Wesley Wyndam-Pryce's History
Early life
Wesley was born in England son to the Watcher Roger Wyndam-Pryce. At the age of six or seven, Wesley attempted to resurrect a dead bird using a mystical scroll stolen from his father's library. As a teenager, he attended an Watchers Academy in southern Hampshire, where he was named Head Boy.
Watcher to Buffy and Faith
Wesley was sent to Sunnydale by the Watchers Council to serve as a replacement Watcher for both Faith Lehane and Buffy Summers, after Rupert Giles had been fired. Prior to his assignment, his only other encounters with vampires had been "under controlled circumstances." As such, he proved rather inexperienced and handled himself poorly in combat. Giles did not take him seriously and tended to support Buffy's predilection in Wesley's place, despite the Council's wishes.
While in Sunnydale, Wesley developed a mutual interest on Cordelia Chase, a high school student and reluctant member of the Scooby Gang. Their flirtation would culminate in them dancing together at the prom and, a few days later, sharing an awkward kiss. After this, they both quickly came to realize that they lacked any sort of chemistry.
After Faith accidentally killed the Deputy Mayor Allan Finch,[9] the Scoobies neglected to inform Wesley, leaving him to discover the information by eavesdropping on Buffy and Giles as they conversed. Wesley called in a squadron of the Watchers Council Special Operations Team, which ruined Angel's attempt to reach Faith emotionally and drove her decision to ally herself with the Mayor Richard Wilkins instead. Wesley's mistake only earned him further disdain from Buffy and her companions.
Wesley failed to convince the Council to aid Angel after Faith poisoned the vampire with the Killer of the Dead, resulting in Buffy's decision to stop following the Council's orders altogether, promptly severing all ties with them. Still, Wesley chose to help them fight the Mayor after his Ascension to the Old One Olvikan, though Wesley was knocked out during the battle almost immediately.
Due to his failure to control either of the Slayers that he had been assigned, the Watchers Council dismissed and severed all ties with Wesley, even refusing to fly him back to England.
After his dismissal from the Watchers Council, Wesley styled himself as a "rogue demon hunter" and eventually made his way to Los Angeles in his motorcycle, where he was reunited with Angel and Cordelia. He began assisting their recently opened supernatural detective agency, the Angel Investigations, contributing with his educated knowledge of the paranormal and the occult. He initially kept his firing by the Council a secret from both of them, merely stating that, after Buffy's refusal to work with the Council, he'd had no opportunity to function as a Watcher and had thus turned to demon hunting instead. He came to admit his truth of his arrival in L.A. to Angel, then continued to assist Angel and Cordelia in their following cases.
When Angel realized that Wesley was running low on money, he decided to make him an official member of the team by giving him a paid job at the agency. Wesley proved his loyalty to Angel Investigations when he chose to continue helping Angel after he was tempted with the offer of being reinstated to the Council. He betrayed his former colleagues in order to protect Faith, who was under Angel's protection, despite the fact that she had tortured him the previous night. These actions cemented his relationship with Angel, Wesley admitting that he trusted him.
As time passed, Wesley grew a lot more capable and confident as a result of his time assisting Angel. Wesley eventually found himself running the organization during Angel's descent into darkness, showing himself to be a capable leader. Wesley also developed a strong brothers-in-arms relationship with streetwise vampire-hunter Charles Gunn, being shot trying to protect Gunn and his friends from a police officer. He remained in a wheelchair for several weeks afterward.
Wesley sought his father's approval for being made leader of Angel Investigations, but instead found his father more concerned with his next failure. This, in combination with the unconscious challenge to Wesley's leadership by Angel upon his return to the agency, resulted in a crisis of confidence.[citation needed] When Wesley was placed in charge of a rebellion in the dimension of Pylea, he exhibited a ruthless pragmatism and explained his decisions to sacrifice some rebels' lives and risk Angel's. He said: "If you try not to get anybody killed, you end up getting everybody killed."
Betrayal of Angel Investigations
Wesley's path soon became wrought with tragedy. Just as he was beginning to have romantic feelings for teammate Winifred Burkle, he was supernaturally influenced to attempt to kill her. He still harbored feelings for her and eventually decided to try again, however Gunn had similar feelings which were reciprocated. As a result, Wesley was forced to watch as the two started a happy relationship.
After the birth of Angel's son, Connor, Wesley became convinced by a prophecy that Angel would eventually kill his own baby. With the intention of keeping Connor safe, Wesley betrayed his friends by conspiring with Angel's old enemy, Daniel Holtz, and kidnapped the infant. Wesley's plan resulted in his throat being cut while Holtz swept Connor to the dimension of Quor'toth. As it turned out, the prophecy had been created by Sahjhan, a time-warping demon who had learned that Connor was destined to kill him.[citation needed]
Angel was nonetheless furious at Wesley for conspiring with Holtz behind his back and kidnapping his son, so he attempted to kill him while at the hospital. Though Angel was stopped, Wesley was ordered to never return to the Hyperion Hotel again, as no one could forgive the fact he had chosen not to trust any of them. Wesley then began a sexual relationship with Lilah Morgan, an employee of the evil law firm Wolfram & Hart who was trying to recruit him.
After Angel was eventually sealed in a metal coffin and sunk to the bottom of the ocean by Justine and a then grown Connor, Wesley kidnapped Justine and forced her to help him find and retrieve Angel. When they did so, Wesley fed Angel his own blood to help him regain his strength, before dropping him back off at the Hyperion. Although Gunn and Fred were furious that Wesley hadn't informed them of what had happened and allowed Connor to remain with them, Angel was grateful to Wesley for the rescue. Although offered forgiveness, Wesley refused to return. He formed his own team to continue fighting the good fight, though his team was more of a paramilitary mercenary group than a detective agency. Despite this, Wesley maintained an interest in the affairs of Angel Investigations while continuing his relationship with Lilah.
Although Wesley wanted to keep his distance, the team kept on seeking his help and advice in finding what had happened to Cordelia,[citation needed] then participating in a spell to restore her lost memory. Wesley eventually returned to the team full-time during the gang's first confrontation with The Beast and Jasmine's manifestation.
Wesley took command and made the decision to force Angel to be soulless again when information about his history with The Beast was uncovered. Wesley also had to face the trauma of Lilah's death, particularly when he was forced to decapitate her corpse in order to ensure she wouldn't rise again as a vampire.
In an attempt to save Connor, Angel performed a powerful mind-wipe that removed certain events from the collective memories of the world at large, causing Wesley to forget all of his memories involving Connor and, along with it, his betrayal of Angel and the group.
Wolfram & Hart
After Angel and his team chose to take over the Wolfram & Hart Los Angeles branch, Wesley began working with them once more.[6] Just as he had adjusted to his new surroundings, his father visited him and tried to convince him to rejoin the Watchers Council. Roger Wyndam-Pryce was soon revealed to have sinister intentions when he attempted to steal Angel's free will. When his father threatened to kill Fred, Wesley shot and killed him, continuing to fire his gun until the magazine was empty. It turned out that the being he had killed wasn't his real father, but rather a cyborg imitation.
Afterward, Wesley and Fred admitted their longtime feelings for one another and began a romantic relationship. It was short lived, however; Fred became infected with a mystical illness that turned out to be the Old One known as Illyria shelling her out to occupy her body. Wesley watched over her as she died in his arms and Illyria was resurrected in her place. Wesley stabbed Gunn, who had been inadvertently responsible for Fred coming into contact with the virus, then shot Knox, who had chosen Fred as Illyria's vessel.
Wesley turned to alcohol to ease his pain. He began to hold onto Illyria as the only thing he had left of Fred, helping her understand the human world and emotions she was blighted with. He inadvertently restored his and his friends' memories of Connor when he smashed the Orlon Window that held said memories, upon learning that Angel had magically altered history when he accepted Wolfram & Hart's offer, thinking that Fred was the price for doing so. Expecting Fred to return, he instead was gifted with the memories of stealing Connor and betraying Angel. Upon discussing the returned memories with Illyria who regained Fred's lost memories, Wesley told her to forget reality and focus on the fake memories, as they were made for a reason.
Wesley later sent Illyria into Wolfram & Hart's Holding Dimension to rescue Gunn, whom he apologized for having stabbed. When Angel proposed to attack the Circle of the Black Thorn, the secret arm of the Senior Partners, Wesley agreed to challenge a demon sorcerer named Cyvus Vail, who knew of Wesley's growing instability and believed him to be a wild card who could betray Angel. Vail proved too powerful for Wesley, who was overpowered and mortally wounded. Despite his wounds, Wesley managed to temporarily knock Vail out with an energy sphere, which allowed him to spend his final minutes of life with Illyria at his side. Wesley finally agreed to let Illyria take the form of Fred while he died in her arms.
After Wesley passed away, Illyria avenged his death by shattering Vail's skull with a single punch. Illyria went to the alleyway behind the Hyperion Hotel to battle the Senior Partners' armies with Angel, Gunn, and Spike, where she informed them about Wesley's death.
Afterlife
Following his death, Wesley returned due to the standard perpetuity clause in his Wolfram & Hart contract keeping him working for the company even after death. He was made the liaison between the Senior Partners and the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram & Hart, which was sent to hell by the Senior Partners along with the rest of Los Angeles, being permanently trapped in the form of the pompous and cowardly Watcher he once was; however, knowing that they would not be able to control him as they had Lilah or Holland Manners, the Senior Partners revived Wesley as a ghost and rendered him unable to make contact with anything. For the first few weeks in Hell, Wesley cared for Angel who had been rendered human by the Senior Partners and was badly injured. Upon recovering, Wesley helped him mystically keep up the guise that he was still a vampire and assisted in healing his wounds. Wesley tried to contact Cordelia, who had become a higher power, for assistance; but she and the other Powers That Be were unable to exert any influence in Wolfram & Hart's domain.
He was apparently destroyed when Gunn, who had become a vampire, destroyed the Wolfram & Hart building. He then convinced the bodiless voices in the White Room to let him return with Angel. As he returned during the battle against the Demon Lords of Los Angeles, he was seen by Illyria who, as a result, transformed into Fred. Spike subsequently tried to keep Illyria from Wesley, because she was vulnerable in Fred's form. Illyria however, was protective both over Wesley and his deceased body, which remained in her possession.
When Angel was brought near death by Gunn, the Partners took him there to deliver their message: Gunn's visions were sent by them and not by the Powers and Angel was still entitled to the Shanshu Prophecy should he survive to become a vampire again. Wesley transferred the Partners' vision to the dying Angel of a post-apocalyptic Angel, fulfilling the Shanshu.
After Connor died, Angel began slaughtering Wolfram & Hart's army. After questioning the army, Wesley realized that the Senior Partners couldn't allow Angel to die. This was an opportunity to undo the death and chaos caused by the fall of Los Angeles, so they reversed time to before it. However, because Wesley died before the fall, he would remain dead. Nonetheless, Wesley was resigned to his fate, believing that he had nothing more to live for with Fred gone. He walked away, but not before asking Spike to take care of Illyria in his stead.
In the new timeline, Angel used his new status as a public hero to honor of Fred and Wesley naming the Burkle Wyndam-Pryce Wing in the public library. Although Angel was told that Fred's soul had been destroyed, he occasionally imagined that Wesley and Fred were reunited after death. However, this was proved invalid after Illyria's eventual immortal death and subsequent restoration resulted in Fred being brought back to life, sharing her body with Illyria.
