“Fredless”

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Episode 5 of Season 3

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“I didn't mean to get so lost.”

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Original US airdate: October 22nd, 2001

Rewatched: April 29th, 2023

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• Writer: Mere Smith

• Director: Marita Grabiak

• Guests: Andy Hallett, Gary Grubbs, Jennifer Griffin

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This episode’s main theme is about Fred’s place at Angel Investigations. Her parents show up in LA looking for her (she sent a letter to them on her return asking them not to try to find her, but they hired a PI who tracked her to the hotel). When they arrive, Fred is out. She sees her parents in Wesley’s office when she returns, and she runs. She heads to Lorne, intent on having him read her. He tells her she hasn’t run far enough, and she tries to run even farther. When the gang and Fred’s parents find her at the bus station, Fred has a meltdown. Although Fred’s friends were worried her parents were up to no good (after all, Fred hadn’t talked about them, told them not to try to find her, and she ran from them), it turns out Fred is the only one in the group with parents who are actually good parents. Fred was afraid to see them because seeing them would mean everything was real, including her time in Pylea. They have a touching reunion:

Fed: I didn’t mean to get so lost.

Mrs. Burkle: Oh, honey, it doesn’t matter what they did to you.

Fred: Mommy.

Mrs. Burkle: We’re gonna make it all right.

Fred: I’m sorry, I’m so sorry I got so lost.

Mr. Burkle: It doesn’t matter. You’re our little girl.

Fred: I missed you so much.

 

Later at the hotel, Fred tells her parents a bit about what happened to her and about Angel Investigations, saying “Angel’s the champion, and Wesley’s the brains of the operation and Gunn’s the muscle, and Cordy’s the heart and I’m…” She doesn’t know her roll in the group and this prompts her to leave LA with her parents. But they don’t get far before Fred realizes something about the monster of the week no one else noticed, and she returns to save the day. Fred is a second set of brains for Angel Investigations, and while Wesley has his books, Fred has her logic and ability to build gadgets. She has a place on the team, and she decides to stay. Only by finding her own way in life and choosing to help those like her can she truly save herself.

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Two minor things happen in this episode. First, Angel returns from meeting Buffy, but refuses to talk about it. Then, Lorne’s bar is still in a state of destruction, and he is feeling very used by everyone. He’s not happy when Fred comes to call, nor when Angel Investigations comes to call. In many ways, Lorne is right. He is very much taken for granted as someone who will always be available to help. He deserves better.

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“Billy”

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Episode 6 of Season 3

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“Menfolk not always around to protect the womenfolk.”

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Original US airdate: October 29th, 2001

Rewatched: May 5th, 2023

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• Writer: Tim Minear & Jeffrey Bell

• Director: David Grossman

• Guests: Stephanie Romanov, Daniel Dae Kim, Justin Shilton

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In this episode, the women of Angel take back the night. Sort of. The episode starts with Angel training Cordy. Although Cordy has not always shied away from battle, she’s never really trained, but as her path is now firmly set on fighting the good fight, she’s interested in upping her game. And she’s not bad with a sword. Additionally, love may be brewing among the Angel Investigations team. Wesley invites the gang to his place so he can spend time with Fred. He’s clearly into her. However, the joy of a night spent together is cut short when Cordy has a vision, of a murder from a week ago.

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As the team investigates, they discover that the murder had contact with the young man Angel saved from hell in order to save Cordy from Wolfram & Hart’s torturous fake visions. This leaves the two feeling a bit responsible for the deaths and they set out, separately, to set things right. In the course of the investigation, they discover that Billy, as the young man is called, is part demon and able to infect men with a sort of super-charged misogyny, causing them to attack and often kill women close to them.

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The women of Angel step up. First, there’s Lilah, who is attacked by Gavin at work. Being beaten up is not quite enough for her to give up her client to Angel when he comes knocking, but when Cordy comes by later, she causes Lilah to rethink her stance. This is the first time the two have actually met face to face, but Cordy knows enough about Lilah to make her listen. Cordy has an impassioned speech that starts as an explanation of her anger at what Lilah did to her, but ends up confronting Lilah with what was done to her:

Cordy: It’s not the pain, it’s the helplessness. The certainty that there is nothing you can do to stop it. That your life can be thrown away in an instant by someone else. He doesn’t care. He’ll heat you down till you stay down ‘cause he doesn’t even think of you as alive. No woman should ever have to go through that and no woman strong enough to wear the mantle of vicious bitch would ever put up with it.

Cordy ends up tracking Billy down and confronting him, but she can’t quite bring herself to shoot him. Angel shows up and fights him. However, it is Lilah who shows up last and shoots him. Lilah may be fully in the Wolfram & Hart camp, but she’ll betray a client to protect herself.

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Fred also has her moment. At the hotel with Wesley and later Gunn, who both end up infected, Fred must fight off the two of them to save herself. She is able to knock out Gunn before he is fully affected, but Wesley turns into a very scary foe, chasing her through the hotel with an axe, taunting her. Fred is able to craft a weapon to take him out, showing that she, too, can take control.

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The men of Angel Investigations all end up infected in the course of episode. What’s interesting is that it affects them all differently. Angel is not affected at all. He tells Cordy that after living so long, he doesn’t have that kind of anger in him. I sort of question that assertion, as he definitely had anger in him when he went dark in season 2. However, it may be that there is a difference between specific anger – in that case at Wolfram & Hart for what they did to Darla and to him – and generalized hatreds like misogyny and prejudice. Also, perhaps being infected by Billy was a bit like usual for Angel. After all, he’s used to using his soul to keep his demon in check, so perhaps he’s able to keep all sorts of bad energy in check when he wants to (and in this case, he didn’t want to feel the rage and attack Cordy, unlike in season 2, where he did want to attack Wolfram & Hart). Gunn also doesn’t change right away and has an acute awareness that he is changing. In fact, he urges Fred to knock him out before he can change. Fred is unwilling and only does so when it’s clear Gunn is actually turning into someone very scary. Wesley, on the other hand, does not seem to have this awareness, even though the change happens around the same time he and Fred realize that Billy is using his blood and other fluids to infect people.

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At the end of the episode, Wesley is not ready to face his friends, hiding in his apartment. Fred visits to try to get him to feel better, telling him it wasn’t his fault. But the question that is left open is whether what Billy did raised something to the surface from within the men, or was something he infected them with. Wesley has been faced with a version of himself he is now afraid may actually be in him, and it does not sit easy with him. That Billy may be raising something from within his victims is underscored by Angel being immune and by two bystanders to one of Billy’s crime scenes. They seem sympathetic to the taxi driver who killed his passenger, claiming she was probably backseat driving and indicating she may have provoked him. Long before the #MeToo movement, this episode points out that the world may not be a safe place for women and Billy may only be expanding on the feelings and impulses he finds in the men he touches.

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In the end, Lilah has taken back her power. Cordy and Angel have confronted their guilt. Gunn was able to protect Fred, even from himself. And Wesley and Fred must reckon with how the events will shape their future relationship. Lots of emotions packed into one episode. 

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Finally, in fun facts, the police scanner Angel stole in Somnambulist makes another appearance.

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“Offspring”

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Episode 7 of Season 3

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“Screw destiny! If this evil thing comes, we'll fight it, and we'll keep fighting it until we whoop it. 'Cause destiny is just another word for inevitable and nothing's inevitable as long as you stand up, look it in the eye, and say 'your evitable!”

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Original US airdate: November 5th, 2001

Rewatched: May 12th, 2023

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• Writer: David Greenwalt

• Director: Turi Meyer

• Guests: Julie Benz, Andy Hallett, Jack Conley, Steve Tom, Keith Szarabajka

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This action-packed episode explores relationships, revenge, and the meaning of prophecies. In terms of relationships, Cordelia and Angel may be developing feelings for each other. Cordy decides to decorate the basement where she’s been training with Angel in fake flowers and then a conversation with Fred makes Angel realize he might be developing a romantic interest in Cordy, which is not really surprising. The parallels between Cordy and Buffy are strong, and with Cordy’s new interest in training, they are only getting stronger. Just as Buffy was once Angel’s salvation, his link to humanity, Cordy has taken over this role in LA. They know each other well, both the good and the bad sides, and have grown together as they fought evil side by side. However, Darla’s return to LA, highly pregnant, puts a wrench in this possible romance. Since Angel looked Cordy in the eye and told her he didn’t sleep with Darla, Cordy is feeling she can’t really trust Angel. This anger, and her protective feelings for pregnant Darla, lead her to being overly solicitous of the pregnant vampire, who in the end decides to drink Cordy’s blood, which Cordy survives. Relationships are never easy.

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On the theme of revenge, the episode starts with a flashback to 1771 when Holtz has taken Angel captive in Rome. Holtz isn’t interested in just killing Angel, he wants revenge for Angel killing his family. As he says:

My only desire here is to discover if a thing such as yourself can be made to pay for its sins. You’re a demon, it is your nature to maim and kill, but you were also once a man. If we beat and burn the demon out of your living flesh, will there be anything left? Anything at all? I doubt it. […] In either event, you have no soul; you cannot be saved.

Darla arrives to save the day, choosing to let Holtz live because it’s fun to torment him, but this scene makes several things apparent. Had Holtz not been intent on torture, he could have killed Angel easily, ridding the world of a very bad vampire. Holtz, however, is not motivated by saving the world in his confrontation with Angel. Second, Holtz puts a strong emphasis on the contrast between demon and soul. In many ways, since Angel has regained his soul, he’s been repaying his sins and he is saved, showing that there is potential to redeem a demon. At the end of the episode, the demon Sahjhan brings Holtz into the present day. It will be interesting to see whether Holtz can accept that Angel’s changed, or whether his quest for revenge is still all consuming.

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Finally, prophecies. How much stock should we place in them? Buffy beat her prophecy in season 1. Angel is hoping to get his reward as foretold in the Shanshu prophecy. This episode introduces a new one, the Nyazian scrolls, which Gunn and Wesley steal. It foretells the coming of the Tro-Clon, which seems to be a person or event, and may be good or bad, and is arriving right now. First it seems that Angel and Darla’s child might be the Tro-Clon, leaving the gang to think that this baby can mean no good. As Angel mentions, he doesn’t see how anything spawned by Darla and himself could be good. And Darla laments that she doesn’t understand why anyone would bring something into this world. But it’s complicated. Parenthood always is. After Darla attacks Cordy, Angel sets off to track her, finding her trying to kill children. Angel told the gang he’d track Darla alone, and after he leaves, Wesley asks “Why does he think he has to do everything alone?”, to which Fred astutely replies:

I think he just can’t bear to have us see him do it.

Wesley: Kill Darla? She did try to kill Cordy and she’s a vampire.

Fred: Who’s carrying his child. The one thin he can never have even if he lives forever.

Like the Shanshu prophecy, Darla’s pregnancy hints that Angel could have something normal and human. In their confrontation, Angel senses why Darla has been craving innocent blood. Cordy had a vision when Darla bit her and she could feel Darla’s never-ending hunger and her thirst for innocence. Cordy, back at the Hyperion, and Angel battling Darla figure it out at the same time. Darla’s baby has a heartbeat and a soul. Whatever else it means, it is a glimmer of hope for Angel.

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Two side notes at the end. Wesley is still uncomfortable around Fred. Lorne is rebuilding his club, even getting the Transuding Furies to lay their spell on it again.

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Angel continues to show that adulthood is never easy. Wesley is still living with the consequences of Billy’s actions. Angel must live with Darla’s return and how this impacts Cordy, but also what fatherhood will mean to him. Angel and Holtz will both have to contend with whether vengeance is more important than salvation. Finally, the prophecies surrounding the birth of Angel’s child will continue to have meaningful consequences for the team. Angel Investigations continues to face the messiness of adulthood.

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“Quickening”

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Episode 8 of Season 3

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“Are you going to do it, or am I?”

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Original US airdate: November 12th, 2001

Rewatched: May 18th, 2023

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• Writer: Jeffrey Bell

• Director: Skip Schoolnik

• Guests: Julie Benz, John Rubinstein, Stephanie Romanov, Daniel Dae Kim, Jack Conley, Jose Yenque, Keith Szarabajka

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This episode again centers on the Tro-Clon, which we learn in this episode is not a person, but a convergence of events. However, the gang is still wary of Angel’s child, although Angel himself is starting to feel protective towards his child. Later in the episode, they take Darla to the hospital and find out that the baby is indeed human.

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Gavin and Lilah find out Darla is pregnant. Gavin had exterminators plant cameras in the hotel, but he’s having trouble dealing with the volume of information he’s getting. Hoping to get Lilah on board, he sends her the video of Marcus as Angel making out with her. She tracks down Gavin’s operation and realizes who the unknown pregnant woman is. The realization does not stay secret for long, and it turns out that lots of people want to get their hands on a vampire baby. Angel Investigations is ambushed by a man with a sword and a vampire cult while at the hospital. Darla is not so keen on helping the team defend her baby, until she finds out the vampires want to kill her and worship her baby. However, later in the episode it seems Darla may be developing feelings for her baby.

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Angel Investigations make it out alive, and decide to leave LA, but Wesley requests they pick up the Nyazian Scrolls from the hotel. There, Angel discovers that Wolfram & Hart had set up an operation to capture Darla and her baby, but someone, not Angel Investigations, stopped them. Holtz is back, ready to confront Angel and kill him, and he was the one who took out the Wolfram & Hart team. Waiting out in the car, Darla’s water breaks.

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Darla and Angel are faced with the question of who their child will be. It’s a supernatural mirror of what many parents worry about. Will my child be healthy, happy, successful? Of course, the questions of Darla and Angel are a bit more complicated than this, but their journey through the news of parenthood to acceptance of their child and what it will mean for their lives is not wholly unique.

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In this episode, we also learn why Holtz is in LA. In 1764, in York, Holtz was after Angel and Darla when they killed his family, including his baby. He continued to chase them through 1771, but then lost track of them. In 1773, Holtz was alone and bitter. Sahjhan made a deal with Holtz. Although Holtz was at first skeptical to make a deal with a demon, Sahjhan claimed Holtz would not have another chance to kill Angel and Darla unless he travelled through time, and all Sahjhan wanted was a promise that Holtz would follow through with his revenge.

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The problem is that while Holtz has not changed, Angel has. It will be interesting to see to what extent Angel’s soul and Darla’s pregnancy will influence Holtz’s revenge on them, and whether he will be able to keep his promise to Sahjhan.

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“Lullaby”

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Episode 9 of Season 3

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“This child, Angel, it’s the one good thing we ever did together. The only good thing. You make sure to tell him that.”

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Original US airdate: November 19th, 2001

Rewatched: May 26th, 2023

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• Writer: Tim Minear

• Director: Tim Minear

• Guests: Julie Benz, John Rubinstein, Andy Hallett, Stephanie Romanov, Daniel Dae Kim, Jack Conley, Jim Ortlieb, Keith Szarabajka

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This episode, in which Angel’s son is born, is full of Christian imagery, fitting because Angel not only sees fatherhood in terms of what he can give his son, but also in terms of what his son can give him, namely salvation. However, the focus of this episode is Darla’s relationship to her son, and the role Holtz has played in their lives.

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First, Holtz captured Angel at the end of the last episode and at the beginning of this one, he is ready for his revenge. All that’s missing is Darla, who he assumes must be near, musing that some things don’t change. Angel is oddly accepting of his fate, not telling Holtz about his soul, but he does prod Holtz’s motives. When Holtz claims he’ll have justice, Angel counters that “I don’t think you will. There’s no justice for the things I did to you.” Holtz says, “You didn’t do them to me.” In a final flashback we learn that while Darla and Angel killed Holtz’s wife and infant child, they did not kill his daughter. Instead, they turned her into a vampire, leaving it up to Holtz to kill her (which he did). When Lilah arrives to get intel on what’s happening for Wolfram & Hart, she ends up telling Holtz about Angel’s soul (and stealing the Nyazian Scrolls). In an interesting turn, Holtz is angry with Sahjhan for not telling him about Angel’s soul, not because it changes his desire for revenge, but because Angel with a soul is a different person to hunt than Angel without a soul.

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When Holtz tracks Angel and Darla down at Caritas at the end of this episode (and discovers a loophole that while no violence can happen in the club, bombs can be thrown in (Caritas is destroyed for the 2nd time thanks to Angel Investigations)), he has the chance to kill Angel. Sahjhan is upset that Holtz doesn't take it, but seeing Angel with his son has made Holtz realize that thanks to everything that Angel has, such as his son and his soul, it is now actually possible to fully extract revenge for Angel’s past actions. Angel can feel the pain that Holtz does.

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Then, there’s the baby. Angel continues to be very optimistic about his son, but Angel Investigations is less so, with Gunn even questioning if the child is not being protected by the Powers, and when it looks like the child may die before being born, he raises the death as a possible way the Powers are intervening. Darla is also not feeling great about being a mother. In fact, for much of the episode she refers to her child as “it”. While waiting with the rest of the Angel Investigations team for Angel to return from the hotel, Darla is increasingly frustrated by her labor. She ends up running off in Angel’s car. Once Angel has escaped Holtz, he is able to find Darla, where they share a moment on a rooftop. Darla is starting to love her child, but she also realizes that it’s his soul that is allowing her to love him. Once he's born, she won’t have a soul and she won’t love him. Later, at Caritas, where the gang hopes Darla can give birth in peace, Darla starts using “he” to refer to him, and calls him her darling boy, mirroring what she used to call Angel.

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However, there are complications, even more than Holtz trying to kill them, as it looks like Darla can’t give birth and the powers protecting the baby won’t allow a c-section. Things are not looking up. After the group escapes Holtz in the bar, most of the team leaves to get the car, leaving Angel, Darla and Fred in the alley behind the bar in the rain (alleys and rain both being significant symbols in Angel). Eliciting a last promise from Angel to tell her son about him being the only good thing Angel and Darla ever did together, Darla stakes herself.  As the Wolfram & Hart translator said the Nyazian scrolls predicted, there was no birth, only death. Darla sacrificed herself to save her son. In her final moment, she gave him life and gave him to Angel.

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It is still unclear what the birth means but clear it will be complicated. Holtz is still after Angel, Wolfram & Hart are after the baby, and Angel is a single father. Like many new parents, he will face the question of how to parent, what role his son will play life, and how he can protect him.

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