Angel ran for five seasons from 1999 until 2004, featuring many weird and wonderful villains, including some awesome big bads. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off has a much different and darker tone than its parent show, which is widely considered one of the best TV shows of all time, and its antagonists epitomize the difference between the two series. While the concept of “big bad” can be relative, at least one Angel villain per season fits that description.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s villains are mostly evildoers hell-bent on world domination, with Buffy as the force of good attempting to thwart them. While there are some genuinely nasty characters among Angel’s big bads, they also include more morally ambiguous entities and characters with personal vendettas against Angel, thanks to his dark past. Ranking them undoubtedly makes for an intriguing task, as Angel and the Buffy universe as a whole had some of thebest TV characters of their generation.
5 The Circle Of The Black Thorn (Season 5)
Angel season 5’s big bad, the Circle of the Black Thorn, is a secret society of evil individuals who all possess significant power. That power could be mystical or otherwise supernatural, financial, political, or something else. They’re undoubtedly the show’s poorest villains, as they only appeared in a couple of episodes, and while their power was implied, it was never demonstrated on screen at any point. Moreover, as Angel said, separated, they’re “just demons.” The season’s secondary antagonist, Marcus Hamilton, was much more threatening.
The Circle planned to instigate the apocalypse as the earthly instruments of Wolfram & Hart’s Senior Partners. However, their plan was foiled when Angel infiltrated them, pretending to be evil. As a member, his act extended to his friends, who genuinely thought he wanted to be a part of the Circle. However, Angel learned their secrets and revealed the ruse to his friends. He then put together a plot to kill every member of the Circle when they were alone, with human characters like Charles Gunn and Lindsey McDonald able to defeat them in combat relatively easily.
4 Jasmine (Season 4)
Jasmine, whose real name couldn’t be pronounced by humans, is a rogue member of the Powers That Be – higher beings who were the first to exist on Earth and watched over humanity. She manipulated a complex series of events, culminating in Connor and Cordelia Chase coming together to birth her so that she could gain a corporeal form on Earth. Jasmine aimed to bring peace to Earth, but it came at a considerable cost for Earth’s population.
Jasmine’s power is that anyone who encounters her – whether that be by looking at her or hearing her voice – falls under her thrall. While those under her control experience a feeling of bliss, it comes at the expense of their freedom, as they mindlessly devote their lives to her and unquestionably answer her every request. Moreover, to maintain her power, she had to take the form of a sizable tentacled beast and devour people, and part of her plot to return included turning Angel into his evil counterpart Angelus, and sending season 4’s secondary antagonist, the Beast, to wreak havoc. She’s intriguing, but her motives and methods are terribly flawed.
3 Darla (Season 2)
Darla first appeared in Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 1 (she’s in the show’s very first scene), when it was quickly revealed in the episode “Angel” that she’s Angel’s sire and has a long and complicated history with him spanning centuries. In the same episode, Angel killed Darla to protect Buffy. However, at the end of Angel season 1, Wolfram & Hart resurrected her to defeat Angel, setting her up as the big bad of the show’s second season. Initially, it didn’t work out as planned, as Darla returned as a human dying of the same disease her human form was suffering from before her being turned into a vampire: syphilis.
Still, her return complicated things for Angel, and she got inside his head, but his focus turned to saving her rather than fighting her as Wolfram & Hart wished. It resulted in them calling in Drusilla to sire her again, and she wreaked havoc on Los Angeles for a time. A passionless night with a forlorn Angel resulted in her becoming pregnant – and the baby’s soul made her feel love. However, knowing she couldn’t love the baby once it had left her body, she staked herself in an act of redemption following his birth. Her deeply personal connection to Angel made this compelling but at the expense of something new;
2 Daniel Holtz (Season 3)
Daniel Holtz is an 18th-century vampire hunter with an impressive kill count who pursued Angelus relentlessly. Angelus and Darla had broken into his home, killed his wife and infant son, and sired his daughter. Unable to exact revenge, he accepted an offer from the demon Sahjhan for the opportunity to do so when the time was right. He was placed in a mystical state of suspended animation, from which Sahjhan awoke him in 2001. At that point, Holtz went after Angel, becoming the big bad of Angel’s season 3 despite not actually being evil.
Holtz tormented Angel despite learning he was now ensouled and attempting to make amends for his past. He recruited allies in the form of demons and demon hunters but ultimately decided revenge was best served not by killing Angel but by hitting him where it hurts. He attacked Angel’s friends before coming up with the most hurtful idea imaginable. He kidnapped Angel’s baby son, Connor.
A four-way showdown between Angel, Holtz, Sahjhan, and Wolfram & Hart ensued, with Wolfram & Hart wanting to take Connor for themselves. Angel reluctantly agreed to let Holtz take Connor through a portal to prevent Wolfram & Hart from taking him. Holtz promised to take care of Connor, but the pain of losing the child almost destroyed Angel, making Holtz an excellent antagonist.
1 Wolfram & Hart (Season 1)
The best villains are the ones that create a genuine sense of uncertainty regarding whether the hero can beat them. Wolfram & Hart definitely did that. They’re a powerful global and interdimensional law firm acting as a front for the ancient cabal of demons known as the Senior Partners. They’re an almost constant presence in all five seasons of Angel (Angel even ends up working for them as the head of the Los Angeles branch to operate “in the belly of the beast”), but in season 1, they’re the undoubted big bads. Angel and his allies constantly find themselves being attacked by their agents.
The firm’s resources are almost limitless. They have branches in every major city on Earth and can call upon help from countless dimensions. Their clients include some of the most despicable humans and demons in existence, and they’re not ashamed of that. Wolfram & Hart are quite possibly the best big bad in the Buffyverse. Watching Angel tells audiences that, such is the firm’s level of influence and power, most of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s big bads have probably been their clients at some point.
