At Wolfram and Hart, the rest of Team Angel are still getting to grips with their new giganamous surroundings and positions. While Fred is settling in to her lab with Knox, to Wesley’s dismay, he and Gunn picking out their new offices. Lorne on the other hand, appears to be perfectly at home and have found his vocation in life

And Angel, well Wes and Gunn find him lurking in corridors as usual. The three head to his office where they find a new arrival in the form of Eve. She explains that she is their liaison to the senior partners and iss here to explain the catch to them. They could take each and every client and take them out one by one, closing the place down, but then they wouldn’t have all the benefits that go with it. So ‘in order to keep the business running, they have to keep the business running’. She leaves them with a detailed list of all their evil clients.

The team work into the night going through the client list until eventually there is only Angel left. Gunn heads to his own office to find Eve there, she asks him if he is ready to take the next step and leaves him with a business card.

The next morning, Angel is still in his office going through a pile of papers on his desk, picking up a package in a jiffy bag addressed to him he looks at it casually and puts it to one side, feeling a thirst coming on he grapples with his telephone. After getting through to Ritual Sacrifice he finally finds his assistant and orders a cup of blood. Rather promptly, his assistant turns up and Angel is intrigued to find that it’s Harmony, who’s been working for Wolfram & Hart all along, albeit in the typing pool.

Wes arrives with news of a problematic case, Corban Fries (one of the most evil men Wes has met in hours), is a client of theirs whose trial isn’t going so well and is making a few threats about what may happen if he gets a conviction. The firm have encountered a few problems in the case, the man is obviously guilty, the jury are tamper proof and basically this has to be played by the book, won on the merits of the case, and quite frankly, there aren’t any. Their incentive to help this man? If he gets a conviction he drops a bomb and the only people left standing in California are those who are already dead, all he has to do is say the magic word.

Angel calls a group conference: magic word, probably means just that, Wes’ department; the bomb is not necessarily an explosive, could be a virus, Fred’s department; and worse still, it could all have been cooked up right there in Wolfram & Hart. Lorne gets court duty, Angel has a lead on a freelance mystic, but where in all hell is Gunn?

In his garage, Angel surveys his assortment of cars but finds his special ops team waiting to do his bidding, choosing a car, Angel waives them off and goes to find his mystic himself. ‘Spanky’ isn’t too forthcoming with the information at first but Angel, using a little spanking, soon persuades him to talk.

Meanwhile, Gunn sits impatiently in a waiting room, until he is invited in to what appears to be a lab. He removes a shirt and takes a seat and gets himself all wired up, while in her lab, Fred and Knox have a lead on the virus.

Finding out where Fries has hidden the virus, namely in his son, has hit Angel in a hard place and Eve finds him working on those already well-honed brooding skills. But she soon snaps him out of hit and gets him to focus. Lorne gives Angel an update from the court, things aren’t going too well and he advises Angel to get the boy into isolation pronto, meanwhile, the nice special ops team are listening in and decide they’re gonna get to the boy first. Unfortunately for the special ops team, Harmony is a better assistant than anyone would have thought and has learnt not only of the special ops team’s plans, but that Angel has a helicopter. When special ops get to the school all they find is an empty classroom and a mightily pissed off vampire.

While Angel teaches the special ops team how things are gonna work around Wolfram & Hart from now on, in the courtroom, the Judge is about to sum up when a smartly suited Gunn strides into the courtroom. After blinding the court room with very lawyer-like science, Gunn submits that as (by a very long thin line) the Judge and the defendant have financial links, links that would benefit the Judge should Fries be found guilty, the Judge is unfit to preside over the trial and, therefore, there will have to be a re-trail. Seems Gunn got himself a bit of a lawyer head rush in that lab, or in other words had his mind enhanced his mind with a comprehensive knowledge of the law and got a new suit.

The days work all done, the team congregate in Angel’s office to mull over how they just got one of California’s most evil criminals off on a technicality. Hmmm. Not quite the happy ending, but at least they now have the time to disable the charm and find the antidote to the virus until the re-trial.

Telling the gang that they will get to the bottom of why they are here, they will make a difference and they will deal with each thing as it comes, Angel picks up the package he put aside earlier and rips it open. Out of it falls the amulet Angel gave to Buffy to help defeat The First, the gang steps back as a whirlwind appears in the middle of the room, slowly turning into a screaming Spike.

To be continued……………….

While Wes figures out that it was the amulet that brought Spike back, Spike and Angel get straight into a fight about Buffy (who’s in Europe by the way), much to Harmony’s disgust.

In the Lab, Fred runs some tests on Spike and finds that, although to all intents and purposes Spike is a ghost, there are a few technical glitches in this theory. No ectoplasm and he radiates heat instead of cold. Meanwhile, Wes has been examining the amulet and concludes that Spike’s essence must have become trapped in there when he died. Whatever, neither Angel or Spike are pleased that he’s back, well mostly back – except for the part where he keeps vanishing for no apparent reason.

Angel has already been tweaking at some of Wolfram & Hart’s less moral clients and has decided to shut down the ‘grave robbing’ department. This has caused a problem with one Magnus Hainsley to whom the department supplied fresh bodies on a regular basis in return for fat wad loads of cash. When Hainsley sends back Angel’s messenger Novak in buckets, Angel decides it’s time to act himself and pay Hainsley a call.

In the meantime, Spike, bored with LA already, has decided to leave town but soon finds that every time he gets to the city limit he is brought back to Wolfram & Hart.

Arriving at Hainsley’s, the ever-present Spike in tow, Angel finds out what Hainsley, a necromancer by trade, has been using the human bodies provided by Wolfram & Hart for. The wealthier than average demon can be installed into a human body, allowing said demon to pass as human any time he or she wants. Angel, however, has put a stop to his body supply and, with the help of new and improved legal eagle Gunn, has also frozen all his assets. Hainsley is none too happy with this new state of affairs, but realising that killing Angel won’t go down too well with the senior partners, he lets him leave. For Spike, however, it’s a different story and, summoning him with his necromancer powers, Hainsley offers him a deal. Spike can have his fully corporeal body back in return for Angel. Spike more than jumps at the chance to hurt Angel.

Back at Wolfram & Hart, the gang meet and discuss what to do with Spike. Seems like they have two choices; destroying the amulet will exorcise him or they can leave him as he is. Angel says he’ll sleep on it and retires to bed where he finds Spike waiting for him. Spike admits firstly that he over heard their conversation, secondly that Hainsley offered him a deal lastly that he wants out, he wants Angel to exorcise him.

The pair head to a cemetery and Angel is about to smash the amulet when instead he hits himself and, controlled by the necromancer, he is thrown against a tree and knocked out.

Angel awakes on Hainsley’s slab about to have Spike installed into his body. Hainsley starts the process, placing one hand on Angel and the other on Spike, the transfer begins. Spike disintegrates and particles run along Hainsley’s arm and down the other towards Angel but stop before they get to him. Jumping from the table, Angel lays into Hainsley and throws him at a table, he gets up and throws a couple of punches at Angel. Grabbing the nearest thing to hand, a plate, Angel throws it at the necromancer decapitating him, as his head falls off we see Spike step from the necromancer’s body.

The next day Fred finds Spike in her lab, he tells her that each time he vanishes he goes somewhere else, and he believes that place is hell. He feels that it’s trying to keep him there and he asks for her help.

In Fred’s lab, Spike appears in her office and asks if she has got anywhere with his little disappearing problem. Fred tells him that the werewolf girl is priority and he will have to wait. Meanwhile in the lab itself, Wesley’s psychics have managed to come up with a fuzzy picture of the girl’s bedroom, which isn’t much help, and their resident cryptozoologist Dr Royce, informs the team that this is a new breed of werewolf that they are dealing with. The gang finally get some useful information in the form of a registration plate from the bitten girl’s car and, therefore, her address.

Meanwhile, as the sun begins to set, the girl, Nina wakes up in her bedroom to find her senses enhanced and her vision blurred. She goes downstairs and is strangely drawn to the burgers that her sister Gill is frying. Concerned for Nina’s welfare, Gill asks if she will be alright to look after her daughter, Amanda that night, but Nina says she will be OK.

Later that night, Nina is playing with Amanda when she starts to feel ill and goes up stairs where she starts to change into the wolf just as Angel appears at the window. Nina jumps at Angel and the two fall to the ground where they fight until Wes gets a good shot and takes the werewolf out.

The next morning Nina awakes naked in a cell, she hastily dresses as Angel appears and takes her to see a video of her night’s activities. He gently jogs her memory of the last two nights and, telling her that he too is a monster, he reassures her that, although he cannot cure her, he can keep her safe.

She agrees to stay for the third night of the full moon and Angel arranges for Fred and a large security team to take Nina home to collect some things that may make her feel more relaxed. Spike turns up again but before he and Angel can really get into the sniping at each other he does his disappearing act much to Angel’s delight.

Fred and Nina pull up at her house, where Gill is none too happy that Amanda was left alone all night. Nina storms out and Fred follows grabbing a few things on her way. Outside they find the security team gone and before they can do anything, they are attacked from behind by masked men and Nina is kidnapped. The men take Nina to a room where they chain her up, strip her and start washing her.

Back at Wolfram & Hart, Lorne has read Dr Royce, the security team and practically everyone who knew about Nina but has found them all to be clean. Dr Royce arrives with a list of possible suspects and while Angel is checking these out, Fred spots Spike and runs after him. He walks through a wall into Dr Royce’s office, Fred follows by way of the door only to see Spike walk through another wall, she tries to stop him but only succeeds in knocking over a bin. As she rights the bin, something catches her eye just as Dr Royce walks in and, while his back is turned, she takes him out with a lamp.

Wesley confirms that the vial Fred found in Royce’s office contained a drug called Calendula which could have been used to block Lorne’s reading. While Angel tries to beat information out of Royce, Gunn and Wes take the less physical approach and search his desk. They don’t like what they find, which includes a menu where the main delicacy is werewolf.

In a large dining hall, guests clap and cheer as Nina, manacled and gagged is brought out on a platter surrounded by vegetables. The host, Jacob Crane, tells his guests that moonrise is not far away and then the feast can begin. As he mingles, telling tales of former werewolf feasts, there is a knock at the door. The butler does the honours and, seeing only Dr Royce, opens the door only to be knocked out by Gunn who is followed by Wesley and Angel. Angel releases Nina but finds Wesley and Gunn surrounded by Crane’s security. The fight begins as the moon rises and Nina turns, Wesley manages to shoot her with the tranquilizer gun. Team Angel soon have the situation in their control and they are about to leave when Nina awakens, Wes manages to dart her again but not before she bites Dr Royce. Angel and co leave him to his fate and take Nina back with them.

Meanwhile in Fred’s office, a very faint Spike appears to Fred and tells her it’s getting worse when he goes. She tries to persuade him to let the others help but he doesn’t want to them to know and makes her promise not to tell them.

The next day, full moon over for this month, Angel drops Nina off at home where she rejoins her family, arranging to see Angel again come next full moon.

Leaning on the counter, Spike finds himself falling straight through into the basement below. Taking in his new surroundings he sees a man, sitting at a desk, approaching him he finds that the man is cutting his own fingers off with a knife. He turns toward Spike and then vanishes.

Fred heads to Wesley’s office with a list of items she needs in order to help Spike, as she leaves she bumps into Eve and the pair head to Angel’s office. Angel has some concerns over the Science Department’s spending, Fred has, apparently gone over the quarter’s budget by $800,000 already, and the quarter’s not quite over yet. Explaining her lavish spending, Fred lets slip to Angel what she is up to. Angel’s not best pleased as he thought she was looking for a way to sever Spike’s ties with Wolfram & Hart. As Fred starts to stick up for Spike, Angel warns her to beware of his charms.

Having found his way back to Fred’s lab, Spike notices the light flickering and then going out, as do the rest of the lights. As this continues down the hall, Spike follows and finds that he is not the only ghost in the building.

Angel returns to his apartment to find Spike waiting for him, Spike tries to get chatty, but Angel sees through him and pragmatically tells Spike that it doesn’t matter how many times they save the world, they can never make up for the evil that they have done and they are both going to hell, eventually. As they talk, Spike continues to see ghosts and finds that they are visible only to him. The rest of the gang arrive and, turning to Fred for help, Spike fades from their view. As the gang move off, Spike remains, invisible to all but the ghosts.

Spike follows team Angel, passing an elevator on his way. When the elevator opens of its own accord, Spike gets in and soon finds himself back in the basement. Here he is confronted by the ghosts that tell him the Reaper is coming for him.

Finding his way back upstairs, Spike goes to see Fred in her lab where she is frantically working on a way to save him. He tries to tell her what is happening but she cannot see or hear him, in frustration he reaches out to her, instead of his hand going right through, he touches her and sparks a jolt of electricity which Fred too, can feel.

Angel comes for her, and the gang all meet in the boardroom where Eve brings a medium to try and contact Spike. Her efforts reveal a ‘dark soul’, the Reaper, but she can tell them no more before she is strangled by unseen hands as Spike stands watching, unable to communicate.

The gang are getting nowhere fast, Gunn and Wesley retire to Wesley’s office to discuss the ‘dark soul’, while Fred takes a well earned shower. The ever-present Spike turns up and, though Fred can sense his presence, she still cannot see or hear him. Using all his concentration, Spike stretches out his hand to the glass and writes REAPER in the condensation, her shower done, Fred turns and sees the writing just seconds before the glass shatters and Spike finds himself thrown into the lobby.

In the lobby, the Reaper appears and tells Spike that he is going to hell.

Fred arrives in Angel’s office to find Wesley and Gunn there, they have found over 3200 references to the ‘dark soul’, four of which refer to Angel. Fred updates them with the Reaper info and Wesley finds what they are looking for. Matthias Payne, ‘dark soul’ number 182, and 18th century doctor nicknamed the Reaper due to the unnecessary surgery he liked to perform on his patients.

With their new knowledge, team Angel work to save Spike, Fred in her lab, frantically scribbling formulas on the walls, while Gunn and Angel pay a visit to Gunn’s new found friend; the cat in the White Room. Meanwhile, down in the basement the Reaper tells a cut and bloody Spike, that he rules reality, and to prove it he makes the cuts disappear from Spike's face and relieves him of his clothes. Which is nice. As a portal appears, the Reaper tells Spike he is going to hell.

The end nigh, Spike suddenly has it figured, reality bends to desire, all he has to do is want it bad enough and he can do anything he likes. The portal behind him closes and Spike wills himself back into his clothes, facing the Reaper, Spike makes it clear what he wants to do now and the fight begins.

Upstairs the gang prepare the ritual they have discovered to make Spike corporeal and Spike and the Reaper find themselves in the lab, Fred yells to Spike to get into the circle, they only have the one chance, but the Reaper is too quick and has Fred around the throat. There’s not much time and Spike has a choice to make, become corporeal or save Fred.

Fred falls to the floor as Spike knocks the Reaper flying into the circle where he becomes corporeal. Wesley and Gunn rush to Fred’s aid as Angel takes on the Reaper. Spike reminds Angel not to kill him, they don’t want him becoming a spirit again, Angel, however, is quite happy with the punching part.

The next day, Spike appears to Fred as Wes and Gunn clean up the lab. She explains to him that this was their only chance to make him corporeal but Spike tells her he is happy with the choice that he made.

In the depths of Wolfram & Hart, the now corporeal Reaper stands locked in an iron cage, wires keeping him paralysed but alive, forever.

Still working, Lorne makes the way to his office and sits down, exhausted, by his mirror. There’s no rest for a horned green empathy demon, though. As he tries to relax his reflection starts talking to him, trying to get him going again. Frustrated Lorne smashes the mirror but that doesn’t stop his ever ready reflection and Lorne heads back out the door.

In his apartment, Angel emerges from his shower to be greeted by Eve who reminds him of a meeting they had. Walking into the lobby, Angel seems surprised by the party preparations going on there, until Lorne reminds him about the annual Halloween party. The only problem is the ‘right’ people have declined to attend, which Angel doesn’t appear to see as a problem, causing Lorne to, uncharacteristically, blow his top. Angel looks on, stunned, as Lorne tells him that they will meet in his office in 25 minutes when Angel’s had a chance to calm down, and Lorne is on his busy way.

In Fred’s lab, Wesley returns the defunct hand grenade and, along with Knox, they discuss what could have gone wrong. Lorne turns up, full of his party, but is dismayed to learn that neither Wesley or Fred are planning on turning up. They protest that they need to fix the hand grenade, but Lorne suggests there may be someone else that can do that (Knox takes up the challenge) and tells them to meet in Angel’s office in 15 minutes, and again, he is on his way.

Next stop, Gunn’s office, buttering him up, Lorne tells Gunn that he needs to stake out his territory and to meet in Angel’s office in 10 minutes and again he is on his way.

Some time later Team Angel are gathered in the boss’s office all waiting on Lorne who eventually appears and the meeting begins. Angel has his doubts about the party, after all, most of their clients and employees are evil and haven’t taken kindly to Angel slaughtering a few of them, the party could quite easily turn into a blood bath. With various well put arguments, Lorne, Gunn, Eve and even Harmony manage to persuade Angel that the party is a good thing and that he should help get the bad guys on side.

So Lorne and Angel set off to meet Arch Duke Serbassis, a big bad with a capital B; if they can get him to come, everyone else will follow. The Duke is not over impressed with Angel, preferring Angelus, but never the less agrees to come to the party. As soon as Angel leaves, however, he agrees with his servants to go armed.

The party is in full swing, but some of the employees aren’t happy with the lack of ritual sacrifice. Lorne mingles away as only a good host can, while Fred and Wesley watch on, not really having much fun. Lorne approaches them and tries to get them into the party spirit, when that fails he tells them to get drunk and wanders off to find Angel. Angel’s watching ice hockey in his office, but with a few stern words, Lorne gets him mingling with the guests. They happen upon Spike, who’s really not in the party mood and doing his best to put a damper on things, telling him to be more positive, Lorne drags Angel off to greet the Archduke, who’s just arrived.

Still playing the good host, Lorne bumps into Gunn who marvels at Lorne’s great energy. Lorne lets him into his little secret, he had his sleep removed by W&H about a month ago and hasn’t slept since. Meanwhile, Wes and Fred have got into the party spirit, and indeed it appears, the party spirits.

Eve finds Angel skulking in a corner and they exchange sarcasms with each other. Lorne passes by and suggests that they should get a room, there’s so much sexual tension between them. Next thing they know, they’re heading for Angel’s office, kissing passionately.

In the washroom, one of the Archduke’s minions, Artode is quietly seeing to his business when something unseen comes through the door and whips him out.

Back at the party, Wes and Fred boogie on down on the packed dance floor, everybody is having a great time, except the Archduke, who is missing his minion. As Wes and Fred leave the dance floor, very drunkenly they realise that they haven’t actually had anything much to drink. They head off to find Gunn, who is merrily urinating anywhere that he can, and then Spike who is having the greatest time in the world, listening to the greatest song in the world. They decide that something is definitely wrong, very wrong.

Grabbing Lorne, they head to Angel’s office where they find him and Eve in a compromising position. Wes brings Angel up to speed with what’s happened, somehow, they are doing whatever Lorne tells them to do; Spike is thinking positively, Gunn is staking out his territory and Wes and Fred are drunk. Lorne protests that he hasn’t done anything, which is when Gunn reveals that Lorne had is sleep removed. Wes decides this cannot be a good thing.

Taking charge of the situation, Angel gives out the orders; Wes and Fred should go find Lorne’s sleep and figure out a way to put it back, Lorne should try not to talk, Gunn should go and see if there’s anybody else that has been affected and he and Eve should have more sex.

They each head off to complete their various tasks. Meanwhile, in the washroom, the Archduke has found the remains of his minion. He bursts into Angel’s office seeking revenge. Angel protests his innocence but the archduke will hear none of it, while from outside screams are heard. Serbassis, and co, along with Angel, Lorne and Spike emerge into lobby to find the dance floor clearing.

Meanwhile, Wes and Fred are busy looking for Lorne’s sleep and trying to find out what could happen to an empath demon deprived of his sleep. What they find is not good, instead of reading people’s destiny, due to sleep deprivation Lorne is now writing destinies. Also, severing an empath demon from his subconscious for too long can lead to his subconscious manifesting.

Back at the party, Lorne’s subconscious has manifested. And it’s huge. And mad. Lorne tries to reason with himself but gets knocked out for his troubles. Having found Lorne’s sleep and the delivery device, Wes and Fred head back to the party where Lorne’s subconscious is knocking people about left, right and centre. Holding the device like a weapon, Fred takes unsteady aim at Lorne’s head and fires. The large, unhappy Lorne vanishes and our Lorne takes a well earned nap, right where he lies.

The next day, Fred is clearing up when Knox arrives and announces that he’s managed to fix the hand grenade, although he’s not really sure why he said he would do it straight away. Fred admits to him that she wished he had been at the party and Knox asks her if she wants to go for coffee. She takes him up on the offer, although she would prefer a real drink.

It’s morning at Wolfram and Hart, and the guy from the post room is making his rounds, he appears old from the way that he walks, you can’t tell his age due to the face mask he is wearing which sports the number five. He makes his way to Angel’s office where Gunn is getting Angel to sign some forms while he bickers with Spike as usual.

Wesley arrives at around the same time as masked mail guy with news of three people found with their hearts cut out, this seems to interest the mail guy for a second and then he’s on his way. Finding he has missed an item, Angel follows him out, catching him up he places the item on the trolley only to find himself thrown through a window by the, seemingly frail, mail man.

Gunn gets straight on to having the guy fired while Spike is puting it about that it was Angel who attacked the mail guy, who is fondly known as Number Five. Lorne arrives to reveal that news of the attack is already on the web. Angel tries to deflect the attention by going back to the three bodies with their hearts cut out, or four Wesley corrects him, another one has just been found. This one in a church after an all souls mass celebrating the Mexican Day of the Dead.

Out on the streets that night Angel and co cruise the streets, suddenly Angel does a 180, pulls over and gets out of the car. They soon find out why, the body count is now up to five. As they discuss what may have happened, Spike spots the perpetrator and they get stuck in, but, despite their efforts, the demon gets away.

Back at the offices, Gunn takes a piece of the demon goo to Fred for analysis, while in his office Wesley’s team is getting on with the research. He is interrupted first by Angel who’s at a bit of loose end and badly in need of someone to hit, and then by Spike who’s fishing for details about the Shanshu prophecy. Wesley is cautious about what he tells Spike but he does reveal that the prophecy does not mention Angel’s name specifically, Spike in return tells Wesley that Angel no longer believes in the prophecy.

Their cosy chat is interrupted by one of Wesley’s team who has found the demon they are looking for. Heading to Angel’s office the group gather to hear what Wesley has found out. Their information is scanty but they know the demon goes by the name of Tezcatcatl and was last in LA fifty years ago to the day. He went on a similar rampage but was defeated by 5 heroes, brothers who were then champions. The fight cost four of them their lives, just one still remains and that one just happens to be mail guy.

Angel decides to pay him a call, knocking on the door he finds himself dragged in and walled up; pushing Number Five off, Angel walls him in return asking why he keeps attacking him. Number Five explains that he heard them talking and thought that Angel was trying to drag him into the fight against the demon, he seems a little abashed when Angel tells him he was just trying to give him some mail. Throwing Number Five across the room, Angel tells him that now he is dragging him into the fight.

Number Five tells Angel he is retired from that game, he no longer wants to fight, warming up he explains that he and his brothers were Mexican wrestlers, the number brothers they were called and they fought the best and won. They were heroes worshiped and adored by all. But they did more than just fight in the ring, they also fought to protect their own, fighting monsters and gangsters, protecting the weak and helping the helpless, always together.

When it comes to telling of the fight against the Aztec demon, Number Five is less forthcoming, he explains that when he lost his brothers he tried to carry on and keep helping people, but it wasn’t the same on his own and the phone soon stopped ringing. When he was approached by Wolfram & Hart he accepted, knowing that they were everything his brothers despised and fought against but nothing mattered anymore now that is brothers were dead. Each year since then, on the Mexican Day of the Dead he has prepared the altar but they never come to visit, because he is not worthy, he fingers an amulet on the alter affectionately.

Angel asks why he quit, why he gave up and Number Five shows him. In a wrestling ring they watch as the brothers' fights are re-enacted, Number 5 tells Angel that their deeds have become a farce, nothing more than ridicule, and now that Tezcatcatl is back their deaths have becoming meaningless too. But Angel tells him that the reward is not in the hero worship but in saving lives, the work itself is the reward and some part of him still believes in being a hero. Angel seems to be talking to himself more than to Number Five and when he’s done he finds he was talking to himself, Number Five has gone.

Back at the office, Wesley and Gunn are still working, trying to figure out the Aztec demon’s next victim. Suddenly it comes to them, each of the victims was a hero, Angel could be next in line.

Walking out of the club on to the street, Angel watches as a bus passes by, seated in the back is Number 5, he turns to walk home and is faced with the demon, the fight is pretty much one sided as the Aztec warrior flips Angel onto his back and stabs him with a large knife. He is about to finish the job but stops, removes the knife and vanishes, leaving Angel where he is.

Back at the office, Angel, Wesley and Gunn bring each other up to speed on what they have discovered. Gunn believes that there may be some sort of deal involved in this demon coming back and heads off to contracts to see what he can ferret out. Left alone, Wesley tells Angel that he doesn’t think that the demon didn’t take Angel’s heart because it was a dead heart but because Angel has lost hope, that what they do no longer has any meaning for him and he no longer believes in the Shanshu prophecy. Angel tells Wesley that prophecy’s are a crock and mentions the ‘father will kill the son’ prophecy that Wesley, of course, has no memory of. Angel says it doesn’t matter what he believes in, so long as they keep saving lives. Wesley disagrees and tells him that hope is the only thing that will keep Angel from ending up like Number Five.

They are interrupted by the phone, Fred has something for them. She has found that the blood of hero’s hearts is what is keeping alive, and also invulnerable. Spike has a theory, it’s weak spot will be it’s heart, Gunn agrees, he’s found the contract. Back in the day, Tezcatcatl was a powerful Aztec warrior, he forged a mystical talisman that harnessed the power of their sun god making the wearer almost invincible, when he was found out he was sentenced to die on the 'Day of the Dead'. But he made a deal and had a shaman put a curse on him making him return every fifty years to search for the talisman. The talisman was given to a great hero to protect and passed down through the generations. They have no picture of the talisman only a description.

With a flash of inspiration Angel remembers the talisman at Number Five’s place and heads off back there. He finds both Number Five and the talisman gone. Angel finds him in a cemetery, preparing a ritual to summon the demon. Angel tells him it won’t work, the demon won’t kill either of them. He tells Angel that he is right, the demon would not want his heart, but he has found another way to make the demon kill him, he swallowed the talisman.

The demon approaches and Number Five entices it, telling it to come and get the talisman, they start to fight, but just as the demon is about to kill Number Five, Angel steps in. They fight for a while but the demon soon has Angel on the floor again. This time it is Number Five’s turn to step in, as he takes a sword to the stomach Angel takes over. While Number Five collapses by the grave of his brothers. The demon is still more than a match for Angel and sends him flying. He lands right in the middle of the graves, and a hand appears from the ground beside him.

Angel leaps to his feet and watches as the four brothers rise from their graves and invite him to join the battle. Together they battle the demon, throwing the demon to the ground, the brothers take a limb each and pin the demon to the ground with their weapons, Angel takes the heart and the demon disappears.

Making his way over the dying Number 5, Angel tells him his brothers came back because he was worthy. Number Five is not convinced but tells Angel to get his coffee flask as this is where he has really hidden the talisman. Angel returns with the flask to find his mail man dead. His brothers come for him and return to their graves, all five back together at last.

Back at Wolfram and Hart, Angel gives Wesley the talisman to keep safe and, wishing the others good night he leaves them to it. But Angel doesn’t head off to bed, but rather to Wesley’s office where he takes the book of prophecies. Holding it he says, ‘Shanshu Prophecy, English translation’ and opens the book.

The figure then turns on Wesley but is stopped in its tracks by Angel who crashes through a window to save the day. When Angel break’s the figure’s neck, sparks fly and, removing the creature’s mask, they find it to be a robot. The fight over, they turn to Fred who has been shot in the arm.

Back at Wolfram & Hart, Angel is not happy that Fred was involved in Wesley’s meeting; Wesley tries to explain that he needed Fred there, but Angel is not listening and gives Wesley a suitable dressing down in front of Eve. Wesley leaves and Eve questions whether Angel is being so hard on Wesley because of what happened with Conner but Angel denies this.

Wesley is in his office when Fred arrives all bandaged up, but more exited about dissecting the robot than her injury. Wesley tries to apologise for putting Fred in danger but comes over a bit patronizing and is receiving his second dressing down of the day when his father appears behind Fred. Roger Wyndam Pryce introduces himself to Fred and then she takes her leave, leaving father and son to catch up.

The two sit and Roger explains that the remaining Watcher’s have got together to reform the council and he has come to assess whether Wesley should be asked to return. Telling his father that he is not interested and trying to explain what they are doing here at Wolfram & Hart, Wesley becomes the bumbling idiot he used to be, bumping into a colleague and knocking her papers flying.

As they walk and talk, they bump into Lorne and then Gunn who tells them that they need Wesley upstairs with the robot. Asking his father to join him they make their way to the lab.

In the lab, Fred is explaining to Angel that they found cybernetics throughout the body, although it appears to have a human nervous system. Fred believes that if they can get to its memory they may be able to ascertain its past and figure out who made it and for what. Wesley arrives and introduces his father to the rest of the team; Roger reveals that he and Spike have met before, in Vienna in 1963 when Spike killed two of his men who had apparently interrupted one of Spike’s littlie killing sprees.

Roger doesn’t appear too comfortable around Angel either, refusing to shake his hand. Wesley gets to business explaining that they have found some symbols that they need him to decipher, they believe that the robot may contain a bomb of some sort. Looking at the device Wesley tells them it appears to be a battle prayer or possibly a binding spell, touching the device Wesley manages to activate the bomb.

As Wesley tells everyone to evacuate the building and hurries Fred out of the room, the beeping stops and Wesley turns to see that his father has been able to de-activate the bomb, having read the symbols correctly.

In Angel’s office, Wesley explains what had happened, waiting for his next dressing down, which doesn’t come. Instead Angel hands Wesley a report about the robots, it sounds like they are working for the good guys. Wesley heads off to do some research.

Leaving Angel’s office, Wesley finds his father who is entertaining Fred with stories of Wesley’s youth. Wesley asks his father to help him with the research and they head off to Wesley’s office.

In his office, Wesley takes one of his source books and activates it, he explains the system to his father who remarks that they should really be kept in a safe. Wesley states that they are perfectly safe where they are and the really dangerous things are in the vault. Meanwhile up on the roof six robot assassins land. Shortly after the power goes off.

As Angel tells Gunn to get on to security and find out what is happening the robot assassins drop into the lobby surrounding them. In Wesley’s office he and his father are also attacked by an assassin, they fight, Wesley eventually impaling the assassin, which was after the source books, with a sword. Fearful for the safety of the books Wesley and his father start moving them into the vault. As Wesley puts the books away, Roger takes a gun from his goat and knocks Wesley out with it. Taking a key he unlocks a drawer and takes out a staff. Speaking into an earpiece he says ‘phase one complete, begin phase two’.

In the lobby, Angel and Gunn fight the assassins, while in the vault Wesley comes round to find his father gone. Roger himself is making his way out when he bumps into Fred, he tells her that Wesley has discovered a disturbance and has sent him to find Angel but he has got himself a bit lost. Fred takes him to Angel’s office.

In his office, Wesley removes the mask from the still alive robot and demands to know what Roger is doing and what he took. Meanwhile, in the lobby, Angel and Gunn are still fighting, Spike takes his time summoning up all his energy to take out a robot that has Gunn around the throat, while Roger arrives and knocks out another robot that is about to slice and dice Angel. Fred tells Angel that Wesley has gone to the roof and Angel heads that way with Roger following.

Angel finds the roof empty, explaining that this was never really about Wesley, Roger takes out the staff and starts to chant, a white smoke billows from the staff heading for Angel, who falls to the floor helpless.

The smoke stops and Roger tells Angel not to fight it, speaking into his earpiece again he says ‘Ready for extraction. We’re finished.’ Wesley, however, has made it to the roof and, grabbing the staff he points a gun at his father, who points one back. Wesley reveals that he has discovered Roger’s plan to use the staff to take Angel’s will. As they face each other Fred appears and rushes to Angel’s aid. As a helicopter approaches, Wesley holds the staff over the edge of the building as Roger tells him that he will kill him for it, turning the tables, Roger grabs hold of Fred but before he can do anything, shots ring out. Wesley has killed his father. Staggering with the realisation of what he has done, he throws up over the side of the building as the sound of electricity crackles. Fred and Wesley look down at the body of the robot they thought was Roger Wyndam Pryce.

In his office, Angel is recovering when Wesley approaches to see how he is. They ponder on the fact that even the good guys are after them now and that it is perceived that they are weak. But Wesley feels that it his him who is perceived to be weak, Angel refutes this telling him that he at now understands that Wesley does what he has to to protect the people he cares about. In an attempt to make Wesley feel better about himself, Angel tells him he killed his father, too, and Spike chips in that he killed his mother. It doesn’t help.

Making his way back to his own office, Wesley finds Fred there, with her own comfort, thankfully not a tale about how she killed her parents. She offers that a part of him knew that it wasn’t really his father, but Wesley tells her that he was sure it was him; he killed him because he was threatening Fred.

Left to himself, he picks up the phone and dials home, speaking to his father he finds that nothing has changed, their conversation is just as stilted as ever.

Back in the now, Spike is pestering Angel for an office of his own, Angel flatly refuses and leaves Spike in the foyer where Harmony hands him some mail. Still non-corporeal Spike asks Harmony to do the honours and, as she pulls off the lid, there’s a flash which is reveals that the box is empty. Before they can ponder on this all the phones in the building start ringing. As Harmony starts to answer the phones Spike walks into Angel’s office only to hit solid door which knocks him to the ground.

As the phones continue to ring, Spike realises that he’s corporeal and instantly makes the most of it, finishing of Angel’s blood and hugging first Gunn and then Harmony.

Back in 1880, Angelus and William ride the streets of London in a carriage, having feasted on the previous occupants, on their wedding day no less. Their conversation turns towards Drusilla who, they both agree, is something special. William wants to get back to her and Angelus stops the coach and sends him on his way, warning him to be back before sunrise.

Back at Wolfram & Hart, Spike drags Harmony into the nearest office, evicting the current tenant and shutting him out. Disgruntled, he complains to the nearest person he can find, a guy fiddling with a Xerox machine. On being disturbed, Xerox guy turns angrily towards his colleague, blood streaming from his glowing red eyes, he attacks him with a fire extinguisher.

Fred joins Angel and Gunn in the foyer with news that the computers are down too, they congregate in Angel’s office where they realise that the apparent power surge which seems to be affecting the whole of Wolfram & Hart just happens to coincide with Spike becoming corporeal. Eve arrives to confirm that the entire universe has been thrown into catastrophic turmoil and it’s all due to the fact that, with Spike now both corporeal and a champion, the world now has two vampires with souls who could fulfil the Shanshu Prophecy. The upshot of which, trouble with a capital T.

In their commandeered office, Spike and Harmony are getting groiny with each other when blood starts pouring from Harmony’s eyes and, vamping out, she takes a bite out of Spike.

He leaps off her only to face a torrent of abuse, he takes so much and when she goes for him, knocks her out. In the copy room, the two employees are being wheeled away, Xerox guy having also attacked Lorne. Angel orders the building to be sealed off and Lorne heads off to lick his wounds.

As Eve reminds Angel that the fabric of reality is starting to unravel, Spike emerges from his office and Eve continues to explain that there is only supposed to be one candidate for the Shanshu prophecy, now that they are two of them the wheel of destiny has started to spin off its axis, resulting in widespread madness. Gunn arrives with more bad news, the big cat has left the building, well actually the whole White Room has gone. This leaves them with no contact with the Senior Partners.

Eve suggests that the way to stop this might be to figure out who the prophecy is really about and what they need is an expert. With Wesley gone that leaves his department and they turn to Rutherford Sirk for help. Sirk tells them that there are some newly translated pages of the Shanshu prophecy from which he reads the following, “the balance will falter until the vampire with a soul drinks from the cup of perpetual torment. He will have the weight of worlds upon him binding his limbs and grinding his bones to meal until he saves creation or destroys it.” The reward, as Angel knows all too well, is to become mortal.

While everyone assumes that Angel should be the one that drinks from the cup, Spike disagrees and more bickering ensues. Sirk, however, tells them that the person to fulfil the prophecy has been pre-destined, whoever drinks from the cup was meant to, that cannot be changed. Once the cup has been drained the universe should right itself and all should be right in then world again. Next question, where is the cup? Sirk consults his books and comes up with, Nevada. A sunken Opera House in Death Valley to be exact.

As Angel decides he’s going after the cup, they realise that Spike has gone.

Out on the open road, Spike speeds his way to the Opera House. Angel is soon after him. Angel arrives at the sunken opera house to find Spike already there. They’re off at each other straight away, fighting over who deserves to drink from the cup, each sure of their own right. Spike makes his way towards the cup and Angel follows.

1880, the ambassador’s suite at the Royal Hotel, London. Spike returns home to find Angelus getting all groiny, he’s amused at first until Angelus moves to reveal that the lucky lady is Drusilla. The pair giggle and laugh at a humiliated Spike.

Back in the present day, Angel finds the cup, illuminated on a column, he walks towards it with determination but before he can take it, Spike appears behind him. Their words soon turn to blows and they go at it as only two ensouled vampires can. A break in the fighting leads to another war of words as Spike tells Angel that he is different, Angel was cursed with a soul, whereas Spike fought for his. And the fight begins again.

Back at Wolfram & Hart things are getting worse. More and more people are being struck down with the eye bleeding disease and Gunn is next in line. He turns on Eve until Fred takes it out.

In the sunken opera house, Angel and Spike are still going at it, neither getting the upper hand for long. While back in 19th Century England the pair fight over Drusilla. Standing behind Dru, Angel wraps his arms around her and invites Spike to come and get her, he reaches to her outstretched arms, while in the present day Angel reaches for the cup only to be stopped by Spike before he can quite grasp it. The fight becomes vicious, each vampire taking blow after blow, while Spike tells Angel that although Dru sired him, Angelus made him a monster and that’s why Angel can’t stand the sight of him now. Picking up a huge cross, Spike knocks Angel across the room, letting the cross burn his hands before throwing it aside, he tells Angel that he is nothing like him.

Angel counters that Spike is less than he is and that Buffy never loved Spike because he wasn’t Angel. And with that the fight is on again, as brutal as ever. Finally Spike gets the upper hand and lands a bruised and battered Angel on his back, raising a stake he plunges but doesn’t go for the heart. Walking across to the column he takes the cup, and Angel makes a last ditch effort to reason with him. He tells him the cup is not a prize but a burden, he asks him if he really wants this, or does he just want to take something away from Angel. Replying, ‘a bit of both’ Spike drinks, drops the cup, turning to Angel he tells him, ‘tot’s mountain dew’. They’ve both been had.

Back at Wolfram & Hart, Angel returns to Fred’s lab where Gunn and Harmony are strapped to stretchers. He tells Fred that the cup was a set up as Spike enters confirming that Sirk has gone. Just as they are trying to figure out what to do about the eye-bleeding madness, Gunn and Harmony wake up, fully recovered and with no memory of what happened.

In Angel’s office, Eve informs the team that the Senior Partner’s stepped in and saved the day, managing to temporarily stabilise the universe equilibrium, but they know nothing about the Sirk and the cup. The Shanshu issue remains unresolved.

Spike goes off to catch up on some drinking time leaving Angel to muse to Gunn that Spike beat him, Spike won the fight because he wanted it more. Gunn tries to reassure him that it doesn’t mean anything, but Angel thinks it may mean he’s not the one.

Eve enters her bedroom, taking off her coat she tells her room mate that throwing the universe out of whack wasn’t as fun as it sounded. But, she continues, as she begins undressing, they did fall for the cup of torment thing. And they pulled it all off right under the senior partner’s noses. As she slips into bed she tells her partner that, although Spike didn’t kill Angel they did beat each other to bloody pulps. As she nestles into a tattooed Lindsey’s arms, he says, ‘Well, it’s a start.’

In Harmony’s apartment the clock strikes seven and the alarm goes off. Getting up, Harmony merrily goes about her morning routine (including vamping out to clean those hard to reach fangs) and sets off to work. Arriving at her desk she heads to the canteen to fetch her boss’ morning cup of blood trying to make conversation with her colleagues as she goes. They blatantly ignore her. Heading for the fridge she fill’s Angel’s ‘#1 BOSS’ cup with blood and zaps it into the microwave, removing someone’s bowl as she does. The owner of the bowl, Lorne’s assistant, Danny is not happy, but hey, Harmony works for THE boss right?

Harmony walks off cheerfully to update Angel on his appointments, but even Angel is ignoring her, being engrossed in the demon language version of linguaphone. Gunn arrives and he and Angel head to Angel’s office, Harmony runs after them but gets a door slammed in her face for her trouble. Returning to her desk, she encounters the blood check guy who takes a sample of her blood to ensure she is clean of human blood. She is. Next up is Ely, who has an appointment with Angel, he heads off into the office just as Harmony realises that Angel forgot his blood. Picking it up she follows Ely into Angel's office just in time to see Angel lop off his head. All part of the new zero tolerance policy, it turns out Ely had been dismembering virgins in his spare time.

In the lobby, Angel is explaining to Harmony why he had to kill Ely when Spike arrives, although only to say goodbye. He’s heading off to Europe to catch up with an old friend, which he enjoys rubbing in Angel’s face, although he graciously tells Angel he can keep the Shanshu prophecy and he’s off, taking Angel’s viper with him.

The gang head into Angel’s office to discuss an upcoming summit between two warring demon clans. The two clans used to be best of friends until a fork faux pas (they are very keen on manners apparently). But they have now agreed a truce due to a mutual liaison by the name of Tobias who both clans trust. Harmony, who’s taking minutes of the meeting, has been doing a lot of research on the two clans and tries to offer some suggestions but the team ignore her and break for lunch.

In the canteen, two girls gossip about Fred’s potential and past love affairs, Harmony tries to join in but is given the brush off again. While there she gets a phone call from Angel and rushes off to the lobby to find a live camel standing behind her unhappy boss. Harmony tries to explain that camel meat is a delicacy to the clans and was supposed to arrive for the summit tomorrow, but Angel’s not listening, he just wants the camel gone. Angel leaves and Fred tries to comfort the hurt Harmony with the suggestion of a cheese platter or chips and dip for the buffet. But Harmony will not be comforted, believing that everybody hates her. Fred assures her that she doesn’t hate her, and gets invited out after work for her trouble.

In the bar, Harmony pours out her heart to Fred, telling her how alone and useless she feels and how she lacks a guy and well, friends. Harmony spots a dishy guy at the bar and Fred encourages Harmony to go over and chat to him. Fred leaves Harmony at the bar with dishy guy.

In Harmony’s apartment, the clock strikes seven and the alarm goes off again. Harmony awakes to find dishy guy, whose name she cannot remember, lying next to her in bed. She tries to wake him but he won’t move, rolling him over she spots the bite marks on his neck.

Harmony emerges from her apartment carrying the body, which she’s wrapped in a sheet, over her shoulder, she throws it down the trash chute. The body, however, is less than co-operative and rolls off the bin on the floor. Harmony heads down to the basement and puts the body in the bin covering it with some other trash and heads off for work.

Arriving at work, Harmony tries to act casual and sits at her desk where Angel arrives demanding his morning blood. Harmony heads off to the canteen, again having to remove Danny’s bowl from the microwave. While she waits for Angel’s drink to be ready she drinks greedily from her own flask of blood.

Back at her desk, Harmony orders the chips and dip for the summit, turning down the caterer’s offer of wildebeest. Another call comes in, it’s Detective Griffin for Angel, she patches him through, listening in until Angel tells her to hang up; which she does, but not before she hears that the body of her date has been found. Unfortunately, her date was Tobias, the liaison between the two feuding clans. This calls for serious damage control, the killer needs to be found and dealt with.

In Angel’s office, Gunn talks to a representative of one of the clans, assuring them that the summit can continue. The clans demand vengeance on the killer of their friend. Luckily, but not for Harmony, Fred has Toby’s body in the lab and is examining it for clues.

Harmony rushes to the lab fishing for info, but Fred doesn’t know anything yet, but what she can tell is that the bite is on the right side of the neck, and that the bite was made by a female vampire. Fred starts asking Harmony what happened with the guy at the bar, Harmony makes her excuses and leaves. She is considering skipping the country until something dawns on her. Jumping up and down with glee she tells the nearest guy she comes to, who just happens to be blood check guy, that Toby was bitten on the right, which means she didn’t do it. Zapping her finger, he checks her blood, only to find that there’s human blood in there. Knocking him out with one punch, Harmony shoves him in the nearest store cupboard and walks off down the corridor.

Seeing Lorne coming out of another room, she does an about turn but Lorne catches up with her. She casually asks where the results of the blood tests go, Lorne tells her that they are automatically transmitted to the lab, but breaks off when he hears a groan from blood check guy. Lorne soon finds himself unconscious and in the store cupboard.

Next stop for Harmony is back to the lab where she confesses all to Fred and explains that she couldn’t have killed Toby because she is a right biter, and would, therefore, have bitten him on the left side. She tells Fred that someone must have spiked her blood. Fred tries to encourage her to tell Angel who will understand and she too finds herself bound and gagged in the store cupboard. Apologising to her three captives, Harmony sets off to the canteen to get her flask and prove her innocence.

Meanwhile the demon clans have arrived and are not at all happy that the murderer has not yet been found. Gunn tries to pacify them but the clans want blood, and if the murderer cannot be found then one of Angel’s employees will do. Angel calls Harmony in and tells her to find Fred.

Harmony arrives in the canteen just in time to see Danny with her flask in his hands. Putting two and two together Harmony walls him and accuses him of setting her up and murdering Toby. Danny protests his innocence, saying he was just trying to get to Lorne’s protein snack, but Harmony is having none of it. That is, until the offending flask hits Danny on the head, rendering him unconscious. Harmony turns to find the actual person that set her up. Tamica used to work in the steno pool with Harmony and is not too happy that Harmony got picked to be Angel’s assistant over her.

Turns out, Tamica is a vampire too and the too go hard at it in the canteen. Slamming Harmony up against the wall, Tamica tells Harmony just how she set her up, slipping a roofie in her drink, and following her back to her apartment. She grabs a chopstick from a table and is about to stake Harmony, but Harmony kicks her out of the way, grabs a chopstick of her own and the fight continues, spilling out into the corridor.

The two clans are deep in discussion with each other in the conference room when Tamica and Harmony burst in through the window. Harmony throws Tamica on the table and stakes her, to the astonishment of all concerned. But on the bright side, the two clans have received their sacrifice and all await Harmony’s explanation eagerly.

One explanation later, the whole gang, including Fred, Lorne and blood check guy complete with ice packs, sit in Angel’s office where he tells Harmony that she should have come to him. Believing she is going to be fired Harmony tells them she'll clear out her desk and starts to walk out of the office, but Angel calls her back, telling her to bring them some coffee.

That night Harmony is back in the bar pouring out her woes to the bar tender when Spike comes up and sits next to her. He tells her he was on his way to Europe when it dawned on him that his whole grand finale won’t hold that much weight if he just showed up now. Harmony says she knows how that feels, but Spike cheers her up telling her she must have mattered to the girl that set her up. Harmony agrees and they drink to that.

In his office at Wolfram & Hart, Angel wakes, sweating and breathless.

In a strip club, Spike drinks as he watches the show. Lindsey stands in front of him, watching. Lindsey tells him they need to talk but, having none of it, Spike gives him the brush off and is about to leave when Lindsey calls him back by name and asks if he got any interesting mail lately. Taking a seat, Lindsey accepts responsibility for both sending the amulet to Angel and the magical mojo that turned Spike corporeal again. He introduces himself by the name of Doyle and tells Spike that he gets visions of people in trouble, sent to him by the powers that be. He had one just today in fact. He tells Spike that he is the champion now that Angel is working for the other side.

Back at Wolfram & Hart, Gunn and Wesley discuss taking out an evil warlock as they walk towards Angel’s office. They explain their plan to Angel, who’s not really feeling himself.

Out on the streets, a girl runs screaming from a vampire until Spike steps in and saves the day, but he accepts the girl’s thanks less than graciously, telling her she shouldn’t be walking down dark alleys at this time of night.

Back in his office, Angel watches as Gunn and Wesley fight about how they should dispose of the warlock covertly, suddenly Angel has had enough. Standing, he shouts why don’t they just kill them all instead of pussyfooting around, get back to basics, good vs. evil. Gunn is about to explain how they have to tread carefully when he notices that Angel is not looking too good. Angel admits to being tired and heads off to his apartment to get some rest.

As he walks down the corridor, Wesley catches up with him and, taking his arm, leads him into his bedroom. Angel tells Wesley that he thinks he’s sick, Wesley tells him he understands, that it must be hard adapting to the new situation, realising that he is not the one to fulfil the Shanshu prophecy. Taking out a stake Wesley plunges it into Angel’s heart, as Angel screams he wakes, panting on his bed.

Out on the streets, Spike is once again fighting vampires, helping the helpless. Taking on two vampires at a time he releases two stakes into his hands from underneath his leather jacket and, Angel-style, takes out a vampire with each. This time he is slightly nicer to his rescuees.

Back at Wolfram & Hart, Wesley is on the Warlock case when Eve turns up with a new project from the senior Partners. She hands him a tablet covered in some form of runes that need deciphering and he assures her he’ll get on it immediately.

Angel sleeps fitfully in his apartment, he wakes when Fred arrives. Putting on plastic gloves, she tells him she knows what to do. Revealing a trolley full of surgical knives, she cuts him open and starts removing items, starting with the liver and kidneys, his shrivelled heart, raisons (which she eats), a vehicle licence plate and finally his soul, which for some reason is located in a gold fish bowl. All done, she peers inside and pronounces him empty.

Wesley and Fred are pouring over the tablet that Eve brought when Gunn arrives with news of a platinum blond vigilante prowling the streets of a night. Meanwhile, Lindsey introduces Mr Platinum Blond to his new apartment, basic but all that a hero requires.

Back in his bedroom, Angel awakens to a couple making out, he turns to find Spike on the floor getting groiny with a blond. As he looks over, Spike tells him he has something on his shirt. He hears Buffy’s voice (don’t get excited, it’s not actually Buffy just a voiceover from season three of Buffy), and asks Spike if he’s taking Buffy to the Prom, but Spike just tells him to shut up.

Still not feeling himself, Angel wakes up to find there’s no one but him in the room. Getting up he walks into the Wolfram & Hart lobby where he bumps into Fred. He tells her he’s feeling better but she points out that he’s not wearing any socks or shoes and maybe he should put on a clean shirt. Before he has the chance, Gunn comes rushing by urging them to hurry up. Everybody is headed into the conference room where they all sit sipping drinks from a refreshment bar and looking out of the window. Looking out himself, Angel sees that the city is on fire, it’s definitely apocalypse time. Concerned, he says he should go do something, but the others tell him Spike is on it, he should go back to bed or at least put some clean clothes on, he has something on his shirt.

Back in his bed, Angel still sleeps fitfully, his shirt open we see a creature is attached to his chest.

In the conference room, Wolfram & Hart employees, fronted by Fred who is holding a cake which sports a picture of the apocalypse and the words ‘Way To Go Spike’, sing a rousing chorus of ‘He’s A Jolly Good Fellow’. Angel watches from the doorway as there are cheers and clamours of ‘speech, speech'. Spike protests that saving the world and turning it into a beautiful candy mountain place where everyone’s dreams come true was really nothing. It’s time for Spike to get his reward, and become a real boy. As a fairy appears to give Spike his reward Angel turns, pushing the refreshment trolley down the hall.

At Spike’s new apartment, Gunn and Wesley pay a visit to find out why he left in the first place if he wanted to work for the good side, and that they are both on the same side, that they have changed things at Wolfram & Hart.. Spike, however, isn’t convinced.

Meanwhile in their apartment, Lindsey and Eve revel in the fact that Team Angel have no idea what they are up to. How they have got the rest if the team pre-occupied with the old relic thing while Angel lies weakened and hallucinating in his bed, and how Lindsey’s tattoos protect him from the all seeing eyes of the Senior Partners. As they snuggle up together, both eye a box at the side of the bed.

At Wolfram & Hart, Wesley and Gunn return from their little visit with Spike and update Fred with how it went. They all agree that they really don’t need to bother Angel with this right now, but they should check up on him and Fred gets Harmony to ring Angel’s apartment. When she gets no answer, Fred sets off to check on Angel personally but Eve arrives to distracts her.

In Angel’s bedroom, the phone rings as Angel sleeps on, waking, he sits up to find Lorne, now going by the name of Honky Tonk, sitting at the piano where he is soon joined by Harmony. He tells Lorne that everything hurts and he doesn’t know what to do, Lorne, or Honky Tonk, tells Angel he should sing, he opens his mouth but nothing comes out. Angel looks around to see that the rest of the gang, including Eve, are all there.

Lorne tells him that he still has something on his shirt, looking down, Angel sees the creature attached to him, grabbing it, he pulls it off and kills it. The hallucination ends and he sees Eve standing in his bedroom. She approaches him, box in hand, and tells him that he is still dreaming. Opening the box, she reveals another of the creatures. She places it on Angel and leaves.

Spike returns to his apartment, arms full of beer, to find Lindsey waiting for him. As they talk, Lindsey grabs his head and tells Spike he has had another vision.

In his apartment, Angel knocks the creature flying and tries to reach for the phone, but he is too weak and the creature latches on. Angel finds himself sitting in an armchair in the middle of a field. The others approach him and tell him he can stay there, that he can let himself go, they can manage on their own. Suddenly they all let out high pitched screams and Angel awakes to find Spike pulling the creature off him. Telling Angel he’s just helping the helpless, Spike leaves.

In Angel’s office, Wesley explains what the creature was, a Selminth Parasite that injects it’s victims with a hallucinogenic aesthetic that paralysis them. They try and figure out where it may have come from but Angel sees Eve standing there and remembers. Eve tries to deny it but Angel knows that it was her and that she did it behind the Senior Partner’s backs, if they have backs.

The doctor cautiously approaches the cell of the other patient as she kicks at her door which finally gives way. He offers her comforting words as she walks slowly towards him. He backs away, getting behind the metal doors, but the girl just pulls the door away and beats the doctors, making good her escape.

At Wolfram and Hart, Gunn and Fred talk as they make their way towards Angel’s office where the others are discussing what to do about Eve. As they talk, Harmony comes in with the news that an apparently possessed girl has escaped from the local loony bin. Angel gets right on it and finds that Spike is already at the hospital.

The doctor shows Angel and Spike some of the girl, Dana’s somewhat disturbing drawings of demons and explains that she was admitted after her parents were killed and the murderer tortured her when she was just ten. He goes on to explain that her condition changed several months ago when she started to exhibit outbursts of inhuman strength. Spike comes to the demon possession conclusion and sets off to find Dana.

Angel sets about his work a less direct route and turns to the nurse for help. The doctor has video of his sessions with Dana and nursy, having heard there may be an opening at Wolfram and Hart, is more than willing to show them to Angel. In the video, the girl screams something in Romanian that gets Angel spooked.

Meanwhile, Dana has found her way to a local store and is quietly helping herself to food and drink and some less conspicuous clothes than her hospital gown. Picking out a t-shirt, she has a flashback to her torturer.

While Angel updates Wesley on the case and what he has learned, the girl is no demon, but a vampire slayer, and a very disturbed one at that. Spike has followed Dana’s trail to the store and from there to a building where, to his surprise, Dana proceeds to kick his arse right out of the building. Angel arrives in time to see Spike land on the ground.

Angel takes Spike back to Wolfram and Hart where he explains that they are not dealing with a Chinese demon but a psychotic vampire slayer. As they head towards the conference room, Angel tells Spike that he has contacted Giles who is sending his top man, as they walk. They enter the room to find the rest of the team gathered along with Giles’ top guy, a very-pleased-that-Spike-is-alive, Andrew. In tweed, no less.

Once he has got over his emotions, Andrew updates the gang on slayer lore, which the team are already rather familiar with, including the part where all the potentials have now become actual slayers, including Dana. When they’ve done with the back story, they face the actual problem: Dana the psycho slayer is having the usual slayer dreams of slayer’s past, but in her messed up little head they have become real to her.

Sick of the talk, Spike goes after Dana again, despite Angel’s protestation that a vampire is probably not the best person to go after a vampire slayer.

Dana walks the streets, tortured by visions of her past torturer, while Team Angel try to come up with a solution, and a way to track her without Angel getting staked. Lorne comes up with the idea of starting back with the house from which she was abducted. Which is where they realise that Andrew is missing.

At Dana’s house, a shaman reads the walls picking up on Dana’s past fear and pain. But all he can tell them about where Dana was taken was that it was dark, cold, and smelled of molasses.

Dana walks down the stairs to the basement where her torturer kept her. Pulling open a grate, she finds a box filled with hypodermic needles, each containing a different coloured substance. As she touches them she flashes back to her torturer, who kneels down before her, box in hand, taking out a needle, we see that her torturer is Spike.

On the streets, Andrew has caught up with Spike, or rather Spike has found him. He updates Spike on the doings of the scoobies. Xander is in Africa, Willow and Kennedy are in Brazil and Buffy has settled in Rome, where Dawn is in school. Andrew himself has been trained as a watcher by Giles, hence the tweed.

As they talk, Dana watches them from a roof top.

Back at Wolfram & Hart, Angel is set on finding the guy who killed Dana’s family, and find out where he took her. Meanwhile, on the streets, Spike gets a whiff of the slayer’s blood and follows the trail which leads him to a dead end. When she has him where she wants him, Dana attacks, taking out Andrew first and then starting on Spike. The two fight as only slayer and vampire can. She runs off, leading Spike into the basement.

Cautiously descending the stairs, Spike finds himself face to face with Dana. As Dana relives her own torture and other slayer’s lives, particular the ones that Spike has killed. Spike tries to explain slayer lore to her. Taking him by surprise, she flips him onto his back and injects him with one of the needles, making him weak and barely conscious. Flashing back to Spike chaining her up, she does the same to him. And taking out another needle, gives him another shot.

Back at Wolfram and Hart, Angel and co are still trying to track the slayer down, when Fred reaches a breakthrough. As Fred explains that the process of distilling whisky creates the smell of molasses, Andrew comes in with news that the slayer has Spike.

Back in the basement, Spike wakes up to find that the slayer has taken his hands right off. Punching him about the face, she tells him that he can’t touch her any more. Realising is muddling all her memories and those of the past slayers in her mind, Spike tries to explain that it wasn’t him that hurt her. As Dana’s memories flash before her she sees her torturer turn from Spike’s face to that of the real culprit. Kneeling in front of him she tells him it doesn’t matter and reaching for her saw is about to take of his head when Angel grabs her and throws her across the room.

Angel tries to tell Dana that he is there to help her, that he has found out who really hurt her and that he is dead, but he has as much luck as Spike and she comes for him. They fight, evenly matched but Angel manages to overpower her and hold her as Wesley and Gunn shoot her with tranquilizer darts.

Outside the building, Fred talks into a phone as Spike is stretchered off into a waiting ambulance, Angel follows with Dana, also strapped to a stretcher. As he gives out orders to his men, Andrew appears and tells Angel that Dana belongs with him and he is taking her. As Angel protests he realises that Andrew has back up, in the shape of 12 slayers. Andrew tells him that Buffy sent them to get Dana, that no-one on the good side trusts Angel now that he is working for Wolfram and Hart. Angel can do nothing but hand Dana over.

Back at Wolfram & Hart’s hospital, Spike lies in med, hands firmly attached again as Angel comes to check on him. Spike tells Angel that he deserved what happened to him, he may not have killed Dana’s family, but he killed plenty of others, never really thinking much about the nature of evil, just did it for the fun. Angel counters that he was only in it for the evil.

In hospital Cordelia is awoken from her coma by a vision of Angel in trouble.

The next day at Wolfram & Hart Angel is reiterating to the team that he is resigning his position as CEO when the phone rings with the news that Cordy is awake. Angel and Wesley hotfoot it to the hospital where Cordelia is back and back to her old self and there’s hugs all round. She tells them that she remembers everything that happened to her last year while Jasmine was controlling her and then it’s time for some retail therapy.

Shopping over and Cordy out of her hospital gown, Angel and Wesley introduce her to their new offices where the rest of the gang catch up with her, except for Connor of course, who Cordy still remembers but the others really don’t. When Harmony starts to crowd Cordy, Angel sends the rest of the team back to work leaving him and Cordy with some alone time. Angel tries to explain what they are doing at Wolfram & Hart, how many people they can save, but Cordy is more interested in Angel saving himself. She tells him of her vision of him and of the tattoo symbols that she saw.

They are interrupted by Eve who arrives in Angel’s private elevator to share some concerns that the Senior Partners have about the dimension hopping client. Angel isn’t too happy to see her and she leaves followed by Angel’s threats to have security keep tabs on her while she’s in the building.

In Spike’s new apartment Spike is recuperating by playing Donkey Kong on his X-Box when Lindsey walks in. Lindsey confides that he too had a hand chopped off once, but not by who. Their cosy chat is interrupted by Eve on the phone updating Lindsey on what she overheard of Cordy and Angel’s conversation about her vision.

Back and Wolfram & Hart, Angel returns to his apartment to find Cordelia watching the old video of Doyle from their early days together. Cordy explains that she understands now why Doyle gave up his life, it was so that Angel could keep on fighting. She goes on to tell him that she thinks he has been seduced by everything Wolfram & Hart have to give and tells him to give her one good reason why he should be there. He does: Connor. Part of the deal was to give Connor the life and family that he deserved. He tries to tell her that everything is fine, but Cordy is having none of it. The Powers That Be gave her the vision for a reason and that was to put him back on track. Angel counters that The Powers have a new champion now, Spike. Meanwhile, Lindsey and Eve snuggle together and discuss Cordelia’s awakeness and their plan for revenge.

Later that night, Wesley and Cordelia are reliving old times by researching the symbols she saw in her vision together. Breaking off from their work, they have a heart to heart about the events of last year and Lilah’s death, when Cordy suddenly spots the symbols they were looking for. Wesley identifies them as protection runes, in particular, a concealment spell, protecting the bearer from being seen by higher powers and also modern surveillance systems.

In the basement, Lindsey walks through the security beams, waving jauntily and unseen at a security camera. Approaching a demon from behind, he kills it and steals a crystal from around his neck.

Cordelia walks through the corridors of Wolfram and Hart when she is confronted by Spike who walks towards her determinedly. Nearing her, he morphs and takes a bite. He pulls away from her just before Angel flies at him and they fight. As Angel throws Spike about he tries to explain that it was a taste test. A ‘source’ told him that Cordelia was evil, but, clearly, his ‘source’ was wrong.

In the background, Eve watches on and updates Lindsey on her cell phone. Lindsey tells her he’s almost ready and that she should get out of the building. But before she can, she finds that Angel and Cordy have caught up with her.

In his office, Angel interrogates an edgy Eve about her new partner in crime until Harmony interrupts with the news that the whole building has been cleared out. Meanwhile, downstairs, Lindsey switches on a machine, lighting a circle in the middle of the floor, placing the crystal he stole into the machine, Lindsey is ready for action.

Realising that they don’t have much time, Cordelia tells Angel to torture Eve for information, he is reluctant but Harmony gladly steps in, although she is a little disappointed when Eve caves almost immediately. Eve explains that a failsafe was built in the basement in case Angel didn’t agree to the Senior Partner’s plans, something big and alive and designed to destroy Angel. They figure it must be the faux Doyle that activated the device and, with a little help from Spike, Angel puts the pieces together and comes up with Lindsey.

The team get to work, Gunn works on shutting the building down so that Lindsey can’t escape, Wesley and Lorne get to work on countering Lindsey’s protective runes, Harmony gets to watch Eve while Angel, Spike and Cordy head for the basement.

Lying on the floor Angel tells Cordy to leave, but Lindsey secures the place and takes out a knife. Cordelia throws Angel the sword she grabbed from his office and he stands as he catches it, ready for battle. With his new magical abilities, Lindsey turns his knife into a sword of his own. Angel tells Cordelia to shut down the device and the battle commences. The two wage an evenly matched war of blows and words while upstairs the others prepare the ritual to rob Lindsey of his protection runes.

Downstairs the fight continues, steam comes out of the edges of the circle which is beginning to rise. The two take the fight on to a ledge until Lindsey's sword goes through Angel and he kicks him back down on the ever rising lid. Pulling out the sword, Angel tells him it should have been wood and the fight continues, this time with fists. On the platform, Cordy finally finds and removes the crystal, stopping the machine, as the lid begins to lower Angel easily avoids Lindsey’s blows and knocks him flying across the room. As upstairs Wesley completes the ritual, downstairs, the tattoos on Lindsey's body start disappearing, a portal opens in the ceiling and takes Lindsey.

Alone together Angel tells Cordelia that he doesn’t feel like he really helped anyone but Cordelia reminds him that he has helped himself for once and that she was there to help him do that. He tells her that he now feels like whatever’s coming, he can beat it and Cordy counters that she always knew that, she just needed him to figure it out. Now that he has, she has to go, she was there to help put him back on track and now that he is, she has to go. Saying goodbye she turns to leave, but rushes back into his arms for one last kiss. The phone interrupts and Cordy tells him he needs to answer it. As he walks toward the phone Cordy say’s ‘You’re Welcome'.

Answering the phone, Angel turns to find that Cordy is gone as he hears the news that she has passed away and never awoke from her coma. Replacing the phone he looks toward where he saw her last and says ‘Thank you’.

A submarine sails beneath the ocean, inside there is panic, the crew call for immediate assistance, as someone or something attacks.

In Wolfram & Hart board room, Gunn confirms to the gang that Eve has vanished, and hopefully Lindsey has gone the same way at the hands of the Senior Partners. Unfortunately, with the Big Cat gone from the White Room and their liaison to the Senior Partners missing they are running low on sources of information. So, meeting closed before midnight for once and everyone rushes off to get on with their own projects.

As the team disappear off to their own offices, the elevator doors open and a man, Lawson walks into the lobby, he looks around and smiles and we see that he is one of the crew from the submarine.

Fred walks out of her office into her lab to find Lawson there. He chats to her casually, using her name, alarmed she tries to make a smooth exit but he notices and tells her not to run and that he came to see Angel, who he knows from back in the day.

New York City 1943.

Angel is sitting broodily in his apartment when the door is slammed open and men holding crossbows and stakes burst in, Angel is surrounded when an officer walks in and tells him to calm down. Angel sits down and the officer takes a seat in front of him telling him that they need him to help in the war effort. He explains that they have recently managed to capture a T-Class German submarine which is essential to the war effort. Unfortunately, something has gone wrong and it has sunk too deep for a human rescue effort. At this point another man steps forward saying that he knows this will be no problem for Angelus, he states he is from a new agency a ‘Demon Research Initiative’ that have been watching him for some time and decided that he is the man for the job. They make it clear that they won’t be taking no for an answer.

Under the ocean, what remains of the crew of the submarine are holed up in their quarters, Lawson appears to have become the leader of the group and checks on his comrades. He talks to a fellow crew member who reveals that they only have about two days of air left. They turn to a captured German officer to ask him what it was that attacked him but are interrupted by the screams of another man from beyond the door. Lawson wants to go and help, but his colleague stops him, holding a gun to his face. They are again interrupted but this time by the sounds of someone tapping out SOS in Morse code from outside. They open a hatch to see Angel staring in at them.

Back at Wolfram & Hart, Wesley walks into his office to find Fred bound and gagged, before he can say a word he finds himself knocked out.

Back in the submarine, the survivors question how Angel got there without even a dive suit. Angel asserts his authority asking to speak to their leader, he gives the correct passwords and the crew lower their weapons. Lawson shows Angel their quarters and Angel tells him to keep everyone locked up in there and prepares to face the enemy, refusing Lawson’s offer of a gun.

Making his way through the submarine, Angel comes face to face with a black haired Spike wearing a swastika on his arm. Assuming that Angel has, like him, been captured by the SS, Spike introduces Angel to his fellow captives, Nostroyev, Scourge of Siberia and The Prince Of Lies. Angel establishes that the vampires, having got free, have eaten all but the men hiding in their quarters. Feeling peckish Spike wants to kill these too but Angel persuades him that they need them to steer the submarine. Nostroyev disagrees and gets dusted by Angel for his troubles, showing the others who's boss.

Back in the now, Angel is working in his office when Lawson enters. They catch up, Lawson revealing that he has been following Angel’s life over the years, and Angel reminds Lawson that he promised to kill him the next time he saw him.

On the sub, Angel leads the surviving crew members into the control room and introduces them to Spike and The Prince Of Lies, he assures them that they will get out of there alive. Lawson starts giving out orders, assigning each surviving member of the crew a position then he and Angel clear up the bodies. While they do Lawson questions why they are keeping alive the monsters that killed his colleagues, Angel tells him that all they need to focus on is bringing the sub in and following orders. The job that they have to do is going to help them win the war and that Lawson should trust that Angel will get them through this safe and sound.

At Wolfram and Hart, Lawson asks Angel if he actually cared about anything back then or whether he was just in it to save his own ass. As Lawson talks Angel takes his opportunity, kicking out at a nearby table, Angel grabs a make-shift stake and grabs hold of Lawson reminding again of his promise. Lawson grabs Angel’s arm just in time and asks Angel if he really thinks that he would walk back into Angel’s life without an ace in the hole?

Angel backs off and Lawson takes Angel into the lobby where he finds Fred, Wesley and Gunn standing on chairs, bound and gagged with wire nooses around their necks. Angel tells him that this is not the way to get whatever it is that he wants, but Lawson tells him that the fear in Angel’s eyes is what he wants.

On the submarine, Lawson checks on his crew, while Spike whines to Angel that he wants a turn at the wheel and that they should call him captain. Lawson soon figures that Angel and Spike knew each other before. Their chat is interrupted by a scream, they rush towards the sound to find the Prince, clutching a document and attacking the German captive, a fight ensues which results in Angel staking the Prince.

Angel confirms to Lawson that the Prince was a vampire and Lawson wonders what suddenly set him off. Looking at the documents that the Prince was holding, Spike concludes that they may have had something to do with it. As the documents are written in German they question the captive German officer, when he refuses to cooperate Lawson lets slip that he can speak German. Questioning their prisoner they learn that the documents are research that the Germans have been doing to control vampires, cutting into their brains, trying to create an army of vampires. Spike soon realises that Angel already knew this and Angel confirms that the research was part of the reason why the yanks wanted the sub. Lawson denies that the US Government would have anything to do with experimenting on vampires and Angel tells him that the US is getting the sub and the surviving crew, nothing else. Handing Spike the documents, Angel tells him to burn them, which he does, whilst singing God Save The King.

His fun is interrupted when the submarine is hit from above, they rush to the control room where Hodge tells them that there are four destroyers above them. They begin to descend fast but are soon hit by another blast that takes out their motors. Angel tells Lawson to get them back up and running and he sets off to try. Another blast rocks the sub and water starts streaming in. Taking Spike with him Angel finds and fixes a broken pipe which is when they notice that the German is missing. Meanwhile, Lawson, trying to fix the motors, realises that he is missing a screwdriver, turning around to look for it he finds himself face to face with the German captive who stabs him in the stomach with it. Lawson falls to the floor but not before taking out the German.

Finding Lawson, Angel helps him up and Lawson tells him that he is the only one that knows how to fix the motor. Realising that Lawson his about to die, Angel takes what’s left of his blood, and slashing open his own wrists, feeds it to Lawson.

Angel returns to the others to find that they are almost out of air, as Spike comments that it might be a blessing to put some of them out of their misery the engines start up. Returning to Lawson, Angel tells him he did a good job and Lawson repays the favour. As they begin to surface, Lawson asks if that is a good idea what with the German’s still being about, Angel reminds him that they are nearly out of air, but Lawson no longer cares about his men, except as food. Vamping he lunges at Angel, but Angel fends him off easily, reminding Lawson that he is new at this.

As the submarine reaches the surface the crew are all reunited, Angel tells Lawson that he has eight hours to sunrise, as he climbs the ladder out of the sub, Angel promises Lawson that he will kill him if he ever sees him again. Spike laughs at Angel for turning Lawson only to send him out to almost certain death, until he realises that the same fate awaits him and follows Lawson up the ladder.

Back in the present day Lawson hopes that they at least tortured Angel, but Angel tells him that he never gave them the chance, jumping ship and hiding until the war was over. After calling Angel a coward he tells him that by hurting Angel he feels that he may have found his mission again, for 60 years he has done all the evil things that an evil thing should do but has been able to feel nothing. He asks Angel if everyone he turned felt that way and Angel tells him that he is the only one he ever turned after he got his soul back. And the fight is on.

The two dance around each other, Lawson trying to throw himself into the chairs holding Fred, Wes and Gunn on them and Angel trying to keep him away from them. As Angel’s friends watch on, Lawson realises that Angel gave him just enough of his soul to keep him trapped somewhere between who he was and who is resulting in him being nothing. He charges at Angel who throws him through a wall, grabbing a piece of wood Lawson aims for Angel’s heart, but Angel is too quick for him, and, grabbing Lawson’s arm, turns the stake about forcing it into his heart.

At Wolfram & Hart, Knox brings Fred her mail in her lab where she is investigating an epidemic where young children have collapsed and been hospitalised, all with the same unnatural smiles little Tommy had. Meanwhile, in the lobby, Nina, the werewolf, arrives in time for her 3 day stay in a cage. Angel takes her down to her ‘suite’ where he is perplexed to find that she asks him to breakfast and makes a hasty retreat to Wesley’s office. Here Wesley explains that, as usual, Angel is the last to know that Nina has a thing for him. Angel protests but Wesley is adamant and tells Angel that he should stop hiding behind his curse if he really likes her. Wesley becomes quite fluent on the subject of unrequited love and Angel is just picking up on the fact that Wes is not talking about Nina when Fred interrupts with her research on the kids epidemic case. He may not be so fast to pick up on a girl’s smoochy signals, but Angel quickly finds the missing common denominator in the kids smiling case. They were all watching TV between 7 and 7.30 in the morning when tragedy struck. With a new purpose that will take him away from romantic notions Angel jumps on the case.

Left alone with Wesley, Fred makes an advance of her own, but this time it’s Wesley’s turn to be slow on the uptake as he orders her a ride home.

Back in his office, Angel has turned to the entertainment king himself, Lorne, who comes up with a show in the ring spot, Smile Time.

Making his way to the closed set of Smile Time, Angel passes an apparently blind employee before finding the studio. Looking around the darkened set Angel senses something not right, seemingly coming from behind a filing cabinet; he moves this to one side to reveal a passageway which he cautiously makes his way down. At the end of the passage he breaks a padlock and enters a room to find a solitary man sitting on a chair underneath an oval shaped object with a towel covering his head. As the man croaks to Angel that he shouldn’t be there a ray of light blasts from the sphere throwing Angel back out of the room.

Clawing his way out of the boxes he fell into, Angel is shocked to find that he has been turned into a glove puppet.

Fred is working in her lab when she gets a call from Angel telling her to get to his office right away. Fred, Gunn and Wesley all enter Angel’s office to find him sitting with his back to them. Concerned, they ask if there’s a problem, turning his chair around to reveal puppet Angel, he tells them there’s a problem.

When the team have got over just how cute he is, Lorne joins them and, after dismissing the suggestion that he may have puppet cancer, Angel realises that Smile Time is on and rushes over to the TV. The team gather round, watching the programme while Fred gets a member of staff to tape the programme and Angel declares war on the show. He sends Gunn and Lorne off to speak with Smile Time boss Gregor Framkin while Fred and Wesley investigate what’s happened to the kids, and Angel.

Angel isn’t alone for long before he hears Nina approaching and dives under his desk to hide, she realises that he is there and tries to explain about asking him to breakfast, but Angel gives her the brush off and she leaves. Climbing out from under his desk Angel finds himself face to face with his worst nightmare, Spike. Spike can barely contain himself when he sees Angel and continues to laugh as Angel dives on him. Rolling around they wind up in the people-filled lobby, where Angel takes the fight into the elevator. The doors close and sounds of a struggle are heard. When the doors open again, puppet Angel dusts himself off and walks victorious back into his office.

At puppet central, Lorne and Gunn walk into Framkin’s office where he is apparently hard at work creating new puppets. As Framkin tries to fend of their questions with songs from Smile Time, Gunn becomes annoyed and tells him that Wolfram & Hart will shut Smile Time down. Framkin seems unconcerned, however, and Lorne and Gunn leave. In his office, Framkin continues to make his puppet for a while until one of the puppets from the show, Polo, pulls his hand from Framkin’s back and he falls to the desk. Picking up the phone, Polo, orders everyone into the office, they have a problem.

The puppets from Smile Time are all gathered when their boss, Polo, asks them which one of them turned Angel into a puppet. They all deny responsibility but admit that someone got into the ‘don’t room’ last night and messed with the nest egg and that must have been Angel. They decide that they need to step up their operations, tomorrow they will take out all their watchers in one go, torch the studio and leave town pronto.

In her cage at Wolfram & Hart, Nina is preparing for her transformation when she hears Angel’s voice. From behind the door, he apologises for his brusque behaviour that morning, Nina tries to be understanding but Angel silences her by showing his little puppet self. He explains that he didn’t want her to see him this way, but Nina asks him why he cares when he’s a real hero and has the whole sexy vampire thing going on for him. Angel turns his back at her and tries to explain how he feels when Werenina attacks and felt goes flying.

A battered and torn puppet Angel staggers through the hallway towards Lorne and collapses, Lorne picks him up shouting for a medic, a doctor or perhaps a Gepetto! Meanwhile, Gunn, who has been noticing that his lawyer abilities have been getting patchy lately, arrives at Doctor Sparrow’s surgery. The good doctor takes a look and confirms that the procedure has been almost completely reversed, and if this is the case then the Senior Partners must have wanted it this way. He offers Gunn a deal; if he cuts through a little red tape to release an ancient curio the doctor wants from customs, the doctor will give him the permanent upgrade.

In her lab, Fred and Wesley are becoming addicted to the taped edition of Smile Time. Knox brings coffee for himself and Fred, deliberately leaving Wesley out, but Fred tells Knox he should go home and, as he leaves, she and Wes turn back to the programme, sharing her coffee. Left alone, Wes asks Fred how things are going with Knox, Fred admits they went out a couple of times but he’s not really what she’s looking for. Again she tries to let Wesley know how she feels but Wes interrupts her when he spots something on the videotape. When the tape is muted, Polo appears to be talking directly to the audience, while the other puppets cast a cloaking spell with their song.

In his office, Angel is mending the ruins of his leather jacket when Wes and Fred come in to tell Angel what they have discovered. They believe that Framkin is ready to take out the whole audience and that the device that attacked Angel is holding the children’s life forces, they need to break the binding spell in order to return the life to the kids and return Angel to his normal self.

Gunn arrives with the news that it’s not Framkin that is behind this. With his renewed legal eagle upgrade Gunn has discovered that Framkin made himself a deal with some devils when his ratings were low and now is pay back time. Grabbing a sword, Angel declares himself ready to take out some puppets and the group march out determinedly.

In her room a young girl watches Smile Time, as behind him the puppets sing, Polo addresses his audience, telling them all to come and touch the screen. The girl places her hands on the screen but the spell is interrupted by Angel and co, who take out the puppets one by one. While Gunn and Angel fight the puppets, Fred and Wes approach the nest egg which starts to glow. Telling Fred not to look at it, Wesley chants his spell. Before he can finish he is attacked by a puppet and, while outside the fight goes on, Fred takes over the spell.

On the set, puppet Angel vamps out and takes out Polo, while in the egg room, Wesley and Fred finish the spell, causing the egg to explode. In her room the little girl is thrown away from the TV and back into her chair. Perfectly fine.

The next morning, Nina wakes up in her cell to find bits of puppet Angel fluff around her but is relieved to hear him knock at the door. He enters the room, still a puppet, explaining that he should be back to normal in a two or three days and invites her for breakfast.

Wesley is tidying his desk when Fred comes in to tell him that the kids are starting to regain consciousness and they congratulate themselves on a job well done. Wes suggests that they go get some rest, Fred gives hinting to Wesley one last go, but finding her subtleties are getting her nowhere gives him a clearer signal and kisses him passionately.

Back in the now, Fred aims a flame thrower at numerous screaming demons while Wesley backs her up, but their romantic tryst is interrupted by the ever bickering Angel and Spike. Apparently Angel has the hump because Spike stuck a sword through him. Meanwhile in the lab at Wolfram & Hart, Knox is alone in the lab when a delivery, not unlike a sarcophagus, is delivered for Fred.

In his office, Gunn goes about his business merrily singing a Gilbert & Sullivan number, which he hastily changes to some made up bad ass rap when he sees Wesley approach. When questioned about his cheeriness Gunn ribs Wesley that he’s so happy because he and Fred got back together last night. He can’t keep up the charade for long and admits that he is messing with him and that he is OK about Fred and Wesley dating. Moving swiftly on, Gunn tells Wesley he has a lead on the missing Lindsey and, reluctant to go into Angel’s office, sends Wesley to update the boss.

It soon becomes clear why Gunn didn’t want to give Angel the good news himself, as Wesley walks in on yet another heated argument between Angel and Spike, this time over who would win in a fight between cavemen and astronauts.

In her lab, Fred puzzles over her new delivery, cautious about opening it, which she should be after recent disasters involving anonymous deliveries. Fred sends Knox off on a fact finding trip and turns to look at the sarcophagus. Running her hands over the crystals in the lid, she accidentally triggers an opening mechanism, a hatch springs open letting out dust which Fred breathes in. She steps back coughing, and when Knox comes in, the hatch is shut again. Meanwhile Angel has had enough of fighting with Spike and offers him a job at any other Wolfram & Hart office he likes except the LA branch.

Coming back from a check up where she has been given the all clear, Fred and Lorne continue the astronaut/cavemen argument when they bump into Wesley. Feeling like three’s a crowd Lorne leaves singing a jaunty tune but stops dead in his tracks when Fred finishes off his line, he turns in time to catch Fred as she spews blood and collapsed.

In hospital, Fred awakens to find all her favourite men visiting. They assure her that, although they don’t know what is wrong with her, they are all working hard to find out. They leave her to rest and admit that none of them have any idea what is happening to Fred. Angel reveals that the doctor has told him that a parasitic agent is working it’s way through her organs which will liquefy within the day. They agree that they need to know more about the box which they have been unable to open or trace its origin. Gunn heads of to hit the White Room, while Angel, Spike and Lorne head off to see what prime suspect number one, Lindsey, can tell them.

Wesley sits in his office working on identifying the symbols on the sarcophagus, when an employee comes in and suggest that they have other work to do then find out what is wrong with Fred, casually Wesley pulls a gun out from his draw and shoots the man in the leg.

In the White Room, Gunn finds that the cat has been replaced by, well himself. Himself tells him that the physical form of the conduit can take any shape it wants, before telling him that he is not Gunn’s friend or his flunky and, when Gunn offers his life for Fred’s, tells him he already has it before beating him.

Arriving at Lindsey’s apartment, Angel, Spike and Lorne find Eve hiding in his bedroom. She denies all knowledge of the sarcophagus but has to sing before they will believe her. (The song she sings by the way is the same song that Lindsey sang in Caritas back in season 2). Bargaining for her life, Eve tells them that if there is nothing in the Wolfram & Hart records about this sarcophagus it means that it came before their records. It belongs to one of the old ones, the original demons. Luckily the source books don’t only hold Wolfram & Hart’s records and she says that Wesley should look for the texts that are forgotten and that they need to find the Deeper Well.

Back at Wolfram & Hart, Wesley has been doing his work and explains the sarcophagus held Illyria who was a great warrior and monarch of the demon age until it was murdered by rivals and left to drift in the ‘Deeper Well’ which is a burial ground for the old ones. Wesley believes that Fred is being hollowed out by the demon so that demon can take over her body. He has also located the Deeper Well in the Cotswolds in England. As Angel and Spike prepare to travel to England, Wesley warns that the well will have a guardian, but he believes that by going to the Deeper Well, Angel and Spike will be able to draw Illyria back there, thus saving Fred.

In her hospital bed, Fred sleeps fitfully then suddenly her eyes bolt open and staring.

Finding Fred’s bed empty, Wesley heads to the lab where he finds her trying to work. He persuades her that she is not well enough to work and takes her home. Meanwhile, Angel and Spike discover the joys of flying in an aeroplane for the first time.

Back in LA, Knox comes to Gunn with an idea of freezing Fred to stop what is happening to her and the two of them go off to test whether it will work. In her bedroom, Fred sleeps while Wesley continues his research. Waking, she regrets having slept as she does not know how much time she may have left, Wesley comforts her and she asks him to read to her. Fred chooses a children’s book and Wesley starts to read.

In England, Angel and Spike make their way through the woods to the Deeper Well, finding and drawing near it they are approached by the guardians and prepare for battle by holding hands. Having killed all the demon soldiers presented to them with little problem they are met by the keeper of the well, known as Drogyn, who Angel knows of old. He invites them in.

In the lab, Knox reveals to Gunn that Illyria is impervious to the freezing process. Defeated, Knox admits to Gunn that he has feelings for Fred, saying he doesn’t just care about Fred he practically worships ‘it’. Gunn picks up on Knox’s slip up and Knox realises that the game is up. Throwing Knox across the room, Gunn accuses him of harming Fred but Knox explains that he chose Fred because he loves her and she was worthy of his God.

In the Deeper Well, Drogyn promises to tell them as much as he can. He explains that Illyria was both feared and beloved and was laid to rest at the very depths of the well until her tomb disappeared about a month ago. So great was she that even today, millions of years after her death, she has acolytes.

In the lab, Knox tells Gunn that he was not the only one that was involved in bringing the sarcophagus back to LA, which is where Illyria once reigned. Knox hit a few snags on the way, including a hold up at customs, which is where Gunn helped him out by signing the order so that he could get his permanent lawyer brain boost. Shattered to learn that he has been duped into being a part of what is happening to Fred, Gunn picks up a flask and takes Knox out with it; as he lays on the floor, Gunn continues to beat him.

Back in the Deeper Well, Drogyn tells Angel and Spike that now Illyria’s essence has been freed it will require a champion to travel from where it lies to where it belongs to draw it back, handily there are two of them standing right there. But Drogyn goes on to say that bringing the sarcophagus back will draw Illyria out of Fred but into everyone single person from there to here; saving Fred will mean hundreds, if not thousands of others will die.

In her bed, Fred writhes in agony, speaking nonsense and all Wesley can do is watch. He tries to comfort her, promising not to leave her and telling her that she is a hero. They hold each other and kiss, tenderly, as Wesley tells her that he has loved her since he has known her, even before. Fred starts to cough, catching her breath painfully, Wesley tells her to fight, but it’s too late, with the words ‘Why can’t I stay?’ she falls dead in his arms.

As Wesley sobs, Fred’s eyes ice over and she jerks, kicking Wesley and sending them both to opposite sides of the bed. As Wesley gets up, Fred stands, now as the demon god, Illyria, she looks at her hand and announces, ‘This will do’.

Illyria tells Wes that she remembers Fred, Fred is the shell that she is in. Realising that violence will not work against the super strong, ancient Illyria, Wesley tries persuasion. Opening the curtains, he shows Illyria how humans have taken over the earth and tells her to go back to her resting place until the humans are gone. Illyria realises that he is just trying to get Fred back and, telling him that Fred is gone and the shell is now bound to her, she throws Wesley easily across the room and leaves, saying she has much work to do.

En route back from England in their super swanky plane, Spike drinks bottle after bottle of airplane size Jack Daniels, bemoaning their tinyiness. Clinging on to the hope that they may still be able to save Fred, Angel muses that, in their world, people don’t have to stay dead, vampires, ghosts of vampires and well, Buffy, have all died and come back.

In his office, Gunn and Harmony watch a battered, beaten and bound Knox as he lies unconscious. Wesley arrives and the two swap news, while Knox awakes and glories in the fact that the demon he worships has arisen. He tells them that Fred was the most perfect woman that he has ever met and that’s why he chose her for Illyria. Wes reaches into his jacket and pulls out a gun but the others stop him, telling him that they need the information Knox can give them.

Angel and Spike return with the news that they were too late to save Fred. Each mourns the fact that they should have seen this coming and Lorne, unable to take Fred’s death, has to leave. Angel tells the remaining team that Drogyn told him that the sarcophagus was pre-ordained to come here, but Gunn tells them that it shouldn’t, it should have stayed in customs but someone got it out. Wesley wants to know who but Gunn doesn’t seem quite ready to confess to his role in Fred’s demise just yet.

As Wesley tries to tell them all that Fred has gone, that Illyria destroyed her from the inside out and all that remains is the shell. Angel and Spike argue that it’s the soul that matters, so long as the soul is still around there’s a chance she can be brought back. With a plan ahead of them they get to work, first they will need Willow, and while they are getting her, they need to contain Illyria. In the meantime Illyria herself has come for her maker, who is being guarded by Harmony. Smashing through into the office, Illyria takes Harmony out with one punch and they make off to the lab. As Knox gushes about how much he worships Illyria, the demon itself studies the sarcophagus she was entombed in for so many years. As he tells her that he is her priest, she bemoans that fact that the world is not how she left it. He apologies that he cannot do anything about that, turning towards him she rips off her shirt saying ‘I can’.

Meanwhile in his office, Angel argues with Giles on the phone about Willow’s location but Giles isn’t being very co-operative especially as he still isn’t happy about the whole Angel working for Wolfram & Hart. The conversation ends with Angel throwing the phone across the room. As they are about to discuss plan B, Harmony arrives with news of the very demon they are seeking.

In the lab, Illyria stands with her hand on the sarcophagus, slamming her hand down on one of the crystals her body becomes covered in a tight leather armour. Nice. Just as she is done, Angel and co, followed by a lot of armed guards, enter the lab. Although she recognises Angel as a warrior, Illyria is not impressed with his entourage. Angel tells her that she has taken something of theirs and they want it back, he promises that if she stands down, they will not destroy her. Declining their kind offer, Illyria throws Angel out of the nearest window where he falls to several stories onto the street outside. As the others try to attack, Illyria slows time down with a wave of her hand and leaves with Knox.

The team re-group in the lobby and weigh up Illyria’s known advantages; she’s super strong and she can alter time. Not good, but there’s work still to be done and Angel dishes out the orders. Wes is to go and check Knox’s files and the sarcophagus in the lab, taking Harmony with him, Gunn goes to check what his contacts can tell him and Angel and Spike will try and track Illyria to find out where she’s headed.

As Angel collects weapons in his office, Spike recalls that there was none of Fred’s scent left, maybe she really is gone, but Angel won’t accept it. Meanwhile in the lab, Harmony helps by smashing things while Wesley studies at the sarcophagus. Asking Harmony to hand him a crowbar, Wesley sets about the sarcophagus but makes not a dint, he does, however, loosen one of the crystals which he removes. Harmony admits that he’s beaten her with his discovery; she only found a cell phone and a cheese sandwich. Wesley finds that most of the numbers have been deleted, however, Knox couldn’t erase the three latest missed calls, which all happen to be from the same person.

Dr Sparrow is tidying up in his office when Gunn arrives and demands that the good doctor spills the beans on everything he knows. After a couple punches the doctor admits that they can’t bring Fred back and that his only involvement was to get Gunn to sign the release documents. Gunn begs the doctor to reverse his actions, to take back what he gave to Gunn and bring Fred back, but the doctor tells him there's nothing left to bring back – Fred’s soul has been consumed by the fires of resurrection. As the realisation is sinking in, the doctor is knocked out by the butt of Wesley’s rifle.

Wes points the rifle at Gunn and demands to know what he did and at last Gunn confesses his unknowing involvement in Illyria’s resurrection and Fred’s death. Approaching Gunn, Wes tells him he can understand and forgive Gunn for not wanting to go back to the person he used to be, but he can’t forgive him for knowing who was responsible and not saying anything. Grabbing a knife from the doctor’s table, Wes plunges it into Gunn’s chest.

Back in his office, Angel slams Wesley against a wall, not happy about the stabbing of Gunn. Wes assures Angel that he avoided the major organs and that Gunn will probably live, Fred on the other hand is gone, her soul destroyed in the resurrection of Illyria. Wes explains Gunn’s involvement saying that he let her die, Angel replies that so did he, he admits there was a way to save Fred but only if thousands of others died in her place. Wes needs to focus on what needs to be done, the stopping of Illyria. Spike interrupts their heart to heart with a name he has beaten out of the doctor Vahla Ha’nesh.

They retreat to Wesley’s office where he shows them Vahla Ha’nesh, the ancient temple of Illyria and where she should have been resurrected. Only Illyria can open the gateway to her ancient world.

Illyria and Knox enter a building, they approach what should be the gateway but it has been locked by Wolfram & Hart, handily Knox has the key. As Knox lays the keys on the floor, Angel, Wes and Spike turn up. Illyria is confused as to why they are trying so hard to stop her. Angel explains that he cannot let her kill thousands of people. Commenting that he is a protector of the human race, Illyria asks if he would protect even Knox. As Angel replies that, as low as Knox is, if it came to it, yes he would protect him because he is still a part of the human race, a shot is fired and Knox falls to the floor. Wesley has other ideas about protecting Knox.

The fight begins and Illyria throws each member of team Angel about quite easily, having thrown them to the floor, Illyria spreads her arms and distorts time again, but is surprised to find Angel standing next to her. He floors her with a punch holding the crystal Wes took from the sarcophagus. They fight some more, but Illyria manages to open the gateway and walk through, closely followed by Wesley. Angel and Spike can only watch as the gateway closes.

In Illyria’s world Wesley falls to the floor and watches as Illyria climbs the stairs to her mow broken temple. She looks around her, taking in the fact that her world is gone. Aiming his gun at her, Wes says ‘now you know how I feel’, but before he can fire she is gone.

Daytime at Wolfram & Hart and Angel, Spike and Wes discuss the fact that they must close the gateway to Illyria’s world as soon as possible. Wesley heads off to the lab and Spike asks Angel if the offer to send him away is still open. Angel says yes, but Spike doesn’t want to go; there’s a big fight coming, as usual, and Spike feels he can help.

In Fred’s lab, Wesley is packing up her things when Illyria arrives. She tells Wes that Fred cannot return to him, but there are fragments, memories still left. She has nowhere to go now, her kingdom is long dead and she is now unsure of her place. She needs to learn to walk in this world now, and Wesley can help her with that. He tells her that he will help her but that she must change, stop killing, although he is probably the last man in the world to teach her what’s right.

Reminiscing about Fred and saving the day, Angel comes to the decision that this time he is not waiting for the apocalypse to come, they are taking matters into their own hands and first stop is the only person they know who has a direct line to the Senior Partners.

Angel and Spike find Eve still hiding at Lindsey’s place. At first she doesn’t really want to help, but threats to hand her over to the Senior Partners and a loud banging on the door soon scare her into asking for their help in return, for which she will tell them anything. By the time the maker of the noise blows the door off and enters the room, they are gone.

In a bar, Lorne drinks heavily as the bartender sings out of tune to him in order to discover whether his girlfriend will say yes to his proposal. Lorne tells him what he wants to hear and, after making with the maudlin for a while, decides that he needs to quit drinking and start pretending like he can help again.

Back at Wolfram & Hart, Angel and Spike return with the wayward Eve, telling Harmony to have the building shut down and Spike to take care of Eve, Angel pays a visit to his lawyer.

Gunn is brooding in his hospital room as Angel enters and asks if there is anyway that he can protect Eve from the Senior Partners. As Gunn appears reluctant to answer, Angel reminds him that he paid a high price for his large brain and he should use it. Gunn replies that there is a proviso that says that a CEO of a Wolfram & Hart can take custody of a wayward employee, he’s not sure if it will work in this case but he will find out. Before leaving, Angel reminds Gunn that he is a good man and because of this he will feel bad about what he did for the rest of his life, but he won’t find redemption by hiding in his room.

Wesley sits in the dark, dreaming of Fred, he awakes to find he is really with Illyria. He tells her that he was having a nightmare, Illyria recalls a time before nightmares were trapped in the heads of humans and Wesley comments that this world must be very disappointing for her, noting that he doesn’t think much of it either.

In Angel’s office Eve observes with sarcasm to Spike, that this is the last place that the Senior Partners would look for her just as Angel walks in with the news that Eve is under his protection. Repaying her part of the bargain, Eve explains that she is an immortal, created by the Senior Partners to act as a liaison, she only knows what they want her to know and her job is to watch, report back, and pass on any messages. But the best part is that there was someone who could have told them everything and they sent him away. Lindsey has devoted years of his life to studying the Senior Partners and now he is suffering horrors in some hideous awful hell dimension.

In the hideous awful hell dimension, Lindsey wakes up and kisses his wife; their amour is interrupted by their young son who jumps on the bed…

Awake, Lindsey opens his front door out onto a peaceful suburban street and collects his paper; waving to a neighbour he turns and goes back to the house, picking up his son’s skateboard as he does.

Back at Wolfram & Hart, Lorne has returned, and with the help of Eve they are trying to figure out a way to bring Lindsey back. As they argue about how to find the particular hell dimension Lindsey is suffering in, Gunn enters and tells them he knows where their man is and what’s more, he can get them there.

In hell, Lindsey is helping his son with his homework when his wife asks him to fetch a light bulb from the basement, Lindsey seems reluctant to go but his wife persuades him and he tentatively opens the door and heads down the stairs.

In the garage, Gunn explains that Lindsey is not in hell but in a holding dimension, to which they can go via the Camero in Angel’s car collection. While Gunn explains that the car will get them to the holding dimension, once there they need to find the wrath, which they need to go through to get out. The Camero drives itself through a tunnel and comes out on a nice suburban street in daytime.

Lindsey opens his front door and collects his paper, waving to a neighbour, he turns and goes back to the house, picking up his son’s skateboard as he does, just as Angel and crew drive up outside his house. As Gunn opens the car door, Angel and Spike shy away from the daylight until Gunn explains that the sun is the alternate dimension no frying variety and they all knock at Lindsey’s door. His wife invites them in but Lindsey has no memory of who they are. They try to explain but Lindsey just thinks that he is the butt of some practical joke.

Meanwhile at Wolfram and Hart, Eve, being looked after by Harmony and Lorne is becoming jittery, as they try to reassure the intruder, alarms go off and the man from Lindsey’s apartment walks into the office. As an employee tries to stop him, he turns and puts a fist through the employee’s torso. Harmony, Lorne and Eve all scream in unison.

In the holding dimension, Angel spots an amulet around Lindsey’s neck, as he pulls the amulet off Lindsey falls to the floor and remembers everything. Before they can make a run for it, his wife returns sporting a machine gun, they duck for cover as she starts firing. Grabbing Lindsey, Spike and Gunn makes a run for the door only to find that the car has gone. Returning to the house, they find that the son is armed as well and realise that the only way out is through the basement. Despite Lindsey’s protests, they make a run for the cellar.

At Wolfram & Hart, Harmony jumps on the intruder and tries to snap his neck but his head is immovable, as she struggles with him, she tells Eve and Lorne to run, which they do. The intruder throws Harmony across the room, where she falls unconscious and the lift doors close on Eve and Lorne just as he gets there.

In the basement, the four find a veritable torture chamber and a pile of hearts that Lindsey claims are his. Looking for a way out, they notice a door with a fire behind it, Angel shoves at it but it won’t move. Gunn explains that the lock is mystical just as Lindsey cries 'he’s coming' and they all turn to find a huge armoured demon approaching them. Angel and Spike throw everything they can at it but the demon tosses them aside easily. Mid fight Angel turns to see Gunn placing the amulet that Lindsey was wearing around his own neck.

Angel shouts to Gunn not to do it but Gunn explains that if one person leaves another has to stay, as he fastens the clasp the door opens and Gunn tells them to go before the door closes. This is his atonement. Understanding, Angel takes Spike and Lindsey through the fire and, as the door closes behind them, Gunn forgets his old life, as his new wife calls to him from above.

At Wolfram & Hart, Lorne and Eve get to the garage just as Angel, Spike and Lindsey magically arrive back. Eve rushes into Lindsey’s arms. They are about to return upstairs when Lorne warns them about the very large well-dressed man that’s after them. Before they have time to explain about Gunn, the intruder kicks open the door and strides towards them.

As he approaches, Eve begs him not to ‘do this’ while Angel stands forward saying that Eve is under his protection. Reaching into his pocket, the intruder pulls out a pen while Eve pleads with him to talk to the Senior Partners and tell them it was a mistake. Telling Eve that is impossible, the intruder pulls out what appears to be a contract and tells her to sign. Waving Angel back resignedly, Eve signs where the man indicates and the intruder introduces himself as Marcus Hamilton, their new liaison the Senior Partners. He explains that Eve has just signed her position along with her immortality to him.

Congratulating them on their escape and telling them that the Senior Partners are right behind them, Hamilton takes his leave.

In Angel’s office, Lorne pulls the bullets out of Spike’s back while Lindsey and Eve sit cuddled up on the sofa, while Angel demands to know what the Senior Partners’ plans are. Lindsey tells them that the apocalypse is already here and they are playing for the bad guys. Everything they have been doing has been a distraction to keep them from looking under the surface, just like the Senior Partners planned all along.

Meanwhile in the holding dimension, Gunn is helping his son with his homework when his wife asks him to fetch a light bulb from the cellar.

Before he leaves, Angel tells Wes that, though Fred may be dead, he is still alive and he should start acting like it.

Taking Angel’s advice, Wes sits in his office with new clients. The police have pointed them in his direction after their son was hit by a truck which slammed him into the garage and, although he should have been killed instantly, he survived. Calling Harmony on the intercom, Wes tells her to get Angel and then agrees to help the couple, whose son is in the lobby, believing they are there about a trust fund.

As Angel walks through the lobby to meet Wesley, his attention is caught by a familiar voice calling out ‘dad’. Turning he sees Connor standing there and staring straight at him.

Stunned and confused, Angel starts to ask him what he is doing there when Connor walks straight past him to the couple that have asked for help, Mr and Mrs Riley. Realising what has happened, Angel refuses point blank to help them, telling them there must be some mistake.

In Angel’s office, Wes tries to persuade Angel that this is a case they should take on, but Angel refuses to back down saying they have more important things to worry about at the moment.

Meanwhile, in Wolfram & Harts’ holding dimension, Gunn lays on a table while the demon that lives in the basement removes his heart, again. As the demon cleans his knife, the wound in Gunn’s chest heals and he sits up. He looks around him confused, finds the lightbulb on the table and heads back upstairs.

Back at Wolfram & Hart, Spike and Illyria are sparring in the lab, after taking what appears to be yet another fall, Spike decides to set some ground rules. First, no punching him the face, second when he hits Illyria she should tell him how it feels so he can write it in his notebook, and third no touching his clipboard. Ignoring his ground rules, Illyria punches him in the face again, knocking him to the floor just as Wesley walks in. Spike tells him not to worry, he is writing everything down.

Illyria notices that Wes is frustrated and he admits that he has had a disagreement with Angel and that he doesn’t always understand Angel. Illyria finds it strange that he will still follow him willingly and he tells her that Angel has earned it.

Angel himself is simmering in his office and explodes when Hamilton walks in demanding to know why his son has just walked into the building. Hamilton states that although this was no accident the Senior Partners were not behind it and could not be happier about their little agreement. Someone, however, is sending him a message and using Connor to do that.

Out on the streets of LA, the Riley family drive home wondering where they will get their trust from now, leaning over from the back Connor tells them to stop pretending he knows they weren’t at Wolfram & Hart for a trust fund and that they should stop worrying, he is fine. They don’t have to be scared. He spoke too soon though, 'cos just as he says this the car door is ripped off by demons who proceed to attack the family. They pull Connor out of the car first and then start on his mother. Connor watches helplessly as the demons attack his mother and then his instincts kick in. Getting up, he strikes out at the demon sending it flying back, Connor stands, amazed at his own strength when a another demon prepares to attack. Luckily Angel comes flying down from the rooftops in true Angel style and takes the rest of the demons out.

The fight over, Angel basks in his son’s awe for a moment until Connor rushes off to help his parents. As Connor tends to his wounded father, Angel offers the services of Wolfram & Hart for whatever they need.

Back at the office, Angel and Connor leave Mr Riley in the good hands, or possibly claws, of the Wolfram & Hart doctors and Angel tries to explain to Connor what he is; a healthy well adjusted kid, with enhanced abilities no less. Taking it all in, demons, vampires, doctors with claws and the realisation that he is some kind of superhero; Connor is kinda cool with that. Keen to know more about vampires and the other scaries they have at Wolfram & Hart, Connor quizzes Angel about what they do, as Angel tries to tell him that it’s mostly boring stuff. They approach the lab from which Spike comes flying out. Picking himself up and uttering curses he heads back in followed by Angel and Connor.

Inside, Angel introduces Connor to Spike and Illyria, who Connor takes an instant liking to, admitting that he has always had a thing for older women. Lorne interrupts his lusting by telling Angel that Wesley has some info.

Back in Wesley’s office, he tells them what he has learned. The demons that came after Connor are the henchmen of a Warlock by the name of Cyvus Vail. Who is very powerful, heads up a large demon empire, which stretches around the whole of LA. Against the better advice of his colleagues, Angel sets off immediately to see Mr Vail refusing all aid. As the others leave, Wes picks up his phone and asks for any information they have on Vail.

Hooked up to various tubes, Vail is relaxing when Angel makes his presence known by the slaughter of all his guards, well all the ones he could find anyhow. Vail tells Angel that, rather than trying to kill Connor he was actually trying to show him what he was capable of. Vail explains that it was he that rebuilt Connor’s and everyone else’s memories. The problem now is that a certain demon by the name of Sahjhan is causing a few problems and Vail needs him dead and not just trapped in a bottle.

To add a little persuasion to his argument, Vail shows Angel a glowing box he calls the Olan Window, he explains that this allows him to see the past as it was, however, if it were to break around someone who’s memory had been altered it would bring the old memories back. Angel tells him that he will kill Sahjahn for him, but Vail reminds him of the prophecy that states that only Connor can kill Sahjhan.

Meanwhile at Wolfram & Hart, Harmony has brought Wesley everything they have on Vail and, Illyria, who she has found wandering around the building. With the help of Lorne, Wesley soon discovers Wolfram & Hart have previously done business with Vail.

Back in his office, Angel tells Connor about the prophecy and Sahjhan while Wesley tries to dissuade him, telling him that reality was changed on the day they took over. Ignoring Wesley, Connor and Angel look at each other and, realising they have no choice, Connor agrees to do it.

In the holding dimension, Gunn lies on the table waiting to have his heart removed, the proceedings are interrupted by Hamilton who rips off the amulet. He has a proposition for Gunn that will mean that Gunn can leave the dimension, but, as Gunn is no longer in the business of making deals, he refuses and asks for his amulet back, waiting for his heart to be removed.

In the training room, Angel gives Connor some fighting hints and tips while Wesley takes Illyria on a trip to the archives. As he rifles through the files he tells Illyria that reality has been changed and she tells him that Fred’s memories were altered when she got to Wolfram & Hart and she can no longer access these memories. Illyria asks if he thinks that Fred is a different person than she was, looking at a file Wesley replies, ‘no we all are’. He replaces the file which is open at the page where Angel has signed.

At Vail’s, Connor gets straight to the point, telling Vail that he will kill Sahjahn for him but then he leaves his family alone or he will kill Vail in lots of different ways. Vail agrees and shows him where Sahjhan is. Connor heads for the room with words of encouragement from Angel, reaching the table where the urn lies, Connor turns to find that the entrance he walked through is no longer there. Outside Vail explains to Angel that Connor can no longer see them.

Lifting the lid on the urn, Connor finds himself face to face with Sahjhan, who is very appreciative at being set free. Connor tells him they are supposed to fight and Sahjhan soon realises who he is facing. Making the fist move, Sahjhan strikes Connor knocking him across the room, Angel instinctively moves to save his son but finds that he is blocked by a magical barrier. Throwing Conner about the room, Sahjhan is surprised at how easy the fight is and wishes that he hadn’t gone to all the trouble of changing the prophecy and getting rid of Connor in the first place.

Angel turns and demands that Vail removes the barrier but is surprised to find Wesley and Illyria in the room, and Wesley has the Olan Window.

Wesley tells Angel that he changed reality and sold them out to Wolfram & Hart. Having no choice, Angel tells him that Connor is his son. Taking a moment to digest this, Wesley asks if Fred was the price he paid to save his son.

While in the other room, Sahjhan has Connor over the table and is preparing to make his final move, Angel pleads with Wesley to put the box down. In the other room, Sahjhan hauls Connor over the table preparing to kill him. Wesley asks if breaking the box will bring Fred back, when Angel replies no, Wes breaks it anyway, the blast throws him and Angel to the floor as the memories come back, the prophecy, Wesley’s betrayal of Angel, well the whole of seasons three and four really, the parts that involve Connor anyway.

The two men look at each other for a moment before Angel gets to his feet to save his son, again.

In the other room, Sahjhan is about to deliver the final blow when Connor’s hand shoots out and grabs him by the throat, he throws Sahjhan across the room and, standing, faces him with hatred in his eyes. Grabbing an axe from the table as he rolls over to Sahjhan the fight begins in earnest and Sahjhan’s head is soon separated from his body. Angel arrives to find his son standing over the body of his enemy. Angel approaches him tentatively but Connor shows no sign that his memories have been returned.

Back at Wolfram & Hart, Wesley mulls over everything that has happened over the last two years while Illyria asks him if these are the memories he needed back ad helpfully lists them for him. Connor visits Angel in his office. They talk and Connor tells him that he will tell his parents that he is different but in a good way and that he feels happier knowing that Angel is looking out for them. Angel tells him that Vail is still missing but they will find him, but Connor replies that Vail cannot show him anything he hasn’t already seen. He goes on to say that he only came by to say goodbye, he’s going back to his own life now, his parents don’t belong in this world and he has to do what he can to protect his family. Looking at Angel he says, ‘I learnt that from my father’. A wry smile on his face he turns and leaves.

Back at Wolfram & Hart, Wesley explains to Angel that he did not send Illyria, she went of her accord, but Angel cannot understand why she would want to do this for them. Angel believes she will want to get back what she once had, Wes on the other hand wouldn’t presume to know what she wants, but he understands the power that she represents. Maybe they could find someway to convince her to join the team. As they are discussing this a portal opens and Illyria herself walks in dropping Gunn to the floor.

Picking Gunn up by the throat she holds him off the floor, Angel steps forward telling her to let him go. Still holding Gunn high, she says that he holds great worth and value for them, gently holding the angry Angel back, Wesley agrees that he does and that they are in her debt for rescuing him, that they owe her. Dropping Gunn on the floor she says ‘of what you owe me’ and leaves.

The next day Gunn returns to work to find his desk overflowing with papers. He goes to Wesley’s office which he finds strewn with books and the occupier acting rather strangely, flitting around the office between his many books. Wesley tries to apologise for the stabbing incident but says he doesn’t know how, Gunn tells him that’s okay, he just got his heart cut out numerous times, a little stabbing is nothing really.

In the training room, Spike and Illyria are sparring, but Spike is starting to get wise to her moves. Their session is interrupted by Angel calling Spike out of the room. Angel tells Spike that the sessions should stop as rather than them testing her, she is testing them. As they talk, Illyria suddenly holds her stomach, Spike believes that he has at least winded her.

Gunn is sitting behind his mountain of paperwork when Lorne, wearing a dodgy hat and shades calls in, he explains that Angel has got him tailing Illyria, he even has a walkie-talkie. They discuss Wes and how he has been acting strangely recently. Lorne advises Gunn not to go in his office as that is where he keeps his ‘full strength crazy’. He goes on to say that Wes is like two people, one is almost catatonic and the other just locked in his office obsessing over everything to do with Illyria. Their conversation is interrupted by Angel’s voice on the walkie-talkie telling Lorne to come to his office.

Angel, Wes, Gunn and Spike are gathered in the conference room discussing Illyria and what they should do about her. Wesley comes to the conclusion that Angel wants him to find a way to kill Illyria and Angel agrees. Next item on the agenda is the upcoming apocalypse. Hamilton interrupts their little conversation with the news that they just spent a whole lot of money and are rather skint. Apparently Illyria destroyed a whole lot of holding dimensions before finding the one that Gunn was in. In the meantime, they have a new client.

Back in his office, surrounded by his books, Wesley sits as Illyria enters and asks him what day it is, Wesley replies that it is Monday and Illyria says they have had this conversation before. She tells him that though he is her guide he is also her betrayer, he smashed the Olan Window believing that it would bring back Fred and she admits that she is bothered by this, or merely by the fact that she is bothered.

Entering Angel’s office, Gunn tells him that he has the file on the new client which is some kind of demon pact which Angel needs to sign as witness on behalf of the firm.

In the conference room, Amanda, the subject of the demon pact, or more correctly the mother of the unborn subject of the demon pact, explains that the demons have a prophecy which states that her unborn child is some sort of holy being. She has agreed to hand her baby over to the demons and in return they have been real nice to her. As they talk the demons in question arrive.

In Wesley’s office, he continues to study while Illyria talks, suddenly she staggers, holding her stomach and knocking over a glass of water. She stands to find herself in the training room with Wesley pointing some sort of weapon at her, clutching her stomach again, she goes back in time to hear Spike telling Angel that he got her winded. She looks at Spike and Angel, holds her stomach and finds herself back in Wesley’s office knocking over the glass of water. Looking at him she says ‘you tried to murder me’ and pushes back his desk, slamming him into the window. He protests that he doesn’t want her dead but she says she has seen it and leaves.

As she walks down the corridor, Lorne follows.

Meanwhile the demons are getting anxious as Angel and Gunn still hold conference with the ‘vessel’ Amanda; Harmony assures them that everything will be all right and offers them some organic cola. In the conference room, Angel and Gunn are making sure that Amanda is sure about giving up her child. She assures them that she has considered this very carefully, the demons will worship her child while she and her husband cannot even afford to raise the baby. Angel and Gunn take a break to consider what she has said.

Wesley is working in the lab when he is visited by Hamilton, who has a few questions about the lovely Illyria. He discloses that the Senior Partners know of Illyria, in fact they go way back and the Partner’s aren’t too happy to have her around. But they consider that to be the team’s problem, Hamilton does have one parting suggestion though, Wesley should look at the Low Emanation Scanner read outs. Tapping a few keys on his nearby laptop, Wesley finds that, following Hamilton’s advice, he is able to track Illyria.

Illyria herself has caught out Lorne, who is having trouble contacting Angel through the walkie-talkie. In the conference room, the demons have joined in the meeting, Amanda is about to sign the contract when Gunn spots a ritual that he is concerned about, one that involves the sacrifice of the baby on his 13th birthday. Before they can discuss things further, Illyria bursts in wanting to speak with Angel. Angel leaves, closely followed by Illyria, in the corridor she asks what it is that they have done to her and accuses him of jealousy and trying to kill her. Walking from him (followed by Lorne) she mutters that he doesn’t know yet as it is too early.

Telling Harmony to let Gunn handle the meeting with the demons, Angel heads to the lab to find Wesley. He tells Spike and Wesley that Illyria is out of her mind, which they already know. Wesley explains that she is overloading, the fusion between her demon essence and her host's body is deteriorating, the human part of her can no longer contain the demonic power that she has and she will soon self destruct. Wesley, however, has a new toy, a Mutari Generator which should draw her essence and power into it. Angel just wants to know if it will kill her, which Wesley confirms.

They head off to the training room to find her. Lorne meets them outside the training room and the four of them go in only to find it empty. Illyria suddenly appears behind Spike and stakes him, as he turns to dust she kicks Angel across the room, and takes out Wesley and Lorne before reaching for an axe and beheading Angel. Illyria smiles as she surveys the bodies and piles of dust. Suddenly she gasps and finds herself back in the corridor with Angel.

As she walls Angel, time shifts again and she finds herself back in Wesley’s office, knocking over the glass of water but this time Angel is with her. She continues to time jump, taking Angel with her. Next stop the holding dimension. Here she demands to know how they have done this to her, she states that they have torn her time line up and put it back together out of sequence so that she keeps reliving the same moments over and over again. Angel protests that this is not their doing, but she silences him with a punch sending him flying. Time jumps again, and now they are in the training room, after she has killed them all. She tells him that she took Spike first, then Wes, Lorne and then throws her axe at the pile of dust that was Angel.

Angel asks if they attacked her and she tells him that she didn’t give them the chance, she tells him that when you become a king you learn this, you learn to destroy everything that is not yours and all that matters is victory. She says he has become a slave trapped in the web of Wolfram & Hart, there is so much power but he quibbles at its price. If he wants to win the war he must serve no master but his own ambition. Angel takes this all in, silently, watching. As Illyria realises that what is happening to her is not Angel’s doing – that her power is too great, she clutches her head in pain. Angel tells her that she can change this outcome but it is two late and Illyria explodes in a flash of blue light and Angel finds himself in the corridor with Wesley and Spike about to go into the training room.

He tries to explain what has just happened but Wesley and Spike don’t understand what he is trying to tell them. Entering the training room, Angel realises that Illyria will kill Spike first and shoves Spike out of the way just in time as Illyria’s stake hits him in the stomach. Staggering back he tells her to wait, he tells her that he knows what happens, that she kills them all and then explodes. He has to stop that. Illyria asks if he is asking for her consent to kill her, but Wesley says that the device won’t kill her, merely draw the energy away from her safely, allowing her to live.

Illyria refuses and, kicking Wesley, knocks the weapon from his hands, but it is too late and she starts to explode. Back on his feet, Wesley aims the weapon at Illyria which draws away her power and leaves her crouched on the floor.

Watching Illyria, Wesley confirms to Angel that she will no longer be able to slow down time, or open portals to other dimensions and her power may also be decreased. Angel is happy with this. Wesley assures Angel that he is not in love with her but that he needs her right now. As he leaves, Angel tells Wesley that he may have been right, Illyria may make the team yet.

Returning to his office, Angel finds Gunn still battling it out with the demons in the lobby, taking the contract, Angel tells Gunn that the baby belongs to the demons and begins to follow them into the conference room. When Gunn asks what he is doing, Angel replies stone faced, ‘What we’re supposed to, serve our clients.

While they argue the point, Angel’s phone rings, it’s not good news, it’s Buffy.

As Angel prepares to save his girl, Spike demands to know what has happened; Angel explains that The Immortal, an old enemy of Angel and Spike and the foulest evil hell ever vomited forth, even worse than Spike, has been spotted near Buffy’s apartment in Rome. And suddenly it all falls into place, The Immortal kills the Capo to lure Angel to Rome and then takes out both a slayer and a vampire with a soul in one go and starts a demon war to boot.

And Angel and Spike, despite the bickering, are both off to Rome.

The bickering continues on the plane, and both vampires accuse each other of wanting to take the glory for killing The Immortal and sweep a certain girl off her feet in the process. Angel protests that he is already seeing someone, namely Nina. Losing on the quips, Angel swiftly changes the subject saying that they have to put their differences aside and work together to stop The Immortal and save Buffy. Oh, and pick up that demon body thing while they are at it.

It’ll be just like old times…

Sitting in the back of the plane, Angel and Spike plunder the mini bar, bemoaning the smallness of the bottles, and Angel admits that he has, well had, someone watching Buffy. As they near Italy, Angel reminisces about the last time the two of them were in there…

Italy 1950 something.

Spike (in shades) and Dru (in a beret) exchange Ciao’s in a bar…. Wait a minute – Angel wasn’t in Italy in the ‘50’s.

Italy 1894 – The Room of Pain.

Angelus and Spike slump, semi-naked and chained to the ceiling. They awake and try in vain to free themselves from their bonds. Struggling and panting they swear revenge in many nasty ways to the person that did this to them, The Immortal. A messenger from their captive arrives and frees them, telling them that they should leave the city tonight or – his threats go no further as Angelus snaps his neck with one swift movement.

Returning to their place of residence, Angelus is concerned to find Darla strewn across the bed.

Back at Wolfram & Hart, Illyria mourns the loss of her powers as Wes explains to Lorne that although she is still strong her powers have been greatly reduced and she is no longer invulnerable or able to alter time. She feels that her fate is worse than death, being condemned to live life eternally in a vessel that is incapable of sustaining her true glory. Wes suggests that she should return to the lab where more tests can be carried out.

As Wes warns Lorne that they should be careful not to agitate Illyria while she is adjusting, Mr & Mrs Burkle emerge from the lift, taking a layover on their way to Hawaii. Wes invites them into his office while Illyria watches from the landing above.

Meanwhile in present day Italy, Angel and Spike knock on Buffy’s door, which is opened by a dressing-gowned Andrew who explains that Buffy and Dawn are letting him stay at their place has been incinerated. Inviting them in, he offers to change his plans to show them the city of Rome but there is only one thing they both want to see. Buffy. Unfortunately she is out, meeting The Immortal. Which is better for Andrew 'cos most nights they just curl up on the sofa and snuggle. SNUGGLE!

Back in 1894, Angelus rushes over to Darla, who’s looking rather dishevelled. Relieved that she is alright, he kisses her but soon jumps back in disgust. He can taste The Immoral on her lips and things get worse when it becomes clear that she enjoyed every minute of their little tussle. Spike finds Angelus’ wrath very amusing until an also dishevelled looking Dru emerges from the next room, clearly smitten by The Immortal also.

As the girls go off together, Angelus and Spike swear blood vengeance on The Immortal.

Back in the present day, Angel and Spike wait in the foyer of a house and come to the conclusion that Buffy must be under some spell and make a plan, pick up the Capo’s body, find the Immortal and take their vengeance. Little do they know that their plans are being overheard by a demon with strange ears.

One of the Capo’s family brings them the head of the Capo de Famiglia in a bag, explaining that when a Goran demon dies, his head drops off and, once the correct rituals have been completed, a new body will grow. Taking the head they rush off back to Buffy’s to see if she is home yet. As it’s only eight thirty, she not.

In Wesley’s office, the Burkles make small talk while Wesley tries desperately to tell them of their daughter’s fate, before he can, Fred herself, or Illyria acting as Fred, walks in. Wes watches on as she greets her family.

In Italy, Angel and Spike have gone clubbing in an effort to find Buffy. Making their way through the crowd to the bar, they ask the bartender if he has seen Buffy and The Immortal, she confirms that they are there and points to a blonde girl dancing in the crowd. Spike is off straight away, with Angel after him and of course the bickering starts again until they realise they left the Capo’s head at the bar. They return just in time to see the ear demon making off with it.

They catch up with him and try to stop him but the bouncers take exception to this and ear demon sneaks off amidst the ensuing brawl. Brawl over, they dash out of the club in time to see ear guy making off in their car. Spotting some scooters nearby, Spike grabs one and Angel once again gets to ride pillion as they chase after their car.

The chase ends when Angel takes a short cut which brings them face to face with the car and they land on their asses, leaving ear guy to get away. Headless and carless they make another plan; they find the ear guy, get the head back and ‘head’ for home – no more.

Back in the bar, Angel and Spike once more demand of the barmaid if she has seen Buffy, but they already left. Stumped once again, then pair wish for all the resources that they have back in LA, until they realise that Wolfram & Hart have a Rome branch.

At the Rome branch of Wolfram & Hart, which is identical to the LA branch of Wolfram & Hart, Angel and Spike are introduced to the large cleavaged and very bubbly CEO, Ilona Costa Bianchi, who tells them she is at their disposal and invites them into her office.

In the lab at Wolfram & Hart, Fred/Illyria is showing her parents around, much to Wesley’s disgust who’s not too happy about seeing Illyria in Fred’s form. She explains that she can see Wesley’s all too plain grief and couldn’t bear to see it on the Burkles as well.

Meanwhile in the Rome office, Ilona tells them she can solve all their problems. They explain about The Immortal and the love spell he has Buffy under, but Ilona explains that the Immortal doesn’t use spells considering them dirty, and moves them on to the question of the head. She explains that they have received a ransom note and the drop is about to take place in an hour. Getting into motion Angel asks for an assault team and lots and lots of guns, but Ilona stops him telling him this is not the way they do things in Italy, she already has the ransom money all they need to do is make the meet.

In the town square Angel and Spike, briefcase of money in hand, wait for ear guy and the head and bicker about who saved the world more times while they wait. As they conclude that either way they are better that The Immortal, ear guy turns up with his bodyguards and starts gushing about The Immortal. Tired of all the Immortal talk, Angel and Spike do what they do best and start a fight. Commenting that the Americans are solving their problems with fighting again, ear guy draws a gun and aims it at the head, threatening to shoot it. He explains that it’s all really simple, they give him the money, they get the head. The swap is made and Angel and Spike find themselves standing alone with the bag, peering inside, they find a digital clock attached to a nice big bomb.

Clothes torn (Spike is particularly cut up about the ruin of his leather jacket) Angel and Spike make their way back to Wolfram & Hart where Ilona provides him with a shiny new leather jacket identical to his last one and Angel gets a nice red and white sports jacket, which is apparently the latest style. They tell her what happened and she explains that this is what always happens the first time, she tells them to let her handle things from here and shuts them out.

Back in LA the Burkles leave and Wesley asks Illyria if she got what she needed from the experience and warns her not to do it again.

In Italy, Angel and Spike decide it’s time to head for home but find themselves back at Buffy’s apartment where Andrew is getting ready to go out, but Buffy is not yet home, but he invites them in anyway. Still concerned that Buffy may be under some kind of spell, Spike quizzes Andrew but he tells them that Buffy fell for The Immortal all by herself, and she’s happy. Angel protests that she’s not finished baking yet, he’s there waiting for her to finish baking while The Immortal’s eating cookie dough. He gets strange looks, but we know where he’s coming from.

From his room, Andrew takes on the voice of wisdom, telling them that The Immortal ain’t all that, but Buffy is moving on and they should do the same, then one day one of them might just catch her. The two vamps take this in as Andrew emerges from his room looking all dapper in a tux and tells them that Buffy loves both of them but people change, and he leaves them with that thought as his two gorgeous dates arrive.

Back in LA, Wes sits in the dark when Illyria walks in, still in the guise of Fred, he tells her to stop and she asks is this not what he desires. He explains that it was Fred that he loved, Illyria tells him he still does love her, she can feel it and she wishes to explore this further. Standing, he tells her that it sickens him and tells her to be anything but not Fred as he leaves the room.

Gunn is signing some papers when Angel and Spike walk in and tell him to start preparing for war. Confused, Gunn tells them that the head is safe and well and in Angel’s office, and so it is, with a nice little note attached ‘With regards, The Immortal’.

Of course, the bickering over Buffy starts again and Spike suggests that they lock her in a box where no one can touch her; Angel actually considers this for a moment before commenting that she probably wouldn’t let them. Resignedly they lean against Angel’s desk and agree that they will just have to move on. Yep. That’s just what they’ll do.