The Ring

"The Ring" is episode 16 of season 1 in the television show Angel. Written by Howard Gordon and directed by Nick Marck, it was originally broadcast on February 29, 2000 on the WB television network.

Angel is captured and enslaved in a fighting club, and must fight his way to freedom else rely on Cordy and Wes to find him.

Synopsis
As Cordelia and Wesley bicker while using a new demon database, Darin MacNamara stumbles into the Angel Investigations office, saying his brother Jack was kidnapped the previous night by a group that was not "exactly people". Darin tells Angel he and his brother were not close, since Jack wasn’t as successful as Darin. Jack had a gambling problem and, though Darin had paid off bookies for him in the past, had recently refused to help him again. He felt guilty afterwards and went to Jack’s place in time to see the non-people taking him away. Angel goes to find Ernie, the bookie Darin wouldn’t pay off, and interrupts his poker game to try to get information. He promises that Darin will pay off Jack’s debts, but Ernie says it’s no longer about money, but about making an example out of Jack. Angel offers him some money and learns that Jack may be somewhere under Beechwood Canyon. Cordelia and Wesley search the demon database with the information Darin gave them about the demon who took Jack. Wesley argues that by the time Cordelia finds the demon on the computer he could find it in his book, but Cordelia proves him wrong, identifying the Howler demon.

Angel climbs down into a sewer under Beechwood Canyon where he is attacked by Howler demons. He knocks out two of them, then threatens the remaining one. He learns the Howler demons sold Jack, then asks to whom.

Angel drives to a run-down neighborhood where he sees expensively-dressed people lining up to enter a door where there is no business sign. He pulls the bars away from a basement window and enters the building. He finds a lounge with a bar. A woman sitting alone, whom we later learn is Lilah Morgan, accidentally drops a ticket from her table. Angel retrieves it, studying it before he returns it.

Angel finds another room where two demons are fighting gladiator style. One of the demons is knocked down and the crowd chants, “Killing blow!” A man nearby tosses a knife to the standing demon, who slits the loser's throat. The crowd cheers and the demon, Tom Cribb, is pronounced the winner. The next demon up, Val Trepkos, is announced as Angel spots Jack being led through the crowd.

He follows them down a corridor, where they meet up with Darin. Darin warns Jack to be wary of Angel, since he defeated the Howler demons. Angel realizes that he was set up and tries to fight off the men, but they render him unconscious with cattle prods. Jack says that Angel "has some attitude" and will be “a crowd-pleaser.” Angel awakens later to find himself in a cage, surrounded by other demons in cages. He has a silver bracelet on his wrist that reads “XXI”, which he learns keeps him imprisoned. He tries to converse with his fellow captives but they don’t appear to speak English. Jack tells the “slaves” that the only rule is that they stay inside the red area marked off around the cages. They can only get out of the red area when their bracelets are removed, and that only happens after their 21st kill. Angel refuses to kill anyone and Jack replies that in that case, he’ll be the one killed.

The next day, at Angel Investigations, Wesley calls Kate and is disappointed to learn that she doesn’t know where Angel is. Cordelia is also worried that they can’t reach Darin. Wesley leaves to find Ernie, since the bookie's establishment was the last place Angel went.

In the slave quarters, it is mealtime. Angel objects when Tom Cribb steals food from Mellish, another slave. Tom Cribb threatens Angel, but backs off when guardsappear with weapons. Mellish tells Angel that he (Mellish) can fight his own battles, and warns Angel not to "rock the boat." Jack and Darin appear to announce the fight schedule for that evening. Val Trepkos, one of the demons scheduled to fight. makes a break for it, but disintegrates when he crosses the red line, leaving only his bracelet behind. Jack chooses Angel to replace him for the evening's fight.

Wesley interrupts Ernie in the act of administering a beating. Wesley asks where Angel is. Ernie asks for money in exchange for this information, but Wesley refuses to pay, produces a miniature crossbow, and threatens to "beat it out of you." Ernie draws a gun but Wesley it out of his hand with the crossbow bolt and draws a handgun of his own. He repeats the question.

While the fights are starting up that night, the woman whose ticket Angel looked at the night before (Lilah Morgan) talks to Darin about Angel. She mentions that he has a soul and wonders if this will give him an advantage in the ring. Mellish offers Angel information on his opponent. Angel says he will not kill anyone. Mellish asks Angel is he on drugs and explains, "it's not like you have a choice." Angel and his opponent enter the ring, and Cribb, the demon who fought the previous night, notes that Angel isn’t even fighting.

Cordelia and Wesley arrive at the arena, dressed up in fancy clothes. They realize too late that they’ve forgotten their fake police badge, but Cordelia approaches a couple anyway, introducing herself as Detective Andrews and Wesley as Detective Yelsew (Wesley backwards). Wesley flashes his wallet instead of a badge and Cordelia tells him to take down the couple’s license plate number. She checks the couple’s tickets and tells them that they’re for an unlicensed event. Wesley warns that a raid is going to happen there tonight, so the couple decides to leave, leaving Cordelia and Wesley their tickets.

Inside, Baker beats on Angel, who still won’t fight back. Cordelia and Wesley enter, spotting Darin, who’s holding a bracelet. Wesley notes that these demon matches have been revived from the Roman Empire and that the bracelets kill people if they’re wearing them when they cross the red line. Darin puts the bracelet down and gestures for a guard to drop a knife into the pit. Baker picks the knife up, cutting Angel’s arm with it. Angel morphs into vamp face and the crowd chants, “Killing blow!” Angel defends himself from a few more hits, then stabs Baker in the chest with the knife. Once Baker is dead, the announcer says that Angel has made his first career kill. Angel heads back to join the other demons as Jack announces that it’s time for a match between Trepkos and (expected loser) Mellish. Angel tells Trepkos that if he and Mellish don’t fight, neither of them will die. Cribb tells Angel that he’s not an expert just because he’s made one kill; Angel replies that that wasn’t his first kill. Angel tells Trepkos that they can fight their captors if they stop killing each other. Trepkos instead says that he’ll kill Mellish quickly, a decision which pleases Jack. Once they’re in the ring, Trepkos fulfills his promise. Outside the building, Cordelia tells Wesley that they need to call the police, but he thinks that Darin will destroy the evidence before anything can happen. Cordelia realizes that he would kill the demons and says that they need to get Angel out, which entails getting his bracelet off. Wesley thinks that, if he can get a bracelet, he’ll be able to figure out how to forge a magical key to release other bracelets. Cordelia reveals that she swiped a bracelet when he wasn’t looking.

When Jack congratulates Angel on his victory, calling him "a demon like the others", Angel grabs Jack and pulls him close to the red line. He asks Jack how to remove the bracelet and asks the demons to check Jack’s pockets for a key; they won’t help him. Darin enters with his guards and Angel agrees to let Jack go when he and the other demons are released. Darin pulls out a gun and calmly shoots Jack, and the guards again knock out Angel with cattle prods. He wakes up in the office of Lilah Morgan, the woman he and Darin both talked to earlier. She introduces herself as a lawyer working for Wolfram & Hart, and explains that she persuaded Darin to sell his contract to “the partners”. She tells him that he’s free to go, provided he pretend the fighting never happened; after all, Lilah points out, there are a lot of people for him to help in L.A. Angel refuses to compromise, and willingly returns to the arena, where the other demons call him crazy for returning. Darin snaps Angel’s bracelet back on and tells him that he’s fighting Trepkos next; if Trepkos wins, Angel will be his 21st kill. Wesley messes around with the bracelet, trying to find something that will conduct electricity. Cordelia provides Wesley with a horsehair bracelet (“from Keanu, my palomino, before the IRS took him away”) which does exactly what he needs it to do to the silver bracelet. Back at the arena, Lilah places a $10,000 bet on Trepkos.

Angel and Trepkos enter the ring, where Angel tells Trepkos that even if he kills 21 demons, he will always be a slave. Trepkos says that he’ll kill him quickly and Angel replies that he won’t let him. The fight begins and, again, Angel defends himself. Cordelia distracts a guard so that Wesley can get to the slaves’ quarters. He asks Cribb where Angel is and is told that he’ll be dead soon. Wesley announces that he has a key to open all of the demon’s bracelets and Cribb grabs it from him. A guard drops wooden staffs into the pit and Trepkos charges Angel with one of them. Wesley returns to Cordelia and tells her that someone took his key. The fighting continues and Angel gets part of Trepkos’ staff, holding it to his throat. Cribb unlocks his bracelet, watching as Angel starts to walk away from the fight, then get overtaken by Trepkos. The crowd encourages Trepkos to kill Angel, but Trepkos decides not to. Darin sends guards after both of them, but Wesley pulls out a gun and tells Darin to stop the guards. Cribb and the other demons storm the arena and Wesley and Darin start fighting over the gun. The demons and guards face off and Cribb unlocks Angel’s bracelet, calling him a loser. The spectators all leave the arena. Darin is about to shoot Wesley when Cordelia pushes him into the pit. Darin points the gun at Trepkos and tries to blast him for not killing Angel when it would have set him free, but is stopped by Angel who disarms him. Cribb puts a bracelet on Darin’s wrist. Darin is thrown out of the red circle and disintegrates. Cribb unlocks Trepkos’ bracelet and Angel and Trepkos congratulate each other on a good fight. “I could have taken you,” Angel claims. Cordelia and Wesley help Angel out of the building and he thanks them for finding him before it was too late. Cordelia says that Wesley was the one who figured out how to make the key, and Wesley says that she was the one who figured out that horsehair would work. Angel says that they did good work, even though, as Cordelia points out, they released a bunch of demons.

Starring

 * David Boreanaz as Angel
 * Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
 * Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndam-Pryce

Guest starring

 * Markus Redmond as Tom Cribb
 * Douglas Roberts as Darin McNamara
 * Scott William Winters as Jack McNamara
 * Stephanie Romanov as Lilah Morgan

Co Starring

 * Anthony Guidera as Ernie Nellins
 * Chris Flanders as Mr. Winslow
 * Marc Rose as Mellish
 * David Kallaway as Doorman
 * Juan A. Riojas as Val Trepkos
 * Michael Philip as Announcer
 * Mark Ginther as Lasovic

Production Information

 * This episode marks the first appearance of Lilah Morgan, who would be a recurring character for the next three seasons.


 * Producer Tim Minear comments on the contradiction exhibited by Wolfram & Hart in this episode: they offer to free Angel provided he forget what he knows, yet later hire an assassin to kill him in "Five by Five". "At the point Faith was involved, they wanted him dead, but not now," he says. "I think if you have a little patience, it will all make sense."

Awards

 * This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Makeup for a Series.

Continuity

 * When Cordelia is browsing the demon database, Wesley asks her if they have "the Vigories of Oden Tal." This is a reference to the main antagonists of the episode "She".

Music

 * Morphic Field - Consciousness (Aware of You)"