Orpheus

This article is about the episode, for the drug, see Orpheus (drug)

"Orpheus" is the fifteenth episode of the fourth season of Angel and the eighty-first episode overall. Written by Mere Smith and directed by Terrence O'Hara, it was originally broadcast on March 19, 2003 on the WB network.

Synopsis
Angelus gets the upper hand against Faith and begins to feed on her, but passes out from the near-fatal drug called orpheus, with which Faith had deliberately injected herself. Wesley takes the unconscious Angelus and Faith back to the hotel. With Faith at his side and while in an orpheus-induced coma, Angelus is forced to relive Angel's good deeds since arriving in Ellis Island, New York in 1902. Meanwhile, the rest of the team race against time to re-soul Angel.



Willow Rosenberg arrives to help after Fred contacted her, while the evil Cordelia Chase plots in her room, first by trying to counter-spell Willow and then by stopping Willow from performing the Ritual of Restoration. Frustrated in both attempts, Cordelia then asks Connor to kill Angelus before the restoration ritual is carried out. In the dream-walk, Faith and Angelus encounter the real Angel who takes on the form of his past self in an alley and battles Angelus to a draw. Angel encourages Faith to wake up and she does, stopping Connor from staking Angelus. Willow completes the Ritual and manages to turn Angelus back into Angel. With Angel back to his old self, Willow returns to Sunnydale with Faith, saying to Angel that she'll tell Buffy he said hi, which he is grateful for. Willow also says that the next time they unleash Angelus, remember to call her first. After she and Faith leave, Cordelia reveals her pregnancy, much to the shock of Angel and the rest of the team.

Continuity

 * Angel is shown putting on a Barry Manilow record in the coffee shop in 1975. The events that occur in this scene lead to Angel's downward spiral to living on the streets for the next 21 years, culminating in him being contacted by Whistler in 1996.


 * Willow restores Angel's soul, and takes Faith back to Sunnydale to fight the First Evil.


 * "Cordelia" reveals her pregnancy to Angel Investigations.


 * This marks the first and only occasion where Angel and Angelus have interacted with each other; although the novel "Dark Mirror" featured a duplicate of Angel that preferred to be known as Angelus, the double was merely created out of the darkness in Angel's soul rather than a manifestation of his demon.


 * Like Angel, Faith switches from a more "passive" redemption to an "active" redemption. Rather than remaining in jail, out of society, she chooses to help fight "the good fight" and make the world better.


 * This is the second time that Willow restores Angel's soul.


 * By recasting the first spell she ever learned, Willow was able to regain confidence in her ability to use and control magic, an issue she had been struggling with.

Body Count

 * unnamed doughnut shop clerk, drained by Angel (in flashback)

Behind the Scenes

 * The guy who played the robber in the 70's flashback is Eliza Dushku's brother, Nate Dushku.

Broadcast

 * With this episode, the "cross-over embargo" between The WB and UPN is lifted, allowing characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to cross-over to Angel, and vice-versa. The last cross-over was seen in "There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb," again with Willow coming to see Angel Investigations, but to inform them on Buffy Summers' death in "The Gift." This also marks the final appearance of Willow and Faith on Angel.

Goofs, Bloopers & Continuity Errors

 * Although the transliteration annals for the Ensoulment Spell were supposedly "lost", Willow is seen reading the ritual directly from an old magic book.

Music

 * Barry Manilow- "Mandy"
 * Robert J. Kral - original score

Other

 * Willow's quick and clean-cut solution to the Muo-Ping problem and Angelus's re-ensoulment can be seen as Deus ex Machina.