Recap / Angel S 05 E 11 Damage

At Wolfram & Hart, Harmony tells Angel what she suspects it's a case of demon possession. There was a mix-up with a patient named Dana's medication at a psychiatric hospital, and no longer sedated, she broke down her door, fought and killed one of the paramedics, and escaped.

Angel and Spike arrive at the hospital, where Dr. Rabinaw tells them that Dana had been kidnapped and tortured for months when she was ten, by the man who killed her family. Recently, she gained incredible strength. As Spike leaves to deal with the girl, a nurse provides Angel with Dana's session tapes. She talks in various languages, and he understands what she says in Romanian. He then calls Wesley and informs him: Dana is a Slayer.

At Wolfram & Hart, Giles has sent "his top guy" to take care of Dana, which turns out to be Andrew Wells. He's emotional in his reunion with Spike, then updates the group on how Willow activated every Potential Slayer in the battle at the Hellmouth months earlier. Wesley wonders how the Slayers will be trained now that the Watchers Council is gone, so Andrew explains that Giles and some Sunnydale alums have resuscitated the Council.

As Spike heads off to look for Dana, Angel follows Lorne's suggestion to visit Dana's childhood home with a psychic. Vernon flashes back to Dana's abduction and her family's murder; the smell of molasses and a basement is "where her pain lives," he says. Meanwhile, Dana goes to the basement of the building where she was held captive, flashing back to her torturer injecting her with various drugs. When she looks up at his face, it's Spike.

Andrew catches up with Spike, and updates him on the Scoobies' activities — Xander is in Africa, Willow and Kennedy are in Brazil, Buffy and Dawn are in Rome, and everyone else is in England. Andrew guesses that Buffy doesn't know Spike is alive and wonders why he didn't tell her. When Spike follows the scent of blood into Dana's trap, Andrew tries unsuccessfully to shoot Dana with a tranquilizer gun. Spike chases Dana to the basement, where she starts repeating what her torturer once said to her. Dana, channeling Nikki, recognizes Spike as William the Bloody. Before he can explain that she's dreaming of other Slayers, she injects him with a sedative. At Wolfram & Hart, Fred realizes that the smell of molasses indicates Dana was held in a distillery, and Angel sends a tactical team to search abandoned distilleries.

Back in the basement, Spike awakens to discover that Dana has cut off his hands. She tells Spike he can't hurt her anymore, but when he insists she's thinking of someone else she finally remembers who her torturer really was. Angel arrives, tells Dana her real torturer is dead, and knocks her out with a tranquilizer dart. Spike is taken to the hospital to have his hands reattached. Later, Andrew tells Angel that because Dana is a Slayer, she belongs in the care of the new Council. Andrew says none of the Scoobies trust Angel now that he works at Wolfram & Hart, and that they aren't on the same side.

Angel visits Spike at the hospital, now with his hands reattached. Spike admits he's never thought much about what being evil means. He says Dana is like them — someone turned her into a monster. Angel notes that she's an innocent victims, but they agree they both were too, once upon a time.

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Tropes

• 20% More Awesome: Andrew boasts that he's become "82% more manly" than the last time Spike saw him.
• Abandoned Warehouse / Creepy Basement: Dana goes to the place she was tortured years before.
• Amazon Brigade: Andrew's backup consists of about twenty Slayers, none of whom has ever dated Angel, who wisely doesn't antagonise them.
• An Arm and a Leg: Spike wakes up to find himself chained to a pole with his hands severed.
  Dana: Can't touch me now.
• As You Know: Andrew's exposition about the origin of Slayers starts out like this for the benefit of the non-Buffy watchers. Lampshaded.
  Angel: That's, um...really great, but we...actually know all that.
• Ax-Crazy: Dana. Perhaps Bonesaw Crazy would be more accurate.
• Back from the Dead: Spoofed when the sanitarium doctor warns that someone should stop Spike, because if he goes after Dana, he'll wind up dead. Angel mutters, "He'll just end up coming back."
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Andrew, or so he'd like everyone to think. Needless to say he puts on a long coat as well while out with Spike.
• Bait-and-Switch: Dana being a crazed Slayer instead of a case of Demonic Possession. Spike appearing to be the one who tortured Dana as a child, but she's actually confusing him with the real psycho.
• Batman Grabs a Gun: Angel is engaged in his usual one-man rodeo show when suddenly he gets on the phone and demands backup from the Wolfram & Hart tactical squad. Turns out the "possessed" woman is actually an insane Slayer.
• Beware the Superman: Dana shows some of the the consequences of Buffy's decision to activate all Potential Slayers worldwide in "Chosen", being violent and Ax-Crazy as a result of being tortured as a child. The Season Eight comics explore this even further with Simone Doffler and Genevieve Savidge; Buffy really didn't consider the possibility that not all of the newly-activated Slayers would use their power for good.
• Bilingual Bonus: Dr. Rabinaw sees that the nurse is working a crossword and says, "Give me one." She offers, "'In a mellifluous manner.' 7 letters, ends in a 'Y'." It is hardly secret knowledge that the Latin word for honey is "mellis," and "fluens" means "spilling", which suggests that the answer is "sweetly." Perhaps it does suggest something about his character that Dr. Rabinaw gives up and says, "Give me another one."
• Call-Back:
  • "Sorry luv, I don't speak Chinese" is the same line Spike said to the Peking Slayer before he killed her (BtVS "Fool for Love"). Dana speaking Chinese is apparently due to her accessing that particular Slayer's memories.
  • Andrew lighting up a Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe only to start coughing, then engaging in overdone exposition (BtVS "Storyteller") and being partnered up with an annoyed yet tolerant Spike (BtVS "Empty Places").
  • A Slayer having memories of past Vampire Slayers is a nod to the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie.
  • Dana's appearance after acquiring street clothes heavily copies Spike's introduction in "School Hard", from stomping off with bonesaw rather than smoke in hand, to the same punk rock tune roaring away.
• Celebrity Paradox: Lorne says Vernon does readings for Tom Arnold, who appeared opposite Alyson Hannigan and Glenn Quinn in Roseanne and Eliza Dushku in True Lies.
• Chair Reveal: Giles has sent his best man to handle the crisis...
• Character Development: Spike shows the remorse over the slayers he killed that he definitely wasn't feeling in "Lies My Parents Told Me".
• Comically Missing the Point:
  Angel: (re Spike being thrown out a window) You should've waited!
  Spike: Hey, keep your knickers on. Least now I know what we're dealin' with. It's a Chinese demon. Maybe a water dragon or one of those elemental thingies. (Angel sighs, rolls his eyes, and walks away) What?!
• Continuity Nod:
  • We're filled in on what has happened with the Scoobies and Potentials after the Buffy Grand Finale.
  • Fred organises the Wolfram & Hart medical team, but assures the shaman they won't need a cadaver as they still have Spike's hands.
• Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: Angel intervenes to stop Dana cutting off Spike's head.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Spike threatens to wedgie Andrew unconscious.
• Credits Gag: Michael Krawk as "Vernon the Creepy Psychic". Sounds like a spin-off to me!
• Demonic Possession: Initially suspected to be the cause of Dana's insanity.
• Destination Defenestration: Spike gets tossed out of a fifth-floor window by Dana.
  "Just thought I'd see what it was like to bounce off the pavement. Pretty much what I expected."
• Didn't See That Coming: Andrew takes Dana to be with the other Slayers, by having twelve Slayers with him, all of whom hadn't dated Angel.
  Spike: What happens to her?
  Angel: I don't know. Andrew and the Slayers took her. Didn't trust us to help her.
  Spike: Andrew double-crossed us? [beat] It was a good move. Hope for the little ponce yet.
• Don't Sneak Up on Me Like That!: Dana breaks the arm of a store employee.
• Establishing Character Music: The scene in the convenience store where Dana is confronted while shoplifting and as she's leaving is scored with the intro to White Zombie's "Blood, Milk and Sky". The scene cuts just before the first verse, but the opening lyric fits her.
  The siren sings a lonely song of all the wants and hungers
• Facial Markings: Dara marks her face with blood streaks.
• Failed Attempt at Drama: Andrew boasts about how he Took a Level in Badass, but Screams Like a Little Girl when he trips over a body.
• Fauxshadowing: Buffy being mentioned in this episode was meant to foreshadow her appearance in the next episode. When Sarah Michelle Gellar couldn't make it, the episode was re-written to have Cordelia return.
• Fighting from the Inside: Dana has a brief moment of clarity towards the end, when Spike finally manages to get her to separate herself from all the previous Slayers and him from her kidnapper. Unfortunately, even comparatively sane Dana thinks a vampire who's killed two Slayers should die.
• First-Name Basis: Andrew referring to Giles as "Rupert", albeit once. Somehow it's doubtful he does that to Giles' face.
• Flipping the Bird: Spike wants to do it to Angel, but without the feeling in his hands, it's a bit difficult.
• Foil: Spike and Angel talk about how they acted as vampires. Spike just loved the fight and the kill, Angelus loved the cruelty of the kill and drew it out as long as possible.
• For the Evulz: Angel and Spike have a conversation concerning how they committed atrocities For The Evulz — but in different ways. Spike loved killing for the sake of it and didn't bother to give his victims another glance. Angelus couldn't look away from his victims and relished their suffering.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Gunn says they're battling evil and still have all their fingers and toes. He should have included hands.
  • Andrew says that Buffy is now in Rome. This sets up the events of "The Girl in Question".
  • Buffy and Giles rounding up the Slayers into an organization, which becomes a key part of the BTVS Season 8 comic series.
• Ghost Memory: Dana gets the memories from past Slayers along with their powers, and her mental state causes her to confuse her own traumatic memories with theirs.
• Gilligan Cut: Angel turns down the idea of having the Wolfram & Hart Tactical Team back him up, saying this demon possession case needs to be handled by someone with finesse. Cue Angel exiting the lift...at the same time as Spike steps out of the lift next to it. Let the snarking commence!
• Gory Discretion Shot: Dana cutting off people's heads.
• Got Me Doing It: Angel, after spending a meeting with Andrew, who insists on putting the AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle.
  Angel: She's a Slayer. She has every reason to hate us, and she's unstable. In her mind, there probably aren't any good vampyres. (Beat) Vampires.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Andrew throughout, and spoofed at the end.
  Andrew: Think we're just gonna let you take her back to your evil stronghold? Well, as they say in México... No. We're not...gonna... let you.
• Heel Realisation: Spike becomes unusually introspective after getting his hands cut off.
  "Lass thought I killed her family. And I'm supposed to, what, complain? Cause hers wasn't one of the hundreds of families I did kill? I'm not saying you're right, cause...I'm physically incapable of saying that. But for a demon, I never did think that much about the nature of evil."
• Idiot Ball: Spike acts dumb even by his own standards. Going off on his own and revealing himself to Dana, a crazed Slayer, and dropping hints on who he is is pretty standard stuff. However it's revealed Spike knows Slayers have visions, which would include Spike killing two of them, and Dana confuses herself with Nikki Wood. He mentions to Dana that she's thinking about the Slayer he killed, prompting her to fly into a rage and cut his hands off.
• In-Joke: Spike's comment that Angel is looking "old" is an reference to David Boreanaz's inevitable visible signs of aging, despite the fact that Angel, as a vampire, is immortal and should still look 26, the age he had when he was sired, not in his late thirties.
• It's the Only Way to Be Sure: Dana subscribes to this trope and refers to it by name: "Heart...and head. Don't be scared, stab the heart, cut off the head, keep cutting until dust."
• Karma Houdini: Team Angel aren't willing to risk alienating the Senior Partners by punishing Eve without evidence she was behind the events of "Soul Purpose".
• Madness Mantra: Dana has several of these, one of which consisted of information on vampire killing she'd never been told.
• Many Spirits Inside of One: Between her own psychosis and mystical dreams that make her remember generations of previous Slayers, Dana has ... issues.
• Miles Gloriosus: Did you hear how Andrew and Spike saved the world by closing the Hellmouth? Buffy helped...
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • One of the effects of turning every Potential in the planet into a Slayer is that a severely mentally disturbed girl now has Super-Strength.
  • Anti-Hero example with Spike throughout the episode. First he reveals to Dana that he's a vampire, then lets slip he killed one Slayer, then that he killed Nikki Wood. Spike going after a emotionally scarred girl who thought he was the one who tortured her, then telling her he's the famed vampire that killed two Slayers, that'll end well.
• The Nicknamer: Spike dubs the doctor "Show-And-Tell-Me-Nothing". Lorne refers to their Liaison to the Senior Partners as Parasite Eve.
• Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: Dana's drawings on the wall of her room.
• The Nose Knows / Scarily Competent Tracker
  Spike: All right, pet. No getting away. Got your scent locked in now. Could track you for miles.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  Spike: The tingling in my forearms tells me she's too far gone to help. She's one of us now. She's a monster.
  Angel: She's an innocent victim.
  Spike: So were we... once upon a time.
  Angel: Once upon a time.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • The doctor realizing Dana didn't get her Thorazine.
  • Angel when he realizes Dana is a Slayer.
  • Spike when he finds his hands have been cut off.
  • The Wolfram & Hart extraction team when a dozen slayers step out of the shadows.
• Oh, My Gods!: Andrew says "Yoda knows who" instead of "God knows who."
• The Ophelia: Dana's not all there.
• Perp Sweating:
  Spike: What he said. But with a bit more of a threat at the end.
• Reference Overdosed: With a former member of the Nerd Trio on the scene, geek references to other movies and TV shows sky-rocket.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Dana re: Spike. For being the vampire who killed two Slayers as well as believing he was the one who tortured her before.
• Ship Sinking: A double dosage:
  • Any hopes of Buffy and Angel reconnecting are dashed to hell when Andrew tells Angel that nobody in his camp trusts him anymore due to his association with Wolfram & Hart, least of all Buffy, who instructed Andrew to retrieve Dana.
  • Spike decides not to tell Buffy that he's alive, as it would undermine his Heroic Sacrifice.
• Shout-Out: An In-Universe one, with Andrew on board.
  Andrew: You're like... you're like Gandalf the White, resurrected from the pit of the Balrog, more beautiful than ever. (Hugs Spike, sobs) Ohh... he's alive, Frodo. He's alive.
  • Clear references to Terminator 2: Judgment Day (and/or another Slayer) in the mental hospital escape scene.
• Slashed Throat: The security guard who tries hitting Dana in the back of the head while she's holding a bonesaw.
• Slasher Smile: Dana letting Spike know that vamping out in front of a Slayer might not have been the smartest move he's ever made.
• Stealth Insult:
  • Andrew gets in a whammy when he implies that Buffy doesn't trust Angel anymore because he's gone over to the enemy.
  • Andrew to Wes, showing some people from Sunnydale still don't think much of him after the events of BtVS Season 3. "My hypothesis exactly, Pryce. I see Mr. Giles may have been wrong about you."
  • Angel strikes back. "Get Andrew on this. See if he knows...anything."
• Take That!: Andrew says that Buffy is in Europe training Slayers, giving them "...the full X-Men minus the crappy third act". Joss Whedon wrote a draft for the first movie that was thrown out save for a couple of lines.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Angel and Spike.
  Angel: Look, shouldn't you be out in the streets, protecting the city from people like you?
• There Are No Therapists: Well there are — they just don't know who they're dealing with. Whether the Slayer Organization can do any better is debatable.
• Took a Level in Badass: Andrew boasts of receiving training from Giles. When he faces down Angel and a Wolfram & Hart spec ops team, even Spike is impressed.
• Trenchcoat Warfare: Andrew proudly shows off the Walking Armory under his Badass Longcoat which he copied from Spike. Spike is not impressed.
• Twisted Echo Cut: From Gunn saying to Fred (re joining Wolfram & Hart) "End of the day, I'm thinking we made the right choice." to Angel saying to Wes and Lorne, "Maybe we made a mistake coming here."
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Angel doing exposition to Wesley over the mobile phone, intercut with Spike facing Dana.
  Angel: (to Wesley) I saw a tape of her. She was speakin' a half-dozen languages. One of 'em was Romanian.
  Spike: (to Dana) Likin' the view, are we? What say we have a nice, quiet chat... about mistreating little girls... demon to demon. (Game Face)
  Angel: She was yelling about being chosen. She's not a demon, Wes...
  Dana: (Slasher Smile)
  Angel: ...She's a vampire Slayer.
  Spike: What are you grinnin' at?
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: At the end of the episode, when Spike and Angel talk about themselves as vampires and Dana as a psychotic Slayer, Spike says she's a monster, like them, Angel retorts that she's an innocent victim, and Spike replies that "So were we. Once upon a time.".
• Volleying Insults: Angel and Spike when they find each other at the hospital.
• Wham Line:
  Angel: You're way outta your league. I'll just clear this with Buffy.
  Andrew: Where do you think my orders came from? News flash! Nobody in our camp trusts you anymore! Nobody! You work for Wolfram and Hart! Don't fool yourself...we're not on the same side!
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Dana ends up being taken in by the Slayer Organization and sent to England, so you'd expect the Buffy season 8 comics to feature her in some capacity. Unfortunately, the Buffy and Angel comic licenses were held by different companies during Season Eight.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • An off-screen one; Buffy refuses to let Angel have a Slayer (and by extension torpedoes any chance of them reconciling) because he's now working for Wolfram & Hart.
  • Angel points out that Spike hasn't exactly changed much after getting a soul, setting up some proper Heel Realization at the end.
• You and What Army?: Turns out Andrew has his own Amazon Brigade.
  "Check the view screen, Uhura. I got 12 Vampyr Slayers behind me, and not one of them has ever dated you."

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