Angel Investigations
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| Angel Investigations, aka Team Angel | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | City of |
| Last appearance | Angel: After the Fall |
| Created by | Joss Whedon |
| Statistics | |
| Name | Angel Investigations |
| Purpose | Helping the helpless/hopeless, saving lost souls, demon hunting, forming an opposition to Wolfram & Hart |
| Membership | Current Members |
Angel Investigations is the name of a fictional detective agency run by the title character Angel previously on the WB television series Angel (a spin-off from Buffy the Vampire Slayer). It is sometimes abbreviated as AI. The agency allows Angel to openly advertise his willingness to assist people in trouble without specifying the agency's specialization in supernatural cases; their slogan We Help the Helpless is especially appealing to people who are unfamiliar with the supernatural world and therefore are afraid to ask for help, fearing they will be considered crazy, but who are nonetheless in desperate need of aid.
Throughout most of the series' run, the agency has employed most of the characters, and provided the series with a steady income of storylines. Because of this, AI is somewhat synonymous to the group of main characters. It is also known as Team Angel, a term that could be employed even following the demise of Angel Investigations as a business.
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[edit] Story of the Agency
The agency is founded by Angel sometime between the first and second episodes of Season One. Angel makes friends with Doyle, a half-demon who's been given visions by The Powers That Be of people in need of Angel's help. After they successfully rescue former Sunnydale associate Cordelia Chase, she joins them and encourages them to front their operations with a detective agency, with the hope of having a steady paycheck while she attempts to make it as an actress. Cordelia also coins their slogan, "We help the helpless" and designs their business logo, a stylized angel which resembles "a lobster".
Halfway through Season 1, Doyle passes his visions on to Cordelia just prior to his death. Another old Sunnydale friend, self-styled "rogue demon hunter" and former Watcher Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, joins Angel Investigations soon thereafter bringing an extensive knowledge of demons and magic to the agency. At the end of season one, street tough vampire hunter Charles Gunn also joins AI, adding much-needed brawn to their group. AI originally operate out of Angel's residence, a basement apartment beneath a ground floor office space comprised of an inner executive office and an outer reception area. At the end of the first season, however, an agent of the evil law firm Wolfram and Hart blows up the building.
Cordelia's residence is pressed into service as AI headquarters until shortly into Season 2, when AI moves to a new location, the Hyperion Hotel. Now empty and all but abandoned, the Hyperion is a luxury hotel where Angel stayed in 1952. The Hyperion was abandoned due to a demon that drove the occupants to insanity. AI kills the demon and takes control of the building for use as their headquarters. The manager's office in the lobby is used by Angel (and later Wesley) and several of the empty rooms are used as a residence for various characters. Halfway through season two, Angel fires his three colleagues after escalating disagreements about his growing moral corruption. Instead of disbanding while Angel deals with his private issues, Gunn, Cordelia, and Wesley continue running AI without him in a rented office. They opt to keep the name "Angel Investigations" because they feel they are continuing the "mission" that Angel started out with. Eventually, Angel rejoins them and their base of operations returns to the Hyperion Hotel. As part of his amends, he agrees to work for them and Wesley is selected as the leader of the team. At the end of the second season, AI spent several episodes in the demon-dimension Pylea, home to friend Lorne. There they rescue Winifred Burkle, a stranded former physics student, who joins the agency at the start of Season 3.
After a fallout in Season 3, Wesley leaves the group and sets up his own group which is run more as a paramilitary mercenary group than a detective agency. Angel resumes his function as leader with the departure of Wesley.
At the end of Season 4, the agency is dissolved when Angel assumes control over the L.A. branch of their former enemy Wolfram & Hart.
Aforementioned karaoke-demon Lorne, and Angel's son Connor, are also affiliated with the agency, although it is unclear whether they are actually employees.
[edit] Members
(in order of length of membership)
- Angel, the team's namesake and a member throughout. The exception to this being a period in Season 2, where technically he disbanded the team, but the other members simply continued without him. Originally he had been the team's leader and boss, when he returned after his absence from the team, he was de jure subordinate to Wesley. When Wesley left the team, Angel essentially became the de facto leader once again, although even before Wesley's departure, Angel was somewhat unofficially 'in charge'.
- Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, a member from mid-season 1 onwards and team leader for some period. His actions in Season 3 forced him to leave, though he was gradually accepted back into the group again.
- Charles Gunn, an ally from the end of Season 1 onwards, Gunn officially joins the group in Season 2, when he starts receiving a salary. He leaves the group between Angel Season 5 and After the Fall, because he was sired and turned into a vampire.
- Cordelia Chase, a founding member until her disappearance at the end of Season 3. She returned in Season 4 but, possessed, was indeed working against AI from within. She fell into a coma at the end of that season and died the following year.
- Winifred Burkle, introduced towards the end of Season 2, Fred becomes a member in Season 3 and is a core member of the group until her death in Season 5.
- Lorne, a long-time ally since his introduction in the first episode of Season 2, it is hard to pinpoint when he becomes a genuine member of the group, though most likely in Season 3 after the destruction of his karaoke club Caritas.
- Spike, an old ally of Angel back in his souless days, Spike joins the team during the fifth season when he comes back alive after his death in the finale of Buffy.
- Allen Francis Doyle, a founding member. Doyle was a demon with precognitive abilities. He died in Season 1.
- Connor, Angel's son is introduced in Season 3 and has a complicated relationship with the group, more often than not he is working against them or is indifferent to them due to his belief that Angel is inherently evil. He finally accepts Angel as his father and joins the group in Angel: After the Fall.
- Gwen Raiden, Introduced as an ally throughout season 4, she is later introduced as part of team in Angel: After the Fall.
- Nina Ash, Introduced in season 5 as Angel's werewolf girlfriend, she becomes part of the team in Angel: After the Fall.
[edit] Team Variations
[edit] Season 1
- Angel
- Cordelia Chase
- Allen Francis Doyle, until his death in "Hero"
- Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, from around the episode "Parting Gifts"
Allies
- Kate Lockley, from around the episode "Lonely Hearts"
- Charles Gunn, from around the episode "War Zone"
[edit] Season 2
- Angel, until he leaves the team in "Reunion", he rejoins in "Epiphany"
- Cordelia Chase
- Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
- Charles Gunn
Allies
- Kate Lockley, until she leaves town in "Epiphany"
- Merl
- Lorne
[edit] Season 3
- Angel
- Cordelia Chase
- Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, until he betrays Angel in "Sleep Tight"
- Charles Gunn
- Winifred Burkle
- Lorne, from around the episode "Dad" until he leaves town in "Tomorrow"
Allies
- Merl, until his death in "That Old Gang of Mine"
- The Groosalugg, from around the episode "Couplet" until he leaves town in "Tomorrow"
[edit] Season 4
- Angel, until he becomes Angelus in "Awakening" (he returns in "Orpheus")
- Cordelia Chase, from the episode "Slouching Toward Bethlehem" until her personality is subsumed by Jasmine in "Spin the Bottle"
- Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, from around the episode "Apocalypse, Nowish"
- Charles Gunn
- Winifred Burkle
- Lorne, from the episode "The House Always Wins"
Allies
- Faith, from the episode "Salvage" until she leaves town in "Orpheus"
- Gwen Raiden, from around the episode "Ground State"
- Connor, unreliably from around the episode "Slouching Toward Bethlehem"
- Willow Rosenberg, in the episode "Orpheus"
[edit] Season 5
(Although Angel and Team work for Wolfram and Hart, and no longer run Angel Investigations there still is a core team and allies, of the following)
- Angel
- Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
- Charles Gunn
- Winifred "Fred" Burkle, until her death in "A Hole in the World"
- Lorne
- Spike, ally until the episode "Shells"
Allies
- Harmony Kendall
- Cordelia Chase, in the episode "You're Welcome"
- Illyria, from around the episode "Underneath"
- Connor
[edit] After the Fall
Allies
[edit] See also
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