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| Episode 9, Season 1 Title: " Hero " Written by: Howard Gordon and Tim Minear Directed by: Tucker Gates Original Air Date: 30 November 1999 Teaser: 
We hear her voice-over as the night skyline of LA unfolds. Cordelia has an idea for a commercial promoting Angel Investigations as she envisions an actress on the brink of success (herself, naturally) as a nervous girl walking down a dark and lonely street, only to be attacked by a thug with a knife. Just when he is the deliver the killing blow, heroic music fills the background, cutting to a silhouette of a lone warrior with his overcoating flapping majestically in the wind. The thug looks up in fear and the hero runs in slow motion towards the thug. The faceless hero makes short work of his opponent and even catches his knife. He turns towards the screen, his face revealed to be the Dark Avenger, who happens to be Angel!
In the office of Angel Investigations, Cordy is holding a camera on Angel. "I'm the Dark Avenger?" he asks in a no-he-doesn't-think-so tone. Cordy tells him that her commercial will get them out of the red or the black and bring in some money, something the agency has very little of. Doyle counters that a high profile commercial about a super hero who can't go out into the daylight might raise suspicions, plus the lack of an investigatorÍs license wouldnÍt help matters. But with no clients and Angel in a funk since Buffys visit, they need to drum up some evil. Cordy agrees with Doyle that Angel is too high profile; they need someone more run of the mill. She picks Doyle instead. Act I:  In the office, Doyle runs through the script Cordy has prepared for the commercial. His delivery is a bit off and he misreads the cue cards as she films his first attempt. Cordy believes their situation is hopeless as long as Angel continues brooding for hours on end. Doyle goes downstairs to talk with him and sees Angel working out on the punching bag. He tells Doyle he just needs time. Doyle thinks he's taking this a bit hard when Buffy was only there for 5 minutes. Angel confides in Doyle that Buffy was there for an entire day and night. He explains how he regained his humanity, but asked the Oracles to make him a vampire again because he and Buffy belong in the world fighting the good fight, something he realized he couldnÍt do as a human being. Doyle confesses he could never have that strength but Angel tells him you never know what's inside you until you are tested. Angel also tells him that the Soldiers of Darkness are coming, harbingers of the End of Days.
That afternoon while sitting on the stairwell in the lobby of AngelÍs building, Doyle tells Cordy about happened to Angel and Buffy. Amazed by his story, she says they shouldn't keep secrets from one another. Doyle uses that as a cue to tell her he's half demon when he gets a vision of a young girl„a Lister demon„running down a dark street being relentlessly pursued by an army of demons. He sees brief fragmented images of more of this girlÍs kind huddled in darkness, living in terror of this army. We see the girl running down a dark street with the demon army on her heels, the cadence of their marching feet announcing their arrival. She is saved by a boy, also one of her kind, and they find a hiding place and watch the army pass them by. Later in a rundown building, Angel and Doyle search for the hiding group of half-breed Lister demons Doyle saw. The building seems empty but Angel can smell their fear, removes a rug, sees a trapdoor, and finds them hiding underneath the floorboards. Their leader explains they are trying to reach a sanctuary and how they were cheated out of passage to an island off Ecuador when they gave a man money in exchange for forged passports, money this same man stole. He looks to Angel as the storied ñPromised Oneî who will save them from the Scourge, the army of purebred demons dressed in Nazi uniforms that hunts half-breeds, in the final days of the 20th century. This is one prophecy of theirs that is not cryptic. Doyle tells Angel that he knows of the Scourge. When he asks him, Doyle replies: ñDeath.î Act II: 
Flash back to Doyle living in a rundown apartment as he tells Angel about the Scourge. Doyle realizes heÍs not alone and pulls out a baseball bat on his uninvited guest. Lucas, a Bracken demon like Doyle, asks for his help and to give him sanctuary. He tells him the Scourge hunts down half-breeds and heÍs one of his kind. Doyle tells him that theyÍre not the same kind, he was raised human, and he wouldnÍt help him.
Lucas leaves and Doyle drifts into a restless slumber. He is jolted awake in the throes of a vision„his first„and sees his people getting massacred. Confused, he gets up to see if it was real. He picks up a small shoe with blood on it that belonged to some child. The child was just the beginning as he sees bodies of Bracken demons, including Lucas, slaughtered and scattered about. In the abandoned building Doyle tells Angel that they can't fight the Scourge, yet Angel agrees to get them to safety. Cordy arrives looking for Angel when the Elder Lister finds her. She screams but Doyle comes out and explains that Angel is securing documents to get them out of the country. Cordy has brought the truck as requested but wonders why they are helping demons. Doyle explains that not all demons are evil. Angel has arranged passage on the Quintessa at Pier 12, Slip 4. It seems the captain of the ship owes Angel money, which heÍll take 50 percent off if he does him this favor. Meanwhile, at the dock Angel convinces the cargo inspector, who is also the captainÍs brother, to obtain a certified document stating the Listers are medical waste being transported in order to protect the ship against search and seizure. He makes clear if something goes wrong, heÍll blame it on him and will be back, not to mention a little ñpuckish.î Back at the building, Rieff, a young Lister has run off not believing Angel can help them. Doyle goes after him as the rest prepare to leave for the ship. Doyle finds Rieff and convinces him to return to his family, but they run into the Scourge. At that same moment, Cordy wheels and deals with the captains in order to get him to wait a little bit longer, agreeing to take off 60 percent of the money he owes Angel instead of 50 percent in order to get him to stay. Act III: 
Doyle and Rieff run from Scourge, who search for them among the buildings, pillaging and burning everything in their path. Doyle transforms into a demon in order to draw the soldiers away from Rieff. Not more than a minute later, Doyle meets up with Angel and they cook up a plan. However, the soldiers have also arrived at the building.
In their old dwelling the Scourge look for the half-breeds, looking in the trapdoor, Angel in vamp-face busts in, holding Doyle as his prisoner. Angel convinces Tiernan, the leader of the Scourge to take him in after Angel shows he is one of them by breaking Doyle's neck. Tiernan agrees and the soldiers take Angel away. Once the coast is clear, Rieff finds Doyle on the floor and believes he is dead, but Doyle arises unhurt and cracks his neck back into place. Back on the Quintessa, the captain informs Cordy they have clearance from the harbor-master. The Elder Lister comes up to Cordy to thank them for what they are doing and inadvertently tells her about Doyle being part-demon, something she never knew. Elsewhere in the street, Tiernan is holding an assembly of the Scourge, rallying his warriors, preaching about their superiority, purity and the erasure of all half-breeds. Angel, now disguised as one of the soldiers in uniform, is listening and is discomfited by what heÍs hearing. The first mate of the Quintessa steps forward, having turned the Listers demonsÍ location over to the Scourge in exchange for money. Tiernan shows this human the power of the Beacon, a hexagonal machine which is their ultimate weapon. Testing it on first mate, who disintegrates before their eyes, Tiernan says the Beacon will detonate and destroy any creature tainted with human blood within a 1/4 mile radius of its ñcleansing light.î Act IV: 
The Scourge run into the street and Angel steals a motorcycle to race to the pier.
At the ship, Doyle arrives with Rieff as Cordy watches for Angel. She tells Doyle that she was worried about him and then slaps him for not telling her he was half-demon. On her list of priorities it fall well below ñshortî and ñpoor.î She tells him it doesnÍt matter and to ask her to dinner, but before he can, Angel arrives and they shove off just as the Scourge gets there. Angel orders everyone to get below as they tries to hold them off. They raise the Beacon and board the ship as Angel fights with several of the soldiers. Angel and Tiernan fall into the shipÍs cargo hold as the Beacon is lowered in place. Angel kills Tiernan but the doors have been locked on the outside, trapping everyone„including Angel, Doyle, and Cordy„within. Angel explains that when turned on The Scourge's machine will kill anything with human blood. The three realize that one of them will have to die in order to save the rest. Angel is ready to make the ultimate sacrifice, but Doyle stops and says he finally understands that this is about the good fight, and the two share a moment of camaraderie. Doyle knows it's his time and punches Angel, knocking him over the rail, and kisses Cordelia. As he does so, a blue spark passes from his lips to hers. His face transforms demonically„something sheÍs never seen before„and says goodbye. Angel makes his way back up to the catwalk and tells Doyle to come back just as he jumps onto the Beacon. Doyle turns around and smiles at Angel and Cordelia, silently telling them both itÍs okay. He resumes his struggle with the cables as the light the Beacon gives off burns him. The Beacon explodes in a blinding flash of light and once it subsides, everyone is safe and alive, except Doyle. Cordelia, in tears, and an awe-struck Angel embrace in shock. At the office the following day Cordy and Angel sadly watch the video she made of Doyle reading for the commercial. At the end of the video, the irony of DoyleÍs words is not lost on Angel and Cordy when they hear him say, ñIs that it? Am I done?î
Summary by CoA Council member, Ned
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