REGULAR CAST

• David Boreanaz as Angel
• Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
• J. August Richards as Charles Gunn
• Amy Acker as Winifred ‘Fred’ Burkle
• Vincent Kartheiser as Connor Angel
• Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndam-Pryce

SPECIAL GUEST STAR

• Andy Hallett as Lorne

GUEST CAST

• Alexa Davalos as Gwen Raiden
• Jack Kehler as Manny
• Michael Chinyamurindi as Ashet
• Vladamir Kulich as The Beast

SYNOPSIS

Lorne brings Angel some blood in his room where Angel is sketching a drawing of the Beast. Lorne confronts him about his problems and mentions that he knows what happened between Connor and Cordy, earning himself a ticket out of the room. Gwen Raiden meets a client, Mr. Ashet, about some protective amulets he wants her to steal, but she respectfully declines. Just as the man suggests not killing her for cancelling on him, the Beast shoves a fist through the man’s chest and sends Gwen flying. A white light emerges from the dead man as the Beast grabs an object from the man’s chest and disappears.

Connor sits in the window of his place and listens to the mayhem on the streets as Cordelia wakes up from her spot on the floor. Connor references to them sleeping together, but Cordelia brushes it off. Connor is getting restless and wonders why they haven’t been to the hotel in days, so Cordelia informs him that Angel knows what they did together and doesn’t want to see either of them. Cordelia gets a vision of the Beast and immediately rushes to talk to Angel. Gunn and Fred brainstorm the meaning of the little girl’s words, but Gunn’s suspicions about Connor leave him with a biased opinion. Wesley reveals that he has discovered that the little girl was Wolfram and Hart’s connection to the Senior partners but she was also an entity named Mesektet. He goes on to explain that Mesektet was one of five totems in a group known as the Ra-tet.

Lorne drops in with the news that there’s been another killing, a Shaman whose heart was ripped out. Fred’s net research leads to the revelation that this Shaman, Ma’at was another totem of the Ra-tet. Cordelia arrives and despite Angel’s lack of invitation and interest, she lets herself into his room. He’s furious with her and uninterested in anything she has to say about Connor or what she did, but listens to what she has to say about her vision. She doesn’t have many details, but it was different and she felt as if she was in the body of someone talking to the Beast. After some prompting from Cordelia, Angel gives the gang a pep talk about defeating the Beast, but the gang is reluctant. Gwen arrives at the hotel to mixed feelings about her presence, but her experience with the Beast proves to be useful to them.

Fred discovers that Gwen’s client was another Ra-tet member, one composed of light. Needing to find and protect at least one of the two remaining totems, Angel suggests he and Gwen go find Manjet in Death Valley, despite Cordy’s objections that they all go. Angel and Gwen sneak into the cave holding Semkhet, but find that they’re too late and the body has already been destroyed. As Angel wonders about the reason for the Beast killing off the Ra-tet, a rather ordinary man appears and explains that the beast is trying to stop the light of the sun. The man reveals himself to be Manjet, or Manny, the only surviving member of the Ra-tet and keeper of the orb. Manny explains that the Beast is planning a ritual using the Ra-tet to eventually black out the whole world from the sun and turn the earth into a land for demons.

Angel brings Manny back to the hotel, but the gang quickly realizes that the hotel is not the safest place for them to protect Manny. Gwen leads the gang to her surprisingly lavish home in a seemingly rundown building. Angel mentions to Cordelia that Gwen’s money came from the Axis of Pythia he used to track Cordelia and then gave to Gwen. She has a special room for Manjet to hide in that should be safe for him and the others split up into pairs to guard the entrance. While watching over the entrance to the secret room, Gwen picks up on Gunn’s issues with Wesley, but the story’s too long for him to tell. Gwen and Gunn depart for some rest and leave Cordelia and Angel to sit and not talk to each other. Somehow though, the two fall asleep and by the time Gwen and Gunn find them, Manny has already been brutally killed.

The gang brainstorm about Manny being an orb keeper and what could have been taken from him. Gwen reveals that the Beast took something out of the chest of the Shaman she was visiting, despite the fact that she earlier claimed to have seen nothing of the sort. The timing of the attack and the spiked drinks lead the gang to believe it was an inside job, but no definite suspect can be pinned down. Gwen checks the security tapes of the rooms, but finds that the feeds were stopped just before Angel and Cordelia took on their shift.

They return to the hotel and find out information about the ritual from Lorne’s research. An orb and two metal wings are three certain elements of the ritual and Gwen thinks she can help stop the events if she’s able to get close enough to melt the metal wings. Wesley and Fred announce that they’ve discovered what seems to be their only way of getting rid of the Beast: opening a portal to send it through. Gunn reacts badly to this idea, but Fred reminds him it’s their only option. Cordelia gets another vision about the Beast, revealing it to be standing over a group of massacred people. Cordelia also sensed that she knew the person the Beast was talking to and it leads them all to believe Connor is involved.

Connor hears a knock at his door and goes to answer it, only to find the Beast waiting for him. Connor tries to fight back, but the Beast tosses him around brutally and throws him out of the window. Angel and the gang pull up just in time and charge upstairs to prevent the ritual from happening, leaving Cordelia to protects a badly injured Connor outside by the car. Wesley and Fred work on opening the portal while the others attack the Beast, who has already started the ritual. While the portal opens behind the Beast upstairs, outside, Cordelia gets to see more of her vision and the sun begins to blacken. With several consecutive blows, Angel and the others manage to send the Beast through the portal and out of their world. The sun continues to darken though as Cordelia’s vision continues and she sees the person the Beast was talking to: Angelus.

Upstairs, the Beast reappears behind the gang and through his speach, reveals that he met Angelus in the past and again offers a union of their evil. The beast grabs the orb and swallows it whole, then flies out the window. Back downstairs, Angel and Cordelia talk about the connection between the Beast and Angelus. Cordelia’s vision was actually a memory from when she was a higher power and saw all of Angelus’s actions over time. Angel doesn’t remember such a meeting in the past, but Wesley suspects the Beast has been able to control Angel in some ways. Taking the little girl’s words to heart, Wesley announces that the only one with power and knowledge to help defeat the Beast is Angelus and they need him back.

TRIVIA

CONTINUITY