aired on: February 6, 2001

written by: David Greenwalt

directed by: Bill Norton

While Angel stares off into the night sky, Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn set up their new office, and prepare to move on as Angel Investigations - without Angel.

Back at the Hyperion, Angel tries to sleep, but he can't. Someone's making a racket in the lobby. It's the Host, and he's singing the Star Spangled Banner (the lobby has great acoustics). Angel wants to know why he's there. "Tomorrow night, the world's going to end," he says. "Thought you might wanna know."

He explains that the night before, a guy he'd never seen before stood up to sing at the club. This guy's singing knocked him out; when he came to, the guy was gone. The Host looked into him and saw that he had no future past ten o'clock the next night. He and Angel set out to find the guy.

The guy, Gene, is in a physics lab hard at work on a problem. He's trying to figure out how to freeze a moment in time forever. He works late into the night, trying to make the experiment work. When it fails, he heads out of the lab, frustrated. But two demons lurk behind. When he's gone, the demons say he is the one who will help them return humanity to nothingness. Then they change the equations on his dry-erase board to help him along.

Meanwhile, back at the new office, the lights blow, and Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn mope in the darkness. Then Virginia arrives, and she's got a client for them - a very rich friend whose family is being bothered by a demon.

When Gene returns to the lab, he finds the new equations on his dry-erase board and tries the experiment again. This time it works, and he runs out of the lab to share the news with his girlfriend. As he comes upon her, he overhears her telling a friend that she's going to sleep with him one last time, then break up with him; theirs isn't the kind of love that lasts.

In their search for Gene, Angel and the Host get a tip from a bartender at another karaoke club that leads them to a local university. They find Gene's picture in a yearbook in the library, and Angel approaches the librarian to ask where his lab is. As he's about to tell him, one of the demons from the lab whacks him from behind, and a battle begins. In the demon's language, the Host says they come in peace, but as Angel scares the demon off, it says, "You shall not stop the golden child, the one for whom we have waited." The Host explains that it was a lumber demon, part of a fanatical sect that is awaiting a messiah who will usher in the end of all human life.

When Angel and the Host find Gene's lab, he's gone, and he's taken all his equipment and set it up at his apartment, where he waits for his girlfriend. He's having her over for dinner to celebrate their one-year anniversary - and he plans on freezing their magic moment in time.

Gene's lab buddy tells Angel and the Host what Gene was working on, and the possible consequences if something goes wrong. They get in the car and race to Gene's.

On the way, the Host presses Angel for answers as to why he's been so glum. Angel finally breaks down and responds. "You want to know what my problem is? I'm screwed, that's my problem. I can't win. I'm trying to atone for 100 years of unthinkable evil. News flash - I never can. It's never going to be enough." He adds that with 200 Wolfram & Hart law school graduates working full time to drive him crazy, is it any wonder he's cranky? Darla had a shot at redemption, and they took it from her. He's worried they're going to ruin his shot at redemption as well.

Meanwhile, Gene and his girlfriend share their anniversary dinner. Later, when they're in bed together, Gene triggers his device, and freezes them in that moment. But the lumber demons in the basement tinker with the code, to expand the freeze indefinitely. As the freeze spreads, Angel arrives to defeat the demon, pull the plug and save the world. Afterwards, as Gene apologizes for the whole "time in a box" disaster, Angel realizes he's left his friends out in the cold, and made it kind of hard on them.

But back at the new office, Gunn, Wesley and Cordelia, having solved their first major case, are moving on - with a party. Then a man comes to the door looking for help, and asks which one of them is Angel. Wesley tells him it's just a name.