Original Air Date: October 19, 1999

Written by Douglas Petrie
Directed by Bruce Seth Green

Summary

A young woman named Rachel is running frantically down a dark alley, she runs into her vicious boyfriend. He pulls a gun on her when suddenly Angel steps out of the shadows, wrestles the gun away from the guy and knocks him out cold. On a rooftop above, Spike is spying on Angel, planning to get the gem on Imara which is on it's way to Angel and how to kill him as well. Back at the office, Cordelia is elated because Rachel was their first walk-in client. Cordelia's happy about the invoice she's typed up but Doyle's more skeptical saying that they haven't gotten paid yet. Oz walks in the office and Cordelia's overjoyed to see him. After a quick introduction to Doyle, Cordelia briefly gives Oz the run down of their operations in LA. After a quick chat with Angel, Oz hands over the gem of Imara. Angel takes the ring but he's not that excited to see it even though it makes the wearer invincible, which means that Angel would be unkillable and would be able to go out in the daylight. Oz explains that Spike was looking for it in Sunnydale and Buffy wanted him to have the ring. Angel wants to be alone, so the others leave. Angel then hides the ring under a brick in the sewer tunnels beneath his office. On his way outside, he has a run in with Spike. They fight until Doyle and Cordelia show up. Spike, outnumbered, leaves. Angel tells Cordelia to hide out at Doyle's until Spike has left town. At Doyle's apartment, Doyle makes some phone calls, trying to figure out where Spike is hiding in LA. Cordelia then begins to reminisce about the nasty things Spike has done and Doyle begins to sweat.

After some research, Angel finds Spike in a back alley, feeding on a young girl. Spike makes a run for it but stops when he hits a dead end. Angel closes in on him but another vampire steps out and swings a chain around Angel's neck, choking him. Angel is captured and taken to a warehouse where he is brutally tortured with hot iron pokers. The man torturing him is the vampire in the alley whose name is Marcus and he's an expert in torturing people. Spike hopes that Angel will reveal where the ring is to avoid anymore pain. Through the torture, the expert reveals that he has a thing for kids, to eat that is. Angel tries to convince Spike that Marcus will just take the ring for himself but Spike says that Marcus isn't interested in the ring. Spike then leaves and searches through Angel's apartment, he makes a mess but finds nothing. He runs into Cordelia who holds a crossbow to him and Doyle with a cross in his hand. Spike tells them that Angel is captured and he's being tortured, if they want to save him, they can meet him in a certain alley with the ring. Cordelia and Doyle search for the ring, but it's nowhere to be found. They eventually look through the sewers and Doyle goes demony while Cordelia's not looking and senses the ring behind a certain brick. They come up with a plan and then meet Spike in the appointed alley. The promise to tell Spike where the ring is if he'll take them to Angel. When in the warehouse, Doyle pulls the ring from his pocket and tosses it to the floor out of Spike's reach. As Spike reaches for the ring, Oz barrels into the warehouse in his van, knocking Spike over. Cordelia and Doyle release Angel from the chains and load him into the van and peel out. Meanwhile, Marcus has stolen the ring and walks out into the sunlight. He heads for a beach with a pier. Spike, utterly frustrated, decides that from now on, he's going solo.

Oz is driving at high speed, looking for a place to stop so that Angel can heal. Angel orders Oz to turn around because he knows Marcus is going after some kids. Oz turns around and they arrive at the pier just as Marcus is approaching a group of kids. Angel jumps out of the van into broad daylight and grabs Marcus, all the while burning up. They fall into the water and get into a vicious fight beneath the pier where's it's shady. Angel stakes him and yanks the ring off, Marcus immediately turns to ash. Angel puts the ring on and steps out into the sun. He's astounded to be out in the sun and takes it all in slowly.

Back at the apartment, Angel's sits on the roof watching the sun set with Doyle. After the sun has set, Angel destroys the ring with a rock saying that if he becomes a daywalker, he'll forget about the danger off the night.

Summary written by Nika

Quote of the Week

Angel: I don't know about you, but I've had a pretty good day. Except when I was brutally tortured for a while.

My Rating

4.5/5

Nika Summers' Comments

Excellent episode! I liked the premise of this episode; how it has a continuation of the Buffy episode, The Harsh Light of Day. I liked the idea of the gem of Imara and how it could allow a vampire to go out in the daylight. I was afraid that they were going to cheapen the show by keeping the ring around so that Angel could walk around during the day. Now I love to see Angel in the sunlight (even though he's IS really pale) but I don't think that it would have been very good for the storyline because it just felt like an escape route so that they could shoot some day scenes. I'm really glad that they did destroy the ring because it restored my faith in the writers of the show. I did like that Angel was able to enjoy a sunset and some time in the sun and I liked that Angel cared enough about the children to make Oz turn around and to jump out into the sunlight (my heart stopped a little there). Of course, James Marsters was awesome as Spike and he added a great deal of oomph to this episode. The best scene was most definitely at the beginning when he's doing the funny voice-over for Angel when he's sitting on the rooftop. Spike was also great at really pissing Angel off, hence the scene when he mentioned Buffy was getting it on with some college guy. That scene really broke my heart though because abviously still cares a great deal for Buffy.

Niki Bartl's Comments

How much do I love Spike? I love him a lot, because he's a lot like me. And no, I am not a bleach blond male who enjoys torturing people with railroad spikes. However, that scene with the Spike substituting dialogue for Angel and the chick (aren't I evil? I never bother to learn their names. Not proper for a reviewer, but this is my review, and I'll do whatever the hell I want) was just like me. I mean, I do that, and it's a lot of fun. When you're watching TV with your friends and you're bored, find a foreign channel with no subtitles, and make up words to go along. I particularly like the Japanese films, trust me you can get at least a half hours entertainment from this. ANYWAYS....this episode was creepy. Joss was right, Angel is a lot darker than Buffy. The whole "he likes children" almost made me cry. I loved Angel for making Oz turn the van to go save those kids. And they would have never done something like that on Buffy, but it was good, it needed that extra push. I must admit that this episode threw me for a pitch. I thought it was so predictable, that I was so smart for figuring it out: that the ring was what the writer were going to use in future episodes to make Angel be able to go out in the daytime. Up until the last minutes, I sat wrapped in my blanket, smug and satisfied. Until he destroyed the ring. But it is so true what Angel said, how in the day people have protection, it's in the night the weak are preyed upon, and I think that made smashing the ring right. I would have kept it.... it would be cool to be invincible.

Cast

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