Editing Angel (1999 TV series) (section)

== Storylines ==
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THIS SECTION ATTRACTS BLOAT. PLEASE DO NOT ENLARGE IT (if anything, it needs some more shrinking). ALSO, KEEP IN MIND THIS SECTION NEEDS TO BE UNDERSTOOD BY PEOPLE WHO MAY HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT ANGEL. KEEP IT VERY SIMPLE!
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At the start of the series, Angel has just moved to Los Angeles. He is soon visited by Doyle, a messenger sent to him on behalf of The Powers That Be, enigmatic and ancient forces that assist the side of good. Doyle receives visions that can guide Angel on his mission as a champion of humankind. Angel also encounters Cordelia Chase, who is trying to launch an acting career. The three group together to form Angel Investigations, a detective agency that hopes to "help the hopeless" (later on "help the helpless"). When Doyle dies in the episode "[[Hero (Angel)|Hero]]", he passes on his "visions" to Cordelia with a kiss. Shortly thereafter, the ex-[[Watcher (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Watcher]], Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, joins the group. Meanwhile, the evil law firm Wolfram & Hart pay increasing attention to Angel. They tempt him toward darkness when they resurrect [[Darla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Darla]], Angel's ex-lover and [[vampire (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)#Vampire's siring and rebirth|sire]]—killed by Angel in the first season of ''Buffy'' in the episode "[[Angel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode)|Angel]]".

[[Charles Gunn (Angel)|Charles Gunn]], who was introduced toward the end of season 1 in the episode "War Zone", is a street-tough leader of a gang of vampire hunters. He is initially determined to kill Angel but slowly comes to accept him and join his cause throughout season 2. Wolfram & Hart's star lawyer [[Lindsey McDonald]] primes Darla as its weapon to bring down Angel. However, Darla is brought back as a human, not a vampire. But as a human, she suffers from a terminal case of [[syphilis]]—which she had contracted in her original life before being sired. Lindsey brings in [[Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Drusilla]], a vampire originally sired by Angelus, to restore Darla to the cause of evil. Enraged by this, Angel begins to grow darker. He cuts himself off from his staff (secretly to keep them away from this kind of dark territory for their own sake) and attempts to go after the pair himself. In despair, Angel sleeps with Darla (cf. "[[Reprise (Angel)|Reprise]]") but the next morning, he has an epiphany; seeing the error of his ways, he banishes Darla and reunites with his group. When Cordelia vanishes, [[Lorne (Angel)|Lorne]], the flamboyant demon owner of karaoke bar Caritas, reluctantly takes Angel and his crew to his home dimension, Pylea, to rescue her. They return with [[Winifred Burkle|Winifred "Fred" Burkle]], a former physics student who has been trapped in the dimension for five long years.

To get over news of [[The Gift (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|the death of his ex-girlfriend, Buffy]], Angel spends three months in a [[monastery]], where he encounters some demon monks and goes home frustrated in season 3. He returns to Los Angeles, as does Darla—now bearing his child. [[Daniel Holtz]], an old enemy of both Angel and Darla, is resurrected by a demon to take revenge on the vampires that killed his family. The group is puzzled over what might be the first vampire birth. Darla sacrifices her life to save the life of her child, [[Connor (Angel)|Connor]]. The gang is eager to care for the infant, but Wesley soon learns of a (false) frightening prophecy that suggests that Angel will murder his son. Feeling disconnected from the group, Wesley does not share this information and quietly kidnaps Connor. This backfires as he is attacked and the child is seized by Holtz and his protégée [[List of minor Angel characters#Justine Cooper|Justine]]. Wanting Angel to suffer the loss of a child as he did, Holtz escapes through a rip in the fabric of space to the dimension of Quor'Toth, and raises the boy as his own. Angel feels that his son is lost forever and tries to murder Wesley. Though he survives, Wesley is banished from the group. Weeks later, Connor returns, but because time moves faster in Quor'Toth, he is now a teenage boy, having been raised by Holtz. Tricking Angel into believing he needs to be the one to take Connor in, Holtz gives Angel a letter letting Connor know that he will be leaving and to trust Angel. Holtz gets Justine to kill him but ends up making it look like a vampire attack so Connor will assume the worst. Connor imprisons his birth father, Angel, in a casket and drops it to the bottom of the ocean. Cordelia's visions have been progressively getting worse, and she becomes part demon to make them easier on herself. Her old lover, the [[Groosalugg]], comes back from Pylea to be with her but leaves her when he discovers that she instead loves Angel. Cordelia, having been approached by a seeming agent of the Powers That Be with an offer to become a Higher Being, ascends to a higher dimensional plane at season's end.

Despite his exile from his old friends, Wesley locates and frees Angel at the beginning of season four. A hellish [[List of minor Angel characters#The Beast|Beast]] emerges and blocks out the sun over L.A. He then proceeds to kill the staff at Wolfram & Hart. Although the city survives, the sunlight seems to have been vanquished permanently. The team resorts to releasing Angel's soul, believing Angelus knows helpful information about the beast. Although the team takes safety precautions, Angelus is released from his cell by Cordelia, who is, at the time, under the influence of the soon to be born [[Jasmine (Angel)|Jasmine]]. Luckily, they manage to restore Angel's soul, thanks to help from [[Faith (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Faith]] and [[Willow Rosenberg|Willow]]. Their efforts, however, do not prevent the coming of [[Jasmine (Angel)|Jasmine]], who was indirectly responsible for the work of the Beast. Jasmine, it turns out, was formerly one of the Powers That Be and plans to solve all the world's problems by giving humanity total happiness through spiritual enslavement to her. She arrives in our world through manipulation of Cordelia and Connor, using them as a conduit into our world, eventually forcing Cordelia to fall into a coma. Fred is accidentally inoculated against Jasmine's spell by contact with her blood and frees the rest of the gang though they remain hopelessly outnumbered by thousands already entranced by Jasmine. Angel travels through a magic portal into a world previously visited by Jasmine to find a way of breaking her power over L.A.'s populace. By revealing her true name, they are able to break Jasmine's spell over everyone. Jasmine confronts Angel but is then killed by Connor. Connor is revealed never to have been under Jasmine's influence, but he went along for the sake of having a semblance of family and happiness. In the season finale, they are met by Lilah Morgan, the resurrected Head of Wolfram & Hart's Special Project Division, who congratulates them on preventing [[world peace]], and says that as a token of their appreciation, Wolfram & Hart would like to give them the Los Angeles branch. To help save Cordelia and Connor, who has gone mad with confusion over losing everything, Angel reluctantly agrees.

In season 5, the gang begins to settle into their new lives at Wolfram & Hart. Gunn undergoes a special cognitive procedure that transforms him into a brilliant lawyer. The group receives an [[amulet]] that resurrects a past companion of Angelus, the en-souled vampire [[Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Spike]], initially as a ghost-like presence but later regains corporeal status due to the machinations of [[Lindsey McDonald]] in a surprise return. Cordelia, who has been in a [[coma]], has ''The Powers That Be'' grant her one last request, in which she helps Angel get "back on track," then dies. Angel is briefly reunited with his son Connor, now in a new identity thanks to the agreement between Angel and Wolfram & Hart at the end of Season Four. Connor regains the memories of his former identity but does not acknowledge this to protect his new parents (though he later reveals to Angel that he does, in fact, remember his previous life). Fred finally declares her affections to Wesley, but shortly after is possessed by an ancient and powerful demon called [[Illyria (Angel)|Illyria]]. Wesley is devastated by the loss of Fred but agrees to help Illyria adjust to her new form and the unfamiliar world she is in. Angel, after getting one last vision from Cordelia before her death, infiltrates the Circle of the Black Thorn, a [[secret society]] responsible for engineering the [[Apocalypse]], and plans to take them all out in a simultaneous, hard-hitting strike. Because this is probably a [[suicide mission]], he tells each of his friends to spend the day as if it were their last. That night, the team launches its attack on the Circle, dividing up their targets. When Wesley is fatally stabbed, Illyria, concerned for his safety, arrives at his side after killing her targets but is unable to save him. Illyria asks Wesley if he'd like her to assume the form of Fred, and Wesley agrees, allowing him to say goodbye to the woman he loved. Lorne leaves and disappears into the night, his innocence destroyed after fulfilling Angel's last order to kill Lindsey, the former Wolfram & Hart lawyer who had turned his back on the firm. Angel confronts Senior Partners' new liaison [[List of minor Angel characters#Marcus Hamilton|Marcus Hamilton]] and defeats him with help from Connor.

Once the Circle has been dismantled, Angel and the surviving members of his gang [[wikt:rendezvous|rendezvous]] in the alley behind the Hyperion Hotel. Illyria arrives with news of Wesley's death and feels the need to retaliate in her anger and grief. Spike also arrives, triumphant about his successful mission and hungry for further violent fighting. Gunn emerges, staggering from a serious stomach wound, but ready to fight. The survivors wait as the Senior Partners' army of warriors, [[giant (mythology)|giant]]s, and a [[dragon]] approaches. Angel, Spike, Gunn and Illyria prepare for the upcoming battle, with Angel saying, "Well, personally, I kind of want to slay the dragon." The series then ends with Angel saying, "Let's go to work," after which he and his team attack the army of monsters head-on.