In the Dark (Angel episode)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “In the Dark” | |
|---|---|
| Angel episode | |
 Angel being tortured |
|
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 3 |
| Guest stars | James Marsters (Spike) Seth Green (Oz) Kevin West (Marcus) Malia Mathis (Rachel) |
| Written by | Douglas Petrie |
| Directed by | Bruce Seth Green |
| Production no. | 1ADH03 |
| Original airdate | October 19, 1999 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Lonely Hearts" | "I Fall to Pieces" |
"In The Dark" is episode 3 of season 1 of the television show Angel. See also List of Angel (series) episodes.
Contents |
[edit] Plot synopsis
[edit] Summary
Spike follows Oz to L.A. to retrieve the Gem of Amarra, which makes a vampire invincible. Following Buffy's instructions, Oz gives the ring to Angel, who immediately hides it in the sewers and thwarts Spike's first ambush. Spike soon hires a skilled vampire to abduct Angel and torture the ring's location out of him. When Angel doesn't break, and a search of his home and office doesn't turn it up, Spike forces an exchange with Cordelia and Doyle, who manage to find the ring and rescue Angel, with crucial help from Oz. To Spike's fury, the torturer vampire nabs the ring during the confusion and disappears. Although severely wounded, Angel tracks and ingeniously dusts the torturer, then wears the Gem of Amarra for the remainder of the day. After watching a beautiful sunset, Angel decides that possessing the ring would distance him from the suffering of the innocent he has sworn to protect, besides making him a target for ambitious vampires everywhere. As an aghast Doyle watches, Angel crushes the Gem to powder.
[edit] Expanded
A woman, Rachel, walks quickly through an alley, trying to escape someone, but instead ends up walking right into him. The guy is later revealed to be someone she was seeing but who abused and used her. He threatens her and then pulls out a gun, but Angel shows up and knocks the guy, Lenny, unconscious. While the two talk, Spike stands on the rooftop of another building and provides a hilarious commentary of their conversation based on their movements. At the office, Cordelia prints up their first invoice for Rachel, but Doyle warns her that it may never get paid. Oz shows up in LA, and Cordelia is a bit too excited to see him. Doyle is slightly jealous about her excitement.
They go down and see Angel and Oz gives him the ring. Doyle is incredibly happy, but Angel doesn't feel the same way. While everyone else goes out, Angel hides the ring under a brick in the sewers. The next morning, Doyle wakes up with a monster hangover. Angel is practicing Tai Chi when he gets a call from Rachel saying that Lenny has been released based on a technicality. Before he can get into his car, Spike hits Angel with a large piece of wood. The two fight both verbally and physically, and then Spike takes off.
Angel tells Cordelia to go stay with Doyle until things are taken care of with Spike. Cordelia feels uncomfortable in Doyle's messy apartment while he makes calls to see if anyone's heard about Spike. Meanwhile, Angel talks to Rachel at her apartment and tries to encourage her to get away from Lenny and get help. Doyle contacts Angel and informs him of a Manny the Pig who has info on Spike. Angel goes on a spree of beating guys up until he finally finds one who knows where Spike is. Interrupting Spike's feeding, Angel chases him down an alley and right into a trap. Someone else swings a chain around Angel's neck, successfully capturing him.
After Cordelia has informed Doyle of how horrible Spike is, the two begin to worry when Angel doesn't check in. He is chained up in a large warehouse where Spike plans for him to be tortured by Marcus, a vampiric torture expert with a taste for children's blood, until he gives up the location of the ring. Spike is impatient to see Angel in serious pain and Marcus doesn't disappoint as he starts stabbing burning hot pokers through Angel. Spike goes out for a while, and searches Angel's place for the ring. During his search, he gets caught by Cordelia and Doyle and then tells them if they want Angel to live, they have to bring him the ring.
While all this is going on, Angel is still being tortured by Marcus and even attempts to kill him with a discarded stake on the floor. Spike unfortunately arrives and prevents this from happening. He then tells Angel about Buffy and how quickly she's moved on to another guy. Cordelia and Doyle search for the ring all through the house and finally go down to the sewers. When Cordelia turns her back, Doyle uses his demon senses to find the ring under a brick. They then meet up with Spike and ask to see Angel before they reveal where the ring is.
After they see Angel, Doyle pulls out the ring and throws it into the sunlight. As Spike reaches for it, Oz drives his van through the wall of the warehouse, and then holds Spike at bay with crossbows until Cordy and Doyle can get Angel to safety. After they get away, Spike finds that Marcus has taken off with the ring and he promptly decides he's not working with any more partners. Angel orders Oz to turn the van around and go back to where Marcus is headed. While Marcus is distracted for a second, Angel jumps out of the van and runs for the edge of the pier, bursting into flames as he does. The water prevents Angel from being killed by sunlight and then after he and Marcus fight under the pier and Marcus is killed, he takes the ring.
The ring on, Angel steps out into the sunlight for the first time in over 200 years. He walks along the beach enjoying the sunlight while Oz, Doyle and Cordelia look on. That night, Angel watches the sun set from the top of their building. He tells Doyle that he's not going to keep the ring because the world needs someone to defend them from the night, and he doesn't want the daylight to blind him of what really lurks out there at night. After the sun sets completely, Angel takes the ring off, and smashes it with a brick.
[edit] Writing and acting
[edit] Production details
[edit] Music
- Extreme music library - Smokers revenge"
- Mozart - "Symphony No. in C K.5 'Jupiter' Menuetto Allegretto"
[edit] Quotes and trivia
This episode is part of a crossover event with Buffy that aired as a two-hour event on the WB.
[edit] Translations
- German title: "Der Ring von Amarra" ("The Ring of Amarra")
- Italian title: "L'anello di Amarra" ("The Ring of Amarra")
[edit] Continuity
[edit] Arc significance
Crossover with Buffy: This episode continues a story begun in "The Harsh Light of Day", aired immediately before.
- For perhaps the first time, Angel turns down a shortcut to happiness in order to fight for redemption.
- This is the first time Spike appears on Angel. Though he is portrayed as the Big Bad, in Season 5 of the series he returns as a souled Champion.
- This is also the first time you see Angel and Spike fight hand to hand against one another. It also establishes Angel as the better fighter
[edit] Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
| Location, time (if known) |
Buffyverse chronology: Fall 1999 - December 1999 (non-canon = italic) |
|---|---|
| L.A. 1999 | Angel comic: Doyle: Spotlight |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.01 City of |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.01 The Freshman |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.02 Living Conditions |
| L.A. 1999 | |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.02 Lonely Hearts |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.00 Unaired Angel pilot |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Not Forgotten |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.03 The Harsh Light of Day |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.03 In the Dark |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.04 Fear, Itself |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy graphic novel: Blood of Carthage |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel graphic novel: Surrogates |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel comic: Strange Bedfellows story, Angel #4 |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy video game: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Game Boy Color) |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Tales of the Slayer: All That You Do Comes Back.. |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.04 I Fall to Pieces |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.05 Beer Bad |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.05 Rm w/a Vu |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy books: Lost Slayer series |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.06 Wild at Heart |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy graphic novel: Oz |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy book: Oz: Into the Wild |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.06 Sense & Sensitivity |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.07 The Initiative |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.07 Bachelor Party |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Close to the Ground |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Soul Trade |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel graphic novel: Earthly Possessions |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Redemption |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Shakedown |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Hollywood Noir |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Avatar |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Bruja |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: The Summoned |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.08 Pangs |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.08 I Will Remember You |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.09 Something Blue |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.09 Hero |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.10 Hush |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.10 Parting Gifts |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.11 Doomed |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.11 Somnambulist |
