1.7 Angel

Plot Synopsis (Hide)

The Master hires a band of powerful vigilante vampires known as "The Three" to remove the threat of the Slayer. As Buffy walks home from the Bronze one evening, she is attacked by all three at once, and is in trouble until Angel comes to her aid. He is injured in the process, so Buffy breaks off from the fight and the two of them run to her house. She shouts to Angel to go inside, and they slam the door, leaving the vampires unable to get in since they cannot enter uninvited.

Telling Angel to take off his jacket and shirt, Buffy bandages his wound, and the conversation almost becomes intimate, when Buffy hears her mother, Joyce, returning home. She introduces Angel, then pretends to see him off, but instead they sneak up to her bedroom, afraid the vampires might be lying in wait if he leaves. Buffy asks why he risks his life fighting such dangerous creatures, and Angel tells her that his family were killed by vampires. He turns his back so she can change, and sleeps on the floor next to her bed.

Although Giles determines the Three are no further threat, as they will offer their lives in penance for having failed in their mission, he feels she should step up her training. Closing the library, he initially starts her training with a quarterstaff, but after she shows her prowess rather painfully, they move on to the crossbow she had her eye on to start with.

That evening, Buffy takes some food up to Angel, who has been hiding in her room all day. They kiss, but Angel pulls away, and when he turns she sees his vampire face for the first time. He scrambles out of the window as she screams in horror.

Searching his texts, Giles finds reference to a vampire called Angelus, the one with the angelic face. He wreaked havoc across Europe for decades, but then came to America and lived alone, shunning other vampires and no longer feeding. Buffy and Willow stay in the library for a while to study, and seeing them occupied there, Darla goes to Buffy's home, pretending to be a classmate. Joyce invites her in. and as she turns away, we see Darla approach in her vampire face.

Angel walks up to the house and is about to knock on the door, but changes his mind. As he begins to walk away, he hears a scream from inside and rushes in to find Darla holding an unconscious Joyce, who has bite marks on her neck. Darla tells Angel to feed, and thrusts Joyce into his arms, where he can see and smell the blood. She leaves, looking triumphant, while he struggles with himself, his vampire features emerging. Angel manages to stay in control, but at that point Buffy gets home, sees him leaning over the injured Joyce and reaches the obvious, if incorrect, conclusion. She throws him out, literally, and calls an ambulance. Once Joyce is recovering in hospital, Buffy goes out to hunt Angel, stopping off at the library to arm herself with the crossbow. Darla, meanwhile, has been to see Angel and convinced him that Buffy will be out to kill him, and that his only option is to kill her first.

Buffy tracks Angel to the Bronze, and they fight until she is able to get him in her crossbow sights, however she fires wide, and gives him a chance to explain his actions. He tells her how he once fed on a gypsy girl, and that her clan devised the perfect curse - the return of his soul. He hasn't fed on a living human since, and insists he didn't attack Joyce. Darla then steps out of the shadows, revealing that she was the one who made Angel a vampire, and that they once shared everything. Realising she will never get him back, she threatens to kill Buffy in front of him. Buffy raises her crossbow, but Darla produces guns. Shooting Angel first, to keep him out of the way, she turns to attack Buffy who runs. Darla looks likely to win this fight, until Angel staggers to his feet and stakes her from behind, using a discarded crossbow bolt.

The next night at the Bronze, Buffy meets up with Angel, who wants to make sure she's ok. They realise a relationship between them will never work, but share one parting kiss before going their separate ways.

Highlights

• Buffy's classic "merry-man" type pose, leaning on her quarterstaff, as she looks down at the defeated Giles, prostrate on the floor in his heavy padding.

Pop Culture References

When Giles suggests Buffy train with a quarterstaff, she says "Giles, 20th century? I'm not going to be fighting Friar Tuck!"
This is a reference to the jolly, worldly monk who was a member of Robin Hood's band of "merry men". Interestingly, it is actually Little John, another member of the band, who is generally associated with the quarterstaff, due to his famous first encounter with the then unknown Robin.

What We Learn

• The name of the Anointed One is Collin
• A vampire can't come in to your home unless it's invited
• Angel is a vampire
• Buffy's address is 1630 Revello Drive
• Angel, once he became a vampire, killed his own family and friends
• Darla is the one who made Angel into a vampire, his "sire".

Rationalising the Impossible

Joyce doesn't seem to question the fact that she inexplicably fainted, and injured her neck on a barbecue fork, even though she knows they don't own one.

Mythology

Angel tells Buffy: "When you become a vampire the demon takes your body, but it doesn't get your soul. That's gone! No conscience, no remorse..."

Nitpicks

• Why did Buffy tell Angel to stay at her house all day? She doesn't know he's a vampire yet, so why wouldn't he be safe going home after sunrise?
• Also, later in hospital Buffy berates herself "I invited him into my home. Even after I knew who he was, what he was". No, she didn't, she invited him in before she knew.