesley kicks their butts. In her room, Virginia tells Wesley that sometimes she just wants to escape her life. Then she puts her head on his shoulder, and before long, they're kissing. The next morning, they wake up together in bed.
Back at Tish's, Gunn pulls up, looking for Angel. But "Tish" doesn't want visitors, and he knocks Gunn out. Angel, standing on the porch, sees this, and he realizes that this guy isn't the real Tish.
As Wesley tiptoes out of Virginia's bedroom, Cordelia rushes in, trying to rescue him. But Magnus Bryce has figured out that Wesley isn't Angel, and Virginia doesn't take well to the news, either. After Wesley and Cordelia are escorted out, Magnus berates his hired gun - he brought him the wrong guy, and "risked the whole sacrifice." But he's not going to kill him, because the sacrifice is only a few hours away.
Back at the office, Wesley, Cordelia, Gunn and Angel start putting the pieces together - and Wesley realizes that Bryce is planning to sacrifice Virginia to the demon Yeska, and that Magnus' enemies were trying to kidnap her because the sacrifice will make Bryce tremendously powerful.
At the Bryce estate, Magnus' 50th birthday party is underway. Then Virginia is strapped into an altar, and the ritual begins. But then the team steps in. "Release her or die," Wesley says.
Before Wesley can untie Virginia, the
demon Yeska appears. But she won't take Virginia - she's not a
virgin. Yeska disappears, and Virginia, set free, slugs Magnus on
the chin, and tells him she's not his daughter anymore.
Flashback, Virginia Colony, 1609: Darla is lying in bed, sick. A priest enters the room, and Darla admits to him that she is a whore. The priest asks everyone to leave the room, so he can pray for her soul. But when he pulls back the hood of his robe, it's clear he's not a priest - he's a vampire.
London, 1760: Darla has brought Angelus to that vampire, the Master of The Order Of Aurelius, who lives in an underground lair. But Darla chooses to live with Angelus, with the humans above ground, rather than stay with the Master.
Back at the office, the search for modern-day Darla isn't turning up any leads. Wesley suggests to Angel that perhaps Wolfram & Hart brought Darla back because they knew how much attention he would focus on her, and that she would keep him distracted. If that's the case, he says, it's working.
At the W&H offices, senior partner Holland tells Lindsey that since Darla has made contact, she shouldn't be on the premises. When Lindsey explains the problems Darla's having, Holland says she's ahead of schedule. Then he tells Lindsey not to let Darla leave the building - and to remove any sharp objects from his office, just in case.
London, 1880: Darla and Angelus prowl the streets with Drusilla, the visionary girl they have turned into a vampire. Drusilla feels all alone; she wants to make someone her own. Cordelia's creative snooping has helped find where W&H are keeping Darla. But Darla's not there - she's at Lindsey's office, confused. She asks him whether they brought her back a human or a vampire. Lindsey says both, then neither. Then Darla asks him why he hasn't kissed her; she knows he wants to. He kisses her.
Romania, 1898: Darla confronts the gypsy who cursed Angelus and tries to get him to lift the curse in exchange for sparing his family. But she's too late - Drusilla's new playmate, Spike, has already fed on the family. Darla kills the gypsy.
Back at the office, Wesley and Gunn report that Darla's apartment is a wreck, with all the mirrors smashed. Angel is worried about Darla - and then she calls from Lindsey's office, asking for Angel's help.
Then Lindsey enters the room and tells Darla to put down the phone. She says she has to go to Angel, but Lindsey says things will be okay, and she should stay. Then a security guard arrives. Darla, still on the phone with Angel, who's listening to the conversation, again says she has to go, that Angel is the only one who will understand her. This time when Lindsey says no, Darla hits him with the phone. The next thing Angel hears over the phone line is a gunshot.
The next day, Holland reviews the security tape with Lindsey - Darla shot the security guard, then Lindsey helped her escape. An unhappy Holland tells Lindsey that they picked Darla up two blocks away from the office, but he's now off the project.
China, 1900: Angelus tracks down Darla, and asks her for a second chance, to prove he can be Angelus again. She consents, and they kiss. But later, Darla is upset with Angelus - he said he would go back to who he was, but now he only feeds on evildoers. So she gives him a test, to see if he's true to his word: she presents him with an innocent baby. Angelus can't kill it. He grabs the baby and runs away.
Angel tracks down Lindsey in the W&H parking lot and finds out where they've taken Darla. He gets there just in time to save her from being shot.
The next morning, Lindsey sees the security guard that he thought was dead, and confronts Holland, who explains that they created a fake crisis to get Angel to come. But Lindsey says Angel is noble, and will never engage in physical contact with Darla. Holland, though, doesn't expect physical intimacy. He expects Angel to save Darla's soul.
Back at his office, Angel takes care of Darla. She can't bear the pain, and she wants Angel to turn her back to a vampire. But Angel won't do it. He says feeling that heartbeat is a gift - she's human again. But Darla says that only means pain, suffering and death. She pleads with him, saying she released him from his life, and now it's time to return the favor. But Angel says it was no favor; she damned him.
Angry and upset, Darla runs toward
the door. When Angel asks her to wait, she turns, says, "Don't
look for me again," and then disappears.
Lester explains that he took a job driving a truck for a museum heist. He heard the demons are after something supernatural, and that they're bringing in some psycho vampire from Vegas named Jay-Don to help. Angel has heard of Jay-Don, and knows he's big time. He tells Gunn he's taking the case from him.
When Angel returns home, Kate is there waiting for him. She's looking for Darla, and she's giving Angel a lot of attitude. Angel tells Kate he's tired of her taking out her anger over her father's death on him - and that she shouldn't get between him and Darla.
A bit later, Wesley and Cordelia arrive, back from a big Hollywood soiree. Angel tells them about Jay-Don and the heist that's planned, and heads out to intercept him at the bus station. Wesley and Cordelia get to work trying to figure out what these guys are planning to steal.
Angel finds the fast-talking Jay-Don at the bus station, and slays him. Then he steals his sunglasses, and poses as him. A demon comes looking for him, and drives him to an abandoned car lot, where another demon and a human are waiting. The only one missing now is Lester, the driver. But Lester doesn't arrive at the door - Gunn does, posing as Lester.
The lead demon explains that they're going to steal the Shroud of Rahmon, worth about $2 million on the black market, and reviews the plan for the heist.
Back at the office, Wesley and Cordelia research the Museum of Natural History website, and suspect the Shroud of Rahmon is what the thieves are after. Further research reveals that the Shroud absorbed Rahmon's power, and whoever has it has his power. In 1803, the Shroud was removed from its casing, and the entire population of the town went insane. When Cordelia and Wesley realize the thieves may be trying to steal it as they speak, they head to the museum to try to stop them.
At the museum, the heist is underway. But company is on its way, too. A couple police officers have shown Kate some surveillance photos, and Angel, posing as Jay-Don, is in one of them. She heads straight to the museum.
Acting quickly, the thieves have already removed the Shroud from the vault, and are carrying it toward the truck. But the Shroud is starting to have an effect on them. As they lug its heavy case through the hallway, Angel and Gunn begin to bicker. Gunn, angry, drops his corner of the case. The uneven weight causes the whole thing to drop, and the glass covering the Shroud cracks. Even more of the Shroud's power can now creep out, and it's making everyone in the building act differently, including Wesley, Cordelia and Kate, who are all looking for Angel.
Wesley finds Angel first, but Angel, mad from the Shroud's effect, knocks him across the room. Then Kate, gun drawn, finds them. In his delirium, Angel turns vampire. When Kate starts shooting at him, he comes at her, and bites her on the neck.
With Kate down, the thieves take the case back to their lair, where one of the demons punches through the glass, breaking it open. All of them are crazy now, and a battle for the shroud ensues. As Angel and Gunn wrestle over it, Angel has a moment of clarity, and convinces Gunn to let him have it - he says he knows what to do with it. Gunn relents, and Angel takes the Shroud outside, and sets it on fire.
Back at the museum, Wesley attends to Kate, who's still slumped on the floor, when the police arrive. They take him back to the station and begin to question him. Wesley, still delirious from the Shroud's effects, tries to explain, but isn't making much sense. As the officers are about to arrest Wesley, an ashen-looking Kate opens the door to the interrogation room, and tells them to let him go.
She remembers Angel biting her neck, and the gun that one of the demons had pointed at her. "Stay down, or they'll kill you," Angel said to her. Kate played dead, and stayed alive. The next day at the office, Wesley and Cordelia recap the previous night's events. Wesley is concerned that even though Angel didn't kill Kate, he drank some of her blood, the first taste of human blood he's had in some time. He's worried that it may have reawakened Angel's bloodlust.
Meanwhile, upstairs, Angel is
remembering his bite of Kate.
No sooner has he said "let go" than Gunn busts in - he's found Darla at a cheap motel. Angel decides he better get to her before Wolfram & Hart do. But it's too late - Lindsey has already found her. He takes her back to the W&H offices, where Holland doesn't want to talk about Angel; he wants to talk to her about her.
Flashback, France, 1765: Angelus and Darla are on the run from a lynch mob, led by a vampire hunter named Holtz. They find a barn and think they're safe, but the mob finds them. Then Darla knocks Angelus across the barn, and steals their horse. "I hope you survive this, Angelus," she says. "If you do, maybe we'll meet again in Vienna." She rides away, leaving him behind to face the angry mob.
In the present, Darla visits a vampire bar, looking for someone to make her a vampire again. She finds a candidate, but before he can do the deed, Angel slays him. Darla is angry; she just wants Angel to leave her alone. Angel says she's only been human again for a few months, and she should try it a while, to see what it's like. But she says she doesn't have that kind of time - she's dying, and only has a few months left to live.
Angel brings her back to the office. W&H have told Darla she's dying, and shown her medical reports, but Angel doesn't trust the lawyers. So he pays a visit to Lindsey to get the truth. Lindsey confirms the medical reports; Darla is dying from a terminal syphilitic heart condition - what was killing her the last time she was human. Lindsey wants Angel to turn her into a vampire and save her, but Angel won't do it. He says he'll find another way.
Angel realizes that he needs additional insight - the kind that can only be gained from karaoke. Darla sings, and the Host tells Angel that there's one thing he can do, but it will probably kill him. Angel wants to know anyway. The Host writes down an address. Darla and Angel arrive at an empty swimming pool. Angel, knowing he's being tested, jumps in. A portal opens, transporting him to an underground chamber where a man in a tuxedo greets him. Darla is there as well - the man explains she is his collateral. If Angel completes the trial, she survives. If he doesn't, she'll die instantly.
The trial will consist of three separate challenges - but the man has never seen anyone survive the first one.
He and Darla disappear, and a gate opens up with the first challenge, a nasty-looking demon. Angel slays it, and passes through the gate to a new chamber, where the floor is covered with crosses. Angel races across it, his feet burning the whole time. After retrieving the key to the next door from a bowl of holy water and unlocking the door, Angel is ready for the third challenge.
In the next chamber, shackles shoot out, clasping Angel's ankles and wrists. The man comes forth to explain the final challenge - a wall full of stakes, and death. He explains that in order for Darla to live, Angel must die. But he has earned a choice - he can accept his death, so that Darla may live, or walk away, and she will die. Angel accepts death.
But the third challenge was accepting death - and Angel has survived it. The stakes crumble, and Angel appears in a new room, alive, where Darla awaits. But when the man puts his hands to Darla to save her, he says he can't help her - she's been given new life before, and is already living her second chance. There's nothing he can do.
Back at Darla's motel, she and Angel sit in the room quietly. Maybe she would be different if he turned her, Angel says, because he has a soul. But Darla now knows what he's going through, and sees how he cares about her, the way no one has ever cared before. For her, that's enough, and maybe this is her second chance - a chance to die the way she was supposed to die the first time. Angel promises to stay by her side every moment she has left, so she never has to be alone again.
At this touching moment, the door
breaks down, and Lindsey breaks in, with two thugs who zap Angel,
and bind his hands. "How did you think this would end?"
Lindsey says. Then Drusilla walks through the door. She turns
vampire, and turns Darla.
He goes to find Lindsey at his apartment, but when he gets there, everything's gone - Lindsey's moved out.
Drusilla, meanwhile, is at a plant nursery, watching over Darla, who lies dead, soon to be reborn. Drusilla is thrilled to become a mother - to her own vampire grandmother.
Back at the office, the team figures out that Drusilla would want the ritual to happen close to the stars, and that she sees it more as a birth than burial. They realize it must be at a nursery, and Angel is on his way there.
He creeps in and finds Darla, buried in a box of soil, and brushes the dirt back from her face. As he prepares to stake her, Drusilla appears - and hits him on the head with a shovel. While they fight, Darla awakens.
To celebrate this family reunion, Darla grabs Angel by the throat. She's not fond of reunions, apparently, and a three-way rooftop battle ensues. Darla knocks Drusilla away, and Angel turns to Darla, again ready to stake her. But before he can, Drusilla comes at him once more. While they fight, Darla leaps from the rooftop.
Back at the office, Angel tells the team to grab something sharp. He doesn't know where Drusilla or Darla have gone, but he has an idea. They head to Wolfram & Hart.
There, Lindsey and Holland talk. Drusilla is there in Lindsey's office, worried about Darla. Moments later Darla appears at the door. She takes a sniff of Lindsey, then tosses him aside. When Drusilla and Darla run out the door, Holland calls security and tells them to let the two leave the building without incident.
Meanwhile, as Angel and the gang race over to Wolfram & Hart, Cordelia has a vision - and it's in the other direction. Angel turns the car around.
In another part of town, Darla and Drusilla fight. They pause in the middle of the street, where Drusilla says she thought that's what Darla wanted, to be saved. When a man comes honking at them to get out of the way, Darla turns vamp and has the first feeding of her new life.
Cordelia's vision leads the gang to a kid who's planning on sacrificing himself to a demon. Angel steps in and stops it, and is ready to leave - he's got more important things to do. Gunn suggests that maybe The Powers That Be sent him there to keep him from tracking down Darla and Drusilla. But Angel is not deterred.
As Darla and Drusilla go on a shopping - and killing - spree, they get a call from Holland. He's heard about their spree, and he suggests a massacre.
Angel breaks through the window of Holland's office, looking for answers. Holland introduces himself as the senior partner in charge of special projects, and explains that Darla isn't the special project - Angel is. Then security arrives, and Angel is escorted out of the building and to a police car, where Kate is waiting for him in the back seat.
Kate explains that two women have been spotted leaving a crime scene, one matching Darla's description. She doesn't think she can stop them. She sets Angel free from the cuffs, and lets him out of the car.
Meanwhile, Holland is hosting a party, and in his wine cellar, he speaks to the assembled guests about the big plans the firm has. As he's thanking Lindsey and Lilah for their hard work, Darla and Drusilla appear. Holland's wife invited them in - and they've already fed on her. "I believe you said something about a massacre," Darla says.
Angel goes to check out the crime scene, where he finds one survivor. She tells him Darla and Drusilla were talking about a party - a tasting. He races to Holland's, where he finds Drusilla and Darla surveying a roomful of potential victims.
Lilah and Holland beg for help - people are going to die, they say. "And yet somehow, I just can't seem to care," Angel says, echoing Holland's own sentiments from just hours before. As Angel closes the door and walks away, Darla takes a bite into Holland's neck, and the massacre begins.
Later, at the office, Angel tells Wesley, Gunn and Cordelia what he did. They tell Angel they think he went too far, and that they're worried about him. Wesley says that they are all that stands between him and real darkness.
Angel says he understands. Then he
tells them they're all fired.
Inside, alone in the basement, Angel places his sketches of Darla in the wood burning stove. "I'm not ready yet," he thinks, as he begins working out - pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, boxing. "Too many years spent sleeping in soft beds, living in a world where I don't belong. I can't do it yet. Not now. But soon."
At Holland's house, paramedics tend to the bodies from the massacre. But there are two survivors - Lilah and Lindsey.
The next day, they return to the Wolfram & Hart offices to find a chilly reception - no cards, no flowers, no empathy. Lilah worries that since they survived, they'll take the fall for what happened. When they walk into Lindsey's office, Drusilla and Darla are waiting for them.
Lindsey asks Darla why she spared him. Darla explains that she and Drusilla have decided to keep the line of communication open between themselves and Wolfram & Hart; she believes they can help each other. Darla wants power, and says she and Dru plan on being big players in this town. Lindsey asks if she'll go after Angel, but Darla says not everything is about Angel. Lindsey says he thought she'd want to kill him. "All in good time," replies Darla.
Meanwhile, Angel tests out his moves on four vampires returning from a feeding at a fast-food joint. When he's slayed them all, Angel decides he's ready. He has the moves; now he has to find out what theirs are.
At The Caritas, Wesley has a drink and prepares himself to sing karaoke when he sees Cordelia. She's looking to find out what's in her future as well. But they're not alone - Gunn is there to sing, too.
In another part of town, Angel squeezes his old buddy Merl him for information. Merl tells Angel that Darla and Drusilla are meeting up with demons all over town, assembling some sort of crew - but there's one demon haunt they haven't hit yet.
When Darla and Drusilla arrive at this demon haunt with a proposition, Angel is there, hiding amongst the crowd. As Darla makes her recruiting pitch, Drusilla senses Angel watching them. An unnerved Darla tells the demons where to meet if they want to be a part of the crew, and that there they'll fight for the right to join her.
Later, alone, Angel is feeling that he isn't ready - he can feel Darla's pain; he's too close to fight her. He returns to the Hyperion, and begins assembling weapons.
Back at the karaoke bar, Wesley, Cordelia and Gunn bicker, all blaming each other for getting fired. But soon enough, they're on stage singing, together. After most of the crowd has cleared out, they ask the Host for some guidance. But he says when the big guys talk, he knows when to be quiet - and then Cordelia has a vision. The gang is on its way.
They head to the alley where Cordelia had seen a demon dragging a girl, but the girl is gone. There's blood, but they can't track the scent. Gunn says he wishes Angel was there. A stern Wesley says he's not - he's walked away from his duty, but they're not going to. Then he notices the blood going up the side of the building. They follow the trail inside and spot the girl slumped on the floor. Then the demon attacks, and a battle begins. Gunn ends it when he puts a knife trough the demon's head.
When Darla and Drusilla arrive at their meeting place, they find dead bodies and piles of dust. Across the room, Angel leans against the hood of a car, smoking a cigarette. When Darla calls out to him, he flicks the cigarette into a puddle of gasoline on the floor. The gas ignites, and the flame races across the floor to Darla and Drusilla, who catch on fire. Panicked, Darla cracks open a fire hydrant to extinguish the flames, but they're both badly burned. Angel turns and walks away.
The next day, Lilah and Lindsey are named Wolfram & Hart's acting co-vice presidents in charge of special projects.
Back home, Angel is working on his
knife throwing when he receives a visit. It's Wesley, who tells him
they're keeping the agency open, with or without him. You may have
turned your back on your mission, he says, but we haven't. Someone
has to fight the good fight. "Let them fight the good
fight," Angel thinks to himself. "Someone has to fight the
war."
Angel pays a visit to Merl for information on the girl, and her connection to Wolfram & Hart. Merl says the girl is clean; W&H did some pro bono work for the shelter. Angel, knowing there must be some sort of angle, heads to the shelter, where he introduces himself to the girl, Anne, who runs the center. She explains that the center runs on donations, but thankfully, they have a guardian angel - Wolfram & Hart. They're going to be holding a charity ball to raise money for the center.
Later, a demon named Boone drops in on Merl. He explains that he and Angel have an unfinished history, and wants to know what Merl does for Angel. Merl tells Boone that Angel's pretty focused on these lawyers at Wolfram & Hart.
In the Wolfram & Hart parking lot, Angel waits for Lilah in the back seat of her car. He tells her that he now understands the rules - there are no rules. They've screwed with him, and now he gets to screw with them. When Angel leaves, Lilah rushes to Lindsey's office to tell him about Angel. As they're talking, Boone arrives. He's heard Angel's coming for them, and he wants Angel to find him instead. Lindsey wants to hire him, but Lilah is worried - the senior partners want Angel alive, and if this guy's as good as he says he is, he might kill Angel.
Meanwhile, Wesley, Gunn and Cordelia are talking about creating a new agency when Cordelia has a new vision. It sends Wesley and Gunn into battle with a two-headed demon. When they return victorious, Cordelia tells them she's found a prospective office for them, and they go to check it out.
Merl is more popular than ever these days - this time it's Lilah who stops by for information. Merl tells her that the last couple days he's been following this girl for Angel.
Angel drops by the teen center to tell Anne that Wolfram & Hart aren't what they say they are, and that her center will see very little of whatever money they raise. Then Lindsey arrives, and tells Anne that Angel is a bad man. And he's brought along a friend - Boone. A fight begins, and after Boone puts a beating on him, Angel runs away.
Anne tells Lindsey what Angel said, and that he had proof of it. Lindsey tells Lilah this, and now they're both nervous that Angel has evidence that he'll use against them.
Later, Angel goes back to see Anne, and asks her to get him into the charity ball. Even though she knows Wolfram & Hart will take most of the money, Anne says she can't help him. At the ball, things are going as planned, with money being raised by the bagful. The place is closely guarded, with a vampire watcher on alert, should Angel try to get in. But Angel's already inside - hidden in vampire watcher robes. Then Boone finds him. As Lilah makes an impassioned speech to the crowd about changing the world, Angel and Boone crash down from the balcony, wrestling. But then they stop, and Angel tells Anne to put in a tape. As she rushes to the video system to put in the tape, Lilah and Lindsey, afraid they're about to be exposed, rush over to stop her.
When the tape plays, there's no evidence - it's just Cordelia and Wesley, making fools of themselves. The whole thing was a setup, to show that Lilah and Lindsey did have something to hide. When Lindsey realizes this - and that Angel and Boone were working together - Boone has already disappeared, with all the money.
The next day at the W&H offices, senior partner Nathan Reed chews out Lilah and Lindsey for violating policy - and losing more than two million dollars. Lindsey wants to know why they can't just kill Angel. Nathan explains that Angel is a major player in the coming apocalypse - but the prophecies don't say which side he's on. If Angel is alive, and they make him angry enough to kill humans, Angel might be turned to the dark side. Lilah and Lindsey are expendable, Nathan adds, but Angel isn't.
Later, Boone arrives at the Hyperion
with the bag of money. He hadn't run off - he wants a fight with
Angel. Boone not only loses the $2.5 million; he loses his life.
Angel takes all of the money, now covered in blood, and gives it to
Anne for the shelter.
Back at the Hyperion, Angel tries to sleep, but he can't. Someone's making a racket in the lobby. It's the Host, and he's singing the Star Spangled Banner (the lobby has great acoustics). Angel wants to know why he's there. "Tomorrow night, the world's going to end," he says. "Thought you might wanna know."
He explains that the night before, a guy he'd never seen before stood up to sing at the club. This guy's singing knocked him out; when he came to, the guy was gone. The Host looked into him and saw that he had no future past ten o'clock the next night. He and Angel set out to find the guy.
The guy, Gene, is in a physics lab hard at work on a problem. He's trying to figure out how to freeze a moment in time forever. He works late into the night, trying to make the experiment work. When it fails, he heads out of the lab, frustrated. But two demons lurk behind. When he's gone, the demons say he is the one who will help them return humanity to nothingness. Then they change the equations on his dry-erase board to help him along.
Meanwhile, back at the new office, the lights blow, and Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn mope in the darkness. Then Virginia arrives, and she's got a client for them - a very rich friend whose family is being bothered by a demon.
When Gene returns to the lab, he finds the new equations on his dry-erase board and tries the experiment again. This time it works, and he runs out of the lab to share the news with his girlfriend. As he comes upon her, he overhears her telling a friend that she's going to sleep with him one last time, then break up with him; theirs isn't the kind of love that lasts.
In their search for Gene, Angel and the Host get a tip from a bartender at another karaoke club that leads them to a local university. They find Gene's picture in a yearbook in the library, and Angel approaches the librarian to ask where his lab is. As he's about to tell him, one of the demons from the lab whacks him from behind, and a battle begins. In the demon's language, the Host says they come in peace, but as Angel scares the demon off, it says, "You shall not stop the golden child, the one for whom we have waited." The Host explains that it was a lumber demon, part of a fanatical sect that is awaiting a messiah who will usher in the end of all human life.
When Angel and the Host find Gene's lab, he's gone, and he's taken all his equipment and set it up at his apartment, where he waits for his girlfriend. He's having her over for dinner to celebrate their one-year anniversary - and he plans on freezing their magic moment in time.
Gene's lab buddy tells Angel and the Host what Gene was working on, and the possible consequences if something goes wrong. They get in the car and race to Gene's.
On the way, the Host presses Angel for answers as to why he's been so glum. Angel finally breaks down and responds. "You want to know what my problem is? I'm screwed, that's my problem. I can't win. I'm trying to atone for 100 years of unthinkable evil. News flash - I never can. It's never going to be enough." He adds that with 200 Wolfram & Hart law school graduates working full time to drive him crazy, is it any wonder he's cranky? Darla had a shot at redemption, and they took it from her. He's worried they're going to ruin his shot at redemption as well.
Meanwhile, Gene and his girlfriend share their anniversary dinner. Later, when they're in bed together, Gene triggers his device, and freezes them in that moment. But the lumber demons in the basement tinker with the code, to expand the freeze indefinitely. As the freeze spreads, Angel arrives to defeat the demon, pull the plug and save the world. Afterwards, as Gene apologizes for the whole "time in a box" disaster, Angel realizes he's left his friends out in the cold, and made it kind of hard on them.
But back at the new office, Gunn,
Wesley and Cordelia, having solved their first major case, are
moving on - with a party. Then a man comes to the door looking for
help, and asks which one of them is Angel. Wesley tells him it's
just a name.
The next morning, Anne asks Kenny why he came in last night. He says there are cops out there harassing people; he was minding his own business when a cop came up and just hit him. Anne thinks she knows someone who can help, and goes to see Gunn, who used to come to the shelter. When she hears the name of the agency, she asks if it's the same Angel. She says he tried to help her a few weeks back, but it was just a scam to steal money from this law firm.
Gunn heads back to the shelter with Anne. The kids there tell Gunn the cops have been on an all-out war against them. Gunn has an idea - walk the streets with a camcorder, and wait for cops to hassle them.
While Angel lurks outside the shelter, a cop approaches him and asks him to put his hands above his head. When Angel complies, the cop tries to arrest him, and grabs him from behind. Angel resists, and knocks the cop down, but the cop is resilient. Then Angel delivers a kick to his head - and knocks it off. Angel can see the cop wasn't human, but demon.
Angel visits Kate at the police station. He tells her what happened, and shows her the dead cop's badge. Kate looks up the badge number and finds that the officer is already listed as dead - and she went to his funeral six months ago. Angel and Kate go to the cemetery where the officer is buried, and Angel notices the ground has been disturbed in the last few weeks. Other cops are buried there as well; Angel thinks someone's been unearthing dead cops and putting them back on the streets.
At the shelter, Wesley and Cordelia come by looking for Gunn. Anne tells them where he went, and Wesley heads out to find him. Out by 45th street, Gunn and two friends are out walking, waiting to be harassed. Soon enough, a cop comes walking down the street, and asks Gunn to put his hands against the wall. As Gunn tries to talk with him, and find out if he's being arrested, Wesley comes down the street, trying to tell the cop that Gunn is a friend of his. The cop turns and shoots Wesley in the gut. As Wesley slumps against the wall, Gunn knocks the gun away from the cop, and one of his friends picks it up.
When the cop reaches to his ankle to pull out another gun, the friend shoots him. As Gunn and his friends pick up Wesley to get him out of there, the cop sits up. He's not dead - he's calling for backup. Gunn gets Wesley around the corner, and they call for an ambulance.
Soon an ambulance arrives, but as they try to drive to the hospital, two police cars block the road. The ambulance driver steps out to figure out what's going on, but the cops shoot him - and then start shooting at the ambulance. Gunn takes the wheel and drives away, but not to the hospital. He brings Wesley back to the shelter, and they take him inside.
As Wesley struggles to survive, demon cops converge on the shelter. Wesley needs to get to a hospital, and Cordelia decides they can't wait any longer. But when she opens the door, the cops are already there.
Meanwhile, Angel and Kate visit the precinct station where the cops have been wreaking havoc. Angel steps into the office of the "chief" to ask questions. But the chief doesn't want to talk - he wants to shoot. That just makes Angel turn vampire. He wants to know how to stop these cops. The chief turns to run.
Angel follows him into a room where ritual candles are lit in front of photos of the dead officers. There he notices the idol of Granith - that's how he's keeping them animated. When Angel smashes the idol, the demon cops, who had broken into the shelter, slump over, dead once again.
Back at the police station, Kate shows Angel the file for that precinct with the demon cops ruling the beat - almost no crime. Then the police report comes in that says Wesley's in the hospital.
He doesn't look great, but Wesley is
going to be okay. Outside his hospital room, Angel watches Wesley
talking with Gunn. Then Cordelia comes up behind him. "Wesley
doesn't need you right now," she says. "We don't need you.
You walked away. Do us a favor, and just stay away."
Angela walks away.
The next day at the W&H office, Lilah expresses concern to Lindsey: the 75-year review is coming in two days. When Lindsey gets home that night, Darla is resting on his couch, recovering.
At the police station, Kate is worried about her own review, also coming in two days. Her fellow cops are concerned about her recent behavior.
Angel heads to the karaoke bar, where the Host tells him that something is coming Friday - the 75-year review. He's heard that the reviewer is the Senior Partner, evil, dark and merciless; all the rites and rituals Angel's been crashing all over town are just nervous lawyers trying to score brownie points before he arrives. He's also heard about the Band of Blacknel, but he doesn't know what it means; and he's heard Home Office mentioned, which he thinks could be the source. He's also picked up that they'd really like to see Angel dead.
Angel goes home to do some research, but most of his books left the office with Wesley. He heads to the new office, and finds the book on the bookshelf - and a cold reception from Cordelia and Wesley, now wheelchair bound. Though Wesley stands up to him, literally, Angel takes the book anyway. But Wesley's popped stitches aren't the worst of his pain; the next night, Virginia breaks up with him.
At her review, Kate says she was doing her job, but the review board feels differently: they fire her. Kate packs up her things and heads home, where she pours herself a drink - and starts popping pills.
Needing more research help, Angel visits the bookstore he went to in 1952 to get information on the Thesulac demon at the Hyperion. Denver, the storeowner, is still there. He thinks Angel's dealing with a Klanac demon, which doesn't have to rely on being conjured - it can come and go between dimensions as it pleases with the Band of Blacknel. Angel asks if anyone can use the ring, and if it can get him to the Home Office.
Denver warns Angel that the Home Office is probably Hell; Angel knows. To get the ring, Angel needs to kill the Klanac; to do that, he needs a special glove, which Denver happens to have. But just as he's about to give it to Angel he's stabbed through the back - by Darla. As Angel steps forward to help him, Darla drives the sword through Denver into Angel's gut, and takes the glove.
Later, Lilah arrives at Wolfram & Hart for the arrival of the Senior Partner. But before she makes it into the building, Angel hijacks her - and uses her thumbprint to get him in. Upstairs, the lawyers are gathered and a ritual is underway when Angel arrives with Lilah.
Lindsey calls for security when Angel spots what he's looking for - Darla, hiding among the crowd in a blonde wig. As the Senior Partner appears, Angel yanks off the wig and wrestles the glove from Darla. Then he jumps at the Senior Partner, grabbing it by the throat with his gloved hand. As they crash through the window, the Senior Partner sizzles, then disintegrates. Up above, Lindsey helps Darla escape. Then Angel crashes to the sidewalk below, with the Senior Partner's robe - and the Band of Blacknel. Angel decides he's ready to go to the Home Office. He puts on the ring.
When he does, he hears clapping from an elevator across the way - it's Holland Manners. He's dead, but he explains that his contract with Wolfram & Hart extends beyond that. He pushes the button, and they head down. You're not going to win, Angel tells him. Holland doesn't disagree. He says they don't need to win; they go on. They are in the hearts and minds of every living being. The world doesn't work in spite of evil, he adds, it works with us, because of us.
When the elevator finally stops, the doors open, and Angel finds himself back right where he left. Holland says that there is evil in every single person out there - Hell is here on Earth.
When Angel returns home, he hears Kate's voice on his answering machine, cursing him. He ignores it and goes up to his room - where Darla is waiting for him.
"You want the ring?" he
says. He tosses it on the floor, and she lunges for it. Before she
can reach it, he grabs her, then kisses her. She's confused. He
tells her that nothing matters, then kisses her again. He takes her
into his bedroom, where they sleep together. Hours later, Angel
wakes up startled, in pain.
But Angel says she saved him - he still has a soul. He explains that when they had sex, it wasn't perfect happiness for him, it was perfect despair, and she was the reason. He thought if he could save her, he could save himself, but when he failed, she saved him. Then he remembers Kate. He tells Darla to get dressed and leave, because the next time he sees her, he'll have to kill her.
Angel races over to Kate's to find her passed out. He rushes her into the shower, where the cold water revives her. Once she's recovered, she thanks him - then sends him away.
Meanwhile, Lindsey returns to his apartment to find Darla. He tells her they called an emergency meeting after what happened, and the official order on her was to stake on sight. Then he sees that she has the Band of Blacknel. Lindsey wants to know how she got it.
Angel goes to see the Host at The Caritas. He sees Angel's had a moment of clarity, and now he has to go on to a new place, but Angel doesn't know if he can. He wants to know what The Powers That Be want him to do, but the Host reminds him that he's not Angel's link to The Powers. Angel wonders if his old team will even talk to him. The Host says that's not the problem - the problem is whether they'll live through the night.
Cordelia has caught a taxi to the Sharp family's house. Earlier, Wesley had helped remove a demon from their daughter's head, and Cordelia is coming by to pick up the check. But when Cordelia enters the house, she finds the family dead. Then she has a vision, of herself being attacked by demons. And then she's attacked by demons.
But they don't kill her. They say she destroyed their spawn, and will pay for it. They also want Wesley and Gunn to pay; they've already located Wesley. Then Cordelia sees that the demons have third eyes in the backs of their heads, just like the little girl they helped.
At Wesley's, two demons prepare to attack, but before they can, Angel arrives. Wesley invites him in, and together they slay the demons. Then they hop in Angel's car and drive to the office. Wesley explains that they're dealing with Skilosh demons, which inject their spawn in human hosts. Back at the Sharp's, the demons sense that two of their tribe are dead, and determine that more must rise - so they decide to inject Cordelia.
When Angel and Wesley get to the office, Gunn arrives. They find directions to the Sharp's on Cordelia's notepad, and head that way. Meanwhile, Cordelia wakes up there with a third eye in the back of her head.
As Angel, Gunn and Wesley drive to the Sharp's, Skilosh demons jump on the car, then start coming from all directions. Angel sends Wesley and Gunn ahead; he'll stay behind to fight. But when they pull away, the demons back off - a truck is barreling down the road straight at Angel. Lindsey's behind the wheel. He's angry - he wants to hear from Angel what he did to Darla - and he starts bashing Angel with a sledgehammer. When he turns back to the truck to get a stake, Angel jumps up, smashes Lindsey with the hammer, and takes the truck.
At the Sharp's, the demons have caught Gunn and Wesley as they waited outside for Angel. As they bring them into the house, Angel drives through the living room window. He and Gunn defeat the demons, and Wesley uses de-oculating powder to get rid of Cordelia's third eye.
When Lindsey returns to his apartment, Darla - and all her things - is gone. Back at the Hyperion, Angel explains his epiphany to Kate. "In the big picture, nothing we do matters . . . and if there's no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do, because that's all there is, what we do now, today." Kate thanks him; she knows she got a huge break, and it's given her faith. She thinks maybe they're not alone in this - because she never invited him in.
Later, Angel appears at the office,
and apologizes to the team. But he doesn't want them to come back
and work for him - he wants to come work for them. He thinks he can
help. He knows he'll have to earn their trust. And then Cordelia has
a vision. Angel agrees to drive.
Later, Gunn, Wesley and Cordelia clean up the office. When Angel comes down and asks Cordelia how she is, he gets a chilly reception - she tells him they're not friends. Then she has a vision, of guys in blue robes pulling two kids from a car in Lafayette Park, and a statue of a bird.
Angel, Gunn and Wesley race to the park, only to find an empty car. Then they hear screams, and find a woman being attacked by a vampire in a green robe. Angel slays it, but the robe was the wrong color - they're not sure it's what Cordelia saw in her vision.
Back at the office, Cordelia gets a visit from an old friend - Harmony. They haven't seen each other since Sunnydale High blew up. She says she just got out of a bad relationship, and she's come to L.A. to check out the nightlife. Cordelia invites her home with her.
As Cordelia and Harmony reminisce about high school days, Cordelia explains that despite being rich, powerful and popular in high school, she's happier now. Harmony says she's happy now, too, but right then, she doesn't look it. She says she's hungry; when Cordelia turns her back to order pizza, Harmony turns vampire - for just a moment.
Later that night, Harmony sneaks into Cordelia's bedroom and sits on the edge of her bed. But Cordelia's ghost Dennis slams the door, waking Cordelia up. Harmony says she couldn't resist the temptation. Cordelia thinks Harmony means she's a lesbian, but doesn't say it explicitly. She tells Harmony she's okay with that; Harmony thinks Cordelia knows she's a vampire, and is actually okay with that. Harmony asks her to keep it quiet.
The next day, Cordelia calls Willow to find out why nobody told her Harmony was coming to L.A., and Willow tells Cordelia that Harmony is a vampire - not a lesbian - and that she's very dangerous. Then Harmony appears, and Cordelia hangs up the phone.
Worried, Willow calls the office and tells Angel about Harmony. He and Wesley race to Cordelia's and burst in, stake and crossbow drawn, to find Harmony - painting Cordelia's toes. Cordelia says she knows, and it's okay.
Wesley says Cordelia is needed at the office, and Harmony tags along. There, Wesley and Angel research the symbol that was on the robe of the vampire they slayed in the park. Then Gunn arrives with information - there have been a lot of vampire abductions in the last month, but it's been quiet, because no bodies have turned up. Wesley suggests this means these people aren't being eaten, but turned to vampires. Somebody is recruiting.
That somebody is Doug Sanders, a multilevel marketing vampire. He's sharing his plan with an auditorium full of vampires in different colored robes. The plan is, turn two humans into vampires, and any others you get become food.
Back at the office, Cordelia finds the logo from the robe on the Department of Justice website. The logo was used as part of a multi-level marketing scam by a self-described life coach who disappeared - named Doug Sanders.
Then Harmony spills coffee on the keyboard, frying it, and Wesley orders her away. She's frustrated; she doesn't have anyone who understands what she's going through. Cordelia says she knows somebody who understands pain, and takes her to The Caritas, where she butchers "The Way We Were." But the Host can't help her with guidance - she's already on her path, and Cordelia is her guide.
Then Wesley, Angel and Gunn arrive. They want Cordelia to drive around town with them to see if they can find the bird from her vision. Harmony wants to tag along - she's realized her path, and it's being one of the good guys.
Soon they find the bird, and split up to scout the building - with Harmony assigned to watch the car. Pulling Cordelia aside, Angel tells her that Harmony will to turn on her. But Cordelia thinks she can help. They send her inside to scout the place, and meet them out back. She does meet them out back, and brings them inside - and then turns on them. "I belong with them," she says.
The fight begins, with everyone slaying vampires. But as Cordelia is about to slay Harmony, she spares her - and tells her to get out of her city.
The next day at the office, Wesley
asks Angel in to see him. He tells Angel that he's got to give
Cordelia space and time for the healing process. But Angel's a step
ahead - he bought her new clothes. She couldn't be more thrilled.
Later, Gunn, Wesley and Cordelia clean up the office. When Angel comes down and asks Cordelia how she is, he gets a chilly reception - she tells him they're not friends. Then she has a vision, of guys in blue robes pulling two kids from a car in Lafayette Park, and a statue of a bird.
Angel, Gunn and Wesley race to the park, only to find an empty car. Then they hear screams, and find a woman being attacked by a vampire in a green robe. Angel slays it, but the robe was the wrong color - they're not sure it's what Cordelia saw in her vision.
Back at the office, Cordelia gets a visit from an old friend - Harmony. They haven't seen each other since Sunnydale High blew up. She says she just got out of a bad relationship, and she's come to L.A. to check out the nightlife. Cordelia invites her home with her.
As Cordelia and Harmony reminisce about high school days, Cordelia explains that despite being rich, powerful and popular in high school, she's happier now. Harmony says she's happy now, too, but right then, she doesn't look it. She says she's hungry; when Cordelia turns her back to order pizza, Harmony turns vampire - for just a moment.
Later that night, Harmony sneaks into Cordelia's bedroom and sits on the edge of her bed. But Cordelia's ghost Dennis slams the door, waking Cordelia up. Harmony says she couldn't resist the temptation. Cordelia thinks Harmony means she's a lesbian, but doesn't say it explicitly. She tells Harmony she's okay with that; Harmony thinks Cordelia knows she's a vampire, and is actually okay with that. Harmony asks her to keep it quiet.
The next day, Cordelia calls Willow to find out why nobody told her Harmony was coming to L.A., and Willow tells Cordelia that Harmony is a vampire - not a lesbian - and that she's very dangerous. Then Harmony appears, and Cordelia hangs up the phone.
Worried, Willow calls the office and tells Angel about Harmony. He and Wesley race to Cordelia's and burst in, stake and crossbow drawn, to find Harmony - painting Cordelia's toes. Cordelia says she knows, and it's okay.
Wesley says Cordelia is needed at the office, and Harmony tags along. There, Wesley and Angel research the symbol that was on the robe of the vampire they slayed in the park. Then Gunn arrives with information - there have been a lot of vampire abductions in the last month, but it's been quiet, because no bodies have turned up. Wesley suggests this means these people aren't being eaten, but turned to vampires. Somebody is recruiting.
That somebody is Doug Sanders, a multilevel marketing vampire. He's sharing his plan with an auditorium full of vampires in different colored robes. The plan is, turn two humans into vampires, and any others you get become food.
Back at the office, Cordelia finds the logo from the robe on the Department of Justice website. The logo was used as part of a multi-level marketing scam by a self-described life coach who disappeared - named Doug Sanders.
Then Harmony spills coffee on the keyboard, frying it, and Wesley orders her away. She's frustrated; she doesn't have anyone who understands what she's going through. Cordelia says she knows somebody who understands pain, and takes her to The Caritas, where she butchers "The Way We Were." But the Host can't help her with guidance - she's already on her path, and Cordelia is her guide.
Then Wesley, Angel and Gunn arrive. They want Cordelia to drive around town with them to see if they can find the bird from her vision. Harmony wants to tag along - she's realized her path, and it's being one of the good guys.
Soon they find the bird, and split up to scout the building - with Harmony assigned to watch the car. Pulling Cordelia aside, Angel tells her that Harmony will to turn on her. But Cordelia thinks she can help. They send her inside to scout the place, and meet them out back. She does meet them out back, and brings them inside - and then turns on them. "I belong with them," she says.
The fight begins, with everyone slaying vampires. But as Cordelia is about to slay Harmony, she spares her - and tells her to get out of her city.
The next day at the office, Wesley
asks Angel in to see him. He tells Angel that he's got to give
Cordelia space and time for the healing process. But Angel's a step
ahead - he bought her new clothes. She couldn't be more thrilled.
The next day, Angel goes to the set where Cordelia is shooting her commercial, and basks in the glow of the fake sunlight. He also has a question to ask Cordelia about her vision of the Hacklar demon they're after. While he's there, he watches the commercial director treating Cordelia like a commodity, and stands up to him to defend her honor.
As Wesley explains to Gunn how to kill the Hacklar, Gunn's friends Rondell and George come by, asking Gunn for help with some vampires. But when Angel returns with the location of the Hacklar, Gunn says he has to take care of that job first. His friends feel he's abandoning them.
Meanwhile, at The Caritas, while the Host belts out a karaoke version of "Superstitious," a portal opens behind him, and a demon leaps out.
Back at the office, Angel, Wesley and Gunn return from killing the Hacklar. Angel apologizes to Cordelia for embarrassing her, but Cordelia says she embarrassed herself. She just wanted to act; she never wanted to feel like this.
Then the Host rushes in to ask for their help. The demon that came through the portal is a Drokken demon, and he says they must kill it. He imagines it's getting pretty hungry by now, and he's right - the Drokken is already out on the streets, killing. They take the case and prepare to head to Caritas to start their search when Cordelia has a vision. She sees a woman at a public library, reading a book, and a portal that opened up behind her. They race to the library.
There, Cordelia describes the girl in her vision to a librarian. It matches the description of a fellow librarian named Fred who disappeared about five years ago. On the day she disappeared, one minute she was cataloging in the foreign language section, and the next minute she was gone. They race to the foreign language section, where Cordelia finds the book Fred was reading in the vision. When she reads the text on the front page, it conjures a portal - which spits out green-headed demon looking for a fight.
Angel battles it, and then suddenly the Host recognizes it - it's his cousin, Landok. The Host originally came to L.A. through a similar portal five years earlier. Landok calls the Host by his full name (though the Host says he prefers Lorne), and reports that Lorne's disappearance brought great shame to his family back home. When they tell Landok about the Drokken, Landok says he can help them track it and slay it.
As they track it, Lorne tells Angel about his land, where everything is good and evil, and there's no gray area. There's no music, no feelings, and debates are solved with swords. Lorne is glad to be gone from there, but it doesn't sound so bad to Angel.
Finally they find the Drokken. It's taken a woman captive, up on a rooftop. Landok chases after it, but the Drokken bites him. The Drokken's bite contains a powerful venom, poisonous to Landok, Lorne and their people. The antidote can only be found back in their world. As Lorne sits with Landok, Wesley looks for the woman, and Angel hunts for the Drokken. Wesley finds the woman - and then the Drokken finds him. Wesley shoves a flare in its mouth, and then Angel puts a sword through its head. The Drokken is defeated, but Cordelia feels like they're still missing something.
Meanwhile, Gunn heads back to his place where his crew is gathered. One of his friends is dead, killed by vampires. Gunn is mad - he tells his friends they should have waited for him. With tears in his eyes, he looks on as his friend's lifeless body is burned.
Looking through the library book, Cordelia thinks she understands the vision - the portal works both ways, and she thinks they can use it to send Landok back if they read the incantation at a place where they know the portal exists. They take him to The Caritas, where Landok reads from the book, and is sucked back through the portal.
But so is Cordelia. She falls to the
ground in a strange new world, where two suns hang in the sky
Turns out these guys aren't normal guys - they're vampires. But before they can do their worst, Angel steps in and slays them all. The girls thank him, but he sends them away - he sees blood dripping from cuts on their faces, and knows he must get away. After all, he's a vampire himself.
Back at his apartment, an uninvited guest drops in on Angel - a half-human named Doyle who's been sent "by The Powers That Be." He tells Angel a story, the story of a vampire who was the meanest in all the land. One day, he was cursed by gypsies, who restored his human soul, making him mad with guilt. Then a girl enters the story, a vampire slayer by trade, and our vampire falls madly in love with her. But when he achieves what Doyle calls "perfect happiness" with her, he goes mad again, and kills again. When he gets his soul back for a second time, he figures he can't be anywhere near his love, or he'll endanger them both, so he takes off to L.A., to fight evil and atone for his crimes.
Angel is annoyed - Doyle's just told him the story of his life, and reminded him of Buffy, the vampire slayer he loved. He asks Doyle what happens next. This vampire thinks he's helping as he fights demons and stays away from humans, Doyle explains, but he's cut off from the people he's trying to help. Angel's responsibility isn't just fighting, it's reaching out to people; not just saving lives, but saving souls - possibly his own.
Angel, suspicious, wants to know who sent Doyle, but Doyle's not sure. But he's sure of the vision he had that morning of a person who needs help. He hands Angel a note: "TINA COFFEE SPOT S.M." Tina needs help. Angel must get involved with her life. At the Coffee Spot, Angel spies Tina working there, and awkwardly strikes up a conversation. "Are you happy?" he asks. Tina isn't quite sure what to make of him. Angel explains that he's new in town; Tina tells him he shouldn't stay. But he convinces her to meet him after work.
Waiting outside by his car, Angel is surprised to find Tina coming at him in a little black dress - with a can of mace in hand. She thinks he's been sent by someone named Russell. Angel assures her he hasn't been sent by anyone. As they talk, Tina explains that she came to L.A. from Missoula, Montana, to be a famous movie star, "But they weren't hiring." Now she just wants to go home.
First they have to go to a party, where Tina needs to get some money from a friend. While Tina goes to find this friend, Angel spots a familiar face - Cordelia. She's acting now, she tells Angel, living in a small condo on the beach in Malibu.
Tina, meanwhile, is being harassed by a man named Stacy. When she and Angel try to leave the party, they're jumped in the elevator. Angel dispenses with the two creeps who jumped him, but the other two have taken off with Tina. A chase ensues through the parking garage, becoming a game of chicken that Angel wins. After he's disarmed one thug and knocked the other out, he drives off with Tina.
Back at Angel's apartment, Angel asks Tina about Russell. Tina explains that she knew a girl who used to hang out with Russell who tried to get away, but disappeared. While Tina sleeps, Angel goes to the library to research Tina's missing friend. He finds that she's been murdered, and goes back to tell Tina, who's having a bad dream. He comforts her, then tells her what he's found out. But when Tina spots Doyle's note with her name on it, she again thinks Angel's been sent by Russell, and turns to run. Angel chases after her, but as he grabs her arm, he reaches into the sunlight, and flame bursts from his sleeve as he transforms into a vampire. Tina is shocked, but free of his grasp, and runs away. Angel can't follow her into the daylight.
Back at her apartment, Tina is packing up to leave town. She, too, has an uninvited guest - Russell. He says he only wants to help her. Tina says she only wants to go home. But Russell has something else in mind. He turns vampire on her, then takes a bite. When Angel finally finds her, she's lying on the floor of her apartment, dead. Doyle and an angry Angel get to work tracking down Russell, but Russell, watching a videotape from the earlier party, has already spotted his next victim - Cordelia. Tina's "friend" from the party calls Cordelia to tell her that Russell Winters wants to meet her - and is sending over a limo.
That night, Cordelia talks with Russell at his mansion. She admits to him that the acting thing isn't working out quite like she planned. While those two talk, Angel and Doyle lurk outside, preparing to break in.
As Cordelia and Russell converse, Cordelia notices there are no mirrors in the mansion, but lots of curtains - and realizes Russell's a vampire.
Meanwhile, Angel has found his way into the mansion, and a fight between him and Russell begins. But before Angel can polish Russell off, his henchmen appear. Angel, taking bullets in his back, leaps from a second-story balcony with Cordelia in his arms, and once outside, Doyle drives them away. They're all alive - but so is Russell Winters.
The next day, Angel makes a visit to the downtown offices of Russell Winters Enterprises, where the entrepreneurial vampire is presiding over a business meeting. Russell smugly explains to Angel how things are done in L.A. - he can do anything he wants. Angel asks him if he can fly. He then gives Russell's chair a shove through the plate glass window, and Russell, plummeting to the ground and now exposed to light, bursts into flame. By the time Russell's chair crashes to the sidewalk, there's nothing left of him.
Later, Angel isn't exactly celebrating, but Cordelia is thrilled. And she's got a plan - she, Angel and Doyle will go into business solving people's vampire problems. She'll help organize things, and they'll charge a small fee - to pay her salary. Of course, this is just until her inevitable stardom takes effect . . .
There are a lot of people in this
city who need help, Doyle says to Angel. Are you game? Angel's
reply: "I'm game."
