History Recap / AngelS02E09TheTrial

* TheBusCameBack: Drusilla has not crossed paths with our heroes since leaving Sunnydale in BTVS Season 2. We've glimpsed her just in one of Spike's flashbacks in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E7FoolForLove Fool for Love]]", which shows the events Spike had already described in "Lovers Walk", when he caught her making out with a Chaos Demon.

* DownerEnding: Just as Darla had come to accept her humanity and mortality, reconciling with Angel in the process after seeing the lengths he went through to fight for her, Lindsey and the other members of Wolfram & Hart barge in, incapacitate Angel, and let Drusilla turn Darla back into a vampire. Angel can do nothing but watch with tears forming in his eyes.

* HypocriticalHumor: Angel says he's come to terms that Darla will have come to him if she needs him, and that he's let go. Gunn then bursts in, saying he's found Darla, which Angel had him do in secret. Angel immediately drops what he's doing and sternly leafs through the surveillance photos that Gunn took, while Cordy protests, "You '''lied''' to us!" Angel agrees that he did. "I figured you'd nag."

-->'''Cordy:''' So, first up: you're a prisoner.
-->'''Wesley:''' I'd have to concur with that, yes.

* RuleOfThree: The trials.

* WhipItGood: Angel's first opponent is a green goblin armed with huge hooks on long, heavy chains.
* [[WhyDidItHAveToBeSnakes Why Did It have to Be Stakes?]]

* SecretTestOfCharacter: Angel asks what happens to Darla if he quits before Final Jeopardy. "Oh. She dies," The Valet says. The Valet decides that this would be a good time to delve: "Isn't the world a better place with you in it? You can save so many people. It seems she can barely save herself." He points out that even if Darla lives, "how long will it be before she stumbles, before she falls?" Angel doesn't know. Valet again asks if Angel wants to give up his life for Darla's. Angel does. But he In the resulting flash, The Valet says that Angel has passed the final test "by accepting death."

** Drusilla sires Darla the same way Darla sired Angel, by making a cut over her own breasts and forcing Darla to drink in a perversion of breastfeeding milk.

* ContinuityNod: The comparison between jasmine flowers and vampires was previously made in the ''Buffy'' episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E19IOnlyHaveEyesForYou I Only Have Eyes For You]]".

%%* SingleTear

%%* StaticStunGun

* TheThreeTrials
%%* TorchesAndPitchforks

%%* SpotOfTea

* WorthyOpponent: During the trials, The Valet repeatedly checks his pocket watch and remarks that Angel's "quite remarkable." He seems genuinely pained at the prospect of pulling the lever on Angel's deathtrap.

** Darla foreshadows the Big Bad of Season Four, Jasmine, when she is outside the Hyperion and notices jasmine flowers. "Jasmine, it blooms at night. I remember what that was like." (See ChekhovsGun for why this isn't a coincidence.)

* AllThereInTheScrip: The demon is named in the script as "Tor".

* NamelessNarrative: The Valet is never identified by name. Angel smugly refers to him as "Jeeves", which is how he appears in the closing credits.
** The Mullet vampire is credited as "Shempire". The script refers to him as "Shempy vampire" and then shortens it with Shempire.
** The demon is named in the script as "Tor".

%%* BigDamnVillains

* TheBusCameBack: Drusilla has not crossed paths with our heroes since leaving Sunnydale in BTVS Season 2. We've glimpsed her just in one of Spike's flashbacks in "Fool for Love", which shows the events Spike had already described in "Lovers Walk", when he caught her making out with a Chaos Demon.
* ContinuityNod: The comparison between jasmine flowers and vampires was previously made in the ''Buffy'' episode "I Only Have Eyes for You".

%%* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe

* LeapOfFaith

* TrueNeutral: The Valet

%%* AlwaysSaveTheGirl

The Valet disappears and the gate opens, through it walks a green warrior demon. Angel manages to get his hands on the demon's sword and cut him in half. However, the demon wakes and reattaches his torso to the rest of him. The fight resumes and again the demon again sawed in half, only this time, Angel ties one half against the corner wall with a chain, and another at the other end of the room. The next challenge preys on Angel's vampiric nature. He must venture down a long hallway that is inlayed with wall-to-wall crosses, with a baptismal font in the center. Angel makes a run for it and grabs the key inside the font, which is full of holy water. Ouch. The final challenge is, well, Sudden Death: Angel suddenly finds himself spread eagle in front of a wall o' wooden stakes. The Valet tries to persuade Angel that he can walk away from the trials. Angel orders him to pull the lever, and the stakes are fired at him. To his surprise, Angel finds himself back in the antechamber, fully dressed but worn out from his physical ordeal. The Valet calls Darla over so that she can be "made whole", but something appears to be wrong. He apologizes, and surmises that Darla is being kept alive by supernatural means. The Valet cannot help her because Darla is ''already'' living her second chance.

* DownerEnding: Just as Darla had come to accept her humanity and mortality, reconciling with Angel in the process after seeing the lengths he went through to fight for her, Lindsay and the other members of Wolfram & Hart barge in, incapacitate Angel, and let Drusilla turn Darla back into a vampire. Angel can do nothing but watch with tears forming in his eyes.