3.13 "Waiting in the Wings" Trivia Quiz

Answer: A ballet

The ballet is "Giselle," a tragic love story that is the dance company's signature piece. In fact, it's a long-standing tradition for the company; Angel remembers having seen their production of it over a hundred years previously, when he was evil.

The rest of the crew doesn't quite share Angel's enthusiasm. Gunn is particularly upset, which is understandable, since the outing was apparently his idea (he'd wanted to see a favorite band). He stands in shock after Angel returns with ballet tickets. "It's like a nightmare," he says.

Answer: Wesley and Gunn

Wesley and Gunn are each hoping to impress Fred with their tuxedoed good looks and sophisticated taste; they are both also temporarily struck speechless by the sight of Fred in her evening gown. Fred seems oblivious to their flustered states. Meanwhile, Angel seems to be thinking of Cordelia as more than just a friend. It should be an interesting night!

Answer: Lorne

Lorne is not happy that he wasn't invited to the ballet; he even sings baby Connor a little song about it. He tries to be a good sport, though -- even as the evening grows dark, and even as he begins to hear strange noises ...

Answer: Sleeping

The last few weeks have been hard on Cordelia -- she's become a demon, for one thing -- and she deserves her rest. She isn't the only one dreaming, however. Wesley is transfixed by the beauty of the dancing, and by the beauty of Fred beside him. In a scene that ultimately had to be cut (but which I strongly recommend watching on the DVD), he imagines Fred dancing the role of Giselle, with himself prancing awkwardly about the stage around her.

Amy Acker, the actress who plays Fred, danced ballet for many years. According to his commentary track, director/writer/producer Joss Whedon devised this episode partly to show off her dancing skills, as well as to show off Alexis Denisof (Wesley)'s talent for physical comedy. It's a shame the sequence had to be cut.

Answer: The performers are the same ones he saw a hundred years ago.

Ballet dancers put a lot of strain on their bodies, so they don't usually have long careers -- and a hundred years is really pushing it. Something uncanny is going on, and Angel decides to investigate. He takes Cordelia to help him find the backstage entrance. Fred, Gunn, and Wesley stay behind to watch the rest of the performance.

Answer: A romantic interlude

The scene is one of passion between the prima ballerina and an illicit sweetheart, "Stefan." They are desperate to be together, but keep pulling back, fearful that "he" will find out; we learn that "he" is very possessive and has a fearsome temper. Angel and Cordelia are clearly very uncomfortable that all this is playing out using their personal bodies, but after experiencing two such scenes, Angel has a much clearer idea about what's at the root of these strange happenings.

Answer: White masks representing comedy and tragedy

Since the time of the ancient Greeks, the theater has been symbolized by two white masks showing the two faces of drama. One mask, with upturned eyes and a wide grin, is the face of comedy; the other, with downcast eyes and an intense frown, shows the face of tragedy. The villain's minions are these masks personified: one of them weeps as he fences with our heroes, and the other one laughs.

Cordelia and Angel fend off one pair in the haunted dressing room; another pair attacks Fred, Gunn, and Wesley, who have come to check on their friends, in a hallway. Gunn is lightly wounded, and shares a first kiss with Fred in the aftermath. These dramatic swordsmen keep coming, though: the wizard who maintains the enchantment conjures them up faster than they fall.

Answer: Summer Glau

Angel finds the prima ballerina literally waiting in the wings, ready to make her next entrance. In a stunning monologue, she tells him everything. How she loved Stefan. How Count Kurskov, owner of the company, was jealous. How she hesitated to leave, fearing the loss of her career, and now has lost everything in an enchanted, eternally repeating loop of time. "He made me. He owns me. When I dance, it's only for him ... But always, at the same moment, I slip. It isn't just the same ballet, it's the same performance. I don't dance, I echo." She begs Angel to make it stop.

"Waiting in the Wings" first aired on February 4, 2002; it was Summer Glau's first acting job. That fall she was gracing television screens again, as the fugitive River in "Firefly."

Answer: By smashing the enchanter's power center

The owner of the ballet, Count Kurskov (Mark Harelik), has been keeping the prima ballerina in an eternal time loop by drawing from his power center, a large red jewel that he conveniently wears as a tie clip. (Pro tip for evil overlords: power centers belong in safe deposit boxes.) With the force of his enchantment weakened (first by the attacks on his minions, and then by the ballerina dancing her own steps), he is easily overpowered by Angel.

His power center and enchantment destroyed, Kurskov is distraught. The prima ballerina makes a deep bow to Angel, and then vanishes. The audience is surprisingly unfazed.

Answer: The Groosalugg

The Groosalugg, played by Mark Lutz, is a part-human, part-demon who is familiar from a story arc at the end of the second season. For complicated reasons, Cordelia was briefly honored as a princess of Pylea, and the Groosalugg was her champion and her sweetheart.

He stayed behind to govern when she returned to L.A., but it seems he's been deposed -- and he's come to find her. Cordelia couldn't be more starry-eyed. And Angel couldn't be more jealous.