Faith has tricked Angelus into feeding on her, thus giving him a powerful narcotic along with her blood. Now both of them lay near death, observing the turmoil that is Angel’s conscience as they fight against the mystical drug. Meanwhile, the gang brings an old friend from Sunnydale to help with the search for Angel’s lost soul.
Angel: I'm not perfect Faith. Even with a soul I've done things I've wished a thousands times I could take back.
Angelus: Yeah, like those Manilow concerts!
Behind the Scenes Trivia
Angel versus Angelus
David Boreanaz said of filming the Angel/Angelus fight scene in Orpheus:
“That was a probably one of my top five episodes, that one. The filming was all split. They were using a double, but I did all of my dialogue back and forth to the double, with myself.
[To do] all of the angles it went through, I had to time out. The camera [would] move, I’d watch the movement of myself while doing it, and get that down, [so that] actually playing the other, Angelus part, [I’d] understand his movements.
There was a technical challenge to that aspect of it. It took a while. It was a hard episode to shoot.”
Cast and Crew Trivia
Nate Dushku
Eliza Dushku’s brother, Nate Dushku, played the character who shoots the doughnut shop clerk in Orpheus. Nate has also appeared in Kiss Me Again, The Zodiac, Joan of Arcadia, Learning Curves, My Dinner with Jimi, Vampire Clan, Wolf Girl, Undressed, and Felicity.
Character Trivia
Continuity
Angel the puppy
Angel is referred to as a ‘puppy’ on a couple of occasions. In The Wish, vampire Willow keeps Angel locked in a cage as her plaything, and refers to him as “Puppy”. In The Harsh Light of Day, when Parker asks Buffy about the scars on her neck, she replies that they they were caused by an “angry puppy”. They were actually from when Angel bit her in Graduation Day (Part 2).
Puppies are a recurring theme with Angel - in Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered, Giles tells Buffy that one Valentine’s Day, Angel nailed a puppy to something (we don’t find out as Buffy stops him before he can finish). In Orpheus, we see that Angel saved a puppy from being killed in early 1920s Chicago.
Puppy saving
In Unleashed, Fred says of Angel, “Girls, guys… puppies. He’s pretty much an equal-opportunity saver.” This could be a reference to the episode Orpheus, when Faith witnessed Angel’s past life - including saving a puppy.
Willow’s tattoo
In the Angel episode Orpheus, when Willow ducks to catch the little marble, you can see a tattoo on her back.
Music Trivia
Barry Manilow
The first song Angel first sings in Caritas in the episode Judgement is “Mandy” revealing his secret shame - a love of Barry Manilow (”I think it’s kinda pretty”). He also listens to the song in the episode Orpheus, and sings a version for Jasmine in The Magic Bullet.
MacArthur Park
In The Shroud of Rahmon, Angel says, “You know, I’m getting pretty sick of this vampire-killed-my-sister-so-now-I’m-all-entitled song. Don’t you know any others? Like, say, MacArthur Park?” MacArthur Park is a song written by Jimmy Webb. The most famous version is by Donna Summer. We hear the song in the season 4 episode Orpheus, and in the season five finale, Not Fade Away, Lorne sings a high note from MacArthur Park to distract the demons that Lindsay has to kill.
Mythology Trivia
References
Goofs
Quotes
Wes: No other major changes I'm not up on?
Willow: Just little things... so, Fred, what's her story?
Connor: All right, I get it. I messed up.
Faith: Hey, cheer up, punk. That just makes you one of us.
Angelus: Why do I have to go through this again?
Angel: Because maybe its not about you, jackass.
Angelus: Does anyone notice a fight with your alter ego going on?!
Faith: You're reliving Angel's good deeds. You are in hell! Wicked!
Lorne: Speaking of sense, are you on permanent sabbatical from yours?
Willow: Good things come in jars: peanut butter, jelly, those 2-headed fetal pigs at the natural history museum…
Angelus: (to Faith) Is that the nasty little lie that kept those thighs nice and warm in your prison bunk?
Faith: (as Angel listens to 'Mandy') It must kill you that he's got a jones for the power ballad.
Angelus: The concerts were even worse.
Willow: C'mon, everybody loves fetal pigs!
Faith: Break me off a switch son, there's about to be a whuppin'.
Cordelia: Hear me Angelus. Heed my warning. Awaken at once, return from the darkness... or just lay there and let that red headed meddler put your soul back. Whichever.
Fred: All this stuff about bachanals and spells.. Actually I think it's funnier in Latin, you know how that is sometimes.
Willow: I'm seeing someone.
Wesley: I've been... I've changed. I've seen the darkness in myself. I'm not sure you would even begin to understand.
Willow: I flayed a guy alive and tried to destroy the world.
Wesley: Oh. Well... I never flayed anyone... I did keep a woman chained in a closet. I know, it's not the same.
Willow: No, no, that's dark. You've been to a place.
Angel: Faith, listen to me. You saw me drink. It doesn't get much lower than that. And I thought I could make up for it by disappearing.
Angel: I'm not perfect Faith. Even with a soul I've done things I've wished a thousands times I could take back.
Angelus: Yeah, like those Manilow concerts!
Angel: Get up! You've to get up now Faith. You have to fight. I need you to fight. Do you understand what I'm saying?
Gunn: I just wish I could have seen you kick the crap outta Jr. here.
Faith: Yeah, it was pretty funny.
Faith: See, Brits know how to say goodbye. Angel here wanted to hug.
Angel: I did not!
Fred: Does anyone else think their relationship is kinda....icky?
Cordelia: WOW! Are my hormones out of whack! Crazy Pregnant Lady on aisle nine!
Angelus: I think it's time to send you to that puppy saving place in the sky.
Faith: Arf, arf psycho.
Faith: Dude, you just rescued a puppy!
Wesley: Are there forces gathering? Did the call of magic draw you here?
Willow: Oh, no. More like the call of Fred.
Faith: Angel, good to see you. Hate the hair.
Faith: Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?
Angelus: No, but I ate her with it.
Willow: How have you been?
Cordy: Higher power. You?
Willow: Ultimate evil. But I got better.
Willow: (seeing Wes) It's the Marlboro Man! Or at least his extra stubbly, mentally unstable, insomniac first cousin.
Willow: You must be Angel's handsome, yet androgynous, son.
Angel: How ya feelin'?
Faith: Like I did mushrooms and got eaten by a bear.
Angel: That sounds about right.
Cordelia: A coma, huh?
Connor: That's what it looked like when Wesley brought her in.
Cordelia: Like she hasn't pulled that one before.