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.

Birthday

• Cordelia practices her award speech… taking a break from cleaning house.
• Angel brings Connor downstairs and refuses to let her touch him until she washes her hands.
• While she’s in the bathroom, she takes some painkillers (signs that those visions are still taking their toll).
• Meanwhile, the rest of the gang surprise her when she comes back out.
• It’s her birthday!
• But then she has a horrible vision… it throws her against the weapons case.
• And she wakes up outside of her own body…
• Angel tries waking her and notes that her heart’s still beating… she’s still breathing…
• Lorne comes down and Cordy hopes he can hear her… but even he doesn’t see/hear her astral form.
• Cordelia is desperate to convey what she saw in her vision, but no one can hear her.
• Wes finds the pills she’s been taking, so Gunn and Fred go to her apartment to see if there’s anything else she’s been hiding from them.
• Phantom Dennis is waiting to surprise Cordelia for her birthday, too… But they have to break the news about her most recent vision.
• Fred and Gunn can’t find anything off at Cordelia’s place, so Fred thinks Dennis is protecting her.
• They appeal to him and he leads them to a box under her bed.
• BTW, this is where it’s starting to become clear that Gunn has a thing for Fred.
• Wes made it obvious from about the start of the season. Gunn’s starting to turn on the charm, though.
• Lorne tries to psychically communicate with Cordelia… she’s standing right beside him but he still can’t connect.
• Cordelia’s next move is to wait for Angel to doze off in his chair, then she possesses his body.
• She only gets a moment to try and write the address from her vision on the wall, but she’s interrupted by some kind of shadow that knocks her out of Angel.
• Wes comes in and makes it sound like Cordelia may die from this if they can’t figure something out soon.
• Then the shadow begins to take form… Cordelia assumes it’s Death come for her.
• But it’s not… it’s Skip.
• Remember that demon that Angel fought to free Billy from his fire box? That’s Skip.
• Skip explains that she doesn’t belong here anymore. She’ll die very soon, unless she goes with him.
• Lorne returns from a trip to find a conduit to the Powers That Be, and he’s been kind of beaten up by the experience.
• Angel takes the info and heads out.
• Skip transports Cordelia to a mall… or what looks like a mall.
• He explains that she was never meant to have the visions.
• Doyle was never meant to pass the visions to her, but the Powers didn’t count on Doyle falling in love with Cordelia.
• Skip says the visions weren’t meant for humans to contain. They’re meant for demons.
• The last human who had the visions… her last vision blew out her skull.
• Angel visits the conduit, demanding that the Powers take the visions away from Cordelia and end her suffering.
• The conduit doesn’t take kindly to being told what to do.
• Skip continues his walk with Cordelia through the mall and shows her the first night that she ran into Angel in LA.
• If she hadn’t seen Angel that night, she would have connected with a powerful talent agent.
• Her life would have been completely different… She would have been a famous, wealthy actress.
• Skip gives her the chance to experience that life. If she returns to her body, she will be a vegetable until the next vision hits and she’ll die.
• Skip then takes Cordelia to see Angel arguing with the conduit… out of context.
• The things she hears makes her think Angel doesn’t think she can handle the visions.
• But she demands Skip take her away before Angel tells the conduit that he’s more afraid of her dying than she is.
• Skip delivers Cordelia into her new life, where she’s pretty much America’s sweetheart.
• She’s got it all… the fame… the wealth… the obnoxious PA…
• But she’s still got this nagging feeling that she’s forgetting something.
• The only word that comes to mind for her is Hyperion.
• So she goes there… And it’s open for business, so she books a room.
• But the room she gets isn’t the one she wants. She goes to Angel’s room instead and asks for it to be opened.
• She has flashes of the way the room should look. And then she starts peeling away the wallpaper.
• Cordelia finds the address she wrote on the wall in her previous life.
• Which is her next stop.
• The girl that answers the door kind of fangirls over Cordy coming to her house.
• Cordelia asks the girl if anything bad is happening there, despite how crazy that might sound.
• Just as she’s about the leave, the girl asks if she wants to see something cool.
• The girl shows a pentagram and explains how she’s gonna do a retrieval spell to bring her dad back home.
• But it’s right about this time when the demon from Cordelia’s vision appears and attacks.
• Wesley and Gunn show up to kill the demon. And Wes is missing an arm.
• She only remembers Wes as the wussy guy she knew back in Sunnydale.
• When Gunn mentions that there are three of them from Sunnydale in LA, she goes with them to visit Angel.
• In this version of reality, Angel received the visions from Doyle.
• Probably not the same way Cordelia got them.
• Angel’s mind is gone because of the visions. And it breaks Cordelia’s heart.
• She kisses him and takes the visions back upon herself, restoring her real memory.
• Skip shows up again, rebuking her for taking the visions.
• Cordelia demands that Skip find a loophole which would allow her to keep the visions and also survive.
• He mentions that there’s a possibility that she could become part demon.
• She agrees to it.
• And then she wakes up… frantically searching for horns or a tail. But she still looks the same.
• She suddenly has another vision, but she’s super calm about it.
• No pain at all. And she’s floating…
• Body count: No one died! Okay… that one demon was killed by Gunn and Wes, but that was part of an alternate timeline. Doesn’t count.