Angel: Reprise (2001)

Cordy (Charisma Carpenter) and the boys proudly cure a client of a demonic third eye that has sprouted in the back of her head, but the girl's mother refuses to pay on the grounds that since demons don't exist, the team must have scammed her. Later, Virginia (Brigid Brannagh) breaks up with Wesley (Alexis Denisof), unable to cope with his dangerous lifestyle. Elsewhere, Detective Kate Lockley (Elisabeth Rohm) gets fired from the LAPD for her obsession with the occult. Meanwhile, Angel (David Boreanaz) learns that one of the senior partners of Wolfram & Hart, a fearsome Kleynack demon, will be arriving on earth soon for the firm's violent 75-year review. Angel decides to take his battle with the firm all the way to the bottom -- to hell, where he will confront the senior partners on their home turf. After basically stealing a book from Wes and Cordy and further alienating his former comrades, he turns to Denver (Brett Rickaby), the same bookstore proprietor who helped him 50 years earlier (see "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?"). Denver gives him a mystic gauntlet that will allow him to kill the visiting Kleynack demon and steal the magical ring with which it travels between dimensions. Unfortunately, Darla (Julie Benz), who has been recovering from her burns at the apartment of smitten lawyer Lindsey McDonald (Christian Kane), has also learned of the impending review. She arrives at the bookstore, kills Denver, steals the glove and runs Angel through with a sword. Later, both Darla and Angel crash the Wolfram & Hart review, and Angel manages to get his hands on both the gauntlet and the ring. When he puts it on, the deceased Holland Manners (Sam Anderson) arrives to take him in an elevator to hell. As it turns out, though, the elevator leads not to hell, but back to earth -- for, as Holland explains, evil is everywhere and inside everyone. As the bitter Kate lies near death, having washed down a bottle of pills with liquor, a demoralized Angel returns home to find Darla waiting for him. He falls nihilistically into bed with her and awakens in what appears to be the same agony that beset him after making love to Buffy and losing his soul (see Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Innocence"). Originally broadcast February 20, 2001, on the WB network, "Reprise" marked season two, episode 15 of the supernatural comedy drama. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi