Airdate: October 15, 2003

Guest Starring: Jenny Mollen
John Billingsley

Written By: Sarah Fain & Elizabeth Craft

Directed By: Marita Grabiak


Teaser

L.A. Scenic Point, night. After a listening devices check, the A.I. gang (Angel, Wes, Fred, Gunn and Lorne) start their clandestine meeting. Gunn thinks it’s weird hiding from their employers, but there are factions at Wolfram & Hart that want them destroyed. Fred says they work with these people, not all of them are evil. Wes asks her if she thinks she can trust them, like Knox for example. She knows he’s not evil, and while she’s friendly with him, it’s only professional. Angel brings back the big question: the Senior Partners put them in charge for a reason: they need to find out why. But actually running the company has left them with no time for cover ops. Wes and they gang are concerned about Gunn, he says they made a deal, and he seems the only one who’s willing to accept that. Plus, they all got something out of it: Wes did get a Sterling pen with his name on it (and shows it off), for example. Angel says that the point is that the SPs have a plan for them, but they’re so busy with the company and Spike, who could take years to get rid of. Angel suddenly asks for Wes’s pen and runs off.

Nearby, in the woods, a werewolf is chasing a young blond woman. She stumbles as if wolf meat for sure.

ACT I

The woman is slashed and bitten by the werewolf, before Angel pulls it, fights and stabs it with the pen. It transforms into an old bearded man. Angel hears tires screeching away. The woman drove off in the confusion of the fight.

Daytime. In the office, they’re still searching for the victim, whom Angel knows has been bitten, and there’s still two nights of rampage left.

Spike visits Fred in her office, who’s busy with the werewolf situation. Spike reminds her that he’s a situation too; Fred says she has some theories but they’ll have to wait. Spike says he may not have that long: it’s getting worse. The Netherworld has a firmer grip on him. Spike freaks when she suggests he goes see Wes, he doesn’t want anyone else to know. She reiterates they have more pressing matters, but also tells him to hang on.

The W&H team have nothing on the victim when Spike comes in to Angel’s nerve centre, teasing him. Angel steps up the efforts to find the girl. Wes has brought in Dr. Royce, a cryptozoologist, who explains that it’s a different breed of werewolf, one that can stand upright. But still nothing on the girl. Spike says she’s in the kill or be killed category, Angel says she’s under his protection now. Spike tells him it’ll be hard once she turns and goes on about an hour-long fight he had with a werewolf but stops when Fred mentions that Angel killed it with a pen.

The victim, Nina, wakes up in her bed after a restless sleep, sweating and dazed. Her senses are clearly sharpened. Downstairs, Nina’s older sister and niece are cooking when she comes down, unable to explain her bruises. She focuses on the meat that’s being cooked, assuring her sister that she’s up for watching the young Amanda later in the night. Then she sees herself slashing Amanda’s neck.

With less than an hour to go ‘till sundown, Team Angel are piecing the events of the previous night, getting a general location of the girl and her car, finally tying it through traffic cams and DMV registrations. They have a match: Nina Ash, and her address.

Babysitting Amanda, Nina begins to feel the call of the wolf and goes in her room. She keels over and Amanda slowly heads to Nina’s room. Nina begins the change, as the girl gets closer to the door.

ACT II

Werewolf Nina approaches the door but Angel, over at the window, attracts its attention. It jumps after him and they both fall to the ground. Wes is waiting for them and fires the tranq darts, hitting the werewolf. They hurry out with the werewolf without being seen by Amanda.

Daytime. Nina wakes up naked in a cell, terrified. She picks up clothes from a nearby pile. Angel cones in using his soothing voice to assure her she’s safe, which she doesn’t believe. In his office, a short while later, he shows her footage of a werewolf in a cage. She doesn’t understand. He jogs her memory of being chased to nights ago in the woods. She remembers that it attacked her and that Angel saved her. Angel says he was too late and she watches as the werewolf on the screen transforms back in her. He explains what’s happened to her. She doesn’t want to believe but faced with the facts and show she felt the previous day, she has to. Angel assures her that her niece and sister are okay, but she vividly remembers wanting to rip Amanda’s throat out. He says that it was the demon, not her; she doesn’t accept that, he didn’t wake up a monster. He does the big reveal about his true self, vamp-with-a-soul, and like him, she can control her urges, and he’ll help her with that. But he can’t cure her, only keep her safe.

Outside his office, Angel voices his concerns to Royce and Fred. Royce echoes those concerns, adding that the first few nights are the worst: disorientation, fear, combined with the werewolf’s strength, she could hurt herself. And tranquilizing her is only good in the short term. But familiar senses or objects could help her. Spike, walking buy, says it won’t make a difference, she’ll eventually become a killer and she will want out of that cage. Then she’ll feel guilty once she’s human again. Angel snaps at him and says it didn’t seem to bother Spike, Spike starts to say how much of a pain it was before he disappears. Angel has Fred go with Nina and a security detail to pick up some of her stuff.

In the van, Nina takes stock of her entourage, and wistfully thinks about her old life. Freed tells her that for three nights a month, her life doesn’t have to change that much. Discussion turns on how Angel saves people and his current bachelorhood. Fred says they all try to be there for each other, like family.

Angel is distracted as Gunn talks about returning the old man’s body to his family. Angel knows that if he hadn’t made it on time, Nina would be dead. But it won’t change what she has to go through. Gunn tires another approach, but Angel tells him he doesn’t need a pep talk. Gunn leaves as Lorne comes in, feeling Gunn’s grumpiness. Lorne tells Angel that he needs to talk, not something Angel’s inclined to do at the moment. Lorne tells him that there’s nothing new to having the weight of the world on his shoulders. With Spike showing up, it’s been dragging him and they’re feeling it. He’s fighting so many enemies, his punches are getting sloppy and they’re bearing the brunt of it. Lorne doesn’t want him to forget who’s covering his back.

At her house, Nina’s reluctant to go on, and her sister confronts her, about leaving and scaring a nine year old. Fred says it’s her fault but she doesn’t want to hear it: she wants to know what’s going on. Nina’s sorry about last night, but she can’t be counted on all the time and storms out. Fred awkwardly takes a few of Nina’s possessions. Outside, the van is looking suspicious and they find the security detail murdered. Fred takes out the tranq gun and they run. Masked men catch up to them, Fred takes out two of them but she’s knocked unconscious and they capture Nina. The team leader calls his employer, a rich type: they have the package.

ACT III

Nina is chained in a cell and hosed down, then stripped and swabbed clean.

Royce sings for Lorne, who gives the thumbs up to Angel. So far, no one has come up negative. But the kidnappers had to have an informant. Fred recalls how organized they were, military in their precision, reminiscent of the Initiative. Fred blames herself and thinks of Spike: no one’s seen him for hours. Royce comes in with a list of possible suspects when she sees Spike, who’s now transparent, walking away. She follows him to an office, he walks through the wall and she trips on a garbage can, spilling its content. She picks up a vial just before Royce comes in: it’s his office. She talks to distract him before knocking him out with a lamp.

In Royce’s office, Wes and Gunn search through Royce’s office as Wes identifies the compound as something that could block Lorne’s reading. They find a secret panel in a drawer.
In his office, Angel throws Royce around, who’s already scared of Angel, but more so of his other employer, who’s not a good guy. Angel shows him his other face.

Fred, Gunn and Wes come to Angel, he knows where Nina is, and they know what they’re going to do with her. They show him a menu.

Nina, bound, gagged, and garnished, is wheeled on a tray in a classy dinner hall. The host tells them moonrise will be in fifteen minutes and shortly after, dinner (namely her), will be served.

ACT IV

The host, Crane, enlightens his guest with the sauces and side dishes that can be served with werewolf mean, when Angel, Wes and Gunn show up, armed, with Royce in tow. Nina is still alive, as she later has to be eaten alive lest she return to her human state. The guests are shocked at the violence. Angel frees Nina, who’d rather they choke on her: she can’t go home. Crane’s security team surrounds and outnumbers Team Angel. He’s not leaving with Nina, Crane is willing to let his men die, can Angel say the same? Gunn will take Crane down with him, but it’s also a risk he’s willing to take. Angel hits a guard and is shot by another when Nina turns, and feeds on a guest, before Wes fires the tranq gun. But Crane still won’t let them go, the night may not be salvageable, but his clients have paid a high price, and he promised them a werewolf. The werewolf wakes up and bites Royce’s leg before being tranqued again. Angel says that in a moth or so, he’ll have one. Crane’s guards take Royce away (over his loud protests), and allows Team Angel to leave with werewolf Nina.

Night, Fred’s lab. Spike’s there, still see-through. She’s been looking for him. He was there again, and nowhere, he didn’t think he was coming back. She thanks him for leading her to Royce, and realizes that it was a coincidence. But he’s here now, that’s what matters. He says it’s his last cast before eternal fire and brimstone. He still doesn’t want Angel to know, she promises to find a way to really bring him back. He focuses and becomes opaque: no need to get dramatic.

Daytime. Angel drives Nina home, her sister is watching Amanda draw on the sidewalk. She asks how he deals with it, knowing that he’s killed people. He puts it in perspective: they were going to eat her for dinner. She just wants to wake up, Angel tells her that one day it won’t matter, it’ll just be a part of who she is. She doesn’t think she can tell them, but that’s a decision she has to make for herself. She ask if he ahs ever thought of disappearing completely, Angel says that if she separates herself from the ones she loves then the monster wins. It’s not simple. She gets out and tells him she’ll him next month. Nina goes to her family for a touching reunion.

Angel has the gang over to his apartment, Lorne serving drinks. They talk about Crane being out of business, but mostly just acting like old times, Gunn asking Angel if he has a shot with werewolf girl. Angel says he got a look. It’s happy times with Team Angel with the previous concerns pushed aside.


Summary by Dannyboy