Written by: David Fury
Directed by: Jefferson Kibbee

Cast: David Boreanaz, as Angel, Charisma Carpenter, as Cordelia Chase, Alexis Denisof, as Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, Vincent Kartheiser, as Connor, J. August Richards, as Charles Gunn.

Guest Stars: Eliza Dushku, as Faith, Andy Hallett, as Lorne, Vladimir Kulich, as The Beast, Stephanie Romanov, as Lilah Morgan.

Original Air Date – March 5, 2003

At the hotel, Angelus is making his way down the hallway, where he discovers Lilah’s body lying on the floor. “Well this is no fun,” he proclaims just seconds before Wes and Gunn come around the corner, weapons in hand. They’ve been rushing around trying to find Lilah, but the sight of Angelus feeding off her freezes them in their tracks. With blood dripping from his mouth, he tells them it isn’t what it looks like, but they don’t believe him. Gunn launches a weapon at him, but Angelus moves to avoid it and it sticks in the wall. Declaring Lilah was a bit too tart for him, he drops her on the floor and rushes back down the hallway, jumping out of the window at the end. Gunn rushes to the window, but it’s too late – he’s gone. He then heads downstairs, where Connor, Lorne and Fred are busy removing the arrow from Cordy’s leg. She asks where Angelus is and Gunn tells her he’s gone and that he killed Lilah. “Oh God,” she says with a smirk, “it’s started.”

They all head upstairs, where Wes is busy wrapping Lilah’s body in plastic. Connor expresses his frustration and wonders why they can’t just go after Angelus. Wes says there is no need to go after him because he’ll be back. “We’re the ones he wants to hurt,” Cordy says, so Fred suggests they do something to protect themselves. Lorne mentions using a sanctuary spell, but Connor doesn’t want to use magic again. He says it never really works the way it’s suppose too. “That’s why we’re here isn’t it? Why he’s loose?” Fred asks Cordy why the soul restoration spell she performed didn’t work, but she doesn’t know. Gunn then questions how Lorne could be so wrong in reading Angelus, but Cordy tells him it was her fault, not Lorne’s. Gunn starts rambling about it being TPTB’s fault, but Connor interrupts him, saying he thinks Lilah’s body needs to be destroyed in case she was turned. Gunn doesn’t think it happened, but Wes, who’s been very quiet throughout the entire exchange, says they can’t take any chances and he’ll take care of it.

Meanwhile, Angelus has made his way to a demon bar, where he receives quite a reception. Everyone seems very happy to have Angelus back, especially a vamp he knew back in the 1800’s named Rosario. Angelus doesn’t remember her, but she just keeps chattering away. He quickly grows tired of hearing her babble and dusts her on the spot. He heads up to the bar and questions a demon about The Beast’s location. He tells Angelus he doesn’t know where The Beast is, but two vamps who’ve overheard the conversation step up and tell him they’ve seen him a couple of times. “Show me,” he says and the three of them leave the bar.

Back at the hotel, Wes is standing over Lilah’s body. Pulling away part of the plastic, he reaches for his weapon and prepares to decapitate her. He reaches down to brush some hair off her face and her eyes open and she begins to speak. She asks him why he’s so glum when this is kind of what he wanted anyway. He says he didn’t want this, but she sits up and says she doesn’t know what he’s worried about. He hated himself for being with her or maybe he just hated himself for loving being with her. Standing up, she walks over to Wesley and tells him it doesn’t matter anyway. They both knew it would come to a messy end for one of them sooner or later. She touches his face and they just look at each other for a minute. She says he knew how she felt, but he gets angry and turns and yells, “you didn’t love me” at her body lying on the table. “You couldn’t.” A very different looking Lilah appears behind him as he looks down at the body and says, “we’ll never know now, will we?”

Outside, the two vamps have taken Angelus down to the place where they last saw The Beast. Although they can’t remember the exact spot, they get close enough for Angelus to pick up a familiar scent and he walks off, leaving the two vamps behind.

In the hotel lobby, Lorne is busy trying to get a quickie version of the sanctuary spell from the Furies on the phone. Gunn and Fred carry the ingredients in from the kitchen and Cordelia says it looks like they have their home security spell. Connor wants them to hurry up and do it so they can quit playing with magic and get busy doing what they need to do. Gunn tells him Wes is right in saying they stay together until they figure out what to do. Connor says he knows what to do. Angel told him if anything goes wrong, Connor should kill him. Lorne finds it amazing that Connor picks now to finally listen to Angel and Fred says they need to remember that Angel’s soul is still out there. Connor says it’s too late to save him, but Cordy tells him to think about all the people who will die if Angel isn’t around to save them. Connor starts to leave to go find Angelus, but stops when Cordy faints after trying to stop him. They help Cordy to a chair and then Fred and Connor take her upstairs. Lorne says something about not being able to keep Connor in check and Gunn says outside of Angel, who could?

A door opens at the Northern California Women’s Facility and Faith steps out into the prison yard. She makes her way over to the exercise area and starts doing chin up’s on the bar. A woman steps up behind her and tries to stab her with a knife. Faith questions why the woman wants to fight her and she says it’s nothing personal. She just needs the money. They begin to fight, but it doesn’t take Faith long to have the other woman on the ground. The guards come over and Faith says it was self-defense on her part – the other woman started it. One of the guards said they knew that already because they saw the whole thing. Faith wants to know why they’re just coming over if that’s the case, and the guard says it took them by surprise. After all, who would be crazy enough to try and take her out? Looking over at the knife in the guard’s hand, Faith wonders the same thing.

In the basement, Wes sits next to Lilah’s body and stares at her. Her well-dress form appears again on the other side of the table and she tells him she knows why he’s having such a hard time with it. The awful truth is that he couldn’t save her from herself. Wesley asks her if that’s what she thought and she says she isn’t even here. She’s just a figment of his imagination, so it must be what he thinks. Standing behind him, she says for all his supposed darkness, there was always a small part of him that thought he could pull her back from the brink of her evil ways and help her find redemption. “Redemption,” he says. Lilah tells him it’s too late for her, so just get it over with – the body isn’t going to dismember itself. Wes steps up the table, says, “I’m sorry Lilah” and chops her head off.

In the meantime, Angelus has followed the scent into a warehouse where he finds The Beast. The knife used to kill Lilah is lying on a nearby crate and Angelus tells The Beast he was clever in using the scent of her blood to lure him there. The Beast tells him the he didn’t do it – it was his Master. Everything that’s happened was all part of his Master’s plan to bring forth and keep Angelus. Angelus says it was a hell of a plan and asks when he will meet the big brain behind his liberation. The Beast says he will in due time, but Angelus tells him to inform his Master that he doesn’t like having his strings yanked and he doesn’t like being kept in the dark. If The Beast’s boss were half as smart as he thinks he is, he’d know Angelus wouldn’t take orders from a flunky like The Beast. Angelus continues to taunt him and The Beast comes out swinging. Angelus swerves and misses his punches and then jumps up onto a tall crate above The Beast’s head. Looking down on The Beast, Angelus tells him to have his Master give him a call when he’s ready to step out from behind the curtain and he leaves. “Well you handled that brilliantly,” Cordy says as she steps around from behind a crate. She chides The Beast for baiting Angelus when he knows he’s crucial to her plan. “My apologies my Master,” The Beast says and Cordy tells him he needs to have patience and that if Angelus doesn’t come around, she’ll let him pull off his head and tear him to bits. “Now, give mama some sugar,” she says and the two of them kiss.

Back in the hotel lobby, Lorne is performing the sanctuary spell while Fred, Gunn and Connor watch. Fred says it doesn’t feel any different when he finishes and Connor chimes in that it’s not because this stuff never works. He continues to complain about magic not working, so Lorne decides to test the spell. He grabs a candlestick and moves to knock Connor over the head with it, but a shield appears and knocks him back. The spell is working after all and Lorne has the headache to prove it. Wes comes in and they tell him the spell is working. He asks where Cordy is and they say she’s upstairs resting because she’s still feeling a little weak. Putting on his coat, he tells them they have to bring Angelus in alive and he knows just who can help them do it.

Inside the meeting room at the prison, Wesley watches Faith appear on the other side of the glass. She comes over, sits down and picks up the phone to talk to him. Wes asks her if she heard what’s going on in LA. She says she’s seen it all on the news, but wonders what that has to do with her. Wes says they need her help, but she says he’ll have to check back in a few decades when she comes up for parole. She says she understands that it’s Armageddon again, but she’s the last thing they need to add to the mix. Besides, Angel will come through like he always does. Wes tells her that Angel is gone and Angelus is back. Faith looks at Wes for a minute and then tells him to step away from the glass. He does and she launches herself through the glass and knocks out two of the guards. She grabs Wes and the two of them jump out a nearby window. They land on a car and Faith asks Wes if he’s okay. “5 x 5,” he says and they take off running.

In Wes’s car, Faith changes clothes in the backseat while he drives and fills her in on everything that’s happened. She’s surprised to hear about Connor and how screwed up their lives are now. She jumps in the front seat and tells Wesley that she won’t kill Angelus. Angel is the only one in her life who’s never given up on her so she isn’t going to give up on him. Wes said he knew that already – that’s why it had to be her. He’s just wondering if she’s up for everything she’s facing, but he finds out she is when a couple of vamps pull her out of the vehicle and she dusts them. They make there way back to the hotel and Wes introduces her as Faith the Vampire Slayer and says she’s there to help them. Cordy comes down the stairs and she’s angry with Wes for bringing Faith there. Despite Cordelia’s resistance, Faith takes charge and tells everyone in case they had any other ides, this is a salvage mission – not search and destroy. Connor wants to know who she thinks she is coming in and telling them what to do. She isn’t a part of this and he plans to take Angelus down if he comes at him. Faith comes over and tells him if Angelus needs taken down, she’ll be the one to do it. She asks him if there is anything else she’s not okay with, but he doesn’t say a word. A displeased Cordy watches Connor’s reaction as Faith walks away.

Out on the streets, two vamps are chasing a girl down the street, but they stop and let Angelus have her when he appears. He’s just getting ready to bite her when he hears the vamps talking about the slayer being in town. He drops her and heads to the phone booth to call Buffy. Dawn answers and he asks her if her sister is at home. She tells him she is and he hangs up the phone. “The other one,” he says as he steps out of the booth.

Meanwhile, Faith, Connor, Wes and Gunn are tracking Angelus. Connor seems very impressed with Faith, but the two of them start to fight when he dusts a vamp and she tells him to go home. He refuses to leave, but Faith show’s him whose boss and he ends up going home with Gunn. Faith and Wes continue the search and end up in the warehouse where Angelus was earlier. They walk in and find a huge “Welcome Faith” hanging from one of the crates. Faith decides they should split up and she heads to the upper level while Wes stays down there. The two vamps Angelus was with earlier attack Wes while Faith continues her search for Angelus. He starts talking to her and she follows the direction of his voice. She finds herself in an open area and Angelus comes around from behind a crate. “Honey, I brought a guest home for dinner,” he says and Faith turns to see The Beast.

The Beast wants to know why Angelus brought her there and he says he’s doing him a favor. She’s a slayer and she’s there to mess up his and his boss’s plan. “The question is, what do you do hot shot?” he asks The Beast, who is now walking toward Faith. She shoots him with an arrow, but it doesn’t even bother him. The Beast puts his hand around her neck and Angelus moves in closer behind her. “Smile Faith. I thought you’d enjoy a threesome,” he says just before Faith elbows him in the face and breaks free from The Beast. “Let’s get it on,” she says and starts to attack The Beast.

The two of them fight while Angelus gives commentary in the background. Despite her efforts to stop him, The Beast just keeps pounding Faith until she can barely move. He throws her into some cans and Angelus finally decides someone should break this up. Faith tries to crawl away, but The Beast moves to stand in front of her. He says he heard Slayer’s possessed great strength, but there’s no real power here. He tells her she is weak and she could not even defeat him. “Ain’t that the truth,” Angelus says, as he moves to stand behind The Beast. He says the only thing that could do damage to The Beast is a piece of himself and he stabs him with his knife. Faith looks on as The Beast begins to crack open, sending a ray of light to the sun in the process. The black cloud covering the sun disappears and daylight returns to LA. Angelus is disappointed that the sun really did return when he killed The Beast, as he thought it was just Angel’s retarded fantasy. He stands up and starts walking around, telling Faith he just wanted The Beast to soften her up for him because he likes his meat nice and tender. Using all the strength she can muster, Faith stands up and launches a pulley at Angelus. He moves to avoid it and it goes crashing through the window, pouring sunlight over Faith. He tells her it was a good move and he guesses he’ll have to wait until later to eviscerate her. “It’s just you and me now Faith,” he says with a wink and walks away.

In the hotel courtyard, Fred, Lorne, Gunn and Connor bask in the sun. They think Faith is the one who brought down The Beast and if she can do that, then she’ll have Angelus back by dinnertime. An excited Connor decides to do see if Cordy knows about what’s happened and he goes up to her room. She’s standing by the window, looking out at the day when he comes in. He thinks it’s incredible and a dismal Cordy agrees that it’s wonderful. Connor goes on and on about how amazing Faith is and Cordy says Connor is definitely his son. She says she needs to tell him something and they go sit on the bed. She tells him they’re having a baby and shows him her stomach. Taking his hand, she places it on her tummy as a disbelieving Connor asks how this happened. Cordy says all she knows is that there is a life growing inside of her and it’s theirs. Leaning over to kiss him, she tells him they’re connected now – forever.