Grade: A+
Angel, Wesley and Cordelia are sharing a relaxed evening together when, in a moment of frustration with the others' casual bickering, Angel accidentally refers to Wesley as "Doyle", throwing an awkward strain over the group. Speaking to Cordelia later, Angel admits that aside from missing Doyle, he also blames himself for his friend's death, a state of affairs which Cordelia assures him is unfounded. Moments later, she suffers a vision of a small boy in danger; Angel and Wesley head to the address, where Angel is barely in time to save the child from sleepwalking in front of a car. Speaking with the boy's parents, Angel begins to suspect that something is wrong based on the father's closed-off behavior and his family's obvious fear of him, while Wesley discovers evidence of demonic possession in the house. Learning that the species of demon can be forced to manifest itself by ingesting a certain herb, Angel takes advantage of an invitation to dinner at the boy's house, bringing a plateful of spiked brownies along with him. Offering them to the family and observing carefully, Angel is surprised to discover that the boy is the possessed party; despite the mother's anger at Angel for having forced the demon to manifest itself so violently, the father expresses immense relief at finally having an explanation for their son's bizarre and dangerous behavior. Leaving their young daughter in safe hands, they bring the boy, unconscious and now demonic in appearance, to Angel's headquarters. Knowing that an exorcism must be performed as soon as possible, they cast a binding spell around the boy's bed and set out to find a priest willing to perform the ritual. Arriving at a cathedral where such a man is reported to be, they encounter instead an elderly nun, who informs them that the man died six months before as a result of the rigors of just such an exorcism as they currently have on their hands. Left with no other option, Wesley decides, against Angel's better judgment, to do the spell himself; returning to headquarters, they find that the demon in the boy managed to lure the mother into the room with her son, who nearly killed her. With no time to waste, Wesley begins the difficult incantations, attempting to resist the demon's psychological torture while Cordelia visits a magic shop in the hopes of procuring a box of the right variety to contain the demon in. She is forced to settle for a box designed as a prison for a slightly different type of demon, and arrives at headquarters to find that the demon has nearly killed Wesley; left with no other option, Angel resolves to do the exorcism himself, despite the torture of having to hold a cross for the ritual. He casts the demon out successfully, but the box procured by Cordelia shatters when they attempt to imprison the entity there. Sending the family home, Angel and Wesley set out to track the demon, eventually running it to earth in a cave by the sea. There, the demon informs them that, although he was possessing the boy, he was not causing the child's behavioral problems; in fact, the boy is a psychopath in his own right, with a ruthless, cunning mind that even the demon felt it was a torment to inhabit. Realizing that they may have set a monster loose rather than stopping it, Angel and Wesley rush to the boy's house to find that the child, taking advantage of his first night without restraining precautions against his behavior, has locked his parents in their room and attempted to burn his sister alive. They are able to get the family to safety before damage is done to anything but the house; however, the child, his true nature now brought to light, is sent in for a psychological examination and an indefinite future, while Cordelia, Wesley and Angel look on in silence.
Observations:
- Woah; major, major steps in Wesley's character development. For the first time, I'm seeing him as a member of the team, and not just an eccentric diversion on the part of the writers.
- The twist at the end, featuring the small boy as a psychopath and the demon an unwilling tenant in a head even more demonic than his own, was brilliantly done. Thirty minutes of misdirection regarding the father's motives and drama over the exorcism paid off in the final five minutes.
- In true Whedon style, the angst over a traumatic event starts appearing in earnest only after the initial shock of the tragedy has died down. As Angel grieves for Doyle at Wesley's expense, Cordelia, also bereaved, is remarkably selfless for a girl who once thought only of herself; three cheers for character development.
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