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.

Carpe Noctem

• I don’t know much Latin… But I assume that means “seize the night.”
• Fred is interacting with the gang down in the lobby… really not making her crush on Angel a hidden thing.
• Then Angel comes downstairs, excited about a Charleton Heston double feature.
• Fred goes with him, but everyone else declines the invitation.
• Elsewhere, some bodybuilding type has just finished having lots of sex with a couple of really good looking girls.
• He seems more interested in looking at himself in the mirror, mentioning how good it is to be young.
• Then, he suddenly doesn’t feel so good… chants some words in another language… and it looks like his soul just leaves his body.
• Then his body melts.
• The next day, Fred is going on and on like a high school girl who just got back from a date with the most popular guy in school.
• Cordelia wants Angel to talk to Fred about it before she gets her emotions in too deep.
• In the paper, they noticed the report about the guy who just collapsed and died. And it’s not the first.
• We cut over to Wolfram & Hart, just to remind us that Lilah is still around.
• And she’s got a new rival this season in Gavin.
• I mean, I know we’ve already seen him in an earlier episode, but it’s still a nice reminder.
• The team discovers that there’s a link between the bodies that have been found. They were members of the same gym.
• All three of the guys who’ve died have no real connection, other than being members of the gym.
• Angel, however, spots someone across the street watching the gym from a dark window.
• He heads over to the retirement home to ask a Mr. Roscoe a few questions.
• Roscoe tries to pass himself off as a peeping tom, but Angel spots some ancient relics that lead him to suspect he likes to do some body swapping.
• And then the old man switches places with Angel.
• Using Angel’s body, he headbutts old man Angel unconscious.
• Okay… so we’re not confused now… When I talk about Roscoe, I’m talking about the old man using Angel’s body. When I talk about Angel, I’m talking about the vampire with a soul stuck in the old man’s body. Got it?
• Roscoe immediately tries to hit on Cordelia and she tells him he still needs to talk with Fred.
• This leads Roscoe to think that he’s now in the body of a gay man, not knowing that Fred is short for Winifred.
• Angel wakes up and tries to sneak down to call the team, but Roscoe is the one who answers.
• An orderly then hangs up the phone and escorts Angel back to his room.
• With Roscoe stealing more than a few bodies in his time, the folks at the retirement home have a tendency to find the old man ranting about being someone else.
• The next day, Roscoe assumes that Wesley is Fred and tries to have an awkward conversation.
• Gunn shows up with breakfast burritos and everyone wonders why Angel would be eating one. Roscoe still thinks he eats people food.
• Angel tries to plan his escape while Roscoe shreds all evidence in his case at the office.
• And then Fred comes down to chat.
• Instead of having that conversation where Angel would have politely shut down her crush, Roscoe flirts. Heavily.
• He tells Fred to go up and put on something nice and they’ll have a nice night on the town.
• Then Lilah comes in. She hands over some evidence regarding Gavin and his schemes.
• Of course, Roscoe hits on her, too.
• Angel, meanwhile, tries to escape by pulling the fire alarm. But then he starts to have symptoms of a heart attack.
• Roscoe and Lilah start making out… And Fred comes down just in time to see them.
• She walks away brokenhearted.
• Roscoe, in the body of a vampire, doesn’t realize that as things get hot and heavy, those vampiric instincts can kick in.
• And he bites Lilah.
• Lilah throws him off and escapes, thinking that Angel is playing some kind of sick game.
• Roscoe’s all confused, and feels his face and teeth. But when he goes to look in the mirror, he has no reflection.
• Turns out Angel had a heart attack. His fourth… well, that body’s fourth heart attack, anyway.
• Cordelia returns to the hotel after interviewing a couple of hookers that the last dead guy had been with.
• She finds Fred crying in the elevator.
• Fred fills Cordelia in on exactly what she walked in on…
• Roscoe has decided to take his new vampire body for a spin at a local Hollywood nightclub.
• He’s on the hunt… as vampires do.
• Roscoe bites another girl (doesn’t kill her), then beats the crap out of her boyfriend and a couple of his buddies.
• At the hotel, Wes finds that Roscoe has been reading up on vampires. Why would Angel need to get info about vampires?
• At the retirement home, Angel is planning another escape attempt. But he may not have to escape.
• Because Roscoe has arrived, claiming to be his own son.
• They confront each other in the rec room. Angel understands that Roscoe can only keep his body if he kills his own body.
• The rest of the gang shows up just in time to take Roscoe down.
• They tie him up and Wes gives Angel the spell to reverse the switch.
• Angel and Roscoe are right back where they belong.
• And then Angel destroys the conjuring stone responsible for the switch spell.
• Roscoe yells that Angel doesn’t deserve the gifts he has… but then he begins having another heart attack.
• Back at the hotel, Angel tries to finally have that conversation with Fred.
• But they’re interrupted when Cordelia bursts in with news about Buffy.
• Body count: Humans – 1