"Angel" Season Biographies

"Angel" Season One

Series co-creator David Greenwalt points out "there's no denying that Angel grew out of Buffy". Several years before Angel debuted, Joss Whedon developed the concept behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer to invert the Hollywood formula of "the little blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed in every horror movie."[1] The character Angel was first seen in the first episode of Buffy and became a regular, appearing in the opening credits during seasons two and three. After being turned into a soulless, immortal vampire, he became legendary for his evil acts, until a band of wronged Gypsies punished him by restoring his soul, overwhelming him with guilt. Angel eventually set out on a path of redemption, hoping that he could make up for his past through good deeds. In Buffy's season three finale, he leaves Sunnydale for L.A. to continue his atonement without Buffy. Whedon believed that "Angel was the one character who was bigger than life in the same way that Buffy was, a kind of superhero."[2] Whedon has compared the series to its parent, "It's a little bit more straightforward action show and a little bit more of a guys' show."[3]
While the central concept behind Buffy was "High school as a horror movie" in small-town America,[4] co-creators David Greenwalt and Whedon were looking to make Angel into a different "gritty, urban show."[5] Whedon explains "we wanted a much darker show, darker in tone. It is set in Los Angeles because there are a lot of demons in L.A. and a wealth of stories to be told. We also wanted to take the show a little older and have the characters deal with demons in a much different way. Buffy is always the underdog trying to save the world, but Angel is looking for redemption. It's those two things that creatively make the shows different."[6]
Whedon and Greenwalt prepared a six-minute promotional video pitch, often called the "Unaired Angel pilot" for the WB Network.[7] Some shots from this short were later used in the opening credits.[7]
Early during the life of the series, some effort was made to slightly soften the original concept. For example, scenes were cut from the pilot episode, "City of," in which Angel tasted the blood of a murder victim.[8] The episode that was originally written to be the second episode, "Corrupt" was abandoned altogether. Writer David Fury explains, "The network was shocked. They said 'We can't shoot this. This is way too dark.' We were able to break a new idea, we had to turn it over in three days."[9] Instead the tone was lightened, and the opening episodes established Angel Investigations as an idealistic shoestring operation.
A first draft script reveals that Angel was originally intended to include the character Whistler, played by Max Perlich, who had already featured in the two-part Buffy season two finale.[10] In an interview, Perlich said, "I never got called again. If they had called, I would have probably accepted because it was a great experience and I think Joss is very original and talented."[11] Instead, the producers created a Whistler-like character, Doyle. Cordelia Chase, also from the original Sunnydale crew, joined Angel and Doyle.

"Angel" Season Two 

The Angel Investigations team, now in their new headquarters at the Hyperion Hotel, are trying to decipher what Wolfram & Hart raised at the end of season one with the Scrolls of Aberjan. It turns out that it was Darla – now human, ailing and mentally unstable – who is being used by Wolfram & Hart to unhinge Angel by mystically invading his dreams. It turns out that Darla has been returned to the human form she had before being turned, which means that she has a soul but is now dying from the same case of syphilis that originally almost killed her. She begs Angel to turn her into a vampire to save her life. He refuses and instead takes part in a dangerous trial to attempt to buy her a second chance. He succeeds. Unfortunately it can't help Darla, her having already been rescued from life once before. However, his sacrifice proves to her that humanity has strength within it after all, and she begins to make peace with the idea of dying. Wolfram & Hart however do not share her view and bring forth Drusilla to sire the uncooperative Darla (their original plan having been that Angel would do so, further darkening his path). With Drusilla and an again-soulless Darla now together and loose on the streets of Los Angeles, Angel decides he has no choice but to sink to their level in order to defeat them. He fires his crew (Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn) and purposefully allows Darla and Drusilla to slaughter the Special Projects division of Wolfram & Hart including Holland Manners. During the massacre the vampires intentionally leave Lindsey McDonald and Lilah Morgan alive to act as their liaisons to Wolfram & Hart. The two lawyers begin competing for the position of head of Special Projects, in fear of losing their jobs as the firm decides to "trim the fat." Meanwhile, Angel trains himself to take on Darla and Drusilla. He finds and destroys the potential demon army they planned to use to destroy Los Angeles, and then violently sets both of them on fire (although not killing them).
As Angel is off on his own, the other three members of the gang start their own detective agency using what little resources they have. In "Reprise", Angel decides to take down Wolfram & Hart at its core (the Senior Partners) and attempts to find a way to the Home Office, which he believes refers to Hell. Meanwhile, Darla has also been looking for the Senior Partners, intending to join in their power. Angel eventually sneaks onto the W&H property and shares an elevator ride with the deceased Holland Manners, who tells him that the Home Office is not some dark, demonic dimension but is simply Earth. "The world doesn't work in spite of evil, Angel. It works for it. It works because of it." In a fit of blind despair, Angel ends up having sex with Darla in hopes that he can lose his soul with its crushing burden of conscience. Afterwards he has an epiphany and realizes his mistake; he also allows Darla to leave town but he claims that he will have to kill her if he sees her again. He seeks out the team and humbly asks if he can work for them rather than being the boss again. They agree to do so, but not without some hesitation and doubt about trusting him again. They move back into the Hyperion Hotel and Wesley is put in charge of the Agency.
As the season progresses Cordelia goes from a superficial, carefree youth to a strong, humble and worthy helper of the helpless; Wesley evolves from the bumbling fool of the previous season into a semi-assertive leader, whilst Gunn is brought down a notch and bonds further with the team. The character of "The Host" (or Lorne, as he comes to be known by the climax of the season) is introduced at the start of the season as a mystical guide who helps people find their way. He can do this by looking into people's souls when they sing karaoke at his nightclub "Caritas". Lindsey becomes tired of his life at Wolfram & Hart and, after getting a new hand, shoots up the office and leaves Los Angeles and his rivalry with Angel behind. Lilah is subsequently put in charge of Special Projects. Meanwhile, detective Kate Lockley falls deeper into a state of loneliness and despair which compromises her skills as a detective, forcing the department to fire her. She subsequently takes an overdose of medication but is saved by Angel, who barges into her apartment and sobers her up. Kate begins to come to terms with the world that surrounds them and finds solace in the idea that somebody is watching out for her, since Angel was able to enter her apartment to save her, despite her never having invited him.
During the last four episodes of the season, Cordelia is accidentally transported to Lorne's home world known as Pylea, and the rest of the team follows. It is a medieval world where the population is ruled by an occult priesthood known as the Covenant, headed by a demon named Silas, and humans are kept as slaves (referred to as "cows"). Lorne discovers that his family still hates him as much as ever. Cordelia, marked as special because of her visions, is made a monarch but is unknowingly just a tool of the priests. Angel (who can both walk in the sun and see his own reflection) saves the life of a slave girl named Fred who had been sucked in through a portal from Los Angeles years earlier. He also has one of his greatest struggles with his demon side, which comes out so completely on this world that it threatens to overwhelm his humanity. Gunn and Wesley, acting somewhat as advisors to Cordelia, learn of a connection between the priests and Wolfram & Hart and decide to flee the castle. They escape but Cordelia cannot. Gunn and Wesley eventually join a group of humans planning to rebel against the Covenant and Wesley is put in charge of the attack, where he begins learning of his true skills as a leader. Silas is eventually cornered, and Cordelia chops his head off before he can use his magical device to slaughter every slave on Pylea. Cordelia then uses her royal power to free the slaves and declare everyone equal. The gang and Fred return home happy, only to find Willow waiting at the hotel to inform them of Buffy's death.


"Angel" Season Three

After Angel spends time at a monastery in Sri Lanka, mourning Buffy's death he returns to Los Angeles and is welcomed home by Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn while Fred stays confined to her room, too frightened to leave the hotel. Cordelia is personally attacked by Wolfram & Hart in "That Vision Thing" when Lilah hires a Shaman to hack into the visions granted to Cordelia by the Powers That Be and manifest them physically in order to persuade Angel to free a convicted felon from a hell dimension which he then does. This felon would come back to haunt the females of the group in the episode "Billy" where he uses his power to bring out primal misogyny within the males of the species. Fred, Cordelia and even Lilah are forced to fend for themselves as they battle their friends and eventually overcome Billy's tyranny. Both Gunn and Fred officially join the Angel Investigations team after Gunn realizes where his true loyalties lie and Fred comes to terms with what happened in Pylea and realizes she has something to offer to the team: her intellect. Meanwhile, Wesley starts to grow into his leadership position, portraying the same authority and ruthlessness he showed back in Pylea. He also starts developing feelings for Fred but halts his advances after the traumatic events of "Billy".
In "Offspring", Darla returns to L.A. eight and a half months pregnant with Angel's illegitimate love child brought upon by their one night stand during season two. Although vampires are unable to reproduce due to their lifeless bodies it becomes apparent that the second chance Angel won for Darla before she was re-sired was enough of a loophole for a child to come to term. Wesley finds reference to "the child born to two vampires" in the Nyazian prophecies and surmises that the child is part of the "Tro-Clon"; a confluence of events that will bring about either the purification or ruination of mankind. As Darla comes closer to labor more people find out about the coming birth of the miracle child including Wolfram & Hart and the current head of special projects, Linwood Murrow. They attempt to steal the baby in order to figure out why it exists. However, they are intercepted not by Angel but by a mysterious man from Angel's past who they come to know as Daniel Holtz. It turns out that Holtz is a part of the Tro-Clon and was brought forth, almost two hundred years into the future, by the dimension-hopping demon Sahjhan in order to kill Angel. As more of the Nyazian prophecy is deciphered it becomes clear that Darla will not give birth; "There will be no birth, only death". This cryptic message comes to fruition in the rain-soaked alley behind Lorne's club Caritas after Holtz destroys it using powerful explosives. Darla, realizing that the baby can not be born and realizing too that she will not be able to love it without a soul, kills herself in the hope that it will bring her baby life. As Darla's ashes fade away a baby boy is left in her stead. Holtz comes within killing range of Angel, but after seeing the new born baby in his arms, lets him go, informing Sahjhan that he has a plan that will truly destroy Angel. At the hospital, Angel comes to name his son Connor after his Irish roots.
Over the next few months Angel Investigations become a surrogate family towards baby Connor, looking after him when his father can't while their business continues to boom.Wesley and Gunn both vie for Fred's affection. After the destruction of Caritas, Lorne decides to move into the hotel. On her 21st birthday Cordelia falls into a mystical coma caused by the neurological damage of the ever more debilitating visions. She is then offered a second life of fame and fortune but decides to stand with Angel and help the helpless, allowed to do so by sacrificing her humanity. Now half-demon, Cordelia is wary of her newfound powers but finds it to be a blessing in disguise after the visions cease to cause her pain. After a night fraught with sexual energy the gang return to the hotel to find the Groosalugg waiting for them, having left Pylea to find his true love – Cordelia. With the two of them now together, Angel decides to send the two lovers away on a holiday to give Cordelia a much needed break. Meanwhile, Fred chooses Gunn as her suitor leaving Wesley devastated and emotionally withdrawn. While looking for references about Connor in the Nyazian prophecies, Wesley comes across a passage inscribed; "The father will kill the son." Meanwhile, Holtz has been raising an army of vengeful, vampire hunters willing to fight and die for his cause. Chief among them is Justine Cooper who lost her twin sister to a vampire attack. Wesley meets with Holtz and learns that he plans to assault Angel Investigations but gives Wesley the option to take the baby and go. With everything that Wesley has seen and heard and fearing for the safety of the baby, he feels he has no choice but to take Connor away. However, he is tricked by Holtz and, as he is about to leave, is confronted by Justine who slits his throat and steals the baby away. Holtz then attempts to flee with Justine and the baby but is ambushed by both Angel and Wolfram & Hart. Sahjhan appears and opens a portal to "Quor'toth" – darkest of the dark worlds. With Wolfram & Hart ready to take the baby away (or kill him), Angel tells Holtz to take the baby and run. Holtz jumps into the hell dimension, just before telling Angel that his son will never even know he existed. Angel is left emotionally shattered.
Subsequently, Wesley is found bleeding to death in a park and is taken to a hospital where Angel then attempts to smother him to death. Although he fails to do so he tells Wesley that if he ever sees him again he will kill him for the part he played in Connor's abduction. When Cordelia returns from holiday she is angry at the gang for not informing her of the events that transpired after she left and hurt that they wouldn't immediately call her back after things began to spiral out of control. Meanwhile, Gunn and Fred hit a snag in their relationship when an old acquaintance comes to collect Gunn's indebted soul. The gang use this as a catalyst to re-shape their team and get back on track with the Fred/Gunn romance strengthened because of it. As Angel, Inc. begin to rebuild their lives Wesley is busy being continuously ensnared by Wolfram & Hart. Now holding onto a dark and cynical outlook to life, Wesley is approached by Lilah who infiltrates his life and ends up having sex with him. Wesley refuses to join her company however and instead sets up his own, more militaristic demon hunting team.
After the Hyperion Hotel is infested by inter-dimensional, insect like demons (and subsequently cleansed by Cordelia's newfound, angelic powers) a portal to the Quor'toth is created through which Connor re-appears, now eighteen years old and back on Earth to kill Angel for what he did to Holtz' family. Meanwhile, Holtz comes back through the portal as well and tells Connor that he should be with his father claiming to have no taste for vengeance anymore. This, however, is Holtz' final revenge after he has Justine kill him in the manner of a vampire and blames it on Angel. While Connor infiltrates Angel Investigations to lure them into a false sense of security, Angel believes everything in his life is finally starting to go well.Cordelia is halted by a spirit guide who tells her that she no longer belongs on Earth and instead has been called to a Higher Plane. Meanwhile, Connor attacks Angel on the beach and uses a stun gun to incapacitate him. With the help of Justine, he traps Angel in a crate and sinks him to the bottom of the ocean. After this night, Angel Investigations is left shattered; Cordelia is in a heavenly dimension, Lorne has moved on to Las Vegas, the Groosalugg left Cordelia, Connor betrayed his father and Angel was sent to the bottom of the sea. Fred and Gunn are the only members of the group left, curious as to where everyone has gone

"Angel" Season Four (My Least Favorite In The Buffy-Verse!)

The season begins with Gunn and Fred searching for Angel (who had been trapped at the bottom of the ocean by his treacherous son Connor) and Cordelia (who had been summoned to a Higher Plane of existence) at the end of season three. It turns out that Wesley (who had been banished from the group for betraying Angel's trust) has been independently searching for them both as well. Using information coerced from Justine, Wesley is able to deduce Angel's location and bring him back to shore and to his friends at Angel Investigations. After Angel forces Connor to leave the Hyperion Hotel in retribution for what he did to him, Angel does everything he can to find Cordelia whose whereabouts are still unknown. Angel and Co. eventually learn that Cordelia is happy and they decide to leave her in peace (much to Cordelia's chagrin, who, having been watching the events of the world from on-high, wants to return to Earth and be with her friends again). However, after the team goes on a mission to Las Vegas in order to rescue an indebted Lorne, the gang return to the hotel and find an amnesiac Cordelia waiting for them – with no idea of who she is or how she got there. After Cordelia is made aware of the demonic world that surrounds them, and of her own rather convoluted past, she decides to go live with Connor because of his truthful outlook on life. Meanwhile, Fred and Gunn hit a serious snag in their relationship after Gunn kills Fred's old college professor for sending her to Pylea, after Fred had intended to kill him herself. Wesley is still sleeping with Lilah Morgan who, after decapitating Linwood Murrow with the backing of the Senior Partners, was made head of special projects at Wolfram & Hart. Wesley and Lilah begin to develop genuine feelings for each other.
Using rather unreliable magic, Lorne is eventually able to retrieve Cordelia's long lost memories which brings back everything she felt for Angel and her friends. After telling Angel that the two of them were in love, she runs out of the hotel unable to deal with everything that has happened to her. Later she tells Angel that as soon as she regained her memory she had a vision of a terrifying monster rising up underneath Los Angeles. This monster would come to be known as The Beast, who, as soon as he is awakened (having been brought forth at the exact place of Connor's birth), brings about an L.A. wide Apocalypse. As the Beast calls down a reign of fire (soon after defeating the entirety of Angel Investigations with little to no effort) Cordelia and Connor look upon what they believe to be the end of the world. Cordelia, perceiving Connor's life as one big sham, decides to sleep with him in order to give him one moment of truth in an otherwise horrible life of lies. Angel, witnessing this after checking to see if they were okay, grows incredibly frustrated and resentful towards the two of them. After Connor contacts Wolfram & Hart to gain information about his true nature, the Beast invades the building and kills everyone inside (except for Lilah who is rescued by Wesley). Angel is informed of this and goes in with his team to rescue his son. Holding back a force of reanimated corpses, Angel and his team make it to the infamous White Room and come face to face with the Beast again who is seen sucking energy from the conduit who resides there. Using her last ounce of strength, the conduit teleports the team away before they are harmed. This event leads to the gang realizing that the Beast is on a quest to kill the five totems of the sun god Ra (known as the Ra-Tet) in order to block out the sun, which he subsequently achieves. In their most recent confrontation, The Beast refers to Angel as if they are old friends (calling him "Angelus"), which leads Wesley to surmise that Angelus may know a way to defeat it and subsequently uses powerful magic to willingly remove Angel's soul, bringing forth the vicious monster at his core.
Angelus tells the team little of value but instead taunts and ridicules each of them by exploiting a weak spot either in their self-esteem or relationships. Lilah returns and offers to free Angelus if he'll help her kill the Beast. The team stop her just in time and bring her back to the hotel along with an ancient text that details knowledge of the Beast. The gang come to realize that the Beast is not a sole agent as they presumed but is in fact working for an even greater entity. With this knowledge they decide to return Angel's soul, but find that its container, the Muo-Ping, is missing. Meanwhile, Fred and Gunn break off their relationship citing the Professor's murder, and Wesley's feelings, as the reason while Connor does his best to beat back the rising demonic hordes in L.A. single-handedly. Angelus eventually escapes his cage and hunts down Cordelia and Lilah in the hotel. They both make a run for it but Lilah is subsequently captured—not by Angelus but by Cordelia who then stabs her in the neck with a dagger, killing her. The gang return to find Lilah dead and Angelus feeding off her corpse. Wesley takes Lilah down to the basement to decapitate her in case she's been turned where he is met with a vision of Lilah who makes him realize what he must do and that the two perhaps did love one another. Wesley then goes to prison to free the rogue Slayer Faith in order to stop Angelus. Faith, Angelus and the Beast compete in a battle wherein Angelus slays the Beast, bringing the sun back. Meanwhile, the Beast's master, whom it turns out is Cordelia, has been communicating with Angelus to try to woo him to her side. During a battle, Angelus sucks Faith's blood but then, both he and Faith, falls into a drug induced coma through the effects of Orpheus—a mystical stimulant which Faith had injected into her blood stream. They share a mystical journey where they see Angel after he was cursed with his soul and came to America. Meanwhile, Willow Rosenberg is summoned to the hotel by Fred in order to return Angel's soul which she successfully does after competing in a magical battle with Cordelia. With all of the team's threats averted Willow takes Faith back to Sunnydale to aid in their fight against The First while Angel proclaims that they are now stronger than ever. However, Cordelia chooses that moment to come downstairs, revealing that she is pregnant with Connor's child.
The team deduce that Cordelia's child must be demonic in nature while Angel realizes that Cordelia is the Beast's master (the one who orchestrated everything that happened throughout the season) and sets up an elaborate scheme to catch her in the act. As Cordelia manipulates Connor into kidnapping and murdering a young, female virgin to bring their baby to term, Angel Inc. learn that they are little more than instruments of fate in a far larger plan. Realizing this truth, Angel goes to kill Cordelia but arrives too late and Cordy's baby is born revealing a beautiful Goddess in its stead. Everyone who looks upon immediately fall in love and gain inner peace—including Angel and Connor. Cordelia, meanwhile, is left in a coma. Jasmine, the name chosen for the fallen power, brings love and peace to the city and begins to end world strife. However, Fred, having accidentally mixed her blood with Jasmine's, realizes the truth—that Jasmine is a hideous creature that is in fact manipulating Earth's inhabitants for her own gain. Fred then goes on the run but bravely returns and confronts Jasmine and Angel Inc. where she is able to bring Angel to her side. The two then infiltrate the hotel and reclaim Wesley, Gunn and Lorne but fail to revert Connor who decides to stand with Jasmine.
The five heroes flee the city and go underground where Wesley is captured by an ancient being who tells of his world where Jasmine once ruled. Wesley figures out a way to said world and as Jasmine's army attempt to capture the team, Wesley opens a portal and sends Angel through telling him to find Jasmine's real name which will break her spell. The team are captured and taken back to the hotel during which Jasmine begins to make her presence known to the world at large. Connor meanwhile becomes dissatisfied with Jasmine's actions and seeks out Cordelia whom he finds resting in a protected church. He then confesses his feelings of pain and inadequacy and unfeeling towards everything that has happened in his life, including Jasmine. Meanwhile, in another dimension, Angel confronts a priest who holds Jasmine's name and brings him back to Earth where he says it out loud, destroying her power. The city is left in ruin as people go from having peace to pain in a matter of seconds. Jasmine blames Angel for this and uses her terrific strength to beat him back. He is saved, however, by Connor who punches a hole through Jasmine's head.
After he runs off, Angel returns to the hotel to find Lilah alive, and the gang perplexed. She has come to offer them the L.A. branch of Wolfram & Hart because of their valiant efforts in ending world peace. They take a trip to the law firm where they are given the full tour including the science division (Fred), the R&D department (Wesley), the entertainment division (Lorne) and the White Room (Gunn). Angel vehemently declines the offer but begins to change his mind after he witnesses Connor strapping explosives to himself, Cordelia and a crowd of innocent people. He goes to his son's aid where Connor tells him that he was a terrible father and that he cannot feel anything in this world. The two proceed to have their final fight where Angel, using a mystically imbued knife granted to him by Wolfram & Hart, slits his son's throat—fulfilling the fake prophecy that stated "The Father Will Kill The Son." In fact, Connor is not dead but instead has been granted an entirely new life by Wolfram & Hart and all knowledge of him has been deleted from his friends memories. Because of this, Angel takes up Lilah's offer to run Wolfram & Hart. Meanwhile, Wesley had attempted to save Lilah's life by burning her eternal contract with the firm, but to no avail. She thanks him for trying however and professes her genuine feelings for him. Angel then takes a trip to Connor's fabricated life and looks on from a distance as his son shares a joyous dinner with his parents and sisters. Angel then walks away into the shadows.

"Angel" Season Five (Next Least Favorite)

 Having been handed the reins to the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram & Hart at the climax of season four, Angel and his allies are now surrounded by a world of wealth, power and corruption that they find begins to weaken them from within. While Angel takes care of the day to day running of the company itself, the rest of his team are delegated specific tasks within the firm; Fred heads up the practical science division, Lorne is in charge of the entertainment division, Wesley commands the rather impressive research and development department as well as the virtually infinite library and Gunn becomes the firm's top lawyer after having his brain upgraded with a comprehensive knowledge of the law (human and demonic) at the behest of the Senior Partners themselves. As was the deal that Angel made to save Connor's life, he and Cordelia would not be joining the team in their new headquarters. Meanwhile, Harmony Kendall is hired by Wesley to be Angel's familiar-faced secretary and a new character, Eve, is introduced to act as the team's liaison to the partners. At the end of the first episode Angel opens a package containing the amulet used to destroy the Hellmouth at the end of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. From the amulet, Spike is resurrected in a non-corporeal state, unsure of why he is back after having given his life to protect the world. Although Angel is bemused and frustrated by the arrival of his centuries old rival, he continues to assert to his ever more unconvinced squad that they will use the massive resources at Wolfram & Hart to help the world. He does his best to root out the most vile employees and clients within the firm while constantly being set upon at all sides by the evil that surrounds them.
As the team settle into their new surroundings they begin to lose contact with one another because of the time consuming demand of their day to day work. Meanwhile, Spike befriends Fred in the hope that she will be able to use her genius level intellect to find out how to solidify him and bind him to the mortal plane. She begins to abuse her resources (to the worriment of Angel) after Spike informs her that he is constantly slipping closer to hell. Meanwhile, Lorne has his sleep removed to focus more energy on his work and Wesley is confronted by his critical-mouthed father and attempts to deal with his serious issues surrounding his unhappy childhood. In "Destiny", a package is mailed to Spike which magically re-corporealizes him, inadvertently causing wide ranging chaos throughout the world. Eve explains that, because of the Shanshu Prophecy which claimed that the vampire with a soul would play a pivotal role in the coming apocalypse, the world has been thrown out of order because there are now two vampires with the requisite credentials to fulfill the prophecy. Hearing tell of a quest that will determine the true champion, Angel and Spike fight for the chance of true atonement. Although Spike wins the battle it turns out that the entire event was a trick set up by Eve and her new boyfriend, Angel's long lost rival Lindsey McDonald. It is at this point that Angel truly begins to question whether he is still the champion he used to be and begins to lose faith in the future set forth by the Shanshu Prophecy which promised him his humanity in return for saving the world.
After Eve and Lindsey's next scheme leaves Angel bed ridden, the gang begin to question Eve's loyalties to the firm and exile her from the building. Meanwhile, Lindsey approaches Spike under the guise of Angel's long dead friend Doyle claiming that he receives visions from The Powers That Be and that Spike has a mission to help the helpless. Spike reluctantly buys into it and ends up saving Angel's life as well as taking on his traditional role as the secret protector of Los Angeles. After Cordelia awakens from her coma she attempts to help Angel get his life back on track and aids him in thwarting Lindsey's plans to take control of Wolfram & Hart for himself. After Lindsey's disguise is foiled, The Senior Partners summon him to some unknown hell dimension in retribution for attempting to take Angel's life. Cordelia reiterates to Angel that she loves him and kisses him, shortly before he receives a phone call reporting that Cordelia died that morning. When Angel turns around, Cordelia is gone. It is later revealed that this encounter—the Powers That Be repaying their debt to Cordelia—allowed Cordelia to pass one last vision over to Angel, giving him the knowledge he needs to bring down the true evil that controls Los Angeles. After the events of "Smile Time" (wherein Angel was transformed into a puppet and began a relationship with the werewolf Nina Ash), Fred and Wesley share a passionate kiss which ignites their relationship, something that had been blossoming all year. However, tragedy befalls the team after Fred is infected with the spirit of an ancient demon named Illyria. Eventually the parasite consumes Fred's body and she dies in Wesley's arms. Once Illyria is brought forth she attempts to raise her temple and summon an army to take back the Earth from the human pestilence. She fails in her endeavor however and finds herself lost in the modern world. She approaches Wesley and asks him to be her guide, to which he agrees, simply because of her striking resemblance to Fred.
After losing the one thing on this earth that he ever truly loved, Wesley descends into alcoholism and spends his time researching every last scrap of information on Illyria while he develops an unhealthy attachment towards her. Meanwhile, the rest of the gang are equally devastated by the loss of the one thing they all truly agreed on; their love for Fred. Spike takes out his rage on Illyria herself as the two share a multitude of sparring sessions together. Lorne becomes frustrated by the corruption that surrounds him and eventually leaves it for good. Gunn feels tremendous guilt over his part to play in Fred's death having signed the warrant to allow Illyria's sarcophagus past customs in order to receive a new brain upgrade. While Angel uses Fred's death as a catalyst to truly attempt to topple the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart. In "Underneath" Angel goes on a mission to rescue Lindsey from hell in order to learn everything he knows about the Senior Partners. Gunn stays in Lindsey's place as punishment for playing a part in Fred's death. Later, Angel comes into contact with Connor for the first time since he signed the deal to take over the firm and learns that the magician Cyvus Vail requires Connor to kill the demon Sahjhan, the one responsible for writing the phony prophecy that, to all intents and purposes, lead to Angel's decision to take over Wolfram and Hart. Although Connor succeeds in killing the demon it is not without a price, having had his original memories returned to him after Wesley used Vail's magic to attempt to re-write the past and bring back Fred. Connor, however, understands what Angel did for him and decides to continue living the fabricated life. After Illyria single-handedly rescues Gunn from the Senior Partner's Hell dimension she claims that Angel Investigations owes her a great debt. As her powers continue to spiral out of control, Wesley fashions a device which will draw the negative energy away from her and into its own pocket universe. Although this does work it leaves Illyria far weaker than she was before as well as emotionally distraught over having lost her immense power. Meanwhile, Gunn goes back to his roots, shedding the Lawyer persona and truly questioning where his loyalties lie while Angel and Spike take a trip to Rome after they hear that Buffy is in danger. Although it turns out that she is in fact happy the two come to reconcile their feelings both for her and for each other. Meanwhile, since Eve's betrayal to the partners, Angel was assigned a new liaison to the firm – Marcus Hamilton.
As the group continually notice a change in Angel's personality, they stage a violent intervention and learn that Angel intends to take down Wolfram & Hart at its very core – The Circle of the Black Thorn. As Angel attempts to gain entry to the exclusive group that claims to operate at the center of the world's woe (doing so by officially signing away his chance to become human again through the Shanshu prophecy), the rest of the team spend one last perfect day doing what they wish to do; Lorne sings at a karaoke bar reminiscent of the days when he ran Caritas, Gunn meets up with his old friend Anne and helps her move furniture to a new homeless shelter, Spike performs his centuries old, awful poetry at a rowdy club to much cheer and applause, Angel spends his time with Connor who is applying for an internship and Wesley spends his day dressing Illyria's wounds (who had been badly hurt by the super strong Marcus Hamilton). Illyria asks Wesley why he does not spend the day doing what he loves to which Wesley replies that the thing he loves is dead. The team share one last goodbye with each other before they all go off to meet their individual destinies. As Angel secretly takes out the leader of the Circle (Archduke Sebassis) he is confronted by Hamilton and, with the help of Connor, wins the fight. Wesley takes on Cyvus Vail as the two battle it out using powerful magic. Wesley fails to kill him however and ends up dying in Illyria's arms who recreates Fred's form one last time before punching her fist through Vail's face. Gunn takes down a demonic politician and her army of vampires while Spike rescues a messianic baby from a demonic cult and Lorne shoots Lindsey dead at Angel's request. With the circle destroyed, Angel Investigations meet up in the rain soaked alley behind the Hyperion Hotel. But with Wesley dead and Lorne departed, his innocence shattered, Angel, Spike, Gunn and Illyria are all that remains of the team. In retribution for Angel's rebellion, The Senior Partners send the armies of Hell against the Earth and, while proclaiming; "Let's go to work!", Angel and his team go out fighting the unwinnable fight as they continuously seek their own personal redemptions or die trying.

No comments:

Post a Comment