Entertainment
Buffy’s Most Heartbreaking Plot Twist Was Inspired By History's Darkest Devil Story
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel is a character stricken by a very specific curse: as a vampire, one of his victims’ families gives him his soul back, forcing him to constantly experience the crushing guilt of everyone he has ever hurt or killed. To make things worse, there was a catch to this curse that served to twist the knife in Angel’s heart. Specifically, if he ever experiences a moment of true happiness, he would lose his soul and once again become Angelus, one of the scariest vampires the planet had ever known.
All of this makes Angel (played by David Boreanaz) one of the most complex and fascinating characters in television history, and many Buffy fans have wondered where showrunner Joss Whedon got the idea for this gut-wrenching curse. But you don’t have to look far to discover the answer: as it turns out, Whedon drew inspiration from one of the most famous stories in all of literature. You see, Angel’s curse is very similar to what we see in the tale of Faust, better known as the original “deal with the devil” story.
What A Terrible Night For A Curse
If your memories of English class are a little fuzzy, here’s a quick primer: Faust was originally a German legend about a man who, despite his success, simply wanted more out of life. In order to get it, he made a deal with the devil in which he would get all of the worldly knowledge and pleasures that he could ever want. But after a life of experiencing what amounted to Heaven on Earth, his soul would go straight to Hell once he died.
Multiple authors have adapted this German folktale, and the most famous was created by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He added his own twists to Faust’s pact with the devil, including Faust making a very special wager: he will become a servant in Hell only if the Devil can provide him with a moment of true happiness that he would want to last forever. This unexpectedly happens when Faust begins dreaming of people working together to make the world a better place; this moment of happiness damns his soul, but he is effectively saved by God, who rewards Faust with salvation because of his righteous dream of human harmony.
The Most Tortured Vampire In History
Needless to say, there is plenty of parallelism between what happens to Goethe’s Faust and what happens to Angel in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Once his soul is restored, Angel does his best to atone for all the terrible acts that he committed as a vampire. But once he experiences a moment of true happiness (which happened, awkwardly enough, during sex with Buffy), he loses his soul, becoming once more a terrible monster who damns himself with each transgressive act.
Arguably, Angel is also the beneficiary of the same divine grace that saved Faust: after losing his soul and becoming Angelus, he enacts a plan meant to plunge the entire world into Hell. Buffy stops him, but only after Willow successfully restores his soul. This leads to the most heartbreaking moment in the entire series, in which Buffy has to kill the only man she has ever loved, sending him to a hell dimension in order to save every human on the planet.
Saved By The Spell
He is inexplicably resurrected in Season 3, and there is never an official explanation given for who or what brings him back from Hell. But one very prominent fan theory is that he was brought back by The Powers That Be, the same mysterious group of cosmic powerhouses who ensured Angel met Buffy. Later, they gave prophetic visions to Doyle, the demon who helped Angel become a champion of the helpless once he moved to Los Angeles.
Angel was originally condemned to Hell thanks to a very Faustian curse, and he may have been saved in the same way: by divine powers that rewarded his dream of making the world a better place. Either way, it’s clear that the tale of the most iconic vampire in Buffy the Vampire Slayer was influenced by the original deal with the devil story, one that has been influencing storytellers for centuries. Even though most fans never clocked it, this means that the hottest TV show of the ‘90s is forever connected to a German folktale that became popular nearly 500 years ago!
Entertainment
YouTube outage cause revealed: What we know
Updated on Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 9:15 p.m. ET — As of this writing, YouTube appears to be working again. So far, Google and YouTube have not announced the cause of the outage, or confirmed that the problems are resolved.
Updated on Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 9.26 p.m. ET — YouTube has revealed the cause of the outage. In a statement on X, the company said it was due to an issue with their recommendations system, which stopped videos from appearing. “The homepage is back, but we’re still working on a full fix – more coming soon!”
Updated on Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 10:19 p.m. ET — YouTube has announced that the issue has been solved.
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Original story follows.
If you can’t watch YouTube videos right now, you’re not alone. A Tuesday evening YouTube outage affected users across the globe, with problems starting around 8:00 p.m. ET. Early reports are sketchy, but here’s what we know.
The platform DownDetector received 837,973 user error reports (and rising) in the U.S. alone, with 46.7 percent of users reporting problems accessing the YouTube app and 21.1 percent reporting problems with the website. Users in Canada, Brazil, the UK, and Germany are also reporting problems. (Disclosure: Mashable and Downdetector share the same parent company.)
Mashable Light Speed
Mashable editors in both the U.S. and Australia were unable to access YouTube’s website and app. Attempts to access the website resulted in a blank black screen with only YouTube’s sidebar and search bar appearing.
The YouTube homepage goes dark…
Credit: Amanda Yeo / Mashable
YouTube acknowledged the outage on X, urging users to check the Google Support page for more information.
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The initial update from YouTube simply read, “Hi everyone, We’re aware some of you are having issues accessing YouTube right now. Our teams are aware, and we’ll provide updates as soon as we have them.”
An additional update from YouTube read, “We are aware of the ongoing issue impacting YouTube homepage, recommendations, search and uploads and are working to fix it. Please follow along in our Community for updates. Our support agents do not have any additional information to share with you at this time.”
YouTube is the largest streaming service by far in the U.S.
At this time, the cause of the outage is unknown. Mashable reached out to Google for more information (YouTube is owned by Google), and we’ll update this story if we receive more information.
This is a developing story …
Entertainment
NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for February 18, 2026
The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult to solve if you keep up with the latest styles.
Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that’s captured the public’s attention. The game is all about finding the “common threads between words.” And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we’ve served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.
If you just want to be told today’s puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today’s Connections solution. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
What is Connections?
The NYT‘s latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications’ Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.
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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there’s only one correct answer.
If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.
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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.
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Here’s a hint for today’s Connections categories
Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
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Yellow: Old-school do’s
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Green: Awesome
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Blue: Cluck
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Purple: Lotion
Here are today’s Connections categories
Need a little extra help? Today’s connections fall into the following categories:
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Yellow: Retro hair directives
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Green: Retro slang for cool
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Blue: Chicken descriptors
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Purple: ___ Cream
Looking for Wordle today? Here’s the answer to today’s Wordle.
Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today’s puzzle before we reveal the solutions.
Drumroll, please!
The solution to today’s Connections #983 is…
What is the answer to Connections today
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Retro hair directives: CRIMP, CURL, FEATHER, TEASE
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Retro slang for cool: BAD, FLY, RAD, WICKED
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Chicken descriptors: BANTAM, CRESTED, FREE-RANGE, LEGHORN
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___ Cream: HEAVY, SHAVING, SOUR, TOPICAL
Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today’s puzzle.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Connections.
Entertainment
NYT Strands hints, answers for February 18, 2026
Today’s NYT Strands hints are easy if you’ve been watching the Olympics.
Strands, the New York Times‘ elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There’s always a theme linking every solution, along with the “spangram,” a special, word or phrase that sums up that day’s theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.
By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.
If you’re feeling stuck or just don’t have 10 or more minutes to figure out today’s puzzle, we’ve got all the NYT Strands hints for today’s puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.
NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Cold competition
The words are related to sports.
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Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained
These words describe cold activities.
NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?
Today’s NYT Strands spangram is vertical.
NYT Strands spangram answer today
Today’s spangram is Zodiac Signs.
NYT Strands word list for February 18
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Luge
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Hockey
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Curling
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Winter Sports
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Bobsled
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Snowboarding
Looking for other daily online games? Mashable’s Games page has more hints, and if you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now!
Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Strands.
YouTube outage cause revealed: What we know
NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for February 18, 2026
