Welcome to Rewatching Angel, the part of the blog where I rewatch the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off: Angel. Each Tuesday evening, you’re invited to join me as I attempt to rediscover what made me love these shows so many years ago.

War Zone

• A young girl is walking down a shady looking place at night.
• She’s being followed by a trio of ne’er-do-wells.
• Turns out they’re vampires.
• And she’s leading them into a trap.
• Enter a gang of vampire hunters, who clearly have a reputation among these vampires.
• Team Angel arrive at a party being held by a David Nabbit.
• He let his love of Dungeons & Dragons become a real life thing and has gotten caught up in some bad things involving a demon brothel. Now he wants to hire Angel.
• The gang of vampire hunters take out four vampires and lose two of their own.
• Angel goes to check out Madam Dorian’s (the demon brothel). He gets turned away. They don’t do vampires.
• But he is able to get some information about the guy blackmailing Nabbit.
• Gunn (lead of the hunters) is apparently getting more and more reckless. His sister tries to warn him not to take too many risks.
• Angel follows the blackmailer to Gunn’s side of town.
• Gunn sees Angel vamp out and threaten the blackmailer. Gunn will happily take this vampire out if he moves into his territory.
• Nabbit pays Team Angel handsomely for their work, even though the case isn’t completely closed.
• He makes it clear that he really just appreciated them coming to his party and actually talking to him.
• The blackmailer meets back up with Angel. He brought the photos.
• And a demon bodyguard.
• Angel gets the photos and kills the demon bodyguard, and then is very nearly dusted by Gunn’s crew.
• They lead Angel into a warehouse filled with traps meant to kill vampires.
• Angel grabs Gunn’s sister and holds her for a minute. When he lets her go she accidentally sets off one of the traps and Angel saves her.
• Almost proves to Gunn that he’s different, but Gunn still warns Angel not to come back to their neighborhood.
• Back at the office, Angel is concerned about the gang. They’re mostly kids, probably not really sure what they’ve gotten themselves into.
• He wants to find the vampire nest that they’ve been looking for before the gang does.
• Inside that nest, the vamps’ leader gives a rousing speech about how they’re going to take down Gunn’s gang.
• In the process, the leader stakes one of the vampires that had been lured into Gunn’s trap but got away.
• Later, Angel gets to the nest to find it cleared out. Except for one vampire that was left behind.
• Gunn’s place is attacked in broad daylight. They evacuate, but it’s a trap.
• The vampires, dressed in heavy gear to protect them from the sunlight, grab Gunn’s sister and speed off in a van.
• Gunn jumps onto the back of the van in time to see the vampires feed on his sister before they knock him off.
• Angel tries to offer his help to Gunn, but Gunn refuses to trust him. And locks him up for his trouble.
• The gang moves on the nest. Gunn goes in alone.
• He’s surprised to see his sister alive. But he quickly realizes they turned her into a vampire.
• Wesley and Cordelia show up and free Angel and he heads to the nest.
• Gunn’s sister tries to convince him that he’d be better off if he lets her turn him into a vampire, too.
• She moves in for the kill. But he stakes her instead.
• When the rest of the vampires show up to throw down, Angel barters a truce. In the process, he dusts the vamps’ leader. Then both sides walk away.
• The next night, Angel goes back to see Gunn. He tells Gunn he might need some help from him at some point.
• We’ll probably see him again.
• Body count: Vampires – 7; Humans – 3; Demon bodyguards – 1