(Gunn and Spike bring Lindsey roughly into the room)

LINDSEY: (grinning) You boys look like you could use a hug.

(... later ...)

LINDSEY: So what are you gonna do? You gonna beat it out of me?

SPIKE: (smirks) If you say so.

(he walks toward Lindsey, who stands to meet him. Gunn steps between them, shoves Lindsey back down.)

GUNN: We all know how this goes. Spike beats you to a bloody pulp, you beg for mercy, and we get what we came for.

LORNE: Who needs all that rigmarole?

LINDSEY: I told you, I don't know why Angel gave up that kid. Or anything else. Me and him, not too close. I gotta get back to my game of Solitaire.

(Wesley shows him his drawing)

LINDSEY: Where'd you get that?

WESLEY: It doesn't matter. What does it mean?

LINDSEY: (chuckles) Is that what all this is about? All these questions about Angel. No. No way. No way they'd take Angel.

SPIKE: Who they?

LINDSEY: The Circle of the Black Thorn.

LORNE: Sounds like a little sewing club for pirates.

LINDSEY: It's a secret society.

GUNN: Never heard of them.

LINDSEY: That's 'cause they're secret.

SPIKE: There's plenty of these cabals about. They usually spend a lot of time in basements paddling one another's bums to prove their manhood.

LINDSEY: These are not frat boys, Spike. The circle's small. It's elite. They got connections you boys can't even comprehend.

WESLEY: They're evil.

LINDSEY: Sure. But evil's not the point. Power is.

WESLEY: Power.

GUNN: OK, we get it. They're bad ass. What do they do?

LINDSEY: (snickers) Jeez. Are you guys always this slow? Huh? Starts with an "a", ends in "pocalypse". It's a well-oiled machine, this circle. These people grease the wheels, keep the parts in place. Make sure man's inhumanity to man keeps rolling along.

WESLEY: We thought the senior partners were responsible for the apocalypse.

LINDSEY: The senior partners are on a different plane. Down here...it's the players in the circle that make things happen. Hell, you get tapped by one of them, it's kind of like getting the keys to the chocolate factory.

WESLEY: That's why you came back to L.A., tried to kill Angel. To get into the circle.

LINDSEY: To be a Black Thorn is to be the senior partners' instrument on Earth. Doesn't get bigger than that.

GUNN: Looks like Angel succeeded where you failed.

LINDSEY: He doesn't have it in him.

WESLEY: Doesn't have what in him?

LINDSEY: Well, for starters, he's gotta give up the champion angle. Quit saving girls in alleys. Probably wouldn't even make it on the circle's radar until he killed one of his lieutenants.

(Wes, Spike, Gunn and Lorne look at each other, alarmed)

LORNE: The senior partners, the Circle, they're killing Angel by degrees.

WESLEY: And we all watched it happen.

GUNN: The guy I knew wouldn't want this. Wouldn't wanna be this.

WESLEY: Angel dedicated his life to helping others, not because he had to, but because it was a path he'd chosen. If he's been swayed from that, influenced... then maybe there's still time. We can bring him back. He'd do the same for any of us, regardless of our actions.

LORNE: And what if he's skipped too far down that evil brick road?

(cut to Angel, in a repeat from the opening scene, leaping through the firey doorway to where Drogyn is being beaten)

DROGYN: Thank you. Thank you.

(Angel vamps out, bites Drogyn, then snaps his neck. Fade to back)

• Wolfram & Hart

written by: David Fury; Original transcript by CariCranberry. Edited & formatted by me.. Full transcript at:
http://www.buffyworld.com/angel/season5/transcripts/5x21_tran.php