In 1999, Angel, a spin off of the cult television program Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was introduced as part of what is now referred to as the legendary Jossverse. While the plot of Angel is only loosely based on that of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, in many senses, is still the typical Hollywood spin-off. Familiar Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters would crossover onto Angel for a certain number of episodes, demons and plotlines bled together and Angel and Buffy often made cameos in each other’s programs when in need of specific help. Yet, Angel proves to be much more than the perky, monster of the week plot that Buffy the Vampire Slayer was famous for. Angel revolves around its title character, Angel, the vampire with a soul, when he moves to Los Angeles and opens a detective agency. By using his superior demonic strength and human intuition and emotions, Angel solves crime and slays the demons that threaten the innocent people of L.A. Along with the fan-favorites, Cordelia Chase, the busty, materialistic, and irrefutable comedic relief of the otherwise drab and damper program, and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, the Watcher who is first introduced in season three of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (when assigned to train the rebellious Slayer, Faith), Angel creates Angel Investigations to assist in his never-ending quest to balance the scales of his own redemption. Yet, of all the Angel characters that are introduced in the narratives, it is the unlikely Wesley that embodies more detective qualities than Angel. Wesley’s character, although very briefly expanded upon in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is allowed to fully flourish in Angel. The audience is privy to Wesley’s transformation from a bumbling, sidekick in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, to a modern day classical detective in the earlier episodes of Angel, to a tough and dark, hardboiled detective, toward the end of Angel. Although his transformation is a painful and slow one, Wesley manages to successfully transition from a classical detective setting to a hardboiled detective setting, all while managing to preserve the conventions of a hardboiled detective. To begin, when the audience is first introduced to Wesley in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, he is clearly awkward and inexperienced and is juxtaposed against Buffy’s Watcher, Rupert Giles. As the audience comes to learn, the Watchers are part of a secret British council that are organized, trained and educated in the dark arts, lore and myths of all that is demonic. The Watchers are then assigned to watch over one Slayer and stay with them until the Slayer dies. The Watchers act as teachers, coaches and patriarchical figures for their Slayer (who are all presented as being fatherless). Along with the British accent, posh clothing and sophisticated air, the Watchers present a clear parallel to the classical detective and the flaneur society of early Europe. Highly intelligent, extravagantly eloquent and overbearingly ostentatious, the Watchers are stoic figures that act independently of each other and seldom interact with society. Watchers are people who possess a library of research material (in Giles’ case, quite literally) and much like Dupin in Poe’s early short stories, the Watchers continually revert to the thick tomes and ancient scrolls in order to assist their assigned Slayer in her task. Wesley, while embodying many of the classical detective traits, comes across as earnest and youthful, eager and yearning for a place to belong. As the audience learns, Wesley’s father is a member of the Watchers Council and thus trains Wesley from an incredibly young age onward to be the perfect Watcher. Sadly, this reclusion from people his own age stunt his social skills. When presented with large groups of people, Wesley becomes blundering and awkward. He is, very much, the Watson to Giles’ Sherlock. Moreover, much like Watson, Wesley proves himself to be almost hyper-intelligent, book wise, yet sadly, social challenged. Wesley, in his adorable and clumsy manner of interaction, brings a childlike innocence to the ultimately vicious and petrifying world of demon slaying. In fact, it is Wesley’s impressive mental intelligence that distracts the audience from his sexual identity. He becomes a stock character who is indirectly funny as a result of his naiveté. He is quoted as being, "an entirely sexless shoulder to lean on" (Angel 5.14). Despite being a physically attractive male, Wesley becomes unattractive, which detracts the audience and characters from his potential sexual viability. Before getting to know Wesley, Cordelia, arguably one of the most sexually aggressive females in both the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Angel series, is physically attracted to Wesley. To the audience, this pairing is laughable and painful to watch, for Cordelia is clearly the dominant personality. In an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cordelia kisses Wesley and immediately pulls away, realizing her mistake. She gives Wesley an uncomfortable excuse as to why she suddenly has to leave, and then departs. To the audience, this moment is achingly embarrassing and pathetic. Sadly, Wesley’s sexual inferiority does not stop at that one scene. Wesley is clearly dominated by his Slayer, Faith, who refuses to obey his rule. Wesley cannot tame or control Faith, and further loses what influence his Watcher position would have generally allotted him. Giles, on the other hand, is able to corral Faith’s naturally rebellious and spontaneous nature with his authority. Being the sidekick to the master classical detective, Wesley is filed off as a sexually blank and androgynous male that needs to leech from the commanding presence of a superior in order to maintain some semblance of masculinity. Though, one should note that once Wesley joins Angel Investigations, he becomes, in his own right, a classical detective. The references to Wesley and Sherlock Holmes run abundant in the Angel series. Although, what is incredibly fascinating to note, is that Wesley becomes the conventional classical detective, but in a contemporary, hardboiled setting. Wesley is often regarded as a "scholarly, man of intellect" (Angel 3.20). Whenever information is needed, Angel, the tough, heroic justice figure that can easily be read as a supernatural police figure, turns to Wesley for guidance. Much like the law enforcement in Poe’s Dupin narratives, the police turn to Dupin, the detective for assistance when their means of gathering data comes to a standstill. Wesley, like the classical detective, possesses a fathomless pit of knowledge concerning the supernatural creatures that appear each episode. Along with the Gunn and Cordelia, Wesley pieces together all facets of information in regards to a monster, and then immediately relays said information Angel, who then defeats the enemy. Just like Dupin would, Wesley takes the puzzle pieces, slots them into a cohesive tale and lets the police execute the often times, messy conclusions. In a moment that pays homage to Sherlock Holmes, Wesley, after being hired to discover who killed Derek Bointon, concludes: "We know that when we arrived yesterday there was a noticeable scent of foxglove and hellebore… We have the footprints in the soft soil under the widow outside the solarium - far too small and not webbed to belong to this demon. [Kevin] snuck in late last night. Loudly, so we all could hear. Supposedly from seeing that shop girl in town… so why put on the show? Perhaps to cover for the real killer - unless Kevin in fact is the real killer. With Derek gone, the family inheritance falls to you, the younger brother and black sheep of the family … Only one person took pains to hide their muddy shoes. Only one person reeked of foxglove and hellebore. Only one person was responsible for the death of Derek Bointon - his own sweet, doting Aunt Helen!" (Angel 2.13). Gunn, Wesley’s obvious character contrast and sometimes sidekick, in a very Watson-like moment, gushes, "that was cool" to which Wesley ends his impressive bout of detecting by saying, "it wasn't that difficult. You just have to keep sifting the evidence until the truth finally hits you" (Angel 2.13). Nevertheless, Wesley possesses the refined, if not somewhat pompous attitude that is associated with the classical detective. He is still in a sense, the same sexually castrated male that he was during his ‘sidekick’ stage. Though, it is unfair to compare him to his original persona in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Wesley, after establishing himself on Angel, is no longer seen as a sexless human, but due to the fact he is a classical detective, transported to modern day Los Angeles, is seen as a meek, Nancy boy. Wesley is still very much a sexually repressed character. Wesley’s intensely masculine; demon-hunting bravado is clearly seen as a sham to longtime Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans. His attraction to Cordelia still persists in Angel, yet even he seems to recognize his infatuation is nothing more than a pipedream. Taking this defeatist attitude toward women in general, Wesley, for the first half of the Angel series, remains sexually alone and dedicated to his mission in ridding Los Angeles of monsters. Nonetheless, Wesley manages to subvert the classical detective form by actually engaging in fights. The Watchers, while trained in many forms of battle, never engage in actual combat. That is, until Wesley. By shedding the prissy, arrogant nature of the classical detective, Wesley slowly begins to develop into the hardboiled detective in the hardboiled L.A. Whereas the classical detective would never taint himself by engaging in brawls, Wesley is a often times caught up in a fight, choosing to use his training from the Watcher Council to assist Angel with the more complex demons that appear. As the series progresses, Wesley begins to shed his feminine persona for a more masculine one, and attracts the attention of Lilah Morgan. When Wesley and Lilah begin their relationship, Wesley comes full circle as a hardboiled detective, finally possessing the brains, logic and fierce sexuality that hardboiled detectives are revered for. To his teammates, Wesley becomes Wes, the more confident and intimidating version of his once meek and mild Wesley Wyndam-Pryce persona. To further Wesley’s transition, the integration of Lilah into the storyline becomes even more complex when the audience becomes aware of the fact Lilah is clearly evil with plans to destroy Angel. Along with Wesley’s new hardboiled status comes the alienation that hardboiled detectives are infamous for. Suddenly, Wesley is exiled by the Watchers Council and later expelled from Angel Investigations after he tries to kidnap Angel’s hellspawn son, Connor. Wesley’s separation from both of the family’s he is raised in and creates, respectively, marks a pivotal shift in his attitude and character. Once friendly, albeit stuffy, Wesley becomes darker, harder, more ruthless and cutthroat. He makes radical decisions and often times, fights the wrong battles for the right ideological reasons. His sudden lack of concern for those around him is often mirrored in hardboiled detectives from the film noir era of movies. Suddenly, Wesley is quoted as being "the broody smart guy, all mysterious and tortured" (Angel 4.12). Wesley becomes a Sherlock Marlowe character who is "an unstable human who drinks too much whiskey" (Angel 5.17). Even Wesley’s manner of dressing and speech become more hardboiled. His didactic manner of conversing with others becomes more colloquial and gruff. Wesley begins the series using words like ‘anagogic’ and through the interactions of more street-tough characters he absorbs the slang of L.A. This can be seen when Wesley calls the powerful demon Illirya, a "Smurf" (Angel 5.17). Yet, in a true display of his newly acquired hardboiled attitude toward associates and acquaintances, Wesley stabs Gunn and the following conversation takes place: Angel: What the hell did you do? Wesley: What I had to. Angel: I don't remember seeing stab Gunn on the agenda this morning. Wesley: I avoided the major organs. He'll probably live. Angel: Is that supposed to make it all right? Wesley: Nothing is all right! Nothing will ever be all right. (Angel 5.16). This offhanded and uncaring attitude reflects Wesley’s final shift to the dark and austere attitude of the hardboiled detective, where personal relationships are viewed as a sign of weakness and emotion is frown upon. Toward the beginning of the fourth season, Gunn stops Wesley and asks him why he changed. Wesley callously replies, "I had my throat cut and all my friends abandoned me" (Angel 4.06). Yet, like all hardboiled narratives, there is only one person that manages to truly affect the detective, and that person is the femme fatal. In Wesley’s case: his girlfriend Lilah. Lilah becomes the femme fatal to Wesley’s hardboiled detective persona. Devious and calculated, Lilah has all the makings of the femme fatale that is so popular in hardboiled detective fiction. Beautiful and callous, Lilah is portrayed as the devious and sexually intimidating female character that is as evil as she is appealing. Jennifer Stoy argues that, "Lilah Morgan… has always been physically a ‘femme fatal’… with her elegant appearance, long legs, red lips and double-crossing way" (165). Lilah makes it perfectly clear that she intends to continue to work for the forces of evil. Midway though the fourth season, Lilah challenges Wesley’s intentions by saying, "Oh, come on, Wes. You hated yourself for being with me. Or maybe you hated yourself for loving being with me" (Angel 4.13). Wesley’s confliction is also emphasized in Lilah’s profound statement, "no matter how much white you mix in, you’re never going to have anything but grey" (Angel 4.08). As Stoy says, "Wesley, at last, is displaying some romantic selfishness… and breaks from the noir protagonist’s ultimate dismissal of the femme fatale that has marked the genre since Sam Spade told Bridget O’Shaughnessy ‘I’m sending you over, sweetheart’" (173). This all culminates to a tragic end when "Wesley is obligated to behead Lilah" (Stoy 165). Wesley, in this final act, embodies the hardboiled, male detective. By rejecting the femme fatale, Wesley’s sexual viability finally comes to fruition and the audience can finally associate him with a sexual object of desire. Lilah’s death follows the typical punishment of the overly sexual female of classic noir, hardboiled detective fiction, yet, Stoy argues that "Lilah’s punishment – damnation eternal at the hands of a truly unbreakable contract – seems uncharacteristically harsh" (164). Furthermore, Wesley’s violent attraction to Lilah is positioned as a romance that precedes his relationship to his true love, the ultra innocent and approachable Winifred 'Fred' Burkle. Stoy claims, "the Wesley and Lilah relationship is dismissed as an obstacle between Wesley and his ‘true love’ Winifred Burkle" (167). In keeping with the hardboiled method of storytelling, Angel introduces Fred as a sharp contrast to Lilah. Sweet and pure and placed on a pedestal of innocence and purity, Fred is the ideal non-threatening woman that the hardboiled detective is supposed to protect. Yet, in a typical Whedon twist, "the bad girl [Lilah] dies and the redeemed prodigal [Wesley] engages in chaste interaction with his dream girl [Fred]", but an episode after Wesley’s admission of love, Fred is killed in a "Little Nell-style death" (Stoy 167). Stoy concludes her argument by saying that Angel is "a straightforward tale of the detective and the femme fatale, straight out of 1948, where – after the threat of the dangerous woman is removed – the world returns to placid normality" (174). Even though Lilah, Wesley and Fred die in the end, their deaths all help to pacify a troubling threat that borders on apocalyptic, thus restoring the world in a twisted sense of irony. In the end, Wesley comes full circle as a detective. Beginning as the fumbling, androgynous sidekick that blossoms into the misplaced, classical detective with a repressed nature, to the full-blooded, hardboiled detective, Wesley’s identity as male is finally allowed to develop. Though the journey took six seasons to create, Wesley becomes one of the most fascinating characters in the Angel pantheon and his transformation is one of, if not, the most drastic in the entirety of the Jossverse. Even the most diehard of fans would never have been able to predict just how extensive and integral Wesley’s character would turn out to be, nor would they have ever expected that the pompous and irritating Watcher that was introduced way in the heyday of Buffy the Vampire Slayer would becomes the sexy, deviant demon slayer that he dies as. But, that’s just how the scone crumbles. Works Cited "2.13 - Happy Anniversary". Angel. Dir: Bill L. Norton. Perf. David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, Alexis Denisof. The WB. 2/6/2001. "3.20 - A New World". Angel. 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