In the episode, Angel and Spike duel over a mystical grail to decide which one will be the champion, as flashbacks show the complex relationship between the two vampires.
Guest star Juliet Landau reprises her role as Drusilla, and Christian Kane makes an uncredited appearance at the end of the episode playing Lindsey McDonald.
The episode is notable for its large scale battle between the two vampires, as well as for being the focus of an indecency complaint by the Parents Television Council for sexual situations.
Eve announces that Spike now qualifies as a champion and because there are two possible candidates for the fulfillment of the Shanshu Prophecy, "the wheel of destiny starts to spin off its axis".
[2] That battle, Scott McLaren argues, "succeeds in portraying an almost perfect balance between the concepts of the soul as existential metaphor and ontological reality."
Since the Shanshu prophesy destines the ensouled vampire to a pivotal and dangerous role in the ultimate battle between good and evil, Spike and Angel's souls function both as "heavy burdens and precious baubles.
"[7] The Parents Television Council filed a complaint against a WB station for the flashback sex scene in which Angel's hips can be seen "moving back and forth."
[8] However, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) later ruled that the scene was not indecent, as it was "brief, contained no nudity and was not sufficiently graphic or explicit to render the program patently offensive.