Okay.. sit tight, it's a bumpy ride 😀
Angel came to LA as in Sunnydale he realised that he couldn't offer Buffy any chance of a normal life. So he decided to help the hopeless in his usual taciturn manner. He'd tasted human blood when he fed off Buffy to live in "Graduation Day pt 1" after he had been poisoned by Faith.
It's in the opening episode that we meet Doyle, he was half demon and he received visions from the PTB (Powers that Be) which he told Angel about, and Angel would go to their aid. The first one was Tina, who worked at the Coffee Spot, and he (Angel) was to protect her against someone called Russell Winters. Through the course of the show, we are re-introduced to Cordelia, who had left Sunnydale to try her luck as an actress in LA and was getting absolutely nowhere. To cut a long story very short, Angel fails to save/protect Tina, who is bitten by Russell Winters (yeah, a powerful vampire as it turned out), so Angel goes after Winters. In the process he rescues Cordelia and disposes of Winters in a very cool way (he kicks him and his chair out of the window of an office of Wolfram & Hart, and he burns and dusts in the daylight). Wolfram & Hart are a very evil law firm incidentally, and we are also introduced to Lindsey McDonald, a lawyer from W&H. Cordelia comes to work at Angel Investigations with Doyle, though she assures him that it's temporary til she hits stardom. In a later episode we are also introduced to a police woman by the name of Kate Lockley.
The team works well together.. then Doyle is killed in Episode 9 ("Hero") He saves LA and demon-kind from "The Scourge" and their beacon which would've wiped out anyone with demon blood in their veins within a mile or so radius) He also passes his visions on to Cordelia. In his place comes ex-Watcher Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, who has classed himself as a "rogue demon hunter". He quickly joins the gang.
A lot of season one are stand alone episodes. In "War Zone" we meet vampire hunter Charles Gunn.
Angel comes up against W & H a few times in season one. In the penultimate episode of the season, Lindsey comes to Angel for help as the firm want a blind assassin to murder three children with special powers. He shows Angel where he can steal some computer files for information. Angel also steals what turns out to be the Scrolls of Aberjian. They mention the existence of a "vampire with a soul".
The season one finale is "To Shansu in LA" where, upon translating the scrolls, Wesley says that they foretell that Angel will die. W&H are involved in a raising, and a powerful demon called Vocah steals the scrolls back from Angel so the raising can proceed, give Cordelia permanent never ending visions and blows up Angel Investigations, badly injuring Wesley. Angel finds a way to heal Cordelia, and retrieve the scrolls of Aberjian and in the process cuts off Lindsey's hand. The "thing" raised in the box turns out to be Angel's sire, Darla.. looking very scared and confused. Also, Wes realises that the scroll foretells that the vampire with a soul will die, in order to live, ie, to become human, that is Angel's reward for ultimate redemption.
Season Two.. Basically the objective is for Angel to be turned to his dark side, to help Wolfram & Hart in the event of the apocalypse. Darla drives him very close to the edge, he becomes obssessed by her, after experiencing very vivid dreams. He sees her for real, thinking she's still a vampire, but she isn't. She isn't comfortable with her newly mortal state and longs to become a vampire again. Angel refuses to change her, and undergoes a trial in order for Darla to be given a second chance of life.. he passes the trials, but Darla is refused the chance, as she is already living her second chance (she is also dying of syphillis, the disease that almost killed her before the Master sired her). Angel vows to be with her right until the end, he even briefly considers changing her, but Darla tells him no. Then Drusilla enters the picture, and it is she who changes Darla, infront of a very subdued and dazed Angel.
We are also introduced to The Host, and his kareoke bar Caritas, as The Host can read auras from people who sing (basically explained there)
He goes after the duo and in the end fires Cordy, Wes and Gunn and works alone. The trio form their own Investigation firm and try to work without Angel and seem to be succeeding. Angel becomes very dark.. he allows Darla and Dru to murder most of the lawyers at W&H by locking them in the cellar at Holland Manner's (the boss) home.. only Lindsay and his rival Lilah Morgan survive.. Angel hits absolutely rock bottom when he has a night of passion with Darla and keeps his soul. Darla vanishes from his life. Angel spends the next few episodes making amends with his former employees. In the end he offers to work for them and not the other way around. Then, near the end of the season Cordelia is sucked into the Host's demon dimension of Pylea and they go to rescue her. In Pylea, Angel does not combust in the sunlight, though when he turns vamp, he turns into a horrendous beast, known as the Angelbeast, his demon-form in technicolour surround-sound. Eventually, they succeed in rescuing Cordy (who through her visions was made princess) and return to LA, with Fred, a very brainy scientist type girl, who had been sucked into the dimension 5 years before. Upon returning, Angel is given some very tragic news.
Season Three: Angel deals with his grief. He returns and life returns to a semblence of normality.. til it is revealed that somehow Darla is pregnant.. hugely pregnant. Angel develops growing feelings for Cordelia. Wolfram & Hart still plague him, and a vampire hunter named Daniel Holtz appears seeking Angelus and Darla, looking for vengeance. He is aided by a scar-faced demon by the name of Sahjan. Then Angel discovers he's to be a father. Darla eventually sacrifices herself so her baby might live (she loves the baby but is afraid that once the baby is born, she'll revert to her vampire type and not, maybe even kill him). So Angel is left to look after a very small baby boy, whom he names Connor. Cordelia also becomes part demon when she forgoes part of her humanity to help deal with the visions, and also from taking them back from Angel, who inherited them from Doyle instead (should Cordy have never hooked up with Angel in the season pilot in the first place)
Wesley reads a prophecy in that the father will kill the son, ie, that Angel will kill Connor. He can't confide in anyone, as Cordelia meets up again with her champion from Pylea, Groo, and is on vacation with him, and he can't tell Angel. He instead decides to take baby Connor and leave LA, away from his father. Holtz helps him, but in the process, Wesley has his throat cut by Holtz's side kick Justine, who takes the baby to Holtz and together Holtz and the baby escape to a hell dimension called Quortoth with Angel watching helplessly. The dimension is impenetrable, and he can't save him. He rages against Wesley and Wesley is no longer welcomed at Angel Investigations. He begins to slide towards darkness, though Lilah is never far away.
Then the unthinkable happens. The Quortoth demon dimension opens (thanks to some serious black magic courtesy of Angel) and Connor reappears. He is 15 years old, angry and hell bent on killing his father, whom he believes (courtesy of Holtz) is a soulless evil vampire. Angel wants to reconnect with his son, whom after a while allows him. Holtz has in the meantime followed Connor (now known as Steven) back to LA.
Holtz tells Steven that his place is with his father. He tells him to go to him. Steven doesn't want to, but he does. Holtz writes Steven a letter, saying he has to leave, and not to try finding him as he won't. Angel goes to see Holtz. Initially he's angry at Holtz for taking him, but then he isn't.. he doesn't kill him. Steven overhears Gunn and Fred (who are a couple) talking about Angel going to see Holtz, and thinking Angel is going to kill Holtz, runs off to his father. In the meantime, while Angel is reading Holtz's letter, Holtz is committing suicide by making Justine pierce his neck twice with an ice pick, to mimic a vampire bite. Steven finds Holtz in Justine's arms, dead from the supposed "bite" and Justine tells him Angelus did it. Steven seeks revenge.
He makes Angel believe that he wants to be a part of his life by learning to fight like him, and reverting to the name of Connor, but sets him up.. Cordelia, now realising her feelings for Angel, calls him to arrange a meeting by the beach. Connor hears them.
Cordelia doesn't make the meeting, but is made a "higher being" as is ascended upwards.. Angel and Connor fight, and Connor subdues his father by tazing him. He wakes up in a metal box, which Connor and Justine are busy making sure is escape proof.. and is sent to the bottom of the sea.. while Cordelia is ascending to heaven, Angel is descending to what must seem like hell.
Hope this helps, i've written from memory, so there are probably huge bits i've left out.. but i think that's Angel's story to date in a nutshell.
Have fun, and any questions, don't hesitate to ask 🙂
