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

Guest starring: Christian Kane as Lindsey McDonald, Sarah Thompson as Eve, Adam Baldwin as Marcus Hamilton

Original air date: April 14, 2004

Written by: Sarah Fain and Elizabeth Craft

Directed by: Skip Schoolnik

Angel is alone at the conference table nervously fidgeting with stacks of reports. Angel calls Harmony on the phone and wants to know where everyone is. Harmony comes into the office and tries to explain that no one is available: Gunn is still in the hospital, Wes is babysitting Illyria, and Lorne is M.I.A. Angel is clearly irritated that no one is available. As Harmony leaves Angel’s office Spike walks in . . . carrying a briefcase? Spike’s a little confused why no one else is at the meeting. After all, this is Spike’s first meeting as part of the Wolfram & Hart team. Spike sits down, opens his briefcase, takes out a beer and starts drinking as Angel begins the ‘meeting.’ Angel is frustrated with Spike’s presence and everyone else’s absence. As Spike complains about always being assigned to recon, Angel remembers the first thing Fred said to him in Pylea: “Handsome man saved me from the monsters.” Angel explains that Fred was stranded in Pylea, crazy, alone, but very brave. Angel tells Spike that he should never have let Fred come back to Earth because bad things happen here. Spike disagrees and tells Angel that bad things happen everywhere and that Fred made her choice. Fred chose to come back to her home. Spike thinks Angel is going to do something stupid and Angel tells Spike that he already has - coming to Wolfram & Hart. Angel thinks that agreeing to head Wolfram & Hart was a mistake and that he has to work harder to make things better, make the world better. Angel believes that the Senior Partners are up to something and he wants to take the offensive and find out what. Spike thinks Angel has a good idea but it would really help if they knew someone who could tell them what the Senior Partners are up to.

So Angel and Spike pay a visit on Eve, still hiding in Lindsey’s uniquely painted apartment. Eve tells Angel that there’s no way she would help Angel even if she actually knew something about the Senior Partner’s plans. Angel threatens Eve with exposing her to the Senior Partners but Eve doesn’t think Angel would do that until Angel tells Eve that if she tells him what she knows Angel won’t give her up to the Senior Partners. Suddenly the entire building starts to shake, like a big earthquake. But it’s not an earthquake because the symbols on the walls start to disappear. Eve thinks that Angel told the Senior Partners where Eve was hiding but Angel denies it. Eve begs and pleads with Angel, promising to tell him everything that she knows provided that Angel protect Eve’s life. Suddenly the door to the room bursts in and a tall, well dressed, very brassed off man walks into the room and finds. . . nobody. The room is empty and one window is slightly ajar. Looks like that’s how Angel, Spike, and Eve made their getaway.

Later Lorne is listening to Carlos the demon bartender sing a song, badly. The bartender is worried that when he proposes his girlfriend will say no, but Lorne assures Carlos she’ll say yes. Lorne spills his heart out to Carlos. Lorne’s tired of being Mr. Jolly all the time and of being too afraid to tell people the truth. Lorne admits that, since he learned Fred was going to die, he’s been trying to drown his sorrows by drinking and has discovered it doesn’t work. So Lorne decides to get his tuckus up off the bar stool, paint on a happy face, and try to help.

In the meantime Angel, Spike and Eve arrive back at Wolfram & Hart. Angel tells Harmony to put security on alert and that they shouldn’t let anyone in the building. At all. Angel tells Spike to protect Eve while he goes to see his lawyer -- Gunn. Gunn is looking very sad and very downtrodden in his room in the hospital ward. Angel walks in the room and explains the situation: the Senior Partners have sent someone to kill Eve and Angel needs to find a way to protect her. Gunn claims he doesn’t have a clue how to help, but Angel tells Gunn that he paid a high price for the legal knowledge stuffed inside Gunn’s cranium and suggests that Gunn use it. Gunn tells Angel there’s a proviso in Angel’s contract that allows any CEO of a Wolfram & Hart branch to take custody of a wayward employee. Gunn thinks that proviso might work with Eve and Gunn volunteers to make the call to set it up. Angel is heading toward the door and he stops and Angel tells Gunn that he knows Gunn feels bad, and that he should. That Gunn will continue to feel bad for a long time because Gunn is a good man. Angel tells Gunn that Gunn just signed a piece of paper, but Gunn tells Angel that he knew something bad would happen to someone, that there would be a price for regaining his legal knowledge. Angel tells Gunn that there will be a lifetime of chances for Gunn to atone. Angel tells Gunn that the only way to atone is to take advantage of the chances and that hiding in the hospital room won’t make anything better.

Across town Wes is sitting alone when he is visited by Fred. Fred kisses Wes’s neck, sits by his feet, and Fred asks Wes to tell her a joke. Wes relates a very weird story about two men who walk into a bar, one of them forgets something and he doubles over in pain. As the man falls to the floor and then through the floor and into ground. The man can see his friend but doesn’t call out to him because they aren’t that close. Fred tells Wes that he’s seeing only the first layer and Fred asks Wes if he would like to see how deep she goes.

Suddenly Wes wakes up. He’s in his apartment sleeping in a chair, drinking. Illyria is with him, complaining about Wes’s behavior. Wes really doesn’t care about Illyria, though. . . Wes is too despondent to care much about anything. Illyria tells Wes that he said Fred’s name and Wes tells Illyria he was having a nightmare. Wes asks Illyria if she has nightmares or any other human behavior. Illyria tells Wes that when she was in power nightmares walked the earth committing atrocities so that the demon gods could laugh. Illyria can’t believe that nightmares are so weak to be trapped within the minds of mere humans. Wes tells Illyria that he believes that the world is very disappointing to her and Illyria agrees. When Wes tells Illyria that he’s not impressed with the world either, Illyria asks Wes why he doesn’t leave. Wes doesn’t answer her.

Meanwhile Eve is complaining to Spike about the “master plan” to keep her safe from the Senior Partners. Eve thinks that hiding at Wolfram & Hart is pretty lame and Spike tells Eve that she is making it hard for Spike to want to help Eve. Angel arrives and tells Eve that she is now under his protection, but that Angel can (and will) take that protection away in a single phone call. Angel wants Eve to convince him that he should keep her protected and, to do that, wants to know about Eve, who she is and what she does for the Senior Partners. Eve gives a really lame answer about being the liaison so Angel and Spike make with the menacing. Eve finally confesses that there are many, many layers to Wolfram & Hart and that she is a ‘child’ of the Senior Partners. That makes Eve an Immortal. The Senior Partners sent Eve to the LA branch to watch Angel, report what she sees, and relay messages from the Senior Partners to Angel. Angel asks Eve what the Senior Partners want and Eve tells Angel that she doesn’t know, that the Senior Partners would never let her have access to that information. Eve might ‘know’ what the Senior Partners want, but the Senior Partners would only let Eve have access to that information on their timetable. Eve tells Angel that the one person who could have answered Angel’s questions about the Senior Partners is currently missing because Angel gave him up to the Senior Partners: Lindsey. Eve tells Angel that Lindsey has spent years studying the Senior Partners and probably knows the Senior Partners’ plan. Angel realizes that the Senior Partners grabbed Lindsey to prevent Angel from asking Lindsey the very questions Angel now wants answers to. Eve tells Angel that the Senior Partners are making Lindsey suffer for his insolence in some insidious hell.

In hell Lindsey is cuddling in bed with his very, very pretty wife and their son jumps on the bed and they all start giggling. Apparently this is a typical day in Lindsey’s life in hell. He walks outside of his split level ranch in suburbia to pick up the newspaper. Lindsey waves at a neighbor, walks towards the front door and picks up a skateboard on his way. And you can see more men doing the exact same thing all down the block.

Meanwhile at Wolfram & Hart Angel and Spike are arguing about Angel’s plan to get Lindsey back from Hell. Spike doesn’t trust Eve’s information even though Lorne read Eve while she was singing the “Piña Colada” song. Angel tells Spike that if Lindsey is their only source of information about the Senior Partners then Angel wants to find Lindsey’s hell to get him back. Spike thinks that they have a snowball’s chance of finding Lindsey’s specific hell and Angel challenges Spike to come up with a better plan. Then Gunn walks in and tells them he knows how to find Lindsey’s hell and how to get them there.

Back in hell Lindsey’s wife (Trish) is cooking while Lindsey does homework with his son. Trish asks Lindsey to go to the basement to get a lightbulb and Lindsey resists. Lindsey doesn’t want to go to the basement and is very reluctant to go downstairs. Lindsey walks down the steps very hesitantly, as if Lindsey’s afraid something is going to jump up and bite him.

In the meantime Gunn, Spike and Angel are headed towards Angel’s private motor pool and Gunn is explaining that he started reviewing his brain files after Harmony told him what was happening. Apparently the Senior Partners had problems with a man in their Tokyo branch. Gunn figures that Lindsey got the idea for the tatoos that masked his presence from him •and• figures that wherever the Senior Partners sent their other wayward employee is where they will find Lindsey. Gunn also tells Angel and Spike that Lindsey isn’t in hell but a Wolfram & Hart holding dimension until the Senior Partners figure out what to do with Lindsey. Angel wants to know how they’re going to find Lindsey and Gunn suggests they take the Camaro. Once in the Camaro Angel discovers the car drives itself, which weirds Angel out a bit. Gunn explains that the car is meant to get them to Lindsey’s hell but once they are there they will have to find “The Wrath.” Gunn isn’t sure what “The Wrath” is but they have to go through it to get out of Lindsey’s hell. The car takes them through a tunnel where it’s night on the L.A. side but, when they reach the other end, it’s daytime In the holding dimension, and the suburbs. Angel thinks that Lindsey might be rewarded for trying to kill him.

Meanwhile Wes is trying to convince Illyria to leave this world to find a world where she will be worshipped and adored. Illyria doesn’t answer Wes but tells him that things are too small. The room is too small, her body is too small, her mouth is too small. Illyria tells Wes she doesn’t know what her face will say. Wes asks Illyria to go with him.

In his suburban holding dimension Lindsey is gleefully going to get the newspaper, again, in a repeat of yesterday down to the last detail. Angel’s Camaro pulls up to the curb and Angel and Spike decide they’ll have to put their coats over their heads and make a dash for the house so they don’t set on fire. Gunn opens the car door letting sunlight in and Angel and Spike both cringe in fear. Gunn reminds them that they are in an alternate dimension where the sun is a non-frying variety. After they ring the doorbell Trish answers the door and invites Angel, Spike and Gunn into the house. Lindsey comes downstairs and doesn’t recognize any of the men. Gunn tries to explain to Lindsey that he used to work at the law firm of Wolfram & Hart but Lindsey doesn’t believe it. Angel tries to convince Lindsey that this world isn’t real and Spike tells Lindsey that the three of them are going to break Lindsey out of hell. Lindsey doesn’t believe them and thinks the three of them are playing some sort of joke. Lindsey asks the men to leave.

At Wolfram & Hart Eve is getting really impatient and thinks that Angel, Gunn, and Spike should be back with Lindsey now. Harmony and Lorne both try to reassure Eve that she is safe from everyone because Eve is under Angel’s protection. Lorne reminds Eve that nothing and no one can get in because the entire Wolfram & Hart building is a fortress. At that moment alarms go off. The tall, well dressed man walks out of the elevator into the lobby and he still looks brassed off. Harmony tells Eve that things can’t be too bad because the guy is “just a suit.” A security guard tries to stop the man but the man puts his fist and forearm through the guard’s chest and out the back side. Eve, Lorne, and Harmony start screaming.

In the holding dimension Lindsey is trying to get Angel, Spike and Gunn to leave and having no luck. Angel tries to tell Lindsey, again, that they are trying to help him. Angel notices a large inscribed amulet that Lindsey is wearing and rips it off Lindsey’s neck. As the memories come flooding back Lindsey collapses to the floor. Lindsey recognizes Angel and asks Angel to ‘make it quick.’ Angel tells Lindsey that if he intended to kill Lindsey it wouldn’t be quick. Trish comes back into the room and starts firing at Angel, Spike and Gunn with a large, scary automatic weapon. The four men take refuge behind the sofa and Angel orders Spike and Gunn to get Lindsey to the car while Angel rushes Trish taking several bullets in the chest. Outside Spike and Gunn discover that the Camaro is missing when an ice cream truck pulls up and the driver starts shooting at Spike and Gunn. The mail man walks around the front of the house and starts shooting at Spike and Gunn, too. Spike protects Lindsey with his body and Spike takes several bullets in the back as he shoves Lindsey back into the house. Angel is hitting Trish when Lindsey’s son comes down the stairs and starts shooting. The four men take refuge behind the sofa and Gunn asks Lindsey where The Wrath is but Lindsey doesn’t know. Gunn suggests they look in the basement but Lindsey insists they stay out of the basement. That decides it - the four men will try the basement. They shove the sofa at the son knocking him down. The four men run down the basement stairs and Lindsey tells them they’re all going to die. Angel tells Lindsey they won’t die today and Lindsey responds they die every day.

In L.A. Lorne and Eve head for Angel’s private elevator while Harmony takes on the guy in the suit. The guy in the suit throws Harmony across the room and walks towards the elevator where Lorne is desperately trying to close the elevator door. Finally the door closes.

In the holding dimension Angel, Gunn, and Spike discover that Lindsey’s basement is really a torture chamber complete with Spanish Inquisition-like devices. Spike finds a large pile of human hearts and Lindsey tells Spike the hearts are Lindsey’s. The four start looking for The Wrath so that they can get out. Angel finds a furnace door and believes it’s The Wrath but can’t open the door because it’s locked. Gunn tells Angel the lock is mystical. Suddenly Lindsey announces that “he” is coming because he knows. A mean, big, grey demony thing comes out of the shadows. Angel tells Gunn to guard Lindsey while Spike and Angel both vamp out and take on the demon. Neither vamp is able to take down the demon and both Spike and Angel wind up getting their vamp butts kicked but they don’t give up. Suddenly the demon stops fighting because Gunn is putting on the amulet Angel took off of Lindsey. Gunn tells Angel that this needs to be done. When Angel tells Gunn that he won’t leave Gunn behind, Gunn reminds him that Wolfram & Hart makes the rules there and one rule is that there can only be an exchange - if someone leaves then someone else has to stay behind. The furnace door opens and Angel realizes that Gunn knew that this was a one-way trip for him. Gunn tells Angel that it has something to do with atonement and Angel nods in agreement. Angel tells Spike that they are leaving and Spike wants to argue the point. Gunn tells them to hurry because as soon as the amulet’s power makes Gunn forget the door to The Wrath will close and none of them will be able to leave. Spike reluctantly grabs Lindsey and he, Lindsey and Angel jump through the fire in the furnace to leave. The amulet’s power takes hold of Gunn and he can’t remember why he is in the basement. Gunn hears his ‘wife’, Trish, calling him from upstairs.

Back in L.A. Lorne and Eve are in the garage trying to make their getaway. Lorne grabs a set of keys and presses the ‘lock’ button desperately trying to figure out which car the keys belong to. Interestingly the keys belong to the Camaro that Angel, Gunn, and Spike used to get to Lindsey’s holding dimension. Lorne and Eve climb into the car and start to pull out the parking space when Angel, Spike and Lindsey fall onto the hood of the car. Eve and Lorne get out of the car and Eve hugs Lindsey. As the group heads towards the elevator Lorne tries to warn Angel about the well dressed guy who puts his fist through people’s chests when Lorne realizes that Gunn is missing. Angel tells Lorne that Gunn stayed and both Angel and Spike look guilty about leaving one of the crew behind. Suddenly one of the doors in the parking garage flies off it’s hinges and the well-dressed man steps through the doorway into the parking garage. As the man walks towards the group Eve begs him to stop and Angel tells him that Eve is under Angel’s protection. The man reaches into the breast pocket of his suit, Angel and Spike gear up for a fight, and the man pulls out. . . . a pen. Eve wants the man to talk to the Senior Partners but the man tells Eve she knows how the whole thing works. The man pulls some legal documents out of another pocket and starts instructing Eve where to sign and initial the documents. The man introduces himself as Marcus Hamilton, Angel’s new liaison to the Senior Partners. Marcus explains that Eve is signing over her privileges and duties to him. Angel is a little miffed that Eve claimed that she was going to die and Eve responds that now she will. . . her immortality has been taken away. Marcus tells Angel that the Senior Partners thought Eve was getting distracted and congratulates Eve on falling in love. Before he leaves Marcus tells Angel that he has some ideas about running the firm and Angel tells Marcus quite pointedly that Angel is in charge, not Marcus. Marcus welcomes Spike to the team, turns, and leaves.

Meanwhile Wes and Illyria are on a rooftop. Illyria feels better, but she can still feel the walls closing in. Illyria tells Wes that she lived seven lifetimes simultaneously and was worshipped as a god by a god and now she feels trapped by walls, by this time and by this place. Illyria tells Wes that he doesn’t worship her, either. Wes asks again if Illyria can leave and Illyria tells Wes that she’s worried that if she were to go somewhere else she might become a victim of those she knew before. Illyria claims that she reeks of humanity and Wes tells her that she’s flattering herself. Illyria finds this world small and doesn’t understand why humans box themselves into smaller rooms. Wes tells Illyria there are many things worse than walls, like truth and beauty so profound that they burn.

Over at Wolfram & Hart Lorne is acting the part of paramedic and taking the bullets out of Spike’s back and not being too gentle about it, either. Lorne apologizes and admits he doesn’t have Fred’s touch. Lindsey and Eve are sitting on the couch as Angel walks in the room wearing a clean shirt. Angel thinks that Lindsey’s pretty cocky for someone who spent several months being tortured by the Senior Partners. Lindsey tells Angel that the Senior Partners can only hurt you as much as you think you deserve to be hurt. Angel demands that Lindsey tell him everything Lindsey knows about the Senior Partners including the apocalypse and the role the Senior Partners expect Angel to play. Spike also wants to know what the Senior Partners plan for him because Marcus’s comment “welcome to the team” sounded ominous. Lindsey tells Angel that the apocalypse isn’t coming, it’s •here•, now. Spike tells Lindsey that he’s seen an apocalypse or two and doesn’t think there’s an apocalypse. Lindsey tells Spike it isn’t •an• apocalypse it’s •the• apocalypse. Lindsey tells Angel that all the time he’s been working at Wolfram & Hart Angel’s been changing, inside, learning to accept the world the way it is instead of trying to change the world like champions do. Angel realizes that being given the L.A. branch of Wolfram & Hart was a way for the Senior Partners to distract Angel so that he doesn’t notice that the apocalypse is on his doorstep. Lindsey tells Angel that the apocalypse is here and Angel’s already two soldiers down.

In the Wolfram & Hart holding dimension Gunn is reliving the morning that Lindsey experienced. Trish asks Gunn to go downstairs and Gunn is reluctant. Trish insists and Gunn looks genuinely scared.

Summary by Kirsten.