By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Photos copyright WB
I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.
Some of the most dangerous things in the world are a wounded animal, a cornered animal, a woman scorned and a man with nothing left to lose. In Angel season three, Angel went up against his most dangerous foe ever. He was not a supernatural being; he was not all powerful. He was a vampire hunter from the 18th century on a mission of vengeance. He had chased Darla and Angelus across Europe but failed to catch them. Having been exposed to the dark world thanks to Angelus and Darla, Daniel Holtz used dark forces to execute his plan. He was going to kill Angelus for murdering his entire family. The problem was that Angelus no longer existed; he was now the hero we know as Angel. But Holtz doesn’t care. Everything and everyone Angel holds dear was going to die but as fate would have it Holtz managed to destroy Angel in a way he could never have planned for.
Back in the past, Holtz had a family so to put him off tracking them, Darla and Angelus decided to enter Holtz’s home. They murdered his infant son and wife. When Holt got home, his daughter had been turned. Distraught Holt had to put her in direct sunlight. Instead of breaking him, it only fuelled his hatred and determination to bring them both down. He almost did it by trapping them in a burning barn but Darla left Angelus to die but he too escaped. No matter how many times he tried, Holtz failed to kill them. In a final humiliation, he tortured Angelus for hours in Rome. Darla freed him but they mocked Holtz saying they would not kill him as he was like family to them. This sent the hunter into a seclusion.
But Angel made a lot of enemies over the years and Holtz was offered a lifeline by the demon Sahjhan. Sahjhan put him in a state of suspened animation until 2001 when Sahjhan showed Holtz the new world and what had happened in the years since he slept. The demon even gave him a army of grappler demons with which he took out Wolfram and Hart’s SWAT team. Holtz was shocked to learn that Darla was pregnant and that Angel now had a soul and worked for the good of the people. Sparing him, Holtz decided on a new plan. He would hurt those that Angel loved and began recruiting humans who hated monsters as much as he did. His first recruit was Justine Cooper whom had lost her sister to vampires. Focusing her anger, Holtz gave her a new purpose.
He trapped Fred and Gunn in a vampire’s nest but they survived. Wesley began to notice Angel’s behaviour change around Connor as if his blood lust was rising. To his horror, he discovers a prophecy that Angel would kill Connor so along with Justine, he took Connor. However the prophecy was false, planted by Sahjhan who was manipulating the entire situation because in reality, the prophecy showed that Connor would grow up to kill him. Justine slit Wesley’s throat leaving him for dead.
She and Holtz would keep Connor raising him as their own renaming him Stephen. This triggers a four way battle as Wolfran and Hart, Angel, Holtz and Sanjhan fight for the baby who Holtz is clutching. Sanjhan reveals the truth and opens a portal to a hell dimensio Quir’toth. It is nowhere anyone should be. It is a standoff and realising that Connor will never be safe with him, Angel lets Holtz raise his son who would never know who his father was. In a stunning end to the episode, Holtz jumps into the portal with the baby robbing Angel of his son.
Time moves at a different pace in the hell dimension and a few months later Connor returns with an elderly Holtz. This Connor is a teenager with a deep hatred of Angel and as skilled a fighter as any slayer. Holtz is killed by Justine at his request. They make it look like Holtz has been killed by a vampire by using a pickaxe to fake fang marks. Connor wrongly blamed Angel and tgether with Justine, buries him at sea as punishment.
Angel season three was the best for me personally. It had such strong storytelling ad jaw dropping moments you couldn’t fail to be hooked. Whether it was Darla’s staking herself so her baby can be born, Holtz seeing Angel holding the newborn in the rain, Wesley’s betrayal and getting his throat slit to Angel trying to kill him in his hospital bed, Holtz smashed the world of Angel almost beyond repair. Even lounge lizard singing demon Lorne being attacked by Wesley as he takes Connor is an act too horrible to comprehend. Sanjhan to save his own life, used Holtz as a pawn to bring Angel down and team Angel are turning on each other. Keith Szarabajka played Holtz flawlessly. He was cool and calculating driven by the pan of the muder of his family. Seeing an opportunity, he wanted to turn Connor against his father which is worse than killing him just as Angelus did with his children. He was a master manipulator with a plan that Sanjhan knew nothing of. When a demon underestimates a vampire hunter that speaks volumes about the character of the hunter and lack of foresight on the part of the demon. You completely agree with Holtz and his cause but you have to keep in mind that people can chnage.
That entire season stands today as a gripping drama that hurts us as an audience as surely as it hurts our heroes. Great stuff.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 