Previously: 3 out of 3 Snark Ladies agreed that Puppet!Angel was basically the greatest thing to happen on this show in approximately forever.
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A Hole in the World
Kirsti: Warning – this episode is rated F for Feels. Please acquire tissues before proceeding with this recap.
We open in a FLASHBACK! Fred is at her parents’ house, packing up her stuff for her big move to join the graduate physics program at UCLA. Her dad is totally against her moving, saying that she’s going to Hell-A and that if she meets one angel there, he’ll eat the dogs. Dude. No. (L: She met Angel; LEAVE THE DOGS ALONE.)
He goes out to check the car for the millionth time. Fred realises that she’s forgotten Feiginbaum, her stuffed bunny toy, which I mention only because it’s relevant later. (S: AH. I DIDN’T CATCH THIS. AH. FEELS.) Her mum makes her promise to stay safe, and Fred replies that she’ll be the boringest boring that ever boringed, so she’ll be safe as houses. That throws us into the present, where Fred is destroying demons with a flamethrower as they hatch out of eggs on the walls.
Sweeney: And THIS is BAMF who survived five years in Pylea.
Lorraine: The one I wish they more often gave her the privilege of being. I’d like to think of this moment as an homage to that Fred.
K: Seriously.
A demon emerges from its egg slightly behind her and is about to launch itself at her when it’s hit by a shotgun blast, courtesy of Wes. He and Fred exchange smiles before deciding that the burning demon eggs are hella romantic and making out a little. They’re interrupted by Spike and Angel, who are bickering as usual. This time, it’s because Angel had a demon baby on his back, and Spike dealt with it by stabbing it THROUGH Angel. Obviously, he still has the sword sticking out of him so that we can have Angel is Impaled shots! Fred rushes up to claim the demon baby from the end of the sword, because “I always like a new specimen.”
That throws us to Evil Radio Shack. A deliveryman wheels a huge stone sarcophagus in and hands Knox some paperwork, saying that the invoice says Winifred Burkle. The guy heads out, leaving Knox confused. The zoomy cameraman zooms in on the top of the sarcophagus, which features a bunch of big crystals and a swirly thing that reminds me of a caramelised apple tart I once made. I’m sure the sarcophagus is less delicious though. Electric cellos.
After the credits, Gunn is singing Three Little Maids From School Are We as he does lawyery things in his office. As he hits the high note on “maaaaaaaaaids,” he sees Wes smirking at him from the doorway. Gunn immediately switches to rap, but it’s totally half-arsed and “I have no idea what I’m doing”-y. (L: Gangsta… butt. LOL.) He gives up and asks what’s up. Wes asks what’s up with him, given that he’s so cheerful. Gunn informs him that he and Fred are getting back together. Wes is all “Skkkrrrttt, WHAT?” on account of all the making out. After a second, Gunn takes pity on Wes’ extremely pathetic kicked puppy expression and says that he’s joking. And that it’s his right to do so, given that they’re bros. HEY, REMEMBER OUR FAVOURITE BROMANCE, GUYS??? IT’S BACK.
Sweeney: Smile Time and now THE RETURN OF THE BROMANCE? Shit. Even setting aside how terrible you all are at secrets, this pretty well confirms that nothing good is coming.
Lor: The WORST at secrets. It’s kind of sweet.
K: But also, when Whedon gives us good things, it’s inevitable that bad things are on the horizon.
Anyway, Gunn says that news of…Fresley? Wed?? The good ship Wyndam-Burkle?!?!…is all over the building, and gives them his blessing. With an added disclaimer that if Wes ever hurts Fred, he’ll kill him. Gunn goes on to reveal the real news of the day: he knows where Lindsey was living and suggests that maybe Lindsey had other evil schemes on the go that they should look into. Wes agrees, and says that Gunn should tell Angel. Gunn squirms and says he’s not going in there.
Cut to Angel’s office. He and Spike are in full-blown screaming mode. They’re nose-to-nose when Wes interrupts and asks if this is something they should all be discussing. Angel gets all quiet, and says that it was mostly theoretical. Spike says “Look, if cavemen and astronauts got into a fight, who would win?” Yup. They’ve been screaming at each other for 40 minutes about that. Wes asks if the astronauts have weapons, and gets a simultaneous “NO” in reply.
K: Evil Radio Shack. Knox tells Fred that all his tests are just bouncing off the sarcophagus, and she suggests that they not rush into opening it. He changes the subject to her and Wesley. Fred gets awkward, but he says that he’s fine with it and that he’s happy just to be working with her. He heads out in search of HazMat supplies, leaving Fred with the sarcophagus. She peers at the crystals on the top as some very tinkly “Oh shit, Quirrell is Voldemort” music strikes up. She reaches out and touches one of the crystals. Before she can do anything, the swirly thing in the middle opens and puffs air into her face. She falls back, coughing. Knox rushes back in and asks if she’s okay. Fred says that she is, but that it was weird.
Angel’s office. Spike bursts in, all cranky, and informs Angel that the guys down in Accounts Payable agree with him that astronauts stand no chance against cavemen. Angel has no fucks to give: “You and me. This isn’t working out.” He tells Spike that he should go, because Lindsey only bound him to Wolfram & Hart so that he’d be invested in it. He’s not bound any more. Spike says he has nowhere else to go, and Angel offers to throw money at him to go and fight the good fight somewhere that’s Not!LA. Spike’s rather taken with the idea of being a roving champion.
In the hallway, Fred and Lorne discuss the Great Cavemen vs Astronauts debate of 2003. Wes comes up the stairs, and he and Fred have a nauseatingly cute conversation about how they were just making excuses to come and see each other. The conversation includes the news that Fred’s been cleared by medical following her dust inhalation incident. Lorne ughs his way past the nauseating love bubble, telling them to “get a balcony.” He tells Fred he’ll come find her for lunch, and that he’ll just “follow the sunshine.” He sings the first line of You Are My Sunshine, and Fred quietly sings “You make me happy” to Wes.
Lorne spins around and stares at her in horror. Fred coughs blood into Wes’ face and collapses down the stairs. Lorne catches her as she begins to convulse. Wes screams for the medical team and we fade to black.
Sweeney: The pacing on this was both wonderful and heartbreaking. The song, to Lorne, to the cough, to Wes crying out for help. The intensity rose at just the right intervals.
Lor: More than agreed. Of course Joss makes her pass out in the middle of line about being happy. -_-
K: Happiness is of the bad in the Buffyverse. She should have known.
After the Not Commercial Break, Fred wakes in a hospital bed to find the Fang Gang (plus Knox) standing around her bed. Angel tells her to rest because the lab is doing some blood work. She asks what’s up, but they’re all tight lipped. Gunn simply says that she’s sick while Knox says Evil Radio Shack are studying the sarcophagus and should have some results soon. “So you don’t know what it is,” she says in a quiet, scared voice. “Yet,” Angel replies. He insists that they’ll find the answers. “Handsome man saves me,” Fred says, and Angel smiles at her. The Gang head out, except for Wes who sits on the bed and holds Fred’s hand. He has to go do research, he says, but all she has to do is press a button and he’ll be right there. He leans over and kisses her forehead. From the doorway, Angel’s all “Wait, they’re a thing now?” because apparently he was the only person in the building with no idea.
Sweeney: Too invested in the astronaut thing. Also funny because he was too slow to catch on to Wes’s I’m-really-talking-about-Fred-now love advice.
K: The Sausage-Fest Gang info dump at us as they walk down to the lobby: Evil Radio Shack have checked and the pathogen doesn’t match anything in their databanks. Also, it’s mystical. Wes’ team are researching the markings on the sarcophagus, but it’s new territory for them. Angel spoke to the doctors, who told him that it’s a parasite that’s cooking Fred’s organs from the inside. In 24 hours, they’ll liquefy. They all look horrified, but it’s Spike who says that they can’t let that happen. The camera spins around them as Wes asks where the sarcophagus came from. Knox says that it was just delivered, no return address, no invoice in their system. “This was deliberate,” Angel says. Gunn says that he’ll head to the White Room to see if the Senior Partners know anything. Everyone goes their separate ways, with Angel, Spike and Lorne heading off to Lindsey’s to see if they can find anything there.
There’s a quick shot of Fred’s hospital room, where she’s on a drip, before we cut to Wes’ office. He’s pouring through books when a random lawyer sticks his head in to ask for a case history. Wes says coldly that it can wait, but the lawyer insists that it can’t and adds “I mean, the whole company can’t be working Miss Burkle’s case.” Wes pulls out a gun and shoots him in the knee. He tells his secretary to send anyone else who’s not working on Fred’s case to him.
Lor: DAAAAAAMN. Fuck that day in the office, right?
K: As if the 18 hour workdays aren’t bad enough, you have to deal with getting shot too.
Up in the White Room, Gunn’s alone. He calls out for the cat, but it doesn’t appear. He yells that he’s not leaving, and gets punched in the face for his trouble. The Conduit now looks like him. He’s confused, and it tells him that its appearance is determined by the viewer. (S: So the black panther appearing to the black man was totally deliberate? Wolfram & Hart’s kinda racist.) (L: Yep, called it.) (K: You’re so good at TV.) Gunn insists that the Senior Partners have to help Fred, and he gets thrown across the room. Conduit!Gunn tells him that the Senior Partners are sick of his insolence. Gunn wants to make a deal – his life for Fred’s. Conduit!Gunn laughs that he already has Gunn’s life as it punches Gunn in the face repeatedly.
Lindsey’s Stealth Apartment. Angel walks into the bedroom to find Eve curled up on the bed. She stares at him in shock and scurries away. Spike and Lorne follow Angel into the room as he quizzes Eve about what’s happening to Fred. She insists that she doesn’t know anything, that she and Lindsey had nothing to do with this. She asks if they’ve heard anything about Lindsey, and Spike rolls his eyes. Eve says that they didn’t do anything to Fred, because “Why would we even care about-“.
That’s as far as she gets because Lorne(!!) punches her in the face. (S: LORNE. A glorious IN THE FACE punch indeed.) (K: I’m so proud. Our little demon is growing up *sniff tear sob*) He tells her that she’s going to sing for him, and that if he hears anything that indicates she was involved in what’s happening to Fred, Angel and Spike won’t even have time to kill her.
Lor: I love this and not only because he’s being a BAMF, but because it shows how much he cares for Fred. Feelings.
K: SO MANY FEELINGS.
Eve reluctantly sings a few bars of the song that Lindsey sang at Caritas when he got a murder hand. Lorne says that she’s clean, but that her future looks crappy. He’s all “LOL, SUCKS TO BE YOU, BYE” and heads to the door, followed by Angel and Spike. Eve calls them back.
She tells them that EVERYTHING is in Wolfram & Hart’s records, except for what came before. Angel says that the original demons were all driven out of their dimension, but Eve replies that only applied to the ones who were still alive. The dead ones were left behind, and they don’t die the way we do. You know, except for that one that the volcanologist found that got buried in lava… ANYWAY. Eve tells them that Wes’ source books can conjure up anything, and he should look for the oldest scrolls of the forgotten texts, because they “need to find the Deeper Well.”
Sweeney: LOL, this made me think of The WELL. Because internet nerds.
K: Cut to Wes’ office. He’s found their culprit – Illyria, “a great monarch and warrior of the demon age murdered by rivals and left adrift in the Deeper Well“, which is basically an Original!Demon burial ground. He doesn’t think it’s an infection, because Fred’s skin is hardening. He thinks that Illyria is hollowing Fred out, using her as a vessel to gestate. Of course it is. She has a vagina, so… (Don’t get me wrong, guys, I enjoy a lot of things about Whedon’s writing and show-running. But he’s basically incapable of advancing the storylines for his female characters without something massively tragic happening to them, whether it’s pain and suffering, the death of a loved one, a mystical pregnancy, or sex having seriously fucked up consequences. And it’s HORRIBLE.)
Sweeney: YUP. I already drafted the next recap, but all-vaginas-are-Tragic-Magic factor of what’s happening to Fred stood out even more in the next episode, but basically, yes, this.
K: SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO!! O.o
Angel asks where the Deeper Well is, and Wes tells him that it’s in the Cotswolds.
L: A MYSTICAL THING THAT IS NOT MAGICALLY IN LA? OF COURSE IT HAPPENS WHEN FRED IS DYING. FUCK.
K: Obvs. Angel gives orders to prepare the jet, which Knox says can get them there in four hours. Wes tells Angel that the Well will have a guardian, and that it’s worth going there because it’s like a prison and anything that gets out can be drawn back in from the source. Lorne says that he’s going to pray. Angel and Spike head for the airport. Cut to Fred’s hospital bed. There’s an increasingly blue tinge to her skin and she’s squirming with discomfort. Suddenly, her eyes snap open. Fade to black.
After the Not Commercial Break, Wes goes into Fred’s hospital room and the bed is empty. He finds Fred down in Evil Radio Shack. She’s stumbling around and holding her head, but insists that she needs to check everything because something could have been missed. Wes tells her that she needs to lie down, and she replies “I am not—I am not the damsel in distress. I am not some case. I have to work this. I lived in a cave for 5 years in a world where they killed my kind like cattle. I am not going to be cut down by some monster flu. I am better than that!”
Sweeney: I loved this. I hate that this is happening to Fred, but I love this. It was a powerful, wonderful speech and brilliantly delivered by Amy Acker.
K: Absolutely. After a beat, she reveals tearfully that she’s terrified.
Sweeney: Also, because this confession lets me use the tag: this is when I started crying and making my neighbor uncomfortable while watching this on an airplane.
K: I love it when you do Snark Squad stuff on aeroplanes.
He begs her to go back to bed, and she snaps at him that she’s not a child. But then she collapses. Wes catches her and cradles her in his arms. She looks at his source book, and asks if it can call up any book he might need. When he answers in the affirmative, she tells him to bring it and take her home. Cut to Fred’s apartment. Wes carries her across the room and lays her gently on the bed, smoothing her hair.
Corporate Jet. Spike’s twitchy, as he’s never flown before. Angel’s not much better – he’s only been in a helicopter and they’re a lot closer to the ground. Spike jokes that after they save Fred, they should go to the West End and see a show. Angel says that he’s never seen Les Mis before. I mention this exclusively because of our Angel/art OTP and because we could all use a little moment of distraction. The distraction is snatched away when Angel says that he can’t lose Fred, not after he just lost Cordy. (S: The most Tragic Magic Vagina of all.) Thanks for twisting the knife that’s stabbing me in the feels, Whedon…
Back in LA, Gunn’s threatening people over the phone, demanding anything they know. Knox walks in and says he has a plan – take Fred down to cryogenics. Maybe if they can’t stop it, they can freeze it until they can work something out. Gunn’s unsure, so Knox suggests a test run. Fred’s apartment. Wes is reading next to a sleeping Fred. She wakes and looks at him before saying softly “I finally get you up to my bedroom and all you want to do is read…” He apologises for waking her, and she tells him to make more noise because it keeps her there and she doesn’t want to lose more hours to sleeping. He tells her that Angel and Spike are en route to a cure.
Suddenly, she sits up and looks around in a panic. She cries out that she needs to find Feigenbaum. Wes asks who Feigenbaum is, and Fred stops and stares at Wes for a second. Then she tearfully says “I don’t remember.” Wes holds her as she cries. After a minute, she dries her tears and comments on how crappy she looks. He tells her that she’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. Fred asks him to read to her. He looks at the source book and tells her to name a book. Cut to Fred lying in bed, eyes closed, as Wes reads to her from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess. (L: Feelings on top of feelings.)
(Totally Not) The Cotswolds. Angel and Spike wander around in the fog, looking for the door to the Deeper Well. Angel spots a giant tree, and suggests maybe that’s the entrance to the Well. “Either that, or Christmasland…” Spike replies. OH LOOK THE EPISODE ENDS HERE AND WE ALL GO AND WATCH NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS!!!!
Sigh. No, it doesn’t. There’s a flash of lightning, and armed demons appear from the tree. Spike asks if they have a strategy, and Angel replies “Just hold my hand.” Spike raises an eyebrow, but does so.
Sweeney: Further proof that Whedon is the trolliest troll who ever trolled. This season has been ripe with shipper bait, but after they got uncomfortably in each other’s faces they’re now holding hands. He’s all, “Guys, guys, this is how it’s done,” to the other Angel writers.
K: And you just know he giggled the entire time he was writing this interaction.
After a beat, Spike nods and says “St. Petersburg,” “I thought you’d forgotten,” Angel replies. They step apart, a piece of wire now stretched between their hands. The demons run into it and promptly get decapitated. Angel and Spike pick up their weapons and use them to attack the demons surrounding them.
Evil Radio Shack. Knox’s experiment is a fail. The blood freezes, but the parasite just keeps on keeping on. Gunn asks what their next plan is, and Knox gets flustered on account of he’s so worried about Fred. Gunn says he understands. Knox says that he’d love to be the knight in shining armour because “I mean, I don’t just care about Fred, I practically worship it.” Gunn’s all “Skkkrrrttt, WTF do you mean IT?????” “Oops,” Knox replies with a smirk.
Sweeney: This was a wee bit heavy on the contrivance (as was the speed with which they concluded that Illyria is the demon) but I’m actually pretty impressed that these two moments were the only ones that really grabbed me as, “Well, that’s convenient,” because this episode has a lot of story to cover.
Lor: Also, FUCK KNOX. Sorry, all my comments are coming out in caps form, but seriously, fuck that dude.
K: YUP. I mean, it should have been expected because he’s a Whedon Hat Trick, and he’s been evil-adjacent in both Buffy AND Firefly. But seriously. Fuck that guy.
(Totally Not) The Cotswolds. Angel and Spike kill the last of the demons. Angel yells at the tree to send more, but a man in chainmail appears with another flash of lightning. He says they’ve fought enough. Angel’s all “Oh, hey Drogyn”. Spike starts to ask who he is, but Drogyn gets all up in his face and tells him not to ask questions. Spike’s all “WTF” in reply, which FAIR. Drogyn asks if they’ve come about Illyria. When Angel says they are, Drogyn invites them into the Deeper Well. Spike asks Angel what the deal is with not asking questions, and Angel tells him that Drogyn can’t lie.
Evil Radio Shack. Gunn slams Knox up against a table, yelling at him. Knox says that he didn’t do it ALL, he just played his part. Gunn asks if this is a jealousy thing because Fred chose Wes over him, but Knox says he chose Fred because she’s worthy and he loves her. His god couldn’t hatch out of just anyone, after all. He says that it was put into motion millions of years ago and it can’t be stopped. Gunn says that Knox doesn’t know Angel, and that he’ll stop it. Knox replies that he didn’t mean that Angel would fail to save Fred. He meant that Angel would CHOOSE to let Fred die. Fade to black.
Fred’s apartment. Wes is curled up on the bed next to her. Fred asks him to read some more, then says that the light hurts her eyes. But she doesn’t want him to turn it off. Everything’s too bright, she says. Cut to the Deeper Well. Drogyn leads Angel and Spike inside. He tells them that Illyria disappeared a month ago, and Spike sasses that he’s clearly crap at his job if someone could steal Illyria from under his nose. Drogyn replies that the sarcophagus wasn’t stolen, it just disappeared. He suspects it was part of a predetermined escape plan. Also, he has a crap-ton of charges. With that, he extinguishes his flaming torch and leads them onto a bridge. Underneath it, thousands and thousands of sarcophagi line the sides of a pit that goes right through the earth. Somewhere, Drogyn tells them, Illyria still has minions.
Evil Radio Shack. Knox consults the Big Book of Villain Gloating, saying that there are only a few Illyria fanboys left. He came to LA because that was Illyria’s kingdom back in the day. He managed to arrange to have the sarcophagus brought to Wolfram & Hart, but then it got stuck. In customs. He pulls a piece of paper from his pocket and Gunn stares at it in horror. Because the sarcophagus is the thing that Gunn helped get out of customs in exchange for his brain boost. Gunn, looking ill, insists that Angel can save Fred, but Knox replies there’s nothing to do but wait. He’s interrupted mid-sentence when Gunn smashes him in the head with a metal canister. Knox falls to the ground. After looking around to ensure there’s no one else there, Gunn slams the canister into Knox’s head.
Fred’s apartment. She cries out in pain, delirious. Wes tries to give her an injection, but the needle snaps on her hardened skin. He touches her side, and she yelps in pain before crying out “Make it stop!” Wes covers his mouth in horror as he tearfully watches her writhe in pain. Deeper Well. Drogyn is horrified to learn that Illyria’s essence is free. Spike snaps, reeling off questions until Drogyn agrees to tell them the truth – they COULD draw Illyria out of Fred by bringing the sarcophagus back to the Well. But with the essence released, returning the sarcophagus would send Illyria airborne and into the body of every person between LA and the Deeper Well. If they save Fred, tens of thousands will die in agony. Angel and Spike look broken. Drogyn says he’ll prepare the spell, but it’s their choice what to do. “To hell with the world,” Angel says.
Fred’s apartment. She’s lucid now, and begs Wesley not to leave her. He tearfully says that he never will. She pants, saying that it was bad but it’s better now and asks again if he’ll stay. He promises again that he won’t leave her. “My boys. I walk with heroes. Think about that.” Wes cries as he tells Fred that she’s a hero too. “Superhero. And this is my power: to not let them take me. Not me,” she replies. He sits next to her on the bed, and she presses his hand to her heart. Deeper Well. Spike stares down the well, saying that he’s pretty sure they should have known about the big fucking hole through the earth, earning himself a gold star. I feel weird putting it in here given the feelstastic nature of everything that’s happening… Angel silently fights back tears.
Sweeney: SO MANY FEELINGS. But, Spike did earn this star:
K: Its sparkle factor feels inappropriately happy.
Apartment of Oh God Make The Feels Stop. Wes is holding Fred in his arms. They kiss, then she asks him if he’d have loved her. He cries as he says he’s always loved her. She breaks down and tells him she’s sorry, then starts to cough. She asks him between coughs to talk to her parents and tell them that she didn’t suffer and that she wasn’t scared. She starts to convulse. Wes grabs her and begs her to fight. She says over and over that she’s not scared, then looks at Wesley. “Please, Wesley, why can’t I stay?” she asks before falling back, dead, in his arms. Wes sobs as he presses his face into her shoulder and begs her to come back.
Fred’s eyes turn a crystalline blue. Her body starts to twitch, then kicks Wes across the room. She lands on the floor, convulsing. Wes watches in horror. Finally, she stands. Her hair and eyes, and the edges of her skin are all royal blue. “This will do,” Illyria says. Fade to black.
This episode is really well done, but so brutal to watch. Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof are both brilliant from start to finish, and their scenes just tore my heart into shreds. Gunn’s realisation that he’s partly responsible is as sickening for the audience as for the character. Lorne turning violent in his determination to help Fred was a nice touch. And Angel and Spike overcoming their bickering to work together when it really matters even managed to give me feels. Especially Angel’s One Manly Tear in the Well. I’m not quite sure how I got stuck with two major character deaths back to back. BRB, curling up in the foetal position with all of my feels.
Sweeney: I CAN’T EVEN HANDLE ALL MY EMOTIONS RIGHT NOW WHY DID THIS HAPPEN?
Lor: It’s hard to gather up my feelings here. This episode went for a gut punch in a very, very obvious way, and it’s amazing to me that even though I’ve been frustrated with these characters for a solid season and a half, it still worked for me. We haven’t seen these characters interact as much lately, but I still completely buy them all jumping up into action when Fred is down.
On another note, Fred and Wesley got literally like 0.75 of an episode together. Joss Whedon, you guys. Joss. Whedon.
K: Let’s be honest here: fuck that guy too.
Next time: the Fang Gang try to bring Fred back. I’m guessing there’ll be more feels involved. Find out in Angel S05 E16 – Shells.
I'm a 30-something librarian and I still live with my parents because I'm super broke. Leader of Team Heartless Cow. I have an inexplicable love for 90s television, eat too much chocolate, and read more than is good for me.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
Nicole is the co-captain of Snark Squad and these days she spends most of her time editing podcasts. She spends too much time on Twitter and very occasionally vlogs and blogs. In her day job she's a producer, editor, director, and sometimes host of educational YouTube channels. She loves travel, maps, panda gifs, and semicolons. Writing biographies stresses her out; she crowd sourced this one years ago and has been using a version of it ever since. She would like to thank Twitter for their help.
