History Recap / AngelS05E15AHoleInTheWorld

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Flying makes Angel and Spike nervous, which is ironic given vampires are often portrayed as having flying powers.

* AlwaysSaveTheGirl

* FaceDeathWithDignity: Averted; Fred tries her best to fulfill this trope, but there's no doubt she dies in pain and afraid.

** Back in Fred's room, Fred asks Wesley to kiss her. They do that for a while. When they're done, Fred asks, "Would you have loved me?" Wesley chokes up as he says that he's loved her since he's known her. And then adds "No...I think maybe even before."

* ExpositoryHairstyleChange

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Lorne threatens Eve when he thinks she had a hand in Fred's illness, much to everyone's surprise:

* GeekyTurnOn:

* MirrorMatch / AttackHello: [=DoppelGunn=].

* YouCantFightFate: All the events are predestined to occure.

* MeaningfulEcho: In the episode "Through the Looking Glass" (2x21), when Fred first talks to Angel, she says, "Handsome man... saved me from the monsters." In this episode, Fred says her last lines to Angel, "Handsome man saves me," as Angel leaves her in the hospital room.
** Her dying words also count:
-->'''Fred:''' [[CerebusCallBack Cavemen win]]. Of ''course'' cavemen win...
* MirrorMatch: [=DoppelGunn=].

** "I lived in a cave for five years in a world where they killed my kind like cattle -- I am not gonna be be cut down by some monster flu; I am better than that!"

** IfYouEverDoAnythingToHurtHer: Gunn adds that it's fine with him, adding, "Our thing's long done, and I know how you feel about her." Wesley thanks him sincerely, and Gunn adds, "You ever hurt her, and I'm gonna [[CutHisHeartOutWithASpoon kill you like a chicken]]."

* ShoutOut: Joss took inspiration from an EmmylouHarris song entitled "Deeper Well", which appears on her album Wrecking Ball.

* BloodFromTheMouth / BloodSplatteredInnocents: Wesley's face gets sprayed with blood.

** The original idea for the episode saw Angel and Spike fly out to England to see Giles, as Joss needed someone whom Angel considered credible to give the bad news. The limited budget prevented them from flying in Anthony Stewart Head for a cameo, though.

* GilliganCut: The ColdOpen flashes back to Texas sometime in the '90s to show Fred packing up and moving to L.A. -- against the wishes of her parents. Fred promises her parents that she'll live a boring life; in the present, she's [[KillItWithFire incinerating wall-hugging demon eggs in a sewer with a blowtorch.]]

* {{Bad Liar}}s

-->'''Harmony:''' No secrets in the House of Pain.

* BloodFromTheMouth:
** BloodSplatteredInnocents: Wesley's face gets sprayed with blood.

* OhGodDidSheJustHearThat: Gunn is in his office, singing Gilbert and Sullivan's "Three Little Maids from School are We." He spots Wesley outside the room and quickly tries to pretend that he was rapping.
-->[sings falsetto] "Three little maids from school, three little maaaaiiiiids—- [notices Wesley] ......aaaand ya don't stop, with all the ladies in the gangsta... butt... go... --[[CringeComedy What's up]]?

* SayingTooMuch: Back in the lab at Wolfram & Hart, Knox admits defeat as the freezing technique doesn't work and he begins to admit his feelings for Fred which Gunn understands perfectly, but Knox then says "I don't just ''care'' about Fred, I practically worship '''it'''." Gunn catches this slip of the tongue. Knox backpedals for minute, then smiles darkly. "[[TheMole Oops.]]"

* IfICantHaveHer: Gunn assumes this is why Knox infected Fred. Knox insists that he did it because she was the only one "worthy" of being his god's host.

* {{Artifact of Death: Illyria's sarcophagus
* TheBadGuyWins}}

* CallBack:

** Lorne says that Eve reads clean. Angel says, "You've been wrong before," referencing the time a traitorous W&H employee slipped through Lorne's mind reading, as well as the time Lorne failed to detect that Angel's soul had not been restored in Angelus.
** "I lived in a cave for five years in a world where they killed my kind like cattle -- I am not gonna be be cut down by some monster flu, I am better than that!"

* TheBadGuyWins

* AWorldWidePunomenon: Lorne offers to tag along, too, "in case anybody feels like singing."

In Wolfram & Hart's science lab, Knox oversees the delivery of a sarcophagus; when Fred touches one of the crystals that cover the lid, a puff of dusty air is released, making her cough. As Fred meets Wesley downstairs, she coughs up blood and collapses; after she regains consciousness in the medical wing, her friends assure her that she'll be okay, even though they don't know what's wrong with her.

The group rushes to the lobby, where Angel admits some sort of parasite is slowly killing Fred. Angel, Spike, and Lorne go to Lindsey's apartment, where they encounter Eve, who says she knows nothing about what's happening to Fred and hasn't heard from Lindsey. Eve sings a little of "L.A. Song" to Lorne, who determines she's not involved. As the guys leave, Eve says there's no info on the sarcophagus in the firm's records, and the only thing not in the firm's records are records on the most ancient demons, known as the Old Ones.

When the group returns to Wolfram & Hart, Wesley tells them the demon in question is Illyria, "a great monarch and warrior of the demon age" who was buried in the Deeper Well, the burial ground for the remaining Old Ones. Fred is being "hollowed out" so Illyria can use her to return to the world. Angel and Spike go to the Deeper Well to speak with its keeper, Drogyn; as the duo heads into the Well, Angel tells Spike to avoid asking Drogyn questions, as Drogyn cannot lie.

As Gunn tries to find a way to save Fred -- and discover who was responsible for the sarcophagus' arrival in the first place -- Knox suggests freezing Fred in the cryogenics lab until they figure out how to stop what's killing her. When his tests don't work out, Knox tells Gunn, "I don't just care about Fred -- I practically worship it." Gunn catches the slip of the tongue and accuses Knox of causing what's happening to Fred. Knox admits he is one of Illyria's acolytes -- then tells Gunn how the sarcophagus arrived at Wolfram & Hart: Gunn signed for it to receive a boost to his enhanced mental abilities, which had begun to deteriorate since he joined up with Wolfram & Hart.

As Angel and Spike explore the Deeper Well, Drogyn says Illyria's essence can be drawn out of Fred by returning the sarcophagus to the Well -- but Illyria's essence will leave Fred and kill every person between Los Angeles and the Deeper Well if this is done. Angel and Spike realize they can't allow even a single death to occur, much less thousands, to save Fred. All hope to save Fred is lost.

In her apartment, Fred asks Wesley if he would have loved her; he says he's always loved her, even before he knew her. She asks him to tell her parents she wasn't scared; as he begins to weep, Fred's eyes turn blue, then her body twitches and sends Wesley across the room, where he watches her skin and hair turn blue. Illyria has taken over Fred for good; after her rebirth, she says only one thing:

!!Tropes:

* AncientTomb: The Deeper Well.

* BerserkButton: Don't tell Wesley that you're not working Fred's case.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Lorne is surprisingly threatening towards Eve when he thinks she had a hand in Fred's illness.
-->'''Lorne:''' If I hear one note, one quarter note, that tells me you had any involvement, these two won't even have ''time'' to kill you.''

** BloodSplatteredInnocents: Wesley's face is sprayed with blood.

* CannotTellALie: Drogyn. According to [[WordOfGod Joss Whedon]] this was so that when he told Angel Fred was really going to die, the audience would believe him.
** The original idea was to have Angel and Spike fly out to England to see Giles, as Joss needed someone whom Angel considered credible to give the bad news. The limited budget prevented them from flying in Anthony Stewart Head for a cameo.
* CavemenVsAstronautsDebate: The TropeNamer. Wesley walks in on Spike and Angel nose-to-nose and yelling at each other, after they've spent 40 minutes shouting at each other about who would win in a fight between cavemen and astronauts. Supposedly, the whole thing was based on the time Joss Whedon walked into the writers room and saw "[-CAVEMEN VS ASTRONAUTS - WEAPONS TBD-]' on the wall.

** And everyone agrees with Spike that astronauts [[CrapsackWorld don't stand a chance against cavemen]].

** Lorne says that Eve reads clean. Angel says, "You've been wrong before," referencing the time a traitorous W&H employee slipped through Lorne's mind reading, as well as the time Lorne failed to detect that Angel's soul had not been restored in Angelus.

** While en route to England, Angel anxiously mentions that he's never flown in an airplane before -- though he has rode in a helicopter. This is an allusion to the helicopter he used to thwart Wolfram & Hart's SpecOps team in the season premiere ("Conviction"). Angel has also hung onto the outside of an airborne helicopter ("Sanctuary").

* DiggingToChina: As Spike stands on the bridge, peering into the depths of the Well, he surmises that there's "a bloke somewhere in New Zealand" staring right back down at him.

* DramaticIrony: Fred's parents, Roger and Trish, are nervous about her leaving for the big awful city. Fred reassures her dad, it's city of angels. Roger snorts, "And if you meet '''one''' angel there, I'll eat the dogs."

* EmpathicEnvironment: The scene where Fred collapses on the staircase was filmed from a direct angle, giving the characters the appearance of being 'entangled' in the railings.
** This, in addition to the static shot of Angel's jet hovering (i.e. not ''zooming'') in the air, communicate the futility of the heroes' attempts to save Fred.
* EldritchLocation: The Deeper Well.
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Wes asks if Gunn already knows about his relationship with Fred. Gunn says it's on every Blackberry in the building. Even the secretarial pool knows.

** This is the second time that Angel was unaware of Fred's romantic life. The first was when Fred and Gunn broke up in "Double or Nothing".

* FinalSpeech: In her last moments of death, Fred begins to see Wolfram and Hart for what it really is. This echoes Cordelia's warning to Angel in the episode "You're Welcome".
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The gang wonder if the Senior Partners sent the sarcophagus; Gunn says he'll go to the White Room and see if he can talk to the conduit. Gunn goes to the White Room and tries to summon the panther, who doesn't appear. Instead, he gets socked in the face and turns to see -- himself (actually The Conduit in the form of Gunn). Although Gunn doesn't realize it yet, The Conduit is showing him the true 'culprit' behind Illyria's escape.
** Lorne's prophecy that Eve's future is "not too bright" comes to fruition in "Not Fade Away".

* GeniusBonus: Fred's [[GirlsLoveStuffedAnimals stuffed rabbit]] is named for American physicist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_Feigenbaum Mitchell Feigenbaum]]. Hence, the "[[RedBaron Master of Chaos]]."

* GilliganCut: The ColdOpen flashes back to Texas sometime in the '90s, when Fred was packing up and moving to L.A. -- against the wishes of her parents, who aren't completely thrilled with the idea. Fred promises her parents that she'll be careful and will live a boring life. In the present, she's doing anything but - she's [[KillItWithFire incinerating wall-hugging demon eggs in a sewer with a blowtorch.]]

* HopeSpot: Drogyn explains that the only a true champion can perform the necessary ritual to vanquish Illyria. Angel tells Drogyn that he's looking at two of them. Not so fast; Drogyn informs them that if they bring the sarcophagus back to the well it will draw Illyria from Fred but into every single person it passes between L.A and the well; hundreds of thousands of people will die in agony in order to save her. Angel and Spike are devastated, and Drogyn leaves them to think it over.

* ILetGwenStacyDie: Fred dies in this episode. This makes her the third core member of Angel Investigations to die. The first was Doyle in "Hero" who sacrificed himself to save Angel; the second was Cordelia in "You're Welcome".
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: "Mummies can be a lot more trouble than you'd think. And you're seeing Wesley now." Fred stammers, and Knox says he didn't want to make her uncomfortable, he just wanted to clear the air. He says, "I love working with you, and that's plenty." Fred coos at [[ConsummateLiar how sweet Knox is]].

* IronicNurseryTune: As they pass each other on the stairs, Fred reminds Lorne to meet her for lunch. Lorne calls from over his shoulder that he'll "just look for where the sun shines" and begins to sing, "You Are My Sunshine", Fred picks up the song, and Lorne immediately whips around and reads her thoughts, realizing that something is wrong. A moment later, Fred suddenly starts coughing up blood and convulsing.

* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique / OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Lorne (having been a pacifist up to this point) delivers not only his first punch, but first ''death threat'' to Eve. Having seen his homeland, it's safe to say Lorne could make good on his threat and kill her in an instant, but opts not to.
* LossOfIdentity: In Fred's bedroom, Fred suddenly panics and says they needs to find Feigenbaum. When Wesley asks who that, Fred breaks down and realizes that she can no longer remember.
* MakeAnExampleOfThem / TranquilFury: Wesley makes it clear to his staff that Fred is their priority when a toady enters Wesley's office requesting a file. Wesley tells him it can wait, but when the lawyer complains, Wes calmly pulls out a gun from the drawer and shoots him in the kneecap.
-->'''Wesley:''' [on speaker-phone] Jennifer, Please send ''anyone else'' not working Miss Burkle's case to me.
* MeaningfulEcho: In the episode "Through the Looking Glass" (2x21), Fred's first lines to Angel are: "Handsome man... saved me from the monsters." Then again in this episode, Fred says her last lines to Angel: "Handsome man saves me," as Angel leaves her in the hospital room.
** Also, her dying words.
-->'''Fred:''' [[CerebusCallBack Cavemen win]]. Of ''course'' cavemen win...''

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Knox says that Los Angeles is the site of Illyria's former kingdom, adding that her sarcophagus was supposed to teleport back to the city, but the continents drifted. He and the other acolytes were trying to get it to Wolfram & Hart, but then it got stuck in Customs. Knox whips out a piece of paper and shows it to Gunn, saying, "But ''you'' took care of that."
* NoExceptYes: Angel accusingly says that Spike just likes stabbing him.

----

* NoodleIncident: Fred and Knox are in the lab, talking about the sarcophagus. Knox says that there wasn't an invoice, so he thought she "went crazy on EBay." Fred retorts, "After that commemorative plate incident, I'm living clean."

In Wolfram & Hart's science lab, Knox oversees the delivery of a sarcophagus. When Fred touches one of the crystals that cover the lid, a puff of dusty air is released, making her cough. Later, when she meets Wesley downstairs, Fred suddenly coughs up blood and collapses. When Fred regains consciousness in the medical wing, her friends assure her that she'll be okay, even though they don't know what's wrong with her.

The group rushes to the lobby, where Angel admits some sort of parasite is slowly killing Fred. Angel, Spike, and Lorne go to Lindsey's apartment, where they encounter Eve. She claims not to know anything about what's happening to Fred and says that she hasn't heard from Lindsey. Eve sings a little of "L.A. Song" and Lorne determines that she's not involved. As the guys leave, Eve says that there's no info on the sarcophagus in the firm's records, and the only thing not in the firm's records is the most ancient demons, the Old Ones.

In Wesley's office, he tells the group that the demon in question is called Illyria, "a great monarch and warrior of the demon age... left adrift in the Deeper Well," which is the burial ground for all the remaining old ones. Fred's skin is "hardening like a shell"; she is being hollowed out so that Illyria can use her to return to the world. The Deeper Well is in the Cotswolds in England, and Angel and Spike prepares to go speak with its keeper, Drogyn (whom Angel knows). As they head into the Deeper Well, Angel explains to Spike that Drogyn hates being asked questions because he cannot lie.

Knox suggests to Gunn that they freeze Fred in the cryogenics lab until they figure out how to stop what's killing her, but his tests don't work. Upset at his failure, he tells Gunn, "I don't just care about Fred, I practically worship it." Gunn catches his slip of the tongue and accuses Knox of causing what's happening to Fred. Knox admits he is one of Illyria's acolytes. Knox tells Gunn he helped the sarcophagus get there - in fact, he signed for it.

Drogyn explains that Illyria essence can be drawn back into the Well. However, as they bring the sarcophagus back to the Well, Illyria will leave Fred and enter and kill every person between L.A. and the Deeper Well. Angel realizes that he can't allow that many people to die, even to save Fred. In her apartment, Fred asks Wesley if he would have loved her; he tells her that he's always loved her, even before he knew her. She asks him to tell her parents that she wasn't scared. As he begins to weep, her eyes turn blue. Fred's body twitches and sends Wesley across the room, where he watches her skin and hair turn blue. She stands up - now taken over by Illyria:

[coldly] "This will do."

* SoundtrackDissonance/{{YouAreMySunshine}}: Lorne sings this moments before Fred collapses. That's called 'asking for it.'

* YouAreMySunshine: Lorne sings this moments before Fred collapses. That's called 'asking for it.'

* DialogueReversal

* SoWhatYouAreSaying