aired on: January 18, 2000

written by: Tim Minear

directed by: Winrich Kolbe

Kate is called to the scene of a crime, where she finds a dead girl with a cross cut into her left cheek - the third body to turn up like that in the last few days. When Angel pays Kate a visit at the station, she tells him about the case. Looking at the crime scene photos, Angel sees the crosses in the victim's cheeks, and looks like he's seen, well, a vampire. Later, as Kate briefs her fellow detectives, she gives a a profile of the killer - and it sounds very much like she's describing Angel.

Wesley, meanwhile, is a shaken by the newspaper story about the murdered girl. He explains to Cordelia that as a Watcher in Sunnydale, he did extensive research on Angel, and the story in the paper looks chillingly familiar. In the late 1700s, when Angel was known as Angelus, it was his custom to "sign" his victims, by cutting a Christian cross into their left cheek. Wesley fears Angel's committed these killings - which is why he's come armed with a stake.

Then Angel himself appears. He has no memory of doing any of these things, but he's been having killing dreams, and he's been enjoying them. He's also afraid that he's acting them out. To be sure, Wesley and Cordelia chain him to his bed for the night. While he sleeps, Angel has the same dream, this time set two centuries ago. He wakes, but can't break free from the chains. Just then, Cordelia comes in with the morning paper. There's been another killing, while Angel was chained in bed. Revisiting the dream, Angel realizes that he wasn't the killer in it - it was his protege, Penn. In the present day, Penn is assembling his many press clippings on the wall of his apartment.

At the police station, Angel and Kate talk in a room lined with the murder photos. Seeing them, Angel makes a realization - Penn is reliving a previous mass murder. He gives Kate a sketch of Penn, and describes the next victim, and the location of the next crime.

But Penn is crafty. Though police patrol the area, they can't stop his next kill - they arrive as he's feeding on the victim. Sirens wailing, Penn escapes into an abandoned building. When Angel and Wesley arrive at the scene, Kate has already entered the building in pursuit.

Inside, she finds Penn, and shoots him. But the bullets don't work; when Kate comes to cuff him, he tosses her away. Then Angel drops in for a reunion. He and Penn haven't seen each other in a lifetime, but Angel's not there for pleasantries - he's there to kill his former student. A wicked battle begins. Penn escapes, but Kate was watching, and she saw Angel in vampire form.

Angel tells Kate he knows details have been left out of the papers - like that the victims have been drained of their blood. He also knows she won't stop the killer, not this way. It'll take direct sunlight, decapitation, or a stake through the heart. But Kate doesn't believe him - she says that's all just children's stories. Penn, meanwhile, has turned up at the offices, where Cordelia makes him a sales pitch before realizing who he is. She saves herself by pulling up the blinds, and then Angel arrives. The two trade verbal barbs across a sunbeam, when Wesley arrives - on Penn's side. Now Penn has a hostage. But he lets him go - and tells Angel to expect the worst possible thing he can imagine. Angel pays a visit to Kate at home. She's been doing her research; she now believes Penn is a vampire - and she realizes who Angel is, too. She says she knows how to kill Penn - a stake through the heart - and suggests that when she finds him, Angel not be around, or she'll kill him, too.

Angel, Wesley and Cordelia have also been researching, and they've figured out where Penn lives. When Wesley and Angel break in, they see pictures of a school bus laid out on the table, and realize who Penn's next victims will be.

But Penn has something else in mind. As Kate briefs detectives at the station, he barges in. Tossing cops to the side, he grabs Kate as she reaches for her stake. Angel and Wesley arrive at the station, and realize that Penn's there. He's dragged Kate down to the tunnels below. When Angel follows him there, the real fireworks begin.

The fight rages, until Penn has Angel in a headlock. But Kate has found a stake, and she knows just what to do with it. She drives it right through Angel's stomach - and into Penn's heart. Angel is in pain, but Penn is mere dust.