Starring: David Boreanaz as Angel, James Marsters as Spike, J. August Richards as Gunn, Amy Acker as Fred, Andy Hallet as Lorne, Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndham-Pryce

Guest starring: Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase, Christian Kane as “Doyle” (a.k.a., Lindsey McDonald), Sarah Thompson as Eve, Mercedes McNab as Harmony

Original air date: February 4, 2004

Written by: David Fury

Directed by: David Fury

Angel breaks down a door and enters a dark room, followed by Gunn, Wes, and Fred. Fred’s scanning for trace evidence for a man. She can detect hair, enzymes, and blood. But the blood belongs to five nuns who are dead. Greenway, the man the team is looking for has killed the nuns to escape a racketeering charge. Wes figures out that Greenway has used the blood of “five holy women” in a black magic ritual to create an interdimensional portal and has escaped to one of thousands of different universes. Fred doesn’t have the equipment to trace Greenway and it’s the last straw for Angel. He wants out - the big out - from Wolfram & Hart. Angel tells the rest of the crew that he quits. Meanwhile, across town, Cordelia is having a vision of glyphs or symbols on walls and on human skin. Suddenly Cordelia wakes up.

The next day, back at Angel’s office, Fred, Lorne, and Gunn are trying to talk Angel out of resigning. Angel thinks that every one is doing their jobs, but none of them should be working at Wolfram & Hart in the first place. Gunn tries to be the voice of reason - if Angel or any one else of the crew tries to leave Wolfram & Hart the Senior Partners may get retributiony. Angel asks Gunn if he thinks the Senior Partners will *really* get annoyed, or if Gunn just doesn’t want to leave. Gunn thinks that all of them made the right call in joining up with Wolfram & Hart. Just then Angel gets a phone call. It’s about Cordelia.

At the hospital Angel and Wes walk in to find Cordelia up and walking. Angel hugs Cordy very enthusiastically, then Wes gets his hug. Both Angel and Wes think that Cordy looks great. As they talk Cordy reveals that she remembers everything that happened last year, up until she slipped into the coma. Angel wants to get Cordy out of the hospital to which Cordy enthusiastically agrees. When Wes suggests they stop and buy Cordy some clothes so she can get out of her hospital gown, Cordy gets even more enthusiastic. She tells Angel and Wes that she’s really not ready to go back to the hotel.

At Wolfram & Hart the elevator doors open and Wes and Angel walk out. Cordy doesn’t think she can do it. The place is too evil. Angel tries to reassure Cordy - it’s just a plain office where nothing will jump out and scare her. Of course, just then the Archduke’s impish demon slave jumps out at Cordelia and spooks her. Apparently, the impish demon slave has been living on toner in one of the copy rooms since Lorne’s infamous Halloween party (see AtS 5.5, “The Life of the Party”). In Angel’s office Cordy reunites with the AI crew. She is very happy to see them and they are very happy to see her. After hugs all around, Cordy wants to know where Connor is. Except for Angel, no one knows who Cordy is talking about. Harmony bounces in very, very happy to see Cordy and Cordy’s a little confused. The last time Cordy saw Harmony, Harmony tried to kill her (see AtS, 2.17, “Disharmony). Angel ushers everyone out of the office so that Cordy can rest, but Cordelia takes him to task. Angel tries to convince Cordelia that he now has the power and resources to save virtually everyone, but Cordy thinks Angel should focus on saving himself. She tells Angel that she woke up because of a vision in which Angel was in danger and glyphs on walls and on skin.

Just then Eve comes into Angel’s office via Angel’s private elevator. Eve’s there to relay the Senior Partner’s displeasure at losing ten million dollars in bail money when Greenway jumped to a different dimension. Angel told security to keep Eve out of the building, but she reminds him that she’s the liaison with the Senior Partners, and he can’t control her ‘comings and goings.’ Then Eve makes a point of mentioning the ‘comings’ from the Halloween party. Cordelia thinks Angel may finally have sunk lower than sleeping with Darla. Angel does try to explain that having sex with Eve had a mystical cause. Cordy’s pretty upset by all this - she thinks Angel made a deal with The Devil. A demon stops by to say good-bye to Angel. Ironically, the demon does look a lot like the Judeo-Christian version of The Devil. This makes Cordy even more annoyed than she already was.

Across town, Spike is playing video games when Doyle walks in. Doyle is concerned because Spike hasn’t been patrolling lately. Spike, not so politely, reminds Doyle that his hands were hacked off recently chasing the Slayer that Doyle sent Spike after (see AtS 5.11, “Damaged”). Spike tells Doyle that he can’t have any clue about how bad it felt to have his hands chopped off then mystically reattached. Doyle tells Spike that he really *does* know how it feels - Doyle had a hand chopped off in the “line of duty” a few years back. Spike interrupts Doyle's pep talk about champions, the Powers That Be, and helping the helpless and tells Doyle he plans on patrolling as soon as Doyle has a vision. Doyle’s phone rings - it’s Eve calling from Wolfram & Hart to tell Doyle that Cordelia is awake, that Cordy had a vision and the vision is leading Angel towards Doyle. Doyle stays pretty calm and, as Spike takes out some frustrations on his XBox, decides to change his plans.

Back at Wolfram & Hart Angel enters his penthouse and finds Cordy watching a video she had made of Doyle (the real Doyle) four years ago (see AtS 1.9, “Hero”). Cordy and Angel are both moved by seeing their friend again. Cordy talks to Angel about Doyle’s death. That somehow Doyle knew that it the right thing to do, and that Doyle used his last breath to make sure Angel could continue his fight (referring to passing Doyle’s visions from the PTB on to Cordy). Cordy finally understands why Doyle did what he did. Angel tells Cordy that there were reasons behind his decision to take over Wolfram & Hart, but Cordelia thinks it was a simple case of seduction. Wolfram & Hart gave Angel money, and penthouses, and beautiful things so that Angel would take over the firm.

Angel finally tells Cordelia what happened after she slipped into the coma. The Senior Partners altered reality and re-made Connor’s past, giving him a loving family that didn’t include Angel, and removed all memory of Connor from everyone except Angel, Cordelia, and Eve. Angel made the deal because Connor was ready to kill both Cordelia and himself, and Angel felt he didn’t have any other way to make things right. Cordy doesn’t buy that Angel is doing good at Wolfram & Hart and thinks that the PTB doesn’t think so, either - that’s probably why she got her coma vision. The PTB want Cordy to get Angel back on track. Angel tells Cordy that the PTB have a new champion - ensouled Spike - who’s helping the helpless after saving the world. Cordelia can’t believe that Spike is a ‘hero’ and that Angel is CEO of “Hell, Inc.” Cordy wants Angel to remember who he is, but she can’t tell him. Angel has to figure that out for himself. Cordy does tell him, however, who Angel was. A champion who fought hard for what was right, and that fight gave Angel a light. Cordy wants to see the old Angel again, and maybe she’ll start believing what Angel’s been spouting about working at Wolfram & Hart.

Cordy asks Angel if he ever thinks about what might have happened if they could have met up the night they planned to talk (see AtS 3.22, “Tomorrow”). Angel thinks about it all the time. Both Angel and Cordy agree that people like them may not really get a chance to be happy.

Across town Lindsey (Doyle) and Eve are doing some naked snuggling and talking about recent events. Lindsey thinks that Cordelia woke up because the PTB are nervous about his actions. Lindsey’s pissed because the Senior Partners gave “that Euro-trash vampire” the position he had worked for and earned. Eve thinks that Angel is still the center of Lindsey’s universe.

Meanwhile Cordy and Wes are going retro and doing their own research. Cordy’s not sure it was a good idea, but Wes likes working with Cordy and the books again. Cordy’s a little worried because no one is talking about what happened last year. Wes tries to reassure her that everyone knows it wasn’t really Cordy. But Cordy’s still sorry about everything that happened. She suddenly finds the glyphs that she saw in her vision. Wes figures out that the symbols are part of a concealment spell that would prevent the wearer from being observed by mystics or psychics *or* modern surveillance. By now Lindsey is at Wolfram & Hart and is going downstairs to a maintenance area. He passes unseen by video surveillance and walks through an array of laser detectors without triggering them. He stabs a demon in the back and cuts a gem off of the demon’s neck.

Upstairs Cordy is walking around the building when she sees Spike. Spike vamps out, grabs Cordy, shoves her against a wall and takes a bite out of her neck. Angel grabs Spike by the shoulders and throws him up against a wall. Angel warns Spike not to touch Cordy again, but Spike tells Angel that Cordy doesn’t have a soul. Turns out that a source told Spike that Cordy was possessed by a Big Bad and that she was going to kill everyone at Wolfram & Hart. Spike was doing a taste test to find out if his source was telling the truth, but Cordy didn’t taste like a demon. Spike tells Angel and Cordy that his source gets these visions from the PTB, but Cordy fills Spike in that the vision was a re-run. Spike tells them that “tattoo boy” had a wrong vision this time. Both Cordy and Angel are more than a little shocked when Spike tells them that his source calls himself “Doyle.”

At the same time Eve is on the phone with Lindsey and tells him that Spike didn’t kill Cordy. Lindsey warns Eve to get out of the building ASAP. As Eve turns around she sees Angel and Cordy who want to have a “little chat” with Eve. In Angel’s office the team grills Eve about what’s been going on and what she knows. Angel wants to know who is pretending to be Doyle because Angel figures that Eve is working with pretend-Doyle. Eve doesn’t spill what she knows, even when Cordy threatens her. Just then Harmony interrupts the interrogation and wants to know if she gets the afternoon off, too. Turns out that the entire building cleared out a couple minutes ago. Angel asks Eve what’s going on.

Downstairs Lindsey takes the gem from the demon’s neck and uses it to activate some sort of chamber. . . a big one.

In the meantime Gunn’s done a little investigation and found out that an e-mail with a “Code 7” went out to every employee’s computer a couple minutes before the building cleared out. Cordy wants Angel to torture Eve to get the information they need. Angel doesn’t want to so Harmony steps in to torture Eve for the team. Harmony doesn’t mind. She is evil, after all. Harmony slaps Eve a couple times and Eve caves. Apparently the Senior Partners didn’t trust Angel so the built a fail-safe. Eve doesn’t know exactly what it is, but it’s large, alive, and keyed to destroy Angel. The only way to stop the fail-safe is to go downstairs. The team figures out that the pretend-Doyle with the concealment glyphs must have initiated the fail-safe. Angel intends to stop the fail-safe so he asks Spike for any more information he may have. Spike tells Angel that pretend-Doyle had his hand chopped off once. Ping! You can practically hear the puzzle pieces falling in place. Wes, Angel, and Cordy figure out that Lindsey’s back.

Wes, Fred, Lorne and Gunn are going to work on a way to cancel out the concealment glyphs while Angel, Cordy, and Spike go to the basement to stop the fail-safe. Harmony is left to guard Eve. Downstairs Angel, Cordy and Spike find the laser grid. As Angel walks into one of the lasers a claxon goes off and zombies come out of the walls. Spike, Cordy and Angel take on the zombies. Spike volunteers to hold the zombies back so that Angel and Cordy can stop the fail-safe. Angel and Cordy find the room with the fail-safe and find Lindsey there. Angel tells Lindsey that he had his chance at redemption and throws a punch at Lindsey’s face. Lindsey moves out of the way - quick - then throws Angel across the room. Lindsey’s gotten a power upgrade!

Lindsey uses some magic to shut the door to the chamber so that Cordelia can’t leave. Cordy throws the sword she’s carrying to Angel while Lindsey takes out a small knife which magically transforms into a large sword. Angel tells Cordy to shut down the fail-safe while Angel and Lindsey get their violence on. Angel and Lindsey are fighting on a large tower that apparently contains the fail-safe. Despite Angel’s best efforts, Lindsey is starting to kick his butt. As they fight they reminisce about the first time they met, when Angel kicked Lindsey’s client, a vamp, out of an office building window during the day (see AtS 1.1, “City of”). The tower starts to shake and shimmy.

Upstairs Wes is directing Fred, Gunn, and Lorne in a spell. Unfortunately they need some arterial blood of a demon and Lorne gets volunteered.

Meanwhile, the fight between Angel and Lindsey is getting more violent. Lindsey buries his sword in Angel’s chest. After Angel takes the sword out, they start fighting hand-to-hand. By this time Cordy figures out how to turn off the fail-safe. Suddenly Lindsey’s amazing strength and speed disappears. As the tower they are standing on starts to recede into the floor, Angel beats the crap out of Lindsey, eventually knocking him off the tower on to the floor. Wes’s spell starts to take effect and Lindsey’s tattoos fade and dissolve. A portal opens up above Lindsey’s head, apparently from the Senior Partners, and Lindsey asks Angel if the Senior Partners are angry. Really doesn’t matter - Lindsey is sucked into the portal and it closes behind him.

Later the team confronts Eve. Angel tells Eve she should start worrying about what the Senior Partners are thinking. After Eve leaves Lorne complains about losing blood, Harmony complains about not getting any of Eve’s blood, and Spike complains about being embarrassed by thinking he had a destiny. The whole crew, including Angel who is *not* resigning from Wolfram & Hart, decide to go out for some drinks. As Lorne, Harmony, Spike, Gunn, Wes, and Fred get into the elevator Cordy tells them that she and Angel will catch up with them a little later.

In Angel’s office Cordy asks Angel if he feels good, and he does. Cordy tells Angel that his fight to save people includes himself - and today he saved himself with Cordy’s help. Angel tells Cordy that he thinks he can beat whatever he might face in the future. Cordy tells Angel that he will win the fight in the end, but that she won’t be there to see it. Cordy’s leaving. She asks Angel to say good-bye to the gang for her. Angel wants her to stay, but Cordy tells him that she’s on a different road. The PTB owed Cordy one and she didn’t waste it - she got her guy back on his true path. Cordy starts to walk out of the office and changes her mind. She walks back to Angel and kisses him. A lot. Suddenly the phone rings. Cordy tells Angel he has to take that call. As Angel walks over to pick up the phone, Cordelia tells him, “You’re welcome.”

Angel picks up the phone and learns that Cordy is still in the hospital and she just died. She never did wake up from her coma. Angel, nearly in tears, hangs up the phone and says, “Thank you.”

Summary by Kirsten.