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When the chips are down, when you're at the end of your rope, you need someone you can count on. And that's what you'll find here. Someone who'll go all the way, who'll protect you no matter what. Don't lose hope. Come on over to our offices, and you'll see there's still heroes in this world.—Allen Francis Doyle, Hero (Angel episode)
Angel Investigations is 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.
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 hopeless" 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, Angel concluding that they will redeem the building like he seeks to redeem himself. 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, but their attempts to operate independently are hamped by the lack of Angel's supernatural abilities and his weapons stockpile. 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, A.I. spent three episodes in the demon-dimension Pylea, home to friend Lorne. There they rescue Winifred Burkle, a stranded former physics student, who joins the agency around the middle of Season 3 after spending some time recovering from the trauma of her time in Pylea.
After a falling-out 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, although he was often unofficially 'in charge' even with Wesley's presence, leading their fight against such opponents as Gunn's rogue gang or Wolfram & Hart's attempts to abduct the pregnant Darla.
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.
In Season 5, the A.I. team is now known as Team Angel, though, in "Underneath", Angel claims that they "don't have a name".
By After the Fall, the team seems to have been fully disbanded, though the members are still active, albeit operating mostly independent of each other; the now-human Angel and a ghostly Wesley are combating the Demon Lords from the destroyed Wolfram & Hart building, Spike and an unstable Illyria are posing as Demon Lords in order to save humans and benevolent demons, a vampiric Gunn is fighting the Demon Lords and plotting revenge against Angel for letting him die, Connor is heading a safe house for humans and benevolent demons (most of them having been rescued and evacuated into his care by Spike and an anonymous Angel) alongside Nina Ash and Gwen Raiden, and Lorne is the neutral Lord of Silver Lake with the Groosalugg as his champion. In Angel's battle with the other Demon Lords' champions, Lorne rallies the others in order to help him in the fight, and afterwards, they all move back into the Hyperion.
After the Senior Partners rewind time, Angel and his crew are back in the Hyperion, running Angel Investigations as a business yet again, albeit with several difficulties due to Angel's newly-acquired fame; most of their recent clients are fans and admirers rather than people who actually need help.
Aforementioned karaoke-demon Lorne, and Angel's son Connor, are also associated with the agency, although it is unclear whether or not they are actually employees.
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 turned into a vampire. By Aftermath, he is no longer a vampire but has yet to rejoin.
- Cordelia Chase, a founding member until her disappearance at the end of Season 3. She returned in Season 4 but, possessed, was working against AI from within. She fell into a coma at the end of that season and died the following year. In Angel: After the Fall she is revealed to be a genuine Higher being for the Powers That Be.
- 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. Lorne leaves the group after Season 5 (Not fade Away) asking them not to find him.
- Spike, an old ally of Angel back in his souless days, 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 half-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, continuing as a current member of the team.
- 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.
Team variations[]
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"; intermittent ally after her discovery of Angel's vampiric nature
- Buffy Summers, when she visits Los Angeles
- Charles Gunn, from around the episode "War Zone"
Season 2[]
- Angel, until he leaves the team in "Reunion"; he rejoins in "Epiphany" as a subordinate
- Cordelia Chase
- Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, promoted to leader after Angel's departure
- Charles Gunn
Allies
- Kate Lockley, still suspicious of Angel but eventually comes to accept him before she leaves town in "Epiphany"
- Merl, Angel's demonic snitch when he begins to operate independently of the others
- Lorne, spiritual advisor to the group and directing them to various people who require their assistance
Season 3[]
- Angel
- Cordelia Chase
- Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, official leader until he betrays Angel in "Sleep Tight" and leaves the group
- Charles Gunn
- Winifred Burkle, originally simply staying with them while she recovers from her time in Pylea, she becomes an official member in "Fredless"
- Lorne, from around "Dad", when he moves in with them after his club is destroyed, until he leaves town in "Tomorrow"
Allies
- Merl, until his death in "That Old Gang of Mine"
- The Groosalugg, from around his arrival in Los Angeles in "Couplet", until he leaves town in "Tomorrow"
Season 4[]
- Angel, until he becomes Angelus in "Awakening" (he returns in "Orpheus")
- Cordelia Chase, from "Slouching Toward Bethlehem" until her personality is subsumed by Jasmine in "Spin the Bottle"
- Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, initially a distant ally, he officially rejoins the group in the episode "Apocalypse, Nowish"
- Charles Gunn
- Winifred Burkle
- Lorne, after his return from Las Vegas in "The House Always Wins"
Allies
- Faith, from "Salvage" when she breaks out of prison to help capture Angelus, until she leaves town in "Orpheus"
- Gwen Raiden, from around "Ground State", helps the group out in "Long Day's Journey" and requests their help in "Players"
- Connor, unreliably from around "Slouching Toward Bethlehem"; allied with Jasmine (both as an independent entity and while possessing Cordelia) from "Salvage"
- Willow Rosenberg visits to help restore Angel's soul in the episode "Orpheus"
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:
- Angel
- Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
- Charles Gunn
- Winifred "Fred" Burkle, until her death in "A Hole in the World"
- Lorne
- Spike, initially only an ally until he officially joins them in "Shells"
Allies
- Harmony Kendall, though she betrays Angel in the end
- Cordelia Chase returns from her coma to help Angel in "You're Welcome"
- Illyria, from around "Underneath"
- Connor works with Angel during "Origin" and "Not Fade Away"
After the Fall[]
- Angel
- Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
- Connor
- Gwen Raiden, until her death in Angel: After the Fall #13
- Nina Ash
- Spike
- Illyria
Allies
- Lorne, from around Angel: After the Fall #4
- The Groosalugg, until his death in Angel: After the Fall #15, rejoins after revival in Angel: After the Fall #16
- Cordelia Chase, from Angel: After the Fall #12-#13 Cordelia comes to a dying Angel to ease him into death
Aftermath[]
- Angel
- Kate Lockley
- Connor, on a part-time basis
Allies
- Gwen Raiden, casually
- Dezdemona, the Jaguar Warrior
- Jamaerah, the Potentate