In the Dark

Season 1, Episode 3
Written by Douglas Petrie
Directed by Bruce Seth Green
Original Airdate: 19 October 1999

“Say no more. Evil’s still afoot. And I’m almost out of that nancy-boy hair-gel I like so much. Quickly, to the Angelmobile, away.”

Spike

REGULAR CAST

David Boreanaz as Angel
Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
Glenn Quinn as Allen Francis Doyle

GUEST CAST

Seth Green as Daniel “Oz” Osbourne
James Marsters as Spike
Kevin West as Marcus
Malia Mathis as Rachel

CO-STARRING

Michael Yavnieli as Lenny
Ric Sarabia as Vendor
Tom Rosales as Manny the Pig
Gil Combs as Bouncer
Buck McDancer as Dealer
Jenni Blong as Young Woman

SYNOPSIS

A woman, Rachel, walks quickly through an alley, trying to escape someone, but instead ends up walking right into him. The guy is later revealed to be someone she was seeing but who abused and used her. He threatens her and then pulls out a gun, but Angel shows up and knocks the guy, Lenny, unconscious. While the two talk, Spike stands on the rooftop of another building and provides a hilarious translation of their conversation based on their movements. At the office, Cordelia prints up their first invoice for Rachel, but Doyle warns her that it may never get paid. Oz shows up in LA, and Cordelia is a bit too excited to see him. Doyle is slightly jealous about her excitement.

They go down and see Angel and Oz gives him the ring. Doyle is incredibly happy, but Angel doesn’t feel the same way. While everyone else goes out, Angel hides the ring under a brick in the sewers. The next morning, Doyle wakes up with a monster hangover. Angel is practicing Tai Chi when he gets a call from Rachel saying that Lenny has been released based on a technicality. Before he can get into his car, Spike hits Angel with a large piece of wood. The two fight both verbally and physically, and then Spike takes off.

Angel tells Cordelia to go stay with Doyle until things are taken care of with Spike. Cordelia feels uncomfortable in Doyle’s messy apartment while he makes calls to see if anyone’s heard about Spike. Meanwhile, Angel talks to Rachel at her apartment and tries to encourage her to get away from Vernon and get help. Doyle contacts Angel and informs him of a Manny the Pig who has info on Spike. Angel goes on a spree of beating guys up until he finally finds one who knows where Spike is. Interrupting Spike’s feeding, Angel chases him down an alley and right into a trap. Someone else swings a chain around Angel’s neck, successfully capturing him.

After Cordelia has informed Doyle of how horrible Spike is, the two begin to worry when Angel doesn’t check in. He is chained up in a large warehouse where Spike plans for him to be tortured by Marcus until he gives up the location of the ring. Spike is impatient to see Angel in serious pain and Marcus doesn’t disappoint as he starts stabbing burning hot pokers through Angel. Spike goes out for a while, and searches Angel’s place for the ring. During his search, he gets caught by Cordelia and Doyle and then tells them if they want Angel to live, they have to bring him the ring.

While all this is going on, Angel is still being tortured by Marcus and even attempts to kill him with a discarded stake on the floor. Spike unfortunately arrives and prevents this from happening. He then tells Angel about Buffy and how quickly she’s moved on to another guy. Cordelia and Doyle search for the ring all through the house and finally go down to the sewers. When Cordelia turns her back, Doyle uses his demon senses to find the ring under a brick. They then meet up with Spike and ask to see Angel before they reveal where the ring is.

After they see Angel, Doyle pulls out the ring and throws it into the sunlight. As Spike reaches for it, Oz drives his van through the wall of the warehouse, and then holds Spike at bay with crossbows until Cordy and Doyle can get Angel to safety. After they get away, Spike finds that Marcus has taken off with the ring and he promptly decides he’s not working with any more partners. Angel orders Oz to turn the van around and go back to where Marcus is headed. While Marcus is distracted for a second, Angel jumps out of the van and runs for the edge of the pier, bursting into flames as he does. The water prevents Angel from being killed by sunlight and then after he and Marcus fight under the pier and Marcus is killed, he takes the ring.

The ring on, Angel steps out into the sunlight for the first time in over 200 years. He walks along the beach enjoying the sunlight while Oz, Doyle and Cordelia look on. That night, Angel watches the sun set from the top of their building. He tells Doyle that he’s not going to keep the ring because the world needs someone to defend them from the night, and he doesn’t want the daylight to blind him of what really lurks out there at night. After the sun sets completely, Angel takes the ring off, and smashes it with a brick.

TRIVIA

This is the first official crossover between the two shows.

Responding to the statement that Angel’s decision to destroy the ring is reminiscent of Rose throwing the priceless diamond into the ocean at the end of Titanic, producer Tim Minear says the difference is that “she throws it in the water as if that means something about Jack [but] it was the other guy’s diamond, and I have no idea why she’s throwing it in the water.” However, “it makes perfect sense for [Angel] to destroy the ring. Can he be trusted? That is the point of the series,” Minear says. “If he has the power to be invincible, what would happen if he spent eternity as Angelus? Angel knows that he can’t be trusted – think about Jenny Calendar. In that light, the ending makes perfect sense to me.”

CONTINUITY

Cordelia still doesn’t know about Doyle’s demon half. She’ll find out in Hero.

Angel and Spike haven’t seen each other since Lover’s Walk. After this episode they don’t see each other for nearly four years, until season five’s Conviction.

Spike gives Cordelia a compliment (which she takes) and she informs Doyle of his time in Sunnydale. She refers to the time he and Drusilla raised The Judge in Surprise. The last time Spike and Cordelia saw each other would have been in What’s My Line? (Part 2).

GOOFS

When Oz turns the van around to head to the pier, the van makes the 180° bootleg turn in the foreground, but then the shot suddenly jumps to showing the van across the street with the camera in the same position.

When Angel is running on the pier, it’s visible that he is covered in pyro jelly with the ignition in his hand.

About 27:50 minutes in, the scene with Marcus and Angel, the positions of Marcus and Angel change. One second, Marcus is behind Angel, and the next, he is in front. Angel never turns around, and the table and Marcus change back and forth. Then, right before he pulls the first poker out, you can see a crew member’s hand behind Angel’s left shoulder.

CROSSOVER

Oz turns up in Los Angeles, on a mission from Buffy to deliver the Gem of Amarra to Angel from The Harsh Light of Day. After a catch-up with Cordelia (“How’s the Bronze?”) he’s also followed by Spike, who wants to reclaim the Gem after he lost it in battle with Buffy.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

EPISODE
Lonely Heart / I Fall to Pieces

STORY ORDER
The Harsh Light of Day / Fear, Itself