Angel: The Sunnydale Years

Chapter I:

Season 1of BtVS

Cryptic Lurker Guy

When the writers introduced Angel as a recurring character in season 1 of BtVS, their concept of him seems to have been rather different from that for character who became a series regular in season 2. When we first meet him in WttHM he appears to have a clearer idea of what he wants – to kill vampires - than Buffy does. He doesn’t simply warn her about the Harvest, he almost lectures her on what she should be doing about it. And he gives as good as he gets in the exchanges between them. All in all he gives the distinct impression of someone on the inside track encouraging a slow learner to keep up with him. This feeling is reinforced by some of the other early season 1 episodes. In NKABOTFD, just as in WttHM, he isn’t content with imparting information to Buffy about what is going on. He actively expects her to do something about it.

Angel: “Some serious stuff happening tonight. You need to be out there.”

Buffy: “No, not you, too.”

Angel: “What do you know?”

Buffy: “Prophecy, Anointed One, yada, yada, yada...”

Angel: “So you know. Fine. I just thought I'd warn you.”

Throughout the scene he is actually impatient with her lack of commitment and at one point physically stops her from walking away from him. And the idea that he is there as some sort of guide for the Slayer is further strengthened by the fact that he only gives her the information he wants to. At the end of “Reptile Boy” he congratulates Buffy on having disposed of “Fork Guy” but brushes aside her attempts to find out more:

Buffy: “Course, it would make things easier if I knew how to get in touch with you.”

Angel: “I'll be around.”

Buffy: “Or who you were?”

His response to that last question is just an enigmatic smile. All in all this helps to create the idea that he is the one in control of their dealings. There is even a hint of possessiveness in a nice little scene in NKABOTFD in which he is introduced to Owen in the Bronze. The body language is priceless as he adopts an “I’m the Alpha male around here buddy so just mind your step” pose.

This Angel seems fairly self-confident. Certainly during these early season 1 episodes he knows what he is doing and what he wants. He believes he has a role to play in the fight against vampires. Furthermore he expects Buffy to do her part as well and isn’t afraid to tell her when he thinks she is doing the wrong thing. Of course at this stage we had no idea about Angel’s dark secret: that he was a 250+ year old vampire who had his soul restored and now was full of remorse about what he had done. This was revealed in the episode “Angel”. Until then his motivation had necessarily to remain hidden. Still, even in "Angel" there was nothing that undermined the impression given about the character to date. For example, in the first scene in Buffy’s bedroom, before she discovers he is a vampire himself, she tries to get an explanation for what he is doing

Buffy: “Y'know, I'm the Chosen One, it's my job to fight guys like that. What's your excuse?”

Angel: “Uh, somebody has to.”

Buffy: “Well, what does your family think of your career choice?”

Angel: “They're dead.”

Buffy: “Was it vampires?”

Angel: “I-it was.”

Buffy: “I'm sorry.”

Angel: “It was a long while ago.”

Buffy: “So, this is a vengeance gig for you.”

This reinforces the idea that Angel considered himself on a mission to combat vampires. Indeed the revelations about him in “Angel” serve to explain his hostility to vampires and why he might want to help the slayer kill them.

Chapter II:

Season 2 of BtVS

Redefining a Character

But this is a very different character to the one that eventually emerged among the series regulars at the start of season 2. This discontinuity in characterization creates all sorts of difficulties for the writers. For a start it adversely affects the audience's ability to believe in and sympathize with the character. So, why do it? Why rethink Angel when what they had already created seemed popular enough to warrant the upgrade? One answer lies in the problems with the character as it emerged in season 1. The first and most obvious of these problems is: why does such an apparently self-confident individual who has decided to take part in the fight between good and evil restrict himself to being “lurker guy”? It’s not only the fact that he refuses to go into the tunnels after Jesse in “The Harvest”. In NKABOTFD he stays behind in the Bronze after suggesting very forcefully to Buffy that she should be doing something to prevent the Master raising the Anointed One. The explanation he gives in “The Harvest” (that he is afraid) doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Would someone who was afraid intervene against The Three in “Angel”? Equally, if he really was afraid why help Buffy at all? Even acting as her eyes and ears was to run some considerable risk. The only explanation is that, as a recurring character, Angel’s background and personality had not been thought through in any great depth at this stage. And because of this his actions owe more to short term plot considerations than a well thought out plan for character exposition or development. So, the reason why he stayed in the background had less to do with internal character considerations than the fact that it would have been very odd indeed for a recurring character to play a more prominent role in the action than, for example, Xander or Giles.

But there was perhaps an even more important reason than that to rethink the character of Angel. BtVS was never an ensemble piece. It was always Buffy's show and that meant that the most important thing about every other character was how they related to her. When season 2 began, the writers had evidently decided that season 2 was going to be a turning point for Buffy. She was going to face a personal crisis and the way she responded to it was going to define her mission from then on. And that crisis was going to revolve around her relationship with Angel. This provided the context for Angel's development in season 2. It was because of the story they wanted to tell that the writers began to emphasise certain things about Angel. Thus the discontinuity between the character we see here and the character as he appeared in season 1.

Slayer and Vampire

The fact that there remained in Angel a demon whose instinct was to kill and destroy was effectively left to one side for most of season 1. But in season 2 it became more and more important. In episodes like "Lie to Me" and "What's My Line" his past was a major theme. And Drusilla in particular suggests that Angel's past will not stay there:

Drusilla:  "My dear boy's gone all away, hasn't he? To her."

Angel:  "Who?"

Drusilla:  "The girl. The Slayer."

Drusilla:  Your heart stinks of her. Poor little thing.  She has no idea what's in store.

Angel:  ""This can't go on, Drusilla. It's gotta end."

Drusilla:  "Oh, no, my pet. This is just the beginning."

Here the writers were really starting to explore the internal conflict within Angel - the clash between the human soul and the demonic nature it tried to control. By showing us that the demon in Angel was not confined to the past but was an ever present within him they were reminding us that he straddled two sides of a great divide and could always be pulled across to the evil side while Buffy, to be true to herself, had to fight evil. By doing so they gave us a set of opposites - within Angel as well as between him and Buffy - in delicate balance. The whole season would turn on the way that the growing closeness between slayer and vampire upset this delicate balance.

For Buffy the attraction of Angel was that he was a mysterious, older, attractive and powerful man with a hint of danger about him. He also represented something that she could invest emotionally in, something that she could enjoy for herself and not something she had to do because it was her duty. More interesting for present purposes, however, was Angel's attitude to her. In WttHM the suggestion is that Angel first saw the slayer in Sunnydale:

“Truth is, I thought you'd be taller, or bigger muscles and all that. You're pretty spry, though.”

In “Becoming I” however he saw her being called and make her first kill. Subsequently in “Helpless” he explains the effect she had on him then:

Angel: “ I saw you before you became the Slayer.”

Buffy: “What?”

Angel: “I watched you, and I saw you called. It was a bright afternoon out in front of your school. You walked down the steps and... and… I loved you.”

Buffy: “Why?”

Angel: “'Cause I could see your heart. You held it before you for everyone to see. And I worried that it would be bruised or torn. And more than anything in my life I wanted to keep it safe; to warm it with my own.”

I have always had a couple of problems with this scene. First of all I do not, as a general rule, believe in love at first sight and certainly not before the two people concerned have actually spoken to one another. Secondly, I would not have characterized the Buffy that Angel saw outside her High School in the way he does here. “Shallow and self absorbed” might have been more accurate. I am, however, prepared to overlook my reservations. That scene in “Helpless” was simply an elaboration of what was already implicit in “Becoming I”. It was the attraction that Angel felt to newly called slayer rather than anything Whistler said or did in New York that prompted him to get out of the gutter and do something with his life. And it is this which provides the basis for understanding so much about Angel in seasons 1 and 2 and how he developed from the shattered husk we saw in New York 1997. This was the our starting point: Angel’s basic motivation was not to help humanity or to atone for his sins. It was to help Buffy.

This helps resolve some of the seeming inconsistencies in his actions in season 1. At the start Angel helped Buffy the only way he felt able, by doing what he did best – lurking. Perhaps he didn’t yet have the strength to do more. When Whistler found him he couldn’t go three rounds with a fruit fly. More likely he didn’t have the self-belief in himself to be more active. This changed in “Prophecy Girl”. When approached by Xander to help save Buffy, Angel at first could only see the dangers. Unlike Xander, Angel had difficulty even admitting to himself his true feelings for Buffy. But Xander’s challenge to him "Don't you [love Buffy]?" acted as a catalyst. It forced him to admit to his real feelings. When compared to Buffy’s life his own doubts about himself suddenly became unimportant. He had to do something. From that point onwards his relationship with Buffy was central to Angel’s personal development.

Throughout the early part of season 2 we see his ever-greater involvement with her work. At first he continues to help her in episodes such as “The Dark Ages” as a sort of auxiliary. That is until the next crucial stage that came in “What’s My Line I” where for the first time he acts on his own by trying to force Willy to reveal Spike’s part in hiring the Taraka. But everything he did was for Buffy. There is no suggestion that he was fighting evil independently from her. To the extent therefore that this involvement marked his path to self-respect it was due to his relationship with her. Moreover, such was his own regard for her that the mere fact that she loved him was itself evidence for him that he was still worth something. From the start Angel is clearly very sensitive about his vampirism, indeed perhaps ashamed of it. It’s not only the defensiveness with which he reacts when Xander refers to him as “dead boy”. In WSWB, Buffy taunts him by saying “I’ve moved on…to the living”. And in SAR we see how much this nettled him when he said

“See, whenever we fight you always bring up the vampire thing.”

But perhaps more tellingly in “What’s My Line I” we see the hurt that his nature causes him both in his remark “I’ll never be a kid” and in the fact that he didn’t want Buffy to touch him while he had on his “game face”. This is all part of his feeling of worthlessness. On the other hand, the fact that she touched his “game face” in “What’s My Line I” and didn’t notice had great symbolic significance. And just as importantly, in “Lie to Me” Buffy had to confront the most unpleasant truth possible about Angel but in the end her sad words – “well I asked for the truth” – mark a stage in the further development in the relationship because they betoken a deeper understanding and acceptance of his dark past. And the fact that she knew the worst about him and still accepted him was what helped Angel the most. Is it any wonder then that in “Somnambulist” Kate’s (thinly disguised) profile of Angel refers to his relationship with Buffy in the following terms?

“He would have regarded it as a lifeline, his salvation”

But it is important to understand the limitations of this lifeline. Ironically, his relationship with Buffy had not changed Angel's sense of general isolation from humanity one little bit. Indeed, if anything it heightened the sense of his being apart from the normal world because he could see that Buffy was part of that world yet he could not share in it. In SAR he explains his jealousy of Xander in the following terms:

"Yeah, but he's in your life. He gets to be there when I can't; take your classes, eat your meals, hear your jokes and complaints. He gets to see you in the sunlight.”

And the fact that he was never even a part of the Scooby gang could not have helped either. This emphasized a number of things. First of all that this was not a natural relationship. There was something about it that could be squared neither with her hopes for a normal life nor her duty as a slayer. Secondly we see that Buffy is Angel's only link with humanity. We understand his dependence on Buffy for his sense of self-worth; the idea that there was more to him than the constant fight to keep the demon under control. But the fact that his preoccupation remained helping Buffy rather than in any wider concept of doing good meant that the concept of redemption though his own efforts to fight evil had not yet occurred to him.

Moreover the extent to which he depended upon her also limited the scope for him to become more self-sufficient and self-confident. This lack of confidence in himself (which was again to play such a major role in ANGEL) manifested itself in the way he deferred to Buffy on all matters on which they disagreed. Throughout the relationship she was the one who forced the pace. A crucial episode here is “Reptile Boy”. At the beginning he is the cautious one, trying to restrain her:

Angel: “You're sixteen years old. I'm two hundred and forty-one.”

Buffy: “I've done the math.”

Angel: “You don't know what you're doing; you don't know what you want.”

Buffy: “Oh no? I think I do. I want out of this conversation.”

Angel: “Listen, if we date you and I both know one thing's gonna lead to another.”

Buffy: “One thing already has led to another. You think it's a little late to be reading me a warning label?”

Angel: “I'm just trying to protect you. This could get out of control.”

He is obviously reluctant to let things go further because of who he is. And yet in the end he is the one who gives in to her:

Angel: “I hear this place, uh, serves coffee. I thought maybe you and I should get some. Sometime. If you want.”

Buffy: “Yeah, sometime. I'll let you know.”

He thus tacitly accepts that she is in control of the relationship and she isn’t slow to exploit that acceptance. And, of course, the single most important example of his giving way to her was in her decision to make love to him in “Surprise”, with the catastrophic results that had for both of them.

So, here we see the key elements in the season. In the first place you have, on the one hand, the darkness within Angel and on the other the central place in his existence of his relationship with her . The two of them were drawn together in part because Angel saw in Buffy a way to help him escape it. The same darkness also seems to have been part of his attraction to her. Ironically it was their very success in bridging the chasm that seemed to exist between them that ultimately doomed their hopes. And it is in this that we see the idea that there may be a perverse fate at work here. Angel sees in Buffy a way to redemption but getting so close to her meant that he lost his soul. For Buffy, her relationship with Angel was a means of personal self-fulfilment. But her pursuit of it ultimately created a situation in which she had to forget about self in favor of duty. But equally here too we see the idea that human judgment is fallible and that without meaning to we can destroy both ourselves and those we love. Angel's insecurities meant that he deferred to Buffy, whom he thought was morally superior to him. Yet he was the one who understood the dangers of what they were getting into and it was because he deferred to her that disaster ensued. Buffy for her part convinced herself that she was mature enough to handle a sexual relationship with Angel when all that showed was her immaturity in forcing the pace in a relationship that was so obviously fraught with difficulty. There is a lot here - the futility of human planning for a start. But certainly one of the big questions is: whether our lack of control over our own lives is dues to our own weaknesses and mistakes or is it because larger and more powerful forces take choice away from us. It was the very careful way in which the writers defined the nature of the relationship between Angel and Buffy and what each of them saw in and wanted from it that made these ideas their effective.

Chapter III:

Season 3 of BtVS

After Angelus, Acathla and the Return from Hell

The reappearance of Angelus is again a subject for another occasion. So we may pick up the threads of Angel’s story at the end of “Faith, Hope and Trick” when he returns from Hell. But the context in which he did so had necessarily changed. From the writing perspective the themes of the Buffy/Angel love affair in season 2 had played themselves out. Then there was the need to look again at where the two of them were going in light of the launch of the spin-off series. Given that Angel was shortly to leave Buffy for LA, his former dependence on her could not be sustained. So, not only had the writers to set up a believable plotline that would split these two apart; more importantly they had to give Angel some sort of purpose independent of her.

Then, looking at things from the perspective of character, the repercussions of Angel loosing his soul and being sent to Hell had to be dealt with. In this context a fundamental issue thrown up by season 2 was that Angel found himself being drawn into a relationship whose consequences for both himself and Buffy were unpredictable. He had done so against his better judgment but had allowed his doubts to be bulldozed away by Buffy. The result was a catastrophe for both of them. The lesson for him was the danger in not asserting himself and being too dependent on the uncertain judgment of a teenager. Moreover he had been given fresh cause to think about the harm had caused as Angelus. With Buffy’s example before him, the idea of taking up the good fight on his own account to make amends for that harm should have been an obvious one.

Everything, therefore, argued in favor of a continuing development of Angel’s character to show him finding a role for himself apart from Buffy and to make him more self-confident and self-assertive. Given that the central dynamic for his character development to date was his relationship with Buffy this suggested a need for fairly radical thinking about how the relationship was to be handled for the rest of season 3.

And yet what the writers handed us was essentially more of the same. In “Beauty and the Beasts” Giles theorizes about what Angel experienced in Hell:

Giles: It would take someone of extraordinary... will and character to survive that and, uh, retain any semblance of self. Most likely, he'd be, be a monster.

Buffy: A lost cause.

Giles: Maybe; maybe not. In my experience, there are... two types of monster. The first, uh, can be redeemed, or more importantly, wants to be redeemed.

Buffy: And the second type?

Giles: The second is void of humanity, cannot respond to reason... or love.

This exchange reveals the purpose of the episode. Angel’s stay in Hell was a brutal and brutalizing experience but the one part of his former self that he was able to hold on to was his love for Buffy. When he saw her in danger that part of him came to the fore and allowed him to reclaim his humanity. Symbolically she was again his road to redemption. And this storyline set the tone for Buffy and Angel for the rest of early season 3. Virtually the only recognition of what had gone wrong is season 2 was that they were very careful about getting physically close. Otherwise it appeared that that nothing had fundamentally changed between them. Buffy called the shots. She decided to end things in “Homecoming” and “Lover’s Walk” and then took up with him again when she changed her mind. He simply went along with her wishes. What was missing was the idea of Angel taking responsibility for his own life and having a purpose that was independent of Buffy.

Amends: The Powers that Be Intervene

All that changed with “Amends”. Here the writers chose the “big bang” approach to the issue of Angel’s redemption. There was no build up, no real foreshadowing. Suddenly, the intervention of the “First Evil” precipitated a crisis in which Angel’s will to control the demon within him was subject to a severe and sustained attack. This approach had some significant merits. Most important of all it allowed the writers to explore an area of Angel's existence that had been largely neglected, but one which proved the key to understanding him - the struggle within himself over his past. And here I am not referring simply to the guilt he feels over what Angelus did. That was not really what was at the heart of this crisis. Rather, it was his knowledge of his own shortcomings as a human.

Angel: “A demon isn't a man. I was a man once.”

Jenny: “Oh, yes, and what a man you were.”

Margaret: “A drunken, whoring layabout, and a terrible disappointment to your parents.”

Angel: “I was young. I never had a chance to...”

Margaret: “To die of syphilis? You were a worthless being before you were ever a monster.”

In season 2 the basis for Angels' insecurity seemed to be his knowledge that he was a vampire and not a human and the memory of what he had done as a vampire. Now the emphasis shifts. The First Evil attacked him where he was most vulnerable. And that is his feelings of failure as a human being, that idea that he was worth nothing and that in the end he would only betray those he cared about. By doing so the First Evil was trying to convince him that there was no point in him fighting on. Suicide was the easy way out and as such very appropriate for someone like him. And essentially Angel bought into this tale:

Angel: “It told me to kill you. You were in the dream. You know. It told me to lose my soul in you and become a monster again.”

Buffy: “I know what it told you. What does it matter?”

Angel: “Because I wanted to! Because I want you so badly! I want to take comfort in you, and I know it'll cost me my soul, and a part of me doesn't care.”

The irony is that "Amends" proved Angel right about everything he said. He is saved from suicide not by taking control of his own life or by trying to earn a second chance. He is saved by the intervention of outside forces. First there was Buffy who literally fought him for his life. Then there was the snowfall created (presumably) by The Powers that Be. The intention behind the intervention of TPTB seems to be in answer to Angel’s question about why he was brought back from Hell. The suggestion is that they brought him back to fight against evil, a suggestion seemingly confirmed by Mayor Wilkins when he referred to Angel’s “higher purpose”.

There is, therefore, a contradiction at the very heart of "Amends" At one level the writers were introducing the idea of Angel having a destiny distinct from Buffy. But on the other they almost perversely refuse to resolve Angel’s self doubts. Here we see the genesis of what was eventually to become the conflict at the heart of ANGEL the series - the tendency of Angel's own emotional and psychological baggage (in particular his insecurities) to undermine his ability to fulfil this "higher purpose". In particular it is in "Amends" that we see the genesis of the idea that was to prove so crucial in season 5 - the idea that Angel always ends up as the victim, a helpless pawn in the hands of others, be that Wolfram and Hart, Darla, the First Evil or Buffy. But that conflict could only be properly played out on ANGEL. There he was the central figure and the writers could devote the time and care needed to explore this issue as it needed to be. They couldn't do it in BtVS and the result was the awkward, inconsistent and unsatisfying job they made of engineering the character's departure from Sunnydale.

Leaving Sunnydale

In the aftermath of "Amends" we do see evidence of change. In “Bad Girls” and “Consequences”, for example, we see a much more assertive Angel in his dealings with Buffy. She was a little out of control on the dance floor in the Bronze but he took her away, sat her down and talked business with her. Later he started checking up on both her and Faith and he acted completely on his own initiative in subduing Faith after she attacked Xander. And perhaps symbolically we see the self-assured way he strode into action against Balthazar, announcing his arrival in very confident terms.

This is certainly one sign that he had now come to believe he had a mission of his own, rather than a simple desire to help Buffy, though, there is as yet no sign that he has picked up on the idea of redemption. But a more significant moment arrives in “the Prom.” Top of Angel’s agenda has always been what is best for Buffy. And he has always had his doubts about whether a relationship with himself was best for her. He had those doubts as long ago as in SAR. The nature of those doubts probably has changed. In season 2 his doubts were essentially the product of his own feelings of worthlessness. By the end of season 3 the intention of the writers was to show a more sober and rational assessment of the problems a relationship with him would cause for Buffy. But what had really changed was Angel’s willingness to assert himself against Buffy. Before he didn’t even have enough confidence in himself to make that judgment stick in the face of Buffy. So, in "Surprise" he gave into her - with disastrous consequences. Now, for the first time he stands up to her. This is an indication of a greater determination and belief in himself than we have ever seen before. So, in his willingness to face inconvenient facts about his relationship with Buffy, in his willingness to sacrifice what he wanted for what was right for her and in his determination to stick to his guns we can see the writers trying to demonstrate a new level of self-confidence and maturity.

Sadly the operative word here is "trying". First of all these new characteristics of Angel are simply pulled from no-where. As we have seen, "Amends" really demonstrated that Angel, if anything, still lacked the maturity and determination we are supposed to be seeing here. It can, of course, be argued that it was the intervention of TPTB and the evidence that he did indeed have a higher purpose that boosted his self-confidence and led to his greater assertiveness. But for me this explanation does not work. Self-confidence can really only come from within, from proving to yourself through your own actions that are worthy of trust or capable of achieving things. Evidence that someone else wants you to help others can't have the same effect. It may produce a temporary or artificial boost; but it cannot really sustain you in the face of real opposition. And the evidence pf Angel's greater maturity too was unconvincing. In “the Prom” the writers opt for the logical, rational “I can’t take you for Sunday afternoon picnics” approach to the break up between him and Buffy. But the same argument could have been made at any point in the previous two years, so why now? Besides its validity is at best too debatable to now become the received wisdom Willow, for example, treats it as. The best explanation for his decision here was that it was another attack of self-doubt. And in truth this would be in character. But it would hardly be consistent with the picture the writers wanted to give of growing self-confidence. No. this has all the hallmarks of writers' fiat, and badly thought out fiat too.

Doubts about the future of Angel and Buffy as a couple were only convincingly articulated in GD2. There, Angel lost control of himself and fed from Buffy. This was the nightmare he had so steadfastly resisted in “Amends”. There are a number of different explanations for his actions here. The first was that biting her was a physical reaction of the vampire body; the other was that the demon inside forced its way to the surface. It does not matter which explanation you prefer. In either case the human soul was too weakened by the poison to control the feeding from Buffy until it had been cured. This demonstration of the limits of his control over the demon that the danger he thereby posed to all around him was what convinced Angel that he should part from Buffy. And this I think does represent considerable progress from "The Prom". First of all Angel's assessment of the danger was, as I have already said, sober and realistic rather than one based on self-doubt. The reaction was also a sensible and rational one. There is no plunge back into despair and thought of suicide. Instead he leaves Sunnydale and starts to pick up the threads of his life. This is more believable than what we saw in "The Prom" and at the same time represent more realistic and more interesting character development. It suggested someone who was beginning to take a degree of responsibility and control over his own life.

Conclusion

Although Angel was only a secondary character in BtVS, that series was crucial for his development as a lead on his own show. There the writers set out for us not only the essential characteristics of Angel but also the issues that he has to face as a protagonist ANGEL:

	First of all there was the darkness within Angel in the form of a demon whose instinct for evil had to be kept under control
	More importantly there was the darkness within Angel's own personality, a darkness defined and shaped by his past. We see this principally in terms of his insecurities; his feelings of worthlessness, of helplessness and isolation.
	And finally we see the way in which this very human (as opposed to the demonic) darkness is the real obstacle to Angel achieving something worthwhile.

So, here we see what effectively constitutes "ground-zero" for Angel as a character. The writers define his problems - the demon within, his isolation from humanity, his insecurities. And throughout the next six years they never really changed. All that happened was that the writers kept on exploring these issues in greater and greater depth. But they were no longer doing so in the same context. As I have already said, season 2 of BtVS was all about Buffy. Angel's story was an incident to hers. It is in season 3 of BtVS that we see the beginnings of Angel's own story.

But equally there was something missing and that was a sense of what Angel could achieve. The closest the writers got to defining this was in "Amends" where at one point Buffy says

"Angel, you have the power to do real good, to make amends. But if you die now, then all that you ever were was a monster."

But what good can he do? And if he does so, how does that make amends. After all it is hardly going to help those he has already hurt. We never get the answer. But what is clearly being hinted at here is redemption. Buffy is holding out the prospect of Angel not only helping others but, in the process, transforming himself into something other than a monster. This is a universal subject of great power and importance. It is a process of change and development. But it is one which can manifest itself in many different ways. BtVS did not, perhaps could not, do any sort of justice to this theme. ANGEL, the series did. But it could only do so because of the way the character of Angel was conceived for the purposes of early season 2 of BtVS, which for the first time substantively addressed the burden of guilt Angel carried and his difficulty in coping with it.