|
The episode opens on a scene in a child's bedroom. A woman is singing
an old Celtic lullaby to a young girl, perhaps two years old. The girl's father
enters the room and we learn that the child is a young Dana. The scene shifts to the
present where Dana is reading about the recent brutal killing of Kronos Industries'
archaeology team in Afghanistan. Her attention is caught by a handsome man who has
just entered the library, a man who is whistling the same tune her mother used to
sing to Dana when she was a child. To Dana's surprise she learns the man is looking
for her.
The stranger introduces himself as Brendan Hughes and he needs Dana
to help him locate a medieval French sword that is somewhere in Los Angeles. He says
the sword belonged to a French nobleman named Hughes de Camp-d'Avernes and that Hughes
was allegedly cursed by the Pope for some transgression. According to legend the
curse was passed on through Hughes' descendants, of which Brendan claims to be one,
and that the sword is somehow the key to lifting the curse. Dana agrees to help and
the two leave together. After they leave we see that there was someone watching Dana.
It is Gordon Campbell, Dana's self-appointed secret protector. He moves off to follow
the two and then we see that there was another person watching the conversation that
just took place. This person moves to follow Dana and Brendan as well, and we see that
is none other than Sunnydale High alumnus Daniel 'Oz' Osbourne.
In another flashback we see young Dana, now around four years old,
being put to bed. There is a noise outside her room and Dana's mother goes to
investigate. She quickly returns to the room with a frightened expression on her
face and makes Dana hide under the bed. From her vantage under the bed Dana hears
sounds of a struggle outside the room and hears her father cry out. Something large
and dark enters her room and she hears her mother mutter something in a strange
language. The dark stranger hesitates for a moment then lashes out, striking Dana's
mother. The terrified Dana remains still and quiet as her mother's body lies bleeding
on her bedroom floor. The creature stays a while longer as if it is searching for
something, but it eventually leaves, never once looking under the bed.
While Brendan has gone back to his hotel, Dana has continued her
search for the sword. She notices Oz and confronts him. Oz says that he is also
looking for the sword and he tells Dana that Brendan does not want to use the sword
to lift a curse but to use it to claim power over a group he is part of. Oz explains
that Brendan has left a trail of bodies across Europe in his quest for the sword and
will likely do the same in LA. Dana is convinced and agrees to help Oz find the sword
first. At his hotel room, Brendan is on the phone with Travis McCauley at
Wolfram & Hart. He says that Dana has not worked out and that he needs someone
else to help him locate the sword. As the conversation wraps up, Brendan seems to
sense something. He flings open his hotel room door to find Gordon snooping outside.
He drags Gordon into the room just as the scene ends.
Dana and Oz manage to track down the sword to an almost finished
office complex. The sword is part of a medieval exhibit being set up in the lobby of
the building as part of its grand opening ceremony. Since getting the sword will
involve some illegal activity, Dana tracks down Jalen and recruits him to help them
break into the office site.
The next scene again shows a younger Dana, this time in high school.
Even then she was obsessed with mythology and ancient history. A social outcast,
Dana is picked on frequently and does not have any friends. Worse, she forced by
some of the teachers to help the head cheerleader with her assignments. Back in the
present Lauren receives a vision showing Dana in danger. She recognizes the
incomplete office complex in her vision and she and Ethan head off to help.
At the office site Dana, Jalen, and Oz have broken in and have
located the sword. Just then Brendan arrives as well, dropping in from a skylight
several dozen feet in the air. Prior to jumping down Brendan throws a body into the
lobby ahead of him. The body is a badly injured Gordon who is showing some of his
Cyttorath demon features. When Brendan lands he stares up at the full moon in the
night sky and turns into a large black-furred werewolf. Jalen tries to get to the sword
but is blocked by Brendan. Oz leaps onto Brendan, but the werewolf grabs him and
throws him straight into Dana. The two fall through a display case and are both cut
and bleeding. Then Oz apologizes to Dana and turns into a werewolf himself.
Lauren and Ethan arrive and Lauren pulls the injured Gordon out of
the fight while Ethan tends to Dana. While Oz and Brendan battle each other Jalen is
able to grab the great two-handed sword of Hughes de Camp-d'Avernes from its display
case. With one powerful swing Jalen severs Brendan's right hand. The werewolf howls
in pain and leaps out through the broken skylight, fleeing into the night.
The scene flashes back a year into the past where we see Dana
entering the occult studies program at UCLA. One of her professors shows her into
the restricted section of the library. Once she has been left alone, Dana grabs a
stack of books on demons and monsters and begins meticulously flipping through the
pages determined to someday identify the creature that killed her parents so many
years earlier.
With Brendan gone, the group deals with their injured. Ethan is able
to help Dana, but there is nothing he can do for Gordon. Knowing they need a mystic
healer, the group takes Gordon to the Oracle, who promises to do all he can to help.
With that done, Oz thanks Dana and the others for their help and takes the sword,
hoping that maybe it will help him remove his lycanthropic curse.
|
