The time is soon upon us, Sean Astin was recently behind the camera directing an episode of the horror/action WB show ‘Angel’.

The episode, which airs this Wednesday, is part of a ‘Dark Sun’ plotline that has been playing out for the past month or so.

If you are not a fan of the show and care to watch, read the following to get caught up with all the latest.

Angel: The information you need to know

Angelus (David Boreanaz) is a hundred-plus year old vampire living in modern day Los Angeles. He fights the good fight alongside a team of investigators dealing with all things para-normal.

Angel was cursed with a soul by gypsies in the late 1800’s, he could no longer kill people and suffers daily with memories of his past evil deeds. His curse can only be lifted (not that he wants it to go away) by a moment of pure happiness.

Having changed his name to Angel, he works alongside Cordelia Chase (the lovely Charisma Carpenter), Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (Alexis Denisof), Charles Gunn (J. August Richards) and Winifred ‘Fred’ Burkle (Amy Acker) to kill evil deamons and other vampires.

Without getting into too many details, he also has a young son, Connor (Vincent Kartheiser) who seems to possess a great deal of Angel’s powers.

In recent weeks, a really nasty rock/goat daemon (don’t take this show too seriously) has plotted and killed his way into blotting out the sun, therefore allowing all the nasty daemons and monsters out from under their rocks and feast on the city’s helpless inhabitants. Only Angel and his team can stop him and return the sunlight.

Last weeks episode Wesley theorized that the rock daemon and Angelus (the nasty version of Angel) are somehow connected. He tells Angel the only way to find more information and kill the beast is to bring Angelus back and question him. Angel reluctantly decides to do this and, after locking himself in a cage, brings in an Asian shaman with mystic powers who claims he can exercise Angel’s soul and keep it safe.

As the shaman prepares to perform his voodoo on Angel he is exposed as an assassin for the daemon and is killed. The team learns (with the aid of massive tattoo scripture on the assassin) that an ancient sword can kill the beast. They locate the sword, and in a pitched battle between Connor, Angel and the beast, they kill him.

The sun returns to the earth and all is well. Cordelia, meanwhile expresses her true love to Angel and they share an extremely intimate moment. Angel, obviously enjoying himself, beings to lift his curse and BANG! We are suddenly back in the steel cage with the Asian shaman…his voodoo has worked, Angel thought his dreams were reality (and so did we).

The REAL reality is that the sun is still gone, the daemon is still loose, and now the very nasty Angelus is back, while Angels soul is in a jar on a table….

This is where the Sean Astin episode ‘Soulless’ beings. Take a look at the trailer. [More]

Sounds like fun to me….