Damage

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Angel
Season 5, Episode 11
Air date	January 28, 2004
Written by	Steven S. DeKnight Drew Goddard
Directed by	David Fury
Episode Guide
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Angel calls on the Watchers' Council for help in tracking down a psychotic vampire slayer named Dana, who was tortured by a serial killer as a child.

Plot

At Wolfram & Hart, Harmony tells Angel that there was a mix-up with a girl named Dana's medication at a psychiatric hospital, and no longer sedated, she broke down her door, killed several people, and escaped. At the hospital, Dr. Rabinaw tells Angel and Spike that Dana had been kidnapped and tortured for months when she was ten, by the man who killed her family. Recently, she gained incredible strength. Angel realizes Dana - like Buffy - is a vampire Slayer, activated by the events in the Buffy series finale.

Wesley asks Giles to send “his top guy” to take care of Dana, which turns out to be Andrew Wells. He updates the group on how Willow activated every potential "Slayer of the Vampyrs"; when Wesley wonders how the Slayers will be trained now that the Watchers' Council is gone, Andrew explains that Giles and some “Sunnydale alums” have resuscitated the Council.

As Spike heads off to look for Dana, Angel follows Lorne's suggestion to visit Dana's childhood home with a psychic. The psychic flashes back to Dana’s abduction and her family’s murder; the smell of molasses and a basement is "where her pain lives,” he says. Meanwhile, Dana goes to the basement of the building where she was held captive, flashing back to her torturer injecting her with various drugs. When she looks up at his face, it’s Spike.

Andrew catches up with Spike, and updates him on the Scoobies’ activities - Xander is in Africa, Willow and Kennedy are in Brazil, Buffy and Dawn are in Rome, and everyone else is in England. Andrew guesses that Buffy doesn’t know Spike is alive and wonders why he didn’t tell her. When Spike follows the scent of blood into Dana's trap, Andrew tries unsuccessfully to shoot Dana with a tranquilizer gun. Spike chases Dana to the basement, where she starts repeating what her torturer once said to her. Dana, channeling Nikki, recognizes Spike as William the Bloody. Before he can explain that she’s dreaming of other Slayers, she injects him with a sedative. At Wolfram & Hart, Angel and Gunn realize the smell of molasses indicates Dana was held in a distillery, and send a tactical team to search abandoned distilleries.

Back in the basement, Spike awakens to discover that Dana has cut off his hands. She tells Spike he can’t hurt her anymore, but when he insists she’s thinking of someone else she finally remembers who her torturer really was. Angel arrives, tells Dana her real torturer is dead, and knocks her out with a tranquilizer dart. Spike is taken to the hospital to have his hands reattached. Later, Andrew tells Angel that because Dana is a Slayer, she belongs in the care of the new Council. Andrew says none of the Scoobies trust Angel now that he works at Wolfram & Hart, and that they aren't on the same side.

Angel visits Spike at the hospital, where Spike admits he’s never thought much about what being evil means. He and Angel note that they were innocent victims once, too. Spike says Dana is like them - someone turned her into a monster.

Acting

Main cast

Guest stars

Trivia

When Dana and Spike fight, she channels the Chinese Slayer; his line "Sorry love, I don't speak Chinese," is a repeat of the line he said just before killing the Chinese Slayer during the flashback in "Fool for Love.