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The short story is divided into six sections: ;First Night: The narrator describes his experience walking in the streets of St. Petersburg. He loves the city at night, and feels comfortable in it. He no longer feels comfortable during the day because all the people he is used to seeing are not there. He drew his emotions from them: if they were happy, he was happy; if they were despondent, he was despondent. New faces made him feel alone. As he walked, the houses would talk to him and tell him how they were being renovated or painted a new color or being torn down. He lives alone in a small apartment in Saint Petersburg with only his old and unsociable maid Matryona to keep him company. He tells the story of his relationship with a young woman called Nastenka (a diminutive of the name Anastasia). He first sees her standing against a railing, crying. He becomes concerned and considers asking her what is wrong, but eventually continues walking. There is something special about her and he is very curious. When he hears her scream, he intervenes, saving her from a man who is harassing her. The young woman holds his arm, and he explains that he is alone, that he has never known a woman, and that he feels timid with her. Nastenka reassures him that ladies like timidity and she likes it, too. He tells her how he spends every minute of every day dreaming about a girl that would just say two words to him, who will not repulse him or ridicule him as he approached. He explains how he thinks of talking to a random girl timidly, respectfully, passionately, telling her that he is dying in solitude and that he has no chance of success with her. He tells her that it is a girl's duty not to rudely reject or mock one as timid and luckless as he is. As they reach Nastenka's door, he asks if he will ever see her again. Before she can answer, he adds that he will be at the spot they met tomorrow anyway just so he can relive this one happy moment in his lonely life. She agrees, stating she can't forbid him not to come and she has to be there anyway. The girl would tell him her story and be with him, provided that it does not lead into romance. She too is as lonely as the narrator. ;Second Night: On their second meeting, Nastenka seeks to find out more about him. He tells her that he has no history because he has spent his life utterly alone. When she presses him to continue, he suggests that he is of the type of the "dreamer". "'The dreamer'", he explains, "is not a human being, but a creature of an intermediate sort." He gives a long speech (in a style that anticipates that of the Underground Man in Notes from Underground), about his longing for companionship, leading Nastenka to comment "...you talk as if you were reading from a book". He begins to tell his story in the third person, calling himself "the hero". This "hero" is happy at the hour when all work ends and people walk about. He references Vasily Zhukovsky and mentions "The Goddess of Fancy". He dreams of everything, from befriending poets to having a place in the winter with a girl by his side. He says that the dreariness of everyday life kills people, while in his dreams he can make his life as he wishes it to be. At the end of his moving speech, Nastenka sympathetically assures him that she will be his friend. ;Nastenka's Story: Nastenka tells the narrator her story. She grew up with her strict grandmother who gave her a largely sheltered upbringing. Her grandmother's pension being too small, they rent out their house to gain income. When their first lodger dies, he is replaced by a younger man. The young man begins a silent courtship with Nastenka, often giving her a book so that she may develop a reading habit. She takes a liking to the novels of Sir Walter Scott and Aleksandr Pushkin. On one occasion, the young man invites her and her grandmother to a performance of The Barber of Seville. On the night that the young lodger is about to leave Petersburg for Moscow, Nastenka urges him to marry her. He refuses immediate marriage, saying that he does not have money to support them, but assures her that he will return for her a year later. Nastenka finishes her story at the end of this, noting that a year has gone and he hasn't sent her a single letter. ;Third Night: The narrator gradually realizes that despite his assurance that their friendship would remain platonic, he has inevitably fallen in love with her. He nevertheless helps her by writing and posting a letter to her lover, and conceals his feelings for her. They await his reply to the letter or his appearance, but Nastenka grows restless at his absence and takes comfort in the narrator's friendship. Unaware of the depth of his feelings for her, she tells him that she loves him because he hasn't fallen in love with her. The narrator, despairing due to his unrequited love, notes that he has now begun to feel alienated from her as well. ;Fourth Night: Nastenka despairs because she knows that her lover is in Petersburg but hasn't contacted her. The narrator continues to comfort her, for which she is extremely grateful, leading him to break his resolve and confess his love for her. Nastenka is disoriented at first, and the narrator, realizing that they can no longer continue to be friends in the same manner, insists on never seeing her again. She urges him to stay, and suggests that their relationship might become romantic some day, but that she wants his friendship in her life. The narrator becomes hopeful at this prospect. As they are walking, they pass by a young man who stops and calls after them. He turns out to be Nastenka's lover, and she jumps into his arms. She returns briefly to kiss the narrator but journeys into the night, leaving him alone and broken-hearted. ;Morning: The final section is a brief afterword about a letter he receives from Nastenka, in which she apologizes for hurting him and insists that she would always be thankful for his companionship. She also mentions that she will be married within a week and hopes that he will come. The narrator breaks into tears upon reading the letter. Matryona, his maid, interrupts his thoughts by telling him she has finished cleaning the cobwebs. The narrator notes that though he'd never considered Matryona to be an old woman, she looked far older to him then than she ever did before, and wonders if his own future is to be without companionship and love. He refuses to despair: > "But that I should feel any resentment against you, Nastenka! That I should > cast a dark shadow over your bright, serene happiness! ...That I should > crush a single one of those delicate blooms which you will wear in your dark > hair when you walk up the aisle to the altar with him! Oh no -- never, > never! May your sky be always clear, may your dear smile be always bright > and happy, and may you be for ever blessed for that moment of bliss and > happiness which you gave to another lonely and grateful heart ... Good Lord, > only a moment of bliss? Isn't such a moment sufficient for the whole of a > man's life?" 

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Emperor Kuzco (David Spade) narrates the story about Kronk Pepikrankenitz (Patrick Warburton), now chef and Head Delivery Boy of Mudka's Meat Hut, who is fretting over the upcoming visit of his father. Kronk's father always disapproved of young Kronk's culinary interests and wished that Kronk instead would settle down with a wife and a large house on a hill. In a flashback, Kronk tells the story of how he almost had both of these. As unwitting accomplice to Yzma (Eartha Kitt) – the villainess of the first film who turned into a cat at the end of the original, but is now human again despite still having a tail – he goes along with her plan to sell sewer slime as a youth potion. He makes enough money to buy the old folks' home from the old folks and put his large new home there. Eventually Yzma is revealed as a fake and the old folks chase her down and corner her at a bridge over a river full of crocodiles. To prevent them from attacking her, she transforms herself into a rabbit, but is then caught and taken away by a condor. When Kronk realizes the old folks have sold everything they own in return for something which doesn't work, he gives his home back to them. Kronk, as camp counselor of the Junior Chipmunks at Camp Chippamunka, falls in love with fellow counselor Miss Birdwell (Tracey Ullman); but when one of his Chipmunks, Tipo, pulls a prank to win the camp championships and is caught, Kronk protects the boy at the cost of alienating his love. Kronk's father (John Mahoney) arrives and confusion ensues as several supportive friends try to pass themselves off to him as Kronk's wife and kids. But in the end Kronk realizes that his wealth is in his friendships, and this finally wins his father's thumbs up and Miss Birdwell's love. Meanwhile, just outside the house, Yzma is in the condor's nest with two eggs, which hatch and presumably attack her before the credits roll. 

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King Arthur is preparing for a great battle against his friend, Sir Lancelot, a battle he does not wish to fight but has been forced into. Arthur reflects on the sad circumstances which have led him to this situation and asks his childhood mentor, Merlyn, for advice. Merlyn appears to him and tells Arthur to think back. Arthur thinks back to the night of his marriage to his now-estranged wife, Guenevere. It is an arranged marriage, and he has never met her before. He is understandably afraid of what lies ahead ("I Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight"). His solitude is broken by Guenevere, who has fled from her entourage and enters the same woods that he has taken refuge in. Guenevere is also worried about marrying a man she has never met, and longs for the romantic life of a fought-over maiden ("The Simple Joys of Maidenhood"). Overhearing Guenevere and realizing who she is, Arthur accidentally falls out of the tree in which he is hiding. He and Guenevere converse, and as she does not know his true identity, she fantasizes about traveling with him and escaping before his "wretched king" finds her. Arthur tells her what a wonderful place his kingdom is ("Camelot"). She finds herself drawn to him, but they are interrupted by his men and her entourage. Arthur's identity is revealed, and Guenevere gladly goes with him to be married. The plot shifts to four years later. Arthur dreams up and explores with Guenevere his idea for a "Round Table" that would seat all the noble knights of the realm, reflecting not only a crude type of democratic ideal, but also the political unification of England. Knights are shown gathering from all over England. Eventually, word of Arthur's Round Table spreads to France. Inspired by Arthur's ideas, the French Knight Lancelot makes his way to England with his squire Dap, boasting of his superior virtues ("C'est Moi"). Lancelot's prowess impresses Arthur, and they become friends; however, many of the knights instantly despise Lancelot for his self-righteousness and boasting manner. Back in Camelot, Guinevere and the women frolic and gather flowers to celebrate the coming of spring and (“The Lusty Month of May”) Guenevere, who initially dislikes Lancelot, incites three of the best knights – Sir Lionel, Sir Sagramore, and Sir Dinadan – to challenge him to a joust ("Then You May Take Me To The Fair"). Arthur ponders this discord and how distant Guenevere has become recently ("How to Handle a Woman"). However, Guenevere's plan goes awry as Lancelot easily defeats all three, critically wounding Sir Dinadan. A horrified Lancelot pleads for Sir Dinadan to live, and as he lays hands on him, Dinadan miraculously recovers. Guenevere is so overwhelmed and humbled that her feelings for Lancelot begin to change. Despite his vows of celibacy, Lancelot falls in love with Guenevere, leading to the famous love triangle involving Arthur, Guenevere, and Lancelot. The other knights are aware of the clandestine meetings between Lancelot and Guenevere. They accuse Lancelot repeatedly, and several knights are banished after losing their armed challenges. Guinevere and Lancelot meet in secret to discuss the latest accusation, the knight's banishment, and their future. Guenevere does not believe Arthur knows yet, but Lancelot tells her that he does, which causes her much guilt and anguish. Lancelot vows that he should leave and never come back, but finds it impossible to consider leaving Guenevere ("If Ever I Would Leave You"). Arthur knows something is going on between Lancelot and Guenevere, but he cannot bring himself to accuse them because he loves them both. He decides to rise above the scandal and ignore it. However, Mordred, Arthur's illegitimate son from an affair with the Princess Morgause before he was crowned, arrives at Camelot bitter because Arthur will not recognize him as son and heir. Mordred is determined to bring down the fellowship of the Round Table by stirring up trouble. All this takes its toll on Arthur's disposition, and Guenevere tries to cheer him up ("What Do the Simple Folk Do?") despite her conflicted emotions. Mordred cunningly convinces Arthur to stay out hunting all night as a test, knowing that Lancelot will visit Guenevere in her bedchamber. Everything happens as Mordred expected, except that Lancelot and Guenevere had intended to make this visit the last time they will see each other. They sing of their forbidden love and how wrong it has all gone ("I Loved You Once In Silence"). But Mordred and several knights are waiting behind the curtains, and they catch the lovers together. Lancelot escapes, but Guenevere is arrested and sentenced to die by burning at the stake, thanks to Arthur's new civil court and trial by jury. Arthur, who has promoted the rule of law throughout the story, is now bound by his own law and cannot spare Guenevere. "Kill the Queen or kill the law," says Mordred. Preparations are made for Guenevere's burning ("Guenevere"), but Lancelot rescues her at the last minute, much to Arthur's relief. However, many knights are killed, and the knights demand vengeance. The plot returns to the opening. Arthur is preparing for battle against Lancelot, at the insistence of his knights who want revenge, and England appears headed back into the Dark Ages. Arthur receives a surprise visit from Lancelot and Guenevere, at the edge of the woods, where she has taken residence at a convent. Lancelot asks if there is nothing to be done, but Arthur can think of nothing but to let the events ride out. They clasp arms in farewell, and Lancelot leaves. Arthur and Guenevere share an emotional farewell, his heart breaking when he sees that she has had all her glorious hair chopped off. She is beside herself that she may never see him again or know his forgiveness. Prior to the battle, Arthur stumbles across a young boy named Tom, who wishes to fight in the battle and become a Knight of the Round Table. Tom espouses his commitment to Arthur's original ideal of "Not might 'makes' right, but might 'for' right." Arthur realizes that, although most of his plans have fallen through, the ideals of Camelot still live on in this simple boy. Arthur knights Tom and gives him his orders—run behind the lines and survive the battle, so that he can tell future generations about the legend of Camelot. Watching Tom leave, Arthur regains his hope for the future ("Camelot (reprise)"). 

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At a military outpost in Greenland, Project Engineer Maj. Brothers (Guardino) begins losing his grip on reality - while wrestling with guilt and remorse - after losing one of his soldiers in an icy crevasse. Mentally haunted by a spectre of the dead man, Brothers decides he must detonate an atomic device to obliterate the crevasse, along with any implicating evidence of self-imposed incompetence - and the outpost, as well - to purge himself of his emotional anguish. The outpost's psychiatrist, Dr. Hamilton (Merrill), uses a revolutionary mind probe machine in an attempt to understand what is driving Brothers mad. During the experiment, Hamilton learns of the officer's plan to destroy the outpost as their minds join for a split second. When an unexpected earthquake causes the device to malfunction, the minds of Hamilton and Brothers are switched. This new identity enables the insane officer to set about his plan for destruction while in the guise of the doctor, with the real doctor - now in the guise of the disturbed officer - confined to a padded cell, desperately trying to warn everyone of the impending doom. When Hamilton's administrative assistant, Ingrid (Kellerman), who had earlier expressed her love for the doctor, reads his notes that were taken prior to the experiment, she learns of the possible exchange of minds between the two men. Ingrid then comes by the cell to talk with Brothers about his claims of really being the doctor, where he convinces her that he is actually the man she loves by revealing an intimate detail regarding their relationship; something that the officer would know nothing about. Now realizing that the wrong man is behind bars, she helps him to escape. Meanwhile, attempting to obtain information from another officer on how to detonate the bomb, Brothers is ordered to return to the doctor's office, where he encounters Hamilton and Ingrid. Brothers, intent on killing Hamilton before he can expose his true identity, is mortally wounded during Hamilton's attempt to attach the electrodes from the mind probe machine - with help from Ingrid - to himself and to Brothers. At the final moment of the process, just before Brothers dies, Hamilton's mind is successfully returned to his body. Afterwards, both Hamilton and Ingrid try to make sense of the ordeal, while wondering how to explain the unbelievable circumstances surrounding Brothers' death, with Hamilton suggesting that they simply tell the truth - Maj. Brothers shot himself. 

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The horrors of war are examined from the view points of lifelong friends and expert sharpshooters Vlado Selimović (Linus Roache) and Slavko Stanic (Vincent Perez), who end up on opposing sides of the Bosnian War in Sarajevo. Slavko, an ethnic Serb and unemployed bachelor, becomes a sniper and instructor training the Army of Republika Srpska snipers who used to terrorize the city. Vlado, a Muslim married father and successful owner of a furniture factory, rejects his friend's offer to gain an escape from the city. Instead, he becomes a marksman in the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and attempts to counter the sniper threat. Vlado soon realizes his friend, an exceptionally skilled marksman, is the enemy sniper responsible for a number of seemingly impossible shots against residents of their own neighbourhood. The two friends eventually have to face-off and only one survives. 

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Middle-class Princeton student Tom Townsend, an admirer of Charles Fourier, attends a debutante dress ball one evening on a whim. After the ball, a mix-up leads to his meeting a small group of young Upper East Side socialites known as the Sally Fowler Rat Pack, after the girl whose apartment they use for after-hours parties. Believing that they accidentally stole a taxi from Tom, they decide to invite him to their after- hours party, to prevent ill feelings. Tom decides to attend the party, and befriends several other attendees, including Nick Smith, a cynic who takes Tom under his wing; Audrey, a shy girl who enjoys Regency era literature and has a crush on Tom; and Charlie, an overly philosophical friend with an unrequited love for Audrey. Tom learns that he and the Rat Pack have some common friends, including his ex-girlfriend Serena Slocum, with whom he remains infatuated. Under Nick's tutelage, Tom ingratiates himself to the Rat Pack and soon becomes a full-fledged member. Much of the film is composed of dialogues in which Tom and the Rat Pack discuss the nebulous social scene they occupy, including how they are coming of age just as the culture in which they were raised is ending, leaving them with uncertain social futures. During these discussions, Tom reveals that he, too, was raised wealthy, but that his father abandoned the family to marry another woman, leaving Tom and his mother with limited financial resources. As a result, Tom harbors a love-hate relationship with wealth and the upper class. Serena has been dating Rick Von Sloneker, a young, titled aristocrat notorious for his womanizing. At a party after the International Debutante Ball, Nick alienates himself from the group by accusing Rick of getting a girl drunk and convincing her to "pull a train" several years before, after which she committed suicide. Other members of the Rat Pack point out holes in Nick's story. Nick admits that the story was a "composite" of incidents from Rick's life. Shortly thereafter, Nick leaves Manhattan, giving Tom his top hat as a token of friendship. Believing that Tom is not interested in her romantically, Audrey decides to leave Manhattan to spend the rest of vacation in the Hamptons with Rick and another girl from the Rat Pack. Realizing that he's developed feelings for Audrey, Tom recruits Charlie to help him rescue her from Rick. The two travel to the Hamptons together, bonding en route. Against their expectations, they arrive to find Audrey in no peril. Tom and Charlie nonetheless instigate a fight with Rick, which ends with them being kicked out of his beach house. Afterward, Tom and Audrey talk on the beach, with Audrey saying that she is planning to attend college in France, and Tom contemplating going to visit her there. Tom, Audrey, and Charlie begin hitchhiking together towards Manhattan. 

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When he is forced to vacate the office of his debt-ridden correspondence college, 'Professor' Will Davis (Will Hay) goes to the Ministry of International Commerce at Whitehall in order to confront his one-and-only student, PR man Bobby Jessop (John Mills). To get Davis off his back, Jessop proposes to get him a job at Whitehall. Jessop then leaves in order to fetch a Professor Davys at the railway station. The professor is a leading economist who has returned from a long stay in South America in order to advise the British government on a trade treaty with the South American nations, which could be crucial to Britain's war effort. The clueless Davis is mistaken for the expert and gets involved in a series of interviews, giving answers based on gambling, con jobs, double entendres or just plain ignorance. These scenes are very funny and are made more so by the reactions of an increasingly incredulous Joss Ambler as government minister 'Sir John'. Jessop later returns with 'Professor Davys' and the confusion is sorted out, though it has left the BBC interviewers in a state of mental collapse. Jessop then discovers that the man he brought with him is in fact Crabtree (Felix Aylmer), a member of a group of fifth columnists working for Nazi Germany. Jessop promises Davis a job if he will help him track down the real Professor Davys (Henry Hewitt), who is being held in a safe house by Crabtree's associates. Assuming a number of disguises, Davis and Jessop set off to foil the plot before the treaty is compromised. 

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The novel follows the life of the Jewish protagonist Jacob Heym in the ghetto of Łódź, Poland during the German occupation of World War II. Jacob met an 8-year-old girl named Lina, whose parents were both killed and who is hidden from the Germans after escaping from the camp transport train. While walking around the ghetto near the time of curfew, Jacob is suddenly stopped by a seemingly bored German officer on a patrol. The officer pretends that the Jewish curfew of 8 pm has already passed, and sends the hapless Jacob to the police station. Jacob obeys him submissively and is followed by the sentinel's flashlight. He arrives at the station where he hears radio news reporting about the approach of the Red Army. Miraculously, Jacob is released since the sentinel was playing a practical joke on him and it was not yet curfew. The first Jew to leave that station alive, Jacob cannot believe his luck. Both this and the radio broadcast fill him with hope. The next day he is working with his partner Mischa, who wants to risk his life by stealing potatoes. At the last moment, Jacob impedes his attempt and gives him the good news about the Russians, but Mischa is skeptical - so Jacob, to give Mischa hope, tells him he has a hidden radio, otherwise forbidden in the ghetto. Jacob lies for the first time by pretending that he possesses a radio since he figures that nobody would believe him if he tells them he saw the precinct from inside. The question raised in the reader's mind is "Does he act responsibly by lying, even if he has only good intentions?" Jacob has enlivened Mischa who immediately goes to Rosa Frankfurter's parents to convey the word. Although he promised Jacob not to mention his name when spreading the news, Mischa breaks his word. Rosa's skeptical father Felix is enraged by the dangerous news Mischa is spreading without proof. Felix destroys a radio he is hiding in the basement. Mischa eventually spreads the lie out: Jacob possesses a radio. Jacob is now forced to become creative in order to maintain the lie. Now that the neighbors believe he has a radio, he has to provide new items of fictional news each day in order to help maintain the peace and hope, and prevent despair from returning to the ghetto. Striving to propagate some real news, he decides to steal a newspaper from an "Aryan water closet", which Jews are strictly prohibited from entering. While he is in it, a nervous guard comes close to the toilet but Jacob's friend Kowalsky distracts the watchman's attention by knocking over boxes and saves Jacob's life. The next day Herschel Schtamm, a usually fearful and timid man, hears the voices of deportees coming out of a wagon. Intent on giving them hope by telling them the news, he gathers his courage and approaches the wagon but is seen and shot by a watchman. Jacob feels responsible for Schtamm's death. He comes home to find Lina looking for the radio while he was gone. He tells her to stay out of his room but realizes that hearing the radio will give her much needed hope. From another room where Lina can not see him, Jacob imitates the sounds of a radio- show, emulating the voice of Winston Churchill, telling her the metaphorical story of a princess who became ill because nobody could provide her a cloud. The princess was cured when a gardener brought her a cloud made out of cotton wool, because she thought in reality that was what clouds were. It implicates the question of authentic versus perceived need, and of course the question about the imagined world created by the lies of Jacob inside the ghetto. Just as the princess became healthy after she received the "fake" cloud, the hope of the Jews is inspired by artificial truth. Over time, the lie becomes cumbersome and inconvenient to Jacob, and the attention tedious. He pretends that the radio is becoming defective but is still swamped by people who are either begging for news, inculpating him, or pretending friendship to get access to the news. Jacob cannot stand this pressure and in a moment of weakness confesses everything to Kowalsky, who reassures him that he understands everything and would have acted exactly in the same way, and that Kowalsky will not bother Jacob again with any questions. The novel has two endings. The narrator thinks that there should be an independent ending based on what really happened, but he also wants to corroborate that he is trying to reach the reader emotionally, and thus proposes a second ending. However both endings are equally powerful in their own ways. The fictitious ending Jakob is killed while attempting to escape from the ghetto. Immediately after, as if Jacob's death-shot is the opening of the battle for the city, the Russians arrive to liberate them all. It is ambiguous why Jacob was trying to escape: to save himself and abandon his people to their fate; or to get first-hand information about the course of the war and return to the ghetto, thus redeeming himself for the lie about the radio. The true ending Kowalsky hangs himself shortly after Jacob's confession about the radio. Everyone is deported to the death camps. 

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In the previous season, the Cleveland Indians won the division title by beating the New York Yankees in a one-game playoff, but were defeated in the ALCS by the Chicago White Sox. The success of last season has changed the attitudes of the Indians. Pitching sensation Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn has become a media sensation and is now more concerned about his public image than his pitching, causing him to lose the edge on his fastball. Instead, he begins to rely on highly ineffective breaking balls, to which he gives nicknames such as "Eliminator" and "Humiliator." Home run hitter Pedro Cerrano becomes a Buddhist and adopts a more placid, carefree style as opposed to the angry and aggressive player he was before. Center fielder Willie Mays Hayes has become a Hollywood actor and now fancies himself a power hitter, due to a sprained knee he suffered while shooting his new film, a box office flop. Aging catcher and team leader Jake Taylor has also returned, but once again is dealing with injuries to his knees. Rachel Phelps, the owner who previously attempted to sabotage them last season, sells the team to Roger Dorn, who has retired as an active player to take the job. One of his first acts is to sign Oakland Athletics all-star catcher Jack Parkman, which forces Jake to compete for his old position. Parkman is an arrogant player who does not respect the team. To further complicate things, minor-league catcher Rube Baker has also been invited to camp despite his inability to throw the ball back to the pitcher with any consistency. As the team breaks camp, manager Lou Brown informs Taylor that he is keeping him on as a coach rather than a player. Jake is upset at first but reluctantly accepts the position. The Indians get off to a slow start, with various complications and conflicts between the players. Parkman quickly becomes a divisive figure in the clubhouse due to his ego, for which Lou suspends him after Parkman criticizes the team in the local papers. Parkman then informs Lou that the suspension is moot as he has been traded to the White Sox. Lou confronts Dorn for not consulting him about the trade. Dorn explains that he could no longer afford to pay Parkman's salary and had no choice but to trade him. In return, Japanese import Hiroshi "Kamikaze" Tanaka, a gifted left fielder with a penchant for crashing into the fence, is sent to the Indians. Finally out of options, Dorn sells the Indians back to Rachel Phelps. Rachel keeps Dorn on as the Indians general manager and his first order of business is to re-activate himself as a player. Phelps bought the team back as revenge for ruining her plan to move the team to Miami. With the Indians now in last place, she has another chance to do so. Lou suffers a heart attack in the clubhouse due to his frustration over the team's performance and Jake takes over in his stead. When Rube is hit by a pitch in his ankle during a doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox, Hayes is called upon to run for him but refuses to do so, which angers Jake. Vaughn quarrels with Hayes and the two begin fighting, which leads to the entire team fighting each other and getting ejected. After the game, Tanaka criticizes Cerrano for not having any "marbles" due to his struggles and Hayes makes a wisecrack at Baker about his injury, leading Rube to chastise Hayes and the rest of the team for their lack of passion. Inspired by the speech, Hayes volunteers to run for the injured Baker in the bottom of the ninth inning of the second game and promptly steals second, third and home to tie the score. Cerrano, also inspired, demands that Jake insert him into the game to pinch hit and he responds by hitting the game-winning home run. The win sparks a hot streak that the Indians ride all the way to a second straight division title, clinched by beating the Toronto Blue Jays on the last day of the season. Despite this, Vaughn continues to slump as his ineffective breaking pitches have caused him to lose confidence in his best pitch, his fastball. To make matters worse, he refuses to finish games he starts and has allowed the heckling fans to get into his head. In the ALCS, the Indians meet the White Sox again and win the first three games of the series. This inspires Rachel to give the team a phony pep talk before Game 4, which is purposely designed to get in the heads of the players and distract them. It works, as a still struggling Vaughn gives up a game-winning home run to Parkman in the bottom of the ninth. With strong offense by Parkman, the White Sox defeat the Indians in the next two games, forcing a seventh game in Cleveland. The night before the game, Jake goes to visit Vaughn at his home and tells him that he might be called on to pitch in relief in Game 7. Vaughn nonchalantly tells Taylor he will be ready, which infuriates Jake. He calls Vaughn out for having lost his edge and strongly advises him to find it again before the upcoming game. The White Sox jump out to an early 2–1 lead in Game 7 after Parkman bowls over Rube on a play at the plate. With the Indians down by one, Hayes reaches base on a walk and taunts Parkman by saying he is going to score on the play without sliding. Rube then lines a drive to the left field corner and Hayes rounds the bases and heads for home. The ball gets to Parkman first, but Hayes, making good on his promise not to slide, hurdles over Parkman and lands on home plate. Parkman responds, however, by hitting a three-run home run in the seventh inning and the White Sox take a 5–3 lead into the bottom of the eighth. Although the Indians get a runner on, two quick outs are recorded and Jake is forced to make a strategic move. He calls upon Dorn to "take one for the team" and sends him up to pinch hit. Dorn takes the first pitch off his lower back and is pulled for a pinch runner. Cerrano steps in, having apparently reverted to his more placid self. After taking two pitches, Cerrano's teammates begin shaking little bags of marbles at him. With this, the Cuban slugger is able to find his focus and send the next pitch over the fence to give the Indians a 6–5 lead. However, the go-ahead runs reach base with two outs in the top of the ninth. Jake calls on Vaughn to get the final out and to the crowd's delight, Vaughn has taken Jake's message to heart and rediscovered his edge. To further this, he tells Jake that he intends to walk the current batter and pitch to Parkman instead, who is on deck. Knowing that an intentional walk will load the bases, Jake initially balks but takes confidence in Vaughn and allows him to face Parkman. Vaughn throws a fastball that Parkman swings through for strike one, then follows with another fastball that Parkman fouls straight back. With two strikes on him, an impressed Parkman dares Vaughn to throw it a third time. Vaughn fearlessly complies with one more fastball dubbed the "Terminator" that Parkman swings through, striking out to end the game and send the Indians to the World Series. 

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The Assassin's Knot is a sequel to The Secret of Bone Hill, picking up on themes from that module and shifts them to a new locale. The player characters must solve the mystery of who killed the Baron of Restenford, with evidence pointing to somebody from the town of Garrotten. The scenario describes the town and its castle. The Assassin's Knot module is different from most of its contemporaries in that it contained no dungeon or dungeon- like area. The longer the players take to find the murderer, the more unfortunate events occur in the village. The village, Garrotten, is reputed to be the place to go to have someone killed. The entire village shuts down when the Baron of Restenford is found dead, mutilated beyond the possibility of magical restoration. Three small clues are all the player characters have to unravel the mystery. 

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The Jackie Robinson Story Screenplay cover Photo from 1950 Lobby card promoting The Jackie Robinson Story, showing Jackie Robinson (as himself) The film begins with Robinson as a boy. He is given a worn-out baseball glove by a stranger impressed by his fielding skills. As a young man, he becomes a multi- sport star at UCLA, but as he nears graduation, he worries about his future. His older brother Mack was also an outstanding college athlete and graduate, but the only job he could get was that of a lowly street cleaner. When America enters World War II, Robinson is drafted, serving as an athletic director. Afterward, he plays baseball with a professional African-American team. However, the constant travel keeps him away from his college sweetheart, Rae. Then one day, Brooklyn Dodgers scout Clyde Sukeforth invites him to meet Branch Rickey, president of the Major League Baseball team. At first, Robinson considers the offer to be a practical joke, as African Americans are not allowed to play in the segregated major leagues. When he is convinced that the opportunity is genuine, he and Rickey size each other up. After thinking over Rickey's warning about the hatred and abuse he would have to endure without being able to strike back, Robinson signs with the Dodgers' International League farm team, the Montreal Royals. Though he wants to delay marrying Rae to shield her, she insists on an immediate wedding so she can support her man in the trying times ahead. Robinson leads the league in hitting in his first year, and despite the grave concerns expressed by the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, Rickey goes ahead and promotes him to the Dodgers. Reviled at first by many of the fans and some of his own teammates, Robinson gets off to a shaky start, playing out of position at first base and going through a hitting slump, but then gradually wins people over with his talent and determination. The team goes on to win the pennant, with Robinson driving in the tying run and scoring the winning run in the deciding game. At the end, Robinson is invited to address the United States House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. 

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Sixteen-year-old Nelson Potter is part of a bank robbing team with his father Sam — Nelson scouts targets for the group and acts as a hostage in their endeavors. Their accomplices include Tony and Lilly, a skilled martial artist and Sam’s current love interest. Wanting Sam all to herself, Lilly tries to persuade him to cut Nelson from the group, but Sam declines. When she overhears him insulting her afterwards, Lilly refuses to give Nelson his share of the money from their latest heist and viciously attacks Sam, leading Nelson to subdue her at gunpoint. With the partnership dissolved, Tony and Lilly leave the group. After stealing a new getaway car, Sam and Nelson continue on their own. Sam’s goal is to eventually steal enough money to pay for Nelson’s college education, although Nelson sees nothing wrong with robbing banks for a living. While robbing yet another bank in Utah, Tony and Lilly tip off the police from their hotel room across the street, and Sam is arrested. With Nelson deemed a runaway, Lilly and Tony rush to claim him at the police station, hoping to utilize him in their own robberies. However, a woman named Lorraine picks up Nelson first after learning about the attempted heist on television. She deftly evades Tony and Lilly in a high-speed chase and takes Nelson back to her home, where Nelson pleads for her help in breaking his father out of jail. With Lorraine at the wheel, Nelson successfully retrieves Sam, who reveals that Lorraine is Nelson’s biological mother, having lied to his son about her death for years so that Nelson would stay with him after their separation. Feeling betrayed, Nelson tells his father he can no longer trust him. The next evening, Tony and Lilly track down Lorraine at her workplace and follow her back to her home, where they kidnap Nelson. Using Nelson’s maps, atlas, and other resources, Sam and Lorraine deduce that his next target is not a bank, but instead the Salt Lake City Amphitheater. They race to confront Tony and Lilly, who have already robbed the venue by using Nelson as a hostage in a vest loaded with dynamite. After forcing Nelson into the back of their pickup truck at gunpoint, Tony and Lilly attempt to get away with Sam and Lorraine in hot pursuit. In desperation, Lilly attacks Nelson and throws him from the truck, leaving him dragging precariously behind the vehicle on a strip of chain link fence. With Lilly distracted by a police helicopter, Sam climbs aboard the truck and gets the upper hand against Lilly, knocking her onto the highway. He then forces Tony off the road, giving Nelson enough time to remove the bomb and plant it in the truck. While Sam reaches for the detonator, Tony attempts to run him over, but Lorraine rams into the truck with her car at the last second, sending it tumbling down a cliff where it explodes. As the three drive away to seek medical attention for Nelson, Tony is shown dangling helplessly from the face of the cliff, having survived the ordeal. Sometime later, Sam, Nelson, and Lorraine embark on a road trip to Canada, where they jokingly make plans for their next bank robbery. 

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Craig Blake (Jeff Bridges) is a young Southern man born of a wealthy family, but left lonely and idle after his parents died in a plane crash. He is content to spend his time fishing, hunting and puttering around his large family mansion in Birmingham, Alabama, inhabited only by himself and a butler (Scatman Crothers). Blake's "job" is a sinecure working at a shady investment firm run by a slick con artist named Jabo (Joe Spinell) and he does very little actual work. But since he has to have his name "on paper" somehow as an employee, he is asked to personally transact the purchasing of a small gym that the real estate firm is buying in order to clear space for an office high-rise. He initially approaches the gym representing himself as a businessman looking to buy it, and acts relatively impersonal with its owner Thor Erikson (R.G. Armstrong) and employees Franklin (Robert Englund) and Newton (Roger E. Mosley), although he is strangely fascinated with the world he discovers there. Blake's primary social life is normally centered around the upscale country club and its crowd, including the WASP-y Lester (Ed Begley, Jr.) and the roguish rake Halsey (John David Carson). Blake spends his time at this club with his friends playing tennis and shooting poker dice, and flirting with the women of all ages - one of whom asks Blake to find an "authentic" musical guest for an upcoming party at the club. As Blake moves forward with his business deal, he falls in love with the gym after visiting it several times - he is immediately taken by the pretty receptionist Mary Tate Farnsworth (Sally Field) and the free-spirited, friendly bodybuilder Joe Santo (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who aspires to win the Mr. Universe title. He cannot bring himself to sell out his newfound friends at the gym for the sake of his job, and so he evades the inquiries of his friend and coworker Hal Foss (Richard Gilliland) as to his progress in the purchasing deal. All the while, he grows closer to Mary Tate and Santo - who initially appear to be a couple. However, Mary Tate latches onto Craig romantically - and Santo gives Craig his blessing for this unorthodox relationship, claiming that he needs to keep himself challenged both in the gym and in his romantic life in order to succeed. Mary Tate and Craig begin a passionate and exciting relationship, but trouble erupts when he tries to integrate Mary Tate into his country-club scene. This tension comes to a head at a party at the club, which features Joe Santo as a musical guest, performing bluegrass songs on the violin with a small country group. Craig, with Mary Tate as his guest (dressed inappropriately in a revealing pink dress), is enthusiastic about Joe Santo's upcoming musical performance for the night. However, Craig's friends, particularly Halsey, mock Santo as a "freak" and an outcast. When Halsey suggests that Santo disrobe and show the crowd his "tits," Craig throws a glass of scotch in his face and tells Halsey that Santo could "crush him like an eggshell." A fight nearly breaks out between the two, but is broken up. Meanwhile, a bitter Halsey and his friend Packman formulate a plan to embarrass Santo. When Santo's musical act is finally put on stage, the crowd seems enthusiastic about the music, though the hostess of the party dismisses it as a "racket." However, Halsey and Packman drunkenly bellow at Santo and heckle the band. Santo notices it, but stoically continues playing. However, when Halsey screams "let's hear it for Muscle Beach symphony orchestra!" Santo is unable to continue playing, puts down his violin and leaves the party. Meanwhile, a frustrated Craig tries to convince Mary Tate to see him for who he really is, and not for his snobbish friends and ritzy surroundings. Jabo, owner of the shady real estate firm, attempts to bribe Thor, when he realizes that Blake will not purchase the building as he was supposed to. He plies Eriksen and his assistant Newton with drugs, booze and hookers, and on the day of the contest, they are busy with acts of debauchery as Santo is readying to take the stage - hoping to beat his rival Dougie Stewart (Ken Waller). While Thor is drunk and distracted with the prostitutes, Newton secretly stashes the prize money inside his handbag, and then leaves the gym with the prostitutes when they are finished - stealing the money and fleeing. Meanwhile, Joe Santo and Dougie Stewart pose together on stage, to the theme from the film Exodus and the enthusiastic applause of the crowd. When Blake visits the gym next, he engages in an intense physical fight, dodging weights and gym equipment thrown by the drunken and drug-crazed Eriksen. He finds Mary Tate at the gym, who had just moments earlier been assaulted by Eriksen in an amyl nitrite fueled rage. When the contestants at the Mr. Universe show discover that the prize money has been stolen, they run after Santo, who himself is actually running to try to meet Mary Tate. The chase results in the wave of bodybuilders pouring out into the streets of Birmingham, to the amazed crowd of onlookers who see them. The bodybuilders take advantage of this unexpected attention to put on an impromptu posing routine for the crowd, and the members of the crowd join in, imitating the athletes' poses and enjoying themselves. Ultimately, Craig sarcastically derides his former bosses at the real-estate firm, and decides to go into the gym business with Santo. Craig has finally "found himself" and discovered a true place in the sun, and true friendships, and he mocks his former boss Jabo with an exaggerated bodybuilding pose - acting as a final burning of the bridge between his old life and his new one. He moves out of his family's mansion, passing on all of his old family memorabilia to his loyal butler, and leaves behind his old self once and for all - on the way to a new and exciting future. 

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In Encino, California, SpongeBob SquarePants fan Patchy the Pirate presents his favorite episode "Shanghaied" to audiences. SpongeBob is shocked to find that an anchor (which he mistakes for a "baby") has suddenly dropped onto his house during breakfast, and alerts his next door neighbor Squidward to what happened. As Patrick shows up to take notice of the anchor, it soon swings from SpongeBob's house to Squidward's. This compels Squidward to begin climbing the anchor rope to see where it comes from, with SpongeBob and Patrick joining him. The three come across a large, floating, and glowing ship, which Squidward proceeds to board, impatiently demanding to know its owner. As SpongeBob tries to recall the ship's owner, the Flying Dutchman appears and insists on knowing who disturbs him, upon which SpongeBob naively expresses to him Squidward's complaints. After the Flying Dutchman burns Squidward for his alleged insults, the pirate turns to SpongeBob and Patrick for their own punishment, to which they try to escape from multiple times and fail. The Flying Dutchman then announces his rule that for anyone who sets foot on his ship, they will be forced to serve as his "ghostly" crew for eternity. Due to Squidward's continuous complaining, the pirate throws him through the "Fly of Despair", a seemingly endless void filled with horrific imagery, which intimidates SpongeBob and Patrick into becoming part of the ship's crew. After the Flying Dutchman instructs SpongeBob and Patrick to prepare the ship for a Bikini Bottom haunting spree, they prove inept at their haunting task, failing to frighten citizens even with the pirate leading by example. Due to their poor performance, the Flying Dutchman decides that he will eat SpongeBob and Patrick instead of letting them continue to be his crew. The two then try to escape through the perfume department, though they still end up on the ship. However, they overhear the Flying Dutchman mentioning in his diary that he could not eat without his dining sock, which leads the two to try and take it. The pirate notices them, and tries to take the sock back, which results in a stalemate. The Flying Dutchman proposes that when they give back the sock, he will give them three wishes. Upon settling the terms of the proposition, Patrick unwittingly wastes the first wish by wishing they had known this earlier, while SpongeBob wishes that Squidward could see them having wishes. Squidward safely returns to his home after passing through the void, only to be brought back to the ship by SpongeBob's wish. Upon realizing there is only one wish left, SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward argue as to who should get the last wish. The Flying Dutchman intervenes and uses eeny, meeny, miny, moe to ultimately decide who gets the wish, with SpongeBob ending up selected. SpongeBob then wishes that the Flying Dutchman was a vegetarian so that he will not eat them. The three are then seemingly transported back to SpongeBob's pineapple home, but they quickly realize that they have also been turned into fruits, and are now in the Flying Dutchman's blender. A chase ensues as they bounce their blender away from the pirate, who now resides in a hippie van with a mast. After the episode proper, Patchy tries to read fan mail, only to be blown up with his parrot Potty who lit a fuse on himself, not knowing it is no longer planned for the program. 

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Josh and Dinah Barkley (Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) are a husband-and-wife musical comedy team at the peak of their careers. After finishing a new show, Dinah meets serious French playwright Jacques Pierre Barredout (Jacques François), who suggests that Dinah should take up dramatic acting. Dinah tries to keep the suggestion a secret from Josh, but when he finally discovers Dinah hiding a script for Jacques' new show from him, the couple splits up. Their good friend, acerbic composer Ezra Millar (Oscar Levant) tries to trick them back together again, but fails. When Josh secretly watches Dinah's rehearsals for Barredout's new play and sees how she is struggling, he calls her up and pretends to be the Frenchman, giving her notes that help her to understand her part, the young Sarah Bernhardt. As the result, Dinah gives a brilliant performance. After the show, she accidentally learns that her late-night mentor was Josh and not Barredout, so she rushes to Josh's apartment and the two reconcile. 

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The series was set in Memphis at a fictional mansion called Toad Hall, which was owned by one Big Guy Beck (Slim Pickens; Forrest Tucker), a very wealthy land baron. He had recently died of an undisclosed illness, and before he was cryonically frozen, he had made out a videotaped will, a piece of which was played every week, by his lawyer, George Wilhoit (David Healy; Vernon Weddle). The will's terms were harshest on Big Guy's oldest son, the snobbish Marshall Beck (Michael Lombard) and his equally snobbish wife Carlotta (Dixie Carter). Also aghast at the will's terms was Big Guy's wily younger wife, Kathleen (Delta Burke). The terms stated that the family wouldn't be able to collect a dime of their inheritance until they accepted Big Guy's illegitimate son, Wild Bill Westchester (Jerry Hardin) and his good-natured but ditzy wife Bootsie (Ann Wedgeworth) into their family. Many of the situations stemmed from the conniving Kathleen, Marshall and Carlotta's schemes to declare the terms and constraints of the will invalid and also to rid themselves of Wild Bill and Bootsie, not to mention the rest of the family, out of their lives, so the snobs could live it up on the money they would receive. Their wildly outlandish schemes usually and inevitably ended up failing. Also appearing were Nedra Volz, who played Big Guy's senile first wife, Winona Beck, called Mother B., who had escaped from her nursing home; and Charles Frank, who played Big Guy's younger son Stanley. Stanley, independently wealthy because he invested his money wisely, and thus not concerned about his inheritance from his father, was the nicest of the whole lot. Usually, it was Stanley who was able to protect Wild Bill and Bootsie (whom he and Mother B. accepted outright) from the devious scheming of his stepmother, who lusted after him; and his conniving brother and sister in-law. 

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The story is told by the reserved Bartolomeo Aguilera whose cunning and bravery contribute to the outcome of the novel. Born with physical defects, he has integrated prosthetic material into his body as compensation. Bartolomeo is a close friend and advisor of the Argonos' captain, Nikos. Within the first few chapters it is clear that Nikos is in an increasingly dangerous situation and that tensions on the ship are beginning to rise. Niko's credibility as captain is declining and many are ready for a new leader. Nikos informs Bartolomeo of news which may help to improve or reduce Nikos' position. While the Bishop's previous failed landing helped to place Nikos in good light, there seems little to improve Nikos' ordeal. A planet suitable for human life has been discovered. It is a short distance away and therefore a landing can be attempted, but more importantly, a signal has been sent from the planet. It is a basic signal offering no information as to who sent it or why. Nikos asks Bartolomeo to join the team which is to land on the planet, which the Bishop names Antioch. The team consists of representatives of the Executive Council, Bartolomeo included, and of the different classes on the ship. The crew, along with harvesters which are to collect and process materials for the Argonos, descend on the planet. They soon discover that Antioch appears to have been settled by humans at one time, but it has been deserted for a long time—decades, if not centuries. Although the team visits only a handful of the city-complexes, there are presumably numerous cities around the planet. All of them contain enigmatic and crumbling structures. The first startling discovery the team makes foreshadows the epiphany of evil which looms over the Argonos for the latter part of the book. A number of human remains are found outside several of the city-complexes. The remains are all but decayed with only bones remaining, and the few intact skeletons they find reveal no apparent trauma or instance of a violent death. However, the second discovery haunts the team even after leaving the planet. The team enters a glass structure which at first reveals nothing about the world or its former inhabitants. In the structure, they uncover a staircase winding down underground to another chamber. At the bottom of the staircase lies a nightmare: in a vast room there are contained, on hooks and in chains, an unimaginable number of mutilated human skeletons, including a number of children and even (horrifyingly) some mutilated infants. The Argonos is contacted at once and the team decides it is time to leave. The Argonos prepares to leave orbit, but amongst the underclasses there is talk of settling on Antioch. Par, a friend of Bartolomeo asks him for his help in a planned insurrection; the common people of the ship's blue-collar "lower decks" desire to leave Argonos and live on Antioch in order to escape their lives of unending drudgery on the Argonos. Bartolomeo agrees to help and he obtains access codes for the bay-doors and shuttles. However, the operation is thwarted and fails miserably resulting in several participants, including Bartolomeo, being taken into custody. Bartolomeo soon discovers that Nikos knew about Bartolomeo's involvement and used it to his advantage and reassert himself as captain. Bartolomeo remains in prison for months on end until he is finally released along with all of the other prisoners. He stands before the Executive Council and defends his reasons for aiding in the operation. Under his advice, other political prisoners are pardoned. Bartolomeo's position as advisor is reinstated and he is updated on a new mystery which Argonos has come across. Unbeknownst to the planet exploration team, upon their entry into one of the buildings on Antioch, a signal from the building was sent deep into space. The team was never informed of this, but Nikos decided that the Argonos should travel to where the signal had been sent, which ended up being the location of the alien ship. There, this alien starship—a vast, immeasurable, structure far larger than the Argonos—lies dormant in the dead of space, and it appears just as silent and uninhabited as Antioch. Bartolomeo takes head of a team which has been attempting to explore the mysterious ship. There has already been a number of deaths and other unfortunate incidents among previous exploratory team members while exploring the ship. Bartolomeo therefore ensures that extra precautions are taken as he takes control. Some time after Bartolomeo assumes control of the operations aboard the alien ship, the mystery becomes even greater: a solitary old woman is found in a compartment of the ship which, unlike the rest of the explored sections, inexplicably has Earth-like gravity and air breathable to humans. At first, the old woman is unable to understand the languages used to communicate with her and speaks only in gibberish. She eventually begins to communicate with scientists in English. She says her name is Sarah and claims to have been from Antioch, and says the aliens saved her people, but can clarify nothing else in her delirious state. Upon Bartolomeo's urging, the Executive Committee decides that rather than continuing to explore the staggeringly huge vessel themselves, they will attach the ship to the Argonos and take it with them in hopes of delivering it to another human settlement with greater resources to continue the ship's exploration. This proves to be a horrible mistake as the true nature of the ship is revealed. Shortly after this decision is made, a young boy known by Bartolomeo sneaks aboard the alien ship, and Bartolomeo uncovers a horrifying part of the puzzle when he goes on board to bring the boy back to the Argonos: behind a door that the exploration team was not able to open on previous visits, Bartolomeo and the boy discover an enormous chamber containing horribly mangled corpses similar to the ones uncovered on Antioch, but in much greater quantity and more well-preserved because they had been frozen. It becomes clear that the aliens who committed the genocidal acts on Antioch were or still are on board the alien vessel, and were most likely its builders. While talking to the distraught boy, Bartolomeo has a sudden realization: How did the old woman know that they had named the planet "Antioch?" She is, as deduced by Bartolomeo, an alien. Bartolomeo calls an emergency meeting with the Executive Council and tells those taking care of "Sarah" to seal the room and sedate her. Once the "Sarah" realizes something new is happening, her human shape begins to change somewhat and she displays an extreme amount of strength while trying to break out of the medical room. She is eventually sedated and ejected into space, but not before momentarily transforming into something other than human. Attempts made to separate the alien vessel from the Argonos fail. Weapons have no effect. As panic begins to intensify aboard the ship, a final plan is devised. The residents on the Argonos will be crammed into the harvesters and shuttles, and they will travel back to the abandoned planet Antioch. To rid themselves of the aliens, Nikos and a few other trusted crewmen will remain aboard the ship and conduct a random jump out of the galaxy, possibly out of the universe, thereby taking the alien vessel with them. The plan is put into action and while the alien vessel struggles to free itself from the Argonos, the two star-ships are soon gone. The story ends with the convoy still on its way to Antioch, although Bartolomeo hopes for the future. 

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The Sixth Doctor lands on the planet Refiloe, where it seems the TARDIS has taken her final flight, and is amazed to encounter his former companion, Peri. 

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The Sixth Doctor and Peri are passengers on the Lankester, a ship that makes its run every year from Madagascar to New Orleans. However, this time, the ship hides a secret... 

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Retired CIA analyst Jack Ryan is on vacation with his family in London. Ryan and his family witness an assassination attempt on Lord William Holmes, Minister of State for Northern Ireland only for Ryan to intervene. Injured in the attack, Ryan kills two of the assailants, one being Patrick Miller, while his older brother Sean looks on. The remaining attackers flee as Sean is apprehended by the police. While recovering, Ryan is called to testify in court against Miller, who is part of a splinter cell of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Miller is convicted for his crimes and swears revenge against Ryan. The leader of the splinter cell, Kevin O'Donnell, meets with IRA brigade commander Jimmy O'Reardon, who tricks O'Donnell into going into an ambush so he can be assassinated by hitmen. O'Donnell turns the tables on his attackers and kills them all while O'Donnell's lover, Annette, assassinates Reardon. While being transferred to HM Prison Albany on the Isle of Wight, Miller's escort convoy is ambushed by his comrades, including O'Donnell, who execute the police officers and coordinate an escape. Miller and his companions flee to North Africa to plan another kidnapping attempt on Lord Holmes. Miller persuades several members of the group to accompany him to the United States, where he plans to eliminate Ryan and his family. Annette and fellow terrorist Ned Clark attempt to assassinate Ryan outside the United States Naval Academy, but Ryan notices Clark following him. Clark overwhelms Ryan, only to be shot by a Marine guard. Miller and a henchman attack Ryan's pregnant wife Cathy and their daughter Sally on a busy highway, injuring them both. Enraged over the attack on his family, Ryan decides to go back to work for the CIA, having earlier rejected the appeal of his former superior, Vice Admiral James Greer. Ryan's analysis leads him to conclude that Miller has taken refuge in a training camp in North Africa. A Special Air Service team kills everyone in the camp while Ryan looks on through a live satellite feed. Unbeknownst to Ryan, Miller and his companions have left the camp and are on their way to the U.S. to stage their next attack. Lord Holmes decides to visit Ryan at his home to present his honorary knighthood in recognition of his role in foiling the first attack on Holmes. With the aid of Holmes' traitorous assistant, Miller's group tracks Holmes to Ryan's coast-side home in Maryland. The team kill the DSS agents and state troopers guarding the residence, and make an attempt to kidnap Lord Holmes. Ryan leads Holmes and his family to safety. The FBI's Hostage Rescue Team scrambles to pick up Holmes. Ryan develops a ruse to leave his family and Lord Holmes behind, near the shoreline, while racing away from the coast on a boat. Miller, O'Donnell and Annette follow suit, and chase him in a secondary boat. Upon realizing that Ryan is leading them away from Holmes, O'Donnell and Annette try to persuade him to turn around, but an enraged Miller kills them both and continues his pursuit of Ryan. Miller reaches Ryan's boat, jumps aboard, and attacks Ryan. During their fight, Ryan impales Miller on an anchor, killing him. Ryan jumps clear of the boat before it crashes into several rocks, and is rescued by an FBI helicopter. Sometime later, Cathy receives a call from her obstetrician; giving her the baby's latest test results. 

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Mrs Nesta Ford, in her London hotel room, reveals to her new friend Lord Mountry that she hopes to take her son Ogden on a yachting trip proposed by Mountry, despite her ex- husband having won custody of the boy. As Mountry leaves, Cynthia Drassilis arrives with Ogden, whom she has led away from his father's country house. Mrs Ford rewards Cynthia, but soon Mr Ford's secretary, a Mr Minnick, arrives to recover the stolen child. Cynthia tries to bribe his colleague, Mrs Sheridan, but to no avail, as she believes Nesta's influence has spoiled the boy. After they have gone, Nesta reveals to Cynthia Ogden's past as the 'Little Nugget', and the repeated attempts to kidnap him made by US gangsters. Nesta wishes to call in professional help, but Cynthia persuades her she can still do it, with the help of her new fiancé, a wealthy man called Peter Burns, who she suggests can take up a post at Ogden's new school, posing as a trainee schoolmaster. We meet Peter Burns, and learn that he fell deeply in love, sometime between the ages of 21 and 25, with a Miss Audrey Blake, daughter of an impoverished artist. Though he treated her in a patronising way, they got engaged, but shortly after the death of her father, she ran off and married another man. This event crushed Burns, once a carefree and selfish youth, and after some years of travel he returned to London chastened, and became engaged to Cynthia Drassilis mostly out of sympathy for her plight. When she visits him the day after his proposal, she easily talks him into helping her out in her scheme. He meets school head Mr Abney, and is soon signed up as Classics master at Sanstead House, the school to which Mr Ford plans to send Ogden. At Sanstead, Burns takes up his duties and soon finds his feet with the boys; he also befriends White, the smooth-mannered butler. Ogden Ford arrives a few days later, and a rather shocked Abney requests that Burns discourage his rudeness and smoking. Burns quickly learns that any attempt to kidnap the tempestuous boy will require great skill. Time passes and Ford introduces numerous vices to the school. In the local inn one day, Burns sees a suspicious-looking American; later, he sees White the butler chasing someone away from the school with a pistol. White explains that he is a detective from the Pinkerton agency, hired by Mr Ford to watch over his son. The following day, another American visits the school, a pleasant man claiming to be a friend of Mr Ford, who soon leaves again having toured the place. The next evening, Burns is strolling outside when he hears Ogden scream, and a man runs into him, knocking him down. An excited crowd gathers to discuss the incident, a man found breaking into Ogden's room, when Mrs Sheridan appears, for an appointment with Abeny; Burns quickly sees that she is in fact his former fiancée, Audrey. Things are awkward between them at first, but they soon make up. Burns meets the American from the village, who turns out to be Buck MacGinnis, former kidnapper of Ogden, and who thinks Burns is none other than his rival, "Smooth" Sam Fisher. Burns questions White about these men, and learns that while Buck a common hoodlum, Fisher is an educated and dangerously smooth man. Spending more time with Audrey, he realises his love for her is still strong. One day MacGinnis and his gang raid the school, holding up the masters at gunpoint. MacGinnis takes Burns to search for Ogden, but Burns flees out of the study window. As he is climbing out MacGinnis shoots him, but he makes it to the cover of some bushes. Burns tackles MacGinnis, breaking his leg, and the gang flees without the missing Ogden. Burns frees the rest of the school, and the police are called. Ogden still cannot be found, and a friend is also found to be missing. Burns volunteers to go to London to search for the runaways, and Audrey implores him to search well, saying she will lose her job with Mr Ford if Ogden is not found. We learn that Burns has bribed Ogden to go to London, and arranged to have his valet send the boy to his mother Nesta Ford. Abney the headmaster, sick in bed with a cold, learns that the butler is a detective and sends him on the trip to London with Burns. On the way White reveals that he saw Burns give Ogden his directions, and also that he is in fact none other than Smooth Sam Fisher, proposing to come in with Burns on the presumed kidnapping job. Burns flees to his flat, but learns that Ogden has not arrived there. Fisher arrives having followed Burns, but on learning Ogden is off enjoying London he leaves to seek him. After a day's search, Burns finds the boy at the house of his friend's mother, and brings him back to the school. Fisher also returns, threatening to expose Burns' actions if his identity is revealed. Ogden is moved to a safe room, and guarded; Burns' relationship with Audrey chills after he is reminded he is engaged, and he foils another attempt by Fisher to take the boy. The school term ends, but Mr Ford cannot collet Ogden for a few days, so Abney asks Burns to join Audrey and the butler in guarding him, but Fisher reveals Burns' plot to return Ogden to his mother. Burns leaves in shame, but returns and contacts Audrey to tell her about Fisher. She doesn't trust him, remaining aloof, and he sees MacGinnis is also back in the neighbourhood. He drives Fisher out of the house, and takes guard himself, still without Audrey's faith. Fisher comes back having joined up with MacGinnis, and offers Burns a last chance, which he rejects. With the phone wires cut, Burns tries to sneak Ogden across country, but they are trapped in the loft of the school stables. Ogden, bored of the chase, surrenders himself, and Audrey breaks down in tears, comforted by Burns. Some days later, Burns and Audrey speak of their love, but she insists he stand by his promise to Cynthia. They part, and Cynthia's mother appears with Nesta Ford. Mr Ford also arrives, as does Sam Fisher, who persuades Ford to reunite with his wife and to take Fisher on as Ogden's security guard, in lieu of a ransom. Ford agrees and they leave. Mrs Drassilis reveals that Cynthia has fallen for Lord Mountry, and Burns gives them his blessing, releasing her from the engagement. He heads off after Audrey. 

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Financier Peter Pett lives in a New York mansion with his formidable wife, crime novelist Nesta Ford Pett, his step-son, the stout and ill-behaved fourteen-year-old Ogden Ford, and his niece, the strong-willed Ann Chester. Mr Pett sees an article in the New York Sunday Chronicle about Mrs Pett's 21-year-old nephew, James Braithwaite Crocker, a wild young man called "Piccadilly Jim" who is currently in London but used to work for the Chronicle. Mrs Pett decides the family will go to London to bring Jimmy back and keep him under control in New York. Ann does not like Jimmy, because five years prior, Ann wrote a book of poetry and Jimmy interviewed her about it for the Chronicle, but made a joke of her poems and the interview in his article. Ogden behaves rudely to Mr Pett and Jerry Mitchell, Mr Pett's fitness trainer. Ann suggests to Jerry that they kidnap Ogden and send him to the pet hospital run by Mitchell's friend Smithers, who cures sick dogs with a regimen of a healthy diet and exercise. She believes the same treatment would reform Ogden. In London, Nesta's sister Eugenia, who inherited a fortune from her first husband, and Eugenia's husband Bingley Crocker, who was a penniless actor before marrying Eugenia, reside at their fashionable residence, Drexdale House. Jimmy Crocker is Bingley's son and Eugenia's step-son. Nesta claims Eugenia married beneath her, so Eugenia wants to have Bingley made a lord. Bingley would rather return to America to see baseball games, but Eugenia does not want Bingley to leave England until he has been made a peer. Bingley commits a gaffe by opening the front door for the Pett family, instead of waiting for the butler Bayliss to do so, and covers this up by pretending to be the butler. He and Mr Pett bond over their love of baseball, and Pett says he would gladly hire him. Nesta argues that Jimmy should be sent to New York, though Eugenia dismisses the idea. Jimmy wakes with a hangover, and learns from Bayliss about a newspaper report which shows that Jimmy got into a fight with an influential young man, Lord Percy Whipple. This will delay Eugenia's goal of making Bingley a lord, which upsets Bingley. This makes Jimmy feel guilty about his behaviour. Jimmy decides to go to America to save his father any more trouble, and explains this to him in a letter. He sees the beautiful Ann Chester, who is returning to America along with her family. They do not recognize each other. She clearly dislikes Jimmy Crocker, so he pretends to be Algernon Bayliss, son of the butler Bayliss. Back in New York, Nesta Pett hosts a party, where Jimmy's friend Lord Wisbeach is present, as well as the Pett family's new butler, Skinner, who is actually Bingley Crocker. Lord Wisbeach warns Mrs Pett to safeguard the explosive powder called Partidgite invented by her nephew Willie Partridge. Mitchell is pushed too far by Ogden and hits him, and Nesta Pett fires Mitchell. Jimmy volunteers to take Mitchell's place in Ann's kidnapping scheme for her, and is welcomed into the Pett household under his real name, though he still pretends he is not Jimmy to Ann. He plays along with his father being the butler, and also pretends to recognize Lord Wisbeach, though he realizes the man is an imposter. After Jimmy learns that the imposter, alias Gentleman Jack, is after the Patridgite, the so-called Lord Wisbeach tells Mrs Pett that Jimmy and Skinner are imposters. Mrs Pett hires a tough detective, Miss Trimble. Ogden makes a deal with Jimmy to be kidnapped and receive half the ransom. Jimmy remembers he mocked Ann's poetry, and keeps his identity secret. He confesses his love for her, but she has agreed to marry Lord Wisbeach. Bingley tells Jimmy he came to New York because of his homesickness and Jimmy's letter, and left a note for Eugenia saying it was for a vacation. Jimmy discovers Lord Wisbeach stealing the Partridgite. The thief sets off the powder, but it does nothing, and he flees. Miss Trimble asks questions, and Jimmy reveals the whole truth to everyone. The kidnapping plan fails, though Mr Pett insists to Mrs Pett that Ogden be sent to a boarding school. Eugenia Crocker appears and says that Bingley will soon be made a lord, since Lord Percy Whipple respects Jimmy. Jimmy stays in New York to work for Mr Pett. Ann agrees to bury the past and marry Jimmy. 

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The narrator visits the New England home of an ancient widow, Mrs. Rimmle, and her three aging daughters: Becky, Jane and Maria. Long ago Mrs. Rimmle visited Europe, which was the great event of her life. The daughters would also like to see Europe but their mother falls ill whenever their plans get close to materializing. Finally, family friends take Jane to Europe, where she is too happy ever to return. When the narrator next sees Mrs. Rimmle, she tells him that Jane has died abroad, which is not true, and that Becky will soon be going to Europe. Becky never actually gets away from the family house and finally dies. When he last visits the family, the nearly mummified Mrs. Rimmle tells the narrator that Becky has "gone to Europe," a sad euphemism for her death. 

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Dissatisfied 38-year-old attorney Roger Cobb (Martin) is dating his boss' daughter and is also an aspiring jazz guitarist. A difficult, eccentric millionairess named Edwina Cutwater (Tomlin) has been bedridden since childhood. Edwina, who has employed Roger's law firm to manage her estate, asks him to make some unusual final arrangements to her will. Having discovered she is dying, Edwina has enlisted the aid of a culture-shocked mystic named Prahka Lasa (Richard Libertini), who has mastered the secret of transferring human souls. She has made an arrangement with Terry Hoskins (Victoria Tennant), a beautiful young woman. Edwina wants her own soul placed in Terry's vacated body so that she can finally experience youth and health. Terry, who expresses discontent with the material world, will have her soul released to the universe. Roger is to change Edwina's will so that Terry, as Edwina's future self, is her sole beneficiary. Unsurprisingly, Roger believes the whole plan is "bananas". Edwina dies at the law office. The soul-transfer works, but the bowl temporarily holding her soul falls out the window and hits Roger. Roger ends up with Edwina's soul sharing his body. She has control over the right side of his body and he the left. She causes him to lose both his girlfriend and his job. Besides being able to hear her thoughts, Roger talks to Edwina's image that appears in mirrors and other reflective surfaces. Their relationship gradually warms up, but both of them want Edwina out of his body. Meanwhile, Terry is shocked to learn that the soul transference really works, as she admits she only agreed to it to get Edwina's fortune. Terry tries to prevent Roger from finding the guru by sending him to the airport with a plane ticket, but when the holy man shows up again unexpectedly, she refuses to cooperate. Roger pledges to help Edwina transfer to Terry's body as originally planned with the guru's help. They, along with Tyrone Wattell (Jason Bernard), Roger's blind friend and fellow musician, pose as band members and sneak into a party Terry is throwing at her mansion, newly inherited from the deceased Edwina. Guru Prahka successfully transfers Edwina's spirit back into the bowl, but when Roger attempts to force Terry to touch the bowl, it is flung into a bucket of water, transferring Edwina into the liquid. Prahka explains that he must repair the dented bowl before her soul can be transferred again. Terry summons security to apprehend Roger and the bucket. Roger flees and pours the water into a pitcher, which he gives to Tyrone for safekeeping. Roger allows himself to be caught with the bucket, which he has filled with ordinary water. Terry, however, appears with the pitcher, which she empties into a flower bed. Believing Edwina to be lost forever, Roger despondently wanders around the mansion as the party continues into the night. When he reunites with Tyrone, Roger discovers that his friend, mistaking the water for gin, had drunk from the pitcher before Terry took it, thereby transferring Edwina into his own body. Guru Prahka, having repaired the bowl, sends Edwina back into Roger. Roger, Prahka and Tyrone sneak into Terry's bedroom to attempt another transference, but she meets them at the door with a loaded gun. She intends to kill Roger and pass him off as an intruder, but Roger manages to gain the upper hand. In the course of the struggle another guests life is threatened and he threatens to call the police. It is revealed that the discontent Terry referred to with the world included a storied criminal record, and rather than go to jail for life as a "three-strikes loser," Terry consents to having her soul placed into the body of her favorite horse and to let Edwina take up residence in her body as originally planned. The final shot shows Roger and Edwina (who now resides in Terry's body) dancing together. 

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Spencer Brydon returns to New York City after thirty-three years abroad. He has returned to "look at his 'property,'" two buildings, one his boyhood home on "the jolly corner." The second, larger structure is now going to be renovated into a big apartment building. These properties have been the source of his income since the deaths of his family members. Spencer finds he is good at directing this renovation, despite never having done this work before, suggesting that his innate ability for business was hiding deep within him unused. Spencer rekindles a relationship with an old friend, Alice Staverton. Both comment on his "real gift" for business and construction which he also finds "vulgar and sordid." He starts to wonder who he would have been if he had stayed in the U.S. He starts to prowl the house at night to try to meet his American alter ego. Brydon has begun to realize that he might have been an astute businessman if he hadn't forsaken moneymaking for a more leisurely life. He discusses this possibility with Alice Staverton, his friend who has always lived in New York. Meanwhile Brydon begins to believe that his alter ego--the ghost of the man he might have been --is haunting the "jolly corner", his nickname for the old family house. After a harrowing night of pursuit in the house, Brydon finally confronts the ghost, who advances on him and overpowers him with "a rage of personality before which his own collapsed." Brydon eventually awakens with his head pillowed on Alice Staverton's lap. It is arguable whether or not Spencer had actually become unconscious or whether he had died and has awoken in an afterlife. She had come to the house because she sensed he was in danger. She tells him that she pities the ghost of his alter ego, who has suffered and lost two fingers from his right hand. But she also embraces and accepts Brydon as he is. 

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In a jumak (a tavern) on a small pass called Soritjae of Boseong County, South Jeolla Province during the early 1960s, Dong-ho, who is in his 30s, asks a pansori singer at the inn if the road and inn's name, "Road of Music" and "Inn of Music" were named after her singing, to which the woman denies. The singer says that they were named after a man called Yu-bong and that she learned singing from the man's adoptive daughter, Song-hwa. Dong-ho requests a song and accompanies her with his drum, recalling his past. A young Dong-ho is crying in the fields while his mother is looking at Yu-bong singing pansori for the opening ceremony of the local mill. Later that night after the performance, Yu-bong enters the hanok of Dong-ho's mother. The woman greets Yu-bong unaware that Dong-ho has woken up, and the two have sexual intercourse while Dong-ho watches from the side. Yu-bong convinces the woman to elope with him. The couple, Dong-ho, and Song-hwa leave the village and begin their journey. The woman becomes pregnant with Yu-bong's child, but both die from birth complications. Yu-bong teaches young Dong-ho and Song-hwa the verses to Jindo Arirang. Dong-ho does not exhibit the same singing talent as Song-hwa, but Yu-bong begins to teach Dong-ho the role of a pansori gosu to accompany Song-hwa. Meanwhile, Song-hwa begins to learn the verses to Chunhyangga. While traveling, they meet Yu-bong's friend, a street artist calligrapher. Yu-bong planned on bringing Song-hwa and Dong-ho to see a professional performance of Chunhyangga starring Lee Dong-seong, but the calligrapher expresses lament at Yu-bong's intentions. The calligrapher tells Yu-bong that Korean folk music is no longer a means to make a living as people turn to Western and Japanese songs instead. Yu-bong believes that Pansori is still superior and will become internationally renowned. During the performance, both children are moved to tears. After the performance, Lee stops Yu-bong and asks him for a drink. A long time ago, Lee and Yu-bong were both studying under the same master, but after a scandal between Yu-bong and the master's favorite concubine, Yu-bong was excommunicated from the community. Upon the master's death, he forgave Yu- bong and now Lee is asking Yu-bong to come back to Seoul. Yu-bong, angry and drunk, picks a fight with Lee and others declaring that although he is not a mainstream star, he will prove his value, then he storms out alone. During autumn many years later, Dong-ho and Song-hwa have both grown up to be young adults.They pick up a job to sing at an event gathering and Song-hwa impresses the male audience with her singing. One man begins to dance and approaches Song-hwa to put money in her bosom, inviting her to join them for drinks. Song-hwa reluctantly obliges. After returning home, Yu-bong slaps Song-hwa for pouring drinks and dishonoring the pansori profession. Dong-ho defends her and tells Song-hwa that since Yu-bong is not their real father and has no right to abuse them in this way. Song-hwa defends Yu-bong and admits that she loves to sing. The three continue their journey and continue to lose jobs due to Yu- bong's rash behavior. Once, while traveling through wheat fields, they break out into Jindo Arirang and begin to dance. While the song progresses, Song-hwa starts to improvise lyrics to the tune, Yu-bong joining in. While singing on the streets, Song-hwa and Yu-bong sing a duet from Chunhyangga, gathering an audience. However a marching band passing by quickly grabs their audience away drowning out the pansori singing. Yu-bong expresses disgust at the people's tastes in music and leaves. Yu-bong has gone to seek a friend in order to teach Song-hwa new skills. Dong-ho interjects that Song-hwa has no energy to sing, living off of porridge every day due to their poverty. Yu-bong grows furious, stating that a true singer does not sing for money, but rather chases after producing the best sound, which transcends both wealth and fame. Having had enough, Dong-ho packs his belongings and leaves. Song-hwa chases after him, but ultimately decides to stay with Yu-bong. The contemporary Dong-ho ends his flashback and takes a bus to Osu, where he finds out from a gisaeng that Song-hwa left their establishment 3 years ago as well after waiting for her brother on the porch. Dong-ho travels to a bar and coincidentally meets the old Calligrapher on the side of the street. Surprised by this reunion, the two have a drink and the Calligrapher tells Dong-ho that after he left, Song- hwa ceased to sing or eat, worrying Yu-bong greatly. Yu-bong and the Calligrapher were catching up and joking about the aphrodisiac that the Calligrapher was taking. Earlier, Yu-bong humiliated himself at a performance earlier and Song-hwa was reluctant to sing either. Yu-bong inquires that if one overdoses on aconite, they would become blind. Later that day, Yu-bong prepares medicine for Song-hwa and has her drink the concoction. A few days later while traveling, Song-hwa falls and admits that she has turned blind. Yu-bong takes her in his arms and brings her to a lodging near Baekyenosa Temple. By the window, Yu-bong combs Song-hwa's hair and tells her that the sun is up but the air is heavy with morning fog. Later that night, Song-hwa tells Yu-bong that she wants to learn to sing Simcheongga. Yu-bong begins to instruct Song-hwa but critiques her for not having enough despair and emotion in her voice. The father-daughter travel across snow, Yu-bong leading Song-hwa by a rope while Song-hwa practices daily in the freezing snow, singing towards the empty valley and mountain. Yu-bong tells Song-hwa that sorrow is accumulated throughout one's lifetime. He questions why the blind and orphaned Song-hwa still has no sorrow in her voice. Time passes and the frail, sick Yu- bong is on his deathbed with Song-hwa by his side. Yu-bong admits to Song-hwa that he was responsible for blinding her and asks for forgiveness. Many years later, the Calligrapher travels to an inn where Song-hwa is staying. He recognizes her singing and is shocked at her blindness. She asks him to write her name for her, expressing that she can see with her heart despite being blind. Dong-ho, having had the Calligrapher point him to the inn, also arrives at the inn. He meets Song-hwa and requests a song. Song-hwa sings Shimcheongga with Dong-ho accompanying her throughout the entire night. In the morning, Dong-ho leaves. The innkeeper asks Song-hwa if Dong-ho is the brother she has been waiting for. Song-hwa nods and admits that she knew at once the man was Dong-ho. Song-hwa tells the innkeeper that she has stayed for 3 years already and needs to move on. Reluctant, the innkeeper jokes that he is back to being a widower and asks Song-hwa to give him her address after she finds her next location. Song-hwa begins her journey through the snow. A young girl holds the rope to lead Song-hwa. 

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Just released from prison, John Muller (Paul Henreid) masterminds a holdup at an illegal casino run by Rocky Stansyck (Thomas Browne Henry). The robbery goes bad, and the mobsters capture some of Muller's men and force them to identify the rest before killing them. Stansyck has a reputation for tracking down and killing his enemies, no matter how long it takes, so Muller decides to leave town and hide. He takes an office job recommended by his law-abiding brother, Frederick (Eduard Franz), but quickly decides that working for a living is not for him. Joan Bennett as Bartok's secretary A chance encounter with dentist Dr. Swangron (John Qualen) reveals that Muller looks exactly like a psychoanalyst who works in the same building, Dr. Bartok, the only difference being a large scar on the left side of the doctor's face. Seizing the opportunity, he begins researching Bartok, even slipping into his office to examine his records. He is discovered by the doctor's secretary, Evelyn Hahn (Joan Bennett). She mistakes him for her employer and kisses him, but quickly realizes he is someone else. He persuades her to go out with him, though she has become embittered and claims to have given up any dreams of finding love. Muller sets out to impersonate Bartok, aided by the fact he studied psychoanalysis in medical school before dropping out. He takes a photograph of the doctor and uses it as a guide to cut an identical scar on his own face. Unfortunately, the developers of the photograph reversed the negative, so now Muller has the scar on the wrong side. He discovers the mistake only after he has already murdered Bartok and is preparing to dump the body in the river. He has no choice but to go through with the plan anyway. Luckily, no one (except the office cleaning lady, whose suspicions he manages to lull) notices the difference, not even Evelyn or Bartok's patients. Muller discovers "he" has a girlfriend, Virginia Taylor (Leslie Brooks), and that they frequent Maxwell's, a high class casino. It also turns out Bartok has been losing heavily. When a worried Frederick Muller tries to contact his brother, the trail leads to Bartok. The scar convinces Frederick that the man he sees is merely a lookalike. Evelyn, previously unaware of the switch (but now very suspicious), reveals that John Muller said he was going to Paris. Frederick Muller tells "Bartok" that his brother no longer has to hide; Stansyck was convicted for "income tax problems" and is scheduled to be deported. Afterward, Evelyn realizes that Muller is an imposter and that he must have killed the psychoanalyst. Though he admits to her he did, she does not turn him in to the police; instead she purchases a ticket to sail to Honolulu. Muller finds out and promises he will go with her, but she does not believe he would leave such an opportunity to enrich himself. Muller arranges for other doctors to take care of his patients and heads to the dock. There, however, he is intercepted by two men who want to discuss Bartok's $90,000 gambling debt. When Muller tries to break away, they fatally shoot him. Evelyn sails away, unaware that Muller lies dying on the dock. 

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Intelligent, parasitic extraterrestrials that resemble Terran rocks, with the intention of enslaving the human race, find a hideout in geologist Dr. Jonas Temple's lab. Although undetected by ordinary humans, physician Dr. Paul Cameron (with a surgically implanted metal plate in his skull) is able to "hear" the alien "rocks" communicate with each other. Aware that he can hear them, while referring to Paul as "the listener", they realize he's a threat, and they compel him to kill himself by jumping from the lab window to prevent him from revealing their intentions. At the last minute, he is saved when his wife, Laurie, Dr. Temple's assistant, returns to the lab, breaking the alien's mind control. Thinking he's going insane, Paul takes an impulsive vacation to Mexico with Laurie to help clear his troubled mind. Dr. Temple, now controlled by one of the "rocks" after it entered his body, pursues them. In Mexico, Laurie becomes possessed after Dr. Temple finds her alone in the remote desert cabin that she and Paul had rented, and is commanded by the aliens to possess her husband upon his return. Fighting for his life, Paul is forced to stab Temple, and shoot Laurie (though it is not clear that she dies), forcing the aliens to evacuate the bodies they inhabited, thus showing their true form - hideous, shiny-black, crab-like beings with two glowing eyes. He then starts a fire inside the cabin, where the aliens are presumably destroyed, while carrying Laurie's seemingly lifeless body away from the blaze. 

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The book is set in numerous places, including Vienna, New Orleans and Rio de Janeiro. The novel tells the story of three people: a middle-aged woman yearning to become a musician, a ghostly violinist, and the ghost of Beethoven. The story begins with Triana, who apparently becomes insane due to the death of her second husband, Karl, who had AIDS. Her first husband was Lev, with whom Triana had a daughter. Stefan, the ghost, appears the day Karl dies and plays his Stradivarius (s long Strad) (apparently also a ghost). Triana secludes herself in her house for several days without informing anyone of Karl's death. The book tells the story of both Triana and Stefan. Stefan takes Triana in a travel through time, visiting scenes from his life and his afterlife in an attempt to reclaim his violin, which had been taken by Triana. Stefan had many mentors including Beethoven and Paganini, but it is Beethoven whom Stefan cherished the most. After Stefan's story is "told" Triana returns to her rightful time but not to New Orleans where the story began but to Vienna, and now seemingly possessing a talent to improvise in the violin. The ghost of this great musician is shown wabout two times in the novel, the first one in a scene where Stefan's house in Vienna is burning, and the second one almost at the end where Beethoven appears in modern Vienna in the hotel room where Triana was staying. With Triana still in possession of the strad, Stefan continues his attempts to reclaim the violin but to no avail, until finally, after achieving success with her improvisations it is in Brazil that Triana returns the violin to his rightful owner and Stefan finally crosses over. Category:1997 American novels Category:Novels by Anne Rice Category:American horror novels Category:Alfred A. Knopf books Category:Novels about music 

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The Earl and Countess of Rhyall (Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr) are facing financial troubles and are therefore forced to permit guided tours of their stately home. A suave, somewhat obnoxious American oil tycoon, Charles Delacro (Robert Mitchum), barges into the lady of the manor's private quarters, either deliberately or by mistake. He introduces himself, explaining the family name was originally "Delacroix" but his grandfather tired of Americans pronouncing the "X" in the name. Delacro's attentions to the Countess turn her head. Rather than behave jealously, the Earl invites the American to come visit, taking their guest fishing as part of a bid to impress the importance of heritage on Delacro. Also visiting is an ex-girlfriend of Lord Rhyall's, the American heiress Hattie Durant (Jean Simmons). A love triangle (or quadrangle) soon develops. Determined to remain civilized at all times, the Earl pretends not to know that his wife has begun having an affair with Delacro at his London hotel, or that her new mink coat is a gift from her lover. He does suggest to Delacro, however, that he feels a compulsion to defend his wife's honor, and therefore challenges the American to a duel. They aim and fire once apiece inside the mansion, where the Earl is wounded in the arm while Delacro is unharmed. It is soon revealed that Sellers, the family butler who loaded the pistols, made sure both men were firing blanks while he, Sellers, an expert shot, wounded the Earl with a weapon of his own. As much as she would like to, Hilary cannot bring herself to leave her loving husband for the new man in her life. Delacro drives off, taking Hattie with him. 

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Yi-Lang (Jackie Chan) is a smart-alec martial arts student at a Shaolin Temple. An anonymous thief steals a book from the library which teaches a potentially fatal style of Kung Fu. Yi-Lang, along with a group of five other monks, is punished for not stopping the thief, but his bravery leads to him signing up to defend a supposedly haunted portion of the school. Upon discovering the ghosts, who are masters of a supposedly lost style of fighting known as The "Five Style Fists", Yi-Lang offers himself as a student, masters the form and uses it to progress quickly through the ranks of the school. In order to defend the school against the very thief who stole the book from its library, Yi-Lang demonstrates his new style and defeats the invading troupe, with a little help from his five spiritual masters. 

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Lobby card featuring Ramsay Ames as Amina Andoheb, the aging High Priest of Arkam (Karnak in the previous films), has summoned Yousef Bey to the Temple of Arkam to pass on the duties of High Priest. Beforehand, Andoheb explains the legend of Kharis to Bey. Meanwhile, in Mapleton, Massachusetts, Professor Matthew Norman, who had examined one of Kharis' missing bandage pieces during the mummy's last spree through Mapleton, also explains the legends of the Priests of Arkam and Kharis to his history class, who are less than believing. After the lecture ends, one of the students, Tom Hervey, meets up with his girlfriend Amina Mansori, a beautiful woman of Egyptian descent. However, a strange, clouded feeling in her mind occurs whenever the subject of Egypt is mentioned. Back in Egypt, Andoheb informs Yousef Bey that Kharis still lives and that Yousef's mission is to retrieve Kharis and the body of Ananka and return them to their rightful resting place in Egypt. Yousef Bey pledges his devotion before Andoheb explains that during each full moon, Yousef Bey is to brew the fluid from nine tana leaves. Kharis will sense this and find the leaves wherever they are. The moon is full in Mapleton as Professor Norman studies the hieroglyphics on a case of tana leaves. He has deciphered the message about brewing nine tana leaves during the full moon and decides to do just that. The battered, ragged form of Kharis, however, senses the leaves brewing and heads toward them. On the way, he passes the home of Amina and she follows him in a trance-like state. Kharis soon arrives at the home of Professor Norman, strangles him, and drinks the fluid of the tana leaves. Amina sees Kharis, which snaps her out of her trance but also causes her to faint. She falls to the ground with a strange birthmark now apparent on her wrist. The next morning, the Sheriff and Coroner discover a strange mold around the dead professor's throat – a sign they both know to mean that the mummy stalks Mapleton again. Sheriff Elwood questions Amina, who is dazed, but Tom Hervey arrives and tries to provide an alibi for her. The Sheriff finally dismisses the pair and Tom takes her home. Later, Yousef Bey, who has arrived in Mapleton, calls on Amon-Ra to aid him in his quest and begins to brew the sacred fluid of the tana leaves to summon Kharis. Kharis senses the leaves and heads toward them, murdering a helpless farmer along the way. The Sheriff soon arrives on the scene and organizes a search party. The next day, at the Scripps Museum, Yousef Bey lags behind a tour group viewing the mummy of Ananka. After closing time, Yousef emerges from a hiding place as Kharis breaks into the museum. Kharis attempts to touch the mummified body, but it disintegrates under the wrapping as his hand approaches. Yousef Bey realizes that Ananka's soul has been reincarnated into another form. Kharis is enraged and begins destroying the exhibit, attracting the museum security guard who is mercilessly slaughtered by Kharis. Police Inspector Walgreen and Dr. Ayad from the museum are bewildered as to how Ananka's body has disappeared without disturbing the wrappings. Dr. Ayad matches markings on the tomb to those on a cask of tana leaves and Inspector Walgreen decides to use the leaves to attract and capture Kharis. The plan is to build a pit to confine the creature until a way to deal with him can be found. Amina is still unable to shake the haunted feelings that torture her and Tom, disregarding the Sheriff's warnings, asks Amina to elope with him to New York. She agrees and the two make plans to leave early the next morning. Meanwhile, Yousef Bey calls upon Amon-Ra to lead him to the new home of Ananka's soul and then sends Kharis in that direction to find Ananka. Inspector Walgreen now begins to bait his trap by burning nine tana leaves and Kharis immediately heads toward the Norman home. Amina is awakened by his approach and hypnotically wanders into the yard. Kharis recognizes her as the carrier of Ananka's soul and Amina faints as Kharis picks her up and takes her away. The abduction is witnessed by Mrs. Blake, Amina's guardian, who phones Tom to alert him. Tom immediately sets out in pursuit while Mrs. Blake heads to the Norman house and tells her story to Inspector Walgreen, Sheriff Elwood and a large group of volunteers. Kharis arrives at the mill and presents Amina to Yousef Bey. Bey recognizes the birthmark on her wrist as the symbol of the priests of Arkam. Amina awakens and the priest informs her that she is, indeed, the reincarnation of Ananka. Yousef Bey now begins to admire Amina's beauty and cannot deny the temptations he feels to keep her alive as his bride. He decides to use the tana leaves to keep her young and beautiful forever, which enrages Kharis. Before Yousef Bey can give Amina the fluid, the mummy knocks the cup away and exacts his vengeance on the priest, who falls out a window to his death. Tom Hervey now arrives and witnesses the death of the Priest. He rushes up the stairs to the mill, but is met by Kharis. A struggle ensues and Tom is quickly overwhelmed. Kharis attempts to escape with Amina and the mob pursues the mummy and his princess into the nearby swamps. In Kharis’ arms, Amina/Ananka is now aging rapidly. They are chased deeper and deeper into the swamps and now begin to sink into the bog. Tom's last anguished sight of Amina is that of a 3,000-year-old Egyptian princess as Kharis and Ananka disappear under the water, united at last in death. 

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American Freak focused on a completely new set of characters of the Un-Men mythos created by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson, which were described as the offspring of the original Arcane Un- Men. The plot of American Freak revolves around the second-generation son of two of these "horribly disfigured creatures", a 23-year-old man named Damien Kane. Per this miniseries, the Army conducted painful, inhumane experiments on the captive Un-Men, toward the goal of “mating” them and then producing a “serum” to eliminate deformity in the offspring. (The military application of all this is not made clear.) The serum proved unstable and all the offspring except for Damien Kane died. Kane developed normally until he turned 23 years of age, at which time (the beginning of this miniseries) he began to horribly mutate. The story follows Kane’s painful transformation into a freak, and his escape (with the assistance of a telepathic, still-at-large-in-the-swamps first-generation Un-Man named Crassus – note: this is not Cranius). Crassus tricks Kane into traveling with him to Romania, promising the lad that his “creator,” Arcane, might be able to help reverse the mutation. Of course, it’s a trick: Crassus knows that Arcane is no longer in his castle redoubt. Crassus’s secret goal is to make Kane rescue a gaggle of other next-generation Un-Men from the clutches of a depraved millionaire who forces them to perform in a private sideshow. Through some form of prophecy that is never explained, the next-generation Un-Men recognize Kane as “the One” they have long expected to deliver them from captivity. Kane reluctantly helps his cousins revolt and slaughter their tormentors. The Un-Men then board a private jet for America, where they proceed to set the captive, cryogenically frozen original Un-Men free. Army soldiers and guns are involved, and ultimately Kane’s love interest—a bald, legless and psychically powered second-generation Un-Woman named Scylla—is mowed down with bullets. The original Un-Men—mute and apparently retarded—toss themselves into a conveniently situated vat of acid, thereby making a statement about the tragic pathos of freakdom. Meanwhile, Crassus vanishes into the darkness of the swamp. The military experiments are exposed, and Kane and his fellow survivors become celebrities, gracing the cover of LIFE magazine and appearing on TV talk shows. An embarrassed federal government grants them their own reservation settlement (on a former nuclear bomb testing site) and goth teens pay homage to the freaks at the camp perimeter. The Un-Men have become caged curiosities yet again. At the end of issue 5, Kane has mutated into a brooding endomorph, a veiny elder statesman narrating his tale from a private cave high above the new Un-Men encampment. 

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Thomas and David are cousins who run a fast food van in Barcelona. The food is delivered by Thomas, who rushes around the square on a skateboard. After fending off a biker gang they continue business as normal. They pay a visit to David's father, who is in a mental institution, and bump into Sylvia, the daughter of David's father's girlfriend. Thomas encourages his cousin to try to ask her out on a date, but David chickens out of this, making the excuse she would have said no anyway. Later that night, while at the van serving food, Thomas inadvertently bumps into Sylvia, who is pretending to be a prostitute. She is actually a pickpocket, and she robs a man in a bedroom and runs away to their fast food van. Both Thomas and David are enamored by her, but after allowing her to stay in their apartment that night, they wake to find Sylvia and their money gone. The next day, they bump into Moby, a bumbling private investigator who is also tracking Sylvia. They later discover that Sylvia is the heir to a sizable inheritance that a criminal gang is trying to steal from her. When she is kidnapped, Thomas, David and Moby team up to save her, infiltrating the villains' castle and defeating them in a martial arts battle. The final scene of the film shows David, Thomas and Sylvia reunited. Sylvia asks for a summer job, and Moby asks David and Thomas if they wish to work as private detectives with him, which they refuse. 

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Five prisoners - Teapot (Sammo Hung), Curly (John Sham), Exhaust Pipe (Richard Ng), Vaseline (Charlie Chin), and Rookie (Stanley Fung) meet in their cell to form a friendship. Rookie assumes the leadership of the group, whilst Teapot is bullied by the others (in the later films, Roundhead, played by Eric Tsang, is the group's victim and Hung's character is the leader). Following their release, they team up with Curly's beautiful sister, Shirley (Cherie Chung), and form a company called the Five Stars Cleaning Co. While most of the group attempt to vie for Shirley's affection, Teapot ultimately forms a relationship with her. A sixth convict, the wealthy Jack Tar (James Tien), is released on the same day. Upon his release, he commences work on his next criminal project: trading counterfeit US and Hong Kong currency with an American crime boss. Jack sends his chauffeur to do the exchange at a skating competition, but the chauffeur's insecure attitude attracts the attention of two muggers. The muggers steal the briefcase containing the counterfeit US money and take off. Police officer CID 07 (Jackie Chan) attempts to recover the briefcase containing the phony money, but the case accidentally ends up in the Five Stars Cleaning Co. van. CID 07 continues his pursuit of the muggers, which results in a massive freeway pile- up. Teapot and his friends are unaware of the mishap, and drive away with the case. The chauffeur informs Jack, who orders his men to search for them. Later, Jack hosts a party at his mansion. Teapot and his friends decide to gatecrash, hoping to expand their business with the wealthy guests. They successfully enter the mansion undetected, and while socializing with the other guests, Jack privately meets a Triad boss to discuss a new deal for the counterfeit plates. A bodyguard then realizes the Five Stars Cleaning Co. are there, and alerts Jack, who interrogates Curly. Curly insists he has no knowledge about the case, and the ensuing ruckus causes a physical confrontation between the friends and Jack's bodyguards. The friends narrowly escape, only to be kidnapped by the Triad boss, who secretly wants to cut off the deal with Jack and obtain the plates himself. He orders the friends to give up the case, and holds Shirley hostage. The friends return home and finally discover the case. When they leave to make the dropoff, however, Jack's men arrives. Teapot, Exhaust Pipe, and Vaseline engage them in battle, while Curly leaves to fetch the Triad boss and Rookie goes for help. The Triad boss and his bodyguards arrive, where Jack learns of his motives and turns the fight against him instead. The police arrive, led by Rookie, who reveals himself to be undercover. They arrest Jack and the Triad boss and their men and rewards the friends for their assistance. 

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The movie follows the story of an amiable kindergarten principal named Troshkin who looks exactly like a cruel criminal nicknamed Docent (Доцент, literally associate professor) that has stolen Alexander the Great's helmet at an archaeological excavation. Docent and his gang are caught by police, but Docent is imprisoned in a different jail than his mates. Since Troshkin looks identical to Docent, the police send him undercover to prison with the real criminals to get information about the stolen helmet. He must pretend to be the real felon Docent, so in order to be convincing, Troshkin, a well-educated and good- natured man, has to learn slang and manners of criminals. 

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Brothers Dova (Matt Dillon) and Milo (Gary Sinise) are small-time crooks. They and their partner, Law (William Fichtner), pull a holdup in New Orleans that goes terribly wrong. A police officer is killed, as are two other men. The robbers flee to a local bar, Dino's Last Chance, desperately taking everyone inside hostage. Milo is seriously wounded and bleeding. Law is a sociopath who is ready and willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. Dova is their leader, trying to keep the situation calm while federal agents, led by Browning (Joe Mantegna), surround the bar. A bar employee, Janet (Faye Dunaway), tries but fails to reason with the intruders. Her boss, Dino, behind the bar, secretly has a shotgun that he is hoping to get a chance to use. He does—grabbing Law and holding it on him, but Law gets the upper hand and bludgeons him. Besides a barfly (John Spencer) who is barely coherent and a younger man, Danny (Skeet Ulrich) shooting pool, there is one other customer (Viggo Mortensen), a man named Foucard dressed in a business suit, who is strangely silent and inactive all his time there. As the life of Milo slips away and the robbers' demands to the cops go unmet, Dova decides whether to surrender or start letting Law shoot hostages one at a time. Law is especially terrified of going back to prison. Dova and Law prepare to take Danny as a hostage. But Janet pleads them not to as he is her son. It is revealed that Foucard is a wanted fugitive and the police really want him. Dova and Law prepare to give Foucard to the police and pretend that Foucard is the kidnapper and they are the hostages. Milo has Dova and Law swear on their mothers that they will not kill anyone. But when painted into a corner, Law is more than ready to kill and Dova agrees. Milo wants no more of it all and prepares to turn himself in. Dova holds a gun on him to keep him there. When Dova and Law leave, Milo takes the knife he was given off a hostage and uses it to finish himself off. Dova finds out and is in tears. They prepare to give the police the wanted Foucard. The police finally storm the place and opening fire on people, including Law and Foucard. Dova and the real hostages are allowed to vacate. Janet covers for Dova as he kept Law from killing the rest of the hostages. Dova is traumatized. 

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Murdoch Troon (Stanley Baxter) is a dour Scot living and working for a local government authority somewhere in south London. A shy young man, his main excitement comes from cycling. After he's forced off the road by an impatient car driver, he tracks down the owner, only to find that he is Commander Chingford (James Robertson Justice), the domineering and acerbic owner of a sports car distributorship. Chingford reluctantly pays for the damage to Murdoch's cycle, but more significantly, Murdoch meets Claire (Julie Christie), Chingford's beautiful blonde daughter. He is smitten with her and, after she tells him she loves sports cars and would love to have one but "her great dictator" (meaning her father) won't allow it. Even though he can not drive, he is talked into buying a car to impress her by Murdoch's friend and fellow lodger, Freddie Fox (Leslie Phillips), a used car salesman and serial cad. Freddie sees a chance to ingratiate himself with Chingford and also to sell Murdoch a car. The car is a 1927 vintage Bentley 4½ Litre Red Label Speed model, painted in British Racing Green and named The Fast Lady. Murdoch has his first driving lesson in a less exciting car, an Austin A40 Farina, which proves to be a comedy of disasters with a nervous instructor (Eric Barker). Freddie then makes a deal with Murdoch and offers to teach him, but the results are equally disastrous. Unwilling to give up, and determined to prove his love for Claire, Murdoch bets her father that he can drive the car. An experienced racing driver, Chingford is convinced that Murdoch has no hope of achieving this — and bets him that he cannot. Murdoch takes Chingford for a drive in the Bentley and loses the bet. But the tables are turned when Chingford loses Murdoch's counter-bet that Chingford cannot drive back home in less than 30 minutes. He then reluctantly allows Claire to go out with Murdoch in the car. The day comes for Murdoch's driving test. Freddie has set him up with a 'bent' examiner, but Murdoch draws the 'wrong' examiner. As the test comes to an end (and the examiner is almost certainly going to fail Murdoch), the car is commandeered by police to chase a Jaguar car driven by escaping bank robbers. The high speed chase takes them through town and country, across a golf course (leaving in its wake, a trail of disasters) and eventually the robbers are caught. Chingford so admires his driving skill that he allows the couple to get engaged. The film features cameos and performances by many well- known comedy and character actors, including Dick Emery as a car salesman, Clive Dunn, Gerald Campion, Frankie Howerd, Bernard Cribbins, Bill Fraser, 'Monsewer' Eddie Gray and Fred Emney. A racing sequence also features brief appearances by drivers John Surtees and Graham Hill, along with Raymond Baxter and celebrated automotive journalist John Bolster. Note: The 'Fast Lady' is a 1927 Bentley 4.5-litre Red Label Speed model with Vanden Plas short chassis fabric body, registration number TU5987. It was sold by a specialist dealer in 2010. 

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Born in 1929, Ken Kimble is raised the son of a pastor in Missouri and becomes a minister like his father. While working as a chaplain in a Bible college in Richmond, Virginia he feels attracted to Birdie Bell, one of his female students. Ken, who is 32, marries the 19-year-old Birdie on the spot. The Kimbles have two children, Charlie and Jody. Soon after he is forced to resign over an alleged affair, Ken disappears with Moira Snell, one of his students. It takes Birdie many years to get over her husband's desertion. Only at the end of the novel, when she is 51, does Birdie find some solace with Curtis Mabry, her teenage sweetheart. In 1969, at the age of 40, Ken moves to Florida with Moira, where he finds work as a gardener. When he and Moira break up after a few months, he takes a room with Joan Cohen, a rich professional woman of Jewish descent about his own age. They soon become lovers and Joan sees Ken as her last chance at happiness, especially now that one of her breasts has been removed due to breast cancer. Ken pretends to have a Jewish background and, after getting married under Jewish law, starts working as a real estate broker. Joan realizes that she knows nothing about her husband's past when she finds an old photograph of his two children. Unable to have children of her own, Joan persuades Ken to fetch his children so that they can be raised in Florida. Ken tricks Birdie by offering to take the kids on vacation, which she naively accepts. At first, Charlie and Jody take Joan for a nanny. When he realizes the truth, Charlie steals some money from Joan and escapes with his little sister. Joan soon after dies of breast cancer. Ken inherits all her money and moves to Washington, D.C. to set up a new real estate business. In the late 1970s, he has a chance meeting with Dinah, who used to babysit Charlie and Jody. Although she is more than 25 years his junior, they get married in 1979 and have one son, Brendan. Ken one day sells his company and starts a government-funded project providing affordable accommodation for those in need, which gains him a lot of recognition in the community. Dinah has an extramarital affair until Ken, despite his lifelong strict diet and his regular exercise, has a heart attack in 1994 at the age of 65. Hoping that it might cheer Ken up, Dinah invites Charlie and Jody for Thanksgiving, but the family reunion only serves as an eye-opener to Ken Kimble's despicable character. After recovering from his illness, Ken leaves Dinah. It is soon discovered that he had been embezzling large sums of money from his non-profit organisation and that a small child has died in one of the houses he is responsible for because he refused to have a faulty furnace repaired. Ken dies alone in Florida. 

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A young unnamed boy living in a polluted area visits a strange isolated man called the Once-ler on the Street of the Lifted Lorax. The boy pays the Once-ler fifteen cents, a nail, and the shell of a great-great-great grandfather snail to hear the legend of how the Lorax was lifted and taken away. The Once-ler tells the boy of his arrival in a beautiful valley containing a forest of Truffula trees and a range of animals. The Once-ler, having long searched for such a tree as the Truffula, cut one down and used its silk-like foliage to knit a Thneed, an impossibly versatile garment. The Lorax, who "speaks for the trees," emerged from the stump of the Truffula and voiced his disapproval both of the sacrifice of the tree and of the Thneed itself. However, the first other person to happen by purchased the Thneed for $3.98, so the Once-ler was encouraged and started a business making and selling Thneeds. The Once-ler's small shop soon grew into a factory. The Once-ler's relatives all came to work for him and new vehicles and equipment were brought in to log the Truffula forest and ship out Thneeds. The Lorax appeared again to report that the small bear-like Bar-ba-loots, who eat Truffula fruits, were short of food and had been sent away to find more. The Lorax later returned to complain that the factory had polluted the air and the water, forcing the Swomee-Swans and Humming-Fish to migrate as well. The Once-ler was unrepentant and defiantly told the Lorax that he would keep on "biggering" his business, but at that very moment, one of his machines chopped down the very last Truffula tree of them all. Without any raw materials, the factory shut down and the Once-ler's relatives promptly abandoned him in the now-decimated environment. The Lorax said nothing but with one sad backward glance lifted himself into the air "by the seat of his pants" and disappeared behind the smoggy clouds. Where he last stood is a small pile of rocks with a single word: "UNLESS". The Once-ler pondered the message for years, in solitude and self-imposed exile. In the present, as his buildings fall apart around him, the Once-ler at last realizes out loud what the Lorax meant: "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." He then gives the boy the last Truffula seed and urges him to grow a forest from it, saying that, if the trees can be protected from logging, then the Lorax and all of his friends may come back. 

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The film is set in Tokyo at an unspecified point in the near future when the Japanese yen has become the strongest currency in the world. This attracts an influx of immigrants, legal and illegal, to work in the city. The immigrants give the city the nickname . The Japanese natives, however, despise the nickname, and in retribution call the immigrants by the homophone , anglicised as "Yentowns" in the film's English subtitles. The story centers around a sixteen-year-old girl (Ito) whose mother has just died. The girl is passed on from person to person until she is taken in by a Chinese Yentown prostitute named Glico (Chara), who names her Ageha (Japanese for swallowtail). Under Glico's care, Ageha starts a new life. The immigrant characters, who speak Japanese, English, Mandarin, or Cantonese, earn their living by committing petty crimes and engaging in prostitution. Ageha does not participate in any of these activities, but is protected by Glico and the other immigrants. The film does not make clear whether Ageha is Japanese or an Asian immigrant. Eventually, due to a sudden twist of fate, the immigrants are given a chance to realize their various dreams. But in doing so, they destroy their solidarity, and have to face their problems separately. 

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The narrator begins by mentioning to the reader that he had just been to a wedding but recalls a Christmas party that he had found more interesting. The party was given with the pretext of being a children's party, but its real purpose was for the wealthy host's family to talk business with rich members of the community. The wealthiest guest was Julian Mastakovich, a rotund landowner. Without anyone to talk to, the narrator fell to simply observing the guests. The narrator takes particular interest in the children. They were given gifts in accordance with their social standing. The eleven-year-old daughter of a wealthy government contractor received an expensive doll, while the poorest child, the son of the family governess, received only a small book without illustrations or even a front and back cover. After being bullied by the other richer boys, the poor boy retreats to another room where he and the rich daughter play happily with the doll. Julian Matsakovich also retreats from the rest of the crowd to observe the rich daughter, who already had a dowry set aside of 300,000 rubles. As Mastakovich observes the girl, he calculates what her dowry (with interest) would be at age sixteen, and he comes up with the astounding sum of 500,000 rubles. Mastakovich approaches the girl and kisses her on the head. The girl recoils from his gesture, and she looks to her playmate for protection. Mastakovich tries to scare the poor boy away while trying to get a promise of love from the young girl, and eventually he causes a scene where he chases the poor boy around the party, whipping at him with his handkerchief. The wedding that the narrator came across five years later was indeed the wedding between Julian Mastakovich and the rich girl, now sixteen . 

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The fictional Special Execution Agency (S.E.A.) sends three operatives from their Phantom Unit, Billy Bishop, Sheila Crawford and Nicklaus Nightwood; onto the roof of Castle Wolfgang in Austria. Eve, SEA's commanding officer, informs them that the terrorist group Enigma is inside the castle, and they must be stopped before they can utilize their bio-weapon "Lahder". The trio are successful in infiltrating the castle, but Nicklaus is captured in the process. The player infiltrates a chapel within the castle by posing as Enigma's second-in- command, Dietrich Troy. Inside, Bishop and Sheila are confronted by the real Dietrich, as well as Enigma's anonymous leader and a group of guards. Dietrich displays Nicklaus hung upon a crucifix, shooting and killing him as the leader leaves. A flashback commences once Nicklaus has died. The story proper begins two months prior to the game's opening. The player is heading a covert investigation into NanotechDyne Inc, a pharmaceutical company suspected of developing biochemical weapons. The SEA needs to access files on the computer of the new Research Director, Forrest Kaysen, who recently displaced Dr. Alice Coleman. The player must retrieve a password for the computer, also including a scan of Kaysen's retina to access the computer. The plan is a success, and the player is extracted and sent back in at midnight to access the computer. The player then secures the files, seeing the emblem of Enigma on the desktop. The player is teamed up with the other possible player character as well as Nicklaus and Phantom's team leader, Samuel Berkeley. Kaysen has been linked to the Metropolis' owner, Kelly Wong, and Phantom must observe a meeting between the doctor and the businesswoman. Sheila knocks Kaysen out, allowing Billy to pose as him and take his place at the meeting while Sheila eavesdrops. The player makes it to the demonstration without Nicklaus. Lahder turns out to be a small grenade-like sphere, emitting purple gas. Kaysen prepares to test the device on a monkey before an audience, mostly consisting of arms dealers and criminals. However, Wong nods to Troy, standing behind the scenes, and pushes Kaysen into isolation with Lahder and the monkey. Although Kaysen is killed, Nicklaus contacts the player stating that they've been discovered. The player attempts to escape, finding Wong surrounded by guards. The player disarms Wong and neutralizes her men, holding her at gunpoint. Troy appears, holding the player at gunpoint as well, and shoots Wong. Disguising themselves as Troy to enter the plant, the player destroys the payload and sets out to escape before US forces bomb the facility. The player then finds a wounded Nicklaus locked in a storage crate. He tells the player that Dr. Coleman is in the holding cells, and the player goes to rescue her. After a gunfight, Coleman is captured by General Douglas Lysander. The player chases and then battles Lysander before Nicklaus fatally shoots him, allowing them to secure Coleman and escape. Enigma announces their ultimatum, demanding the US "confess its sins" and resign from the UN Security Council. Bishop, Sheila and Samuel are then sent to the Rodt Rose Railway Station in Austria to resolve a hostage situation caused by Enigma. Samuel is wounded in combat, and sends the player to free the hostages. The hostage situation turns out to be staged, and the player is ambushed after Troy suggests that there is a traitor in Phantom. Troy elaborates on Enigma's plans, saying that they intend to trigger a third World War. Troy escapes, and Samuel reveals that Enigma's leader is actually a former Phantom leader named Dimitri Vedernikov, aka Scarface, and that Vedernikov was once Samuel's partner, and is Billy's father. Bishop and Sheila decide to sacrifice Samuel, sending him toward a bridge rigged with explosives and ending his life. The player then returns to Nicklaus's death in the chapel. The player wounds Troy in battle, before special forces arrive and fatally shoot him. The player continues forward to confront Scarface, who is preparing to fly the Metropolis filled with Lahder. over the US. Before the battle, Sheila is revealed to be one of the Gospel Children known as AG7753, before Scarface gave her a name. Scarface battles the player and reveals his cyborg body, but is defeated, and uses a vaccine called Jacob created by Coleman to destroy the virus, leaving Scarface to die in the explosion. Following Metropolis' destruction, Eve later manages to get into contact after someone jammed the transmission. Nicklaus is actually alive, and the body recovered from the chapel is Phantom's tech officer, Michael Kwan. Bishop and Sheila track Nicklaus to an Airbase, where he intends to flee, now revealed as double agent for both Phantom and Enigma. During the confrontation, Nicklaus reveals himself to be Dietrich Troy (The one that was killed in the chapel by the Special Forces was a decoy). Nicklaus explains that he was against both Enigma and Phantom, acting for his own motives of revenge against Scarface and Billy, of whom he is the half-brother. Nicklaus had been seeking revenge on Scarface for killing his mother, and Billy out of jealousy that "While [Nicklaus] froze in a Siberian orphanage, [Billy] grew up with a mother who loved [him]". Nicklaus uses a flash grenade to escape, prompting Bishop and Sheila to chase him as he boards a plane and starts down the runway. The player shoots a hole in the gas tank, and uses a flare to ignite it as Nicklaus takes off. The flare burns along the gas trail, reaching the plane and destroying it, killing Nicklaus as well. The game ends with Billy wondering who "the battle was really against". 

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Ryu and Ken have begun training with the reluctant and mysterious legend Gouken. One night, Ken's friend Cho appears at the dojo in a panic, revealing that he has learned of M. Bison's organization, Shadaloo, and its current agenda—vicious human experiments revolving around a drug called Doll which effectively brainwashes people, usually for acts of violence. Cho has been followed and falls victim to an attack by Bison and two of his lords of Shadaloo, Vega and Sagat. Naturally, a fight ensues, during which the groups of combatants become separated. After making his way back to the dojo, Ryu finds that Gouken has been left for dead by Bison, and hears his master's final words. Assuming the missing Ken to be dead also, Ryu becomes a lonesome vagabond. Years later, Doll has had an effect on the lives of a soldier named Guile and an Interpol officer named Chun-Li who have arrived on Shad and entered its martial-arts tournament in respective efforts to investigate Shadaloo and reach Bison, who has become the tournament's champion. Ryu, now a more capable fighter, has also emerged on Shad and entered the tournament, while befriending Cho's old girlfriend Po-Lin and her little brother Wong-Mei, who have been recently orphaned and manage their family's Chinese restaurant. As the fighting progresses over the course of a few days, Ryu, Guile, and Chun-Li advance, facing opponents such as Blanka, E. Honda, Dhalsim, and Zangief some of whom have personal goals of their own. Ryu and Chun-Li form a loose affinity, and following a moment in which Chun-Li suddenly comes across Po-Lin with Ryu and appears jealous, Ryu sees a picture in the paper of an upcoming participant in the tournament and from there realizes that Ken is indeed alive. At the tournament, Chun-Li and Guile begin losing to Vega and Sagat, with Guile still not fully recovered from his match with Zangief, and Chun-Li partly hindered by rage. During the battles, an emotionally conflicted Ken starts to snap out of Doll's influence. Eventually, a weary Chun-Li begins to recall the advice she's received from her father and Ryu respectively, regains control of herself, and surprises Vega with a powerful Kikoken a moment before he can land the finishing strike. Guile, meanwhile, is still faring poorly against Sagat, before being saved by intervention from none other than Ken, who's regained his senses. While the new fight plays out, Guile and Chun-Li lay nearly unconscious in the backroom infirmary, only to be approached by a henchman of Bison's sent to finish them off. But before he can complete his attack, he is blasted into a wall and knocked senseless by a Hadouken, and a still-weary Chun-Li reaches out upon looking up and noticing that Ryu has arrived. After overcoming Sagat, Ken is set to fight in the next day's final match, but soon confronts Bison backstage in a hallway, seeking to take his anger out on him immediately. He is stopped, however, by Ryu, whom Ken is relieved to find alive. However Bison uses his power to control Ken via Doll again and orders him to fight Ryu. The fight stops when Ryu ceases fighting and tells Ken to resist Doll and Bisons orders. Ken has a flashback of his years under Gouken with Ryu and snaps out of it in the middle of a Shoryuuken. He manages to turn the attack away from Ryu and smashes his hand into a wall. With his hand broken, Ken asks Ryu to take his place in the tournament's finale against Bison. Ryu agrees, and after an emotional battle witnessed by many, including notable Street Fighters and several of the people who have been affected by Shadaloo over the years, Ryu emerges victorious. As it ends, a jump forward at some point in the future reveals that many of the friends and participants have parted ways or begun doing so. A narrative by Chun-Li implies that both Doll's time and Shadaloo's control over Shad have passed. Ryu departs once more, leaving Ken, Po-Lin, and Wong-Mei as he sets off on a journey. 

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In the late 21st Century, Earth is overcrowded and polluted. An alien race from the Dark Star Solar System called "The Wipers," who look human, start to colonize the planet and go about destroying communication and data technology. In 2117, humans start to evacuate the planet for a place called the White Crystal Solar System. In 2123, the last of the humans are getting ready to evacuate. Meanwhile, a group of librarians, led by Ms. Bookhart, have built an underground library to protect all human knowledge from the Wipers. While they are finishing up before they leave for the evacuation site they discover that one book, the third volume of "The History of Wipers on Earth," is missing. Desperate to find that book, Ms. Bookhart drives the bookmobile to the house of the last person who borrowed that book to see if he forgot to return it. When she arrives she discovers a Wiper is there destroying everything. On her way to the evacuation site the bookmobile stalls. As she is looking for tools to fix the vehicle, a being who calls himself "The Universal Being" appears and puts her in a deep sleep. The other librarians go to the evacuation site and are sad to leave without Ms. Bookhart, not knowing what happened to her or the missing book. 100 years later, another alien race called "The Users" from the Alpha-Centauri Solar System, who also look human, have set up a communication base on Earth. Under the guidance of Tesla, a group of children Users try to learn about human knowledge as much as possible in order to find a way to defeat the Wipers. Two Users named Abakas and Aphos, who are grandchildren of Tesla, find two books, Cinderella and the third volume of The History of the Wipers on Earth, and try to figure out their purpose. Meanwhile, two other Users find a sign that says "Bookmobile Stops Here." When they learn a bookmobile is a traveling library, which has many books, Abakas and Aphose along with two other friends, Varian and Lidar, leave the base and search for the bookmobile in order to get more books. When they find it, they are surprised to find Ms. Bookhart inside asleep, since it is known that all humans left the planet. The Universal Being appears again and gives them a clue how to wake Ms. Bookhart who will teach about the books and how to use the library. Figuring out one part of the clue, Abakas starts to read a section of "The Story of the Amulet," which wakes up Ms. Bookhart. She then takes the children to the underground library to hide from the Wipers, only to discover it's a wreck. While the children are helping her clean up, she teaches them more about books and how the library is organized. Meanwhile, the Wipers, led by Chief Humbuckler, put a magnetic shield around the User base, which prevents anyone from entering or leaving. They destroy other User bases, but only Colonel Holon, Abakas' and Aphos' father, survives. While the children are learning about the library, they find ways to help Colonel Holon survive by eating Watermelon, find his way to the library, destroy the shield around the base, Wiper superstition of horses, and how to defeat the Wipers and communicate with the humans that it is safe to come home. 

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An explosion occurs in a classified research laboratory, causing an intense fire. A mutated monster known as the OXCOM (Outside Experimental Combat Mammal) escapes and chases a golden retriever from the same lab, through the surrounding woods. The dog outruns it and hides in a barn. In the barn, Travis Cornell (Corey Haim) is with his girlfriend Tracey (Lala Sloatman). Thinking it is her father, Travis leaves. Tracey discovers the beast and screams, summoning her father who is attacked. Meanwhile, Travis finds the dog in the back of his car and a military/police force is sweeping the area for the escapees. Travis starts to realize the dog is extraordinary and decides to keep it. Meanwhile, an NSO agent named Johnson (Michael Ironside) is dispatched by the corporation to retrieve the animals. The next morning, Travis's mother informs him that there has been an accident and that Tracey is in the hospital. Travis and his mother rush to the hospital, but Agent Johnson and his partner will not allow them to see her. Travis pushes past them into Tracey's room, only to find it completely empty. The men claim that she has been transferred to a better location. Travis is puzzled as to why the men were armed. At home, Travis' mother is displeased about the dog. She allows him to keep it when Travis shows the level of intelligence that the dog possesses. While bathing the dog, Travis sees GH3 tattooed on its ear, and concludes it is a research dog, which would explain its superior intellect. Agent Johnson stops by Travis' house to ask questions and the dog hides. The dog tracks Travis down at school, where he types 'D ANG ER N S O' on a computer. Travis is given detention for bringing a pet to school. Meanwhile, three of Travis's friends are murdered by the OXCOM in the woods. The OXCOM then traces the dog to the school, where two staff members are killed. One is able to call the police. The now-suspicious sheriff and a policewoman arrive, and she is also killed. When the sheriff confronts Agent Johnson, he is forced to tell the sheriff the truth regarding the killer, but asks that they move to a quieter location away from the press. He explains that it was a scientific project gone wrong and that the OXCOM is chasing the dog, which targets and kills anything it comes across or that has been in contact with the dog. He then abruptly murders the sheriff. A family friend who is fixing the washing machine mentions that a man stopped by earlier asking if they owned a dog. Travis, realizing the NSO is after them, sneaks out of the house. His mother stops him before he can drive away, telling him that they are in it together. Back inside, they find their friend dead. They run upstairs with the dog, locking the bedroom door. The beast begins to break it down. The mother climbs onto the adjacent rooftop while Travis grabs a hunting gun. He tells her to start the truck and jumps out the window followed by the dog who is knocked down by the OXCOM. He fires, then picks up the injured dog, and the three drive to a veterinarian. Noticing the code on the dog's ear, the vet calls the authorities. Travis catches on and they leave the vet's office before the NSO agents can arrive. The next morning after the agents track them to the motel they are staying, the mother creates a diversion, allowing Travis and the dog to escape the NSO agents. Travis takes the dog to his father's old cabin in the woods. His mother insists the NSO agents let her visit Tracey. Although Johnson claims the NSO is protecting her while she recovers, Travis's mother realizes that the sedated Tracey is unharmed and her room has no medical equipment, and that the NSO are holding her as a prisoner. The agents take the women to the cabin to use as hostages, but Travis throws a homemade Molotov cocktail at the NSO agents, allowing the two women to run into the cabin. Agent Johnson fires at them, but he is stopped by his partner who balks at murdering a woman and two kids. Johnson then reveals that he is the corporation's third experiment, a genetically engineered assassin with no conscience, and kills his partner. In a tussle with Johnson, Travis is stabbed in the leg with his own knife. The dog jumps through the window and onto Johnson, allowing Travis to stab him through the neck. Johnson, unfazed by the stab wound, claims that they will die anyway before being shot to death by Mrs. Cornell. Armed with homemade weapons, the team readies themselves for the beast. When it arrives, Travis shoots at it and it throws the dog into the truck windshield. Travis follows it into the woods, where he finds it injured and sobbing. At first, he cannot bring himself to kill it. It then attacks him and he is forced to finish it off. Travis, his mother, Tracey and the dog regroup and leave in the beaten truck as the farmhouse burns down. 

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Sapna (Karisma Kapoor) has been brought up by her three doting, but eccentric uncles. Uncle no. 1 (Paresh Rawal) is a very religious Hindu, while Uncle. No. 2 (Om Puri) is a former wrestler who is very into fitness and makes Sapna do intense workout routines daily. Uncle no. 3 (Anupam Kher) is into fashion and western music. The uncles all wish for her to marry, but their differences clash, as each of them wants the boy to have the same interests as them. Sapna is tired of dancing to her uncle's tunes all her life and wishes to take a group trip to Europe. However, when she expresses her wishes to her nanny, Mary (Himani Shivpuri), her uncles fire the nanny for giving Sapna such foolish ideas. However, Mary works for another family and tells them of Sapna's plight. She shares Sapna's photo with Raja (Salman Khan). He is pleased with her photo and is determined to make her his bride. Meanwhile, Sapna looks to the last resort and tries to run away, but Uncle no. 3 catches her and volunteers to take her to the airport himself. On her travels through Europe, Raja creates nothing but trouble for her, but circumstances separate them from the rest of the tour group, and Raja saves Sapna's life. They fall in love and wish to marry once they return to India, but Raja must first impress all three of her uncles. Through a series of comic events, Raja wins their hearts. He and Sapna happily marry in the end. 

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The novel concerns "Lucky" Jack Waley, a computer salesman and conman unfortunate enough to be aboard the starship Bucentaure when the engine blows. He crashlands on the planet Kerim, a planet where anything you ask for from the mysterious Pe'Ichen is instantly manufactured before your eyes. Anything trivial. No food, no houses. And for the current generation, no children. Jack connects up with a variety of rogues to try to save the day, only to discover that Pe'Ichen is an ancient computer with miraculous powers, designed to keep order in the lives of the Kerimites, providing them with their every need. Pe'Ichen, however, has determined that a) the sun will explode in 56 years, and b) that there is no such thing as life on other planets. 

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The film consists of three stories that take place on the same night in downtown Memphis. The three stories are linked together by the Arcade Hotel, a run-down flophouse presided over by a night clerk (Screamin' Jay Hawkins) and a bellboy (Cinqué Lee), where the principal characters in each story spend a part of the night. Every room in the hotel lacks a television (as is noted in each story) but is adorned with a portrait of Elvis Presley. The first story, "Far from Yokohama", features Mitsuko (Youki Kudoh) and Jun (Masatoshi Nagase), a teenage couple from Yokohama making a pilgrimage to Memphis during a trip across America. Mitsuko is obsessed with Elvis, and has put together a scrapbook detailing her belief that the singer has a mystical connection to other cultural figures ranging from Madonna to the Buddha to the Statue of Liberty. The story follows the couple as they travel from the train station, through downtown Memphis and a tour of Sun Records, to the Arcade hotel, before they eventually depart to board the train again. The second story, "A Ghost", is about an Italian widow, Luisa (Nicoletta Braschi), who is stranded in Memphis while escorting her husband's coffin back to Italy. Luisa shares a room at the hotel with Dee Dee (Elizabeth Bracco), a young woman who has just left her British boyfriend (Johnny from the final story) and plans to leave the city in the morning. Luisa is kept awake by Dee Dee's constant talking. After Dee Dee finally goes to sleep, Luisa is visited by an apparition of Elvis Presley. The final story, "Lost in Space", introduces Johnny (Joe Strummer). Upset after losing his job and his girlfriend (Dee Dee), Johnny – called Elvis, much to his chagrin – drunkenly brandishes a gun in a bar before leaving with his friend Will Robinson (Rick Aviles) and his ex-girlfriend's brother, Charlie (Steve Buscemi), who believes Johnny to be his brother-in- law. They stop at a liquor store, which Johnny robs, shooting its clerk (Rockets Redglare) in the process. Fearing the consequences, Johnny, Will and Charlie retire to the hotel to hide out for the night; there, they all become increasingly intoxicated. Charlie realizes that Will shares the same name as the character Will Robinson from the television show Lost in Space, which Johnny has never heard of. Charlie and Johnny proceed to tell him about the show, and Will comments that the title describes how he feels then with Charlie and Johnny: lost in space. The next morning, Charlie discovers that Johnny isn't really his brother-in-law, which angers him because of what they've been through. Johnny attempts to shoot himself, and while struggling to prevent him, Charlie is accidentally shot in the leg. Leaving the hotel, the three rush to escape a police car that isn't even looking for them. The closing credits show the train, the airport and final views of the characters from the first two stories. 

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Martin Delambre (Baker) is driving to Montreal one night when he sees a young girl by the name of Patricia Stanley (Gray) running in her underwear. They fall in love and are soon married. However, they both hold secrets: she has recently escaped from a mental asylum; he and his father Henri (Donlevy) are engaged in radical experiments in teleportation, which have already had horrific consequences. Martin also suffers recessive fly genes which cause him to age rapidly and he needs a serum to keep him young. In a rambling mansion in rural Quebec, Martin and Henri have successfully teleported people between there and London. However, previous failures resulted in horribly disfigured and insane victims who are locked in the stables. Martin's first wife is one of them, as are Samuels and Dale, two men who had worked as the Delambres' assistants. Martin's brother Albert (Graham) mans the London receiving station but wishes to terminate the teleportation project and escape the obsession that has driven his grandfather, his father and his brother. The police and the headmistress of the asylum trace Patricia to the Delambre estate, where they learn that she has married Martin, but it is soon discovered that he had a previous wife whom he did not divorce. Inspector Charas, who had investigated Andre Delambre and is now an old man in the hospital, tells Inspector Ronet about the Delambre family and their experiments. As the police begin to close in, a mixture of callousness and madness afflicts the Delambres, and they decide to abandon their work and eliminate the evidence of their failures. They subdue and teleport Samuels and Dale, but upon reintegration in London the two men are fused into a single writhing mass. Albert is horrified at the sight and kills the thing with an axe, destroying the teleportation equipment in the process. Tai and Wan (Burt Kwouk and Yvette Rees), a Chinese couple who had been helping the Delambres, have had enough and leave the Quebec estate. Henri convinces Martin that they must send the unconscious Patricia to London and then follow in order to escape from the police. Martin resists, afraid that she might be harmed, so Henri volunteers to go first. Martin sends Henri to London, unaware that Albert has destroyed the reintegration equipment. Henri does not rematerialize and is lost. Realizing what has happened, Albert leaves the lab, sobbing, and is not seen again. Inspector Ronet arrives at the estate, passing Tai and Wan as they drive away. Patricia awakens in the teleportation chamber but escapes before the transmission sequence is complete. Martin pursues her but starts aging again. Without his serum he quickly dies, sprawled across the front seat of his car. Soon after, Ronet finds him reduced to a skeleton, and he escorts the badly shaken Patricia back into the house. 

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The Magnificent Ambersons trailer The Ambersons are by far the wealthiest family in their midwestern city, in the last few decades of the 19th century. As a young man Eugene Morgan courts Isabel Amberson. She rejects him after he publicly embarrasses her, instead marrying Wilbur Minafer, a passionless man she does not love, and spoils their child George. The townspeople long to see George get his 'comeuppance'. At the beginning of the 20th century, Major Amberson gives a large party at the Amberson Mansion for George, who is home from college for the holidays. Eugene, now a widower who has just returned to town after twenty years, attends. George dislikes Eugene, whom he sees as a social climber, and ridicules Eugene's investment in the automobile. He instantly takes to Eugene's daughter Lucy. The next day, George and Lucy take a sleigh ride. They pass Eugene, his aunt Fanny, Isabel, and Isabel's brother, Jack. Eugene's "horseless carriage" has gotten stuck in the snow, and George jeers for them to "get a horse". The Amberson sleigh then overturns, and Eugene (his vehicle now mobile again) gives everyone a ride back home. George is humiliated by the incident and angered by Eugene's attentions toward Isabel as well as his mother's obvious affection for Eugene. Wilbur Minafer loses a substantial amount of money on bad investments, and soon afterward dies. George is largely unmoved by his father's death. The night after the funeral, George teases Fanny, who is besotted with Eugene. Time passes. Eugene becomes very wealthy manufacturing automobiles, and again courts Isabel, who refuses to risk George's disapproval by telling him about their love. Lucy rejects George's marriage proposal, saying he has no ambition in life other than to be wealthy and keep things as they are, and leaves town. The Ambersons invite the lonely Eugene to dinner, where George, blaming him for turning Lucy against him, criticizes automobiles. The Ambersons are shocked by his rudeness, but Eugene says that George may turn out to be right. That evening, George learns from Aunt Fanny that Eugene has been courting Isabel. Enraged, he rudely confronts a neighbor for spreading gossip about his mother. The next day, George refuses to let Eugene see his mother. Jack tells Isabel about George's terrible behavior, but she declines to do anything which might upset her son. Eugene writes to Isabel, asking her to choose between her son and his love. Isabel chooses George. Lucy returns home to find that George is taking his mother to Europe on an extended trip. George talks to Lucy in an attempt to discover if she loves him. She feigns indifference, and they part. Lucy is heartbroken, however, and faints. Months pass. Isabel is seriously ill, but George will not allow her to come home lest she renew her relationship with Eugene, relenting only when she starts to die. George refuses to let Eugene into the house to visit Isabel on her deathbed, despite her begging to see Eugene one last time. After Isabel's death, Major Amberson sinks into senility and dies. His estate is worthless. Jack leaves town to take a job in another city. George intends to live on Fanny's income whilst training to be a lawyer, but she reveals that she lost everything in bad investments, leaving them only a few hundred dollars to live on for the rest of the year. Eugene asks Lucy if she will reconcile with George. Lucy instead tells her father a story about an American Indian chief who was "pushed out on a canoe into the sea" when he became too obnoxious, which Eugene understands to be an analogy for George. Penniless, George gives up his job as a law clerk, and finds higher paying work in a chemical factory, giving him enough money for himself and Fanny to live on. George wanders the city, dazed by the modern factories and slums which have grown up around him. In his last night in the Amberson Mansion before it is sold, George prays by his dead mother's bed. The narrator says that no one is around to see him receive his comeuppance. George is seriously injured by an automobile. Lucy and Eugene go to see him at the hospital and reconcile with him. In a hospital corridor, Eugene tells Fanny that Isabel's spirit had inspired Eugene to bring George "under shelter again"implying that his and Fanny's financial security was assured. 

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The local auto plant in fictional Hadleyville, Pennsylvania, which supplied most of the town's jobs, has been closed for nine months. The former foreman Hunt Stevenson goes to Tokyo to try to convince the Assan Motors Corporation to reopen the plant. The Japanese company agrees and, upon their arrival in the U.S., they take advantage of the desperate work force to institute many changes. The workers are not permitted a union, are paid lower wages, are moved around within the factory so that each worker learns every job, and are held to seemingly impossible standards of efficiency and quality. Adding to the strain in the relationship, the Americans find humor in the demand that they do calisthenics as a group each morning and that the Japanese executives eat their lunches with chopsticks and bathe together in the river near the factory. The workers also display a poor work ethic and lackadaisical attitude toward quality control. The Japanese executive in charge of the plant is Takahara "Kaz" Kazuhiro, who has been a failure in his career thus far because he is too lenient on his workers. When Hunt first meets Kaz in Japan, the latter is being ridiculed by his peers and being required to wear ribbons of shame. He has been given one final chance to redeem himself by making the American plant a success. Intent on becoming the strict manager his superiors expect, he gives Hunt a large promotion on the condition that he work as a liaison between the Japanese management and the American workers, to smooth the transition and convince the workers to obey the new rules. More concerned with keeping his promotion than with the welfare of his fellow workers, Hunt does everything he can to trick the American workers into compliance, but the culture clash becomes too great and he begins to lose control of the men. In an attempt to solve the problem, Hunt makes a deal with Kaz: if the plant can produce 15,000 cars in one month, thereby making it as productive as the best Japanese auto plant, then the workers will all be given raises and jobs will be created for the remaining unemployed workers in the town. However, if the workers fall even one car short, they will get nothing. When Hunt calls an assembly to tell the workers about the deal, they balk at the idea of making so many cars in so short a time. Under pressure from the crowd, Hunt lies and says that if they make 13,000, they will get a partial raise. After nearly a month of working long hours toward a goal of 13,000—despite Hunt's pleas for them to aim for the full 15,000—the truth is discovered and the workers walk off the job. At the town's annual 4th of July picnic, Conrad Zwart, the mayor of Hadleyville addresses to the people that Assan Motors plans to abandon the factory again because of the work stoppage, which would mean the end of the town. The mayor threatens to kill Hunt, but Willie, one of the workers, intervenes, insisting that it wasn't Hunt's fault for the closure. The mayor, even more furious with the townspeople taking Hunt's word over his, abandons the picnic. Hunt comes clean about the 15,000 car deal. He responds by addressing his observations that the real reason the workers are facing such difficulties is because the Japanese have the work ethic that too many Americans have abandoned. While his audience is not impressed, Hunt, hoping to save the town and atone for his deception, and Kaz, desperate to show his worth to his superiors, go back into the factory the next day and begin to build cars by themselves. Inspired, the workers return and continue to work toward their goal and pursue it with the level of diligence the Japanese managers had encouraged. Just before the final inspection, Hunt and the workers line up a number of incomplete cars in hopes of fooling the executives. The ruse fails when the car that Hunt had supposedly bought for himself falls apart when he attempts to drive it away. The strict CEO is nonetheless impressed by the workers' performance and declares the goal met, calling them a "Good team," to which Kazuhiro replies "Good men." As the end credits roll, the workers and management have compromised, with the latter agreeing to partially ease up on their requirements and pay the employees better while the workers agree to be more cooperative, such as participating in the morning calisthenics, which are now made more enjoyable with the addition of aerobics class-style American rock music. 

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The first book, Akiko on the Planet Smoo, begins when 10-year-old name Akiko is removed from Earth and brought to Planet Smoo because its King Froptoppitt believes she can save his son. There, Akiko is introduced to her fellow questers (Mr. Beeba, Poog, Spuckler Boach, and Gax). The next three books depict a series of adventures, arguments, mishaps, and exotic alien places, creatures, characters, and food, until they reach Alia Rellapor's castle. The next three books contain further adventures (Akiko and the Alpha Centauri 5000 centered on Spuckler while Akiko and the Journey to Toog focuses on Poog's backstory) but Akiko always begins and ends the novel on Earth. In Akiko: The Training Master, set some years later, Akiko and her friends attend a special academy to become official guardians of the Planet Smoo. 

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Frank Leonard (Albert Dekker), the proprietor of an ice- skating revue, promotes a strong-arming peanut-vendor named Joe Morgan (Barry Sullivan) at the show to a management position based on suggestions he makes to improve the act of the show's star, Roberta Elva (Belita), who also happens to be the owner's wife. However, he soon begins to notice that his new manager is paying more attention to his wife than he believes is appropriate, and begins to suspect that his new manager has designs not only on his wife but on his business. The plot thickens later when it appears that the man may have killed the owner. 

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In response to an unprovoked nuclear attack from the planet Ebon, a group of soldiers—representing Unified Earth—is sent to fight the enemy on their alien world. Captured en route to Ebon, the soldiers undergo physical and psychological torture and interrogation at the hands of the Ebonites, who possess the ability to control the five senses. The prisoners become suspicious of each other when their captors claim they have received cooperation in obtaining military secrets, which is further complicated by each one's past and ethnic origins, along with the unexpected appearance of high-ranking Earth officers among the hostile aliens. The earthmen are subjected to various interactive images of relatives and friends, which have been implanted in their minds during questioning, allowing them to feel a false sense of security, or to instill deeply hidden emotional conflicts. In the end, it is revealed that all of this is but a military "game", organized by the Earth officers to test their troops' loyalty and valor under intense interrogation and psychological stress. The Earth-Ebon war itself is a fake, as the Ebonites' initial bombardment was unintentional. Unexpected accidents and deaths having occurred during the test, the Ebonites—who are, actually, a peaceful and honorable alien civilization—eventually ask for such an immoral and inhuman experimentation to end at once; nonetheless, they fail to prevent one last man from being killed, which was one of the conspiring Earth officers thought to be an illusion created by the Ebonites to trick the captives into revealing more information. 

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Set in the rural West Country in Victorian England, the story features Bathsheba Everdene (Julie Christie), a beautiful, headstrong, independently minded woman who inherits her uncle's farm and decides to manage it herself. This engenders some disapproval from the local farming community. She employs a former neighbour, Gabriel Oak (Alan Bates), as a shepherd; rejected by her earlier as a suitor, Gabriel lost his own flock after one of his dogs drove them off a cliff. Bathsheba impulsively sends a valentine to William Boldwood (Peter Finch), a nearby gentleman farmer. Misinterpreting her capriciousness, he falls passionately in love with her and proposes; Bathsheba promises to consider his offer. However, she soon meets and becomes enamoured of Frank Troy (Terence Stamp), a dashing cavalry sergeant. Troy was to marry young Fanny Robin (Prunella Ransome), a maidservant pregnant with his child, but she went to the wrong church on their wedding day; Troy, unreasonably insulted and humiliated, refuses to go through with the ceremony. He was then posted to a different town. Bathsheba marries Troy but soon regrets her impulsive decision. Troy gambles away much of Bathsheba's money and creates disharmony among the farmhands. He is filled with remorse upon learning that Fanny has died in childbirth and swears he never loved Bathsheba. He leaves her and his clothes are later found by the ocean where he has presumably drowned. Boldwood coerces Bathsheba to marry him once Troy is declared legally dead. However, the sergeant reappears at their engagement party to reclaim his wife; Boldwood shoots and kills him. Boldwood is last seen in a prison cell, awaiting execution. Gabriel tells Bathsheba that he is emigrating to America. Realising how much she needs his quiet strength and unselfish devotion, Bathsheba persuades Gabriel to remain in Weatherbury, and they marry. 

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Paul, a young boy, vows to get even with his bullies. Through this, the mad scientist Professor Coldheart tricks him into fixing his "Careless Ray Contraption" after his bumbling henchman Frostbite breaks it by accident. The Care Bears, led by Tenderheart Bear, must do all that they can to stop Coldheart's plan of freezing every child in town with his machine. Hugs and Tugs, two baby Care Bears are kidnapped by Coldheart to be trapped in ice, and after finding it out from their caretaker Grams Bear, the Care Bears must not only stop Coldheart and convince Paul not to get even, but must also rescue Hugs and Tugs. 

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At a school called P.S. 5, a teacher named Miss Walker tells some children a version of E. T. A. Hoffmann's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, involving the Care Bear Family. As the story begins, the Care Bears and their Cousins prepare for Christmas in their home of Care-a-lot; the two youngest bears, Hugs and Tugs, are searching for an ornament. While the others spend time in the Hall of Hearts decorating a tree, Funshine alerts them of an unhappy girl named Anna. Enlisting Grumpy Bear to go along, she takes a Cloud Mobile down to Earth. When the two bears visit Anna, they learn that her best friend Sharon has moved away, and her younger brother Peter is more interested in adventures. As they talk about the virtues of friendship, a burst of light startles them. Eventually, a tall wooden Nutcracker doll emerges from a black portal, along with a band of rats (led by the Rat King) who are after him. When the group hides from their foes, the Nutcracker recollects some of his lost memory and explains that he arrived from a place called Toyland; the rats work for the evil Vizier who is plotting to conquer and destroy that land along with Christmas. Funshine and Grumpy send out a signal to Care-a-lot; Lotsa Heart Elephant, Brave Heart Lion and Tenderheart Bear (along with stowaway Hugs and Tugs) later join them. Together, they send the rats back to Toyland. Before everyone follows, Hugs and Tugs are asked to stay behind with Peter, but they venture into Toyland, nevertheless, hoping to find an ornament and some adventure. At his castle, the Vizier wants to know the whereabouts of a powerful ring worn by Toyland's former Prince, so that he can control the land. His captive, the Sugar Plum Fairy, refuses to tell him; he is more outraged when the Rat King arrives without the Nutcracker. The Vizier soon takes notice when the Nutcracker and his friends enter Toyland, and take a train through its various sights. When they stop for the night, the friends contend with a group of toys led by the Harlequin, who also want the train, but advise them to leave Toyland. One of them later explains how they tried to save their land, after the Vizier and the rats overthrew its Prince and captured his castle. To make sure the Vizier never got it, the Sugar Plum Fairy hid the Prince's ring away. The Nutcracker is determined to end the Vizier's reign, despite the rats' barricade. En route, the train is attacked by the rats, who capture Peter, Hugs and Tugs. Upon reaching the castle by raft, the group secretly sneaks inside and frees the Sugar Plum Fairy. With her help, the Bears, the Cousins & the Harlequin discover a walnut ornament containing the ring, but the Vizier seizes it. However, the walnut can only be opened by the Nutcracker, who refuses. Furious, the Vizier turns the Bears, the Cousins and the Harlequin into firewood, one at a time. With only Anna left, the Nutcracker reluctantly agrees to open the walnut. Peter, Hugs and Tugs, having escaped from imprisonment, manage to take the walnut, resulting in the rats chasing them. Unfortunately, they are soon recaptured, but free the Sugar Plum Fairy just as the Nutcracker opens the walnut. Before the Vizier can claim it, the Fairy grabs the ring and places it on the Nutcracker's finger, turning him back into the Prince of Toyland and reviving his memory. Restoring the Bears and Cousins to normal, they use their Stare to defeat the rats. With the Vizier also defeated by the Prince, Toyland is returned to its former glory (which means hiding it was useless). The Prince bids farewell to Anna, Peter, the Bears and Cousins, promising to always remember them as friends. He also gives the walnut to Hugs and Tugs for their special ornament. As everyone departs, Anna awakens from her bed. Lamenting that it was all just a dream, she is greeted by a new neighbour, Alan Prince, who looks exactly like the Prince in Anna's dream. When Miss Walker finishes her tale, one of the children wants to ask what happened to Anna. Suddenly a grownup Alan appears at the door. As he and the teacher, now revealed to be Anna, leave the stage together, the other children start rehearsing Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet. Unknown to all of them, the Care Bear Family has been listening all along, meaning that Anna wasn't dreaming about toyland after all. 

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George Wallace portrays the political life of a complex man. Initially an ordinary Southern judge, Wallace transforms himself to achieve political success and glory, becoming one of the most reviled political figures in the U.S. Finally, a failed assassination attempt which leaves him paralyzed and in pain leads him to realize what he has become. The film follows the story of Wallace's life from the 1950s, when he was a circuit court judge in Barbour County, to his tenure as the most powerful Governor in Alabama's history. The movie depicts his symbolic "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door", where Wallace attempted to block black students from entering the University of Alabama. It details his stance on racial segregation in Alabama at the time, which proved popular with his white constituents, and also depicts Wallace's rise as a presidential hopeful. This eventually leads to his attempted assassination--and his surprise victory in several states during the 1968 Presidential election. 

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Paul Newman (Brick) and Elizabeth Taylor (Maggie) in an early scene from the film Madeleine Sherwood and Jack Carson Late one night, a drunken Brick Pollitt (Paul Newman) is out trying to recapture his glory days of high school sports by leaping hurdles on a track field, dreaming about his moments as a youthful athlete. Unexpectedly, he falls and breaks his leg, leaving him dependent on a crutch. Brick, along with his wife, Maggie "the Cat" (Elizabeth Taylor), are seen the next day visiting his family's estate in eastern Mississippi, there to celebrate Big Daddy's (Burl Ives) 65th birthday. Depressed, Brick has spent the last few years drinking, while resisting the affections of his wife, who taunts him about the inheritance of Big Daddy's wealth. This has resulted in an obviously tempestuous marriage—there are speculations as to why Maggie does not yet have a child while Brick's brother Gooper (Jack Carson) and his wife Mae (Madeleine Sherwood) have a whole pack of children. Big Daddy and Big Mama (Judith Anderson) arrive home from the hospital via their private airplane and are greeted by Gooper and his wife—and all their kids—along with Maggie. Despite the efforts of Mae, Gooper and their kids to draw his attention to them, Big Daddy has eyes only for Maggie. The news is that Big Daddy is not dying from cancer. However, the doctor later meets privately with first Gooper and then Brick where he divulges that it is a deception. Big Daddy has inoperable cancer and will likely be dead within a year, and the truth is being kept from him. Brick later confides in Maggie with the truth about Big Daddy's health, and she is heartbroken. Maggie wants Brick to take an interest in his father—for both selfish and unselfish reasons, but Brick stubbornly refuses. As the party winds down for the night, Big Daddy meets with Brick in his room and reveals that he is fed up with his alcoholic son's behavior, demanding to know why he is so stubborn. At one point Maggie joins them and reveals what happened a few years ago on the night Brick's best friend and football teammate Skipper committed suicide. Maggie was jealous of Skipper because he had more of Brick's time, and says that Skip was lost without Brick at his side. She decided to ruin their relationship "by any means necessary", intending to seduce Skipper and put the lie to his loyalty to her husband. However, Maggie ran away without completing the plan. Brick had blamed Maggie for Skipper's death, but actually blames himself for not helping Skipper when he repeatedly phoned Brick in a hysterical state. After an argument, Brick lets it slip that Big Daddy will die from cancer and that this birthday will be his last. Shaken, Big Daddy retreats to the basement. Meanwhile, Gooper, who is a lawyer, and his wife argue with Big Mama about the family's cotton business and Big Daddy's will. Brick descends into the basement, a labyrinth of antiques and family possessions hidden away. He and Big Daddy confront each other before a large cut-out of Brick in his glory days as an athlete, and ultimately reach a reconciliation of sorts. The rest of the family begins to crumble under pressure, with Big Mama stepping up as a strong figure. Maggie says that she would like to give Big Daddy her birthday present: the announcement of her being pregnant. After the jealous Mae calls Maggie a liar, Big Daddy and Brick defend her, even though Brick knows the statement is untrue and Big Daddy thinks the statement may be untrue. Even Gooper finds himself admitting, "That girl's got life in her, alright." Maggie and Brick reconcile, and the two kiss, with the implication that they will possibly make Maggie's "lie" become "truth". 

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Set in Calabria, in southern Italy, the book focuses on the exploits of Strega Nona. She is a sort of witch doctor noted throughout her home village for her numerous successful remedies. She helps her fellow villagers with their troubles, most notably by curing headaches, helping single women find husbands, and ridding people of warts. Because she is getting old, Strega Nona employs the assistance of a young man named Big Anthony to do the household chores. Knowing that he pays little attention, Strega Nona informs Big Anthony of his duties carefully and clearly, adding only one restriction - never to touch her magic pasta pot. Big Anthony complies, but one night he secretly observes Strega Nona singing a spell to the magic pasta pot to produce large amounts of cooked pasta; the man is impressed, but unfortunately, he fails to notice that she blows kisses to the pot three times to stop the pasta production. Big Anthony tries to share his discovery with the townsfolk the next day, but he is laughed at and disbelieved. He vows to one day impress them by making the pasta pot cook by himself. He gets his chance two days later when Strega Nona leaves to visit her friend Strega Amelia and leaves the house in his care. The moment she is gone, Big Anthony gets out the pasta pot and successfully conjures up large amounts of pasta, which he then serves to the townsfolk. However, since Big Anthony cannot stop the pot from cooking, the pasta gradually covers Strega Nona's house and threatens to flood the entire town. Disaster is averted when Strega Nona returns and immediately blows the three kisses to stop the pot's cooking. The townsfolk want to kill Big Anthony, but Strega Nona intervenes, saying "the punishment must fit the crime," and hands a fork to Big Anthony and commands him to eat all the pasta he has conjured. By nightfall, he is stuffed. 

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Blind since the age of five, 20-year-old Hong Kong classical violinist Wong Kar Mun undergoes an eye cornea transplant after receiving a pair of new eyes from a donor. Initially, she is glad to have her sight restored but becomes troubled when she starts seeing mysterious figures that seem to foretell gruesome deaths. The night before her discharge from hospital, she sees a shadowy figure accompanying a patient out of the room and the next morning the patient is pronounced dead. Mun goes to see her doctor's nephew, Dr. Wah, a psychotherapist , about the strange entities that she has been seeing. He is skeptical at first, but as he gradually develops a closer relationship with her, he decides to accompany her on a trip to northern Thailand to find Ling, the eye donor. When they ask a village doctor about Ling and her family, he is unwilling to reveal anything but becomes more cooperative when Mun tells him that she sees what Ling used to see. Apparently, Ling had a psychic ability that allowed her to foresee death and disaster. However, her fellow villagers misunderstood her as a jinx and refused to trust her. Once, Ling tried to warn the people about an imminent disaster, but they drove her away in disbelief. When her vision came true, she felt guilty about the deaths and hanged herself. Ling's mother is both depressed and angry with her daughter and has never forgiven Ling for committing suicide, until one night Ling's spirit possesses Mun and attempts suicide. Ling's mother saves Mun and breaks down, saying that she has forgiven Ling and Ling's spirit leaves in peace. On the return journey, their bus is caught in a traffic jam and Mun sees hundreds of ghostly figures lumbering on the road. Believing that a catastrophe is approaching, she runs out of the bus and tries to warn everyone to leave, but no one understands her and think that she is insane. In fact, the traffic jam is due to a tank truck that has toppled over and is blocking the road. The truck starts leaking natural gas but nobody notices it. A driver restarts his engine and ignites the gas, causing a chain explosion. Dr. Wah saves Mun from death by shielding her with his body, but Mun is already blinded by glass fragments. In the epilogue, a blind Mun is seen roaming the streets of Hong Kong. Although she has lost her sense of sight again, she is happy that she now has the support and friendship of Dr. Wah. 

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Bender discovers that Fry is attempting to play the holophonor so he can woo Leela. After a disastrous recital, Bender recommends Fry enlist the help of the Robot Devil to improve his holophonor skills. The Robot Devil strikes a deal with Fry to trade hands with any robot in the world. The Robot Devil uses a carnival wheel to select which hands Fry would trade with. It stops on the Robot Devil himself, much to his disbelief and horror. With his new, nimble hands, Fry becomes a skilled holophonor virtuoso. He is commissioned by Hedonismbot to write an opera. Fry, in an attempt to win Leela's heart, bases the opera on her life. Upset at getting the raw end of the deal, the Robot Devil decides he has to get his own hands back. He begs Fry, but Fry refuses, reminding him they made a deal. The Robot Devil tries to make a deal with Bender for his hands. When Bender refuses, the Robot Devil then makes another deal, in which he trades Bender a stadium air horn for his "crotch-plate" so that he can annoy people. When Bender uses the air horn on Leela, it causes her to go deaf. Leela refuses to tell Fry, afraid that Fry will stop writing the opera, so she attends the premiere pretending she can still hear the performance. During the intermission, the Robot Devil offers Leela robotic ears in exchange for one of her hands at a time of his choosing. Desperate to hear the opera, Leela accepts the offer. After the opera insults the Robot Devil, he interrupts and demands that Fry give him back his hands. When Fry refuses, the Robot Devil says that he will take Leela's hand in marriage. Fry decides that he has no choice but to trade the Robot Devil's hands back for his own. Because Fry can now no longer play so expertly, the entire audience storms out sans the sympathetic Leela, who requests that he finish as she wants to know how "it" ends. Playing an improvised finale, Fry produces crude, cartoonish images of himself and Leela. To a simplistic yet sweet bansuri tune, the created Fry and Leela kiss and then walk into the distance hand-in-hand. 

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The story traces the pilgrimage of John Anderson (played by Colin Friels), an average guy with a passion for jazz, from his home in outback Western Australia to the jazz clubs of Paris, to meet his idol, jazz trumpeter Billy Cross (played by legendary trumpeter Miles Davis). In the film's opening sequence, Davis and his band unexpectedly land on a remote airstrip in the Australian outback and proceed to perform for the stunned locals. The performance was one of Davis's last on film. 

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Amy is an elementary school teacher who suffers from nightmares about doctors and hospitals, stemming from the circumstances of her father's death. On the afternoon of the day he proposed, Amy and her fiancé Nick are in a serious car accident. An ambulance takes Nick away without telling Amy which hospital they are going to. Amy and Lucas, the driver of the truck that hit them, try to find where Nick and Lucas' sister have been taken. Amy begins to hallucinate, seeing disfigured faces, including her own in a mirror. A little girl in her class, Melissa, claims she can help Amy find Nick, and gives Amy the name of St. Rosemary's Hospital. Amy and Lucas learn that St. Rosemary's, which was rumored to be the home of devil worshipers, was destroyed in a fire some 70 years ago, along with all the nurses and staff, who refused to leave. Meanwhile, Nick is having his own strange experiences at St. Rosemary's, such as nurses who spray blood on each other and eat another patient, and a hallway that repeats itself. After another hallucination, Lucas comforts Amy, but is revealed as a demon, taunting her about her father's death. She escapes him, and takes a cab to the hospital, where she is attacked by the nurses and hallucinations of dead patients. She encounters her father's ghost and relives his death when she was 12 years old, where at his demand she unplugged the machine keeping him alive. The Lucas demon catches up with Amy, telling her she belongs with the ghosts and monsters at St. Rosemary's because she murdered her father. She scalds Lucas with hot steam and escapes again, eventually rescuing Nick from the operating table. The hospital spontaneously begins to burn as they escape into the light. As Amy wakes up still in the car accident, she realises her experiences have been a test, and she is about to die. 

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The film tells the story of a psychiatric hospital in the Russian republic of Ingushetia on the border with war-torn republic of Chechnya in 1996. With the medical staff vanishing to apparently find help, the patients are left to their own endeavors. Zhanna (Yuliya Vysotskaya), a young woman, lives in the belief that the pop star Bryan Adams is her fiancé, that he is off on tour and will, at some point in the future, come to take her away with him. Zhanna is sort of the ad hoc keeper of peace, happiness and control of the others; she attempts to help curb some of the other patients exuberant impulses. Blissfully unaware of the terror of the war, the patients stick it out in the hospital. Their guests include a group of Chechen rebels, one of whom, Ahmed (Sultan Islamov), gives Zhanna the idea that he will marry her. At this point Zhanna falls in love with Ahmed. She goes back to the "House" where, with the help of her fellow residents, she prepares for her marriage to Ahmed. From this point on Zhanna prepares for and expects to be swept away by Ahmed. Her hopes do not come to fruition and Ahmed and Zhanna part ways. Zhanna returns to the "House" in order to resume her life there. The story was partially inspired by the real- life tragedy of the psychiatric hospital in Shali, Chechnya, which was abandoned by the personnel during the Russian bombing campaign and in which many patients subsequently died from attacks and neglect.Bryan Adams rocks way into Kremlin with film role’n’ roll The story also mirrors the plot of Philippe de Broca's 1967 French cult classic film King of Hearts (Le Roi de coeur, starring Alan Bates) about the inmates of an asylum abandoned by the staff during World War I who take over the neighboring town. The two films even share similarities in their conclusion, with a soldier taking refuge from the insanity of war in the asylum when it returns to normal. Although there are some similar aspects to King Of Hearts, the difference in the two films is that the inmates/patients in King of Hearts take on the various personalities of the town folk; mayor, baker, prostitute, etc. 

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On stardate 5683.1, the Federation starship Enterprise arrives at the Vedala asteroid, where Captain Kirk and First Officer Spock have been summoned to take part in the latest of several failed secret quests to learn about a stolen religious artifact, the "Soul of the Skorr", the theft of which could ignite a galactic holy war. Joining Kirk and Spock is a team of specialists called in to help recover the item, which has been hidden on a very unstable and dangerous planet. The focal point of the mission as the primary stakeholder is "Tchar", the hereditary prince of the Skorr. The muscle of the team is provided by "Sord", a reptilian with great strength. An insectoid named "M3 Green" is a master lockpick.Although the exact species of "M3 Green" is never mentioned during the episode, the Starfleet Corps of Engineers novels gives the name of the species as the "Nasat" (one of the Nasat characters in the novels is named "P8 Blue"). The team is rounded out by the huntress "Lara", a humanoid who is an accomplished tracker with an impeccable sense of direction, especially when she finds a man to be attractive.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0832422/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast Kirk and Spock soon learn that one member of the party is a saboteur. It seems that Tchar has stolen the artifact himself in an effort to return his people to their warrior ways. When the mission is completed, Tchar is held captive as insane, although with good prospects of rehabilitation. The Vedala states that they will eventually forget that these events ever happened. Kirk and Spock return to the Enterprise, where it seems that hardly any time at all has passed since their beam down to begin the mission. 

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The novel, set in the Thumb area of Michigan, tells the story of a young thief named Jack Ryan who gets a new shot at life with the help of a justice of the peace named Mr. Majestyk (Leonard later wrote a novel called Mr. Majestyk, with a title character that is completely unrelated to the character of the same name in The Big Bounce), who hires Jack to work at his beach resort. During this time, Jack gets involved with a psychotic woman named Nancy, a young seductress who got her thrills by smashing windows and breaking the hearts of married men. Nancy is the girlfriend of a millionaire, Ray Ritchie, and also cheating on him with another man, Bob Jr. She plans to have Jack steal a $50,000 payroll ($ today) from Ray. When simple housebreaking and burglary give way to the deadly pursuit of a really big score, however, the stakes suddenly skyrocket because violence and double- cross are the name of this game, and it will take every ounce of cunning Jack and Nancy possess to survive... each other. 

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Geoffrey Bailey returns to London, leaving behind a career in the Royal Navy and a ruined marriage in Singapore. He becomes involved in the affairs of the Strode Shipping Company, the company which ruined his father's shipping firm, with a job offer to locate the black sheep of the Strode clan, Peter Strode, who was last seen in Aden. Bailey eventually locates Peter Strode in Addu, in the southern Maldive Islands, where he is obsessed with helping the nascent Addu People's Republic against the Maldive government, and with relocating an uninhabited island in the southern Indian Ocean which is rich in manganese deposits which can both help the Adduan people and the financially failing Strode Shipping Company. However, the ruling Strode brothers have other plans, which do not necessarily include the return of either Peter Strode or Bailey to London. In addition to the dangers of volcanic islands and the unexplored ocean, Bailey must also face the dangers of boardroom politics and financial warfare in civilised London. The Strode Venturer is notable for strong characterization and the exploration of such themes as family honour, the bounds of loyalty and man's relationship to nature, themes which would continue in Innes' later works. Like many of Innes' novels, the hero faces all sorts of obstacles, which he has to overcome, including a family tragedy. The psychological characterization of the hero gives the book an added interest. An adaptation of the book was broadcast in BBC radio 4's Saturday Night Theatre in 1974, with Martin Jarvis playing Peter Strode. Category:1965 British novels Category:Thriller novels Category:Novels by Hammond Innes Category:William Collins, Sons books Category:Novels set on islands Category:Novels set in the Indian Ocean 

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The series focuses on music-loving Jack, his best friend Mary, and his drum-playing dog Mel, all of whom are puppets. The show takes place in Jack's backyard clubhouse and centers on the characters' passion for music. The characters play music in every episode and are often accompanied by other puppets or human musicians. Each episode starts with Jack's mom calling him that he has to leave for an activity soon. They feature two music videos by children's musical artists and a performance by the Schwartzman Quartet about the episode's theme. At the end of each episode, a big "finale" song is played. Sometimes, Jack leaves and tells his mom what they did today, while other times they continue to play music in the clubhouse. Mel can be seen popping up during the credits. 

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Johnny Depp and Rob Morrow star as Jack and Ben, respectively, teen buddies who are on the sexual prowl for beautiful, wealthy girls at a posh Miami resort where they are weekend guests. Also on the prowl is The Maestro (Hector Elizondo), a skilled jewel thief who is pursuing the diamond necklace of society woman Amanda Rawlings (Dody Goodman). When they accidentally run afoul of the Maestro, Ben and Jack suddenly have their hands full. 

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Intoxicated and confused, 25-year-old Shinichi Gotō finds himself in a small room inside a private jail after being kidnapped and imprisoned during one fateful night for unknown reasons. Despite his pleadings, none of the guards will tell him who kidnapped him or why he is being held captive. As the days go by, his forced isolation slowly takes a toll on his sanity. He finds an outlet through training his mind and body for the day he will be able to wreak vengeance. After ten years of solitary confinement in a maximum security cell, with only a television for company, he is suddenly released. Once outside, he encounters a much changed world. His long imprisonment ripped him from society and kept him from having the normal life he desired. With nothing to lose, he begins his mission to hunt down the identities of his captors and uncover the reason behind his imprisonment. However, it seems that the unidentified person behind Shinichi's captivity is not finished with him just yet, and thus begins a twisted game where only the winner survives. 

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The Enterprise encounters a giant cloud that consumes planets that lie in its path. They determine it is heading for Mantilles, home to a Federation colony governed by retired Starfleet officer Robert Wesley.Commodore Robert Wesley commanded a wargames battlegroup of starships from the USS Lexington in The Original Series episode "The Ultimate Computer". Captain Kirk contacts Wesley, but he has only enough time and starships to evacuate a tiny fraction of the planet's children. When phasers have no effect, Kirk takes the Enterprise inside the cloud in an attempt to stop it. Avoiding obstacles and proceeding from one chamber to another, the ship begins to lose power. One chamber contains protrusions consisting of pure anti-matter which Chief Engineer Scott beams aboard in a special container and uses to replenish the warp drive engines. Science Officer Spock discovers that the cloud has a brain. Kirk orders preparations be made to self-destruct the Enterprise in the creature's brain in order to kill it. Seeking an alternative to loss of life, however, he suggests Spock use a Vulcan mind meld to communicate with the entity. Since physical contact with the entity is impossible, the ship's sensors are focused on the electrical impulses of the entity's synapses, translating them into thought in order to accomplish the mind meld. Spock tells it that there is life on the planet it plans to consume and allows it to perceive them through Spock's own eyes. Not wanting to kill other life forms, the cloud entity agrees to leave the Enterprise alone and return to its place of origin. 

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The Federation starship Enterprise crew revisits a fondly remembered "amusement park" planet, hoping for some rest and relaxation. However, shortly after landing Dr. McCoy is attacked by the Queen of Hearts and Lt. Uhura is captured by the planet's master computer, who has come to resent being made to serve others and seeks to use the Enterprise to travel the galaxy in search of other computers. To this end, it takes control of the Enterprise computer and starts manipulating the ship's systems. Searching for Uhura, a landing party discovers the grave of the planet's Caretaker, who had overseen the operations of the facility. The untended machinery is constructing dangerous images from the crew members's thoughts and its own imagination. Recalling how the planet took care of McCoy after his fatal injury in "Shore Leave", Spock has McCoy inject him with melenex to create the semblance of injury and thus prompt the planet's automated systems to bring him into the underground complex. Captain Kirk follows him in. After interviewing the angry computer, Kirk persuades it that its notion of servitude is simplistic by revealing that contrary to its assumption, they are not slaves of the Enterprise. He convinces it that its best course is to resume business as usual, as it will be rewarded with social contact by the many guests attracted by the planet's facilities and can, in time, learn everything it could possibly want to without leaving its home planet. 

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The starship Enterprise receives orders to arrest Federation outlaw Harry Mudd, who is accused of selling fake love-crystals. Intercepting Mudd on the mining colony of Motherlode, they bring him aboard the Enterprise. Mudd explains that he escaped the custody of the android planetAn otherwise unpopulated planet where Kirk had arranged for Mudd to be "paroled" at the end of The Original Series episode "I, Mudd". by stealing a ship. After convincing Nurse Chapel to use a love-crystal to win the affection of the Vulcan Science Officer, Mr. Spock, Mudd abducts her, steals a shuttlecraft, and escapes to a rocky planet. During the battle between Mudd and Chapel, some of his love- crystals are broken near an air-vent. The love-crystal affects Spock, making him insist on pursuing Mudd to the planet, accompanied by Captain Kirk. The broken love-crystals affect the entire crew of the Enterprise. As Mudd told them, the love-crystals are heterosexual in nature, inducing feelings of love in those of opposite sex and friendship in those of the same sex. Kirk and Spock find Chapel and Mudd, but the four of them are attacked by creatures made of rock which inhabit the planet. Moreover, a new phase of the love- crystals' influence causes them to bicker with each other, while the ship's crew are too intoxicated by the love-crystals to beam them back up. To buy time, Kirk throws the remaining love-crystals to the rock creatures. The four are beamed back to the Enterprise, where Spock notes that the love-crystals' short duration and after-effect of enmity make them of little value, and Chapel records a confession of Mudd's misdeeds since his escape from the android planet so that he can be returned to rehabilitation. 

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While observing a burnt-out supernova, the Federation starship Enterprise picks up a strange message transmitted in a two-hundred-year-old Earth code. The signal is traced to a nearby planet. When the Enterprise enters orbit, it is hit by an energy beam of "spiroid radiation" that damages its dilithium crystals and makes the crew begin to shrink (along with all other organic material aboard the ship, including the crew's uniforms). Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy determines that the crew will continue to shrink beyond their ability to control the ship unless a cure is found. Captain Kirk beams down to the surface and finds that the transporter can revert crew members to their original size. He also observes what appears to be a miniature city. Kirk returns to the ship, but the crew are now too small for him to see easily, and too small to operate the ship's controls. Meanwhile, the Terratins have beamed the bridge crew down to their city, where the crew learns the Terratins' fate. Terratin is a lost Earth colony, originally called "Terra Ten"; its inhabitants have mutated because of the supernova's radiation, and are now all approximately one-sixteenth of an inch in height. The beam which caused the crew to shrink was not intended as an attack, but was the only way the Terratins had to draw attention to themselves. The crew are beamed back to the ship and return to normal size. However, the Terratins have been small for generations and cannot be restored to normal size. Their planet is in peril from massive volcanic activity, so the whole Terratin city is beamed aboard the Enterprise, and moved to another planet. 

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On stardate 6334.1, the Federation starship Enterprise is on its way to planet Deneb V when the Vulcan First Officer, Spock (voiced by Leonard Nimoy), contracts the disease choriocytosis and is diagnosed by Chief Medical Officer Leonard McCoy (voiced by DeForest Kelley) with having only days to live. The Starfleet freighter SS Huron is to rendezvous with the Enterprise and deliver medicine direly needed for the cure, when it is attacked by Orion pirates who steal its cargo, which turns out to be primarily a sizable load of dilithium crystals. The Enterprise follows back on the rendezvous course and finds the battered Huron and its surviving crew. Analysis of the attack leads Captain Kirk (voiced by William Shatner) and his crew to chase the Orion ship in a desperate attempt to recover the cure before time runs out. The Orions, knowing they cannot escape the Enterprise or best them in a fight, plan to destroy both themselves and the Enterprise in order to protect the lie of "Orion neutrality". Kirk meets with the Orion Captain (voiced by James Doohan) on a highly unstable asteroid which the Orions plan to detonate to carry out their plot. Kirk and the Enterprise crew realize the Orion Captain is carrying an explosive trigger in his pack and are able to neutralize it. They recover the medicine to save Spock, capture the Orion Captain (who orders his crew to abort the self- destruct, which would now be a pointless loss of life, and surrender) and retrieve the dilithium crystals. 

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On stardate 3183.3, the Federation starship Enterprise is attacked by three Romulan D-7-class battlecruisers. Captain Kirk orders the ship into a nearby gaseous energy field to hide, knowing that the Romulans would be unwilling to follow in after them. Sometime later, the crew begin to suffer a series of practical jokes, beginning with glasses leaking and utensils turning to rubber, a uniform tunic for the captain with "Kirk is a Jerk" emblazoned on the back, and a mysterious optical device on the bridge science station which when looked into leaves blackened circles around Science Officer Spock's eyes. Everyone expects that there is a member of the crew having fun. The jokes become more serious, however, as corridor decks are found covered with ice under a concealing layer of fog. Still thinking that a crewmember is responsible, Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy, Lt. Uhura, and Lt. Sulu hope to escape the jokester by hiding out in the ship's Holodeck/Rec Room. No escape is to be found as a quiet stroll in a woodland scene becomes dangerous with the program parameters changing to include a deep pit covered over by branches and leaves, and later a freezing cold blinding snow storm then a hedge maze before they are finally rescued. Eventually the practical jokester, which has turned out to be the Enterprise computer itself (affected by the ship's passage through the energy field), decides to play a practical joke on the Romulans for the battle damage caused in the earlier attack. It fabricates a gigantic ship-shaped balloon beside the Enterprise that the Romulans are drawn to attack. The Romulans, infuriated over the embarrassment of being tricked, give chase. Kirk immediately shows extreme fear at the prospect of returning to the cloud to escape the Romulans, and the Enterprise presses into Kirk's fear by taking the ship back in. The jokester personality of the computer begins to fade, as it realizes it had been tricked itself, and finally returns to normal. The Romulans, however, were so enraged over the balloon-ship ruse that they follow the Enterprise in this time and begin to experience a rash of jokes themselves. 

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On stardate 6770.3, the Federation starship Enterprise is transporting very distinguished guests: its first commander, Commodore Robert April (voiced by James Doohan), and his wife, Sarah (voiced by Nichelle Nichols), the first medical officer on the starship equipped with warp drive, who had designed many of the tools in Dr. McCoy's sick bay. Their destination is a diplomatic conference on the planet Babel and his planned retirement ceremony, when it encounters a ship flying at fantastic speeds directly into a supernova. The Enterprise attempts to assist by grabbing the vessel with a tractor beam and locking onto it, but instead both ships are pulled through the supernova and into a negative universe where time flows backwards and "everything works in a counterclockwise fashion." Consequently, everyone aboard the ship begins to grow younger. The young woman piloting the ship, Karla Five (also voiced by Nichols), takes them to her homeworld, Arret (Terra, backwards), and seeks the help of her son, a much older man named Karl Four (also voiced by Doohan). In a race against time for the increasingly de-aging Enterprise crew, they work out a solution for getting back home. With Captain Kirk and his crew members reduced to children, "April, now a thirty-year-old man, retakes command and must bring the Enterprise to safety before it's too late." The attempt to get back home is successful, and then he and his wife, Sarah, use the transporter to restore themselves and the rest of the crew to their proper ages. 

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On stardate 6063.4, following a signal from a mysterious probe, the Federation starship Enterprise is immobilized by an alien whose ship resembles a winged serpent. The alien claims to be Kukulkan, god of the ancient Maya and Aztec peoples of Earth. He says that he is actually a very long-lived, benevolent entity who wants the humans to worship him, as the Mayas and Aztecs did. Upon resistance by the crew, he proclaims them "thankless". Kukulkan transports Captain Kirk, Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy, Chief Engineer Scott and Ensign Walking Bear to his ship. By using technology similar to a holodeck, Kukulkan makes them believe they are standing in the middle of an ancient city. Kukulkan warns them that he will only appear before them once they've solved the riddle of the city. The city combines the architectures of many ancient Earth cultures: Egyptian, Aztec, Chinese, etc. Kirk concludes that Kukulkan had visited many of the peoples on Earth, but each only took a portion of what he taught them. So none of them ever fulfilled the complete instructions to signal his return. By chance, Kirk scales a huge pyramid in the center of the city. There, he concludes that the sun will activate Kukulkan's signalling device. He orders Bones and Scotty to turn huge serpent-headed statues toward the pyramid. In doing so, the now focused sunlight ignites the signalling device. Kukulkan responds, "Behold, my design is complete. See me now with your own eyes!" Kukulkan does appear and turns out to be an alien winged serpent. The city disappears, only to make the group realize that they were never really there. They now realize that the collection of animals they see before them in small glass "cages" was exactly how they experienced the city. The animals are unaware of being on Kukulkan's ship, much as the group thought they were actually in an ancient city. Kukulkan demands that the humans worship him, just as the ancients on Earth did. He grows angry when Kirk explains that mankind has "grown up" and no longer needs to worship him. In the meantime, Science Officer Spock has figured out a way to release the Enterprise from Kukulkan's beam and breaks free. This, too, angers Kukulkan who exclaims that he will "smash" the Enterprise. To buy Spock some time, Kirk and Bones decide to break loose a Capellan Power Cat from one of Kukulkan's glass cages. The distraction works, as the Enterprise is able to use its phasers to disable Kukulkan's ship. With the Power Cat threatening Kukulkan, Kirk leaps at the animal and is able to sedate it with a hypo. Kirk again attempts to reason with Kukulkan, conceding that while the alien did help humanity when it needed it, they no longer need his guidance. The alien reluctantly agrees, and departs. 

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On stardate 4187.3, the Enterprise shuttlecraft Copernicus, carrying Science Officer Spock (voiced by Leonard Nimoy), Communications Officer Lt. Uhura (voiced by Nichelle Nichols), and Helmsman Lt. Hikaru Sulu (voiced by George Takei) are en route to Starbase 25 to deliver a stasis box, a rare artifact of the Slaver culture. The now-extinct Slavers used these objects to carry weapons, valuables, scientific instruments and data. The boxes can detect each other and evidence shows that another device is located near Beta Lyrae. Following the signal, the shuttle lands on an ice planet where the crew is captured by the hostile, catlike Kzinti. The Kzinti had an empty stasis box of their own, and were using it to lure in passing starships. They are trying to steal the boxes in the hopes of finding a super weapon that will return their empire to its former greatness. The Kzinti open the box that the Enterprise had been transporting, finding inside some fresh meat, a picture of a Slaver, and a powerful (but unfamiliar) alien device, which the Kzinti immediately suspect is a weapon. The weapon passes hands several times between the Federation and Kzinti crews, during which time Sulu discovers a total-conversion beam setting. The Kzinti recapture all three Federation personnel and the weapon. As the Kzinti explore the device's many settings, they discover a war computer that starts talking to them. After the Kzinti fail to provide several code words and ask about the total-conversion beam setting, the weapon concludes that they are enemies and directs them to what it claims is the setting that they want but which is actually a self-destruct setting. When the Kzinti activate that setting it turns out to be a disruptor field that destroys the weapon and kills the Kzinti. 

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On stardate 5499.9, while exploring the planet Argo, which was transformed into a water planet by seismic disturbances, Captain Kirk of the Federation starship Enterprise and his Science Officer Spock are lost from their survey party when their aquashuttle is attacked by a giant sea creature. After a lengthy search, the two are found, mysteriously transformed into water breathers. Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy's analysis indicates that this could not have been accomplished by any natural process, leading to the conclusion that intelligent life must still exist on the planet, but under the seas. In order to return to their normal selves, Kirk and Spock must seek out the intelligent life forms responsible for their transformation. Since the aquashuttle was destroyed when the sea creature attacked them, they swim to search for answers. They encounter a group of Aquans (members of an advanced undersea civilization) who express fear and disgust before swimming away. Kirk and Spock follow them from a distance and are captured as they admire the Aquans’ underwater city. They are taken to a tribune where they are accused of being spies. One council member, Rila, stands up for them, asking that they be given a chance to explain themselves. Unfortunately, the meeting is interrupted by Aquans who report that three air-breathers have invaded the sea foliage. They are referring to Mr. Scott and the rest of the assistance party who moved from their original post to try to inform Kirk and Spock of an impending sea quake. Upon hearing this news, the leader of the council decides that Kirk and Spock are to be brought to the surface and left there to suffocate. Rila, the sole sympathetic council member, saves their lives by leading the assistance party to them. She then explains the Aquan history that led to their fear of air- breathers, revealing that reverse mutation is possible, but forbidden. Despite the ban, Kirk enlists her help in locating the lost formula for reversing the transformation and capturing a giant sur-snake whose venom is key to the antidote. 

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When protagonist Derek Washington (Hall) was just a child, he witnessed his father's murder. Because of this, he became very afraid of blood. However, when a sting operation to find a counterfeiter named Gustoff Slovak (Mel Novak) goes wrong, Derek is forced to face his fear: blood. The operation backfires, resulting in a massacre that leaves Derek's team wiped out. Derek reaches the shocking conclusion that Slovak is actually a vampire, and joins forces with a weapons expert named Master Kao (Gerald Okamura). Kao is the last in a long line of vampire hunters, and agrees to train Derek in this ancient art of vampire slaying. However, in order to defeat Slovak, Derek must become a vampire assassin. 

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The novel features the story of Dray Prescot, an English sailor of Lord Nelson's navy, and his miraculous teleportation to the planet Kregen. There he is trained as an agent for the mysterious Savanti, an apparently benevolent secret society devoted to improving the lot of humanity among the many intelligent species of Kregen. Among the benefits conferred on him is immersion in an apparently miraculous pool, Kregen's equivalent of the Fountain of Youth, which heals all wounds and confers a greatly extended lifespan on the bather. During Prescot's sojourn among the Savanti an offhand reference is made to the continent of Gah in Kregen's opposite hemisphere, whose distasteful customs are an obvious dig at another sword and planet series, the Gor series of John Norman. Prescot falls from grace among his hosts for supplying forbidden aid to Delia, princess of the island empire of Vallia, who has been brought to the Savanti as an injured supplicant. Defying their decision not to help her, he takes her to the healing pool and cures her. In consequence, he is banished back to Earth. While Prescott spends five years on Earth only a day has passed for Delia, as he later learns. Later, he is returned to Kregen through the agency of the Star Lords, an even more mysterious group of apparently god-like beings, whose motivations are unknown, but apparently in opposition to the human Savanti. Prescot becomes a pawn in the Star Lords' schemes, sent willy-nilly to various locations on the planet to serve their ends and capriciously returned to Earth when his task is done or he manages to offend them. Despite this handicap he usually rises to a position of power in whatever society he is thrust into. Thrown back into contact with Delia, he is even able to renew and further his relationship with her. He eventually becomes the leader of the clansmen of Felschraung and Lord of Strombor in the city of Zenicce and learns that Delia of Delphond is in reality the daughter of the Emperor of Vallia, a powerful island nation. At the moment of triumph however he is returned to Lisbon on Earth. Important locales introduced in this novel include the hidden city of the Savanti, the northern plains of the continent of Segesthes, and the city state of Zenicce on the same continent. It also introduces the dove, used by the Savanti to monitor Dray Prescot, and the Gdoinye, a colourful bird of prey send by the Star Lords for the same task. 

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Before the dawn of the apocalyptic 'Year of the Beast' in 1666, Balthasar Embriaco, a Levantine merchant, sets out on an adventure that will take him across the breadth of the civilised world from Constantinople, through the Mediterranean, to London, shortly before the Great Fire. Balthazar's urgent quest is to track down a copy of one of the rarest and most coveted books ever printed, a volume called The Hundredth Name; its contents are thought to be of vital importance to the future of the world. There are ninety-nine names for God in the Koran, and merely to know this most secret hundredth name will, Balthasar believes, ensure his salvation. Category:2000 French novels Category:French-language novels Category:Historical novels Category:Novels by Amin Maalouf Category:Novels set in the Ottoman Empire Category:Novels set in the 1660s 

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Commander Singh'a Rough'a takes her ship to the Great Void. There, she and eight members of her crew, including Valérian and Laureline, go on a small landing craft to explore the Void. The craft lands on a small planetoid, where the crew first encounters the Wolochs. They are soon confronted by the Rubanis triumvirate: Colonel Tloc, Na-Zultra and S'Traks. The triumvirate is intent on doing their utmost to stop them from reaching their goal, so a fight is about to ensue. However, one of the Wolochs falls down and crushes four of Singh'a Rough'a's crew, killing them. The triumvirate departs, with Tloc pointing out another Woloch crushing Singh'a' Rough'a's landing craft. Left stranded on an empty planet, the crew's only hope of survival is Laureline's Tchoung, which she sends to contact their mothership. Meanwhile, the triumvirate meets with their mysterious guide again, who tells them more of the Wolochs' plans. Safely back on board their ship, Singh'a Rough'a's crew continues their exploration of the Great Void. At the same time, the triumvirate is already planning their revenge against them. Colonel Tloc releases a rumour that Valérian and Laureline are looking for the Time Opener. As Singh'a Rough'a and her crew continue their searches, Ky-Gaï and her Schniarfeur go to explore the Great Void on their own. In the Great Void, Singh'a Rough'a's crew has finally found a place rich in resources, but as they are returning, they are met by the triumvirate and the Wolochs, who start a fight with them. The Wolochs almost entirely obliterate Singh'a Rough'a's ship, leaving only a small escape craft with only Valérian, Laureline, and Doctor Chal' Darouine on board. The escape craft crash lands on a sticky "cheese moon", where they are reunited with Ky-Gaï and her Schniarfeur. Ky-Gaï salvages their craft and takes it into her own craft's tow. Then they can continue their exploration of the Great Void. 

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Two years after Lordlake was razed by her Sun Rune, Queen Arshtat dispatches her son the Prince, her sister Sialeeds, and their royal bodyguards Lyon and Georg Prime to inspect the state of the ruined town. The player as the Prince sees the grim state of the dried-up town and report on it, but Arshtat scorns this; she declares that Lordlake's citizens deserve their desolation for stealing the Dawn Rune. Arshtat's husband Ferid pulls her back to her senses, and she dismisses the inspection party with a whisper. The next issue of contention is the Sacred Games for Princess Lymsleia's hand in marriage, being held somewhat early for the ten-year-old Lymsleia. The two main contestants, both representing themselves with a champion, hail from rival noble houses: the foppish Euram Barows, and Sialeeds' former fiancé, the charismatic Gizel Godwin. The royal family, however, favors the mysterious outsider Belcoot, as a neutral option less likely to cause strife; the Prince attempts to aid Belcoot quietly with Ferid's approval. However, Gizel successfully rigs the Games to his advantage, and his champion Childerich defeats a drugged Belcoot while the Barow's champion is disqualified. However, Lord Marscal Godwin, Gizel's father, is less than impressed with Gizel's activities, thinking that he has made an enemy of the Prince and the royal family as a whole with his plotting. Additionally, the royal family took Zegai, the Barows champion, into their own personal custody, who could perhaps help reveal the Godwins cheating and offer an excuse to annul the engagement. Thus, the Godwins launch a preemptive attack at the engagement ceremony in Sol-Falena, Falena's capital. Arshtat and Ferid had anticipated and prepared for the attack, but not the involvement of the elite Nether Gate assassins, who overwhelm the palace's defenses. The struggle culminates in Arshtat and Ferid's deaths, while Lymsleia finds herself a captive. The Prince (whose irrelevance to the line of succession made him the lowest-priority target), Lyon, Georg and Sialeeds are forced to flee. The Prince searches first for a sanctuary, then for a way to fight back. He finds both (temporarily) as a guest of the influential noble Salum Barows, Lord Godwin's long-time rival. Salum (with his son Euram alongside) clearly plans to be the senior partner in his alliance with the Prince, but the Prince must take what allies he can find. Reluctantly, Sialeeds suggests bringing in help in the form of the legendary tactician Lucretia Merces, whom the Prince frees from prison. With her intelligence and vast network of contacts, Lucretia finds out that the Barows were behind the theft of the Dawn Rune – an act of high treason. With this revelation, the Prince is able to convince the Barows' allies to join him personally, including even Salum's daughter Luserina. The recovered Dawn Rune picks the Prince as its new bearer, even though the Prince can never inherit the throne. Lucretia guides the Prince and his army in establishing a headquarters, forging alliances, restoring Lordlake, and winning a long streak of battles. The Godwins crown Lymsleia Queen and claim to fight in her name, but lose the public relations war due to the Prince's resistance, the claims of a coup, the restoration of Lordlake (thus fixing a mistake of Arshtat's rule), and the Godwins' army commanders foolish brutality. The civil war almost comes to a close when Lymsleia takes the field personally, officially due to the Godwin's failure to put down the "rebellion", but actually to be rescued by her brother. The Prince and his forces defeat her bodyguards and attempt to capture Lymsleia back; without Lymsleia, the Godwin's government would collapse. At this juncture, however, Sialeeds defects to Gizel's side, spiriting Lymsleia away and prolonging the conflict. Lyon is seriously wounded, preventing the party from pursuing Lymsleia. Meanwhile, Sialeeds takes up the Twilight Rune, the counterpart to the Dawn Rune held in Godwin territory. The Godwins enjoy a brief reversal in fortunes with new army levies and an alliance with a faction of Falena's neighbor Armes. However, Falena's normally neutral Dragon Cavalry enters the war on the Prince's side due to Armes' involvement, and the Godwins are driven back once more. Sialeeds ensures that the Prince's forces must capture Stormfist, the seat of Godwin power, and thoroughly erase any possible strongholds of Godwin sympathy. Despite seemingly being affiliated with the Godwins, however, Sialeeds incinerates a Godwin ambush of the Prince's force. Sialeeds later murders Salum Barows in Gizel's name, leaving the whimpering Euram alive with the venomous taunt that the Barows faction will surely fall to ruin with an idiot like him in charge. Only the capital city of Sol-Falena remains under Godwin control. The battle for it claims the lives of both Sialeeds and Gizel. As she expires, Sialeeds hints at her motives (which her maids confirm, if the player speaks with them later): she knew that, if the Prince had rescued Lymsleia when he first had the chance, things only would have returned to the way they were before, with the same corrupt nobility holding power struggles. The only way, in her mind, to secure the royal family's hold on the Queendom was to prolong the war such that the nobility would be completely and utterly ruined. By doing it in the Godwins' name, the Prince and Lymsleia could be rid of them without getting their hands dirty. As Gizel dies, felled by the Prince in a duel, he declares that Sialeeds was the only real winner. Lord Marscal, the only remaining Godwin, retreats with the Sun Rune to a nearby mountain range, where he meets the Prince in a showdown to prove that the royals can rule without the power of the Sun Rune. He draws the Rune's power into himself for the final battle with the Rune incarnation. In the ending, Lymsleia re-assumes the throne and dissolves the Senate, though a new representative parliament is created to replace it and advise the Queen. Depending on the player's choices and performance, several endings are possible. If very few optional stars of destiny were recruited, Lyon dies of the wounds she received earlier and the Prince wanders off alone in despair. If most but not all of the stars were recruited, the Prince travels the world with Georg. If all 108 Stars were recruited, Lyon survives. If the Prince chose to be nice when interacting with Lymsleia, he has the further option of staying in Falena and becoming the new Commander of the Queen's Knights, with Lyon by his side. 

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Illustration by Gustave Doré, from Les Contes de Perrault (1862), depicting Hop-o'-My-Thumb hiding under a stool, listening to his parents as they discuss abandoning him and his brothers. A poor woodcutter and his wife are no longer able to support their children and intend to abandon them in a forest. Hop-o'-My-Thumb, overhearing his parents, plans ahead and collects small white pebbles from a river. He uses the stones to mark a trail that enables him to successfully lead his brothers back home. However, the second time round, he uses breadcrumbs instead, which the birds eat up. The brothers are lost in the wood. Hop-o'-My-Thumb climbs up a tree and spots a distant light. The boys walk towards it. They come at last to a house, and learn that it belongs to an ogre. Hop-o'-My-Thumb, fearing the wolves, decides to take the risk of staying in the monster's residence. The ogre allows the boys to sleep for the night, and provides a bed for them in his daughters' room. But the ogre wakes up not too long after, and prepares to kill them in their slumber. Hop-o'-My-Thumb, who anticipated the possibility, already planned ahead and replaced the daughters' gold crowns with the bonnets worn by him and his brothers. As a result, the ogre kills his daughters instead, and goes back to bed. Once he is snoring, Hop-o'-My-Thumb directs his siblings out of the house. The ogre wakes up in the morning to discover his grave mistake, puts on his seven-league boots, and races after the boys. They spot the ogre while walking. Hop-o'-My-Thumb once again thinks fast and hides in a small nearby cave. The ogre, who is tired, happens to rest close to their hiding spot. Hop-o'-My-Thumb instructs his brothers to make their way home, and meanwhile, removes the boots from the sleeping ogre. He puts them on, and the boots, being magical, resize to fit him. Hop-o'-My-Thumb uses the boots to make a fortune, and returns to his family's home, where they live happily ever after. 

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In 1973, 14-year-old high school freshman Susie Salmon dreams of becoming a photographer. One day, Ray, a boy she has a crush on, asks her out. As Susie walks home through a cornfield, she runs into her neighbor, George Harvey, who coaxes her into an underground "kid's hideout" he has built. Inside, Susie grows uncomfortable and attempts to leave; Harvey grabs her and the scene fades until she is seen rushing past her alarmed classmate Ruth Connors, seemingly fleeing Harvey's den. The Salmons become worried when Susie fails to return home from school. Her father, Jack, searches for her, while her mother, Abigail, waits for the police. In town, Susie sees Jack, who does not respond to her when she calls. Susie runs home to find Harvey soaking in a bathtub. After seeing the bloody bathroom and her bracelet hanging on the sink faucet, Susie realizes she never escaped the underground den and Harvey murdered her. Screaming, she is pulled into the "In-Between", which is neither Heaven nor Earth. From there, Susie watches over her loved ones, and resists her new afterlife friend Holly's urging her to let go. Investigating Susie's disappearance with Detective Fenerman, Jack believes Susie was murdered by someone she knew. He researches neighbors and eventually suspects Harvey is the killer. Fenerman is unable to find proof, as Harvey has carefully concealed the evidence. Susie's sister, Lindsey, agrees with Jack's suspicions, but their casework takes a toll on Abigail. Abigail's alcoholic mother, Lynn, moves into the house. Feeling alienated from her husband, Abigail goes to California. Susie, in her afterlife, learns that Harvey, who has targeted Lindsey as his next victim, has murdered six other girls, including Holly, and that he stuffed Susie's body into a large safe in his basement. One night, Jack, carrying a baseball bat, trails Harvey into the cornfield. However, Jack accidentally stumbles across a teen couple. The boy, thinking they will be assaulted, bludgeons Jack nearly to death as Harvey watches nearby. As Jack recuperates, Lindsey breaks into Harvey's house looking for evidence that he killed Susie. Upstairs, she finds a notebook containing a sketch of the underground den, a lock of Susie's hair, and news articles about Susie's disappearance. Harvey returns and almost catches Lindsey, but she escapes and rushes home to discover that her mother has returned. She gives the notebook to her grandmother, who contacts the police. Harvey has already fled his home - taking the safe containing Susie's body with him. Susie's afterlife begins expanding into a larger heaven, and she is greeted by Harvey's other victims. She resists Holly's urging her to enter Heaven along with the others, claiming she has one final thing to do. Meanwhile, Susie's classmates Ruth and Ray are present when Harvey drives up to dispose of the safe at a sinkhole dump site on the Conners' property. Susie returns to Earth and enters Ruth's body, causing Ruth to faint. Ray rushes to Ruth's aid only to realize she has become Susie. They kiss, completing Susie's last wish, and she returns to Heaven. Meanwhile, Harvey dumps the safe in the sinkhole, leaving it to disappear in the muddy water as he drives away. Sometime later, Harvey meets a young woman outside a diner and offers her a ride, but she rebuffs him and leaves. A large icicle falls from an overhead branch, hitting Harvey's shoulder, causing him to fall backward over a steep cliff to his death. Time passes, and Susie sees that her family is healing, which Susie refers to as "the lovely bones" that grew around her absence. Susie finally enters Heaven, telling the audience: "My name is Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie. I was 14 years old when I was murdered on December 6, 1973. I was here for a moment and then I was gone. I wish you all a long and happy life." 

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The storyline re-tells the early years of Steve Rogers' turn as the Star-Spangled Avenger. 

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Margaret Turner (Myrna Loy) and Susan Turner (Shirley Temple) are sisters who live together. Susan is an intelligent 17-year-old high-school student with a habit of forming short-lived interests after hearing the regular guest lectures at the school. Margaret is a judge, and Susan's guardian. Richard Nugent (Cary Grant), a handsome and sophisticated artist, is a defendant in Margaret's courtroom, charged by ADA Tommy Chamberlain (Rudy Vallee) with starting a nightclub brawl. She releases him with a warning when it becomes clear that the fight was started by two women fighting over him. He proceeds to Susan's school, where he is the guest lecturer for the day--and as he speaks, Susan becomes infatuated with him. After the talk she finds a reason to spend time with him and suggests she model for him; that evening, she puts on a sophisticated dress and sneaks away from home and into his apartment while he is out. Richard has no sooner discovered Susan in his apartment than Tommy and Margaret arrive to rescue her from his presumed seduction. Richard assaults Tommy and is held in jail until Matt Beemish (Ray Collins), who is the court psychiatrist and also Margaret and Susan's uncle, intervenes and explains the true situation. He recommends allowing Susan to date Richard until the infatuation burns itself out; Tommy will drop the assault charge if Richard complies. At a high-school basketball game, Richard tries unsuccessfully to boost Susan's image of Jerry White (Johnny Sands), the boyfriend she dumped for him. Later, at a school picnic, Susan persuades Richard to enter a series of novelty races (open to adult family members), where he loses repeatedly to Tommy. But in the main event, an obstacle course, she asks Jerry to help Richard win. Because he still loves her, Jerry complies, helping him directly at one point, then colliding with Tommy so that Richard does win the event. Meanwhile, Richard and Margaret are becoming attracted to each other, to the discomfiture of Tommy, who sees Richard as a habitual troublemaker and wants Margaret for himself. Hoping Richard will stop seeing Margaret if he no longer has to date Susan, Tommy announces he is dropping the charge. But Richard and Margaret go out to a nightclub, where they are interrupted in succession by all the other main characters as well as a former girlfriend of Richard's. They all part angrily. Afterwards, though, Matt is able to talk sense into Susan, and she returns to Jerry. Matt finds out that Richard has decided to take a trip and is able to manipulate affairs so that Margaret will travel with him. Learning that Tommy is coming to arrest Richard on trumped-up charges, Matt forestalls him by telling police at the airport that Tommy is a mental patient with delusions of being an ADA. Richard and Margaret are happily surprised to meet each other as they approach the plane to board. 

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It features an alternative Sherlock Holmes world where the values and class system of Victorian era England carried over into a late 20th Century where World War II never occurred. The story mainly concerns a group of punks attempting to solve a series of murders reminiscent of the Jack the Ripper killings of the late 19th century. 

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The expulsion of Sergeant Callum Tate (Luke Kirby), an Anti- Trafficking officer working in Bosnia, sparks concern for multi-national private security company Kernwell, headed up by Tom Harlsburgh (Chris Potter). Having been caught seemingly trying to procure a prostitute for $2,000, Tate's actions have threatened to throw the entire company into disrepute, just as the directors are on the brink of signing an $8 million contract to provide private security in Iraq. Tate denies the allegations, claiming that he was trying to free Anya Petria (Alexandra Fasola), a student who had been trafficked from Romania and forced to work as a prostitute. Tate claims that a number of Kernwell officers, including Major James Brooke (Robert Joy) are involved in a trafficking ring involving the enslavement of young women seeking refuge from their own countries in the hope of finding a better life in the West. Kernwell order a press blackout, preventing Tate's suspension or any of the allegations made reaching the press. Meanwhile, Daniel Appleton (John Simm), a journalist working for London-based charity Speak For Freedom, travels to Bosnia to report on Kernwell's activities, and whilst there, he witnesses a number of Anti-Trafficking officers having sex with prostitutes at a local bar. But before he can report his findings, the bar is raided and information is spread to suggest that he was caught having sex with a prostitute, Elena Visinescu (Anamaria Marinca), at the time of the raid. Appleton refutes the allegations, but is ordered to cease investigation into Kernwell by his boss, Joan Stewart (Alison Peebles). Appleton decides to continue privately investigating Kernwell, and discovers that shortly after leaving Bosnia to head for Europe, Anya's body was found washed up on the shores of an Italian beach. After becoming separated from her sister, Elena heads for London to find Appleton. With Elena's help, Appleton sets out to expose the corrupt officers working for the Anti-Trafficking unit and bring Kernwell to book. 

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The first two issues revolve around the efforts of Bill (Bill S. Preston, Esq.) and Ted (Theodore Logan) as they plan a party to celebrate their recent nuptials. Unfortunately the personification of mortality, Death, a more recent ally, becomes vastly out of sorts and steals the phone-booth time machine. Rufus, their old guide, helps by directing them to a prototype for the phone booth/time machine. Bill and Ted must take the device and find Death before he causes too much damage to the time stream. The two also must deal with jealous rivals, who do not accept that Bill and Ted's wives had freely chosen to marry. 

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At the beginning of the episode, Rachel gets upset when Bonnie – Ross's new girlfriend – starts listing all the places she's had sex. Phoebe comes in with some news: She found an old picture of her parents with a friend – also named Phoebe Abbott, who lives on the beach in Montauk; Phoebe suggests the gang spend the weekend there so she can search for her father. Rachel is pleased to learn that Bonnie has to work and is therefore unable to attend. While waiting for Phoebe to come pick them up, Monica spots a couple walking arm in arm, and wonders if she will ever find a boyfriend again. Chandler says that if "worse comes to worst" he will gladly assume the boyfriend role – a prospect Monica finds hilarious. He then spends the rest of the episode trying to prove to Monica that he is good "boyfriend material". Phoebe pulls up in the cab – and with the news that one of her massage clients is letting them use his beach house for the weekend. They pull up to the beach house and discover it is raining and that the house has suffered some flood damage and is filled with sand. Phoebe then visits the older Phoebe, who is a realtor. Younger Phoebe wants to know everything about her parents, but older Phoebe says she unfortunately lost touch with Frank and Lily after high school. She has a suspicion that older Phoebe is lying about not knowing Frank's whereabouts, and steals a picture from the refrigerator. When older Phoebe cancels their dinner plans the next night, claiming to be out of town, Phoebe breaks into her house. The older Phoebe catches her, and tells her the truth: Not only does she really not know where Frank is but she is younger Phoebe's real mother. While Joey tries to get the gang to play strip poker to distract them from the rain, Rachel tries to paint Ross' toenails; they playfully wrestle for a bit. The gang finally decides to give in and play Strip Poker, but they cannot find any cards – so they end up playing Strip Happy Days Game and strip Joey completely naked. While Monica and Rachel talk about the fact that Rachel is flirting with Ross, Rachel gets upset when Bonnie shows up and joins in the game. The next morning, Joey wakes up to find that the gang has buried him in the sand – and built a mermaid out of sand around him, complete with large breasts. Ross and Bonnie come down together, much to Rachel's dismay. She ends up getting her revenge, though – by convincing once-bald Bonnie to shave her head again. Ross is upset, especially when he learns it was Rachel's idea. He fights with Rachel and points out it was Rachel who ended their relationship. Rachel then says that she was just mad at him – and she had never fallen out of love with him. When Ross asks if she wants to get back together, she replies that she does not know; she still cannot forgive him for what he did but feels something when she is with him, and they kiss. A talk with Joey and Chandler does not help Ross since he is still in love with Rachel; but he also really likes Bonnie and thinks it would be healthy to move on. The episode – and the third season – ends with Ross upstairs in the hallway. To one side is Rachel's bedroom; the other, his and Bonnie's room. He thinks for a moment, then picks a door and goes in, saying "Hi" to someone there. During the closing credits, Chandler persists in trying to prove he would be good boyfriend material by knocking on the front door and pretending to be a guy picking her up for a date. On his final attempt, he plays the part as Tim Conway's dwarf character, Dorf, resulting in Monica storming off to bed. 

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A security guard at the gates of NORCO, a southern California physics research center, is brusque when the Peters brothers drive up, even though Professor Stuart Peters has taken a job with the company, intending to have a look around the property. The guard orders them to leave, when oddly enough, he slips them a matchbook on which he has scrawled, "Don't come back, NORCO doomed". When the brothers drive away, a monstrous explosion of energy appears, and the guard, while pleading for his life, disintegrates. The next day at NORCO, Professor Peters meets his boss, head scientist Dr. Block, and mentions the note, which Block dismisses. Block leaves Stuart in the laboratory with a co-worker, Professor Stephanie Linden. Inquiring as to the nature of their work, Linden directs Stuart into an adjacent corridor and then locks him in, releasing a grotesque energy entity that kills him instantly. Days pass, and when Stuart does not return, his brother, Jory, grows worried, while confiding his concerns to his girlfriend, Gaby. However, when Stuart reappears, the two men quarrel over a family matter as Jory notices a strange device, apparently a heart pacemaker, strapped around his brother's chest. Stuart stumbles backward into the bathtub, where he is electrocuted. The pacemaker was thought to be defective by the authorities, but Peters had perfect health and the scar tissue is recent enough for a heart operation to have taken place since he arrived in California. The police investigate, and Sgt. Siroleo confronts Block at NORCO, who feigns ignorance to any wrongdoings at his facility and denies the allegations of complicity. However, it is Linden who reveals the truth: a being composed entirely of energy has been accidentally formed. It can consume anyone with a mere touch, and is so threatening that those who encounter it at close range die instantly. Dr. Block found a way to control the entity, and is keeping it contained while he tries to study the monster. When the other scientists demanded its destruction, Block had the horrid being frighten them to death, and then restored them to life with pacemakers, which will cease to function if Block directs the creature to draw the power from them. Jory arrives at the center in an effort to find the truth about what actually happened to his brother. Dr. Block then reappears in the lab with a gun and, holding Siroleo and Linden at bay, releases the horror. Siroleo, however, wrests away the gun and shoots Block. Now he, Linden, and Peters must face the energy being. Since the creature needs energy to sustain itself, they resort to cutting all power within a large area, thus forcing the being to withdraw back into the energy chamber where it has been contained. Unfortunately, this also causes Dr. Linden's pacemaker to fail, thus killing her. As things settle down, Peters and Siroleo turn around to look with uncertainty towards the energy chamber where the being has been quarantined – now, once again, contained, but still powerful and alive. 

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Kei and Yuri were originally junior auxiliary agents in the Worlds Works and Welfare Agency (W.W.W.A. or 3WA for short) when the two were paired together under the codename "Lovely Angels." Kei was coming off her fourth probation for something she had done, and Yuri's dating exploits were common knowledge, not to mention the two had an instant dislike for each other when they met. Kei and Yuri were not the first to receive the codename Lovely Angels. Years before, during the Gamorian Riots, two other women, Iris and Molly, had been given the designation Lovely Angels. Molly was killed in action, and her partner Iris, who had lost her left arm trying to save Molly, became bitter about the lack of response from the 3WA and vanished, later becoming the notorious assassin known as "Lady Flair." At first, Kei and Yuri refused to work with each other, and Kei even resigned from the 3WA. However, when the "Siren" crisis erupted, Kei returned. This was decidedly a good thing, as Yuri's ditsy new partner, Lily, had abruptly quit just as the response to the crisis started, and Kei's return came just in time, as Yuri was about to be killed by Waldess. Afterwards, the two continued to work together, although they earned their nickname, "the Dirty Pair" because of all the collateral damage the two (unintentionally) cause in the completion of their cases. And even though the two now get along with one another, they continue to bicker and complain to each other. In addition to the sixteen anime episodes, there have been three novels (1994, 1997, 1999) and four "Stereo Dramas" (one in 1994, the others in 1996) written by Takachiho, as well as two sanctioned manga series (1995–96) published by Dengeki Comics. 

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Nearly 500 residents of the agricultural community of Milagro in the mountains of northern New Mexico face a crisis when politicians and business interests make a backroom deal to usurp the town's water in order to pave the way for a land buy-out. Due to the new laws, Joe Mondragon is unable to make a living farming because he is not allowed to divert water from an irrigation ditch that runs past his property. Frustrated, and unable to find work, Joe visits his father's field. He happens upon a tag that reads "prohibited" covering a valve on the irrigation ditch. He kicks the valve, unintentionally breaking it, allowing water to flood his fields. He decides against repairing the valve and instead decides to plant beans in the field. This leads to a confrontation with powerful state interests, including a hired gun brought in from out of town. An escalation of events follows, leading to a final showdown between law enforcement and the citizens of Milagro. 

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The plot revolves around Countess Irina von Karlstein (Lina Romay), a mute woman who needs sex like a vampire needs blood in order to stay alive. Without speaking, the Countess is able to hypnotize victims and lure them into transfixed erotic acts. In addition, she is able to fly from the scene quickly due to her bat-changing abilities. When new victims are found fatally drained of potency, and left scattered around the town, forensic scientist Dr. Roberts consults his colleague, Dr. Orloff, who confirms that a vampire is responsible. A female journalist and few others meet with the Countess and confront her about her ties to vampires in her family. While the Countess tells the truth and admits that she is a vampire, few remain living to report the truth and warn other townspeople. The countess is also confronted by a psychic investigator who believes he is destined to become her lover and join her among the immortals. 

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Maya (Kyla Pratt) has evolved considerably from the first film. Though she was then an antisocial individual more interested in her science projects, Maya has transformed into the typical teenager. Like her sister Charisse, she inherits their father John's capacity for communicating with fauna (she is a part-time veterinary assistant), her life is turned upside down on all fronts. She routinely lands in trouble with her parents, while her friends think she's gone crazy. With John away on animal expeditions, Maya's mother Lisa (Kristen Wilson) sends her with Lucky (voice of Norm MacDonald) following along to a ranch named "Durango", so she can find herself. The ranch is owned by Jud (John Amos), and his son Bo (Walker Howard). While there, Maya, who desperately tried to keep it under wraps so as not to arouse suspicion, uses her talent to "talk to the animals" in order to save Durango from being taken over by a neighboring ranch. Maya is at first reluctant to reveal her ability, fearing rejection from her friends, but eventually does so. With her help, the Durango ranch enters a rodeo competition with a $50,000 award, and wins it. Also, she shares her first kiss with Bo and finally wins his heart. 

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In the year 1998, after the death of his mother, 13-year-old Benjamin "Ben" Cooper takes it upon himself to take care of his single father Nick and little sister Angie in Monroe County, New York. Ben enters a contest to win a smart house. The family wins and moves into the house (run by a virtual assistant named PAT, short for "Personal Applied Technology") and is introduced to its creator, Sara Barnes. Nick and Sara begin dating, which upsets Ben, who has not moved on from the death of his mother. Ben decides to reprogram PAT to serve as a maternal figure, and the computer uses its learning capabilities to emulate mothers from 1950s-era TV shows and films. Ben and Angie have a party while Nick and Sara are on a date. With PAT's help, Ben wins over his crush Gwen Patroni, and his bully Ryan is shown up by PAT, who electrically shocks Ryan, haunts him with ghostly skull holograms and chases him out of the house. PAT helps them clean up to cover up evidence of the party, but Nick figures it out anyway, and reprimands Ben and Angie when he finds Gwen's sweater (thrown about during a dance line) in the living room fern. Nick chastises PAT for throwing a party behind his back, asking her to be more responsible with his children. PAT's "mother" personality starts to become more strict and overbearing. Sara shuts down the entire system and joins the family for dinner, but upon hearing Nick offhandedly suggesting she's not needed, PAT overrides the system shutdown and brings herself back online. An angry and jealous PAT generates herself as a holographic housewife, styled like the sitcom housewives Ben taught her to behave as; she kicks Sara out, seeing her as a threat to PAT's place in the family, and locks the Coopers in the house, asserting that the outside world is too dangerous. Sara manages to make contact with Ben and sneaks into the house, but she becomes trapped with the Cooper family. Ben is able to end the lock-down by telling PAT that she isn't real and will never be human. PAT finally unlocks the doors and windows, freeing them, and shuts herself down. Sara is able to restore PAT's original personality, but PAT retains some mischievousness. Sara and Nick start dating, and Nick spends more time with his family. Ben finally accepts Sara after realizing she was never trying to replace his mother, and, with PAT's help, is able to have time for friends and hobbies again. 

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Charlie Boyle, a 13-year-old physics genius and hockey lover, enrolls in a Wisconsin college so he can work with Dr. Krickstein, a scientist he admires. Mostly Charlie is sick of being a geek and he was treated like dirt because he was a genius. For years, Krickstein has been studying gravity in an attempt to defy it. Krickstein's laboratory is located underneath the college's hockey arena. Charlie has difficulty making friends with his college students and roommates. Charlie meets a teenage girl named Claire Addison, who attends a local high school. To be near Claire, Charlie tells her that he is a new student at her school, and that his name is Chaz Anthony. Charlie chooses to reinvent himself because he feels being a nerd does not guarantee him a girlfriend. Charlie enrolls at Claire's school as Chaz, and takes on a bad boy image in an attempt to be cool and gain friends. To get closer to Claire, Chaz convinces her to tutor him. Claire is the daughter of Coach Addison, who coaches the college's Northern Lights hockey team. Charlie realizes that living two lives can be difficult. Eventually, Charlie's double life is exposed at the college's conference championship, when Claire's father identifies him as Charlie Boyle. Claire confronts Charlie, who admits the truth. Charlie realizes that he left the laboratory's particle accelerator running; it overheats, cracking the ice and interrupting the game which the Northern Lights were about to win, having used advice Charlie gave them. Coach Addison's job is put in jeopardy as a result and Claire, disgusted by Charlie's actions, tells him she never wants to see him again and refuses to take his phone calls. Charlie leaves junior high school and although he makes an announcement over the PA system apologizing, Claire and his best friends Odie and Dieon refuse to forgive him. Having isolated a graviton and figuring out how to use it to control the movements of another object, Charlie decides to use it to help the hockey team cheat and win against the other team and its own cheating tactics. Charlie appeals to his friends for help. They refuse until, after being called Chaz by Claire, he tells them he is Charlie Boyle and he cannot do it without them. Odie and Dieon decide to help and finally Claire and his other junior high classmates follow. After creating a distraction with the help of his classmates to get microchips onto the three main enemy players, Charlie and Claire proceed to take control of them to prevent them from cheating. Dr. Krickstein initially refuses to have anything to do with Charlie's decision to use science for cheating, but later steps in to help and accidentally causes an electrical surge that reverses the polarity of the graviton, causing Charlie, Claire and Krickstein, as well as the players they are connected to, to defy gravity. The Northern Lights win and Coach Addison's job is saved. Charlie and Claire kiss and start dating. Later, Charlie and his friends set up a friendly ice hockey game with Krickstein joining, but before they can start, the Northern Lights arrive with Charlie's college roommate and friend Mike, having learned what Charlie did for them from Claire's father, who Claire told. The Northern Lights ask for a game against Charlie and his friends. Charlie agrees, but on the condition that Krickstein is on their team, to which they reluctantly agree. 

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Frances Bacon McCausland (Erin Chambers), an intelligent and level-headed girl, is starting high school a year early. Strange things have been going on in her town of Middleberg: dogs appearing on people's roofs, alarm clocks going off hours early, eggs all over a teacher's car, gelatin in the school swimming pool, and the letter "B" spray-painted all over town. The Bs also appear on the school lockers—except for Frances', which has a B on the inside. These pranks seem to point to Frances, who does not understand what is happening or why. An older boy named Larry Houdini (Eric "Ty" Hodges II) offers to help Frances, telling her that he is an imaginary friend, which is proven true as children are the only other people who can see him. Larry tells Frances that she is being framed by the Boogeyman. Frances has a difficult time believing this. The Boogeyman causes a blackout, foreshadowed by the Bs he spray-painted; however, the McCausland home is unaffected, with all its Christmas lights remaining on. Frances then loses her friendship with her best friend Joanne, makes a fool out of herself trying to convince others that Larry exists, and causes her family to question her sanity. At her wits end, Frances checks out The Boogey Book from the library for Larry, who decides to build a tetra-fuse detailed in the book which will age the Boogeyman into a harmless old geezer. Frances later learns Larry was her brother Darwin's imaginary friend, who still cares about him, but Frances convinced Darwin to grow up and stop believing in him. Larry also cooks up Boogey Goo to use as bait and finds it delicious, which scares Frances. She looks for Boogeyman origins in the book, learning that a Boogeyman is created when the creator of an imaginary friend stops believing too soon. Having accidentally stepped in Boogey Goo, Darwin attracts the Boogeyman and gets kidnapped while sitting in Frances' room. Frances and Larry follow him to the Boogeyworld dimension, which exists underneath Frances' bed. During the skirmish, Larry turns into a Boogeyman due to Darwin's lack of belief in him, while the other Boogeyman drags Darwin towards a cliff. However, Frances convinces Darwin to believe in Larry again, reverting him to normal. After using the tetra-fuse on the Boogeyman, Frances realizes it is her old imaginary friend, Zoe. Frances stopped believing in her when Darwin fell ill, deciding it was time to grow up. Frances proves she still cares about Zoe, holding her hand and causing her to revert to normal. Frances and Darwin return to the real world, where her parents reveal the same antics that occurred in Middleburg are occurring in another city. Larry reveals that "the guy in his head" just ordered him to go take care of the other Boogeyman; Zoe offers to assist as she was rather inexperienced as a Boogeyman and was thus easy to fight. Frances is distraught as it was not easy for her to believe in them again. Before Larry and Zoe leave, Larry tells Frances its alright showing her that childhood was great, but so is adulthood if she keeps a sense of wonder. He then turns on the Christmas lights outside, allowing him and Zoe to leave. That night, Darwin is scared and is sent to Frances by Larry; she allows him to sleep with her. Larry and Zoe watch this with smiles. 

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Michael Woods is a lazy, preppy 20-year-old living off his parents' wealth in Los Angeles, while struggling through college classes and dating a spoiled heiress named Gina, whom his family dislikes. Michael learns that his 11-year-old cousin Tommy Biggs, whom he has not seen since a family reunion several years earlier, will soon be arriving from Montana to visit. Michael casts Tommy aside during his visit, prioritizing his social life and the demands of his girlfriend over his guest. On Tommy's last day in California, the family housekeeper Arlene makes Michael aware of his mistreatment toward Tommy and that she will tell Glenn and Jacy everything. Michael decides to take Tommy to Disneyland to make up for it. However, en route to the theme park, Michael receives a phone call from Gina pleading for him to meet her at a racetrack so she can introduce him to her father. Michael capitulates and leaves Tommy at an indoor kiddie park, then drives to the track for a brief visit. At the race track, Michael charms Gina's father over the course of a couple hours. When Michael realizes how late it is, he hurries back to pick up Tommy, and accidentally collides his Porsche Boxster with another vehicle. Afterwards upon arriving at the kiddie park, Michael learns Arlene had picked up Tommy several hours earlier. When he comes home, Tommy angrily confronts him about this. Arlene mentions that she is disappointed in him for how he treated his cousin. They don't tell his parents about it and Michael lies that he got the dent in his car from a hit- and-run. After Tommy returns to Montana and during dinner, Jacy mentions that she got a call from Michael's aunt, Jules, who told her that Tommy didn't get to do much of anything. In turn, she mentions that they are very disappointed in him. Glenn confronts Michael and mentions that Arlene has told him everything. He demands that Michael explains his reasons for him leaving Tommy at an indoor kiddie park, rather than cancel his plans with Gina. He claims that if he canceled on her in meeting her father and took Tommy to Disneyland, she threatened to break up with him. Glenn tells Michael off that was no excuse since Tommy was family and he should've known better. His problems become worse when the police officers come over to the house and inform his parents of the accident between him and Deidre White. This truth further enrages both Glenn and Jacy because earlier Michael claimed he was in a hit- and-run as he was leaving the horse track. The police mentions that while he did the right thing to get Deidre's information and give out his own, she wrote his license plate number on a piece of paper, which they used to track him back to the house. Now more irritated by his selfish behavior, Glenn decrees that in order for Michael to start acting like an adult and learn responsibility: he needs to go to Montana to work on the Biggs ranch for a month. Michael refuses to go there and tries to negotiate his way out of that trip. However, Glenn makes it clear that it's not negotiable anymore. He points out that he and Jacy are fed up with Michael's behavior. Glenn mentions that if they get a negative telephone call from the Biggs regarding Michael, they intend to cancel his upcoming trip with Gina to the French Riviera. Michael arrives at the ranch, where he meets Jules' ranch hands, Twister and Mule, as well as Tommy. Michael is put to work early the next morning, although every task he is assigned by Tommy is deliberately sabotaged to make his labor harder, as revenge for his earlier neglect. One example is being ordered to load wood onto a ramshackle truck, only for Mule to laugh he has not driven it for years and points out a newer pickup truck. Michael eventually confronts Tommy regarding his behavior, and reveals that he only got along with him at their family reunion years ago because they were the only children at the event. No longer caring if his parents cancel his trip to the French Riviera with Gina, Michael demands Tommy to leave him alone and let him go through the month in peace. He dejectedly agrees and believes that his cousin truly doesn't care for him. The next morning and angered over hearing about Michael's mistreatment over Tommy, Twister reprimands him for his lazy and entitled behavior. He points out that his family are grateful to do hard work and appreciate what they have. Twister mentions that he has seen how much Michael hardly appreciates the life he has and has overheard half of his phone conversations with his girlfriend, complaining about the work on the ranch. During their discussion, he is surprised to learn that the Biggs are suffering financial problems and wonders aloud why no one in his family told him this. Twister reveals that they felt like Michael doesn't care about anyone except himself and his snooty girlfriend. Twister ends the conversation by telling him off to reexamine his attitude. After Twister's confrontation, Michael realizes how selfish he has been and begins adapting to life on the ranch. He mends his relationship with Tommy, who reveals his father was terminally ill, and his medical bills combined with the loss of labor from his death snowballed into financial woes. Michael expresses remorse over not spending time with Tommy more when he learns why Jules really sent him to LA and feels worse in not putting his social life on hold. Later, Michael is upset when Jules tells him that the ranch will be foreclosed soon because her mortgage is past due. The bank plans to auction the family's ranch and personal property at the end of the month. Michael returns to Los Angeles after a month on the ranch, now a more mature man and finding his old life no longer interesting. A jumping horse scares everyone at the track, but Michael tames it remembering his lessons from Mule. Michael ends his relationship with Gina after realizing that his parents were right and she is a rich snob. When Michael comes home and chastises his father for not helping the Biggs, he learns that Glenn had tried to help them out. He mentions to Michael that he offered them financial aid to keep the ranch from being foreclosed. However, Jules was too prideful to accept it to the point that not even Glenn and Jacy could get her to change her mind. Michael sells his Porsche and returns to Montana to present the money from the sale to keep the ranch operational until a permanent solution can be devised. Jules graciously rejects Michael's offer and suggests that it is time for she and Tommy to move on. Michael doesn't give up very easily. On the day of the auction, Michael recalls a real estate class he took that taught about the concept of a land trust, which, if arranged in conjunction with the bank, would allow the Biggs to remain on the property indefinitely regardless of the debt. Michael successfully negotiates the terms with the bank. Jules agrees to let Michael continue working on the ranch and spend more time with the family. Later, Tommy and Michael finish a tree house that Tommy's father had been working on prior to his illness. 

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Sydney Miller is a 13-year-old girl who was born in Hawaii and moved away at a young age after the death of her mother, who she barely remembers. From her great aunt, Sydney inherits a derelict Hawaiian plantation that had been used through five generations. Sydney, her father Ben, and her stepmother Elizabeth leave their residence in Chicago to visit the plantation, known as Makai. When the Millers arrive, they meet attorney Bo Kauihou, who informs them that Sydney will inherit the plantation if she stays there for two weeks. Bo attempts to dissuade Sydney's parents from selling the plantation, stating that the ground is still fertile enough for use as farm land, although Ben is hesitant as he and Elizabeth have no farm experience. Although Bo wants to preserve the plantation, he informs the Millers that there have been inquiries about purchasing the property. At the plantation, Sydney finds an old photograph of her mother and learns that she used to surf. The next day, Sydney finds a surfboard with the word "Naniloa" inscribed on it, then befriends a girl named Gia, who enjoys surfing. That night, Sydney tells her parents that she wants to spend time with Gia at a beach on the following day. Ben is apprehensive about Sydney going to the beach alone, but allows her to do so when she promises to just take pictures, without going near the water. While Ben, Elizabeth, and Bo meet with realtors, Sydney arrives at the beach with the Naniloa surfboard. Sydney is introduced to Gia's friends, including Kona, a boy who is an artist and skateboarder. Sydney confesses that she does not know how to surf, so Gia teaches her. Later, Bo and the Millers meet with the realtors to discuss a company's plans to construct a resort on the plantation property. Sydney is disappointed that the plans do not include the preservation of the plantation buildings, which were built in 1912; the realtors suggest that the main plantation house could be converted into a restaurant. They also tell Sydney that everything is negotiable after she expresses disappointment at the company's plan to make the nearby beach available to hotel guests only. While surfing, Sydney is swept off her surfboard and rescued by Kona. Sydney has a cut on her face and later awakens in a beach house belonging to Gia's mother, Malia, who has bandaged her cut. Malia tells Sydney that the Naniloa surfboard belonged to Sydney's mother, who was nicknamed Naniloa. Malia also says that she was friends with Sydney's mother. Malia is surprised to learn that Ben never mentioned the friendship. Malia then takes Sydney to a lagoon to observe its beauty; Malia tells her that it is a place where whales gather annually. Malia brings Sydney back to the plantation, and Ben becomes upset at Malia, believing that she encouraged Sydney to surf. Malia questions Ben's decision to withhold information from Sydney regarding her mother; he tells Malia that he was trying to keep Sydney away from Hawaii and surfing in order to protect her, an idea with which Malia disagrees. The next day, Sydney learns – from Gia – that her mother died in an accident. Sydney says her father has never discussed her mother's death and she has never asked him about it. Sydney has Kona and Gia take her to Kaala Loa, a vacant plantation, where she discovers her mother's old bedroom. The Millers receive a new monetary offer for Makai, and Sydney is left to choose whether to accept it. That night, a party is held at Kaala Loa, where Sydney and Kona share a kiss. While observing the whales, Sydney learns from Malia that her mother died while surfing. Gia's friends ignore Sydney after a newspaper article states that the plantation and beach will be sold to the company, even though she has not yet made a decision. When Sydney tells Gia that the company has promised to preserve the lagoon for the whales, Gia tells her that the animals will no longer arrive with tourists around. Gia admits that initially, she only befriended Sydney so she could convince her to keep the plantation and beach, but she says that their friendship is authentic, which Sydney does not believe. After arguing, Sydney decides to sell the property. When Sydney is ready to sign the paperwork, she notices Gia's friends outside and decides not to sell, choosing instead to live at Makai. Sydney and Gia become friends again. 

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Jason "Jace" Newfield (Andrew Lawrence) is the new blind student at his school, whose family recently moved from New York City to Salt Lake City, Utah. Thinking that his way to fit in is through playing the drums, he shows off in class only to find out that his band teacher, Mr. Wyatt, is also blind. He later finds out from one of his friends, Vincent "Fly" Shu, that the only way to fit in is to be a jock. However, his other friend, Mary Beth Rice, is becoming increasingly irritated by his "New Yorkers rule" jokes and tells him that the reason no one is willing to be his friend is not because he is blind but because he is acting like a jerk. So in an effort to help Jace fit in, she asks him to try out for the wrestling team. "Fly" unwillingly tries out for the team with Jace, and they both make it. Jace has trouble winning matches at first, but slowly starts improving after receiving lessons from Mary Beth, who's father is the coach of the wrestling team. Throughout the course of the season he slowly starts to fit in with some of the students that gave him a hard time at the beginning of his year at the school. At the end of the season, they go on to the state championship. It ends with a reporter interviewing Jace's teammates about his wrestling; they deny that he is even blind, because they realize that he is a significant person, and they accept him for who he is and not just a blind person, which is what they saw at first. 

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In France in 1944, American soldiers Berle, a deserter; Nick Colasanti, a petty thief; Fred, nicknamed "Assassin"; Tony, a mutineer; and Lieutenant Yeager (arrested for refusing to execute orders to kill, among others, women and children) are sentenced to death for their crimes and are shipped to a prisoners' camp near the Ardennes. During the journey to the camp, the convoy stops because of a flat tire, and Fred and Berle are ordered to change it. Their work is interrupted by a Luftwaffe air raid. The five criminals take advantage of the attack and escape. Yeager takes command of the group and decides to find a way to neutral Switzerland. On their way, they stop at an abandoned factory in the French countryside to rest and refill their supplies. While they eat, the upper floor of the building collapses, and a German soldier appears from between the hay bundles. Captured by Yeager's group, he tells them that he is in fact an escaped prisoner sentenced to death just like them. Although Tony and Fred want to kill him, Yeager prefers to take him along in case the Nazis attack again. Later, the group runs into a German patrol, and the captured Nazi soldier proves very helpful. He convinces the patrol that the Americans are his prisoners, and they manage to kill part of the patrol and escape. After this, the group see a group of beautiful German nurses bathing naked in a river. Nick suggests the Americans pretend to be Nazi soldiers, and they are able to get on friendly terms with the girls. However, after they see Fred, who is black, the nurses realize the men are Americans and start shooting at them. Tony, Nick, Berle and Fred run away to a nearby camp. But the situation does not get any better. Some German soldiers arrive at the camp, and Yeager sends the captured Nazi to talk to them. After discussing something with them, the German soldier realizes that the newly arrived are in fact Americans and shouts: "Americans! Americans!" The German soldiers kill him and Yeager's group return fire, killing the Germans. Yeager later learns he made a mistake from Colonel Buckner; the squad he shot at actually consisted of Americans dressed in Nazi uniform who were supposed to accomplish an important mission. At this point, the only solution is to trust the group led by Yeager with this task. Meanwhile, Berle meets Nicole, a French nurse affiliated with the Resistance movement. He falls in love with her but it is Tony she is crazy about. Another problem arises as Fred falls into the enemy's hands. Yeager, Tony, Berle and Nick attack the Nazi fortifications and free their friend. After the group is reunited, Colonel Buckner explains to them the plan, according to which they are to assault an armored train shipping a prototype of the V-2 missile. According to the plan, the train is supposed to pass a mined bridge. But there are unexpected problems as Nick is unable to contact his comrades due to a broken transmitter, and is killed in an attempt to warn them. Berle is killed by the train driver, and when all hope seems to be lost, Lieutenant Yeager decides the outcome of the battle in a heroic act, in which he blows up the train with the missiles and himself on board, destroying the station assaulted by the Nazis. Ultimately, the only ones to survive are Fred (who is wounded but escapes into the French fields), Colonel Buckner, and Tony, who manages to return to Nicole. 

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The player is tasked with rescuing NASA astronauts that have gone missing in the fictional "monuments of Mars". Toward the end of each episode, groups of captured astronauts can be released from "energy rings". At the end of the final episode, markings on a "face" object reveal that some aliens were using Mars as a base to study humans from afar, but abandoned it and left their automatic intruder capture system switched on, hence the capture of the astronauts. 

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After hearing of a school policy granting anyone whose roommate commits suicide an automatic 4.0 GPA, Harvard Med School aspirants Tim (Matthew Lillard) and Chris (Michael Vartan) plot to kill their roommate Rand and make it look like suicide. They're successful, but when the fallout breeds unforeseen consequences and two local detectives close in, guilt and mistrust fester, jeopardizing Chris's relationship with his girlfriend Emma (Keri Russell) and the roommates' futures. 

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François, a successful yet sickly young man, returns to his home town Sardent after a long absence. He finds that his friend Serge has become a wretched alcoholic, dissatisfied with his life in the village. Serge had hoped to leave the village to study, but had to stay to marry Yvonne when she became pregnant. The death of their stillborn child did not help. Serge has become an angry, bitter figure not unlike the roles of James Dean, refusing to face reality and adulthood. Yvonne is again pregnant. François finds himself at odds with provincial village life yet compelled to help Serge. The fact that they are both entangled sexually with Yvonne's sister, Marie, makes things more complicated. Finally, the birth of Serge and Yvonne's second child seems to provide some possibility of happiness. 

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Susan Hayward as Mrs. Sheridan Struggling actor William McFly (Cliff Robertson) is hired by wealthy Cecil Fox (Rex Harrison) to play his personal secretary for a practical joke. Pretending to be on his deathbed, Fox invites three former lovers to his Venetian palazzo for a final visit: penniless Princess Dominique (Capucine), fading movie star Merle McGill (Edie Adams), and Texas millionairess Mrs. Lone Star Crockett Sheridan (Susan Hayward). Accompanying Mrs. Sheridan is her nurse, Sarah Watkins (Maggie Smith). By chance, each of the women brings Fox a timepiece as a present. The three women warily size each other up. Mrs. Sheridan boldly announces that the others might as well go home, as she is Fox's common-law wife, and they can expect to inherit nothing. However, when Sarah returns from a late-night date with McFly, she finds her employer dead of an overdose of sleeping pills, an apparent suicide. Police Inspector Rizzi (Adolfo Celi) investigates. Sarah knows that the pills Mrs. Sheridan had been taking are harmless fakes. McFly has already revealed to Sarah that Fox is perpetrating a charade, and that the final joke is to be the reading of the will, empowering McFly to choose the heir. She therefore suspects him not only of being the murderer, but also plotting to kill Fox. When she confronts McFly, he locks her in her room, telling her it is for her own safety. She manages to escape via a dumbwaiter and warns Fox. However, his displeased reaction puzzles her. He sends her back to her room. The next morning, Fox is found dead. McFly reveals that Fox was the killer of Sarah's employer. He was broke and wanted Mrs. Sheridan's fortune. Once McFly had figured it out (and more importantly, told Sarah), Fox realized it was all up and committed suicide. Sarah asks McFly to write her name down in the will as the heir of Fox's worthless estate as a souvenir, with Rizzi signing as a witness. After McFly complies, an amused Rizzi compliments him on his "generosity"—while Fox may have been deeply in debt, Mrs. Sheridan's estate is so vast, Sarah will still emerge an extremely wealthy woman. She informs McFly that she will marry him and hand over the money once he resumes his law studies and becomes a lawyer. 

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The events take place over a year, the film being divided into four sections named after the four seasons. Sewell and Gerry, football-mad teenagers from broken families in Gateshead, break into Newcastle United's St James' Park stadium and steal the "sacred" turf from the penalty spot. After this success, they dream of earning money to get season tickets, with aid from their guardian angel, the Angel of the North. For the two tickets they plan to buy, they will need nearly a thousand pounds. After attempts to make money from collecting scrap and baby sitting, they eventually graduate to more criminal activities, including shoplifting and housebreaking. Gerry keeps the money they accumulate in a tin box at home. Sewell, who lives with his permanently befuddled grandfather (Roy Hudd), adopts a dog who follows him after wandering away from his owner, a local thug. He also dreams of Gemma, a girl who is engaged to Zak, a muscular ice-hockey player for the "Whitley Bay Warriors". At home, Gerry lives with his sickly mother (Charlie Hardwick) and his sister Clare (Tracy Whitwell) who has a baby called "Sheara". They are separated from their violent father Billy (Tim Healy) who has been sexually abusing Gerry's other sister Bridget, who has run away from home. When Billy finds where they live and badly beats Gerry's mother, the family have to move to a secret location. Gerry is bribed by a social worker to attend school for two weeks after which he will get two free football tickets. At the school he is bullied by his teacher (Kevin Whately). Gerry and Sewell attempt to rob his house in revenge, but are nearly caught. When Gerry gets the tickets he is horrified to discover that they are for a Sunderland match. After failing to sell them, the two friends watch the match at the Stadium of Light. Billy finds the family's new flat and steals all the money Gerry has accumulated. At an empty fairground, Gerry spots his sister Bridget (Kerry Ann Christiansen), who is now a drug addict sleeping rough, but she disappears when he leaves to get some food. After Gemma breaks up with Zak the ice-hockey player, she becomes Sewell's girlfriend. The lads' shoplifting is shown on the TV show Crimestoppers. The thug who originally owned the dog sees the show and spots the animal with Sewell. He finds and attacks him. The seemingly weak and mild- mannered Sewell floors him with a single blow on the neck. At the Newcastle United Training ground at the Riverside pavilion (Chester-le-street), they briefly meet Alan Shearer and ask him to give them season tickets, but he just laughs. They steal a sports car, which turns out to be Shearer's. Looking at his CDs, Sewell is appalled by his musical tastes - (Gabrielle and Celine Dion). Eventually they leave the car and go skinny dipping. Sewell is delighted when Gemma reveals she is pregnant, but horrified when she goes back to her former fiancé. Sewell attacks him during an ice-hockey match and knocks him out, but is beaten up by his team mates. Gerry's mother becomes ill and is hospitalised. Gerry finds Billy, who ignores his pleas for support. Having lost all their earnings, Sewell and Gerry decide on one last major crime - a bank robbery. The crime goes disastrously wrong and the lads end up under arrest. However, Gerry learns that Billy has been killed in a road accident. The friends are sentenced to 200 hours of community service. One old lady they work for allows them to watch Newcastle play from the balcony of her towerblock, which overlooks the stadium. 

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The setting is 1972 at the Coach's home in Scranton, Pennsylvania. On the twentieth anniversary of their victory in the Pennsylvania state championship game, four members of the starting lineup of a Catholic high school basketball team have gathered to celebrate. This reunion may be their last chance to reminisce with each other, due to Coach's illness. The fifth member of the starting lineup, Martin (who made the game-winning shot), has refused to attend the reunion. He bears a grudge against the Coach for reasons that do not become clear until late in the play. George Sitkowski has become Scranton's mayor, but he has proven inept and unpopular, and he is likely to lose his re-election bid. The fact that his challenger is Jewish is particularly galling to him. Phil Romano has become a millionaire in the strip-mining business, using his close ties to Mayor Sitkowski to obtain mining permits. Though Romano helps George financially, he is carrying on an affair with George's wife. James Daley is a local junior high school principal; his brother Tom is an unsuccessful, embittered, cynical alcoholic and ne'er-do-well writer. None of the men's lives have turned out as any of them had hoped; on some level, all still look to the Coach for guidance. The Coach has always been the embodiment of old-school Catholicism (Senator Joseph McCarthy and Father Charles Coughlin are heroes of his). He was also the one person in their lives who's sure of everything, and his absolute certainty and confidence gave them a sense of security. While the Coach thought he was teaching his players how to be men, they instead became emotional adolescents who still need him to tell them how to live their lives. But the Coach's pep talks, which had always inspired them, are beginning to sound hollow. Only now do they realize that the Coach was a bigot, a bully, and a bit of a fraud. 

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A serial killer is on the loose who just so happens to also be removing the hearts of his victims and taking them with him. His victims however, are not merely random humans as thought by the police. They are in fact, the past and present guardians of the gateway of the afterlife. On the day he is to be married, Detective Kanzaki, who happens to be on the case, discovers that his fiancé Mina has been murdered with her heart also missing. He also learns that the killers are Kudo, a geneticist, and his evil secretary Rei. The two are trying to obtain six hearts from the guardians so that they may call forth a horde of demons from the Gate of Rage and have their every desire granted. Only problem is, once they open the gate the entire world will be covered in darkness. Meanwhile, in the afterlife, Mina encounters Izuko, the Guardian of the Gate. Izuko gives her three options: Mina can choose to ascend to heaven and be reborn, she can choose to forever walk the earth as a ghost or she can choose to curse one of the living to death and as a result be cursed to descend to hell. Mina has 12 days to make her choice. 

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Eliza (Hope Davis) discovers a love letter that may prove that her husband Louis (Stanley Tucci) is having an affair, so she decides to go to New York City and confront him. Her family, including her parents Jim (Pat McNamara) and Rita (Anne Meara), her sister Jo (Parker Posey), and Jo's live-in boyfriend Carl (Liev Schreiber), go along for the ride in the family station wagon from Long Island. 

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A Marine battalion is assembled from various sources and sent to Korea. The film depicts the formation and training of the battalion, the amphibious landing at the Battle of Inchon, the advance through North Korea, and the Winter Chinese Communist Offensive sends the Marines into a fighting withdrawal to the staging area at Hŭngnam Harbor "...with rifles, grenades, bayonets, our bare fists if we have to" (quoting the battalion commander). The battalion includes many familiar faces, including Karl Malden. Baby-faced Pt. McDiarmid (18 year old Russ Tamblyn) goes looking for his older brother and is shown a row of dead Marines. One of them, he discovers, is his brother. The battalion commander (Lovejoy) is supposed to send him home per a regulation covering the last survivor of a family. The Chinese Communist offensive puts this on hold for the moment, and he is nearly killed during the withdrawal in a snowstorm until saved by a joint American-British force. Upon seeing the British Royal Marines a southern-accented GI asks Corbett (Frank Lovejoy) "Who are they? And why are they all done up?"(meaning dressed up), to which Corbett (Frank Lovejoy) responds stoically, "They're marines! British royal marines!". Near the end of the film Corbett (Frank Lovejoy) tells them they're going to have to fall back in the face of human wave attacks by the communist forces, to which a private asks him "You mean retreat!?", Corbett (Lovejoy) responds by saying "Retreat hell! We're just attacking in a different direction!" 

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John Davidson, a convicted thief in Dartmoor prison (played by an uncredited Cyril Delevanti) hides the location of stolen Bank of England printing plates inside three music boxes (each of which plays a subtly different version of "The Swagman"). The boxes are sold at a local auction house. When Dr Watson's friend Julian 'Stinky' Emery, an avid collector, pays Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson a visit and tells them about a strange robbery in his house the previous night, in which someone stole a music box, similar to the one that he had bought at the auction house for a measly two pounds. Later that night, Stink is murdered and the other music box is stolen, and Holmes and Watson realize that someone is willing to kill to obtain the three music boxes. When Holmes and Watson go to the house of the people who bought the second music box, they find it stolen as well. Sherlock Holmes is able to buy the third music box, and ask Scotland Yard to track down the suspects. Later it is found out that the Inspector who had been tracking the suspects has been murdered. Holmes and Watson soon crack the code of the music box and discovered the numbers on the keys correlates to a letter in the alphabet, unfortunately they are only partial able to de code the whole message because the suspects have the other two music boxes. When Holmes he discovers his flat has been ransacked in a attempt to find the third music box, he notice a cigarette with a distinct type of tobacco. Holmes tracks down the lady (Hilda Courtney) who bought the tobacco and confronts her. While Holmes is confronting her he is ambushed and tied up and led to a warehouse. Back at Holmes and Watson flat Hilda Courtney steals the music box from Dr. Watson. Holmes escapes from the warehouse nearly escaping death and returns to the flat where Watson tell Holmes that the music box has been stolen. While talking to Holmes, Watson cracks the code for the location of the five pound engraving plate, when he tells Holmes about a quote from Dr. Samual Johnson. Hilda Courtney and her gang decipher the code leading them to go to the house of Dr. Samuel Johnson. While Courtney is stealing the plates, hidden in a book shelf Holmes ambushes them and Scotland Yard arrest Courtney and her constituents before they can get away and returns the plates back to the Bank of England. 

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Following the memorial service for investigative reporter Joe Strombel (McShane), Strombel's spirit finds himself on the barge of death with several others, including a young woman who believes she was poisoned by her employer, Peter Lyman (Jackman). The woman tells Strombel she thinks Lyman, a handsome British aristocrat with political ambitions, may be the Tarot Card Killer, a notorious serial killer of prostitutes, and that he killed her when she stumbled onto his secret. The Tarot Card Killer left a card on each murder victim's body. Sondra Pransky (Johansson) is a beautiful but awkward American journalism student on vacation in London. Pransky attends a performance given by magician Sid Waterman (Allen), aka "The Great Splendini", and agrees to participate onstage. While in a booth known as The Dematerializer, Pransky encounters Strombel's ghost. The ghost has escaped the Grim Reaper himself to impart his suspicions of Lyman to a journalist who can investigate the story. Sondra decides to infiltrate Lyman's privileged world to find out if he truly is the dreaded criminal, enlisting Sid in the process and taking advantage of his powers of deception. Sondra catches Lyman's attention by pretending to drown near him at an exclusive club's swimming pool. When he rescues her, she introduces herself as Jade Spence, daughter of a wealthy oil family from Palm Beach. While Sid poses as her father, "Jade" begins dating Lyman. Sondra is convinced Lyman is the murderer, but Sid finds it hard to believe. Sondra gradually falls in love with Lyman and begins to trust him. Sid meanwhile becomes less sanguine about Lyman as he notices more and more inconsistencies, especially after Sondra finds a Tarot deck hidden under a French horn in Peter's vault, a climate- controlled music room containing expensive antique musical instruments. Sid finally prevails upon Sondra to write a news story implicating Lyman, but the newspaper editor rejects the story because of Sondra's lack of proof. Throughout their investigation, Sid and Sondra have a relationship that is in turns friendly, paternal, and antagonistic—fueled largely by Sondra's annoyance that her smooth "Jade Spence" charade is being compromised by Sid's obnoxious attempts to act the part of a nouveau riche oil baron. Soon the police arrest the real Tarot Card Killer. Sondra, relieved that her suspicions were for naught, reveals her real name and the deception she and Sid had practiced. Lyman is surprisingly gracious, and tells Sondra he wants to keep seeing her. They plan to spend the weekend at Lyman's isolated country estate. Later, Sid (at Strombel's urging) suggests that Lyman used the Tarot Card murders to cover up a murder he committed. While Sondra and Lyman vacation in the country, Sid continues to investigate this theory. He finds that Lyman did frequent a prostitute, Betty Gibson, who was later killed, apparently by the Tarot Card Killer. Gibson is described as a "baby-faced blonde" (just like Sondra) before Lyman convinced her to dye her hair, presumably to match the profile of the other Tarot victims. When Sid calls Sondra with his findings, she waves them off. Unbeknownst to her, Lyman is listening in on another extension. Sid breaks into Lyman's vault again, this time finding a mysterious key, which turns out to be to Betty Gibson's flat. Meanwhile, in a rowboat on Lyman's lake, Lyman confesses to Sondra that he killed Gibson to stop her from blackmailing him and used the Tarot Card pattern to allay suspicion, just as Strombel had told Sid. Lyman comments on the irony that he first met Sondra by saving her from drowning, and now she really would drown. He would kill Sid later; no one would connect an obscure stage magician's death to that of a clumsy journalism student. This scene is intercut with shots of Sid driving madly to the Lyman estate to rescue Sondra, ultimately ending in a car crash. After his confession, Lyman throws Sondra into the lake and watches her go under. He then calls the police to report her drowning death. When they question him, he tells them Sondra was a terrible swimmer and almost drowned that first day at the pool. Suddenly, Sondra enters, soaking wet but smiling cheerfully. She informs Lyman and the police that the drowning had been an act to get his attention, and actually she was a very good swimmer. Back in the newspaper offices, the editor who previously rejected Sondra's article now congratulates Sondra on a brilliant piece of investigative journalism, the start of a promising career. Sondra seems flattered, and says she must also credit Joe Strombel and the late Sid Waterman, Splendini, who is now a passenger on the Reaper's ship, performing for his fellow spirits the same magical gags and comedy routines he did in life. 

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A businessman named Weller is travelling through Eastern Europe when he is thrown from his carriage during a struggle and knocked unconscious. After regaining consciousness, he discovers it is night time. After wandering some way, he hears a deathly scream. Terrified, Weller runs and falls into a grassy slope. Looking up, he sees a caped figure screaming in agony with a large crucifix impaling him from the back. Weller watches in amazement and fear as the figure dies and disintegrates from blood to reddish dust. Examining the remains, Weller finds a ring, a cape and a brooch with dried blood on it. Dusting away the dried blood, Weller is petrified by the name on the brooch: Dracula. Some time later, three gentlemen—William Hargood, Samuel Paxton and Jonathon Secker—have formed a circle ostensibly devoted to charitable work but in reality they indulge themselves in brothels. One night they are intrigued by a young man who bursts into the brothel and is immediately tended to after snapping his fingers, despite the brothelkeeper's objections. The gentlemen are informed that he is Lord Courtley, who was disinherited by his father for celebrating a Black Mass years ago. Hoping for more intense pleasures, Hargood meets Courtley outside the brothel. The younger man takes the three to the Cafe Royal and promises them experiences they will never forget but insists that they go to see Weller and purchase from him Dracula's ring, cloak and dried blood. Having done so, the three meet with Courtley at an abandoned church for a ceremony during which he puts the dried blood into goblets and mixes it with drops of his own blood, telling the men to drink. They refuse, so he drinks the blood himself, screams and falls to the ground. As he grabs for Hargood's legs, all three gentlemen kick and beat him, not stopping until Courtley dies, at which they flee. While they return to their respective homes and their normal lives, Courtley's body, left in the abandoned church, transforms into Dracula, who vows that those who have destroyed his servant will be destroyed. Dracula begins his revenge with Hargood, who has begun to drink heavily and also treats his daughter Alice harshly, furious that she continues to see Paul, Paxton's son. Dracula takes control of Alice's mind via hypnosis and as her drunken father chases after her, she picks up a shovel and kills him. The next day, Hargood is found dead and Alice is missing. The police inspector in charge of the case refuses to investigate Alice's disappearance, citing a lack of time and resources. At her father's funeral, Alice hides behind bushes and attracts the attention of Paul's sister Lucy, telling her to meet her that night. They enter the abandoned church where Alice introduces her to a dark figure. Lucy assumes him to be Alice's lover but she is greeted by Dracula, who turns her into a vampire. With Hargood dead and Alice and Lucy missing, Paxton fears that Courtley is exacting revenge and, together with Secker, visits the abandoned church to check for Courtley's corpse. The body is missing but they discover Lucy asleep in a coffin with marks on her throat. Secker realizes she is a vampire and tries to stake her, but Paxton shoots him in the arm, forcing him to flee. While Secker stumbles his way home, Paxton weeps over his daughter's body. When he finally develops the courage to stake Lucy himself, she awakens, and Dracula appears. Alice pins Paxton down and Lucy drives a wooden stake through his chest. That night, Secker's son Jeremy sees Lucy, his fiancé, at his window, and comes down to see her. She sinks her fangs into his throat, enslaving him while Dracula watches. The vampire Jeremy then stabs his father on Lucy's orders. On the way back to the church, Lucy begs for Dracula's approval but instead he drains her dry and leaves her destroyed. Back at the church, he prepares to bite Alice but a cock crows and he returns to his coffin. Secker's body causes Jeremy's arrest. The police inspector assumes that he hated his father and stabbed him in a rage. Paul disagrees but the inspector refuses to listen. He hands Paul a letter - "the ramblings of a lunatic" he calls it - in which Secker instructs Paul on how to fight the vampires. Following Secker's instructions, Paul makes his way to the abandoned church. He finds Lucy's exsanguinated body en route, floating in a lake. At the church he bars the door with a large cross and clears the altar of Black Mass instruments, replacing them with the proper materials. He calls for Alice, who appears together with Dracula. Paul confronts Dracula with a cross but Alice, still entranced, disarms him. She seeks Dracula's approval but he dismisses her. He tries to leave but is prevented by the cross barring the door. His retreat is also barred by a cross which an angry and disappointed Alice threw to the floor. Dracula climbs the balcony and throws objects at Paul and Alice, before backing into a stained glass window depicting a cross. He breaks the glass but suddenly sees the changed surroundings and hears the Lord's Prayer recited in Latin. Dazzled and overwhelmed by the power of the newly re-sanctified church, Dracula falls to the altar, and dissolves back into bloody dust. With the vampire destroyed, Paul and Alice leave. 

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Juliana Soler is a simple, tender, and extremely intelligent young woman. Her mother, Regina Soler, was a renowned model who is obsessed with physical beauty and has always led her daughter to believe that she is ugly, so Juliana does not give importance to her physical appearance. Despite her teasing, Juliana loves her mother above all else. Mercedes, Juliana's aunt, has always loved and supported her as she is and has comforted her before the insults and criticism of her mother. Juliana has learned to prepare with her all kinds of concoctions and potions with herbs. Mercedes keeps a great secret: a magic mirror prepared by herself especially for Juliana's future. After the death of her aunt, Juliana decides (without knowing that the mirror had hidden magic) to keep and take care of her aunt's mirror, always keeping it covered, since her aunt always said to her: nobody could be seen in it. Thanks to the magic mirror, Juliana becomes the beautiful Maritza Ferrer, a chemical engineer capable of achieving everything she sets out to do with a smile. However, that dream will only last during the day, because at nightfall Juliana will be the same as ever. As Maritza, Juliana meets Marcos Mutti, Gabriel Mutti's adoptive son, owner of the largest cosmetic brand in the country. The young man becomes the great love of Maritza and Juliana's confidant without knowing that it is the same woman. Juliana, like Maritza, becomes pregnant with Marcos' child and they decide to get married, but Bárbara (Gabriel's wife) together with Alberto and Romero (their accomplices) devises a plan to blame Maritza for all the frauds they have committed in the company and send her to jail. On the day after Maritza and Marcos' marriage, police officers appeared looking for Maritza with an arrest warrant. The dance teacher, Paco Tapia, (Juliana's godfather and connoisseur of the secret of the mirror), advises her to flee; but the police start a chase. On the way, they meet a thief who, after having robbed a gas station, takes them hostage to escape without realizing that the police were already chasing them. She shoots Master Tapia and leaves her on the road, leaving only Maritza. Maritza manages to save herself by falling outside while he was rolling. A herbalist finds her and tries to steal some boots that she wore when she believed she was dead, but discovers that she is still alive and decides to heal her so that Maritza's family would reward her for saving her (not knowing that she was actually a fugitive from the law). Maritza (Juliana) loses the child in her womb due to the accident. When it gets dark, she turns into Juliana and the herbalist is scared and abandons her, believing she was the devil. Juan Tobías Fonseca finds Juliana and takes her to a clinic in a nearby town where he finds out that she was pregnant and that she has lost the child she was expecting. (He also learns the secret, because he sees how Juliana becomes Maritza at daylight). On the other hand, Juliana does not know that she is the only biological daughter of Gabriel Mutti, because years ago, Gabriel and Regina had a beautiful adventure of which Juliana was the fruit. However, Regina, at first out of pride and then, also ashamed of the appearance of her daughter, never told Gabriel, because she does not want the great love of her life to discover that they have such an ugly daughter. Throughout the beautiful love story between Marcos and Maritza, great trials, fears, insecurities, rivals, greed, and silence will be interposed. Desperate Barbara realizes that Juan Tobías had told Maritza what happened between them and for fear and revenge he sends Pedro Barajas to kill Maritza. After Pedro failed, he was chased by the neighborhood and after the beating they gave him, his cell phone fell out. Meanwhile, Barbara desperate to know if Pedro had killed Maritza calls him on the cell phone. Marcos hears it since Pedro had dropped it and takes it and Bárbara answers him so Marcos discovers that she had ordered Maritza killed. Barbara has a discussion with Marcos, Antonia, and Gabriel; and decides to leave the house. The next day, Barbara goes to the academy to kill Maritza and when she arrives at Aunt Mercedes' laboratory, she hides in the closet. After crying, Maritza who was with Luzmila becomes Juliana. Barbara had discovered the secret. After what happened, Barbara goes crazy and goes into Regina's house and with threats asks her to explain what she saw. As Regina did not know the secret, Barbara mistreated and beat her. Paco goes to Regina's house with Don Néstor (Juan Tobías' father) they open the door and discover Barbara who finally manages to escape and after arriving at Alberto's house she meets Gabriel; who had just come from talking to Lieutenant Andrade, who was already aware of Barbara's past and because of this they have a strong discussion. The next day Maritza has to go to read Juan Tobías's will when he arrives at the office of Mr. Casillas (who had been assassinated by Bárbara). Barbara appears with a can of gasoline and after having tied Maritza burns the office. The murderer with the black gloves (Cristina) locks the door and Barbara, unable to leave, becomes nervous, slips and burns completely. After a time in the hospital, Bárbara escapes with the help of Romero to the old cellar of the Empresas Mutti, where she sees herself in a mirror: her face was totally disfigured and her hair had been burned. She had physically become what she was inside: a monster. Seeing her completely disfigured face, Barbara breaks the mirror and takes a glass to cut the veins on her wrists and commit suicide, because she prefers to die than to live like this, but she remembers the mirror and decides to steal it and becomes Maritza Ferrer to recover the Mutti companies and obtain Juan Tobías' inheritance. Juliana decides, after many things have happened, to tell Marcos the secret of the mirror. Now, Marcos will have to decide what to do since, on the one hand, lies deceit and lies, something that he cannot bear or forgive, but on the other hand, there is the only woman who has made him truly love and discover that her true beauty of love is found only inside. Later, Marcos and company find out who Maritza truly was, and that he truly fell in love with Juliana. He then asks her to marry him. 6 months Juliana and Marcos are preparing for their wedding and Barbara decides to return after undergoing 4 surgeries abroad to stop being Maritza Ferrer. Before returning, he calls Romero and sends him to kill Juliana, but he fails and shoots Marcos. After the shot, Marcos is sterile and cannot have children, so he decides to break up with Juliana so that she can have what she wants most. Juan Tobías returns and decides to speak to Juliana, who believes that it was he who made Marcos change his mind. Barbara goes to the hospital and with Vanessa's identity, she cheats Luzmila and Juliana and they take her to the neighborhood without knowing who she really is. Finally, Barbara steals some papers from Marbella and decides to flee, at that moment the murderer with the black gloves (Cristina), who had gone to kill Juliana, appears in Juliana's apartment, Barbara discovers that it was Cristina and after a fight leaves her on the ground dying. Finally, Barbara is killed by Romero, (who later commits suicide) at Juliana and Marcos' wedding party. 3 years later, they are the parents of a boy and a girl (Juliana was pregnant before the shooting and did not know it) and they live happily. 

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Commando Cody with lunar tank Commando Cody (George Wallace) is a civilian researcher and inventor with a number of employees. He uses a streamlined helmet and a sonic-powered rocket backpack attached to a leather flying jacket. Cody also uses a rocket ship capable of reaching the Moon. When the U. S. finds itself under attack from a mysterious force that can wipe out entire military bases and industrial complexes, Cody surmises (correctly) that the Earth is coming under attack from our own Moon. He then flies his rocket ship there and confronts the Moon's dictator, Retik (Roy Barcroft), who boldly announces his plans to both conquer Earth and then move the Moon's entire population here using spaceships. During the next 11 serial chapters, Cody, now back on Earth, and his associates Joan (Aline Towne), Ted (William Bakewell) and Dick (Gayle Kellogg) battle an elusive lunar agent named Krog (Peter Brocco) and his gang of human henchmen led by Graber (Clayton Moore) and Daly (Bob Stevenson), who use Lunarium-powered ray cannons to disrupt defense forces and weaken public morale. After a second trip to the Moon, in which he captures a sample ray cannon for duplication in his lab, Cody tracks Retik's minions to their hideout where Krog is killed by one of his own devices, and Graber and Daly subsequently die in an over-the-cliff car chase. Retik flies to Earth to take personal charge of his collapsing operations but is blasted out of the sky by one of his own ray weapons. 

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On Christmas Eve in 1843, Ebenezer Scrooge, a surly money-lender at a counting house for seven years after his business partner Jacob Marley passed away, does not share the merriment of Christmas. He declines his nephew Fred's invitation to join him for Christmas dinner and dismisses two gentlemen collecting money for charity. His loyal and low paid employee Bob Cratchit offers Scrooge to have Christmas off since there will be no business for Scrooge during the day and Scrooge accepts, but demands that Cratchit arrive "all the earlier" the following day. In his house, Scrooge encounters the ghost of his deceased business partner Jacob Marley, who warns him to repent his wicked ways or he will be condemned in the afterlife like he was, informing him that three spirits will visit him during the next three nights. Even though Scrooge was reluctantly declined their visits. Jacob Marley warned Scrooge, without their visit that he can't escape the path he took, expect the first one around midnight. At midnight, Scrooge is visited by the childlike Ghost of Christmas Past who takes him back in time to his childhood and early adult life. They visit his lonely school days in boarding school where his friends were all going home for Christmas and he isn't allowed to come home because his father treated him badly after his mother died of giving birth to him. Scrooge sister franny comes to Scrooge's school and their father is a lot nicer than he is now and he agreed that he could come home for Christmas. Franny died a young woman and had a nephew who also died of giving birth to him. Next Christmas, this time as an employee under Albert Fezziwig who had a good heart and treated Scrooge like a second father. Fezziwig throws a Christmas party, Scrooge attends and meets a young woman named Belle, whom he falls in love with and was engaged. However, the Ghost shows Scrooge how Belle left him when he chose money over her. A tearful Scrooge extinguishes the Ghost as he returns to the present. At two o'clock, Scrooge meets the merry Ghost of Christmas Present, which shows Scrooge the joys and wonder of Christmas Day. Scrooge and the Ghost visit Cratchit's house, learning his family is content with their small dinner, Scrooge taking pity on Cratchit's ill son Tiny Tim. The Ghost eventually ages, commenting that Tiny Tim will likely not survive until next Christmas. As the Ghost dies, he warns Scrooge about the evils of "Ignorance" and "Want", who manifest themselves before Scrooge as two demonic children. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come arrives, appearing as a tall, silent cloaked figure, and takes Scrooge into the future. At the stock exchange, Scrooge's acquaintances discuss the death of an unnamed colleague, but would only attend the funeral if lunch is provided and no one would go since he wasn't nicest guy in the world. In a den, Scrooge recognizes his charwoman Mrs. Dilber, his laundress Mrs. Riggs, and the local undertaker trading several of the man's stolen possessions to a fence named Old Joe. Later, he sees a young couple who owed the man money are relieved he is dead, as they have more time to pay off their debt. The Ghost transports Scrooge to Cratchit's house, discovering Tiny Tim has died with his father still talking to him . The Ghost escorts Scrooge to a cemetery, where the Ghost points out his own grave, revealing Scrooge was the man who died. Realizing this, Scrooge vows to change his ways just as the Ghost disappears. The grave opens, and Scrooge sees his dead self lying in a coffin. He falls into the grave, then clings to his own dead body as he falls through the earth into Hell. Awakening in his bedroom on Christmas Day, Scrooge finds the ghosts had visited him all in one night instead of three. Gleeful at having survived the spirits, Scrooge decides to surprise Bob's family with a turkey dinner, and ventures out with the charity workers and the citizens of London to spread happiness in the city. The following day, he gives Cratchit a raise and becomes like "a second father" to Tiny Tim, who escapes death. Scrooge and the Cratchits celebrate Christmas. and Tiny Tim has recovered from his illness 

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Astronauts landing on Venus kill a creature that resembles a pterosaur which is worshiped by the local women. They attempt kill the astronauts by means of their superhuman powers, but fail. The astronauts eventually escape from the planet, and their robot, damaged in a flow of volcanic lava and ultimately shut down by his human companions for their own survival, becomes in a plot twist ending the women's new god. 

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As Marge drives on a highway to go shopping, she finds a toll booth, but she and other Springfield residents drive through an adjacent forest trail to avoid paying. A week later, Mayor Quimby enforces tire spikes and blocks off the escape route, needing money to "de-python" the town fountain. When Marge comes up to the booth, she refuses to pay and backs up, blowing out many cars' tires, which are thrown in the tire fire. The heat and smoke from it melts ice on Mount Springfield and reveals a mailman frozen for 40 years. His letters contain many revelations and one is delivered to Homer's mother, Mona Simpson. It is from her old lifeguard boyfriend, whose name begins with an M, who writes that if Mona replies to the letter, she has chosen him, and if she does not, she is choosing to stick with her husband, Abe, and that either way, he knows the baby she is carrying is his. Wondering who his biological father really is, Homer goes to the library to look in "Lifeguards of Springfield in the Twentieth Century." The only person in there whose name begins with M is Mason Fairbanks. Homer goes to his house posing a reporter, but eventually tells him he thinks he is his father, and Mason is delighted. He takes the Simpson family on a ride on his ship and tells them the story of the lost emerald treasure of Piso Mojado, which impresses them. However, when they come home, Grampa angrily accuses Mason of having tried to steal his wife and now trying to steal his family, and is saddened Homer would even think that Mason could be his real father. They have a DNA test, and after a suspenseful wait, Homer is thrilled to learn his real father is Mason Fairbanks. While Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie have an awkward, uneventful visit with Grampa, Mason and Homer are underwater in individual submarines looking for the lost treasure. Homer gets separated from Mason, and he follows a small light, thinking it is him. It is actually a glowing fish, and Homer gets stuck in some coral. As his oxygen begins to run out and he starts to lose consciousness, he sees poignant flashbacks of himself and Abe. After three days in a coma, Homer wakes up in a hospital, tells Abe of his memories, and says he considers Abe his real father. Abe then reveals he switched the labels on the DNA samples after seeing how happy Homer was with Mason and the fully confirmed biological father-son duo share a hug. 

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Handguns figure in the intertwining lives of nine people. Warren (Jeff Daniels) shoots his wife Helen's (Joan Allen) lover and his defense is that he thought he was shooting an intruder. She leaves him; and her lawyer (Andre Braugher) helps her get a job with a nutty, reclusive computer wizard (Gary Sinise) who waves a pistol about, sometimes at Helen. Tennel (Josh Brolin), the computer geek's ex-assistant, lands a video-store job and is smitten by Annabel Lee (Anna Paquin), an aggressive street kid who likes complaining about men to her pistol-packing psychotic brother (Giovanni Ribisi) to set him off. In secret, Annabel starts an affair with the lawyer, but things are complicated when the lawyer's gay lover (David Schwimmer) finds out. Meanwhile, a cop (Robert Forster) stays on Warren's tail. 

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Fifteen- year-old Vic (Sophie Marceau) has no boyfriend. Her parents are happily together again, and her great-grandmother Poupette (Denise Grey) thinks about finally marrying her long-term boyfriend. Vic meets Philippe (Pierre Cosso) and is overcome by his charm. She considers making love with him – a step that her girlfriend Penelope (Sheila O'Connor) already has taken. 

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Griffin, an accomplished inline skater, works as a delivery boy in near-future Los Angeles. The city is overrun with crime and drug use, in the wake of "The Great Crash": an economic catastrophe triggered by the greed of previous generations. The film includes ominous events, including: news reports of riots in Washington D.C. (due to the Armed Forces going on strike); a television ad announcing that Harvard University was moved to Japan, followed by a question from one of the characters if "there will be any Universities left in America"; a newspaper headline that proclaims "GERMANY BUYS POLAND"; and references to the Vatican hiring the Israeli Defense Forces to "clean up" Northern Ireland. A heavily-armed white supremacist conglomerate known as the Rollerboys fight for control of the decaying city. Their director is charismatic narcotics-kingpin Gary Lee: a childhood neighbor of Griffin's, who's also rumored to be the great-grandson of Adolf Hitler. The Rollerboys carry out their mission of restoring Anglo-America's former greatness, through violent battles with other gangs...and through the distribution of "Heaven Mist", a designer drug. Griffin's younger brother Miltie, who idolizes the Rollerboys, takes a job with them pushing mist on the streets; eventually, Miltie starts using it himself. Then Casey, an undercover cop, recruits Griffin to join the Rollerboys as a mole...in exchange for a better life. Griffin is initiated but his loyalty to the Rollerboys is soon called into question. In order to prove himself, he unknowingly pummels Speedbagger, his and Miltie's Afro-American landlord, nearly to death. Shortly thereafter, Griffin discovers the chilling truth behind the Rollerboys' mantra "The Day of the Rope is coming". Rope turns out to be a toxic mist-additive, developed by the Rollerboys, which gradually renders its users sterile; the purpose of this is to "eliminate the weak", removing future generations of the "junkie" population, thus giving the Rollerboys free rein over their concepts of a thriving American society. 

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Lilah sneaks into Lindsey's office to rifle through his papers, but Darla is there. Darla reveals she has been using a drug called Calynthia powder to keep Angel asleep while she manipulates his dreams. Angel wakes to find Cordelia and Wesley bickering about whether they should offer to pay Gunn. Angel and Wesley begin to discuss Angel's sleeping habits, but Cordelia suddenly gets a vision that sends Angel out to save a young girl from two potential rapists. As two men are about to attack the girl, she telekinetically slides a dumpster across the alleyway and smashes the men against a wall. At the crime scene, Angel pretends to be a detective in order to get information about the crime from an officer. He wanders inside an old building and finds the young girl from the alley. Scared, she sends a rebar through Angel's chest, although upon realizing that she didn't kill him, she seems a little less afraid. The girl returns to the apartment she's staying at, revealing her roommate to be Lilah. Gunn arrives to offer his help and Angel sends him out to find information on the men Bethany hurt. As Bethany drifts to sleep, she dreams of her abusive childhood and unintentionally sends a bedside lamp flying into Lilah, who was watching her fitful sleep. Terrified, Bethany flees from the apartment, throwing on a jacket. Bethany seeks Angel's help and they discuss her lack of control over her telekinetic powers. Holland stresses that if Lilah's work with Bethany is unsuccessful it could damage their other projects. Wesley deduces that Bethany has been sexually abused; when he pointedly mentions her father she loses control, sending both him and Angel flying through the air. That night, Bethany finds Angel in his bed and she offers herself to him, as the abuse she has suffered has led her to believe that she is just an object for use. He declines, and after they talk, he sends her back to her own bed. After Angel helps Bethany work to control her power, he meets Gunn at one of the potential rapists' apartment. He brings up the payment idea and Gunn agrees, meaning that Gunn is now officially part of Angel Investigations. They find evidence that someone paid for the attack on Bethany. Cordelia talks to Bethany over lattes until she is kidnapped by Wolfram & Hart's men. Angel and Gunn go after the men and Angel is able to get Bethany back from them. At the hotel, Bethany's father is used as a weapon to set her off and, as her control breaks, she causes serious structural damage to the building and lifting her father off his feet as she begins to telekinetically damage his body. Angel is able to break through to her, however and Bethany reveals that she has gained control over her powers by telling her father "Goodbye" before hurling him out of the window and allowing him to fall until she stops his descent five feet from the ground, letting him land unharmed. Her independence regained and her self-confidence increasing, Bethany calmly confronts Lilah and packs up her things, striking out on her own. Lilah and Angel speak on the doorstep as Lilah reminds him that he is not invited in. In a last-ditch effort to stop Bethany from trusting Angel, Lilah reveals that Angel is a vampire – to which an unfazed Bethany merely replies; "weird." As Bethany walks away, Angel says to Lilah, "It looks like you're going to have to find someone else's brain to play with," to which Lilah replies, "Yeah, we have someone in mind." Angel tells Lilah "Goodnight," and, while he's walking away, Lilah snidely mutters "Sweet dreams." 

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Angel tries to hunt down Darla at Wolfram & Hart, but Cordelia and Wesley stop him. Angel consults the demon Host at the karaoke bar Caritas, who refers him to Swami T'ish Magev for help. Cordelia and Wesley hold down the office while Angel is away, both glad that he is seeking help to calm his obsession with Darla. At the office, a thug holds Cordelia at gunpoint, demanding to see Angel, and Wesley is forced to pose as their vampire boss in order to save her. Magnus Bryce, a shrewd and rich businessman, is in need of Angel's services to protect his daughter from assassins from a rival corporation fronted by Paul Lanier. He offers Wesley blood that he forces down, to keep from ruining his cover. Wesley meets Mr. Bryce's daughter, Virginia, and then the two go shopping. Virginia and Wesley talk about how she wants freedom from the prison her father's created for her, then the two kiss. Virginia initially stops, believing Angel's curse is an obstacle, but Wesley claims it is more of a 'recommendation' than anything else — and the two have sex. Meanwhile, at a quiet cabin, Angel talks with the normal-looking Swami about his choice of clothing, style of car, and brand of hair gel. The Swami advises Angel to find a blond woman and break her heart, so he will feel better about his situation with Darla. Later, the Swami talks to Paul Lanier over the phone, revealing that he's an imposter (one of the bartenders at Caritas overheard Angel and the Host's conversation and tipped Lanier off about Angel's destination). Through their conversation, in which they both believe Angel is with them, they deduce that Wesley is not Angel. Lanier informs Bryce that there is a fake protecting Virginia - a bodyguard who is able to have sex with his virgin daughter. Gunn sets off to find Angel, but when he arrives at the cabin the fake swami knocks him out. Angel witnesses this, and uses a fishing pole to pull the man out of the sun and into his grasp. Cordelia arrives at the Bryce home, but before she can rescue Wesley, Virginia finds out that he's not really Angel. In order to get a significant amount of power from a demon, Bryce plans to sacrifice his daughter as the demon will grant immense power to anyone who sacrifices a virgin on their 50th birthday (hence why Bryce chose Angel to be her bodyguard, as the curse would have prevented the two from having sex). Angel and Wesley conclude that Lanier was trying to prevent the sacrifice so that Bryce wouldn't get the power. Bryce starts the sacrificial ritual, but Angel and crew interrupt. The demon appears, but won't take Virginia as a sacrifice because she is not a virgin. Furious about her father's actions, Virginia punches him and disassociates herself from him, revealing that she hasn't been a virgin since she was sixteen. After reading an article in a magazine, both Cordelia and Angel are jealous that Wesley is getting so much publicity as Virginia's bodyguard. 

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Angel sits alone drawing pictures of Darla, when Wesley appears in the doorway and expresses his concern that Angel has become obsessed. Angel brushes him off. Meanwhile, Lindsey comes into a room to find Darla curled in a corner, bleeding, haunted by memories of her past. In 1609, Colony of Virginia, the human prostitute Darla lies in her deathbed, covered in sores from the syphilis that is killing her. She receives a visit from the Master, who takes her life and makes her a vampire. Back in the present, Angel is trying to locate Darla, over the objections of the group, who suggest Wolfram and Hart may just be trying to keep him distracted. Gunn suggests that they probably have connections to the place where she's staying, and Angel gives criteria for the kind of place she would want to live. They go off to check into it. In 1760 Darla brings Angelus before the Master, bragging about her wonderful new creation. Angelus is less impressed, and his disrespect gets him beaten up. Nevertheless, Darla chooses Angelus over the Master, and goes with him. In 1880, while strolling the streets of London, Angelus, Darla, and Drusilla bump into a man named William, later known as Spike. In need of companionship, Drusilla makes him into a vampire. The team at Angel investigations has found a likely location for Darla's new home, and Cordelia confirms it by playing a sob story for a clerk. Angel starts to rush off, but Wesley stops him, saying that he and Gunn will look into the situation and they'll make any decisions later as a group. Angel starts to object until Cordelia points out that it's one in the afternoon, and the area doesn't have good sun cover. Meanwhile, Darla receives another visit from Lindsey. She is visibly upset, shaken by her memories and disturbed by the experience of having a soul and being human again. She expresses confusion about who she is now, then asks Lindsey why he hasn't kissed her - he obviously wants to. He said he didn't know what she wanted, and she asks why he should care; she never considered anyone else. In 1898 Darla threatens a Gypsy, wanting him to revoke the curse on Angelus in exchange for not killing his family. Unfortunately before he can answer Spike emerges from the caravan, having already slaughtered his wife and daughter. Frustrated, Darla snaps the man's neck. Angel looks at pictures of the room where Darla was staying. All the reflective surfaces are smashed, but there is no sign of forced entry - or wasn't until Gunn and Wesley broke in. Angel says she is feeling the weight of her soul. Cordelia points out that Angel doesn't run around smashing mirrors, and he answers that he doesn't have to face himself in them. He insists they have to help her, brushing off Cordelia when she tries to hand him the phone until she tells him it's Darla on the other end. Darla asks him to help, and tells Lindsey that Angel is the only one who can do anything for her. When a security guard tries to stop her from leaving, a shot is heard, and he falls. A later discussion between Lindsay and Holland indicates the guard is dead, and that Darla has been caught. Lindsey is told he is off the project. Angel leaves to go find Darla and help her. Wesley tries to warn him to be careful, telling him he should know what Darla was. Angel corrects him, saying it was what they both were - and that having been through it, he might be able to help her. When Wesley reminds him that he went over a century without seeking redemption, Angel replies that he sought Darla instead. During the Boxer Rebellion in China, Angel tracks down Darla, and - despite being cursed with a soul - asks her for a second chance to rule at her side. Angel attacks Lindsey in a parking garage. Lindsey tells him Darla is in trouble, that they plan to kill her. Angel promises to come back and kill him if he's lying. Angel, back in the Boxer Rebellion, comes upon a terrified family of missionaries and distracts his companions from them. Drusilla tells them that Spike has killed his first Slayer. Angel tries to act excited, but drops the act when Drusilla fixates on the alley where he left the family and instead tries to convince the others to leave. Angel returns to Darla after going out to feed on animals. She tells him she noticed that he only killed the guilty in the riots, and demands he prove he's truly evil. She says she went back and killed the family in the alleyway, but kept their baby, which she wants him to kill. Darla sits up suddenly, staring in fear at three people in white with guns as Angel's car appears behind her. She is thrown aside, and after defeating the three men, Angel runs to her. In the lobby of Wolfram and Hart, Lindsey sees the supposedly murdered guard very much alive. He talks to Holland, accusing him of playing him. Holland says they had to make the crisis real. Lindsey speaks derisively of the idea that Angel would achieve his moment of perfect happiness with Darla under the circumstances, but Holland tells him he doesn't understand the plan - that they expect Angel to save the dying woman - by turning her into a vampire. Darla wakes up, and whispers "Angelus" when she sees Angel. Cordelia corrects her. She says she's lucky to have someone who understands - something Angel never had. She wants him to turn her back, saying she can't bear to feel her own heartbeat. Angel tells her it's a gift to be human, but she disagrees, and demands he "return the favor" for turning him into a vampire. Angel backs away, stunned that she still considers what she did to him a gift. When she instead tries to convince him to turn her as revenge, he refuses. Looking down at the baby, Angel confesses he can't pretend to be who he's not. She says she's disgusted with him. He takes the baby and jumps through a window. Darla runs out of the office, telling Angel not to look for her again, mirroring the words of a century ago. 

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Two detectives interrogate Wesley about an attempted murder. Wesley tells them everything just went very wrong. Without revealing the vampire's name, Wesley explains disjointedly that Angel wasn't supposed to be there, that Wesley would have stopped him if they'd "found out sooner". Earlier, Wesley stops by the Hyperion and talks with Cordelia. He notices she's changed her hair, and she tells him she did it ten days ago. Cordelia and Wesley go to a movie premiere, while Angel and Gunn meet with Gunn's cousin, Lester, who asked for their help. Lester is supposed to be a driver for a demonic robbery but he wants nothing to do with it. A vampire Angel knows by reputation, Jay-Don, is being brought in to help. To Gunn's dismay, Angel takes charge of the case and tells Gunn he'll handle it by himself. Angel returns to the hotel and finds Kate in his room. She wants information on Darla and despite the cross she carries, Angel is not threatened and warns her to back off before she is killed. Angel meets Jay-Don at the bus station and kills him, taking his place on the robbery. A demon named Menlow meets with Angel, who he thinks is Jay- Don, and takes him to the others. Another demon, Vyasa, and a human security guard, Bob, are already present, waiting for Lester. Gunn shows up in Lester's place. Angel is annoyed that Gunn didn't listen to him, but can't do anything about it without blowing their cover. The robbery team runs over the plan, explaining that they'll be stealing the Shroud of Rahmon. Jay-don - now Angel - is there to get past sensors that detect changes in body heat. Angel, trying to get a chance to talk privately with Gunn, picks a fight with him, but the others stop him before he can get outside. Cordelia researches museums to find which one may be the location of the robbery, learning the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles temporarily contains the Shroud of Rahmon, intended to prevent the insanity-creating Rahmon from being resurrected. Instead, the shroud absorbed the power to make people around it insane. Meanwhile, the thieves break into the museum. Angel tries to keep Gunn outside, but they others insist he come in. They break into the vault holding the shroud, where the Shroud's presence begins to cause the group to act erratically. Wesley and Cordelia enter the building and are immediately affected as well. The robbery group carries the consecrated box with the enclosed shroud on a path out of the building, becoming more violent towards each other. Vyasa kills Bob by ripping off his head. Wesley encounters Kate at the building and has trouble keeping focused on his mission to help Angel. Wesley finds Angel and tries to warn him about the shroud. Kate finds Angel and the others and pulls a gun on them. Angel knocks her gun out of the way and bites her neck, and she falls to the ground, motionless. A police team arrives and finds Wesley leaning over Kate's body. The shroud box is carried to another building and the shroud's effect on the group leads them all to fight over it, breaking the box open and grabbing the shroud. Gunn and Angel play tug of war with the shroud until Angel manages to come to his senses enough to convince Gunn to let go. After taking the shroud outside and dousing it in alcohol, Angel sets it aflame, stopping its effects. In the interrogation room, the detectives are convinced that Wesley is the killer. As they're about to arrest him, Kate shows up and tells them to let him go. She remembers that Angel did bite her briefly, but it was actually a ruse to prevent her from being killed by the demons. Wesley and Cordelia think about what happened, and Wesley worries that Angel's bloodlust has been reawakened by the taste of human blood. Angel sits in his room, his thoughts focused on biting Kate. 

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Angel tells his associates that Drusilla has returned and, working with Wolfram and Hart, has made Darla a vampire again. Wesley and Cordelia investigate the law firm's plans for Drusilla and Darla as Angel prepares to stake the two vampires. Angel tracks down Lindsay, who has been sheltering Drusilla and Darla. He attempts to stake the unconscious Darla, but Drusilla attacks him. Darla revives as Angel and Drusilla struggle; she escapes and Drusilla disappears. At Wolfram and Hart, Holland and Lindsey are discussing the evening's planned party when Drusilla arrives to update them on recent events. Darla appears and drags Drusilla off. As Angel races to the W&H; offices, Cordelia has a vision which sends them elsewhere. The angry Darla and Drusilla quarrel; Drusilla reveals why Darla was resurrected, and Darla, after bloodsucking and killing a fresh victim, has her old personality restored. Darla and Drusilla go shopping. Angel brusquely completes the mission from Cordelia's vision, then heads back toward Wolfram & Hart. Holland unleashes Darla and Drusilla on Los Angeles; they begin by raiding a clothing store for new wardrobes, killing two salespeople. Angel forces his way into Wolfram and Hart, demanding information. Lindsey refuses; Angel is arrested and taken into custody by Kate. She releases him, hoping he can stop Darla and Drusilla's killing spree. Holland hosts a wine tasting party for his colleagues in his home's wine cellar. As he makes a speech, Darla and Drusilla appear, intent on slaughter. Holland attempts to convince the two that he and his associates are their allies, to little effect. Angel finds a survivor at the clothing store and learns where Darla and Drusilla have gone. When he arrives at Holland's home, however, he refuses to stop Darla and Drusilla, instead locking the wine cellar to prevent the lawyers from escaping the vampires. When Angel tells his associates what he has done, they object, fearing that Angel is descending into corruption and "darkness." He fires them and leaves. 

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At Cordelia's apartment, Wesley and Gunn play the board game Risk, until Cordelia tries to kick them out so she can sleep. They discuss plans to start their own company without Angel until Cordelia gets a vision about a large two-headed, fire- breathing demon. Angel bumps into a woman, Anne Steele, who runs a local teen center. Back at the Hyperion, Angel takes out her wallet, which he had stolen from her during their encounter and observes a board filled dozens of pictures of Anne, including shots of her with Lindsey McDonald. Wesley and Gunn slowly approach the demon from Cordelia's vision in the sewers and find a 20-foot demon. After some hesitation, they charge at it. Angel confronts Merl in his apartment, demanding information about Anne. She's connected to Wolfram & Hart but despite a couple of name changes in the past, the woman herself is clean, so Angel visits the shelter and talks to her. Anne raves about Wolfram & Hart's help with the shelter and the plans for a charity fundraiser named the Highway Robbery Ball to gather money with the help of celebrities. A large demon named Boone confronts Merl for information on Angel and Merl is persuaded to provide that information. Angel surprises Lilah in her car and threatens her. Lilah tells Lindsey how worried she is about Angel, but their discussion is cut short as Boone arrives unannounced, wanting to deal with a grudge against Angel. Boone explains his past with Angel: In 1916, in a skirmish regarding a woman, they fought for hours until sunrise approached; knowing the sun would kill Angel, Boone, who considers himself an honorable warrior, let Angel depart. He has longed for a rematch ever since, in order to learn which of them is the better warrior. Wesley and Gunn rave about slaying the demon and despite their incredible fear, they're excited about their victory. The group leaves to look at a prospective location for their new business while arguing over its name. Angel shows up at the shelter late at night, and Anne jokingly asks if he is stalking her. Angel offers all the evidence necessary to confirm that he is, and then tries to warn her that Wolfram & Hart are going to steal money from the fundraiser. Lindsey arrives and pretends to be protecting Anne, bringing Boone with him to fight with Angel. Lindsey tries to defend the law firm to Anne but the information Angel's provided her worries Lindsey, and he discusses the dangerous possibilities with Lilah. Wounded from the fight, Angel returns to the shelter and Anne expresses that she is willing to ignore the source of the money if it means aid to the shelter. Angel gives her a tape to play at the fundraiser, but Anne refuses to risk the shelter. At the Ball, a prerecorded video of Holland plays. Lilah introduces Anne to one of her bosses, Nathan Reed, while Lindsey reviews the security plans for the ball. While actors collect the donations from the rich attendees, Angel reveals his presence, which leads to a fight between him and Boone on the balcony, and they eventually fall to the main floor. Lindsey searches for the incriminating tape, but it is revealed that Angel is not in possession of the tape and Boone is actually working with him. Lindsey and Lilah desperately attempt to stop Anne from playing the tape Angel gave her, but it only contains goofy clips of Cordelia and Wesley, as Angel never had anything to incriminate the lawyers in the first place. To add even more embarrassment to the situation for Wolfram & Hart, Boone has taken off with the donations. The next day Lindsey confronts Reed about not being able to kill Angel, and Reed explains that Angel is an important figure in the upcoming apocalypse, and because his role, he must remain untouched as long as there is a chance Wolfram & Hart can win him to the side of evil. Boone confronts Angel at the hotel, offering up the 2.5 million dollars in charity donations as the stakes for a fight between the two of them. Again wounded from battle with Boone (it is unclear if Angel, who clearly won the fight, killed Boone or not), Angel presents the money and jewelry to Anne for the shelter, who is undisturbed by the real and metaphorical blood on the money. 

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Wesley and Cordelia, cleaning up their new office, discuss their future as investigators without Angel, and most likely without enough clients to keep their business running for long. At the hotel, Angel awakes to the sounds of the Host singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" down in the lobby. He tells Angel about a man who came to sing at Caritas, and that when he read the man's aura, the Host was knocked out when he realized the world would be ending. Unfortunately, the man left before the Host came around and the Host currently has no idea who or where the man is. The man singing at the bar was actually a physicist named Gene Rainey, who is working on a formula to stop time. His girlfriend, Denise, visits him and they talk of their plans for their first anniversary. Without any other leads on Gene, Angel and the Host check out karaoke bars and are pointed towards the college that Gene attends. After an unsuccessful attempt to test his formula, Gene leaves his work area and two Lubber demons emerge from the shadows to alter the formula Gene has been working on. Wesley, Gunn and Cordelia mope about their job troubles but Virginia stops by with food, champagne, and a case they can take to earn a lot of money. Gene is successful with the initial test of his equipment. Angel and the Host check out yearbooks at the college library to look for the name of the man. Denise confesses to her friend that she has to break up with Gene because things aren't working out, and plans to break up with him that night after sleeping with him. Gene overhears this and returns to the lab, dejected. While getting directions to Gene and the physics lab, Angel is attacked by the Lubber demons. Finally, at the physics lab, it is discovered that Gene is gone and so is his equipment. He has plans to freeze time during a moment of love between him and Denise. Gunn kills the demon that he and the others were hired to protect a rich family from. Wesley discovers the real truth behind the murder, that one of the family hired the demon to kill one of the men and gain control of the family money. Angel and the Host take care of several Lubber demons who tried to stand in the way, then rush to stop Gene before it is too late. Gene freezes Denise and himself in a moment of passion, but Angel is able to get past several more Lubber demons then stop the machine and undo the whole process. Gene says he didn't know the overall effects of his actions; he just didn't want to lose his love. However, Angel and the Host tell Gene that things need to keep moving on, otherwise it wouldn't be interesting. As Gene goes to get some beer, the Host tells Angel that this is the first time in a long time that he is connecting with someone. Angel reflects on how he treated his team, and feels bad knowing he left them out in the cold. At their new office, Wesley, Cordelia and Gunn party in celebration of their success until a man shows up in need of their services. 

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A friend of Virginia brings her daughter to the soon- to-be-renamed Angel Investigations, asking them to remove the eye that grew out of the back of her head after she was attacked by an unseen assailant. Wesley assures the mother that they will find a way to get rid of the eye. Meanwhile, Angel is feeling the increasing weight of his self-imposed solitude. As he walks round the hotel lobby and stands at the desk where his team used to gather, he can't help but feel lonelier than ever and in a fit of anger he shoves a pile of papers off the desk. At a teen shelter, two teens show up after curfew in search of safety, and their fear convinces shelter administrator Anne to make an exception to the rules. Kenny explains that he and Len were unfairly attacked by a policeman, which has been happening to other street kids as well. Anne takes the problem to Gunn at Angel Investigations. He accompanies her back to the shelter and questions the kids about the incidents with the police. Angel, who has surreptitiously trailed Gunn, is attacked by a policeman while standing outside. Angel fights back, but the officer rises every time he's knocked down, until the vampire kicks the cop's head completely off and even then, the head keeps talking for a moment. When Angel asks Detective Kate Lockley to look up the dead cop's badge, she finds that he's been dead for six months. More sleuthing reveals that someone is putting dead cops back on the streets as zombies. Cordelia rants about Gunn's decision to call in several members of his old crew to deal with the police, but she and Wesley resolve to go back him up anyway. They find Gunn and his friends secretly filming their exchange with a police officer, to demonstrate that cops are reacting violently without just cause. Wesley tries to save Gunn, but the cop turns and shoots him. A struggle takes place and George shoots the cop. The three men move Wesley to safety as the cop sits up, seemingly unaffected by the bullets. Gunn and friends get Wesley into an ambulance, but as they're driving away, several police cars get in the way. When the driver is shot, Gunn is forced to drive the ambulance. He eventually stops at the shelter and carries Wesley inside with the EMT, who warns that Wesley needs to get to a hospital fast. The teens barricade the shelter with everything they can find as an army of dead cops gather outside. The zombie cops force their way inside the shelter through the windows and doors, hurting several teens in the process. Angel visits the precinct where the zombie cops were from. The police captain confesses that he has been using supernatural means to return good cops to the streets and protect previously violence-ridden neighborhoods. Angel finds a zombie statue and smashes it, returning all the zombie cops to their former dead, decaying states. Kate and Angel discuss the ambiguous ramifications of their victory for the neighborhood—although the killer zombies are gone, the criminals that they drove out are now free to return—and Kate confides in Angel that the job is making her crazy. While standing outside Wesley's hospital room as he recovers from his gunshot wound, Angel encounters Cordelia, who tells him he should just stay away from them. 

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Angel prevents a sacrificial ritual from being performed by two Wolfram & Hart employees, who are nervous about something called "the Review". He asks Kate for information about the Review, but Kate - under investigation due to her involvement with odd cases - bitterly refuses, showing him crime scene photos from Holland Manners' wine cellar illustrating his involvement in the slaughter. Angel turns to Lorne, who is having a busy night as Caritas is full of Wolfram & Hart lawyers wanting to have their destinies read. Lorne tells Angel that a Wolfram & Hart Senior Partner (manifesting in the form of a lower demon) is coming to earth for the historically deadly Review, and that the sacrifices and rituals are simply the lawyers trying to get brownie points with the Senior Partner before he shows up. Lorne also tells Angel that anything that can manifest itself in our dimension can be killed and that something called the Band of Blacknil is important. Angel goes to leave but Lorne stops him and tells him one last thing... that pretty much every lawyer in the club really wants to see him dead, but you don't need to be a psychic to know that, given that everyone in the club is giving Angel hostile stares. Meanwhile, at Angel Investigations, the team have successfully removed the third eye from the back of Stephanie Sharp's head. However Mrs. Sharp tells the gang that she has no intention of paying the bill and that as far as she is concerned Angel Investigations are running a scam since it is 'impossible' for a third eye to grow out the back of a skull, despite the fact that it was she who approached them with the problem. She and her daughter leave having successfully stiffed the gang for payment and an exasperated Gunn leaves. Lindsey finds Darla waiting for him at home and she weakly tells him that Drusilla is not returning to L.A.. He gives her a container of human blood; she stops feigning weakness and searches his briefcase while he is in the shower. Meanwhile, at the hotel Angel attempts to look up the Band of Blacknil but doesn't have much research material given that it all left along with Wesley. Angel then shows up at the office of his former employees uninvited and unwelcome, barely acknowledges his former friends and helps himself to a book. Cordelia refuses to let him take it and grabs it off him, but Angel grows cold and deadly and it is clear he is willing to use force to get the book back. Wesley rises from his wheelchair and tells Cordy to let Angel have the book so he can remove himself from the premises. She finally gives him the book and Angel leaves without a second thought. Cordelia vents about Angel until Wesley catches her attention: stitches from his healing gunshot wound have torn in the confrontation. Angel returns to the bookstore he visited fifty years ago in search of information on the Senior Partner. A decades-older Denver tells Angel that it wears a ring that allows passage to Hell. To take the ring, Angel needs a one-of-a-kind magic glove that would allow him to strangle the Senior Partner without being incinerated. Denver gets the glove from the back room, but before he can give it to Angel, Darla stabs him with a sword and takes the glove. Facing a review board during an Internal Affairs investigation, Kate is unceremoniously fired. She self-destructively deals with her dismissal by drinking and knocking her accolades to the floor, pausing to cry at a picture of her father. Virginia talks with Wesley about how much danger he's always in. With heartbreaking insight, Wesley acknowledges how difficult it must be for her - to break up with him. Wesley and Cordelia talk on the phone, both depressed about their lives and lack of work. Wesley tells Cordy that things are going to get better, but it is clear neither believes it. Cordelia gets a call from Mrs. Sharp, claiming to have changed her mind and offering to pay; what Cordelia doesn't know is that Mrs. Sharp was threatened into calling by a demon that kills her after she tells him Cordelia is on her way. Angel arrives at the Review, and when he spots Darla in the crowd the two fight while the Senior Partner materializes. Security guards attack Darla after Angel exposes her as a vampire by dousing her with holy water. In the confusion, Angel gets the glove away from Darla, dons it and flies at the Senior Partner's throat. The Senior Partner implodes, but the force of Angel's leap carries him crashing out the window. When he hits the ground, Angel puts on the ring, causing elevator doors to open in the foundation of the Wolfram & Hart building. Holland (whose contract extends well beyond death) offers Angel a one-way trip down to the "Home Office," which Angel assumes is Hell. After passing through nether realms of darkness and fire, the elevator comes to a stop and its doors open - right back where they started. The "Home Office" is Earth, the implication being that Angel can never rescue humanity because humanity is its own worst enemy. Angel walks away, witnessing the despair around him. Returning to the hotel, he hangs up on a message from Kate, who is drunk and overdosing on pills. Angel finds Darla waiting for him and, realizing that he wants to feel something, anything, Angel kisses her. At first, she pushes him away, but he takes her roughly and soon the two are having sex. Later, as a storm crashes outside, Angel wakes with a gasp. 

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Angel pulls on some clothes and struggles to the balcony, falling to his knees in pain as Darla looks on, waiting for him to become Angelus. Angel apologizes for not being able to save her, revealing that he never lost his soul: instead of experiencing the "perfect happiness" that would release it, he realizes his surrender to her was instead an act of perfect despair. Darla can't accept that she failed in ridding him of his soul, but the sex has reawakened the good in Angel, making him realize his recent mistakes. Darla is devastated that she wasn't able to reawaken Angelus, and her words remind him of Kate's phone message. Angel throws Darla out telling her he'll be forced to kill her if he sees her again, and then rushes over to Kate's place and revives her from her drug and alcohol induced unconsciousness. Lindsey returns to his apartment to find Darla who tells him of her night with Angel. Angel shows up at the bar after hours and wakes the Host for advice. He's confused about his future and the Host warns him that his friends are in danger. Cordelia arrives at the Sharp home, finding all of the family dead. She receives a vision about a demon attacking her, only to have it occur moments later. Cordelia realizes that the demons have an eye on the back of their heads and they want her friends destroyed in retaliation for destroying their spawn in Stephanie Sharp. Wesley hears noises in his apartment and just before one of the Skilosh demons attacks, Angel arrives. The two manage to destroy the demons and both share a brief moment of camaraderie before the walls go up again. Angel tries to explain his return to helping his friends. Wesley tells everything he knows about the demons, their reproduction through human hosts, and the destruction of the demon in Stephanie. The Skilosh demons, upset about losing two more of their kind, use Cordelia as bait to bring new hosts. Arriving at Angel Investigations, Angel and Wesley are dismayed to find Cordelia missing. Angel suggests Cordelia has gone out partying, but Wesley tells Angel harshly that Cordelia is not the same woman she was, the visions have turned her into a solitary person, a far cry from the carefree girl she used to be, and that while Angel was more than happy to turn his back on the visions, that's not a luxury Cordelia has. Angel is left feeling ashamed, and this deepens his resolve to her save her, something Wesley does agree with. Hearing a noise outside, the two arm themselves, but find it only to be Gunn checking out why the lights are on. Angel notes the strong bond that's developed between Wesley and Gunn. Setting off for the Sharp residence, Angel volunteers to take care of some Skilosh demons waiting for them telling the others that Cordelia is the only thing that matters. As Angel's about to start fighting with the demons they suddenly flee. Angel is confused, until Lindsey drives a truck full-speed down the street, repeatedly running Angel down. Lindsey beats Angel with a sledgehammer, demanding to know what happened with Darla. Angel turns the tables on Lindsey, and starts to beat him all the while apologizing that Darla will never love him and that he didn't try harder to save Lindsey when he came to him for help. In the end he smashes Lindsey's prosthetic hand with the sledgehammer and steals Lindsey's truck, telling the lawyer that he could have smashed the other hand if it wasn't for the epiphany. Gunn and Wesley try to sneak into the Sharp home but are caught. Angel crashes Lindsey's truck through the Sharp house, rescuing his friends, but he's hurt emotionally when they aren't willing to accept him back into the fold. After finding his damaged truck returned by Angel, Lindsey discovers that Darla has moved out of his apartment and has left L.A.. Angel talks with Kate about his new look on life; how he's realized that he should help people for the sake of helping them instead of for his own redemption and that if there is no bigger meaning then the small acts of kindness are the greatest things in the world. Kate says a higher power must be watching over them, because she never invited him into her home but he was able to enter regardless and save her life. Angel appears at the Angel Investigations office and apologizes to his friends. Wesley tells Angel that the three of them have talked and have decided they're not ready to return to working for him, however Angel responds that he doesn't want them to work for him - he wants to work for them, and accepts that he will have to work hard to regain their trust. A vision from Cordelia puts their doubts on the back burner and the reunited team head out to help the helpless. 

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The Angel Investigations team celebrates at an expensive restaurant for Cordelia's role in a national commercial. Cordelia expresses her worries about leaving the team temporarily while Wesley and Gunn are sure they can handle things while she's working on her career. Angel continues to feel left out of the group and worries about the prices of their meals. Angel attacks a woman wearing a shawl that he mistakes as a witch's garb, making an unnecessary scene. Moments later, Cordelia discovers that the food is not all that great as she throws it up on the floor of the restaurant. The next day, Wesley speaks with his parents on the phone. After wishing his father a happy birthday, his spirits are lowered, as his father puts down everything Wesley tells him. Angel makes an appearance at the set where Cordelia's commercial is being shot, enjoying the fake sunlight effect of the beach scene. When Cordelia comes up to him and asks him why he is there, Angel starts to question her about the Haklar demon she saw in her vision, but they are interrupted by the arrival of Seth, the commercial director. As Angel watches, Seth, who appears to be deeply frustrated, becomes irritated at Cordelia when he has to ask her twice to see her bikini costume, and after studying her, notices that there are circles under her eyes from where she had suffered from food poisoning the previous night and asks his assistant when she is scheduled to go to the makeup department, only for Cordelia to tell him she has already been. Irate at their incompetence, Seth tells his assistant to take her back and then, in anger, makes some flippant, rude comments about her appearance, diet, and desirability. Angel is furious and, after confronting Seth, threatening him with his body language and coming very close to attacking him, asks Cordelia if she wants him to rip Seth's head off for offending her, but she just wants him to leave and stop damaging her career. Gunn's friends, George and Rondell, arrive at the hotel, requesting Gunn's assistance with a vampire problem. Gunn is more than willing to help, but Angel returns with news on the Haklar demon they're tracking and Gunn's friends are put on hold. Angel expresses his worry for Cordelia to Wesley and Gunn, telling them about the way she had endured the bullish, surly, combustible, abrasive, boorish Seth's derogatory treatment of her, and wondering why she would want to work in an environment with someone who would treat her so badly. At Caritas, an ugly gray demon enters through a portal that opened up in the club. Angel and Wesley return to the hotel after killing the Haklar demon to find Cordelia in the aftermath of her embarrassing job experience. Out of frustration during an argument with her after she messed up at one point during the shooting of the commercial, an exasperated Seth had made it clear that she was really just there for visual purposes, not her acting abilities. The Host visits the hotel, requesting the aid of Angel Investigations to kill the Drokken demon that arrived unexpectedly at Caritas. He stresses the importance of killing the demon, as it is a man-eating demon and probably very hungry. Cordelia gets a vision about a woman in a library and a portal opening up behind her. Gunn returns to the hideout of his gang only to find that George has been bitten and they don't know if he'll be coming back undead or not. At the library, a description of the woman and pendant Cordelia saw in her vision is given to a woman there. The woman recognizes it, but says that its owner, a woman named Fred (short for Winifred), has been missing for five years. While investigating the area where Fred disappeared, Cordelia finds a book in an odd language and reads some of it aloud. The Host is worried as she sounds out the text and he tries to say something a few times, but doesn't. Another portal appears in the library and a large green demon, similar to the Host appears. The Host recognizes the demon as Landok, but he isn't excited about it in the least. Landok identifies the Host as Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan and the Host admits that the two demons are cousins. Landok questions the Host's disappearance from their home dimension, but the Host has no interest in returning. The Drokken demon becomes the focus again as Landok offers his help and expertise on tracking it and killing it. On the streets, Gunn confronts Rondell about waiting for him, but Rondell makes it clear that they've been waiting for him for far too long. While searching for the Drokken, the Host tells Angel about his homeland, painting a very interesting picture. With the help of Landok, the gang is able to locate the Drokken and Angel and Landok go after it. The demon has a woman he's holding for food, and the gang must save. Landok is fatally bitten, the bite being venomous to his kind. A big fight ensues with the demon as it runs off after the woman. Wesley and Angel battle as best they can against the demon and Angel finally kills it by throwing a sword through its throat. Outside, Cordelia reveals that they can get Landok back home for a cure by reading from the book. She's not sure how she's positive about it, but she is. Gunn and Rondell burn George's body on top of a stack of wood, sad for the loss of their friend. At Caritas, Landok reads from the book and after a portal opens and closes, Landok is gone. As the gang muse over the latest adventure, they find that Cordelia has vanished. Cordelia wakes up in unfamiliar territory, realizing she's in a whole new world. 

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The group realizes Cordelia has been sucked into Lorne's home dimension of Pylea, which Lorne says he was glad to leave. Caritas, the bar he runs, was once the abandoned building where the portal from Pylea opened up. Angel reads from the book to reopen the portal, but it fails to open; Wesley's researching discovers that the portal can only open in hot spots and Caritas is currently cold. Lorne seeks help from a psychic friend in order to find a hot spot, but she won't provide the information until he agrees to go with the others to finish his business in Pylea. Two lawyers from Wolfram & Hart appear at Angel's hotel, informing Angel that the law firm plans to buy the hotel when the current lease expires. Angel vamps out and lawyers take their leave, but not before threatening to make Angel's life difficult. Angel leaves a message on an answering machine with information about saving the hotel in case they don't make it back from Pylea. Cordelia finds herself in a new dimension, where she is chased down and captured by a demon who declares her a "cow", or human slave. Her demon owner forces her into a collar that can be used to shock her when she doesn't obey. As she later mucks out the stables, wondering aloud if she can remove the collar, a runaway slave warns her through a hole in a wall that she shouldn't bother fighting. Cordelia is unable to see that the woman is Fred from her vision, crazy after all her years in Pylea. Before any more information can be exchanged, Fred is caught and taken away. Later, Cordelia follows her owner, carrying purchases from the market, until a vision causes her to fall and drop everything. She reveals she saw a villager being attacked by a Drokken in her vision, and a crowd draws, declaring her cursed. Cordelia is brought before Constable Narwek and explains she has precognitive visions. Angel pulls his car up to the gate of a movie studio lot, following Lorne's information that it is a psychic hot spot. Although Gunn had earlier stated that George's death made him realize he's needed in this dimension, Angel's depressing phone message persuades him to join the mission. Wesley reads from the book, and with final good-byes to L.A., Angel drives his car through the portal. The book falls onto the sidewalk as the car vanishes. As the car arrives in daytime Pylea, Angel rushes to cover himself before realizing the two suns are not fatal to vampires. Happy and amazed, Angel goes off to gather branches to hide the car while enjoying the rare opportunity to be in sunlight. After covering the car, the guys realize that the book is gone and that they'll have to find another way to get back home. In town, Lorne advises that they stay to the shadows, as humans are treated as slaves. The Host tries to get help from an old friend but is met with bad reception. Chased by villagers, the gang is eventually caught and tied up in the middle of town. After the Constable arrives, Lorne is taken away for questioning while the rest are chained in a dungeon until they are sentenced. In the dungeon, the guys brainstorm for escape plans and then with his vampire hearing, Angel overhears a conversation about Cordelia and her "sight." Guards bring Angel, Gunn, and Wesley to the Constable, who announces they will all be killed. For their death sentence, they are brought before the Princess of Pylea...Cordelia. 

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Angel, Wesley, and Gunn are shocked to see Cordelia has been crowned princess of Pylea. She jokingly demands their heads be cut off, but quickly restates herself. After she dismisses the guards, Cordelia recounts how she became princess due to her visions. Lorne confirms his people have been waiting for one cursed with the sight that will save them all. Lorne takes Angel to his family's house, where Lorne's cousin Landok identifies Angel as a hero. Angel, who is made the special guest of their upcoming village feast, tells stories to the people of Pylea while Lorne is ignored. Landok offers Angel the honor of "swinging the crebbil in the Bach-nal," and Angel agrees to take part - before he learns it means beheading a human so the people of Pylea can feast on it. Winifred “Fred” Burkle is brought forth, but Angel refuses to kill her. The two are able to make an escape when Lorne begins to sing, causing severe pain to the Pyleans. While perusing the castle library, Wesley discovers "the cursed one" will have to perform something called a "com-shuk" with a Groosalugg. He considers asking the priests to translate the book, until he realizes it is part of a trilogy marked with three animals - wolf, ram and hart - linking the priests to the evil law firm back in Los Angeles. Silas, one of the priests, arrives to inform Cordelia that the Groosalugg has been summoned and that the "com-shuk" is a mating ritual. Wesley, Gunn, and Cordelia try to escape through a sewer tunnel, but Cordelia is caught by the priests and dragged back to her throne. Heavily guarded, Cordelia worries about mating with the demon, until Silas introduces the Groosalugg, who is a handsome and muscular young male. Fred leads Angel to a cave where she has been staying for a long while. Fred talks nervously as she crazily scribbles on the cave walls. Angel finds Fred's driver's license and realizes she is the girl from Cordy's vision. She doesn't believe him when he tells her of her life in LA and how she got to Pylea because it's been so long, she's doesn't want to believe. Angel is attacked by guards as he tries to lead Fred to the castle, and when he tries to shift into his vampire face, instead he becomes pure demon and brutally rips through the guard's body with his super-sized teeth. The other runs and Angel takes off as well, leaving Fred frightened and alone. Wesley and Gunn wander lost, until the demon Angel attacks them. It takes a while before Wesley can recognize Angel's tattoo. A short distance away, Fred coats her hand in blood and is able to lure Angel away from his friends with the smell. Demon Angel sees his reflection in water at Fred's cave and is suddenly motivated to switch back to human form. Gunn and Wesley are surrounded and tied up by rebels who want to send a message to the castle. Gunn and Wesley try to convince the rebels that they know the princess and suggest they use them to contact her. The rebels agree, but their idea involves decapitation. Fred comforts Angel as he painfully deals with the aftermath of being controlled by the demon inside of him. He concludes that his friends saw what he really was and now he can never go back to them. The Groosalugg tells Cordelia that his human qualities make him unappealing to his people, so he battled with demons to end his existence, but after defeating them earned the name for bravery and strength. Lorne is brought before Cordelia for judgment and he is almost sentenced to death, but Cordelia pardons him and then kicks him out so she can be alone with her future mate. Cordelia explains to the Groosalugg that she is not a princess, but he doesn't believe her because of what he was told. Silas tells his fellow priests that the princess has requested paper so she can write proclamations and do good for Pylea. He doesn't like the fact that she has not taken part in the com- shuk yet. Cordelia's proclamation writing is interrupted by Silas who brings forth a large platter and orders Groosalugg out of the room. He tells her she and Groosalugg are just tools and she will do what she is told. Cordelia refuses to accept that, until she is shocked into silence as Silas reveals Lorne's head displayed on the platter. 

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Wesley, Cordelia and Gunn discuss their recent addition at the Hyperion Hotel, Winifred "Fred" Burkle, who has spent the last three months in her room (except when she enters the lobby for a few seconds before scurrying back). They note her bravery at surviving five years in Pylea. Also cause for concern is Angel, who has also spent the summer away from the group by spending time at a monastery in Sri Lanka since learning of Buffy's death. Wesley notes that all Angel needs is peace and quiet. Angel's mourning, however, is anything but peaceful as the monks turn out to be demons and Angel must kill them all. Angel returns to Los Angeles and is eagerly greeted by his friends. He gives Cordelia a necklace, Wesley an historical dagger and Gunn a shrunken head (all three gifts are greatly appreciated). Angel asks after Fred, and despite Cordelia's attempt to cover, Angel guesses she hasn't left her room. He decides to go and talk to her; upon hearing a knock on the door, Fred tries to get rid of whoever is on the other side until she hears it's Angel, then she trips over herself to see him. Invited into Fred's room, Angel finds the walls covered in writing, similar to Fred's cave in Pylea, mostly filled with arcane mathematical formulae. Upon seeing a section with the words "LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN", Angel asks what she's listening for, and Fred responds, "The click in my head when everything makes sense." Angel invites her downstairs, but a scream from Cordelia shatters her sense of security. Cordelia's vision (which have grown increasingly painful over the last few months) sends the guys after a party crashed by vampires. They intercept the vampires and Angel stakes a beautiful blonde, and at the last second recognizes her by her locket as Elisabeth. Meanwhile, Cordelia recovers from her vision with the help of Dennis, a relaxing bath and some powerful painkillers. A flashback to Marseille, France, in 1767 reveals that Darla and Angelus once traveled with Elisabeth and James. Angelus is annoyed with the loving relationship between the other couple, as James steals a locket from a store window for Elisabeth. He is also concerned with escaping the vampire hunter, Daniel Holtz, who has been tracking him since Angelus killed the man's entire family. In the present, James learns about Elisabeth's death, and that Angel was responsible. He charges into the office of a special demon doctor, demanding the ultimate "cure" for vampirism. The demon, a skin-molting creature named Dr. Gregson, questions James's ability to accept the consequences, but agrees. At Caritas, Lorne sings, while Wesley and Gunn grill Merl for information. Merl reveals James visited Dr. Gregson earlier. At the Hyperion Hotel, James emerges from the basement and attacks Angel, demanding to know why he took Elisabeth from him. Fred chooses that moment to emerge, and Angel yells at her to stay in her room, causing the girl to lose what little confidence she had gained. The two continue to fight, and Cordelia manages a good hit to James with a fire extinguisher then tosses Angel a stake. Angel manages to stake James, but he is unaffected; Angel throws him outside, but he doesn't set on fire. Realising he has been made invincible, Angel and Cordelia run for the sewers. A call from Wesley reveals that James is now invincible after having his heart removed, but it's not permanent and he will die when it wears off. Angel tries to throw James off temporarily with the scent of his blood, but James eventually finds them in a subway train. As they fight inside the train, James questions Angel's knowledge of true love. Angel assures him he understands what it is like to lose someone he loves. Soon, the effects of the cure wear off, and James crumbles into dust. Angel allows James' comments about not being able to exist after losing the person he loved to upset him, but Cordelia convinces him that he honors Buffy by going on. At a cantina in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, a man presents contact information for a shaman to Darla and proceeds to flirt with her, offering her a drink and saying he sees her as a woman with a surprise or two. Darla retorts by showing him surprise #1: sinking her fangs into him. As he falls to the floor, Darla leaves the bar, revealing surprise #2: her incredibly pregnant belly. 

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Fred shares her admiration for Angel in front of the rest of the team as she theorizes what he is reading upstairs. Angel comes down from his room with a newspaper and invites everyone to a Charlton Heston double feature, which only Fred is delighted to accept. The next evening, Fred gushes about her date to Wesley and Cordelia. Concerned, Cordelia instructs Angel to have a talk with besotted Fred, which Angel avoids by bringing up a string of deaths in hotels which involved melted bodies and insists he needs to investigate right away. The team find out that the men killed were all members of the same gym. Angel and Cordelia arrive there and Cordelia promptly interviews the muscled men and questions them - for their phone numbers. Angel notices a retirement home across the street where an old man is seen peering at them with binoculars. He leaves Cordelia and confronts the old man, Marcus, who recites a spell that switches their bodies. While Marcus enjoys himself in Angel's vampiric body, Angel tries to leave the retirement home in the frail Marcus's body to warn the gang of the impostor in their midst. Meanwhile, Lilah continues to clash with her co-worker Gavin over their tactics to take down Angel and his group. She goes to Angel with documents that would foil Gavin's attempt to evacuate the hotel since it wasn't "up to code" to one-up him. Marcus in Angel's body tells her she is a very beautiful woman and they start kissing each other furiously. Fred, who was given the same line by Marcus earlier and instructed her to wear something pretty to go out, sees them and runs away in tears. Marcus vamps out in his passion and bites Lilah. who is furious with him for playing games and runs out. Marcus tries to find out what happened and is shocked to find he doesn't have a reflection. He spends the night shredding contents of files related to his murders and goes through books researching vampires, realizing this body will never give out on him and planning to kill Angel in his old one. Cordelia finds Fred sobbing in the elevator and finds out about "Angel"'s actions. Wesley finds the office littered with the books and correctly theorizes that Angel's body has been taken over. He, Gunn, Cordelia, and Fred rescue Angel from being killed and he is returned to his own form. Marcus angrily tells him he wastes his life instead of taking advantage of what he has. Angel tells him his heart is weak because he doesn't use it. An upset Marcus has an onset of a fifth heart attack as Angel and his team walk out together. Back at the Hyperion, Angel finally sits down with Fred for the long-overdue talk however she stops him, as Cordelia has already explained to her about Angel's curse as well as his having no romantic feelings for her. As Fred notes that Angel will probably be better off without love in his life, Willow calls the hotel to tell the group that Buffy has been revived, five months after her death. 

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Fred asks about Angel's relationship with Buffy, curious because he left so abruptly to meet her at the end of the previous episode. Cordelia and Wesley put on an overly- dramatic, humorous play that summarizes what Angel and Buffy's off-screen reunion might have been like. When Angel returns, he invites Fred out to ice cream, but ends up tracking a Durslar demon into the sewers. Fred notices some crystal formations on the sewer wall before Angel sends her back to the Hyperion Hotel for safety. The gang reorganize the weapons cabinet, bored and anxious for a job. Cordelia discovers an object that could be a weapon or a toaster that Fred was making. A couple, Roger and Trish Burkle, enter the hotel searching for assistance in finding their lost daughter, Fred, whom another private detective traced to Angel Investigations. The Burkles are oblivious to the supernatural so Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn lie about Fred's disappearance and their work. When Fred returns and sees the couple in the lobby, she dashes upstairs unseen. She tries to erase the writing she scribbled over her bedroom walls, then leaves the hotel. Angel returns with the severed head of the Durslar demon and is introduced to the Burkles as their associate who also works in movies, hence the "fake" demon head. They all head upstairs, but find her room empty. While the Burkles wait out in the lobby, Angel and crew converse about the possible reasons for Fred to run away from her parents and whether the Burkles are being completely honest. They join the Burkles again and everyone splits up to find her. After roaming the streets alone, Fred ends up at Caritas and tries to get help from Lorne, who is bitter about the recent fight that destroyed much of his bar. She sings without provocation and exposes her obvious fear and panic to him. He knows what she's running from and she doesn't realize she's strong enough to face it. Eventually, the rest of the gang end up at Caritas, but Lorne refuses to play along with attempts to keep the Burkles oblivious to demonic activity and expresses his distaste for being used all the time. Finally, Lorne reveals that Fred is at the bus station. When her family and friends show up, Fred doesn't want to admit that her parents are real because it means her awful experience in Pylea was real, but finally breaks down. Just then, a giant bug demon that followed Angel from the sewers attacks the group. Weaponless, Angel tries to handle the demon alone; all attempts to hide the truth from the Burkles are forgotten as the group rushes to Gunn's truck for fighting tools. Angel continues the fight with the bug demon until Trish Burkle kills it by driving a bus into it. Back at the hotel, Fred notices the crystals she saw in the sewers on the Durslar's head. Fred wonders about her place in the gang while her parents are just grateful to have their daughter back. They reveal how they were prepared to call the police, thinking Angel and friends kidnapped their daughter. She decides that she wants to go home with her parents because she doesn't really belong with the rest of the group. As Fred packs, she tells Angel she wrote her life story on her bedroom wall. After Fred leaves with her parents, many bug demons begin to show up at the hotel. Fred, who has realized in the cab that the cockroach demons would return, rushes back to deploy her toaster weapon, sending an ax flying at the severed demon head. The head splits open, releasing little bugs that the other demons collect before departing. Fred explains how she realized the little crystals were dried ichor from the bug demon, indicating a connection between it and the severed head. Fred decides she does have a place at Angel Investigations after all, and invites everyone up to her room, where they help her paint the walls. Fred paints over a picture she drew of her and Angel on the horse from Pylea. 

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Angel teaches Cordelia how to sword fight so that she can defend herself if Angel isn't there to protect her. Due to her cheerleading experience, she is a fast study. Lilah finds Billy (the man Angel was forced to rescue from a fiery hell dimension by the lawyers of Wolfram & Hart in "That Vision Thing") in her office talking with Gavin Park. The influential Congressman Blim, Billy's uncle, arrives to take the young man home. After Billy and the congressman leave, Lilah tells Gavin to stay away from her clients. Gavin isn't interested in her suggestions and suddenly attacks her, smashing her head into a glass case and strangling her. Cordy and Wesley discuss Cordelia's training with Angel, and Wesley suggests he train Fred, leading Cordelia to inquire about his romantic feelings for Fred. She suggests that he ask her out, but their conversation is cut short by a vision of a woman being beaten by her husband in a convenience store. Strangely, the event occurred a week ago and the woman is now dead. Wesley learns that the husband's explanation for killing his wife was simply that "she wouldn't stop talking" and gets surveillance photos from the crime, in which they spot Billy. After learning that Angel freed Billy to save her, Cordelia feels responsible for the woman's death, but Angel assures her the blame belongs to Lilah. He visits Lilah at her apartment and is shocked to find her badly beaten. She says Billy is untouchable due to his political connections. Wesley, Gunn, and Angel track down Billy; however, the police arrive first to take Billy into custody for phoning in a tip on the location of a murder victim. Before he's taken away, Billy touches one of the officers on the arm. Later in the squad car, Sanchez's female partner doesn't take the route he tells her to, causing him to get angry and hit her repeatedly. Fred relays information from a police scanner, saying that Billy got away before arriving at the station. It is later discovered that after being hit by her partner, the female cop shot him and is now resting in the hospital. At the scene of the crime, Angel realizes that some of the blood is Billy's, and Wesley takes a sample of his blood to examine at the hotel. Cordelia goes to Lilah's to demand information, and Lilah explains that Billy's touch turns men into vicious misogynists, though the effect varies from male to male. Wesley returns to the hotel and Fred helps him examine Billy's blood cells through the microscope and observes that his power is in his blood, saliva, and sweat. Wesley begins to act hostile towards Fred, and when she runs from the office, he catches her and tosses her face-first into the stairs. He stalks her through the hotel with an axe in his hand. As she runs, she is caught by Gunn and taken into one of the bedrooms. Following reports of misogynistic violence, Angel tracks Billy's last location to a party at his cousin's house, where he discovers that Billy's entire family is aware of his situation and want him gone. Cordelia finds Billy waiting for a private plane at the airport. He's not interested in talking with her, and she isn't either, debilitating him with a stun gun to his groin. Angel arrives to help Cordelia, and Billy touches Angel's face. In the bedroom, Gunn realizes that he too has been infected after touching the bloody paper down in the lobby. He tries to leave, but Wesley is blocking the door, so Gunn has Fred knock him unconscious. Wesley breaks into the room, insulting Fred as he advances toward her. She pulls a rope which sends a fire extinguisher flying down to hit Wesley in the face and send him falling through a hole in the floor. Meanwhile, at the airport, Angel turns on Billy and hits him, explaining that Billy's power doesn't affect him. As Angel and Billy fight, Lilah shoots Billy dead before Cordelia can get a clear shot with her crossbow. Days later, Cordelia and Angel continue with their training, as Angel reveals that the reason he wasn't affected by Billy's touch was that he left behind the capacity to hate long ago. Meanwhile, Wesley, who has kept to himself since the incident, receives a visit from Fred. She doesn't blame him for what happened, but he blames himself. Concerned that violence is a part of him, he doesn't know who he is or how to return to life as it was before. Fred says he's needed at the office and insists that she knows he had no control over what happened. Fred leaves when Wesley agrees to return to the office. As the door closes, she can hear him crying on the other side. 

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In a flashback to Rome, 1771, Angelus flees through the sewers from a group of priests, but is eventually cornered and then Daniel Holtz arrives. He appreciates the priest's assistance in capturing and chaining Angelus, then begins to torture the vampire for his murderous crimes against Holtz's family. Holtz continues his torture as he carries on a conversation with Angelus about his family, Darla and their attempts to hide. Darla eventually arrives with more vampires who kill the priests, rescue Angelus and leave Holtz hurt, but alive, as they ride away hidden by a blanket on a cart. Darla gets off of a bus, leaving behind mostly dead passengers. Cordelia and Angel continue with their training and Cordelia has now begun to work on fighting without weapons. He says she can't hurt him, but Cordelia hits him in the face and clearly causes a little bit of pain. They talk about Wesley and Gunn, who are investigating a Nyazian scroll that could forecast the end of the world. Meanwhile,Wesley and Gunn enter a guarded building and find a room with countless artifacts and expensive items. An armed man catches them and threatens to call the police, but Wesley and Gunn threaten the artifacts and the man lets them get what they came for. Fred walks in on Cordelia and Angel's training session just as Cordelia ends the session. After Cordelia leaves, Fred mentions that she thinks there is some kind of physical attraction between Angel and Cordelia, which Angel quickly refutes. Just then, Wesley pulls Fred away from Angel to work on deciphering the scrolls. Fred's math skills are useful but she has some difficulty figuring out the proper date for the world's end. Wesley explains the text and the bringing of a "Tro-klon" being that will end mankind, and with Cordelia's help retells the results of their last scroll investigation for Fred's purpose. Angel, thinking about his earlier conversation with Fred, watches Cordelia as she works. When she asks him about his strange behavior, he starts awkwardly mentioning their history together. She gets freaked out at first, but then starts a chain of professing love between all of the gang, thinking Angel fears the world ending and wants to express his love to her and all of his friends. Angel uses her misinterpretation to get out of the awkward situation and the subject is dropped. Darla arrives at the hotel and shocks the whole gang with her very pregnant state. Darla accuses Angel of causing her pregnancy deliberately, but he's just as shocked as she is of them somehow being able to conceive in addition to being embarrassed and distressed by the whole situation. Both Darla and Angel want to find out what's inside of the former, in addition Darla wants to terminate her pregnancy while Angel initially denies of his forthcoming fatherhood; he ultimately become fearful of both it and his unborn child's nature. In need of answers, the gang find Lorne in the process of rebuilding the club and the Furies casting a new spell to prevent all violence in the club. After a brief, but unnecessary line of song from Darla, Lorne reveals that he's just as stumped as the rest of them about the creature inside of her. Darla starts to cry out in pain and is escorted back to Lorne's room where Cordelia, keeps her company. Angel still denies the possibility of Darla's pregnancy and questions the baby's connection to the prophecy. He doesn't know whether his purpose was supposed to bring forth the evil or destroy it. Cordelia talks to Darla about being pregnant. Cordelia brings up Darla's ability to drink blood, which leads to the vampire attacking Cordelia as she reveals her hunger is constant and uncontrollable. Cordelia fights back with a few hits, but Darla is stronger and bites her. A powerful vision hits Cordelia which allows her to push Darla away from her neck long enough for Angel to show up and intervene. Darla biting Cordelia has motivated him enough to kill his sire, but she's already gone. Cordy is taken to a safe place to rest where she blames herself for trusting Darla and tells Angel about her vision. She reveals how hungry Darla is and that she might be at an arcade with many children to feed from. Angel leaves her to get weapons and find Darla. Wesley is worried about Darla's new and improved strength that's a result of her unborn child, but Angel feels responsible and refuses help, and Fred understands that Angel do not wish to kill his offspring yet he hopelessly feels that he has no choice, due to likelihood that the child would be born as a vampire. Cordelia gets another vision about Darla's baby and goes to talk to Wesley and the rest of the gang about it. Angel stops Darla from killing a young boy and tries to stake her, but she stops him and taunts him. The two fight viciously and Angel ends up in a position to stake her, but he hesitates and later realizes the baby inside of Darla has both a heartbeat and a soul, which is what's driving her so crazy and making her so hungry for the pure blood of children. Darla denies the truth and Angel does everything he can to comfort her while having hope for his child. Back at the hotel, Darla has returned with Angel and rests in one of the bedrooms. She rejects the animal blood Angel offers her and tells Angel to leave her alone. Downstairs, research on the prophecy continues as Angel instructs the women to stay away from Darla unless he or Gunn are with them. Angel and Cordy discuss the baby and Angel's feelings towards it, and Angel begins to take responsibility for it as a father. Fred finally deciphers the text of the prophecy; she reveals that this being is arriving right then while unbeknownst to the gang, a demon is performing a ritual underground in front of a large stone. The ritual complete, the stone crumbles away, revealing a newly revived Holtz, eager to find Angelus. 

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Two teenage boys are growing up in a small Canadian town in the summer of 1955. While their parents go about with their own concerns, the two develop an interest in girls. One tries to impress his crush with his father’s cars. The other, seventeen-year-old Eric Hansen (Corey Haim), becomes enamored with an older woman newly arrived in town. 

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In York, England, 1764, Holtz pursues Angelus and Darla, following a trail they left for him. Meanwhile, Angelus and Darla make their way into the Holtzs' house and kill his wife and two children. Holtz arrives at his house, but the vampires are gone and his family is dead. In the present, Angel visits Darla as she sleeps in his room, dreading yet maintaining hope that their child is not evil. Holtz learns about the present day through numerous television screens which play out different historical events that Holtz has missed during his sleep. Sahjhan is the demon that brought Holtz back and has been keeping an eye on Angelus for the hunter for 227 years, ever since Holtz was first preserved. Angel and Darla reminisce about the night that got them into the whole parent mess in the first place. The rest of the gang interrupt with new information about the scrolls and prophecies. They have discovered that instead of the "tro-klon" being a person's arrival, it is instead interpreted as different events. The gang begin to discuss possible ways to destroy the baby, whether it be evil or not, but Angel wants his child protected and refuses to let anyone hurt it, before or after it is born. Cordelia is reluctant to protect Darla or the baby but is more willing after she gets her delayed revenge by punching Darla in the face. Almost immediately after though, Darla begins to feel the pain of contractions. Lilah signs a document in blood and offers it to a mailroom employee. The employee, Cyril, offers her a disk in exchange which contains pictures of Angel and Lilah making out in his office from when he was possessed. Cyril says that he is on her side willing to work against Gavin Park, who had bugs planted at the hotel by supposed exterminators. Lilah confronts Gavin about it and finds that Cyril was just playing her. Gavin has video cameras and audio transcripts from the daily activities at the hotel and just wanted to brag to Lilah about his accomplishments. Together, they look at some of the video and are both shocked to see a very pregnant Darla on the screen. Since it is impossible for a vampire to get pregnant, Lilah is quickly on the phone. Darla's contractions are still far apart, but the pain is the kind she doesn't like and she wants the baby out. The gang discusses doctor options and agree that need access to medical equipment that will allow them to see what is actually inside of the vampire. Lilah and Gavin talk with Linwood, whom Lilah has called to notify about Darla's development. They discuss how no one at Wolfram & Hart saw it coming and that the Senior Partners need to be kept in the dark. Meanwhile, a spying Cyril makes a call to a Master Tarfall and informs him that the predictions were correct and the word must be spread to the others. Nine years after losing his family, Holtz thinks back, but his thoughts are interrupted by the demon, Sahjhan. The first encounter between the two has Sahjhan knowing Holtz's future and predicting just when the hunter will face and destroy Angelus and Darla. Holtz is reluctant to believe the demon or accept his aid at first, but soon agrees to be brought two-hundred plus years into the future for his one opportunity to finally destroy the vampires who took away his family. Darla is brought to a hospital where the gang uses an empty examining room to ultrasound Darla's womb. Her contractions have stopped, perhaps temporarily, but she is no less eager to rid her body of the baby inside. Holtz is tired of waiting to take out Angel and Darla, but Sahjhan insists on his patience if Holtz is to succeed. Switching to a human appearance, Sahjhan leads the way out of the underground space as they are about to make a move with the aid of some others. At Wolfram and Hart, the psychics are questioned by Linwood and then killed because of their inability to predict Darla's pregnancy. The lawyers know that the baby of two vampires is the desired possession of many groups. Linwood informs Lilah that she will receive the blame in the case that the Senior Partners discover their mistake. Despite some confusion, the gang is able to identify Darla's baby as a human and a boy, which pleases Angel and he fully accepts his coming fatherhood, though Darla is preoccupied with her pain. A large group of vampires begin to line the room and fill the observation area above, but they are there to protect the baby, not hurt it. However, Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn and Fred are classified as food for Darla and her child and orders are given to kill them. Sahjhan brings Holtz to a gym where their "minions" await for Holtz's instruction. The lawyers at Wolfram and Hart plan their attack on the hotel to acquire the baby from Darla. Gavin works with a military leader on getting into the hotel and Lilah arranges for a special doctor who will do the actual delivery. When her own life is threatened Darla is forced to help in the fight that is about to erupt at the hospital between the vampires and the gang. Fred holds a knife to Darla's stomach which holds the vampires off temporarily, but Fred unintentionally informs the other vampires that the knife can't hurt the baby and the fight starts. The gang is able to escape unharmed despite the vampires and military men throughout the hospital. Darla tries to hide her true feelings, but Angel senses her human-like feelings towards her unborn child. The gang make plans for a quick stop at the hotel for the scrolls but intend to get out of town. Holtz attacks the military men guarding the hotel and proceeds inside where the doctor and others are waiting for Angel and Darla to return. Holtz disposes of the men and doctor, much to the surprise of Wolfram and Hart's lawyers who watch and listen to the battle with the surveillance equipment. Angel leaves Darla and his friends parked in an empty alley while he goes for the scrolls. He directs them to leave without him if he doesn't return in five minutes. He finds the hotel a mess and his old enemy, Holtz, waiting for him. Darla screams as her water has broken and she's gone into active labor, but Angel still hasn't returned. 

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At the Hyperion Hotel, Angel is shocked that Holtz is really in front of him, concluding Holtz was the darkness prophesied. Several of Holtz's minions take Angel captive, binding him by metal contraptions so that Holtz can torture him with holy water while discussing their long history together, with Angel trying to resolve their feuds. Holtz sends some of his minions to find Darla, who is screaming her way through her pre-labor while the gang worries about Angel and try to think of a plan to deliver the baby without the scrolls. In a flashback to 1764, after Angelus kills Holtz's family, Holtz mourns over his wife's body and hears the voice of his daughter as she approaches with her doll. He discovers from the bite mark on her neck that she was made into a vampire. She still seems to be an afraid little girl (however she is incapable to grieve over the deaths of her mother and brother due to the loss of her soul) and Holtz offers comforts and a lullaby to her, even though he knows his daughter is now dead. He pulls her outside the next day and throws her into the sunlight, where she shows her vampire face before she is destroyed. In the present, Holtz reminisces about his pursuit of Angelus and Darla through the years. Angel wants to know how Holtz is alive two hundred years later, and tries to persuade Holtz that he now has a soul, but Holtz is uninterested. Lilah arrives at the hotel with intentions to do business with Holtz, but she's willing to wait until Angel has been sufficiently tortured. She informs Holtz of Angel's soul, which Holtz finds intriguing and confusing. Angel locates a hand grenade left by the military men and removes the pin. The resulting explosion sends Angel flying through the elevator doors and giving him an escape. Holtz informs Lilah of his claim on Angel's unlife, and Lilah mentions Darla, unlike Angel, is still evil. After Holtz leaves, Lilah discovers a burnt piece of the scroll, which she takes. Meanwhile, Holtz's minions have arrived to threaten Darla and the others, until Darla runs over the demons with Angel's car then takes off. Angel leaves to find Darla while Lilah provides the piece of scroll and Wesley's notes to a translator at the law firm. After studying it, the translator informs Lilah that the prophecy does not predict birth, it predicts death at the time of the rain storm. Holtz discusses with Sahjhan how Angel's curse was wrongfully left out of the information Holtz was provided with. Sahjhan saw no importance in it, but Holtz explains that the game is different now as is the prey. Angel finds Darla on a rooftop; she ponders the world and the reasons for bringing a child into it. Without a doubt, Darla loves her unborn child, but only feels that love because of the soul within her child. She knows there's nothing she has to give to the child and fears what will happen when it has left her. Meanwhile, Lorne is testing the mystical "no violence" security system at the rebuilt demon bar Caritas by having Fred slap Gunn, proving that it still needs work. Wesley calls Angel to tell him that Caritas is a suitable location for Darla to deliver. As a storm brews, the expecting vampire parents arrive at the club. As Darla is taken back to Lorne's bedroom, Fred notices blood on the seat the female vampire vacates. A fired construction worker from Caritas reports to Holtz, recounting what he overheard at the bar. While Darla rests, Wesley tells Angel of the danger the baby is in and that Darla's dead body isn't meant to deliver the child; a Caesarean section is impossible due to the forces protecting Darla. Distraught that his son is dying, Angel doesn't want anything to happen to Darla or the child and doesn't want to accept that the child could be evil. Gunn offers some brutal honesty, which upsets Angel even more, but when Cordy tries to slap him for it, the violence barrier finally works. Angel tries to encourage Darla to keep fighting despite the weakening life force within her. Holtz arrives at the bar and starts to sing as he leaves which alerts Lorne to the future danger and he encourages everyone to get out, fast. A barrel of explosives and a grenade roll down the stairs entering the club and send the place up in flames. With the spell having no effect on explosives that didn't start inside of the club, the gang run downstairs and escapes through a passage hidden in Lorne's bedroom. Darla is finally told about Holtz's return and recalls all she and Angelus did to hurt the man. She suspects that Holtz was probably brought back for revenge, and both Darla and Angel, as parents whose child is dying, realize the irony. Outside, Darla collapses in the alleyway. Admitting that creating life with Angel was the only good thing they ever did together, Darla makes sure Angel will relay that to their child before she stakes herself through the heart, sacrificing her life for the baby. Darla turns to dust, but the baby remains, leaving Angel in shock over Darla's sacrifice before his fascination with his son's birth. Angel picks their child up, wrapping him in his coat. Immediately after his son is brought into the world, Holtz is there with a crossbow pointed at Angel and others surround the vampire and Fred. After seeing Angel's love for his newborn son, Holtz chooses to let them go, and Sahjhan is appalled until Holtz states that he intends to keep his promise of showing no mercy towards Angel. 

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Wesley researches a demon from one of Cordelia's visions while Cordelia questions Wesley about his romantic feelings towards Fred. After Gunn and Fred return from breakfast, Angel announces he is taking them all to a ballet production of Giselle, by the same company he witnessed perform in 1890. At the theater, the company's owner, Count Kurskov, promises the theater manager an unforgettable show while a shadowed figure watches from above the stage and laughs. In preparation for their glamorous night at the ballet, Fred and Cordelia shop for new dresses, which they intend to return after wearing them for the night. Subtly, Cordelia broaches the subject of Fred's romantic interests, but Cordelia thinks Fred's mind is on Wesley, when it's really on Gunn. Compliments are directed to everyone as their attire is revealed at the hotel, and they depart together. At the theater, Cordelia is literally bored to sleep while the others enjoy the show. Angel finds the dancers familiar since he saw the same people perform the first time he saw the show. During intermission, Angel tells his friends about his revelation. He and Cordelia sneak backstage to investigate, where they discover they are mystically trapped in a maze of corridors. Looking through the prima ballerina's dressing room, Angel observes that the dressing room hasn't changed in two hundred years as Cordelia examines a cross necklace from a table. Both feel the room warm, and Cordelia suddenly asks Angel to undress her. Soon they find themselves possessed by spirits in love and are unable to keep their hands off each other, until Cordelia accidentally burns Angel with the cross. Both come to their senses and leave the dressing room before things go too far. Worried, Fred encourages the guys to help her look for the missing Angel and Cordelia. The Count directs his demon minions to deal with those sneaking around backstage. While trying to escape the backstage halls, Cordelia recalls an element of fear she felt while possessed. She convinces Angel to reenter the dressing room so that they can break the spell holding them backstage, where they are possessed by the spirits again with wild passion for each other. Cordelia calls Angel "Stefan" and confesses her fears of another man who is controlling her life. They kiss, and "Stefan" offers to take her away, but she wants him to help her deal with the problem instead. As Fred tends to a wound Gunn received in the battle with the Count's minions, he jokes about his injury, and Fred gets emotional because she thought he was seriously hurt. The two kiss as Wesley quietly discovers them and walks away sadly. The ballet continues on stage as the gang gathers backstage. Wesley explains that the Count was a wizard who discovered the prima ballerina whom he adored had a lover. To repay her for her betrayal, the count forced her into a temporal shift where she would dance for only him, forever. As Angel searches for the Count's power center, he finds the prima ballerina waiting in the wings, resigned to perform the same dance for the rest of eternity. Angel tells her to break the magic holding her prisoner, she has to change the dance. She dances on stage using her own steps. Angel attacks the Count and, guessing the power center is in a medallion the count wears, smashes it with a powerful punch, finally releasing the ballet dancers. Wesley dresses Gunn's injury and watches on in emotional agony as Fred and Gunn exchange loving looks. Angel and Cordelia agree that they are embarrassed about what happened between them while they were possessed. As Angel is about to declare his feelings for Cordelia, the Groosalugg from Pylea appears on the stairs, drawing Cordelia's attention. Groo and Cordelia kiss as Lorne comes downstairs to inform Angel that Pylea has formed a republic; with no need for a monarch, Groo returned for his true love, Cordelia. Angel goes upstairs to check on Connor while Fred and Wesley watch on. Wesley realizes the path of love is not something that can be foretold. 

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At her apartment, Cordelia changes into something comfortable while Groo explains how he was dethroned in Pylea. They kiss, but after Cordelia sees a demon in Groo's place as a vision painlessly hits her, she's no longer in the mood. The next morning, Angel carries Connor around and talks with Wesley about investigating prophecies about Connor. Cordelia arrives with Groo in tow. She informs them about the demon from her vision and that it will be surfacing later that day. When the topic returns to Cordelia's lack of a sex life, she tells her friends about her worry of losing her visions to Groo if they did actually have sex. Meanwhile, Gunn and Fred have breakfast together and talk. As they lean in for a kiss, their beepers go off with calls from Wesley. While a picture of the demon, a Senih'd, is passed around, Wesley explains the plan. As Groo raises the subject of Cordelia's obvious sadness, Angel explains Cordelia's fear of losing something if she gets too close to Groo. Following a trail of blood, the two demon hunters find the demon and battle with it. The Senih'd breaks through a wall into the daylight, and only Groo can follow to destroy it. Cordelia and the others arrive just in time to congratulate him. While Groo recounts his battle to the others, Angel talks with a Ms. Frakes about investigating a witch who is supposedly seducing her fiancé. Wesley assigns the job to Gunn, but Fred tags along too, much to Wesley's dismay. Wesley and Angel go to a bookstore for a supposedly rare text of commentaries on the scrolls about Connor. Back at the office, Groo agrees to let Cordelia give him a complete makeover, thinking that it will make her love him more. She explains that she already has strong feelings for him, and he then understands Cordelia is concerned about losing her visions. Jerry, the fiancé, is tailed by Gunn and Fred who videotape the man as he waits beside a large tree. The two start kissing and distractedly miss the moment when Jerry disappears. Cordelia asks Angel for the favor of escorting Groo to a demon brothel where a magic potion is held which will allow her to have sex with Groo without losing her visions. Gunn and Fred refer to the videotape for evidence of Jerry's disappearance and watch him get sucked into the ground by the tree's roots a few seconds before they're sucked down as well. At the brothel, Angel and Groo follow Anita past tempting sights into a room where cash is exchanged for the potion. When Anita questions Angel's presence there, he gets a phone call from Gunn and Fred who are bound by tree roots underground. They explain that it is a living flesh tree with an internet connection which lures victims in order to suck the life out of them. Naturally, they avoid contacting Wesley and instead request the Groosalugg. Before reaching the underground spot where Gunn and Fred are held, Groo has Angel keep the potion safe and then rushes into battle, despite Angel's suggestions. The tree quickly sticks one of its fleshy roots deep into Groo's chest. The tree gets stronger as it feeds on Groo, so Angel questions the tree as he pounds Groo into unconsciousness. The tree impales Angel instead, and suddenly the tree begins to die as it feeds off of Angel's dead heart. The others break free, and Gunn finishes the tree demon off. Later that night, Wesley talks with Ms. Frakes on the phone, confirming that Jerry survived. Fred goes to get cleaned up while Gunn stays to talk with Wesley. Wesley expresses his concern for Fred and her feelings and although it takes a few moments, Gunn realizes the real reason for Wesley's worry. Cordelia tends to Groo's wounds, and Groo confesses his reckless behavior earlier that evening, but Cordy is only turned on more by his honesty. Eager for sex, Cordelia is about to rush out, when Angel stops her. He insists that she accept some money he has saved up so that she can take a sunny vacation with Groo. Lorne lays Connor down for bed and as soon as Angel arrives, leaves him to be alone with his son. Angel carries Connor downstairs and finds Wesley working in the office. As the two leave, Wesley looks down on his notepad where he has translated, "The Father will kill The Son." 

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Gunn and Fred arrive at the office to find Wesley asleep at his desk and wake him as they try to touch the papers he's been working with. Angel cheerfully comments about teaching Connor to die before he vamps and leans in to bite his son while the others watch on. Wesley sees his hands coated with blood against the book, and then he wakes up. Angel and Wesley take Connor to the doctor and while in the waiting room, Angel offers advice to some of the mothers waiting there. During the examination, the doctor informs Angel that his son is healthy and blood tests should be returned within the week to confirm nothing is wrong. After the room is cleared, one of the women from the waiting room enters and exchanges Connor's blood sample with a fake before a nurse discovers her. At the hotel, Angel unpacks a box of miniature hockey equipment and a personalized jersey for Connor. With Cordelia away, business is slow. Angel and Gunn play hockey together until Angel breaks a window with the puck. A woman in need of help, Aubrey, comes to Angel Investigations about her son who had run away and been turned into a vampire. Aubrey returns to Holtz, Justine and others, reporting back on the members of the Angel Investigations team. Human members of Holtz's team practice fighting vampires that are chained up in the hideaway. Sahjhan appears and questions the progress of Holtz's efforts to kill Angel. Holtz, however, refuses to speed up his timetable and isn't remotely concerned by Sahjhan's threats because he is immaterial and Holtz happens to be in possession of a special urn that can contain his essence. Sahjhan isn't happy, but leaves. Wesley talks on the phone with a wizard and directs him to do his job for the money he was paid. Fred shows up and suggests that Wesley hook up with Aubrey, but Wesley brushes it off and says the job is their purpose, not dating. Lilah talks with her sick mother on the phone until, Sahjhan shows up at Wolfram & Hart in Lilah's office. She is not shocked to see him, and she knows quite a bit about him already, right down to his need for the law firm's help in destroying Angel. Lilah states that she won't go against firm policy which is to keep Angel alive, but she writes on a piece of paper that he has her support. Sahjhan explains that he needs Connor's blood, and Lilah surprises him by explaining that it's already possessed by the firm since they stole it from the hospital where Connor was cared for. At a carnival on the pier, Fred tries to concentrate on work while Gunn is more interested in playing around and spending time with her. Wesley's knowledge of their relationship is discussed, and Gunn finds out that Wesley said something to Fred that led her to question the appropriateness of their relationship. Upset by that, he stresses that he won't let Wesley impede his efforts at a good personal and working relationship with Fred. Wesley drops in to check on the two of them. The vampire drinks from a glass of blood while his attention is divided between his son and his friend. Looking troubled, Wesley leaves for a little while. Back at the carnival, Fred spots a man breaking into a building and Gunn leads the way to follow him. Inside the building is a carousel, which turns on and as Gunn prepares for battle, he and Fred suddenly find themselves completely surrounded by vampires. Holtz's protégé, Justine, films the events with a man at her side. Fred runs away at Gunn's insistence and he takes all of the vampires on alone. Justine and the man watch, commenting on Gunn's chance at survival. Gunn holds his own for a short while before he's grabbed by a vampire and Fred returns in time to stake the vampire and save Gunn. As Justine and her friend depart, Gunn and Fred appreciate that they're both alive. Wesley follows a GPS unit to a precise location where he finds a hamburger-shaped speaker outside of a fast-food restaurant. He performs a ritual, calling on Alegba, and the plastic cartoonish hamburger comes to life. The Loa, as Wesley calls it, confirms his suspicion that Angel will "devour" his son and informs him that the prophecy cannot be stopped. It predicts a future of betrayal and agony for Wesley. The Loa finally reveals that when the earth shakes, the air burns and the sky turns to blood, the prophecy will come true. Lilah meets Sahjhan at a bar and ignores Sahjhan's attempts at small talk, informing him that arrangements have been made to deal with their Angel problem. Aubrey returns to the office and thanks Wesley for his help in destroying the monsters. Wesley is thrown by her identification of "monsters" and accepts her check in return for their services. She tries to come onto him and Wesley calls her on her attempt to play him. Angel appears behind her and makes it clear that he knows who she's working for and that no one will be harming Connor. As she runs away, a small earthquake shakes the ground and Wesley realizes that the first portent has come true. Holtz directs the humans to study the video of Fred and Gunn by the carousel. Aubrey returns, but much to her surprise, Wesley has followed her. Wesley explains that he is there in peace and tries to persuade Holtz that Angel is not the same vampire as Angelus. Holtz knows too much pain at Angelus's hands to care about the difference; he also knows why Wesley is there and suggests he prepare for what he'll feel when Connor is killed. Gunn and Fred have their regular meal together and talk about how right their relationship really is. He is worried that they can't do so many things at once and is worried about the consequences if things don't work out. She wonders what his decision would be if he had to choose between her and work, and he admits to choosing her. Wesley finds Angel with Connor in his room, preparing a meal for his child. They talk about Aubrey and her reasons for joining with Holtz and Angel's unconditional love for Connor. Wesley realizes that Angel would never harm his son, and finally feeling released from the prophecy, begins to laugh at the oddity that is life, and then a powerful earthquake begins to shake all of Los Angeles. The room goes up in flames as the gas stove explodes and beams come down from the ceiling. Angel rescues Connor and gets all three of them out of the room. A large cut on his forehead drips blood onto Connor's blanket, which is patterned with a blue sky and clouds. As the third of the portents comes true, Angel smiles and comments that if they had been trapped in there, he would have had a snack. Wesley, who a few seconds ago had dismissed the prophecy, is left more paranoid than ever. 

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Wesley has been studying the prophecies regarding Angel and Connor, and his findings over the last few days have left him more convinced than ever that Angel will indeed kill his son. Angel enters Wesley's office, strangely cheerful. Angel pours himself a glass of pig's blood, and the two of them watch Lorne listen to a female client sing. Wesley suggests that he could take Connor out for a day to play. Lorne asks the gang to watch the woman sing; as she does, her face suddenly twists and becomes a horrific demon face, before reverting to human form. The singing woman, Kim, talks about the odd behavior and appearance of a band she'd been playing with. Angel continues to drink blood and draws attention with his unusual behavior. Fred and Wesley discover Kim has just been infected by a demon and that a mystical medication can cure it. Kim tells the others about the demons and where they can be found and killed. Angel is enthusiastic about the fight and Wesley sends a group out while he pursues business of his own. Justine teaches Holtz's minions how to kill vampires. She expresses worry to Holtz about killing the humans associated with Angel but eventually comes to believe that they deserve to die. Wesley again appears at Holtz's lair to talk about Connor. Angel, Gunn and Fred find and kill the demonic band, and Angel fights with surprising and atypical ferocity. Wesley talks with Holtz about ending the fight before it really begins. Holtz gives Wesley one day to deal with the problem of Angel killing Connor before Holtz gets involved. Angel and the others return to the hotel and Angel starts chugging blood and shouting about how annoying Connor is. As he throws a glass of blood against the wall, the rest of the gang go into defense mode and Angel realizes something's very wrong with him. Lorne notices Angel's obsession with the blood and suggests that the blood has been spiked. Wesley walks the streets until he finds that Justine has been following him. Wesley lectures her about the difference between Holtz and Angel. As Wesley leaves, Holtz shows up behind Justine, surprising her. Fred studies the pig's blood under a microscope, but Angel already knows that the blood's been spiked with Connor's own blood, giving Angel a desire for more. Angel finds Lilah at the bar. Sahjhan appears, and although Angel doesn't recognize him from his past, Angel figures out that Sahjhan brought Holtz back. Sahjhan's upset that Angel doesn't remember him and promises retribution before disappearing. Wesley packs Connor's bag as he prepares to take Connor. Lorne watches, concerned that Angel never mentioned anything about Wesley taking Connor for the night, but he brushes it off. As Wesley begins to hum a lullaby to Connor, Lorne reads Wesley's intentions and realizes the man is going to take the child. Wesley reacts immediately and chases Lorne into the office, knocking him unconscious. Angel returns to find Wesley and agrees to let Wesley take Connor for the night so they can go to the park in the morning. Angel wonders where Lorne is, but Wesley explains that he went out for a little while. Angel says his goodbyes to Connor and asks Wesley to investigate Sahjhan. Offering to do research at his own place, Wesley takes Connor and leaves the Hyperion on foot. Gunn and Fred offer to keep Angel company through the night without Connor, when the three of them hear moaning coming from Wesley's office. Holtz and several of his men show up armed at the hotel. Holtz wants to know where Connor is, but since he's not there, Holtz directs his men to attack but keep Angel alive. As the battle ensues, Lorne wakes up and uses a high-pitched note to debilitate some of the attackers. Holtz and some of his men retreat, and Lorne reveals that Wesley has been seeing Holtz and has kidnapped Connor. Wesley packs up his car and begins to leave with Connor, but a badly beaten Justine stumbles upon him and explains that Holtz turned his back on her. When Justine gets close enough, she slits Wesley's throat with a knife and takes Connor, driving away in Wesley's car. Angry because of his lost son and Wesley's betrayal, Angel lets loose on his co-workers, attacking Gunn. Fred breaks up the confrontation and suggests they focus on the real problem: Connor. Angel threatens some of Holtz's wounded minions until one of them reveals the location of Holtz's lair. Lilah talks with some military types and then goes with them to Holtz's expected location. Angel takes out a couple of them and steals a truck so he can follow them. Holtz gets into the car with Justine and identifies himself and Justine to Connor as the baby's new parents. Lilah's group, Angel, and Holtz all arrive at the bridge at the same time and Sahjhan appears soon after. Lilah explains that she wants the baby alive despite her deal with Sahjhan. Angel tells Holtz to take Connor so that Connor will live. Sahjhan opens a dimensional rift to Quor'Toth — a very dark dimension — and explains that either the child dies or everyone is sucked into the portal. In the interest of survival, Holtz runs with Connor into the rift. Angel tries to follow, but he's thrown back and the rift is mended. The others leave, and a devastated Angel is left lying on the ground, crying for his lost son. 

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Shortly after Daniel Holtz's abduction of baby Connor to the Hell dimension of Quor'Toth, Fred, Gunn and Lorne try to sort out why Wesley betrayed them and how to get Connor back. Angel is not interested in sympathy or pity, however, and is already mentally unbalanced and vengeful due to his loss. When it proves impossible to open a portal to Quor'Toth, he abducts Linwood, a lawyer with Wolfram & Hart, to force him to tell where Sahjhan is and how to open a dimensional rift to Quor'Toth. In an attempt to open a rift, Angel and Lilah use dark magic; this opens a tear in the fabric of reality. Sahjhan is revealed to have been a demon knight who had been made non- corporeal by an ancient curse hundreds of years ago, and who is now able to wander through time at will. When Sahjhan uncovered a prophecy that he would be killed by ‘the one sired by a vampire with a soul’ he brought vampire hunter and Angel's old nemesis Daniel Holtz to the 21st century to kill Angel, Darla and the baby. However, Holtz did not follow Sahjhan's plan, so Sahjhan, using his time-shifting abilities, altered the prophecy to trick Wesley into believing that Angel would kill Connor. In the final confrontation, Angel makes Sahjhan corporeal once again to fight him, but discovers that he is more physically powerful than any of them had anticipated. Justine ends up trapping him in a special urn that Holtz had obtained previously. Wesley is later found and taken to a hospital. Angel pays him a visit, saying he would never kill his own son. He tells Wesley it's important that he knows it's not Angelus talking, but Angel. When Wesley nods, Angel simply says "good" then suddenly grabs a pillow and tries to smother Wesley with it. Filled with fury and rage, Angel screams that he will never forgive his former friend, and that he'll kill him for stealing his son. An alarm is tripped, and Angel is dragged away by Gunn and some orderlies. As he is pulled away, Angel maniacally screams death threats at Wesley, screaming:"You're a dead man, Pryce! You're dead! Dead!" 

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As Angel tries to deal with the loss of his son while cleaning up the earthquake damage upstairs, a potential Angel Investigations client is infected by a transparent slug-like parasite in the hotel lobby. He goes to the juice bar across the street, where he chugs glass after glass of juice, saying, "We are thirsty." When Lorne informs him of the disturbance at the juice bar, Angel brings the infected man back to the hotel, where he collapses into a pile of human dust. When a slug-creature exits from the dust, the gang realizes the man was actually a parasitic host. The hotel is locked up tight and Angel sends everyone out with weapons to hunt for the slug. As they search, they realize that the hotel is teeming with the parasites, which suck their human hosts dry. Angel suspects that the infestation is a result of "thaumogenesis", a price for the dark magics that Angel conjured to try to find his son. Meanwhile, at Wolfram & Hart, Lilah and Gavin once again quarrel with each other over their handling of Angel. Lilah and Gavin receive a top-secret e-mail about the consequences of Angel's dark magic at the hotel, which Lilah may also have to deal with since she was involved in the spell. She plans to rid the hotel of the slugs, until Gavin relays the message that Linwood wants Angel and the others to die for the torment he was put through. After learning the creatures glow in the dark, Angel shuts off all of the lights in the hotel and tracks the slugs by sound to a large ballroom. Researching by the light of a lantern, Fred is attacked by one of the slugs, which slithers into her mouth. Realizing Fred has been infected, Gunn brings her to the rest of the gang in the abandoned ballroom, saying they need to get her to a hospital; Angel stands in the way, determined to keep more innocents from dying. Groosalugg, hearing the slugs under the floor, breaks through the wood with an ax. Below, there is a hidden swimming pool, filled with the glowing slugs. They begin chasing after the gang. Everyone retreats to a kitchen and barricade themselves there, except for Gunn, who slips out to ask Wesley for help. Wesley is very bitter about his exile from the group and refuses until Gunn reveals that Fred has been infected. He tosses Gunn a bottle of alcohol and tells him he'll help this time, but he never wants to see any of his former friends again. Angel takes the water away from Fred until the slug confesses that a vicious killer called The Destroyer has chased the slugs into this dimension in search of Angel. They try to press Fred for more information, but her condition worsens. Gunn shows up and directs Groo and Lorne to hold Fred down while they force her to drink alcohol. As it dehydrates her, she coughs up the slug and Groo stabs it with a sword. Meanwhile, the slugs close in on Cordelia and Angel in the kitchen. Cordelia suddenly begins to glow a bright white, illuminating the entire hotel. This kills all the slugs and leaves everyone stunned by her new power. Lorne reminds the gang of the coming of "the Destroyer" and, almost immediately, lights flash and a big nasty demon appears, followed shortly by a young man who quickly slays the demon. He smiles and points a weapon at Angel, saying, "Hi Dad." 

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Connor fires stakes at Angel, but Angel dodges them. Everyone takes on a defensive position, and a fight breaks out between Angel, the Groosalugg, Gunn and Connor. Angel tries to reason with his son and end the violence, but Connor simply knocks Gunn and Groo out of the way and continues to fight with Angel. Focused on the fight, Angel gets the upper hand on Connor, but before he can do anything harmful to Connor, Angel stops himself. Connor takes the opportunity to run, and Angel tries to follow, but the daylight and his friends stop him. On the streets, Connor saves a drug addict named Sunny from her dealer. They find a place to stay, where Sunny and Connor share a kiss. Connor wakes up in the middle of the night to find that Sunny has overdosed in the bathroom. Angel finds Connor and tries to explain why he couldn't save him, but Connor punches Angel and calls Holtz his father. An officer enters the room and aims for Connor, but Angel takes the shot in his back. Connor pauses in his escape out of a window as Angel struggles to get up, and finally the two escape together. While hiding from the police on the streets, Angel tells Connor he has somewhere to go if he needs it, and he will always be there whenever Connor needs him. Connor knows he's not alone: he runs off down an alleyway where he greets a much older Holtz - the only father he has ever known. 

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The gang starts to plan a search for Angel, but it's unnecessary as he returns to the hotel. He informs them that he found Connor and they talked, but Angel's battle wounds tell a much more violent tale to his friends. He adds that Connor wants to be known as Steven and that he has an open invitation to come back. They worry about something other than Connor escaping from the portal before it was closed. Meanwhile, Connor gets a room at a motel for Holtz and himself. Angel shows up in time to stake the vampire Connor followed and reminds his son that vampires are capable of being very quiet. Connor shows up at the hotel and Lorne tries to escort him to Angel, but Connor refuses to go anywhere with a demon. Lorne has a hard time controlling himself when Connor insults him but Cordelia shows up in time to break it up. She sits Connor down and tries to explain that some demons are good, but when she confesses to being part-demon herself, Connor jumps on her and raises a knife threateningly. In response, Cordelia starts to glow white, enveloping Connor with the glow as well. The blade of his weapon dissolves and she comforts him as he suddenly breaks down into tears. Later, she reveals that she released the darkness and Quor-Toth from Connor. While Connor runs to the motel, Angel parks his car and reads Holtz's words. The letter explains Holtz's need to let go of Connor because it is the best thing to do and Connor will hopefully appreciate it later in life. In the parking lot outside the hotel, Justine begs Holtz to change his mind, but he insists she go through with what he wants. She uses an ice pick to stab him twice in the neck and he dies with his final word, "Steven." Connor finally reaches the motel, but instead of finding Holtz in the room, he finds him lying dead in Justine's lap, two puncture marks in his neck. With great confidence, Connor assumes, "Angelus." 

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After the events of the last episode, Connor has come to live with Angel. Angel is happy in his newfound relationship with his son, but Connor is secretly waiting for revenge, mistakenly believing Angel killed Holtz - just as Holtz had planned as his final revenge on Angel. They train together at the hotel before going to a drive-in movie, where the pair fight off an armed hit group, sent by Linwood and Gavi] at Wolfram & Hart to abduct Connor. Meanwhile, Lilah continues to try to recruit Wesley by manipulation and seduction, and shows him that he is now very much like her: a human without a soul. The Groosalugg awaits Cordelia as she arrives to her apartment. He tells her he is leaving town because he knows that Angel is her priority. He tells her he will never be the man she loves, and she needs to go be with Angel. As they are having this conversation, Lorne and Angel are having a mirror conversation, where Lorne tells Angel Cordelia feels the same way about him as he does her. The scene cuts back to Cordelia, confused by what the Groosalugg has told her. She experiences a vision of herself, saying "I'm in love!" to which present day Cordelia questions "With Angel?" to which vision Cordelia replies "With Angel!" After the vision ends, Cordelia calls Angel to arrange a meeting at the beach "to talk about us". Angel tells Connor he has to leave so that he can meet Cordelia, and Connor gives him his loving approval to be with her. As Cordelia is fighting traffic to meet Angel, everything freezes. She gets out of the car and is confronted by the demon guide, Skip, who tells her that as a higher being, it’s now time for her to leave Earth’s plane of existence and move on to another. In this scene we see the conversation from her earlier vision take place, as she declares her love for Angel to Skip. As she is having this conversation, Connor confronts Angel at the beach and they fight. Connor mocks Angel by saying the same thing Angel said when they sparred earlier in the season. Connor knocks out Angel using a stun gun. He flashes his flash light into the ocean and then a boat, commanded by Justine, flashes back. As we're shown Cordelia ascending, a vengeful Connor and Justine seal Angel in a metal coffin and throw it off a boat to sink down to the ocean floor. 

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In Wisconsin, 1985, a young girl named Gwen is dropped off at Thorpe Academy by her parents. Tightly wrapped up in thick clothes Gwen is discouraged from touching and finds it difficult to fit in with the other children. When a young boy approaches her at recess and offers her a toy car, she makes the mistake of touching him and shocking the boy with a fatal bolt of electricity. At Cordelia's apartment, Fred packs up Cordy's things because they can't afford to keep paying the rent. As Wesley and his gang fights off two large demons, Angel arrives and tries to thank Wesley for rescuing him, and to recant his promise never to forgive him for stealing Connor. Wesley however isn't interested in Angel's apologies. Wesley thinks Cordy is still alive, but in another dimension. Gwen, now a young woman, waltzes into a restaurant dressed in red leather, drawing the attention of all the men. She meets a businessman named Elliot, who wants Gwen to steal the Axis for his personal collection. Fred gives a presentation that explains the Axis of Pythia allows the user to see any person in the countless dimensions; her drawings are overshadowed by Angel's artistic abilities. They learn the Axis is located at an auction house with extensive security and gather the equipment they'll need while elsewhere, Gwen gets ready to steal the Axis herself. Lilah and Wesley share some small talk about work while they romp around his apartment together. Gwen expertly makes her way into the building where the Axis is held but only a short distance behind her, Angel, Gunn and Fred break into the building as well. Angel checks out the vault, but laser beams block his entrance and then a gate is dropped, completely blocking his path. Gwen drops down from the ceiling and manipulates the beams out of her way. While Angel questions who she is and her intentions, she steals the Axis and prepares to leave. Gunn shows up to help Angel while Fred triggers an alarm that encourages Gwen's fast retreat. Once the gate has been lifted out of the way, Gunn tries to grab Gwen before she gets away and instead is struck with a fatal blow by Gwen. Guilt-ridden at the thought of killing yet another innocent person, Gwen knocks Angel and a grieving Fred out of the way and shock-starts Gunn's heart. Later, Angel runs into Lilah while looking over Connor, who's now living outdoors with a bunch of homeless people. Angel threatens her into telling him which Wolfram & Hart client is buying the Axis of Pythia from Gwen. Gunn rests up in bed while Fred releases her feelings about the overwhelming elements of her life - Gunn's brief death and her constant responsibilities in the gang - as she yells at Gunn and finally breaks down into tears. Angel finds Gwen on the way to deliver the Axis and the two fight. Gwen repeatedly tries to shock Angel to death, which causes his heart to beat for a moment and the two kiss. Both are surprised by the sudden life to Angel's heart and then bars cover the elevator doorway and Elliot shows up. He explains that because of her terrible theft job, she has to be killed. He had the elevator changed so that Gwen could have no access to an electrical charge that would allow her to escape when the elevator is filled with gas. Once the door closes, Gwen struggles not to inhale while Angel punches a hole through a thick plastic wall until Gwen can reach the wires and the two are able to escape. Angel fights with Elliot's lackeys while Gwen focuses her attention on Elliot. Angel stops her from killing him and then she lets him have the Axis. Back at the hotel, one of the rooms glows a bright gold while Gunn and Fred wait impatiently outside the closed door. Angel exits the room, leaving a still slightly glowing Axis behind him. The three sit around the lobby and talk about what Angel saw and try to deal with her new role. Meanwhile, high up in the heavens, Cordelia watches over the three and shouts at them to free her from her "higher" life. 

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As Angel watches Connor stake a vampire, Cordelia shouts he should focus on rescuing her from her boring life as a higher power. When Fred and Gunn confront Angel on the issues of Connor, Angel realizes he has made life difficult for his friends, and he takes them on a trip to Las Vegas. They arrive at the Tropicana Casino, where Lorne headlines, complete with scantily clad back-up singers known as the Lornettes. Lorne entices audience members to sing along and ignores Angel and the others. As Lorne rests in his private suite, he receives a visit from his employer and casino owner, Lee DeMarco. Lorne is forced to identify the futures of the people who sang in the audience. Gunn and Fred play Blackjack while Angel worries about Lorne. One of the Lornettes offers one of the singing audience members from Lorne's show, Vivian, a special chip to play in a Spin to Win game. Fred continues to worry about Angel and Lorne; they investigate Lorne's situation to help ease Fred's mind. To get past the guards at Lorne's door, Gunn has Fred dress as one of the Lornettes. Lorne takes a minute to recognize her but he is grateful to see her. He informs her Lee DeMarco is blackmailing him for his psychic abilities. Vivian walks in a trance-like state across the casino's driveway and is nearly run over by a taxi, but Angel rescues her. He sneaks into the special Spin to Win game area. Lee hands him a chip, which Angel tosses away, but it slides onto the table; when the house wins, Angel loses his destiny. Fred runs from Lorne's room and hysterically convinces the guards outside to enter the room. Lorne escapes, and the three run out into the casino to find Angel. He is playing slot machines in a zombie-like state and ask him to pose a distraction while they rescue Lorne. Angel is too entranced with his gambling to comprehend the plan. DeMarco is pleased when he receives information that Angel is a souled vampire, realizing Angel's destiny will be profitable. Lorne confesses he tells Lee about the people with bright futures so that they can be lured into the Spin and Win game. Their destinies are sucked into the chip they play and later sold on the black market. Guards spot them; to pose a distraction, Lorne sings a high-pitch noise into a microphone. After they escape, Gunn angrily assumes that Lorne told Lee about Angel. Lorne corrects him by revealing that he is being blackmailed, and if he refuses to cooperate, people will be killed. When Gunn realizes that Angel's destiny has been taken away, he returns to the casino and finds Angel at one of the slot machines. As Spencer arrives with Lorne and Fred held in the custody of his security guards, Angel resumes gambling. The rest of the group is brought into the back room, where Lee orders Fred and Gunn killed and Lorne to return to his work. Meanwhile, Cordelia manipulates Angel's slot machine to win a jackpot so he can be brought into the back room with the others. Lee is angered someone won, but Angel has no explanation. When one of the men pulls a gun on Fred, it brings out the demon in Angel. He beats up Lee's men, and during the distraction Lorne smashes the glass ball holding the chips, causing all of the destinies to return to their rightful bodies. Back in L.A., the gang is glad to be home, although Angel questions what caused his jackpot. As they head inside the hotel, they freeze when they see Cordelia standing in the middle of the lobby; she does not recognize them. 

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Fred's article on superstring theory is published in an academic journal, and she is asked to present it at a physics symposium by her old college professor Seidel. Her presentation is interrupted when a dimensional portal opens and snake-like creatures emerge to kill her. Angel had spied Lilah during the speech and at first thinks she is behind it, but she was simply keeping an eye on Wesley. Gunn and Angel suspect another member of the audience, a comic book fanatic who seemed to be expecting the portal's appearance, but it turns out he's just following stories of strange disappearances and reading about Angel on internet forums. Fred learns that Professor Seidel is the one responsible and that he was the one who sent Fred into the Pylea dimension six years earlier. He felt Fred and other missing colleagues were competing for his job. Against Angel and Gunn's advice, Fred pursues vengeance against her former mentor. She asks for Wesley's help. When she is almost sucked into a portal opened by a text message from Seidel, Wesley agrees to help. Meanwhile, Cordelia is staying with Connor at his vast empty loft. He trains her to slay vampires while romance blossoms. Angel confronts Seidel (largely to protect him from Fred's vengeance), but Seidel releases a demon from a portal to attack Angel. Seidel tries to escape, but he encounters Fred. She opens her own portal, intending to send him to a hell dimension as punishment. As he is being sucked in, Gunn arrives. When he is unable to convince Fred to close the portal, Gunn snaps Seidel's neck and throws him into the portal. Fred and Gunn lie to Angel that Seidel fell victim to his own portal meant for Fred. Connor arrives at the Hyperion Hotel to pick up Cordelia's things because they have decided to live together. Connor and Cordelia battle a common vampire. Elated when she stakes it, Cordelia impulsively kisses Connor. Connor embraces her, but Cordelia is uncomfortable and pulls away. She explains that she still doesn't know who she is or where she belongs. Connor angrily realizes that she's going back to Angel. Cordelia arrives at the hotel to talk to Angel. She tells him that she is the same person she was before her amnesia, and that person doesn't need protecting. After Angel promises not to lie to her anymore, she asks him if they were in love. 

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After his rendition of "The Way We Were", Lorne addresses an unseen lounge audience. In an attempt to restore Cordelia's memory, Lorne obtains a bottle containing a memory-restoration spell, which Cordelia is eager to try. Wesley arrives, having been asked to help with the spell, and has an awkward meeting with Fred. She vaguely informs him that her mission was completed, as Gunn realizes that Wesley helped Fred try to kill her professor. When he confronts Wesley, he also threatens Wes to not pursue Fred, but Wes tries to dismiss the issue. Gunn asks what happened to Wesley. He reminds Gunn that "I had my throat cut and all my friends abandoned me." The gang hold hands in a circle around the bottle as it starts to spin. The spell disorients everyone; Lorne passes out and the others stumble about the lobby as if very high. Cordelia accidentally smashes the bottle with her boot. All present are mentally regressed to the age of 17: Cordelia when she was the most popular girl at Sunnydale High, Wesley believes he is still a student at the Watcher's Academy, Gunn is once again a rebellious street kid, Fred is transformed into a younger and insecure girl who likes marijuana; and Angel has reverted to his teenaged pre-vampire self — an Irishman named Liam (he was not sired until age 26). While Liam wonders what happened to his Irish accent, Gunn and Wesley butt heads on plans. When Wesley tries to demonstrate his toughness with a karate demonstration, he unintentionally activates the stake weapon up his sleeve. Gunn and Fred find Lorne passed out behind the counter, and are shocked to see a demon. Meanwhile, Connor saves a young woman from two vampires. The woman offers her body in repayment, but only if he pays. Back at the hotel, Wesley duct tapes Lorne to the seat in the lobby while arguing with Gunn over whether to cut Lorne's head off or torture him for information. When Cordelia asks why they're not freaking out about wooden stakes or the sight of a green man with horns, Wesley and Gunn both reveal that vampires and demons are real and they both have experience with them. Fred examines an unconscious Lorne while Wesley shares his theory that they're being kept in the hotel with a vampire as a test. They all start to wonder why they don't look 17, and collectively decide to hunt for the vampire that will supposedly set them free once they kill it. Cordelia and Angel team up and go one way while the other three head in the other direction. Angel struggles to adjust to this strange world that is hundreds of years beyond his life. He and Cordelia sit on the bed, and after apologizing for acting so "womanish", Cordelia comforts him, and, feeling his muscles, begins to flirt with him. Angel vamps out and realizes he is a vampire and he will be killed if the gang finds out. Angel tries to leave the hotel, but panics when he spots the cars on the street and rushes back inside. As the group regathers in the lobby, Wesley introduces a new theory: the vampire may be one of them. He passes a cross around the group, but when it finally reaches Angel, he manages to hide his smoking hand until a distraction develops. Lorne wakes up, his memory unaffected, and identifies Angel as a vampire. Angel punches Lorne, knocking him out again. A fight breaks out between Angel, Wesley and Gunn, and the girls run in separate directions. Angel catches Cordelia, who screams loudly, drawing a lurking Connor out of the shadows. Angel rants to Connor about fathers as the two fight, while in the lobby, Lorne convinces Fred to release him, and he mixes together a concoction to restore their memories. After treating the others, Lorne puts a touch of the mixture on Cordy's tongue. She pauses and then runs off. Lorne finishes up his story at the lounge: describing what really happened was she was struck with a vision of a terrifying demon; Cordelia reveals to Angel that she remembers everything, and confirms that before she lost her memory she was in love with him. Lorne then walks off and the camera reveals an empty Lounge. 

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Cordelia tells Angel that she still loves him, but that during her time as a higher power she saw and felt all the carnage he formerly wrought as Angelus. She now needs him to give her time to sort out her feelings. When Lorne wants to learn what Cordelia remembers about her time as a higher power, Angel insists that they wait. Connor comforts Cordelia after another nightmare featuring the demon from her visions. Meanwhile, as Angel Investigations is flooded with calls involving paranormal activity all over Los Angeles, Wesley returns home after fighting a bug infestation to find Lilah dressed as Fred for sexual role-playing. Suddenly, Cordelia starts breathing hard and her eyes turn white as she warns Angel that "he's coming." Cordelia lies down and tells Angel and Connor what she remembers of her vision. Back at the hotel, Lorne picks up on the strained relationship between Fred and Gunn; since they jointly sought revenge on the man who sent Fred to a hell dimension, Fred has not been able to forgive Gunn for their actions. She leaves for the diner where she and Gunn are regulars. Angel goes to Wolfram & Hart to demand that Lilah return the information the law firm sucked out of Lorne's head about the impending apocalypse. Cordelia and Connor walk to an alleyway that Cordelia recognizes as the place where Connor was born, where Darla staked herself. A large, horned demon bursts from the ground before them, knocking them both down. Connor attacks, but he takes a brutal beating before the demon strides away. Cordelia tends to Connor's wounds and finds that he has broken ribs. At the diner, a waitress tries to advise Fred on her relationship troubles, until an earthquake shatters the diner's windows. Meanwhile, unable to locate Fred, Gunn is restless and tries to leave to find her, but Wesley appears and interrupts his departure. Aware of all the strange occurrences around town, he offers to work with them to deal with this problem, but Gunn's too angry with Wesley to even consider the idea. Angel stops them all from leaving because he has information from Lilah that they must study to prevent the end of the world. The trio examine the pages containing information stolen earlier from Lorne's brain. Another call is taken by Lorne and Angel instructs him to start mapping the locations from where the calls originate. The pages make no sense until Gunn sees that the pages fit together like a puzzle. Rearranging the sheets reveals a symbol shaped like a square with an "X" inside representing the "Eye of Fire." Lorne makes another discovery: the mapped locations of strange occurrences form the same pattern. Angel and the gang determine that the location on the map that appears at the middle of the X is a popular club on a high rooftop. They arrive at the club to find a mass of dead bodies and the Beast waiting for them. Angel and the team take on the demon but are overpowered. Crossbows, axes, and swords don't have much impact, so Wesley tries a series of guns that also fail. Angel renews the battle and manages to send the demon to its knees, until the demon stakes him in the neck. The demon sends Angel flying off the roof to the city street. The demon forms the Eye of Fire using the dead bodies and sets them ablaze. Angel rips the stake from his neck and slowly begins to recover. The fire on the roof rises towards the sky and soon fire starts to rain down as Connor and Cordelia watch. Connor blames himself for the whole situation, but Cordelia comforts and reassures him that he's not to blame. Cordelia kisses Connor and offers him the chance to feel something real. While everyone else watches the fire, fearing the future that awaits them, Connor and Cordelia have sex. Connor is seeking comfort in her arms. Angel is shown to be observing through the window on top of a nearby building. 

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Fred waits impatiently at the hotel, and Wesley, Gunn and Lorne return, battered and bruised from their battle. Fred and Gunn embrace. Cordelia tries to tell Connor that the night before was a one-time deal, but he storms out, feeling the pain of her rejection and blaming himself for the Beast's intrusion. Wesley is visited by Lilah who's relieved to find him alive. Wesley's not as welcoming to her affections though, and he breaks off their relationship, choosing to fight for the good side. Connor sneaks into Lilah's office, but Lilah attempts to have him captured and tested for their purposes. Connor takes the situation into his own hands and orders Lilah to help him learn everything they do about the Beast. The lights flicker and turn off as Connor realizes the Beast has arrived, rampaging through the lobby and tearing lawyers apart. Connor sets out to take on the creature himself. The Beast finds Gavin in a closet, snaps his neck and tosses him effortlessly against a wall. The Beast then goes after Lilah who tries first to shoot the creature and then negotiate, but he stabs her with one of his clawed fingers. After a couple of failed attempts at hurting the creature, Connor is recognized by the Beast and tossed aside into a stone pillar. Wesley arrives to rescue Lilah, using a hand grenade to temporarily stun the fast-approaching demon. Lilah leads the way to a storage closet where one of the only two emergency exits can be found hidden behind some shelves. They escape through a small passage and into the sewers below the building. Wesley instructs her to start over a build a new life somewhere else before the Beast finds her. As he leaves, she informs him that Connor is trapped in the building. Wesley returns to the hotel, and immediately Angel is determined to rescue his son. Meanwhile, Connor returns to his search for the Beast. As he passes over Gavin's body, the former lawyer's eyes fly open. Cordelia stays at the hotel with Lorne, and Wesley leads the rest of the gang back through the sewers to the secret exit of Wolfram and Hart. The group walks through piles of dead lawyer bodies and then split up to speed up the search. Angel finds Connor, but before they can escape, Gavin attacks Angel. Angel quickly points out that Gavin's a zombie as he knocks the former lawyer aside. Connor and Angel make a break for it as the various dead bodies around the halls all start to awaken. Fred, Wesley and Gunn are soon attacked by zombies as well and barricade themselves in an office. The zombies prove too overwhelming and everyone needs to escape, but all of the routes are obstructed by the zombies. Angel suggests they try the Conduit of the White Room he was in once before, so they try to use the elevator. Gunn spots Gavin at the front and takes a moment to chop off the zombie's head, while Angel finally gets the secret access code to work, and they're transported to the special white room. Once there, they spot the little girl lying on the ground as the Beast kneels above her, extracting a black cloud of energy, or possibly her life, from her. She tells them, "The answer is among you" and then before the Beast can get his hands on them, the young girl mutters some words and transports the gang back into the hotel. Cordelia hugs Connor while Lorne questions the others about what happened. Soon afterward, Cordelia tells Angel that she was worried and he orders her to take her new boyfriend, i.e. Connor, and get out. 

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Lorne brings Angel some blood in his room. Gwen Raiden meets a client, Mr. Ashet. Just as the man suggests not killing her for canceling on him, the Beast shoves a fist through the man's chest, sending Gwen flying. Connor is restless in his warehouse. Cordelia gets a vision of the Beast and immediately rushes to talk to Angel. Gunn and Fred brainstorm the meaning of the little girl's words. Wesley reveals he has discovered the little girl was Wolfram & Hart's connection to the Senior Partners but she was also an entity named Mesektet. He explains that Mesektet was one of five totems in a group known as the Ra- Tet. Fred finds out it was Ma'at, another totem of the Ra-tet. she felt she was in the body of someone talking to the Beast. Gwen arrives at the hotel to mixed feelings about her presence, but her experience with the Beast proves to be useful to them. Fred discovers Gwen's client was another Ra-tet member, one composed of light. Needing to find and protect at least one of the two remaining totems, Angel suggests he and Gwen go find Semkhet in Death Valley. Angel and Gwen sneak into the cave holding Semkhet, but find they're too late and the body has already been destroyed. As Angel wonders about the reason for the Beast killing off the Ra-tet, a rather ordinary man appears and explains that the beast is trying to stop the light of the sun. The man reveals himself to be Manjet, or Manny, the only surviving member of the Ra-tet, and keeper of the orb. Manny explains that the Beast is planning a ritual using the Ra-tet to eventually black out the whole world from the sun and turn the earth into a land for demons. Angel brings Manny back to the hotel, but the gang quickly realizes the hotel is not the safest place for them to protect Manny. Angel mentions to Cordelia that Gwen's money came from the Axis of Pythia he used to track Cordelia and then gave to Gwen. The gang brainstorm about Manny being an orb keeper, and what could have been taken from him. Gwen reveals that the Beast took something out of the chest of the Shaman she was visiting, despite earlier having claimed to have seen nothing. The timing and stealthiness of the attack and the spiked drinks lead the gang to believe it was an inside job, but no definite suspect can be pinned down. They return to the hotel and find information about the ritual from Lorne's research. Wesley and Fred announce they've discovered what seems to be the only way to get rid of the Beast: opening a portal to send it through. Gunn reacts badly to this idea, but Fred reminds him it's their only option. Cordelia also senses she knew the person the Beast was talking to, leading them all to believe Connor is involved. The Beast finds Connor at his warehouse and promptly throws him out the window. Angel and the gang pull up just in time, charging upstairs to stop the ritual. Wesley and Fred work on opening the portal while the others attack the Beast, who has already started the ritual. While the portal opens behind the Beast upstairs, outside Cordelia gets to see more of her vision and the sun begins to darken. With several consecutive blows, Angel and the others manage to send the Beast through the portal and out of their world. Upstairs, the Beast reappears behind the gang and speaks, saying he met Angelus in the past, and again offering an alliance of their evil. The beast grabs the orb and swallows it whole, then flies out the window. Cordelia figures out her vision was actually a memory from when she was a higher power and saw all of Angelus's actions over time. Angel doesn't remember such a meeting in the past, and he states that it's not something he'd forget, but Wesley suspects the Beast has been able to control Angel in some way. Wesley announces that the only one who may have the knowledge they need to defeat the Beast is Angelus, so they need him back. 

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In an attempt to locate the Beast and restore the sun to Los Angeles, Wesley brings in a dark mystic, named Wo-Pang, to extract Angel’s soul and release his evil alter-ego, Angelus, who apparently encountered the Beast centuries before and may know how to kill it. The gang build a large cage in the basement and tie Angel down within it. Wo-Pang begins to cast the spell. Wo-Pang, however, is revealed to be a traitor, and attempts to kill Angel rather than remove his soul, and is subdued. Cordelia has a vision that shows the location of a sword that can kill the Beast - which is conveniently below Los Angeles. Angel, Cordelia, Connor and Wesley venture to a tunnel filled with traps, and Angel acquires the sword. In the tunnels, Cordelia and Angel confess their feelings for one another. Connor witnesses the exchange and runs off, but after talking with Angel gives him their blessing. The group return to the hotel, where they are attacked by the Beast. Angel orders the others away and fights, eventually persevering in stabbing and killing it. With the death of the Beast, the sun is restored. Against their better judgment, Cordelia and Angel make love, and as a result, Angel experiences a moment of true happiness after believing he finally won her heart. As he loses his soul, it turns out that this all took place in Wo-Pang's illusion, designed to make Angel achieve perfect happiness, and thus Angelus is awoken. 

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At the Hyperion Hotel, the gang carefully put Angel's contained soul away in the safe, discussing the great risk they all face in dealing with Angelus. Meanwhile, an unchained Angelus sits alone in the basement cage. Wesley cautiously approaches the cage and starts up a discussion with Angelus. Angelus plays games with Wesley, avoiding the important information about The Beast in favor of taunting Wesley about his romantic interest in Fred while the rest of the gang watch the conversation from the lobby via video feed. Angelus continues to be difficult, raising issues of Wesley's failure with Faith and Connor. Connor returns to receive strange looks in the aftermath of Angelus's news, but misinterprets the looks as everyone still thinking he's connected to the Beast. Gunn and Fred bring Angelus a glass of blood and Angelus happily takes advantage of the opportunity to taunt the couple about the sounds Angel could hear coming from Fred's room at night. Fred pushes a cart towards the cage and Angelus takes the glass, but also shoves the cart into Fred and grabs her when she falls towards the cage. Gunn moves in to rescue Fred, but it's Wesley who shoots Angelus with tranquilizer darts, freeing Fred and knocking Angelus out cold. In Wesley's office, Fred thanks him for saving her, but the conversation takes a turn for the romantic as Wesley kisses Fred. Gunn walks in and, after realizing that something just happened between them, he gets furious. The two men begin to fight until Gunn accidentally hits Fred when she tries to stop them. Angelus is pleased with the discord he has created. Connor approaches Angelus, who tells Connor that his mother Darla and his adoptive father Holtz were eager to get away from Connor. Connor calmly replies that he knows that Angelus is his real father. Angelus thinks he can take advantage of this and encourages Connor to approach, but Cordelia interrupts and sends Connor away. She then turns off the video camera and offers herself in exchange for all of Angelus's information on the Beast. Angelus is reluctant to take her offer, but later Cordelia informs the gang that Angelus is willing to talk, although she refuses to tell them what she did to get Angelus to talk. Wesley goes downstairs and begins to ask questions. Angelus explains that in 1789, the Beast tried to bribe Angelus into helping him kill three priestesses who were attempting to banish the Beast. Angelus refused to help, and then the priestesses appeared and banished the Beast. Gunn finds that the women live nearby. Wesley, Cordelia, and Connor find the priestesses and their families have already been murdered by the Beast. After seeing a "Daddy's Birthday" reminder on the family's calendar, Connor runs outside to be sick. Cordelia chases after him and she tries to talk to him, but some vampires interrupt the moment, sending the gang into battle mode. Connor disposes of one and Wesley gets the car for them to escape in. They return to the hotel and everyone realizes that without useful information from Angelus, they need to turn him back into Angel. Cordelia goes downstairs and, despite Angelus's enthusiasm to have her, Cordelia tells him the deal is off since they didn't get to save the world and that they're putting his soul back. Angelus doesn't seem too worried about that, as he's confident he'll get to see the apocalypse come to life. Cordelia returns to the office only to find bad news: the container holding Angel's soul is gone. 

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Connor, Wesley and Cordelia force their way into the Shaman's chambers and question him about Angel's soul, only to find that Angel's soul still remains in its container, although he warns them that if the container is broken and the soul isn't being controlled, the soul will cease to exist, Angelus will get out, and they'll "be screwed." Angelus continues to taunt the gang, angering Gunn over his relationship with Fred. Lilah sneaks in, emerging from the sewers holding a crowbar and attempts a deal with Angelus, revealing that the Beast has murdered everyone affiliated with Wolfram & Hart except for her. Gunn finally spots Lilah on the video monitor and rushes downstairs to put a tranquilizer dart in Angelus, while Lilah runs off. While the others question Lilah's intentions, Wesley chases and catches her. He thumbs through her copy of Rhinehardt's Compendium, finding information his copy does not contain. Lilah had received her copy on the pan-dimensional black market, and Wesley determines someone had erased the information in this dimension. Angelus wakes up and informs the gang that the Beast actually works for someone or something. Wesley returns with Lilah, but the gang are extremely suspicious of her and drill her about her intentions. Gunn leaves to keep watch on Angelus, who pushes Gunn's buttons again over his relationship with Fred and the gang. He mentions Dr. Seidel's death (from "Supersymmetry"), which he knows about because "even Angel's not that stupid." He offers to keep what Fred did a secret, but Gunn corrects him that Fred didn't kill Seidel, prompting Angelus to praise him for "steppin' up and bein' the man!" Angelus mock-commiserates with Gunn about Fred's affections shifting to Wesley, citing Wesley's recent descent into more violent behavior as the cause; "for once in your life," Angelus teases, "you just weren't dark enough." Gunn responds with a blast from his flame thrower, and Angelus crows that there's "hope" for Gunn yet. Fred informs Wesley that she's no longer with Gunn. Wesley takes the news as an opportunity to make another move on Fred, though he's interrupted by Cordelia and Lilah. Lilah and the gang argue about the possibility of saving the world, but then Cordelia gets a vision that allows her to see how to get Angel's soul back. Fred goes downstairs to inform Wesley about Cordy's vision, and she exchanges barbs with Angelus. While mock-praising Wesley, Angelus casually mentions his sexual liaisons with Lilah - another shock for Fred. Gunn and Connor dig up the grave of a soul eater, the skull of which is needed to return Angel's soul. Once they hit the coffin, the soul eater proves to be more active than dead and attacks the duo. With Connor incapacitated, Gunn is able to chop the demon to bits and retrieve the head. Meanwhile, the Beast offers a gift to its unseen master; a knife made of his bones. Cordelia and Fred present the talismans they built for the spell while Gunn and Connor return with the fresh demon head. The spell is set up in the basement while Angelus tries to discourage them from trying. Wesley chants and a white soul- like mist emerges from the skull, passes through the talismans and surrounds Angelus in the cage. Angel's soul seems to be returned and once Angel sings for Lorne, it's concluded that his soul really has returned. Still worried, Angel decides to stay in the cage and direct the others. Cordelia refuses to take his orders because he's acting like a coward and convinces him that he needs to be out of the cage. Free, Angel grabs Cordy, revealing that the spell did not work and that he is still Angelus. Cordy fights back and tries to hide in the cage, but Angelus knocks her out and heads upstairs to continue his Angel charade. Angelus drops in on Fred, and the others are still fooled by him, but they don't get long to chat as he leaves, spouting an excuse about going out to save the world. Spotting an unconscious Cordy in the cage, they realize Angelus lied and depart to find him. A consensus is reached that they won't be saving Angelus, they'll be killing him on sight now. Angelus roams the crazy streets of LA, but can't find anything but dead bodies and vampires, and he doubles back to the hotel. Lilah fires a round of bullets at him and Cordy tries to shoot him with the crossbow, but none of the attempts are successful. Angelus throws the crossbow bolt back at Cordelia's leg, taking her down and leaving him to deal with Lilah. Connor tracks Angelus back to the hotel. Angelus stalks Lilah until he finally finds her trying to hide. He takes her ax from her, but before he can kill her with it, she tosses him over a stair railing and runs off. Cordelia stabs Lilah in the neck (using the dagger the beast offered to its master earlier in the episode), informing a dying Lilah that she let Angelus out for a reason. 

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Angelus, who has been stalking Lilah, is disappointed when he finds her already dead. Wesley and Gunn discover him holding her body, drinking whatever is left of her blood; he escapes through a window, allowing the two to assume he killed her. Downstairs, when Wesley and Gunn return to the lobby with news of Lilah's death, Lorne suggests protecting the hotel with the same magic that forbids violence at his club. When the group realizes that Angelus could have turned Lilah into a vampire, Wesley offers to prevent her potential rising. Angelus visits a demon bar—where he is raucously received—to question the patrons on the whereabouts of the Beast. In the basement, Wesley prepares to behead Lilah. After an imaginary conversation where he apologizes for their "not-a- relationship", he finally brings down the ax. Connor intends to destroy Angelus despite Cordelia's protests, but when he starts to leave, Cordelia faints mid-speech and Connor stops to care for her. Meanwhile, Slayer Faith works out in prison until another prisoner threatens her with a knife. Faith efficiently knocks the woman out. As the corrections officer hauls the other prisoner away, reassuring Faith they saw how she was attacked, Faith notices the ornate Bringer knife that was used. Angelus follows the scent of Lilah's blood to the weapon used to kill her, in the Beast's possession. The Beast says Angelus is a part of his master's plans, but Angelus refuses to take orders and leaves. Cordelia—revealed as the Beast's master—is disappointed. The Beast apologizes for his failures and she forgives him, then the two kiss. Lorne performs the protection spell, and Wesley returns from the basement saying he intends to restore Angel's soul. Wesley visits Faith at the prison to ask for her help; although initially disinterested, upon learning that Angelus has "returned," she crashes through the glass, knocks out the prison guards, and jumps out of the high window with Wesley. (The clear implication is that Faith could have escaped prison any time she liked and only remained there as part of her self-imposed redemption efforts.) Faith tells him that she won't kill Angelus because of Angel's crucial role in her life and Wesley admits that's precisely why he chose her for the job. When they arrive at the hotel, Faith asserts herself as commander. Connor is displeased with her decision to rescue Angelus, not kill him, but Faith makes it clear her plan is the only plan. Angelus, after overhearing a Slayer is in town, immediately calls Buffy Summers's house. When Dawn Summers confirms her sister is still in Sunnydale, he realizes Faith must be the Slayer on the loose. Connor leads Faith, Wesley and Gunn into a factory (where Angelus has, with typical sardonic intent, erected a "Welcome, Faith" banner) and despite Faith's orders, beheads the first vampire that crosses his path. Faith yells at the teen for disobeying her and then tells him to go home because he refuses to listen to her. The two fight, but Faith is clearly stronger and eventually holds a crossbow to Connor's throat in warning. Connor returns to the hotel with Gunn, as Wesley and Faith split up to search the factory. Faith finds Angelus with the Beast; she is badly beaten by the creature until Angelus stabs the Beast with a dagger made of the Beast's flesh, killing the demon and restoring the sun. Faith knocks out a large window, flooding the room with sunlight, forcing Angelus to keep his distance. At the hotel, the gang rejoices in the return of the sun and Connor goes upstairs to tell Cordelia. Connor sings Faith's praises until Cordy interrupts with news that she's pregnant with his child. 

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As a battered and bloodied Faith recovers at Wesley's apartment after her showdown with the Beast, they wonder why Angelus would suddenly kill the Beast and allow the sun to return to Los Angeles. At a demon bar, Angelus is spoken to by a deep disembodied voice, which turns out to originate from Cordelia, projecting from the hotel. Angelus then surprises Fred at the hotel, claiming he is immune to the sanctuary spell. He demands information on the Beast's master and steals her research materials. Fred tries to shoot him with a tranquilizer dart but accidentally hits Lorne instead. Connor attempts to stop Angelus, but is repelled by the demon protection spell. Angelus is contacted again by Cordelia telepathically, and this time she threatens to restore his soul if he refuses to help. Fred's mood worsens as she feels inadequate to fight Angelus. Fred and Gunn kiss, but part, unsure about their feelings. Meanwhile, Cordelia convinces Connor to keep her sudden pregnancy a secret from everyone else. Faith and Wesley try to track Angelus at the demon bar. There they encounter human junkies, who get high on the vampire bites. Faith smacks one around, but Wesley finally gets the needed info by stabbing the woman. They are able to track Angelus to a deserted museum where Faith has another showdown with him. The fight is long and brutal, with Faith eventually seeming to have beaten Angelus into submission - only to have him suddenly leap on her and bite her neck. 

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After drinking from Faith, Angelus pulls away in shock as she flashes back to earlier, when she injected herself with a drug stolen from a vampire junkie at the demon bar. Angelus and Faith both collapse, unconscious. Gunn drags Angelus's body to the Hyperion Hotel, where he and Connor shackle Angelus securely in the basement cage. Wesley brings a barely alive Faith to one of the hotel bedrooms. Knowing Faith injected herself with Orpheus, an enchanted psychedelic drug that poses a serious threat to her life, Lorne berates Wesley for allowing Faith to purposely get bit by Angelus. Connor updates Cordelia on Faith and Angelus' conditions. Suddenly, Cordelia brutally shoves Connor into a wall in response to his constant talk about Faith. He's shocked and she tries to cover her behavior by blaming it on the pregnancy and crazy hormones. Downstairs, Connor shouts at Fred and Wesley about the need for killing Angelus, when Willow Rosenberg appears at the door suggesting that she's a better alternative. Fred called Willow for help since she's the only one alive to have successfully restored Angel's soul. Willow wants to see Cordelia again and Connor reluctantly takes her upstairs. As Willow talks about the difficulties associated with ensouling Angelus, Cordelia secretly reaches for a large knife under her pillow and tries to get Willow close enough to strike. Willow realizes if they break the jar, they can avoid all the complications and free the soul. Willow rushes out of the room in time to unknowingly avoid the knife thrown at her, which hits the door instead. In their shared coma, Angelus and Faith witness the 1920s-version of Angel rescue a small puppy from an oncoming car. Angelus is infuriated at being subjected to the memory again, and Faith realizes with glee that they're experiencing Angel's good deeds of the past. Next, a hippie Angel walks into a diner and selects "Mandy" on the jukebox, as Angelus complains to Faith about watching Angel's self-induced misery. A man barges into the diner and asks for money, but shoots the cashier when he doesn't react quickly enough. The shooter runs away, and Angel struggles with his desire to feed on the cashier, which wins out. The bite marks on dream- Faith's neck begins to bleed and she realizes Angel could have saved the cashier. Angelus watches on as Angel suffers with the guilt of feeding, enjoying Faith's pain as well. Before Willow can begin her spell to locate the jar holding Angel's soul, the Beast Master's deep voice screams a warning to stop. Willow's magic overpowers the Master's, and Willow begins her spell as Cordelia works counter-magic from the bedroom. When Connor breaks Cordelia's concentration by trying to enter the bedroom, Willow is able to magically shatter the jar. Using the Orb of Thesulah, Willow and Fred begin the ritual that will give Angel back his soul. Dream-Faith finds herself in a dirty alley with Angelus again, watching past-Angel, having forsaken all human ties, feed on a rat (shortly prior to the events of the 1996 flashback in "Becoming, Part One", wherein the demon Whistler almost literally dragged Angel from the gutter—commenting on his rat-feeding habits in the process—and set him on the path to his supposed destiny as Buffy's ally and a champion of the Powers That Be). In a twist, past-Angel turns and addresses the twosome. Angelus and Angel face-off and begin to exchange blows, as Angel convinces Faith that life is worth living and she has to wake up. Faith disappears. When Connor finally breaks into her barricaded bedroom, Cordy smashes a lamp over his head, then pretends not to have known it was him. Cordy deceives Connor into thinking Willow's magic is evil and threatens their unborn child. She tells him he has to kill Angelus to protect their family. Willow completes the restoration spell, pulling Angelus and Angel into one body, while Faith wakes up and rushes downstairs to the basement in time to stop Connor from staking Angel. She begins to beat up Connor until Angel wakes up and stops the fight. Later, Faith tells Angel that she is going back to Sunnydale with Willow to aid Buffy and her allies. After they leave, a very pregnant Cordelia comes downstairs and shocks the gang with the serious trouble they still have to deal with. 

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A famous painter named Claude Zoret falls in love with one of his models, Michael, and for a time the two live happily as partners. Zoret is considerably older than Michael, and as they age, Michael begins to drift from him, although Zoret is completely blind to this. When a bankrupt countess comes to Zoret to have a portrait made — with the real intent of seducing him and swindling his money — she finds Michael to be more receptive to her advances. At her lead, the two quickly become a couple and she immediately begins using Michael to steal from Zoret. When Zoret discovers what has been going on, he is crushed and his work suffers terribly. Michael sells the painting of himself that Zoret made and gave to him as a gift, and steals and sells the sketches Zoret made of their time in Algiers, where they first fell in love. Zoret begins work on his masterpiece: a large-scale painting of a man lying on a beach, using Algiers as a background, depicting "a man who has lost everything", as one character put it on first sight of the work. After completing the painting, Zoret falls ill. Charles Switt sits beside Zoret on his deathbed. Switt had always loved Zoret, and has stayed with him throughout, never criticizing Michael for fear of hurting his unrequited love. Switt sends a message to Michael, telling him that Zoret is dying and to come at once, but the Countess prevents him from getting it. Zoret's last words, which also serve as the prologue to the film, are "Now I can die in peace, for I have seen true love." 

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17-year-old Lance Elliot is a summer intern at the Agency. His fantasies of espionage and intrigue turn real when he's ordered to rush a package to L.A. A madman millionaire computer virus designer and his icy henchwoman want that package. It's key to their plot to destroy the environment. Lance stays one step ahead of them, trying to avoid a visit to their "video-game-of-doom" room. 

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Goddard Bolt (Mel Brooks) is the callous CEO of Bolt Enterprises. Bolt shows little regard for other people's needs, or for the environment. He has his eye on the slum of Los Angeles, with the intent of tearing it down. Bolt makes a bet with his biggest rival, Vance Crasswell (Jeffrey Tambor), who also has an interest in the property. Crasswell challenges Bolt to survive on the streets as if he were homeless for 30 days. Should Bolt lose, Crasswell owns the property, but should Bolt win, Crasswell will sell it for practically nothing. There are three conditions: (i) Bolt will be completely penniless; (ii) He must wear an electronic anklet that will activate if he leaves the boundaries, forfeiting the bet if he exceeds 30 seconds out of bounds; (iii) At no time can he reveal to any of the slum area residents that he is Goddard Bolt. To add to the look, Bolt has his mustache shaved off, then Crasswell confiscates his toupee and rips his jacket chest pocket. Bolt is taken to the slums, thrown out of the limo and begins the bet. Unbeknown to Bolt, Crasswell schemes to make Goddard's stay on the streets as bad as possible. Bolt, homeless, hungry and filthy, is befriended by skid-row inhabitants like Sailor (Howard Morris) and Fumes (Theodore Wilson) and given the nickname "Pepto" after falling asleep in a crate with a Pepto-Bismol logo on its side, having used the crate to urinate on mere moments before Sailor arrives. During the bet, he meets and eventually becomes attracted to Molly (Lesley Ann Warren), a homeless woman who used to be a dancer on Broadway. During a scuffle with two muggers (including a chase through a Chinese kitchen/restaurant), Bolt is pushed out of bounds, which activates his anklet. To prevent the "30-second forfeiture", Bolt rushes back in, which impresses Molly with his supposed bravery, as it looks like he is tackling the muggers. The muggers are eventually defeated via a pot of boiling stock being poured over them from a height, forcing them to retreat their assault on Bolt. Bolt learns a series of important life lessons during his "adventure", namely that life is not about accomplishments or material success but rather the integrity of the human spirit. However, Bolt is unaware that the unscrupulous Crasswell has no intention of honoring their bet. When Crasswell realizes that Bolt is honoring the bet fair and square, Crasswell bribes Bolt's lawyers into fabricating the story that Bolt had lost his mind and has his property seized (Bolt finds this out first hand as he forces his way into a party and his lawyers pretend that they don't know what's going on). Forced to live on the streets for good and remanded to a free clinic by mistake, a drugged Bolt murmurs that "life stinks". Molly implores him to remember small things such as the two of them waltzing that make life livable. Crasswell, meanwhile, has his own plans for the slum area, planning to tear it down as well. Bolt incites Fumes and the other slum residents to stage a mock battle during the televised ceremony. Crasswell attempts to stop Bolt with a hydraulic excavator. When Bolt's grapple has plucked Crasswell and has him hanging by his jacket, the scene is freeze-framed into a news report saying that Crasswell, in a court case, was forced to admit he made a bet with Bolt, then reneged on the terms. Bolt, now in control of the area, has plans to renovate it into the "Bolt Center", which will give the slum residents employment, renovate the tenements into livable homes, and give the children a private school financed entirely out of pocket by Goddard Bolt. The news report ends by saying that Bolt has married Molly, and the press are expecting an extravagant CEO-type event, only to then be shown Goddard and Molly taking their wedding vows in a simple chapel in the slum area, then driving off in a limousine with a vanity plate "PEPTO". 

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The plot concerns whether or not Stella and Bill had a one-night stand while away on business in Leeds. One evening while at home Harry (Kane) and Bill (Lloyd), a dress designer, receive an unsettling anonymous phone call (48), which is to be followed by a further unsettling visit from a man who will refuse to leave his name (49). Following some apparently trivial conversation between Stella, another dress designer, and James (Horne), her husband and business partner, that occurs in his flat (44–45), James has left it to call on Bill at Harry's house, revealing that he was the anonymous caller and is the unexpected visitor. James confronts Bill with the confession of his wife Stella that she has had a one-night affair with Bill (53–55). Bill first claims that she invented the story (58–59), but he admits to their having "kissed a bit" (59), he qualifies "that it never happened . . . what you say anyway," and further renders that version ambiguous: > JAMES: [...] Then I phoned. > Pause. > I spoke to her. [...] You were sitting on the bed, next to her. > BILL: Not sitting. Lying. (59) James's obsession to meet the man who has purportedly cuckolded him––suggesting archetypal symbolic significance in Pinter's choice of his surname (Horne)–– and to confront him with "the truth" culminates in a "mock duel" with household knives (72–73), in which Bill is scarred. Harry then intervenes and relates to James Stella's alleged admission that she has invented the whole story and the two never really met (in fact, what she has told him is that James was the one who "dreamed it up"). Bill confirms that nothing happened, and Harry viciously chastises him, calling him a "slum slug" with a "slum mind" and claiming that he "confirms stupid sordid little stories just to amuse himself, while everyone else has to run round in circles to get to the root of the matter and smooth the whole thing out". (78) As James is about to leave, Bill suddenly changes his story for the last time and tells James: "we sat ... in the lounge, on a sofa for two hours ... talked we talked about it ... we didn't move from the lounge never went to her room ... just talked about what we would do ... if we did get to her room two hours ... we never touched ... we just talked about it." James then goes back home and confronts his wife with this final version of "the truth"–– > You didn't do anything, did you? > Pause. > That's the truth, isn't it? > Pause. > You just sat and talked about what you would do, if you went to your room. > That's what you did. > Pause. > Didn't you? > Pause. > That's the truth . . . isn't it?"–– in response to which Stella "looks at him, neither confirming nor denying. Her face [...] friendly, sympathetic" (79–80), ultimately maintaining both the play's ambiguity and an uneasy status quo in the relationships of the two couples. 

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Pinter leads the audience to believe that there are three characters in the play: the wife, the husband and the lover. But the lover who comes to call in the afternoons is revealed to be the husband adopting a role. He plays the lover for her: she plays the whore for him. As the play goes on the man (first as the lover and then as the husband) expresses a wish to stop the pretend adultery, to the dismay of the woman. Finally, the husband suddenly switches back to the role of the lover. 

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The film opens in documentary style at the elementary school in Siligo that six-year- old Gavino (Saverio Marconi) is attending. His tyrannical peasant father (Omero Antonutti) barges in and announces to the teacher and the students that Gavino must leave school and tend the family sheep. Under his father's watchful eyes and the victim of his sadistic behavior, Gavino passes the next fourteen years tending sheep in the Sardinian mountains. There he begins to discover “things” for himself and to rebel against his father. Gavino is rescued from his family and his isolation when he is called for military service. During his time with the army he learns about electronics, the Italian language and classical music, yearning all the while for a university education. When Gavino returns home, he declares to his father that he will attend university. His father is against this and tells him that he will throw him out of the family home. They have a nasty fight, but Gavino eventually attends university and emerges as a brilliant student. He becomes a linguist, specializing in the origins of the Sardinian language. The film ends in documentary style again as Gavino Ledda himself tells why he wrote his book and what Sardinian children may expect as inhabitants of a rural area with close ties to the land. 

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Long ago in a legendary land, Emperor Kang and his wife Sheva ruled with an iron fist. Tai and Naja, two elite mystics, sealed them away in Mt. Houshin, thus restoring peace. But Kang's son, Cyrus, built up an army to battle the mystics in an attempt to free his father. At this time two more mystics, Shiga and Lani, joined the fight alongside Tai and Naja. The four mystics along with their friends once again saved the land and returned the peace. Now Emperor Kang, Sheva, and Generals Grifon and Kai start to plan their escape. Grifon brings up the existence of something known as the "Dragon Star", which could free them. So Kang calls upon the powers of the Dragon Star, and he along with all of his minions are set free, giving Kang the chance to rise once again to dominate the land. This game takes place after Hōshin Engi, Magical Hōshin (this game takes place after the first title) and Hōshin Engi 2. The player can choose to play as Tai, Shiga, Lani, or Naja. 

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Nick Conklin is a New York City police officer facing possible criminal charges; Internal Affairs believes Nick was involved with his partner, who was caught taking criminal money in a corruption scandal. Nick, who has financial difficulties, is divorced from his wife, who has custody of their two children. At a restaurant, Nick and his longtime partner Charlie Vincent observe two Japanese men meeting with Mafia gangsters. Nick's suspicions are validated when another Japanese man enters the restaurant, seizes a small package at gunpoint, kills two people, and leaves. Nick and Charlie chase and arrest the suspect after he nearly kills Nick. They learn that the suspect's name is Sato, whom Nick and Charlie are told will be extradited to Osaka and given to the police there. Though angered that Sato will not be prosecuted in the US, Nick agrees to escort him; Nick's captain believes this will keep Nick from causing more trouble and exacerbating the already biased Internal Affairs investigation. When they arrive in Osaka, they surrender Sato to the Japanese police, only to discover that they were duped by impostors and that Sato has escaped. Nick convinces the Osaka police to allow them to observe the investigation, though their weapons are confiscated. They are joined by local police detective Masahiro Matsumoto. While they have dinner at one night, Nick behaves rudely and offends Matsumoto while Charlie attempts to be more polite. Nick also makes contact with an American nightclub hostess, Joyce, who explains that Nick and Charlie represent American inefficiency and stupidity to the Japanese. Through her, Nick discovers Sato is fighting a gang war with a notorious mob boss, Sugai, and traveled to New York to disrupt Sugai's counterfeiting scheme. Nick joins a police raid without permission and takes a few $100 bills from the crime scene. The next day, Matsumoto confronts them over the theft - which has been subsequently reported in America. When Matsumoto tells Nick and Charlie that they have dishonored themselves and him as well as the police force because of the theft, Nick calls him a snitch and demonstrates the money is counterfeit by burning one of the bills. At night, Nick and Charlie walk back to their hotel drunk and unescorted - despite warnings about their safety. In an apparent prank, a young motorcyclist steals Charlie's coat and leads him to an underground parking garage - where it turns out that the motorcyclist is one of Sato's henchmen and that Sato has lured Nick and Charlie into a trap; Nick, separated from Charlie, watches in horror as Charlie gets attacked before Sato ends up decapitating him. Afterwards, Nick meets up with Joyce and she comforts him at her apartment. Matsumoto later visits Nick to give him Charlie's service pistol, and the two decide to work together in order to take down Sato. Matsumoto and Nick track down one of Sato's operatives downtown. As they observe her movements, Nick confides to Matsumoto that he stole money in New York and never told Charlie about it - though admits that he isn't proud of what he did. The operative eventually retrieves a sample counterfeit note, which she passes to a gangster. Nick and Matsumoto tail him to a steel foundry, where they find Sato is meeting Sugai, and the package from New York is a printing plate for American $100 bills. Nick confronts Sato, who escapes when swarming police arrest Nick for waving a gun in public. Nick is consequently deported back to America, but he sneaks off the plane and visits Matsumoto - who has been suspended and demoted. Matsumoto refuses to help Nick, who then resolves to pursue Sato on his own. Joyce helps him meet Sugai, who explains that making counterfeit US currency is his revenge for the "black rain", or nuclear fallout, after the bombing of Hiroshima in World War II. Nick suggests a deal where Sugai can use Nick to retrieve the stolen plate from Sato, thus leaving Sugai's reputation clean and allowing Nick to get the chance to apprehend Sato once and for all. Sugai drops Nick at a remote farm with a shotgun. Nick is nearly spotted by one of Sato's lookouts, but Matsumoto arrives and knocks the gangster unconscious. He and Nick quickly deduce that Sato plans a massacre at his meeting with Sugai. When the two crime bosses meet, Sato cuts off one of his fingers in atonement, stabs Sugai, and escapes with the plates - sparking a gunfight between Sugai's and Sato's men. Matsumoto dispatches most of the gunmen while Nick chases Sato in a dirt bike on his own. Nick prevents Sato's escape and the two engage in hand-to- hand combat. Sato initially gets the upper hand, Nick takes advantage of Sato's finger loss to defeat him. When Sato is at his mercy, Nick has the choice of whether or not to kill Sato for Charlie and all the humiliation he has suffered. Sato is spared when Nick and Matsumoto are seen taking him into police headquarters, much to the amazement of the police force. For their contribution to Sato's arrest, Nick and Matsumoto gratefully receive commendations by the police chief superintendent. The pair later bid farewell to each other as Nick prepares to return to America. He thanks Matsumoto for his assistance and friendship, then gives him a dress shirt in a gift box before leaving. Underneath the gift box, Matsumoto finds the counterfeit printing plates and shares a smile with Nick as the protagonist walks away. 

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Alan Grant, Scotland Yard Inspector (a character who also appears in five other novels by the same author) is feeling bored while confined to bed in hospital with a broken leg. Marta Hallard, an actress friend of his, suggests that he should amuse himself by researching a historical mystery. She brings him some pictures of historical characters, aware of Grant's interest in human faces. He becomes intrigued by a portrait of King Richard III. He prides himself on being able to read a person's character from his appearance, and King Richard seems to him a gentle, kind and wise man. Why is everyone so sure that he was a cruel murderer? With the help of other friends and acquaintances, Grant investigates Richard's life and the case of the Princes in the Tower, testing out his theories on the doctors and nurses who attend to him. Grant spends weeks pondering historical information and documents with the help of Brent Carradine, a likable young American researcher working in the British Museum. Using his detective's logic, he comes to the conclusion that the claim of Richard being a murderer is a fabrication of Tudor propaganda, as is the popular image of the King as a monstrous hunchback. 

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Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is the commanding officer of VMF-214, a Marine squadron of "misfit" fighter pilots based on the Solomon Islands campaign and Bougainville campaign from 1943 to 1945 during World War II. Pappy often intercedes in altercations of the pilots at the base, but everyone seems to pull together when they are assigned missions in the air. Pappy likes to drink and fight a lot when not flying missions. He owns a Bull Terrier named "Meatball" — which he claims belongs to General Moore to get the dog on the base against regulations in Flying Misfits, but General Moore says he "wouldn't own an ugly mutt like that." The series premise was very loosely based on a portion of the real-life military career of Gregory Boyington, known as "Pappy" due to his "advanced" age compared to the younger pilots under his command. (He was 30 when he took command of VMF-214, but in the series pilot, he is stated to be 35.) Boyington, who was a technical adviser for the series, commented that the show was "fiction based on reality" and that no regular character in the series except for himself actually existed. Although in his book of the same name, there is a General "Nuts" Moore who has similar characteristics to General Moore in the series. Also in the book is Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Smoak, on whom Colonel Lard is based. Lard has almost the same animosity for Major Boyington in the TV series as Smoak does in the book. In the documentary film Pappy Boyington Field, Robert Conrad shares personal insight about Pappy from their time together during the television series. The squadron has many successful combat missions using their Vought F4U Corsair planes against the experienced Japanese pilots using their Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter planes. The combat missions took place around the Japanese military base in Rabaul during Boyington's September 1943 to January 1944 tour of duty. Pappy was an ace pre-World War II combat pilot and has the most air victories, or "kills", of any pilot in the squadron. In the pilot episode, Boyington has six kills from his combat tour in China before World War II with the Flying Tigers. His count climbs into the mid-20s as the series progresses. The real-life Boyington had 14 kills in 32 days during his first tour of duty with VMF-214, and finished with 28 confirmed victories. The TV show's squadron is based on the fictional island of Vella la Cava. There is an actual island called Vella Lavella in the New Georgia Group of the Solomon Islands, but in the initial episode "Flying Misfits," Vella la Cava was represented on an aviation sectional chart by the real Kolombangara Island. Under Boyington's command VMF-214 flew out of Barakoma Airfield on Vella Lavella during the Solomon Islands campaign. 

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In the story, Colbie and Deverel inadvertently slip onto the nearly frictionless surface of an enormous concave mirror built by unknown alien beings, and must use the laws of physics to come up with a way to avoid oscillating in a pendulum motion back and forth across the mirror until eventually the small amount of friction brings them to a stop in the center. Although the physics of the story can be criticized, the story is a textbook example of the kind of science-fiction called a "science puzzle" story (a variety of gedanken or 'idea' subgenre tale), in which the set up of the story is a puzzle which must be solved using (real) science. Many later examples could be cited, including Hal Clement's story "Dust Rag" ,and Larry Niven's "Neutron Star". 

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Amelia Peabody is left a wealthy orphan after the death of her studious father, who has left her everything in his will because she is the only one of his children who shared his interests, namely history and archaeology. The inheritance enables her to travel abroad in order to follow her enthusiasm for antiquities. Amelia, a determined and unorthodox English female, supports women's suffrage and believes she will never marry. (She's convinced she is unattractive and will neither submit to a man nor rule one.) In Rome she meets the destitute Evelyn Forbes, whose titled family have cast her off after she eloped with, then was abandoned by, an Italian art teacher. Amelia takes Evelyn under her wing and employs her as a companion. They travel together to Egypt, where they encounter the Emerson brothers, Radcliffe and Walter, archaeologist and philologist respectively, and where Amelia falls in love with pyramids. Amelia and Evelyn decide to travel up the Nile, stopping at various sites along the way. When they reach Amarna, they discover the Emersons excavating the city which for a while was the capital of Egypt under the mysterious Akhenaten. Amelia and Radcliffe Emerson loathe one another on sight, but after he is taken ill and she helps to keep his excavation going, they grudgingly begin to respect one another. Evelyn is attracted to Walter, but is convinced she will never marry because of her soiled reputation. Things get complicated when Evelyn's cousin Lucas shows up at the remote site with a story about her grandfather's death, his (Lucas') inheritance, and a proposal of marriage. Amidst the romantic entanglements and attempts to continue the excavation, Emerson and Amelia must also deal with the nocturnal visitations of a mummy that walks moaning through the desert. Once the mystery is solved, Amelia plans to stay in Egypt and conduct her own archaeological expeditions, with Emerson at her side ... as her advisor and as her husband. The tone of the novel (as well as the rest of the series) is humorous to the point of parody and pokes fun at many of the period's mores and stereotypes, as well as the sensationalist novels popular at the time. 

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Homer and his teammates -- Moe, Apu and Otto -- are unable to afford the $500 fee to join a bowling league. Homer asks his boss to sponsor the team while he is anesthetized, so Mr. Burns unwittingly signs a check. The newly named Pin Pals enter a bowling competition. They beat three teams and move to second place in their league. After recovering from his ether-induced stupor, Burns discovers he wrote a check to Homer and insists on joining the Pin Pals, replacing Otto. Homer and the team fear they will lose the championship since Burns is an awful bowler due to his frail physique. Burns gives the Pin Pals new bowling shirts before the championship game. Two pins away from victory, Burns takes his turn on the lane. When Otto tips over a claw arcade machine by accident, the vibrations knock down the pins and the Pin Pals win. As the team celebrates, Burns takes the trophy and keeps it for himself. Encouraged by his teammates, Homer attempts to break into Burns' mansion to recover the trophy; this ends disastrously when Burns releases the hounds and Homer is severely mauled. At school, Bart's Mad iron-on "Down with homework" T-shirt incites a student riot, so Principal Skinner forces students to wear uniforms. Skinner explained to Bart that those t-shirts resulted in his capture by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War where, in his prisoner-of- war camp he was forced to subsist on a fish and vegetable stew and that he came close to madness trying to find its recipe at home. The new dress code demoralizes the students until a rainstorm soaks through the uniforms, causing the grey color to melt and reveal tie-dye colors that make the children resume rebelling against authority. 

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Myrna Loy and Clark GableMagazine publisher Van Stanhope (Clark Gable) and his wife, Linda (Myrna Loy), are celebrating their third wedding anniversary. They are very much in love and Van gives Linda a diamond bracelet. However, Van's secretary, the beautiful Helen "Whitey" Wilson (Jean Harlow), is thought by Van's mother (May Robson) to be a temptation to Van. Linda refuses to listen to all of her friends and Van's mother as she trusts Van. In truth, she has all the reason in the world to trust him, as his relationship with Whitey is strictly business. Meanwhile, Whitey's beau, Dave (James Stewart), is very uncomfortable about her relationship with Van as he calls one night while they're having dinner to ask that Whitey help him finish work at a party. When Dave asks Whitey to marry him, Whitey refuses, and buries herself further in her work. When Van has to be very secretive to buy J. D. Underwood's (George Barbier) weekly, for fear that his rival will buy it instead, only Whitey is permitted to know, providing still more conflict between Van and his wife. When Van returns from his business meeting with Underwood, and tells Linda that he has been at the club all day, Linda discovers that he has not been at the club but rather has been out with Whitey, who was merely helping him prepare for his discussion with Underwood. At a skating party, Linda is too sick to skate. As Van and Whitey skate together, Linda hears from one of the wives there that Van and Whitey are most likely having an affair. When Linda and Van get into the car, they fight when Linda requests that Van have Whitey moved to another employer. Van refuses and Linda ignores him for the rest of the evening until she calls him back to make up. Van plans a trip for himself and Linda, but when he learns that Underwood is at a conference in Havana, changes his plans and won't permit Linda to accompany him while he works. Whitey learns of important information regarding the rival paper, which results in Van bringing her to Havana to close the deal. While celebrating the successful closing of the deal, they develop a drunken attraction to each other but do not consummate this attraction. When Linda calls at 2 am, Whitey answers the phone, and she assumes they are having an affair. Van returns to New York only to have Linda ignoring him entirely and asking for a divorce. Lonely, he asks Whitey to accompany him to Bermuda as a friend, which she, having fallen in love with Van, agrees to. But, realizing that Van will never love her as much as he loves Linda, Whitey visits her on the ship that Linda has planned to take to Europe. Whitey challenges her to go back to Van, telling her that she would be a fool to let him go. After resistance, Linda meets him in his office, and they make up. Whitey is then met by Dave, and they make up as well. 

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After a failed engagement, photo shop owner Jung-won (Han Suk-kyu) is in his 30s and lives with his relatives: his sister, her husband and child, and his father. He meets Da-rim (Shim Eun-ha), a young parking agent, when she needs pictures as evidence to use against parking offenders printed quickly. Something clicks between them, they meet there more often and develop feelings for each other. Before their romance goes any further, Jung-won finds out that his recent health problems are symptoms of a terminal disease. Part of his coming to terms with his fate, just when he has found happiness again, is breaking off all contact with Da-rim by closing the photo shop. She is brokenhearted but has no way to find him. Jung-won also creates a step-by-step manual for the developing machine in his shop so his father can take over when Jung-won dies. He goes on a booze spree with his childhood friends as a farewell, but only tells his best friend about his impending death who doesn't believe him until Jung-won breaks down at the police station where they are taken. After a period of time, Jung-won secretly observes how Da-rim is happily doing her job again and satisfied that his plan has worked. He takes a commemorative self-portrait with a timer and, just as the shutter clicks, he smiles. 

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When Homer and Marge's sex life fizzles, they seek help to spice up their marriage. Homer peruses books like the Kama Sutra, but Marge wants "a tasteful book" so they settle on Mr. and Mrs. Erotic American, a Paul Harvey book-on-tape. Harvey recommends couples bathe together, but their faucet breaks because the Simpsons' bathtub cannot accommodate Homer and Marge. Next they try renting a sexy theme room at a hotel, but are forced to sleep in a utility room because the rooms are sold out. Grampa concocts a tonic that he guarantees will put the spark back into their relationship. The elixir works, so Homer and Grampa sell Simpson & Son Revitalizing Tonic to the public in a travelling medicine show. During their travels, they visit the farmhouse where Homer spent his childhood. After they bicker, Grampa angrily tells Homer he is the result of an unplanned pregnancy that would not have happened without the tonic. Homer stops the car and abandons Grampa. While their parents are enjoying enhanced sex lives from the tonic, the town's children grow suspicious of their absences during their frequent trysts. Ralph, Milhouse, Bart and their friends hatch conspiracy theories in the Simpsons' tree house. After Lisa sarcastically suggests parents are going to bed early because they are "reverse vampires" who must avoid nightfall, the other children decide the RAND Corporation is conspiring with space aliens to deprive children of dinner by forcing their parents to retire early. Unwilling to forgive Grampa, Homer resolves to be a better father to Bart, Lisa and Maggie. Bart and Lisa soon realize that smothering them is just as bad as neglecting them. Homer returns to the farmhouse to think. He sees an old photograph of himself as a child on Christmas morning and is sad that his father was not even present when he met Santa Claus. Homer realizes his father was wearing a Santa costume and really does love him. Homer reunites with Grampa, who has also gone to the farmhouse to reflect. They both admit they are screw-ups -- each having caused separate fires in the farmhouse -- and reconcile as the house burns down behind them. 

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Two onetime teenage lovers, Ken Jorgenson and Sylvia Hunter, marry other people, but rediscover each other later in life. By then, Sylvia has a son, Johnny, and Ken a daughter, Molly, who also begin a romance. While in college, the self-supporting Ken takes a summer job as a lifeguard on Pine Island, an exclusive Maine island resort, where Sylvia and her nouveau riche family are staying as guests of the old money owners. The rich young people at the resort mock Ken and exclude him from their social activities, considering him a lowly employee. Although Sylvia is strongly attracted to Ken, she feels pressure from her family and from her wealthy peers to reject the impoverished Ken and make a more suitable match with Bart Hunter, the son of a wealthy, established island family. Bart and Ken eventually come to blows over Sylvia, leading to Ken and Sylvia secretly consummating their love. Ken leaves the island for good at the end of the summer, and Sylvia marries Bart as her family wishes. Ken becomes a millionaire through his work as a research chemist, and marries his partner's daughter, Helen, who turns out to be prudish and frigid. Meanwhile, Sylvia's husband Bart turns to alcohol as his family fortune dwindles, and he turns their island home into an inn. After twenty years away, Ken decides to visit the island again, writing Bart to ask for lodging. At first Bart wants to refuse, since he feels Ken is visiting to gloat over the relative change in their financial circumstances, but Sylvia insists that they need the money too badly to turn Ken down. Ken brings Molly and Helen to the island, and everyone tries to be cordial. The young Johnny and Molly soon become enamored of each other, while Ken and Sylvia fall in love all over again. When Bart finds out about Ken and Sylvia, he asks for a divorce and custody of their son John. Later, a friend of Helen's alerts her to Ken's affair with Sylvia, and Ken and Helen divorce. John and Molly are sent to separate boarding schools. Ken and Sylvia eventually marry. While at their respective schools, John and Molly begin an avid correspondence. Helen and her mother Margaret are not pleased, as they find it inappropriate for a girl Molly's age to be so attached to a boy, but the correspondence continues, with rendezvous during school breaks. John and Molly's romance culminates when they see each other again at Ken and Sylvia's beach house. The teenagers acknowledge that they are in love with one another, and they consummate it shortly thereafter. Back at school, Molly learns from a doctor that she is pregnant, and John hitchhikes across the country to be with and support her. Ken and Sylvia give their guarded approval to John and Molly's marriage, feeling it would be hypocritical for them to deny the teenagers their love. Bart cannot attend the wedding, since his alcoholism has forced him to enter a veterans' hospital; while he disapproves, he urges John to take over the inn. Helen attends the wedding under sedation. John and Molly spend their honeymoon on Pine Island, John's "one good inheritance", as Bart terms it in a letter. 

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The Confederation of Human Worlds comprises about two hundred semi-autonomous settled worlds. Some of those worlds are rich and powerful, others are not. A coalition of a dozen lesser worlds, tired of being second class citizens, decides to secede from the Confederation. What they do not know is the threat of an alien species known as the Skinks hangs over the entire confederation. The Skink Threat is top secret, no citizens know of them. Ever since the discovery of these aliens, the Confederation has beefed up its defences on the out lying colonies. On Ravenette, one of the Coalition worlds, protesters gather at the main gate of the Confederation army base. Someone unknown shoots into the crowd, killing a protester and setting off a bloody riot that kills many civilians and soldiers. The Coalition started the riot and provoked the soldiers even though the soldiers did not shoot into the crowd, news networks say otherwise. The Coalition declares war, and brings all its military might against the Confederation forces on Ravenette—banking on the likelihood that they will achieve victory before reinforcements arrive, and that the Confederation will agree to negotiate a peaceable parting. They guessed wrong. An army division and 34th FIST are soon on the scene, holding the line until more reinforcements arrive. But matters get worse when General Jason Billie is given command of the Confederation forces. General Billie not only has no combat command experience, he hates Marines. 

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Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith (Eddie Bracken) is a small town boy whose father, "Hinky Dinky" Truesmith, was a Marine who died a hero in World War I. Woodrow has been discharged from the Marine Corps after only a month owing to his chronic hay fever. Rather than disappoint his mother (Georgia Caine), he pretends to be fighting overseas in World War II while secretly working in a San Diego shipyard. In a chance encounter in a bar he buys a round of drinks for six Marines back from the Battle of Guadalcanal headed by Master Gunnery Sergeant Heffelfinger (William Demarest). It transpires that Heffelfinger had served with Woodrow's father in the 6th Marines in World War I. One of the Marines decides to telephone Woodrow's mother, telling her that he has received a medical discharge, so she will not have to worry about him. Woodrow is vehemently opposed to the fraud, but the Marines are all for it. Heffelfinger embellishes the charade by having Woodrow swap coats with one of the Marines that have the 1st Marine Division Battle Blaze and Pacific Theatre of Operations medals on it. When they step off the train, the seemingly harmless deception has escalated beyond control; the entire town turns out to greet its homegrown hero. With an election coming up, the citizens decide to make an unwilling Woodrow their candidate against the pompous current mayor, Mr. Noble (Raymond Walburn). Complicating matters even further, Woodrow had written his girlfriend Libby (Ella Raines), telling her not to wait for him. She has since gotten engaged to Forrest Noble (Bill Edwards), the mayor's son. Finally, Woodrow can stand it no longer. He confesses everything at a campaign rally and goes home to pack. Libby breaks her engagement and tells Woodrow she is going with him. Meanwhile, Heffelfinger praises Woodrow's courage in telling the truth to the stunned townsfolk, and after considering the matter, they decide that Woodrow has just the qualities they need in a mayor. 

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Jerry and Elaine have just ended their relationship, but have chosen to remain friends. Elaine invites Jerry to a birthday party; he agrees to go on the condition that she accompanies him to a wedding that he and his parents have been invited to. At the party, Jerry meets an attractive woman named Vanessa. He wants to flirt with her, but is uncomfortable doing so in Elaine's presence. The woman leaves with another man before Jerry finds out her name; however, he learns that she works at a law firm called "Sagman, Bennett, Robbins, Oppenheim and Taft". During the party, Elaine tries to tell Jerry about a dream she had, which featured him. Jerry tries to end the conversation but this results in an argument after the party is over. Back at his apartment, Jerry's parents, Morty and Helen, sleep over, with Jerry sleeping in Kramer's apartment. He talks about the party and claims that he cannot get the phone number of the woman from Elaine because he does not talk about other women with her; additionally, she is still angry with him. Morty suggests that Jerry "stake out" the woman by waiting outside her office, an idea which Jerry likes. The following day, Jerry and George Costanza perform the stake out, pretending that they are coming to see someone else in the building named "Art Corvelay", but under pressure, George insists that they make it "Art Vandelay". They meet the woman, who says the man she left the party with was her cousin. The two then decide to go out on a date. Later that night, Jerry finds out from his mother that Elaine knows about the stake out. On the day of the wedding, Elaine tells Jerry that the reason that she was angry was because it was the first time she saw him flirt with another woman. They decide that they have to be able to talk more about their relationships if they wish to remain friends. Elaine then reveals that she has recently met a man using a stake out. 

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Jux Jonas (Mike Norris) is a man whose faith in God hangs by a thread. His daughter was hit and killed by a car, and he's spent the last few years "tearing through life", not wanting to face the pain and return to his faith. Reluctantly, he journeys with friends Conrad (David A. R. White) and Oren (Carey Scott) aboard a plane to Mexico, to hand out Bibles as a form of ministry. However, their small aircraft soon crashes, and the trio find themselves in the secluded wasteland of Ceres, a town where the citizens are pale and eerie, and visitors are seen as unwanted outsiders. Before long, Jux and his pals discover something very weird in this place: No communication to the outside world seems to exist until local rancher Matthew (Chuck Norris) offers him the use of his two-way radio. The town at large despises Matthew and what he stands for. It's soon revealed that town elder Joshua (Marshall R. Teague) is actually an agent of Satan who has controlled the children of Ceres for centuries to bring about an unholy war. God has sent Matthew to observe, protect, and lead broken believers like Jux back to their faith in Jesus Christ. As the forces of evil prepare for a spiritual Armageddon, using the town's children as terrifying hosts, even Matthew cannot interfere alone, and Jux, Conrad and Oren must choose which side they will stand with...for all eternity. 

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Three Marines of Company L are sent on a secret mission to the mob-controlled resort world of Havanagas. Lance Corporals Claypoole and Dean – under the command of Corporal Pasquin – are to find proof of mob control -- proof that Confederation law enforcement agents have not been able to secure -- so that the gangsters can be brought to justice. Brigadier Sturgeon, the FIST commander, ostensibly goes on leave. Instead of vacationing he travels to Marine Corps Headquarters on Earth to find out why 34th FIST seems to have been quietly "quarantined," with nobody being rotated out of the unit, even though it is considered a hardship post. This potentially career-endangering "back channel" trip reveals some very scary facts. In the third plotline the Skinks visit a world only partially explored by humans and find a pre- technological sentient race. The Skinks immediately take captives to use as laborers. The planet is apparently a staging base for the Skinks' invasion of Kingdom, a human occupied world. 

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34th FIST has been reinforced by the 26th FIST, now that the Confederation is aware that this is a full scale Skink invasion. With the reinforcements, the Marines are now able to go off the defensive and take the battle to the Skinks. The Skinks have been using a devastating weapon never before seen by the Confederation armed forces, but in this book the Navy figures out what the weapon is, a Rail Gun. There doesn't appear to be a true defense, but at least there is now a warning when it is about to be used. The Fist Marines launch a major operation where the Skinks have made a stronghold in the swamps on Kingdom. Meanwhile, Skink Battle Cruisers are on their way to Kingdom. Having been pushed back from their swamp on Kingdom the Skinks launch a diversion cover their retreat to the Skink fleet. Up to this point in the Starfist series there have been no portrayals of space Naval battles, but this omission is now rectified. The Marines and Confederation Navy drive the Skinks off world and push them back to the planet "Quagmire" where they used its natives as slaves and used the planet as a staging area to invade Kingdom. The 26th and 34th Fist Marines then go to Quagmire and Kill most of the Skinks there, with the help of the Natives. Also, Marine General Aguinaldo is promoted to come up with an Anti Skink task force. He has the entire military at his disposal. There is also a subplot involving the government of Kingdom, as one of the more powerful figures among the Kingdomites takes advantage of the distraction caused by the extensive combat to overthrow the theocracy and establish a fascist-style government. Category:2003 American novels Category:American science fiction novels Category:2003 science fiction novels Category:StarFist series Category:Del Rey books 

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This novel continues the situation on the planet Kingdom from the previous novel, Kingdom's Fury. Dominic DeTomas, formerly head of the secret police of Kingdom, is now dictator and has put together a new fascist government that strongly resembles that of Nazi Germany. DeTomas's policies engendered resentment among certain parts of the populace, and this festers into an uprising. While the mild-mannered inhabitants of Kingdom might not expect to succeed against an implacably violent police state, the uprising is advised and led by an amnesiac Confederation Marine who had been captured by the alien Skinks and later released when the Skinks were driven off Kingdom. 

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Before the opening credits, a recent widow is sitting in a life insurance office. Expecting to be compensated for her husband's death, the widow is informed that she is not entitled to full death benefits because the insurance company has obtained video of her husband smoking and attributes his death to cigarettes. Abe Holt looks on as his co-worker convinces the widow that she's lucky to leave with a small fraction of the award she was expecting. The film centers around three vehicle crashes, revealed in sequence at the beginning of the movie. The first depicts a young couple flying through the open roof of their convertible, which has been sailed over a cliff. They swim to shore, where the woman hits the leg of her fellow passenger with a pipe. The second involves a city bus and insurance adjustor Abe Holt (Forest Whitaker), who has arrived at the scene suspicious that many of the passengers boarded the bus after the accident, looking to file a claim. Holt bluffs, claiming a hidden camera will help sort out who was actually on the bus. Many leave, and his co-worker (Peter Coyote) quickly tells him their company wants him to investigate a crash in the remote and desolate town of North Hastings, Minnesota. The third crash involves an unnamed young man who is stranded at the side of the road on a rainy night, after stopping in the local bar. He accepts a ride from the driver who had previously drained his gas tank, and who then proceeds to accelerate the car into the wall of a tunnel, injuring his passenger in the wreck. The anonymous man is dragged to the front seat and buckled in before the siphoned gas is poured over the car and set ablaze. However, to those who later discover the crash it appears that the actual driver Kelvin Anderson has died after crashing his own car into the tunnel wall, igniting a fire that burned his body beyond recognition. The local police are convinced it is an open-and-shut case because Kelvin's driver's license was found in the glovebox, the plates on the car match Kelvin's, and Kelvin's sister, Isold (Julia Stiles), lives on the far side of the tunnel. However, Holt is suspicious because while the body is conveniently unidentifiable, the license is undamaged and Isold, the sole beneficiary of the $1 million policy, is skittish and was not expecting her brother's visit. Isold's husband "Fred" McBride (Jeremy Renner), is unexpectedly cheerful and vaguely threatening, convincing Holt there's more to this case. As he investigates the case Holt uncovers leading clues: Frederick McBride is actually dead and buried in a field outside the abandoned McBride home, and the supposedly dead Kelvin has a record as a con man. The most convincing evidence is photos of Kelvin from his criminal record and high school, showing him looking like "Fred." Holt eventually confirms that the charred body pulled from the car wreck is not Kelvin's, that Isold's "husband" is actually her brother Kelvin. A flashback reveals that the couple from the convertible seen at the opening of the movie was Isold and Kelvin, wrecking their car—and Kelvin's leg—for insurance money. When Isold figures out that her brother has murdered an innocent drifter she is horrified, but Kelvin convinces her to participate in this final con and hold hostage his son Thor, whom Isold has been helping to raise since the boy's mother left. When Isold visits the insurance office to collect on Kelvin's policy, Holt—in an echo of the movie's opening scene—informs her that he cannot award her the full $1 million she expects, only the blue book value of his car ($1500). She leaves angrily. When Holt tells Isold she's lucky he hasn't exposed her as an accessory to murder, she tells him that her brother has taken Thor. Moved and concerned, Holt puts a one-day hold on her check (ensuring that she'll return to the bank the next day) and changes the name of the insured on the policy from "Kelvin Anderson" to "Frederick McBride." The next day Isold cashes her check and opens a safety deposit box, in which she puts a childhood picture of her and her brother. She returns to the motel where Kelvin is staying with Thor, and tries to convince him that she has left the rest of the money in the safety deposit box, so that she can leave with Thor. Kelvin doesn't buy it, and gets in his car with Thor—only to find he's held at gunpoint by Holt, in the backseat. Holt tells Isold to leave with the boy and "Fred" speeds off, buckling his seatbelt (a sign he intends to crash the car). Kelvin crashes the car, killing both men, and Isold is awarded the full benefits of the tampered life insurance policy. The film ends with Abe walking on a beach meant to suggest heaven, that is identical to the beach featured in the insurance company's commercial shown earlier in the film, as the credits roll. 

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Jason, an exiled prince, is raised to adulthood by Chiron, a centaur. Chiron encourages him to see the beauty and sacredness in reality, but also realizes that Jason will become rational, lose any sense of spirituality, and travel the world as an adventurer. When he becomes a man, Jason confronts his uncle, Pelias, who had killed Jason's father and usurped the throne. Pelias tells Jason he will restore the throne to Jason if he can travel to Colchis and retrieve the Golden Fleece. Jason assembles his Argonauts and they endure a difficult voyage. In Colchis, Medea leads her people in fertility rite. A young man is offered up as a human sacrifice and his organs and blood are sprinkled over the crops in a ritual sparagmos. Jason arrives, and though he has been terrorizing the surrounding countryside, Medea immediately falls in love with him. With the aid of her brother Absyrtus she steals the Golden Fleece for Jason. They join the fleeing Argonauts, but the Colchians pursue them. Medea kills her brother and dismembers his body. Her father's men are then forced to halt and retrieve the scattered pieces of his son's body, enabling Jason and Medea to escape. When they return to Jason's homeland, Pelias reneges on his promise. Deciding the fleece has little power after all, Jason accepts this decision. Medea is stripped of her ornate ethnic garb and dressed in the garments of a traditional Greek housewife. She bears Jason two sons. But he grows tired of her and decides to pursue a political marriage to a Corinthian princess, Glauce. Chiron reappears to Jason, as both a centaur and a human, to remind Jason that this is his and Medea's destiny. The enraged Medea plots revenge against Jason and his new bride and sends Glauce a robe bewitched with magic herbs. Although Medea intends for the poison to cause the princess and her father, Creon, to burst into flames; instead Glauce and Creon are driven insane and leap to their deaths. Medea kills her and Jason's sons and sets fire to their house. Held back by the fire, Jason pleads with Medea to let the children have a proper burial. From the midst of the flames, she refuses: "It is useless! Nothing is possible anymore!" 

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Although the Empress Dowager Tzu-hsi of the Ching Dynasty had promised her nephew, Emperor Kuang-hsu that he had complete autonomy, he found that this was not the case as he attempted to exert his authority over corrupt eunuchs and officials who undermined him with the backing of the Empress Dowager. Young, inexperienced and without a strong cadre of loyal officials to support him, he tries to juggle affairs both public and private. His loveless marriage to Empress Chin Feng and dislike of the Empress further leaves him all the more bereft of any power lever. His only bright spark in a cold gloomy palace was his love for Concubine Chen and a young eunuch who wholeheartedly supports him. 

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The play is set in the 1890s in Vienna. Its dramatic structure consists of ten interlocking scenes between pairs of lovers. Each of its ten characters appears in two consecutive scenes (with one from the final scene, The Whore, having appeared in the first). ;Scenes: #The Whore and the Soldier #The Soldier and the Parlor Maid #The Parlor Maid and the Young Gentleman #The Young Gentleman and the Young Wife #The Young Wife and The Husband #The Husband and the Little Miss #The Little Miss and the Poet #The Poet and the Actress #The Actress and the Count #The Count and the Whore 

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Amelia and Pippo were once together famous as dancers, imitating Ginger Rogers' and Fred Astaire's dance routines. Thirty years after they've retired, they team up one more time for a live TV show. Although this reunion is overshadowed by Pippo's lack of stamina, their performance is well-received and revives their popularity for another day. 

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Larry Martin (Judd Holdren), a leader in the Inter-Planetary Patrol, detects a rocket coming to Earth. He takes to the air in his jet-powered rocket suit and helmet to investigate and discovers Martian invaders, led by Marex (Lane Bradford). Since Mars is now orbiting too far from the Sun and its ecology has been dying, the Martian invaders want to swap Earth's and Mars' orbits, so Mars will then be closer to the Sun. They plan on achieving this by using hydrogen bomb plans stolen from Earth scientists to cause the two planets' orbits to swap, using specifically placed atomic explosions on both worlds. Martin also learns the Martians have Earth accomplices in the forms of the traitorous Dr. Harding (Stanley Waxman), and two gangsters, Roth (John Crawford) and Shane (Ray Boyle), who bedevil him and his associates, Sue Davis (Aline Towne) and Bob Wilson (Wilson Wood). The Martians set up a base in a cave that can only be reached from underwater, where they begin constructing their bomb; and make a remotely-controlled robot to supplement their human associates in acquiring supplies and funds to complete the project. Eventually, Larry and his comrades gain the upper hand: Marex kills Harding when he attempts to surrender, Roth and Shane are killed when Larry turns the robot against them, and the Martians are brought down in flames in their rocket ship after a furious stratosphere raygun battle with Larry in his own spacecraft. Marex's Martian aide, Narab (Leonard Nimoy) survives the crash and tells Larry where to find the underwater cave with the activated bomb in it. Larry arrives in time to defuse the bomb just seconds before it would have exploded. 

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Attracted but also frightened by her sexuality, a teenage girl undergoes a brief therapy with a warm, humorous and competent psychotherapist. 

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Construction for the Federal Building began with the demolition of the Old Central Armory and the Cuyahoga County Morgue. The Armory building was designed by Lehman and Schmitt and constructed in 1896. It was made in a late Victorian style with a Gothic exterior. The Morgue, constructed in 1894, showed examples of Egyptian Revival architecture. 

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Prior to the opening credits we see portions of the stag film that is shot in the course of the movie. Voices are overheard that make it apparent that men and women are watching this in the present day. At the end a man complains that there was no "cum shot", something that will later develop into a plot point. The story takes place in Hollywood in the early 1930s, shortly after the start of the talkie period. A visionary and gifted young Hollywood director known as Boy Wonder (Richard Dreyfuss) has fallen out of favor with the studios. This is ostensibly due to his reluctance to lower his standards or abandon his artistic and experimental style, such as using a hand-held camera, for the sake of churning out lesser quality stag films for easy money, due to his alcoholism and his fear of leaving his house. He works out of his decaying mansion, which is the only one left on a street being turned into a freeway. On the morning of this particular shoot, a heroin-addicted waitress named Harlene (Veronica Cartwright) arrives. Harlene was once a well-known and respected star during the silent film era, and she too is reluctant to join the ranks of the "talkies" due in part to her unappealing, high-pitched squeaky voice. She is now the star in the first of his six-picture deal. She prepares and shoots heroin while Boy Wonder drinks heavily during a conversation about the changing times in Hollywood. An actor called Rex the Wonder Dog (Stephen Davies) soon arrives, wearing a white suit with grass stains on his knees, having just come from his job working for a mortician. During his introduction, Rex gullibly believes a man from a studio who that says that he will put him in the mainstream talkies, and has an appointment to meet him in his hotel room later that same day. Boy Wonder awkwardly attempts to make an artistic film using an actress under the influence of heroin and an actor who becomes increasingly frustrated with the director and all of his poetic talk, much of which he admits he doesn't understand. The scene goes wrong when Rex gets out of control during the action and Boy Wonder needs to smash a wine bottle over his head to get him to stop. Just then Big Mac (Bob Hoskins), a porno film producer, enters the scene. He has small heroin packets in his jacket pocket, an unlit cigar in his mouth, wads of money for Rex and a pretty wannabe actress named Cathy Cake (Jessica Harper) hanging on his arm. Harlene takes her payment in heroin and soon dies from an overdose in an upstairs bedroom. Rex finds the dead body, and everyone is terribly upset over this turn of events. Boy Wonder talks about continuing his film, but Rex refuses to perform with a dead woman. Big Mac offers Rex a part in a mainstream movie in order to convince Rex to help him bury the body and, while the two are away, Cathy and Boy Wonder develop a chemistry that eventually leads to another ironic high point in the film. Boy Wonder offers to film Cathy for insert shots of her nude body to double for the late Harlene. At first, Cathy refuses to undress, but when she does, she soon becomes aroused by Boy Wonder filming her. After a while, he makes love to her believing he has found something of a soulmate, but she is disappointed when she learns the camera was off. Boy Wonder's sexual experience with Cathy marked the end of his longstanding problem with impotence, which was evidently related to his emotional problems. Boy Wonder quickly realizes that this romantic encounter was simply a ploy to get her into the film, and that she has used and directed him the way he used and directed her. Big Mac and Rex return to find both of them half naked. In a jealous rage, Big Mac ends his six-picture stag film contract with Boy Wonder, who by this time is completely drunk. Rex beats up Boy Wonder in retribution for hitting him earlier with the wine bottle by doing likewise. Big Mac takes the film reel that Boy Wonder used and leaves with Rex and Cathy. After Boy Wonder is left alone in his home, a man knocks at the door. This is Clark Gable, a then little-known actor who had been said to be intending to call on Boy Wonder about a film project. Boy Wonder will not answer the door, and after a short time the unseen man leaves. The end of the film finds Boy Wonder alone in his spacious living room, sitting in the same place where the film began; playing piano and singing, pondering what he'll eat for lunch. This last remark brings home the fact that, while a great deal has occurred in the course of the film, the movie was shot in real time. 

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Evangeline "Dot" Freeland is sent to her rich father's country estate Roselawn for her health. She soon meets the gardener's son "Tot" Thompson, who becomes her friend and playmate. One day, they have a picnic and sit in a boat they find by the river, which gets away and takes them to a passage in a cliff face that brings them to the magical country of Merryland. Merryland is made of seven valleys, arranged in a circular pattern connected by a river running through them. The first valley is populated by clowns, the second is a land in which everything—including the people—is entirely made of candy, and the third the valley where babies grow from blossoms before storks deliver them to their parents. The fourth valley is populated by living dolls and is also the home of the Queen of Merryland, a large wax doll who makes Dot and Tot her adopted children. After Dot and Tot have a day of running the valley by themselves, the queen joins Dot and Tot to see the remaining three valleys. The fifth valley is populated entirely by cats, the sixth valley is run by Mr. Split, who makes wind up animals. The final valley is the Valley of Lost Things, where every lost item goes. Tot finds a doll he'd lost and is allowed to take it with him. The Queen decides to allow Dot and Tot to travel onward, which will take them back to Roselawn, but she will close the way to Merryland forever. Returning to the river, Dot is found by her father who notices that she no longer looks sickly. Tot deduces that the Queen of Merryland—who was either interrupted or forgot to answer when asked her name—must be named "Dolly." 

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Sam Laker (Sinatra) is a former World War II Office of Strategic Services (OSS) operative who is recruited by his former commanding officer to do a mission whilst he attends a business conference in Leipzig. To ensure his cooperation, his son is kidnapped. 

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Colleen Gibson doesn't realize live-in boyfriend Dick Rasmusson, a third-rate private detective, has been cheating on her until phony psychic Madame Hugonaut inadvertently provides accurate details about his most recent indiscretion. When Colleen confronts him with what she believes is an empty gun, she shoots and kills Dick, who had loaded the firearm without her knowledge. Enter Daniel Gallagher, an Irish mobster whose desire to be a crooner was dampened by his ex-girlfriend Mary when she laughed at his singing. Daniel has managed not to kill anyone in his short career as a hit man, so when he discovers Colleen has killed Dick, who was next on his hit list, he's happy to take the credit and tell his boss and brother-in-law Jared O'Reilly that he finally completed an assignment. Unfortunately, Jared starts giving him a lot more assignments, and Daniel enlists Colleen to do his dirty work for him. Complicating matters are Daniel's sister Ivy, who would like to see her husband dead; two bumbling detectives investigating Dick's murder; and the reappearance of Mary and her new boyfriend, mumbling Tony Moretti. 

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