Galway, 1753 -- On his last day as a mortal human, the man who will become Angelus encounters a beautiful, blonde woman on the streets at night. Her name is Darla, and she seduces him closer to her. She sinks her fangs into his neck, then uses her nails to make an incision on her chest, just above her breasts. Immediately, Darla pulls the man's mouth onto her bleeding cut, turning the man into a demon of the night.Sunnydale, Present -- Angel watches Buffy from afar as she battles a pair of vampires. She orders one of them to take a message to Angel, saying that she's taking the offensive. The vampire doesn't comply, so Buffy finishes him off. The next day, Giles pays a visit to the museum, where a newly-discovered stone artifact has been discovered. It is a few feet taller than Giles, and it contains some form of text on the side. Giles asks the man in charge, Doug Perren, if they attempted to open it yet, but Doug didn't notice the crack running down the side of the stone until Giles pointed it out. Giles then asks Doug to refrain from opening it until he can decipher the text. At school, Buffy declares to her friends for the umpteenth time that she's ready to face Angel, despite the fact that final exams are approaching. Willow offers to tutor Buffy in chemistry during one of their free periods.London, 1860 -- Before she became a demon, Drusilla was a young Catholic woman who only wanted to follow the right path in life. She enters a church and steps into the confessional booth, failing to notice one of the priest's arms reaching out in desperation before being pulled back in. Drusilla does not realize that Angelus has just murdered the priest and is now acting in his place behind the confessional screen. After Drusilla tells him of her problem with her visions of the future, Angelus torments her by claiming that she is a child of the devil. Drusilla does not want this to be true, and pleads for help. Finally, Angelus lets her go with a request for Hail Mary's and an act of contrition.Sunnydale, Present -- Drusilla, Spike, and Angelus read about the museum's new artifact in the newspaper. Angelus knows what it is immediately. Back in Sunnydale High, Buffy hopelessly tries to solve a chemistry problem when she accidentally drops her pencil. It rolls off into the desk and falls on the floor, right next to Ms. Calendar's disk which has remained their ever since the night of her murder. Buffy pulls the disk out and hands it to Willow, and pops it into the disk drive to check out its contents. What they find is Jenny's final project: the curse for the restoration of Angel's soul. Meanwhile, Dru, Angel, and several other vamps go to the museum to retrieve the stone, killing Doug Perren in the process.Rumanian Woods, 1898 -- The dead body of a gypsy girl lays stretched out on the ground next to a fire, while an elder gypsy woman chants the curse of restoration. Glowing beneath her is an Orb of Thesulah. While she chants the curse, Angelus flees through the woods, trying to escape the scene of the crime, for he is the one responsible for the girl's death. The elder woman completes the curse, and Angelus is stopped in his tracks. He falls to his knees, and his eyes glow as his soul returns to his body for the first time in over a century. A gypsy man steps out of the woods and explains to Angel that he is being punished for the countless murders he has committed.Sunnydale, Present -- Buffy and Willow show Giles a printout of the restoration curse. Giles claims that the curse would require a great knowledge of the black arts, and Willow feels that she's up to the challenge. While everyone talks of Angel's salvation, only Xander is upset, for he feels that Angel must pay for his murders with his life. Xander gets into an argument with Giles over Jenny's last wish before telling Buffy that she's willing to forget all about the murders in order to get her beloved Angel back. Elsewhere, Angel tells Spike the story of a demon named Acathla. This demon possesses the power to literally swallow the Earth into Hell, but he was stopped by a knight centuries ago. His body turned to stone with the sword still embedded in it, then was concealed in the stone tomb and buried deep beneath the ground. With that, two vampires open the tomb, revealing the body of Acathla inside. Only someone worthy can remove the sword from Acathla's body, freeing him to reign terror on the world. Later that night, Buffy finds the claddagh ring that Angel gave to her before he lost his soul. She goes outside for a walk and encounters Kendra, who has returned to take care of another dark force in Sunnydale. At the library, Kendra shows them a valuable weapon that she brought with her. It is a sword that was blessed by the same knight who stopped Acathla. If Angel succeeds in reviving the demon, it may be their only chance to stop it. Buffy asks Willow to perform the curse as soon as possible, but they need an Orb of Thesulah first. Luckily, Giles already has one in his office.Manhattan, 1996 -- Angel stumbles through the streets of Manhattan, living like a bum ever since he regained his soul. He is approached by another demon named Whistler who say's he too is on the good side. Whistler offers Angel a chance to pick himself up from this foul life and become someone important in the world. But first, Angel has to see something before he can make his decision.Los Angeles, 1996 -- A car with windows painted black parks outside of Hemery High, and Angel rolls the window down just enough to see what he came there for: the Chosen One. He observes Buffy's first meeting with a Watcher, then follows her to the cemetery where she first learns the truth about vampires and her destiny in life. Angel also follows Buffy to her home, where her mother is upset because Buffy got home late. Buffy goes to the bathroom and listens to her parents arguing with each other. Having seen enough, Angel asks Whistler to help him to a better life, teach him to become somebody.Sunnydale, Present -- A human sacrifice is brought before Angelus, who promptly feeds on his blood, making sure to spread some on the palm of his right hand. Angelus then approaches the body of Acathla, reciting the incantations for the ritual of his revival. Angelus grabs the sword and pulls it with all his might, but he fails. Spike is amused at Angelus's failure, and Dru is very upset. Angelus then swears that they will turn to an old friend, and then succeed.The next day, Buffy and the others take one of their final exams, unaware that a concealed vampire is walking down the hallway toward their classroom. The vampire steps into the room, and smoke begins to rise from her body as the rays of sunlight hit it. She warns Buffy that more will die if she does not meet Angel that night. As she finishes the message, her body disintegrates. Buffy tells Willow to perform the curse, leaving Kendra behind to stand guard. Buffy finds Angel at the cemetery, and they begin to fight. Meanwhile, a group of vampires invades the library during the restoration ritual. Back at the cemetery, Buffy realizes that her fight with Angel is merely a diversionary tactic, so she turns and runs towards the school as fast as she can. While Kendra battles one of the vampires, another one pushes a bookshelf over, crushing Willow underneath. Xander fights another one, but it brutally breaks his right arm before he can shake him off. After Kendra slays a vamp, she attacks another that has knocked out Giles. As they surround her, Cordelia escapes from the library, while Willow lays unconscious under the bookshelf. Drusilla then enters and takes on Kendra one-on-one. Kendra is no match for Dru, who defends all of her attacks before hypnotizing the Slayer into an immobile trance. Dru then slashes a cut in Kendra's neck with her nails. Kendra falls to the ground as blood pours out of her neck. Taking Giles with them, the vampires leave the library only moments before Buffy bursts into the school hallways. She finally makes it to the library, but it is too late. She runs over to Kendra's fallen body, but there's nothing she can do. Suddenly, the police arrive to see Buffy over the body of a dead woman. One of them aims a gun at Buffy, ordering her to freeze. Buffy's disastrous night has just gotten worse. Two police officers rush into the library. From the looks of things, they believe that Buffy has just murdered Kendra. They take her outside, where Principal Snyder arrives with several more cops. Before one of them can cuff her, Buffy knocks the guy down and flees the scene. After disguising herself in a coat and black cap, Buffy goes to the hospital and runs into Xander, who is now wearing a cast on his right forearm. They go to Willow's room, where she lies motionless in a coma. Cordelia arrives, and Buffy learns that Giles was neither with her or in the hospital. Giles has been taken to the vampire's mansion hideout, where Angel hopes to force the necessary info concerning the ritual out of the Watcher. Meanwhile, Joyce learns from the police that her daughter is suspected of murder and that she's a fugitive from the law. Buffy goes to Giles apartment to see if he's there, but instead meets Whistler, who has been waiting inside. He tells Buffy that Angel was destined to stop Acathla, not revive him. However, Buffy's relationship with Angel changed all that. Buffy leaves before Whistler can tell her how to stop the demon. Outside, a patrolling officer recognizes Buffy and orders her to freeze. Suddenly, Spike arrives and beats the cop into unconsciousness. He wants Buffy's help in stopping Angel so he can have Drusilla back the way she used to be, in exchange for his leaving town with Dru and never returning. After some hesitation, Buffy decides to take him back to her house so they can plan their attack. They get there just as Joyce is pulling into their driveway. As Buffy tries to make up an excuse for Spike's presence, a vampire that has been spying on them attacks. Right in front of Joyce's eyes, Buffy stakes the vampire spy, turning him to dust. Realizing what she has to do, Buffy confesses to her mother that she is a vampire slayer.At the hospital, Xander pleads to Willow for her to wake up. She finally snaps out of her coma just as Xander says that he loves her. The first word out of her mouth is Oz's name, who arrives to greet her back to consciousness. Meanwhile, Giles refuses to divulge the information that Angel needs to properly perform the ritual, so more torture ensues. Back at the Summers home, Buffy and Spike agree to work together, but only on the conditions that Dru can leave with Spike, and that Giles survives. After Spike leaves, Joyce begs her daughter to explain everything that's going on. Buffy tells her mom that there's no time to explain it all, which furiates Joyce. Joyce doesn't want her daughter to be in charge of saving the world, to which Buffy responds that she never wanted the duty in the first place. Joyce tries to restrain her daughter from leaving the house, but Buffy pushes her back against the kitchen counter. Joyce tells Buffy to never come back should she walk out the door, but Buffy leaves anyways.At the hospital, Willow tells the others that she is going to try the curse again. Buffy returns to the library to retrieve the sword that Kendra brought. Principal Snyder finds her there and promptly expels her due to all the trouble she's been involved in. After Buffy leaves, Snyder calls someone to tell the Mayor that he has good news. Meanwhile, Drusilla tricks Giles by making herself look and sound like Jenny Calendar in his eyes. Giles says that Angel's blood is the key to the awakening ritual. Homeless and expelled, Buffy has only one path to follow now. She returns to Giles apartment and asks Whistler how to use the sword. He tells her that only Angel's blood can open and close the vortex to Hell. With one blow, both Angelus and the demon Acathla would be sent back to Hell, and the vortex would be closed.Xander catches up with Buffy on her way to the mansion. She tells him to concentrate on freeing Giles and escaping. Xander does not inform Buffy that Willow is attempting the curse again. Inside the mansion, Angel slices his hand and approaches the sword in Acathla's chest. Suddenly, the ritual is interrupted by Buffy's arrival. Angel doesn't even notice Spike rising out of his wheelchair from behind. While Spike brutally beats Angel to the floor, Buffy takes one of the other vampires in the room. During this battle, Xander unties Giles and gets him safely outside. Spike doesn't get too many hits off before an enraged Drusilla jumps into the fray, tackling Spike. While they fight, Angel manages to get back up and run to Acathla. Just as Buffy drives a stake through the vampire's heart, Angel grabs the sword with his bloody hand and finally pulls it out. Swords in hand, Buffy and Angel engage in a sword duel. Elsewhere, Willow, Cordy, and Oz perform the curse of restoration. Suddenly, Willow loses control of her actions and seemingly becomes possessed by some spirit. Cordy and Oz watch in fright as Willow performs the curse herself in perfect Latin. Spike subdues Drusilla and takes her with him as he escapes from the mansion in his car. After the long duel, Buffy finally backs Angel up against Acathla. Just as she is about to deliver the final blow, Willow completes the curse, restoring Angel's soul to his body. Buffy lowers her sword as she realizes the change, and the two lovers are finally reunited. However, it is too late, for Acathla is now awake. Buffy looks over Angel's shoulder and sees Acathla's mouth creating a vortex to Hell. Angel has no idea what is going on, so all that Buffy can do is give her lover one last kiss before driving the sword through his stomach, thus releasing the blood needed to close the vortex and send the two demons back to Hell. Shocked, Angel reaches out towards Buffy with his right hand, but nothing can be done now. Buffy watches as the vortex closes around Angel, leaving the demon Acathla as nothing more than a silent statue once again.Buffy goes home and packs up her belongings without Joyce ever knowing she had returned. When Joyce enters the room, she finds a farewell letter from her daughter left on the bed. At Sunnydale High, nobody knows what happened to Buffy and Angel. Some believe that Buffy had to kill Angel before the curse was completed, while others believe that Angel has been restored and they were taking time off to be alone together. Unbeknownst to them, Buffy is standing far away by one of the trees, giving her school and her friends one last look before hopping on a bus. The bus heads out of Sunnydale, and Buffy faces an unknown future.
