Angel saves a fading actress from a car hit one night while going for a walk with Cordelia and Wesley. The actress, nicknamed Raven because of her character in the series that made her famous, goes to Angel's place the day after in order to thank him properly. Angel finds himself attracted to this woman and accordingly refuses to take her case of alleged molestation and threats from a particularly scary fan. However, he likes her so much that decides to watch her just in case. This leads him to save her from an intruder at her Hollywood apartment, where she notices he's not reflected in the mirror and discovers that he's a vampire.
He accepts to protect her as a bodyguard, and shortly thereafter saves her life once again, this time from a man with a gun in an alley. It soon becomes evident that both attacks were a farce planned by her own manager, who is somewhat infatuated with her (and not corresponded) and also unsuccessfully trying to get her some publicity. Then it dawns on Raven that her fading beauty might not continue fading if she was made a vampire, so she hatches a plan to make Angel sire her.
She shows up at Angel's place all dressed in black and tells him she wants to be made a vampire. Angel refuses to do so, but she has mixed some kind of drug in his champagne, which makes him feel unusually happy and therefore turns him into Angelus, his old evil self. He hurts her and almost succeeds in killing her, if not for Wesley and Cordelia, that manage to knock him unconscious and put him to sleep. When he wakes up Raven is gone for good, totally convinced it was all a very bad idea, and he's chained to his bed. Wes and Cordy are there waiting for an apology, which he gives them. They accept it but still leave him tied to the bed to get their point across.
While attending a play with Cordelia as one of the stars, Angel and Wesley find themselves trapped in the audience and subjected to Cordelia's minimal acting talent. As they're leaving the play, they spot a producer and a famous actress, Rebecca Lowell. As Rebecca is crossing the street, Angel rushes to save her from a car that purposely tries to run her over. Oliver, a producer that represents Rebecca, offers to pay Angel, but he doesn't know anything about her and doesn't want a reward.
The papers report on the rescue, but Angel pretends not to care when he is not mentioned. Rebecca shows up at the office the next day, and asks for his help with a stalker fan. Her career is on the rocks, and she'd feel safer if Angel would take care of this case so she can continue her career. Cordelia is upset that Angel refused to take the case, and begs Angel to give it a chance so that she can have a jump-start into the life of fame. After a party, Rebecca's stalker shows up on her property, but Angel breaks through a window and fights the masked stalker.
The man runs away and as Rebecca walks over to Angel, she looks at a mirror and sees that Angel doesn't have a reflection. After getting rid of the cops, and Oliver, Rebecca finds Angel upstairs. She guesses that he's a vampire and instead of being scared, she's intrigued. The next morning, Wesley tells Cordelia that Angel called from Rebecca's, and she jumps to the conclusion that he spent the night and is now Angelus. Cordelia arrives at Rebecca's house to make sure that Angel is still Angel. He tells her that Rebecca knows he's a vampire.
Angel attends a premiere with Rebecca, standing as her bodyguard. Rebecca and Angel escape through an alleyway, where an attacker pulls a gun on them. Angel fights with him and then the cops take him away. Rebecca recognizes the man as a stunt man and realizes that Oliver set up the stalker for publicity. Her career is in danger and she's growing too old for the roles available to her. She realizes that she won't be able to stay young forever, but Angel's immortality suddenly gives her another option.
Based on the fact that the bullets were blanks, Wesley and Angel conclude that it wasn't a real attack. Rebecca and Cordelia go shopping together, and Cordelia helps Rebecca pick out something for Angel. Since he already has seen everything, she brings him champagne. Rebecca confesses to Angel that Oliver set the whole stalker thing up. While sipping champagne, Rebecca accidentally spills some on Angel and he has to go change his shirt. She slips a drug, later revealed to be doximall, into his drink and they toast and drink when he returns.
Cordelia confesses to Wesley that she told Rebecca all about Angel and how one could become a vampire by him. As the drug takes effect, Rebecca tries to convince Angel to make her a vampire. Angel tries to convince her that she doesn't realize what she's asking of him, and in a sudden burst of rage, he even sprays blood into her mouth so she can taste what she's getting into. She confesses that she slipped a happy pill into his drink and it has given him the feeling of "perfect happiness." No longer Angel, Angelus attacks Rebecca and threatens to do quite a bit of damage to her. She escapes through the elevator while Angelus goes outside to cuts the power and phones.
In the office, Angelus confronts Rebecca and his two employees. He first tells Wesley how inadequate he is, then knocks him across the room. Cordelia hears the truth from Angelus on how bad she was in the play. She threatens him with water, trying to convince him that it's holy water. The water temporarily stuns him when it hits him, allowing Wesley to knock him down into the elevator shaft. Angel wakes up, chained to his bed, feeling absolutely horrible about the things he said. Cordelia is very reluctant to forgive him, but in the end, she does.
Angel is left chained to the bed.
First use of Angelus on the show, this episode stirs up the feeling among Cordelia and Wesley that Angel's soul is a very fragile thing and he could turn on them at any time. This aspect of mistrust plays heavily in season 2.
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
