Wolfram & Hart found a new way to weaponize Cordelia's visions. Angel is not handling this calmly. Nobody is. 😤

This week on Re-Watcher's Council, we're covering Angel Season 3, Episode 2: "That Vision Thing" — the one where the show makes Cordelia's vision problem dramatically, viscerally worse, and uses it to force Angel into doing something deeply uncomfortable to save her.

Cordelia's vision gift turns dangerous when it begins physically affecting her — burns, gashes, real wounds manifesting on her body. It turns out Wolfram & Hart lawyer Lilah Morgan is behind it, using a psychic to corrupt the visions and send Cordelia toward death in order to coerce Angel into breaking a prisoner out of a mystical holding dimension. The prisoner in question is being held there by the Powers That Be themselves — which means Angel has to choose between Cordelia's life and doing something the universe clearly does not want him to do.

He does it anyway. Of course he does.

This episode is doing some really important character work underneath the plot mechanics. Angel's bond with Cordelia is front and center here — she was his first real connection when he came to LA, and watching him go dark and dangerous the moment she's threatened says everything about where their relationship stands. We also get the first appearance of Skip, the easygoing demon prison guard who will become a surprisingly significant figure later in the season. And on the Wolfram & Hart side, Gavin Park is flexing his legal muscles trying to use building code violations to oust Angel Investigations from the Hyperion — which is somehow both petty and genuinely threatening.

The visions storyline has been building since early Season 2, and this episode makes clear it's heading somewhere serious. Cordelia was never meant to carry them as a full human — and the show is starting to reckon with that in a big way.

Buffy is back. Her hands are shredded from clawing out of her grave. Her friends are overjoyed. And she is telling absolutely none of them the truth.

The Scoobies are already dealing with the fallout from the resurrection spell — something came back with Buffy, a formless demon stitched into existence by the magic that brought her home, and it's working its way through the gang one possession at a time. Anya with a knife. Dawn breathing fire. The creature using Xander's own mouth to eavesdrop on how to kill it. You know. Normal Tuesday in Sunnydale.

But the monster-of-the-week is almost beside the point. Because Spike has been counting the days — all 147 of them — and when he looks at Buffy he knows something is wrong that the others can't see. And in the alley behind the Magic Box, she finally tells someone the truth.

She wasn't in hell. She was happy.

Snark and Fares dig into one of Season 6's quietest gut-punches: the episode that reframes everything the Scoobies thought they did, the Spike scene that changes the entire shape of the season, and a Jane Espenson script that trusts its audience enough to drop the big reveal in episode three and spend the rest of the year living with the consequences.

Welcome to Angel Season 3. Angel went to a monastery in Sri Lanka to grieve. There were demon monks. He should've gone to Vegas. 🧛‍♂️

This week on Re-Watcher's Council, we're kicking off Angel Season 3 with the premiere episode, Heartthrob — the one where Angel comes home from three months of grief-processing abroad, the team tries to figure out how he's doing without actually asking, and a vampire from Angelus's past shows up with a very personal vendetta and absolutely nothing left to lose.

We also get Fred slowly, tentatively starting to emerge from her room and find her footing at the Hyperion — the "listen for the click" scene with Angel is quietly one of the best character moments of the premiere. Cordelia is giving Angel necklaces and immediately making it weird. Wesley and Gunn are settling into their roles as a genuine team. And Amy Acker joins the main cast and opening credits as of this episode, which is very well deserved.

Oh, and the episode closes with the reveal that Darla — last seen leaving LA — is somehow, impossibly, pregnant. A vampire. Pregnant. Season 3 is going to be something else entirely.

Season 3 is here and we are ready.