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.

Shells

• Picking up immediately where last week’s episode left off…
• Fred has died, but then she seemingly transforms and is reborn.
• Her skin, hair, and eyes all have a blue tinge to them.
• Wes calls her Fred… but she doesn’t respond.
• From her clunky movements, it’s clear Illyria isn’t used to having human form as she walks to the mirror to get a good look at her new body.
• Wes then calls her Illyria…
• It doesn’t please her that a lowly human would dare utter her name simply because he was familiar with the shell she now inhabits.
• She thought the humans would have all died off by this point in history, but she recognizes they have become bold.
• He asks if she knows Winifred Burkle.
• She doesn’t… nor does she care.
• Illyria commands Wesley to “stop bleating at me, we’re done.”
• His response? Yes, we are… as he grabs an axe to kill her.
• As we pause for the opening credits, can I just say that Amy Acker did not receive enough attention for her dual role as Fred and Illyria.
• In no time she switched from playing America’s sweetheart to an ancient demon monarch.
• Anyway… Wes swings the axe only to have it shatter when it hits Illyria.
• She then remembers that Fred is the shell she’s in.
• Wes points out she’s the woman Illyria killed.
• Illyria is disgusted by his human grief and Wes seizes this opportunity to point out she’ll experience it every day now.
• He points out that humans rule the earth and will last for millennia, scurrying about like cockroaches.
• Illyria may as well return to where she came from.
• But she sees through this, knowing he’s still trying to save Fred.
• “You seek to save what’s rotted through.”
• She throws Wes against the wall and announces that she has work to do.
• On a plane headed back to LA, Spike tries to console Angel by saying Fred wouldn’t have wanted them to kill thousands to save her.
• Angel points out that dead doesn’t always have to stay that way in their world… there are ways to cheat death, citing himself, Spike, and Buffy as prime examples.
• Back at the office, Harmony offers to help torture Knox.
• Wes shows up and says it doesn’t matter anymore because Fred is gone.
• Knox laughs and says it’s beautiful.
• He explains how he loved Fred and why he chose her for Illyria.
• Wes pulls a gun and is ready to kill Knox, but Gunn stops him.
• Angel arrives and says it’s time to get her back.
• The team meets and Angel shares what Drogyn said about the sarcophagus being preordained to disappear from the Deeper Well… that nothing could have stopped it.
• Gunn says that’s not entirely true…
• He reveals that the sarcophagus was stuck in Customs but someone got it out.
• Doesn’t say it was him…
• Wes argues that Fred is gone and there is no bringing her back based on how he saw Illyria hollow Fred out and take her body.
• But our vampire heroes point out that it’s the soul that matters.
• As long as Fred’s soul is still out there somewhere, they can find it and get it back where she belongs.
• Once they do that, they’ll make everyone who had a hand in this pay.
• In the meantime, they need to keep Illyria on a leash, so Angel asks Wes where he thinks she’d have gone.
• Just then, Illyria grabs Knox through the office window and knocks Harmony across the lobby.
• Knox brags about worshiping her and she just replies, “I know…”
• In the lab, Illyria looks down at her sarcophagus while Knox goes on and on about loving her since he was 11.
• He shows her how he surgically implanted her ancient relics inside his body so that she would be drawn to him when the time came.
• She seems unimpressed.
• Illyria complains that this world is not how she left it and Knox apologizes saying he can’t really do anything about that.
• But she can… then she rips off her clothes…
• Up in the office, Angel is on the phone with Giles, trying to track down Willow to help with Fred’s soul.
• Wes apologizes for being irrational with Gunn, says he shouldn’t take it out on him because he has nothing to do with what happened.
• But the guilt is written all over Gunn’s face.
• Good thing Wes isn’t facing him as they talk.
• Harmony strolls in to give them the news about Illyria being in the building and taking Knox.
• Back in the lab, Illyria draws on energy from her sarcophagus to form new clothing for herself.
• Just as she announces she’s ready, Angel, Spike, and a Wolfram & Hart tactical team enter the lab.
• Angel tries to be intimidating, talking about how they’ve seen the rest of the Old Ones sealed away forever.
• He tells her to stand down and they won’t destroy her as they work to restore Fred.
• She declines, then throws Angel out the window, where he falls many stories to the ground below.
• Illyria then exhibits some kind of time warping power that slows everyone else while she grabs Knox and exits the building.
• Next step is to figure out where she’s going next.
• Wes and Harmony go back to the lab to look for info that Knox could’ve been hiding.
• Wes uses a crowbar to beat the crap out of the sarcophagus, which Harmony points out isn’t really helping.
• But it does, because the point was to loosen a gem that could have some power left in it.
• Harmony hands over Knox’s cell phone, which Wes discovers has been cleared of all incoming and outgoing calls.
• But Harmony asks about missed calls, leading Wes to see that the same person has tried calling him three times in the last few hours.
• Cut to the creepy doctor that pumped the law into Gunn’s brain.
• Gunn walks in and is ready to beat him to a pulp.
• The doctor just tells him what we already know… then he reveals there’s no way to get Fred back.
• Fred’s soul was consumed by Illyria’s return.
• Gunn accepts this as the truth and the doctor points out that he made a deal and now he has to learn to live with it.
• Which is the moment Wes walks in, knocking out the doctor and pointing a shotgun at Gunn, asking if there’s anything he’d like to tell him.
• Gunn explains to Wes that he couldn’t just go back to being the muscle, so he signed a paper…
• He had no idea that it would affect one of them… that it would be Fred.
• Wes tells Gunn that he understands not wanting to go back to what he was and can forgive that.
• But then he says he cannot forgive that Gunn knew who was responsible for what happened to Fred…
• Just before stabbing him in the gut.
• Angel confronts Wes about stabbing Gunn and is still optimistic that they’ll get her back.
• But Wes drops the bombshell about Fred’s soul being consumed in Illyria’s resurrection.
• Wes still blames Gunn for just letting Fred die…
• Angel says, “So did I.”
• This confession should go over well.
• It actually goes better than I thought, because Angel tells Wes he needs to bury what he’s feeling right now so they can focus on the real issue: Illyria.
• Spike comes in and says she’s going to unleash hell on earth.
• He’s been “interrogating” the doctor, who gave him the name of a place… where a temple to Illyria should be.
• That’s where Illyria’s sarcophagus was meant to reappear.
• Wes finds the temple in a book with an illustration of Illyria in its true form, surrounded by its army of doom.
• The temple is located in LA, but out of phase with our time and only Illyria can open a portal to access it.
• Illyria and Knox walk through a building that I assume is the exact location of the temple and she does just that… opens a portal.
• Except nothing happens.
• The gateway is blocked.
• Knox assumes Wolfram & Hart did the blocking, but he brought a skeleton key.
• Gunn wakes up in a hospital room and Harmony brings in some papers for him to sign.
• Even Harmony is coming down on Gunn with the blame.
• Sidebar: I get it. It’s tragic that Fred is gone. And I get how much it hurts everyone close to her.
• But all the blame that Gunn is receiving for this is misplaced. It’s cheap and it’s petty.
• Now, I can understand him blaming himself and I could even understand the others blaming him temporarily.
• Thing is, Gunn had no idea what he was getting out of Customs when he signed that paper.
• And even if he had read the document with his law-filled brain and known it was a document giving permission for the sarcophagus of an ancient demon to be delivered to Wolfram & Hart, there is no way he could have known that Knox intended for the demon to infect Fred.
• He signed a paper that anyone else could have been guilty of signing.
• Wrong place, wrong time.
• Fred’s death is not Gunn’s fault.
• He will carry the guilt of it for the rest of his life, but it is not his fault.
• Rant over.
• Knox is able to unblock the portal, but Wes, Angel, and Spike storm in.
• Illyria doesn’t understand why Angel would fight for humanity… especially where Knox is concerned.
• Angel explains that even though Knox is about as low as humanity gets, he’s still a part of it.
• Sometimes humanity is ugly, but they’re fighting for the potential beauty–
• And Wes shoots Knox dead.
• I’m sure his finger slipped on the trigger…
• Illyria is offended that they would think Knox matters to her.
• She easily defeats them in battle and doesn’t kill any of them because they’re main characters.
• Illyria slows time again and gets ready to make her escape, but then Angel shows up in her time zone and punches her.
• Turns out the gem that Wes pulled from the sarcophagus gives the holder immunity to her time slowing power.
• But that doesn’t stop her from opening her portal.
• She hops through and Wes follows before it closes, leaving Angel and Wes behind.
• Inside Illyria’s temple, Wes crashes to the floor as she announces he’s too late.
• Her army will rise and the world will be hers once more.
• Illyria finds the statue in tribute to her has been destroyed.
• And her army of doom is nothing but dust.
• Illyria kneels before her fallen statue and whines that her world is gone.
• Wes holds a gun to her head and says, “Now you know how I feel.”
• Before he can pull the trigger, he’s distracted by the opening of another portal.
• When he turns back, Illyria is gone.
• Wes regroups with Angel and Spike at the office.
• Spike asks if he offer to go abroad is still on the table, then suggests Gunn should take it before Wes decides to take another poke.
• Angel’s surprised that Spike is staying.
• Spike seems surprised, too… but it’s what he wants.
• The fight is coming and they can both feel it.
• He doesn’t like Angel, probably never will, but what they’re doing at Wolfram & Hart is important… Fred gave her life for it.
• Whatever is coming is bigger than Illyria.
• Wes is cleaning out Fred’s office and Illyria shows up.
• She doesn’t know why she was drawn there.
• Illyria still retains some of Fred’s memories.
• Wes tells her to leave but she has nowhere to go.
• She needs to learn how to exist in this world and wants Wesley’s help.
• He says that if he were to help her, she would have to change… no killing.
• Body count: Humans – 1