Season 2, Episode 14
Written by Joss Whedon
Directed by Joss Whedon
Original Airdate: 20 January 1998
Spike “You’ve really got a yen to hurt this girl, haven’t you?”
Angelus “She made me feel like a human being. That’s not the kind of thing you just forgive.”
REGULAR CAST
- Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
- Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
- Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg
- Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
- David Boreanaz as Angelus
- Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles
GUEST CAST
- Seth Green as Daniel “Oz” Osbourne
- Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers
- Robia LaMorte as Jenny Calendar
- Brian Thompson as The Judge
- Ryan Francis as Soldier
SPECIAL GUEST STARS
CO-STARRING
- James Lurie as Mr. Miller
- Carla Madden as Woman
- Parry Shen as Student
SYNOPSIS
Spike rolls into the room with Drusilla at his side. The Judge is preparing in a corner. Suddenly Drusilla freaks out and falls to the floor screaming in pain. For a moment, she smiles. Something terrible is happening to Angel: he’s fallen to the floor, in pain. A woman smoking notices him and goes over to make sure he’s okay. He gets up, and suddenly turns around with his vampire face on. He takes a bite, and then blows out her cigarette smoke.
Buffy goes home, confused and worried about the night before. She tries to escape her mother but doesn’t. Joyce senses something is wrong but Buffy tries to hide it. In the library, Xander comes in to reveal he spent the night at the Sunnydale Bus Depot. Everyone is worried because Buffy hasn’t checked in yet. As Xander and Willow are on their way to go get her, she comes in. She tells everyone that the Judge is up and working and that Angel is missing. Everyone heads off to class and Willow catches up to Buffy. As they finish talking, Jenny comes into the hallway and watches them walk away.
At the factory, Drusilla is laying on the table naming the stars…but she can’t see the stars. Spike asks what will happen to Angel, and then suddenly Angel enters. He goes on about pursuing a dream of Broadway. Then he tells Spike that he will always be there with him. Spike tells him to turn around and the Judge tries to burn him. He can’t. Angel’s fully evil and there is nothing to burn. They talk about their plans to destroy the Slayer and kill the world. Angel asks for a day to make the Slayer crazy so that she won’t be in the way when they try to kill the world. Angelus, the most evil vampire ever known, is back.
Jenny is talking to her uncle about Angel. She knows something bad has happened but Enyos doesn’t want to tell her. She admits to having difficulty keeping Angel away from Buffy, but tries to convince her uncle that there are some things she doesn’t have power over. Meanwhile, at the library, everyone is researching. Willow is talking to Buffy and trying to reassure her that Angel isn’t dead. Xander and Cordelia meet behind the bookshelves and Xander apologizes for arguing with her earlier. They kiss and just as they break away, Willow is standing there in tears. She runs out and Xander follows. He tries to explain, but she just blows up at him. She takes off.
Buffy tries to go home, but chooses to go to Angel’s place. She gets there and finds the bed made. As she turns around, Angelus is there getting dressed. They hug and kiss and then he throws every possible evil line to her about the previous night. She is in tears as he takes off. Meanwhile, Willow returns to school, but only because she knows that they have to cooperate to save the world. Then the lights go out. Angelus appears in the shadows and tries to lure Willow to him. He sends Xander away, and convinces Willow to walk towards him.
As Xander is running away, he stops and turns back since he realizes something is wrong. Jenny steps forward and tells Willow to get away, but it’s too late: Angelus grabs her neck. Xander comes in just in time to see him. Angelus says he has a message for Buffy and she suddenly appears behind him. He turns around to face her and is on the verge of snapping Willow’s neck. Xander begins to walk up behind him with a cross. He shoves it in Angelus’ face and he lets go of Willow. On his way out, Angelus grabs Buffy by the shoulders, kisses her and shoves her into a wall.
At the library, Giles tries to find out what removed Angel’s soul. Even though Buffy knows, she won’t tell. Xander has a plan to destroy the judge. He asks Cordelia to come with him and look trashy. As Giles continues to push Buffy for a cause, she runs out in tears and Willow finally gets what happened. Buffy runs home and cries on her bed. She falls asleep and has another dream. It starts with her and Angel in bed together. Then it cuts to Angel and her at a cemetery during the day. She looks over and sees Jenny standing next to her. When she wakes up the next morning, she rushes to school, barges in Jenny’s room and pushes her down on the desk. Giles excuses everyone from class and Buffy continues to interrogate Jenny. Finally, Jenny admits she knew that Angel would lose his soul, but not why or how. She would have told her if she did.
They go to Enyos’ room for answers, only to find that Angelus has been there first. On the wall above Enyos’ body, “Was it good for you too?” is written on the wall in his blood. Buffy knows what she has to do: she must kill Angelus. Elsewhere, Xander and Cordelia break into a military base and try to get to where they keep the guns. Willow and Oz stay in the van. Xander gets caught just as he is entering the secured area. He tries to convince the guard that he wants to spend a little quality time with Cordelia, but the guard won’t buy it. Xander then threatens to tell the chief officer that the guard has the wrong boots, an unguarded post and he holds his gun like a sissy. They get in and Xander reveals how he remembers everything from when he was turned into a soldier at Halloween.
While in the car, Willow asks Oz if he will make out with her. He says no because he knows she is only trying to get back at Xander. He does say that he daydreams about kissing her, but she is always kissing him back. Back at the library, Jenny tries to help, but is sent away. Xander teaches Buffy how to use the gun he has acquired. At the factory, Angelus and Drusilla are ready to go. Spike can’t attend because of his wheelchair problem. Minutes later, Buffy and her crew arrive at the factory to find that everyone is gone. Oz comes up with an idea of where they went. At the mall, Angelus, the Judge, and Drusilla come through some doors to do some damage. The Judge starts killing people. Buffy and the gang come through the elevator. The Judge sends sparks through two people and it is carried to people throughout the mall. Buffy shoots him with a crossbow. He looses his sparkage for a second. She then grabs the gun, in actuality a rocket launcher, and prepares to fire. As Angelus and Drusilla fly to safety, she fires and the Judge is destroyed, leaving pieces of himself lying around.
In the chaos, Buffy goes looking for Angelus. They find each other and then they fight. She grabs a stake and is ready to kill him but can’t. He tells her that she can’t kill him but then she kicks him in the groin. He falls to the ground in extreme pain. She walks away, exclaiming that she will be able to kill him soon. That night, Giles drives her home. They talk about what she has done and what Angelus will do. He also mentions that he is proud of her. Afterwards, Joyce presents Buffy with a cupcake and a candle. Buffy chooses not to make a wish and blow it out. She would rather just watch it burn.
TRIVIA
Joss Whedon recalls worrying whether David Boreanaz would be up to the transformation into Angelus. Boreanaz, Whedon quickly discovered, “plays a bastard with extraordinary aplomb.”
James Marsters actually broke the wheelchair he used in season two. He kicked the wheelchair and broke it. Joss wouldn’t replace it, so James had to use the broken wheelchair from then on.
On his DVD commentary, Joss praises Robia LaMorte’s performance in this episode and jokes that for thanks, they killed her. Interestingly, Jenny was supposed to die in this episode, but she instead dies two episodes later in Passion.
Unlike the characters, the fans like to distinguish Angel and Angelus by referring to them as separate entities.
In the flashback scenes of Buffy and Angel making love, the heavy breathing wasn’t voiced by David and Sarah, but rather by series creator Joss Whedon and supervising sound editor Cindy Rabideau. Joss was too embarrassed to ask the stars to record it. Naturally, it’s TV sex, with no sweat, stains or discomfort.
Angelus’ cruel dismissal of Buffy’s concern for him the first time they meet after having sex is a scene which transpires in his bedroom. It had actually already been filmed outside of Buffy’s house, but no-one was satisfied with it so they filmed it again. Buffy is still heard saying she saw him at “the house”.
The words Angelus scrawled in blood on the wall at the scene of his murder of Uncle Enyos made Joss speak of his amazement at what Buffy is sometimes able to “get away with.”
CONTINUITY
Buffy refers to the events of Some Assembly Required when she’s describing the Judge to Giles: ‘no assembly required.’
The rocket launcher makes a comeback in Him, when Buffy tries to kill Principal Wood to prove her love to RJ Brooks.
GOOFS
Xander tells Cordelia to meet him at Willow’s house in thirty minutes, wearing “something trashier”. Then Buffy has a dream and goes to school the next day. It’s then night again and Xander, Willow, Cordelia and Oz are at the army base. Joss himself has spoken on this: “I was watching the final mix of ‘Innocence’ when I noticed this huge mistake. Let’s just think of it as them going to Willow’s the night before to practice and go over what they were going to do.”
How can Angel suck smoke out of the prostitute’s lungs and blow it out of his own when he doesn’t have any breath?
Cordelia is doing her research in the fiction section of the library.
When Angel comes into Enyos’ room, he just walks in…doesn’t a vampire have to be invited? He may be in a hotel room, which is a public place and therefore needs no invite. But in Passion, the magic shop owner implies that Enyos lived in town.
There’s a mirror behind Enyos, in which you can see Angel’s reflection.
Drusilla’s reflection can be seen in a pillar in the mall.
The Judge bursts into flame before the missile actually strikes him.
In the final fight between Buffy and Angelus, you can see their stunt doubles clearly.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
The Watcher's Guide 