Angel

Hellbound Original air date : October 22, 2003 Written and Directed by Steven S. DeKnight

What’s the case : A faked spook out by Fred leaves Spike feeling less than scary. He’s hardly an undead force to be reckoned with and what’s more he can’t "willy" the locals and he’s using all the mentalies he has to keep himself from slipping into Hell. And speaking of slipping, Fred slips and tells Spike about the prophesy. You know the one where Angel becomes human eventually. Spike figures. That guy gets all the breaks.

Fred is still baffled about Spike. She’s never seen a specimen like him and she doesn’t say that to every specter she meets. Fred continues to research and if she can just defy all laws of nature she can make Spike almost corporial (fleshy) again. That’s if Spike can stay put for awhile. He continues to pop in and out of the now and ends up in terribly nasty places when he does the popping. What’s up with Angel : He’s not at all pleased with the amount of time and money Fred and her department have put into the re-corporialation of Spike (AKA William the Bloody). The boss is afraid that Fred is falling for Spike’s charms and he can’t be saved anyway. Fred tells him she believes she’s doing the right thing. She believes that once saved, Spike will stay on as part of the team. He does have a soul now. Angel thinks once he’s de-specterized Spike will vacate immediately in order to find Buffy. Now we see the real truth.

What’s up with Spike : Feels like he tried to do the right thing and had hoped to avoid Hell but yet he walks around with one foot in the fryer. Angel tells him that most likely neither of them will avoid the old furnace down below, prophesy or no. The two have a moment and right after Angel admits he actually liked some of Spike’s poems, the undead start to accost the poor guy. And no one can see them but Spike. Shortly thereafter, no one can see Spike-though he feels he’s still there with the rest. A mystic sweep turns up nothing and Spike’s torture gets worse. He takes an elevator down to the basement and realizes he’s simply being visited by the phantom welcoming party. They call him William and they know how to hurt him. But Spike’s tired of talking to the flunkies. He demands to speak to the big one-The Reaper himself. And The Reaper is what he gets.

What’s up with Wesley : He’s enjoying his new position as the Head of Research and Intelligence and all the powers and perks that come with it. He’s even able to get Fred almost impossible spell ingredients in just 20 minutes time. But he’s a bit worried about Fred and her lack of eating and sleeping. He suggests dinner and she gets all frazzled but he explains that he was just suggesting she get dinner from time to time. Oh, that’s a little uncomfortable.

What’s up with Gunn : Almost unable to keep the lawerly knowledge from flowing from the new brain to the old mouth. He seems to like his new smarts and puts them to good use. He even seems to have the know about many things Wolfram & Hart related that Angel doesn’t know.

What’s up with Fred : She’s already over budget for the quarter by over $800,000 ! And the quarter isn’t even over yet. The bulk of the fundage is the direct result of trying to help Spike. She realizes that things are getting much worse for their favorite spook and that he’s slipping into Hell. The boys are not surprised. A mystic appears courtesy of Wolfram & Hart and attempts to contact the lost soul Spike. Instead she contacts the "dark soul" and she’s killed before she can tell who or what said "dark soul" is. It’s clear that whatever killed the mystic did so in order to keep her from giving them important information.

What’s up with Eve : She’s hanging around, barking orders, talking quotas and budgets—real corporate drag. Angel gets all corporatie with her even.

How does it all wrap up : Spike tries hard and somehow is able to leave a message scratched in mist from the shower that alerts Fred of The Reaper. They quickly direct their search to Reaper and discover the history of the evil as well as some bizarre history about the land on which the Wolfram & Hart building was built. Seems the land was occupied by a Spanish Mission years ago and as it was hallowed ground and there’s no way Wolfram & Hart could operate on hallowed ground, so they sacrificed this evil doctor (now known as The Reaper) in order to uncleanse their new digs. What-the-heck, he was a nasty type who performed unnecessary surgeries on patients without the assistance of any type of tranquilizer or pain medication. This Reaper has been hanging out in a transcendental plane of Wolfram & Hart all these years, serving up other dead souls in order to keep himself from Hell and it looks like Spike is his next victim.

Meanwhile, back at the gates of Hell, all rules are The Reaper’s. He has managed to bend reality. This reality includes pain and torture for Spike, and a little nudity. But eventually Spike realizes that reality bends to desire (hence is ability to write the message to Fred in steam) and well, he wants it bad enough so he takes back reality, his own way. The Reaper has cheated Hell long enough. Spike strikes back.

Back upstairs, Gunn brings Angel to the infamous white room and asks for a little help from the big cat who apparently only Gunn is able to communicate with. They score what they need and things are a-go for the re-fleshing of Spike. They get the mystic circle ready and all Spike has to do is jump in. But Reaper grabs Fred and Spike must choose between saving her life or getting his skin back. It’s a one-shot deal but Spike ends up saving Fred (he has a soul now after all) and he throws The Reaper into the mystic circle instead where he’s made flesh again. Spike is happy with his decision and now that he’s picked up a few new tricks, like the ability to touch and pick up physical items, being a ghostie isn’t as bad as he originally thought.

The Reaper is kept alive deep in the bowels of Wolfram & Hart and locked away in a very small cell to live forever, unable to touch, feel or move at all.

Welcome to Hell…finally