Shroud of Rahmon
Written by Jim Kouf
Directed by David Grossman
Dianne's Synopsis | Lizbet's Review | SunSpeak
Dianne's Synopsis
Two somber cops are discussing the guy they've got "in the box" (you're clearly supposed to be thinking 'Homicide' here). They've got a body without a head and a cop in the hospital, and they're trying to get their suspect to give it up... a suspect, we can finally see, who is Wesley.
He is upset and strangely distracted. He says things like "she wasn't supposed to be there" and "he didn't know; no one knew". In sudden fear he asks "you didn't bring it here, did you?" And ends on "It just all went horribly wrong."
Cut to: Slow-mo of a blonde woman we can barely see falling to the ground from Angel's grip. He is in full game face, and there's blood on his mouth....
*********
<credits>
*********
Back to Wesley's confession: He assures them that none of them had any idea what "it" would do. He vaguely describes the scene we saw before, but he's still
detached and drifting a bit. Something obviously affected him... and is still doing so.
The thought of Cordelia takes him (and us) back to a time that is clearly before the current crisis hits. He and Cordelia are in the hotel. He notices her striking new hairstyle, she comments on his dressed-to-go-out-on-the-town-with-Virginia outfit. She points out that Angel has a packed schedule nowadays, what with making time for constant Darla-brooding, and Wesley decided it's time to call Angel on his behavior. As Wesley stands there, preferring posturing to actual action, Cordelia informs him that Angel is gone (helping one of Gunn's buds with a problem). For all her noise about
Wesley's new "shallow Hollywood social life," she happily snaps up a spare ticket to go with him.
Angel and Gunn are in a dark alley meeting with Gunn's cousin, Lester, who has been hired as driver for a shady job later in the week, but is getting cold feet. All he knows is that it involves a "big psycho vampire from Vegas". Angel recognizes the name ("JayDon"), says the guy's too dangerous, and -- despite Gunn's serious protests and proprietary interest -- kicks Gunn off the case.
Angel goes home... to find a blonde in his room. Despite his first instinct, it's not Darla, but Kate (looking for Darla for the murder last week). Angel tells her he doesn't know Darla's whereabouts, but Kate promises that Darla is "toast...with life in prison" (in deference to her newfound humanity). Given half the chance Kate pulls a sharpened cross on him. He warns her to back off or she'll end up dead, and, to demonstrate how far over her her head she is in, he ducks the cross/stake and grabs Kate without effort. Point made, he lets her go.
Meanwhile, Cordelia and Wesley have returned to the hotel, complaining bitterly about the cocktail sauce he knocked down the front of her dress. They meet Angel as they come in and he too comments on Cordy's new 'do. Cordelia ducks behind the front counter as he fills them in on the case, and they both manage to not be (very) distracted by Cordelia obviously changing clothes just out of sight.
Wesley is almost painfully delighted that Angel is on a case and back in the swing of things. Cordelia is also enthusiastic about "kicking evil's booty" once more. She and Wesley will research museums with recent acquisitions, while Angel proposes to meet JayDon at the bus station, take him out, and step into his role in the heist. Wesley points out that JayDon is known for being a flashy extrovert, and he and Cordelia look at Angel-- figuring the odds on Angel being able to pull this off.
At the bus station, Angel does a frightening impression of a gushing fanboy sent to meet JayDon, establishes that there is no password, then stakes the guy and makes off with his shades in one smooth move. Angel is the all prepared-- attitude and all-- when the demon actually sent to pick up JayDon shows up.
He is taken to a garage where another demon and a guy in a security guard's uniform are waiting for the driver to show. When he does, it's Gunn, taking his cousin's name and place far better than he takes orders from Angel.
*******
The two of them snark under their breath, then listen up as the plan is explained by the mastermind demon. The Shroud of
Rahmon is worth about $2 million on the black market. The security guard will let them in. There is a infrared sensor in the room itself, which is where "JayDon" comes in. (No body heat, no tripping the sensor while deactivating it.) It's a huge lead-lined box that will take all five of them to lift (which is where, apparently, the other demon comes in handy).
There's some snappy words and "JayDon" punches "Lester" and tries to haul him bodily outside (and *off* the case already). But Mastermind pulls a gun, and Strongarm pulls a stake. Turns out the heist will go off
now, not later in the week, and anyone getting out of Mastermind's sight before it's through is dead (for good).
Cordelia and Wesley are searching the local museum websites, when he spots the Shroud as a likely object. They start research.
Meanwhile the heist crew pulls a truck up to the museum. "JayDon" makes one more attempt to get "Lester" out of it by suggesting he be left behind to watch the truck, but Mastermind isn't having it. As they lag behind Angel and Gunn snark again, and Gunn evens the score by decking Angel.
The heist goes smoothly: security guard meets them. Strongarm knocks out the other guard. Mastermind drills into the vault.
Back at the station, the two detectives who will grill Wesley later have been tracking a small-time thief-turned security guard and a nasty looking suspected safe-cracker, when they snapped a photo of the safecracker with another guy. They bring the pic to Kate to
identify; she recognizes Angel and suddenly has a personal interest in their case-in-progress.
In the museum, after a few tense moments (made more tense by an impatient Strongarm), they blow a hole in the vault door with nitro.
Westley has found the dirt on the shroud: Turns out the demon Rahmon drove his head priest mad. The priest killed him, dyed the shroud in the blood of seven virgin women, and buried
Rahmon in it to prevent resurrection. After Cordelia has a (entirely justified but perhaps ill-timed) feminist moment about sexist
sacrificial practices, Wesley reads on. Turns out that in 1803 the shroud was removed, and, as Cordelia rightly guesses, "yuckiness ensued." An entire village went insane and hacked each other to death. They realize that something that inspires that kind of dementia is not something Angel should be hanging around-- to say the very least. They then realize that the reason Angel isn't back from his "planning meeting" yet might be.... And they're out the door in a flash.
The plan is still going fine, as "JayDon" enters the vault to disrupt the infrared sensor. However, as soon as he's next to it, Angel starts to be affected-- involuntarily vamping for a moment, and getting a nasty edge to his voice....
******
Angel recovers himself, kills the sensor, and the crew moves in. "Lester" feels something weird the second they walk in, and the tension level in the room rises quickly. They hoist the box on "3".
Cordelia and Wesley enter through the open museum door, and immediately are struck by the shroud's effect. They're suddenly giddy and distracted. Outside, Kate pulls up, radioing for back up, and heads in.
The crew are snarking and fighting more and more as they struggle down the hall with the box. Finally they drop it, the crystal top cracks, and ominous-looking fumes start swirling out. Angel throws Gunn up against the wall by his throat, then backs off. Next moment Gunn is trying to stake Angel, and they're fighting again. They only stop when Mastermind pulls his gun.
It's time to tie up the security guard so he looks like just another victim in this. The guy's getting hyper, insisting someone hit him so it "looks real". Strongarm's finally had enough and takes the guy's head off... literally.
Kate is prowling the building (alone), when she runs into (and almost shoots) a very distracted and confused Wesley. Cordelia. meanwhile, is standing, dazed by her own reflection in the glass of one of the cases. She's acting very drunk/drugged, and happily bedecks herself in ancient jewelry from the displays.
Mastermind loses it next, dropping his corner and running back to remove fingerprints they may have left like some panicked obsessive-compulsive. Gunn's gripping his head like he's got the migraine from hell, and Angel's facial features really aren't staying neatly under control, when Wesley finally finds them. He manages, barely, to remember his message: "The shroud. Very dangerous. Makes people evil... although I'm really very happy...", when Kate steps around a corner, gun raised, yelling "freeze".
Angel strides towards Kate, eyes vamped and Angelus-style attitude to spare. Wesley tries to intervene and gets knocked clear across the corridor for his trouble. Then, as Kate fires the rest of her clip into his chest, Angel grabs her, bites her, and (noisily) starts draining her.
*****
A S.W.A.T. team is on its way into the building, but too late. They come upon Wesley crouched over
Kate's limp, drained body on the floor of the corridor.
They finally drag the huge box back to the garage, where Mastermind has them open it. (As "JayDon" points out, they couldn't have done that
before they carted off the heavy box?) "Lester" is furious at "JayDon" for killing "that cop". Strongarm breaks open the box... and they all start fighting over it. Each has a corner and they're about to tear it apart-- Strongarm claiming it as the property of "his people", Gunn wanting it so that he can use it to kill Angel.
A full-out brawl ensues, during which Gunn and Angel end up in a tug-o-war over it. Mastermind, dying of some unspecified wound, shoots Strongarm in the head. Strongarm falls lifeless onto the shroud, but neither Gunn nor Angel will let their end go. Finally, in a moment of clarity, Angel tells Gunn he knows what to do with the shroud, if Gunn will just trust him. After a moment, Gunn lets go.
Leaving Gunn on the floor mostly pinned down by the dead demon, Angel hauls the shroud outside, pours something flammable on it, and torches it. It explodes, knocking Angel over, then burns away to nothing.
Back to the interrogation, the cops are not buying Wesley's (accurate) recounting of events. They are arresting him when Kate walks in, looking somewhat the worse for wear with a bandaged neck, and insists they let him go.
Later, in her office, Kate remembers the attack... As he drained her, Angel turned away from the demons. As Kate sees Mastermind over Angel's shoulder aiming a gun at her, she feels Angel stop and whisper "Stay down or they'll kill you". She obediently closes her eyes and drops lifeless when he lets her go... at which point Mastermind lowers the gun and turns away from the "corpse" to continue his work.
Wesley and Cordelia are waiting anxiously in the lobby for Angel to come down from his room. They're concerned about the effects this episode may have had on him. (In passing Cordelia swears that she returned everything she stole to the museum... she must mean "except for the necklace I'm actually
wearing." ;-) Wesley points out that Angel has just drunk human blood for the first time in a long while, and may have reawakened his blood lust. The ponder that for a moment, then decide to give up on the vigil, call it a day, and head home.
Our last shot is of Angel, sitting in the dark in his room, brooding about events... and remembering drinking from Kate....
Lizbet's Review
COMING SOON!
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This page last updated February 27, 2001.
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