Season 5
Summary:
As its final season began, Angel had already established a tone and theme for the year. In “Home,” the final episode of season four, the titular vampire hero (David Boreanaz) had agreed to take over the Los Angeles branch of demonic law firm Wolfram & Hart. Vowing to put the firm’s vast resources to work in the fight against evil, Angel and company effectively sold out — with the best of intentions. Parent series Buffy the Vampire Slayer had recently spent its own final season developing an extended metaphor about the “war on terror.” Now, Angel sets out to explore a subtler form of evil: the slippery slope of compromised idealism. Given the WB network’s continued lack of faith in the show (the fifth season almost didn’t happen and the sixth never did, despite a nice ratings bump) critics pointed out that Angel’s decision to fight from within the belly of the beast served as a metaphor for the show’s quest to tell compelling scripted stories on broadcast TV. Angel spent the season making compromises, so its producers had to settle for smaller budgets and self-contained episodes. They also had to bring Buffy alumnus James Marsters on board as a cast regular, despite his character’s heroic death in the Buffy finale. With a ghostly Spike installed as Angel’s gleefully snide conscience and rival, the writers brought in several other new and returning characters. Ditzy vampire bombshell Harmony (Mercedes McNab) stepped in as Angel’s secretary and the show’s central comic relief, while the smarmy Eve (Sarah Thompson) and the affable Knox (Jonathan M. Woodward) served as Wolfram & Hart’s human faces. As for the show’s remaining mainstays, Angel romanced a werewolf named Nina (Jenny Mollen) and, along with Spike, came to terms with his feelings for his ex-girlfriend Buffy. (Much to fans’ disappointment, though, Sarah Michelle Gellar did not reprise her signature role.) Street-smart demon hunter Gunn (J. August Richards) made a Faustian pact with Wolfram & Hart’s senior partners and paid the price for his moral ambivalence. Scientist Fred (Amy Acker) found her soul shattered and her body colonized by an ancient demon named Illyria. Wesley (Alexis Denisof) went off the deep end when Illyria snuffed out his new romance with Fred. Only Lorne (Andy Hallett), the green-skinned empathic demon, got short shrift on the plot points, his presence reduced to the occasional quip or helping hand. The most unexpected guest of all came in the form of Christian Kane, whose scheming Lindsey McDonald resurfaced to set the stage for a finale that ended as abruptly and heroically as the series itself. Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide.
Angel Season 5 Episode Guide:
Season 5, Episode 22 – Aired: 5/19/2004
As they prepare to confront the Circle of the Black Thorn, the representatives of the Senior Partners on this plane, Angel and company spend the day as if it will be their last. Then, with their affairs in order, our heroes set forth to face their greatest challenge yet, and possibly their last.
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Season 5, Episode 21 – Aired: 5/12/2004
Drogyn arrives in L.A., badly wounded, to point the finger at his attacker. Wesley discovers a strange symbol in one of his books which turns out to be the mark for an evil, secret society. The circumstances of Fred’s death come into question, and as Team Angel tries to figure out who is responsible they begin to fear that their leader has become corrupted by the power Wolfram & Hart have given him.
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Season 5, Episode 20 – Aired: 5/5/2004
Angel and Spike travel to Rome with plans to rescue Buffy from their old nemesis The Immortal. While in Italy, they also attempt to retrieve the head of a fallen demon leader to prevent a perilous power struggle between several warring demon clans. Fred’s parents come to visit.
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Season 5, Episode 19 – Aired: 4/28/2004
When Illyria’s powers become unstable and cause her to erratically jump through time, she learns that the gang intends to kill her. Upon returning to the present, Illyria decides that she must kill everyone else before they are able to attack her. Angel, caught in Illyria’s time distortion is pulled into the past and must find a way to alter the course of events.
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Season 5, Episode 18 – Aired: 4/21/2004
Angel resists the appeal of parents seeking help from Wolfram & Hart regarding their son’s supernatural abilities after he discovers that the boy is his son, Connor. Despite his reservations, Angel is forced to bring Connor into conflict with an old adversary (Sahjahn) to prevent his son’s memories from being restored. Meanwhile Wesley uncovers a mysterious deal struck by Wolfram & Hart that threatens the secret Angel desperately wants to protect.
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Season 5, Episode 17 – Aired: 4/14/2004
Hoping that Lindsay has information on the Senior Partners’ ultimate plans, Angel, Spike and Gunn track him down in a bizarre and terrifying suburban hell. Meanwhile, a nearly invincible stranger sent by the Senior Partners, infiltrates Wolfram & Hart looking for Eve.
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Season 5, Episode 16 – Aired: 3/3/2004
Angel and Spike return from England defeated, knowing that the ancient demon Illyria has completely taken over Fred’s body and soul. Upon learning that Knox and Gunn have each contributed to her demise, Wesley is bent on revenge and Angel tries everything to restore Fred, including calling on an old friend from Sunnydale. Meanwhile, Illyria tries to locate an ancient temple where she believes she will find an army ready to help her destroy mankind.
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Season 5, Episode 15 – Aired: 2/25/2004
When Fred opens up an ancient sarcophagus that was anonymously sent to her, she is infected by a mysterious parasitic demon called Illyria. Angel and Spike learn that Illyria is an ancient demon who existed before recorded time, and they must race to return her to an ancient demon burial ground before she kills Fred and thousands of other innocent victims.
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Season 5, Episode 14 – Aired: 2/18/2004
When a several children are hospitalized after watching a TV show called ‘Smile Time’ Angel goes to check out the studio only to be turned into a puppet. Now Angel and the gang have to stop a group of evil puppets from stealing the souls of children and return Angel back to normal.
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Season 5, Episode 13 – Aired: 2/11/2004
Lawson, a mysterious man from Angel’s past, arrives at Wolfram & Hart and takes the gang hostage. Through flashbacks to World War II, it is revealed that Angel worked with the U.S. Navy to recover a captured German submarine with American sailors on board. The ship also has a secret cargo, a dangerous trio of vampires, including Spike, who were kidnapped by the Germans and forced to help the Nazis. When the sub comes under attack, Angel saves Lawson’s life by turning him into a vampire. Now, sixty years later, Lawson has arrived at Wolfram & Hart seeking revenge.
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Season 5, Episode 12 – Aired: 2/4/2004
Cordelia wakes up from her coma and is shocked and unhappy to discover that Angel and the gang are no longer fighting Wolfram & Hart, they’re running it. When she realizes that Angel has lost his conviction to be a hero, she gives him the information and support he needs to get back on track. Meanwhile, while Angel has security keeping an eye on Eve, her partner “Doyle” prepares to bring about Angel’s demise.
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Season 5, Episode 11 – Aired: 1/28/2004
When an emotionally unstable woman, Dana, escapes from a psychiatric ward, Angel learns that she was tortured as a child and is now searching for her tormentor. Andrew, a watcher-in-training, arrives from Sunnydale with surprising information about Buffy and to inform the group that Dana is also a vampire slayer.
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Season 5, Episode 10 – Aired: 1/21/2004
A mysterious stranger approaches Spike claiming responsibility for recorporealizing him in a mission to guide Spike in supplanting Angel as the new vampire champion. Meanwhile, Angel is racked by intense fever dreams and hallucinations of his worst fears intensifying his worries that he will lose authority to Spike.
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Season 5, Episode 9 – Aired: 1/14/2004
Keeping her job as Angel’s assistant is the least of Harmony’s worries when she wakes up with a dead vamp-bite victim in her bed and no memory of the previous night’s events. And things go from bad to worse when the gang’s investigation reveals that the dead guy was a demons’ rights activist negotiating between two warring clans.
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Season 5, Episode 8 – Aired: 11/19/2003
When another mysterious package arrives at Wolfram & Hart that recorporealizes Spike, the gang learns that the existence of two living ensouled vampire heroes has created chaos in the world. After Eve tells them about a prophecy that states that the only way to restore order is to find the Cup of Perpetual Torment that bestows human life, Angel and Spike battle it out for the ultimate prize. A series of flashbacks show the history of Angel and Spike and their relationship with Drusilla.
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Season 5, Episode 7 – Aired: 11/12/2003
Cyborg assassins attack the offices of Wolfram and Hart for a magical device that will give them control of Angel. Wesley is surprised by the arrival of his estranged father, who has come to evaluate Wesley for possible reacceptance to the Watcher’s Council.
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Season 5, Episode 6 – Aired: 11/5/2003
The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco
While researching an Aztec warrior named Tezcatcatl, Angel discovers that one of the employees of Wolfram & Hart is connected to the case. This old man was once one of ‘Los Hermanos Numeros’, a family of Luchadores (Mexican wrestlers) which helped the helpless until one day they were slain by Tezcatcatl. In the present day, Angel tries to help the last member discover the hero inside which he lost when his family were killed.
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Season 5, Episode 5 – Aired: 10/29/2003
Lorne prepares the annual Wolfram & Hart Halloween Party. Many of the firm’s clients are invited, which worries Angel since so many of them are genuinely evil. Furthermore, many of the clients are familiar with Angel as a Champion of good and are very suspicious. When something causes Angel and company to start acting erratically, they must find a way to stop it before they say or do the wrong thing in front of their skittish (and dangerous) guests.
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Season 5, Episode 4 – Aired: 10/22/2003
After a series of horrific visions, Spike realizes that he is being pulled away from the material world and into hell. Fred tries frantically to find a way to save him, but soon realizes that there is an outside force that is causing Spike’s dimensional shifts. An entity residing in Wolfram & Hart itself.
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Season 5, Episode 3 – Aired: 10/15/2003
Angel helps a newly infected werewolf named Nina, who is being hunted by a mysterious and wealthy organization. Nina is offered shelter at Wolfram & Hart, but when it turns out that the hunters have a mole in the company, Nina’s sanctuary may become a trap.
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Season 5, Episode 2 – Aired: 10/8/2003
Spike’s essence coalesces out of the amulet in the mysterious envelope, but he is now incorporeal. In effect, he is a ghost. For some reason, Spike is linked to Wolfram & Hart and cannot leave L.A. As the gang struggles with this new development, Angel tries to put a dangerous necromancer, Hainsley, out of business. Unfortunately, Hainsley is very powerful and he offers Spike a chance to be made flesh again — in Angel’s body.
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Season 5, Episode 1 – Aired: 10/1/2003
Angel and the group are still getting used to their ownership of Wolfram & Hart when one of their clients threatens to kill all of L.A. if they cannot get him acquitted in court. Meanwhile, the Senior Partners’ liaison, Eve, introduces herself, Harmony becomes Angel’s secretary, the Senior Partners grant Gunn new talents, and a mysterious envelope has been delivered.
