"A HOLE IN THE WORLD." Angel Episode.
Written and Directed by Joss Whedon
Teaser
Fred and her parents, Roger and Trish Burkle, are packing Fred’s belongings for her trip to Los Angeles to attend UCLA, where she has been accepted into the physics program. Roger warns Fred about the perils of Los Angeles with all those drugs and movie actors. After Roger goes to Fred’s car to check the oil one last time, Fred assures her mother that she will be "dull, boring" and study to "learn everything they know and a few things they don’t."
Cut to Fred holding a flamethrower and screaming like an Amazon. She is joined by Wesley, who shoots one of the bugs attacking Fred. Fred then laments that she cannot take one of the bugs back to the lab to examine it. Wesley asks if she is trying to turn him on. After acknowledging the romantic atmosphere of the dark sewer, Fred kisses Wesley until they are interrupted by Angel and Spike. While fighting in another section of the sewer, Spike impaled Angel on his sword in order to kill another of the bugs. Angel protests that Spike could have just asked him to turn around, but instead just impaled him for the fun of it. Shocked, Spike protests that he would much rather hit Angel with blunt instruments.
Back at Wolfram and Hart, two men bring a sarcophagus into the lab, where Knox is working. When Knox questions where the sarcophagus came from the men reply that their orders are simply to bring it to the lab. Roll credits.
Act 1
In his office, Gunn sings a song from an opera but quickly changes to a hip hop song when he catches Wesley walking into his office. Gunn then tells Wes that he and Fred are getting back together. The look on Wes’s face nearly makes Gunn weep. Gunn lets Wes in on the joke saying that there are "no secrets in the house of pain." Turning to more pressing matters, Gunn shows Wes the information he has been able to find on Lindsey since his attack on Angel. All Gunn could find was the apartment where Lindsey was living under the name of Doyle. Gunn insists that Wesley take the information to Angel.
When Wesley arrives in Angel’s office, he finds Angel and Spike shouting at one another. Wesley asks them if it is something that should be placed before the entire group. Spike asks him "if cavemen and astronauts got into a fight, who would win?" Incredulous, Wes wants to know if that is what they have been shouting about for the last 40 minutes.
While the astronauts versus cavemen debate rages, Knox and Fred analyze the mysterious sarcophagus in the lab. Knox thought that Fred went crazy on eBay again. Fred, however, quickly denies it. Knox promises to put the sarcophagus into containment to prevent Fred from hurting herself with it, because she is seeing Wesley now. Knox walks off, leaving Fred confronting the sarcophagus. Curious, she reaches towards the disk on the top, causing it to open. She inhales some type of dust, and Knox sends Fred down to medical to be checked out.
Spike saunters into Angel’s office, claiming he was pulled out of a promising poker game down in Accounting. Angel tells Spike that having both of them in the same town is not working. When informed that Spike has nowhere else to go, Angel offers to send him anywhere; Wolfram and Hart have offices in every major city in the world. Angel would give him an expense account, cars, whatever he needed to be a champion somewhere else, preferably outer Mongolia. Spike shoots back that he could be a kind of "007 without the poncy tux," agreeing to think about it.
In the lobby Fred and Lorne, discuss the astronauts versus cavemen debate. Fred thinks that the astronauts should have some kind of weapon because the cavemen have fire to use. They are met by Wes, who was looking for an excuse to come and see Fred. Lorne leaves Fred and Wes to their moment, singing "You Are My Sunshine." Fred continues the song, causing Lorne to read her. An instant later Fred collapses into Wes’s arms on the staircase.
Act 2
Fred is in the infirmary, surrounded by Team Angel. She confronts them about her condition, but they are all too comforting in their replies. As the gang leaves to discuss Fred’s condition, Angel and Spike observe Fred and Wes together, giving Angel his first indication that they are a couple. Team Angel meets in the lobby, where Angel informs them that Fred’s organs are cooking and in a few hours, they will liquefy. Everyone gets an assignment: Wesley- research, Gunn-the White Room, and Angel, Spike and Lorne-Lindsey’s apartment.
Team Angel does not make much progress initially. Wes shoots an employee who dares to question him while researching Fred’s condition. Meanwhile, in the White Room, Gunn attempts to talk with the Conduit. The Conduit is no longer in the form of the panther, but is now Gunn. Confronted by himself, Gunn attempts to bargain with the Senior Partners for Fred’s life, offering his own in return. The Conduit refuses, informing Gunn that the Senior Partners are not here for his amusement. In Lindsey’s apartment, Angel, Spike, and Lorne find Eve, but no Lindsey. Angel and Spike interrogate Eve, who claims to know nothing about Fred’s condition, instead asking about Lindsey. Lorne then makes Eve sing to prove that she had nothing to do with Fred illness, telling her that if he "hears one note, one quarter note that tells me you had any involvement, these two won’t even have time to kill you." Eve sings the "LA Song" that Lindsey performed in Caritas (A2018). After Lorne pronounces her clean, Eve tells Angel that Wesley needs to look for the oldest scrolls for the old ones and the Deeper Well.
Upon returning, Wesley informs the gang that the old one Illyria has infected Fred. She is being hollowed out to allow Illyria to claw its way back into the world. Wesley also tells them about the Deeper Well in England, the final resting place for many of the old ones, and where Illyria’s sarcophagus came from. Angel orders the company jet to be prepped so he and Spike can be there in 10 hours, but Knox tells Angel that they can be there in four because they "have really good jets." Lorne offers to pray to the appreciation of Wesley.
Act 3
Wesley enters Fred’s room and finds her missing. He rushes to the lab, where Fred tries to work on her condition. She informs Wes that she spent 5 years in Pylea and will "not be cut down by some monster flu." Her energy exhausted, Fred collapses and asks Wes to take her home.
Angel and Spike are on the plane headed to what Spike refers to as the mother country. Spike tells Angel that after they save Fred they should head down to the West End and take in a show. Angel says that he has never seen Les Miserable, but Spike says that by the end of the first act Angel would be drinking humans again. Angel tells Spike that he cannot loose Fred because he just lost Cordy. Spike assures him that he will not.
Back in Los Angeles, Gunn is on the phone with a client who has healers on their payroll. Knox interrupts Gunn’s conversation, saying they can freeze Fred until they find a cure. When Gunn asks if that will work, Knox offers to test it out. Meanwhile, in Fred’s apartment, Wesley reads while Feed is asleep. Fred wakes up, upset that Wes allowed her to sleep, even for an hour, because that is an hour she does not have now. As her condition deteriorates, Fred becomes more and more agitated. She suddenly realizes that at a time like this she is worried about how crappy she looks. Assured by Wes that she is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen, Fred asks him to read to her.
Angel and Spike land in England to search for the door to the Deeper Well. Finding an oddly shaped tree, Angel and Spike are attacked. Angel asks Spike to hold his hand; Spike realizes that Angel wants to use a tactic that worked for them in St. Petersburg: a clothesline strung between them. Picking up dropped swords from their attackers, Angel and Spike proceed to dispatch them quickly and violently. They are then confronted by the keeper of the Deeper Well, Drogan, the Battle Brand. Drogan tells Spike not to ask him a question, on pain of death. When Spike asks Angel why, Angel tells him that Drogan cannot lie.
Meanwhile, Knox’s freezing experiment does not provide a viable solution to Fred’s condition; the infection is impervious to the cold. Knox tells Gunn that he would love to be the white knight in this situation, because he loves Fred. He does not just love her; he "practically worships it." When Gunn realizes Knox’s slip, Knox says, "oops." Gunn finds out that Knox has known about Fred’s condition the entire time and in fact is responsible for it. Knox worships Illyria as a god and came to Los Angeles to help it return. Knox also tells Gunn that Angel will not be able to save her; Angel will let Fred die.
Act 4
In Fred’s apartment, Fred continues to deteriorate. The light now hurts her eyes, but she will not allow Wes to turn it off. She needs the light to keep her on this plane of existence. Even in her weakened state, Fred’s mind is still capable of random thoughts. She pronounces that the cavemen win in their struggle against the astronauts.
In the Deeper Well, Drogan tells Angel and Spike about Illyria. Its tomb was in the deepest part of the well. Drogan believes that it was predestined to escape. The sarcophagus teleported to where Illyria’s kingdom had been, Los Angeles. Angel informs Drogan that the sarcophagus was brought to them to which Drogan expresses little supplies. Apparently, Illyria still has acolytes all over the world, though long dead. Back in the lab, one of those acolytes, Knox, lets Gunn in on his part in resurrecting Illyria. The sarcophagus was held up in customs. Gunn in return for another brain boost signed the order allowing it into the country. Infuriated, Gunn knocked Knox out with a metal canister.
The only way to save Fred, according to Drogan, is for a champion who has traveled from where the sarcophagus is to where it belongs to perform a spell. Without hesitation, Angel says, "You got two of those right here." This is the first time that Angel has referred to Spike as a champion. However, Drogan also tell them that if they save Fred thousands of others will die. In drawing Illyria out of Fred, its essence would infect every person between Los Angeles and England-the mystical equivalent of airborne. Angel says, "Hell with the world," but quickly changes his mind, knowing that he cannot condemn innocent people to death to save Fred. Spike stands on the bridge in the Deeper Well contemplating its depths. He realizes that the well goes the whole way through the earth to the other side, "There’s a hole in the word. Feels like we ought to have known."
Unaware of Angel’s predicament, Wesley reassures Fred that Angel will find her cure. In great pain, Fred clings to Wesley, who promises to never leave her. Fred, trying to remain calm, says to him, "I walk with heroes." Realizing the end is near, Fred asks Wesley to talk to her parents and tell them she was not scared. Finally, she looks at Wesley and says, "Why can’t I stay?" As Wes holds her one last time, Fred’s brown eyes crystallize and her body begins to jerk. Wesley is thrown across the room as Illyria rises in Fred’s body. Her eyes and portions of her skin and hair are now blue. As she looks herself over, Illyria says flatly, "This will do." End credits.
Note: "A Hole in the World" can be considered the first of two parts. The story of Illyria’s resurrection is continued in the following episode "Shells."