21 Years Later, I’m Still Not Over This Frustrating Angel Death (& It’s Part of a Problematic Trend
QUICK LINKS
- Fred’s Death Was Shocking For a Reason
- The Worst Reaction Came From an Unexpected Source
- Fred Is Another in a Long Line of Women Angel Has Sacrificed
As for many, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a formative television series for my pop culture education. Released in 1997 at a time when there weren’t many female role models on television, Buffy Summers was a character unlike any other. Confident, unapologetic, and a champion for anyone who needed it, the series was something I consumed with enthusiasm. Exploring Angel was a natural next step after finishing Buffy, but it didn’t quite have the same panache.
Though I adored Angel as a character, watching his series separate from Buffy sometimes left me with a cold feeling. I wasn’t able to pinpoint exactly what that feeling was until well into adulthood when I revisited the darker stories of the series. But by far the darkest was the horrifying conclusion of Winifred Burkle’s character. One of the few main female characters in the cast, Fred experienced what most of the women in the series did: An excruciating death.
Fred’s Death Was Shocking For a Reason
Image via Warner Bros.
Fred was a mid-series addition to Angel and a welcome one at that. For too long, Cordelia Chase was surrounded by men who used her as a conduit to the Powers That Be. Her pounding migraines produced visions, but at a heavy cost. Fred was a much-needed feminine touch to the series when she arrived at the tail end of Season 2. When Angel and the gang traveled to Lorne’s home dimension of Pylea, they discovered that humans were hunted like cattle.
Fred had been stranded there for five years after a jealous professor sent her through a portal. Angel rescued her and brough her back to Los Angeles, where she slowly integrated with society. As Fred got a sense of her humanity back, she progressed into a tenacious member of the team, using her scientific knowledge to help them on a day-to-day basis. The sweet center of the hardned world in the Angel universe, she was the glue that kept the crew together. She endeared herself to everyone, especially Wesley, who had harbored feelings for her since he met her.
The couple did not get together until Season 5, which was one of the reasons why Fred’s ultimate fate was one of the worst things we had to endure during the series. Death’s like Cordelia’s or even Darla’s were slow to transpire and, in some ways, inevitable. Fred’s death arrived literally the episode after she and Wesley finally got together, something we had been waiting on for too long. Unlike the deaths in Buffy that could at times come just as suddenly, Fred’s demise was an act of cruelty.
Wesley and Fred finally had a chance to be happy in literally the worst place on earth, only for her to be ravaged and gutted by a demonic parasite. What was so brutal about this was the idea that there was no fighting it. While working at Wolfram & Hart, a mysterious sarcophagus was delivered, which infected Fred with the demon Illyria. For the entirety of the episode, we had to watch Fred get hollowed out and tortured with no hope of a reprieve. Angel teased us with hope of saving her only for it to turn out there was no reality where that could have happened.
| Portrayed By | First Appearance | Las Appearance | |
| Winifred “Fred” Burkle | Amy Acker | Season 2, Episode 19, “Belonging” | Season 5, Episode 15, “A Hole in the World” |
Even more disturbing was Gunn’s role in Fred’s death. His arc in Season 5 involved Wolfram & Hart installing extensive knowledge of the law in his head, making him feel more useful to the team. One of the caveats to this was that it wasn’t permanent. Terrified of losing what made him special, Gunn made a deal to keep the knowledge by signing a slip of paper. As it turned out, that paper was a release from to free Illyria’s tomb from customs. Gunn was unaware of it at the time, but learning that he had a role to play in Illyria arriving in Fred’s lab destroyed him. His was one of many reactions that made this loss even more devastating to watch.
The Worst Reaction Came From an Unexpected Source
Warner Bros.
I can only compare the emotional trauma that this Angel death inspired to the modern equivalent of watching the devastating timeline in The Last of Us. The dystopian series knew perfectly well how to twist the knife in a way that bordered on cruelty. The same could be said for Fred as all of her friends watcher her wither away and die. For most of the episode, Wesley had to cradle the love of his life as she continued to expire. In the most heartbreaking moment, Fred desperately asked him: “Why can’t I stay?” Wesley stayed strong until the very end, holding out hope that she could somehow be saved.
This was squandered when he saw Illyria taking control of Fred’s body, destroying everything she once was. Gunn’s tears as he broke down were heartbreaking as well, coming from the man who hurt the last woman on earth who deserved it. Angel, of course, imparted his usual stoicism as he had to choose to save the world, which meant letting Fred die. But the most hurtful off all of these reactions came from the former Buffy villain Spike, mostly because he had the shortest amount of time with her.
Spike had been a curveball introduced in Season 5 when the series needed him most. Fresh off his stint on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the newly ensouled vampire was trapped in Wolfram & Hart because of his world-saving antics in Sunnydale. His rivalry with Angel rose again as he found a new lease on life. Most had reservations about the vampire, except for Fred, who, typical of her nature, wanted to find a way to save him from disappearing into nothingness.
Note:
Spike decided to get his soul reinstated after attacking Buffy at the tail end of Season 6
| Note: Spike decided to get his soul reinstated after attacking Buffy at the tail end of Season 6 |
Though he had arrived against his will initially, Fred’s kindness touched Spike, and he eventually became a valued member of the crew. So when Fred started to deteriorate, Spike did not hesitate for a moment to join up with the rest of the Angel Squad. Fred was of such good character that even the cynical vampire who never stopped annoying Angel was overtaken by the woman’s demise.
Spike joined Angel in trying to find a cure for Fred in England, where they discovered the titular hole in the world. The two fought tooth and nail to find a way to save her, and even when Spike bravely vowed “not this girl” in reference to her health, it didn’t matter. Spike realized that the cure for Fred wouldn’t be something that she would have wanted. Saving Fred would have meant infecting thousands of other innocent souls with Illyria, and it wasn’t something that they could do in good conscience. Spike’s vicious devotions to Fred was heartbreaking as he faced the reality with the rest of the group that there was no saving her. The brutality of this storyline affected the characters as much as the audience, but that wasn’t even the real problem with writing off Fred. We all know that this was a truly egregious act because it wasn’t new.
Fred Is Another In a Long Line of Women Angel Has Sacrificed
The Buffyverse shows came out at a time that was not as enlightened as this one. Though Buffy changed television for the better, it was still guilty of many harmful tropes. One of the most notable Buffy deaths was Tara Maclay’s shortly after she reconciled with Willow. The powerful witch had to watch her girlfriend die from a gunshot wound to the chest in a senseless act that turned Willow into a villain.
Angel, unfortunately, committed far more crimes than this. While Buffy shone as a vision of feminism, at least for the time, the spin-off took on much more harmful depictions of women. More than once, the series axed beloved female characters as a result of storylines where they were simply used as incubators. Darla was a Buffy alum whose return in Angel was inspired. She opened a door to Angel’s past and continued to throw a wrench into everyone’s plans. This was complicated when, after one night together, Darla became pregnant with Angel’s child in one of the weirder additions of the series.
Already a contradiction to known vampire lore, Darla did not survive the pregnancy. Because she was carrying a child with a soul, she had one herself and knew that once she gave birth, she would lose her conscience. Darla was defined by this pregnancy and eventually killed in order to bring a child into the world. This was unfortunate for the character, but it paled in comparison to the terrible treatment of Cordelia Chase. Once again, a female character was destroyed by a pregnancy, this time because a demon had taken control of Cordelia’s body and gave birth to itself. The drama behind the scenes that resulted in this storyline made this whole prospect even more disturbing.
Cordelia also didn’t survive the pregnancy, falling into a coma before dying. Angel himself noted during Fred’s storyline that he had already lost one woman to something that violated her from the inside. This was repeated in the Season 5 storyline when Illyria liquefied Fred from the inside before wearing her face for the rest of the show. Not only was this supposed plot twist a torment to the audience, but it was disrespectful to Fred. After her death, the series was full of men, which had always seemed antithetical to Buffy. I always viewed the series as defiant of stereotypes, where Angel leaned into the reality of how terribly women are treated in real life.
Angel was able to be a hero because he was hashtag not like other men. He valued women and fought for them, which rang disingenuous when all the main female characters were hollowed out and killed. Fred put it best herself when she said: “I am not going to be cut down by some monster flu. I am better than that.” Fred was indeed better than that, but Angel wanted to turn her into another tragedy rather than a triumph. The series always differed from Buffy because it was meant to be a darker world. But there is a difference between showing darker themes than its predecessors and actively hurting the female characters who weren’t blessed by any supernatural abilities. Fred was the best character in the show, and I still can’t forgive the series for not just killing her but doing it so cruelly.
Original article at CBR
This article has been reproduced for archive purposes, all rights remain.
