Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episode Guide

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 1, Episode 7: Angel

by Helen

            The Master is watching the Anointed One skip stones on a pool of blood, when Darla informs them that one of The Masters’ best servants has been killed by the Slayer. The Master decides Buffy must be taken care of once and for all. Darla wants to do it but The Master won’t let her because she has a personal vendetta against the Slayer. Instead he decides to send a group called The Three. That night, three fearsome vampires dressed in metal armor grace the streets of Sunnydale.

            Also that night the Bronze celebrates its annual Pre-Fumigation Party, where killing a cockroach will get you a free drink. Buffy isn’t really in the partying mood though. She’s yearning to have a guy in her life and her closest prospect, Angel, only shows up once a month and never stays around long. Willow knows what its like to have the no-boyfriend-blues, as Xander is spending the evening on the dance floor making a fool of himself trying to pick up girls. After nearly picking up a fist in the face from an angry boyfriend and exchanging bitter words with Cordelia, Xander returns to the girls only to find them having a mope fest. When Buffy realizes her mood is rubbing off on her friends she decides to go home, much to Xander’s disappointment. Walking out of the Bronze, Buffy gets a strange feeling, like she is being watched. She’s right. Angel is lurking in the back of the club staring at her, but by the time she turns around he’s gone. As Buffy walks home she once more gets the feeling that she is being watched. She spins around but again no one is there. She continues to walk but by now she is convinced that she is being followed. She stops and demands her stalker show himself. One of the armored vampires jumps down behind her from a nearby roof. She pulls out her stake and turns to fight him. Suddenly she finds herself surrounded by all three of the vampires and a brief struggle puts her in the losing position.  Just as she is about to be bitten, Angel jumps in and saves her. She and Angel try to fight back but they are outnumbered. They make a break for it and run to Buffy’s house. The Three follow close behind. As Buffy opens her front door she shouts “Come on!” to Angel and he rushes into her house after her. He tells Buffy they are secure because vampires can’t come in without an invitation.

            Angel was injured in the fight so Buffy has him take off his shirt so she can tend to his wound. She notices he has a tattoo on his back of something with wings. While bandaging him up she asks how he happened to come upon her and he tells her he lives near the Bronze. She asks if he was following her and he is evasive. Their conversation soon turns into a flirtation, one that is interrupted by the sound of the front door opening. Buffy’s mother comes in the house and is none too pleased to find a handsome older man alone with her daughter late at night. Buffy claims that Angel is a college student who is tutoring her in history. Her mom tells her to send him home. Buffy knows The Three might still be out there somewhere and she doesn’t want Angel to get killed, so she fakes walking Angel out and instead sneaks him up to her room. While preparing for bed, Buffy asks Angel why he fights vampires and he reveals that his family was killed by them. Their conversation also lets Buffy know that he thinks she’s pretty and that it’s been a long time since he’s slept near anyone. This knowledge pleases Buffy.

            Xander is not so pleased the next morning when he finds out that Angel spent the night in Buffy’s room. Giles interrupts Xander’s lecture to discuss more important issues.  He informs Buffy that The Three are elite warrior vampires. The fact that the The Master sent them after her is an indication that she is really hurting him. Xander thinks the best plan of action is for Buffy to stay at his house and for Angel to get out of town. But Giles says The Three will offer up their lives because of their failure, so Buffy has some time before The Master finds someone else to send after her. Giles is right. The Master has Darla kill The Three, while the Anointed One watches and takes it in as a lesson on serving The Master. Giles meanwhile steps up Buffy’s weapons training. He closes the library and pulls out a pair of quarterstaffs and a bunch of padding. Buffy refuses the padding and quickly beats up Giles. They move onto crossbow training.

            That night Buffy comes back and finds Angel still in her room. She asks him what he did all day and he says he read a little. Buffy notices that her diary is out. She begins yelling at him for invading her privacy and insisting that a lot of the stuff she said about him could be misunderstood and that the fantasy sequence about “A” was not about him at all. Angel interrupts to tell her that he didn’t read her diary; he mother moved it while cleaning. Buffy is embarrassed but Angel keeps talking. He says he doesn’t think he should be around her because every time he is he can’t help thinking about kissing her. He is a lot older than her and he knows they wouldn’t work as a couple. Buffy approaches him and despite his speech, they begin kissing. Their kiss is long and passionate until all of the sudden Angel pulls away. He tries to hide his face but Buffy tugs him towards her only to see that he is now has a vampire face. She begins screaming and he jumps out her open window.

            The next day Buffy tells all to the gang and asks Giles if there is anyway a vampire can be good person. Giles tells her that no matter how human they look or act, vampires are still demons and are always evil. Xander thinks the solution is simple. Angel is a vampire. Buffy is the Vampire Slayer. Buffy is upset about the idea of slaying Angel and Xander begins to suspect she is in love with him. He demands to know if he is right. Luckily for Buffy, Cordelia chooses this moment to have an extremely loud display of shallowness that distracts everybody. Buffy never answers Xander’s question.

            Angel goes home to his makeshift apartment in an industrial-looking building. He senses that someone is there and Darla comes out of the shadows. They clearly have a long past together but haven’t seen each other in a few lifetimes. Darla reminds Angel of some of the past evil deeds they performed together then comments on his current behavior, reminding him that he is not human.  He insists that he is also not like other vampires. She mocks his issues with Buffy and then suggests that he should go talk to her and explain “the curse.”

            The gang researches Angel’s past and discovers no record of him. They do however find mention of a vampire called Angelus, the one with the angelic face, in the old Watchers’ Diaries. His tattoo proves that Angel and Angelus are one and the same. That means Angel is about 240 years old. He came to America 80 years ago and has shunned all other vampires since then. There is no record of him ever killing in the U.S. However in the centuries before he came over he wrecked havoc all around Europe, killing like all other vampires.

            Darla presents the Master with a plan. They set up events so that Angel has to kill Buffy to save himself. Having killed again, he’ll come back to the fold. The Master is happy with the idea of Angel returning to their side; in his killing days he was the most vicious creature The Master had ever met. The Master agrees to the plan and again uses this episode as a lesson for the Anointed One about teamwork.

            That night Willow tries to tutor Buffy in the school library but their talk turns from history to boys with Willow still mooning over Xander and Buffy still upset about the Angel problem. Unknown to the girls, Darla is listening in on their conversation and isn’t very happy to overhear Buffy talking about kissing Angel. She is pleased when Buffy decides out loud to only study for half an hour more and then return home. Back at Buffy’s house, Buffy’s mom is up working late when she hears a noise at the kitchen door. She looks through the door’s window but sees nothing. Darla’s face watches her through the window as she walks away. Moments later there is knock on the front door. It’s Darla. She passes herself off as a friend of Buffy’s, showing up early for a study date. Buffy’s mom invites her inside and takes her to the kitchen to make her a snack. Then Angel shows up at Buffy’s house, here to tell her about the curse, as Darla suggested. He chickens out at the last minute, however; and is walking away when he hears a scream come from the back of the house. He runs around to the kitchen door and forces his way in. Darla has fed on Buffy’s mom but not killed her. She offers up the rest of her meal to Angel. He is clearly tempted so Darla throws Buffy’s mom into his arms. His face vamps out and a triumphant Darla flounces away. The instant she leaves, it becomes clear that Angel isn’t going to feed; he was just trying to get Darla to go. Unfortunately, that’s not what it looks like to Buffy who walks in just at that moment. She just sees vampire Angel holding her bitten mother. Buffy makes short work of Angel, throwing him out her kitchen window before calling 911. Xander and Willow happen to be stopping by just then. The come through Buffy’s kitchen door and are shocked by what they see. She tells them that Angel did it.

Giles comes to the hospital as soon as he hears, leading Buffy’s mom, who is now conscious, to comment on the devotion of teachers in Sunnydale. While talking to Buffy she mentions how her friend came over and that’s the last thing she remembers. Buffy assumes she is talking about Angel. The gang meets out up outside the hospital room. Buffy blames herself for what has happened. She knows she should have slayed Angel the moment she found out he was a vampire, but she let her feelings get in the way. Now she’s ready for the kill. Giles warns her that Angel is going to be hard to face. He knows her and he was strong enough to face The Three and live. She is going to need more than a simple stake. Buffy knows this and prepares for her fight by practicing with the crossbow. Her aim is impeccable. Darla tries to prepare Angel for the same fight by taunting him, telling him Buffy will never care for him, reminding him of what he once was. He grows angrier and more violent.

            Buffy heads for the streets around the Bronze, since Angel said he lived near there. She hears a noise inside the nightclub and goes to break in. Back at the hospital Buffy’s mom discusses Buffy’s schoolwork with Giles. She mentions how hard Buffy is trying in history, studying with Willow and Darla.  When Giles inquires as to who Darla is, Buffy’s mom reveals that she was the friend who came by that night. Giles rushes off with Xander and Willow, realizing there is another player in the game.  Buffy and Angel finally face off in the Bronze, Buffy with her crossbow loaded, Angel with his vamp face on. Their battle is one of quick movements, shadows and dives. Finally Buffy finds herself facing Angel with a crossbow aimed at his heart. He reverts to his human face and urges her to kill him. She shoots but at the last moment turns her crossbow, so the shot goes wide. She demands to know why he behaved the way he has. He claims he’s done worse and lists some of the atrocities he performed back in his evil days, including killing his own family. Buffy asks what changed. He tells her he murdered a Gypsy girl and as punishment her clan restored his soul. Now he has a conscious, and feels remorse for every horrific act he did as vampire. He hasn’t fed on a living human since that day, her mother included. Still, he is vampire and did want to kill Buffy tonight. Buffy knows the feeling and she also knows how hard it is to kill someone you care for. She offers her neck to Angel but he can’t bite. Then Darla shows up. As the rest of the gang looks for Buffy to warn her of Darla’s existence, Darla is making her anger felt at the Bronze. She tells Buffy that, not only was she Angel’s lover for several generations, she was also the one that turned him into a vampire. Then she turns to Angel and reprimands him for giving up the chance to rule in The Master’s court for a thousand years just because he loves Buffy. If Buffy wasn’t convinced of Angel’s sincerity before, she is now. She pulls out her crossbow, and in response Darla pulls out two guns. She shoots Angel and then goes after Buffy. The gang knows Angel lives near the Bronze, so they are searching for Buffy around there. They hear the gunshots and runs towards them. Buffy shields herself with a pool table and shoots Darla but misses the heart. Meanwhile the gang has made it into the Bronze and distracts Darla by shouting at her. Darla briefly turns to shoot in their general direction, giving Angel enough time to pull the crossbow arrow originally meant for him out of the wall. Darla returns to shooting at Buffy. The gang turns on the strobe lights to again distract Darla but this doesn’t deter her for long. It looks as though Buffy is trapped when all of the sudden Angel comes up behind Darla and plunges the arrow through her heart. She looks at Angel dismayed, says his name, falls to the ground and dusts. Angel glances at Buffy and slowly slinks back into the shadows.

            Underground The Master rages over the death of his favorite servant but the Anointed One comforts him, reminding him that he shall soon rise and when he does the two of them will kill all his enemies.

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