Illyria was one of the legendary Old Ones - an original pure demon who ruled from her citadel (Vahla ha’nesh) in modern day Los Angeles. She was murdered by rivals and her corpse was placed in stone sarcophagus, with her powers drained and placed in jewels embedded on her coffin. Her sarcophagus was placed in a mystical graveyard known as the Deeper Well along with the coffins of other Old Ones. A warrior of good and his army were assigned to guard the Deeper Well to prevent anyone from extracting one of the coffins, as the Old Ones are capable of resurrection.
Illyria’s sarcophagus was teleported to Los Angeles, but was held up by customs officials, but Gunn was convinced into releasing the sarcophagus. Masterminded by Knox, Fred’s colleague and Illyria’s self-fashioned Qwa’ha Xahn (High Priest), the sarcophagus was delivered to Fred at the Wolfram & Hart labs. Illyria’s essence was released into Fred’s body after she touched one of the coffin’s embedded jewels.
Illyria’s essence acted as an infection that liquified Fred’s organs, hardened her skin and consumed her soul. After hours of agony, Fred’s body was completely taken over by Illyria, who in the process absorbed her memories. Illyria, with the aid of Knox, attempted to bring about the destruction of humans by resurrecting her vicious ancient army, but soon discovered that it had been destroyed long ago. Lost and without purpose, Illyria agreed to learn how to adjust to the modern world with the help of Wesley, who felt drawn to her due to his love of Fred. Spike was assigned to spend time with the Old One, to discover how powerful she was. Her powers included altering the flow of time, superhuman strength, agility and reflexes, and altering her physical appearance on a basic level.
Eventually, Illyria’s power became too much for her new body to hold. Illyria was thrown out of linear progression of the time line, altering her perspective as the power sought a way to escape. Wesley used a device called a “Mutari generator” to extract the power bleeding out of the shell, ending the threat, but this robbed the Old One of her former power. She was brutally beaten and humiliated by Marcus Hamilton, which fuelled her with anger and motivated her to join the final battle against the Senior Partners.
In the series finale (5.22 Not Fade Away), when Wesley was dying, Illyria comforted him in Fred’s form. Grieving for him, she joined the final battle against the Senior Partners.
Related episodes: Angel Episodes
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Longlostscooby on May 9th, 2006 at 10:04 pm
I liked Illyria, it was a shame she came so late in the show. She was way better than lame ass Fred.
TwoToGo-Grave on May 10th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
While I absolutely love Fred (not to automatically compare the two because they are different characters after all), I must say that Illyria is my favorite character that ‘Angel’ ever had. I just wish that I could have seen more of this wonderful character.
DarthRosenberg on July 19th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
:(
I’m so sad that I don’t have the chance to see these epis… I want to see the complete season 5. :(
But the chanel that shows Angel only repeat season 4. Now like the… fourth or fifth time…. it’s boring and annoying that they “can’t” air the season 5…. Grrr!
C_Gunn on August 19th, 2006 at 12:46 am
I liked the scene in “Not Fade Away” where she tells Gunn, “Try not to die. You are not unpleasent to my eyes.” I thought that this was a nice way to acknowlege the connection that Fred and Gunn had in the past.
I feel for you Darth. I’m just happy I was able to purchase the DVD’s because I missed a lot of the shows when they originally aired.
HarFang on April 14th, 2008 at 1:03 am
Repeating season 4 over and over again ? Could you be stuck in some version of Hell, DarthRosenberg ??? ^^
Illyria just amazes me because even though she’s totally inhuman and we should hate her for killing Fred, she still manages to be sympathetic.
Not to mention Amy Acker’s astonishing feat in enacting such different characters, sometimes at the same time. She’s so lovely and warm when she’s Fred, and so eerie and cold when she’s Illyria.
It’s a pity that Illyria didn’t get to develop more ; I guess that might have been the object of a later season if the show had been allowed to go on.
ormaybemidgets on April 14th, 2008 at 1:36 am
Typo: “which fuelled the her with anger and motivated her…”