Benediction

Starring: David Boreanaz as Angel, Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia, Amy Acker as Fred, Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, J. August Richards as Gunn

Guest starring: Vincent Kartheiser as Connor (Steven), Laurel Holloman as Justine, Mark Lutz as Groo (“Groosalugg”), Andy Hallet as Lorne, Stephanie Romanov as Lilah, Keith Szarabajka as Holtz

Original air date: May 13, 2002

Written by: Tim Minear Directed by: Tim Minear

Fred, Gunn, Cordy, and Groo are worried that something else might have come through the portal from Qortoth, and that something might be after Connor. They want to warn Angel (who isn’t answering his cell) so that he’s prepared, but they don’t even know if Angel found Connor. At that moment Angel comes stumbling through the door. Angel tells everyone that he found Connor, whose name is now Steven, and that they talked. And although Angel tells everyone he doesn’t know where Steven is, Steven knows where to find Angel so Angel thinks Steven is safe. That is, until Fred drops that bomb that some vengeance-y else thing may have come through the portal before it was closed. Fred is seriously concerned about leaving Steven alone on the streets of L.A. Angel tells her that Steven has to come back on his own when he realizes that he needs his father. Meanwhile Steven gets a room for himself and Holtz at a dive motel.

The next morning Steven assaults a vending machine to get breakfast for himself and Holtz. Holtz, however, is more interested in the newspaper and discovers that he left this reality only a few days ago. Holtz is impressed that his son was smart enough to find a way out of the Qortoth dimension, but Steven didn’t want Holtz to follow him. Steven planned to return to the Qortoth after he killed Angel. Steven confesses to Holtz that he had the opportunity to kill Angel, but he couldn’t. Holtz understands because Steven “doesn’t have it in him” to kill Angel. Holtz thinks that Steven actually came to this reality to find out more about Angel. Holtz then gives Steven a sermon about Holtz always telling Steven the truth about who his parents (Darla and Angel) really were, how Holtz came to raise Steven, and how Angelus and Darla had killed Holtz’s other family. Holtz wants Steven to learn more about Angel so that Steven can fight against the “Angel” of Steven’s nature.

At the hotel Lorne delivers an enchanted Cedrian crystal to Fred. Fred uses the crystal to power a MacGyvered geiger counter to detect any paraplasmic radioactivity left behind by demons from the Qortoth dimension. Cordy is more interested in how Angel is doing. She goes upstairs to talk to him leaving Groo looking a bit concerned. Cordy finds Angel punching the crap out of a punching bag. Cordy tries some chit-chat but Angel won’t open up. She finally just tells Angel that he did the right thing. Angel, though, is worried that Steven won’t come back. Cordy doesn’t have an answer for that.

Downstairs Groo and Lorne talk. Groo is confused - when Connor was stolen Angel tried to move heaven and earth to try to get him back. Now that Steven’s back in town Angel is sitting around and waiting. Lorne tries to explain to Groo that “sometimes nothing is the best something,” and that, if something is meant to be, it’s better to just let it happen rather than to force it. Groo asks, if something is meant to be, how can it be forced? Lorne replies that, if it’s meant to be, it can’t be forced and, if it’s not meant to be, then it *really* can’t be forced. Lorne also tells Groo that, just because someone jumps an interdimensional portal is no guarantee that things will work out. Groo makes a point of telling Lorne to tell Cordy that he’s going for a walk, but only if she asks. In the hotel Cordy and Angel are still talking about Steven. The reality of losing so much of Connor’s life has really hit Angel. Cordy tries to reassure Angel that Connor will come around, eventually.

Across town, Wes is having himself a microwaved meal when he gets an alert on his computer that he’s received some e-mail. It’s a message to meet someone at 8:30 that night at a specific address and to come alone.

At the hotel Fred is using her paraplasmic counter to find Qortothy things in the lobby and gets a huge reading! When she looks up, she finds Steven. Angel introduces everyone to Steven, but Steven gives Lorne a pretty nasty look. The AI crew gets out of the lobby to give Steven and Angel some alone time. Neither one of them knows how to start the conversation and, before they can really get started, Cordy starts yelling at Angel. Cordy gets a vision - she sees Angel in a bar with lots of people dancing and mingling, but Cordy can’t hear Angel. Finally the vision stops and Cordy explains that a gang of vamps is after a woman at a club. Angel tells Steven that he has to go, sorta his job, but there will be some violence and killing, so Steven can come if he’d like.

Surprisingly Wes is at the club looking for someone when he hears Lilah ask if he got her invitation. Wes tries to leave but Lilah makes him look at the bar. It’s Justine, sitting alone. Lilah arranged it all for Wes’s benefit. Lilah tipped off Justine that the club would be crawling with vamps and, not coincidentally, tipped off the vamps that Justine would be there. Lilah is trying to get Wes to join up with Wolfram & Hart by showing him how alone he is, and promises Wes that she’ll pull Justine out of the club before anything bad happens. But Wes doesn’t think it’ll be necessary - he sees Angel enter the club.

Down on the dance floor Angel hands Steven a wooden stake and reminds him there are lots of civilians there who shouldn’t be hurt. Steven wants to know why Angel kills ‘his kind,’ but before Angel can answer he and Justine see each other. Justine gets panicked and tries to leave but the bartender vamps out and throws Justine into a wall. The fight is on! Angel takes on several vamps as Steven saves Justine from being killed. In the balcony Lilah wants to know who the kid is and Wes recognizes him as Connor/Steven. Steven and Angel fight side-by-side and take out a whole lotta vampires. Steven chases a vampire out of the club into an alley. He senses something behind him, spins and tries to stake it. It’s Angel, but he stops the stake then hurls Steven’s fist, with the stake, into a vampire’s heart dusting it. Angel tells Steven he was good fighting the vamps and they have a father-son bonding moment sparring in the alley with Holtz looking on.

Steven returns to Holtz’s motel room. Steven tells Holtz that he was right about Angel, even though Angel tries to hide it by killing vampires. Meanwhile Angel tells Cordy how much fun he had bonding with Steven. Angel tells Cordy that he wished she was there and she says she was. After Angel and Steven left she went back into her vision and watched the fight in the club. Cordy isn’t sure how it happened, but she was able to watch Angel and his son together.

Holtz and Steven are now arguing. Holtz thinks that Steven needs to be with Angel and fight at Angel’s side but Steven denies it. Holtz wants Steven to go back to be with Angel because Angel can give Steven answers that Holtz can’t. In the meantime Fred and Gunn are tracking any stray Qortoth demons that might have come through the portal. Gunn parks his truck outside the motel that Holtz and Steven are staying in. Back in the hotel room Steven’s had enough so he leaves, and Gunn sees him. Then Gunn sees Holtz closing the door to the motel room.

At the Hyperion Lorne’s having himself a cocktail when Steven walks in. Lorne tries to chat with Steven but Steven doesn’t want to have anything to do with a demon. Lorne tries to brush the comment off, but Steven doesn’t let up and calls Lorne a “filthy demon.” Lorne’s finally had enough and wants to have it out with Steven but Cordy intervenes. Cordy tries to convince Steven that Lorne’s a good guy and that demon doesn’t equal evil in this dimension, but Steven is seeing things in a very black/white, good/evil, demon/not demon kinda way. So Cordy points out that she’s part demon and she chose to be part demon so she could help people. Steven wigs out completely, grabs Cordy’s neck and holds up a knife to kill her. The look in Steven’s eye makes Norman Bates look like a mild mannered Boy Scout! Before Steven can drive the knife into Cordy’s chest she grabs his wrist and starts to get all glowy. Pretty soon both she and Steven are glowing. She tells Steven to “let it go” and he calms down, lowers the knife and, when they stop glowing, he starts to cry on Cordy’s shoulder,

Both Lorne and Angel saw the whole thing, but Angel’s not sure what happened. Lorne suggests that Cordy gave Steven a “soul colonic” and helped to remove the remnants of the Qortoth hell dimension that permeated Steven. Lorne doesn’t think that Steven would cause Fred’s nifty gadget to make a single click now. While she was glowing Cordy felt what Steven felt growing up in Qortoth, and that Steven felt that was where he belonged. Angel leaves the office to talk to Steven, who’s still a little shaky. Steven thinks he should leave but Angel asks him to stay the night and that the hotel could be home for him. Steven doesn’t think he has a home but Angel tells him it’s not true. Steven has a home, he just doesn’t remember it. Steven tells Angel that he sounds just like his father and Angel figures out that Holtz is back in this dimension. At that moment Fred and Gunn burst into the lobby. Meanwhile Holtz answers the door of his motel room to find Justine. She’s a little surprised to see how old he is.

Back at the Hyperion Angel tells Steven that Gunn and Fred are going to take him out and spend some time with him. Angel tells Gunn and Fred to take Steven someplace where this world isn’t as ugly as it seems. Angel tells Gunn and Fred not to tell Steven where he’s going. Cordy tries to talk Angel out of this. She doesn’t mind if Angel kills Holtz, but she doesn’t think that lying to Steven is any way to build trust.

Meanwhile Justine and Holtz are talking. Justine can’t believe that they survived and Holtz tells her that his hate kept them alive. Holtz tells Justine that, in the unbelievable ugliness and hell that was Qortoth, his hate turned to love for a song, and that love was more powerful than hate. Holtz wants Justine to do him a favor so that he can be done with vengeance. Fred and Gunn have taken Steven to the beach. It’s the first time he’s seen an ocean. Steven’s still shocked from his encounter with Cordy. Fred tries to reach him by telling her experience in Pylea. Steven walks down to the shoreline to be alone and Gunn and Fred talk about Angel confronting Holtz. Suddenly Steven turns around and looks at Gunn. Neither Fred nor Gunn think that Steven heard them talking, but Steven did and he takes off running.

At the hotel Cordy is getting ready to leave for the day when she sees Angel walking down the stairs. She’s thrilled! She asked Angel not to confront Holtz and he didn’t. Angel walks into the light and, ooops!, it’s Groo. Not Cordy’s best moment.

At the motel Holtz has just finished a letter when Angel arrives and doesn’t need an invitation to enter the room. Angel yells at Holtz for stealing Connor, and Holtz counters that he kept Steven alive when Angel killed his son. Angel tries, again, to explain that he was different then. Holtz is surprised that Angel feels remorse, not remorse for killing Holtz’s son, but remorse for being unable to say that he’s sorry. Angel doesn’t think apologizing wouldn’t mean a thing, but Holtz says it would mean a little. So Angel says he is sorry. Holtz does an apology, too. Holtz tells Angel that he thought that stealing Connor would give him a sense of justice, but he was wrong. Angel tells Holtz that taking Connor wasn’t justice, it was vengeance. Holtz wants to give back what he took. Holtz believes that Angel can give Steven a sense of purpose, something that Holtz can’t. But, Holtz reminds Angel that every time he looks at Steven or hears Steven say “father,” Angel will remember what he took from Holtz and can never give back.

Holtz gives Angel an unsealed envelope for Steven. Holtz plans on leaving and the letter is his good-bye to Steven. Angel takes the envelope and leaves. In his car Angel reads the letter Holtz wrote to Steven. Holtz tells Steven how much he loves him and asks his forgiveness for leaving him. Holtz writes that he had to let Steven go and that if he didn’t, Steven would come to hate him. Holtz also writes that Steven’s destiny is with Angel and that Steven will find his purpose with Angel. Holtz only hopes that he’s prepared Steven for his future.

As Angel is reading the letter, Steven is running toward the motel. Holtz and Justine are behind the hotel and Holtz is trying to get Justine to follow through on a promise she made to him. Holtz tells Justine he doesn’t expect Justine to follow him to hell, just to send him there. Justine is crying and holding an ice pick. Holtz takes her hand and forces the ice pick up into his neck piercing a blood vessel. Justine takes the ice pick out of Holtz’s neck, moves it down a few centimeters and pierces his neck again. Holtz’s last word is, “Steven.” As Holtz is bleeding to death, Justine sobs over his body. Steven finds Justine cradling Holtz’s lifeless head in her lap. Steven sees the wounds in Holtz’s neck and says, “Angelus.”

Summary by Kirsten.

Quotes

(A=Angel, F=Fred, C=Cordelia, L=Lorne, G=Gunn, Gr=Groo, C/S=Connor/Steven, Li=Lilah, W=Wesley, Holz-H, Key: J=Justine

F: “Still no answer on his cell phone.” C: “That could mean something if he actually knew how to use it.”

F: “Okay. So he survived and unspeakable hell dimension. Who hasn’t? You-you can’t just leave him alone in the streets of Los Angeles!”

L: “I would have been here sooner, but I had to stop and get it enchanted. Cedrian Crystals don’t actually come that way.” G: “Will it work?” F: “It should. Cedrian crystals are said to contain millennia of stored mystical energy… and it’s about the size of a “D” battery.”

Fred: “Anything that came out of Quor-toth should have left behind a kind of para-plasmic radioactivity. Of course, I’m working of the principal that everything in nature seeks a relaxed and stable state.” Lorne: “I know I do.”

Cordy: “So, maybe if we’re very, very lucky, later today we’ll be able to kill something. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

Groo: “Angel. His inaction puzzles me. When Connor was taken from him he moved heaven and Tarkna to try and win him back.” Lorne: “Yeah, he sure did. Hence our weekly scrubbing of the lobby floor.”

L: “Well, aren’t you just sneaky with the subtext?” Gr: “It is a beautiful day. If my princess asks, tell her I’ve gone for a walk. - If she asks.”

A: “There’s just so much I thought we’d be able to do together before he, you know…” C: “Grew up?” A: “Hated me.”

L: “Should we be wearing lead? ’cause I actually have something.”

F: “Okay, looks like something might have come in here… or here…wait a minute. Wow. Something here is pretty… [runs into Connor] …hot. Angel’s son! Hi! I didn’t mean to click at you.”

A: “Listen, uhm, - I - I, ah, have to go out for a while.” C/S: “It’s okay.” A: “It’s kind of my job.” C/S: “Yeah. Whatever.” A: “It could be kind of dangerous. There’s a lot of killing and violence. You wanna come?”

Li: “I see you got my invitation.” W: “Lilah. Obviously.” Li: “I thought the ‘come alone’ was a particularly ironic touch. I mean, how else would you come?”

Li: “Seems she has been pissing off a lot of undead Americans lately.” W: “And you thought I’d enjoy a box seat for her slaughter.” Li: “Well, yeah!” W: “You really don’t know the first thing about me, do you?” Li: “Probably not.”

Li: “He has to think about it. That’s good. That’s all I really needed to know.”

C/S: “So why do you do it?” A: “Do what?” C/S: “Why kill them if they’re like you?” A: “They’re not like me, Connor.” C/S: “I’m not Connor.”

A: “Nice… Ah, take the one on the…Well, yeah. Uh, that makes more sense….”

Li: “Who’s the boy wonder? He moves just like…” W: “…his father.”

C/S: “Father. He was everything that you said. He tried to trick me. Thought that he could deceive me by saving people. It didn’t work. I’ve seen his true face.” H: “And I’ve seen yours.”

H: “Go back to him, Steven.” C/S: “Why are you doing this? Why? God gave me to you.” H: “Yes. It was God’s plan for us to be together. Nothing will ever persuade me otherwise. But now it’s time for me to give you back.”

F: “Okay. Except for the hotel the strongest emissions are coming from somewhere in this vicinity.” G: “Now what? We go door to door and ask if anyone’s seen any inter-dimensional bogies?”

F: “Looks like we’ve been following Angel’s son’s emissions the whole time.” G: “Now there is a sentence I don’t ever need to hear again.” F: “But it’s good, right? It means there was no big scary that came out of the portal.” G: “How about a short scary?”

C: “I’m not going anywhere with you, demon.” L: “I’ll tell you what, since you were raised in a hell dimension by a psychopath, and since that happens to be a topic that I know a little something about, we’ll just let that slide. Now I’ll fetch your pop for you.”

C: “Filthy demon.” L: “Actually, that’s *uncle* filthy demon to you. It wasn’t that long ago, like a week, I was changing your diapers, you little…”

L: “Well, you got some serious mojo going on, girl. Whatever deal you struck with the Powers, it looks to me like they gave you the full package - all the extras. That kid was _toxic_ when he came here tonight. Heavy on the ‘ic(k)’.”

A: “What actually happened out there?” L: “In my professional opinion? Well, Miss demon-y britches here gave that child some kind of ‘soul colonic’. Flushed him out but good.”

C/S: “I might have tried to kill your friend.” A: “Yeah, well - she’s used to it.”

C: “Wait. Angel, before you go we have to do that thing.” A: “What thing?” C: “That thing we do. You know that thing where I say ‘are you sure you know what you’re doing, Angel, please think about this’ and then you ignore me and rush head long into trouble?” A: “Right. That thing. - Okay, are we done?”

C: “Angel, please think about this. In fact, don’t go there at all.” A: “I have to.” C: “I know. But don’t.” A: “I’m not gonna kill him even though he deserves it.” C: “Oh, I don’t care if you kill him. He stole Connor’s childhood, so kill him. But don’t lie to your son. He’s been here like a day. Way to build the trust.”

J: “I can’t believe you survived it. How did you?” H: “My hate kept us alive.” J: “Hate gets a bad rap. It can keep you going sometimes when nothing else will.”

Holtz: “Yes. I found I had to stay alive that I might pass on my legacy of hate. But something happened in that place, Justine, something changed. Amidst the most unspeakable ugliness the hate turned into love. Love for a son. Hate is not enough. I found that love is far more powerful. Now there is just one thing I need you to do for me and then I can finally be done with vengeance.”

C/S: “What is it?” G: “The ocean. Pacific.” C/S: “Ocean. My father taught me about oceans. He never said it was so…” F: “Big?” C/S: “Empty.” F: “It’s not. It’s just all under the surface. A whole ’nother world actually.”

A: “You stole my son.” H: “I kept your son alive. You murdered mine.”

H: “You feel remorse. You feel remorse yet you can’t express it.” A: “You want me to say I’m sorry? How can I? It wouldn’t mean a thing.” H: “It would mean a little. Not much, but it would be something.”

H: “I’m an old man now. I have nothing to offer the boy. You can give him what I can’t… his purpose. But every time you look upon his face, every time he calls you ‘father’, you will be reminded of that which you took and can never give back. And if that is vengeance, I find I have no taste for it.”

H: “Come on, Justine. I’m not asking you to follow me into hell. Just help send me there.”

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