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“Destiny”
Angel episode
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 08
Written by	David Fury Steven S. DeKnight
Directed by	Skip Schoolnik
Guest stars	Sarah Thompson    (Eve) Mercedes McNab    (Harmony) Juliet Landau    (Drusilla) Christian Kane    (Lindsey)
Production no.	5ADH08
Original airdate	November 19, 2003
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "Lineage" "Harm's Way"
List of Angel episodes

"Destiny" is episode 08 of season 5 in the television show Angel, originally broadcast on the WB network. In this episode, a mysterious package arrives at Wolfram & Hart that renders Spike corporeal again. Eve claims the universe is in chaos because the Shanshu Prophecy states only one vampire with a soul can be the champion of good. Angel and Spike duel over a mystical grail to decide which one will be the champion, as flashbacks show the complex relationship between the soulless vampire Angelus and William the Bloody. See List of Angel episodes for a complete list.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Production details 2.1 Acting 2.1.1 Main cast 2.1.2 Guest stars 2.1.3 Co-stars 2.2 Music 2.3 Continuity 2.4 Cultural references 3 Reception and reviews 4 Timing 5 References 6 External links 7 See also

The episode begins with a flashback to London in 1880, where recently-sired William (not yet Spike) meets Angelus for the first time. Angelus accepts William into the group, saying he looks forward to killing with another man. In the present, Spike demands his own office (or Wesley’s office during his leave of absence, while he adjusts to the shock of killing what be believed to be his father). Spike lacks sympathy for Wesley, since he himself killed his mother while she was hitting on him. “Well…that explains a lot,” Harmony remarks. She opens a package for Spike from an unknown source, producing a flash of light. When Harmony goes to answer the phone, she’s greeted by electronic screeching. As phones start ringing off the hook, Spike heads for Angel’s office, but when he tries to walk through the door, he quickly finds he is corporeal again, and celebrates with Harmony. Fred arrives, complaining that all of the atmospheric gauges in the science department have gone haywire and blown out the instruments. She is surprised to hear that Harmony and Spike are, as Gunn says, “having a nooner” - meaning Spike has been re-corporealized. Gunn and Angel suddenly realize that the two events are probably connected.

Eve arrives and announces that the whole universe is in turmoil - Spike’s existence is messing with the expected course of the Shanshu prophecy, because after dying on the Hellmouth to save the world in the season finale of Buffy, Spike now qualifies as a champion. Meanwhile, Harmony’s eyes start bleeding and she bites Spike, screaming that he’s using her and really wants his "Slayer whore". He returns to the group, and Eve says because there are two possible candidates for the Shanshu, “the wheel of destiny starts to spin off its axis.”

Gunn returns with news that the elevator to the Senior Partners opened into a howling abyss. Eve thinks the solution is in the Shanshu prophecy, but Angel says he just read it and it wasn’t helpful. Spike is surprised he has been reading the prophecy which he claims not to believe in. They decide someone from Wesley’s department needs to look over the prophecy, and meet with Sirk, who tells them that they read a translation and therefore didn’t get everything out of it. He retranslates: “The balance will falter until the vampire with a soul drinks from the Cup of Perpetual Torment”. Sirk says that whoever drinks from the cup is the one who was destined to, and once the champion is decided the universe will go back to normal. Sirk says the cup is in a destroyed opera house in Death Valley, Nevada.

Back in 1880, Angelus and William celebrate a wedding massacre, until William leaves to be with Drusilla, whom William calls his “destiny.” Shortly after, William discovers Angelus having sex with Drusilla; the two laugh at William and Angelus taunts him with his earlier words. At the opera house, Spike and Angel battle it out for the cup. Spike points out that Angel’s soul was forced upon him as a curse, but Spike fought for his because it was the right thing to do. Angel says he only did it so he could sleep with Buffy. Spike says that Angel has already chosen the side of evil by working at Wolfram & Hart. In the science lab, Gunn begins bleeding from the eyes, warning Fred not to trust Eve. He starts choking Eve, demanding to know who she really is. Fred tends to Eve, who starts crying and says that she knows what all the group think of her, but she's "not the bad guy." Back in 1880, William fights Angelus for sleeping with Drusilla. Angelus tells him that no one belongs to anyone, and William should take Drusilla if he wants her; William chooses to keep fighting.

Spike says Angelus tried to make Spike into another creature as terrible as him in the world, so that he could feel better about himself. Angel says Buffy never really loved him, and Spike, furious, reminds him of all the times he had had sex with her. Spike stakes Angel’s shoulder, saying he would have dusted Angel but he doesn’t want to hear Buffy complain. Spike grabs the cup and Angel tells him that it’s not a prize - it’s a burden: "Do you even really want it? Or is it that you just want to take something away from me?” “Bit of both,” Spike replies, drinking from the cup. Spike's expression suddenly changes as he tells Angel that the cup is filled with Mountain Dew. Angel returns to Wolfram & Hart with the news that the cup was a set-up; Spike arrives from Sirk’s office and says that he’s disappeared. Gunn and Harmony regain consciousness, both back to normal. Harmony, looking at the straps holding her down, wants to know if she is in trouble.

Back in Angel’s office, Eve tells everyone the Senior Partners temporarily fixed things. She says that they don’t know anything about Sirk’s trick and are as angry as Angel is. Angel confesses to Gunn that Spike beat him in a fight for the first time, because he wanted his mortality more. “What if it means that…I’m not the one?” Angel wonders. Elsewhere in L.A., Eve enters an apartment and undresses, gloating to someone off-camera that Angel and Spike fell for the cup story and Sirk disappeared without the Senior Partners knowing anything. In addition, the gang are wondering if they can trust the Senior Partners. “Oh, and by the way,” she says, “Spike didn’t kill Angel, but they did beat each other to bloody pulps.” She crawls into bed and we see that she’s with a tattooed Lindsey. “Well...it’s a start,” he replies.

Although credited, Alexis Denisof doesn't appear in this episode. This was due to his wedding to Alyson Hannigan at the time of filming.

In the season retrospective, Joss Whedon says the battle between Angel and Spike in this episode is the highlight of the final season.^[1] That battle, Scott McLaren argues, "succeeds in portraying an almost perfect balance between the concepts of the soul as existential metaphor and ontological reality." Since the Shanshu prophesy destines the ensouled vampire to a pivotal and dangerous role in the ultimate battle between good and evil, Spike and Angel's souls function both as "heavy burdens and precious baubles."^[2]

Nancy Holder says this episode marks the transition from Spike's characterization as it was in the seventh season of Buffy to a new, "never-before seen" version, defined by his relationship with Angel instead of Buffy. When Angel tells Spike that "Buffy never really loved you, because you weren't me", and Spike responds with "Guess that means she was thinking about you all those time I was puttin' it to her", Holder says that Spike is "betraying all the soft emotion he had for her in his eagerness to deal Angel a blow." Rather than reacting out of love for Buffy, the new Spike cares only about putting down Angel.^[3]

Adam Ward, the first assistant/focus puller, says the scenes at the abandoned Opera House were unexpectedly difficult to film. "It's one thing to see it on camera and another being on location in this theater that hasn't been used other than for film shots for decades. You get in there and the matter that floats around looks great on camera but you just don't want to breathe it in." ^[4]

• David Boreanaz as Angel
• James Marsters as Spike
• J. August Richards as Charles Gunn
• Amy Acker as Winifred Burkle
• Andy Hallett as Lorne
• Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndam-Pryce

• Sarah Thompson as Eve
• Mercedes McNab as Harmony Kendall
• Juliet Landau as Drusilla
• Christian Kane as Lindsey McDonald (uncredited)

• Michael Halsey as Sirk
• Justin Connor as Jerry
• Mark Kelly as Reese

• Dead Kennedys - "Too Drunk To Fuck"

Angel tells Eve that a mysterious package was responsible for re-corporealizing Spike, much like the one that arrived in "Conviction" that caused Spike to materialize.

• The Music Man: Eve's comment, "we've got trouble with a capital T, that rhymes with P, that stands for prophecy" is a nod to one of the songs from this musical.

This episode, which ran during sweeps month, was praised by TV Guide for the writers' decision to finally make Spike corporeal again. Reviewer Matt Roush says this episode stands with "the best of Buffy."^[5] Author Peter David agrees that the producers had perfect timing: "Just when we’re getting sick of Spike as a ghost, suddenly, just like that, poof, he’s not anymore."^[6]

The Parents Television Council filed a complaint against a WB station for the flashback sex scene in which Angel's hips can be seen "moving back and forth." The PTC was also disturbed by the "heavy breathing" in an earlier scene between Darla and Drusilla.^[7] However, the FCC later ruled that the scene was not indecent, as it was "brief, contained no nudity and was not sufficiently graphic or explicit to render the program patently offensive."^[8]

• Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:

Location, time (if known)	Buffyverse: Spring 2003 – 2004 (non-canon = italic)
Sunnydale, Cleveland, Italy, Summer 2003-2004	Buffy book: Queen of the Slayers (unofficial continuity)
2003-2004	Buffy book: Dark Congress
L.A., 2003	A5.01 Conviction
L.A., 2003	A5.02 Just Rewards
L.A., 2003	A5.03 Unleashed
L.A., 2003	A5.04 Hell Bound
L.A., 2003	A5.05 Life of the Party
L.A., 2003	A5.06 The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco
L.A., 2003	A5.07 Lineage
Europe, 2003	Tales of the Vampires: Antique
L.A., 2003	Angel comic: Spike vs. Dracula #5
L.A., 2003	Angel comic: Wesley: Spotlight
L.A., 2003	A5.08 Destiny
L.A., 2003	A5.09 Harm's Way
L.A., 2003	Angel comic: Spike: Old Wounds
L.A., 2003/4	A5.10 Soul Purpose
L.A., 2003/4	A5.11 Damage
L.A., 2003/4	Angel comic: Spike: Lost and Found
L.A., 2003/4	A5.12 You're Welcome
L.A., 2003/4	A5.13 Why We Fight
L.A., 2004	A5.14 Smile Time
L.A., 2004	A5.15 A Hole in the World
L.A., 2004	A5.16 Shells
L.A., 2004	Angel comic: Illyria: Spotlight
L.A., 2004	A5.17 Underneath
L.A., 2004	A5.18 Origin
L.A., 2004	Angel comic: Gunn: Spotlight
2004	Angel comic: Connor: Spotlight
L.A., 2004	A5.19 Time Bomb
Four months before Shadow Puppets	Angel comic: Spike: Asylum
L.A., 2004	Angel comic: Spike: Shadow Puppets
L.A., 2004	A5.20 The Girl in Question
L.A., 2004	A5.21 Power Play
L.A., 2004	A5.22 Not Fade Away
L.A./Hell, 2004	Angel comics: After The Fall
Romania, 2004	Angel comics: The Curse
L.A., 2004	Angel comics: Old Friends
L.A., 2004	Angel comics: Auld Lang Syne

• "Destiny" at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e The Buffyverse
Canon • Index
Buffy	Characters (main) • Characters (minor) • Episodes • Quotes Comics • DVDs • Film • Novels • Pilot (unaired) • Season 8
Angel	Characters (main) • Characters (minor) • Episodes • Quotes Comics • DVDs • Novels • Corrupt (unaired) • After the Fall
Expanded Universe	Comics • Fray • Novels • Slayer timeline • Tales of Slayer (prose) • Tales of Slayers • Tales of Vampires • Video Games Anywhere But Here• Auld Lang Syne • Asylum • Bad Bargain • Blackout • The Chain • Dark Congress • Deathless • Go Ask Malice • Long Way Home • Masks • No Future For You • Portal Through Time • Shadow Puppets
Auxiliary	Academia • Cast & crew • Fan films • Rare promos • Unofficial parodies • Undeveloped productions Buffy Animated • Collectible Card Game • Guidebooks • Magazines • RPGs
Powers	Angel Investigations • Circle of the Black Thorn • Order of Aurelius • The First Evil • The Initiative • Knights of Byzantium • Monsters Old Ones • The Powers That Be • Ra-Tet • Scooby Gang • Senior Partners • Watchers' Council • Wolfram & Hart
People	Adam • Amy • Andrew • Angel • Anya • Buffy • Caleb • Connor • Cordelia • Darla • Dawn • Doyle • Drusilla • Eve • Faith • Fred • Giles • Glory • Groo • Gunn • Hamilton • Harmony • Holtz • Illyria • Jasmine • Jenny • Jonathan • Joyce • Kate • Kendra • Kennedy • Lilah • Lindsey • Lorne • Master • Mayor • Oz • Prof. Walsh • Riley • Robin • Snyder • Spike • Tara • Warren • Wesley • Willow • Xander
Places	L.A. • Sunnydale Bronze • Buffy's residence • Caritas • Hellmouth • Hyperion • Library • The Magic Box • Pylea • Sunnydale High
Music	• Use of Music in Buffy & Angel Buffy album • Dingoes Ate My Baby • Film • Radio Sunnydale • Live Fast, Die Never • Once More, with Feeling
Key terminology	Demon • Slayer • Vampire • Watcher • Werewolf • Witch Children of the Senior Partners • Shanshu • Sunnydale Syndrome
Canon	Buffy • Angel Tales of the Slayers • Tales of the Vampires • The Origin • Season Eight • After the Fall • Fray