Original Air Date: November 30, 1999

Written by Howard Gordon and Tim Minear
Directed by Tucker Gates

Summary

Cordelia is trying to convince Angel to make a commercial, but it is all in vain so she ends up turning to Doyle because he has that more everyday look. While making the commercial, Doyle messes up, looking flustered and awkward and Cordy decides to abandon the idea of a commercial. She wants to drum up business for Angel, who is depressed after Buffy's visit. Doyle agrees to talk to Angel and try to make him feel better. He goes down to Angel's place, where he is beating the stuffing out of a punching bag. Angel tells Doyle about the missing day, the oracles, and what happened with Buffy. Doyle lays acclaim onto Angel, saying he would have chosen to remain mortal, that he wouldn't have the strength to choose to be a demon. Angel replies "You never know your strength until you're tested". Doyle tells Angel that he is anxious since he wants to ask Cordy out but he first has to tell her about being half demon. Angel then shares the fact that something bad is going on, something about demons ushering in the end of days. Doyle shares his conversation with Cordy and is about to tell her about his demon half when he receives a vision of zombie-like people hiding in a hole.

One of these demons runs terrorized down a street when one of her kind intercepts her and they hide, while marching feet run by. Angel and Doyle head to the hiding place and in a secret hatch, find a family of half demons/humans. The family had already tried to flee the country but had failed. The son, Reef, comes in with his sister and his father introduces Angel as the promised one but Reef is disapproving. The father then tells Angel of the prophecy of someone saving them from the scourge, who are an army of pure demons who spend their lives killing half-bred demons. Doyle talks with Angel about his first experience with the scourge, a Bracken demon (same type as Doyle) came to him for help with news of the scourge, he wanted Doyle to help him hide his clan but Doyle turned him down. That night, Doyle had his first vision of the clan being brutally slaughtered. He went to the demon's house and found them all dead.

Angel and Doyle decide to evacuate the family, so Cordy arrives, confused about the fact that they are helping demons, but Doyle explains they are a hybrid of demon and human and that they are good people. They begin to leave but discover that Reef has run away because he believes that they will all die. Doyle goes off to find him while Cordelia gets the rest of the family down to the pier, where there is a boat waiting to take them away. Meanwhile, Angel has gone to get documents to say that no one is authorized to open the hold and that no one is to stop the boat from leaving the pier. Doyle finds Reef and convinces him to go back to his family when sudden they hear the scourge coming. They escape into a building while the scourge go by, torching and destroying everything in their path. doyle tells Reef to stay there while he runs out, diverting the scourge's attention. Angel grabs Doyle's attention and goes to find the scourge, snapping Doyle's neck and offering to join their ranks to the captain. Reef runs to the apartment after the scourge has left and finds Doyle, who had the strength to stay alive in his demon form, even after his neck was snapped. Meanwhile, Cordelia is on the boat, worrying because Doyle and Reef haven't arrived yet, when she inadvertently finds out that Doyle is half demon. Angel is attending a scourge meeting when the captain reveals the first mate of the boat has betrayed Angel and told where the half-demons are being kept. The captain introduces the weapon which will be used to kill the half breeds: a beacon which will kill anything with human blood within a quarter mile when fully charged.

When the meeting ends, Angel steals a motorcycle and heads to he boat after Reef and Doyle arrive. Cordy tells Doyle she knows he's a half demon but he defends himself, not knowing her reaction, which is a favorable one. He is about to ask her out when Angel arrives with the scourge following closely behind. They infiltrate the boat, lowering the beacon below with everyone trapped. The only hope against a massacre is to detach the cable on the beacon before it achieves full power but it is a suicide mission. Angel decides to try the detachment with the half demons looking on in worry. Doyle tells him "You never know your strength until you're tested" and then punches him off of the walkway. Doyle kisses Cordy for the first and last time and makes the heroic jump to the beacon to pull apart the cable before he disintegrates. Everyone on the boat is saved, but Doyle is gone. Forever.

Summary written by Niki Bartl

Quote of the Week

Angel : I'm the what?
Cordelia: The Dark Avenger
Angel : I'm the Dark Avenger

My Rating

5/5

Niki Bartl's Comments

Maybe it's because it's the first time I ever rated an episode, but I loved this one so much, not only because what it said but also what I got out of it. I imagine that people got other impressions from this episode, the message I got was so strong and beautiful that it made me weep and my heart ache. I 've always liked Buffy because it was a metaphor for high school, with the demons, but also the evil teenagers. I could never figure out Angel's metaphor, but the one I got out of this one was crystal clear to me. It reminded me so strongly of the Holocaust, the fear, the terror because you weren't "pure", the hiding, the escaping, if there was ever a period of time I am happy not to live during, it was that one. This episode to me reflected purely on the torture that we want to inflict on others because we don't understand them. But enough about the deep meaning I understood from this episode. It was so beautiful, Doyle's end, that it hurt because the last glimpse of him is doing something he always wanted to do: be the hero. I'll miss Doyle, but I am curious to see how Cordy and Angel will manage. I do hope that they don't try to fill his shoes too fast.

Nika Summers' Comments

Ouch. A painful episode. This episode was beautifully done though and the ending was enough to break anyone's original ideas of Doyle. I loved how they portrayed him at the end and that he finally got to kiss Cordelia right before he died. The music was incredibly beautiful and it was painful to listen to. I was so happy towards the end because it looked like Cordelia and Doyle were going to have a chance together but that thought was crushed by the next scene. I did like how they ended the episode with a clip of Doyle from the commericial and his last line was too ironic "Is that it? Am I done?"

Cast

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