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The fourth season of Angel originally aired on The WB from October 6, 2002 to May 7, 2003. It premiered later, but ended earlier, than the seventh and final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Synopsis[]

With both Angel and Cordelia still missing, Fred, Gunn and Connor try to keep Angel Investigations running while they search for their friends. Ironically, the man who everyone believes betrayed Angel is the one who finally comes to Angel's rescue. Then Cordelia mysteriously reappears with no memory of her life or her friends. Confused, she chooses to take refuge with Connor — setting into motion events that will alter their lives forever.[1]

Summary[]

Angel is trapped at the bottom of the sea, hallucinating about having a happy dinner with the team and Connor. Wesley has captured Justine and he uses her to find and recover Angel. Wesley, exiled from the group, has also been having a love affair with Lilah Morgan, now his colleague at Wolfram & Hart. Angel and Connor meet up again, but the father is not willing to forgive the son — he kicks him out of the Hyperion Hotel.[2] Needing a retreat, Angel, Gunn, and Fred head to Las Vegas to see Lorne's act only to learn that he is being held as a slave. They rescue him and return home and find Cordelia — who has returned from her higher plane with complete amnesia.[3]

Frightened and confused, Cordelia takes refuge with Connor, where she struggles to piece together her life story before a spell finally restores her memory.[4] A hellish Beast appears on Earth,[5] blocks out the sun,[6] rains fire from the skies,[5] and, incidentally, wipes out the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram & Hart, leaving Lilah as its sole survivor.[7] Cordelia, feeling that this may be her last night alive, sleeps with Connor as fire continues to fall.[5] They turn out to live another day, but the absence of sunlight makes Los Angeles a party town for vampires.[6] Cordelia receives visions that convince the group that Angelus is the only one who knows how to stop the Beast,[6] so they extract Angel's soul.[8]

It's then revealed that Cordelia has now an evil persona and is secretly controlling the Beast. She releases the evil Angelus and kills Lilah to frame him. Cordelia then reveals to Connor that she is pregnant with his child. Short on powerful fighters, the team springs Slayer Faith from prison. She is badly beaten by the Beast during their confront,[9] but she manages to incapacitate Angelus, who feeds on her.[10] Unknown to him, Faith had taken a psychoactive drug, which neutralizes them both and causes them to relive moments from Angel's past. Willow visits, restores Angel's soul, and takes Faith back with her to Sunnydale.[11]

Meanwhile, the team figures out that Cordelia is the one behind the apocalyptic events. But before they can capture her, Connor, deluded into thinking that the team must be somehow evil, takes Cordelia into hiding. Angel eventually tracks them down and is about to kill Cordelia, when she gives birth to an adult woman named Jasmine, and then slips into a coma. Angel stops, in total awe of the new being.[12]

Jasmine, it turns out, was one of the Powers That Be, but decided to leave the "sidelines" and take an active part in fighting evil, and that the events of prior weeks were "birth pains." Jasmine has the power to make all who see her fall under her spell of total happiness. Jasmine brings the promise of true world peace — at the price of complete enslavement under her.[13] But contact with her or Cordelia's blood breaks the spell and lets people see her for who she truly is. By accident, Fred discovers this on her own and becomes an outcast in a city otherwise in love with Jasmine. Slowly, she manages to inoculate Angel and the team — except Connor —,[14] though they remain hopelessly outnumbered. They learn, however, that revealing Jasmine's true name will destroy her spell over everyone. Angel visits a demon dimension Jasmine had conquered,[15] gains access to the name, and reveals it just as she is about to take over the world. A despondent Connor — who had known Jasmine's true nature but went along with her anyway — then kills her.[16]

The team then is met by the ghost of Lilah, who congratulates them on preventing world peace,[17] and says that, as a token of their appreciation, Wolfram & Hart would like to give them the Los Angeles branch. Skeptical at first, the team eventually takes the offer. As part of it, Angel receives an amulet with instructions to deliver it to Sunnydale. But while this is happening, a despondent Connor finds no reason to live without Cordelia and Jasmine, and has tied himself and the unconscious Cordelia up to several large bombs. To save both their lives, Angel allows Wolfram & Hart to give Connor a life as a normal child and erase him from everyone's memory, except Angel's own. Angel watches Connor have a happy dinner with his new family.[18]

Cast[]

Main[]

Recurring[]

Episodes[]

No. Image Title Air date
01 A4x01 Angel "Deep Down" October 6, 2002
Writer: Steven S. DeKnight Director: Terrence O'Hara
With Angel trapped on the ocean floor and Cordelia stuck on a mystical plane, Fred and Gunn are frustrated at the lack of clues regarding their friends' whereabouts, especially after the only eyewitness to Angel's disappearance is murdered. After Angel is rescued by the most unlikely person, the shocking reasons behind the mysterious disappearances become clear.
02 Groundstate Main "Ground State" October 13, 2002
Writer: Mere Smith Director: Michael Grossman
When Wesley advises Angel to visit Dinza, a dark "goddess of the lost" who has valuable information on how to find Cordelia, he learns that a certain mystical antiquity can locate souls across dimensions. Angel, Fred and Gunn break into an auction house to retrieve the object only to discover that an electrifying cat burglar has the same intentions.
03 A4x03 Gunn Fred Angel "The House Always Wins" October 20, 2002
Writer: David Fury Director: Marita Grabiak
Tired of dealing with Connor and looking for Cordelia, Angel decides to take Gunn and Fred on a road trip to Vegas to visit Lorne who is performing in a showcase at one of the casinos. They discover that Lorne is being coerced by the casino owner into stealing the "significant destinies" of audience members to sell on the black market. When the casino owner learns that Angel is destined to play a major role in the apocalypse, Cordelia must come to his aid from a distance to prevent his future from being stolen.
04 STB Cordelia 01 "Slouching Toward Bethlehem" October 27, 2002
Writer: Jeffrey Bell Director: Skip Schoolnik
Cordelia returns, but since she has no memory of who she is or that Angel is a vampire, everyone tries to keep their demon-hunting business a secret. After rescuing Cordelia from a demon, Connor takes on the role of her protector and Lorne reads Cordelia's future to help restore her memory but sees an approaching apocalypse involving Angel.
05 Supersymmetry Fred "Supersymmetry" November 3, 2002
Writers: Elizabeth Craft, Sarah Fain Director: Bill L. Norton
After Fred's physics article is published; she's invited to speak at a symposium where a portal opens, bringing her face to face with a demon and a dark secret about her old professor. Meanwhile, Angel tries to solve the mystery of the portal and why someone would want Fred out of the way.
06 Spin the Bottle 03 "Spin the Bottle" November 10, 2002
Writer: Joss Whedon Director: Joss Whedon
When Lorne performs a spell on Cordelia to restore her memory, it inadvertently causes the gang to revert back to their high school personas and leaves them with no memories of each other. Eventually, they discover that the only way to reverse the spell is to kill a vampire, just as Angel realizes that he is one.
07 A4x07 Beast 04 "Apocalypse, Nowish" November 17, 2002
Writer: Steven S. DeKnight Director: Vern Gillum
When Cordelia's apocalyptic nightmares become a reality, Angel, Wesley, Gunn and Lorne find themselves powerless against The Beast who has risen from the center of the Earth, bringing earthquakes and a rain of fire to Los Angeles. Bloodied and beaten, Angel and his friends realize that they may not be able to stop the impending doom.
08 Habeas corpses "Habeas Corpses" January 15, 2003
Writer: Jeffrey Bell Director: Skip Schoolnik
When Angel realizes that there may be some connection between Connor and the Beast, he learns that Connor is trapped within Wolfram & Hart where the building is under lock-down and the Beast is on a brutal killing spree. Angel, Wesley, Gunn and Fred must figure out how to spring Connor before he is killed as well.
09 Long Day's Journey Cordelia Angel Gunn Gwen "Long Day's Journey" January 22, 2003
Writer: Mere Smith Director: Terrence O'Hara
When the gang learns that the answer to stopping the Beast is among them, everyone suspects Connor, until Cordelia begins to receive visions from the Powers That Be. Meanwhile, Angel and Gwen discover that the Beast is preparing a device that will blot out the sun permanently and turn the world into a demon playground.
10 A4x10 Wo-Pang Angel 01 "Awakening" January 29, 2003
Writers: David Fury, Steven S. DeKnight Director: James A. Contner
After Cordelia's revelation that Angelus and The Beast made a pact, the gang determines that they must turn Angel into Angelus to end the eternal darkness. For that transformation to take place, Angel must lose his soul by experiencing a moment of pure happiness.
11 A4x11 Beast 02 "Soulless" February 5, 2003
Writers: Sarah Fain, Elizabeth Craft Director: Sean Astin
With Angelus now confined to a cage, Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn, Fred and Connor take turns interrogating him hoping to find out how to kill the beast. Unable to learn anything, the gang decides to turn Angelus back into Angel, but learn that Angel's soul has been stolen.
12 Calvary Lilah "Calvary" February 12, 2003
Writers: Mere Smith, Steven S. DeKnight, Jeffrey Bell Director: Bill L. Norton
When the gang receives the disturbing news that The Beast is working for a much more powerful entity, they realize they must restore Angel's soul to revert the evil Angelus back to Angel.
13 Salvage Angel Faith 02 "Salvage" March 5, 2003
Writer: David Fury Director: Jefferson Kibbee
When Angelus meets up with The Beast, he learns that the rain of fire, blacking out the sun and stealing Angel's soul was all part of The Beast's mysterious master plan to bring Angelus back. Meanwhile, Wesley releases vampire slayer Faith from prison to help capture Angelus.
14 Release Angel 01 "Release" March 12, 2003
Writers: Sarah Fain, Elizabeth Craft, Steven S. DeKnight Director: James A. Contner
Angelus continues his search for The Beast's mysterious master, never suspecting that it could be someone close to him. Meanwhile, Faith and Angelus do battle while Cordelia convinces Connor to keep their baby a secret.
15 Orpheus Willow 01 "Orpheus" March 19, 2003
Writer: Mere Smith Director: Terrence O'Hara
While in their drug-induced comas, Angelus and Faith experience flashbacks of Angel’s good deeds over the centuries; Fred calls in Willow, the only person ever able to restore Angel’s soul and asks her to help them do it again.
16 Players Lorne 04 "Players" March 26, 2003
Writers: Sarah Fain, Elizabeth Craft, Jeffrey Bell Director: Michael Grossman
Angel and the gang set out to find out as much as they can about Cordelia's pregnancy and the identity of The Beast's master while Gwen Raiden enlists Gunn's help to crash a black-tie affair and rescue a kidnapped girl.
17 A4x17 Connor Darla 02 "Inside Out" April 2, 2003
Writer: Steven S. DeKnight Director: Steven S. DeKnight
Desperate to find out why Cordelia has turned to the dark side, Angel goes to demon Skip for answers. Forcing the truth out of him, Angel learns that all that's transpired, Connor's birth, Cordelia's ascension to the higher plane, Angel turning into Angelus and Cordelia's pregnancy, were all a part of a higher being's plan to create something even more powerful than itself.
18 Shiny Happy People Lorne Fred 01 "Shiny Happy People" April 9, 2003
Writers: Sarah Fain, Elizabeth Craft Director: Marita Grabiak
The Woman A.K.A. Jasmine, who was born to Cordelia, has the amazing ability to turn everyone she meets, including Angel and the gang, into loyal disciples dedicated to carrying out her every command. Only Fred is able to see that Jasmine's radiant beauty hides a sinister and powerful secret the others refuse to believe.
19 The Magic Bullet Connor Jasmine Angel "The Magic Bullet" April 16, 2003
Writer: Jeffrey Bell Director: Jeffrey Bell
With Angel and the others under Jasmine's extraordinarily divine power, Fred's life is in danger and she goes on the run. After discovering the secret to breaking Jasmine's spell over the nation's citizens, Fred must find a way to save the others before she's captured and killed.
20 Sacrifice Angel Gunn Fred Lorne Wesley "Sacrifice" April 23, 2003
Writer: Ben Edlund Director: David Straiton
Free from Jasmine's spell, Angel, Wesley, Gunn, Fred and Lorne escape into the sewers for protection until an evil, tentacled monster that has information about Jasmine captures Wes. Meanwhile, Connor, still in the clutches of Jasmine, discovers that Cordelia has vanished.
21 A4x21 Guardian Keeper "Peace Out" April 30, 2003
Writer: David Fury Director: Jefferson Kibbee
Angel goes on a mission to find proof that his son Connor wasn't simply a vessel designed to bring the evil Jasmine, who is hell-bent on destroying everyone, into the world. Meanwhile, Connor goes in search of the missing Cordelia.
22 Home Fred Wesley Angel Gunn Lorne "Home" May 7, 2003
Writer: Tim Minear Director: Tim Minear
Angel and the gang are made an offer they can't refuse when they are given the opportunity to take over Wolfram & Hart and obtain all of the firm's secret and powerful information. Meanwhile, Angel has a chance to change the future for his son Connor, who is physically and emotionally lost and wandering through the city.

Behind the scenes[]

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References[]

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