High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! "The Trial" is episode 9 of season 2 in the television show Angel. Written by Douglas Petrie and Tim Minear and directed by Bruce Seth Green, this episode was originally broadcast on November 28, 2000 on the WB network. In "The Trial", Darla discovers that she is again terminally ill with syphilis, which was killing her before she was made a vampire in 1609. She begs Angel to turn her back into a vampire to halt the disease's progress, but instead he engages in a series of mysterious trials to attempt to win Darla a second chance at life.