City of (Angel episode)
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City of is the series premier of the television show Angel. See also List of Angel (series) episodes.
Plot synopsis
Summary
Angel has moved to Los Angeles to fight evil. He is visited by Doyle, who is a half-human, half-Brachan demon. Doyle tells Angel that he has visions from the Powers That Be ("The PTBs") of people who are in danger. The Powers sent him as a messenger to ask Angel to investigate these visions.On his first investigation, Angel bumps into Cordelia, who has also moved to L.A. to escape Sunnydale and become an actress.
While at a party, Cordelia catches the attention of a man who later promises her a job as a model / actress but turns out to be a vampire. Angel comes to the rescue and after that Cordelia comes up with the idea that she, Angel, and Doyle should start up a detective agency, investigating supernatural and demonic problems.
Expanded overview
Angel sits at a bar, supposedly drunk, telling the guy next to him the story of the love of his life. He compares Buffy to the guy who is a bald black man. A couple of guys leave the bar with some girls and Angel quickly sobers and follows them out. Keeping up the drunken act until a fight starts, he stops the guys (who happen to be vampires) from snacking on the two girls, and then leaves. Angel makes his way to his new home, an underground apartment of sorts that lies beneath an office. With no windows, sewer access through the floor and an elevator that allows him to come and go from the surface without being noticed, it's the perfect home for a man of his kind.
Waiting for him is a half-demon, half-human named Doyle who turns into a spiny demon whenever he sneezes. Doyle introduces himself, recaps the story of Angel's life, and then tells him about how he was sent by "The Powers That Be." Accompanied by a powerful migraine headache, Doyle receives messages in his mind regarding people that need Angel's help. He tells Angel about all the lost souls and people in need that Angel could really help and then presents a piece of paper with the name and workplace of a woman on it. Encouraging Angel to work on his people skills, he sends him off on his way to find this woman, Tina, and help her.
Angel finds Tina working at a coffee shop, and attempts to communicate with her. After a few false tries, he offers to talk and she says she'll meet him after work. When she shows up, she pulls out mace and threatens Angel with it. She assumes he was someone sent by man named Russell and he wasn't. She apologizes and they talk for a bit, then Angel drives her to a party. While Tina tries to get money the party's hostess, Margo, owes her, Angel encounters an agent who wants to book him as an actor and then to his surprise runs into Cordelia Chase. She proudly speaks about her beach home and amazing acting career then leaves Angel so she can talk to people that actually are somebody. Angel spots Tina as a man named Stacy grabs her, but she manages to break away and asks Angel if they can leave. As they're exiting the elevators to the parking garage, Tina is grabbed and taken off to talk with Russell while Angel is held back in the elevator. Angel eventually breaks free, stops the other car and rescues Tina from her captors.
In her small apartment, Cordelia hangs up her one dress while listening to the messages left by her talent agency that reveal that her career is not as good as she said. Back at Angel's place, he makes tea for the two of them and offers her a place to stay until she gets things sorted out. She tells him about Russell and what he's capable of. Later that night, Angel heads to the public library to use their computers and search for information about a girl named Denise that Tina told him was a victim of Russell's. Angel returns to his place through he sewers and wakes Tina from a horrible nightmare. After seeing a note on the table with her name and place of employment listed on it, Tina panics and runs out, thinking Angel really was working for Russell. As he tries to stop her, the sun burns his hand and he reveals himself to be a vampire.
Tina runs back to her place, and packs her stuff, only to find that Russell is also in her room. She pulls a gun on him and after promising her to grant her wish to go home, he reveals he is a vampire and kills her. Angel finds her dead in her apartment and then heads back to his place with Doyle to track down her killer. After some researching, Angel finds Stacey and interrogates him for information regarding where this Russell Winters can be found. Margo calls Cordelia and informs her that Russell wants to meet with her and he'll send a limousine at eight to pick her up.
She arrives at Russell's impressive mansion and basically spills the story of her life. Her family lost everything because her parents didn't pay their taxes and she moved to LA in hopes of an acting career. Noticing that his place has no mirrors and dark curtains, Cordelia comes to the conclusion that Russell's a vampire and that she's alone with him. With Doyle waiting in the driveway of Russell's mansion, Angel sneaks his way inside and saves Cordelia. Two of Russell's guards attack and shoot Angel several times before he jumps off the second floor with Cordelia in his arms and makes a run for it. After getting back to Angel's place, Doyle extracts the bullets and Cordelia helps clean the wounds.
The next day, Angel appears uninvited at a meeting Russell Winters is having with his lawyers. Not threatened by the lawyers or Russell's supposed ability to do whatever he wants in LA, Angel asks Russell if he can fly, then proceeds to kick Russell and his chair through a nearby window and into the sunlight. Back at home, Angel picks up the phone and calls Buffy but after she answers, he hangs up. Up in their office, a desperate Cordelia wants to help Angel and Doyle fight demons and Angel agrees to let her help.
Episode Cast & Factions
Angel
Allen Francis Doyle
Cordelia Chase
Russell Winters
Lindsey McDonald (Wolfram & Hart)
Stacy and other hired muscle
Winters' bodyguards
unnamed executives at Russell Winters Enterprises
unnamed vampires
Tina
Janice
Bartender
Cafe manager
Margo
Oliver Simon
party guests
Cafe clients
people at bar
Bestiary
Allen Francis Doyle
Allen Francis Doyle is a half-human, half-Brachen demon (on his father's side). He's also a servant of the Powers That Be, receiving painful visions meant to guide Angel. Due to his Brachen heritage, Doyle is capable of shifting to demon form, in which his skin turns green, his eyes red and his face is covered in small spines.
Russell Winters
Russell Winters is a wealthy and respected businessman and CEO of Russell Winters Enterprises. He's also a very old sadistic vampire who preys on the young women that travel to Los Angeles hoping to become stars, those without friends or families on the city, whom he targets thanks to videos of parties hosted by a pill-addicted woman named Margo. Winters introduces himself as a somewhat eccentric benefactor but eventually begins to harass his victims until he finally kills them. Winters employs a number of armed bodyguards to protect his mansion, hired muscle to taunt and harass his victims, and the services of Wolfram & Hart to cover up his involvement in his victims' deaths.Winters vampiric visage, more deformed than common vampires, reveal an advanced age, though he remains far younger than vampires such as the Master or Kakistos, who are unable to assume human features.
Wolfram & Hart - Lindsey McDonald
We're introduced to Wolfram and Hart, a powerful law firm with offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris and Cairo. Lindsey McDonald is a W&H associate that provides legal and business representation for Russell Winters. Wolfram & Hart's services for Winters, and other clients such as him, include fabricating alibis to erase any link to his victims' deaths.Writing and acting
Production details
Music
- Christophe Beck - "I'm Game"
- Gus Gus - "Ladyshave"
- Gus Gus - "Teenage Sensation"
- Howie Beck - "Maybe I Belong"
- Wellwater Conspiracy - "Right Of Left Field"
Continuity
Arc significance
Crossover with Buffy: At the end of this episode, Angel calls Buffy but hangs up when she answers it. Buffy's side of the phone call was seen in "The Freshman", which was aired immediately before this Angel episode.The shadowy law firm, Wolfram & Hart, and its Senior Partners are first mentioned in this episode. They are behind many evil goings-on in the city.
Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
| Location, time (if known) | Buffyverse chronology: Fall 1999 - December 1999 (non-canon = italic) |
|---|---|
| L.A. 1999 | Angel comic: |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.01 City of (Angel episode)>City of |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.01 The Freshman (Buffy episode)>The Freshman |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.02 Living Conditions (Buffy episode)>Living Conditions |
| L.A. 1999 | |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.02 Lonely Hearts (Angel episode)>Lonely Hearts |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.00 Unaired Angel pilot |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Not Forgotten (Angel novel)>Not Forgotten |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.03 The Harsh Light of Day (Buffy episode)>The Harsh Light of Day |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.03 In the Dark (Angel episode)>In the Dark |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.04 Fear Itself (Buffy episode)>Fear Itself |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy graphic novel: Blood of Carthage (Buffy comic)>Blood of Carthage |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel graphic novel: Surrogates (Angel comic)>Surrogates |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel comic: Strange Bedfellows (Angel comic)>Strange Bedfellows story, Angel #4 |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy video game: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Game Boy Color) |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.04 I Fall to Pieces (Angel episode)>I Fall to Pieces |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.05 Beer Bad (Buffy episode)>Beer Bad |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.05 Rm w/a Vu (Angel episode)>Rm w/a Vu |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy books: Lost Slayer (Buffy novel)>Lost Slayer series |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.06 Wild at Heart (Buffy episode)>Wild at Heart |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy graphic novel: Oz (Buffy comic)>Oz |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy book: |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.06 Sense & Sensitivity (Angel episode)>Sense & Sensitivity |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.07 The Initiative (Buffy episode)>The Initiative |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.07 Bachelor Party (Angel episode)>Bachelor Party |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Close to the Ground (Angel novel)>Close to the Ground |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Soul Trade (Angel novel)>Soul Trade |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel graphic novel: Earthly Possessions (Angel comic)>Earthly Possessions |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Redemption (Angel novel)>Redemption |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Shakedown (Angel novel)>Shakedown |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Hollywood Noir (Angel novel)>Hollywood Noir |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Avatar (Angel novel)>Avatar |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Bruja (Angel novel)>Bruja |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: The Summoned (Angel novel)>The Summoned |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.08 Pangs (Buffy episode)>Pangs |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.08 I Will Remember You (Angel episode)>I Will Remember You |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.09 Something Blue (Buffy episode)>Something Blue |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.09 Hero (Angel episode)>Hero |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.10 Hush (Buffy episode)>Hush |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.10 Parting Gifts (Angel episode)>Parting Gifts |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.11 Doomed (Buffy episode)>Doomed |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.11 Somnambulist (Angel episode)>Somnambulist |
External links
Reviews
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