Angel star Charisma Carpenter reacts to the most controversial story from the vampire series. Airing on The WB from 1999-2004, Angel was a Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff that starred Carpenter for four seasons. Her character, Cordelia, grew significantly throughout the first three seasons which came as a combination of visions that she inherited from the Powers That Be, and her experiences with Team Angel. However, season 4 had Cordelia become possessed for the majority of the year and give birth to a demon after becoming pregnant by Angel’s teenage son, Connor.
Carpenter shares her thoughts about the possession and pregnancy storyline on TikTok. In response to a fan question about the Cordelia and Connor romance, she does not hold back, describing it as “creepy” and “predatory.” She has nothing positive to say about the plot, saying she was “ardently against it.” Check out her full response below:
It was so difficult. It was a very difficult storyline. I thought it was so awful, and so creepy, and predatory of Cordelia. Just destroyed me. I was just so ardently against it.
What This Means To Angel’s Legacy
The Controversy Has Only Grown Over Time
While her real-life pregnancy was written into the series, the storyline is almost universally hated. The possession twist and giving birth to a fully grown demon, played by Firefly‘s Gina Torres, was not well received by viewers. It not only undid years of character development for Cordeila, this arc would lead to her being written out of the show and killed off the following season when Carpenter returned for a single episode.
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It also continued the trend of Angel characters being killed by pregnancy. Cordelia becoming pregnant by a demon was an overused idea by season 4. Both in season 1 and season 2, she is unknowingly impregnated by demons, becoming a negative and overall head-scratching trope. Since then, the storyline has become much more troubling as Carpenter accused series co-creator Joss Whedon of asking her if she was “going to keep it” in reference to her unborn son and told her she was sabotaging the show.
She’s Right, The Story Doesn’t Work
For a show that could be very dark at times, the Cordelia and Connor storyline took things too far. Angel season 4 is considered the worst of the series, and this arc is a major factor in creating that reputation. Carpenter is right in all of her points and general disgust with what happened to her character. While she did get to play the real version of Cordelia one more time on Angel, even that is mired in controversy, as she requested not to be killed off. She was told that would not be the case, and then, of course, that’s exactly what happened.
Source: Charisma Carpenter/TikTok
Angel
6/10
- Release Date
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1999 – 2004
- Showrunner
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David Greenwalt