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Angel - Season Four Episode Guide - Season Four Guide

Deep Down
  Angel rises once again.

Angel lies at the bottom of the ocean, despairing and hallucinating. Fortunately for him, Wesley's been keeping Justine locked in a cupboard for the last three months. With her unwilling aid, he finally discovers the vampire's aquatic prison.

While Wesley tries to revive Angel, Fred and Gunn are talking to Connor, now part of the team, back at the hotel. Suddenly, Fred attacks Connor with a taser and reveals that she knows what he did to his father.

Angel is returned to the hotel, and saves Fred from an attack by Connor. After explaining what happened with Holtz, he tells his son to get out.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: Justine sneers at Wesley's search for Angel by calling him "Captain Ahab," after the crazed whaling ship captain in Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick. Ahab scoured the seven seas for a lifetime searching for the white whale which ripped off his leg, a quest which ultimately spelt disaster for him.

This episode picks up the action about three months after the end of season three. In that time, Connor has been helping Gunn and Fred run Angel Investigations, Wesley's been bonking Lilah a lot while keeping Justine locked in a cupboard, and Lorne's off in Las Vegas. And Angel? Well, he describes his summer thus: "Saw some fish. Went mad with hunger. Hallucinated a whole bunch."

Ground State
  Angel Investigations meet an electrifying young lady.

Desparate to find and recover Cordelia, Angel takes the gang on a dangerous mission to obtain a relic, the Axis of Pythia, which he believes will let him achieve his aim.

However, their break-in to steal the Axis is disrupted when they run into another thief - the electrically-charged Gwen. Tussling with her, Gunn is killed when her powerful charge stops his heart. She stops to revive him, then escapes with the Axis.

Delivering the Axis, Gwen is double-crossed, but fortunately Angel arrives to confront her, ending up saving her instead. As a mark of gratitude, she gives him the Axis.

Meanwhile, Cordy's up in heaven, bored out of her head.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: Alexa Davalos, who plays Gwen in this episode, is soon to be seen in The Chronicles of Riddick, the sequel to sci-fi horror movie Pitch Black. Her character is called Kyra.

Gwen's second name is Raiden - possibly a reference to the Japanese thunder god Raiden, who apparently also likes to devour people's navels. Yes, he's concerned with thunder, lightning and belly buttons. A possibly more familiar version of Raiden is the character Rayden in Mortal Kombat, who also controls electricity.

Both the Elusian mystery, Dinza and the Pythian Axis come with Classical Greek references. The Elusian mysteries were a series of secret rituals followed by one Greek cult. The Pythian Axis is said in this episode to be forged out of the Delphic oracle, which sounds a bit harsh as the oracle was a priestess, based at Delphi, who uttered cryptic prophesies.

The House Always Wins
  Lorne finds leaving Las Vegas hard to do.

Upset and worried at Lorne's failure to contact them since he left for Vegas, Angel and the gang go to visit him. Once there, they watch his floor show, but can't get to speak to him.

In his dressing room, Lorne is forced to give the names of people in the audience to a gangster, Lee. Later, in the casino, each person he picks is given a token for a game which robs them of their destiny, and fixates them on gambling. Angel, bothering the management, is picked too.

While he plays the slots, Fred and Gunn try to escape with Lorne, who they've rescued. Cornered and brought before Lee, it looks like the game is up, until a divine intervention by Cordelia causes Angel to hit the jackpot. Brought up to collect his winnings, he suddenly hits out and destroys a glowing ball, releasing all the trapped destinies.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: Andy Hallett, talking to the Cult site, revealed how much he'd enjoyed filming this episode. "[The dancers there] didn't know me from a hole in the wall... but I think they thought I had more authority than I did.

I had just watched the Grammies [where] Patti Labelle came rising out of the stage on this big lift... and she comes down the stairs while the girls are all on the stairs... I look backstage and I see stairs and I'm thinking, 'Hmm - I want those stairs.' I said to the girls, 'Girls, let's try something.' ...and those girls went right up, did it like I asked, thinking that I'm a choreographer."

Check back soon to see the whole of the interview.

Lorne brings the house down with his rendition of Lady Marmalade, a 1975 hit for LaBelle. The song topped the charts again with a version produced for the film Moulin Rouge, this time featuring the singing talents of Lil' Kim, Mya, Christina Aguilera and Pink.

Angel reveals that he hung around with the Rat Pack in the 50s. The core members of the Pack were Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jnr, and Dean Martin.

Slouching Towards Bethlehem
  A friend returns, but is she quite all there?

Cordelia returns, but has absolutely no memory of who she is. The gang try to help her, including getting Lorne to read her mind as she sings, but nothing seems to help. Worse, Lorne is so shaken by what he sees from reading her that he refuses to speak about it.

Scared by the goings on at the hotel, Cordelia willingly goes with Connor when he turns up, relieved at his truthfulness. Despite being attacked by Wolfram and Hart employees, he manages to keep her safe, and refuses to return to Angel.

Dismally returning to the hotel, the gang have even worse news. Lorne has been attacked, and the knowledge he read from Cordy's mind pulled from him by a brain-burrowing demon.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: The title is a quote from the W B Yeats' poem The Second Coming. Other telling lines in the poem include:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world
The blood-dimmed tide is loosened.

The poem ends with the lines:

And what rough beast, it's hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

A hint of things to come, perhaps?

Cordelia suggests that Gunn is a Black Russian. As Angel points out, that's actually a drink, made as follows:

Two measures vodka
One measure Kahlua
Ice
And, the Cult team would suggest, a generous slug of coke, if you don't want to have a very bad head in the morning.

Supersymmetry
  Fred meets a professor who's more murderous than nutty.

Fred discovers that one of her science articles has been published, and she's been asked to give an address about it. As she does so, however, a portal opens and demonic tentacles try to drag her in.

Nervously, she meets up with her old physics teacher, Professor Seidel, the next day. While browsing his books, she is shocked to discover one full of portal-opening magicks.

Realising that it was he who sent her to Pylea, Fred determines to kill him. Helped by Wesley, she goes to Seidel's office, only to find Angel and Gunn there, both of whom are trying to stop her.

As Angel battles a demon, she opens her own portal to kill the professor. To prevent her, Gunn steps in to do the job himself.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia:

The supersymmetry of the title is a branch of very very complicated physics called string theory that tries to tie all theories together with one Unified Field Theory. It involves lots of dimensions and big long difficult equations.

There's a whole raft of comics references in this episode. Gunn mentions Daredevil 181, in which issue, as his threat suggests, Elektra dies. But don't worry kids, she's got her own book now.

Comics publisher Dark Horse is also referred to. One of the largest US comics companies, their title include none other than the Buffy series. They have also published an Angel series.

Spin the Bottle
  A trip too far down memory lane.

In an attempt to return Cordelia's memory, Lorne arrives with a magic bottle and a memory spell. The whole gang, plus Wesley, sit down together and perform the spell, but it backfires when Cordelia steps on the bottle.

Suddenly, eveyone's memory reverts to when they were seventeen, with the exception of Lorne, who instead has passed out behind the counter.

The gang bicker with one another, discovering Lorne in the process. Wesley convinces them there's a vampire in the hotel somewhere, which they must kill as a test. They split up to find it.

Angel, or Liam as he believes himself to be, realises that he's a vampire when he comes face to non-reflection in a mirror. He attempts to hide this from the group, hitting Lorne to keep him quiet. As he chases Cordelia, Connor appears and intervenes, and the two fight it out in the hotel kitchens. Only the intervention of Fred, her memory restored, stops them.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: This episode is the only one in season four written by Buffy and Angel creator Joss Whedon, who also directed it.

What the personality disorder test involving questions about wanting to be a florist that Fred mentions is, who knows, but it's not the first time it's been referred to in the Buffy universe. In season three Buffy episode Doppelgangland, Buffy tells Willow that Giles "even has that test to see if you're crazy that asks if you ever hear voices or you ever wanted to be a florist." And in season two episode What's My Line part one one of the questions on the careers aptitude test everyone takes asks whether they like shrubs.

Apocalypse, Nowish
  The Beast comes to town.

As reports of strange incidents flood into the hotel, Connor arrives to ask Angel to speak to Cordelia. He does so, but their talk is interrupted when Cordelia has a vision, and tells Angel that something is coming.

Investigating, Angel manages to extract some information from Lilah. In the meantime, a huge, horned demon, the Beast, bursts from the earth at exactly the spot where Connor was born.

Both Connor and Angel attack the Beast, but both are easily beaten by it. As Angel lies injured, fire begins to rain from the sky. Elsewhere, Cordelia and Connor share a passionate night in the face of armageddon.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: Vincent Kartheiser found filming his sex scene with Cordelia a little tricky, due to the fact that Charisma Carpenter was four months pregnant at the time. In an interview, he told us, "I was hovering about two and a half feet over Charisma throughout the sex scene, just to make double sure that I wouldn't harm her or her child."

You can see the whole interview here.

This episode title nods to Francis Ford Coppola's infamous film about the Vietnam War, Apocalypse Now, which is almost as famous for the disasters that beset the production as for the movie itself - it went 100 percent over budget, leading actor Martin Sheen had a heart attack, and the filming took place in the middle of a civil war.

Habeas Corpses
  The halls are alive with the moans of zombies.

Connor, blaming himself as the cause of the Beast's arrival, confronts Lilah in her office at Wolfram and Hart, but before he can learn any information, the law firm is attacked by the Beast. Connor is knocked into a pillar and trapped under rubble, and the injured Lilah is only rescued by Wesley.

Returning to the hotel, Wesley tells Angel what has happened, and the gang head back to Wolfram and Hart to rescue Connor. Although they quickly find him, when the gang try to leave, they are beset by hordes of zombie lawyers.

Remembering a previous visit, Angel leads an escape via the White Room, but they arrive to find the Beast sucking a black fog of energy from the strange little girl. As she dies, she transports them back to the hotel.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: The White Room and the strange girl who lives there were first encountered by Angel in the season three episode Forgiving.

Poor old Gavin Park finally bows out in this episode, killed by the beast, then turned into a zombie. Rather pathetically, his last word was "Hi!" Actor Daniel Dae Kim has since gone on to appear in the second season of 24.

The idea of zombies originated in Caribbean folklore, with Haiti being a particular centre of the belief. They've been a big favourite in horror movies since the thirties, with some of the best movie treatments being George Romero's Living Dead trilogy, Peter Jackson's 1992 gore-comedy Braindead, and, most recently, Danny Boyle's Twenty-Eight Days Later.

For more on movie zombies, take a look at the BBCi Films site's History of zombies in the movies.

Long Day's Journey
  There's little black spot on the sun today.

A combination of Wesley's research and a tip-off from Gwen lead the Angel Investigations gang to realise that the Beast is killing a group of ancient totems, the Ra-Tet, and removing some element from each of them.

Angel and Gwen go in search of one of the only two that remain alive. They're too late for one, but an overweight man appears and reveals that he, Manjet, is the last. The Beast, he says, is planning to blot out the sun with the relics he's removing from the Ra-Tet.

The gang guard him at Gwen's palatial home, but somehow he still meets his end. With only one option, they go after the Beast himself, but fail once again.

As the sun begins to dim, the Beast mentions a meeting between Angelus and himself, which Angel cannot remember. Wesley realises that Angelus' memories are the key to destroying the Beast.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: This episode ended with the words "In Loving Memory of Glenn Quinn" - a tribute to the actor who played half-demon Doyle in the first season of Angel. Glenn died in 2002.

The five totems in this episode are Mesektet, Ashet, Ma'at, Sekhmet and Manjet, said by Wesley to represent stages in Ra's journey across the sky. Ra was the ancient Egyptian god of the sun. Ma'at was the goddess of truth, Sekhmet a fierce, lion-headed war and sun goddess, Ashet (or Akhet) and Manjet (or Manu) places associated with the sun, and Mesektet a vehicle of the sun.

Awakening
  Will the big bad be back?

Wesley fetches a shaman who can remove Angel's soul, but during the ritual he attacks Angel and is killed. Just then, Cordelia has a vision of a mystical blade which can defeat the Beast.

After braving booby-trapped passages, Angel acquires the sword. He learns from Fred's research that must pierce the Beast's skull with the sword to restore the sun - only he can do it as the resulting energy would kill a human.

He is nearly defeated in the ensuing fight, but succeeds with Connor's help. The two share a moment of understanding, and Connor conceeds that Cordelia is not for him. Joyful at the sun's return, Angel and Cordelia fall into each other's arms.

Just for a moment, Angel experiences perfect bliss. As his soul departs, all that has happened is revealed as a dream - the product of the shaman's ritual. Angelus is back.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: Roger Yuan, here playing the shaman, has appeared in many martial arts movies as an actor or stunt man, including Bulletproof Monk. This isn't his first time working with vampires - he was one of the stunt men in the 1998 movie Blade.

Angel sings The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia. It's a very sad ballad about a man who believes his wife's been playing around, goes out to kill her lover, but finds him already dead. He's hung for the crime, which actually his sister committed. It's probably a little dark for fun-bunny Lorne.

What does Angel shout at his moment of passion? Buffy. Now that seems a little hard on Cordelia.

Soulless
  Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words...

Angel's soul sits in the Hyperion hotel's safe, while the vicious Angelus sits in a cage in the cellar, spreading discord and misery by taunting the Angel Investigations gang.

Threats unavailing, finally Cordelia offers herself to Angelus in return for the information they need on how to stop the Beast. Angelus tells them of a priestly sisterhood, but when the gang arrive at the women's house, they find the aftermath of a massacre.

Angelus' information having proved useless, they set out to recover Angel. But the jar containing his soul has gone.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: This episode was directed by Sean Astin, perhaps better known for his role as hobbit Samwise Gamgee in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Angelus shows off his knowledge of literature a couple of times in this episode. He calls to Gunn and Fred as Othello and Desdemona, referring to the Shakespeare play, and also makes a reference to the classic. "The first woman you boned is the closet thing you've ever had to a Mother. Doin' your Mom, and trying to kill your Dad... there should be a play," he tells Connor. Well, that's pretty much the plot of Oedipus Rex, by Ancient Greek playwright Sophocles.

Angelus teases Wesley about his troubled relationship with his father. It's come up several times before, most notably in season one episode I've Got You Under My Skin.

Calvary
  Is the genie back out of the bottle?

Angelus continues to drive wedges between the Angel Investigations gang, who are further unsettled when Lilah returns. However, they do learn some useful information - Angelus tells them the Beast has a master.

The gang perform a ritual to restore Angel's soul, which is apparently successful, but once their guard is down reveals that he is still Angelus. He escapes from the hotel, then doubles back and pursues Lilah through the corridors.

Pulled into a doorway by Cordelia, Lilah gasps that Angelus will kill them all. "I know. Why do you think I let him out?" replies Cordelia, before stabbing Lilah in the neck.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: The title is a biblical reference - according to the Gospels, Calvary was the hill upon which Jesus was crucified.

The ritual performed to return Angel's soul involves a Chumash Indian Soul Eater. The Chumash were a group of Native American tribes who lived across central California area until the arrival of westerners, who had a shamanic religion. They've previously turned up in Buffy - poor old Xander was struck with measles and syphillis thanks to a roused Chumash spirit in season four episode Pangs.

Salvage
  Jailbreak rock.

The gang find Angelus drinking from Lilah's body. He leaps away, leaving Wesley with th gruesome task of decapitating his former lover. Whilst doing so, he realises a way out of their dilemma.

Visiting Faith in prison, he convinces her to break out and join them. She leads the Angel Investigations gang on a hunt for Angelus. He, meanwhile, has been whooping it up in demon bars.

Tracking down Angelus to a warehouse, Faith pits herself against him and the Beast, but is badly beaten. As she watches, Angelus uses the Beast's own dagger to kill it. To his annoyance, this brings the sun back, allowing the injured Faith to escape by staying in daylight.

Back at the hotel, Cordelia has some news for Connor. She's having his child.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: The attack on Faith in the prison yard is a subtle crossover with events in Buffy's season seven. She's not the only Slayer to have been threatened with that design of curved, ornate knife. There's also a little nod to Sunnydale in Angelus' phone call to Dawn.

Faith's prisoner number is 430019. She's held at North California Women's Facility, which is a real institution, housing 800 prisoners. It's only medium security though, so it's not surprising it couldn't hold Faith once she wanted to leave.

Release
  Will the gang lose faith?

In a bar, Angelus finds himself arguing with the mysterious voice of the Beast's Master in his head. Back in the hotel, Cordelia's eyes are white, as she mouths the words that Angelus can hear.

Faith and Wesley go in search of Angelus, but find only a drugged girl who won't tell them anything - until Wesley knifes her. She then tells them that Angelus was there, and that he was speaking to an unseen master.

In an empty building, the two face Angelus, but seem outmatched. With Wesley knocked unconscious, Faith is beaten by Angelus - who finishes the fight by sinking his teeth into her neck.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: By the time this episode was filmed, Charisma Carpenter's real pregnancy was becoming very obvious indeed - and was a major factor in the Connor/Cordelia pregnancy storyline. A real professional, she continued working until nine months and one week into the pregnancy. Her son, Donavan Charles Hardy, was born on March 24th 2003.

Trying to whip Faith into a killing mood, Wesley refers back to the events in season one episode Five by Five, when Faith tortured him.

We learn something new about Connor in this episode - he's at least part demon, proved by the activation of the Sanctuary spell when he attacks Angelus.

Orpheus
  Faith and Angelus take a trip together.

As he takes his teeth from Faith's neck, Angelus cries out in horror, realising she's drugged him by injecting herself with the mystic narcotic orpheus. He collapses into unconsciousness.

He and Faith are taken back to the hotel, and Angelus is locked up again. Just as Connor gets set to kill him, Willow walks in - there at Fred's request as the only person they know who's ever restored a vampire's soul.

While Willow, Fred and Wesley work on the spell, hindered surreptitiously by Cordelia, Faith and Angelus take a walk through Angel's memories, linked by the drug they share. Only the resurgence of Angel's personality saves Faith from a psychic death.

Angel's soul restored, and Faith recovered from her ordeal, all seems well once more. Until a very pregnant Cordelia walks into the hotel lobby.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: This episode sees Alyson Hannigan's third crossover into Angel as Willow. She has previously appeared on the phone to Cordelia in Disharmony, and was seen briefly at the very end of Angel season two, delivering the news of Buffy's death.

The title refers to the Ancient Greek myth of Orpheus. A legendary musician, Orpheus followed his wife, Euridice, into the Underworld when she was killed on their wedding day. His divine music and pleas melted the heart of Persephone, queen of the Underworld, and she allowed him to take Euridice back, on one condition. He must not look back at her until they were back in the world of the living.

As they reached the exit from the Underworld, Orpheus could resist no longer, and turned to look at Euridice. At his gaze, she melted away completely. Orpheus, crazed by grief, was later ripped apart by frenzied female worshippers of Dionysis, the god of wine.

Players
  An offer from Gwen shocks Gunn into action.

The gang are still coming to terms with Cordelia's strange pregnancy when Gwen turns up, and asks Gunn to help her out on a job. A little girl is being held captive, and she is determined to rescue her.

Gunn agrees, but during the break-in, at a wealthy Japanese businessman's house, it becomes clear he's been set up by Gwen, who is in fact carrying out a theft. He nevertheless helps steal her prize, an experimental military tool which turns off Gwen's dangerous electrical field. Back at her place, they test it out by sleeping together.

Meanwhile, back at the hotel, Lorne announces that he's going to do a ritual to bring back his empathic powers. As he sings down in the basement, Cordelia advances with a knife - only to be confronted by the rest of Angel Investigations.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: Gunn compares his tuxedo'ed self to James Bond, the classic British super agent. He even adjusts his black tie after fighting in a very similar way to current Bond Pierce Brosnan.

Fifties paranoia chiller Invasion of the Body Snatchers is mentioned by Gunn, when he sees the creepy way the L.I.S.A. insinuates itself into Gwen's back. The story - of a group of aliens who start their takeover in a small town by replacing the inhabitants with controlled pod people - has been filmed twice, in 1956 and in 1978.

Inside Out
  More mystical pregnancy trouble for Angel.

Angel confronts Cordelia, but before he can interrogate her, she escapes with Connor's help. Hiding in an abandoned building, she tells him that he must help her with a ritual to let their baby be born now, before the others find them.

Angel seeks out Skip in his search for answers. It soon becomes clear that the big demon is not so friendly after all and in fact arranged for Cordelia's ascension to a higher plane in order that she could bring back something - the pregnancy - on her return.

At Cordelia's bidding, Connor captures a virgin and sacrifices her, despite the urgings of the ghost of his mother, Darla. As Cordelia's labour begins, Angel bursts in. He is fighting his way past Connor to kill Cordelia when a light envelops them both.

Looking up to strike, Angel sees a beautiful, naked woman. Both he and Connor kneel in awe.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: Darla was last seen at the end of Lullaby, staking herself so that Connor could be born. And this is how he repays her!

Darla actress Julie Benz has a long cult TV pedigree - as well as the blonde vamp, she's also played Katherine Topolski in teen alien series Roswell and Kate Keys in Spielberg's abduction drama Taken.

Wesley makes a comparison between Cordelia and Lizzie Borden, the suspect in a famous case of axe murder in 1892. So notorious was the case that it became a playground rhyme:

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one.

"Nobody comes back from paradise. Well a Slayer once, but..." says Skip. Now, who could that have been?

Shiny, Happy People
  It'll all come out in the wash.

Angel and Connor return to the hotel with the woman. Like them, everyone becomes worshipful as soon as they see her. They have Cordelia, but she is comatose.

At her bidding, they set out on a mission to destroy all evil creatures. Whilst fighting a group of vampires in a bowling alley, the woman is cut, but she follows the pursuit of the vamps into a group of people outside. They all immediately bow down to her, bar one who attacks, but is viciously dealt with by Angel.

Back at the hotel, Fred desperately tries to wash the blood from the shirt the woman was wearing during the attack. She offers a replacement, but when she looks at the woman's face, it has become a horrific, maggot-ridden visage.

Fred finds the earlier attacker, who tells her he must destroy the woman. She tries to do so at the hotel, but is thwarted by the rest of Angel Investigations. Fleeing, her isolation is brought home to her when the woman, now named Jasmine, appears on a TV. All around Fred, people bow their heads in wonder.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: The title of this episode is taken from REM's 1991 hit of the same name, from their album Out of Time.

Jasmine is played by Gina Torres, who obviously made a very good impression on Joss Whedon while playing Zoe Warren in his space series Firefly. As well as that role, she's got a very long list of cult credits to her name, including the recurring roles of Nebula in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Anna Espinosa in Alias. Her regal bearing may have been developed by playing Queen Cleopatra in Xena: Warrior Princess.

If that isn't enough, she's Lawrence Fishburn's wife, and appeared with him in The Matrix Reloaded.

Jasmine's walkabout turned into something out of A Hard Day's Night, according to Lorne. Released in 1964, this was the first Beatles film, and featured scenes of the Fab Four being mobbed by hordes of screaming girls.

The Magic Bullet
  It's in the blood.

All over LA, waves of love for Jasmine and peace with one another are spreading through the population. Fred, meanwhile, is hiding from Jasmine's followers, any one of whom Jasmine can act through.

An attack by a demon gives Fred a realisation, which she puts into practice when Jasmine, Angel and the rest track her down in a bookshop. She shoots Jasmine, the bullet passing through and into Angel.

As he is about to kill her, he looks at Jasmine, to see the same horror as Fred. The two escape, and plan how to bring others round.

Realising Jasmine's blood is the key, and that Cordelia must share it, they return to the hotel. There they infect each Angel Investigation member with Cordelia's blood, drained from her as she lies in her coma. Each returns to normal, except Connor, who calls down Jasmine's followers onto them.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: The term magic bullet comes from medicine, where it was used to mean a way of delivering drugs very accurately, such as using viruses to deliver genes to a particular part of the DNA. Here it is also a reference to a Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory, after which the bookshop in the episode is named.

Apart from Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories and implants in the head, the paranoid bookstore clerk also mentions MK Ultra, a CIA programme said to use drugs, hypnosis, shocks, psychological torture and more in its investigations into mind control.

Lorne's heart isn't where you might think it should be. Nope, it's in his ass, as he so delicately puts it. As he can survive decapitation, it makes you wonder where his brain might be.

Sacrifice
  Trapped by the power of love.

Fleeing from Jasmine and Connor, Angel and gang end up hiding out in the sewers. There they meet some of Gunn's old crew, who have no idea what's happening on the surface.

Angel and the others try to help them fend off a creature which has been picking them off, but when Angel's vampiric nature is revealed, they turn on him. Wesley, in the meantime, has been captured by a clicking, insectiod demon, which is busy building a spell from flesh

Jasmine continues to search for the gang. Her last obstacle falls when one of the crew from the sewers wanders into the sun and is taken back by Gunn - having somehow experienced Jasmine in the meantime.

Angel tracks down Wesley and rescues him. As Jasmine's followers close in, Wesley tells him what he has learnt. The demon was from another dimension which also knew Jasmine - and the secret name which will end her power. Angel crosses through a portal left by the demon to go in search of the name as the others are taken prisoner by Jasmine.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: Jeff Rickets, here pretty unrecognisable under the makeup of the insectoid demon, has previously appeared on Buffy, playing Watchers' Council member Weatherby in season four episode Who Are You? He's also appeared on Joss Whedon's series Firefly, as well as on Enterprise.

The idea that saying someone's name will give you power over it is an old one, and has been used in many fantasy books including Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series. It's central to the Ancient Jewish form of mysticism called Kabbala, in which every letter has a value and a meaning, and their combinations have power. Hence the name of god is never said out loud in Judaism, as it is held to have enormous power.

Commenting on Jasmine's control of LA, Lorne says he feels like, "the last feisty wife in Stepford." He's referring to the 1975 film about a town where all the women are completely submissive, because they've been replaced by robots.

Peace Out
  What's in a name?

Fred, Gunn, Lorne and Wesley are taken to the hotel, and locked into the cage built to hold Angelus. They talk with Connor, discovering that he never saw Jasmine as anything other than horrific - but didn't care. Unsettled by their words, he goes in search of Cordelia.

In a demon dimension, Angel climbs to a temple, where he beats out of a priest the knowledge that Jasmine's true name is kept by a much larger demon, which will only reveal it with its last breath. Angel turns to fight the creature.

In the hotel lobby, Jasmine is about to spread her love - and dominion - across the world by means of a satellite link up. It's broken up as Angel appears with a demon's head, which croaks out her name. Suddenly, everyone can see Jasmine clearly, and panics.

Out in the street, Jasmine accuses Angel of destroying the world's one chance for peace, then attacks him. Nearly beaten, he's saved by the arrival of Connor, who tells Jasmine he still loves her, before killing her.

Angel arrives back at the hotel to find the rest of the gang in shock. They have a very unexpected visitor - Lilah.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: "God is nowhere," seen written on a sign outside a church was the catchprase of Angel co-creator David Greenwalt's show Miracles. It centred on the investigations of one Paul Callan into a series of unexplained miracles, but was cancelled early by US network ABC.

Gunn pays homage to 1999 sci-fi spoof Galaxy Quest with the words, "Never give up. Never surrender." In the movie, it's the motto of a long-cancelled Trek-like TV series with a fanatical following - one that also includes real aliens. The film starred Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman.

Home
  A once-in-a-lifetime offer comes from the dead.

Lilah, back from hell with a message, tells the incredulous Angel Investigations members that Wolfram and Hart's Los Angeles office is theirs. Though chary of the deal, they all take a tour, in the hope of discovering some lead as to Connor and Cordelia's whereabouts.

Once there, each member is given their own private tour. Labs for Fred, entertainment division for Lorne, library for Wesley and the White Room with a panther for Gunn.

Angel is shown 'his' office. There, on a surveillance screen, he sees Connor, holding a shopful of people hostage. The sight prompts him to agree a deal with Lilah, and he sets off to stop his son.

In a tense confrontation, Connor tells Angel that he has never had the love he needs, and only death is true. Angel replies that he will prove his love, then strikes him down.

Back at Wolfram and Hart, everyone agrees to take on Lilah's deal. Angel asks to see Connor one last time, confusing the others who don't even know the name.

Angel watches Connor, past life forgotten, happily eat a meal with another family - a family that can give him the love he needs. The vampire turns away from him for the last time.

Quiz - ten quick questions.

Trivia: Buffy season seven spoiler alert! Over in Buffy, that ugly mystical jewellery Lilah passes to Angel will turn out to come in very handy. Angel's next stop after the end of this episode is Sunnydale, where he'll be turning up at a crucial point near the end of Buffy's season seven.

Wesley's guide, Rutherford Sirk, comments that the Watcher's Council no longer exists, a reference to the events of Buffy season seven. A big explosion made certain of that.

Jonathan Woodward, here playing Wolfram and Hart boffin Knox, has previously appeared on two other Joss Whedon series. He played Tracey in an episode of Firefly, and vamp psychology major Holden Webster in Buffy season seven episode Conversations with Dead People.