"Dear Boy"
Angel enters the lobby of the hotel, Cordy and Wes are working at the desk. Angel sits down on the couch. Cordy says he must be tired from sleeping for three days.
Cordy and Wes are going over the books, Cordelia noting they ran out of money last week.
Wes wonders where the money went.
Cordelia lists the expenses, including her salary, of course.
Wes notices she didn't include his salary in her list.
Cordelia offers every time he finds something in one of his research books they could pay him $10 or give him a chicken pie.
Wes isn't impressed with the idea. He suggests perhaps she could have a vision.
Cordy explains that it's not like she can just get hit on the head and make a vision occur.
Wesley offers to give it a try as he lifts the large book he's holding.
Angel tells them to knock it off as he lays back on the couch. He reckons something will come up.
Cordy has a vision. Wes and Angel rush to her.
The vision shows robed figures fighting with each other as a demon looks on.
Cordy paces as Wes looks through his books seeking the demon she's described.
Angel sits back down on the couch behind them.
Cordy tells Wes they need to find the place, what she saw was humans killing each other. She thinks they're fighting over how to worship the demon in the vision.
Angel has a daydream of Darla, attired and coifed as she was back in the day, sitting on his lap. She tells him she missed him and they kiss.
Angel suddenly jumps off the couch, getting Wes and Cordy's attention. He says he didn't just fall asleep, he's there, he needs a reminder of what they were doing.
Wes says they were trying to figure out where the place is Cordy saw in her vision.
Cordelia describes the place she saw in her vision, some kind of temple. It's underground, like in a tank and it's full of pillars.
The description rings a bell with Angel. It was a convent, St. Bridget's, constructed on native burial grounds. The place is cursed, there had been several murders there in recent years then the place burned to the ground. He says that was nothing compared to what happened at "Our Lady of Lochenbee."
Wesley and Cordelia just look at him.
Angel explains his knowledge of the subject by saying he's "got a thing for convents." He tells them the state bought the land and built a water tank there. He says to call Gunn, they'll need everyone.
At the temple, the red and black robed guys are fighting each other with swords as the demon looks on. The gang enters, the combatants seem oblivious to the intrusion.
Gunn watches the disciples fighting, having second thoughts about getting involved for what he's being paid.
Angel determines it's a Thrall demon, kill it, the thrall is broken, the robed guys will stop killing each other.
Wes thinks it could be tricky.
Cordy observes at least the robed guys are fighting each other and not --
Her comment is interrupted as the demon notices their presence and announces as much to its followers. They stop fighting each other and rush Angel and crew.
Fight ensues with the gang doing most of the fighting while Angel beats the pulp out of one guy who hit him from behind.
Gunn tries to get his help, but Angel is only focused on beating the guy he has on the ground. Gunn manages to bury an ax in the demon, killing it and ending the fighting.
Even after the demon is defeated, Angel continues beating the guy on the floor.
Wesley pulls him off, telling him it's over.
As they leave the underground temple, Gunn wonders what happened to "team work".
Angel dismisses his concerns, saying the job got done. He tosses Cordy his car keys and tells her to take it while he walks off by himself.
Gunn wants to know what's going on.
Wes says Angel hasn't been sleeping well.
Cordy offers he's off his "game."
Gunn doesn't see what they do as a "game."
Angel is walking down the crowded promenade.
He senses something and turns to look across the way where he sees Darla. As he walks parallel to her, he has memory flashes of the dreams.
London, 1860
Angelus walks down a street crowded with people, horses and carriages and stops at the entrance to an alleyway. He senses something and smiles. Darla steps out of the alley and takes his extended hand. He thought they were to meet elsewhere.
She says she ran into someone and looks back to a dead guy in the alley. She knew him, a Lord, he was propositioning a prostitute, arguing over price. She says she dislikes cheap royalty as she dabs lightly at the blood still on her lips.
Angelus tastes the blood on her lips, smiles, noting they all taste the same to him. He asks Darla why she killed the prostitute.
Darla answers, she just liked her.
She has a surprise for Angelus. She leads him onto the street.
From behind, he sees a middle aged couple accompanied by three young women. He notes the three daughters and wonders if that is his 'surprise.'
Darla says not quite.
He especially likes one in particular, her purity and innocence. He wonders if Darla found him a saint.
Darla tells him she's something better, the girl has "the sight."
The young woman seems to sense something and turns around, a look of concern cast across her face. It's Drusilla. She turns back to her sisters and protectively rushes them along.
Angelus is intrigued and excited by her innocence and her ability to see the future, to know what will happen to her. He figures she will provide a unique challenge. He's anxious to go after her as he begins to follow, but Darla stops him, urging him to be patient.
On the promenade, Angel is still following Darla, but his view gets momentarily blocked by a guy in a large hot dog suit and he loses her in the crowd.
At the hotel, Cordy and Wes are interviewing a potential client, Harold, who has come in looking for Angel. He tells them his wife, Claire, gets abducted by aliens regularly.
Wes and Cordy are incredulous.
Harold says she just disappears, but she always comes back in one or two days.
Wes wonders what Harold wants them to do.
Harold says he trusts his wife but he found a receipt for a hotel after one of her abduction weekends. He doesn't want to think what may be true if it's not aliens.
Cordy looks toward Wes and assures Harold they can get to the bottom of it.
Angel comes in and walks on by without stopping as Wes and Cordy indicate to Harold Angel has arrived.
Harold calls to Angel, asking if he thinks his wife is cheating on him.
Angel says "probably" and keeps walking till he reaches the desk.
Wes covers and hurriedly escorts Harold out of the hotel.
Cordy tells Angel that's no way to treat a client, especially one who can afford to pay. She sits at the computer, talks on about what just happened while Angel comes up behind her, puts his face close to her hair and brings his hand up to touch it.
Cordy is freaked. She pulls away but when he doesn't stop, she jumps up and tells him she doesn't like the invasion of her personal space.
Wesley comes over, concerned, wondering what's going on.
Cordy tells him Angel was feeling her hair.
Angel apologizes, saying he's been out of it because of "her". He tells them he saw her in town.
Cordelia thinks he talking about Buffy.
He tells her it wasn't Buffy, it was Darla.
Wes knows the name and who she is.
Angel tells them he's been dreaming about her, he thought he was going crazy but she's alive and she's in town.
Wes says it's impossible, it couldn't be Darla, she's dust.
Angel knows this but he's also sure it was her he saw.
Wes says vampires don't come back from the dead.
Angel points out he did and he knows who he saw, he's not crazy.
Wes asks where he saw her.
Angel answers, "Right between the clowns and the big talking hot dog." Off Wes and Cordy's looks, he adds she was walking on the promenade.
Wes thinks maybe the dreams are because Angel is feeling guilt for dusting his sire.
Angel reckons maybe he's dreaming about her because she's there.
Wes offers perhaps Angel thinks she's there because he's been dreaming about her.
Darla is in Lindsey's office at Wolfram & Hart. She says Angel is coming unglued.
Lindsey is pleased with the news, he realizes it takes a lot of work to unravel someone with Angel's strengths and weaknesses.
Darla knows Angel since she was responsible for the creation of many of those strengths and weaknesses.
Lindsey tells her they are counting on that since nobody knows Angel like Darla does, especially the side of him that interests W&H.
Darla wonders what the plan is.
Lindsey tells her they don't want him dead, they want him dark.
Darla looks at Lindsey's prosthetic hand, she wonders what it feels like. She touches it, running her fingertips along the surface, noting its smoothness and the fact he doesn't feel anything.
Lindsey notes he doesn't feel anything in his hand.
Darla moves away from him, across the office where she fingers a scales of justice sculpture.
Lindsey asks how it feels to see Angel again, considering he betrayed her.
She says it's not the betrayal that eats at her, it's the waste of all that power because of a soul. She'd like to "eat his eyeballs."
Lindsey reminds her that's not the plan, but if she can't restrain herself, well, he wouldn't have a problem with that.
Darla thinks Lindsey is "fun, for a human."
He says he, and others, have a special interest in Angel.
At the police station, a detective drops a manila envelope off at Kate Lockley's desk. She opens it and finds a picture of the Hyperion with an'"Angel Investigations" business card paper clipped to it and a sticky note attached saying simply, "He's moved."
In the bar of a hotel, Cordelia is dressed in a skimpy cocktail waitress outfit. Claire is meeting with her lover as Wes covertly snaps pictures of them and Angel listens in on their conversations through a bugging device Cordy has stacked in a pile of napkins and laid nearby.
As they leave the bar and head upstairs to a room, Angel intercepts them. As Cordy looks on in surprise, Wes hides his face behind the newspaper he's holding.
Angel takes the camera away from Wes and tells Claire and her lover that they've been following them all day and listening in. He doesn't like doing it, it's tacky. He tells her that her husband knows what's going on so either go home or leave him, doesn't matter. He tosses the camera to the boyfriend.
The boyfriend and Claire depart.
Cordelia jumps Angel for wrecking the case, they had a paying client.
Angel thinks there are some things that aren't worth it. He looks across the room to see Darla getting up from a table. He intercepts her and grabs her wallet. He wonders if she's trying to pass for human.
Darla plays dumb, she doesn't know who he is, who this "Darla" person is or what he's talking about. She tries to walk away, he grabs her by the arm.
He tells her he knows her voice, he knows her scent. She tries again to leave but he grabs her arm more forcefully. He says whatever her game is, she isn't going to win. Hotel security approaches and asks if things are okay.
Darla tells him she's being accosted. She claims her name is DeEtta Kramer and her husband is waiting outside for her.
Angel tells her he knows it's her and he knows she's not going to walk out into the sunlight.
The security guy attempts to intervene, Angel throws him off.
Darla screams "Stephen!" and runs across the way to a man who just entered. He embraces her as they stand in a wash of very bright, and very direct, sunlight.
Back at the hotel, Cordy complains about the situation as Angel picks up the phone book and starts going through it.
Wesley points out that they saw the woman in direct sunlight so obviously Angel was mistaken, she couldn't be Darla. He assures Angel he and Cordy will help him through this.
Cordy isn't supportive, "Right. You're crazy. You need professional help."
Angel is still determined. It was Darla, she's back and she's human but he still knows her scent.
Wes doesn't think Angel can just sniff someone and tell anything.
Angel proves his point by sniffing in Wesley's general direction and observing that Wes had sex the previous night with a bleached blonde.
Wes is shocked.
Cordelia is also surprised, not that Angel could tell what had happened, but that Wesley actually had sex.
Angel has proven his point, Wes no longer questions the accuracy of Angel's sense of smell.
Angel can't find the name DeEtta Kramer in the phone book. He tells Cordy to do a deed search for DeEtta and Stephen Kramer. He'll try some other avenues.
He starts to leave, then stops and returns to the lobby desk. He asks Wesley for some cash for the cover charge.
Angel is singing, badly, at the Karaoke bar.
He finishes and asks the Host to tell him what he read. He has nothing to offer. Angel wants to know what he saw.
The Host says he saw many things but he'll only say that Angel is headed for trouble.
Angel wants to know why he won't help him by telling him where Darla is.
The Host says he sets people on their paths and this is way outside of Angel's path. He tells him to forget her, that road leads to a dark place.
Angel demands to know where Darla is.
The Host dismisses him, "I know you're not going to start anything in here. You're a good boy." He gets up from the table, "Have a drink before you go, it's on me." He leaves.
Angel calls Cordelia, asking if she's found an address for the Kramer's.
She starts to say something but he cuts her off, he just wants the address. She's provides him with the house number.
Angel tells her he's got it and snaps his phone shut. He notices one of the demon patrons at the bar staring and stares back, "What are you looking at?" Angel departs the bar.
At the hotel, Cordy hangs up the phone and tells Wes Angel hung up on her.
Wes steps up to the lobby desk beside Cordy, "You really stood up to him." He mocks her in a high pitched tone, "The next time I talk to him, I won't weenie out like you, Wesley."
Cordy warns him not to start with her and notes if she sounds like that, he should shoot her. She notices Wes pull a pistol from behind the desk and tells him she was just kidding.
Wes informs her it's a tranquilizer gun and it's not for her as he loads it.
Cordy wonders if that will be sufficient to deal with Angelus.
Wes thinks he should probably call Gunn.
Cordy slides him the phone.
Angel is outside the Kramer house, looking in through the window. Inside, Darla and the actor hired by W&H to play her "husband" are sitting at the table. He's concerned about whether or not he's playing the part correctly. Darla assures him he's doing fine, telling him to "just eat."
Another employee of W&H is standing watch near the kitchen, an earpiece in his ear.
The actor playing "Stephen" is still wondering whether he's playing the role properly. He notes the lasagna smells delicious but he's just going to pretend to eat it, he has to watch his weight.
Darla is becoming noticeably irritated with his babbling.
He asks her if Angel is watching them right now.
Darla answers, "Just nod and smile pleasantly, Stephen."
He wonders what Angel did to her, nothing she's going to a lot of trouble to get back at him. He adds he doesn't mind, work is work.
Darla brushes her hair back, revealing an earpiece snugly fit into one ear.
"Stephen" continues babbling about a previous job he had.
Darla has had enough, she reaches under the table puts his crotch in a vice grip. He gasps in pain. She smiles as she tells him, "If you don't shut up? I'm going to kill you."
"Stephen" understands, "Okay."
She tells Lindsey, who is listening in through a bugging device, that Angel is there, she can feel him.
Lindsey tells her they're aware of it, give them a little time to set things in motion.
She tells him to hurry it up.
"Stephen" asks who she's talking to.
She glares at him in response.
He decides best not to ask questions.
Back at the hotel, Gunn looks at the tranquilizer gun, chains and manacles Wes has piled on the desk. Wes assures him they're just taking precautions in case, "When push comes to shove, Angel's .. uh .. we trust him."
Gunn picks up the tranquilizer gun and looks at it, "I see."
Cordy, sitting at her desk behind the reception desk, says it's not like he turns evil every time he gets cranky.
Gunn is looking for an explanation of that, "He gets evil?"
Wesley stops looking through a large book lying open on the desk and explains there are forces that can cause Angel to revert back to the vampire he was, Angelus, before he was ensouled.
Gunn asks, "And as evil, bloodsuck vampires go, how would you rate Angelus?"
Wesley answers, "Historically, as bad as they come. Especially when he was with his sire, Darla."
Cordy gets up from her desk and walks over to the reception desk. She tells Gunn they're currently researching to see if Darla has some kind of "resurrection powers."
Gunn reckons they're saying :Angel and Darla together are double the trouble.
Wes confirms that, "They rampaged through half the known world until Angel got a soul."
Cordy sums it up, "Imagine Bonnie and Clyde if they had 150 years to get it right."
Gunn asks how bad it can get if Angel returns to his old ways.
Sisters of Mercy Convent, 1860
A disheveled Angelus is in a room in the convent, looking like he's been busy.
Darla enters, having noted the dead nuns on her way in. The violence is an aphrodisiac for her. They kiss.
Drusilla is in the corner of the room, crying and rambling.
Darla is annoyed by her presence. She thought Angelus had killed her.
He tells her he only killed her family, Dru is special, he has plans for her.
He throws Darla onto the floor, they kiss.
Dru cowers in the corner, terrified, repeating "snake in the woodshed" over and over as Darla and Angelus roll around on the floor with each other.
Darla wants to know if they'll kill her now or later.
Angelus pushes her up to a sitting position, straddling him, then sits up as well.. He tells her neither, he intends to turn her. Killing is too merciful. Once it's over, there's no more pain.
Darla isn't sure turning her is wise, since she's crazy.
Angelus likes the idea, "Eternal torment." He throws Darla back down to the floor, beneath him, and asks, "Am I learning?"
Even Darla seems briefly taken aback by the depths of his cruelty.
He and Darla have sex on the floor in front of Dru as she sobs.
Present
Angel looks on from outside the Kramer's house at Darla and her "husband" inside.
Darla gets up and walks into the kitchen, her 'husband' close behind. She tosses the dishes she's carrying onto the floor, breaking them. She's impatient and tired of waiting.
In his office, Lindsey tells her to go for it, and to have fun.
Darla picks up the phone and calls 911. She frantically tells the operator her name (DeEtta Kramer) and gives the address for the house. She says a man has been outside the house, he's breaking in, he's going to kill them. She screams very convincingly for help.
The actor playing her husband isn't up for this. He wants out.
Darla tells the W&H employee who's been in the house with them to "do it."
The guy morphs into vamp face, hits Darla across the face and kills the "husband."
Darla screams for help, Angel breaks down the door and rushes into the house.
Darla, who is laying over the body of her "husband", throws herself back into the chair behind her and begs Angel not to hurt her, "What did you do? Why did you? He was my husband!"
Lindsey listens in, a smile on his face.
Darla continues pleading with Angel not to hurt her as the police come in, guns drawn and pointed at Angel's back. Darla slides down to the floor and lays over the body of the actor, sobbing.
Angel starts to turn to face the cops but is ordered to keep his back to them, face the wall. He complies. The officer orders him to drop to his knees.
Angel spreads his arms out to the sides, looks at Darla and warns her, "You'll pay for this." He abruptly bolts, making a run down the hall as the officers shoot him several times in the back. He leaps up through the attic opening. One officer follows as reinforcements arrive.
Another officer hears footsteps and realizes Angel is running across the roof. He sees Angel outside the window, landing after jumping off the roof. He rushes outside with the other officers in an attempt to catch Angel.
Darla smiles as the cops go after him.
Outside the house, Darla is playing the role of innocent, shaken victim with Kate Lockley. She doesn't understand how the intruder was shot and just got away.
Kate explains, it, "Adrenaline, they chased him for 16 blocks." She assures Darla he's long gone, he won't hurt her. She notes being told by one of her officers that Darla had recognized the man and said his name was Angel.
Kate is buying the act as Darla plays her masterfully. She says he called himself Angel. He began following her several weeks ago, told her he helped the helpless. She claims she told him she didn't need any help. He kept calling her "Darla" and telling her he knew her from long ago. She continues, saying he showed up at the hotel where she and her husband were having lunch earlier and then showed up there at the house that evening. She says she told him to stay out, "But he just broke in and ... this is gonna sound crazy ... there was something wrong with his face ... and he was biting ..."
Kate assures her she's not crazy, "and I want you to know I will find him and he will pay for what he did."
Darla thanks her then smiles as Kate turns her back and walks over to an officer..
Angel grabs Darla from a tree limb above, cups his hand over her mouth and pulls her away.
Back at the hotel, Gunn is still processing the good/bad Angel thing.
Wes says it's a little difficult to deal with at first, they've all been through that adjustment.
Cordy points out that he's good 99% of the time and he's been good to both her and Wes.
Gunn admires loyalty but if Angelus shows up, he intends to kill him.
Kate and the SWAT team burst into the hotel, weapons drawn, looking for Angel. She directs them to search the place and warns them Angel is very dangerous, "Bullets won't necessarily do the trick." She informs them to call for her if they see him.
Wesley wonders if she's got a warrant to toss the place.
She says she doesn't need one since Angel just murdered some guy and kidnapped his wife. She reckons that provides probable cause.
Cordy says he wouldn't do that.
Wes adds his agreement, "He's not the type of person --"
Kate interrupts him, "In fact, he's not a person at all, is he?" She asks if they want to help themselves, "or go down with the boss?"
Wes and Cordy stand in front of her, arms crossed, refusing to answer.
Kate notices Gunn and asks, "New player?"
Cordy says he's a friend.
Kate wants to know his name.
Gunn gives his name.
Kate demands to see some identification and asks if Gunn has any "priors".
He says he doesn't remember then hands over his driver's license.
Kate hands it off to a cop and tells him to run it through the computer.
Wes starts to say something, "Listen, whatever you think Angel did, I'm sure there's a --"
She cuts him off, "Who's Darla?"
Angel has taken Darla to the underground temple where the gang had defeated the demon earlier. He drags her down the steps and into the cavernous space, then hurls her ahead of him. He tells her he knows now that Darla was what W&H raised in that box and that she's human.
Darla looks to the floor where she sees the remains of the demon that was killed earlier.
Angel reckons W&H they think he won't kill her because she's human. He figures they know him as well as they think they do.
Darla runs from him, he chases her. He wonders if she can feel the place, what it was like before it was excavated. He notes it was a convent. He asks if she remembers how much he likes convents.
Darla crosses herself.
Angel laughs. He thinks they're both too old for games. He wants to talk to the "real" her. He morphs into vamp face, rushes toward her, grabs her and slams her against a pillar. He tears her blouse and tells her to scream all she wants as he teases her neck, moving his lips upward alongside it. He then buries his face in her neck but doesn't bite her.
Darla doesn't intend to scream, she's enjoying herself. She grabs him and kisses him then pulls back and smiles, "There's my boy."
She kisses him again, intensely.
At the hotel Lockley has the sheet on Gunn, he has priors.
Cordy insists Gunn is a good man, she's sure the crimes listed were a long time ago.
Kate confirms some of them happened when he was a minor but adds, "and some of it was in the last two weeks."
Cordy hasn't much to say to that, "Oh."
Kate offers some advice, "Word to the wise, Charles? Hanging out with these two and their creature of the night boss won't be good for the resumé."
Gunn sarcastically notes he can see her concern for him.
Cordy suggests they don't get off track, telling Kate they want to find Angel as much as she does.
Kate is sure they don't, they're more interested in protecting him even though he's "lost it." She says he stalked the Kramer woman because he thought she was this Darla person from his past. Mrs. Kramer begged him to stay away and he broke down her door and murdered her husband. She's read about Angelus ("Somnambulist"), she knows what he is and she knows he hasn't changed.
Gunn's wheels are turning. He reminds Lockley that Angel is still a vampire which begs the question, how did he get into the house to kill the husband without an invitation. He asks if the wife invited him in.
Kate answers, "Of course she didn't invite him --"
Cordy jumps in to say that the only way Angel could get into that house without being invited would be if the real owners were dead. It's what Angel has been saying all along, she isn't DeEtta Kramer.
Kate remains selectively oblivious, "You're grasping at straws."
Wes brings over a book and asks, "Are we?" He shows Lockley an illustration, a 100 year old daguerreotype of Darla. He asks if she looks familiar.
Back at the temple, Angel and Darla are still kissing. He pulls away from her and backs away, "That's enough." .
She laughs and follows, "I'm pretty familiar with the international sign for enough and you have a ways to go." She pushes him back up against a pillar. He grabs her arm and pushes her back. She enjoys herself, "You're hurting me .. I like it.". She pulls away and runs a short distance from him.
Angel morphs back into human face and follows after her, "What's the play, Darla? What kind of game are you running?"
She says she's just having some fun, she reckons he knows how that feels.
Angel knows there's more to it than that, "Wolfram and Hart didn't bring you back for fun. The dreams, the frame job. What's the big plan? Get me so screwed up, I go bad again?"
Darla admits it's trite, "But what do you expect, they're only human."
Angel smiles, "You'd better embrace that mediocrity, honey, you're talking about your own kind now."
She walks over to him flirtatiously, "But I'm still me." She embraces him roughly, "I remember everything, Angel. Everything we did, everything we can do."
He strokes her face, "Yeah, but the bitch is --" He gently pushes her away, "You have a soul now." He walks past her, "Pretty soon, those memories are going to start eating away at you. No matter how hard you try, you won't be able to escape the truth of what you were. Believe me, I know."
She walks up to him seductively, places one hand on his back and the other inside of his shirt, "You can escape. You can escape it all. Remember what it's like to get lost, huh? Every thought a million miles away. Every part of your being, alive." She moves in front of him, standing against him, "All you have to do is let me give you one moment of happiness."
Angel tells her, "You took me places, showed me things. You blew the top off my head. But you never made me happy."
Darla backs away, upset, "But that .. that .. cheerleader did?". She reminds him they shared everything for 150 years, so how can he now say she never made him happy? She wonders how he can say "never."
Angel says she can't understand.
Darla reckons she understands just fine, "Guy gets a taste of something fresh and he thinks he's touching God."
Angel starts to explain, "It wasn't about --"
Darla cuts him off, "Oh you bet your ass it was. There was a time, in the early years, when you would have said I was the definition of bliss. Buffy wasn't happiness, she was just new."
Angel chuckles, amused by her jealousy, "You know, you're getting awfully bent about this, Darla. I couldn't feel that with you because I didn't have a soul. But then I got a second chance, just like you have."
Darla isn't quite ready to give up as she snipes, "What a poster child for soulfullness you are." Her tone softens as she moves back to him and grabs him, pleading, "This is no life, Angel. Before you got neutered, you weren't just any vampire, you were a legend. Nobody could keep up with you, not even me. You don't learn that kind of darkness, it's innate. It was in you before we ever met." She nuzzles his neck, "Now, you said you can smell me? Well, I can smell you, too. My boy is still in there and he wants out."
Angel stares straight ahead.
Back at the hotel, the cops have finished searching the place. They report to Kate, they didn't find Angel. She directs them to take up positions on the perimeter, in case he returns. She sarcastically says she'll be sure to note the cooperation of Wes, Cordy and Gunn in the report.
Cordelia tells her they solved the case for her. If she finds out who killed the Kramers, they'll have their murderer.
Kate says they don't get it.
Gunn wonders what, "The fact that he's innocent?"
Kate answers sharply, "The fact that while you're fighting your big battles of good and evil? The innocent are the ones that get caught in the crossfire. Those are the ones that I care about. Like that man tonight, or like the real owners of that house if what you say is true. And those are the ones that I chalk up to your boss."
Wes protests, "You can't blame Angel for --" A disdainful glare from Kate causes him to pause a moment before continuing, "He's trying to do what's right."
Kate sarcastically responds, "That's right, he's good. I keep forgetting. I'm sorry, and why did he kidnap that woman again?"
Nobody offers an answer. Kate leaves.
Back at the underground temple, it's now day. Angel tells Darla she will feel what she's done, the man she got killed
Darla scoffs, "Please. He was an actor."
Angel tells her he's serious.
She turns to face him, "Yeah, like a heart attack. And just about as much fun."
He tells her he'll kill her if she harms anyone else.
She wonders if that isn't against his code or something, killing a human being.
He's willing to make an exception.
She walks up to stand close in front of him, "You're gonna miss those dreams, honey. You should have heard the things you said on your sleep. Nasty things, Angel. Things like --"
He interrupts her by grabbing her by the throat as he tells her to "stop".
As she pulls out a wooden cross and presses it against his chest she says, "No. You stop."
They have a standoff for a moment, Angel clutching her throat, his flesh sizzling as it burns from the cross pressed against it.
Darla tells him, "See? No matter how good a boy you are, God doesn't want you ..."
Angel finally gives in to the pain and releases her, backing away.
She finishes what she was saying, "But I still do." She runs up the sun washed stairs toward the ground above.
She pauses part way up and turns back to Angel, "What? No good-bye kiss?" She smiles and walks the rest of the way up the steps leaving Angel alone in the shadows.
That night, at the hotel, Angel is sitting in a chair in his room, pensive. There's a knock on the door. Angel is in no rush to answer it.
Cordy calls out, telling him "It's us!"
Angel gets up and opens it.
Cordy says they haven't seen him all day, they were just wondering if everything is okay. Cordy has her hands behind her back, Wes' are in his pockets.
Angel says he didn't turn.
Cordy says she was never worried about that but implies Wesley was as she nudges him, shoving the tranquilizer gun she's been concealing behind her back into his hand.
Wes starts to explain the gun wasn't his idea as it becomes visible in his hand.
Angel asks if there was anything else.
Cordy says there isn't.
As Angel starts to close the door, Wes speaks up, "Angel, be careful."
Angel asks what he means.
Wes answers, "It's just .. with Darla back, in league with Wolfram and Hart, there are a lot of forces arrayed against you. There's going to be trouble.
Angel chuckles, "There's going to be a lot of trouble. And I say, bring it on."
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| Written by: David Greenwalt | Original Air Date: October 24, 2000 |
Angel enters the lobby of the hotel, Cordy and Wes are working at the desk. Angel sits down on the couch. Cordy says he must be tired from sleeping for three days.
Cordy and Wes are going over the books, Cordelia noting they ran out of money last week.
Wes wonders where the money went.
Cordelia lists the expenses, including her salary, of course.
Wes notices she didn't include his salary in her list.
Cordelia offers every time he finds something in one of his research books they could pay him $10 or give him a chicken pie.
Wes isn't impressed with the idea. He suggests perhaps she could have a vision.
Cordy explains that it's not like she can just get hit on the head and make a vision occur.
Wesley offers to give it a try as he lifts the large book he's holding.
Angel tells them to knock it off as he lays back on the couch. He reckons something will come up.
Cordy has a vision. Wes and Angel rush to her.
The vision shows robed figures fighting with each other as a demon looks on.
Cordy paces as Wes looks through his books seeking the demon she's described.
Angel sits back down on the couch behind them.
Cordy tells Wes they need to find the place, what she saw was humans killing each other. She thinks they're fighting over how to worship the demon in the vision.
Angel has a daydream of Darla, attired and coifed as she was back in the day, sitting on his lap. She tells him she missed him and they kiss.
Angel suddenly jumps off the couch, getting Wes and Cordy's attention. He says he didn't just fall asleep, he's there, he needs a reminder of what they were doing.
Wes says they were trying to figure out where the place is Cordy saw in her vision.
Cordelia describes the place she saw in her vision, some kind of temple. It's underground, like in a tank and it's full of pillars.
The description rings a bell with Angel. It was a convent, St. Bridget's, constructed on native burial grounds. The place is cursed, there had been several murders there in recent years then the place burned to the ground. He says that was nothing compared to what happened at "Our Lady of Lochenbee."
Wesley and Cordelia just look at him.
Angel explains his knowledge of the subject by saying he's "got a thing for convents." He tells them the state bought the land and built a water tank there. He says to call Gunn, they'll need everyone.
At the temple, the red and black robed guys are fighting each other with swords as the demon looks on. The gang enters, the combatants seem oblivious to the intrusion.
Gunn watches the disciples fighting, having second thoughts about getting involved for what he's being paid.
Angel determines it's a Thrall demon, kill it, the thrall is broken, the robed guys will stop killing each other.
Wes thinks it could be tricky.
Cordy observes at least the robed guys are fighting each other and not --
Her comment is interrupted as the demon notices their presence and announces as much to its followers. They stop fighting each other and rush Angel and crew.
Fight ensues with the gang doing most of the fighting while Angel beats the pulp out of one guy who hit him from behind.
Gunn tries to get his help, but Angel is only focused on beating the guy he has on the ground. Gunn manages to bury an ax in the demon, killing it and ending the fighting.
Even after the demon is defeated, Angel continues beating the guy on the floor.
Wesley pulls him off, telling him it's over.
As they leave the underground temple, Gunn wonders what happened to "team work".
Angel dismisses his concerns, saying the job got done. He tosses Cordy his car keys and tells her to take it while he walks off by himself.
Gunn wants to know what's going on.
Wes says Angel hasn't been sleeping well.
Cordy offers he's off his "game."
Gunn doesn't see what they do as a "game."
Angel is walking down the crowded promenade.
He senses something and turns to look across the way where he sees Darla. As he walks parallel to her, he has memory flashes of the dreams.
London, 1860
Angelus walks down a street crowded with people, horses and carriages and stops at the entrance to an alleyway. He senses something and smiles. Darla steps out of the alley and takes his extended hand. He thought they were to meet elsewhere.
She says she ran into someone and looks back to a dead guy in the alley. She knew him, a Lord, he was propositioning a prostitute, arguing over price. She says she dislikes cheap royalty as she dabs lightly at the blood still on her lips.
Angelus tastes the blood on her lips, smiles, noting they all taste the same to him. He asks Darla why she killed the prostitute.
Darla answers, she just liked her.
She has a surprise for Angelus. She leads him onto the street.
From behind, he sees a middle aged couple accompanied by three young women. He notes the three daughters and wonders if that is his 'surprise.'
Darla says not quite.
He especially likes one in particular, her purity and innocence. He wonders if Darla found him a saint.
Darla tells him she's something better, the girl has "the sight."
The young woman seems to sense something and turns around, a look of concern cast across her face. It's Drusilla. She turns back to her sisters and protectively rushes them along.
Angelus is intrigued and excited by her innocence and her ability to see the future, to know what will happen to her. He figures she will provide a unique challenge. He's anxious to go after her as he begins to follow, but Darla stops him, urging him to be patient.
On the promenade, Angel is still following Darla, but his view gets momentarily blocked by a guy in a large hot dog suit and he loses her in the crowd.
At the hotel, Cordy and Wes are interviewing a potential client, Harold, who has come in looking for Angel. He tells them his wife, Claire, gets abducted by aliens regularly.
Wes and Cordy are incredulous.
Harold says she just disappears, but she always comes back in one or two days.
Wes wonders what Harold wants them to do.
Harold says he trusts his wife but he found a receipt for a hotel after one of her abduction weekends. He doesn't want to think what may be true if it's not aliens.
Cordy looks toward Wes and assures Harold they can get to the bottom of it.
Angel comes in and walks on by without stopping as Wes and Cordy indicate to Harold Angel has arrived.
Harold calls to Angel, asking if he thinks his wife is cheating on him.
Angel says "probably" and keeps walking till he reaches the desk.
Wes covers and hurriedly escorts Harold out of the hotel.
Cordy tells Angel that's no way to treat a client, especially one who can afford to pay. She sits at the computer, talks on about what just happened while Angel comes up behind her, puts his face close to her hair and brings his hand up to touch it.
Cordy is freaked. She pulls away but when he doesn't stop, she jumps up and tells him she doesn't like the invasion of her personal space.
Wesley comes over, concerned, wondering what's going on.
Cordy tells him Angel was feeling her hair.
Angel apologizes, saying he's been out of it because of "her". He tells them he saw her in town.
Cordelia thinks he talking about Buffy.
He tells her it wasn't Buffy, it was Darla.
Wes knows the name and who she is.
Angel tells them he's been dreaming about her, he thought he was going crazy but she's alive and she's in town.
Wes says it's impossible, it couldn't be Darla, she's dust.
Angel knows this but he's also sure it was her he saw.
Wes says vampires don't come back from the dead.
Angel points out he did and he knows who he saw, he's not crazy.
Wes asks where he saw her.
Angel answers, "Right between the clowns and the big talking hot dog." Off Wes and Cordy's looks, he adds she was walking on the promenade.
Wes thinks maybe the dreams are because Angel is feeling guilt for dusting his sire.
Angel reckons maybe he's dreaming about her because she's there.
Wes offers perhaps Angel thinks she's there because he's been dreaming about her.
Darla is in Lindsey's office at Wolfram & Hart. She says Angel is coming unglued.
Lindsey is pleased with the news, he realizes it takes a lot of work to unravel someone with Angel's strengths and weaknesses.
Darla knows Angel since she was responsible for the creation of many of those strengths and weaknesses.
Lindsey tells her they are counting on that since nobody knows Angel like Darla does, especially the side of him that interests W&H.
Darla wonders what the plan is.
Lindsey tells her they don't want him dead, they want him dark.
Darla looks at Lindsey's prosthetic hand, she wonders what it feels like. She touches it, running her fingertips along the surface, noting its smoothness and the fact he doesn't feel anything.
Lindsey notes he doesn't feel anything in his hand.
Darla moves away from him, across the office where she fingers a scales of justice sculpture.
Lindsey asks how it feels to see Angel again, considering he betrayed her.
She says it's not the betrayal that eats at her, it's the waste of all that power because of a soul. She'd like to "eat his eyeballs."
Lindsey reminds her that's not the plan, but if she can't restrain herself, well, he wouldn't have a problem with that.
Darla thinks Lindsey is "fun, for a human."
He says he, and others, have a special interest in Angel.
At the police station, a detective drops a manila envelope off at Kate Lockley's desk. She opens it and finds a picture of the Hyperion with an'"Angel Investigations" business card paper clipped to it and a sticky note attached saying simply, "He's moved."
In the bar of a hotel, Cordelia is dressed in a skimpy cocktail waitress outfit. Claire is meeting with her lover as Wes covertly snaps pictures of them and Angel listens in on their conversations through a bugging device Cordy has stacked in a pile of napkins and laid nearby.
As they leave the bar and head upstairs to a room, Angel intercepts them. As Cordy looks on in surprise, Wes hides his face behind the newspaper he's holding.
Angel takes the camera away from Wes and tells Claire and her lover that they've been following them all day and listening in. He doesn't like doing it, it's tacky. He tells her that her husband knows what's going on so either go home or leave him, doesn't matter. He tosses the camera to the boyfriend.
The boyfriend and Claire depart.
Cordelia jumps Angel for wrecking the case, they had a paying client.
Angel thinks there are some things that aren't worth it. He looks across the room to see Darla getting up from a table. He intercepts her and grabs her wallet. He wonders if she's trying to pass for human.
Darla plays dumb, she doesn't know who he is, who this "Darla" person is or what he's talking about. She tries to walk away, he grabs her by the arm.
He tells her he knows her voice, he knows her scent. She tries again to leave but he grabs her arm more forcefully. He says whatever her game is, she isn't going to win. Hotel security approaches and asks if things are okay.
Darla tells him she's being accosted. She claims her name is DeEtta Kramer and her husband is waiting outside for her.
Angel tells her he knows it's her and he knows she's not going to walk out into the sunlight.
The security guy attempts to intervene, Angel throws him off.
Darla screams "Stephen!" and runs across the way to a man who just entered. He embraces her as they stand in a wash of very bright, and very direct, sunlight.
Back at the hotel, Cordy complains about the situation as Angel picks up the phone book and starts going through it.
Wesley points out that they saw the woman in direct sunlight so obviously Angel was mistaken, she couldn't be Darla. He assures Angel he and Cordy will help him through this.
Cordy isn't supportive, "Right. You're crazy. You need professional help."
Angel is still determined. It was Darla, she's back and she's human but he still knows her scent.
Wes doesn't think Angel can just sniff someone and tell anything.
Angel proves his point by sniffing in Wesley's general direction and observing that Wes had sex the previous night with a bleached blonde.
Wes is shocked.
Cordelia is also surprised, not that Angel could tell what had happened, but that Wesley actually had sex.
Angel has proven his point, Wes no longer questions the accuracy of Angel's sense of smell.
Angel can't find the name DeEtta Kramer in the phone book. He tells Cordy to do a deed search for DeEtta and Stephen Kramer. He'll try some other avenues.
He starts to leave, then stops and returns to the lobby desk. He asks Wesley for some cash for the cover charge.
Angel is singing, badly, at the Karaoke bar.
He finishes and asks the Host to tell him what he read. He has nothing to offer. Angel wants to know what he saw.
The Host says he saw many things but he'll only say that Angel is headed for trouble.
Angel wants to know why he won't help him by telling him where Darla is.
The Host says he sets people on their paths and this is way outside of Angel's path. He tells him to forget her, that road leads to a dark place.
Angel demands to know where Darla is.
The Host dismisses him, "I know you're not going to start anything in here. You're a good boy." He gets up from the table, "Have a drink before you go, it's on me." He leaves.
Angel calls Cordelia, asking if she's found an address for the Kramer's.
She starts to say something but he cuts her off, he just wants the address. She's provides him with the house number.
Angel tells her he's got it and snaps his phone shut. He notices one of the demon patrons at the bar staring and stares back, "What are you looking at?" Angel departs the bar.
At the hotel, Cordy hangs up the phone and tells Wes Angel hung up on her.
Wes steps up to the lobby desk beside Cordy, "You really stood up to him." He mocks her in a high pitched tone, "The next time I talk to him, I won't weenie out like you, Wesley."
Cordy warns him not to start with her and notes if she sounds like that, he should shoot her. She notices Wes pull a pistol from behind the desk and tells him she was just kidding.
Wes informs her it's a tranquilizer gun and it's not for her as he loads it.
Cordy wonders if that will be sufficient to deal with Angelus.
Wes thinks he should probably call Gunn.
Cordy slides him the phone.
Angel is outside the Kramer house, looking in through the window. Inside, Darla and the actor hired by W&H to play her "husband" are sitting at the table. He's concerned about whether or not he's playing the part correctly. Darla assures him he's doing fine, telling him to "just eat."
Another employee of W&H is standing watch near the kitchen, an earpiece in his ear.
The actor playing "Stephen" is still wondering whether he's playing the role properly. He notes the lasagna smells delicious but he's just going to pretend to eat it, he has to watch his weight.
Darla is becoming noticeably irritated with his babbling.
He asks her if Angel is watching them right now.
Darla answers, "Just nod and smile pleasantly, Stephen."
He wonders what Angel did to her, nothing she's going to a lot of trouble to get back at him. He adds he doesn't mind, work is work.
Darla brushes her hair back, revealing an earpiece snugly fit into one ear.
"Stephen" continues babbling about a previous job he had.
Darla has had enough, she reaches under the table puts his crotch in a vice grip. He gasps in pain. She smiles as she tells him, "If you don't shut up? I'm going to kill you."
"Stephen" understands, "Okay."
She tells Lindsey, who is listening in through a bugging device, that Angel is there, she can feel him.
Lindsey tells her they're aware of it, give them a little time to set things in motion.
She tells him to hurry it up.
"Stephen" asks who she's talking to.
She glares at him in response.
He decides best not to ask questions.
Back at the hotel, Gunn looks at the tranquilizer gun, chains and manacles Wes has piled on the desk. Wes assures him they're just taking precautions in case, "When push comes to shove, Angel's .. uh .. we trust him."
Gunn picks up the tranquilizer gun and looks at it, "I see."
Cordy, sitting at her desk behind the reception desk, says it's not like he turns evil every time he gets cranky.
Gunn is looking for an explanation of that, "He gets evil?"
Wesley stops looking through a large book lying open on the desk and explains there are forces that can cause Angel to revert back to the vampire he was, Angelus, before he was ensouled.
Gunn asks, "And as evil, bloodsuck vampires go, how would you rate Angelus?"
Wesley answers, "Historically, as bad as they come. Especially when he was with his sire, Darla."
Cordy gets up from her desk and walks over to the reception desk. She tells Gunn they're currently researching to see if Darla has some kind of "resurrection powers."
Gunn reckons they're saying :Angel and Darla together are double the trouble.
Wes confirms that, "They rampaged through half the known world until Angel got a soul."
Cordy sums it up, "Imagine Bonnie and Clyde if they had 150 years to get it right."
Gunn asks how bad it can get if Angel returns to his old ways.
Sisters of Mercy Convent, 1860
A disheveled Angelus is in a room in the convent, looking like he's been busy.
Darla enters, having noted the dead nuns on her way in. The violence is an aphrodisiac for her. They kiss.
Drusilla is in the corner of the room, crying and rambling.
Darla is annoyed by her presence. She thought Angelus had killed her.
He tells her he only killed her family, Dru is special, he has plans for her.
He throws Darla onto the floor, they kiss.
Dru cowers in the corner, terrified, repeating "snake in the woodshed" over and over as Darla and Angelus roll around on the floor with each other.
Darla wants to know if they'll kill her now or later.
Angelus pushes her up to a sitting position, straddling him, then sits up as well.. He tells her neither, he intends to turn her. Killing is too merciful. Once it's over, there's no more pain.
Darla isn't sure turning her is wise, since she's crazy.
Angelus likes the idea, "Eternal torment." He throws Darla back down to the floor, beneath him, and asks, "Am I learning?"
Even Darla seems briefly taken aback by the depths of his cruelty.
He and Darla have sex on the floor in front of Dru as she sobs.
Present
Angel looks on from outside the Kramer's house at Darla and her "husband" inside.
Darla gets up and walks into the kitchen, her 'husband' close behind. She tosses the dishes she's carrying onto the floor, breaking them. She's impatient and tired of waiting.
In his office, Lindsey tells her to go for it, and to have fun.
Darla picks up the phone and calls 911. She frantically tells the operator her name (DeEtta Kramer) and gives the address for the house. She says a man has been outside the house, he's breaking in, he's going to kill them. She screams very convincingly for help.
The actor playing her husband isn't up for this. He wants out.
Darla tells the W&H employee who's been in the house with them to "do it."
The guy morphs into vamp face, hits Darla across the face and kills the "husband."
Darla screams for help, Angel breaks down the door and rushes into the house.
Darla, who is laying over the body of her "husband", throws herself back into the chair behind her and begs Angel not to hurt her, "What did you do? Why did you? He was my husband!"
Lindsey listens in, a smile on his face.
Darla continues pleading with Angel not to hurt her as the police come in, guns drawn and pointed at Angel's back. Darla slides down to the floor and lays over the body of the actor, sobbing.
Angel starts to turn to face the cops but is ordered to keep his back to them, face the wall. He complies. The officer orders him to drop to his knees.
Angel spreads his arms out to the sides, looks at Darla and warns her, "You'll pay for this." He abruptly bolts, making a run down the hall as the officers shoot him several times in the back. He leaps up through the attic opening. One officer follows as reinforcements arrive.
Another officer hears footsteps and realizes Angel is running across the roof. He sees Angel outside the window, landing after jumping off the roof. He rushes outside with the other officers in an attempt to catch Angel.
Darla smiles as the cops go after him.
Outside the house, Darla is playing the role of innocent, shaken victim with Kate Lockley. She doesn't understand how the intruder was shot and just got away.
Kate explains, it, "Adrenaline, they chased him for 16 blocks." She assures Darla he's long gone, he won't hurt her. She notes being told by one of her officers that Darla had recognized the man and said his name was Angel.
Kate is buying the act as Darla plays her masterfully. She says he called himself Angel. He began following her several weeks ago, told her he helped the helpless. She claims she told him she didn't need any help. He kept calling her "Darla" and telling her he knew her from long ago. She continues, saying he showed up at the hotel where she and her husband were having lunch earlier and then showed up there at the house that evening. She says she told him to stay out, "But he just broke in and ... this is gonna sound crazy ... there was something wrong with his face ... and he was biting ..."
Kate assures her she's not crazy, "and I want you to know I will find him and he will pay for what he did."
Darla thanks her then smiles as Kate turns her back and walks over to an officer..
Angel grabs Darla from a tree limb above, cups his hand over her mouth and pulls her away.
Back at the hotel, Gunn is still processing the good/bad Angel thing.
Wes says it's a little difficult to deal with at first, they've all been through that adjustment.
Cordy points out that he's good 99% of the time and he's been good to both her and Wes.
Gunn admires loyalty but if Angelus shows up, he intends to kill him.
Kate and the SWAT team burst into the hotel, weapons drawn, looking for Angel. She directs them to search the place and warns them Angel is very dangerous, "Bullets won't necessarily do the trick." She informs them to call for her if they see him.
Wesley wonders if she's got a warrant to toss the place.
She says she doesn't need one since Angel just murdered some guy and kidnapped his wife. She reckons that provides probable cause.
Cordy says he wouldn't do that.
Wes adds his agreement, "He's not the type of person --"
Kate interrupts him, "In fact, he's not a person at all, is he?" She asks if they want to help themselves, "or go down with the boss?"
Wes and Cordy stand in front of her, arms crossed, refusing to answer.
Kate notices Gunn and asks, "New player?"
Cordy says he's a friend.
Kate wants to know his name.
Gunn gives his name.
Kate demands to see some identification and asks if Gunn has any "priors".
He says he doesn't remember then hands over his driver's license.
Kate hands it off to a cop and tells him to run it through the computer.
Wes starts to say something, "Listen, whatever you think Angel did, I'm sure there's a --"
She cuts him off, "Who's Darla?"
Angel has taken Darla to the underground temple where the gang had defeated the demon earlier. He drags her down the steps and into the cavernous space, then hurls her ahead of him. He tells her he knows now that Darla was what W&H raised in that box and that she's human.
Darla looks to the floor where she sees the remains of the demon that was killed earlier.
Angel reckons W&H they think he won't kill her because she's human. He figures they know him as well as they think they do.
Darla runs from him, he chases her. He wonders if she can feel the place, what it was like before it was excavated. He notes it was a convent. He asks if she remembers how much he likes convents.
Darla crosses herself.
Angel laughs. He thinks they're both too old for games. He wants to talk to the "real" her. He morphs into vamp face, rushes toward her, grabs her and slams her against a pillar. He tears her blouse and tells her to scream all she wants as he teases her neck, moving his lips upward alongside it. He then buries his face in her neck but doesn't bite her.
Darla doesn't intend to scream, she's enjoying herself. She grabs him and kisses him then pulls back and smiles, "There's my boy."
She kisses him again, intensely.
At the hotel Lockley has the sheet on Gunn, he has priors.
Cordy insists Gunn is a good man, she's sure the crimes listed were a long time ago.
Kate confirms some of them happened when he was a minor but adds, "and some of it was in the last two weeks."
Cordy hasn't much to say to that, "Oh."
Kate offers some advice, "Word to the wise, Charles? Hanging out with these two and their creature of the night boss won't be good for the resumé."
Gunn sarcastically notes he can see her concern for him.
Cordy suggests they don't get off track, telling Kate they want to find Angel as much as she does.
Kate is sure they don't, they're more interested in protecting him even though he's "lost it." She says he stalked the Kramer woman because he thought she was this Darla person from his past. Mrs. Kramer begged him to stay away and he broke down her door and murdered her husband. She's read about Angelus ("Somnambulist"), she knows what he is and she knows he hasn't changed.
Gunn's wheels are turning. He reminds Lockley that Angel is still a vampire which begs the question, how did he get into the house to kill the husband without an invitation. He asks if the wife invited him in.
Kate answers, "Of course she didn't invite him --"
Cordy jumps in to say that the only way Angel could get into that house without being invited would be if the real owners were dead. It's what Angel has been saying all along, she isn't DeEtta Kramer.
Kate remains selectively oblivious, "You're grasping at straws."
Wes brings over a book and asks, "Are we?" He shows Lockley an illustration, a 100 year old daguerreotype of Darla. He asks if she looks familiar.
Back at the temple, Angel and Darla are still kissing. He pulls away from her and backs away, "That's enough." .
She laughs and follows, "I'm pretty familiar with the international sign for enough and you have a ways to go." She pushes him back up against a pillar. He grabs her arm and pushes her back. She enjoys herself, "You're hurting me .. I like it.". She pulls away and runs a short distance from him.
Angel morphs back into human face and follows after her, "What's the play, Darla? What kind of game are you running?"
She says she's just having some fun, she reckons he knows how that feels.
Angel knows there's more to it than that, "Wolfram and Hart didn't bring you back for fun. The dreams, the frame job. What's the big plan? Get me so screwed up, I go bad again?"
Darla admits it's trite, "But what do you expect, they're only human."
Angel smiles, "You'd better embrace that mediocrity, honey, you're talking about your own kind now."
She walks over to him flirtatiously, "But I'm still me." She embraces him roughly, "I remember everything, Angel. Everything we did, everything we can do."
He strokes her face, "Yeah, but the bitch is --" He gently pushes her away, "You have a soul now." He walks past her, "Pretty soon, those memories are going to start eating away at you. No matter how hard you try, you won't be able to escape the truth of what you were. Believe me, I know."
She walks up to him seductively, places one hand on his back and the other inside of his shirt, "You can escape. You can escape it all. Remember what it's like to get lost, huh? Every thought a million miles away. Every part of your being, alive." She moves in front of him, standing against him, "All you have to do is let me give you one moment of happiness."
Angel tells her, "You took me places, showed me things. You blew the top off my head. But you never made me happy."
Darla backs away, upset, "But that .. that .. cheerleader did?". She reminds him they shared everything for 150 years, so how can he now say she never made him happy? She wonders how he can say "never."
Angel says she can't understand.
Darla reckons she understands just fine, "Guy gets a taste of something fresh and he thinks he's touching God."
Angel starts to explain, "It wasn't about --"
Darla cuts him off, "Oh you bet your ass it was. There was a time, in the early years, when you would have said I was the definition of bliss. Buffy wasn't happiness, she was just new."
Angel chuckles, amused by her jealousy, "You know, you're getting awfully bent about this, Darla. I couldn't feel that with you because I didn't have a soul. But then I got a second chance, just like you have."
Darla isn't quite ready to give up as she snipes, "What a poster child for soulfullness you are." Her tone softens as she moves back to him and grabs him, pleading, "This is no life, Angel. Before you got neutered, you weren't just any vampire, you were a legend. Nobody could keep up with you, not even me. You don't learn that kind of darkness, it's innate. It was in you before we ever met." She nuzzles his neck, "Now, you said you can smell me? Well, I can smell you, too. My boy is still in there and he wants out."
Angel stares straight ahead.
Back at the hotel, the cops have finished searching the place. They report to Kate, they didn't find Angel. She directs them to take up positions on the perimeter, in case he returns. She sarcastically says she'll be sure to note the cooperation of Wes, Cordy and Gunn in the report.
Cordelia tells her they solved the case for her. If she finds out who killed the Kramers, they'll have their murderer.
Kate says they don't get it.
Gunn wonders what, "The fact that he's innocent?"
Kate answers sharply, "The fact that while you're fighting your big battles of good and evil? The innocent are the ones that get caught in the crossfire. Those are the ones that I care about. Like that man tonight, or like the real owners of that house if what you say is true. And those are the ones that I chalk up to your boss."
Wes protests, "You can't blame Angel for --" A disdainful glare from Kate causes him to pause a moment before continuing, "He's trying to do what's right."
Kate sarcastically responds, "That's right, he's good. I keep forgetting. I'm sorry, and why did he kidnap that woman again?"
Nobody offers an answer. Kate leaves.
Back at the underground temple, it's now day. Angel tells Darla she will feel what she's done, the man she got killed
Darla scoffs, "Please. He was an actor."
Angel tells her he's serious.
She turns to face him, "Yeah, like a heart attack. And just about as much fun."
He tells her he'll kill her if she harms anyone else.
She wonders if that isn't against his code or something, killing a human being.
He's willing to make an exception.
She walks up to stand close in front of him, "You're gonna miss those dreams, honey. You should have heard the things you said on your sleep. Nasty things, Angel. Things like --"
He interrupts her by grabbing her by the throat as he tells her to "stop".
As she pulls out a wooden cross and presses it against his chest she says, "No. You stop."
They have a standoff for a moment, Angel clutching her throat, his flesh sizzling as it burns from the cross pressed against it.
Darla tells him, "See? No matter how good a boy you are, God doesn't want you ..."
Angel finally gives in to the pain and releases her, backing away.
She finishes what she was saying, "But I still do." She runs up the sun washed stairs toward the ground above.
She pauses part way up and turns back to Angel, "What? No good-bye kiss?" She smiles and walks the rest of the way up the steps leaving Angel alone in the shadows.
That night, at the hotel, Angel is sitting in a chair in his room, pensive. There's a knock on the door. Angel is in no rush to answer it.
Cordy calls out, telling him "It's us!"
Angel gets up and opens it.
Cordy says they haven't seen him all day, they were just wondering if everything is okay. Cordy has her hands behind her back, Wes' are in his pockets.
Angel says he didn't turn.
Cordy says she was never worried about that but implies Wesley was as she nudges him, shoving the tranquilizer gun she's been concealing behind her back into his hand.
Wes starts to explain the gun wasn't his idea as it becomes visible in his hand.
Angel asks if there was anything else.
Cordy says there isn't.
As Angel starts to close the door, Wes speaks up, "Angel, be careful."
Angel asks what he means.
Wes answers, "It's just .. with Darla back, in league with Wolfram and Hart, there are a lot of forces arrayed against you. There's going to be trouble.
Angel chuckles, "There's going to be a lot of trouble. And I say, bring it on."
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