A strong and particularly violent patient named
Dana , in a
Psychiatric Hospital had been tortured by a serial killer as a kid. After failing to receive the tranquilisers needed to keep her docile, she breaks out of the asylum, killing several of the staff in the process.
Angel Investigations (aka Wolfram & Hart LA) are alerted to this breakout by a hopeful whistleblower who wants in at Wolfram & Hart, and Spike, on a mission from the Powers That Be. Spike's impatience leads him to follow Dana's scent while Angel tries to gather the intelligence needed to diagnose the girl's mystical condition.
Spike contacts Dana in a deserted building, and Dana kicks him through a window, just in time to almost get run over by Angel who has found out that Dana is in fact a vampire slayer. Angel calls the Watcher's Council to assist in recovering Dana. The Watcher's Council liaison,
Andrew , leaves the team to assist Spike in searching for Dana. (Andrew's appearance in the episode is perhaps at least partially due to the fact that he is the only member of Buffy's entourage who would, at Spike's request, keep Spike's resurrection a secret from Buffy, and that the plot therefore required his involvement so as to leave the door open for a future story in which Buffy learns the truth.)
Dana captures Spike and, her delusions causing her to see Spike as the serial killer from her childhood, tortures him and cuts his hands off. Andrew returns to Wolfram & Hart for help, and Angel Investigations rescues Spike, captures Dana, and is then forced to hand her over to Andrew. It is revealed that the Watcher's Council, and Buffy in particular, no longer considers Angel and his companions trustworthy due to their involvement with Wolfram and Hart. Unfortunately, the implications of this turn go unexplored in the remainder of the series.
Spike gets his hands stitched back on, and Angel Investigations feels uneasy.
(To be completed)
In this episode we learn that it has been 6 months since the events of "Chosen" have transpired. We also learn that there are generally hundreds to thousands of Potential Slayers to a generation in the world. We also learn what happened to various characters after the events of "Chosen."
This is the first episode to show the rift between the Angel Investigations team and the Watchers Council; however, a later episode, "
The Girl In Question ", depicts Andrew inviting Angel into Buffy's home without a qualm. If one presumes that Andrew is not a total idiot, one can only theorize that Buffy adjusted her opinion of Angel somewhat.
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
