City Of

Season 1, Episode 1
Written by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt
Directed by Joss Whedon
Original Airdate: 5 October 1999

“Los Angeles. You see it at night and it shines; a beacon. People are drawn to it. People and other things. They come for all sorts of reasons. My reason? No surprise there. It started with a girl.”

Angel

REGULAR CAST

David Boreanaz as Angel
Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
Glenn Quinn as Allen Francis Doyle

GUEST CAST

Tracy Middendorf as Tina
Vyto Ruginis as Russell Winters
Christian Kane as Lindsey McDonald

CO-STARRING

Michael Mantell as Oliver Simon
Jon Ingrassia as Stacy
Renee Ridgeley as Margo
Sam Pancake as Manager
Josh Holloway as Vampire
Gina McClain as Janice
Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers (Uncredited)

SYNOPSIS

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 grabs her named Stacy 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 a 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 shoots 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.

TRIVIA

The episode title is a reference to “City of Angels,” a nickname for Los Angeles.

Christian Kane, who plays the unnamed lawyer later known as Lindsey McDonald, was close friends with David Boreanaz before joining the cast of Angel. “It was the first time David and me ever got to act together and there was just a chemistry,” Kane recalls. “He was a badass and I was trying to be a badass and that right there was just a defining moment. You could tell the tension but you could also see the easiness of how we just flowed into each other. It’s very easy to act with Boreanaz and I think he feels the same with me.” He is the only actor other than David Boreanaz to feature in the first and last episodes of the series.

CONTINUITY

Doyle seems to know a great deal about Angel, recapping his recent history in Sunnydale, as well as his relationship with Buffy and the circumstances of the gypsy curse.

Angel’s temptation to drink from the girls is due to his recent feeding from Buffy in Graduation Day (Part 2). Graduation was also the last time that Angel and Cordelia saw each other.

Her family’s quarrel with the IRS, as mentioned in The Prom explains Cordelia’s living arrangements in LA.

Oliver Simon, the agent who tries to recruit Angel, will return as Rebecca’s agent in Eternity.

Angel’s weapon cabinet makes it’s first of many appearances.

GOOFS

As Angel walks down the alley at the end of the first scene, his reflection can be seen in a puddle. This appears at the end of every opening credits for the rest of the show’s duration.

As the vampire Russell falls to his death via sunlight, he casts a reflection in the windows of the building he was pushed out of.

When Angel calls Buffy, he dials only seven numbers, though Sunnydale, situated a couple hours north of L.A., would likely have a different area code, requiring an 11-number dial.

CROSSOVER

David Boreanaz and Sarah Michelle Gellar had cameo parts in each others’ season premiere episodes. Angel dials Buffy’s home in Sunnydale and waits for her to answer. You can hear her answer before he hangs up. You can see the scene from Buffy’s perspective in The Freshman.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

EPISODE
— / Lonely Heart

STORY ORDER
The Freshman / Living Conditions