Quickening
| York, England 1764 Holtz riding, galloping through the countryside.Stops and then rides up to another mand signaling with a torch. Man: "We found them." Holtz: "Go." They ride off. Inside of a house; dimmed light ; a candle is burning. Soft knock on the door. A young lass opening the door. We see Angelus and Darla standing there asking if they can come in. The girl hesitates but they get invited in. They walk in ; Darla takes the little girl’s hand telling her she is such a dear and will get a special treat. Angelus locks the door. Holtz and the other man are galloping like chased by the devil through the night. They meet up with some other men carrying torches. The men tells they are trapped inside. Angelus and Darla walking into the kitchen. The mother is there. Angelus: "Good evening to you, ma'am." Mom: "Evening." Holtz takes a torch from one of the men and leads them towards a dark house. Holtz: "Burn it down if you have to." Angelus: "We can only stay for a moment. We have a message for you husband." Mom: "You know my Daniel?" The men near the house. Mom: "What is his message?" Darla: "I'll give it to Sarah, hmm?" The men reach the door of the house. Holtz: "On my signal." Darla brushes the hair back from Sarah's face. Darla: "Close your eyes. I have a surprise for you." Darla looks at the mother, morphs into vamp face and sinks her fangs into Sarah's neck. Sarah screams and Mom tires to run to her daughter but Angel holds her back. Angelus: "Tell your husband, Mr. Holtz..." Mom sees Angelus vamp face: "No... no..." Angelus: "Never mind. I'll tell him meself." Angelus sinks his fangs into her neck. Holtz break in the door, looks around. Holtz: "Where are they?" He finds a note that reads: "How do you hope to save others when you can not save your own?" Holtz: "They're at my house." Darla and Angelus look up as they hear a baby cry. Darla: "Can something be done about that horrible noise?" Angelus straightens up. Darla: "I think it wants its mother." Angelus: "Let's send it to her. Do you wanna do it, or should I?" Holtz and two other men ride through the night. Holtz slams the door of his own house open ; enters the kitchen to see his wife lying there bitten by a vampire. Hyperion, day Darla is lying on a bed, apparently asleep. Angel walks in and sits down beside the bed. After a moment he hesitantly reaches out and puts one hand on Darla's swollen belly. Darla stirs, but her eyes stay closed. One of her hands comes up to cover Angel's. Darla: "Are you going to do it (opens her eyes to look at Angel) or am I?" Intro We see scenes of the world history flash across four TV screens stacked side by side. Holtz is watching them to catch up on what he has missed in the 227 years of his unnatural sleep. Back at the Hyperion Darla is lying on the couch in Angel's suite, Angel is sitting in a chair. She asks him if he has figured it out already ; he tells her he was thinking of the last time she was there. A soft knock on the door. Angel: "Come in." Gunn walks in carrying a loaded crossbow, followed by Wes, Fred and Cordy. They have news to share. Wesley has made a breakthrough with the scrolls, and has learned that the Tro-Clan isn’t one single event but a series of events. They discuss what this all could be and Darla says she knows one thing for certain, something is protecting the child. Fred: "How do you know that?" Darla sits down: "Because I can't get rid of it." They start to discuss ways they could kill the baby after it is born. Angel doesn’t agree and tells them if they are uncomfortable with seeing the baby coming to term they can leave. Darla makes the move to leave but Angel stops her. Cordy agrees to help Cordy steps closer: "You want me to protect the vampire bitch who bit me *and* her evil love child?" Cordy hauls back and clocks Darla full on the nose, sending her stumbling back against the chair. Cordy smiles at Angel: "Okay, I'm in." Darla leans on the chair and moans. Cordy: "Oh, come on, tough girl. You're a vampire.. A punch in the nose shouldn't hurt that much." Darla starts having contractions, writhes in the chair, groaning. Wolfram and Hart, day We see Lilah pricking her finger with a needle, signing a document with her blood. A mail clerk comes into the room. He says that he is on her side, and gives her a CD. Lilah takes it and pops it into her computer. Cyril starts to head for the door as a surveillance video of Angel and Lilah making out on Wes' desk comes up on her screen. Lilah: "Wait. (Walks over to Cyril) You little weasel! If you think you can blackmail your way onto me on *my* desk..." It seems that Gavin gave it to the mail clerck. Lilah seeks him out. Meanwhile we see Gavin and a transcriber watching video surveillance taken at the Hyperion. Lilah walks in, and makes a remark about Gavin being understaffed. She confronts him about the CD, then begins to look through the notes. She reads there has been an unidentified pregnant female spotted at the hotel. She rewatches the tapes and immediately Lilah recognizes Darla, she picks up the phone and calls Linwood. Back at the Hyperion Darla is sitting in the chair, moaning and holding the sides of her belly. Her contractions are about twenty minutes apart. The gang is trying to decide how they can help her. Fred suggests they take her to a hospital, and Wes replies they don’t need the right doctor but the right equipment. Wolfram and Hart, day Linwood is walking down the hallway talking to his phone, flanked by Lilah and Gavin. They are all surprised that something like this big has passed them. We see the mail clerk sticking his head out of a room to listen and after they walk pasts, he gets onto his mobile. He calls and leaves a message for Master Tarfell, letting him know the events he had foreseen are happening. FLASHBACK We see Holtz sitting in a room , nine years after his family was slaughtered. Sahjhan enters. He promises to take Holtz two centuries into the future to seek for Angelus and Darla and take his revenge. Back at LA now Night, emergency entrance of a hospital. Angel is pushing Darla along one of the hospital hallways in a wheelchair. Angel: "How are you feeling?" Darla: "I haven't had blood in almost a day, and your devil spawn is trying to rip its way out of my body. How do you think I'm doing?" A door is pushed open and Cordy motions at Angel. Cordy whispering: "Psst. Paging Dr. Angel." Angel pulls Darla's chair through the swinging doors after Cordy. Wes: "I sent Gunn and Fred to find an ultra-sound machine so we can take a look. Inside Darla, that is." Darla tells them the contractions have stopped. Wesley says she has been experiencing false labour. Darla isn’t happy about that. Wesley starts to do an ultrasound on her womb. At Sahjhan’s lair. Holtz is tired of watching television. He wants his revenge. Sahjhan explains him it isn’t that simple. Holtz reaches out to grab the demon, but his hands pass right through it. Holtz pulls his hands back and looks from the to the demon. Sahjhan: "Like I said - it's not that simple. - Do think I'd go to all this trouble of transporting you two and a half centuries if I could walk up to Angelus and stake him myself? Please! There are rules and timetables and forces at work far greater than either of us. Boy, you vengeful types aren't real good at playing with others, are you?" The demon passes his hands along the sides of his head and his face turns into that of a human. He takes Holtz to get some muscle to get his job done. Conference room at Wolfram and Hart. It's crowed. There are people and beings sitting at the table filling out papers. All off the psychics have been sequestered, and are being questioned about Darla’s pregnancy. Lindwood is talking to psychic, and is angered that the psychic wasn’t able to have foresights. The man is suffocated and Lindwood watches calmly. He turns to Lilah and lets her know that if the senior partners want to place the blame on someone for the situation he will point them in her direction. She makes a call. A man wearing a turban and a cloth sits in front of candles when his cell phone rings. Back at the hospital Wes is putting jelly on Darla's exposed belly, and turns on the ultrasound machine. Wes: "Well, then. Let's take a look, shall we? Wes moves the sensor around. The gang all are crowding around Darla and the machine looking for a glimpse of the baby. At last they see the baby and it is announced it is a boy. Angel is overjoyed. Angel: "Gonna have a son. (A slight smile creeps across Angel's face) I'm gonna have a son." Fred: "Guys. As fascinating as an ultra-sound image of an unborn child may appear..." Angel: "Me. A father. To a son. You know what that means?" Fred: "We're surrounded by vampires?" Angel: "No, it's a human bo..." Angel trails off as he looks away from the monitor for the first time and notices the vampires lining the teaching gallery above them and the back wall of the room. Angel: "Oh. We *are* surrounded by vampires." The vampires are all talking about the “Miracle Child”. Vampire: "For his time has come. (All the vamps bow down) Praise be. Praise be. Praise be." Somewhere Holtz and Sahjhan walk down the side walk of one of the streets in LA. Holtz sees a picture of a family pasted on one of the walls. Holtz: "They have families." Sahjhan: "Yes, they still have families." Holtz: "I hope these men you've hired are ruthless bastards." They walk up to a metal door and Sahjhan knocks on it. Holtz stands in the club watching a group of gray-skinned demons with upside-down walrus tusks train and fight each other. Back at the hospital We get a close up of Darla's belly then the camera pulls back to show all the vampires kneeling, while AI and Darla stand in the middle of the room watching. Angel asks what they want. They say they have come to protect the child. Angel: "Protect? Ah, that's good. We're all here for the same thing." The guy with the sword that Lilah called earlier suddenly jumps through one of the glass windows above, dressed like a ninja and holding the sword in front of him, screaming 'die!' The miracle child worshipping vampires jump on him en masse, and he goes down with a strangled scream. We hear a crunch and someone gulping down liquid Vampire straightening from his meal: "As it has been prophesied - by our great potentate Ul-thar, we vow our lives to protect this - special child." Angel aside to Darla: "You hear that? Our kid. Special." The lead vampire lets Angel know that he plans on killing the humans to feed this Child. Darla, smiling: "Guess I'm getting dinner after all." At Wolfram and Hart Gavin is showing a military commander some blue prints of Angel’s place. In order to recapture Darla and the baby Linwood has been able to acquire Dr. Fetvanovich an paranormal birth specialist. He is looking forward to the birth and then dissecting the mother and the baby. Meanwhile at the hospital Darla doesn’t help with the fight against the vampires, until she hears they plan on killing her afterwards and use her entrails. Angel tells the other to get Darla out of here. Fred asks Gunn for a dagger. He gives it to her. Then she grabs Darla and threatens to kill the baby. She whispers to Darla that it’s okay, the vampires don’t know nothing can hurt it. Darla: "They do *now.* Vampires have great hearing." The vampire leader smiles. Darla: "Here we go." The vampires attack and a big fight ensues. Wes: "Everybody out!" The gang back up towards the door, and begins to file out. Angel is the last to leave, staking one last vamp with a broomstick before following the others. Back at the Hyperion The camera pans around the dimly lit lobby. Suddenly a commando guy wearing a black ski mask pops up. Guy into radio: "All clear." Two more commandos rappel down from the upper story and another group comes in through the front doors, followed by the doctor and his equipment. Back at the gang They have lost the vampires in the streets, and they decide that their best plan of action is to back to the hotel and get the scrolls. Wesley points out it seems that everybody knows more about the baby’s importance then they do. Angel: "Okay then. Quick stop." Back at the hotel One of the commandos on guard in the yard hears a noise and looks around with his flashlight. When he doesn't find anything he returns to his post, only to be knock out from behind by Holtz. The doctor is setting out his instruments on a table in the lobby. He lifts up a big curved spatula-like thing, inspects it, then picks up the rake-like thing next to it. The doctor spins around as a door clicks shut. One of the commandos aims his gun at Holtz as he walks in. Doctor to Commando: "Is this man with you?" Holtz: "Where is Angelus?" Meanwhile Linwood , Lilah , Gavin and the transcriber are watching everything on video surveillance. A fight between Holtz and the commandos ensues. The screen fusses out at the commandos close in and the screaming begins. A prolonged and heartfelt scream resounds from the speakers. Back at the gang Angel pulls the car over into an alley. He tells the gang that he is going to walk the couple blocks to the hotel from there to get the scrolls. If he isn’t back within five minutes, they will have to leave without him; Angel jumps onto the hood of the car and from there to the bottom rung of a fire-escape ladder and makes his way up the side of the building. Angel runs along the corridor in the Hyperion, drops down into the lobby and looks around at the destruction of Doctor Fetvanovich's equipment and the bodies of the W&H team. He sees the doctor's body, and chicken feet sticking out of his pants. Holtz: "Angelus." Angel turns around and sees Holtz. Holtz: "I've been looking for you." Darla is still in the back of the car. Wes is sitting on the trunk facing Fred, standing behind the car. Gunn is sitting on the side of the passenger door. Cordy starts the car. He has been longer than the five minutes he said he would, Darla lets out a blood-curdling scream. Her water is broken. Cordy: "What are we gonna do? Deliver the kid right here? Shouldn't we go somewhere?" Fred: "What's keeping Angel?" Gunn gets the blanket out of the trunk and he and Wes help a screaming Darla to lie down in the back seat while the camera pulls up to give us an overhead view of them. |
| Rating and Comments: Once again a very nice opening scene |
| Rating: 7/10 |
| Written By: Staff Writer - Setje |