Airdate: November 5, 2003

Guest Starring: Danny Mora

Written & Directed By: Jeffrey Bell


Teaser

A security guard is patrolling at a warehouse when he hears a sound, and notices the basement door is opened. But it’s just the plumber. The guard reports it in when he sees the plumber being thrown clear across. The guard is attacked and stabbed.

Wolfram & Hart. the masked mailroom guy, Number 5, is making his own rounds. Lorne asks him a personal opinion when he sees Fed and ignores the mail room guy. She gives him a parcel before he leaves.

Angel’s signing a legal document with a pen filled with his own blood. He’s just bankrupted a company that dumps raw demon waste into Santa Monica Bay, banished a clan of pyro-warlocks into a hell dimension and started a foster care program for kids whose parent were killed by vampires. Angel still seems unsure abut all this, Gun says that while it may not seem as heroic to Angel than saving hot girls from demon thugs, he loves what he does, for the first time in his life he can’t wait to get to work in the morning. Angel always had his special powers, now he has his. Spike appears, they all have their special powers, but no one wants to trade the one Spike has. Angel’s still uncomfortable working at W&H, but, while Gunn knows this, he also knows that they’ve done more good there in a month than at A.I. in a year. Angel however feels disconnected. Spike doesn’t see why Angel’s complaining, he has everything, while he, as a ghost, has nothing. The mail room guy picks up the mail. Gunn also misses getting his hands dirty. Wes comes in with a report of three people found dead in East L.A. with their hearts cut out, grabbing Number 5’s attention. Wes thinks it’s demonic in origin. When Number 5 leaves, Angels goes after him with a letter in his hand. The clerk doesn’t stop and Angel grabs his arm. Number five pushes him through the window separating the hallway from his office.

ACT I

They’re all stupefied that Number 5 attacked Angel. Gunn has the building locked down. It may have been a misunderstanding, but he’s not taking any chances and calls security. They quickly find him, and he’s escorted off the premises. Both Gunn and Wes recommend immediate dismissal. Angel wants to focus on the heartless bodies, now totalling four. The last one was found in a church for an old souls mass (prayer for the departed) and it’s the special service for the Mexican Day of the Dead.

East L.A. Spike, Gunn and Wes are in Angel’s showboat of a Cadillac. Spike’s there because he has nothing better to do. Angel suddenly slams the brakes and runs out of the car. They join up with him in an alley filled with effigies and a corpse. Angel smelled the blood from the car. This person’s heart was also taken., cut out with a crude knife by the markings. And the blood is still fresh so the killer must be nearby. They turn around and face a demon warrior, clad in armour and furs; armed with a sword and a shield. Angel takes his sword and battles it, but never getting past the shield, while Gunn and Wes pull back. Angel is thrown clear of the demon and Wes fires his shotgun several times at it to no effect. He’s knocked unconscious. Gunn sticks his axe in the demon, it screams and turns around, fighting hand to hand while Spike’s powers won’t allow him to lift a 2x4. Gunn gets the axe out but he’s knocked aside. Angel gets up, the demon pushes a dumpster to him and by the time Angel clears it, the warrior’s gone.

Fred’s lab. Gunn’s left his axe with the blood of the demon on it to her, so that she can analyse it. when she’s alone, Spike drops by, putting distance between himself and Angel. She says he gets like that sometimes, it’s not easy being a champion, and he should know that. But he never did anything heroic, closing the Hellmouth meant just standing there, letting the fire coming. There’s nothing heroic there to him. She says that he did save her life though.

Wes has his department in high gear in identifying and finding the demon. He informs Angel that they’re coming along, concentrating on Mezzo-American texts. Angel returns to his office and Spike’s standing over Wesley’s shoulder while he’s consulting a codex. He wonders if it’s a prophecy book, Wes explains that it’s a sourcebook, tied into the W&H archives, the one he’s reading links to historical narratives. He points Spike to the right one. He asks Wes about the Shanshu prophecy. Wes says that it tells of an apocalyptic battle, and the vampire with a soul will play a major part in it, and there’s the suggestion that he’ll get to live again. Spike gives as an example his closing of the Hellmouth before it destroyed the world. Wes says that the text isn’t specific about the even, and it’s also vague about which vampire with a soul they’re talking about, as long as that vampire isn’t a ghost. Spike relays Angel’s lack of faith into the prophecy, Wes stops for a moment, considering this, before a subordinate finds a match for the demon.

Wesley delivers his report: it’s an Aztec demon named Tezcatcatl. They don’t know much about him, except that it was in L.A. fifty years ago to the day. It rose in East L.A., killed a dozen people before five brothers, champions of that time, killed it. They killed it, but only one of them survived.. Spike says that they either didn’t finish the job or it’s figured out a way to come back from where they sent it. And Wes knows where to find the surviving brother.

Angel comes knocking at an apartment door and Number 5 answers it.

ACT II

Number 5 drags Angel in. Perhaps he didn’t make himself clear the last time: he doesn’t want in on the quest for the Aztec warrior. Thought that wasn’t what he was going to ask him last time; it is now. He needs his help, he needs to know how he and his brothers defeated it the last time around. He says he’s retired now, though the mask doesn’t make him inconspicuous. He wears it as a reminder that anyone who wants to be a champion is a fool. Angel asks if that’s what he thinks of his brothers and Number 5 strikes him. He will never disrespect the memory of his brothers. They were Mexican wrestlers, the Number Brothers. A shrine is dedicated to them in his apartment, a photo of all them in business suits and numbered masks.

Number 5 recalls how they were the greatest ones, children worshiped them, women loved them, men wanted to be them. And they never lost, never quit, never compromised. But not all their battles were in the ring. No one else cared about Mexicans, so they took care of their own. They brought down monsters, gangsters, and vampires. They were heroes, helping the helpless, something Angel knows about. They were brothers in the truest sense, it was the best time of his life. Number 5 explains that thy always wore their masks: they had to be vigilant and ready at a moment’s notice. Like battling and defeating the devil’s robot. Angel only wants to know about the Aztec warrior, how did they kill it. He says he doesn’t know/remember. But heroes care about the helpless, so after his brothers were killed, he tried to carry on, but the people went away. Until he was offered a job at Wolfram & Hart. They needed muscle, he needed a job. It was everything his brothers despised but he didn’t care. Every year, on the day of the dead, he prepares an altar for them, but they never come, because he’s not worthy. He should have died with them. Angel understands why they don’t visit: he’s quit. He takes Angel out to show why he stopped caring.

Number 5 has taken Angel out to a Mexican fighting ring, where the Number Brothers have been parodied as midget fighters. Maybe he expected too much from people, is it too much for people to remember their past, to honour those who have fought and died for them? He asks why they bothered, what difference did it make? Angel says that the difference was in the lives they save and that it was the right thing to do. He launches into a speech about being a hero, until he realizes that Number 5 is gone.

Gunn and Wes are shifting though the information on Tezcatcatl, trying to find it’s M.O. to find out its next move. Wes asks him if Angel seems all right, Gunn thinks he has trouble getting adjusted, that he’s feeling a “disconnect.” But he’s still doing his hero thing. Gunn makes a leap and confirms it with the files of the victims. They were all heroes in one way or another. It’s taking the hearts of heroes.

Angel’s outside and sees Number 5 on a bus. He’s then attacked by the Aztec warrior, thrown on a car and stabbed. Tezcatcatl stops short of pulling Angel’s heart out, takes his knife and disappears again.

ACT III

W&H. Wes and Gunn have reasoned why it didn’t take Angel’s heart: it needs hearts for sustenance and Angel’s lifeless one isn’t appetizing. Gunn will check with the contracts division, see if the warrior made a deal to come back. Wes thinks Angel’s heart isn’t in the work, and his mood isn’t because of the type of work but more because the work has lost meaning to him. Wes goes on and mentions the fact that Angel doesn’t believe in the Shanshu prophecy , and Angel says of course he doesn’t, it’s nonsense. After all they’ve seen, “The Father will kill the Son,” for example. Wes, of course, has no idea what Angel’s talking about since only Angel retains the memory of Connor. Angel tells him it doesn’t matter, he gets the work done. Wes disagrees; hope is the only thing that will sustain him, prevent him from ending up like Number 5.

In her lab, Fred’s discovered that the blood from the heart of heroes keeps Tezcatcatl alive and makes it stronger, nigh-invulnerable. To Spike, it’s weakness is obvious: the heart, that’s what he’d try to take if it came after his. Gunn comes it and agrees with Spike’s assessment. That’s what stopped it the last time, but only for the time being W&H has a record of every shady deal, hexes, curses, and so on. Tezcatcatl was one of the most powerful Aztec warriors and he forged a mystical talisman that can harness the power of their sun god, making him “supernova powerful” according to Gunn. But he got found out and was sentenced to die on the Aztec version of the day of the day. He had a shaman put a curse on him to return every fifty years, giving him a chance to find the talisman. The talisman was given to a great hero charged to protect it, and it was passed down through the generations. The talisman is gold, thee size of a quarter and has among others, the symbol of the sun on it. Angel remembers seeing it on the altar for the Number Brothers. Angel rushes to Number 5’s apartment, neither five nor the altar are there.

The Number Brothers’ gravesite. Number 5 has summoned the Aztec warrior. Angel says it won’t work, even if he shows up it won’t kill them, it didn’t kill him, after all. Angel wants the talisman, Number 5 doesn’t have it. Tezcatcatl approaches them, Angel says that if he wants to kill himself fine, but he won’t leave without the talisman. Number 5aks what happens when he kills it and finds it fifty years later? Nothing will have changed. He tells Angel that he was right: he’s no hero, so he had to fool it: he swallowed the talisman, to make himself worthy. He’ll have to cut him open to get it. He throws Angel away and faces Tezcatcatl, taunting him. He punches the warrior, Tezcatcatl hits back, sending him flying to a gravestone. Angel grabs a metal bar from a fence, shoves Number 5 aside and meets with Tezcatcatl’s sword. They fight, Angel goes down and rolls to avoid several blows until Number 5 fights again, with the metal bar. He tells the warrior that if he’s looking for heroes, he’s wasting his time. Tezcatcatl stabs him and he staggers to the family grave. Angel fights it once more while Number 5 leaves a bloody handprint on the family monument. Angel is thrown to the Number Brother’s grave and hand bursts from the ground.

ACT IV

The Number Brothers emerge from their graves, in burial suits and masks, looking as they did fifty years ago. Angel watches, stunned, as each of them grabs a metal post, until one of them tells him to join in. he does so after a few seconds. The brothers do fighting dance with the warrior, Angel going in only when all four brothers are down. He goes down and one of the brothers is propelled into the air with the help of two others. He lands high on the warrior, wrapping his legs around the warrior’s neck, and hits him repeatedly. Then he flips the warrior to the ground, and the four of them ram the rods in his arms and legs. Angel stabs Tezcatcatl’s heart, and he turns into ash. Angel rushes to Number 5’s side, who’s happy to see his armanos came back. Angel says he’s worthy, but the demon still didn’t want his heart, and he’s not a vampire. Number 5 tells him the talisman is actually in the coffee thermos by the altar. He may not be a hero, but he’s no fool. The brothers come, Number 5 is dead. Angel picks up the talisman, the brothers pick up the fallen one and stand over the grave and slowly vanished. The ground is undisturbed.

W&H. Angel gives Wes the talisman to put in safekeeping. Wes asks him if he’s okay, he says he’s fine, he got the job done, that’s what’s important. Fred asks about Number 5 and how he jumped in at the end, Angel says he died a hero.

Angel goes to the empty Research and Intelligence department. He picks up the prophecies book, and reads up on the Shanshu prophecy.
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Freeze-Frame: The Wolfram & Hart Legal Associate who gives Number 5 a job is none other than Holland Manners, future CEO of Wolfram & Hart’s L.A. branch. The address given on the card is 1127 Spring Street.


Summary by Dannyboy