

Season 1, Episode 11
Written by Tim Minear
Directed by Winrich Kolbe
Original Airdate: 18 January 2000
Cordelia “No! I don’t care how many files you have about all the horrible things he did back in the powdered-wig days! He is good now. And he is my friend, and nothing you or anyone else can say will make me turn on a friend!”
Angel “Cordelia, he’s right.”
Cordelia [to Wes] “You stake him and I’ll cut his head off.”
REGULAR CAST
- David Boreanaz as Angel
- Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
- Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
GUEST CAST
- Elisabeth Röhm as Kate Lockley
- Jeremy Renner as Penn
CO-STARRING
- Nick McCallum as Skateboard Kid
- Kimberleigh Aarn as Chris
- Paul Webster as Uniform #1
- Brien DiRito as Task Force Member #1
SYNOPSIS
A girl is running away when she runs right into the vampire that was chasing her. He drains her and then is revealed to be Angel. Angel wakes up in his bed, the dream he just woke from, too real for him. Kate enters a crime scene where the girl Angel killed in his dream is really dead and has a cross carved into her cheek.
Cordelia practices lines on an empty chair, but is interrupted by Wesley when he appears at the office. He wants to compare notes with them about demons, when he really doesn’t have anything himself. While looking at the newspaper, the front page catches Wesley’s attention and leaves quickly, just as Angel gets up, looking even deader than usual. After asking Kate to check a license plate number, Angel sees photos from crime scene, and recognizes the sight of the cross carved into the victims faces. Kate briefs other officers on the situation, trying to prepare them for what this killer is capable of and how to catch him.
After realizing the murders resemble a streak of killings Angelus committed in the late 1700’s, Wesley returns to the office to kill Angel. Cordelia is not convinced until Angel, who had been listening to the conversation confirms Wesley’s information. Angel reveals that he’s been having dreams of these killings happening, but he doesn’t remember actually killing these people for real. Cordelia and Wesley chain Angel to his bed to ensure that he isn’t committing these crimes. Angel dreams about his past, where he chases after a woman and kills her after carving a cross into her cheek. The front page shows that there was another killing, and despite the fact that Angel was chained to the bed all night, he says that he did commit the murders.
It turns out that a vampire named Penn that Angelus made 200 years ago and trained, is the one committing the murders. Worried about how they’re going to stop this vampire, Angel visits Kate and they talk privately. He gives Kate a drawing of the man who is doing the killings and tells her exactly who the next victim will be. A young boy solicits people to buy him beer and he is lured into an alleyway by Penn. The boy is bitten, but police cars surround him and he is forced to fly through a boarded up window of an abandoned building.
Having stolen a police radio, Angel and Wesley arrive at the scene around the same time as Kate and many other officers. Inside the building, Penn approaches Kate and she fires at him. The bullets don’t harm him much, and he sends her flying across the room. Angel drops down from the ceiling and beats up on his childe. After they fight, Penn gets away and Kate is shocked to see Angel’s true face. Angel talks to Kate and despite all that she’s seen, she is not willing to admit that vampires are real.
Angel’s childe shows up at the office, and gets information out of Cordelia before she realizes who he is. Angel walks into the room, but a beam of sunlight separates him from Penn. After Penn leaves, everyone does research of their own kind to learn how to defeat their enemy. Angel goes to Kate, and after she’s studied up on vampires, she refuses to let him in, and tells him off. After some searching, Angel and Wesley find his lair and pictures that hint that he will kill children at a school next. At the station while Kate briefing other officers, Penn shows up and attacks. He kidnaps Kate and drags her down into the sewers.
Not fooled by Penn’s attempt to distract him, Angel finds them in the sewers and fights with Penn. The two fight until Penn manages to grab Angel and hold him. With a large piece of wood, Kate stabs Angel in the stomach, but angles the wood so that she stabs Penn in the heart. Later, on the roof of their building, Cordelia tells Angel to stop obsessing about the demon inside him. She knows he’s good now, and he’s fighting for the right team and if he ever does become evil, she’ll stake him in a heartbeat.
TRIVIA
The script was originally called “The Killer I Created” until a detailed summary appeared online, prompting Tim Minear to alter the title. He explains: “I went on to the Buffy message board… changed the title and said it was about dreams and about horrible things that you do in your sleep, which completely fooled the fans.”
After writing the first draft, Tim Minear had to rewrite parts of the script to accommodate Wesley’s arrival and Doyle’s departure; the final scene on the rooftop was originally between Angel and Doyle.
Alexis Denisof has been added to the opening titles as of this episode.
Guest star Jeremy Renner would later work with Joss Whedon again in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where he plays Hawkeye.
CONTINUITY
Wesley refers back to the events of Parting Gifts, particularly Barney’s death.
Angel tells Penn that he was caught up in Romania, referring to the Kalderash clan who cursed him in 1898, as seen in Becoming (Part 1).
Kate discovers Angel’s history as not only a vampire, but also studies Angelus as well.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
EPISODE
Parting Gifts / Expecting
STORY ORDER
Doomed / A New Man









