Starring: David Boreanaz as Angel, Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia, Amy Acker as Fred, Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, J. August Richards as Gunn

Guest starring: Andy Hallet as Lorne, Mark Harelik as Count Kryskoff, Summer Glau as the ballerina

Original air date: February 4, 2003

Written and directed by: Joss Whedon

Cordy and Wes are in his office talking about Fred. Wes is doesn’t want to make a move on Fred until the time is right. Cordy, on the other hand, is tired of talking with Wes about Fred and wants him to make his move instead of waiting until the “iron is hot.” Angel comes in and annouces, “we are stepping out.” Outside the hotel Gunn and Fred are coming back from breakfast. They’re talking about how much food Fred can pack away at a meal. Gunn’s amazed that Fred can eat so much food and still be gorgeous. As Fred and Gunn enter the lobby, Gunn asks Angel if he got the tickets and reassures Angel that he will be reimbursed. Gunn is more than a little disappointed, though, when he finds out that Angel got tickets to the Blenikoff World ballet corps instead of a rock concert. Angel saw this ballet troupe in 1890 and their performance of Giselle was so moving he cried - and he was evil then. Gunn’s not impressed and doesn’t want to go to the ballet, but Cordy’s in because they get to dress up.

As Cordy and Fred shop for something to wear that evening, Fred asks Cordy for some advice. Before Fred can get the whole question out Cordy tells her, “I think you two are perfect for each other.” Fred’s not sure her feelings are reciprocated but Cordy assures her they are. Fred then tells Cordy that after they find a dress for her they have to find a dress for Cordy that will make Angel go nuts.

Back at the hotel Lorne is cleaning up some burp-up off the back of Angel’s tux. As he’s cleaning the tux Lorne compliment’s Angel’s choice of lullaby sung to Connor. Unbeknownst to Angel Lorne read him during the lullaby and knows how Angel feels about Cordy. Lorne refers to the Pylean ‘ky-rumption’ - the coming together of two champions - and thinks that Angel and Cordy are a good match. Angel’s not sure about persuing Cordy because Angel doesn’t think he can offer Cordy anything. At this point Cordelia shows up looking stunning and both Angel and Lorne are blown away.

Down in the lobby Gunn makes Fred promise that she won’t laugh at him in his tuxedo. When Gunn walks into the room, Fred succumbs to the giggles and tells Gunn she’s sorry but he looks so pretty. Wes arrives and slips a shawl around Fred’s shoulders. Both Gunn and Wes agree that Fred is a vision. Cordy comes down the stairs on Angel’s arms and informs everyone that there will be no visions tonight. As Wes settles a shawl on Cordy’s shoulders, she whispers to him that “the iron is hot.” The group leaves the lobby for the ballet.

At the ballet Angel apologizes for the quality of the seats (they’re in the nosebleed section). Angel reminisces that, back in the day, he’d always get box seats or simply eat the people who were in the box seats. As the AI team settles into their seats, Cordy suggests to Angel that he not reminisce. With the exception of Cordy, who’s fallen asleep and is snoring, everyone’s enthralled with the performance of Giselle, especially Gunn. He’s literally on the edge of his seat as he watches the ballet.

But as the performance goes on Angel begins to get a concerned, broody expression. Ok, a more concerned, broody expression. During the intermission Wes asks Angel if this performance compares to the one Angel saw in 1890. Angel says it’s the same performance - same dancers, same choreography. No one is quite sure how the dancers could have survived over 100 years except that Angel doesn’t believe they are vampires. Angel volunteers to check things out backstage and Cordy goes with him.

Angel and Cordy go backstage to find a large, zeppelin-sized guard in front of the door to the backstage. Cordy volunteers to flirt with the guard to get by him and Angel wants to punch him. They compromise - Cordy tries to bribe the guard and, when that doesn’t work, Angel clocks him and knocks the guard unconscious. Backstage things have an eerie appearance: the hall in front of them appears to stretch out far longer than it should and the hall is lit with open gas flames instead of electric lightbulbs. Angel thinks there’s a spell or time flux happening and Cordy wants to get the others to talk about their options. As Cordy and Angel turn to go back the door is missing and is replaced with more hallway.

Angel and Cordy look around backstage and find the prima ballerina’s dressing room, apparently unchanged since 1890. Angel snoops a bit and Cordy sits down at the ballerina’s dressing table. Cordy picks up a necklace with a crucifix and says, “she would wait for him here.” She gets up, walks towards Angel and breathlessly asks him to undress her. Angel’s a little confused. Cordy seems to snap out of a trance, but Angel seems to snap into one. Angel asks Cordy, now back in her trance, if he should undress her and make love to her. Trance-Cordy says yes, but agrees that she’s afraid of ‘him,’ although trance-Angel isn’t. They kiss passionately until trance-Cordy brings her hand, still holding the crucifix, up to trance-Angel’s cheek. The crucifix burns Angel’s cheek and the trance is broken. Cordy and Angel agree that they should get out of the dressing room quickly but are swept up in passion that seems to hang in the air. While they passionately embrace they work their way towards the door, get it open and get out into the hall. Cordy wants to know what was happening and Angel suggests that spirits took them over. Cordy’s glad that the emotions are fleeting, but Angel quickly removes his suit coat and holds it in front of his waist.

Back at the Hyperion Lorne is singing to Connor as he puts the baby down for the night. Interestingly, Lorne’s song is about not being resentful because he wasn’t asked to go to the ballet with the others, and how Lorne isn’t thinking about selling Connor to the first vampire cult that makes him a decent offer. As Lorne settles down to do some reading he hears a noise. He grabs an ax and opens the door. Lorne’s comment is, “oh my God.”

In the meantime Angel and Cordy are looking for away to get back to the theater. Cordy stops when she realizes that she said something important back in the dressing room. Angel and Cordy re-play the conversation and realize that the ballerina had a secret lover that she was afraid of, and that the secret lover is the reason that they are stuck backstage. Cordy eventually convinces Angel that they should go back to the dressing room to play out the scene and find out who the secret lover is. Angel is clearly hesitant to do it because of his feelings for Cordy, but eventually he agrees with Cordy’s plan.

In the audience, Wes, Fred, and Gunn are watching the ballet. At about the same time, Wes and Gunn begin to sneak their hands towards Fred’s. Fred suddenly realizes that Angel and Cordy have been gone too long and the three of them decide to go backstage to find Angel and Cordy. Meanwhile, in the prima ballerina’s dressing room, Cordy and Angel aren’t having any luck finishing the spirits’ conversation, so they decide to jump start it by repeating parts of the conversation up to their first kiss. That gets the spirits started.

In one of the boxes in the theater, an impressive looking foreign gentleman tells two others that they will have to take care of the situation backstage. It’s a little odd because the two other people are either laughing or crying, or both.

Trance-Cordy and trance-Angel are in the middle of some serious foreplay. Trance-Angel (Stephan) tries to convince trance-Cordy to leave with him, but she is very scared of the deluded fan (Count Kryskoff) who runs the ballet. Their foreplay continues until two creatures with ghoulish faces, one as Comedy and one as Tragedy, break into the dressing room and attack. About this time Gunn, Wes and Cordy arrive backstage and hear laughing and crying. Suddenly Gunn is stabbed from behind by a second Tragedy. Fred throws Wes Tragedy’s sword and Wes takes on a second Comedy while Fred beats Tragedy up with pail.

Back in the dressing room Angel kills both Comedy and Tragedy and Cordy tells him they have to move, fast, because he “looked really hot” when he killed the ghouls. The run out of the dressing room. Meanwhile Wes eventually kills Comedy and looks for Gunn and Fred. Fred’s dressing Gunn’s wound. Gunn is laughing off his injury until he realizes how worried Fred was about Gunn. Gunn apologizes and he and Fred kiss. Unfortunately, Wes finds them. He’s devastated, walks away, then slumps to the floor. Suddenly Wes’s face shows a lot of anger.

Angel and Cordy find Gunn and Fred. Angel explains that they found a mystical hot spot and Cordy explains what they found out so far. Wes finds them and explains that Count Kryskoff was a wizard who was obsessed with the ballerina and that Kryskoff used a spell to pull the ballerina out of time. Wes found out all of this when he hit a mystical hot spot, too.

When Gunn asks if they are stuck backstage, Wes explains that keeping up the alternate reality of the 1890s backstage requires a great deal of energy. If they can get the Count to expend more and more energy it should be easy for the AI team to slip back to their world. About this time Comedy comes back to life and splits - now there’s a Comedy and a Tragedy. Angel kills them and, again, each creates it’s counterpart. Making new Comedies and Tragedies is requiring a great deal of energy and the veil between the worlds is shifting. Angel goes to find Count Kryskoff and destroy his power source. Wes, Gunn, Fred, and Cordy stay backstage to work on draining the Count’s energy while fighting multiple Comedies and Tragedies.

Angel approaches the stage and finds the prima ballerina watching the performance. She explains that she “echoes” the same performance over and over and over again. Angel tells her that he’s here to stop Kryskoff but he needs her to dance something different. Doing so will help break Kryskoff’s spell. The ballerina takes the stage and, after starting the ‘echo’ dance, she dances something new. Kryskoff is appalled. Angel comes running across the stage, leaps into Kryskoff’s box, and breaks the power center in Kryskoff’s jeweled medal. The ballerina bows to Angel and fades out of sight. Kryskoff whines that Angel had to right to interfere. Angel clocks him.

Back at the hotel, Wes is working on Gunn’s wound. Wes asks Gunn if he wants something for the pain and Gunn, gazing intently in Fred’s eyes, asks, “what pain.” Angel approaches Cordy who’s a little embarassed about what happened in the dressing room. Angel wants to erase the encounter from his memory, not because it’s disgusting, but because he wants any memories to be about himself and Cordy. Angel is clearly trying to tell Cordy how he feels about her but Groo walks downstairs. He and Cordy kiss. Lorne explains to Angel that Groosalug was deposed and came to this reality to find his true love. Angel is clearly upset and goes to check on Connor. Fred tells Wes that she’s a little surprised because she thought Cordy was supposed to be with Angel, but you can’t be sure of those things. Wes agrees.---------