Hyperion Hotel
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The Hyperion Hotel was home base for Angel in the television series Angel during the middle seasons of the show. The gang moved into the Hyperion at the beginning of the second season, following the destruction of their offices in the finale of season one, "To Shanshu in L.A.".
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[edit] History
In the first episode of season two, "Judgment", Angel discovers the hotel abandoned while fleeing demons. In the next episode, "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been", he begins to have flashbacks to a time during the 1950s when he lived in the hotel. In that time, he discovered that a paranoia demon (also known as a Thesulac demon) had taken up residence, inciting the negative emotions of all of the guests and staff. Through encounters with a mixed-race woman (against whom much paranoia has been building), Angel is convinced to kill the demon and liberate the hotel (long before he is shown to finally repent in "Becoming"). However, just as he is about to summon the demon and kill it, the paranoia builds to a head and everyone rushes to attack his friend. In the panic, she calls him a freak and the mob turns on him, and hangs him from the rafters. Bitter, he leaves them to be consumed by the demon.
In the present day, Angel finally realises his mistake and goes back to kill the demon, thereby freeing the hotel's lone remaining inhabitant: the same old woman that Angel had attempted to help when he first came to the Hyperion. Angel then decided to make the Hyperion the new home of "Angel Investigations".
Angel Investigations found a new base from then onwards and the gang worked there until the finale episode of season four, "Home", after which they moved into the headquarters of Wolfram & Hart's Los Angeles branch.
Angel Production Designer, Stuart Blatt outlined the new base: "An old hotel, something [the writers] could use to evoke the past of Los Angeles and some of Angel's history, something kind of creepy and spooky but not too dark because they didn't want something depressing, it's called the Hyperion Hotel. It's based on many hotels in Los Angeles...Angel lived in a larger suite in the hotel, like a honeymoon suite, the producers wanted Angel to have enough room to relax and get away from it all, do a little pondering, a little brooding, a little research. Every once in a while someone will come up to have a little conversation."[1]
The hotel was the central scene in many of the plots brought up in the show, most noteworthy of which was the arrival of Jasmine in the fourth season. The hotel was then used to harbour many people who had come to worship Jasmine. Also during the show's fourth season, a spell was cast on the hotel that protected anyone from demon violence, similar to the spell performed on the bar Caritas.
Little mention of the Hyperion Hotel was made in the show's fifth season, until the last episode of the season (and series), "Not Fade Away", where Angel and his friends regrouped in the alley north of the hotel after their assassination of the evil group known as the Circle of the Black Thorn. The hotel had been home for Angel, Lorne, Gunn, Fred & Connor, although the group's other members spent the night there as well on some occasions.
[edit] Trivia
- In the episode "Carpe Noctem", we can clearly see Angel's business card, showing the address 1481 Hyperion Avenue.
- Exterior shots of the hotel were taken at the Los Altos Hotel & Apartments, at 4121 Wilshire Blvd. Some interior shots were done in The Ambassador Hotel, according to DVD commentary about "Billy".
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ ""Inside the Agency" featurette Angel Season 2 DVD set, disc 3 (2002).
- Angel first through fifth seasons, 20th Century Fox (1999-2004).
