- ↳ Note: This article is about the episode. For other uses, see Sacrifice.
"Sacrifice" is the twentieth episode of the fourth season of Angel and the eighty-sixth episode in the series. Written by Ben Edlund and directed by David Straiton, it was originally broadcast on April 23, 2003, on The WB network.
Synopsis[]
Free from Jasmine's spell, Angel, Wesley, Gunn, Fred and Lorne escape into the sewers for protection until an evil, tentacled monster that has information about Jasmine captures Wes. Meanwhile, Connor, still in the clutches of Jasmine, discovers that Cordelia has vanished.[1]
Summary[]
After Connor alerts Jasmine's worshipers to their presence, the Angel Investigations team escapes, while Angel bars the door. When the door gives way, he begins beating up Connor, while the other worshipers grab fragments of the door and threaten to stake him.
Outside, Gunn, Lorne, Fred, and Wesley have brought the car around and are debating what to do next. Suddenly, Connor drops onto the hood, followed by Angel, who then drags him off, climbs in the car, and tells the gang to drive away. As they do, they are followed by a mob of Jasmine's followers, with Jasmine herself at the rear.
The car drives along, while the radio plays updates about Jasmine's takeover of Los Angeles. They turn the radio off and debate their options—no weapons, no food, little gas, and no idea of what to do next.
Back at the hotel, Jasmine consumes four more of her worshipers, bathing the room in green light. Connor is in the room, and watches the whole thing. With a touch, she heals Connor of his wounds, and he tells her about the situation. Jasmine says they have nothing to fear, as her followers grow closer to her with every passing moment. She can use them as a weapon if need be.
The Angel team pulls up to a gas station, in an attempt to get gas before leaving town entirely. Bystanders, under Jasmine's control, attack them with fists, weapons and broken bottles, while she taunts them. They are able to get gas and drive off in a hurry, pursued by police cars.
The Angel team lose the police, but realize that it cannot last, so they abandon their car and hide in the sewers. Tensions are running high between them, but Angel takes charge of the situation, telling them to forget about Cordelia. As they go further into the tunnels, red eyes begin to appear in the darkness.
Connor sits by Cordelia's side. Jasmine comes in and Connor shows her the wound on Cordelia's arm. She calls the cure "black, deceitful magic," further nudging Connor toward suspicion of magic. Then she tells Connor to leave her alone with Cordelia.
Back in the tunnels, everyone is having trouble forgetting Cordelia and how it felt to be under Jasmine's influence. They talk about some of the strange inconsistencies surrounding Jasmine, then suddenly the floor opens beneath Angel. He falls, nearly landing on wooden spikes. A group of young people with improvised weapons corner the gang. Using his supernatural strength, Angel kicks off a fight where he and the team gain the upper hand. Now that everyone's talking, Gunn discovers that he knows one of the members of this group. Before they can catch up, strange noises alert the underground group, and they take the Angel team back to their home base.
At the hotel, Connor comes in and finds Cordelia's body missing. Jasmine explains that, since Cordelia is a weakness, she has put her somewhere else — somewhere secret.
In the tunnels, the Angel crew find themselves in the lair of this underground group. Gunn explains that the former leader was a friend of his, who led this team until the sun went out, when they went underground. Angel inspects the headquarters for weaknesses, while Randall fills in the Angel team on how they get here. After asking for clean water, Angel washes Cordelia's blood (and Connor's) off of his hands. The two groups discuss teaming up against Jasmine.
The governor calls Jasmine, telling her he will dissolve his government and relinquish power to her. She revels in her growing power, bragging to Connor about the brightness of the future, drawing him ever closer to her. He has still not given in to her power, but Jasmine encourages him to give in wholly to her and to relinquish his pain, saying it has been the only constant in all his life. Connor tenses up, driving his fingernails into her hand, then seems to give in.
Back in the sewer, the newly combined rebels are attacked by unseen creatures while on patrol. While Angel tries to fend off the creatures, he reveals his vampire nature. Matthew runs away, and Gunn and Fred go after him. Now the rest of the kids underground turn on Angel. He intimidates them into allowing him and Lorne to go after Wesley.
Wesley is taken by the zealot, who profess to having loved Jasmine first, before mankind even was. They were preparing for her, building a temple standing stone on stone, but instead she came here. The zealot gets angry that Wes tried to name her; he says she is the Devourer, the song, the peace, the whole. He reveals that zealots consider naming disrespectful. Then he seems to back off, saying he has work to do. Wes pushes him to say what they consider love, and he responds that, "same as everywhere, love is sacrifice."
Elsewhere in the tunnels, Gunn and Fred are stalled while trying to find Matthew. She confronts him about his ability to turn off his emotion, and he retorts she did so when they killed Professor Seidel. She confesses that she hates that she did that, but she would take emotion over being an emotionless shell any day.
Wesley tries to learn about the zealots. He notices a blue orb which the zealot says is his key. The zealot says to go ahead and use it, except what they breathe there would burn out Wesley's lungs in a peep. Wesley changes the subject to what the zealot is busy doing. They are trying to get Jasmine's attention with a spell of flesh magic, which they consider stronger than word magic, to return to them as her original worshipers. They are dismembering a vampire, and are confused by their inability to kill him. Wesley begins to explain the nature of vampires, and gets sidetracked on names. The zealot makes a passing comment that humans are weak because they throw their names around all the time. He says too many people knowing your name takes your power away. Wesley realizes that Jasmine can be destroyed by the use of her name. He tries to learn the name, but the zealot says he doesn't keep the name, the High Priest keeps the name and that Wesley is about to go dead. Angel arrives and begins to fight the creature.
Gunn and Fred find their way to the surface, hiding around corners and trying to remain out of sight. They find Matthew, and try to take him back underground. Gunn has to resort to knocking him out, which horrifies Fred.
Lorne tries to give a lecture to the teenagers about using strong words, when Gunn returns with Matthew in tow. Golden is angry at Gunn for knocking Matthew out, but suddenly the boy wakes up, using Jasmine's voice and taking the teens into her power. Lorne, Gunn, and Fred rush out, but are cornered by Connor, with a team of soldiers in tow. They make a run for it and her pursues.
Angel manages to defeat the zealot, and Wesley explains what he has learned about them and about Jasmine's name. He is trying to figure out how to activate the zealot's key. Meanwhile, Angel and Connor sense each other and start heading to one another. Angel finds the other members of the crew and leads them to Wesley, where they bar the door and try to hold off the soldiers.
Wesley realizes the key is activated with blood, rubbing some on it. The key activates a portal to the zealot's dimension, but Angel is the only one who can go through it because of the atmosphere on the other side. The group convince Angel to go, taking the key with him. He jumps in while the rest let the soldiers in to fight them.
Back at the hotel, Jasmine laughs as wounds appear all over her and immediately heal.
Angel steps out of the portal and into the other world, where he is surrounded by dozens of zealots.
Continuity[]
- Fred recalls when she and Jasmine talked in a bowling alley, in the episode "Shiny Happy People."
- Gunn becomes nervous when Fred says there could be rats; his fear of rats was first mentioned in "Heartthrob" and shown in "Apocalypse, Nowish."
- Gunn tells Fred she shut down her emotions when they killed Professor Seidel ("Supersymmetry").
- Wesley discovers that Jasmine's weakness is her name, which will be used against her in the next episode ("Peace Out").
- Matthew is surprised about the sun's return, which was eclipsed in "Long Day's Journey" and restored in "Salvage."
- Angel uses the zealot's own claw to pierce his skin and kill him, reminiscent of how Angelus used a bone dagger to kill the Beast.
Appearances[]
Individuals[]
- Angel
- Winifred Burkle
- Cordelia Chase
- Connor
- Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan
- Dracula (Only mentioned)
- Dwight
- Randall Golden
- Thomas Golden (Only mentioned)
- Guardian of the Word (Only mentioned)
- Charles Gunn
- Holly
- Jasmine
- Matthew
- "Messenger"
- Mother of the Vile Excrement (Only mentioned)
- Oliver Seidel (Only mentioned)
- "Talky Meat"
- Trip
- Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
Organizations and titles[]
- Angel Investigations
- Body Jasmine
- Gunn's crew (Only mentioned)
Species[]
Locations[]
- Earth
- Belize (Only mentioned)
- Los Angeles
- Hyperion Hotel
- Los Feliz Bowl (Only mentioned)
- Zealot's dimension
Objects[]
Death count[]
- Three men and two women, eaten by Jasmine.
- The Messenger, stabbed by Angel.
- Unknown number of members of the Body Jasmine, killed by Fred, Gunn, and Wesley (only mentioned).
Behind the scenes[]
Production[]
- Jeff Ricketts, who portrays the Messenger in this episode, also portrays Weatherby in "This Year's Girl," "Who Are You?" and "Sanctuary."
Broadcast[]
- "Sacrifice" had an audience of 2.5 million households upon its original airing.[2]
Pop culture references[]
- Lorne compares the AI team with being "the last feisty wife" in Stepford, the town from the 1972 novel The Stepford Wives with submissive housewives.
- Jasmine says her palace will be greater than the pyramids of Giza.
- Gunn mentions that the city is like "Shangri-La La Land," mixing the Los Angeles nickname "La La Land" with the mystical paradise Shangri-La from the novel Paradise Lost.
- Gunn makes a reference to Fred being able to turn off her "emotion chip," a reference to Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Goofs[]
- When Connor punches through the door Angel is holding back, there is no hole when the camera switches back to Connor.
- When Angel and Wesley fall through the floor in the sewer, the wires holding Angel up are highly visible.
Music[]
- Robert J. Kral — original score
International titles[]
- Czech: "Bestie" (Beast)
- Finnish: "Sacrifice" (Sacrifice)
- French: "Sacrifice" (Sacrifice)
- German: "Die Letzten ihrer Art" (The Last of Their Kind)
- Hungarian: "Áldozat" (Sacrifice)
- Italian: "Sacrificio" (Sacrifice)
- Portuguese (Brazil): "Sacrifício" (Sacrifice)
- Russian: "Жертвоприношение" (Sacrifice)
- Spanish (Latin America): "El sacrificio" (The Sacrifice)
- Spanish (Spain): "Sacrificio" (Sacrifice)
- Turkish: "Fedakarlık" (Sacrifice)
Gallery[]
Promotional stills[]
Behind the scenes[]
Advertisement[]
Quotes[]
| Jasmine: "We have nothing to fear from them. They are alone; we are many." |
| Connor: "But, but Gunn and Wesley and Lorne. They've all been turned. We have to stop whatever they're..." |
| Jasmine: "We will. Connor, there's nothing they can do. Every moment that passes, I grow closer to my followers. I feel what they feel. I see what they see. We're fusing together, like the cells of a single body. They're my eyes, my skin, my limbs; and if need be, my fists." |
| Jasmine: "You can't outrun my love. It has wings made of radio." |
References[]
- ↑ "angel: Sacrifice." TheWB.com. Archived from the original on August 29, 2004.
- ↑ "Nielsen Ratings for Angel's Fourth Season." Nielsen Ratings for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, & Firefly. Archived from the original on July 6, 2008.