Written by: Marti Nixon and David Greenwalt
Directed by: David Greenwalt

Cast: David Boreanaz as Angel, Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase, Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndham-Pryce.

Guest Stars: Ling Bai as Jheira, Colby French as Tay.

Original Air Date: February 8, 2000

At her apartment, Cordelia is throwing a very successful party. A bunch of people, including Wesley, who’s dancing by himself, and Angel are there, and Cordy mingles through the crowd acting as hostess. She goes over to Angel and asks him if he’s having a good time. He tells her he’s good and Cordy begins rattling off some names of the people who are there. Angel just looks at her, so she shoves a bag of ice in his hands and heads back into the crowd.

Angel watches Wesley dance his way over to him and the two of them talk for a bit. Wesley believes a couple of rogue demon hunters like them should be mingling with the women, but when a girl comes over and compliments him, he flubs up and she leaves. Wesley moves on again and a girl named Laura comes over and talks to Angel. She says she loves this song and asks him to dance, but he imagines what he would look like dancing and tells her no. She walks off and Angel heads into the kitchen to talk to Dennis. He asks him how he’s doing and a can of beer floats out of the ice bowl on the table. “Still dead,” Angel asks as he picks up the can and takes a drink. “I know the feeling.”

Meanwhile, a guy standing in a walk in cooler grabs a beer and takes a drink. He looks over at a coffin-like box marked “Danger – Hazardous Materials – Do Not Open”, then finishes his beer and walks out of the cooler. He smashes the empty beer can and hears a noise coming from inside the cooler. He walks in and realizes it’s coming from the box so he grabs a crow bar and opens it. Light and smoke start filtering out and he looks down into it. “Holy God.”

The next morning, Angel walks into the office and asks Cordy if there’s any coffee. She says there is, but it’s still in bean form. She hands him the bag and says maybe he can crush it with his vampire strength. Angel puts the bag down and tells her the party was nice. She makes a comment about him not talking to anyone, but he reminds her that he talked to Laura. He tells her it’s hard going from his former modes of biting and avoiding people to being personal, especially with women since he can’t be close to them. Besides, he thinks the quiet, reserved thing makes him sort of cool. Wesley walks in, Cordy points and him and tells Angel he was cooler. “Now I’m depressed,” Angel says as he sits down on the couch. Wesley tells her he really enjoyed the party, especially the food. Angel, realizing he doesn’t have any money, offers Wesley a job. Wesley accepts, telling Angel he won’t be disappointed, and then he “gets something in his eye.” Angel pulls out his handkerchief and hands it to him. Cordy tells him not to get all sappy, but then she looks at Angel and tells him to hold her. Angel barely catches her as she gets hit with a vision. She sees the guy from the cooler, only in her vision, his face starts to blister and his eyes explode when he screams. She tells them they need to go to the ice factory. He asks her what they’re looking for and she tells him a corpse.

Wesley and Angel look at a map and realize they can’t get there through the tunnels. They drive over to the Jericho Ice Factory and Angel goes inside while Wesley waits in the car. He finds the burnt body and checks the guy’s wallet. He finds a business card, Peter Wilkers – Private Security, keeps it then puts the wallet back. He walks into the cooler and finds the open box half full of ice. He turns around and sees someone run past. He walks out and finds a demony guy with a crowbar. Angel takes the crowbar and uses it to hold the other guy in place. He asks him who he is and the guy says he’s called Tay. He goes on to say he isn’t from this dimension and he’s here to stop the Bringer of Chaos. He says it’s more than a mere demon – it’s a vessel of pure rage. Angel lowers the crowbar and asks how he can kill it. Tay tells him he can’t and if he and his people wish to live, they’ll stay away.

Back at the office, Angel sketches a picture of Tay for Wesley and Wesley says they’ll figure out who he is. In the meantime, Cordy is going to find out if there have been any killings by incineration in the area lately and Angel’s going to check out Mr. Wilker’s office.

At the office, Angel finds a shipping order from Jericho Ice in an envelope with a bunch of money. He pockets the invoice and puts the money back. He hears a noise and looks up, but then he goes flying across the room. A woman, with a tattoo across her left eye, asks him what he’s doing there. He says he could ask her the same question. She wants to know how much they are paying him to hunt “us” and Angel says he works for himself and he’s there to find Wilker’s killer. The woman lunges at him and he picks up a chair to hold her off, but she ducks under it and knocks him through the door. Then her phone rings, she answers it and leaves. Angel follows her out to her car and tails her when she drives away. He tries to call the office on the cell phone but the battery is dead. He plugs it into the cigarette lighter and calls Cordy, only to find out they don’t have anything new on the demon. Angel tells her the demon is a she and then the connection starts breaking up. He manages to tell her what the woman looks like and asks that they try to find Tay. The connection goes completely out and Angel tosses the phone in the back seat.

A few minutes later, the woman pulls up in front of a gallery/museum and goes inside. Sensing Angel following her, she goes over and tells a security guard she thinks he’s trying to hurt her. Angel, in an effort to avoid the guards, takes off his coat and starts describing a Monet painting to the people standing around it. He watches the officers move away and follows the woman down the corridor.

In the meantime, Wesley tells Cordy he’s found some information on Tay. He says they are the Vigories of Oden Tal and the men are fierce warriors and the women live enslaved to them. He goes on to say that the men have to consume half their body weight a day and they eat a thick stew made from rotting plants and flowers. Cody says it looks like they’re looking for the biggest compost heap in LA then.

At the gallery, Angel enters the room where the woman is standing and she realizes he’s a vampire because a human would’ve been unconscious for hours after the blast she gave him. Angel asks her about Tay but she tells him she doesn’t have time for him now. She tells him to leave and just as Angel is asking her why, a white light appears in front of the window. The woman holds out her hands and a naked girl falls out of the portal. The woman tells Angel to stay back and says they have to go. Angel asks what she’s running from and she tells him it’s none of his business. Then the door opens and Tay, along with others like him, come through. Tay says the woman is right – it’s none of his business. Angel kicks him in the face and a fight begins. The Tay guys grab the girl and take her away. Angel and the woman see a car pull away through the open door. Angel asks what will happen to her and the woman replies, “she will be unmade.”

At another building, Tay and his helpers start clipping the ridges off the girls back and neck. He tells her she will feel a lot better when they are done.

Meanwhile, Angel takes the woman back to his apartment and she asks why he’s helping – she thought vampires were killers. He tells her they are, but he was cursed by gypsies. “Cursed to help people,” she asks and he tells her that’s right. He asks about the girl and she tells him she is a runaway from her homeland. Angel asks if they’re going to kill her and she says in a way. She says in Oden Tal, what we call personality sit in a specific area of the body. She puts her hands on her shoulders and shows Angel the ridges on her back and neck. She tells him that when the women come of age, the men cut off them off to control their physical and sexual power. She says she, Jhiera, was the first to escape. Her family rules her dimension and as far as they are concerned, she’s dead. She goes on to say that she thought she would die from the heat when she first arrived, but then she learned to control her power. Jhiera tells Angel what happened in the cooler was an accident. Angel asks about the other deaths and she says a few may have to die in order for her to protect her people. Angel says it’s his people who are dying and he’s promised to protect them. She starts to walk away, but Angel asks her to wait. She walks over and rests against him for a second and then tells him to stay away too.

At the California Flower Mart, Cordy and Wesley look for the demons. They sneak into a back room and Cordy says they shouldn’t come in there because it smells like poop. They hear Tay speaking and hide. He says the portal will open soon, only for a short while, and he wants the other Vigories to take the girl back and then return to this dimension. He asks the girl if she’d be happy to go home and she says she’s happy to go whenever he says. One of the other Vigories mentions that they’ve recovered two already this month, but Tay says it won’t stop until they find Jhiera.

At a spa outside the city, Jhiera walks in and asks a guy where the girls are. He tells her they are right where she left them and she goes into another room where the girls are lying around on icy beds. She tells the guy they will find them soon and they must move on. He decides to call a friend of his, a shaman, to see if they can stay there. Jhiera gives him the okay to call and says they’ll leave first thing in the morning. He leaves and Jhiera picks up some ice and rubs it on her throat and neck.

Back at the flower place, Cordy and Wesley are listening to the Vigories talk. Wesley is trying to call Angel on his cell phone, but Angel isn’t answering. Just as they decide to go find him, one of the Vigories tell Tay they’ve found the girls. Tay says to gather the men and tell them they need to be prepared to capture the princess and cut them all quickly.

Cordy and Wes come running down the stairs into Angel’s apartment. Angel is standing there toweling off his hair. Cordy gets frustrated because they tried to call and he was in the shower. They fill him in on what they heard at the flower place and Angel pulls out the shipping order he found in Wilker’s office. Angel tells them the plan is they’ll go to the address, he’ll go in and start hitting people in the face and they’ll see where it takes them.

That night, the three of them arrive at the spa. Angel goes in and tells the guy he needs to see Jhiera. The guy says she isn’t there, but he can help him. Angel says he has to talk to her because the men are coming for her. The guy shows him where to go and Angel heads to the room where the girls are. Angel tells Jhiera the Vigories are on their way and Wes and Cordy run in and say they’re here. Angel tells Wesley and Cordy to get the girls out of there and he and Jhiera fight the Vigories. Wesley is moving too slow for Cordy, but he’s having a hard time resisting the girls. He tells Cordy he just needs a kiss goodbye. The two of them finally rejoin Angel and Jhiera, but the Vigories grab them and hold them hostage. Angel stops fighting and Tay tells them to give him the girls or the human’s die. Jhiera looks at him and says, “Then they die.” She walks out, leaving the others to battle.

Wes and Cordy manage to break free and the Vigories go outside to grab Jhiera. She can’t move and Tay walks over to clip her, but Angel grabs him from behind. He tells them to let her go or Tay dies. They do and she gets in the truck and drives away. Angel tells Tay he doesn’t want him bringing his war there again. Tay says he has no other choice – if she persists, there whole society will crumble. He tells Angel he doesn’t understand their ways. Angel vamps out and tells him he doesn’t, but he’d better catch the next portal out of there.

The next day, Angel tries crushing the coffee beans in his hands while no one is looking. The bag bursts open just as Cordy and Wesley come inside the office. Wesley slips and falls and then tells Angel he’s sure they’ll be good as new once he washes them. Angel tells him to stop and Wesley asks him not to fire him. Angel says he isn’t going too and that he thought he did a good job the day before when he was taken hostage. Jhiera walks in then and she and Angel go into his office. She tells him the girls are safe and he says he’s glad, but she nearly got Cordy and Wesley killed. She says she didn’t have any other choice. He says she did because if she vowed to protect the innocent, it shouldn’t matter what dimension they’re from. He tells her he will be there if she crosses the line again. She walks over to him and says she’ll do what she thinks is right. Angel says he’ll do the same. The stare at each other and then she says she has to go. As she leaves, Angel sees the scales above her jacket glowing bright red.