Angel/Quickening

Quickening
Season 3, Episode 8
Airdate	November 12, 2001
Production Number	3ADH08
Written by	Jeffrey Bell
Directed by	Skip Schoolnik
← 3x07 Offspring	3x09 → Lullaby
Angel — Season Three

Quickening is the eighth episode of the third season of Angel, and the fifty-second episode overall. Darla is coming closer and closer to childbirth and the gang are at a loss as to what to do about it. Meanwhile, Wolfram & Hart find out about Darla and Holtz begins to hunt down Angel.

David Boreanaz (Angel), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase), Alexis Denisof (Wesley Wyndam-Pryce), J. August Richards (Charles Gunn), Amy Acker (Winifred "Fred" Burkle)

Special Guest Star: Julie Benz (Darla)

Guest Starring: John Rubinstein (Linwood), Stephanie Romanov (Lilah Morgan) Daniel Dae Kim (Gavin Park), Jack Conley (Sahjhan), José Yenque (Vampire Leader)

and Keith Szarabajka (Daniel Holtz)

Co-Starring: Matt Casper (Cyril), Bronwen Bonner-Davies (Caroline), Michael Robert Brandon (Psychic), William Ostrander (Commander), Kasha Kropinski (Sarah), John Durbin (Dr. Fetvanovich), Angelo Surmelis (Tech Guy)

Plot Overview

As Darla’s comes closer to giving birth, Wolfram & Hart get wind of the situation and set up a means of capturing mother and child. Meanwhile, vampire hunter Daniel Holtz has been brought two centuries from the past into the present by demon Sahjhan who preps him to hunt down and kill Angel and Darla.

Notes

Monster of the Week

• There is no monster of the week in this episode.

Body Count

#	Whom	By Whom	How	Where
1	Sarah Holtz	Darla	Blood Drained	Holtz's Home
2	Holtz's Wife	Angelus	Blood Drained	Holtz's Home
3	Grappler	Grappler	Decapitated	Hideout
4	Ninja	Vampires	Eaten	Hospital
5	Vampire	Wesley	Staked	Hospital
6	Vampire Leader	Angel	Staked	Hospital
7/8/9/10/11	Soldiers	Holtz	Dismembered	The Hyperion
12	Dr. Fetvanovich	Holtz	Stabbed	The Hyperion

Music

• Ministry - "Corrosion"

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Wolfram & Hart: Gavin had Angel's hotel bugged and discovered (with Lilah's help) Darla's pregnancy. This is distressing to them because they should have known about it earlier. They send in a strike team to capture Darla and dissect both her and the child, but the commandos are killed by Holtz. Some small details like the necessity to sign documents in blood and the existence of international branches in Berlin, Singapore, and Muncie are also shown.

• Angel's Kid: The child carried by Darla is a human boy and is sought-after by a large amount of people, including a vampire cult and what appeared to be a telekinetic ninja.

Characters

• Holtz: Daniel Holtz took up residence in York, England. His family was killed by Angel and Darla, which led him to make a deal with the demon Sahjhan. He was transported 200 years into the future, where he was told that he would have his final chance to kill Angel.

• Darla: Despite a fakeout at the hospital, Darla does go into labor when her water breaks at the end of the episode.

Referbacks

• 3x04 - Carpe Noctem: Angel's body was inhabited by an elderly man who was possessing young men from his retirement home room adjacent to a gym. The two went at it when Lilah stopped by to give Angel records of the Hyperion passing codes to spite Gavin.

Gavin: From what I've hear, bumping uglies with an old man that body-jumped into a vampire is the closest thing you've had to a meaningful relationship in years.

• 3x02 - That Vision Thing: When Gunn rushed back to the hotel after discovering that it was his gang who was randomly murdering demons, he found several exterminators in the lobby who claimed they were fumigating the hotel.

Cyril: Remember those exterminators he sent to Angel's hotel? They don't kill bugs. They plant them.

Trivia

Allusions and References

• Alien: When the gang discuss how to deal with a monster child, Gunn probably has the famous chestburster scene from the movie Alien (1979) in mind, where the alien parasite explodes through its victim's rib cage, quickly looks around, and scurries away under the eyes of the shocked bystanders, who later also improvise flamethrowers when attempting to kill the creature.

Gunn: If it skitters we should have a net or something, maybe a flamethrower.

• The Beach Boys: During the 1960s, the Beach Boys were an extremely popular rock & roll band who acted as an American counterbalance to The Beatles. One of the band's albums, Pet Sounds, is often hailed as one of the greatest achievements in pop music and shades of the band can be found in many bands that followed them.

Sahjhan: Have you followed this part of the history? American Revolution, manifest destiny, westward expansion, the Beach Boys?

• Switzerland: Switzerland has a long history of political and military neutrality. This is signified by non-alignment to military treaties and, in many cases, constitutional amendments which declare the nation as politically neutral. Switzerland is neutral in order to ensure safety against external aggression.

Darla: I'm gonna have to be Switzerland and sit this one out.

Quotes

• Holtz: What of England? Has it survived the years and destruction?

Sahjhan: Yes. It went through a rough patch about sixty years ago, but it's mostly unchanged. Warm beer, boiled meat, bad teeth. That's why I moved to L.A.

• Darla: (going into labour) Something's wrong. The pain!

Angel: You like pain.

Darla: This is different!

• (an answering machine greeting)

Christine: Hi, you've reached the Tittles. We can't come to the phone right now. If you want to leave a message for Christine, press one.

Bentley: For Bently, press 2.

Tarfall: Or to speak to or worship Master Tarfall, Underlord of Pain, press 3.

• Sahjhan: I'm not a man. What I mean is...

Holtz: You're not human.

Sahjhan: But clearly masculine. You get that, right?

• Sahjhan: I know that it'll be another two hundred years before you get another chance to confront either Angelus or Darla.

Holtz: And is this the part of the tale where the demon offers the broken man a chance to change all that?

Sahjhan: I'll take you to them, two centuries into the future.

Holtz: Through black magic and sorcery.

Sahjhan: No. On a mule cart. Of course through black magic and sorcery. I'm a demon.

• Linwood: Thank you for coming. And correct me if I'm wrong, but the role of a psychic is to be psychic. To predict the future so that Wolfram and Hart doesn't find itself in this kind of predicament.

Psychic: I can't apologise enough, sir.

Linwood: You're right. You can't. But I am not without compassion. I'm gonna give you a chance to save your job and your skin.

Psychic: No, you're not. You're gonna have me killed.

Linwood: Now, why couldn't you have had that kind of foresight when we needed it?

• Darla: (seeing her baby on the ultrasound) My little parasite.

• Wesley: A boy. You're carrying a boy.

Darla: Great.

Angel: I’m gonna have a son. I'm gonna have a son.

Fred: Guys? As fascinating as an ultrasound image of an unborn child may appear, you should --

Angel: Me, a father. To a son. Do you know what that means?

Fred: We're surrounded by vampires?

Angel: No, it's a human bo— Oh, we are surrounded by vampires.

• Angel: Darla, you might wanna join the fight.

Darla: Sorry, darling. I'm gonna have to be Switzerland and sit this one out. (to vampires) Now, you did say you were just gonna kill the humans, right?

Vampire Leader: Yes, just the humans. Then we will nourish you, slice you open, wear your entrails as a belt, and consume your eyeballs before we worship the miracle child.

(Darla jumps off the table and goes to stand beside Angel)

Darla: Okay. I'm in.

• Fred: You freaks make one move and I'll slice the miracle kid into triplets.

Cordelia: It's always the quiet ones.