At the Hyperion, Wesley stands in a doorway, which is the smartest thing I've ever seen him do. Gunn shouts for Fred, by which he means Gwen. Gunn, Fred, and Cary collapse as the floor shakes. Fred asks, "What's happening," because she is the biggest idiot in the world. Some crumbling bits of the ceiling fall onto the circle around Skip, breaking the barrier imprisoning him. That's a pretty lame magic circle, I have to say. Skip says, "End of the world, cupcake. For you," and walks out of the circle toward her.

Connor holds Cordy's hand and says that they have to stop whatever's happening. Cordy gasps, "It's coming! The beginning of a new world!" "Or not," Angel says. Connor stands up and turns to face his father.

Skip tosses Gunn across the room. I guess he went to Satan's School for Tossing. He turns back to Fred, who is crawling away. Wesley hits Skip in the back with an axe, which has zero effect. Except that it causes Skip to turn and knock Wesley across the room. And then he taunts them a bit as the earthquake continues. There's always time for taunting.

Angel's sword hangs in the left-hand side of the frame, recalling the way Cordy held the cleaver earlier on the right earlier, and I'm sorry to keep harping on the slow-mo, but everything else about the direction really impressed me. Angel tells Connor that Cordy isn't Cordy, which I feel obliged to note is a lie, and Cordy tells Connor not to listen. Connor rushes Angel, knocking the sword away, and Cordy pleads, "Kill him! Kill him, Connor!"

Skip grabs Fred by the neck and lifts her up. Fred has achieved a bloody nose at some point. Skip asks, "What was that you were saying before? Something about infinite agony?" Gunn rushes up and attacks with a sword. Skip drops Fred and knocks Gunn away. Wesley leaps up and starts blazing away with a pistol. Bleah. Guns have ceased to be excitingly realistic intrusions into this fantasy world, and are now just further evidence of Wesley's incompetence. The bullets harmlessly bounce off Skip, except for shattering some nearby decorative touches. But that doesn't stop Wesley, no sir! In a bit that took me and Johanna some time to figure out, Skip turns so that a bullet bounces off him and hits Wesley somehow, causing him to drop the gun. Skip asks, "Do those things ever work? I mean, really?" It's been a long time since I've been amused by the closed captioning, but I do giggle a bit at the shot of Fred with the caption "[Breathes heavily.]" As Skip turns back to Fred, Wesley makes a squinty Clint Eastwood face. There's a wound in Skip's head where his sickle was knocked off. Wesley makes a ludicrous slow-mo rolling dive for his pistol, and I guess I should give props because it's clearly Alexis Denisof doing the shoulder-roll, and that's great, but Jesus, knock it off already with the slow-mo! I'm seriously starting to wonder if the episode was five minutes short. So anyway, Wesley aims and fires, and the bullet enters the wee hole in Skip's armor. Skip sighs, "Well, that ain't right," and collapses.