Angel's Infamous Final Scene Explained (& What Happened Next)

The '90s was home to a bevy of exciting fictional worlds, and one of the standouts is the cult-classic series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." The series inspired legions of fans over the course of its seven seasons, a factor that helped to launch the careers of actors like Sarah Michelle Gellar, Michelle Trachtenberg, Alyson Hannigan, and David Boreanaz.

Boreanaz even got his own spin-off, "Angel," which ran for five seasons. The show ended with a shocking conclusion that had its protagonists choose to give up their lives to assassinate the Circle of the Black Thorn, a powerful secret organization, in a deadly suicide mission. Afterward, hell retaliates, and the survivors seemingly perish as the show cuts to black. The brutal ending helped to set it apart from the more optimistic finale of its parent series and is fondly remembered by fans as a result.

While "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" ended with a hopeful smile from its protagonist, "Angel" wrapped things up with a grim standoff that almost spelled the end for its few surviving characters. Surprisingly, the stories of several characters continued in a comic book series that followed on the heels of the series' shocking conclusion and took Los Angeles to another dimension.

On the r/television subreddit, fans weighed in on the legacy of the beloved "Angel" series finale and how well it paid off the themes of the show. "One of the GOATs," u/porcupine_fetuccinni wrote. "Season 5, in general, was probably Angel's strongest season, which is so rare for a show." After a Season 4 that divided fans with its increasingly dark twists, Season 5 turned things around and rewarded fans who had stuck with it through the highs and lows of the previous season. 

Meanwhile, u/nxmehta pointed to Wesley's (Alexis Denisof) death as a particularly strong moment in the "Angel" series finale. "Wesley's final scene is one of the best moments in television for me," they wrote. "A truly fitting end." u/TechnicalNobody agreed, even taking the love for the character one step further. "Wesley's arc is the best part about the Buffy/Angel universe IMO," the user commented. "Followed by Spike."

Though Wesley was introduced as a bumbling, awkward Watcher in Season 3 of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," the character went through several dark arcs that radically transformed him over the course of "Angel." As a result, the character remained a fan favorite throughout the series. Still, the series finale implies that he wasn't alone in his valiant death, even if the comic book series sort of undermines that.

Like the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" comic book series, "Angel: After the Fall" scaled things up in a big way. Freed from the constraints of a television budget, the series followed surviving cast members Angel, Spike (played on TV by James Marsters), Illyria (Amy Acker), and Gunn (J. August Richards) to hell as Los Angeles was engulfed into another dimension.

With Gunn having succumbed to his wounds, his character becomes a villainous force as a vampire in "Angel: After the Fall." Meanwhile, Angel, Spike, and Illyria survived the battle and continue to fight for Los Angeles in Hell, while Wesley, who died in the series finale, returns as a ghost.

Though the series was reasonably well-received, becoming publisher IDW's best-selling comic, it can definitely be argued that continuing "Angel" after its characters went on a deliberate suicide mission takes a lot of the teeth out of the show's perfect ending. Still, fans who want to see more of where the series went can read the 44-issue series for themselves, which wrapped up in 2011.