Sacrifice

Plot

We begin where the last episode ended, with Connor calling for help. Angel pushes him out of the room and holds the door against him telling the others to flee out the window and to the car while he holds him off. They go down the fire escape and he breaks through the door and starts pummelling Connor. The others are in the car waiting. Connor falls on the hood, Angel comes after. He pushes Connor off and tells them to drive. Jasmine and her followers come at them and Wesley drives off.

On the car radio, they hear the mayor has declared LA the first citadel of Jasmine and that the LA Catholic archdiocese will remove all false idols from its churches and replace them with images of Jasmine. Fred wonders what they can do. Wesley says they have very little gas. Fred says they should have taken Connor, what if he doesn't wake up. Angel asks what if he did. Jasmine is having some more followers strip and be eaten. Connor, semiconscious, is in the room with her. We see the glow again. Jasmine walks over to him and heals him. He tells her what happened. She tells him to rest. She says she and her followers are fusing together like the cells of a body. The gang stop at a gas station. Gunn knocks out a guy getting gas and takes the pump. The people around surround them and one talks to them in Jasmine's voice saying they are a disease in the body Jasmine. They fight off the attacking crowd and flee, but the police follow. Jasmine laughs. The gang realize they are the only criminals left and every policeman in town is after them. They abandon the car for the sewers.

Angel is pushing the gang but they are exhausted and he gives them a minute to rest. He admits he doesn't have a plan. Fred says she forgot about Cordelia. Angel says they should forget about her, they don't have a choice. He tells them to get moving again. Something is watching them from the shadows.

Connor is with the sleeping Cordelia. Jasmine enters and says the gang cut Cordelia and took her blood for their magic. She asks him to leave saying she wants to be alone with her mother. In the sewer, Fred says she can't forget Cordelia and Lorne says Angel has become heartless. Angel says they have to gut themselves and remove everything that gave Jasmine power over them. Wesley says he misses the warmth of knowing you are doing what's right. Gunn says it is a tough drug to kick cold turkey. Fred remembers Jasmine taking her aside and talking to her in the bowling alley about what her name should be. Wesley says it's strange so old a being doesn't have a name. Lorne wonders whether it is an embarrassing one. Angel falls through the floor into a pit. Wesley almost falls in, but Gunn saves him. A kid runs up to the pit and points a stake at Angel. Others appear and confront the gang. Angel leaps out of the pit and disarms the boy. The others fight, but Angel soon stops them. He says they are not under Jasmine's control, they aren't fighting like a unified army. Gunn realizes one of them is Randall Golden, Tommy's brother. They hear a weird wailing sound in the distance.

Connor returns to the room to find Cordelia gone. Jasmine says Cordelia was a danger and now she's where Jasmine wants her to be as is Connor. In the sewer, Randall and his gang take the others to their hideout. He says they don't know what is in the sewer, they haven't gotten a clean shot at it. Gunn says Tommy was in his crew, then went solo. Randall says they were driven underground when the sun went out and there were too many demons to fight. Angel goes to check the other entrances, the little boy goes to him and says his name is Matthew. Angel continues checking, Randall says they found Matthew in a pile up at La Brea where vampires murdered his parents. Angel looks at his hand and sees the blood from beating Connor. He asks Matthew for water and washes his hands. A girl in Randall's gang explains she knew of the place as somewhere she went when the missions were full. They moved down there, but then some demon arrived and started picking them off. It got Tommy. Matthew asks whose blood it is and Angel says somebody he knew. He has a flashback to beating Connor. He says it was somebody who tried to do bad stuff to his friends. Randall says he's determined to kill the demon. Fred says they are professional monster killers. Angel agrees. He picks up a sword which Randall says was Tommy's and leads them out.

Jasmine is on the phone with the governor who is handing over control of the state to her. Connor wants to go after them, but Jasmine says soon he'll go out with all of her power behind him. She says soon the whole world will be united with her and she and Connor will live in a palace together forever. But Connor is unhappy. She says he hasn't completely surrendered to her. That he has kept a part of himself from her, his pain. She says pain has been the only constant in his life, the only thing which has not abandoned him. She says she wants it, that he should let it go. She digs her nails into his palm, cutting it. She holds up her palm and we see the same marks magically heal.

In the sewer, Randall is attacked by the demon and Angel has to leap up to get him back. He has his vampire face on and Matthew sees it and runs away. Fred and Gunn go after him. But the demon has Wesley. We see the demon hurling Wesley into another room and saying 'We loved her first'. Angel says the demon knows the tunnels better than he. He will go for Wesley and tells Lorne to take the others back to the hideout. Randall says no, he realizes Angel is a vampire. The scorpion demon is talking to Wesley. It's sad because Jasmine came to earth even though its kind had loved her for ages. He's angry that they have named her. He says she's the devourer, the song, and they are filthy mice. Something falls down (it looks like some flesh) and the demon says he has work to do. He leaps up on the wall where there is a person trapped. Wesley asks how he defines love. The demon says the same as everyone everywhere. He says love is sacrifice.

Gunn and Fred have followed splashing sounds. Gunn figures it's Matthew or a demon, but Fred says it may be rats and that upsets Gunn. She says he should consider how Matthew feels. He says Angel said they have to get rid of their feelings. Fred says that doesn't work for her. She doesn't want to defeat Jasmine by becoming a heartless shell. She says she can't turn off her emotions. He says she did when they killed a man. Then says he did. She says we did. He says she did what she had to no matter what anybody said without feeling. She says he's right about everything except one. She felt it. She still does. It eats her up inside. He says it does him too. She says she still prefers that to being a shell. They go to find Matthew.

Randall and the others are threatening Angel and Lorne. Angel says he can't justify his existence, but he could kill Randall or Randall could step aside and let him go after Wesley. Gunn and Fred make it to the surface. The demon is cutting up the trapped person. Wesley sees a door is open and asks if the demon isn't worried he'll run away. The demon says he's good at catching furries. He admits he is from another world, an older world. Wesley sees a shining globe and the demon tells him it is the key to his world and Wesley can use it only the air there will burn out his lungs. He mocks Wesley. Wesley asks if he is preparing a spell and the demon says he's using blood and flesh magic, older than words and more powerful. She'll hear this and remember her true ones. He says she doesn't care about words. Then says there is one word and stops himself. Wesley asks what one word she cares about but the demon tells him to be quiet. The person he's cutting up talks and the demon doesn't understand why it's alive when he has cut out its guts. It cuts out his tongue. Wesley says he can't kill him that way, he's a vampire. The demon asks if that's like the one with the angry steel, the one who hurt him. Wesley says that was Angel. The demon says they are too quick to tell their names. That's why they are weak, because everyone knows their names. Wesley says it doesn't work that way here, then realizes her real name is the word Jasmine fears. The demon leaps down and confronts Wesley.

Fred and Gunn find Matthew. He won't go back with them and Gunn knocks him out. Fred is shocked. The demon isn't listening to Wesley who has figured out about the name. Wesley realizes she couldn't choose a false name by herself so one of them had to do it. The demon hits him and says it doesn't know the name, only the high priest does. He's just a messenger and Wesley will soon be dead. Angel appears and says it's time to shoot the messenger. Or chop it up into little pieces. He and the demon fight. Meanwhile, Lorne is lecturing the others on calling people names. Gunn and Fred arrive with the unconscious Matthew. Gunn and Randall start arguing. Matthew comes to and talks in Jasmine's voice. It tells them that Gunn and Fred hit him again and again. It tells Randall to kill them. They flee. In the tunnels, they meet a commando unit led by Connor who talks to them in Jasmine's voice.

Angel defeats the demon. Wesley explains about the key. The gang are running form the commandos. Wesley can't figure out how to work the key. Angel realizes Connor is there. Connor realizes Angel is there as does Jasmine. Angel finds Fred, Gunn, and Lorne and leads them back to the room the demon was in. They close the door, but the commandos are there. Wesley realizes blood will activate the key and uses some of his to open a portal. He explains only Angel can go through because of the atmosphere. Wesley tosses him the key and he steps through the portal. Connor and the commandos break in. There is a fight and we see Jasmine being cut and then magically healing as she reflects the battle in her body. She laughs. Angel arrives in the other dimension where he's confronted by a large number of the demons.