first appeared in the episode
The Ring of the
Angel Series in season one, and would feature prominently in the season one, two, three and four story arcs.
Lilah was a lawyer for the evil law firm
Wolfram And Hart . In her first appearance, she tried (and failed) to persuade Angel to work for her employers. Since then, Lilah worked to kill Angel; she was co-architect of a plan to hire renegade slayer
Faith Lehane in order to do just that. Over time she and another lawyer
Lindsey McDonald became rivals, competing for the favor of their superiors.
When the vampire
Darla was returned to life, and ultimately re-sired by
Drusilla . Darla & Drusilla proceeded to massacre a group of Wolfram & Hart lawyers in the wine cellar of
Holland Manners . Only she and Lindsey were spared, and with only her and Lindsey left of the Special Projects Team, their rivalry reached an all-time high as the two started a power struggle for vice-presidency of the Special Projects Team, as well as staying alive. Eventually, Lindsey left and Lilah was left alone, and was promoted to being vice-president of the Special Projects Team.
In the third season, Lilah upted the ante in her vendetta with Angel, and blackmailed him into freeing the demonic Billy by torturing his friend
Cordelia Chase . In the episode ''
Billy '', the effects of these actions were felt. Billy, a mysognist, was able to have Lilah's newest rival
Gavin Park to beat her, thanks to Billy's powers. Lilah hid in her apartment for a time, when she was approached by Cordelia, who was planning to kill Billy.
Lilah was unconvinced and threw Cordelia out, but when it counted, in the final conflict between Billy, Cordelia and Angel, it was Lilah that fired the fatal shot, killing Billy and regaining her own sense of self-worth. It was around that time that she also received a new boss,
Linwood Murrow , who joined Lilah in trying to manipulate Angel, and to that ends, try and kidnap
Connor .
Lilah herself investigated the return of
Daniel Holtz , an old enemy of Angel. Holtz had had broken away from his partnership with the demon
Sahjhan , who wished to eliminate Angel for his own reasons, and he sought out Wolfram & Hart. He brokered a deal with Lilah, a deal that would ultimately result in the sending of baby Connor into the Quor'Toth dimension.
At the end of third season, she began sleeping with
Wesley Wyndam-Pryce after his betrayal of Angel and ejection from the core group. She tried to convince him to join Wolfram & Hart but he continued to refuse those advances.
That relationship with him, which seemed to begin as a series of one night stands, continued throughout fourth season, through the emergence of
The Beast and the destruction of the
Los Angeles branch of Wolfram and Hart, that resulted in the death of all Wolfram & Hart employees present but Lilah, who was able to escape. Shortly before that time, she had killed her boss Linwood Murrow and had once more risen in power.
Lilah was killed shortly after the release of
Angelus .
Wesley believed that Angelus was responsible and was forced to behead Lilah, as he believed she would rise again as a
Vampire (erroneously, though, as it was revealed to the audience that
Cordelia Chase ; under the possession of the deity eventually known as
Jasmine ; had killed Lilah, leaving the body for Angelus to drink). When Wesley prepared to decapitate Lilah, she appeared before him, and it is not certain if she was a hallucination, or in fact
The First Evil (the
Big Bad of
Buffy's final season).
As shown earlier in the series with branch of Wolfram and Hart with all the resources (and all the troubles).
Angel took the offer in an attempt to save his son
Connor from a life of misery, and Lilah apparently returned to the
Hell division of Wolfram and Hart. In the fifth season,
Eve takes over as liaison for the senior partners.
Lilah appears to be cold-hearted, ruthless, self-serving, and deceitful.
Cordelia once called her a "vicious bitch," a title she liked. This is unusual given the overall themes of feminism and woman power in
Joss Whedon 's universe. However, as the show goes on we learn more about Lilah, the logic behind the choices she has made, and the circumstances of her life. Some have speculated that Lilah's evil tendencies are simply the result of being an ambitious female in a world where rules are made by men and for men. In a way, she is representative of the dark side of feminism.
- : While on Angel's body, Marcus Roscoe made a move on Lilah and kissed her. She responded and the two nearly had sex on Angel's desk, had Marcus not bit her.
