Angel/Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary
Season 2, Episode 13
Airdate	February 6, 2001
Production Number	2ADH13
Teleplay by	David Greenwalt
Story by	Joss Whedon & David Greenwalt
Directed by	Bill Norton
← 2x12 Blood Money	2x14 → The Thin Dead Line
Angel — Season Two

Happy Anniversary is the thirteenth episode of the second season of Angel, and the thirty-fifth episode overall. The Host at Carias gets a psychic vision that says no one will have a future beyond 10:00 the next day. While he and Angel attempt to save the world, the ex-Angel Investigation team attempts to get set up in their new digs.

David Boreanaz (Angel), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase), Alexis Denisof (Wesley Wyndam-Pryce), J. August Richards (Charles Gunn)

Guest Starring: Andy Hallett (Caritas Host), Brigid Brannagh (Virginia Bryce), Matt Champagne (Gene Rainy), Darby Stanchfield (Denise), Mike Hagerty (Bartender)

Co-Starring: Victoria L. Kelleher (Val), Danny LaCava (Mike), Eric Lange (Lubber #1), Geremy Dingle (Student Clerk), Michael Faulkner (Guy on Stage), Norma Michaels (Aunt Helen), Frank Novak (Curmudgeonly Father), Al LeBrun (Man), Bob Jesser (Torto Demon)

Plot Overview

As Angel Investigations continues to make a business without their namesake, Angel is contacted by the Host to help the world from ending thanks to a nondescript physicist.

Notes

Monster of the Week

• Lubber Demon: The Lubbers are a race of demons that double as a religious sect. The demons worship a human they call the "Golden Child" who will cause some kind of catastrophic disaster that will wipe out the human race. They intend to push things along in this episode by rewriting Gene's math so that the time paradox bubble spreads planetwide.

Body Count

#	Whom	By Whom	How	Where
1	Lubber Demon	Angel	Hit with Car	L.A. Streets
2	Lubber Demon	Angel	Stabbed	Gene's Basement

Music

Songs are listed in order of appearance in the episode:

• Francis Scott Key - "Star Spangled Banner"

• The Everly Brothers - "Bye Bye Love"

• Eric Carmen - "All By Myself"

• Mocean Worker - "Hey Baby"

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Angel Investigations: It seems that the ex-employees of Angel have kept the Angel Investigations name and have solved their first case. Not only that, but they received their first unsolicited cry for help, all without Angel.

Characters

• Angel: During his first team-up with the Host, Angel begins to reconnect with humanity again after going off the deep end about Darla and Wolfram & Hart.

Referbacks

• 2x11 - Reunion: Angel let Darla and Drusilla kill all of the people in Holden's wine tasting party instead of leaping in to save the day. Although, two of the biggest thorns in his side, Lindsey and Lilah, were spared.

Host: That is if you're not to busy getting lawyers killed...

• 2x12 - Redefinition: In an attempt to transform himself into a darker, more effective crime fighter, Angel trained to fight his enemies despite any feelings he may have for them. He apparently succeeded because he set Darla and Drusilla on fire after killing their recruits.

Host: ...and setting girls on fire.

• BtVS - 2x22 - Becoming: Apart from his difficult relationship with Buffy, Angel(us) at one time also purposefully opened a gateway to hell whose maelstrom almost sucked in and destroyed the world.

Angel: The guy's a disaster at love, nearly destroyed the world. I can relate.

Trivia

The Show

• Guest star Norma Michaels also guest starred in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Doppelgängland".

Behind the Scenes

• Ratings: On its first airing, this episode scored a 4.2/6 in the overnight Nielsen ratings. It was ranked 5th out of the 17 WB shows which aired that week.

Allusions and References

• F. Scott Fitzgerald: F. Scott Fitzgerald was a novelist whose work was at a peak during the 1920s and 1930s. He often wrote about the upper class and is one of the writers most commonly associated with the counterculture that built up around prohibition. His most famous novel was The Great Gatsby.

The Host: And you keep plugging away on that novel, F. Scott.

• Stephen Hawking: Stephen Hawking is a theoretical physicist who deals mainly in theoretical cosmology and quantum gravity. Through these studies, he has proposed theories on the nature of black holes and a model of the closed universe. The reference is likely due to Gene's intelligence, rather than his area of work because Hawking doesn't deal with stopping time.

Library Clerk: Oh, yeah. He's our own Stephen Hawking.

Quotes

• Gunn: I am so glad I met you guys. It's entertaining, really.

• Angel: What I hear – and maybe, hopefully, I'm still dreaming – is the star-spangled-banner being belted out by a loud green demon.

Host: We're all brothers under the skin, mi amigo. Although the garden hue and the horns have kept me out of some key public performances. Just once I'd love to ring in a Lakers game with our national anthem. Is that too much to ask?

• Host: (to Angel) Man, you just get darker and darker. And the weird thing is, your aura? Beige.

• Angel: Where'd you learn how to drive?

Host: Just now in your car. Not bad for a beginner, huh?

Angel: What? You nearly got us killed four times.

Host: Someone had to drive. You weren't exactly qualified, huddled under a blanket in back, hiding from the sun.

• Angel: Yearbook/student faculty publications going back to the past five years. Let's see if we can't find your little madman bent on destroying the universe.

Host: I like to think of him as our little madman. That's just me. Team player, you know?

• Host: You know what your problem is? Are you listening?

Angel: Do I have a choice?

Host: Your heart isn't in it anymore.

Angel: I don't have a pulse, so technically, I don't have heart.

Host: Technically, someone puts a stake through it, you don't have anything anymore. So, Bubba, your heart counts.

• Angel: You want to know what my problem is? I'm screwed, that's my problem. I can't win. I'm trying to atone for a hundred years of unthinkable evil. News flash: I never can! Never going to be enough. Now I got Wolfram and Hart dogging me. It's too much! 200 highly intelligent law school graduates working fulltime driving me crazy. Why the hell is everyone so surprised that it's working? But no, it's "Angel, why are you so cranky? Angel, you should lighten up, you should smile. You should wear a nice plaid."

Host: Ooh, not this season, honey.