Stephanie Romanov as Lilah Morgan
Lilah Morgan is a fictional character from the television series Angel, played by Stephanie Romanov. She is first introduced in the episode "The Ring," and regularly appears in the show's first and second seasons. After Lindsey McDonald leaves Los Angeles, Lilah becomes the primary face of Wolfram & Hart, and figures largely into the Season Three and Four story arcs. She guest-stars in more Angel episodes than any other recurring character.
Character history[]
Season One[]
Lilah is a lawyer working for the evil law firm Wolfram & Hart. In her first appearance, she tries (and fails) to persuade Angel to work for her employers. She then works to kill Angel; she is co-architect of a plan to hire renegade Slayer Faith in order to do just that. Over time, Lilah and another lawyer, Lindsey McDonald, compete against each other for the favor of their bosses.
Season Two[]
The vampire Darla is resurrected as a human by Wolfram & Hart and ultimately turned back into a vampire by Drusilla. Darla and Drusilla massacre a group of Wolfram & Hart lawyers in Holland Manners' wine cellar. Only Lilah and Lindsey are spared, and with only the two of them left on Wolfram & Hart's Special Projects Team, their rivalry reaches an all-time high as they start a power struggle for the vice-presidency of the team, as well as for survival. Eventually, Lindsey is offered the promotion, but he elects to leave the firm, disillusioned by the extent of its evil. He tosses his promotion to Lilah, effectively saving her life.
Season Three[]
In the third season, Lilah ups the ante in her vendetta with Angel, and blackmails him into freeing a mysterious young man, Billy Blim, from a Hell dimension by torturing Cordelia Chase. In the episode "Billy," the effects of these actions come back to haunt Lilah. As it turns out, Billy is a half-demon misogynist, and has the ability to bring out primordial violence in men simply by touching them. He touches Lilah's newest rival, Gavin Park, causing Gavin to beat her severely. Lilah hides herself and her bruises in her apartment for a time, and refuses to assist Angel when he comes to her for help in sending Billy back to Hell. Later on, Cordelia also comes to ask for aid in ending the evil Lilah helped begin, and Lilah again refuses. "I am not Lindsey McDonald. I don't switch [sides] whenever it gets tough." In response, Cordelia calls her a "vicious bitch." Lilah shrugs. "So you know me." Cordelia responds no one deserving of the title of "vicious bitch" would allow Billy to get away with what he did, and Lilah eventually gives in and reveals Billy's whereabouts. The confrontation among Billy, Cordelia, and Angel takes place on the runway of a private airport, and Lilah arrives at the eleventh hour to fire the fatal shot, killing Billy and regaining her own sense of self-worth. It is around that time she also receives a new boss, Linwood Murrow, who desires to kidnap Angel's newborn son, Connor.
Lilah herself investigates the return of Daniel Holtz, an old enemy of Angel's. Holtz has broken away from his partnership with the demon Sahjhan, who wishes to eliminate Angel for his own reasons, and he seeks out Wolfram & Hart. He brokers a deal with Lilah, a deal that ultimately results in Connor and Holtz being lost into the Quor-Toth dimension.
At the end of the third season, Lilah begins sleeping with Wesley Wyndam-Pryce after his betrayal of Angel and ejection from Angel Investigations. She tries to convince him to join Wolfram & Hart, but he refuses her advances.
Season Four[]
Lilah's relationship with Wesley, which begins as a series of one-night stands, continues throughout the fourth season, through the emergence of The Beast and the destruction of the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram & Hart that results in the death of all employees present except for Lilah, who is able to escape with Wesley's help. Shortly before that time, she kills Linwood during a board meeting, thereby assuming his position.
Lilah is killed shortly after the re-emergence of Angelus, stabbed to death by Cordelia (who is under the possession of the being later known as Jasmine) and left for Angelus to drink from. Wesley is forced to behead Lilah, as he believes she could rise again as a vampire. When Wesley prepares to decapitate her body, a haunting vision of Lilah appears. Wesley laments that he was unable to save Lilah from herself. Lilah suggests that she loved Wesley, but Wesley refuses to believe it, and with the decapitating swing of his axe, the vision is gone. The vision claims to be a figment of Wesley's imagination.
As shown earlier in the series with Holland Manners, an employment contract with Wolfram & Hart does not terminate with death, and Lilah returns at the end of the fourth season wearing a scarf around her neck to hide the scar from Wesley's axe. She presents Angel with a tempting offer: full control of the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram & Hart with all its resources. During a tour of the facilities intended to seduce Angel Investigations into accepting the offer, Wesley attempts to burn Lilah's contract in order to give her peace. Though the contract cannot be destroyed, Lilah is touched by the act.
Angel takes Lilah's offer in an attempt to save his son Connor from a life of misery, and Lilah apparently returns to the Hell division of Wolfram & Hart. In the fifth season, Eve takes over as liaison for the Senior Partners.
Characteristics[]
Like her fellow Wolfram & Hart employees, Lilah is as a rule amoral. She is highly ambitious and competitive in the Wolfram & Hart corporate hierarchy, especially when it comes to rival lawyer Lindsey McDonald. She is shown talking on the phone with her forgetful mother (implied to have Alzheimer's), and later remarks to Angel that her high salary ensures that her mother can have "the best room at the clinic."
Romantic relationships[]
- Marcus Roscoe/Angel — When Angel's body is possessed by an old man named Marcus Roscoe, Lilah remains unaware. Marcus immediately becomes amorous and makes a move on her when she visits him at his office with the intention of providing Angel with information on her current rival Gavin Parks and thus undermining his status in the firm. Though she resists at first, Lilah gives in and nearly has sex with him on a desk. They might have consummated the act had Marcus not sunk his vampire fangs into her neck (cf. "Carpe Noctem").
- Wesley Wyndam-Pryce — Once Wesley is estranged from the rest of Angel Investigations, Lilah believes him to be a possible asset to the firm. Wesley immediately sees through her ploy, but allows himself be seduced nonetheless. They continue to sleep together while hiding it from the people they know. Though Wesley believes she is incapable of love, even Lilah is moved by Wesley's selflessness, and grows attached to him despite herself.
Appearances[]
Canonical Appearances[]
Lilah has appeared in:
- Angel
- Appearing in 36 episodes in total, Lilah appeared in the following episodes:
- Season 1 - "The Ring", "Five by Five", "Sanctuary", "Blind Date", "To Shanshu in L.A."
- Season 2 - "Judgement", "Untouched", "Reunion", "Redefinition", "Blood Money", "Reprise", "Dead End"
- Season 3 - "Heartthrob", "That Vision Thing", "Carpe Noctem", "Billy", "Quickening", "Lullaby", "Dad", "Loyalty", "Sleep Tight", "Forgiving", "The Price", "A New World", "Benediction", "Tomorrow"
- Season 4 - "Deep Down", "Ground State", "Slouching Toward Bethlehem", "Supersymmetry", "Apocalypse, Nowish", "Habeas Corpses", "Calvary", "Salvage", "Peace Out", "Home"