Starring: David Boreanaz as Angel, Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase, Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, and J. August Richards as Charles Gunn

Guest starring: Christian Kane as Lindsey McDonald, Stephanie Romanov as Lilah Morgan, Andy Hallett as The Host, Brigid Brannagh as Virginia Bryce, Nicolas Surovy as Wolfram & Hart Laywer, Julie Benz as Darla, Juliet Landau as Drusilla

Original air date: January 16, 2001

Written by: Mere Smith
Directed by: Michael Grossman

Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn are walking out of the Hyperion to the street, reeling from Angel’s unanticipated announcement that they were fired (see AtS 2.10, “Reunion”). Cordy doesn’t understand why they were fired in the first place yet Wes is hopeful that Angel will change his mind. Gunn is a bit more realistic - Angel had just locked a bunch of lawyers in a room with Darla and Drusilla. Gunn doesn’t think Angel needs any more mind changing right now. Cordy is pretty pissed that Angel’s obsession with Darla has come to this end. Cordy isn’t sure what they should do now but Wes thinks that their best move may be to leave Angel alone for awhile. Cordy, Gunn and Wes leave in opposite directions.

In the hotel basement Angel is sorting through some boxes and finds something he is looking for: drawings that Angel made of Darla. Angel grabs a handful of the drawings and throws them into the furnace where they all burn.

A little later Angel is working out in the basement of the Hyperion. In a voice-over Angel laments the soft life he’s made for himself and mentally prepares for his upcoming battle with Drusilla and Darla. Angel doesn’t think he’s ready to face them. . . yet.

At Holland Manner’s home lawyers are scattered on the floor like twigs after a storm. But not all of them are dead. Both Lindsey and Lilah are alive. A little later EMTs are checking Lindsey and Lilah over as officials remove the bodies of everyone else in Holland’s wine cellar. Lindsey is trying to figure out *why* Darla would leave Lindsey alive. It doesn’t make sense to him.

In the meantime Wes is talking with Virginia in his apartment. Virginia is astonished to find out that Angel fired Wes. Virginia tells Wes that Angel can’t fire someone on a mission to protect innocent people. Virginia suggests that Wes file a grievance with the union but there is no union for Wes. Wes explains that Cordy and Gunn were fired, too, and gives Virginia a brief explanation of why - Darla was made a vampire and went on a rampage with Drusilla. Wes guesses that Angel is going to track down and kill Darla and Drusilla and that Angel fired Cordy, Wes, and Gunn so that none of them would get in Angel’s way. Virginia tries to be optimistic that Wes will find another job soon, that is until she learns that Wes doesn’t really have any other skills.

At the hotel Angel working out and honing his skills for the upcoming battle. In a voice-over Angel comments that Wolfram & Hart take lives from a distance while Angel doesn’t have that luxury. When Angel takes a life it’s face-to-face. After Angel kicks a punching bag across the room Angel believes he is ready to battle Darla and Drusilla. Angel changes his clothes and gives his suite at the Hyperion a long look then walks out the door and into the basement and the sewers. In a voice over Angel says that he isn’t at Darla’s and Drusilla’s level, but he soon will be. Angel plans on bringing the fight to Darla and Drusilla.

At Wolfram & Hart Lindsey is asking a receptionist for messages when Lilah approaches him. Apparently both Lilah and Lindsey are getting the cold shoulder from other lawyers in the firm and Lindsey thinks that would be normal. Lindsey and Lilah were the only two people to survive Darla’s and Drusilla’s little “party” so it’s normal for other people to be suspicious. Lilah’s only concern is whether or not she and Lindsey are going to wind up dead in the next two weeks. Lilah thinks that the Senior Partners plan on making her and Lindsey the scapegoats for the debacle at Holland’s place but Lindsey informs Lilah that the Senior Partners were the ones who wanted Drusilla brought in in the first place. Lilah thinks that following the Senior Partner’s orders means squat and that the blame will rest solely on their shoulders. Lindsey and Lilah are a bit surprised, though, when they find Darla and Drusilla waiting in Lindsey’s office. When Darla tells Lindsey to shut his door Lindsey hesitates. Darla tells Lindsey that if she wanted Lindsey dead he would never have left the wine cellar in the first place, so Lindsey shuts the door. Lindsey asks Darla why his life was spared and Darla tells him that she spared Lindsey because Darla loves him. Then, after a pause, Darla bursts out laughing. She’s just messing with Lindsey. Darla tells Lindsey that she did him a favor by killing his boss and creating a power vacuum. Now the Senior Partners will have no choice but to promote an ambitious lawyer with questionable ethics in to Holland’s position. Lilah is annoyed by the possibility that Lindsey might be promoted but Darla tells Lilah that she might be given Holland’s job, not Lindsey. And it’s the promotion of either Lilah or Lindsey that brought Darla and Drusilla back to the firm. Darla wants to “keep the lines of communication” open mostly because she wants power. Darla tells Lilah and Lindsey that Wolfram & Hart has resources that Darla needs to meet her personal goals. So while Darla and Drusilla work the underground Wolfram & Hart will be their liaison with the world above ground. Darla doesn’t really much care if their liaison is Lilah or Lindsey, but it will be someone. Lindsey finally asks Darla if she’s out to get Angel which doesn’t make Darla happy. Darla tells Lindsey that not everything in the world is about Angel. Lindsey tells Darla he’s surprised that Darla wouldn’t take out Angel first but Darla tells Lindsey that Angel is just a matter of time.

Meanwhile Angel is lying in wait in the sewers. A group of four vampires approaches Angel’s hiding spot and Angel springs his attack. Angel takes all four vamps on himself and, after a relatively short battle, Angel dusts three of the vamps and beheads the fourth. Apparently this was just a drill - Angel wanted to make sure he was ready to take on Darla and Drusilla himself. As he walks away from the remains of the four vampires Angel takes off his leather jacket and leaves it in the sewers. He’s going after Darla and Drusilla to do some reconnaissance.

At Caritas The Host is wowing the crowd with his rendition of “Lady Marmalade” while Wes orders a drink at the bar. As Wes turns around to find himself a seat he runs smack into Cordy. Wes tries to convince Cordy that he just came in to Caritas for a drink but Cordy isn’t fooled - she knows that Wes came in to sing. Before Wes can fess up he asks Cordy what she’s doing there. Both Cordy and Wes finally admit to each other that they came to Caritas to sing for The Host and find their destinies. Wes admits he’s a little embarassed when suddenly Gunn chimes in that he’s more embarassed than Cordy and Wes put together. Apparently Gunn wants to find his destiny, too. Cordy thinks the three of them are pretty pathetic but it’s all Angel’s fault, really. Cordy makes a sarcastic ‘wish’ that Angel is happy with no one to talk to.

Actually, Angel does have someone to talk to because Angel is currently torturing Merle, his demon stoolie, for information. Angel has Merle bound, hanging upside down, and being periodically dunked in some pretty deep water to make Merle talk. Merle tells Angel that Darla and Drusilla are rounding up demons to join a crew and that’s all that Merle knows, but Angel isn’t convinced so he gives Merle another dunking. Merle finally confesses that there is one demon bar in town that Darla and Drusilla haven’t visited yet. That’s information that Angel can use so Angel leaves Merle tied up and hanging upside down in the sewers and goes after Darla and Drusilla.

At the bar a demon and a vampire are in the middle of a fight, beating each other up. The vampire gives up and, from behind the crowd, comes the very solitary noise of two peope clapping. It’s Darla and Drusilla and they’ve come to recruit some soldiers. When the demon who won the fight tells Darla he’s never heard of either Darla or Drusilla before, Drusilla rips off both of the demon’s ears. Now Darla and Drusilla have everyone’s attention, including Angel who is hiding in the crowd. Darla tells the crowd that she and Drusilla are recruiting soldiers, but only the best soldiers who are very good at death and mayhem *and* who really enjoy it. Suddenly Drusilla interrupts Darla. Drusilla has sensed Angel in the crowd and Drusilla tells Darla that he’s watching Darla right now, that Angel remembers when Darla used to be warm, that Angel wants to punish the two of them, and that Darla will never be alone again. Darla is seriously wigged out by Drusilla’s visions and Darla tells Drusilla to shut up. Darla tries to compose herself and tells the crowd that try outs are tonight and only the best, the ones who survive, will be part of her army. Darla grabs Drusilla and nearly drags her out of the bar.

Angel is standing outside of the bar and he realizes that he’s not ready to face Darla. Angel can sense the huamnity that used to be part of Darla and that prevents him from killing her.

Meanwhile at Wolfram & Hart Lindsey is packing up his belongings to go home when Lilah comes in. She’s a mess. Lilah tells Lindsey that she’s tired of waiting for the Senior Partners to kill her and send her body to a dog food processing plant in San Pedro. Lilah tells Lindsey the only way to make sure they both live is if both of them run away, together, with some of the Wolfram & Hart files as insurance. Lilah thinks if she and Lindsey stick together they can beat the Senior Parnters. Lilah tells Lindsey she’s heard rumors that Lindsey pulled it off before (see AtS 1.21, “Blind Date”) but this time Lilah will take all the risks. All Lindsey has to do is tell Lilah which files to steal. Lilah and Lindsey lean together to kiss but don’t because Lindsey rips a microphone off of Lilah’s chest. Lilah was trying to record Lindsey’s disloyalty to frame him and save her own butt. Lindsey tells Lilah that the Senior Partners are going to kill one of them and she should take it like a man.

In the meantime the gathering at Caritas is deteriorating. Cordy, Wes and Gunn are a bit tipsy and have started to blame each other for getting fired, At first it’s pretty civil but then it just becomes a shouting match. Of course, a little bit later Gunn, Cordy and Wes are all buddy-buddy on stage singing Queen’s “We Are The Champions,” badly, for the crowd. When everyone has left the club Gunn, Cordy and Wes are still at Caritas but now they’re oh so much more than tipsy. Cordy tells Wes that vampires and sloth demons aren’t as evil as tequila and Wes just “wants to be dead now.” The Host stops by the table and tells Gunn, Wes, and Cordy that he was impressed by their singing earlier and Cordy asks The Host to give them some guidance now. Cordy wants to know what they are supposed to do with their lives. The Host, being his enigmatic self, tells them that he won’t tell them because “the big guys” are about to talk and starts to fold his suit coat. The Host holds the suit coat behind Cordy’s head and warns her that the PTB are about to give her a message - in the form of a vision. The vision really slams into Cordy and her head shoots back into The Host’s waiting suit coat. Once the vision clears Cordy tells Gunn and Wes that she saw a woman being attacked by a demon in an alley not too far from Caritas. Wes says, “Let’s go” and he, Gunn and Cordy head out to help the woman.

At the Hyperion Angel is at the weapons cabinet arming himself for battle. When he has a bag full of sharp and pointy things he starts to leave the hotel and ignores the ringing phone.

Cordy, Wes, and Gunn arrive at the alley but don’t see a woman or a demon. They do, however, find some blood and Cordy knows that it belongs to the woman from her vision. Gunn wishes Angel were there to track the woman’s blood or to kill the spiney demon which pisses Wes off. Wes tells Gunn and Cordy that Angel has walked away from his duty but that the three of them aren’t. Cordy wants to know how they’ll work the case without Angel and Wes replies that they’ll just investigate and use the evidence. Wes bends down to examine the pool of blood and puts a hand on the building to steady himself. Ugh. He’s just put his hand in some blood, a trail of blood which leads up the building. With the door of the abandoned building locked, how are the three of them supposed to get to the roof?

Meanwhile Darla and Drusilla are leaving a bar and head toward the factory, the place they will be meeting their potential soldiers. Drusilla tells Darla that Angel will be there. Even if they recruited 1,000 soldiers Angel would still come to try and stop them. Darla really doesn’t want to hear this. Darla just wants to inflict a little chaos on the world and that has nothing to do with Angel. Drusilla tells Darla that Darla misses Angel but Darla denies it. Darla thinks that Angel, or really Angelus, should be at her side helping her wreak havoc on the entire L.A. area and killing innocents. Darla gets impatient with Drusilla’s nonsensical visions and tells Drusilla to hurry up.

Angel arrives at the factory. He opens the door and finds about ten demons waiting for Drusilla and Darla. Angel drops his bag of weapons, grabs and axe and waits.

In the meantime Wes, Cordy and Gunn have scaled the side of the building and climbed in through a window. They’ve found the woman from Cordy’s vision but not the demon. Suddenly the demon drops from the ceiling scaring all three of them. The demon attacks Wesley and Gunn and Wes tells Cordelia to get the woman out of the building. Gunn and Wes fight the demon and are getting their collective butts kicked until Gunn drives a stake through the demon’s head. The woman was hurt when the demon attacked her and Wes got a pretty nasty demon bite on the shoulder during the attack so they head off to the hospital to get fixed up.

Drusilla and Darla arrive at the factory and find that Angel has killed all the demons who were waiting for Darla and Drusilla. In fact, Angel is still there, smoking a cigarette. Darla tells Angel that she should have known he would be there and invites Angel to come over and stake her. Instead Angel calmly throws his lit cigarette to the ground where a pool of gasoline ignites traveling across the floor to Darla and Drusilla. Both Darla and Drusilla are engulved in flames as they run out of the building towards a fire hydrant. Darla breaks open the fire hydrant putting the fire on her and Drusilla out, but both are in extreme pain from their burns. Drusilla is in tears and Darla tries to calm her and tells Drusilla that it wasn’t Angel or Angelus who set them on fire. And Darla actually looks worried - she doesn’t know who set them on fire.

The next day at Wolfram & Hart Lilah starts to taunt Lindsey about the previous night’s happenings - Angel killed a dozen demons, set Darla and Drusilla on fire, etc., which makes Lindsey a little impatient and peeved. Lilah, however, is quite happy. Lilah thinks last night’s fiasco is proof positive that Lindsey’s going to take the fall and that Lilah will be safe, but Lindsey really isn’t concerned. As Lindsey and Lilah enter the board room they find one of the Wolfram & Hart lawyers who asks them both to sit down. The lawyer tells Lindsey and Lilah that the Senior Partners have decided to spend time grieving and reflecting. The lawyer tells Lindsey that his record is spotty and that Lilah really blew it when she let Bethany Chaulk go (see AtS 2.4, “Untouched”). According to the lawyer neither of them are really qualified to run the Special Projects division but the backstabbing and competition between Lilah and Lindsey is. . . . promising. Apparently the Senior Partners feel that Lilah and Lindsey keep each other on their toes and at their best, so the Senior Partners have decided that Lindsey and Lilah will share the position, that is until the Senior Partners feel they can promote just one of them. The lawyer leaves but only after warning Lilah and Lindsey that the Senior Partners will be watching them.

In the Hyperion basement Angel is practicing with his weapons when Wes stops by to tell Angel that he, Gunn, and Cordy are keeping the agency open even if Angel won’t participate. Wes tells Angel that he has turned his back on his mission but the rest of them haven’t. Angel doesn’t say a word, he just throws a knife at a target but does so badly. To himself Angel says that he’s not fighting just one fight, but a war. Angel throws a second knife and hits the bullseye.