The Big Picture
Angel
took the
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
franchise in a darker direction, exploring themes of evil and redemption.
Fred’s compelling resurrection in the Angel comics adds depth to both her character and the series.
Angel’s existentialist exploration of redemption through Fred’s death and revival challenges the concept of heroism in the series.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer isn’t just one of the greatest drama shows of all time but a groundbreaking example of fantasy worldbuilding that inspired a vast universe of spinoffs from other storytellers. While the seven-season run of Joss Whedon’s coming-of-age fantasy series had its critical high and low points, the spinoff series Angel took the franchise in a much darker direction. Ditching the adolescent humor and “monster of the week” style premise for a much more disturbing analysis of the cyclical nature of evil, Angel often challenged its viewers by presenting more devastating stakes. Although the show’s mature tone meant that not every fan-favorite character survived the series, Amy Acker’s Winifred Burkle was revived in one of the most compelling storylines in the Angel comic book spinoff.
Angel
Release Date 1999-10-5
Main Genre Supernatural
Seasons 5
Production Company 20th Century Fox Television
Network The WB
What Happens To Fred in ‘Angel?’
While Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a firm grasp on its core characters since the beginning of its first season, Angel’s team of protagonists evolved throughout the show’s five-season run. The series began by showing how David Boreanaz’s titular “vampire with a soul” left the memories of Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Sunnydale behind so he could start a detective agency in Los Angeles. In his efforts to help rid the “City of Angels” of demonic activity, Angel recruits both the Sunnyvale alumni Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter) and the former Watcher Wesley Windham-Pryce (Alexis Denisof). Although she is found held captive on the planet of Pylea at the end of the second season, Fred is rescued by Angel and decides to join his team. In the subsequent seasons, she proves an essential force of reason within a team of ethically dubious characters.
Prior to her imprisonment on Pylea, the home planet of the friendly demon Lorne (Andy Hallett), Fred had been an ambitious physics student interested in translating cryptic texts. Although a dimensional portal took her to unforeseen territory, Fred was forced to return to a world she no longer recognized. While her memories of her family were unfortunately steeped in the past, Fred began to develop a strong friendship with Angel, Cordelia, Lorne, and the rogue demon hunter Charles Gunn (J. August Richards). Her capacity for empathy helped remind the team at Angel Investigations what they were fighting for; in Angel’s season four finale, Fred helps heal the rift between Angel and his rebellious teenage son, Connor (Vincent Kartheiser).
Angel’s fifth season was arguably its best, as it placed the central characters in their most ethically challenging dilemma to date; Angel Investigations is given the chance to join the evil law firm Wolfram & Hart, whose path of villainy they have been fighting for throughout the entire series. Although it appears that the Angel Investigations team might be able to change the villainous cabal from the inside out, Fred unexpectedly dies of a mysterious illness in the heartbreaking episode “A Hole In The World.” However, her physical presence is taken over by the ancient evil entity Illyria, who reluctantly aids Angel, Gunn, Lorne, Wesley, and Spike (James Marsters) as they face off against a coming apocalypse.
Fred Is Resurrected in the ‘Angel’ Comics
Image via WB
Although Angel quickly proved to be a more thoughtful and ambitious series compared to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the show was sadly canceled during the height of its popularity. The Angel season finale, “Not Fade Away,” ended on an ambiguous note, which did not suggest whether or not Angel, Spike, Illyria, and Gunn would survive the horde of demons that had invaded the streets of Los Angeles. However, storylines for future Angel seasons were adapted into a series of comics. Like Buffy the Vampire Slayer,Angel lived on for many years after its television run ended.
The storylines intended for the sixth season of Angel became Angel: After The Fall, which examined how Los Angeles reacted to an all-out war between good and evil. Although she had already adopted her human host’s physical characteristics, Illyria shows signs of remembering Fred’s personality. It is revealed that both Fred and Illyria are battling for control of the body and that the anti-hero Spike has been trying to prevent Fred’s personality from becoming dominant. Illyria later appeared in the spinoff comic series Spike: After The Fall, which shows that Fred’s personality comes out during moments of empathy.
Although they began their run on Angel, Fred and Illyria eventually appeared in the comic book extension of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Set after Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s final season, the new comic revealed that Illyria’s powers had been drained, leaving her stuck in Fred’s body forever. While it’s left ambiguous how much of Fred’s consciousness is still affecting Illyria, her efforts to help save Buffy’s younger sister, Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg), suggest that her compassion has won over.
Fred’s Return Allowed ‘Angel’ To Become More Existentialist
Although Buffy the Vampire Slayer was ostensibly a coming-of-age story, Angel proved to be a far more existentialist character study about the merits of redemption. Fred’s death and revival showed that Angel was unafraid to challenge traditional notions of heroism. While there is obviously reason to empathize with Fred, fans were able to learn more about Illyria and her backstory, which cast the initially villainous being in a new light. Acker does a great job balancing these two personas in a dynamic performance.
Despite the popularity of its predecessor, Angel remains a criminally underrated drama. Though its outlook on humanity is often bleak, Angel was still a very entertaining genre series where the evolution of the mythology was never secondary to the character development. With her performance as Fred, Acker gave the series one of its most heartbreaking and unexpected character arcs; it’s thankfully one that’s taken a new life through the comics.
Angel is streaming on Hulu in the U.S.
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