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TOUCHED BY ANGEL
28 MAY 2004. SOURCE: CHICAGO TRIBUNE

With "Angel" having come to an end on 19 May, the Chicago Tribune has taken a look back at the series' highs and lows, including:

5 CHARACTERS WE LOVED

1. Wesley Wyndam-Pryce: No character on the show (aside from Gunn) changed more; he went from prissy, bookish uber-Brit to tough yet melancholy butt-kicker.

2. Cordelia Chase: We didn't know how much this spitfire brought to the show until the departed Cordy (who spent a long time off-camera in a "coma") came back for one episode during season 5.

3. Lilah Morgan: This evil (or not so evil?) lawyer's relationship with Wesley was layered with heaping spoonfuls of love, hate, disgust and attraction. Delicious.

4. Daniel Holtz: Angel murdered his family (back when Angel was bad). This made Holtz very, very mad. And it made him the most compelling nemesis Angel's fang gang ever had.

5. The Groosalugg: "Groo," a character from Lorne's wacky home dimension, was a courtly, winning hero who won fair Cordelia's hand (for a time, anyway).

5 CHARACTERS WE DIDN'T LOVE

1. Lindsey McDonald: This Wolfram & Hart lawyer bugged us at first, but he was slightly less annoying as time went on. Just slightly.

2. Eve: This insipid "liaison to the senior partners" of the evil law firm Wolfram & Hart didn't impress us much. Especially when she started liaising with the oily Lindsey McDonald. Ick.

3. Darla: Lots of people love Angel's fellow vamp, but we don't. Her breathy voice and hammy acting made her a pain in the neck.

4. Spike: Love the actor, love the character, but eventually he was given too much screen time on "Buffy" and then on "Angel," where too much Spike-osity almost ruined the ensemble nature of the show.

5. Kate Lockley: If you see the first couple of seasons of "Angel" on DVD, trust us - just close your eyes and hum loudly whenever this character, an LA cop who keeps crossing paths with Angel, comes on the screen. You'll thank us.

LESSONS I LEARNED FROM WATCHING "ANGEL"

1. Friends stay friends, no matter what: So you've ascended to a higher plane of existence, as Cordelia mysteriously did during the third season - don't worry, your friends will be there for you when you return to Earth. If you happen to be transformed into a powerful, probably not-so-nice, godlike entity, as Fred did this season, no matter. Your friends will stick with you, if only, as in Fred's case, to mourn who you used to be. The point is, friends stick together, weathering each other's up and downs, even if those "ups" include trips to heaven and the "downs" drag everyone into hell.

2. But you do pay a price for your questionable actions, even among friends: Let's say, for example, one friend - with only the best intentions - kidnaps another friend's only begotten child (these things happen, right?). When just that scenario went down between Wesley and Angel, the consequences were severe: After Angel's son was dragged into a hell dimension by a bad guy, Angel and his fang gang angrily (but temporarily) exiled well-intentioned kidnapper from the gang. And when Fred and Gunn paid a call on the man who had sent Fred to yet another hell dimension (on this show, hell dimensions are more common than convenience stores), the complications that ensued drove the couple apart. So, your friends will usually stick by you, but please try to keep hell dimensions out of the picture.

3. Equal opportunity applies to bloodsuckers too: The rules of vampire life have become much more flexible (and management friendly). Specially treated glass for office buildings and cars allows for a 24-hour workday - no more skulking back to the coffin at dawn. Any other obstacles are no match for the staff of LA law firm Wolfram & Hart, which Angel and Co. took over during season 5. In fact, with an ample supply of pig's blood on hand, being a vampire is nothing more than another lifestyle choice!

4. Being bad doesn't mean you can't be redeemed: At one point, Angel reverted to his super-bad-guy status (being happy for a single moment turns Angel into a scary hell-dude). But his friends did all they could to restore him to his formerly cuddly (yet broody) state. And though Fred has turned into one heck of an angry (and overly talkative) she-goddess named Illyria, her friends still love her, or what she used to be. that's devotion, since remaining in Fred/Illyria's general area could be kind of unsafe.

5. Even if your life revolves around doing good, repenting, saving the world and the time-consuming application of hair gel, you don't have to be super-serious all the time: For an episode midway through season 5, Angel was turned into a pint-size puppet and one of the series' high points had to be his rendition of 'Mandy' at a demon-infested karaoke bar. Can that vampire vamp or what?

3 MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

1. Where did the Lorne love go? The comic delivery of Andy Hallett, who played the green lounge-lizard/demon Lorne always had us in stitches, and any guy who survives his own beheading gets props from us. But in season 5 he got just a few lines per episode, much to our chagrin, and season 4's 'Lorne in Vegas' episode had potential but it just didn't click. Is it unrealistic to hope that Lorne gets his own spinoff variety show?

2. Fred and Wesley's sad story: Because Joss Whedon is a sadist, when this obvious couple finally got together (after years of mutual attraction), their budding relationship was cut short by Fred's transformation into the vengeful goddess Illyria. Bummer.

3. Angel and Cordelia's sad story: The writers were clearly hinting that these two were going to get together, and we're not quite sure why they didn't (actress Charisma Carpenter's mysterious disappearance from the show during the middle of season 3 didn't help). Then all of a sudden, Angel's son Connor got snuggly with Cordy and .... uggggh.

1 OPPORTUNITY WE WISH THEY HAD MISSED

The whole Connor-Cordelia affair: Anytime a grown woman takes up with the son of her best friend (and almost-boyfriend), well that's a whole lotta uggggh. We realise it was the only way to incorporate Charisma Carpenter's pregnancy into the plot (actually, we could think of other storyl ines that would have done the trick), but still. Did we mention uggggh? BACK TO THE TOP