Gwen sends a blast of lightning into the sky, which hits the dragon and sends it hurtling to the ground. She tearfully tries to explain: when her device malfunctioned, she sought out help. Gunn found her, telling her that he could solve all their problems – she just had to steer Team Angel into position for the final battle. Connor doesn’t get it – until Spike chimes in with a life lesson: this is what being betrayed by the one you love feels like – he’s been there. Trust him. The group meetings are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Connor wants to know if any part of their relationship was real – he wants to know if he’s been played. Gwen zaps Spike aside as she tells Connor that she does love him, but Gunn has promised: he can turn it back to how it was. Reverse Hell. Then they can be together. But she cannot, under any circumstances, allow him to interfere with Gunn and Angel. What’s to come is too important. Connor agrees with her – he doesn’t want to fight his girlfriend. But he has to. She says that she’ll stop him.

He says he’s going to have Cordelia eat her.

Gwen looks confused. Cordelia? Then she looks up – Angel’s dragon, the aforementioned Cordelia, has recovered and she’s now hovering opposite Gwen, fire brewing in her belly, ready to strike.

Angel paces across the room. He’s explaining what happened after he realised he was human. He healed up with Wesley – was encased in mystical energy for a while, ranting and talking to himself in his delirium. When he woke, he was surprised to discover that not only had the dragon not left his side the entire time he was out of action, but also seemed to think it’s name was Cordelia – because Angel kept saying her name as he was healing. He asks his companion: is that weird?

Cordelia Chase stares at him. “Entirely,” she smiles. She’d be disappointed if nothing weird had happened while she was gone, but crikey when he goes for it, he really goes for it! Angel smiles. He points out, while it is great to see Cordelia, she can’t possibly be real. Cordelia smiles at him again: she gets it. He’s flustered because it’s her. She says she’s certainly not supposed to be here at all: she usually can’t travel to Hell.  She tried a while back, but it took too much from her. And to be fair, she states, he’s not here either – and pointing to the floor, both Angel and Cordelia look down at Angel’s human body, in Gunn’s lair, dying, and fading fast.

Angel tells Cordy that even if he could get up, he doesn’t know what to do. It aways ends with people dying for him and nothing ever seems to change. Cordelia tries to interrupt him but he continues: he’s not giving up.

Cordelia shushes him. Maybe he should give up.

She can’t come here normally, she explains. She’s tried. She’s seen the horrible things that have happened, to him and the people they love. But she can’t come through to Hell-A anymore. She’s powerless. She can’t intervene because the Senior Partners are too strong and Angel is going to die, right there, human and mortal.

In the real world, Gunn looks down at Angel, concerned. His visions didn’t tell him any of this – Angel is supposed to be a vampire for the big battle. That’s where Gunn is supposed to win and then Angel dies. The Powers told him so. The spiritual Angel looks at Cordelia – it’s not the Powers is it? Cordelia tells him to stop ignoring what she said. He is going to die in moments.

At the Hyperion, Fred has the books out, talking to herself, scribbling away. Nina asks what she’s doing and Wesley replies that it was Fred’s former coping mechanism; retreating into facts and logic so that she doesn’t have to face reality. The only thing Wesley is worried about is that it’s Illyria doing this – Fred is gone, so why would Illyria do the same? Suddenly, mid-sentence, he vanishes. Nina is confused, but Fred asks where he went. When Nina tells her she doesn’t know, Fred begins smashing the room, demanding that Nina bring him back. By the time she’s walked across the room towards Nina, she’s full-blown Illyria, grabbing the werewolf by the throat and lifting her off the ground. As Nina tries to talk to Fred, Illyria tosses her to one side.  She demands order. She punches a hole through the nearest wall and looks up at Gunn’s lair in a nearby skyscraper, the dragon and Gwen battling atop.

She will retrieve Wesley herself. No matter who gets in her way.

In the lair, Gunn tells his vamps to take Angel into the streets with them. He can have a front row seat to the big finale. Suddenly, Wesley appears in the room. He and Charles greet each other coolly. Wesley goes straight to Angel and asks Gunn what he did. Gunn is not amused: it’s been months and he’s a vampire and still Angel is more important – why is it always about him? Wesley shouts out to thin air at the Senior Partners. Why send him there non-corporeal? How can he help Angel? Suddenly Wesley screams and glows in an unearthly light. In seconds it’s over and he struggles to stand back up. He’s still a ghost, but now he knows everything. The Senior Partners have told him everything.

The Shanshu Prophecy that Angel signed is void. It was never filed. Los Angeles fell first. The spirit Angel looks at Cordelia, who is just as surprised. Angel genuinely thought that Spike was the one destined for the Shanshu.

Wesley explains further: the visions Gunn had were incomplete – on purpose. To steer him in Angel’s direction. Gunn points out that the demon had seen this before the Fall and Wesley confirms it – this was always going to happen. This was always pre-ordained. The Powers didn’t send Charles the visions – the Senior Partners did. They’re all pawns, he continues, moved around the game board, sacrificed if need be to keep Angel on track. Just as they did with Fred.