In his destroyed room, Angel stares at Connor's empty crib a broken man, having lost his son to Holtz and Quor'toth. Meanwhile, Gunn and Fred are searching Wesley's apartment for a reason why he decided to steal Connor from Angel. Fred, upset by everything that happens, suggests looking for Wesley's diaries as she keeps trying his cell phone. What she doesn't realize is that Wes is actually close by, lying where Justine cut his throat and left him for dead.
In Holtz's lair, a broken-hearted Justine returns but lies to the remaining troops by telling them that Holtz escaped with Angel's son as planned and commended his men. Justine takes charge and tells the assembled that Holtz's mission to kill 'Angelus' is now theirs.
Gunn and Fred return to the hotel and is informed of what happened by Lorne. Fred is upset, especially given her own experience with portals while Gunn has more and more trouble believing that Wesley would just hand Connor over to Holtz. Lorne can only confirm what he read from Wesley when he read him earlier... he had been meeting Holtz in secret and when he took Connor out of the hotel he hadn't intended for either of them to ever return. Suddenly Angel appears, declaring that he's going to get Connor back and will get revenge on everyone responsible for his disappearance... including Wesley. Lorne states he's never heard of Quor'toth, and Angel sets him to work researching it and finding a way to open a portal, intending to head there. He then decides the best way of finding a way to open a portal is to get a hold of Sahjhan who's done it before and has been involved in the chain of events since the beginning.
At Wolfram & Hart, Lilah is finishing paperwork on the night's events when Linwood enters her office on his way back from a fundraiser. He reveals that he's fully aware she'd met with both Sahjhan and Angel, and (in a friendly manner) criticizes her for her failure to get Connor for them and for leaving him out of the loop before leaving. Lilah is left angry, knowing the blame for the evening's events and denying Wolfram & Hart any chance of getting hold of Connor will be placed directly on her.
In the hotel, all search of Wesley's files have shown no mention of Sahjhan. As Gunn continues to look, Fred decides to call Cordelia but Angel won't let her. Fred argues that Cordy should know what happened, but Angel tells her that he wants Connor to be there when Cordelia brings home presents for him, with a hint of his devastation coming through his voice. Fred puts the phone down, and Angel decides he can't just wait anymore and leaves. Gunn and Fred, knowing Angel might be about to track down those responsible (namely Wesley), decide they need to start looking again.
Meanwhile, Wesley is found by a homeless man who originally intends to help him, but when he finds hundreds of dollars Wes had withdrawn to fund his escape while looking for ID, the man instead mugs him and drags him out of sight.
Lorne enters the hotel to find Angel standing over the weapons chest, and gives him some very bad news... Quor'toth is one of the worst demon dimensions, enough to frighten anyone who's heard of it. Also, Sahjhan didn't actually open a portal but ripped open a hole in reality, and that's the only way to get there. What Lorne hasn't noticed is that Angel has been picking up sharp objects before heading to his room. As Lorne explains that even if Angel does somehow make it to Quor'toth, finding Connor will still be almost impossible. They enter the room, and Lorne finds that Angel has a guest... Linwood, who has been kidnapped and tied to a chair.
Lorne is very troubled as he realizes Angel intends to torture Linwood for information, and that he can't do that to a human... even someone like Linwood who barely qualifies. Linwood makes threats, but Angel knows Wolfram & Hart will kill their own employees before him. Linwood promises he won't press any charges, but Angel simply takes a spindle he picked up and starts to hover it dangerously close to Linwood's eye asking for information on who Sahjhan is and how he can be found. Linwood gets Angel to take out his cell phone and use the speed dial, after which he talks to Lilah and tells her Angel is coming to Wolfram & Hart and he is to be given the firm's full support.
Gunn and Fred enter Holtz's lair to be confronted by Justine and Holtz's troops. They demand information of Wesley, but she isn't talking and Fred realizes that Justine is devastated by Holtz's disappearance. Justine sets Holtz's troops on them and the two are caught be surprise. Before they can kill Gunn, Justine remembers slashing Wesley's throat and lets them go.
At Wolfram & Hart, Lilah can't help but be impressed at Angel kidnapping Linwood but is also nervous and she has been told to take him to the White Room... a place that she didn't learn about until she'd been at the firm for three years and she still doesn't know what it is or does. Entering an elevator, Angel has the button combination for getting to the room and enters it... but doesn't give Lilah the piece of paper with the information. A new, white button appears on the panel, and Angel presses it causing him and Lilah to be absorbed by a light.
The two find themselves in a literal white room, which appears to go on forever. They are approached by the image of a little girl who already knows why Angel is there and what he wants... Sahjhan. She tells them that Sahjhan is a Granok demon, and in the past Granok demons brought torture and death to all that encountered them. The Senior Partners were concerned at how much chaos the Granoks were causing, so made them immaterial. They can only watch events now, and can be trapped by a special urn which swallows their essence. The little girl knows that Angel wants not an image but someone he can touch, and offers to help on a condition... kill Lilah. Without hesitation, Angel moves to snap Lilah's neck but the girl stops him. His willingness to do it is enough for her. She hands over a dark magic ritual that will return Sahjhan to his bodily form before casting Angel and Lilah out of the room.
With none of Wesley's notes present in his apartment, Fred knows that only one of two things could have happened to them... he either threw them away or took them with him. With that, she looks through his building's dumpster. After some searching, she finds them. Reading them, she finds that Wesley learned of a coming event that scared him and became desperate to disprove. Gunn finds the passage which reveals that Angel was destined to kill Connor. Fred starts to tell her that Wesley did the right and the only thing he could do, but Gunn knows that Wesley had another option... tell them what he'd found at the start. Fred reasons that Angel might start to forgive Wesley when he finds out why he did what he did.
In the hotel, Angel has painted a pentagram on the floor of the lobby and prepares to start the ritual with Lorne, Lilah and a still tied-up Linwood watching. Lorne tries to talk Angel out of his actions, as dark magic always has dire consequences. Angel isn't interested, and tells Lilah the only ingredient left is human blood. For a second, it looks like Lilah is going to get some out of Linwood, but then cuts her hand and supplies it herself. Angel reads the words from the incantation he was given and Sahjhan forms in the middle of the hotel... then disappears. Angel demands information out of Linwood as to why the spell went wrong, but Linwood is clueless.
In the middle of a street, Sahjhan suddenly forms. The demon wonders what he's doing there, when suddenly a truck hits his now physical form. The driver is shocked... when suddenly the truck is flipped up by a pleasantly surprised Sahjhan who doesn't know how he got his form back but intends to enjoy it.
Angel starts pulling Linwood up the stairs when Lilah tells him of what happened with Sahjhan and the truck. Angel lets Linwood go, causing him to crash down the stairs, and moves to leave the hotel. As Lilah takes the chance to free her boss, Gunn and Fred arrive and tell Angel of the prophecy. Angel is incredulous... he knows he'd never hurt Connor or anyone he cares about. But it becomes clear he'll break the rule if Fred doesn't get out of his way and she has to let him leave. Suddenly the two notice Lilah and Linwood, and Lorne explains that bad things happened as the two lawyers leave swearing revenge.
Angel is attacked on his way out of the hotel by Justine and her troops, but he makes quick work of them and continues on. Justine runs off, and is spotted by Gunn and Fred getting into Wesley's car. They realize she must know where he is.
At the scene of the accident, Angel finds the truck driver blaming himself for what happened. Angel, despite his own personal pain, assures the driver he wasn't at fault for something which was out of his control. Angel then finds some of Sahjhan's blood and manages to get the demon's scent.
At the lair, Gunn and Fred find Justine trying to come to terms with the fact that Holtz was only interested in her as a means for getting revenge. She reveals that Wesley didn't hand Connor over to Holtz willingly and that she slit his throat. Fred attacks Justine, and the two briefly fight before Gunn throws Justine to the floor and demands she take them to him. Suddenly Sahjahn arrives, intending to show them some real rough stuff...
Sahjhan begins by hitting Justine in return for his attempt to cut off his head, then heads towards Gunn and Fred intending to beat them to death. Angel then turns up, and Sahjhan guessed that he must be responsible for his suddenly becoming solid. Angel demands Sahjhan take him to Quor'toth and help him find Connor, but Sahjhan explains that won't... and more importantly, he can't. The reason he ripped open the door to Quor'toth was because he only had the power to do it once without destroying the universe.
Sahjhan then reveals that he was responsible for writing the prophecy stating The Father will kill The Son. 1,100 years earlier he had learned of a real prophecy which stated The one sired by the vampire with a soul will grow to manhood and kill Sahjhan. In order to ensure this never came to pass, Sahjhan brought Holtz forward to the present day intending for him to kill Darla before she could give birth. When Holtz instead decided to let Connor live and raise him as his own son, Sahjhan then went backwards and forwards in time planting false prophecies like the one Wesley read. Sahjhan notes that out of everyone involved, Wes was the only one who showed any kind of spine.
Angel suddenly attacks Sahjhan for his part in all this, but Sahjhan's immense strength is too much for the vampire. He eventually defeats Angel and prepares to stake him while taunting that Connor had a bright future before him before Sahjhan decided to 'put him down'. Justine then arrives back with the urn that Holtz had been keeping as a defence against Sahjhan and traps the Granok demon inside much to everyone's surprise. She then reveals where she left Wesley before leaving.
Heading there, Angel, Gunn and Fred don't find him at first, and Angel returns to the hotel due to the sun rising. Angel is upset that despite everything he went through, his son is still lost to him forever. Lorne gives him a talk and assures him that both he and Wesley did all they could and that the first step towards forgiving Wesley is to forgive him. Suddenly, Fred calls... Wesley has been found alive and taken to hospital.
Visiting, Angel tells Gunn and Fred he couldn't stay away and wants to speak to Wesley. Entering the room, he calmly talks to him, as he explains that he knows why he took Connor but wants Wesley to understand that he would never harm Connor and asks him to understand that he's talking to Angel, not Angelus. Wesley, unable to speak, nods his understanding. Angel simply says "Good"... then lets his calm facade drop as he grabs a pillow and starts to smother Wesley with it. Filled with fury and rage towards the person who betrayed him, Angel screams that he'll never forgive Wesley for taking his son away and intends to kill him. An alarm is tripped, and orderlies enter and try to pull Angel off as he manicially screams that he's going to make Wes pay for what he did. Gunn and several orderlies drag Angel away as he promises that Wesley is a dead man.
Tropes
- Always Chaotic Evil: Sahjahn is a Granok demon, who were like this in the past. To avert this the Senior Partners turned the entire race incorporeal.Mesektet: They were all about torture and death. (to Angel) You can relate. Well, they caused a lot of trouble. Don't get me wrong; I like trouble — but
I hate chaos. - Bait-and-Switch Comment: When he finally catches up with Wesley at the hospital, Angel seems about to forgive him, pointing out that he didn't turn evil like Wes feared. Then he grabs the pillow and shoves it over Wes's face, screaming that he's going to kill him.
- Black Magic: Angel performs a forbidden ritual to make Sahjhan corporeal again.
- Blood Magic: Human blood is needed for the ritual. Linwood gets an Oh, Crap! look when Lilah approaches him wielding a dagger... then pointedly slices her own palm.
- Buffy Speak: "That's doomy."
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The Resikhian Urn used to trap Sahjahn.
- When Fred empties a trash bin, Gunn tells her she won't find Wesley's diaries in there.
- The Black Magic pentagram becomes significant in "The Price".
- Creepy Child: Our introduction to the Conduit to the Senior Partners.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Sahjahn vs. Angel, Fred and Gunn — the demon is kicking all their asses and is about to stake Angel when Justine sucks him into the urn.
- Despair Event Horizon: Justine and Angel.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Fred realises Wesley has thrown his diaries in the trash after seeing Justine's messy place.
- Flashback Cut: Justine remembers cutting Wesley's throat and stops her men from doing the same to Gunn. She later remembers her past with Holtz after realising that he only wanted revenge, not her.
- Good Is Not Nice: Angel makes a point of letting Wesley know that it isn't his evil Angelus side that's going to smother him.
- Just Between You and Me: Sahjahn reveals the whole Evil Plan to the Fang Gang.
- If I Wanted You Dead...: Possible, if downplayed example. An alternate interpenetration of the final scene is that if Angel really wanted to kill Wesley, the Vampire could easily have just snapped his neck then and there rather than smothering him. More, with his superhuman strength, Angel could easily have thrown off the orderlies, Fred, and Gunn rather than letting them drag him out of the room. In this interpretation, smothering Wesley is more about satiating his immediate rage and putting the fear of God (or Angel) into Wesley from hereon out.
- If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: The Conduit informs Angel that, as he knows, there's always a price for their help. She tells Angel to kill Lilah. Angel moves immediately to Neck Snap the Amoral Attorney, only to be stopped by the Creepy Child's laughter. She was just checking that he was willing to cross his own
Moral Event Horizon. - I'll Kill You!: Angel visits Wesley in the hospital and seems to be ready to forgive him for kidnapping Connor. Quickly becomes this trope when Angel puts a pillow over Wesley's face and tries to smother him while screaming the trope name.
- Ineffectual Death Threats:Linwood: Once the firm finds out what you've done—Angel: They'd kill you before they'd kill me.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Angel kidnaps Linwood, intending to torture him for information on Sahjhan. All he has to do is pick up a spindle and threaten Linwood with Eye Scream, and Linwood caves.
- Kill It with Fire: Averted; Fred chucks a brazier of hot coals in Sahjahn's face to no effect.Sahjahn: Do I look like I need more skin problems? (punches Fred)
- Look Both Ways: Sahjahn goes corporeal in the middle of the street and promptly gets hit by a truck. It doesn't stop him.
- Luck-Based Search Technique: Checking the trash is a basic technique for Private Detectives — which Angel Investigations aren't, as has been pointed out in the past.
- Missed Him by That Much: Gunn and Fred search Wesley's apartment for clues as to why he kidnapped Connor, Fred urging Gunn to check his diaries while she tries to call him. As they drive away in Gunn's trick, it's discovered that Wesley was in the same area the whole time, lying where Justine cut his throat and left him for dead.
- Mood Whiplash: At the end, Angel calmly talks to Wesley, explaining that he knows why he took Connor, but wants Wesley to understand that he would never harm Connor, and asking him to understand that he's talking to Angel, not Angelus. Wesley nods in understanding, and Angel says, "Good"... before flying into an Unstoppable Rage and trying to kill Wesley with a Vorpal Pillow, screaming that he'll never forgive Wesley for taking Connor.
- Not Quite Dead: Wesley survives having his throat cut.
- Punched Across the Room: Sahjahn is incredibly strong, and really enjoys using that strength to hurt people.
- Put on a Bus: Sahjahn gets sucked into a Soul Jar and will stay there for a long time.
- Rousing Speech: Lorne gives Angel a heartwarming speech on the importance of forgiveness. Angel meets with Wesley, and after making it clear that he understands that Wesley wasn't intentionally trying to hurt him, that Angel hasn't turned into his evil-side as Wesley feared he would, that he's himself and in control of his actions, he then tries to murder him, shouting about how he will never forgive Wesley for taking his son away. No, a big speech isn't going to make Angel's anger magically go away and allow him to instantly forgive Wesley, and it takes much longer before Angel actually can find it in himself to move past what happened and work with Wesley again.
- Revenge Myopia: Angel doesn't actually fall victim to this, though it's likely he would have killed Wesley if he hadn't been stopped.
- Security Cling: Fred to Gunn when facing Sahjahn.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Sahjahn found a prophecy predicting his death at the hands of the one sired by the vampire with a soul. He then went back in time and planted the prophecy implying that Angel would kill Connor, so Wesley would take action to prevent it.
- Sickbed Slaying: Angel attempts to kill Wesley this way, though for revenge rather than silence.
- Staircase Tumble: When the spell apparently fails to conjure Sahjahn, Angel starts dragging Linwood up the stairs still tied to his chair. When Lilah appears to tell Angel that Sahjahn has just turned up elsewhere, Angel lets Linwood go — all the way down the stairs.
- Super-Strength: Sahjahn lifts a two-ton pickup truck off himself after being run over.
- Take Up My Sword / Blatant Lies: Justine tells Holtz's men that he charged them with carrying on his mission to kill Angelus.
- Team Killer: Angel attempting to smother Wesley in his hospital bed. Before he does, Angel very calmly puts Wes' mind to rest that this is not Angelus talking.
- This Is Unforgivable!: Angel rants that, regardless of Wesley's reasons for doing so, he will never forgive Wesley for taking Connor.Angel: You think I'd forgive you?! NEVER!! You're gonna die, you hear me?! You're gonna pay!!
- Torture Technician: Angel selects handy office items to torture Linwood.
- Unstoppable Rage: Angel's near-killing of Wesley after the kidnapping of Connor in "Forgiving". Gunn, Fred, and several orderlies could barely haul him off of Wes.
- Angel: YOU THINK I'D FORGIVE YOU? NEVER! YOU TOOK MY SON! I'LL KILL YOU! YOU'RE A DEAD MAN, PRYCE! YOU'RE DEAD! YOU HEAR ME?! DEAD!! DEAD!!
- Verbal Backspace: Lorne says that Linwood is human...marginally.
- Villainous Rescue: Justine sucks Sahjahn into an urn right as he's about to kill Angel, Gunn and Fred.
- Villains Never Lie:Angel: You're takin' me there [the hell dimension].
Sahjahn: Couldn't even if I wanted to.
Angel: You're lying.
Sahjahn: No, that, I'm telling the truth about. Whole universe could go kaplooie. Bad for me, bad for America.
Fred: So what are you lyin' about?
Sahjahn: Oh, well. I don't like to brag but...read any good prophecies lately? - Vorpal Pillow: Angel tries this on Wesley, but it doesn't work. (Some fans speculate that this was deliberate; he could have killed Wes easily in other ways, but he was really just making a point.)
- Walk-In Chime-InSahjahn: I miss gravity, friction, and smashing things to pieces. Let's start with your skulls.Angel: (entering) Or yours.
- Wham Episode: The ending scene when Angel visits Wesley in the hospital, where he's recovering from having his throat cut. Angel has what starts out as a normal, calm conversation, assuring Wes that it was Angel talking, not Angelus. Cue Angel's face contorting with rage, not vamping out, but even scarier, and doing his level best to kill Wes in his hospital bed!!
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Angel is threatening to torture a human and Lorne, who's a demon, tries to dissuade him, saying "Angel, that's not a slimey demon you've got there, that's a human". Apparently, even good demons value human life more than (bad) demon life.
- White Void Room: The aptly named White Room where Angel meets the Conduit.
