Angel : Season One, Episode Three : In The Dark

Grade: B-

Spike and Oz arrive in LA on the same night, Oz to deliver the Gem of Amarra to Angel, and Spike to reclaim it. Receiving the ring, Angel displays doubts about the wisdom of using it, instead concealing it inside one of the many sewer tunnels he frequents, and is subsequently attacked by Spike in an empty garage. Angel bests his opponent and decides that they will have to identify Spike's hideout and put a stop to him before he can go any further in his quest for the ring. With help from one of Doyle's unsavory contacts, they are able to pinpoint a location where Spike might be staying; tracking him down, Angel quickly loses his advantage when an anonymous colleague of Spike's attacks him from behind. As Doyle and Cordelia wait anxiously for word from him, Angel is taken to an abandoned warehouse where he bound and tortured by Spike's accomplice, a sadistic, physically unimpressive vampire by the name of Marcus. Angel refuses to divulge the location of the ring, while Spike encounters Doyle and Cordelia during a search of Angel's home; making it clear that Angel will die if the ring is not delivered to him, Spike offers Doyle and Cordelia a chance to find the ring themselves. Faced with no other choice, the two sift through Angel's apartment, eventually taking to the sewers when their search for the ring proves unsuccessful; discreetly employing his demon senses, Doyle is able to detect and retrieve it. Meeting Spike on an anonymous street corner, Doyle and Cordy insist that he bring them to Angel before they hand over the ring; agreeing, Spike brings them to the warehouse where Angel is being held captive. Doyle throws the ring on the floor but, before Spike can retrieve it or go back on their bargain, Oz drives his van into the warehouse and helps Doyle and Cordelia get a weak Angel to safety. However, as Spike realizes that the ring is missing from the warehouse floor, Angel begs Oz to turn the van around, and it is revealed that during the scuffle over Angel's escape, Marcus took the ring for himself. Tracking the man to a beach just in time to stop him from preying on a group of children, Angel gets out of the van and pulls Marcus into the water with him, taking their fight under a dock where the sun cannot pentrate. Impaling Marcus with a large plank of wood, Angel is able to keep him still long enough to pull the ring from his finger, whereupon the man turns to dust. Wearing the ring, Angel walks out onto the beach, marveling at the sunlight, while Cordy, Doyle, and Oz look on. That night, as Angel watches the sunset from the roof of an LA building, he quietly confides in Doyle that he doesn't intend on keeping the ring, as he believes that becoming invincible would distance him from the people he wants to help. As the sun sinks past the horizon, Angel picks up a brick and uses it to crush the ring to dust.

This is one of those episodes where nothing much happens, plot-wise; and really, the first major Buffy/Angel crossover shouldn't be so desultory that viewers are left yawning. Additionally, there's something a bit unsettling about seeing Buffy characters so far out of their element; rather than bringing a Sunnydale atmosphere to Angel, one is left feeling as if familiar people have been shoved into a different mold, or are being shown through a different filter, making them as unfamiliar as the show they're being forced to inhabit. That feeling may fade as the series continues and crossovers become more common, but for now, it's odd to watch.

Observations:

• On a positive note, it's nice that Angel chose not to keep the ring. The Gem could have become an irritating plot device very quickly, as well as a source of tedious drama; and an invincible hero would have been [more] boring [than Angel already is]. 
• Okay, I'll say it right now; Marcus was incredibly creepy. Much more effective than any thug.
• Regarding the last scene... why the incredibly obvious and distracting green screen? They couldn't have filmed against a real sunset?
• The episode's plot moves way too quickly during the last ten minutes or so, leaving large gaps in continuity; how did Angel know where to find Marcus out of hundreds of possible locations?
• Definitely a nice touch of realism, uncommon for TV, to have both Doyle and Cordelia forced to live in small, unpleasant apartments, in accordance with their (lack of) income.