Mike's Synopsis

We open where we left off last week; Angel staring, astonished, at a man surrounded by dead bodies, a man who by rights should be a corpse himself. He solves the Rubik's Cube quickly, and realizes Holtz has come back through bad mojo, and may very well be related to the Troachlon Prophecy. Then Holtz promptly snaps metal restraints on him. Meanwhile outside, Wesley's trying to teach Darla Lamaze breathing, and gets the whole gang conked on their heads for his troubles. "I--don't--BREATHE!" Darla forcefully reminds them, and then bursts into tears.

Roll credits, bring out the Ashley MacIsaac wannabe.

Resume, back a hundred years ago. Holtz gets home, and the place is _such_ a mess. Dead mum and kids lie strewn about the living room floor like so many children's toys. Only one rather androgynous kid appears unharmed, and zie's blithely unconcerned about it all. Holtz cradles hir and sings softly.

Back to the interesting world, Gavin, Lilah and the big boss are trying to figure out who Holtz is. After concluding that the whole thing's a bigger mess than Dawn trying to cook shepherd's pie, the big boss washes his hands of the whole thing and dumps it all in Gavin and Lilah's laps.

At the hotel, Holtz is attempting to bait Angel, who keeps throwing it back to him, trying to determine how Holtz got here and who he's working for. Angel works Holtz, trying to make him see that he's being played with by darker forces. Holtz is slowly struck by how different the once-gleefully homicidal vampire seems.

The gang wakes Wesley up, and they decide to take a now contrite and scared Darla to someplace safe. Unfortunately, several of Holtz's goons decide they like the group right where they are. Meanwhile, another moon-faced demon lackey comes in the hotel and announces that he's got Darla, but he's only setting Holtz up for disappointment when he drags Lilah in instead. Lilah rather bemusedly reacts to Holtz splashing her with holy water, and Holtz seethes as he realizes he has the wrong prey. A decidedly surreal exchange ensues, as Lilah blithely relates Angel's soul situation to a stunned Holtz while Angel sneaks a grenade out of the hand of a dead Wolfram and Hart flunky. As Lilah and Holtz are engaged in trying to out-deadpan the other, Angel yells a warning to Lilah, sets off the grenade, and breaks for it. Holtz is furious, and postures a lot for Lilah's benefit, while checking to make sure Darla isn't cursed as well. After he leaves, Lilah stumbles upon the piece of the Niazian Scroll Wesley had been attempting to translate.

Halfway through the big smackdown between Wes et al. and the Holtzian creeps, Darla decides that's all she can stands and she can't stands no more. She takes the wheel of the Angelmobile and leaves an exhausted detective agency staff gaping in dumbfoundment at the disappearence of their charge. Angel steps behind them, unseen until he asks the possibly homicide-inducing question "What are we looking at?"

After everyone stifles the urge to strangle Angel with their shirtsleeves, he brings them up to speed on his little Holtz problem. And I would just like to note that the name "Holtz" is harder to type than one would think. Fred speculates on Holtz's, and Angel's baby's, role in the prophecy, noting that a confluence means both Holtz and the child have their roles to play in what's coming. Angel reports to a disappointed Wesley that he was unable to retrieve the scrolls.

Speaking of strangling, Lilah is ready to knife the pedantic, insecure anthropologist who's working on the scroll for her. All he can get at the moment is that there's "something about a birth." Lilah begins to instruct him in the standard motivating techniques employed by Wolfram & Hart. And back in the old deserted catacomb, Holtz and his demon are also in a bit of a spat; Holtz is irked that the demon didn't tell him about Angel's soul, whereas the demon sees Holtz's vituperation melting in a molten sea of ethics. All is righted, however, when the demon realizes that Angel's being ensouled won't prevent Holtz from killing his prey; he'll just have to take a different tack. This, of course, does not compel the demon to volunteer information on Darla's delicate condition.

Angel finds Darla on a random rooftop, looking sorrowfully at the world she's about to bring a life into. She speculates, in a very non-Darla-like fashion, about the futility of releasing a newborn into such a pain-filled world, which sounds slightly less cliched when coming from someone who's caused no small amount of said pain. Angel offers hopeful counterpoint, but Darla isn't buying. She's absolutely freaking over the prospect of giving birth, and is desperate to prevent it--and Angel gets to the reason about a half-step before she does; she feels love. For the baby. For another creature, something that hasn't happened to her in over 400 years and various states of being. Angel tries to make that into a case for her going through with the birth, but Darla points out that with the whole no-soul-having thing, the emotions she feels can't be coming from her, but the life inside of her. She believes that once the baby is born, the affection she feels will be lost to her, and the prospect fills her with despair. Angel tries to dismiss her argument, but his eyes indicate that she's all too likely right.

Meanwhile, Lorne (remember him?) is none too thrilled to have his almost-completely-refurbished club chosen as the new vampire maternity ward, but he grudgingly accepts, and is then drawn in to a snipe-fest with his repairman, who's attempting to fix the no-harm-no-foul spell that keeps Caritas perennially TV-14. As the handyman hums to himself, Lorne picks up that the demon teamster has been bilking him for extra hours and gives him the heave-ho. Across town, Darla is attempting to extract a promise from Angel that he'll protect the baby from her after, when the cellphone rescues him. Caritas is safe, as long as Lorne can get the security spell working. Gunn is especially anxious for this to happen, as Fred's chosen slapping his face as the method of determining whether the spell can (as yet unsuccessfully) protect from harm. Angel tries to get Darla to go with him--"I feel a storm coming"--but Darla feels something happening inside of her. Something not good.

Lilah's translator has done his work, but he's so busy gushing about the intricacies of the translation that Lilah's impatience wears to the snapping point, finally stating simply, "I have a gun." He conciliatorily, and confidently, reports the prophecy as reading "there will be no birth, only death." Lilah's bemused.

Oh goody, it's another flashback scene. Holtz's men are trying to rouse their leader out of his shock-induced stupor, but his eyes fill with resolve. He picks up his transgendered kid, and carries hem screaming out into the sunlit afternoon, where the now-vamped kid bursts into flames.

Back in Caritas, the security system still isn't working, and Gunn's face is swelling. Angel drags a bedraggled Darla in, and a quick confab with Wesley confirms that things aren't going well. They take her into Lorne's bedroom, and Fred notices a streak of blood on the chair where Darla had been sitting. Meanwhile, the demon who Lorne fired has made new friends in the form of Holtz and his demon partner. He relays the conversation he overheard between Lorne and Cordelia with pitch-perfect accuracy; suffice to say this guy makes Rich Little look like Steven Wright. Holtz takes off after his quarry so fast he forgets to say "Quick, Watson, the game's afoot!"

Darla continues to not do well. Angel asks about the baby, and is rewarded with telling silence. He freaks, and Wesley tells him all the logical reasons why the baby probably won't survive. Angel really doesn't want to hear it, nor does he want Gunn to tell him that, quite possibly, the death of Angel's son is a good thing, given that pesky end-of-the-world prophecy and all. He posits, "What if what's happenin' to Darla now, what if _that's_ the Powers [that Be] finally steppin' up to the plate and _doin'_ somethin' for once?" "How?" Angel asks, flatly. "By killing my kid?" Whereupon he bolts, and Cordelia goes to smack Gunn for excessive candor, only to be met by blue mystical force. Lorne exults as only the one person in the room who things are looking up for can.

Angel goes in to Darla, trying to put a brave face on things, but she knows the shot. "Told you I had nothing to offer this kid," she sighs brokenly. Outside, the gang is in full brood mode, and as Lorne goes to rustle up liquid comfort, a mysterious bearded man enters. He and Lorne chat amiably, Lorne informs him the bar is closed and invites him to return tomorrow, and he leaves, humming an antiquated-sounding air to himself. Suddenly Lorne's antenna goes up; he urges the gang into the back room, as a barrel of deadly explosive tumbles down the stairs and lights up. So much for the grand opening.

As everyone else scrambles for an exit route, Darla is shocked to learn that Holtz is back. "My God, what we did to him," she says, for the second time taking in the understanding of all they were, all they did. Angel says, simply, "I know." He tries to console her as she becomes ever more aware of the horror they perpetrated, but Wesley calls for his help breaking open the back wall. Holtz is coming through the flaming wreck of Caritas with all the time in the world; Angel and Co. make it outside into the pouring rain, but Darla can't go on. Angel sends the others for his car, but Fred refuses to leave. Darla is now on the ground; Angel tries to reassure her, but she won't hear it. "Our baby's going to die right in this alley," she sobs, and reaches for him. "You died in an alley, remember?" He does. "I want to say I'm sorry," Darla says. "I want to say it and mean it. But I can't." She knows she can't fix what they've done, but she states that they have one good thing that's come out of their union--their son. Angel nods in agreement, barely seeing her through his own tears. Suddenly, Darla's voice becomes hard. "You make sure to tell him that," she says through clenched teeth, and before Angel or Fred can react, his sire, century-long partner, and mother of his child produces a heretofore-unseen wooden plank and rams it through her chest. In an eyeblink, there's nothing left--save a newly freed infant screaming in protest at the sudden rush of sensation and cold rain he's freshly subject to. Angel stares, his hands still bent to grip Darla's now non-existent palm.

Holtz, emerging from the burning wreckage, happens upon the improbable tableau-- Angel picking up his squalling son as Fred looks on--and raises his crossbow to fire, but then pauses. Angel sees him, and it's a heartstopping moment; but then Holtz lowers the weapon, and Angel walks away, neither man taking his eyes off the other. Suddenly the demon is there, berating Holtz for letting Angel walk away unharmed. Holtz never takes his eyes off Angel. "I swore I would show no mercy," he replies evenly. "And I won't."

Lizbet's Review

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