Mel's Synopsis

Previously on Angel: Angel got his soul. Angel got a son. Wes couldn't refute a prophecy that Angel would kill his son. Angel was fed Connor's blood by Lilah, he found out and shaded to Angelus before realising what was going on. Wes, freaking, took the baby and got his throat slit by Justine, who grabbed the kid for Holtz. He escaped with the boy through a rip in spacetime, created by Sahjon, to the darkest of the dark worlds. Sahjon leaves, satisfied. Lilah leaves for her paperwork. Justine escapes in Wes' stolen car. Angel stays on the ground, grieving...

We see a pan of Angel's old, wrecked room, the one damaged by the earthquake in "Loyalty". His gaze is fixed on Connor's scorched crib, his eyes saddened and full of quiet shock; a grief beyond tears, and the kind of silence that ends only in storm...

In Wesley's apartment, Fred checks his machine-- her own voice plays twice, begging him to pick up. Fred and Gunn, both stunned and near tears, are trying to make sense of things; she refuses to believe Wesley took Connor, while Gunn has been convinced but is still unsure of Wes' motives. Both want to ask Wes why first, and know that if Angel finds their erstwhile coworker before they do, Wes is a dead man. Fred wants to wait at the apartment, in case Wes returns, and tells Gunn to find Angel-- but Gunn knows the lack of toothbrush, razor, and gun means that Wes has gone for good. Fred denies that fervently, getting very worked up, rummaging through nearby papers as she says that Wes wouldn't betray them, and wouldn't leave without saying something to her without a hell of an urgent reason-- a reason that Gunn doesn't believe will be found in wastepaper basket she's currently emptying. Fred remembers his diaries, and that they can't find them; but Gunn insists that they should head back to the office to get a heads-up on Angel.

They leave together, with Fred still saying they need to find the diaries. As they walk to Gunn's truck, she tries calling Wes on a cell phone. Gunn comments that if Wes was going to answer his, he'd have done so one of the first forty times she'd tried...but when she asks if he's telling her to stop trying, he says no after a long moment. Keep trying. She finishes dialing as they get into his truck...urging Wesley to give them something...and they drive away.

And across the street, in the park, an open cell phone rings next to a tree.

Just inches from the outstretched hand of a bloody-necked, glassy-eyed, unmoving Wesley Wyndham-Price.

Holtz' lair. The chained undead look is still going strong, as a vampire is manacled to an overhead beam and punched. Justine enters, asking what the vamp and another of his fellows are doing there-- to continue training, of course. Her response is to stake them both, saying that training's over. Everything's now real. She goes on to tell them that Holtz and Connor escaped, "as planned". And that the captain wanted his praise passed on, saying they fought "valiantly, and with honour." And that Holtz and Connor are gone. For good. And that they've been charged to finish the work he'd started.

"We're going to kill Angelus," she says, as Angel, sitting on the fire-damaged floor, stares unmoving at the empty, mocking crib.... CREDITS

Lorne, Fred and Gunn stand in the lobby...and Lorne has just broken the news about Connor. Fred refuses to believe it, going deep into denial...and gets even more worked up about it having been a portal, her own experience with them coming back to haunt and horrify her as she imagines what it must've been like for the baby. Gunn takes her into his arms, holding her tight for a long moment, then declaring that everything was making less and less sense. He refuses to believe that their Wesley would just walk up to Holtz and hand Connor over. Lorne reminds him that Wes and Holtz had been meeting secretly. (though whether twice constitutes a continuing action...) Gunn and Fred still believe that Lorne read Wes wrong, but The Host is certain-- Wes never intended on bringing Connor back. In a small voice, Fred asks why... "I don't care why," Angel replies as he comes down the stairs, voice tight with determination and driven anger. He only cares about getting his son back-- then he'll deal with those responsible. They'll all pay...including Wes. No one wants to hear it, but Angel fails to notice, talking too fast (thank you, Lilah and your blood additives) as he asks Lorne if he'd heard of the Quor'Toth. Since he hasn't, Angel orders Lorne to research it-- that's where Connor is, that's where Angel wants to go. Fred and Gunn say they're going, too...but there's a problem. As they walk into Wes' office, Gunn asks if they won't have to open a portal... and last time they had to do that, it was...it wasn't any of them who knew how to...how were they going to without-- "We don't need him." Angel says, prowling the office. They're going to find Sahjon instead. Showing them a sketch, Angel says that Sahjon's been behind everything since the beginning.

Cut to Wolfram and Hart, as Lilah, doing paperwork, gets a visit from senior partner Linwood. He's not happy about her alliance with Sahjon, and no matter how she spins it, he's not buying. They're in an unwinnable war, he says, with sticky moral issues...and that she should always choose _his_ side. The gun she had to her head that night was unfortunate...but he seems more interested in clarifying what happened. She confirms that Holtz and baby went through to the Quor'Toth...and Linwood says he's sure she made every effort to preserve the baby for them. "Gun. At my head." Still, Linwood says it was quite the win for Holtz...if, as Lilah points out, jumping into a Hell dimension could be considered a win. "Well," Linwood replies. "Certainly not for us."

In the office, Angel, Gunn, and Fred research with no success. Internet resources are dry, the only reference Fred can think of is in a language she can't read, and Gunn, looking through the files, is thrown by Cordelia's filing "system". And when Fred tries to call her, Angel won't allow it. She deserves a break. Fred says Cordelia should be told what's gone on-- maybe she could help. Angel says no, as for the first time, his voice and control crack with unshed tears, and the pain in his eyes is incredible as he says she'll be back soon. "And when she does, she'll have presents. For Connor. And he's going to be here so she can give them to him. Okay?" Fred agrees...and after a long moment, Angel apologises. And then, the emotions roiling within him, says that this isn't working, to forget about it, and that he has to go...and he leaves. Fred and Gunn look at each other, and she asks if Angel had just said to forget it...he did, and Fred goes on to fearing that he's going to skip right to dealing with those responsible...and Gunn says they need to go find Wesley. He and Fred leave quickly...

And we're back in the park. A homeless man with a shopping cart is wandering around, looking through trash cans...and finds Wesley instead. He rolls Wes onto his back, trying to rouse him. He thinks Wes was mugged...but finds a great deal of cash while looking for ID. He also manages to provoke a response, as Wes attempts to speak, and moves an arm...meanwhile, the Good Samaritan realises this was no mugging, and, pocketing Wes' wallet, drags him to cover behind some bushes, and tries to disguise the evidence as he runs off.

Angel stares into the broken weapons cabinet, with an expression of contemplation...and with a tiny curl to the lips which might be consideration of options...or could be something else entirely. Behind him, Lorne enters from the front door...and starts breaking the fact that it's all bad news. Angel enters the office without speaking, and begins examining various items as Lorne continues about how his sources are afraid of the Quor'Toth. The staple remover seems to please, and the pointy thing that has notes stuck through is just what the vampire ordered. Meanwhile, Lorne is saying there are no portals to Quor'Toth, one has to rip open a hole in the fabric of reality. Angel walks right by, saying nothing, but carrying the pointy note-holder. Lorne, arms open in confusion, watches Angel ascend the stairs, and follows him up...

They go through the corridor, and Lorne continues, saying that this is no simple task; it'll take dark, dark magicks that take centuries to acquire...and even though Angel doesn't want to hear it, that even if he could punch through, finding Connor would be "...like looking for a needle in a haystack. The size of China." Angel stares at the door in silence for a long moment. "Needles," he says in quiet reflection. "Shoulda thought of that."

Lorne, continuing as Angel opens the door, says they just don't have the resources to conjure up that much dark power...and trails off as he sees Linwood tied to a chair in the middle of the room.

"Oh," Angel says, in a hard, confidant voice. "I think we do." COMMERCIAL

We're back where we left. Angel's looking through cabinets for more t ools, while Lorne, in a careful voice, asks "Who's this?" Linwood answers, giving name and title. "And you are?" "Uh...deeply troubled." Linwood says that Lorne and Angel have that in common-- and suggests that Angel's too troubled to consider the consequences of taking an employee of Wolfram and Hart hostage...but Angel knows they'd kill Linwood before him. Lorne moves to Angel, expressing doubts-- after all, Linwood isn't some slimy demon, he's human-- marginally, anyway. And it's not going to bring Connor back. "He'd better hope it does." Lorne asks if Angel even knows what he's doing, leading to a list of charges from Linwood...none of which he intends to press, thanks to the array of sharp and pointy things on Angel's "work tray". Especially the sharp note holder we saw earlier...now in Angel's hand. "In fact..." he says, as Angel comes around right in front of him, spinning the note holder in his hand. "let's not press anything, shall we?" As Lorne looks on from next to the wall, raising a hand in a staying gesture that no one sees, Linwood offers everything and everyone at his firm to find Connor, as Angel continues to play with the sharp spike of a note holder...bringing it ever closer, until it's pointed right at Linwood's right eye, mere centimetres away... "Who is Sahjon?" Angel asks softly, reasonably, in a way far more threatening than any of Angelus' tirades. "How do I get my hands on him?" Linwood suggests hitting three on his speed dial-- and after the spike gets another centimetre closer and Angel's small smile gets even more frightening, Linwood blurts out about the cell phone in his jacket pocket. Angel violently opens the sport coat, pulls out the phone, hits three, and jams it against Linwood's ear. "Hello, Lilah?" he says, and proceeds to tell her he's sending over a client, with explicit instructions on how to deal with him. "Give him anything he wants."

At Holtz' lair, Justine sits alone, whittling a stake. Then Gunn and Fred enter, with him telling her she needs a guard dog or something, because anyone can walk in off the street. She says, continuing to whittle, that getting in isn't the hard part. Gunn asks if that's what happened to Wes, that he was lured in and couldn't get out. (Which isn't that far off the mark, metaphorically speaking...) Justine says that he's a big boy (note the ambiguity of tense...) and knew what he was doing. Fred asks where Wes is now, and Justine asks why she should care. Well, mainly because Gunn advances on her, threat emanating from every fibre of his being, and is _telling_ her to. "Great," Fred says, coming up from behind him. "Let's have more violence. It's such a help." She goes onto say that they'd lost a child, and Justine has lost Holtz. Isn't it enough? Justine says no, and Fred asks if killing everyone will make her happy...then realises that there _is_ no "happy" for Justine. Living in such close quarters with the rest of Holtz' band, doing everything together-- except taking out the trash-- she imagines losing Holtz must've been like losing a father...and from Justine's expression, Fred adds "Or worse." Still, the trash sparks an idea for her, about which she tells Gunn she'll explain later, as Justine rises, and tells them that it's time for them to go. Gunn refuses, saying they're not going anywhere until she tells them what happened to Wes. She says they're half-right-- about the not going part. The remainder of Holtz' army enters, ready for a fight. Gunn shoves Fred behind him (toward Justine) and enters the fray. Justine knocks Fred down with a shot to the face as Gunn has to contend with 3 to 1 odds...one of them gets a knife to his throat. As Fred cries out in denial, Justine--

--slashes the knife across Wesley's throat and he falls to the ground, blood streaming from between his fingers and a look of horror in his eyes--

--"Wait!"

And she orders Fred and Gunn to get the hell out of there. They leave...

At Wolfram and Hart, Lilah and Angel are walking toward an elevator, with Lilah all excited about getting to go to "The White Room". Angel is nonplussed, curtly answering Lilah's question about what's in it by saying merely "Answers." They go up in the elevator, and Angel punches a specific series of buttons which he's got listed-- as Lilah mentions the guy in Litigation who went in the White Room and is now in an asylum. Meanwhile, Angel finishes punching in the sequence and a big white button appears. Lilah suggests she hang onto the list-- which Angel puts in his pocket as the musak plays. Then he pushes the big button, and...fade to white...

Fade in to a big white room.

Angel and Lilah walk...until they're greeted by a little girl in a red dress. By name. She thinks Lilah's nails are pretty-- she loves red. Which Angel has a taste for-- that, and revenge. "So much more fun than forgiveness." She asks what's up, and Angel tells her that Sahjon took his son. "Aw," she says sarcastically. "Do you want your little baby back? Baby's gone." She says he wants Sahjon-- who nowadays can be walked right through. She then shows them a little Informational Illusion about what Sahjon used to be like...the killing, the torturing, the good old days of solidity. "You can relate," says the oracle. Still, "they" (Sahjon's ilk?) caused a lot of trouble-- which she likes, but she hates chaos. So they changed them, Angel realises. Made them immaterial. "Smart boy." Now they can only watch, and not touch. They can be caught in special urns-- expensive and hard to come by. But she knows Angel wants someone he can sink his teeth into, not Sahjon's essence in a jar. (glance at Lilah...) And that's the price-- killing Lilah. She looks a bit shocked, but Angel's hands seize her to break her neck (::wince::) until the oracle giggles and says that's good enough for now. Lilah tries to recover while the oracle tells Angel she sees why they respect him. So, she conjures an old piece of parchment for a big ritual, and then has it appear in Angel's hand. "Can't wait to see how it turns out."

Fade out.

Fade in to a dumpster behind Wesley's apartment, with ambulance sirens screaming away in the background. Fred tells Gunn to throw her away...and Gunn's still a little unclear about what Fred hopes to find. The diaries, of course. Wes either took them or tossed them, and she's banking on the latter. He gives her a lift, and she begins to search with commentary on some of the items...and finds the diaries.

Into Wes' apartment go they, and begin to read. It's slow going-- Wes was meticulous, and kept separate diaries for each of the major players, even Angel...but Fred realises that he was frightened. Of what, she's not sure yet..."pending doom sort of thing in the later entries. Some big prophecy he was trying to repudiate." She reads his words, and his fear leaps from the page "It can't be coming. It can't be true." So, they're looking for a prophecy...which Gunn, his expression reflecting sudden understanding, finds. And shows to Fred. "The Father will kill the Son." And they figure it out-- Wes thought Angel would kill Connor. She pages through his diary, and realises that everywhere Wes turned, no matter how hard he tried to disprove it, the prophecy kept bringing him back to the that same ending...and that's why Wes took the baby. Fred is greatly relieved, though Gunn seems to have a few reservations... Fred doesn't notice, saying that Wes did the right thing. The only thing he could do...and that they had to tell Angel right away. "And he'll forgive Wes for taking his son," Gunn says disbelievingly, "and giving him to his mortal enemy?" (Oops. Guess they don't have the _whole_ story yet...) Fred realises the truth of that... "Well...maybe _begin_ to forgive..."

Meanwhile, back at the hotel, Angel has been clearly painting like a madman, despite Lorne's pleas to not do "this thing." That they'll find another way, though Lilah insists there isn't one. Lorne tells her that not-speaking would be a really good look for her. Angel, paying no attention, asks Lilah how "it" is, and she says it looks about right..and we see the giant red, clearly dark-magic pentagram that now exists on the floor. He asks what's next, and Lorne says reconsidering-- he tells Angel that he's messing with primordial dark magic (gee, where have we heard this before?) "Next." Angel demands. Lorne won't be denied, though, asking if this is really how he wants to get Connor back. "_What's next_?" Angel demands, in a tone that brooks no argument. "Human blood." Everyone glances around, Lilah finally looks at the bound Linwood...grabs a letter opener...and approaches him...then, with a smirk, slits her palm, allowing a few drops of blood to fall to the floor on the pentagram. She exits the pentagram, Angel says an incantation, and grey mist arises and swirls above the pentacle, complete with wind and lightning...Angel grabs his battle axe in preparation...the light show builds to a climax, exploding outward and then...

Nothing.

No Sahjon stands in the pentacle.

No anything.

"Where is he?" Angel asks...then demands of Linwood, axe blade poised at the lawyer's throat. But he has no idea...

But we do, as we switch our scene to the middle of a busy street, where Sahjon suddenly appears, solid as flesh. "What the--" he says, as he's hit by a pickup truck... which then strikes another vehicle. The truck driver's freaked...and is made more so as Sahjon shoves the truck onto its side as he rises.

Perfectly functional.

"Now this is more like it." COMMERCIAL

Over a black screen, we hear repeated dull thuds. Once we get a picture, we see the sound is Angel's dragging the bound Linwood-- chair and all-- up the stairs. He's protesting, appealing to Lilah for help, but she's busy taking a call. Lorne tells Angel that killing Linwood wouldn't accomplish anything, and that he doesn't want to do this. "That's where you're wrong." Linwood continues to protest, saying he and Angel had a deal, that he'd given Angel everything, what more does he want? "I want my son back." Linwood again calls for Lilah...who says that there's been a "bioplasmic" disturbance on a street corner at the same time as the spell-- and just flipped a 2 tonne truck "like a tonka toy." In response, Angel lets Linwood's chair go... sending it and him tumbling down the stairs. The chair breaks, as do his bonds...

And Fred and Gunn enter, with Fred saying they had to talk. Angel says not now while brushing by her. She blocks his path, unheeding his warning, and says there's something he needs to know before-- He's not interested, sidestepping her and making a beeline toward the door.

"The Father will kill the Son!"

And he stops dead before the door.

He turns, and Fred, walking towards him, tells him about the prophecy Wesley found, and everything he'd done to try and refute it. Gunn, approaching him now, too, reminds Angel that he'd all ready been fed Connor's blood, and that he smelled like food... "Wesley was trying to protect Connor," Fred tells him softly. And Gunn follows by saying "He was trying to protect _you_. Same as we are now." A long moment... then Angel turns around and starts to leave. "Angel, the prophecy--" But Angel says it's a lie. He'd never hurt his son. Fred asks how he knows, and Angel, fire in his eyes and threat in his voice tells her he'd never hurt anyone he cares about. "Now _move_."

She moves, and he leaves. Fred says they have to go after him, but Gunn won't-- because if Angel were to lay a finger on Fred, Gunn would have to kill the vampire himself. They then notice Lilah helping Linwood to his feet, and ask what the two of them are doing there, and Lorne gives them a summation: "There's kidnapping, a spell...dark magic. It's bad, kids." Linwood says Angel will pay for this, leading to Lorne adding "Really bad."

Outside, Angel is walking...or, perhaps, stalking is a better word. But he's got company, as Justine, perched on the wall, fires an arrow into Angel's collarbone with a crossbow. She fires again, but misses...and an attack ensues from the rest of the "army"-- which succeeds only in getting Angel _really_ pissed off. He fights them off, exits the gate...and meets Justine's fist. "Don't run off now," she says, in a disturbingly Buffy-like way. "The fun's just starting." Angel grabs her, holds her up against the wall and again, Justine finds her own knife at her throat. "I'm not your boyfriend," he snarls. "Find somebody else to smack you around." He pushes her away and she hits the ground... then turning over, he's gone. She heads straight for Wes' car...

And Fred and Gunn who are exiting the front door and discussing whether or not Wesley's intent matters to Angel...and they see the would-be attackers unsteadily rising from where Angel threw them. Fred and Gunn pursue...and see them all heading toward Wesley's SUV....which Justine takes off with. Alone. Fred and Gunn follow.

At the accident scene, Angel talks to Al, the fellow in the pick-up truck who is ridden with guilt over the accident which hurt the occupants of the other vehicle. A quick talk about responsibility leads to Angel getting little to no information on Sahjon...and to him telling Al that it's not his fault. Angel gets closer, surveying the remains of the accident...and finds some of Sahjon's blood on the bumper...

Back to Sahjon's "home", a room of colonnades and burning coal braziers... Justine walks around it, searching, remembering when Holtz recruited her and other times with him...she sits down upon the desk as Fred and Gunn enter. Gunn demands to know where Wes is. "He's not coming back," Justine says distantly...and she's not talking about Wes. She says it was all lies...that all Holtz wanted was the boy to punish Angel. "He never cared about anything else." Gunn doesn't care-- he's talking about Wesley. They've seen the car, it was taken from him, where _is_ he? Justine doesn't answer, and Fred says that they only want to hear his side. "His side?" she repeats. "His side's kinda funny. He sacrificed everything he believed in to save that kid." Gunn doesn't believe that helping Holtz take Connor to hell was something Wes would do, and wants to hear it from him. Justine replies by saying their friend is innocent. Fred asks if he's alive...and Justine looks away. Fred gets right in front of her, demanding to know where he is. Justine shakes her head, and somewhere between a chuckle and sob makes her soft reply.

"Heaven. Hell. I slit his throat."

And Fred backhands her across the face.

Justine responds by pulling a knife, but Gunn gets there first, grabbing it and knocking her to the floor. They get into it, and she refuses to stay down when Gunn tells her to. After he knocks her down again, she says that she'd trusted the wrong man. Gunn grabs her by the jacket, throws her up against a column, and yells that she's going to take them to Wes, and that he'd _better_ be alive.

"You call that a fight?"

It's Sahjon at the gate. Entering, he suggests he show them how they used to do it... COMMERCIAL

Back where we started, with Sahjon coming closer, saying that his home with uninvited guests can't end well...Gunn gets confirmation that the fellow before them is, in fact, Sahjon, as the demon himself says hi to Justine, whom he remembers as trying to cut off his head...she moves to confront him and he then flings her into a wall, saying how much he's missed doing that. Other things he's missed: gravity, friction, and smashing things to pieces. Say good-bye to the chair...and he wants to start by smashing their skulls.

"Or yours."

Tracker Angel has found them, just in time to join the fight. Sahjon knows it's Angel who's done this for him...and while they talk, Justine takes off. Meanwhile, Angel says that if Sahjon should take him to Quor'Toth and help him find his son, they'll call it even. "Really?" Sahjon asks, mock-innocently. "You and me, buddy cops, summer release? We iron out our wacky differences and bond? Don't think so." Angel says he'll be taking him anyway, but Sahjon says no can do-- and on that he's actually telling the truth. Connor's gone for good. He can open the Quor'Toth exactly once, which is why he chose it. Try again, Universe could go kerplooey. Fred then, tentatively asks what Sahjon _was_ lying about...

"Oh, well...I don't like to brag," he says with a cruel smile in his voice. "But read any good prophecies lately?"

Fred and Gunn, looks of shock on their faces, realise; Gunn says that Sahjon wrote the prophecies-- "More a rewrite," the demon corrects. He says he flitted back and forth through time, changed the one prophecy that threatened him and polished a few others. Angel was never really the point. It was Connor. "The one sired by the vampire with a soul shall grow to manhood and kill Sahjon."

So he planted false prophecies, Fred realises, getting more upset and angry by the second. And Wesley believed them... "God, he had some spine," Sahjon says (making it sound more and more like Wes was in league with Holtz et al...or like Sahjon recruited Wes after Lilah...) "Holtz was useless. He wanted to raise your kid as his own. I'm livin' with a knife over my heart for 1100 years, and he's into petty revenge! If he'd just killed the damned thing while it was still in its mother, we could've avoided all this!"

A look at Angel, at the taut rage...

A look at Sahjon...

Then Angel, now in full game face, growls.

And the battle's joined.

Angel's opening lunge leads to being thrown down, Gunn joins in immediately thereafter. He gets knocked down, Fred going immediately to his side, but Angel fights as rage personified, giving no quarter. Finally, he's knocked down...and Fred throws a burning brazier into Sahjon's face. Unfortunately it's a mere distraction, not an injury-- "Do I _look_ like I need more skin problems?" he asks as he advances upon her, blood in his eyes...but Angel knocks her aside, and he and Sahjon go at it again. He manages to throw Sahjon down...temporarily. Eventually, Angel winds up on the desk...and Sahjon has a stake. "I had to put your boy down," he says. "Pity. Kid had a big future." And as Justine runs in, carrying an urn, Sahjon continues. "I mean _big_. Oh well," he continues, still not noticing Justine, "We all gotta go sometime."

And Justine opens the urn.

Sahjon, protesting, is sucked inside.

Justine explains that Holtz left it. Fred immediately asks what about Wesley... and Justine tells her that she left him in the park next to his place. A final look at Angel...whose expression is set in a hard smile...

Near dawn, Fred, Gunn and Angel search the park with no success. Angel can smell Wes' blood, so he knows that this is the right place, but...Gunn points out that the sun's coming up, they should go. Angel says that Wes can't be dead...Fred says that she and Gunn will keep looking, and that Lorne had been calling hospitals all night. Gunn insists that they have to get Angel indoors, and that they'll find him.

Back at the hotel, Angel stares down at Wes' tea set in the office, much like how he was staring at Connor's damaged crib earlier. Lorne comes up to him, and says that he'd cleaned the pentagram as best he could, and that the dried blood was beginning to be a "look". Angel thanks him, and Lorne comments on how he likes to keep busy...the forced small talk is ended when Angel walks further into the office, saying that it's not right. "All I could think about," he says, leaning on the back of Wesley's chair, "was just getting my hands on Sahjon." And that Fred and Gunn had tried to keep him from going too far and he nearly got them killed. Lorne affirms this, saying he's glad it didn't work out that way. Angel picks up one of the china cups, examining it. "You think Wesley is..." he trails off, but Lorne says he doesn't know. He hopes for the best...and as Angel puts the cup down, the Host starts talking about the "bigger picture", in which there is a glass. Not the usual "glass half-full" kind, but a glass half-full of spiked blood. "If Sahjon and that lady lawyer had pulled off their feeding plan, you'd have Connor's blood on your hands." "Don't I anyway?" Lorne says no, there's nothing else Angel could've done. "You did everything you could with the knowledge you had. Just like Wesley." A glance at Angel, who gets this hard look in his eye at the name...then Lorne continues. "You know, maybe the way to start forgiving yourself, is by starting to forgive him." Before Angel can respond, the phone rings. It's Fred...and they've found Wesley.

In the waiting area for (presumably) the ICU, Fred and Gunn sit. Angel enters and, looking up from under his eyebrows, asks if Wes has asked for him. No, Wes can't speak yet due to tracheal damage, and has also lost a lot of blood...he's not completely out of the woods yet. Angel's presence can only help. Angel asks if he can see Wes, and his body language is taut...almost clenched...but Fred says she's sure Wes would like to see Angel. He moves past her toward Wesley's room...

Silently, Angel enters the dim room. Wesley lies asleep in a bed, neck covered in bandages and hooked up to a variety of medical equipment. He looks...very young.

Angel approaches, after closing the door, and takes up a position next to the bed, about even with Wesley's knees. His hands, which had been trying to be fists, are now folded over his stomach as he watches Wes...who awakens from the scrutiny. His sleepy eyes track to Angel... "Hey, Wes," Angel greets him with calm quiet. "I just-- I want you to know," he continues, looking down at his hands and only glancing at Wesley. "that I understand why you did it." Wes' eyes narrow, and there's a continuing sense of fear, and pain... "I know about the prophecies," Angel continues, his voice getting tighter. "And I know how hard it must've been for you to...do...what you did." Wes' face is unreadable...and yet still he conveys a sense of fear... "You thought I'd turn evil and kill my son," Angel goes on. "I didn't. It's important you know that." And he's standing very, very still... "This isn't Angelus talking. It's me. Angel. You know that, right?"

Slowly, more a movement of the eyes than anything else, Wes nods.

"Good."

And with a swift, violent motion Angel grabs the pillow from Wes' bed and begins to smother him.

"You sonuvabitch!" he yells, as Wesley tries to fend him off. "You're going to pay for this! You took my son! You sonuvabitch! You bastard!"

And out in the waiting room, where Fred and Gunn sit in happy ignorance, they hear monitors making ominous sounds and a report of a "code blue" in 319-- Wes' room. The code team takes off toward it...

"You think I'd forgive you?!" Angel screams, the hatred and anguish in his voice terrible to hear as he continues trying to kill someone he once called friend. "Never! You're going to die, you hear me?! You're going to pay!"

The code team _finally_ gets there, and the leader tries to pull Angel off-- but Angel shrugs him off and continues his assault, threatening Wes the entire time. It takes two members of the code team and Gunn-- who along with Fred is yelling at Angel to stop-- to pull him from the room. As he goes, Angel shouts: "You're a dead man, Price! I'll kill you! You're dead!"

And Wesley is left gasping for air, as the horror sets in...

THE END

Mel's Review

THE BOTTOM LINE

Continuity: Things pick up almost exactly where they left off from "Sleep Tight".

Cordelia and Groo are still gone, blissfully unaware of what's going on. Holtz and Connor are also still gone, though bliss has nothing to do with it.

Gunn and Fred continue to be unswervingly loyal to Wesley; once things are explained, Lorne seems willing to forgive as well.

Angel's out for blood, and desperately wants his child back.

Sahjon gets solidified, then trapped in an urn.

Relationships. Remember how Angel and Wesley's friendship got shattered last ep? Now the pieces have been ground to dust and been buried under the heel of seething hate on Angel's part.

Fred and Gunn are still perfect together-- this can't last-- and both try to stop Angel from doing things he'll regret.

It's realised that Justine was in love (or close to it) with Holtz.

Characters: So...Sahjon was after Connor, not Angel. Not a surprise-- once you realise it's a _Terminator_ homage (look at the names: Sahjon; Connor: Sarah and John Connor, the former of whom was targeted for termination because of the son she was to bear) things got simple. And the rewritten prophecy-- what got rewritten, if anything? Even "false prophecies" can come true under the right circumstances (see the upcoming review of "Tomorrow" for an analysis) plus...who says Sahjon's telling the truth about lying? He certainly dug Wes in deeper with the comment about Wes having a spine-- eesh. Make the poor man seem to be in league with all the bad guys why don't you.... Oh, wait-- already did. Still, Sahjon's not dead, just stuck in an urn-- and Angel's not the only vampire out there with a soul...

Lilah doesn't do much out of the ordinary here-- she helps Angel when her boss tells her to, has a little fun at Linwood's expense, and nearly has her neck snapped by Angel. Just another day at the office...

The Oracle-- I liked her. Dark Power in the form of a ten-year-old-- I always knew the "terrible twos" could last longer... ;) Still, she was a nice plot device, since obviously researching will suffer due to Wesley's absence.

Justine's suffering some pangs of conscience-- unsurprising given her doubts about killing humans. Sure, Wes didn't die, but she sure thought he did. Add in the fact that she's "realising" (correctly or incorrectly is hard to say) that Holtz never cared for anything but petty revenge...I'd hate to be in her shoes. Her attempt to kill Angel(us) was doomed before it began, her fight with Gunn was the same (do the words "mass advantage" mean anything?) and she's really, _really_ not tracking well...

I love Lorne. Meet the ignored voice of reason, kids-- trying to prevent Angel from getting too deeply into the dark, then trying to get Angel to forgive. As much as I wanted to hug him for supporting Wes and making a parallel to Angel...I think it backfired. _Big time_.

Fred and Gunn are still staunch supporters of both their friends, going to every effort to find and protect Wes, believing wholeheartedly that he would not betray them without reason, and trying to protect him from Angel's wrath, both for Wes' own sake and Angel's. They both walked into enemy territory twice, nearly got killed both times, and wound up saved both times by Justine's conscience. Oh, and how much do I love Fred for backhanding Justine after they find out what she did to Wes? That's my girl...

Wes is in trouble. He survives the attack by Justine, only to wake to his close friend trying to kill him. Whereas last week his actions were the focus and drive of the plot, this week, he himself is central to the motivations of Fred and Gunn especially, and then finally Angel. The truth-- sort of-- about why he committed this act of betrayal is slowly uncovered throughout the hour...and is still not enough to deflect Angel's wrath. The fact that the prophecy was false only makes things worse-- though, of course, Wes doesn't know that yet. Still, no good deed goes unpunished...and the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

So, let's get to it-- Angel.

He's not himself from the Human blood in his system, he's not himself from grief over losing his son, he's very much himself in guilting like mad over it, but he's also enraged over having been betrayed by a trusted friend. (enraged at himself as well as at Wes.) It is no wonder he loses his temper with Wes. I think most of us (the audience) would've been okay with Angel yelling, I think we'd have all understood if Angel had hit him. Yeah, Wes screwed up by not telling anyone about the prophecy, and Angel doesn't know that Wes didn't give Connor up voluntarily-- in fact, thanks to Sahjon's statements, it almost sounds like Wes was who Sahjon went to after Lilah's feeding plan failed. Angel also knows that the prophecy's false (assuming Sahjon was telling the truth about that) which makes the bitterness worse.

That all said...trying to kill Wes was wrong. We know it, and pains were clearly taken to make sure we, the audience, never lose our sympathy for the man who got into an untenable position, made the best choice he could at the time, and was nearly killed twice over it. But Angel was wronged, and suffered one of the worst things that could happen to someone, the loss of his child. So we have sympathy for him as well. It's a sticky moral problem, where the audience is as torn as the characters. Plus...I can't shake the belief that at least part of why Angel tried to kill Wes was transference of self-directed hatred and rage. Lorne's parallel of Angel and Wes just before Fred calls I think reinforces that aspect. The rest was betrayal, rage, and an almost "knee-jerk" hatred directed toward Wes-- not to mention all that Human blood still running through Angel's system.

It is also frightening to see the reminder that the line between Angel and Angelus is not as clear-cut as we might imagine. Angel engages in kidnapping, "coercion" (both threatened and off-camera) dark magic spells, and, of course, playacting concern for Wes when he wanted to kill him. (The playacting becomes visible after repeated viewings, and gradually becomes more overt during mainly the hospital scenes. Absolutely _wonderful_ nonverbal acting. :) The dark magic spell has its obvious repercussions; humans get hurt because Sahjon appears in the middle of a street. In the course of getting it, Angel kidnaps and tortures Linwood-- not a reaction we haven't seen before (i.e. killing the lawyers last season.) and was willing to snap Lilah's neck to get the spell-- same deal, with an extra wince from when Angelus killed Jenny Calendar. All in a typical pattern for an enraged Angel, and really, not anything anyone would blame him for (especially as he didn't kill Lilah, let Linwood go, and really had no control over where Sahjon would appear.) It's the trying to kill Wesley thing that was the most disturbing. Unless some kind of gigantic "reset" button is pressed-- which I doubt will happen-- I'm not sure if Wesley and Angel could ever have any sort of comfortable, friendly interaction as was the norm before. And that's going to be a tremendous loss to them both.

Best Moments: The scene in Wesley's apartment as Fred listens to the answering machine. So sad...

Angel's explanation for vetoing calling Cordelia. ow...

Lorne. Just for being the voice of reason every time Angel goes further into the dark.

The "Good Samaritan" making off with Wes' wallet. Yeah, that's the norm...

The White Room Oracle. "Can't wait to see how it turns out." That matches all our reactions...

Finding the prophecy. Fred's face just lightens up and the weight of the world lifts from her...and then reality sets back in.

Fred and Gunn telling Angel the prophecy, and Angel's outright denial...followed by the implied threat of Fred doesn't move.

Fred hitting Justine. That's my girl!

"Read any good prophecies lately?" just the joyful cruelty of the phrase, and the following bit where Sahjon digs Wes in deeper and _royally_ pisses off Angel...

Lorne trying to console Angel. So sweet, so good of him to forgive Wes and try and help...so poor a result...

The entire hospital sequence, from when Angel walked into the waiting area till Wes was left gasping and alone. Masterful and terrifying at once.

Questions and Comments: Ok, the medic chick speaks (read: rants); skip ahead if you're not interested. Slitting the throat is fatal without prompt medical attention. As in, about 30 seconds, since the carotid will SPURT and death occurs in a couple of minutes, tops. Ditto for the jugular veins-- not quite as fast, but still a LOT of blood loss and quickly. (This is why an external jugular line is used only as a last-ditch effort in the field.) So, Wes should've been dead in minutes, not lying around for a couple hours in a park. Yeah, he was using direct pressure, yeah he's probably gotten biofeedback training as part of the Watcher educational package, but still...so, assuming we put "magic" and "The Powers" (either Light or Dark) away for the moment, it seems like this: there was no spurting of blood, and Justine's blade was angled up...she may have just gotten under the skin and subcutaneous tissues with no major damage to blood vessels. (I've seen this in extremities, though not in the neck...) Also, she went a little high-- it looked like the thyroid cartilage is what she managed to hit, which could've protected the trachea proper. If it wasn't that, then she got the cricothyroid membrane-- which is where needle and surgical airways are put in. Still, this would lead to blood loss (still a lotta small vessels in the neck) and she still did some damage to the trachea (though obviously not severed, or Wes would've been dead; even so, I'd have kept him intubated in the ICU until I was DAMN sure that airway was secure...but, I'm just an EMT, not an MD, so what do I know? Still, could we have put him on some oxygen? maybe? hmm?) so his ability to get oxygen in would be compromised (had this happened in reality there'd have been air trapped in the subcutaneous tissues-- subQ emphysema-- leaking from the damaged area.) This low(er) oxygen state would lead to altered level of consciousness (Wes was actually responsive to "painful" stimuli, responding when the homeless guy was looking for ID and paying no attention to immobilisation ::wince::) His vocal cords were obviously intact, too (he was moaning when being moved) though he wasn't allowed to speak (and, even if he had, I don't think Angel would've listened...)

And I have only rarely seen a closed door in a hospital-- usually that's reserved for procedures where the patient is required to be undressed, or if the situation is sensitive (rape, miscarriages, possible abuse cases) or something like bathing a patient on the wards. The doors are kept open so that the nurses can see the patients, and make certain that souled vampires aren't in there trying to kill patients...

As for the "code blue" announcement while Angel was smothering Wes with anything BUT love-- that was the monitors being knocked off. Wes was on a bp cuff, a pulse ox, you could hear a cardiac monitor going in the background, and there was an IV going. (there should've been two...) The two in the middle there would've drastically dropped off or ended their readings as they got jarred, leading to the code team taking their own sweet time getting to his room. (Guess they missed the "time is muscle" lecture...)

END RANT

SunSpeak