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| Episode 1, Season 3 Title: "Heartthrob" Written and Directed by: David Greenwalt Original Air date: 24 September 2001
Fred peeks from a corner and hearing a sound scuttles back to her room in the Hyperion Hotel as Wesley, Cordelia and Gunn enters the lobby after a night of fighting Mur-ite demons. Tired and exhausted they recognize their sacrifice and lot in life. A mission they understand very well, and accept. They clean their weapons and place them in the weapons armoire. Angel is away on a spiritual retreat in a Sri Lankan monastery. Fred is up in her room in self-chosen isolation since Angel left. It's taken some time for her to adjust, but Gunn admires her strength. Angel will return when he "works through his grief a little." Gunn advised him to go to Las Vegas, but Wes points out Angel really needs "peace and quiet." Thousands of miles away in a Monastery a top a hill. Angel is fighting over a dozen red-robed monks. They fly through the air as Angel applies his physical skills. Minutes later, blood stained and tired, Angel steps out and runs into a local bringing charity offerings to the monks. Angel remarks in their Native tongue, "Demon Monks. Should have gone to Vegas!" and he heads for home. ACT 1:
Upstairs in her room, Fred is diligently writing on the walls, nearly at their capacity. Angel knocks on Fred's door and she is excited at his return. After forgetting to invite him in Fred remarks, "There's just a smidge of vampire in you as far as I'm concerned but the universe has rules." Angel walks in checking out the walls and reassures her he is here to stay. Five years in an alternate dimension, surviving on strange food and escaping constant certain death left Fred a bit squirrely. He settles down amidst taco wrappers and advises her to take "small steps" and assures her she is safe and opens the door to invite her downstairs. Just then a loud terrorized scream is heard. Angel quickly runs down, leaving Fred to ponder his words. Downstairs, Cordy's vision has her on the floor grasping her head in pain as Angel, Wes and Gunn try to help as best they can. The vision is of a gang of vampires crashing a party at Wilson College in Bonner Hall, killing people and taking hostages. Cordy advises, "Watch out for the blonde, she's the worst." They leave and Cordy lies down in tears on the floor, the pain still reverberating. At Wilson College, the heroes enter to find a room with bodies, some still breathing, but the vamp gang has left heading east on 6th Street with hostages in a red convertible. Wes immediately calls for help, while Angel turns vamp face and follows the car via the rooftops. Gunn and Wes follow in Angel's car. In the car full of vamps, the blonde evil one threatens one of the hostages. Angel jumps on the hood, causing the red convertible to crash against a covered parking lot building. The hostages run, while Angel and crew fight the vamps hand-to-hand, and with stakes. One of them manages to escape. Angel grabs the blonde she-vamp by the neck ripping off her heart shaped necklace, and his stake aims true but not before she recognizes him, "Angelus?" She turns to dust and he gazes at her heart shaped necklace in his hand, searching his memory. Act II
Marseilles, France. 1767. Two couples, Darla, Angelus, James and Elizabeth are heading to the docks. They are full after having fed off a Count and stolen his money, money to be used to run from Holtz, a known vampire killer. But Angelus is not happy about James and Elizabeth burning the Count's villa as well, as this will surely alert Holtz to their location. Darla and Angelus recount Holtz's attempt on their lives from which Darla abandoned Angelus in a burning barn surrounded by Holtz's men, while she rode off on their only horse. Angelus smiles at their recollection and remarks to Darla, "Life is boring. You're full of surprises." James and Elizabeth are clearly in vampire-love, a strange foil to Angelus and Darla. Elizabeth spots a beautiful antique heart locket in a store window, but the store is closed and James breaks the glass to get it for her. She promises to never take it off. This draws the attention of the police, so Darla and Elizabeth run to the docks, while Angelus and James stand their ground. Not surprising, Holtz rides in with his entourage, Angelus's sarcasm is rich, "Hope she treasures that locket." Holtz's men surround them armed to the teeth. Back at the Hyperion, Angel's story pauses as he holds the locket. Cordy points out they are in big trouble if James is still alive because Elizabeth was still wearing the beloved locket. James will want revenge. Wes and Gunn quickly hit the streets to shake up their contacts for info on James. Across town, a wrecking truck is taking away Elizabeth's car, as James looks on from underneath the covered parking lot. One of the coward vamps gives James the 411 about Angelus turned Angel, gypsy curse, soul, and new business. James can't deal with her death and simply states, "I want to die." He shoves the vampire lackey into the direct sunlight and watches him light up like a match. James leaves. At the Hyperion, Angel is by the stairs as he opens the locket to reveal a picture of Elizabeth and James. Cordy is by the counter, pausing and waiting, Angel knows Cordy wants to talk. She tries to make him open up about Buffy, not wanting him to feel guilty over her death. He explains he didn't even recognize her, but Angel then realizes she's talking about Buffy and not Elizabeth. Cordy does most of the talking and figures it's not the right time yet for Angel to open up, so demands, "What the hell happened with Holtz?" Angel continues his story . . . 1767. Holtz demands to know Darla's location. Angelus and her ate the Vampire Hunter's family. He wants revenge. Angelus offers not only Darla, but Elizabeth and James, which infuriates James, and he attacks Angelus. They use the scuffle as an opportunity to ride off on a horse, but not before Angelus is skewered with crossbow arrows, luckily in all the wrong places. Later, in an alley, James leaves Angelus, as he rides off to meet up with Elizabeth to warn her about Holtz. He is disgusted by Angelus's "utter lack of concern" for his supposed love. Angelus sarcastically points out, "Why are people always running off and leaving me? Am I a bad bloke? I'm gonna need a doctor." And he collapses. Present day at Dr. Gregson's office, James barges in demanding ïthe cureÍ. Sandy, the nurse, tries to stop him because Dr Gregson is soughing off, as Slod demons do once a month. James is ready to pay any price to exact revenge on the murderer of his only love. Moments later, James is on an operating table, awake, while Dr. Gregson with scalpel in hand slices into his chest. Act III
Angel, at the Hyperion, hangs up the phone with Gunn. While they try to track James down, Angel knows he is heading to the hotel and tries to convince Cordy to go home. But Cordy knows too well what happens when she goes home at moments like these. She sticks by Angel's side as he searches for his hurling axe in the weapons armoire. It's been moved down to the basement and he heads to the basement door, but James pounces from behind it and throws him against the wall demanding, "Why'd you do it?" A fight ensues, and Fred takes a peek out, but Angel orders her back, and he returns to the punching and annihilating of evil. Still at the Caritas, Merl continues to give them the info on James' visit to Dr. Gregson, a Slod demon that collects rare organs. In exchange for an organ, he offers short-lived invincibility for a price. Wes calls to warn Angel. At the Hyperion, the phone rings. Cordy throws Angel a stake, James intercepts it and tries to use it on Angel but Cordy pulls him off though not before she is sent flying across the room. Angel finally stakes James, and Angel checks on Cordy, but James pulls it out unscathed. To their surprise, James attacks with renewed determination. Act IV:
Angel and Cordy run inside a subway train, leaving James behind but he jumps on the moving train. Cordy should not have stuck out her tongue at him! Angel knows his old evil chum, and he's ready when James crashes through one of the windows. James taunts, "Well, this is a new twist in an old snake" as he observes Angel protecting Cordy. "You've changed. If you're not the same man who screwed Darla and couldn't care less what happened to her." Angel pauses at this comment, because James couldn't possibly know about his night with Darla and so dismisses it as a reference to their vampire past. James wants to kill Cordy, whom he mistakenly believes is the woman Angel loves, but she tells him that Angel lost his love three months before. James doesn't believe him because if Angel had lost his one true love he would not be able to go on, "When some bastard killed her, it would've killed everything in you." James assures Angel won't live and neither will Cordy. James tears off a set of seats and attacks. Angel grabs a pair of crutches from under a passenger as Cordy assists the passenger before he falls. Angel quickly pins James against the wall with the crutches to his neck. Weak, he collapses. James's final words, "I lived. You just existed" burn into Angel's soul. He turns to dust without any further help. Later that night, Angel walks down the stairs at the Hyperion after having another talk with Fred to explain the earlier events. Cordy is concerned because all of James's Romeo and Juliet madness love taunts must hurt. Angel feels like he betrayed Buffy because her death didn't kill him; instead, he is working through it. Cordy offers her wisdom, "You're a good guy, still trying to help people and that's not betraying her-that's honoring her." We know our Vision Girl tells the truth and her words offer some comfort to Angel. But it's back to work as Gunn and Wes walk in with the news of a Nester demon infestation and they leave with weapons in hand to kill the queen, the only sure way to be rid of them. Puerto Cabazas, Nicaragua. Darla, dressed in a tight red top, sits by a bar in a rundown cantina. A hoodlum comes in and hands her a piece of paper with the name of a hard-to-find Shaman. She shoves the paper down the front of her chest. He asks her to have drink with him but she refuses and instead turns vamp face, "Well you know what they say..." and has a drink on him! She finishes of her blood shot with a lime. Satisfied, she adds "Life's full of surprises" as she turns to leave, her large protruding belly makes her waddle out of the bar. Indeed, life is full of surprises. Summary by Council member Raciella. |
Three months have passed since we last saw our Angel Investigations crew return from Pylea with an additional member in tow...
At the Hyperion Hotel, Cordy with rat traps in hand tries to get Gunn and Wes to set them. They refuse sighting fear, beady eyes and teeth. So, she heads to the basement door, but Angel startles her. She happily shrieks, "You guys! He's back!" He's greeted with a warm welcome and he brings gifts for his dear friends. Wes is grateful for the 16th century Murshan Dynasty dagger, Gunn loves his shrunken head and Cordy is delighted with her necklace. The retreat was cut short because the monks at the Sri-Lankan monastery were life-sucking Shur-hod demons. Angel goes upstairs to check on Fred, who has been living on tacos sent up by the crew.
At Cordy's apartment, our Vision girl, steps into the bathroom, still in the aftermath of her vision. She takes some pain killers from her medicine cabinet as Phantom Dennis runs a very hot bath. She sighs, "These visions are killing me. It's getting worse every time." Cordy is grateful for her live-in ghost. The phone rings as she enjoys her bath.
At the Caritas karoake bar, Lorne is belting out, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" and the audience, full of old timers enjoying every note, while Gunn and Wes are waiting impatiently. Merl, the lizard demon arrives with bad news and we find Wes's negotiating skills have improved. Merl spills that James is looking for Angel and "he's out for blood", well more like dust. Gunn immediately calls Angel.
Angel and James continue to fight and Angel throws him into the sunlit courtyard. Cordy asks, "Shouldn't he be on fire?" Angel and Cordy use this opportunity to run down to the sewer tunnels. At a tunnel apex, Angel cuts his hand and throws blood into the left tunnel, while they run down the right one and through a door. James takes the bait. Inside a skanky room, the two try to figure out James' unexplained invincibility. She mentions the Ring of Amarra as a possibility but it cannot be since there was only one, and Angel destroyed it. Besides, the Amarra people don't make cuff links or belt buckles either! The subway above shakes the walls, frightening Cordy and a second later, her cell phone rings, startling Angel. Turns out James had his heart cut out in exchange for invincibility, but it only lasts for a short while and then he dies. The signal fades before Cordy can hear the exact allotted time. Angel suggests simply waiting him out, but James crashes through one of the walls. Cordy and Angel head above to the subway.