Original Air Date: May 12, 1998
Written by Joss Whedon
Directed by Joss Whedon
Summary
Galway, 1753 -- On his last day as a mortal human, the man
who will become Angelus encounters a beautiful, blonde woman
on the streets at night. Her name is Darla, and she seduces
him closer to her. She sinks her fangs into his neck, then
uses her nails to make an incision on her chest, just above
her breasts. Immediately, Darla pulls the man's mouth onto
her bleeding cut, turning the man into a demon of the night.
Sunnydale, Present -- Angel watches Buffy from afar as she
battles a pair of vampires. She orders one of them to take a
message to Angel, saying that she's taking the offensive. The
vampire doesn't comply, so Buffy finishes him off. The next
day, Giles pays a visit to the museum, where a
newly-discovered stone artifact has been discovered. It is a
few feet taller than Giles, and it contains some form of text
on the side. Giles asks the man in charge, Doug Perren, if
they attempted to open it yet, but Doug didn't notice the
crack running down the side of the stone until Giles pointed
it out. Giles then asks Doug to refrain from opening it until
he can decipher the text. At school, Buffy declares to her
friends for the umpteenth time that she's ready to face
Angel, despite the fact that final exams are approaching.
Willow offers to tutor Buffy in chemistry during one of their
free periods.
London, 1860 -- Before she became a demon, Drusilla was a
young Catholic woman who only wanted to follow the right path
in life. She enters a church and steps into the confessional
booth, failing to notice one of the priest's arms reaching
out in desperation before being pulled back in. Drusilla does
not realize that Angelus has just murdered the priest and is
now acting in his place behind the confessional screen. After
Drusilla tells him of her problem with her visions of the
future, Angelus torments her by claiming that she is a child
of the devil. Drusilla does not want this to be true, and
pleads for help. Finally, Angelus lets her go with a request
for Hail Mary's and an act of contrition.
Sunnydale, Present -- Drusilla, Spike, and Angelus read
about the museum's new artifact in the newspaper. Angelus
knows what it is immediately. Back in Sunnydale High, Buffy
hopelessly tries to solve a chemistry problem when she
accidentally drops her pencil. It rolls off into the desk and
falls on the floor, right next to Ms. Calendar's disk which
has remained their ever since the night of her murder. Buffy
pulls the disk out and hands it to Willow, and pops it into
the disk drive to check out its contents. What they find is
Jenny's final project: the curse for the restoration of
Angel's soul. Meanwhile, Dru, Angel, and several other vamps
go to the museum to retrieve the stone, killing Doug Perren
in the process.
Rumanian Woods, 1898 -- The dead body of a gypsy girl lays
stretched out on the ground next to a fire, while an elder
gypsy woman chants the curse of restoration. Glowing beneath
her is an Orb of Thesulah. While she chants the curse,
Angelus flees through the woods, trying to escape the scene
of the crime, for he is the one responsible for the girl's
death. The elder woman completes the curse, and Angelus is
stopped in his tracks. He falls to his knees, and his eyes
glow as his soul returns to his body for the first time in
over a century. A gypsy man steps out of the woods and
explains to Angel that he is being punished for the countless
murders he has committed.
Sunnydale, Present -- Buffy and Willow show Giles a
printout of the restoration curse. Giles claims that the
curse would require a great knowledge of the black arts, and
Willow feels that she's up to the challenge. While everyone
talks of Angel's salvation, only Xander is upset, for he
feels that Angel must pay for his murders with his life.
Xander gets into an argument with Giles over Jenny's last
wish before telling Buffy that she's willing to forget all
about the murders in order to get her beloved Angel back.
Elsewhere, Angel tells Spike the story of a demon named
Acathla. This demon possesses the power to literally swallow
the Earth into Hell, but he was stopped by a knight centuries
ago. His body turned to stone with the sword still embedded
in it, then was concealed in the stone tomb and buried deep
beneath the ground. With that, two vampires open the tomb,
revealing the body of Acathla inside. Only someone worthy can
remove the sword from Acathla's body, freeing him to reign
terror on the world. Later that night, Buffy finds the
claddagh ring that Angel gave to her before he lost his soul.
She goes outside for a walk and encounters Kendra, who has
returned to take care of another dark force in Sunnydale. At
the library, Kendra shows them a valuable weapon that she
brought with her. It is a sword that was blessed by the same
knight who stopped Acathla. If Angel succeeds in reviving the
demon, it may be their only chance to stop it. Buffy asks
Willow to perform the curse as soon as possible, but they
need an Orb of Thesulah first. Luckily, Giles already has one
in his office.
Manhattan, 1996 -- Angel stumbles through the streets of
Manhattan, living like a bum ever since he regained his soul.
He is approached by another demon named Whistler who say's he
too is on the good side. Whistler offers Angel a chance to
pick himself up from this foul life and become someone
important in the world. But first, Angel has to see something
before he can make his decision.
Los Angeles, 1996 -- A car with windows painted black
parks outside of Hemery High, and Angel rolls the window down
just enough to see what he came there for: the Chosen One. He
observes Buffy's first meeting with a Watcher, then follows
her to the cemetery where she first learns the truth about
vampires and her destiny in life. Angel also follows Buffy to
her home, where her mother is upset because Buffy got home
late. Buffy goes to the bathroom and listens to her parents
arguing with each other. Having seen enough, Angel asks
Whistler to help him to a better life, teach him to become
somebody.
Sunnydale, Present -- A human sacrifice is brought before
Angelus, who promptly feeds on his blood, making sure to
spread some on the palm of his right hand. Angelus then
approaches the body of Acathla, reciting the incantations for
the ritual of his revival. Angelus grabs the sword and pulls
it with all his might, but he fails. Spike is amused at
Angelus's failure, and Dru is very upset. Angelus then swears
that they will turn to an old friend, and then succeed.
The next day, Buffy and the others take one of their final
exams, unaware that a concealed vampire is walking down the
hallway toward their classroom. The vampire steps into the
room, and smoke begins to rise from her body as the rays of
sunlight hit it. She warns Buffy that more will die if she
does not meet Angel that night. As she finishes the message,
her body disintegrates. Buffy tells Willow to perform the
curse, leaving Kendra behind to stand guard. Buffy finds
Angel at the cemetery, and they begin to fight. Meanwhile, a
group of vampires invades the library during the restoration
ritual. Back at the cemetery, Buffy realizes that her fight
with Angel is merely a diversionary tactic, so she turns and
runs towards the school as fast as she can. While Kendra
battles one of the vampires, another one pushes a bookshelf
over, crushing Willow underneath. Xander fights another one,
but it brutally breaks his right arm before he can shake him
off. After Kendra slays a vamp, she attacks another that has
knocked out Giles. As they surround her, Cordelia escapes
from the library, while Willow lays unconscious under the
bookshelf. Drusilla then enters and takes on Kendra
one-on-one. Kendra is no match for Dru, who defends all of
her attacks before hypnotizing the Slayer into an immobile
trance. Dru then slashes a cut in Kendra's neck with her
nails. Kendra falls to the ground as blood pours out of her
neck. Taking Giles with them, the vampires leave the library
only moments before Buffy bursts into the school hallways.
She finally makes it to the library, but it is too late. She
runs over to Kendra's fallen body, but there's nothing she
can do. Suddenly, the police arrive to see Buffy over the
body of a dead woman. One of them aims a gun at Buffy,
ordering her to freeze. Buffy's disastrous night has just
gotten worse.
Miscellaneous Info
-The stuntwoman who was set on fire is
named Cindy Folkerson. She has been set on fire more times
that nay other stuntwoman in Hollywood.
Quote of the Week
Buffy: Deja vu.
My Rating
5/5
Cast
