Angel


 * For other uses, see Angel (disambiguation)
 * Twilight redirects here, for the story arc see Twilight (story arc).

"You know what? I'm Angel. I beat the bad guys."

- Angel

Angel was one of the most famous vampires legendary for both his villainy and heroism. Born Liam in 1727 in Galway, Ireland, he was sired by Darla in 1753 and became known as Angelus and was dubbed The Scourge of Europe, earning notoriety for being one of the most sadistic and brutal demons in history. Both The Master and the First Evil recognized how purely evil Angelus was. He was also called The Demon with the Face of an Angel or The One with the Angelic Face due to his physical beauty. However, in 1898, Angelus was cursed by gypsies as vengeance for killing a member of their clan. They returned his soul, forcing him to live for eternity in guilt over the countless crimes he committed. In the late 20th century, Angel, as he began calling himself, became an ally and lover of the current Slayer, Buffy Summers. Realizing they could never be together, Angel left Buffy and moved to Los Angeles, where he became a Champion of the Powers That Be and dedicated himself to "helping the helpless" in the hopes of achieving atonement, though he nonetheless returned to Sunnydale several times to aid Buffy whenever she needed it.

Eventually, Angel adopted the identity of Twilight and gathered a cabal of humans and demons who had become wary of the rise of multiple Slayers. As Twilight, Angel sought to keep these forces distracted as well as make Buffy grow more focused and stronger, and at the same time, try to keep the Slayers' deaths as low as he could.

Liam
"For a hundred years I offered an ugly death to everyone I met. And I did it with a song in my heart."

- Angel

Angel was born as Liam in Galway, Ireland in 1727. His overbearing father was a linen and silk merchant. At the age of 18, Liam had a relationship with a noblewoman named Sarah Gilfried. Liam became disillusioned with the women of his era, especially showing distaste for the noblewomen who he found to be "dull", "simpering morons"; he always wished he could meet someone "exciting" and "interesting". By his twenties, he had developed a taste for alcohol, tavern brawls, whoring and sloth. Liam's only real ambition lay in seeing the world. Despite the relationship with his parents, he showed affection to his little sister, Kathy.

In 1753, at the age of 26, after a night of drunken debauchery and trying to seduce Anna, the family's only maidservant, that morning, he was expelled from his home by his father, who labeled him a "terrible disappointment". During a tavern brawl, the drunken Liam caught the eye of an affluent woman named Darla. One night, after being kicked out of the tavern and plotting to steal his father's silver, Darla lured him into an alley, and, promising him a world full of excitement and travel, transformed him into one of the cruelest vampires who ever lived. The price was the loss of his human soul, along with his conscience, creating a demon that would act upon Liam's darkest impulses.

Angelus
On the night he rose from his grave, and in response to Darla's claim that he could have anyone in the village, he set about slaughtering the entire community. First, however, he murdered his own family; he found no problem in entering his former house, as his little sister Kathy invited him in without hesitation or suspicion; according to Liam, "She thought that I'd returned to her. An angel". Liam's own mother was the next victim. Upon killing his father, Liam told him how he had made something of himself after all. However, when he gloated over his victory, Darla cruelly deflated him, claiming that it was in fact his father who had won because his disapproval would haunt Liam for the rest of his life.



"You told me I wasn't a man. You told me I was nothing. And I believed you. You said I'd never amount to anything. Well, you were wrong. You see, father? I have made something of myself after all."

- The vampire Liam to his father

Liam took the name "Angelus", presumably inspired by his sister's mistaken belief that he was an angel. He was later described in historical volumes as "the one with the angelic face" and "the demon with the face of an angel". After leaving Ireland, Angelus and Darla cut a bloody swath through Wales and northern England, before finally reaching London in 1760. During Angelus' first meeting with Darla's sire, the Master, he openly mocked the older vampire despite his power and authority, showing no fear despite his greater age, and confronted Darla about her decision to remain underground when she could be traveling the world with him. Won over by his words, Darla chose to live with Angelus, abandoning the Master's leadership.

In May 1764, Angelus and Darla killed the family of vampire hunter Daniel Holtz. Holtz devoted himself to capturing Angelus and Darla, chasing them across Europe. Angelus and Darla had a near miss in Arles after making too much noise by ordering room service and eating the waiters. Darla fled to Vienna, abandoning Angelus in a burning barn and riding off on their only horse. After meeting again in Vienna and eating a troubadour in Madrid, Angelus and Darla sired the vampires James and Elisabeth. In 1767, Holtz tracked them down in Marseilles and managed to put numerous arrows in Angelus. After voyaging to Morocco, Holtz briefly lost them in northern Africa, only to track Angelus to Rome in 1771. After a torture session with Holtz and Monsignor Rivalli, Darla finally came to the rescue with a horde of vampires. Instead of killing Holtz, Angelus and Darla realized they had come to view him "like family" and made a sport of ruining his life. Holtz abandoned his hunt and retired to York until in 1773 when a demon named Sahjhan offered to take him to the future where he could continue his revenge.

In 1786, Angelus sired a Puritan by the name of Penn, who mimicked Angelus by wreaking havoc on his father and killing his family. Over time, he began copying Angelus' "signature" of the time, carving a cross-shaped mark on the face of his victims in order to spite God.

In 1789, a lone Angelus encountered The Beast in Prussia, standing in a field of bodies, who sought Angelus' aid in killing the Svear Priestesses, a group who wished to banish the Beast and who could be killed by a vampire. but not by the Beast. When he declined to join with the Beast, Angelus was met with violent reprisal, but a group of Svear priestesses banished the Beast while he was passing out. .

On Christmas Eve in 1838, Angelus took his winnings by killing a man named Daniel in Dublin, Ireland after an unfortunate card game. Daniel was to be married the next day.

In 1860, a young woman called Drusilla from London, England, caught the attention of Angelus. Drusilla was "cursed" with the "sight," something her mother saw as "an affront to the Lord". Drusilla and her sisters were all noted to be virgins, and Drusilla was described as having been "sweet, pure and chaste." While posing as her priest to torment her, Angelus killed her family, which caused Drusilla to flee to a convent. On the day she was to take her holy orders, Angelus massacred the convent. After having sex with Darla right in front of Drusilla, Angelus finally pushed her over the edge, driving her insane before he finally sired her. Drusilla was Angelus' "masterpiece," an everlasting example of his finest cruelty, as her immortality meant that her torment would never end.

Drusilla, in turn, sired a poet named William, for whom Angelus largely served as a mentor and role model. William, who later became known as "Spike," went so far as to consider the elder vampire his sire. Angelus taught William about the art of mass slaughter, including an incident during a wedding party where Angelus beat the groom to death with his own arm. When he realized how much Spike cared for Drusilla, Angelus had sex with her just to hurt him, an action William would never forgive.

In 1883, Angelus killed a female servant named Margaret during a wealthy Christmas party in London. The woman had a little boy.

In 1888, Spike got himself, Angelus, Darla and Drusilla chased out of London, England and into an abandoned mine shaft in Yorkshire, England by an angry mob. Angelus, wondering why they hadn't killed him yet, threateningly warned William, who had taken the alias of "Spike", not to attract the unwanted attention of angry mobs or the Slayer.

In 1890, Angelus attended a production of Giselle by the Blinnikov, a Russian ballet troupe run by Count Kurskov. Despite being evil, he was moved to tears during the performance.

In 1894, Angelus and Spike were captured in Rome, Italy by henchmen of the Immortal, a mysterious and seductive being with whom they both had a fierce rivalry. The two male vampires were tortured while the Immortal had a threesome with Darla and Drusilla, something that, incidentally, the female vampires never allowed Angelus and Spike to do. Angelus and Spike attempted to take revenge on the Immortal, but failed miserably.



Curse and soul
"You don't remember. Everything you've done. For a hundred years. In a moment, you will. The face of everyone you have killed—our daughter's face—they will haunt you and you will know what true suffering is."

- Kalderash Elder to Angel

In 1898, Angelus slew the favorite daughter of a tribe of Gypsies, the Kalderash clan in Borşa, Romania. To avenge her death, the Kalderash cursed him by restoring his human soul, thus afflicting him with a conscience and condemning him to an eternity of remorse for the crimes he'd committed as the soulless Angelus. During the Boxer Rebellion, the vampire—now known as "Angel"—tried and failed to resume his life with Darla, but found himself unable to eat a baby to prove himself to his sire.

Angel fled and lived in self-imposed isolation, controlling the temptation to feed by avoiding humans altogether. He traveled to the United States, arriving in New York via Ellis Island in 1902. By the 1920s, he spent some time in Chicago, where he saved a little dog from being ran over by a car; however, he was tempted to feed on the dog's owner, a young woman who tried to seduce Angel, only to be harshly rejected. He spent time in Missoula, Montana during the Great Depression. Decades later, during World War II, Angel was coerced to undertake a secret mission by the Demon Research Initiative, who sank him to the bottom of the ocean to rescue an American submarine crew from three Nazi-captured vampires: Spike, Nostroyev and The Prince of Lies. After the American crew captured the German submarine, the vampires had escaped their bonds, and murdered most of the crew; a remnant survived behind a locked hatch. After the submarine suffered damage from a depth charge, Angel was forced to sire a mortally wounded Ensign Sam Lawson, as he was the only person who was able to repair the damage.

In 1952, Los Angeles, Angel was a resident at the Hyperion Hotel. During this time, Angel attempted to stay to himself, avoiding interaction with other residents and patrons. Despite the numerous strange incidents, murders and suicides running rampant throughout the hotel, he looked the other way when his help would have made a difference. After finding a young woman named Judy Kovacs hiding in his room, Angel tried to preserve his isolation, first by disarming and removing the man chasing her, then by immediately ejecting Judy herself. However, her repeated attempts to interact with him allowed the two to build a lukewarm—very surprising and rare for Angel—relationship. Meanwhile, hotel staff and residents, including Judy, continued to become corrupted and, although he didn't understand why, Angel felt compelled to help. He discovered the presence of a Thesulac Demon, a paranoia demon affecting the humans in the hotel, but by the time Angel learned how to defeat it and obtained the items required, the entire hotel was overcome with pathological paranoia. Mad with demon-induced fear, the hotel residents and staff turned on Judy as their exemplar of the Outsider. To save herself, Angel's new friend betrayed him to the mob. With rabid fury, they ambushed Angel, beat him, and then hanged him. Crushed and embittered by the consequences of becoming close to a human, Angel abandoned Judy and everyone else. Instead of destroying the Thesulac as it was in his power to do, he allowed the vicious demon to prey upon and ravage them unhindered.

In New York during the late 1970s, Angel witnessed a robbery at a doughnut shop. After the robber shot the employee and fled, Angel stayed with the man as he died. Unable to resist the sight and smell of the clerk's still-warm blood, Angel helplessly succumbed to the overwhelming urge and fed on the body. Deeply disgusted by his own weakness, Angel fled the shop, and then exiled himself to a life of homelessness, living in alleyways and feeding on rats.

Two decades later, a shadow of his former self, the reclusive and emotionally tortured Angel was sought out in 1996 by a demon named Whistler, who persuaded him to join the fight against the evil that had corrupted him and to help the newly-activated Slayer, Buffy Summers. Angel traveled to Hemery High School in Los Angeles where he witnessed Buffy being called as the Slayer and her initial training under her Watcher, Merrick, as well as her emotional suffering over her new duties and her parents' deteriorating marriage. Filled with a new purpose in life, Angel resolved to help the Slayer, with whom he had fallen in love. The following year, when he and Buffy finally met in Sunnydale, he introduced himself, not as Angelus, but as Angel.



Sunnydale
"A vampire in love with a Slayer. It's rather poetic... in a maudlin sort of way."

- Rupert Giles

Angel fell in love with Buffy the first time he saw her on that fateful day in L.A. when she first was called. However, Angel didn't show himself until after her move to Sunnydale, and after her first day at Sunnydale High. Buffy did not realize Angel was a vampire until several weeks later, but by then the damage was done - she had fallen in love with him in turn. Though they tried to deny their feelings, they could not resist the passion growing between them and began dating. Angel gave Buffy a physical token of his love, a Claddagh ring, as was traditional in Ireland. When they finally consummated their relationship, Angel experienced one moment of pure happiness, which broke the Gypsy curse and lost him his soul. Angel instantly reverted to his former evil self, Angelus, who had no humanity left in him and despised that Buffy forced him to endure her love for Angel.

Angel, now Angelus, allied himself once again with Spike and Drusilla, who had recently settled in Sunnydale. Resenting the humiliation he felt because Buffy had made Angel feel like a human being, Angelus took immense pleasure in tormenting the Slayer and her friends. First, he helped Spike and Dru deploy a powerful demon known as the Judge. After Buffy destroyed the Judge, Angelus embarked on a guerrilla campaign, lurking in the shadows, preying on Buffy's classmates, sending her gruesome messages, even drawing pictures of her as she slept and leaving them in her bedroom.Angelus' reign of terror culminated in his murder of Jenny Calendar, which served him in two ways. First, he eliminated an enemy (Jenny was born Janna of the Kalderash clan) and destroyed her work just as she managed to successfully decipher the lost Gypsy curse which could be used to restore Angel's soul. Second, Angelus used Jenny's death to viciously torment Giles, Jenny's paramour and the person on whom Buffy depended most. After Angelus orchestrated this masterpiece of terror, Drusilla drew his attention to a new opportunity for destruction and chaos. Angelus widened his focus and began a scheme to awaken the demon Acathla and bring about the end of the world. Buffy was determined to stop him despite their history. In their final fight, Angelus defeats Buffy, but continues to torment her rather than kill her, allowing her to stage one last counterattack. In her anger, the Slayer was able to overcome Angelus, but just as Acathla opened the vortex into his hell dimension, Buffy's friend and comrade, Willow, used the ritual Jenny had rediscovered and preserved to restore Angel's soul. Since Acathla could only be stopped by the blood of the individual who activated him, Buffy was forced to sacrifice her beloved Angel rather than the demon Angelus to save the world.Impaled on the Slayer's enchanted sword, Angel appeared to shrink into the distance until Acathla's vortex suddenly snapped closed.

A few months later, Angel was unexpectedly released from Acathla's hell, reappearing in his mansion in a feral state. Because time can run differently between dimensions, he had experienced a century of brutal torment and was little more than a dumb animal in behavior. Buffy aided him in secret, fostering his rehabilitation. The means by which he returned are still unknown - all that is known is that it happened after Buffy placed her Claddagh ring near the spot where he was sucked into Hell. Once he regained his senses, Angel began to suspect that his return from Hell was not accidental, that he must be meant to serve some unknown purpose. That fear -- that this purpose was not for the cause of good -- grew in Angel's mind as he began to experience what he believed to be hallucinations. However, he was actually being haunted by the First Evil. The First, able to adopt the appearances of Angelus' victims, drove Angel ever closer to the brink of madness by lashing him with guilt and, ultimately, tempting him to end it all by losing his soul once again and killing Buffy in the throes of passion. In despair, Angel chose to kill himself by waiting outside for the sun to rise, rather than risk his beloved Slayer. To Angel's shock and consternation, an apparent miracle occurred and it snowed so heavily that Christmas morning that the sun was blotted out all day. From that moment, he began to entertain the hope that his return might have some purpose for good after all. After that miraculous snowy day in southern California, Angel and Buffy tried to build an actual relationship, taking in the occasional movie, getting away on more scenic patrols, enjoying moonlit picnics in the cemetery. But it was not to be. Even before their one and only night together, Angel had worried about Buffy's future with him, his inability to give her a family, or even a remotely normal human life. Upon hearing his own concerns reflected back to him from such disparate sources as Mayor Wilkins and Joyce Summers, Angel at last made the difficult decision to leave Sunnydale and to leave Buffy, hoping to give her some semblance of a normal life. Angel broke up with Buffy in the sewer right before prom, but went to the dance to let Buffy have her perfect high school moment.

Before the Ascension, Faith shot Angel with a poisoned arrow whose only cure was the blood of a Slayer. The poison made Angel feverish and caused him to hallucinate; it eventually would have killed him. Having failed to bring a dead Faith to Angel to cure him, Buffy forced Angel to feed from her. Angel rushed Buffy to a hospital where he stopped the grieving Mayor from smothering Buffy.

Angel promised Buffy he would stay until Sunnydale High's Graduation Day, to help avert the Mayor's Ascension. He also warned her that, if they survived the ordeal, he would leave without saying goodbye, as it would be too painful to do so. They survived, and Angel, with a last, long look at the Slayer, kept his final promise and departed for Los Angeles.



Angel Investigations
In L.A., Angel spends a few months alone, patrolling dives and dark alleys, battling vampires who hunt there and fighting his blood lust after feeding from Buffy by not getting close to the humans he's trying to help. Soon enough, he receives support in his attempts to redeem himself in the service of others. First, Doyle, a half-demon and fellow Irishman, is sent by The Powers That Be. Almost immediately thereafter, Angel runs into Cordelia Chase, a former classmate of Buffy's who has moved to L.A. to find wealth and fame. The trio form Angel Investigations, a shoestring operation whose mission statement is to "Help the Helpless."

Later Doyle, Angel's trusted friend and sole connection to the Powers, sacrifices himself to save others, after failing before to help his demon race, leading Angel to become even more protective of those few he holds dear. Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, who had briefly served as Watcher to both Buffy and Faith Lehane in Sunnydale, arrives in L.A., claiming to be a "rogue demon hunter," a lone wolf sort who only works solo. After their first case, however, Wesley is eager to stay and assist Angel and Cordelia in their mission. A few months later, they are joined by lifelong demon fighter, Charles Gunn. The Angel Investigations team also enlists the help of demon karaoke bar-owner Lorne, known initially only as The Host. Both prescient and empathic, Lorne can sense the futures of humans and demons when they sing. During this time, three young Wolfram & Hart associates, Lindsey McDonald, Lee Mercer, and Lilah Morgan, attempt to have Angel killed by the rogue vampire slayer, Faith. Angel defeats Faith, however, but refuses to kill her, having discovered that Faith only wants help. Even as Buffy, the Watchers' Council, and the L.A.P.D. pursue Faith, Angel continues to try to help her, even going as far as to lash out at Buffy, both verbally and physically, during a subsequent argument when Faith voluntarily gives herself up to the police.

As Angel continues to help the helpless in Los Angeles, his good deeds begin seriously to disrupt the plans of the evil inter-dimensional law firm, Wolfram & Hart. In an attempt to control him, the firm resurrects his sire and former lover, Darla, who comes back as a human rather than as a vampire. Wolfram & Hart then summon Drusilla, who turns Darla into a vampire again. Angel feels such deep anguish at his failure to save Darla, and such intense fury at Wolfram & Hart for their machinations, that he fires his crew and embarks on a bitter, ruthless vendetta against both the law firm and the newly reunited Darla and Drusilla. At his darkest moment, Angel helps Drusilla and Darla to slaughter a core group of Wolfram & Hart employees. In spiritual agony beyond even his endurance, Angel attempts to shed his soul by having sex with Darla, but instead of happiness, finds despair. A moment of clarity follows the desperate act, and Angel realizes that his purpose is still to do all the good he can, even if he can't do all the good he wants. Having hoped to get her boy Angelus back, Darla is horrified and infuriated by Angel's epiphany, and flees Los Angeles. The group finally reconciles, and Wesley is appointed the official leader (though Angel is still unofficially in charge). Nonetheless, Angel's relationship with his teammates, particularly Cordelia, is strained, though things improve rather quickly.

Shortly after the death of Buffy's mother, Angel returns to Sunnydale to comfort her after the funeral, and the two spend the majority of the night discussing how life will continue after Joyce's death. Angel assures Buffy that she is strong and will find her way over time, and offers to stay in Sunnydale as long as she wants him, though she knows that he cannot stay for long.

Afterwards, Cordelia is sucked Lorne's home dimension of Pylea, and the A.I. team follows her. Eventually, after Angel defeats the undefeated Champion of Pylea, the Groosalugg, they return with a new team member, Winifred "Fred" Burkle, in tow, and to the news that the love of Angel's life, Buffy, has died.

Fatherhood
Devastated by Buffy's death, Angel spends several months mourning for her in a Tibetan monastery in Sri Lanka, returning despondent and believing that he had betrayed Buffy by continuing to live while she had died, though Cordelia assures him that he is in fact honoring her memory by continuing the job that Buffy started. Despite Buffy's miraculous resurrection a few months later, Angel finds that his previously platonic love for Cordelia has grown to be romantic. Before he has a chance to confess his feelings, however, Darla returns, pregnant with his son, to be named Connor. False prophecies, time travelers and betrayal lead to Angel losing his infant son to an old enemy, Holtz, who abducts Connor soon after his birth, taking him to the hell dimension Quor'toth, where time passes differently. Wesley, who, though unknowingly, brought about the kidnapping, ends up having his throat slit and gets fired from Angel Investigations. When Connor returns days later, he is a young man who has been raised by Holtz to believe that Angel is still a soulless monster. Holtz takes his own life in such a way that Connor is led to believe he was killed by Angel and vows to make Angel pay for the suffering he had caused Holtz. That same night, Connor sinks his father to the bottom of the ocean in a steel coffin and Cordelia ascends to a higher plane, the feelings shared between her and Angel still left unspoken.

Rescued by Wesley from his watery prison, Angel's relationship with Connor is strained. It is complicated further by the return of an amnesiac Cordelia, who prefers to stay with Connor because he told her the truth while the others lied to her (albeit because they thought it was for her own good). When a very powerful demon known only as the Beast arrives and begins an attempt to bring forth an apocalypse, Angel's worst fears are realized when he has to strip himself of his soul and revert to his evil alter ego in order to defeat it. Angelus does indeed overcome the Beast, and is also deft enough to realize that the Beast was a mere "flunky" serving an even deeper evil; the Beast he knew was only interested in smashing and slaughter, and it was unlikely that the Beast would have become smarter since Angelus fought him.

Although he is momentarily free to wreak a little havoc of his own, Angelus is recaptured and re-ensouled after he defeats and drinks Faith, who has injected herself with a powerful drug. With the help of Faith (who almost dies in her quest to capture Angelus) and Willow, culminating in a brief but violent mental battle between Angel and Angelus. After his soul is restored, Angel figures out that the enemy he has been battling is a little closer to home than the group had previously considered, realizing that whatever the Beast's "boss" is, it is using Cordelia's body to carry out its plans. After battling and defeating the divine being known as Jasmine, Angel is offered the L.A. branch of Wolfram & Hart on the grounds that he ended world peace. Angel acts against all of his instincts and makes a deal with his sworn enemy, in exchange for Wolfram & Hart erasing Connor’s memories and giving him a normal life, and trying to find a way to cure Cordelia.

Soon after the events in Los Angeles, Angel travels to Sunnydale to give Buffy an amulet that he obtained from Wolfram & Hart because he is told that it plays a role in the upcoming battle with The First Evil and has to be worn by someone with a soul, but more than human-a champion. He saves Buffy from getting killed by Caleb, but she insists that she finishes the fight on her own. After the fight concludes, they share a kiss and are unknowingly being watched by Spike, along with The First Evil. He wishes to fight with her in the battle, but Buffy tells him to go prepare his crew for a second front in case the Scoobies fail to stop the First. Angel then discusses with Buffy about Spike, the return of his soul, her feelings for him, about the future and if he has a place in it. She tells him that it will be a long time, if ever, but Buffy tells Angel that sometimes she sees a future with him. Accepting, Angel returns to Los Angeles to prepare the second front, hoping he will not have to use it, and tells Buffy, "I ain't getting any older."

Wolfram & Hart
Angel's year spent running Wolfram & Hart is one marred with challenge and self-doubt. Trying to battle evil from within the belly of the beast proves to be more difficult than even he imagined, with the lines of good and evil becoming ever more gray with every action taken, and he soon discovers that his friends and allies in the Scooby Gang have deemed him untrustworthy. Shortly after Angel assumes control of the law firm, matters are further complicated when Spike appears as a ghost, emerging from a familiar amulet sent to Angel in the mail. Sharing a complicated history of murder and mayhem, they had spent more than a century as rivals in everything. Now both possessing souls, and both still in love with Buffy, they had evolved into very different heroes in the war against evil. Forced to co-exist, they wage a protracted, insidious battle of wits, ending when they finally come to an understanding and acceptance of their unique brotherhood on their journey to redemption.

When they battle over the Cup of Perpetual Torment, Spike tells Angel "You had a soul forced on you. As a curse. Make you suffer for all the horrible things you've done. Me, I fought for my soul, went through the demon trials, almost did me in a dozen times over, but I kept fighting. Because I knew it was the right thing to do. It's my destiny." Then, Spike defeats Angel for the first time in their century-plus association. Despite this, Spike and Angel come to an understanding that lets the two of them operate as a lethal team when the two end up fighting side-by-side, using their long experience of each other's skills to operate in near-perfect tandem. While investigating sinister children's program, Smile Time, Angel was turned into a puppet. Puppet Angel managed to stop Smile Times plans and save the children of Los Angeles. He remained a puppet for several days until the spell wore off. It was around this time that he realized werewolf Nina Ash was attracted to him, and the pair started dating.

Angel finally understands that he will never be able to completely stop the forces of evil, but that he can temporarily sever the Senior Partners' hold on Earth. Together with his comrades, Angel prepares to suicidally incur the apocalyptic wrath of the Senior Partners as a way of going out in a blaze of glory. They assassinate the members of the Circle of the Black Thorn, the Senior Partners' instruments on Earth for pulling all the political and economic strings. In this effort, Gunn is badly wounded, and Wesley is killed. Gunn manages to make it to the meeting point, the alley behind the Hyperion Hotel, where he, Angel, Spike and Illyria engage in battle with the dark armies that the Senior Partners have sent against them. The last words spoken on screen are, "Let's go to work."

Fall of Los Angeles
During the battle, Angel left Gunn behind to befriend a dragon who had been tricked in fighting for Wolfram & Hart; Gunn was dragged away and subsequently turned into a vampire. The Senior Partners sent all of Los Angeles to a hell dimension between moments of time, turning the city into an apocalyptic battlefield full of demons. At the same moment, they rendered Angel human to deprive him of his strength and immortality when he needed it most; unaware of the change, he lept off a rooftop, breaking his legs and back. He was discovered by Wesley, resurrected as a ghost to act as liaison between Angel and the Senior Partners. The dragon took Angel back to W&H, where he relied on neo-primitive healing salves and incantations to repair his broken body. The process took months, and Angel spent every second awake and in agony; to endure the pain, he spoke to an imaginary Cordelia. Believing he was talking to him, the dragon came to believe its own name was Cordelia. With his body healed, Angel began patrolling the hell-ridden city with "Cordelia", rescuing citizens and sending them, anonymously, to a safe-house run by Connor, Nina, and Gwen. His mission was complicated by the Demon Lords who had taken control over areas of Los Angeles. Angel declared war on the Demon Lords, challenging them to a battle to liberate the city. Initially alone in the fight, he was soon aided by his old friends Spike, Illyria, Connor, Gwen, Nina, Groosalugg, Lorne, and Wesley, and successfully tricked the Lords into killing themselves with the Hagan Shafts.

Following their victory, Team Angel returned to their old base, the Hyperion Hotel, where Angel resumed his patrols of the city. After killing a nest of vampires, Illyria revealed to the group that Angel was no longer a vampire, leaving Connor feeling angry and betrayed. When he asked Illyria to seek out the most powerful vampire in Hell-A, Angel was horrified when she led him to Gunn. Defeating Angel in battle, Gunn undid the magicks keeping Angel alive, reopening every wound he had suffered since turning human. Visited by the spirit of Cordelia, Angel resigns himself to death after receiving a vision from the Senior Partners regarding his role in the Shanshu Prophecy; himself standing alone surrounded by bodies. However, last-minute encouragement from Connor inspired him to keep fighting. Angel's friends healed his injuries, but at the same time, Gunn caused Illyria to revert to her true form. As Illyria prepared to end all existence, Angel devised a plan to stop her; he had Betta George telepathically force Spike and Wesley's memories of Fred into Illyria's mind. The distracted Illyria was then taken down by the Senior Partners' forces. Meanwhile, Connor was mortally wounded by Gunn and died in his father's arms. Realizing that the Senior Partners needed him to fulfill the Shanshu Prophecy, Angel provoked Gunn into decapitating him with the Flaming Sword. As planned, the Senior Partners reset the timeline to the last point Angel was alive, the moment before Los Angeles was sent to Hell. This time, Angel rescued Gunn before he was sired and took him to a hospital, and tearfully reunited with a resurrected Connor. However, the Wolfram & Hart building had mysteriously vanished from existence, and everybody remembered their time in Hell, making Angel a city-wide celebrity recognized for his heroism. Giving Cordelia the dragon over to Groosalugg to remain as inconspicuous as possible, Angel reopened Angel Investigations.

"All this time, I did what I did because of the Shanshu Prophecy. Well. Time to start doing what I do despite it."

- Angel

A new beginning
"Back to the beginning. Back when I used to do some good."

- Angel

As his friends went their separate ways, Angel reunited with Kate Lockley for the first time in over three years. Kate had changed dramatically since their last meeting and invited herself to join the new Angel Investigations alongside Connor. Angel's new-found fame proved difficult for the agency, with many potential cases turning out to be just people who wanted to see Angel. Angel also had to put up with constant assassination attempts from the Demon Lords, who had been resurrected in the restoration of L.A. One of these assassins, the feline shapeshifter Dez, quickly became an ally to the team. Angel also befriended James, a Potentate who abandoned his fellow warrior angels when they began killing humans. One of Angel's missions took him to the San Diego Sci-Fi Festival, a comic book convention where he viewed a preview of Last Angel in Hell, a Hollywood adaption of the Fall of Los Angeles. Angel was disappointed by the inaccuracy of the film, in which his character, Angel Cartwright, was played by Nicholas Cage. When contacted by a corporation about the possibility of turning their clients into vampires to grant them immortality, Angel was abducted and kept prisoner after he rejected their offer, stating that his 'condition' was not something that could be passed on, the organization studying him to try and develop a means of duplicating his status of an immortal with a soul.

Twilight
"Powerful people -- governments -- linung up to wipe out the "terrorists" you created. Demons weren't thrilled either. I put on a mask, talk about "Master Plans"... distract them. Keep the body count as low as I can while I push."

- Angel explains the Twilight ruse.

At some point, Angel gained new abilities: including flight and invulnerability. With governments and demons fearful of the new Slayers created by Buffy and plotting to destroy them, Angel assumed the identity of "Twilight" and gathered a cabal formed by several demons, members of the United States military such as General Voll, Lieutenant Moulter and an unidentified General, as well as Warren Mears, Amy Madison and even Riley Finn, who was acting as a double agent for Buffy, though "Twilight" was aware of this fact. His supposed goal was to bring about the end of magic and eliminate all Slayers. However, his true goal was to keep the anti-Slayer forces distracted with his supposed "Master Plan", thus limiting the potential damage that might result had these factions struck independently, while at the same time give Buffy a concrete threat to fight against, keeping her focused and ready for the challenge that lied ahead.

As Twilight, Angel orchestrated the training of rogue Slayer Genevieve Savidge by the warlock Roden, which resulted in the deaths of both threats to Buffy, a mystical missile attack on the HQ of the Slayer Organization and full scale siege on the Tibetan sanctuary set up by Daniel Osbourne and his wife Bayarmaa. During the siege, Twilight left behind his "seconds" - Amy, Warren and the General - to kidnap Giles, Faith and Andrew (Although he had some trouble recognizing Andrew, most likely due to the brevity of their previous contact). He took them to his "Villain HQ", which was magically cloaked three seconds in the future, though Buffy tracked him down when the cloak was undone by Willow and Amy. Confronted by Buffy, Twilight chose to reveal his true identity to Buffy.

Appearance
Angel has a very distinct appearance and style of dress, traditionally wearing full-length, black wool dusters or a shorter leather jacket, black trousers and black dress shoes. Although his dress shirts tend to vary in color, they are often in gem tones and other dark colors. While he initially wore untucked white button down shirts with black dress jackets and a black leather bomber jacket which he gave to Buffy, he began wearing white undershirts, white and black wife beaters, a red velvet shirt, gray and black soft pullovers and long-sleeved dress shirts in colors such as blue and red. The notable exceptions to this rule were in "Sense & Sensitivity", when Angel wore a Hawaiian shirt while undercover, a cream pullover identical to his darker ones to make a customer more comfortable in "I Fall to Pieces", an uncharacteristic white and yellow striped dress shirt while under Jasmine's thrall and a loud Italian sports jacket in "The Girl in Question" (although this last was only because his usual clothes were damaged by a bomb planted by the Immortal and there was nothing else available for him to wear). Angel's most readily identifiable characteristic is his hair, which, although it varies somewhat in length, is consistently spiked upward at the front with styling product (a fact that he was apparently unaware of, due to his reaction upon seeing his reflection in a mirror during a trip to Pylea). Virtually the only times in either series that Angel is not shown with some variation of this trademark hairstyle are during flashback sequences where he often sports either long, shoulder-length hair (either in a loose ponytail or down) or a short style slicked with a side part. During Season 2 of Buffy, Angelus was fond of wearing black leather pants and black eyeliner.

Powers and abilities
Angel has the standard powers (albeit at much higher levels) and vulnerabilities of a Buffyverse vampire. He has demonstrated enhanced speed in episodes such as "Blood Money", "Reprise", "Release" and "That Vision Thing", crossing several meters in the blink of an eye. He is a highly skilled combatant and generally fights unarmed, using circular attacks such as spinning kicks and back hands. In addition to his proficiency in many forms of martial arts, he has mastered many varieties of weapons, favoring the axe and the broadsword. Angel also possesses some cognitive abilities; he has a photographic memory ("Habeas Corpses") and has displayed a psychic connection to those he has sired on at least one occasion ("Somnambulist"). In "Power Play", he reveals that Cordelia passed on her visions to him earlier that season in "You're Welcome". However, he believes that this was a "one-shot deal", suggesting that this ability is not permanent. Because of his age, Angel has immense knowledge of both demonology and history (on occasion rivaling that of Giles and Wesley), and has some experience in witchcraft and sorcery, though his natural aptitude for it is only average, much less than that of Willow. As Angelus, he displays considerable skill in manipulating others' emotional states and has driven his victims insane, as seen with Drusilla. He was also an expert in torture.

As well as his supernatural abilities and fighting skills, Angel displayed a number of other talents. He apparently had "very nice handwriting" and was a gifted artist, using charcoal crayon and China ink to draw portraits. He can drive, owning a black 1967 Plymouth GTX and a Dodge Viper, along with an entire garage full of other cars as W&H CEO. He could also speak several languages, including English, Korean, Tibetan, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Russian, Romanian, German, and attempted to learn the language of the Vinji and Sahrvin demons via an instruction tape. Angel was competent, but uncomfortable, with modern technology; he frequently struggles to understand cellphones (once claiming that they must have been invented by a "bored warlock") and confuses computer terminology such as "chatty rooms." He is shown changing diapers, but claims to be more familiar with pins than the "new-fangled fasteners" of disposable brands ("Dad"). He was also a convincing improvisational actor, deceiving Faith as well as the Circle of the Black Thorn and his own allies, but wasn't very talented at singing.

Following the Fall of Los Angeles, Angel was turned into a human by the Senior Partners as a way of deprive him of his strength when he most needed it. He used various enchantments to keep up the appearance that he was still a vampire. However, following the Temporal Fold performed by the Senior Partners, Angel regained his vampire abilities and handicaps.

As Twilight, Angel had obtained new abilities, including flight and invulnerability. The precise source and limit of his new abilities are unknown, but he has survived having a tree thrown at him without any apparent side-effects, the tree simply splintering off his chest.

Romantic interests

 * Darla: Angel was sired by Darla. The pair were lovers until Angelus' transformation into Angel drove them apart, although he briefly tried to redeem himself in her eyes. Because Darla sired Angel, he sees her as something of a a maternal figure. During Darla's brief moments of humanity - when she is resurrected by Wolfram & Hart - Angel goes above and beyond in trying to help her atone. When Darla becomes pregnant with her and Angel's son, Connor, Darla tells Angel that their son is "the only good thing" that they ever did together; she then stakes herself in order to allow Connor to be born.
 * Buffy Summers: When Angel first sees Buffy, he realizes that he wants to be someone and his faith in humanity is inspired. When they sleep together for the first time, Angel loses his soul, becoming Angelus. Buffy is forced to kill him, to save the world, even though Willow has just ensouled him. After he returns from Hell, he and Buffy still love each other, and attempt a relationship. After realizing this relationship is unfair to Buffy and he needs to begin his path to redemption, he leaves. Buffy comes to L.A., and for a brief time, Angel becomes human. He has to rewind the day, because being human will eventually lead to Buffy's death and that the Powers That Be have not released him from his atonement, nor offered him "forgiveness". After Buffy dies in the fifth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel spends months away at a monastery in Asia. He comes to help Buffy in the Buffy series finale and provides aid to Buffy in the final fight against Caleb. He gives her an amulet that proves important in the final confrontation with the First. He goes to seek Buffy out in Italy during the last season of Angel, albeit unsuccessfully. Angel and Spike's relationships with Buffy are left on even grounds with Andrew saying Buffy loves them both. Buffy stated in "Selfless", "I loved Angel more than I will ever love anything in this life." She also expresses that she sometimes still thinks about a future with Angel in "Chosen", but it will be years, if ever.
 * Kate Lockley: Kate serves as Angel's contact in the police force as he starts his private detective business. The strong possibility of a relationship is hinted at, but ultimately doesn't materialize as she is unable to accept her discovery of his vampire nature, blaming him for the death of her father when her father was killed by vampires and wouldn't invite Angel in to help. The two eventually reconcile when Angel saves her life after she attempts to commit suicide after losing her job at the L.A.P.D.
 * Rebecca Lowell: A short-lived love interest introduced in the episode "Eternity," Rebecca is an actress who hires Angel as her bodyguard. Learning about his vampire nature, she tries to convince him to sire her, not wanting to become old and unattractive, but her attempts only result in Angel briefly reverting to Angelus when she drugs his drink, inducing a feeling of bliss. After this, she leaves the office and is never seen again.
 * Cordelia Chase: Friends for years, Angel and Cordelia eventually realize that they have fallen in love with one another, only to be torn apart by her ascension and transformation and his imprisonment underwater by Connor before they can tell each other. Upon their subsequent returns, they do not pursue the relationship; Cordelia instead, under the control of Jasmine, forms a relationship with Angel's son, which results in her falling into a coma when Jasmine uses her body to create an independent host for itself. In Angel's perfect day dream-sequence, Angel ends it by consummating the relationship, but calls out "Buffy!" as he is losing his soul. Later, Cordelia returns to put Angel back on track to stopping the Apocalypse. She does this and just before she dies, Cordelia and Angel share their first and only real kiss. In doing so, one last vision (which is only a one-shot deal) showing Angel that the Circle of the Black Thorn are the Senior Partners' most powerful agents on Earth, is passed to him, helping him to stop the Apocalypse from the inside.
 * Nina Ash: A werewolf who Angel saves from being eaten, she develops feelings for Angel and he is eventually convinced to give a relationship a shot. This relationship establishes that Angel is able to have positive sex (unlike his "perfect despair" moment with Darla) and still keep his soul. The two break up when Angel attempts to send her away to save her from the Senior Partners' inevitable revenge.

Intimate liaisons

 * Drusilla: Angelus tormented the human Drusilla, sired her and kept her on as a companion afterwards; Angelus regarded her as his greatest work. The two might have resumed a sexual relationship in Season Two of Buffy after Angel loses his soul.
 * Spike: Spike mentions in the fifth season episode, "Power Play", that "Angel and me have never been intimate. Except that one--" Whedon has confirmed the possibility of a sexual encounter, and in the DVD commentary for the episode "A Hole In The World", he says: "You know, um, I just wanna say Angel and Spike, they were hanging out, uh, for years and years and years, they were in, you know, all kinds of deviant, they were vampires... Are we thinking they never...? Come on, people! I'm just sayin'. I'm just sayin'. You know, they're open-minded guys. They may be evil but, you know, they're not bigoted or closed-minded."
 * The Transuding Furies: The Furies are the three beautiful, powerful beings who cast the anti-demon-violence spell on Lorne's bar, Caritas. When Angel needs the spell removed to fight Gunn's rogue former gang, the Furies tell Cordelia that they will require 'payment' for such an act, and only Angel is 'equipped' to repay the debt (whenever he is mentioned, all three of them say, "Mmm... Angel"). The general tone seems to imply a past sexual relationship between the Furies and Angel.
 * Gwen Raiden: A thief with command over electricity, Angel shares a kiss with Gwen after she gives him an electro-shock that (temporarily) reawakens his dead heart. He subsequently flirts with her to make Cordelia jealous while they are trying to protect the Ra-Tet from The Beast, but later seems to develop a slight affection for her; he almost appears jealous when she asks for Gunn's help over his.
 * Eve: Angel's liaison to the Senior Partners, she and Angel have a one-time encounter at Wolfram & Hart's Halloween party, when Lorne loses control of his empathic powers and he begins to unintentionally write destinies instead of reading them (he tells Angel and Eve to "get a room", saying that "you could cut the sexual tension with a knife"). When Angel thinks they should talk about it, Eve remarks, "It's not as if this is the first time I've had sex under mystical influence. I went to UC Santa Cruz". After this, however, their relationship becomes increasingly hostile due to Eve's relationship with Angel's old foe Lindsey, particularly following her attempt to infect Angel with a dream-inducing parasite.

Other

 * Faith Lehane — When Faith first crosses the line by killing a man, Angel is the first person to attempt to rehabilitate her. However, he is interrupted when Wesley tries to hand her over to the Watchers' Council. While working for Mayor Wilkins, Faith attempts to remove Angel's soul by seducing him. At this point, Faith harbors a sexual interest to Angel, but this is likely out of jealousy toward Buffy. In order to gain inside information about the Mayor's plans, Giles has a dark shaman fake the removal of Angel's soul and Angel as "Angelus" pretends to become romantically involved with Faith. Weeks after the exposure of this ruse, Faith's last act in the Mayor's employ is to shoot Angel with a poison called the Killer of the Dead, and it is this that leads to her near-fatal confrontation with Buffy - the only cure being the blood of a Slayer. After awakening from her coma and fleeing Sunnydale, Faith goes to Los Angeles. Shortly after her arrival, Wolfram & Hart hire Faith to kill Angel. After torturing Wesley, Angel confronts Faith, and during the fight he realizes what Faith really wants; she wants Angel to kill her. He refuses, and again tries to help her, defending her from both Buffy and agents of the Watchers' Council. Thanks to Angel's help, Faith starts down the path to redemption by confessing to her crimes and going to prison. He visits her to make sure she is alright and prison is where she stays for several years. She later breaks out, but only because Angel needs her help, due to Angelus having been restored. Despite the difficulties involved in such a task, Faith makes sure he is brought in and protected so he can be re-ensouled by Willow, even defeating Connor to prevent him from staking his father. The two share a strong bond based on their mutual desire for redemption; Faith also states that Angel is the one person that has never given up on her, a factor that doubtless plays an important role in her decision to fight so hard to save him.
 * Willow Rosenberg - Angel shares deep affection and mutual confidence with Willow, and not just because she restored his soul not once, but twice; in several occasions he asks for her help, looking at her as a reliable ally and friend. During his initial time in Sunnydale, after Buffy, Willow was probably Angel's closest friend in the Scooby Gang, although, as with all the team, his relationship with her was somewhat strained after he came back from Hell. At the end of episode "Orpheus" (the last time they meet on-screen), they hug as old friends.
 * Winifred Burkle: When Angel saves Fred from Pylea, he "vamps out", but rather than his face changing as usual, the demon inside of him comes out completely. After killing two guards, it tries to kill Gunn and Wesley - until Fred, her right hand soaked in blood, lures the demon back to her cave. Fred cares for Angel as he recovers, and remains the only person who wasn't scared by Angel's demon after learning about his vampire nature. When Angel brings Fred back to L.A., he takes her in and is the only member of the group who doesn't seem unnerved by her state of mind. She has a crush on him for a time after her arrival, often saying "handsome man saved me from the monsters", but eventually gets over it when she learns about the curse on his soul. Though their relationship isn't romantic, Fred did kiss him once to fool passersby into thinking they were just a random couple when they were on the run from Jasmine's followers. When she asked if he thought they bought it, he replied "I did".

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

 * Season 1 (1997) - "Welcome To The Hellmouth"; "The Harvest"; "Teacher's Pet"; "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date"; "Angel"; "Out of Mind, Out of Sight"; "Prophecy Girl".
 * Season 2 (1997, 1998) - credited in all 22 episodes, but didn't appear in "Inca Mummy Girl".
 * Season 3 (1998, 1999) - credited in all 22 episodes.
 * Season 4 (1999, 2000) - "The Freshman" (imagined); "Pangs"; "The Yoko Factor".
 * Season 5 (2000, 2001) - "Fool for Love" (flashbacks); "Forever".
 * Season 7 (2002, 2003) - "End of Days"; "Chosen".

Angel
As the star of the series, Angel appeared in all 110 episodes of five seasons (1999-2004).

Angel: After the Fall
As the star of the series, Angel appeared in all 17 canonical issues.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight

 * The Long Way Home, Part 1 (as Twilight)
 * No Future For You, Part 4 (as Twilight)
 * A Beautiful Sunset (as Twilight)
 * Time of Your Life, Parts 1 and 4 (as Twilight)
 * Retreat (as Twilight)
 * Twilight

Behind the scenes

 * Angel was supposed to be a one-time character until David Boreanaz was found. David had already been cast at the time of the Unaired Buffy pilot, but did not appear.
 * In the Angel season three episode "Carpe Noctem", in which Angel was victim of a body-switch, he was played by Rance Howard.
 * [[Image:AngelTattoo.jpg|thumb|right|Angel's tattoo]]Angel has a tattoo on his shoulder-blade of a griffin from The Book of Kells, with the addition of the letter 'A' beneath it.
 * The first time it was planned that Angel would lose his soul, Joss Whedon was doubtful of David Boreanaz being capable of portraying the cruelty of Angelus; however, Whedon would later come to state that David scared him in "Becoming, Part Two".
 * David impressed Joss Whedon so much playing Angelus possessed by the spirit of Grace Newman, a woman, in I Only Have Eyes for You, that he was given his own show.
 * Angel is a "Fanilow" (a fan of Barry Manilow), particularly loving the song "Mandy". As he quotes, "I think it's kinda pretty." He is also a fan of actor Charlton Heston.
 * Angel has appeared in by far the most episodes in the Buffyverse, for a total of 167 episodes. Buffy and Willow are next, with 146 and 147 episodes respectively. He has also appeared in the most seasons of the Buffyverse (all seasons of Buffy and Angel except for Buffy season 6) for a total of 11. He is also the only character to appear in the pilots and finales of both Buffy and Angel.
 * Angel is a fan of ice hockey (we see him watching the game in "Life of the Party") and he hoped Connor would grow up playing ice hockey, one of the reasons being that it is a sport where most games are played indoors, and at night (allowing for vampires to spectate).
 * Angel's human name, Liam, is the Irish form of the name William.
 * Though Twilight was introduced at the height of the popularity of Stephanie Meyers' Twilight vampire romance franchise, he is in no way a reference to it. Joss Whedon had never heard of Twilight when he chose the villain's name.
 * Twilight's secret identity was leaked on the Internet months prior to the publication of issue 33.