History Recap / AngelS03E11Birthday

** Cordelia experiences an alternate reality in which she met a talent agent instead of Angel at the party in "City Of". She's now the famous star of a popular sit-com, whereas Angel has gone insane from the visions, Wesley has lost an arm, Gunn has an ugly scar across his face and Fred was never rescued from Pylea, while the Fang Gang are barely scraping by without Cordy's MoneyFetish skills.

* MyselfMyAvatar: Skip notices that the astral-projected Cordy isn't any different from the real Cordy lying unconscious on the bed, and that most people pretty themselves up a bit. When you're Cordelia of course, you don't need to.

* HiddenDepths: Superstar!Cordelia has kindness, patience, and acting ability -- implying that these traits are innate rather than just from the empathy she's gained from experiencing the visions and helping the helpless over the past three years.

* FakeBetterAlternateTimeline: A demon gives Cordelia the chance to enter a world in which she does not have the prophetic visions, which after three years are near the point of killing her. In this parallel world, Cordy has become the rich and successful actress she always wanted to be -- but the sight of a one-armed Wesley and an Angel driven insane from getting the visions in Cordy's stead quickly convince her to go back to the real world (though changed to become part demon so she can survive the visions).

* DomCom: ''[[TheEponymousShow Cordy]]'', a ''Series/{{Friends}}''-style sitcom starring Cordelia Chase. We get to see the TitleSequence, but a clip of the show had to be cut for time, and because the producers felt it wasn't funny enough. It can be watched as a DeletedScene on the DVD. Tropes seen in ''Cordy'' include: NavelDeepNeckline (Cordy wears a plunging neckline dress), HappyDance, NotWhatItLooksLike, StudioAudience and RecycledSet (from ''Series/DharmaAndGreg'').

** Cordelia [[CloseupOnHead appears to be making]] a LoveConfession (to [[AnguishedDeclarationOfLove Angel]] or [[LoveYouAndEverybody her friends]]) when she's actually showing Fred the award speech she rehearsed for her non-existent acting career.

* GoMadFromTheIsolation: In this reality, Doyle passed his visions on to Angel himself before his HeroicSacrifice, and Angel retreated into himself in his grief, with the power of the visions not helping matters. Eventually, Angel slipped to the point where he would have visions of his victims as Angelus, with his only contact with Gunn and Wesley being to inform them of his latest vision and send them out to fix it, with the visions also causing violent episodes that prompted Gunn and Wesley to install chains in his room. When Cordelia comes to see him, Angel is babbling and barely coherent and beats his head on the wall of his room. The worst part of it all is that, according to Wesley, that example of madness is "him on a ''good'' day."

* HiddenDepths: Superstar!Cordelia has kindness, patience, and acting ability -- implying that these traits are innate rather than from the empathy she's gained from experiencing the visions and helping the helpless over the past three years.