"" is Episode 14 of Season 2 on ''
Buffy The Vampire Slayer ''. See also
List Of ''Buffy'' (series) Episodes .
After making love with
Buffy earlier that night, Angel escapes into the alley with a piercing pain in his heart, clearly in despair to realize he's losing his soul. When a kind street walker tries to help him a few minutes later, he immediately, gleefully, kills her. When he shows up at the factory,
Spike is surprised and
Drusilla is pleased that the
Judge cannot burn him—Angel has truly reverted to the evil
Angelus . While researching a way to defeat the Judge, a demon whom "no weapon forged" can harm,
Xander and
Cordelia get caught kissing in the library by a crushed and furious
Willow . Xander hatches a plan using memories from being a soldier on
Halloween , during the execution of which,
Oz declines to "make out" with Willow, choosing to wait until she's less distraught. Buffy has another dream and confronts
Jenny , who admits she is a member of the Gypsy clan that cursed Angelus so long ago. Tracking down the Judge at the crowded mall, Buffy and her team blow him to bits with Xander's stolen rocket launcher, while Angelus and Drusilla narrowly escape the blast.
The Slayer stalks Angelus through the fleeing crowd and, when he ambushes her in a snack shop, they battle ferociously under the drenching fire-control sprinklers. Reaching a stand-off, neither of them is quite ready to kill the other.
Drusilla at his side,
Spike rolls his wheelchair to one end of their factory lair, where the kneeling
Judge "prepares" himself for the coming slaughter. Spike curbs his crankiness when Dru suddenly falls to the floor and moans in distress, then slowly begins to smile—she is
Sensing Angel's transformation. In Angel's apartment,
Buffy wakes alone, unaware that outside in the dark alley, Angel has fallen to the ground in agony. Unable to stand, Angel whispers Buffy's name, then softly groans, "Oh, no," before laying his head on the wet pavement. A slightly worn-looking but still attractive woman, having a smoke in a doorway out of the rain, approaches him in concern and asks if she should call 911. Sounding faintly surprised, Angel tells her no, the pain is gone and, back still turned, slowly gets to his feet. Suddenly, he turns to face her in full vamp mode and, before she can react or even speak, bites and drains her. Letting the body drop from his grasp,
Angelus blows her last breath of cigarette smoke through his own lips. "I feel just fine," he says.
Letting herself in the back door, Buffy tries to escape upstairs, but
Her Mother hears her and comes with cheery morning chatter. Sensing something amiss, Joyce gently probes but desists when Buffy, trying not to seem anxious or defensive, is not forthcoming. In the library,
Xander regales
Giles ,
Jenny ,
Willow and
Cordelia with tales of his unnerving but fruitless night at the Sunnydale bus depot. Since nobody found a stray box coming in at any transportation site, the team deduces that all pieces of the Judge have been gathered. They begin to fear for Buffy's safety, but just as Xander and Willow decide to go search,
The Slayer appears. After learning that Angel hasn't checked in with the gang either, Buffy grimly confirms that the Judge is fully assembled and active, and that they narrowly escaped with their lives. Then Buffy tells her friends that she and Angel hid for a while in the sewers before splitting up. When everyone disperses to class or more research, Willow catches up to Buffy and gently tries to get the real scoop. Buffy is non-committal, but as the girls make their way up the stairs, an eavesdropping Jenny Calendar slowly comes around the corner behind them.
At the factory, Spike tolerantly watches Drusilla, supine on the dining table, creating confusion among the invisible stars by giving them all the same name. After indulging her a bit, Spike asks if Dru has sensed any more about Angel's fate, but is interrupted by the dramatic entrance of Angel himself. Spinning a grandiose dream of moving to New York to star on Broadway, Angel continues to aggravate Spike to distraction, until Spike cautions him to look over his own shoulder—at the looming Judge. Angel mockingly submits to the Judge's test, but the demon is unable to immolate him, pronouncing him "clean." Responding to Spike's surprise and disbelief, the Judge presses his hand over Angel's heart long enough to unequivocally determine that there is "no humanity in him." Angel gloats, and Spike and Dru rejoice that Angelus has returned to their "happy family." Dru invites him to join their plan to destroy the world. However, Spike is puzzled and slightly put out when Angel requests one more night to exact his revenge on the Slayer. Angelus will never forgive Buffy for making Angel "feel like a human being."
At the library, Willow talks to Buffy over the phone, trying to reassure her that just because Angel hasn't checked in doesn't mean he's foolish enough to go up against the Judge alone, much less that he could already be dead. The gang has spent long hours in useless research, finding nothing to offset the news that "no weapon forged" can stop the Judge, that it would take "an army" to defeat him. Xander finds a discouraged Cordelia in the stacks, still plugging away. Shielded from the rest of the library behind tall bookcases, he apologizes for snarking at her earlier and coaxes her to kiss him. When they come up for air, they see Willow at the end of the aisle, watching them in shock and horror. Willow bolts when Xander tries to explain, and he chases her out into the school's main corridor. She turns and vents her fury, but once anger burns away, Willow reveals a deeper pain and sorrow. Meanwhile, having told Willow she would come to the library after stopping at home, Buffy makes it as far as her front door but can't force herself to go inside. Following her heart, she returns to Angel's place instead, where she finds the lights on and clean clothes laid out on the neatly made bed. As she turns back to the main room, her beautiful Angel, apparently safe and sound, comes out of the bathroom in the process of getting dressed. Buffy flies into his arms for a desperate hug, then asks him what happened, where he's been. Beginning with an off-hand "What. I took off," Angelus proceeds to impersonate an Angel behaving very badly indeed. In the most callous and cavalier fashion possible, he heartlessly dismisses their night of tender passion, alternately insulting and belittling an increasingly aghast Buffy. When he finishes dressing and leaves with a final, cuttingly casual "I'll call you," Buffy stands bereft, humiliated and speechless.
In his hotel room, Uncle Enyos upbraids Jenny, lecturing that "vengeance is a living thing," when she admits she failed to keep Buffy and Angel apart. She tries to advocate for Angel, first suggesting he could help stop the Judge, then citing his attempts to atone for his crimes, including saving her own life. Her uncle cuts her off, reiterating that justice was never the point—vengeance calls for Angel to suffer for eternity, not "to live as a human being." Finally, Enyos tells Jenny that it is too late for anything to be done in any case—Angel's soul is gone. Jenny vehemently protests, then rushes from her uncle's presence in something akin to despair. Willow returns to the school, but only because she knows that
The Gang must co-operate to avert this crisis. Chancing to meet again in the main corridor, she and Xander agree to an uneasy truce. Willow quietly asks for an update and Xander reports no progress, then has a brainstorm. As they set off for the library to bring the others up to speed, the school lights go out. Angelus, still impersonating Angel, stands in deep shadows created by the emergency lights and calls to Willow and Xander, who are very relieved to see their friend safe. Telling them he has something to show them, Angel sends Xander to fetch the others and coaxes Willow to walk nearly within reach. Jogging around to the library wing, Xander stops, sensing something wrong, and turns back. Suddenly, Jenny Calendar appears in the main corridor and warns Willow to get away, but it's too late—Angelus closes the gap in a flash and grabs Willow by the throat. As Xander bursts back into the hallway and Angel tells them he has a message for Buffy, the Slayer herself suddenly appears behind him. Angelus whips around to face her, gives Willow's neck a few gratuitous tweaks, then nastily explains that his "message," when it comes, will consist of the dead bodies of all her friends. Meanwhile, Xander tiptoes up behind Angel, brandishes a cross in his face, and cushions Willow's fall when Angel violently recoils. On his way out of the building, Angelus—vamped all this time—grabs Buffy by the shoulders, kisses her roughly and whispers, "Things are about to get very interesting," before shoving her down against the wall and backing swiftly out the exit.
The gang regroups in the library, slowly coming to grips with their shock and disbelief. Giles speaks for them all when he confesses his impulse toward "blind panic" but, at Jenny's admonishment, begins to think rationally about how this could have happened. Jenny's duplicity almost comes to light when Giles asks Buffy, as the one closest to Angel, what might have set off this change, but everybody is distracted and distressed to see the Slayer refuse to answer, break down and run from the room. With a best friend's insight, Willow suddenly guesses what triggered Angel's transformation and agrees with Jenny that Buffy needs some time alone. Xander finally has a chance to organize the others regarding his plan to destroy the Judge. He details Cordelia to come with him and accepts Willow's slightly acerbic offer to ask
Oz for the use of his van. Meanwhile, Angelus returns to the factory to gloat, but Spike is disgusted that the Slayer remains alive. Angel acknowledges Dru's insight (from personal experience) that his profoundest desire is to torment Buffy for as long as possible before actually killing her. Mocking Spike's brilliant track record of failure to destroy his nemesis, Angel then goes on to explain that since Buffy is stronger than any Slayer they've ever faced, "force won't get it done." "To kill this girl," Angel croons to Spike, "you have to love her."
Taking refuge in her room, Buffy notices the cross Angel tossed at her the very first time
They Met (before she even knew his name) and begins, finally, to weep. Removing her new
Claddagh Ring , Buffy clasps it close and falls onto her bed, sobbing inconsolably. She curls up and cries herself to sleep, slipping into a dream of making slow, sweet love with Angel. Just as she hears him whisper, "I love you," there's a flash of snarling, vamp-faced Angelus and the scene abruptly changes to someone's funeral. In full sunlight, her lost Angel walks to the graveside, looks into her eyes and softly says, "You have to know what to see." Buffy gazes around at the mourners just as Jenny Calendar folds back her black veil. Awake and on the warpath the next morning, Buffy stomps into school, then cuts through the computer classroom to grab Jenny by the throat and slam her down on the desk. Frantically, Giles dismisses the shocked students and tries to remonstrate with Buffy, but the Slayer, though allowing Jenny to regain her feet, maintains her deadly focus. Jenny confesses that she was sent by her clan to watch Angel and to keep Buffy away from him. Answering Buffy's direct inquiry, Jenny confirms the Slayer's worst fear: making love with her caused Angel to lose his soul. As Giles absorbs this new shock, Jenny begs Buffy to believe that, had she had any inkling what would happen, she ''swears'' she would have warned her. Buffy demands that Jenny curse Angel again but, protesting that those magics have long been lost to the Gypsy people, Jenny says she is unable to do so. Implacably, Buffy demands to be taken to someone who can help. Meanwhile, Uncle Enyos calls out in response to a knock at his hotel room door, expecting that his niece has brought the Slayer to seek information. When the door opens, however, it is a chillingly courteous Angelus who enters.
While Willow and Oz stay in the van, Xander and Cordelia break into the military base behind the armory. Caught by security, Xander tries to get the guard to let him and his "girl" grab a quickie out of the rain, and when that fails, threatens to tell an officer that the guard's boots "ain't regulation," his post is unguarded and he holds his gun like a sissy-girl. Once inside the weapons shed, Xander examines shelves of ordinance, telling Cordy he still remembers everything from being enchanted into a soldier on
Halloween . Meanwhile, back in the van, Oz mildly asks Willow if the gang steals weapons from the army a lot. Then Willow asks Oz, twice, if he wants to make out with her. He declines, on the grounds that to a "casual observer," Willow seems to be trying to even the score with Xander somehow and that making out with her now would be "on the empty side." To soften his refusal, Oz confesses he spends class time dreaming of "Willow kissage," but adds that when he dreams he's kissing her, he also dreams she's kissing him. Willow melts and Oz tells her not to worry; he'll wait. Then they get the signal from Xander and Cordy.
Seeking answers from Uncle Enyos, Jenny, Giles and Buffy are horrified, yet leadenly unsurprised, to find that Angelus has been there first. "WAS IT GOOD FOR YOU TOO?" is written on the wall in the old man's blood. In response to Giles sympathy, Buffy replies that the vampire is only making it easier to kill him. Back at the library, Xander gives Buffy her birthday gift in its crate, then to ease the tension after Buffy and Giles both rebuff Jenny's offer to help, asks Buffy if she wants him to teach her how to use it. At the factory, the Judge announces himself ready and Angel and Drusilla immediately set out, leaving wheelchair-bound Spike behind. Minutes later, Buffy and crew arrive to find the factory deserted as they feared. Spike listens from concealment as the team quickly departs, following Oz' idea of where crowds of people might "line up to get massacred." Inside the Sunnydale mall, the busy crowd is oblivious as Angel, the Judge, Drusilla and a band of vamp thugs enter on an upper level. Gleefully, the Judge burns to smoke and ash the first man up the stairs. Buffy and her gang use the elevator near the back, carrying their large crate toward the mall's main concourse. As Buffy sets up shop across from the landing occupied by Angel's assault team, the Judge lets loose with his full power, connecting all the now-motionless people in the entire concourse with a vast web of arcing energy bolts. Suddenly his energy current stutters and fizzles. A crossbow bolt protrudes from his chest—Buffy has managed to get his attention. Hefting the beautiful, contraband rocket launcher Xander is holding up to her, Buffy responds to the Judge's sneer by shouldering the tube and preparing to fire. Angel, shocked and furious, exchanges one astonished glance with Drusilla before they both dive over the railing for the floor below. Buffy's rocket finds its target while they're still in midair and the Judge, whom no weapon forged could harm, is blown to smithereens. After directing her "army" to collect—and keep separate—the Judge's remnants, Buffy spots Angel heading for the back of the mall and gives chase through fleeing shoppers, most of whom wish only to escape the drenching sprinklers. Angel ambushes Buffy in a pastry shop and they engage for their first real fight, focusing only on each other, pounding one another mercilessly. Now proof against Angelus' taunts, Buffy finally knocks him off balance and grabs a stake from her belt. She has the drop on him, as on that
Long-ago Night in the deserted
Bronze , but this time Angel knows his Slayer. He grins and mocks her, almost chanting, "You can't do it. You can't kill me." Staring into his eyes for a heartbeat, Buffy fetches her tormentor a herculean kick in the groin, then walks away from the fallen Angel, vowing, "Give me time."
Giles drives Buffy home. He warns her that the situation is far from over, that months of trouble lie ahead for all of them. Then, to her surprise and gratification, when the Slayer bitterly guesses that her Watcher must be disappointed in her, Giles compassionately tells her there was no way she could have known what would happen. He knows she loves Angel, and Angel, in turn, has proven more than once that he loves her. Upon hearing that Giles will only give her his support and his respect, Buffy's eyes overflow with tears of relief—and sorrow. Inside a little while later, she curls up on the couch, not watching the movie classic on TV, while Joyce presents her with two cupcakes (one sporting a lone candle), an apology for not having had time to bake a real cake, and a confirmation of their Saturday birthday-shopping date. When her mom asks what she did for her birthday, Buffy hesitates, then replies, "I got older." Her mom looks searchingly, lovingly, into Buffy's eyes and tells her, "You look the same to me." After a moment, Joyce asks if she wants to make a wish and blow out the candle and Buffy answers, "I'll just let it burn."
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Miller
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Laura
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The man behind the Slayer
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May 20, 2003
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http://dirsaloncom/story/ent/tv/int/2003/05/20/whedon/indexhtml
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