The fourth season of Angel originally aired on The WB from October 6, 2002 to May 7, 2003. It premiered later, but ended earlier, than the seventh and final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Synopsis[]
With both Angel and Cordelia still missing, Fred, Gunn and Connor try to keep Angel Investigations running while they search for their friends. Ironically, the man who everyone believes betrayed Angel is the one who finally comes to Angel's rescue. Then Cordelia mysteriously reappears with no memory of her life or her friends. Confused, she chooses to take refuge with Connor — setting into motion events that will alter their lives forever.[1]
Summary[]
Angel is trapped at the bottom of the sea, hallucinating about having a happy dinner with the team and Connor. Wesley has captured Justine and he uses her to find and recover Angel. Wesley, exiled from the group, has also been having a love affair with Lilah Morgan, now his colleague at Wolfram & Hart. Angel and Connor meet up again, but the father is not willing to forgive the son — he kicks him out of the Hyperion Hotel.[2] Needing a retreat, Angel, Gunn, and Fred head to Las Vegas to see Lorne's act only to learn that he is being held as a slave. They rescue him and return home and find Cordelia — who has returned from her higher plane with complete amnesia.[3]
Frightened and confused, Cordelia takes refuge with Connor, where she struggles to piece together her life story before a spell finally restores her memory.[4] A hellish Beast appears on Earth,[5] blocks out the sun,[6] rains fire from the skies,[5] and, incidentally, wipes out the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram & Hart, leaving Lilah as its sole survivor.[7] Cordelia, feeling that this may be her last night alive, sleeps with Connor as fire continues to fall.[5] They turn out to live another day, but the absence of sunlight makes Los Angeles a party town for vampires.[6] Cordelia receives visions that convince the group that Angelus is the only one who knows how to stop the Beast,[6] so they extract Angel's soul.[8]
It's then revealed that Cordelia has now an evil persona and is secretly controlling the Beast. She releases the evil Angelus and kills Lilah to frame him. Cordelia then reveals to Connor that she is pregnant with his child. Short on powerful fighters, the team springs Slayer Faith from prison. She is badly beaten by the Beast during their confront,[9] but she manages to incapacitate Angelus, who feeds on her.[10] Unknown to him, Faith had taken a psychoactive drug, which neutralizes them both and causes them to relive moments from Angel's past. Willow visits, restores Angel's soul, and takes Faith back with her to Sunnydale.[11]
Meanwhile, the team figures out that Cordelia is the one behind the apocalyptic events. But before they can capture her, Connor, deluded into thinking that the team must be somehow evil, takes Cordelia into hiding. Angel eventually tracks them down and is about to kill Cordelia, when she gives birth to an adult woman named Jasmine, and then slips into a coma. Angel stops, in total awe of the new being.[12]
Jasmine, it turns out, was one of the Powers That Be, but decided to leave the "sidelines" and take an active part in fighting evil, and that the events of prior weeks were "birth pains." Jasmine has the power to make all who see her fall under her spell of total happiness. Jasmine brings the promise of true world peace — at the price of complete enslavement under her.[13] But contact with her or Cordelia's blood breaks the spell and lets people see her for who she truly is. By accident, Fred discovers this on her own and becomes an outcast in a city otherwise in love with Jasmine. Slowly, she manages to inoculate Angel and the team — except Connor —,[14] though they remain hopelessly outnumbered. They learn, however, that revealing Jasmine's true name will destroy her spell over everyone. Angel visits a demon dimension Jasmine had conquered,[15] gains access to the name, and reveals it just as she is about to take over the world. A despondent Connor — who had known Jasmine's true nature but went along with her anyway — then kills her.[16]
The team then is met by the ghost of Lilah, who congratulates them on preventing world peace,[17] and says that, as a token of their appreciation, Wolfram & Hart would like to give them the Los Angeles branch. Skeptical at first, the team eventually takes the offer. As part of it, Angel receives an amulet with instructions to deliver it to Sunnydale. But while this is happening, a despondent Connor finds no reason to live without Cordelia and Jasmine, and has tied himself and the unconscious Cordelia up to several large bombs. To save both their lives, Angel allows Wolfram & Hart to give Connor a life as a normal child and erase him from everyone's memory, except Angel's own. Angel watches Connor have a happy dinner with his new family.[18]
Cast[]
Main[]
- David Boreanaz as Angel (22/22)
- Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia (22/22)
- Alexis Denisof as Wesley (22/22)
- J. August Richards as Gunn (22/22)
- Amy Acker as Fred (22/22)
- Vincent Kartheiser as Connor (22/22)
- Andy Hallett as Lorne (21/22)
Recurring[]
- Stephanie Romanov as Lilah (10/22)
- Vladimir Kulich as Beast (8/22)
- Gina Torres as Jasmine (5/22)
- Alexa Davalos as Gwen (3/22)
- Eliza Dushku as Faith (3/22)
- Daniel Dae Kim as Gavin (3/22)
- Roger Yuan as Wo-Pang (2/22)
Episodes[]
No. | Image | Title | Air date |
---|---|---|---|
01 | "Deep Down" | October 6, 2002 | |
Writer: Steven S. DeKnight | Director: Terrence O'Hara | ||
With Angel trapped on the ocean floor and Cordelia stuck on a mystical plane, Fred and Gunn are frustrated at the lack of clues regarding their friends' whereabouts, especially after the only eyewitness to Angel's disappearance is murdered. After Angel is rescued by the most unlikely person, the shocking reasons behind the mysterious disappearances become clear. | |||
02 | "Ground State" | October 13, 2002 | |
Writer: Mere Smith | Director: Michael Grossman | ||
When Wesley advises Angel to visit Dinza, a dark "goddess of the lost" who has valuable information on how to find Cordelia, he learns that a certain mystical antiquity can locate souls across dimensions. Angel, Fred and Gunn break into an auction house to retrieve the object only to discover that an electrifying cat burglar has the same intentions. | |||
03 | "The House Always Wins" | October 20, 2002 | |
Writer: David Fury | Director: Marita Grabiak | ||
Tired of dealing with Connor and looking for Cordelia, Angel decides to take Gunn and Fred on a road trip to Vegas to visit Lorne who is performing in a showcase at one of the casinos. They discover that Lorne is being coerced by the casino owner into stealing the "significant destinies" of audience members to sell on the black market. When the casino owner learns that Angel is destined to play a major role in the apocalypse, Cordelia must come to his aid from a distance to prevent his future from being stolen. | |||
04 | "Slouching Toward Bethlehem" | October 27, 2002 | |
Writer: Jeffrey Bell | Director: Skip Schoolnik | ||
Cordelia returns, but since she has no memory of who she is or that Angel is a vampire, everyone tries to keep their demon-hunting business a secret. After rescuing Cordelia from a demon, Connor takes on the role of her protector and Lorne reads Cordelia's future to help restore her memory but sees an approaching apocalypse involving Angel. | |||
05 | "Supersymmetry" | November 3, 2002 | |
Writers: Elizabeth Craft, Sarah Fain | Director: Bill L. Norton | ||
After Fred's physics article is published; she's invited to speak at a symposium where a portal opens, bringing her face to face with a demon and a dark secret about her old professor. Meanwhile, Angel tries to solve the mystery of the portal and why someone would want Fred out of the way. | |||
06 | "Spin the Bottle" | November 10, 2002 | |
Writer: Joss Whedon | Director: Joss Whedon | ||
When Lorne performs a spell on Cordelia to restore her memory, it inadvertently causes the gang to revert back to their high school personas and leaves them with no memories of each other. Eventually, they discover that the only way to reverse the spell is to kill a vampire, just as Angel realizes that he is one. | |||
07 | "Apocalypse, Nowish" | November 17, 2002 | |
Writer: Steven S. DeKnight | Director: Vern Gillum | ||
When Cordelia's apocalyptic nightmares become a reality, Angel, Wesley, Gunn and Lorne find themselves powerless against The Beast who has risen from the center of the Earth, bringing earthquakes and a rain of fire to Los Angeles. Bloodied and beaten, Angel and his friends realize that they may not be able to stop the impending doom. | |||
08 | "Habeas Corpses" | January 15, 2003 | |
Writer: Jeffrey Bell | Director: Skip Schoolnik | ||
When Angel realizes that there may be some connection between Connor and the Beast, he learns that Connor is trapped within Wolfram & Hart where the building is under lock-down and the Beast is on a brutal killing spree. Angel, Wesley, Gunn and Fred must figure out how to spring Connor before he is killed as well. | |||
09 | "Long Day's Journey" | January 22, 2003 | |
Writer: Mere Smith | Director: Terrence O'Hara | ||
When the gang learns that the answer to stopping the Beast is among them, everyone suspects Connor, until Cordelia begins to receive visions from the Powers That Be. Meanwhile, Angel and Gwen discover that the Beast is preparing a device that will blot out the sun permanently and turn the world into a demon playground. | |||
10 | "Awakening" | January 29, 2003 | |
Writers: David Fury, Steven S. DeKnight | Director: James A. Contner | ||
After Cordelia's revelation that Angelus and The Beast made a pact, the gang determines that they must turn Angel into Angelus to end the eternal darkness. For that transformation to take place, Angel must lose his soul by experiencing a moment of pure happiness. | |||
11 | "Soulless" | February 5, 2003 | |
Writers: Sarah Fain, Elizabeth Craft | Director: Sean Astin | ||
With Angelus now confined to a cage, Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn, Fred and Connor take turns interrogating him hoping to find out how to kill the beast. Unable to learn anything, the gang decides to turn Angelus back into Angel, but learn that Angel's soul has been stolen. | |||
12 | "Calvary" | February 12, 2003 | |
Writers: Mere Smith, Steven S. DeKnight, Jeffrey Bell | Director: Bill L. Norton | ||
When the gang receives the disturbing news that The Beast is working for a much more powerful entity, they realize they must restore Angel's soul to revert the evil Angelus back to Angel. | |||
13 | "Salvage" | March 5, 2003 | |
Writer: David Fury | Director: Jefferson Kibbee | ||
When Angelus meets up with The Beast, he learns that the rain of fire, blacking out the sun and stealing Angel's soul was all part of The Beast's mysterious master plan to bring Angelus back. Meanwhile, Wesley releases vampire slayer Faith from prison to help capture Angelus. | |||
14 | "Release" | March 12, 2003 | |
Writers: Sarah Fain, Elizabeth Craft, Steven S. DeKnight | Director: James A. Contner | ||
Angelus continues his search for The Beast's mysterious master, never suspecting that it could be someone close to him. Meanwhile, Faith and Angelus do battle while Cordelia convinces Connor to keep their baby a secret. | |||
15 | "Orpheus" | March 19, 2003 | |
Writer: Mere Smith | Director: Terrence O'Hara | ||
While in their drug-induced comas, Angelus and Faith experience flashbacks of Angel’s good deeds over the centuries; Fred calls in Willow, the only person ever able to restore Angel’s soul and asks her to help them do it again. | |||
16 | "Players" | March 26, 2003 | |
Writers: Sarah Fain, Elizabeth Craft, Jeffrey Bell | Director: Michael Grossman | ||
Angel and the gang set out to find out as much as they can about Cordelia's pregnancy and the identity of The Beast's master while Gwen Raiden enlists Gunn's help to crash a black-tie affair and rescue a kidnapped girl. | |||
17 | "Inside Out" | April 2, 2003 | |
Writer: Steven S. DeKnight | Director: Steven S. DeKnight | ||
Desperate to find out why Cordelia has turned to the dark side, Angel goes to demon Skip for answers. Forcing the truth out of him, Angel learns that all that's transpired, Connor's birth, Cordelia's ascension to the higher plane, Angel turning into Angelus and Cordelia's pregnancy, were all a part of a higher being's plan to create something even more powerful than itself. | |||
18 | "Shiny Happy People" | April 9, 2003 | |
Writers: Sarah Fain, Elizabeth Craft | Director: Marita Grabiak | ||
The Woman A.K.A. Jasmine, who was born to Cordelia, has the amazing ability to turn everyone she meets, including Angel and the gang, into loyal disciples dedicated to carrying out her every command. Only Fred is able to see that Jasmine's radiant beauty hides a sinister and powerful secret the others refuse to believe. | |||
19 | "The Magic Bullet" | April 16, 2003 | |
Writer: Jeffrey Bell | Director: Jeffrey Bell | ||
With Angel and the others under Jasmine's extraordinarily divine power, Fred's life is in danger and she goes on the run. After discovering the secret to breaking Jasmine's spell over the nation's citizens, Fred must find a way to save the others before she's captured and killed. | |||
20 | "Sacrifice" | April 23, 2003 | |
Writer: Ben Edlund | Director: David Straiton | ||
Free from Jasmine's spell, Angel, Wesley, Gunn, Fred and Lorne escape into the sewers for protection until an evil, tentacled monster that has information about Jasmine captures Wes. Meanwhile, Connor, still in the clutches of Jasmine, discovers that Cordelia has vanished. | |||
21 | "Peace Out" | April 30, 2003 | |
Writer: David Fury | Director: Jefferson Kibbee | ||
Angel goes on a mission to find proof that his son Connor wasn't simply a vessel designed to bring the evil Jasmine, who is hell-bent on destroying everyone, into the world. Meanwhile, Connor goes in search of the missing Cordelia. | |||
22 | "Home" | May 7, 2003 | |
Writer: Tim Minear | Director: Tim Minear | ||
Angel and the gang are made an offer they can't refuse when they are given the opportunity to take over Wolfram & Hart and obtain all of the firm's secret and powerful information. Meanwhile, Angel has a chance to change the future for his son Connor, who is physically and emotionally lost and wandering through the city. |
Behind the scenes[]
Collections[]
- The season was collected in 2004 on the DVD set Angel Season Four on DVD.
References[]
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