How didn't Wesley know who Angel was in "Bad Girls"?

[Joshua]

Every Watcher in the Watchers' Council knew who Darla, Angel, Spike, Drusilla were including Wesley's father. But how come Wesley didn't know who he was in "Bad Girls"?

 

[FaithsFollower]

Because he was a nerd. 😛

No, I have no idea why he didn't know.

 

[Robb Stark]

I don't know if I'd say that every Watcher knew who they were. The four of them were very famous, no doubt, but I think it's reasonable to believe that not every Watcher is intimately aware of all their activities. I mean, there's been a lot of vampires over the centuries.

I think this is compounded a bit because Angel has, for the most part, been dormant for over a hundred years. Hell, most of them probably thought he was dead.

 

[Kana]

Wesley wasn't told his name when he first met him, so therefore wouldn't necessarily know who it is. Even if he read about him in books he wouldn't necessarily know what he looks like and he probably hadn't caught up with all of Giles' Watcher Diary entries at that point.

Once he knew his name, he probably connected the dots.

 

[iShower4free]

same with Giles, he only connected the dots when Buffy told him that Angel was a vampire, and he had to look it up.

 

[BuffyElevated]

I don't think every Watcher was aware of them and their existence...

 

[brinkster130]

I don't doubt for a second that Wesley would have at some point read or heard about Angelus, Darla, Spike and Dru being the brown-nosing play by the rules nerd we were first introduced to. I'm sure he just didn't connect the dots right away since he didn't know his name, he was going by Angel instead of Angelus, and it had been an very long time since he would have been written about/discussed by watchers.

 

[marie21]

I don't know if I'd say that every Watcher knew who they were. The four of them were very famous, no doubt, but I think it's reasonable to believe that not every Watcher is intimately aware of all their activities. I mean, there's been a lot of vampires over the centuries.

I think this is compounded a bit because Angel has, for the most part, been dormant for over a hundred years. Hell, most of them probably thought he was dead.

I agree! actually, the fact that both Giles and Wesley didn't know who Angel was before they met him, isn't at all odd for me! they can't know everything about every vampire, even if some vampires are older and therefore more famous than others!
What I find a little odd however is that after doing some research about Angel, Giles didn't seem to know the full story behind Angel's curse, especially the fact that if Angel achieved one moment of happiness, he would lose his soul again!!! The Gypsies should have mentioned that if they wanted to make their curse effective for ever!
But then, we wouldn't have the same story and the fact that nobody knew about that proved to be a great twist!!!

 

[ILLYRIAN]

I remember seeing an old type of photograph of Darla. So in order for Wesley to have recognised Angel there had to be one of him. When was it shown?
How could Wesley have recognised Angel from a written description?