David Boreanaz's brooding bloodsucker opens the season at a Himalyan monastery, mourning the loss of his eternal love, Buffy. "Of course all the monks turn out to be life-sucking demons, so he ends up fighting 73 of them," explains coexec producer David Greenwalt. Angel will be assisted this year by Winifred (Amy Acker, now a regular), the physicist he rescued from slavery last season, and chased by a vampire killer played by Profit's Keith Szarabajka. "He hunted Angel and Darla across Europe for the better part of a quarter century," Greenwalt says. "And they, in turn, ate his wife and kids." We hate it when that happens. (Sept. 24)