Sacrifice

 

Previously on Angel…..
Various scenes with voice overs from some of the main characters……
Cordelia rubs her very pregnant stomach as Lorne says, "A mystical pregnancy right under my beak."

A bright light shooting from Cordelia's stomach and becoming Jasmine.

Gunn, "You're a power that was?" as they the gang fall to their knees.
Angel, "We've all been saved."

Jasmine to the gathered followers in the hotel foyer, "Hello. Bless you all for coming."

Fred, "I scrubbed the other one till my fingers bled, but I couldn't get out the….." as Fred sees Jasmines real face, all maggoty and horrible.
Jasmine, "Fred?"

Wesley, "I can't believe Fred's evil."

Fred she shoots Jasmine and the bullet goes through her and hits Angel, "I'm so sorry. Jasmines blood. Somehow it breaks her spell when it mingles with ours."

Jasmine to Connor, Wesley, Gunn and Lorne, "Fred infected Angel. He's gone."

Fred to Angel, "We have to help the others. We need more of Jasmines blood."

"Fred as Angel cuts Cordelia's wrist to collect some of her blood, "He figured since Cordy gave birth to Jasmine, they might share a blood link, as well as a mystical one."

Lorne, "What are you doing to the hol…." as Angel grabs him and puts his hand over his mouth.

Wesley to Lorne, "Your wrist. You've cut it. What happened to you?"

Angel to Wesley, Lorne and Gunn all now with cut wrists, "We hoped Cordy's blood would have the same effect when we exposed you to it."

Gunn as he puts his head in his hands, "Thanks for nothing."
Angel, "What I do know is that I'm not leaving this hotel without my son."

Wesley brings Connor to the room and Angel grabs him and holds him while Wesley cuts his chest and smears Cordelia's blood on it. Gunn, "You're back with us now Connor."

Connor goes to the door and shouts, "They're here. Come quick, they're here."

Continued
Angel tells Connor he has to listen to them because he is being controlled by Jasmine. Connor won't listen, he says they are the ones who lie and hate, and that Angel's wrong about him and Jasmine. Then Connor says, "It doesn't matter any more what you say. We're going to tear you apart."

Angel runs to the door and shuts it before Connor can stop him, then he tells the others to get to the car because, "Someone who knows the truth has to live through this."
The others pause but Angel tells them to go.

As he tries to break down the door Connor says, "I'm finally part of something. I belong. I won't let anyone ruin that."
Angel says, "I know son." Pulls the door open and starts to pummel Connor.

The car
The gang is trying to think of ways to help Angel, but Wesley says there are too many of Jasmine's followers inside the hotel. As Fred says there must be a way, an unconscious and beaten Connor lands on the hood of the car, followed by Angel. As some of Jasmine's followers round the corner at the end of the alley, Angel pulls Connor off the hood, dumps him beside the car and gets in, then he tells them to drive. Fred tries to argue with him but Angel says he knows what Connor is and they have to drive. Then they see Jasmine at the back of the group, and Wesley speeds away.

Jasmine stands looking after them.

Opening credits

Main
The road
The gang has the radio on as they drive along. The newsreader says the Catholic Church is getting rid of all icons and replacing them with statues of Jasmine. Angel turns it off.

Lorne is complaining, then he asks what they are going to do, "Anyone else feel like the last feisty wife in Stepford?"

They try to work out their options but they can't think of anything. Angel says they'll find something, they just need time. Then Wesley tells them they are running out of gas.

Fred thinks they should have brought Connor with them because of the state he was in. Then she asks Angel, "What if he doesn't wake up?"
Angel replies, "What if we brought him with us and he did wake up?"

Jasmine's room
Four people are getting undressed as Connor lies on a sofa. She calls them to her and a green glow fills the room, then she notices Connor is awake. She goes to him and running her hands over his injuries she cures him. He wants to go after the others, but she tells him to rest. She says there is nothing to worry about, she is growing nearer her followers with every minute that passes and soon they will be her ears, eyes and, if need be, her fists.

A garage
Angel tells Gunn that if it comes down to a `them or us` situation they will have to fight the people who have been taken over. Gunn knocks out a man at one of the pumps and then Jasmine starts to talk to Angel through various people.

Angel and his team fight while Gunn fills the car with fuel, then they escape with the police chasing them.

An alley
The car is stopped as police sirens pass them by. They have never seen so many police, and then Wesley points out that technically they are the only criminals left in the city. They decide they have to go underground, literally.

A sewer
Everyone is exhausted but Angel is pushing them on. When he sees they can't go any further he grudgingly lets them have a one-minute break. Fred says she doesn't think anyone knows the tunnels as well as Angel, as Gunn asks what they are going to do, "get skanky and starve to death?" Angel is frustrated and he tells them he doesn't know what to do, he doesn't have a plan yet as everything took him by surprise. Fred suddenly remembers Cordelia, but Angel tells Fred to forget about her. He tells them their minute is up and moves them on.

Cordelia's room
Connor is sitting by Cordelia when Jasmine comes in. When he shows her the cut on Cordelia's wrist, Jasmine tells him she saw it through him. He asks if `they` did it, and she says they did, to use Cordelia's blood for some of their black magic. Connor complains that they are always using magic.

Jasmine tells Connor to leave her; she wants to spend time with her mother.

A sewer
Fred is still upset about Cordelia. Lorne says, "Under that blood-feeding, creature of the night facade, he seems a little heartless lately."
From way in front of them, Angel replies, "hearts get in the way."
Lorne shouts to him, "Hearing's as good as ever boss."
Angel says, "If we don't gut ourselves, burn out everything that gave her power over us, then we're lost."
The others say they still miss Jasmine. Fred remembers the first time Jasmine took her aside and asked her what her name should be, then Wesley says it's strange that a creature as old as she is doesn't have a name. Suddenly, Angel and Wesley fall through a hole in the ground. Gunn manages to catch Wesley and pull him out, but Angel falls to the bottom of a pit, narrowly missing a large wooden spike. He calls up to see if Wesley is all right and he says he is, then someone pointing a spear at him tells him he's not all right until he says so. They are surrounded. Angel says he has a problem with someone pointing a wooden stick at him, then gets fed up and jumps out of the pit grabbing the spear as he goes. The others quickly overpower the rest of the gang. One of them recognises Gunn's name. It turns out he and his brother Tom ran with Gunn's team when he was young. Then they hear a noise and Gunn asks what it was. A boy with the gang says, "It's back."

Cordelia's room
Connor comes back in to the room to find Jasmine sitting by Cordelia's bed. Cordelia is gone! He asks where she is and Jasmine tells him that Cordelia's blood was dangerous to them, and now she's where Jasmine wants her, just as he is. Then they leave the room.

The sewer
The leader of the gang, Golden, shows them the security they have installed, like the pit. The boy, Matthew, tells him they are safe, the security has been checked, but Angel says he's checking it now.

Golden tells them Matthew saw his parents killed by vampires. Angel looks at Connor's blood on his hands and asks Matthew if they have any water. Matthew takes him to a tap and Angel washes the blood off his hands. Matthew asks whose blood is on Angel's hands and he says someone he knew who tried to hurt his friends.

Fred asks why the gang has stayed in the sewers and a girl says the world is ending above ground. Then Golden says they won't leave until they have killed the beast that killed some of their gang. Fred tells them it was lucky they met, as they are professional monster killers. Then she looks at the others and changes it to `were` professional monster killers, but Angel corrects her saying they are. Angel picks up a sword, and Golden tells him it belonged to Tom, his brother who was killed by the monster. Angel says, now it belongs to him and they have a monster to kill.

Jasmine's room
Jasmine is on the telephone when Connor comes in. When she puts the phone down she tells him that she was speaking to the Governor who is dissolving his power base that night, so now she was in charge and soon the rest of the world would be in her power. She tells Connor they will soon be living in a palace built for them and she will rule the world.

Jasmine asks Connor why he isn't happy about what's happening. Then she tells him it is because he's holding a part of himself back from her, his pain. She says she wants his pain and digs her nails into the palm of his hand. Then she holds up her own hand with the same bloody marks in the palm as he has and they disappear.

The sewer
The two gangs have joined up to hunt the monster. They smell ammonia, then Golden is pulled up a shaft in the roof. Angel jumps up after him and gets him back. When he jumps back down from the roof Angel is still in vamp face. Matthew sees him and runs away. The others try to stop him, but he escapes. Then Gunn realises Wesley is missing.

The monsters lair
The monster has Wesley. As it throws him to the floor it says, "We loved Her first."

The sewer
Angel tells the others to go back to their hideout with Lorne, while Fred and Gunn go and find Matthew. Angel will search for Wesley. Unfortunately Golden doesn't agree with this as he also saw Angel in vamp face.

The demons lair
The demon tells Wesley they built temples waiting for Her but She came here. Wesley realises the demon is talking about Jasmine and is not happy that Wesley tried to name her, telling him She is the Devourer. Then as a bloody lump of something falls to the ground in front of him, the demon says he has work to do. Wesley asks what love is to the demon and he says it is sacrifice.

The sewer
Fred and Gunn are looking for the boy. Gunn complains that the day before they were happy, now they are trudging through sewage, trying to get a kid back before he gets taken over by what was happening on the surface. Fred says the kid is scared, but Gunn says feelings don't come into it anymore. Fred complains that she can't turn off her emotions like he and Angel can and she doesn't want to fight for a world with no feelings. Gunn tells her she had no trouble turning off her emotions when they killed the professor. She says he's wrong, that when she thinks about it, it eats her up inside. Gunn feels the same.

The demons lair
The demon isn't worried about Wesley escaping because he's "good at catching furries."
The demon is from an older world. He has a key to get there, and tells Wesley he can go visit, but his lungs will burn out with his first breath.

The demon is working at gutting a body. Wesley asks if he's doing a spell. He says it's old, powerful magic, not word magic. He says She isn't interested in word magic, there's only one word She's bothered about. Then it realises it's said too much and threatens Wesley.

The sewer
Golden saw Angel change and is holding him at the point of a spear. Lorne tries to stand up for Angel but just makes things worse. Angel tells Golden that he can't justify his existence, but what he could do is take the spear away from him, snap it into kindling and break his neck all before Golden could give the spear a good push.

Outside
Fred and Gunn are still looking for Matthew.

The demons lair
The demon is busily cutting bits off and out of the body. Wesley tells the demon he can't kill the body because it is a vampire. The demon asks if that is the same as the one who hurt him with the angry steel. Wesley says, "Angel, his name's Angel."
Then Wesley realises that it's her name that Jasmine is frightened of.

Outside
Gunn and Fred find Matthew. They try to talk him into coming back with them, but he doesn't want to, so Gunn knocks him out. This shocks Fred and he has to tell her to grab the boy's feet.

The demons lair
The demon has his claws in his ears trying not to listen to Wesley who is asking about Jasmine's name. Wesley has realised that she had a powerful true name and that was why she had to be given a name and could not choose one herself. Her name has power over her.

The demon hits Wesley and says he's just the messenger from the "ones who love truly".
The demon says he didn't give Jasmine her name, the priest did and it doesn't matter because Wesley will soon be a smear on his flesh spell. Then Angel, standing behind the demon, says it was about time that he killed the messenger.

The sewer
Gunn and Fred carry the boy into the gang's hideout. Golden asks what they had done to the boy, and Gunn tells him they had to get him back because there were things going on that they didn't know about. Then the boy woke up and started to laugh in Jasmine's voice. She tells Golden that Fred and Gunn "hit and hit" Matthew until he lost consciousness, then she asks Golden if that makes him want to kill them. Golden says that sounds like a good idea, so Gunn, Fred and Lorne run out of the hideout, straight into Connor who has the National Guard backing him. Connor says in Jasmine's voice, "I believe you've met my father."

The demons lair
Angel and the demon fight and Angel is skewered by the demons claws. Angel manages to get dropped to the ground and blocks a blow from the demon with his sword, which is snapped in two. Wesley hits the demon, and Angel uses the broken tip of one of the claws to stab the creature through the head. The demon falls to the ground dying and whispers, "Devourer. This meat I give unto thee."

The sewer
Lorne, Gunn and Fred run from Connor.

The demons lair
Wesley shows Angel the key to the demons dimension and tells him what he found out about Jasmine's true name. Angel asks if Wesley knows anything about the priest and Wesley says he guesses the priest is bigger and meaner than the demon they just killed. Suddenly, Angel stops and says something bad is going down, then he says, "Connor."

The sewer
Connor stops and says, "Angel."

The hotel
Jasmine says, "Angel."

The sewer
Lorne, Fred and Gunn get to Angel and Wesley, but Connor and the National Guard are still chasing them. Angel pulls the door shut behind them as Wesley works out that they key works by blood magic. Angel tells them to go, but Wesley says they can't, they won't survive in that dimension. The only one who will survive is Angel and that "Someone who knows the truth has to live through this. Angel, that's you."
Angel doesn't want to leave them and Fred says, "hearts get in the way, right?"
Angel goes to the portal, but Wesley stops him and throws him the key. As Angel goes through the portal, Gunn says, "It's time for the big fight scene." And they open the door and let Connor and the National Guard in.

Jasmine's room
Jasmine is standing on her balcony. Slashes appear then heel all over her arms and face as she laughs.

The demon dimension
Angel finds himself standing on the edge of a precipice in a grey land made of rock, ash and sulphur. In front of him a large number of demons, the same as the one he killed, stand. Angel says, "Oh Hell."

Closing credits

Rating and Comments:
What an episode! This series just gets better and better!

I still don't understand why Cordelia's blood didn't work on Connor, but after this episode I'm left wondering if it's because he doesn't want to listen to anyone. As he says, he has found somewhere he belongs and he isn't going to let anyone take that away from him. He is the only one of the Angel Investigations team who has seen Jasmine consume her followers and he still does exactly what he's told. And now, having seen that, he still follows her blindly despite the possibility that she has consumed Cordelia, the woman he was willing to do anything for just a short time ago.

There seems to be a bit of a theme in this episode of Angel's words coming back to haunt him. He sends the team away from the hotel because "someone who knows the truth has to live through this", and it's these same words that Wesley uses to try to convince Angel to go through the portal and leave them. Even then, Angel doesn't want to leave them but Fred turns his own words on him again when she says, "hearts get in the way, right?"

Now I have a couple of thoughts on the imagery in this episode. The demons are similar to one of the incarnations of the First in `Amends`. Is this just coincidence?

Then we have Angel washing the blood from his hands. There seems to be two images here, Angel with Connors blood on his hands, and Angel washing his hands of Connor. Does he feel that he is going to have to kill his son to save the world? We know from `Inside Out` that he will do it. When Fred asks Lorne if he thinks Angel will be able to kill Cordelia, the woman he loves, Lorne says he'll do it to save the world. This would also account for the coldness Angel is displaying. He tells Lorne and Fred that
"If we don't gut ourselves, burn out everything that gave her power over us, then we're lost."
This could also apply to how he would feel if he has to kill Connor. Angel may have to kill Connor, as Jasmines champion, to break her power, and he would probably prefer being gutted himself to doing that, but he will do it to save mankind.

It was interesting that it took everything that has happened in the last couple of episodes to make Fred and Gunn talk to each other about their feelings after killing the professor. All I can say to this is, about time too!
Rating 9/10 This was a stunning, if very dark, episode.
Written By: Staff Writer - Rusty

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