Waiting in the Wings (Angel)

Did You Know?

• In her essay examining the maturation of Wesley's character over time, Stacey Abbott writes that Denisof delivers a fearless comedic performance as he prances across the stage with little grace and elegance.
• The cut dance scene was a fantasy of Wesley's during the performance.

Plot

Wesley looks into a demon connected to one of Cordelia's visions, while Cordelia asks him about his feelings for Fred. After Gunn and Fred get back from breakfast, Angel tells everyone they are going to see a ballet production of Giselle, performed by the same company he watched in 1890. At the theater, Count Kurskov, who owns the company, tells the manager the show will be unforgettable, and a hidden figure above the stage laughs. To get ready for the evening, Fred and Cordelia buy new dresses, planning to return them after wearing them.

Cordelia gently tries to find out who Fred is interested in romantically, but assumes Fred is thinking about Wesley when Fred is actually thinking about Gunn. Back at the hotel, everyone compliments each other's outfits, and they leave for the theater. During the performance, Cordelia is so bored she falls asleep, while the rest enjoy it. Angel notices the dancers look familiar because he saw the same performers the first time he watched the show.

At intermission, he shares this with his friends. He and Cordelia go backstage to check things out and get stuck in a magical maze of hallways. Peeking into the prima ballerina's dressing room, Angel sees it has not changed in two centuries. Cordelia picks up a cross necklace from a table.

The room grows warm, and Cordelia suddenly asks Angel to take off her clothes. They become possessed by two spirits in love and cannot stop touching each other, until Cordelia accidentally burns Angel with the cross. They snap out of it and flee the dressing room before anything more happens.

Production

Joss Whedon, who wrote and directed the episode, explained in the DVD commentary that the main reason he made it was finding out Amy Acker had studied ballet for fifteen years, though he also liked the idea of seeing the cast in formal wear. A cut scene, included as a DVD extra, shows a fantasy from Wesley’s perspective during the ballet. In it, Acker dances gracefully, while Alexis Denisof performs a comically clumsy routine. The episode was filmed at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles. It marks Summer Glau’s first acting role, playing a prima ballerina trapped in a loop, endlessly repeating the same performance. Glau, also a classically trained dancer, later starred as River Tam in Whedon’s series Firefly and had a recurring part on his show Dollhouse.