Angel, parte II

Los Angeles
Less than a year later, Angel is unexpectedly released from Hell, reappearing in his mansion in a feral state. Buffy aids him in secret, fostering his rehabilitation. Having regained his senses, Angel realizes that his return from Hell was not accidental, and that he must be meant to serve some higher purpose. Haunted by The First, taking on the appearances of those he killed as Angelus, Angel almost kills himself out of the guilt he feels. He makes the difficult decision to leave Sunnydale and Buffy, in an effort to protect them both and lend whatever normality to Buffy's chaotic life he can. He then moves to Los Angeles, where he attempts to redeem himself in the service of others. He finds support from Doyle, a half-demon sent by The Powers That Be, and Cordelia Chase, a former classmate of Buffy's who has moved to L.A. to find wealth and fame. The trio form Angel Investigations, a shoe-string operation with the mission statement of protecting those who cannot defend themselves and helping lost souls find their way.
Doyle, Angel's trusted friend and sole connection to the Powers, is killed in the line of duty, leading Angel to become even more protective of those he holds dear. Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, who had briefly served as Watcher to both Buffy and Faith in Sunnydale, arrives in L.A. working as a "rogue demon hunter," but stays to assist Angel and Cordelia in their mission. A few months later, they are joined by lifelong demon fighter Charles Gunn. The AI Team also enlists the help of demon karaoke bar-owner Lorne, known initially only as The Host, an Anagogic demon who can read the futures of humans and demons when they sing.

Cordelia, Gunn, and Angel, 3 members of Angel Investigations.
As Angel continues to help the helpless in Los Angeles, his good deeds begin to disrupt the plans of the evil inter-dimensional law firm, Wolfram & Hart. In an attempt to control him, W&H resurrect his sire and former lover, Darla, but bring her back as a human rather than a vampire. W&H then bring forth Drusilla, who turns Darla into a vampire again, causing Angel to feel that he has failed to save her. He then fires his crew and embarks on a bitter, ruthless vendetta against W&H (going as far as consciously allowing the murder of a very large group of W&H employees) and the newly reunited Darla and Drusilla. In a moment of perfect despair, Angel attempts to remove his soul by having sex with Darla, but instead finds a moment of clarity following the desperate act, realizing his purpose is still for good. Horrified at Angel's epiphany, Darla flees Los Angeles. After a difficult reconciliation that involves Wesley taking over the official position of leader of the group, the AI team then find themselves transported to Lorne's home dimension, Pylea. Eventually they return with a new team member, Winifred Burkle, in tow, and to the news that the love of Angel's life, Buffy, has died.
Despite Buffy's miraculous resurrection a few months later, Angel finds that his previously platonic love for Cordelia has grown to be romantic. Before he has a chance to confess his feelings, however, Darla returns, pregnant with his son, to be named Connor. False prophecies, time travelers and betrayal lead to Angel losing his infant son to an old enemy, Holtz, who abducts Connor soon after his birth, taking him to a hell dimension (Quor-Toth) where time passes differently. When Connor returns days later, he is a young man who has been raised by Holtz to believe that Angel is a soulless monster. Connor vows to make Angel pay for the suffering he had once caused, and he acts out his retribution by sending him to the bottom of the ocean in a steel coffin. At the same time, Cordelia ascends to a higher plane, the feelings shared between her and Angel still left unspoken.
Rescued by Wesley from his watery prison, Angel's relationship with Connor is strained. It is complicated further by the return of an amnesiac Cordelia. When a very powerful demon known only as the Beast arrives and begins an attempt to bring forth an apocalypse, Angel's worst fears are realized when he has to strip himself of his soul and revert to his evil alter ego in order to defeat it. Angelus does indeed overcome the Beast, and is also deft enough to realize that the Beast was a mere "flunkie" serving an even deeper evil. Although he is momentarily free to wreak a little havoc of his own, Angelus is recaptured and re-ensouled with the help of Faith (who almost dies in her quest to capture Angelus) and Willow. After his soul is restored, Angel figures out that the enemy he has been battling is a little closer to home than the group had previously considered, realizing that whatever the Beast's "boss" is, it is using Cordelia's body to carry out its plans. After battling and defeating the divine being known as Jasmine, Angel is offered the L.A. branch of W&H on the grounds that he ended world peace, despite the fact that "world peace" meant no free will and the sacrifice of thousands of lives at the hands of Jasmine, who had to literally devour people to stay alive. Angel acts against all of his instincts and makes a deal with his sworn enemy, in exchange for W&H erasing Connor’s memories and giving him a normal life.
Angel's year spent running W&H is one marred with challenge and self-doubt. Trying to battle evil from within the belly of the beast proves to be more difficult than even he imagined, with the lines of good and evil becoming ever more grey with every action taken.
Shortly after Angel assumes control of the law firm, matters are further complicated when Spike appears as a ghost, emerging from a familiar amulet sent to Angel in the mail. Sharing a complicated history of murder and mayhem, they had spent more than a century as rivals in everything. Now both possessing souls, and both still in love with Buffy, they had evolved into very different heroes in the war against evil. Forced to co-exist, they wage a protracted, insidious battle of wits, ending when they finally come to an understanding and acceptance of their unique brotherhood on their journey to redemption. Though it must be said that Spike never felt the need to prove his redemption as Angel did - it was clear that all Spike had done, he had done for the love of Buffy. In both of the series he appeared in, it was always clear that, unlike Angel, who saw himself as seeking redemption (since he got his own series), Spike wasn't as openly concerned about that (though it must be mentioned that originally, Angel only started to help people because of Buffy, it's highly doubtful that Angel would have ever become a champion without her influence). What he had done as a soulless vampire does come to haunt Spike, as he tells Angel in the episode "Damage." Also, in the episode "Destiny," when they prepare to do battle over the Cup of Perpetual Torment, Spike tells Angel "You had a soul forced on you. As a curse. Make you suffer for all the horrible things you've done. Me, I fought for my soul, went through the demon trials, almost did me in a dozen times over, but I kept fighting. Because I knew it was the right thing to do. It's my destiny." Then Spike defeats Angel for the first time in their century plus association. This was due to Angel's emotional problems, lack of self confidence and concerns over his chance at redemption through the Shanshu, as on four other occasions over the course of the year Angel did show a slight dominance, in terms of fighting, over Spike again. An example being that Spike was beaten twice, in two fights, with the vampire slayer Dana while Angel was able to beat her and restrain her in his first encounter with her. This clearly shows that Angel is a slightly better fighter in that he could beat a slayer that Spike, who was an expert in fighting slayers, couldn't. Another factor in the "Destiny" fight, that worked in Spike's favour, was that Spike wanted to fight while Angel didn't. Angel just wanted to get to the cup. When Angel finally started fighting for real, and not just throwing random punches and kicks, he had a slight domination over Spike but the damage caused by Spike earlier in the fight, when Angel wasn't trying, showed as Spike had just enough left at the end to win. Despite this, Spike and Angel come to an understanding that lets Spike stand loyally beside Angel in their last battle against the forces of the Senior Partners.

The surviving members make their final stand against Wolfram & Hart.
Angel finally understands that he will never be able to completely stop the forces of evil, but that he can temporarily sever the Senior Partners' hold on Earth.
Together with his comrades, Angel prepares to suicidally incur the apocalyptic wrath of the Senior Partners as a way of going out in a blaze of glory. They assassinate the members of the Circle of the Black Thorn, the Senior Partners' instruments on Earth for pulling all the political and economic strings. In this effort, Gunn is badly wounded, and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce is killed. Gunn manages to make it to the meeting point, the alley behind the Hyperion Hotel, and together with Angel, Spike, and Illyria, proceeds to engage in battle with the dark armies that the Senior Partners have sent against them.
Series creator Joss Whedon has stated that he had originally intended Angel to survive this battle and go on into a sixth season. However, this was his original intention prior to the show being cancelled and prior to his writing the final episode.
Angel definitely did survive in the continuity according to the IDW comics The Curse and Old Friends. In these publications, Angel, as well as Spike, Illyria and Gunn all survived the final battle.