Season 2, Episode 21
Written by Joss Whedon
Directed by Joss Whedon
Original Airdate: 10 May 1998
"It's a big rock. I can't wait to tell my friends.
They don't have a rock this big."
Spike
REGULAR CAST
SPECIAL GUEST STAR
GUEST CAST
CO-STARRING
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Shannon Welles as
Gypsy Woman
-
Zitto Kazann as
Gypsy Man
-
Ginger Williams as
Girl
-
Nina Gervitz as
Teacher
-
Dean Butler as
Hank Summers (Uncredited)
SYNOPSIS
-
1753, Galway in Ireland. A man named Liam and
another guy are thrown out of a bar. Liam spots a young girl in an
alleyway: it's Darla. Liam goes to her, offering his services. She
offers him the world, and then sires him: Angelus is born. Back in the
present, Buffy is fighting in the graveyard against two vampires. She
kills them, unaware that Angelus is watching from the shadows. Buffy
picks Xander up from the ground and they head home to study for finals.
In the cafeteria that day, Xander re-enacts Buffy's fight from the night
before with fish sticks. Cordelia, Buffy, Willow and Oz all sit around
the table watching. Buffy says she's ready to kill Angelus but not to
face their finals, and Willow assures her that she is going to pass.
Snyder shows up and breaks up all of their touchy-feely fun and
threatens Buffy with expulsion.
In 1860, Drusilla enters a church and then heads over to confess her
sins to the priest. Angelus is killing the priest when she enters. She
tells him she's been having visions and that her mother thinks she's
cursed. Angelus tells her to be evil, and to go with what God has told
her to do with her life, but she protests saying she wants to be good
and pure. He finally tells her to say ten Our Father's and an act of
contrition. She is satisfied with that and then Angelus tells her that
God is watching her. Then, back in the present, Drusilla walks down the
steps in the mansion's garden and Spike greets her from across the room.
He is reading the paper and she explains to him that she met an old man,
but didn't like him because he got stuck in her teeth. Angelus comes in,
hitting Spike in the head and asking Drusilla if she's had a vision. She
says she sees a present at the museum with a surprise inside. Angelus is
amazed with the details she picks up. Spike then tells him that she read
it in the morning paper.
At school, Willow is tutoring Buffy in Chemistry. Buffy is whining
because it doesn't make any sense. While Willow tries to figure out what
Buffy did wrong, Buffy complains that she is a moron and Willow argues
that Buffy shouldn't be wasting her time if she thinks like that. Buffy
lets her pencil roll down her book and between the desk and the filing
cabinet. She picks up the pencil and puts it back, thinking that the
feeling is deja vu. She lets the pencil fall again and picks up a yellow
disk that's there too. Willow takes it and puts it in her computer where
they find the Restoration ceremony that Jenny had finished translating
before she died. They both stare at the computer screen wide-eyed.
Angel is running, horrified through the forest. It's 1890 and a young
girl is dead. Gypsies are spreading flower petals around her and the
elder woman of the tribe is chanting a spell around an Orb of Thesulah.
Angel falls to his knees, his eyes illuminating. A man approaches him,
and tells him that he will suffer for his sins. All of the deaths he has
caused will haunt him forever. Angel pleads with him and drops further
to the ground, crying. Back in the present, in the library, the gang
talks about the ceremony. Everyone expresses his or her feelings about
the subject. Xander starts yelling, saying that Angelus should die after
what he did to Jenny. Buffy says that she wants him back, but Xander
persistently argues against it. Giles snaps at Xander when he says that
Jenny is dead and Angelus should die for it. Buffy breaks up the fight
and says that she isn't sure what she wants to do. Xander says she only
wants to do the spell so that she can have her boyfriend back and she
leaves the room, with everyone mad at Xander.
At the museum, a curator is analysing a large block of stone. He's asked
Giles to aid him in identifying the markings on the side, and in the
evening, he hears something and gets up to find it. He hears chanting in
the background and before he has a chance to do anything, Drusilla grabs
him and sinks her teeth into him. Meanwhile, Buffy is packing in her
room to go slaying for the night while talking to Willow on the phone.
Willow says a swear word and Buffy is shocked. As she takes some stakes
out of her desk drawer, Buffy finds the Claddagh ring. As Buffy patrols
the graveyard, she hears footsteps. She stops and then turns around to
find Kendra. They talk and Buffy figures out that there is a 'dark
power' coming to Sunnydale.
Angelus, Spike and Drusilla are in the mansion with the stolen slab of
rock, and Spike makes some joke about it. Angelus explains that inside
there's a demon that can swallow the world into Hell. Two vampires pull
the tomb open revealing a demon with a sword in his chest. If the sword
in his chest is pulled out, the world will go to Hell. Angelus is going
to attempt to pull the sword out. In the library, Giles, Buffy and
Kendra talk about the demon, named Acathla. Giles explains that the
demon world is a different one from our world and if the sword is pulled
out and the demon takes a breath, this world will be pulled into the
demon world. Anyone who's not a demon will suffer a painful and eternal
Hell. Buffy asks Willow to do the spell of restoration, since it may be
their only hope. Kendra presents a sword that is blessed by the knight
that first killed Acathla. Willow says she needs about a day to get the
spell ready and that she also needs an Orb of Thesulah. Giles says he
has been using one as a paperweight in his office. In the mansion, Spike
is walking around a room when Drusilla calls him. He quickly returns to
his wheelchair and follows her out to the ceremony. A man is dragged out
by two vampires. Angelus chants and comes out of the shadows. He bites
the man and then walks towards the stone.
In 1996, Angel is homeless, walking the streets of Manhattan. He finds a
rat and chases after it but misses. A man approaches him, claiming that
Angel smells like death. The man knows that Angel is a vampire and
offers to help. His name is Whistler, and he's a demon, but a good one.
He offers Angel the chance to be a bum, or to be a person. They leave
for Los Angeles, more specifically, Hemery High School. A car pulls up
with spray painted windows. Angel rolls down one window and cowers
behind it, hiding from the sun. Buffy walks out of class with several
girls around her. They talk about the upcoming dance and then the girls
leave. A man approaches Buffy, saying that she is the Chosen One and
that she has very little time to kill the vampires.
In a cemetery that night, Buffy is attacked by a vampire. She struggles
beneath him then pushes him off her. He is flipped onto his back and she
stabs a stake into his gut. Then she takes it out and puts it in his
heart. He turns to dust. Angel watches from behind a gravestone. Back at
Buffy's house that night, her mother yells at her for being out so late.
Buffy goes into the bathroom and starts crying when she hears her
parents fighting. In the sewer that night, Whistler tells Angel that he
can help Buffy, if he wants to. Angel says he does, and that he wants to
learn from Whistler, but he doesn't want to dress like him.
In Sunnydale, 1998, Angelus grabs the sword from Acathla and pulls at
it. The sword illuminates and Angelus struggles to keep a good hold.
Angelus continues to pull at the sword but is thrown off it. Spike is
pleased, while Drusilla is really upset. So is Angelus. But he has a
plan. At school the next day, a dark figure walks the halls of Sunnydale
High. It enters Buffy's class where she is taking her final. A vampire
reveals her face saying that Buffy will meet with Angelus tonight. The
vampire then burns up in the sunlight.
In the library, Buffy gets ready to distract Angelus while Willow
performs the ceremony of Restoration. Kendra gives Buffy her lucky stake
named Mr. Pointy. Buffy leaves and everyone gets to work on the spell.
Angelus meets Buffy in the cemetery and pretends to be sincere. He asks
her if they could maybe get back together, but then he says that he
would rather fight. In the library, everyone is performing the spell
while Buffy and Angelus fight. Some vampires attack them and the group
scatters. Willow is crushed behind some bookcases, Xander's arm is
broken, Cordelia flees the scene and Giles is knocked out cold. Drusilla
comes in and fights for a minute with Kendra, then hypnotizes her. While
Kendra is under her spell, Drusilla slits her throat. They take Giles
and leave.
Meanwhile, Angelus tells Buffy that she fell for his distraction, again.
Buffy runs to save her friends but it is too late. She comes in to find
Kendra dead. As she grieves for her fallen friend, a police officer
holds a gun towards her and tells her to freeze.
TRIVIA
-
The character of Whistler was originally
intended to be in Angel, but Max Perlich wasn't able to commit to
the series. Hence the character of Doyle was created. Whistler is
Angel's first connection with the Powers That Be. Max Perlich confirmed
in an interview however, that he was never asked to return.
-
When this episode was repeated on September
15, 1998, it was presented with a different first scene. There are
several differences, but the most notable is that Max Perlich provides
the voice-over for that scene, rather than David Boreanaz.
-
The building of Hemery High, Buffy's
previous school, was also used as the clock tower in the Back To The
Future movies. The set is at Universal Studios, along with a number
of European village sets often used in Buffy and Angel
flashbacks.
-
Although not credited, the voice of Buffy's
father belongs to Dean Butler, who played him in
Nightmares and
When She Was Bad. Butler was
apparently unavailable to shoot the episode, but recorded his lines for
Joss and sent them on.
-
Richard Riehle plays Buffy's first Watcher
in this episode, and it's the only appearance and mention of him.
Presumably, Giles speaks to him on the phone in
The Wish, but it's not actually
confirmed whether the character is Merrick or not. Donald Sutherland
played Merrick in the 1992 movie, and at least one official guide refers
to Riehle's character as Merrick.
CONTINUITY
-
Julie Benz makes a return as Darla in
flashback. Darla died in Angel in
season one, but is next seen in Angel, first in flashbacks and
then resurrected by Wolfram and Hart in
To Shanshu in LA.
-
This episode reveals that Drusilla was
sired by Angelus in the year 1870.
-
This episode confirms that Angel was sired
by Darla in 1753. His tombstone in
The
Prodigal shows that he was born in 1727, which made him 26 when he
was sired. This information contradicts Willow's in
Halloween when she claimed that
Angel was still human and eighteen in 1775. Giles' diaries must have
been wrong.
-
Jenny's computer disk, with the information
allowing the restoration of Angel's soul, is finally discovered by Buffy
and Willow in this episode.
-
Snyder challenges Buffy to give him a
reason to kick her out of school. He expels her in the proceeding
episode.
-
In flashback we see Buffy battle her first
vampire. She misses the heart initially, a fact that she recites to Dawn
when she also misses the heart in
Lessons.
-
Buffy is lured away from the library,
exactly like she was in When She Was Bad.
Angelus even comments that she falls for the trick every time.
-
Kendra gives Buffy her lucky stake in this
episode, Mr. Pointy, which appears in many future episodes. Kendra is
murdered by Drusilla in this episode, which paves the way for Faith to
become the Slayer and arrive in Sunnydale in
Faith, Hope and Trick.
GOOFS
-
The scene of Buffy listening to her parents
argue in Los Angeles in 1996 conflicts with the timeline presented in
Nightmares, in which Buffy says that
her parents' divorce was "finalized last year, but they were separated
for a while before that".
-
During the flashback to Hemery High,
Buffy's lollipop gets bigger and smaller between shots.
-
As the Scoobies are attacked by the gang of
vampires, Willow gets caught under a book shelf. As she falls, you see
her hair is clearly covering her face but in the close up shot it's not.
-
Why is it that from New York to California,
Angel didn't get pulled over for driving a car with it's windows blacked
out?
-
After Darla bites Liam, she runs a nail
across her chest, creating a bleeding cut so Liam can drink from it and
become a vampire. If you look closely, she actually just runs her finger
across her chest, not her nail.
When She Was
Bad |
Some Assembly Required |
School Hard |
Inca Mummy Girl |
Reptile Boy
Halloween |
Lie to Me |
The Dark Age |
What's My Line? (Part 1) |
What's My Line? (Part 2) |
Ted
Bad Eggs |
Surprise |
Innocence |
Phases |
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered |
Passion
Killed by
Death |
I Only Have Eyes for You |
Go Fish |
Becoming (Part 1) |
Becoming (Part 2)
|