Hero

S01E09

We open with a voiceover from Cordelia, describing what we see. "Aerial shot, downtown, skyscrapers, lights, yadda yadda yadda. We hear a narrator, preferably famous. Maybe that bald Star Trek guy, or one of the cheaper Baldwins." Are any of them expensive at this point? "And he says: It's a big, bad city out there. Cut to a woman walking down a dark, spooky street. We'll cast some beautiful young actress." The camera pans up to reveal Cordy as the woman in question. "Maybe some up-and-coming starlet whose career is on the verge of taking off. Anyway, she's all nervous, right? Mucho vulnerable. The voice guy --" I must interject that I like the touch of Cordy describing the narrator as the "voice guy." Also, is this what Wing and Sars meant when they said the show was self-recapping? Anyway: "The voice guy says, 'Danger lurks around every corner.' Boom! She's attacked by a big, ugly goon! With a knife!" A bald guy jumps out and grabs Cordy's purse. "She screams." Cordy doesn't so much scream as call out in an affected falsetto, "Help! Is there no one to help me?" The narration continues: "Well, now there's someone who will answer your call." The shot cuts to a man, backlit so that we can't see his face, his jacket flapping in the breeze. I think that this person might be Doyle, because it definitely isn't Angel. He races toward the goon, knocks him down, takes the purse back, and so on. "He'll protect you. And catch you when you fall. You can count on it." I scream at the no doubt unintended Babylon 5 reference. We finally see the face of this mystery savior as Angel (of course) turns to the camera and says, deadpan, "And you can count on me. 'Cause I'm the Dark Avenger." I snicker.

We cut to Angel sitting at his desk, looking the way he always looks, i.e. confused. "I'm the what?" he asks. "The Dark Avenger," says Cordy, who is aiming a handheld camera at Angel. Cordy explains that they can shoot this bit of cinematic excellence themselves, and that she'll "charm a post-production house into doing the effects and..." Angel gets up and heads for the elevator while Cordy continues her pitch, insisting that doing this ad could "get us out of the red, or the black, or whichever one means we're broke, 'cause that's us." Angel stares at her through the elevator grill as he descends into his Fortress of Solitude, where he will count all of his gold bullion and juggle his priceless Ming vases. Incidentally, Cordy is wearing a shirt that, from the front, appears to be a reasonable-looking sleeveless top of some kind. It even covers her midriff. When she turns around, however, we can see that it's held on with two inch-wide ties around her back, and another around her neck. Oy.

By Strega

Doyle enters as Angel leaves and points out that "advertising a superhero who can't go out in the daylight might raise vampire suspicions." Does he mean the suspicions of vampires, because, if vampires are suspicious of Angel, who cares? And if he meant that others would suspect that Angel is a vampire, why would anyone suspect that, and again, who cares? Oh yeah, and nowhere in Cordy's ad did she say "by the way, he only works at night," so how would it even come up? Sigh. Doyle adds, "Not to mention our pesky lack of an investigator's license." Cordy suddenly turns around and snaps, "And who needs a license when we have no clients?" Point for Cordy. Doyle says, "We'll manage, princess; we always do." I wish Cordy would stab Doyle in the heart when he calls her "princess." Cordy suddenly decides that "Angel is all wrong for this commercial! He's a larger-than-life character, way too perfect for Joe Couch Potato to relate to. We need someone who's average, run-of-the-mill, ordinary..." Doyle looks up as she grins and concludes, "You're perfect." Doyle starts to protest, but Cordy insists, claiming that they need to drum up some clients because Angel is "only happy when he's fighting evil." Through clenched teeth, Doyle says, "I don't know what we need evil for when we've got you right here." "I heard that," says Cordy. Of course she did, she's two feet away. Credits, please.

After the ads, we view Doyle in a simulated camcorder while "REC" blinks in the corner. I will not make any Blair Witch jokes, I will not make any Blair Witch jokes...Doyle is reading his lines from cue cards tacked up on the wall behind the camera. He says, "If you need help, than look no further. Angel Investigations is the best! Our rats are low." Cordy corrects him, saying the line is "our rates are low." Please, no more, I'll split my sides laughing. He ends by saying, "Come on over to our offices, and you'll see that there's [sic] still heroes in this world." He pauses and looks relieved, then asks, "Is that it? Am I done?" Cordy complains that Doyle reminded her of a weasel. Then she complains about Angel brooding in the basement, saying, "It's not like he has a heart; how could it be so broken?" Hoping to shut Cordy up, Doyle suggests that seeing Buffy on last week's episode got to Angel, and offers to talk to the great poof. Cordy suggests getting Angel a costume, saying, "The guy's a bona fide hero! Would it kill him to put on some tights and a cape and garner us a little free publicity?" Doyle counters, "I don't see Angel putting on tights...Oh, now I do, and it's really disturbing." Word.

By Strega

Angel is sparring with his punching bag in the basement when Doyle enters. Doyle claims that Angel's moodiness is affecting Cordy. Is Doyle that deluded, or does he believe that if he says Cordy's unhappy, it will convince Angel to cheer up? Actually, I guess he's deluded either way. Angel says he needs time. Doyle tries the "I've been there" ploy, and says, "Last time I saw my ex, she was around for five minutes and I was a wreck for days." Angel stops boxing and says that Buffy was there for more than five minutes. So was Harry, in point of fact. "Okay, ten, but who's counting?" responds Doyle. Angel tells Doyle that Buffy spent a day and a night with him, ew, ew, flashbacks, ew, and then says, "Why didn't you tell me about the oracles, Doyle?" Angel then summarizes last week's episode. Doyle is dubious, concerned, and finally, surprised. Doyle says, "I would have chosen the pleasures of the flesh over duty and honor any day of the week. I just don't have that strength," as vultures begin to circle above him. Angel talks about the importance of averting the coming End of Days, Doyle talks about being a coward, and I think we're all very aware of their character traits at this point. Blipvert.

Doyle and Cordy slurp down some kind of coffee-based beverage. Apparently Doyle has just finished telling Cordy about Angel's adventures across time. Note to self: don't tell Doyle anything if you don't want him blabbing it about. Cordy says it's amazing that "he didn't check the stock quotes or the lotto numbers!" Then Cordy says Angel should have told them about it, and adds, "We shouldn't keep secrets from each other." Doyle guiltily agrees, and says, "I know my marriage would have stood a better chance if me [sic] and Harry'd really just talked more -- really let each other in." Cordy is unhappy at hearing Harry's name because of her inexplicable and unbelievably sudden romantic interest in Doyle, but asks how Harry is, and whether Doyle has seen her lately. Doyle says that he and Harry both need to get on with their lives. Cordy is relieved. Doyle says, "If I want a relationship that's gonna last, I need to put a few cards on the table." "Such as?" asks Cordy. Doyle takes a deep breath and says, "The thing of it is, I'm a little bit more than meets --" and that's when the Vision of Dramatic Convenience hits him. Why do they keep harping on the "more than meets the eye" thing? Why? While Doyle clutches his head, a random woman walks past, so Cordy pretends they're playing charades. No, it doesn't make any sense, but that's what happened. "Oh, I know this one! Um, Mask?" she guesses. Doyle sees: boarded-up windows, a blurry apartment building sign, demon faces. The vision ends, and Doyle looks up at Cordy, who says very seriously, "Whoever you saw just now, did they look like they could afford to pay?"

By Strega

A girl carrying a box runs down one of the many dark, deserted streets for which Los Angeles is so well known. The sound of many marching feet gets louder as she trips, drops the box, and struggles back to her feet. Emilio Estevez, still in his Breakfast Club red sweatshirt and jean jacket, grabs her and leads her off camera. The captioning actually says "jackboots approaching" to describe the approaching marchers. Emilio and friend hide in a stairwell, where we can see that their faces aren't quite human. Many boot-clad feet tromp past. Blipvert.

Angel and Doyle shine their flashlights around a crumbling apartment building. Angel says, "You said they were hiding? Good place for it." Doyle stands to a table which holds some remains from dinner, and Angel says, "I smell something." Doyle sticks his finger in some of the food, than tastes it, yuck, before saying "Still warm. They left in a hurry." "Not food," Angel says. I add, "Fear," to finish his line in the cheesiest way imaginable. Angel flips up the carpet and then says, "Fear." While I try to recover from the knowledge that I'm channeling the WB, Angel opens a trapdoor and shines his flashlight down to reveal huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.

Frankly, these demons look more like zombies; they're just kind of shiny and gray -- no horns or anything. Lame. Their leader explains that they gave all their money to someone who promised to get them out of the country, but the guy vanished with their savings. Angel asks where they were going, and the zombie says, "Briole. An island off the coast of Ecuador. Others of our kind have found sanctuary there." So there's a demon leper colony? Neat. Emilio enters with his gal-pal and announces, "They almost got us. We lost half our supplies." The head zombie introduces Angel as "the Promised One." Of course, Angel does not contradict this, or even question it. Emilio rolls his eyes and says, "Terrific." Angel looks insulted that this brat-packer would dare to doubt his position as savior, but says, "I think there's been some kind of misunderstanding." The head zombie explains that, according to prophecies, "In the final days of this century, the Promised One will appear and save us from the Scourge." Angel tries to get more information as to the nature of this Scourge, but Emilio starts whining that "they're coming, no matter how many Promised guys you throw at them, and they won't stop until every last one of us is dead." There's a sudden close-up of Doyle, who appears to have no reaction to this whatsoever. Emilio leaves in a huff. Doyle stares intently through the window. Angel tells Doyle, "They think I'm some promised savior." Doyle continues to stare outside, and finally says, "The Scourge..." Angel asks who they are, and Doyle finally looks at him and says, "Death." ["At this point, Arnold Schwarzenegger called his lawyer." -- Wing Chun]

After the blipvert, Doyle enters his apartment with a cigarette smoldering in his mouth. Suddenly he grabs a baseball bat, whirls, and asks "Who's there." From the shadows comes a voice, saying, "A friend." Doyle says he doesn't have friends, and another Play-Doh-headed demon steps into the light and concedes, "All right, maybe I'm more like a relative who's in trouble and needs your help." The demon continues, "My name is Lucas, and I live on the second floor." Okay, he doesn't, but we were all thinking it. Lucas says he's a Brachian demon, just like Doyle, and that his clan lived safely in Oregon, "until they came. Not all of us escaped." After some questioning from Doyle, Lucas finally starts describing the Scourge, whereupon we cut to Doyle talking to Angel, and finally realize that this was all a flashback. Doyle is repeating the description of the Scourge to Angel: "An army. Pureblood demons. They got a big hate on for us mixed-heritage types. Very into pedigree. They hunt us down like animals." Angel asks if anyone fights back, and Doyle says some do, and that members of the Scourge (Scourgettes? Scourgeoids?) can be killed, "but these guys believe in what they're doing. They're ready to die for the cause." Gee, I wonder if this story is a metaphor of some kind? Back in the past, Lucas says, "I'm not asking you to fight, -- just help us hide till we can get out of town." Doyle tells Lucas, "You need to set up some off-track betting, then I got the know-how. But demon-hiding? It's not my line." Lucas says that Doyle is one of them, but Doyle says he isn't -- he was raised as a human. Lucas says they have no one else to turn to, and Doyle responds that "Anybody that helps you, they're [sic] taking a chance. And I'm not, you know, dying to take chances." Lucas points out that he and Doyle have a common enemy, but Doyle is unmoved. Lucas leaves.

Back in the present Doyle tells Angel that he "punked out. I'd only just found out about my demon side. I didn't know what it meant." Angel asks what happened, cueing another trip backwards in time. Apparently what happened is that Doyle had a tossing-and-turning-in-bed montage. There's a knock at his door, and he's hit by a vision of Brachian demons in turmoil. Doyle tells Angel that this was the first time he had a vision, and that "I had to know if what they showed me was a dream or real." The Doyle That Was enters a warehouse and finds a pair of Marty McFly's sneakers while the Female Soloist of Social Responsibility wails. After examining the shoes, Doyle notices the large number of dead Brachians lying around in piles. He examines several before finding Lucas' body. Finally, and I hope, permanently back in the present, Angel tells Doyle, "You couldn't have known." Doyle says, "These people are going to need a lot more than their mythic Promised One. The contractually obligated five hundred might be a start." Wow, that line didn't work even the tiniest little bit. Doyle tells Angel that he can't fight the Scourge, but Angel says he won't have to, "Because we're going to get them out of here." So, then, the Scourge will instead kill some other bunch of demons? Good solution.

A truck pulls up in front of the apartment building. Cordy enters a dark hallway. One of the zombies pops out at Cordy, prompting her to wave around a small white tube. As additional zombies wander into the hall, she says, "While this may look like a popular brand of breath freshener, it's really a cunningly disguised demon repellent!" She pops off the cap and sprays it about. "Wintergreen," nods the head zombie as Doyle makes his way through the crowd. Heh. I want more Cordy. Doyle tells Cordy that they're helping the zombies. She points out that they're demons, but he says, "That doesn't make them bad people." Doyle instructs Cordy to go to the harbor and find a boat called The Quintessa. "Quintessa?" "So we're booking them on a cruise?" asks Cordy. Doyle explains that it's a freighter, and the captain owes money to Angel, so "He does this, they're even." Cordy and Johanna chorus "This guy owes Angel money? Why aren't we collecting it?" Doyle says, "Oppressed demon people here! Not getting any safer!" Doyle has the power to channel Xander, apparently. Cordy asks, "Bad things are coming, aren't they?" Johanna reports that at this precise moment, her cat threw up. Doyle answers, "Very bad things." The mention of a dreadful Christian Slater movie motivates Cordy, and off she goes.

In a nondescript office, Angel hangs out with the brother of someone named "Big Randy." Angel vaguely threatens this guy into forging some papers so that no one will examine, or stop, the freighter. The writers' ways are mysterious indeed, since they've ignored plot holes much larger than this one without bothering to patch them. The head zombie tells Doyle that Emilio has run off, but that he'll be back. The girl Emilio was with, who I think I'll call Anne Frank for no particular reason, says, "No, he won't. He says there isn't any Promised One, and he wasn't going to stay here and get killed with the rest of us." Doyle says "No one's going to get killed," while behind him a dark robed figure beckons him to a chessboard. Doyle declares that if Cordy calls they should go to the ship, and he'll go find Emilio and bring him back. Then he asks Anne if she knows where Emilio went. Blipvert.

I guess there's a particular alley that Emilio likes to stroll through, because that's where Doyle finds him. Emilio whines that Doyle can't make him go on the ship. Doyle says, "You're right. You're old enough; it's your choice." Emilio asks, "Where do I want to be hated? You wouldn't get it. You're passing; my mother was the same way." Emilio tells us all a sob story about how once, his mother took him out walking through the neighborhood, and ends by demanding, "What day was it?" Doyle sighs and says, "It was Halloween." Emilio continues, "So that's my choice. I can be hated by humans because they're scared of me, or by purebloods who want to kill me." Don't be silly; you can be hated by both of them. And by me, for being such a whiner. As Emilio starts to walk away, Doyle suggests that Anne will miss him. Emilio responds, "Yeah, well she's dead by now! Or might as well be." Doyle insists that won't happen, but Emilio asks "Why? Because your friend's the Promised One?" When Doyle says nothing, Emilio smirks and says, "So you know it's not true." Doyle says he doesn't know about their prophecies, but Angel is a hero, and that "Maybe Angel doesn't know what he's doing. It's possible." It's way more than just possible. "But the other option -- losing yourself somewhere, hoping it all goes away -- I know that never works." For some reason, this convinces Emilio.

Cordy examines The Quintessa and discusses the plan with the captain. Apparently Doyle and Emilio have gotten lost while Doyle was dodging under ladders and smashing mirrors. The thump of marching feet grows on the soundtrack. Doyle and Emilio hide around a corner, and Doyle peeks out to see the mass of approaching figures, before dragging Emilio away. They duck into a building. Outside, the Scourge has its own little Kristallnacht while waving around torches. At last we get to see them, and they look like they're wearing Hannibal Lecter's mouth guard, only that's what their faces look like. And they're all wearing snazzy gray military uniforms with their high, shiny black boots. There's something about their outfits that looks familiar...it's somehow Teutonic...well, I'm sure I'll figure it out just as soon as I stop smashing my forehead into this wall. They start setting cars and piles of garbage on fire as one shouts "Destroy it all!" One SS officer -- oops, I meant to say Scourge. One of the Scourge wanders near Doyle & Emilio's hideout. Warning Emilio to stay put, Doyle sprouts his blue head-pins and jumps out at the Scourgette, knocking him down. Doyle runs away as the other Scourgettes cry, "Get him!" Quickly enough, Doyle is surrounded, but he bumps into one of them and easily escapes. Why exactly is everyone so scared of the Scourge, when they're this easy to escape from? An arm pulls Doyle into another abandoned building and dumps him inside. Doyle says, "They're coming." Angel says, "Good."

Some Scourgettes examine the apartment the refugees were hiding in. Der Fuhrer -- oh, sorry again, the chief Scourgette opens the trapdoor, but nobody's there. "Keep looking," he instructs. "For what? This?" says Angel, wandering in with his vamp face on. Angel drags Doyle out and adds, "Back off. It's my kill." Ein Scourgette says that vampires don't eat demons, but Angel responds, "I wouldn't eat this. He reeks of humanity." And actual humans don't? The Scourgette says, "You're one to talk, vampire. Yours is the lowest of the half-breeds." Angel says, "You think I don't know that? You think I don't smell the humanity inside me day and night, polluting me?" Doyle moans, "Please, please don't," and Angel suddenly snaps Doyle's neck and shouts, "Shut up!" I actually identified with Angel there for a split second. Let me see if I understand this. Vampires are "half-breeds" even though they aren't "bred" at all. You'd think at some point this show would have to make sense, even if it was accidental, just from the law of averages. But no. The Scourgette says, "A half-breed that kills other half-breeds. Always charming." Angel says that he wants to join the Scourge. "I want to be cleansed, and only you can show me the way." He offers to kill half-breeds for them, explaining, "I know their minds, where they hide, what they think. I can help you." The Scourgette says "Maybe you can," and has a few of his pals drag away a chuckling Angel.

Across the street, Emilio watches through the window as Angel is led into a nearby blipvert. Emilio enters the apartment building and finds Doyle lying on the floor. Suddenly Doyle opens his eyes and says, "I think I hated that plan." He sits up, grabs his head, and wrenches it, which I guess is meant to imply that he snaps his neck back together or something. I'm not trying to explain it, folks; I just describe what happens. Doyle finally shakes his Play-Doh away as Emilio asks, "Can all Brachian demons do that?" Doyle nods and says that they're "stronger in demon form." Read that line again: doesn't it imply that all Brachian demons can choose to appear as human? Just checking. Emilio asks where everyone is, and Doyle says that he hopes they're where they should be. The refugees are milling about on the ship while the captain yells at Cordy, insisting that he has to leave now. The captain asks, "Angel said he'd cut my debt in half [if] I do him this favor, right?" Cordy, that little scamp, agrees. The captain says he'll wait if he gets sixty percent taken off. Cordy accepts the deal, the captain leaves. , the head zombie approaches Cordy to thank her, and comments that Doyle "understands our suffering." Cordy says pointedly, "We both do." The zombie apologizes, and explains, "It's just more familiar for Doyle. He has to live with a certain amount of persecution. You always do when you're -- " Irish? "Half-demon," he finishes. Cordy widens her eyes and repeats, "Demon?"

The chief Scourgette is named Tiernan, according to the captioning. He's speaking to an assembly of the Scourge, explaining why they bother hunting "the mongrel." Tiernan says, "Even the smallest of vermin need be addressed. Half-breeds. Worse. They keep cross-breeding." We see Angel in one of their uniforms, his hair slicked back through the application of quantities of mousse that I can't even comprehend. More talk of "precious demon blood" and "weak, simpering humanity." "We will not stop because our higher order demands it." Tiernan makes exaggerated stiff gestures as he talks. Who does he remind me of? It's on the tip of my tongue...The crowd cheers as Tiernan says, "Tonight the half-breeds that have eluded us will be destroyed." He introduces a human who told them all about The Quintessa, and says, "We invite him to witness the power of the beacon." Some Scourgettes drag out a big cube with wires and other gizmos attached to it, which begins glowing when someone flips a switch. Tiernan says, "The Listers, along with any creature contaminated with human blood, will perish the moment this cleansing light touches them." I guess the zombie-people are called Listers. "When the beacon reaches full power and detonates, its deadly reach will extend a quarter-mile in every direction." Tiernan turns to the human and asks, "Wanna see how it works?" He doesn't, but they push him forward until he screams, and we see his face melt away, and then his skull and body crumble into nothingness. The effect is similar to what happened to that nasty German guy near the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Y'know, when those guys opened the Ark, and that light came pouring out and killed them all? Who were those guys again? They were mean. Mean like the Scourge is, in a way. But that's probably just a coincidence. The Scourge gets all thrilled about the beacon and starts moving out in a slow-motion, blipverty, freeze-frame, epileptic frenzy.

Rah, rah, say the Scourge as they scamper about. Angel ducks into a dark corner and gets on a little motorbike. Vroom, says Angel. Cordy and the captain pace about on the ship. Doyle and Emilio arrive. The head zombie chastens Emilio, who apologizes, and then they both leave. Cordy stares at Doyle and finally says, "You're alive." She adds, "We were worried," and then slaps Doyle. Doyle asks, "What was that for?" Cordy shoots back, "Why didn't you tell me you were half-demon? I thought we agreed that secrets are bad." Doyle explains that he was afraid that she'd reject him. Cordy, quite reasonably, says, "I rejected you way before now. So you're half-demon. Big whoop. I can't believe you'd think I'd care about that. I mean, I work for a vampire, hello?" Heh. She finally asks if there's anything else she ought to know, but Doyle says no. Cordy says, "Would you ask me out for dinner already?" Doyle is surprised. Cordy grins in a frightening way. Doyle gets as far as, "Would you like to --" before Angel vrooms up to interrupt. He lost his SS jacket somewhere on the drive, but his hair is still neatly parted and shiny with whatever industrial lacquer is holding it in place, and all I can do is giggle. Angel tells the captain to get the ship moving as the Scourge motorcade approaches, carrying the beacon in an open truck.

Doyle dodges hundreds of black cats racing across his path as he and Cordy run below deck and tell the refugees to lock all the hatches. Various Scourgettes rush on board, while others raise the beacon on a hoist. Tiernan confronts Angel and says, "You lied to us, half-breed." The soundtrack has Angel saying, "You catch on quick, football-head." The captioning reads, "Depends on your definition of lying, pure-boy." It must have been hard to choose between two gems of dialogue like that. There's the usual fighting and Angel-fu. Angel and Tiernan tumble through a hatchway and down a flight of stairs while Cordy and the refugees stare up at them. (Cordy and the Refugees would be an excellent band name, by the way.) After Angel tumbles over another railing, he looks up to see the glowing beacon being lowered over them. He mutters, "Its gonna detonate," although I'm not sure that's the right description. He yells at everyone to get out. The mass reaction is to stand still and continue staring up at the pretty glowing thing. Angel calls Tiernan "pure-boy" again and breaks his neck. Doyle pounds on a hatch and shouts that they're locked from the outside. The beacon keeps glowing. Doyle climbs up a ladder with Cordy close behind. They all reach a high catwalk near the dangling beacon at the same time. Angel explains that the beacon kills anything with human blood. Angel says that if he can pull the cables out of it, he can shut it off. "How're you gonna do that without touching the light?" asks Doyle. Cordy adds, "It's suicide." Doyle says, "There's gotta be another way." Angel starts to look weepy and insists, "It's all right." In this situation, Buffy would sob and argue and proclaim her love for Angel while violins serenaded them. Cordy just says, "No!" very firmly, and is much more convincing. I like Cordy. I don't like her clothes, but I like her. Angel places a hand on Doyle's shoulder in that "I'm not gay, or I'd hug you" way that some guys do. Doyle manfully grips Angel's forearm as a response. Doyle, also looking a bit teary-eyed, says, "Fight the good fight, yeah? You never know until you've been tested. I get that now." As they gaze into each other's eyes a bit longer than seems normal -- especially given the ticking time bomb hanging a few yards away -- even Cordy starts to mist up a little. Suddenly, Doyle clobbers Angel, knocking him off the catwalk and down to the bottom of the hold. Doyle turns, walks up to Cordy, and grabs her for what is, I admit, a very sweet kiss. As he releases her, a glimmer of blue light moves across Doyle's lips and onto Cordy's. Doyle smiles at her and says, "Too bad we'll never know --" then pops out his blue spikes and concludes, "-- if this is a face you could learn to love." Cordy stares at him and wiggles her eyebrows slightly to express some emotion. He turns and faces the beacon. Down on the floor, Angel looks up and starts shouting Doyle's name. He begins climbing the ladder and shouts "Nooooooooo!" as Doyle leaps over and manages to grab the frame the beacon is resting in. Doyle pulls himself up as the light glows even more brightly. Angel reaches the catwalk and shouts "No!" again while Cordy cries. Doyle struggles to reach the top of the beacon and grimaces. His human face appears, and then starts peeling away. By the time he's grabbed the power cable, you can see all the muscles on his face and hands, reasonably accurately too, so nice makeup there. He finally pulls the cable apart, and screams as his eyes and muscles melt away, and then Doyle vanishes as the beacon shuts off. Angel and Cordy hug and cry. I wait for Angel to say, "It should have been me," and for Cordy to say, "Yeah, it really should have!" Apparently my earlier ability to predict dialogue was just a fluke, though, because that doesn't happen.

By Strega

At the end, we see the tape Cordy made of Doyle way back at the start of the show. Angel and Cordy sit silently in the office, brooding together, watching the tape. Once again, Doyle says, "You'll see that there's still heroes in this world." Angel and Cordy stare. On the television, Doyle clears his throat and asks, "Is that it? Am I done?" Yeah, babe, you're done.