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.

Heartthrob

• Fred is now living at the hotel. She seems a little skittish about coming out of her room, though.
• The rest of the team have noticed that Fred’s been hiding out since Angel left town three months ago. She’s kind of attached to him.
• Angel’s working through his grief. He’s on a spiritual retreat in Sri Lanka.
• Except when we join Angel, he’s in the middle of a pretty epic battle. Not very peaceful.
• He kills a bunch of demon monks and then goes on his merry way.
• Angel returns home, bearing gifts for his friends.
• Then he stops by Fred’s room to check on her.
• She’s inside writing on the walls, just like she did in her cave.
• He tries to convince her to visit downstairs, and then Cordelia has a vision.
• She sees a bunch of vampires attacking a college party, but the guys get there too late.
• The vampires haven’t been gone long and they’ve taken a couple hostages.
• In the vamps’ car, the blonde talks to the boy they’ve taken, asking if he loves the girl.
• He says yes, but when she gives him the choice of killing her to save himself, he says he wants to live.
• Ain’t love grand?
• Angel and the guys catch up. They save the kids and dust three of the four vampires.
• But the blonde, before she turns to dust, recognizes Angelus.
• Cordelia’s post-vision headaches are still getting worse. Luckily she has Dennis the Ghost at home to help take care of her.
• Flashback time… Angelus and Darla are hanging out with another young vampire couple.
• But it’s not Spike and Dru… this could be confusing.
• Apparently that young couple are in love… but also reckless. And they’ve drawn the attention of Holtz, the infamous vampire hunter.
• Their names are James and Elizabeth. He breaks into a store and steals her the locket that she was still wearing when she was dusted.
• This, again, draws the attention of Holtz.
• The vamp that got away reports what happened to James. In his anger and grief, he throws his lackey into the sunlight.
• But not before mentioning that he wants to die.
• Cordelia tries to get Angel to open up about Buffy, then convinces him to finish the story about what happened with Holtz.
• Darla and Elizabeth got away and Holtz captured Angelus and James.
• Angelus is ready to spill it all. Having no soul, he couldn’t really care less.
• We find out that Holtz wants Darla more than Angelus… but that they both played a role in slaughtering Holtz’s family.
• James and Angelus manage to get away and James leaves to try and get to Elizabeth before Holtz can.
• Wes and Gunn meet with Merle at Caritas. He’s heard some noise about James and how badly he wants to see Angel dead.
• Turns out they don’t have to track him down. James shows up at the hotel to attack Angel.
• Merle reveals that James was recently at Dr. Gregson’s office. What could that mean?
• Angel stakes James… but that does nothing.
• Did he get his hands on a Gem of Amara?
• No… Angel destroyed that. Maybe they mass produced the thing.
• Then Angel throws James into the sunny courtyard of the hotel. Still nothing…
• Angel and Cordelia escape into the sewers. They lose James.
• Wes calls Cordy’s cell phone and lets them know James is invincible.
• Dr. Gregson removed his heart. This makes him invincible, but then he’ll die in six… somethings. The signal is pretty bad in the sewer.
• Probably six hours. That’s my guess, anyway.
• Angel and Cordelia make their way onto a subway train, but James still catches up.
• James assumes that he can kill Cordelia, the woman he loves.
• But Angel reveals that the woman he loves is already dead.
• It doesn’t take much longer before James’ invincibility wears off and he turns to dust.
• In the end, Angel reveals to Cordelia that he’s not okay because he’s okay. Losing Buffy didn’t destroy him. He feels like it’s betraying her somehow.
• Cordelia talks sense into him. He’s still here fighting. That’s not betraying Buffy, it’s honoring her.
• Meanwhile, somewhere in Nicaragua…
• A shady guy gives Darla a slip of paper… info about a mysterious shaman.
• She kills him for his trouble.
• Then she walks out of the bar. And she’s very pregnant.
• Body count: Demon Monks – No way to count them all; Vampires – 5; Humans – 1