Angel gets a phone call from a man he had sent to keep watch on
Buffy and is told that she is in trouble in Italy. While there, Angel and
Spike must also bring the head of a demon back to L.A. to prevent a demon war.
Angel and Spike come to learn that Buffy is dating
The Immortal . They decide that she must be under his spell. Flashbacks to the last century indicate past problems Angelus and Spike had with The Immortal, who had sex with
Darla and
Drusilla together.
After some ups and downs for Angel and Spike this episode ends with the two finally accepting that Buffy is most likely quite happy with The Immortal and going back to LA with the demon head.
Because the plot required someone to inform Angel and Spike about current events in Buffy's life,
Andrew Wells appears in the episode as Buffy's houseguest, a role he has occupied long enough to be "established" as a resident of Buffy's house, explaining how he can invite Angel and Spike within, since vampires may only enter a private residence if a full-time resident invites them in. This unfortunately diminished the earlier revelation, in ''
Damage '', that Buffy no longer trusted Angel after he joined Wolfram and Hart. If this was the case, Andrew should certainly not have invited him into her home; however, since Andrew, as far as is known, remains the only member of Buffy's group to know that Spike is "alive" once again, plot limitations required his presence.
(To be completed)
It is commonly mistakenly believed that the producers sought
Sarah Michelle Gellar for this episode. Another actress played Buffy Summers in a faraway shot of her dancing with The Immortal in a nightclub. In fact the intention of this episode was always that neither Buffy nor the Immortal would be clearly seen. Gellar was actually sought for the penultimate episode
Power Play , but proved unavailable because she was busy finishing the filming of ''
The Grudge ''. David Fury exaplins this in an interview with Mike Jozic
"JOZIC: ''
FURY: ''There was very, very little talk about that. No, she was never going to be in that. The missed opportunity to see Buffy was always going to be the joke of that. It's the tease of, they're going to see Buffy, and they can't quite get to her. It's sort of the After Hours kind of craziness where it's like, I can't get to her, I can't see her, and that was always pretty much decided. ''
''The person we expected to get and didn't get was Michelle Trachtenberg. We had expected to get her for that episode but she was tied up prepping a movie, I believe, and wasn't able to do it, which is why we brought Andrew back again. ''
''But, Sarah, no. We never expected Sarah to be in that episode. We did think she might be in the second last episode, "Power Play", just like Angel appeared in the second last episode of Buffy's finale. We thought we'd do that but wound up not.''"
- The score includes Italian-style themes, and dance music during the nightclub scenes.
- Dean Martin - "Take Me In Your Arms" - During the fight in the club.
''
Angel '' and ''
Buffy The Vampire Slayer '' fans have debated Andrew Wells's sexual orientation in this episode, where he lectures Angel and Spike on dating women and exits with two attractive women. It seems to conflict with the Andrew in ''Buffy'' -- an immature nerd and closeted homosexual. Some speculate that Wells "straightened out," while others believe he is simply bisexual.
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
