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I am not a bitch! I'm just protected.
―Kate Lockley[src]

Kate Lockley was a Los Angeles Police Department detective and ally of Angel Investigations.[1][2]

Biography[]

LAPD[]

I guess I'm just trying to make a connection. The more I come to places like this the harder it gets.
―Kate[src]

Kate was raised by her widower father, Trevor Lockley, who was also a police officer. After her mother's death, Trevor taught Kate to put her emotions aside and to take care of herself at all costs.[3]

Kate first met Angel while both were investigating a case undercover involving the brutal murders of several patrons of D'Oblique, a popular singles bar. She initially believed that it was Angel himself who was behind the killings upon following him to and seeing him leave a crime scene, unaware that Angel had in fact been trying to stop the real killer (a Talamour searching for a permanent host). Angel escaped, and Kate became obsessed with finding him to the point where she broke into the Angel Investigations offices without a warrant to search for him. However, when she was attacked by the real killer and saved by Angel, Kate subsequently helped him to stop the killer (whom she believed to be the possessed bartender) and dropped all charges against Angel, who offered her his services whenever she might need them.[4]

Kate's subsequent encounters with Angel led her to trust him as a helpful stranger, and she, in turn, assisted him, using her position on the police force to provide him with information about some of his cases concerning Melissa Burns[1] and Maude Pearson.[2] Kate recruited Angel as well to arrest the crime boss Tony Papazian. This last, helped by Wolfram & Hart, made arrangements for the police officers in the station to undergo mandatory sensitivity training due to Kate's alleged treatment of her prisoners. Due to the supernatural sensitivity caused by a black ritual, Kate became softened, almost depressed at her father's departure and, until Angel's intervention, not vindictive with Tony and the other released criminals, who targeted her in revenge for his arrest and treatment at her hands.[3]

When she discovered that Angel was really a vampire, she delved into the darker side of Los Angeles. On one such investigation, Kate found her father's lifeless body, completely drained of blood, and developed a hatred for Angel despite the fact that he couldn't have done anything to help. Indeed, Trevor had been working with a group of vampires as a courier and was killed by his associates because he wouldn't invite Angel in, although Angel was able to gain access once Trevor was dead and the invitation was no longer required.[5]

Kate went after his father's killers and killed them with Angel's help; however, she became adversarial toward him[5] and his "kind," caring only about getting rid of vampires from Los Angeles.[6] Kate became known for investigating calls matching the supernatural profile, even if they were out of her jurisdiction. While she expressed an intense dislike for Wolfram & Hart and the clients the law firm represented, she showed an equal resentment toward Angel,[7] refusing to help Cordelia Chase and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce to find him when Angel was prisoner for XXI.[8] In the case of Faith Lehane, Kate arrested Angel and threatened to put him in a sunny cell for aiding and abetting a wanted felon; she ultimately had to free him when the Slayer turned herself in to the police.[7]

Kate also attempted to accuse Angel of murder after Darla framed him for the murder of "Stephen Kramer," expressly sending her a photo of the Hyperion Hotel and lying about her awareness of the existence of vampires. However, this attempt was quickly derailed when Angel's new associate Charles Gunn pointed out that Angel couldn't have entered the house unless he was either invited or the residents were dead, with Wesley showing her a daguerreotype of Darla to reveal the true identity of her source.[9]

Kate reprise end

Kate and Angel sort things out.

Her obsession with supernatural cases became her own undoing; after Kate and Angel worked together to take down a cop who had brought back deceased police officers as zombies in an attempt to cut down on crime,[10] she was eventually fired from the LAPD as part of their attempt to cover up what had happened. In the aftermath, Kate called Angel and blamed him for ruining her life, then attempted suicide by washing down prescription pills with hard liquor.[11] However, after he had his epiphany, Angel went to Kate's apartment, broke down her door, and held her under a cold shower, saving her life. When she came to, she thanked him for saving her life, then demanded that he get out.[12]

That evening, Kate and Angel met up again and finally made peace, Kate expressing a belief that there was a higher power at work and they were not alone in the never-ending battle against the forces of darkness. When Angel asked her why, she replied that she never invited him into her apartment.[12]

Fall of Los Angeles[]

KateFN

Kate protects Connor during the Fall of Los Angeles.

During the Fall of Los Angeles, Kate took action by going out into the streets and battling the demonic threat. She met and saved Connor from a group of demons. Kate took him to her dealer's hideout, since the dealer was missing. While she gathered more weapons, Kate reiterated to Connor the message Angel gave her — about doing what you can, no matter what — and left to blow up a demon army.[13]

Following the end of magic, Gunn confirmed that Kate had returned to the LAPD.[14]

Gallery[]

Behind the scenes[]

  • Kate was portrayed by Elisabeth Röhm.
  • Kate would debut in the undeveloped episode "Corrupt." According to Tim Minear, "Kate was a police officer working undercover as a prostitute who was actually becoming a prostitute and was addicted to crack. That was originally the introduction of Kate. Obviously we were still trying to figure out what the show was at that point. This was the first episode after the pilot, and it was written before the new staff arrived. They just went incredibly dark with this thing and decided at the end of the day that it was a little bit too hopeless, a little too grim. After that episode was written it was actually being prepped when the network, too, had some concerns about it."[15]
  • In Love Dares You, Part One, S.F.P.D. detective Robert Dowling mentions that he "and a lady from the L.A.P.D. really hit it off" on a convention of supernatural law enforcement agents; writer Christos Gage explained: "The funny thing is that I did have in the back of my mind that it could be Kate, but after talking with my editors I agree that it would be too coincidental for those characters to just happen to meet. If there were a specific story reason, great, but without Angel being part of the book, there's not much mileage to get out of it. So, probably, we won't see Dowling's lady friend. But if you like to think it's her, go nuts!"[16]

Appearances[]

Canonical[]

Angel

Other[]

References[]

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