Angel's Secrets

Episode Reviews   

"Sacrifice," Wednesday, April 23, 2003

by Anne

Episode Summary

Angel and the gang escape from the hotel; they seek refuge in the sewer tunnels to hide from a city full of Jasmine's followers. At the hotel, after Jasmine visits Cordelia, Connor finds Cordelia's bed empty. Jasmine explains that Cordelia's blood is a danger to them and that Cordelia is now where Jasmine wants her to be. The A-team runs into a group of warrior teens who were driven underground by the vampires while the sun was darkened. The combined group goes hunting for a monster that snatches Wesley. When Matthew, the youngest member of the group, sees that Angel is a vampire, he gets scared and runs away. Fred and Gunn find him standing outside of the tunnels in the sun; when he doesn't want to go back with them, Gunn knocks him out. They take him back to the group's hideout, but when he wakes up, it's clear he's been infected by Jasmine. He infects the rest of the teens. At the demon's lair, Wesley learns that the demon is preparing a spell using "blood magic" to regain Jasmine's favor; the demon reveals that Jasmine - whom he calls "The Devourer" - does not care for words. The demon unintentionally divulges that the only word she fears is her name. Angel finds the lair and slays the demon. Fred, Gunn, and Lorne, who were running from the teens, find Connor who is accompanied by the National Guard. Fleeing from them, they find Angel and Wesley. As they try to hold back Jasmine's army, Wes activates the key to the demon's world, where the high priest is the one who knows Jasmine's true name. The others convince Angel to go to the other world to find the name; they stay to fight.


Episode Review

This episode was not intended for the squeamish; the title should have been a warning that, in all likelihood, guts would be spilled. "Sacrifice" was also mentioned by the weird-looking demon: it was how he defined love. However, by that definition, for all her talk about love, Jasmine isn't doing very much of it. She controls her followers' minds, using their strengths and their senses for her benefit. She even takes their lives; clearly the followers who "love" her are the ones who are sacrificing.

The demon seemed to believe that a spell using "blood magic" was the way to regain Jasmine's attention, since he asserted that she doesn't care about words. Both of his claims echo the way the Jasmine-possessed Cordelia acted: she tried to convince Connor that good and evil are just words, and although Cordelia did a bit of chanting, it was the bloody handprint that actually sped up Jasmine's arrival.

I guess Angel was taking his own advice when he beat Connor to a bloody pulp; Angel was probably trying to harden his heart and shut Connor out so Jasmine could not use Connor to control him. Still, the connection between them remained, as evidenced by their sensing each other in the tunnels. That's a sign of hope, particularly after Connor had earlier agreed to surrender the pain he had about Angel to Jasmine.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

* Although the demon said Jasmine wasn't impressed with words, as he died he dedicated himself to Jasmine by speaking.

* If Jasmine was so convinced that the gang could do nothing to stop her, why did she have all of her followers chasing them?

* Since Jasmine can heal other people, why didn't she heal Cordelia?


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