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.

Waiting in the Wings

• Cordelia is still encouraging Wes to ask Fred out.
• He’s still procrastinating.
• Angel’s got tickets to the ballet!
• Yay?
• Gunn and Fred return from breakfast and Fred is a little taken aback when Gunn calls her gorgeous.
• Angel is excited about this ballet.
• He saw them the same company in 1890 perform the same piece that they’re performing tonight.
• At the theater, the manager promises the performance of a lifetime.
• But somewhere above the stage, a mysterious figure laughs ominously…
• While dress shopping, Fred wants to ask for guy advice.
• Cordelia assumes she’s talking about Wes and is pushing Fred to go with it.
• But Fred is definitely talking about Gunn.
• Meanwhile, Fred wants Cordelia and Angel to pair up…
• Lorne helps Angel with his tux and he can’t help but read Angel, who definitely has a thing for Cordelia.
• Lorne points out that Angel and Cordelia are both champions.
• Everyone looks great all dressed up.
• Once the ballet begins, Cordy falls asleep and Gunn is actually into it, despite his earlier complaints.
• Angel notices something is off…
• Nothing has changed since 1890.
• Angel is watching the same dancers in the same performance from over 100 years ago.
• Cordelia and Angel head backstage to snoop around.
• Once they get past the one inept guard, they notice that “backstage” goes on forever.
• Angel suggests a spell or some kind of time flux… And that’s when they door they entered through vanishes.
• In the prima ballerina’s dressing room, Cordelia and Angel both begin to relive something that happened in the past.
• It’s almost like they’re possessed by long ago lovers…
• Uh… this has happened to Angel before… back when he was evil again in Sunnydale.
• He and Cordelia are really going at it.
• They finally work their way out of the dressing room and are no longer under any thrall.
• Lorne is babysitting Connor when he realizes they aren’t alone.
• Someone is in the hotel with them… someone Lorne recognizes…
• Cordelia and Angel are trapped backstage, but they realize they have to go back into the room to figure out who those past lovers were afraid of.
• Wes and Gunn both go for Fred’s hand at the same time, but she realizes that Angel and Cordelia still aren’t back yet.
• Cordelia and Angel return to the dressing room, but don’t get possessed at first.
• The others head backstage and are watched by the same ominous figures that were above the stage at the beginning of the show.
• In playing out the past, Cordelia reveals that they’re afraid of the company owner, who believes he owns the prima ballerina… that she dances for him.
• Before Angel and Cordelia can really get things going, they’re attacked by those ominous figures.
• I’m guessing they are some kind of embodiment of the comedy and tragedy masks that you find in the theater.
• They attack the others as well, stabbing Charles from behind.
• Angel manages to kill a couple of the mask guys.
• Wes kills another.
• And then Wes returns to find Fred and Gunn… kissing…
• You can almost hear his heart shatter.
• In his heartbrokenness, Wes finds a hotspot where he feels what the company owner felt.
• The owner is a wizard who pulled the company out of time. They would dance for him. Forever.
• The Comedy/Tragedy Guys revive and split… every time they’re killed, more are created, draining the wizard of energy.
• Wes sends Angel to the stage to see if he can find some way to free the ballerina, who is really standing backstage, watching herself perform over and over again.
• Angel figures out the only way to end the cycle is for the prima ballerina to take the stage again and change the ending.
• This gives Angel a chance to run out and jump into the owner’s box to smash the source of his power, allowing the ballerina to disappear and the Comedy/Tragedy Guys to vanish.
• Back at the hotel, Angel is pretty close to telling Cordelia how he feels.
• But then the Groosalug enters the room.
• That’s who showed up at the hotel earlier.
• Well now I have to feel bad for Wes and Angel.
• Body count: Comedy/Tragedy Guys – 3