Becoming 1 & 2

screen caps from Sunnydale High

Galway, Ireland, 1753. Two handsome young men stumble out of a tavern, clearly drunk. One passes out, but the other is Angel, and he spies a beautiful young woman in an alleyway. It's Darla. Angel offers to escort her home, but she offers to show him the world instead. Intrigued, he accepts her offer. She tells him to close his eyes, and when he does she vamps out and drinks his blood, then cuts her own chest and holds his lips to the flowing blood. Cut to the present day, where Angel watches from the shadows as Buffy dispatches two vampires. Buffy tells Xander that it will all be over soon between her and Angel. "Yes, love," says Angel. "It will."

Giles arrives at a lab, where the lab manager shows him a large stone obelisk that's been unearthed, covered in ancient runes. Giles notices that the obelisk has an opening in it, and makes the scientists promise not to open it until he's had a chance to completely translate the runes. Back at the school cafeteria, Buffy tells her friends that she's really ready to kill Angel. Cut to London, 1860. A young nun named Drusilla enters the confessional, unaware that the Angel has just killed the priest. As Angel listens, Drusilla confesses that she has again been having premonitions, but that she's not doing it on purpose. She doesn't want to be evil, she says. Angel tells her that she's a child of Satan, and that she should embrace the evil. But Dru continues to protest, and Angel tells her, "God is watching you," before leaving the confessional. Back in the present, Drusilla has a premonition about the obelisk at the laboratory. Meanwhile, Willow tutors Buffy in Ms. Calendar's room. When Buffy drops her pencil, she discovers the disk that fell there when Angel killed Ms. Calendar, and Willow puts the disk in the computer. Both girls stare in amazement as the soul-restoration ritual appears on the screen.

The Rumanian woods, 1898. Angel runs through the forest as an old Gypsy woman chants. At last he arrives in a clearing, and collapses, his soul restored to him. A gypsy man taunts him, telling him he will soon remember the faces of all those he has killed, including the man's daughter. Angel doubles over in anguish. In the library in the present, the discussion of the soul-restoration ritual turns into an argument, as Xander says that whether or not his soul can be restored, Angel deserves to die. He accuses Buffy of wanting to forget Ms. Calendar's murder just so she can have her boyfriend back. At the lab, the lab manager hears whispering coming from the obelisk and goes to investigate, but just then Angel and Drusilla arrive and kill him. On patrol that night, Buffy runs into Kendra, who says that something dark and powerful is afoot in Sunnydale. No big surprise, it's true — Angel, Spike and Drusilla gaze in awe as the tomb opens to reveal Acathla, a demon with the power to "suck the world into Hell." Acathla is stone now, a sword protruding from his chest where a virtuous knight impaled him.

Giles explains to Buffy and the gang that Acathla could open up a whirlpool that would draw everything in this world into the demonic reality beyond, where all non-demon life would suffer eternal torment. As Kendra gives Buffy a sword blessed by the same knight that defeated Acathla in the past, Willow prepares to work the soul-restoration ritual using a Thessulan Orb he's been using as a paperweight. Cut to Manhattan, 1996. Angel is living like a bum, feeding off rats, when he's approached by a man who calls himself Whistler and who promises the chance to make something of himself. Whistler takes him to L.A., where he sees a young girl named Buffy approached by a mustachioed man, who says that she is needed to fight the vampires. He is still watching that night, when Buffy kills her first vampire, clumsily, but her late return home sparks another fight between her parents, which she listens to in tears. Angel tells Whistler that he's convinced, that he wants to help the Slayer and to be somebody.

In the present, Angel goes through the ritual to awaken Acathla, but fails. While Spike taunts him, Angel says they'll have to turn to an old friend for help. The next afternoon, a vampire walks into Buffy's final, delivering the message to meet Angel in the graveyard at midnight before being consumed by flame. Armed with Kendra's lucky stake, "Mr. Pointy," she sets off to face Angel while Willow attempts to restore the vampire's soul. While Buffy and Angel fight, the ritual at the library is interrupted by attacking vampires who topple a bookshelf on Willow and break Xander's arm. Drusilla saunters into the scene, hypnotizing Kendra and then slashing her throat before ordering the vampires to take what they came for — Giles. Angel tells Buffy that the whole thing was never about her, and she realizes that it was a ruse. Running back to the library, she sadly kneels over Kendra's dead body just as someone points a gun at her and yells, "Freeze!"

Part 2

A police officer yells, "Freeze!" and points a gun at Buffy. Despite her loud protests, the police clearly believe that she was somehow responsible for Kendra's death and the rest of the mayhem at the library. Principal Snyder's less-than-glowing opinion of her doesn't help to convince them otherwise, and she is placed under arrest. But as the cop starts to handcuff her and read her her rights, she lashes out, disabling the cop and evading a bullet as she runs from the school. Buffy is a fugitive.

Disguised in a black coat and hat, she arrives at the hospital to check on Willow. Xander tells her that Willow suffered head trauma, and the longer she's unconscious the less likely it is that she'll wake up. Then Cordelia arrives, and from her account of events they realize that Giles is missing, and must have been taken by the vampires. This is indeed what happened, as Giles wakes up in the mansion, where Angel threatens to torture him if he doesn't tell Angel how to revive Acathla... and even if he does. Meanwhile, the police tell Buffy's mother about what happened, and ask her to call them if Buffy turns up. Buffy, in fact, heads to Giles' house. There she meets the mysterious Whistler, who says he's a demon sent to balance out good and evil. That means stopping Angel from reviving Acathla. His cryptic ramblings about "knowing how to use the other sword" make no sense to Buffy, though, and she leaves. On her way home, a cop stops her and holds a gun on her. Suddenly he's knocked unconscious... by Spike!

Despite Buffy's instinctive violent reaction (she tries to kill him), Spike tells her that he's there as her ally. He says he really has no interest in destroying the world, like Angel does, and only really wants Drusilla back, so he's willing to work with her towards that end. When he tells her that Angel has Giles at the mansion, Buffy warily accepts his offer. At the hospital, Xander talks to Willow, tenderly telling her that she can't die, that he needs her... and that he loves her. At last her eyelids flutter and she awakens, mumbling, "Oz?" Oz indeed does show up at that moment, tenderly kissing Willow's forehead. It seems she'll be okay. Walking home, Buffy and Spike run into Buffy's mother, who is frantic with worry, and wondering who the heck Spike is. Buffy and Spike's improvised excuses seem to be working until a vampire leaps from the bushes and attacks. Before her mother's eyes, Buffy dusts the vamp. The truth is out. "Mom," says Buffy, "I'm a Vampire Slayer."

Buffy fills Willow and Xander in on what's happened over the phone. Then it's time for her and Spike to talk. Spike says that all he wants is Dru. If Buffy lets him and Drusilla leave, they'll never cross paths again, and Spike will help her finish Angel. Buffy accepts the deal, but as she prepares to leave her mother intervenes. Joyce thinks it's insanity and can't understand. She tells Buffy that if she leaves the house she shouldn't bother coming back. Shooting her mother a dark look, Buffy reluctantly walks out into the night. At the hospital, Willow decides to try casting the Gypsy curse one more time, while at the mansion Giles continues to resist Angel's brutal tortures and Buffy heads to the library to retrieve an ornate sword. While there, she runs into Principal Snyder, who gleefully expels her from school. At the mansion, Dru casts a spell on Giles, manifesting herself as Jenny Calendar. Taken in by the illusion, the weakened and delirious Giles reveals to her that Angel's blood is the key to awakening Acathla. Stopping by Giles' house, Buffy gets the same information from Whistler, who tells her that Angel's blood must also be used to close Acathla's vortex.

As day breaks, Willow begins the curse ritual, while Angel begins his own ritual to revive Acathla. Buffy bursts into the mansion with Xander in tow, and chaos ensues. Xander rescues Giles, and Buffy faces Angel. Just then, Spike rises from his wheelchair and strikes Angel across the back repeatedly. Drusilla goes mad, attacking Spike to stop him from hurting Angel, and while Buffy is distracted by another vampire, Angel manages to get up and complete the ritual, pulling the sword from Acathla's petrified body. At the hospital, the ritual is having some effect, as Willow suddenly appears to be possessed and starts speaking fluent Romany. Spike renders Dru gently unconscious, taking her away as Angel fights Buffy. Back and forth they fight until, suddenly, Angel staggers, just as the Thessulan Orb at the hospital disappears. The curse has worked, Angel has his soul back! He asks Buffy what's going on as she realizes what's happened and kisses him passionately. But when she pulls away, she sees that Acathla has reawakened, and the whirlpool that will suck the whole world into Hell has formed. Tearfully she tells Angel to close his eyes. Kissing him one last time, she plunges the sword through him, and both the whirlpool and a wide-eyed Angel disappear as Buffy bursts into tears. Later that day, Joyce finds a note on Buffy's bed. As Willow returns to school in a wheelchair, Buffy gets on a bus and leaves Sunnydale.

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Quotes

Principal Snyder: "This isn't an orgy, people. It's a classroom."
Buffy: "Yeah. Where they teach lunch."

Angel: "You can see all that in your head?"
Spike: "No, you ninny. She read it in the morning paper."

Spike: "It's a big rock. Can't wait to tell my friends. They don't have a rock this big."

Spike: "Someone wasn't worthy."

Angel: "Maybe I'll just go home, destroy the world."

Angel: "You never learn, do you? This wasn't about you. This was never about you. And you fall for it every single time!"

Spike: "I told you. I want to stop Angel. I want to save the world."
Buffy: "Okay, you do remember that you're a vampire, right?"
Spike: "We like to talk big... vampires do. "I'm going to destroy the world." That's just tough-guy talk. Strutting around with your friends over a pint of blood. The truth is, I _like_ this world. You've got...dog racing, Manchester United. And you've got people. Billions of people walking around like Happy Meals with legs. It's all right here. But then someone comes along with a vision. With a real... passion for destruction. Angel could pull it off. Good-bye, Picadilly. Farewell, Leicester-bloody-Square."

Buffy: "Get them involved, you'll get them killed."
Joyce: "Well, you're not going to hurt them, are you?"
Buffy: "I'm a Slayer, not a postal worker."

Giles: "In order...to be worthy...you must perform the ritual...in a tutu. Pillock!"

Giles: "It's a trick. They get inside my head, make me see things I want."
Xander: "Then why would they make you see me?"
Giles: "You're right. Let's go."

Angel: "No weapons, no friends, no hope. Take all that away and what's left?"
Buffy: "Me"

Cast

Regulars:
Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg
Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
David Boreanaz as Angel
Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Guest Stars:
Seth Green as Oz
James Marsters as Spike
Juliet Landau as Drusilla
Julie Benz as Darla-1
Bianca Lawson as Kendra-1
Armin Shimerman as Principal Snyder-1,2
Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers-2
Robia LaMorte as Ms. Calendar-2

Cast:
Max Perlich as Whistler-1,2
Jack McGee as Doug Perren-1
Richard Riehle as L.A. Watcher-1
Shannon Welles as Gypsy woman-1
Zitto Kazann as Gypsy man-1
Ginger Williams as Girl-1
Nina Gervitz as Teacher-1
James G. MacDonald as Detective Stein-2
Susan Leslie as First cop-2
Thomas G. Waites as Second cop-2

Cast list from Buffyguide.com