To Shanshu in L.A.

Season 1, Episode 22
Written by David Greenwalt
Directed by David Greenwalt
Original Airdate: 23 May 2000

“I’m glad we are not playing friends anymore. I am real sick and tired of your attitude. There’s a little thing called the law…”
Kate

REGULAR CAST

David Boreanaz as Angel
Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndam-Pryce

GUEST CAST

Elisabeth Röhm as Kate Lockley
Christian Kane as Lindsey McDonald
Stephanie Romanov as Lilah Morgan
Sam Anderson as Holland Manners
Todd Stashwick as Vocah
Carey Cannon and Randall Slavin as The Oracles
David Herman as David Nabbit
J. August Richards as Charles Gunn

SPECIAL GUEST STAR

Julie Benz as Darla

CO-STARRING

Louise Claps as Homeless Woman
Daren Rice as Uniform #1
Jon Ecklund as Uniform #2
Lia Johnson as Vendor
Robyn Cohen as Nurse
Susan Savage as Doctor
John Eddins as Monk #1
Gerard O’Donnell as Monk #2
Brahman Turner as Young Tough Guy

SYNOPSIS

Wesley continues to try and decipher the text of The Prophecies of Aberjian. He is unable to understand one word that is crucial to the translation. Looking to hang out, David Nabbit shows up at the office. The lawyers at Wolfram and Hart call forth a warrior of the underworld named Vocah, to perform a Raising. Wesley discovers that the word means ‘death’ and that means Angel will die. Cordelia has a vision that sends Angel on his way to help a homeless woman fighting a slime demon. Kate arrives on the scene after Angel has defeated it, and she is determined to rid the city of vampires.

Wesley talks with Cordelia about Angel and how he’s cut off from life. Despite being evil and unwanted on the side of good, Vocah goes to the Oracles and kills them. Cordelia tries to find a hobby for Angel to keep busy with. Vocah follows her and after touching her hand, she gets a vision. The vision continues–never ending–as Cordelia collapses to the ground in agony. Angel reads up on the scrolls while the cloaked figure makes his way into the apartment.

Angel locks the scroll away, and then leaves after getting a call about Cordelia. At the hospital, Cordelia is suffering endlessly, and there is nothing that the doctors can do to save her. Wesley returns to the apartment just in time to see what was left in place of the scroll. Angel approaches the office building just as it explodes into a fiery blaze. Angel searches through the wreckage and finds that Wesley is still alive but badly hurt. Kate confronts Angel, but with his friends in serious conditions, he’s not looking to take any of her harassments.

Angel finds a symbol on Cordelia’s hand, and goes to the Oracles for help. He finds them dead, but the spirit of the female Oracle gives him instruction. He needs the scrolls, specifically the words of Anatole that will save Cordelia. Angel asks Gunn to protect his friends in the hospital while he goes to hunt Vocah. Vocah reads from the scrolls while sacrificing five vampires that are chained to a large cage. Angel watches as the Wolfram and Hart lawyers leave to attend the Raising ritual.

Angel crashes the party and goes into a battle with Vocah. Lindsey picks up where Vocah left off and continues the ritual. His chanting kills the five vampires chained to the cage and then Holland orders the cage removed. In the end, Angel kills Vocah, and then faces Lindsey for the scroll. As Lindsey tries to burn the scroll, Angel cuts off Lindsey’s arm and takes the scroll.

Wesley reads the world of Anatole and Cordelia is unbound from Vocah’s evil doings. After seeing so many visions, Cordelia realizes how many people out there need their help. At her apartment, Cordelia feeds Wesley and Angel, showing them her new, kinder, side. Wesley discovers that the prophecies actually read that Angel will become human once he has fulfilled his duties. The lawyers go check on the cage, and Lilah looks inside, revealing a very frightened young woman: a very much alive Darla…

TRIVIA

The title refers to the 1985 movie To Live and Die in L.A., “shanshu” being revealed in this episode as meaning both to live and to die.

David Greenwalt says they decided to blow up the Angel Investigations building in this episode because the sets were too cramped to film in.

Todd Stashwick, who portrays Vocah in this episode, returns as the unidentified M’Fashnik in Flooded.

CONTINUITY

Angel hasn’t visited the Oracles since Parting Gifts. This episode marks their last appearance.

Cordelia, once uncomfortable around Angel drinking blood, is more relaxed now, since she did the same in Expecting.

Gunn recalls helping Angel in the previous episode.

GOOFS

As Cordelia eats her doughnut, she starts pulling it apart, breaking into the hole. As Wesley is using it as a prop, the hole is (initially) intact. The amount of doughnut eaten also changes between shots, including being eaten through to the hole, then suddenly not.

In the widescreen version, in the panning shot showing the dead Oracles on the floor, the Sister Oracle’s actress can be seen standing on the far left. The shot also abruptly zooms out before it cuts away.

Angel rips the demon’s mask off to reveal his maggot-eaten face, but, when we cut to Angel, the demon’s mask is still on his face. Angel reacts as if it’s not there, though.

Right before Cordelia enters the dining room, the boom mic slips into view in the center of the screen. The same thing happens again a few shots later, when she has just handed Angel a cup of blood to drink.

When Angel goes to see Cordelia in the hospital, she is thrashing about madly in her bed. The doctor tells Angel that they’ve done a CAT scan, but they can’t seem to sedate her. There is no way they could have performed a CAT scan on her; the patient has to be completely still in order for there to be readable results.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

EPISODE
Blind Date / Judgement

STORY ORDER
Restless / Judgement