An old man casts a body-switching spell on Angel, and enjoys the many pleasures of being eternally young, handsome, and bloodthirsty in Los Angeles while a dying Angel tries to get his body back.
| Airdate: | 15 October 2001 |
| Writer: | Scott Murphy |
| Director: | James A. Contner |
Wesley: This isn't like him.
Cordelia: What? This is totally like him. Doing the mystery dance with some cheap blonde?
Fred: Brunette. She was a cheap brunette.
Cordelia: You're right. This isn't like him.
Behind the Scenes Trivia
Lilah and Angel’s kiss
Stephanie Romanov (Lilah) said of her kissing scene with David Boreanaz in Carpe Noctem:
“However, I was actually nervous before. I may have known David for three years [but] he’d just gotten married and I’m newly married. So it was weird, like all of a sudden you’ve got to kiss your friend. It’s odd, it’s an odd business.”
Cast and Crew Trivia
Rance Howard
Rance Howard played Marcus Roscoe in Carpe Noctem. Born on 17th November, 1928 in Oklahoma, Rance is the father of actors Ron Howard and Clint Howard. His wife Jean Speegle Howard played the ‘real’ Natalie French in the Buffy episode Teacher’s Pet.
Howard has acted in over 100 films, including Cool Hand Luke, The Alamo, Rat Race, A Beautiful Mind, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Abilene, Apollo 13, Mars Attacks!, Far and Away, Cocoon, and Splash. Howard is well known for his role on television in the 1960s tv series Gentle Ben as Henry Broomhauer. He played David Sheridan, the father of Babylon 5 captain John Sheridan.
Character Trivia
Marcus Roscoe
Marcus Roscoe was a resident at the Monserrat Retirement Home in Los Angeles. He used a conjuring stone and an Algerian body-switching spell to swap bodies with young men, in order to have fun and sleep with women. Afterwards, the host melted down to a liquid-like substance. Marcus borrowed Angel’s body, during which he flirted with Fred and kissed Lilah. After losing control of Angel’s body he had a fatal heart attack.
Continuity
Eunuch
Angel is called a ‘eunuch’ twice in the show - by Bryce in Guise Will Be Guise, and by Cordelia in Carpe Noctem.
Music Trivia
Mythology Trivia
References
Carpe Noctem
The Angel episode Carpe Noctem is named after a goth magazine that ran in the 1990s. It was best known for Jhonen Vasquez’s Johnny the Homicidal Maniac comic. The name Carpe Noctem is a pun on the Latin expression ‘carpe diem’ (”seize the day”) meaning “seize the night.”
Goofs
Quotes
Fred: (looking at Cordelia's magazine) Why do girls want to look like that? I spent years in a cave starving, what's their excuse?
Cordelia: She's got the big puppy love. I mean, who wouldn't? You're handsome and brave and heroic, emotionally stunted, erratic, prone to turning evil, and let's face it, a eunuch.
Cordelia: Angel, it's just a figure of speech.
Angel: Find another one.
Cordelia: If Julia Roberts ever makes a realistic movie about being an escort, I think it should be called 'Pretty Skanky Woman'.
Wesley: This isn't like him.
Cordelia: What? This is totally like him. Doing the mystery dance with some cheap blonde?
Fred: Brunette. She was a cheap brunette.
Cordelia: You're right. This isn't like him.
Marcus: You're the one who doesn't seem to know what you had. As far as I can tell, you were the world's worst vampire. Vampires don't help people, you moron! They kill 'em.
Angel: You may have the attitude, and you may have the power, but there's one thing you don't have, and never will. Friends. Four of them, standing behind you with big, heavy things.
Angel: I'll tell you why you have a weak heart Marcus. You never use it.
Fred: Cordelia explained it to me. She said you'd probably just screw it up.