In the Dark (Angel episode)
Encyclopedia
"In the Dark" is episode three of season one of the television show Angel
. Written by Doug Petrie
and directed by Bruce Seth Green
, it was originally broadcast on October 19, 1999 on the WB network
. In "In the Dark" James Marsters
guest stars as Spike and Seth Green
reprises his role as Oz, both arriving in L.A. immediately following events of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "The Harsh Light of Day". Oz brings Angel (David Boreanaz
) a magical ring that renders a vampire invincible, which Angel hides. Spike hires vampire Marcus (Kevin West) to torture Angel into divulging the ring's location, but when Angel doesn't break, Spike negotiates a hostage exchange with Cordelia Chase
(Charisma Carpenter
) and Doyle
(Glenn Quinn
). During the exchange, Marcus nabs the ring and disappears. Angel tracks and dusts Marcus, then wears the Gem of Amarra himself for the remainder of the day. Finally - deciding the ring only simulates the redemption he seeks and that possessing it would inevitably distance him from the suffering of the innocent he has sworn to protect - Angel crushes the Gem of Amarra to powder.
explains that the ring is a priceless talisman which "renders the wearer one hundred percent unkillable, if he's a vampire." Oz tells Angel, "Buffy
wanted you to have it." Later, alone, Angel hides the ring under a loose brick in one of the sewer tunnels. The next morning Angel receives a call for help from Rachel, but before he can go over, Spike shows up, seeking the Gem of Amarra. The two vampires fight, and Cordelia
and Doyle rush in just as Angel defeats Spike. Spike runs away.
Later, Angel chases and corners Spike in a dead end blocked by a chainlink fence but is captured by another vampire hired by Spike, who swings a heavy chain around Angel's neck. At Doyle's apartment, Cordelia and Doyle worry that Angel hasn't checked in, the reason being that he is suspended by long, manacled chains from the ceiling of a large warehouse. Spike introduces him to his captor, Marcus, a master torturer with a taste for (eating and torturing) children. Accompanied by the strains of Mozart
's Symphony #41, the eerily reserved vampire inspects Angel inside and out, asks, "What do you want, Angel?" and rams a red-hot poker through Angel's bared abdomen. Time passes as Marcus works into a rhythm of hurting Angel, then asking what he wants, then hurting him again. Angel refuses to tell them where the ring is, and Spike grows frustrated. Angel tells Spike he's an idiot for believing that Marcus, a vampire, has no interest in obtaining the Gem of Amarra for himself. Unperturbed, Spike dismisses Marcus as a threat, deeming him too single-mindedly obsessed with the art of torture to care about anything else. Spike taunts Angel about "Slutty" the Vampire Slayer, recounting news of her recent rebound disaster. Spike leaves and Marcus continues to shove hot pokers into his captive, then shoots holes in the building's ceiling so that Angel, agonized by any movement, must stretch and hold himself at the limit of his chains to avoid the pencil-thin beams of sunlight. Angel makes Marcus believe he's about to break. He lures his tormentor closer by whispering, truthfully, that what he most wants is forgiveness. Entranced, Marcus draws near enough for Angel to bring his legs up high enough to plunge a wooden stake into Marcus' heart, but before he is able to do so, Spike appears and disarms Angel's feet. Enraged, Marcus punches Angel, and he resumes torturing him with Spike now providing assistance.
Abandoning his fruitless search of Angel's apartment, Spike tells Cordelia and Doyle them that if they want Angel to live, they must find the ring and turn it over before sundown. Doyle is able to find the ring in the sewers by using his demon senses. They meet with Spike at the appointed spot and demand to see Angel before they reveal where they've stashed the ring. Spike takes them to where he and Marcus are holding the now barely conscious Angel. When Spike gloatingly admits he has no intention of going through with the trade, Doyle pulls the ring out of his pocket and throws it across the warehouse floor. Spike reaches for it but is forced to duck and roll when Oz smashes his van through the warehouse wall. Oz holds Spike at bay with crossbows until Cordy and Doyle get Angel into the back of the van and they drive away. To Spike's intense dismay, he finds that Angel was right—under cover of Angel's rescue, Marcus has pinched the Gem of Amarra for himself and run off. Knowing Marcus' predilection for children, Angel tells Oz to head to the boardwalk. They find Marcus focusing on the children there, and Oz uses the van to knock the invincible vampire flying. In spite of having spent most of the day being tortured nearly to death, Angel leaps out of the van, bursting into flame from the sunlight, and tackles Marcus off the pier, falling with him to the water below. In the shade under the boardwalk, the two vampires fight. Angel impales Marcus on a beam, but the Gem of Amarra protects him until Angel yanks the ring off his finger and Marcus crumbles to dust. Angel slides the ring onto his own hand, then steps out into the sunlight for the first time in more than two hundred years.
That evening, enraptured, Angel watches the sun set in an ordinary, smoggy, southern California sky. To Doyle's extreme dismay, Angel has decided not to keep the ring. Angel explains that the Gem of Amarra only appears to be the redemption he seeks, and that keeping it would make him forget about the many people who need a champion to help them at night. When the last sliver of sun disappears, Angel removes the Gem of Amarra and, deliberately, smashes it flat with a chunk of brick. After a moment of silence, Angel slowly begins to smile. "I don't know about you," he says to Doyle, "but I had a nice day...You know, except for the bulk of it, where I was nearly tortured to death." Angel continues to joke with his friend as they leave the rooftop and head down the stairs together.
throwing the priceless diamond into the ocean at the end of Titanic
, producer Tim Minear
says the difference is that "she throws it in the water as if that means something about Jack [but] it was the other guy’s diamond, and I have no idea why she’s throwing it in the water." However, "it makes perfect sense for [Angel] to destroy the ring. Can he be trusted? That is the point of the series," Minear says. "If he has the power to be invincible, what would happen if he spent eternity as Angelus? Angel knows that he can't be trusted - think about Jenny Calendar
. In that light, the ending makes perfect sense to me."
Angel (TV series)
Angel is an American television series, a spin-off of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The series was created by Buffys creator, Joss Whedon, in collaboration with David Greenwalt, and first aired on October 5, 1999...
. Written by Doug Petrie
Doug Petrie
Doug Petrie is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. Best known as a writer, director, and co-executive producer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He co-wrote the screenplays for the Fantastic Four film and Harriet the Spy. He has also written for the television shows Angel, The 4400 and Tru...
and directed by Bruce Seth Green
Bruce Seth Green
Bruce Seth Green is an American television director.His credits include Knight Rider, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Babylon 5, Buffy the Vampire Slayer , Angel, Dawson’s Creek, Gilmore Girls, Law & Order, Diagnosis Murder, Baywatch and other series.His last directorial credit...
, it was originally broadcast on October 19, 1999 on the WB network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
. In "In the Dark" James Marsters
James Marsters
James Wesley Marsters is an American actor and musician. Marsters first came to the attention of the general public playing the popular character Spike, a platinum-blond yobbish English vampire in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off series, Angel from 1997 to 2004...
guest stars as Spike and Seth Green
Seth Green
Seth Benjamin Green is an American actor, comedian, voice actor, and television producer. He is well known for his role as Daniel "Oz" Osbourne in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as Dr. Evil's son Scott in the Austin Powers series of comedy films, Mitch Miller in That '70s Show, and the voice of Chris...
reprises his role as Oz, both arriving in L.A. immediately following events of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "The Harsh Light of Day". Oz brings Angel (David Boreanaz
David Boreanaz
David Boreanaz is an American actor, television producer, and director, known for his role as Angel on the supernatural drama series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, and as Special Agent Seeley Booth on the television crime drama Bones....
) a magical ring that renders a vampire invincible, which Angel hides. Spike hires vampire Marcus (Kevin West) to torture Angel into divulging the ring's location, but when Angel doesn't break, Spike negotiates a hostage exchange with Cordelia Chase
Cordelia Chase
Cordelia Chase is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer; she also appeared on Buffy's spin-off series Angel...
(Charisma Carpenter
Charisma Carpenter
Charisma Lee Carpenter is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Cordelia Chase in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel, for which she was nominated for four Saturn Awards. In her most recent film she starred opposite Sylvester Stallone and Jason...
) and Doyle
Allen Francis Doyle
Allen Francis Doyle is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the cult television series, Angel. The character was portrayed by Glenn Quinn.-Character history:Doyle was born to a human mother and a Brachen demon father...
(Glenn Quinn
Glenn Quinn
Glenn Martin Christopher Francis Quinn was an Irish actor in television and film, known for playing Mark Healy in the American sitcom Roseanne, and Doyle, a half-demon, on the 1999–2004 television series Angel, a spin-off series of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.-Early life:Quinn...
). During the exchange, Marcus nabs the ring and disappears. Angel tracks and dusts Marcus, then wears the Gem of Amarra himself for the remainder of the day. Finally - deciding the ring only simulates the redemption he seeks and that possessing it would inevitably distance him from the suffering of the innocent he has sworn to protect - Angel crushes the Gem of Amarra to powder.
Plot
Angel protects a young woman named Rachel from her abusive boyfriend in an alley while Spike watches from a nearby rooftop. At the office, Oz holds a ring out to Angel: the Gem of Amarra. DoyleAllen Francis Doyle
Allen Francis Doyle is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the cult television series, Angel. The character was portrayed by Glenn Quinn.-Character history:Doyle was born to a human mother and a Brachen demon father...
explains that the ring is a priceless talisman which "renders the wearer one hundred percent unkillable, if he's a vampire." Oz tells Angel, "Buffy
Buffy Summers
Buffy Summers is a fictional character from Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise. She first appeared in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer before going on to appear in the television series and subsequent comic book of the same name...
wanted you to have it." Later, alone, Angel hides the ring under a loose brick in one of the sewer tunnels. The next morning Angel receives a call for help from Rachel, but before he can go over, Spike shows up, seeking the Gem of Amarra. The two vampires fight, and Cordelia
Cordelia Chase
Cordelia Chase is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer; she also appeared on Buffy's spin-off series Angel...
and Doyle rush in just as Angel defeats Spike. Spike runs away.
Later, Angel chases and corners Spike in a dead end blocked by a chainlink fence but is captured by another vampire hired by Spike, who swings a heavy chain around Angel's neck. At Doyle's apartment, Cordelia and Doyle worry that Angel hasn't checked in, the reason being that he is suspended by long, manacled chains from the ceiling of a large warehouse. Spike introduces him to his captor, Marcus, a master torturer with a taste for (eating and torturing) children. Accompanied by the strains of Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Symphony #41, the eerily reserved vampire inspects Angel inside and out, asks, "What do you want, Angel?" and rams a red-hot poker through Angel's bared abdomen. Time passes as Marcus works into a rhythm of hurting Angel, then asking what he wants, then hurting him again. Angel refuses to tell them where the ring is, and Spike grows frustrated. Angel tells Spike he's an idiot for believing that Marcus, a vampire, has no interest in obtaining the Gem of Amarra for himself. Unperturbed, Spike dismisses Marcus as a threat, deeming him too single-mindedly obsessed with the art of torture to care about anything else. Spike taunts Angel about "Slutty" the Vampire Slayer, recounting news of her recent rebound disaster. Spike leaves and Marcus continues to shove hot pokers into his captive, then shoots holes in the building's ceiling so that Angel, agonized by any movement, must stretch and hold himself at the limit of his chains to avoid the pencil-thin beams of sunlight. Angel makes Marcus believe he's about to break. He lures his tormentor closer by whispering, truthfully, that what he most wants is forgiveness. Entranced, Marcus draws near enough for Angel to bring his legs up high enough to plunge a wooden stake into Marcus' heart, but before he is able to do so, Spike appears and disarms Angel's feet. Enraged, Marcus punches Angel, and he resumes torturing him with Spike now providing assistance.
Abandoning his fruitless search of Angel's apartment, Spike tells Cordelia and Doyle them that if they want Angel to live, they must find the ring and turn it over before sundown. Doyle is able to find the ring in the sewers by using his demon senses. They meet with Spike at the appointed spot and demand to see Angel before they reveal where they've stashed the ring. Spike takes them to where he and Marcus are holding the now barely conscious Angel. When Spike gloatingly admits he has no intention of going through with the trade, Doyle pulls the ring out of his pocket and throws it across the warehouse floor. Spike reaches for it but is forced to duck and roll when Oz smashes his van through the warehouse wall. Oz holds Spike at bay with crossbows until Cordy and Doyle get Angel into the back of the van and they drive away. To Spike's intense dismay, he finds that Angel was right—under cover of Angel's rescue, Marcus has pinched the Gem of Amarra for himself and run off. Knowing Marcus' predilection for children, Angel tells Oz to head to the boardwalk. They find Marcus focusing on the children there, and Oz uses the van to knock the invincible vampire flying. In spite of having spent most of the day being tortured nearly to death, Angel leaps out of the van, bursting into flame from the sunlight, and tackles Marcus off the pier, falling with him to the water below. In the shade under the boardwalk, the two vampires fight. Angel impales Marcus on a beam, but the Gem of Amarra protects him until Angel yanks the ring off his finger and Marcus crumbles to dust. Angel slides the ring onto his own hand, then steps out into the sunlight for the first time in more than two hundred years.
That evening, enraptured, Angel watches the sun set in an ordinary, smoggy, southern California sky. To Doyle's extreme dismay, Angel has decided not to keep the ring. Angel explains that the Gem of Amarra only appears to be the redemption he seeks, and that keeping it would make him forget about the many people who need a champion to help them at night. When the last sliver of sun disappears, Angel removes the Gem of Amarra and, deliberately, smashes it flat with a chunk of brick. After a moment of silence, Angel slowly begins to smile. "I don't know about you," he says to Doyle, "but I had a nice day...You know, except for the bulk of it, where I was nearly tortured to death." Angel continues to joke with his friend as they leave the rooftop and head down the stairs together.
Production
Responding to the statement that Angel's decision to destroy the ring is reminiscent of Gloria StuartGloria Stuart
Gloria Frances Stuart was an American actress, activist, painter, bonsai artist and fine printer. Over a Hollywood career which spanned, with a long break in the middle, from 1932 until 2004, she appeared on stage, television, and film, for which she was best-known...
throwing the priceless diamond into the ocean at the end of Titanic
Titanic (1997 film)
Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Billy Zane as Rose's fiancé, Cal...
, producer Tim Minear
Tim Minear
Tim Minear is an American screenwriter and director. He was born in New York, grew up in Whittier, California, and studied film at California State University, Long Beach....
says the difference is that "she throws it in the water as if that means something about Jack [but] it was the other guy’s diamond, and I have no idea why she’s throwing it in the water." However, "it makes perfect sense for [Angel] to destroy the ring. Can he be trusted? That is the point of the series," Minear says. "If he has the power to be invincible, what would happen if he spent eternity as Angelus? Angel knows that he can't be trusted - think about Jenny Calendar
Jenny Calendar
Jenny Calendar is a fictional character in the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer . Played by Robia LaMorte, Jenny is the computer teacher at Sunnydale High School...
. In that light, the ending makes perfect sense to me."
Arc significance
- This isn't the last time Angel turns down a shortcut to happiness in his quest for redemption.
- This is Spike's first appearance on Angel. Although he is portrayed as the Big Bad for this episode, he returns in season five as an ensouled Champion.
- This is the first time Angel and Spike fight each other hand to hand on screen.
- Oz, portrayed by Seth Green, makes his appearance to help Angel; as mentioned/depicted on several occasions, Sunnydale is only a two-hour drive from Los Angeles, so Oz's visit is easily accomplished.
Continuity
- Crossover with Buffy: This episode continues a story begun in "The Harsh Light of Day," aired immediately before.
- Spike referring to Angel as "a big fluffy puppy with bad teeth" is similar to Buffy's comment in The Harsh Light of Day, where she tells Parker that the bite Angel gave her was given to her by an "angry puppy".
- Cordelia tries to give Doyle some idea of what they're up against with Spike, and her catalog of evilness includes the "whole deal with this arm in a box." This is a reference to Spike and Drusilla releasing the demon Judge during events in "Surprise" and "Innocence", in season two of Buffy.
- This marks the first of only two episodes in which Spike and Cordelia exchange dialogue in Angel. The other is in Season Five's "You're Welcome"
- It has been at least a week since (some of) "Lonely Hearts", Doyle mentions being in Cordelia's apartment "last week".
- This is Oz's only appearance in Angel and his final on screen meeting with either Angel or Cordelia.
Cultural references
- BatmobileBatmobileThe Batmobile is the automobile of DC Comics superhero Batman. The car has evolved along with the character from comic books to television and films. Kept in the Batcave, which it accesses through a hidden entrance, the Batmobile is a gadget-laden vehicle used by Batman in his crime-fighting...
: Spike's line, "quickly! To the Angelmobile! Away!" is an homageHomageHomage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
to BatmanBatmanBatman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
, in style as well as content. - Matthew McConaugheyMatthew McConaugheyMatthew David McConaughey is an American actor.After a series of minor roles in the early 1990s, McConaughey gained notice for his breakout role in Dazed and Confused . He then appeared in films such as A Time to Kill, Contact, U-571, Tiptoes, Sahara, and We Are Marshall...
: CordeliaCordelia ChaseCordelia Chase is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer; she also appeared on Buffy's spin-off series Angel...
tells DoyleAllen Francis DoyleAllen Francis Doyle is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the cult television series, Angel. The character was portrayed by Glenn Quinn.-Character history:Doyle was born to a human mother and a Brachen demon father...
that the only way she'll go on a cruise with him is in an alternate universe where he turns into the handsome actor (of Irish descent). - A Fistful of DollarsA Fistful of DollarsA Fistful of Dollars is a 1964 Italian Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood alongside Gian Maria Volonté, Marianne Koch, Wolfgang Lukschy, Sieghardt Rupp, José Calvo, Antonio Prieto, and Joseph Egger. Released in Italy in 1964 then in the United States in...
: Oz mentions that Spike fled Sunnydale after getting "a fistful of Buffy." - Angela's AshesAngela's AshesAngela's Ashes is a 1996 memoir by the Irish-American author Frank McCourt. The memoir consists of various anecdotes and stories of Frank McCourt's impoverished childhood and early adulthood in Brooklyn, New York and Limerick, Ireland, as well as McCourt's struggles with poverty, his father's...
: While drunk, DoyleAllen Francis DoyleAllen Francis Doyle is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the cult television series, Angel. The character was portrayed by Glenn Quinn.-Character history:Doyle was born to a human mother and a Brachen demon father...
apparently quoted Angela’s Ashes and began to weep. The bookAngela's AshesAngela's Ashes is a 1996 memoir by the Irish-American author Frank McCourt. The memoir consists of various anecdotes and stories of Frank McCourt's impoverished childhood and early adulthood in Brooklyn, New York and Limerick, Ireland, as well as McCourt's struggles with poverty, his father's...
is a memoir by Irish author Frank McCourtFrank McCourtFrancis "Frank" McCourt was an Irish-American teacher and Pulitzer Prize–winning writer, best known as the author of Angela’s Ashes, an award-winning, tragicomic memoir of the misery and squalor of his childhood....
, and tells the story of his childhood in Brooklyn and Ireland. It was published in 1996 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or AutobiographyPulitzer Prize for Biography or AutobiographyThe Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished biography or autobiography by an American author.-1910s:* 1917: Julia Ward Howe by Laura E...
. - Bam-Bam, BettyBetty RubbleElizabeth 'Betty' Jean Rubble is a fictional character in the television animated series The Flintstones and its spin-offs and live-action motion pictures. She is the black-haired wife of caveman Barney Rubble and the adoptive mother of Bamm-Bamm Rubble...
and Barney RubbleBarney RubbleBernard "Barney" Rubble is the deuteragonist of the television animated series The Flintstones. He is the diminutive blonde-haired caveman husband of Betty Rubble and father of Bamm-Bamm Rubble...
: These three characters are from the Hanna-Barbara cartoon series The FlintstonesThe FlintstonesThe Flintstones is an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that screened from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966, on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones was about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next-door neighbor and best friend. It...
, and not, as Cordelia points out, the central characters in Angela's AshesAngela's AshesAngela's Ashes is a 1996 memoir by the Irish-American author Frank McCourt. The memoir consists of various anecdotes and stories of Frank McCourt's impoverished childhood and early adulthood in Brooklyn, New York and Limerick, Ireland, as well as McCourt's struggles with poverty, his father's...
. - Johnny DeppJohnny DeppJohn Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...
: Confronting Spike as he tosses Angel's apartment in search of the Gem of Amarra, Cordelia refers to a 1994 incident in which the famous actorJohnny DeppJohn Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...
was arrested in (alleged) connection with some serious damage to an NYC hotel suite.