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The Trial - 2ADH09
The Long: After a ''Previously on Angel'' segment (see Continuity #1) we open on Cordelia and Wesley standing in
front of a door at Angel Investigations. They say Angel has been in there a
long time and they hear a strange noise from inside. Cordelia complains
about his Darla brooding and says she doesn't want to hear about her. The
noise stops and they run off pretending not to have been listening. Angel
emerges with his laundry and seems quite chipper. They comment on how nice
he seems and he apologizes about his recent actions. Angel says he's come to
terms that Darla will come to him if she needs him and he's let go. Gunn
then bursts in saying he's found Darla, which Angel asked him to do. Angel
immediately drops what he's doing and looks at the pictures Gunn
has of Darla staying at a motel (see Reference #1). Cordelia accuses him of lying, and he
admits he just didn't want them to nag him about continuing to look for her.
Angel and Gunn rush off to find Darla, but Cordelia and Wesley refuse to go.
In the motel Darla puts on makeup and seems distraught. Lindsey knocks,
then walks in, saying she's a hard one to find.
At Wolfram & Hart Darla and Lindsey meet with Holland. Darla wants to
know if they want her to go back to Angel, even though she insists there is
nothing between them any more. Holland says it's not about Angel. He says
she is their moral responsibility and hands her a folder. She reads it and
seems hurt by what she reads. At the motel Angel and Gunn look around.
Angel says she was here recently. In 1765 France we see Angel and Darla
riding into a barn on horseback, having escaped a lynch mob (see Continuity #2). Angel advises
they go to Romania (see Reference #2). They mention they are being chased by a vampire hunter
named Holtz. As the two settle down in a haystack to have a romp a flaming
spear hits a post nearby, they've been found! In the present at a bar Darla
is making time with vampire dweeb. She tries to
convince him to make her his a vampire companion, but he's never done that, he isn't interested in
commitment (see Reference #3). She talks him into it and they rush to the alley out
back to sire
her. He's not even sure how to sire someone, but she says she'll walk him
through it. As the vampire is about to bite her Angel stakes him in the
back. Darla is pissed. He says if she becomes a vampire he will have to
stake her, which is doesn't want to do again (see Continuity #3). She says she won't let him.
He says being sired in an alley by a creep isn't like her, but she reminds
him he was sired in an alley (see Continuity #4). Angel insists she should give life as a human
some time, but she says she has no time, she's dying. Her medical records
say she has two or three months to live, so she's in a bit of a hurry.
Back in 1765 a mob has surrounded the barn Angel and Darla are hiding in
and have set it on fire. They say they can't get to the hills on foot
before sunrise and the horse can't take the two of them that fast. Angel
plans to go out fighting, but Darla knocks him on the head and takes takes
the horse. In the present at Angel Investigations Angel walks in with Darla.
Cordelia and Wesley learn Darla is dying, but Angel doubts Wolfram & Hart
could be telling the truth. Angel leaves Darla with Cordelia and Wesley
who immediately make sure to lay down the law with her. Angel shows up at
Lindsey's place and knocks in the door. He starts to make a speech about not
being able to get in to get him, but then Lindsey invites him in
immediately. Although Angel wants to beat information out of Lindsey, who
is a little drunk, Lindsey says he doesn't need to. Lindsey says she is
dying of a syphillitic heart condition. She was dying of syphillus when
she was human, and now that she's human again it's finishing it (see Reference #4). Angel
realizes Lindsey has feelings for Darla. Lindsey says there is only one
cure for her, and Angel can do it but he can't. Angel refuses and says
he will find another way. Back at Angel Investigations Cordelia is ranting
about letting Darla go (see Reference #5). Angel returns and wants to talk to Darla. Darla
and Angel argue about how there is no other solution, and Angel has an idea
on how they could get some help (see Reference #6). At Caritas Darla sings a song as Angel
talks to the host demon about their problem (see Reference #7-9 & Continuity #5). He eventually gives Angel
an address and asks if he's ready to take a leap of faith. Angel and
Darla arrive at a large empty swimming pool, where Angel jumps off the
diving board, despite Darla's advice not to (see Reference #10). As Angel leaps off he is
transported into a stone room where he meets a valet who greets him. Darla
is suddenly there too. The valet moves Darla into a waiting room and informs
Angel that if he wins they will save Darla's life, if not then they will
take it and Angels.
The valet tells Angel that the trials consists of three challenges. He takes
Angel's shirt and shoes. Angel tries to get the valet to tell him about
the challenges. He says the first is child's play. Once the gate across the
room opens he merely has to go though it. He doesn't know about the
other two tests because no one has ever survived the first. The valet wishes
him luck and disappears. The gate opens and a large green demon walks through it
with weapons. It attacks Angel with chains. The valet and Darla wait in a
room as Angel fights. She wants it called off. When he says it can't be
done she wants to see what's happening. He touches her forehead and suddenly
she can see and feel everything that is happening to Angel. Angel and
the demon fight until Angel is able to get a sword from it and slices it
in half at the waist. Angel tries to get through the gate, but it has
already closed. As he yells the demon pulls itself back together. Angel
fights and cuts it in half again, this time chaining up the halves
separately. The gate opens and Angel goes through. Angel arrives in a room
with an open skylight high above, where the moon shines down. The walls and
floors in front of him are covered in crosses, a bowl sits on a pedestal
in the middle of the room and there is a door on the far end. Angel makes
a run for the door at the far end, burning his feet at he runs. When he
gets to the other side he finds the door locked. He quickly runs to the
bowl and sees a key at the bottom, inside holy water. He reaches inside screaming
as the water boils. He pulls out the key and unlocks the door. Angel
arrives in a room where chains suddenly hold him in place in the middle of
the room. The valet walks in applauding him and says there is one final
challenge. A wall in covered with stakes moves towards Angel. Death is
the final challenge. The valet says for Darla to live Angel must die.
The valet makes it clear that the trade is Darla's life for Angel. Angel
gets the choice to accept his death and save Darla or walk away and let
Darla die. Angel refuses to live while Darla has to die. The valet implores
him to give in choose to live, telling him of all the people he can save
if he lives. Angel says for him to do it and the valet pulls the lever
causing the stakes to fire at Angel. Angel wakes up standing next to
Darla fully clothed and alive. The valet congratulates him. The valet
puts his hands on Darla's head and tries to cure her, but then is shocked.
He says this is quite unprecedented, she's been given new life before, by
supernatural means, so he can't help Darla. A stairway appears and the valet
disappears. Angel throws a fit tossing furniture and beating his hand into
the wall until it's broken. Angel and Darla end up at her motel where Angel
is considering turning her into a vampire, hoping it would be different
because he has a soul. She says no, she saw everything he went through,
felt how much he cares. She thinks this is her second chance to die the way
she was supposed to in the first place. Angel vows that for every second she
has left he will be with her. She cries on his shoulder when suddenly men
break into the room and hit Angel with a stunner. The men grab and Darla.
Lindsey walks in followed by Drusilla. Without a word she approaches Darla,
changes to vampire face and bites her neck. Darla falls to the bed as Drusilla
makes a cut on her own chest. Drusilla pulls Darla to her and feeds her
blood to Darla, siring her as a vampire.
The big green demon Angel fought was a garden
variety muscular brute with the ability to pull himself back together after
a fight. The script called him Tor. Angel wasn't
able to kill it but was able to cut it in two and chain up the pieces.
Tahiti is the largest island of the Windward Group of the Society Islands,
French Polynesia, in the central South Pacific. Its nearest neighbor is
Moorea, 12 miles to the northwest. The island of Tahiti consists of two
ancient eroded volcanic cones, Tahiti Nui and Tahiti Iti, connected by the
Isthmus of Taravao. Its total area is 402 square miles. Papeete is the
capital and administrative centre of the island and of French Polynesia.
David Boreanaz as Angel
Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndham-Pryce
J. August Richards as Charles Gunn
Christian Kane as Lindsey McDonald
Andy Hallett as the Host Demon (Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan)
Sam Anderson as Holland Manners
Jim Piddock as the Valet
Julie Benz as Darla
Juliet Landau as Drusilla
Evan Arnold as the Shempire (Uncredited)
Andy Kreiss as the Lizard Demon (Liz, uncredited, appeared in flashback to Judgement.)
Jim Piddock, who played
valet, has his own web site at http://home.earthlink.net/~jimpiddock/.
I contacted him though e-mail and he was very helpful in putting actors to
character names and had some interesting trivia about his episode. You
can read what he had to say here. Jim's
other works include the part as a villain on the 1987 television series Max Headroom and as both
writer and actor in the 1992 murder mystery Traces of Red, seen on the far right.
