Slouching Toward Bethlehem (Angel episode)
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Summary
Cordelia inexplicably returns from her higher dimension, but she has no memory of who she is and who her friends are. Not wanting to make her feel uncomfortable, Angel and the group decide to keep their demon-hunting business a secret as well as the fact that Angel is a vampire. But after Cordelia has an encounter with a nasty demon, she fleas from the hotel and ends up with Connor as his run-down loft where she asks him to be her protector. Things get even more strange when Lorne tries to read Cordelia’s future and learns that the Powers That Be have sent her back to Earth in preparation for an impending apocalypse. Also, Wesley is still sexually involved with Lilah who learns about Cordelia’s reappearance and uses Wesley in order to send Wolfram & Hart’s personal army to get information about it.
Expanded overview
A man tries to get his stalled car started while his family waits in the car. Connor appears by the car and warns them of danger just before a tow truck arrives with a vampire driving it. The vampire attacks, but Connor jumps, beating up and eventually killing the demon and protecting the frightened family of three. Connor breaks into the hotel through a window just in time to see Angel and friends arrive home and spot Cordelia in the lobby. They try to approach her, but she doesn't remember anything about them or herself. Angel tries to remind Cordelia about who she is, but she scared and doesn't know what to believe.
Lorne approaches the hotel from outside, but Angel sends Gunn out to intercept the demon before Cordelia can see him and be frightened. Angel panics with Fred in the office about how they're going to handle Cordelia's lack of memory while Cordy panics herself in the lobby because of everyone's strange behavior. The phone rings and they let the machine get it until the message reveals more than Cordelia needs to hear and Fred quickly picks it up. Without saying much, she then with runs off to get Gunn and prevent a demon from bearing it's spawn. Angel takes Cordelia upstairs to one of the rooms where all of her stuff has been stored from her apartment. Cordy looks through some of the boxes as Angel again tries to convince her that she's safe and with friends.
After changing into some more comfortable clothes, Cordelia nervously practices saying her name in front of a mirror and then reads the eerie messages left in her high school yearbook and searches through pictures of herself from over the years. Cordelia wanders through the halls of the hotel and follows the sound of singing to Lorne's room where he's listening to a client sing. She doesn't see much and heads downstairs to the lobby. Angel removes several jars of blood from the counter before she can see them, but she finds a drop of blood left behind and starts to worry. Gunn and Fred return covered in purple demon goo and talking about killing the demon babies and unaware that Cordelia is ducked behind the counter. She pops up and runs out into the garden only to be jumped by a couple of evil lawyers. She fights them off with Angel's help and then vocalizes her suspicions that she's a spy and they want something from her. Angel denies the truth to that and tries to calm her down without revealing the truth to her.
Back in her room, Cordelia asks about a picture of her, Angel and Connor as a baby, wondering whether she was a mother or together in a relationship with Angel. He denies both and then she wonders if she was a nun, handing him a handful of crucifixes she found in her boxes. Angel vamps out at the burning contact and Cordelia again runs away and into Lorne down in the lobby. She's fed up and wants to know the truth, but when the gang finally tells her everything, she has a hard time believing it. Cordelia sings rather badly so Lorne can read her future but the singing sends Lorne running off to his room without much of an explanation. Angel follows after in search of answers and frustrated, Cordelia takes off on her own, despite Gunn and Fred's attempts to keep her with them.
Angel desperately tries to get answers from Lorne about his reading of Cordelia, but Lorne is tightlipped. He does reveal that something horrible and evil is coming and it seriously freaked him out. Lilah lies in bed with Wesley and talk about Angel before Wesley conversationally mentions that they're in a "relationship" and has to pay Lilah a dollar because he lost a bet. Cordelia searches for Angel in the hotel, but instead finds Lorne's client--a large mouthed human-eating demon--in one of the halls. She runs from the it and is rescued by Connor, who stabs the demon and then takes a willing Cordelia with him to someplace that isn't the hotel.
Angel, Gunn and Fred look at the dead human-eating demon while Lorne updates them on the horrific things he saw when reading Cordelia. Angel and the others set out to find Cordelia wherever she is. At some sort of a warehouse, Connor and Cordelia talk and bond as Connor leads her to the place he calls home. He's brutally honest with her about everything and Cordelia truly appreciates that. While sleeping at Wesley's, Lilah gets a call on her cell phone about Cordelia's return and rushes off, leaving an eavesdropping Wesley alone.
Cordelia tries to sleep, but she can't with so many pieces missing from her puzzle. Connor tries to comfort her and remind her of the few things he knew about her. She recognizes his loneliness that somewhat matches her own. As Angel updates the others on his lack of success in finding Cordelia, Wesley arrives with some answers. He reveals that Cordelia's with Connor but that Wolfram and Hart are planning to go after her again for the knowledge she may have about the Powers. Connor sleeps next to Cordelia with his hand inappropriately placed on her chest but moves it to quiet her as someone breaks into the room. More men attack and Cordelia and Connor are forced to fight them off as best as they can. Lilah watches the proceedings from the roof on a video feed as the Fang Gang arrive and help fight of the Wolfram and Hart minions.
After the bad guys are defeated, Angel tries to get Cordelia to return with him, but she chooses to stay with Connor rather than the others because Connor was truthful with her. Although her choice hurts them, Angel and the others leave her. Wesley finds the dollar bill Lilah left behind on the floor of his bedroom and realizes something. Back at the hotel, Gunn and Fred try to console Angel as they return to the hotel, but a noise in the office distracts them. They find Lorne tied up in the office, a bad wound on his forehead. He reveals that Wolfram and Hart used a special burrowing demon to sneak into his head and steal the knowledge Lorne had about Cordelia. It was all a trap to get Lorne alone and vulnerable.
Wesley shows up at Lilah's door and gets upset with her because she tricked him into warning Angel and separating the gang from Lorne. She reminds him it was just part of her job and that she was considerably kind to Lorne because he was Wesley's friend. Cordelia sleeps while Connor watches over her, while at the hotel, Angel stares out into the night and longingly back at his empty bed.
Continuity
Trivia
The episode's title is taken from a line in the W.B. Yeats poem The Second Coming. The phrase has also been used by a number of critics when refering to Pacific USA, in particular the real danger of apocalyptic natural disasters occuring in the area.Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
| Location, time (if known) | Buffyverse: Fall 2002 - December 2002 (non-canon = italic) |
|---|---|
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.01 Lessons (Buffy episode)>Lessons |
| Mexico, 2002 | Buffy/Angel book: Seven Crows (Buffy/Angel novel)>Seven Crows |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.01 Deep Down (Angel episode)>Deep Down |
| L.A., 2002 | B7.02 Beneath You (Buffy episode)>Beneath You |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.02 Ground State (Angel episode)>Ground State |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.03 Same Time, Same Place (Buffy episode)>Same Time, Same Place |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | Buffy book: Apocalypse Memories (Buffy novel)>Apocalypse Memories |
| L.A., Las Vegas, 2002 | A4.03 The House Always Wins (Angel episode)>The House Always Wins |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.04 Help (Buffy episode)>Help |
| L.A., 2002 | Angel book: Dark Mirror (Angel novel)>Dark Mirror |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | Buffy book: Mortal Fear (Buffy novel)>Mortal Fear |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | Buffy book: Spark and Burn (Buffy novel)>Spark and Burn |
| Sunnydale, L.A., 2002 | Buffy/Angel book: Heat (Buffy/Angel novel)>Heat |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.04 Slouching Toward Bethlehem (Angel episode)>Slouching Toward Bethlehem |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.05 Selfless (Buffy episode)>Selfless |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.05 Supersymmetry (Angel episode)>Supersymmetry |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.06 Him (Buffy episode)>Him |
| L.A., 2002 | Angel book: Solitary Man (Angel novel)>Solitary Man |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.06 Spin the Bottle (Angel episode)>Spin the Bottle |
| L.A., 2002 | Angel book: Love and Death (Angel novel)>Love and Death |
| L.A., 2002 | Angel book: Monolith (Angel novel)>Monolith |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.07 Conversations with Dead People (Buffy episode)>Conversations with Dead People |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.07 Apocalypse, Nowish (Angel episode)>Apocalypse, Nowish |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.08 Sleeper (Buffy episode)>Sleeper |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.08 Habeas Corpses (Angel episode)>Habeas Corpses |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.09 Never Leave Me (Buffy episode)>Never Leave Me |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.09 Long Day's Journey (Angel episode)>Long Day's Journey |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.10 Bring on the Night (Buffy episode)>Bring on the Night |
| Unknown, 2002 | |
| New York, 2002 | |
| Unknown 2002 | |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.10 Awakening (Angel episode)>Awakening |
| Buffyverse | ||
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