Gunn and Wesley fasten leather straps around Angel's wrists, binding him to the table in the cage. Oh my. I bet Wesley fetched those from his apartment. I think Angel's legs are strapped down as well. The shaman places a glass bottle on a table outside the cage and tells Cordy the bottle will hold Angel's soul. Personally, I'd put that sucker in a box full of Styrofoam peanuts, because you never know when Wesley's going to revert to his pratfalling persona. Angel sees Cordelia and says, "I don't want you here!" "Tough," she replies. Gunn and Wesley exit the cage, and Wo Pang steps inside, pulling the door closed behind him. He suggests that they put another lock on the door. "Do as he says," Wesley orders, and Gunn does it because now is not the time for "Do it your own damn self!" bickering, I guess. Cordy approaches the cage and tells Angel that he doesn't have to do this. Angel sighs, "Now she tells me." Wo Pang instructs, "Close your eyes and don't speak," placing a hand on Angel's giant brow. Angel remembers how bad things happen whenever people tell him to close his eyes, and tries to comfort himself with the thought that at least Wo Pang isn't a pretty blonde girl. Or is he? The MoG watch as Wo Pang starts chanting. After a moment, he opens his eyes, which are scarlet, matching his ninja outfit. That's taking color coordination to the extreme. He leans down and whispers, "Time to say goodbye," in Angel's ear. Then he stands, whips a dagger out of his belt, and makes some exciting swishy noises with it. Angel opens his eyes as the blade plunges toward him, and we go to commercial.

Which seems like a good time for a word of explanation. I'm not going to do the recap as if I don't know how it ends. Mostly because I knew about the ending before I saw it, so I can't tell you what I would have thought if I'd been surprised. Plus you have to know the ending for the episode to be as funny as it should be. So if you didn't see the episode and are reading this to catch up, here's the deal: in order to remove Angel's soul, the shaman is creating an illusion that will make Angel happy. The illusion began sometime in the last scene, I'm guessing during the chanting. The rest of this episode is only happening inside Angel's head, but you aren't supposed to know that on the first viewing. Got it? It's all a trip through Angel's head to discover his deepest desires, which means this may be the scariest hour of television in history.