Angel joins Doyle’s crusade to save a group of helpless demons from The Scourge, a storm trooper-esque army of pure blood demons that persecute mixed blood demons. The events lead all groups to a climatic showdown aboard a freighter where Doyle finally reveals the real reason why he was sent to Angel, confesses his true demon/human identity to Cordelia, and makes the ultimate sacrifice for his friends in saving the group from by deactivating a bomb sent by the Scourge to kill everyone.
Cordelia proposes the idea of a commercial to advertise their services, but Angel isn't interested. She then tries to get Doyle to act in the commercial. Doyle nervously works his way through saying his lines. After one failed attempt, Doyle goes to talk to Angel and finds that he's still upset over Buffy. Angel tells Doyle about the day that was erased to everyone but himself and then says that he's worried about the End of Days that is going to take place soon.
Doyle talks to Cordelia about secrets and then he has a vision about a bunch of demons. Outside that night, two demons run away and hide as a large army of unknown creatures walks the streets. Angel and Doyle check out the place that Doyle saw in his vision and find a large group of demons hidden under the floor. Doyle tells Angel about a time many years ago when another demon comes to Doyle for help. Doyle has his first vision then, and when he goes to the place he sees in his vision, he finds a bunch of Bracken demons like himself, dead. He reveals that the Scourge is a virtually invincible group of purebred demons out to kill any half-breeds.
Cordelia arrives to help them transfer the demons out of the country so they can hide from the Scourge. Angel uses his threatening ways to make sure the demons will be taken by boat and nothing will stop them from getting to their destination. A young Lister demon, Reef runs away just before they are to leave and Doyle goes to find him. Doyle manages to convince him to go back and as they're reaching the building the Scourge comes down the street. Doyle and Reef hide as the Scourge look everywhere, breaking windows and setting fire to cars in the process. Doyle runs out to distract them and ends up meeting up with Angel. When confronting the leader of the Scourge, Angel pretends to snap Doyle's neck and then asks to join them.
Reef finds Doyle and sees that he's alive. Doyle just snaps his neck back in place and reveals that he's stronger in demon form. After getting everyone onto the ship safely, Cordelia makes them wait for Reef, Doyle and Angel to arrive. While talking to one of the Lister demons, Cordelia discovers that Doyle is half-demon. Meanwhile, Angel stands among the demons, listening to their plan to eliminate anything with human blood. Using a large light that will do just that--kill anything with human blood, they demonstrate its power on a human man.
When Doyle finally arrives, Cordelia tells him they were worried, and then slaps him for not telling her he was half-demon. He starts to ask her out to dinner, but Angel shows up, closely followed by the Scourge. Angel tries to fight them all alone, and when he starts to fight their leader, the fight gets taken inside of the ship. Meanwhile, the other Scourge demons are lowering the light into the ship. Angel kills their leader, but the Lister demons are trapped inside and the light is going to detonate and kill them all. The only way to stop it is by disconnecting the cable, but that also means death for whoever does it.
Doyle won't let Angel do it, and he knocks him off the platform and to the ground. Doyle kisses Cordelia, and a small purple haze travels from him to her, then he jumps out onto the light. The light burns him as he struggles to break the cable, but he finally does and then the light destroys him. In the end, Angel and Cordelia sit in the office and watch the commercial with Doyle in it.
Angel, Cordelia Chase, Allen Francis Doyle (all Angel Investigations)
Rieff, Rayna, the Elder (all Lister Clan)
unnamed Lister demons
Trask, Tiernan (both The Scourge)
unnamed Scourge stormtroopers
unnamed First Mate
"Big Randy"
Cargo Inspector
''in Doyle's flashbacks'':
Doyle
Lucas (Brachen demon)
corpses of murdered Brachen demons
''in Cordy's fantasy commercial'':
Cordelia/helpless woman
Angel/Dark Avenger
unnamed thief
''on video'':
Doyle
The Scourge is an army composed of pure-breed demons - though not
Old Ones - whose style is greatly reminiscent of the Nazi army. Though seemingly lacking mystical abilities, these demons possess superhuman strength and resistance, and do use technology, unlike most demon races. The Scourge is devoted to the total extermination of half-breed demon races and of any half-demon individual. Their ultimate aim is to wipe out mankind. Even though the Scourge demons have human-like bodies, they lack human DNA, unlike races such as the Brachen or the Lister.
An explanation for their appearance could be that these demons can't manifest in this dimension their real forms (such as the
Senior Partners ), or their extra-dimensional origins, as the demons of the Scourge have an appearance extremely similar to the demon enslavers of the ''Family Home Shelter'' ("''
Anne ''"), who originated from a hell dimension. In fact the only difference between the Scourge and the enslavers is their color; the Scourge demons have dark gray skin and red leather-like patches decorating their faces. The enslavers had gray or yellow skin and yellow or brown patches.
Each demon is different from the other, but they all share the same skin and patch colors. The leather patches seem to be pinned to the skulls of some demons, while in the case of others it seems sewn to the skull.
The only two members of the Scourge whose names are revealed in the scripts are Trask, a field commander recognizable by the two patches of red skin on his head, and Tiernan, who leads the Scourge cell that attacks Los Angeles, and often speaks to his stormtroopers with speeches filled with murderous, racist rhetoric.
The Lister are a peaceful race of half-breed demons. They have human-like appereances, except for their gray faces and their ridges surrounding their eyes. Listers lack supernatural powers or superhuman strenght, though half-Listers (such as Rieff's mother) are capable of asuming human form. The prophecies of the Lister Clan talk about the "Promised One", a champion that will save their clan from the Scourge.
The episode reveals that only half-Brachens can asume human form. Also, Doyle reveals that Brachens have superhuman strength (which half-Brachens possess only in demon form) and also have the reputation of having a good sense of direction.
: ''(To Angel, just before punching him off the platform so that he, not Angel, could sacrifice himself and stop the Scourge)'' A good fight, yeah? You never know until you've been tested. I get that now.
: ''(After kissing Cordelia and just before he leaps onto the Scourge bomb and sacrifices himself)'' Too bad we'll never know... ''(Turns demon face)''... if this is a face you could learn to love.
: (In the commercial seen in the end): Is that it? Am I done?
This is the episode in which
Doyle dies, passing his vision gift to
Cordelia . This will give her a new dimension and enhance her protagonism from now on. Doyle's death is sudden and touching, much in the line of Whedon's style of killing important and lovable characters to keep the audience's feelings alive and vibrating. As he calls it, to make the "emotional investment" worth it.
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
