Angel

EPISODE SYNOPSIS | TRIVIA | QUOTES | GOOFS | MUSIC

SYNOPSIS

Darla ventures through the tunnels to the Master’s lair where the Master sits with Collin, the true Anointed One. The Master is lamenting the fact that yet another of the Brethren has been slain; it is time, he feels, that they take steps to rid themselves of the pesky Sayer. Darla eagerly offers to do it for him, but the Master decides it is time to send The Three.

Out on the streets of Sunnydale, three mean looking gang members hang out on a street corner, another three men approach and they get read for trouble, but as the new three approach, the gang members run for their lives. The new three are revealed to be vampires, more mean looking vampires than are usually seen and all wearing medieval warrior outfits.

Meanwhile, at the Bronze, Buffy and Willow chat. Buffy is distracted, lost in thoughts of, as Willow correctly guests, the handsome mystery guy, Angel. Xander arrives and he too notices Buffy’s distraction. Buffy decides to leave, not wanting to bring them down. As she does, we see Angel watching from the balcony, she seems to sense his presence, but when she looks up, he is no longer there.

Out on the street, Buffy stops again, believing herself to be followed; she looks around, sees nothing and moves on again. Still sensing something she stops again, announcing to whoever is following her that they should show themselves. One of the mean-looking vampires steps out, she lifts her stake, ready to fight, but is grabbed by the other two from behind, making her drop her stake. She tries to fight them off but they are too strong, two have her pinned, while the third moves in for the kill.

Just as the vampire is about to take a bit, he is grabbed from behind, as he turns to towards his attacker he is punched full on this face; hard. It’s Angel. Seizing the opportunity,Buffy gets herself free of the other two and begins to fight alongside Angel. The two together gain the upper hand and make a run for it, closely followed by the vampires. Clutching a wound to his side, Angel follows Buffy as she runs to her house, she invites him inside and they make it just in time.

In her kitchen Buffy is bandaging Angel’s wound when she hears her mother return, rushing to the front door, she drags her mother inside and tries to get rid of her with an offer of a cup of tea in bed. Joyce, however, is not fooled by this suspicious behaviour, as Angel, now clothed again, emerges from the kitchen, and Buffy introduces him as a college student who is helping her with history. Remarking that it is a little late for studying, Joyce heads to bed. With her mother gone, Buffy makes a loud show of seeing Angel off, and then the two of them head up to her bedroom.

Safe in her bedroom, Buffy offers the wounded Angel her bed, which he chivalrously declines, taking the floor instead. As she gets ready for bed, Buffy asks some probing questions of her guest, which he mainly avoids, letting Buffy make up her own answers.

The next day, Buffy, Willow and Xander gather in the library where Giles is up to his usual research. Xander is horrified that Angel stayed the night at Buffy’s, but Willow is excited and Giles, as usual, just wants to get down to business. He has identified the vampires that attacked Buffy the night before as The Three, a group of proud and strong vampires. The immediate danger is over, however, as, having failed in their mission, the Three will now have to offer their lives to The Master.

In the underground church, The Three are doing just that and The Master graciously allows Darla the fun of staking them.

Back in the library, Giles and Buffy are training. Buffy shows a great deal of interest in a crossbow, but Giles insists she must master fencing first, which will take hours of training. Weighing the jousting pole in her hand, it does indeed take Buffy a moment or two to get the hang of it, after which she promptly takes Giles out. He gladly moves on to the crossbow.

That night Buffy returns home where Angel has been hiding out all day, she brings him a rather plateless dinner, which he shows a feigned interest in, instead telling her that he can’t be around her, he is older than her and nothing can happen between them. He makes, however, no move to go, in fact, the two move closer together and are soon kissing, the kiss becomes passionate until Angel abruptly pulls away, turning his face to the window. Concerned, Buffy asks him what’s wrong, he turns to face her. He is a vampire. She backs off screaming and he dives our of her window, rolling off the roof and onto the ground.

The next morning before school, Buffy relates the events of the night before to the others, confused about why Angel, being a vampire and all, was nice to her and didn’t try to kill her. Xander, however, is less confused, Angel is a vampire, Buffy is a slayer, there’s only one thing she can do, it’s not like she’s in love with him. Buffy’s look, however, tells a different story.

Angel returns to his apartment to find Darla waiting for him, it’s very obvious that they have a past together and Darla taunts him with it and with Buffy. She tells him that he should tell Buffy about the curse, maybe she will understand, but if she doesn’t Darla will be waiting for him.

Meanwhile in the library, Giles has being doing his research and found a mention in the Watcher’s Diaries of Angelus. A vampire with an angelic face, 240 years old, who wreaked havoc in Europe until about 80 years ago when he arrived in America, shunned other vampires and there are no records of him hunting. Not that that means he hasn’t, just that there is no record of it.

In the underground church, Darla tells the Master of her plan to bring Angel back to them and get rid of the Slayer at the same time.

That night, Buffy and Willow study in the library, well, talk about Angel and Xander while pretending they are studying. Darla quietly watches unseen, gaining the information she requires before sneaking out unheard.

At the Summer’s house, Joyce is doing her paperwork when there is a knock at the door. She opens it to find Darla, who tells her that she is there to help Buffy with her studies. Slightly puzzled, Joyce invites her in and offers her something to eat. She walks into the kitchen, looking in the fridge as Darla follows her and morphs into vamp mode. Outside Angel hesitantly walks up to the front door, thinking about knocking, he changes his mind and is about to leave when he hears a scream. Racing to the back of the house, he bursts in to find Darla enjoying a drink at Joyce’s expense. Looking up, Darla offers the semi-conscious Joyce to Angel. He refuses with longing eyes, so Darla throws Joyce at him, the blood causing Angel to morph into vamp mode. Darla leaves him struggling to control his urge to drink, just as Buffy arrives to find her unconscious mother in Angel’s arms.

Buffy throws him out, literally, and is calling 911 as Xander and Willow arrive.

At the hospital, the scoobies are comforting a bandaged, but perfectly well, if a little confused, Joyce as Giles arrives. All Joyce, a little surprised at Giles’ arrival at the hospital, nevertheless tells them the little she can remember. Buffy’s friend came around and then she thinks she must have slipped and cut herself. They leave Joyce to recuperate and take the conversation into the corridor. Buffy is feeling guilty about not killing Angel straight away, because she had feelings for him, but now she is going to do just that. She sets off, calling in at the library to collect her new joy, the crossbow, on the way. Giles, Willow and Xander stay behind with Joyce.

At his apartment, Angel is trying to brood but Darla is back to taunt him again, telling him how Buffy will hunt him down, and all he needs to do is accept who is instead of moping about. Angel finally snaps and slams her up against the wall, pinning her hands. She seems to like it.

At the hospital, Giles and Joyce are talking about Buffy; Joyce has concerns that Buffy seems to be struggling with history, despite studying with Willow and Darla. Alerted by a name he does not know, Giles confirms that Darla is in fact the friend that came around that night and not Angel. Making his excuses he rejoins Xander and Willow in the corridor.

Out on patrol near the Bronze, Buffy hears glass breaking above her. She heads upwards, finds the broken window and climbs in, looking cautiously around her, crossbow poised. She heads slowly down the stairs, sensing, but unable to see Angel. She calls out, telling him she knows that he is there, and what he is. He replies and she spins towards the sound of his voice, but it comes again from her other side, she spins again and suddenly he charges her, in full vamp face. Aiming the crossbow, he fires, but he’s fast and, vaulting the pool table, he disappears into the darkness of the balcony. Reloading, she keeps her eyes upwards, searching for him in the darkness, he drops on her from behind, knocking the crossbow out of her hand. They trade blows and she gets in a good hit on his wounded side. Angel bends over in pain, giving her the chance to grab her crossbow, she aims as he rises, looking at her, his face morphing back to human form.

They face each other, Buffy with her finger firmly on the crossbow trigger. She fires, deliberately missing, and demands to know why he attacked her mother. Angel replies, explaining that he killed his own family, their friends, and basically everyone he ever met for a hundred years until he fed on a gypsy girl. In revenge, the gypsy’s family cursed him by restoring his soul, his conscious, and now he has to live for eternity with the memory of every horrible thing he has done. Since that day he has not fed on another human being, he didn’t bite her mother, but he wanted to, and he wanted to kill Buffy tonight too. Deliberately putting her crossbow down, Buffy offers him her neck. He refuses. They share a brief moment which Darla interrupts.

Hands behind her back, Darla walks slowly towards Buffy and Angel. She tells Buffy that she and Angel were in a relationship for generations, that it was she who made Angel a vampire and she is still in love with him. As she does, Buffy is slowly inching towards her crossbow which lies on the floor, as she reaches it, she stomps on it, sending it flying in the air, she catches it and aims. Unfased, Darla reveals why her hands where behind her back all this time, and fires two revolvers at Buffy. Buffy dives safely out of the way, but Angel takes a shot that sends him flying back. Continuing to fire in Buffy’s direction, Darla advances. From her hiding place, Buffy manages to fire the crossbow, which almost finds its mark, hitting Darla in the chest, but missing the heart.

Meanwhile, Giles, Willow and Xander have made it to the Bronze and, hearing the gunfire, find the broken window and make their way inside. Seeing the situation below, Willow shouts down to Buffy to distract Darla, taking the bait, Darla fires in Willow’s direction instead, giving Buffy the chance to come out of hiding. Buffy sends the pool table which Darla has mounted, flying, knocking Darla on her back, from where she continues firing at Buffy who leaps over the counter for cover just as the glass shatters.

Darla gets up and advances on Buffy, but Giles has found another distraction, the lighting board, he plays with the buttons, making the lights come on. Darla is still advancing on Buffy and does not notice Angel come up behind her, grabbing one of Buffy’s spent arrows, he stakes Angel stakes Darla from behind. She turns to look at him in surprise before turning to dust.

Giles turns the lights off again as Buffy and Angel share another brief moment before he steps back into the dark and is gone.

In the underground church, the Master shares his grief over the loss of his favourite, Darla, with Collin by smashing the place up. Collin comforts him by telling him that he will bring him Slayer.

Buffy, Willow and Xander are in a now refurbished Bronze when they spot Angel standing some distance away. Buffy goes to meet him as Xander turns his back, not wanting to watch. Buffy and Angel flirt while agreeing that they can’t see each other again and nothing can ever come of their relationship. Once again, neither of them leaves and soon they are once again, kissing passionately. They break away and Angel looks pained as Buffy walks back to her friends. Angel stands a moment, his chest smoking where the cross he gave Buffy has burned a mark on it.

TRIVIA

  1. The Three is a biblical reference to the Gibborim from The Book of Samuel, also known as David’s Mighty Warriors.
  2. Darla asks Angel if the Slayer would ever kiss his true face. She will in season 2
  3. This episode introduces two new elements of the series’ vampire lore. That a vampire needs to be invited in and that a vampire does not have a soul.
  4. The “gypsy curse” is first revealed in this episode.

QUOTES

Buffy: You read my diary? That is not OK. A diary is like a person’s most private place. I – You don’t even know what I was writing about. ‘Hunk’ can mean a lot of things, bad things. And – and when it said that your eyes are penetrating, I meant to write ‘bulging.’
Angel: Buffy…
Buffy: And ‘A’ doesn’t even stand for Angel for that matter. It stands for Achmed, a charming foreign exchange student. So that whole fantasy part has nothing to even do with you, at all…
Angel: Your mother moved your diary when she came in to straighten up. I watched her from the closet. I didn’t read it, I swear.
Buffy: Oh.

Willow: So he *is* a good vampire? I mean on a scale of one to ten. Ten being someone who’s killing and maiming every night, and one being someone who’s… not.

Giles: It’s devastating. He’s turned into a 16 year-old boy. Of course, you’ll have to kill him.

Buffy: Love makes you do the whacky.

Darla: Do you know what the saddest thing in the world is?
Buffy: Bad hair on top of that outfit?

Cordelia : (to Xander) Please get your extreme oafishness off my two-hundred-dollar shoes.

GOOFS

  • Angel tells Buffy that he hasn’t fed on a living human since the day he was cursed, however, we learn later that he fed on the evildoer for a while after he was cursed.
  • The vampire chasing Buffy and Angel manages to get his arm through the front door.
  • Towards the end, Darla fires over 40 rounds from two semi-auto pistols without reloading. The pistols used were single-stacked, using standard magazines, and couldn’t possibly hold 20+ rounds each.
  • MUSIC

  • I’ll Remember You – Sophie Zelmani (Plays while Buffy and Angel talk in the Bronze at the end of the episode.

Episode guide
© Cider 10/08/2004

Characters and Story © Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy & 20th Century Fox


| ANGEL | BUFFY |

Author: Cider

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