David on the end

David Boreanaz said of the end of Angel:

“Of course, it’s going to be emotional; you spend so much time with the crew, and you’re so close to them, and my father was there, my family was there. And it all came to a final close in the middle of an alleyway at five in the morning. It was emotional, but it was a good thing.”

Joss’s ideal finale

Joss Whedon jokingly discussed the final battle in Not Fade Away, in SFX Magazine.

“Gunn is dead. Illyria keeps fighting. Angel loses an arm. Spike gets Shanshu. And Xander loses another eye, which is funny, because he isn’t even there.”

Julia Lee

Julia played the character Chantarelle in Lie to Me, who later appeared as Lily in Anne. Lily took Buffy’s middle name, Anne, and moved to L.A, where she appeared in the Angel episodes: Blood Money, The Thin Dead Line and Not Fade Away. Julia has also been in Charmed, Ophelia Learns to Swim and A Man Apart.

Archduke Sebassis

Archduke Sebassis was the powerful head of demonic royalty and a commander of over 40 legions. He drank blue blood, provided directly from a chained slave. He had distinctive horns and pointed ears. An A-List guest for parties, the Archduke also enjoyed blood sport at functions. A member of the Circle of the Black Thorn, he was killed in the final battle when Angel spiked his slave’s blood with a lethal substance.

Chantarelle/Lily/Anne

Chantarelle was a member of Ford’s vampire wannabe group in Lie to Me. She later turned up again in L.A., this time calling herself Lily (Anne). There she met Buffy who politely informed her that Chantarelle was actually a mushroom. Later still, and using the name Anne (which she ‘borrowed’ from Buffy), she appeared in Angel, where she had become more confident and was running a shelter for the homeless.

Fell Brethren

The Fell Brethren came to Wolfram & Hart in Time Bomb to finalise a contract with Amanda, a young human woman who was pregnant with a child they believed to be the ‘Vessel’ - a holy child. The contract stated that Amanda would give over her child to the Brethren, and they would raise him with great reverence on a diet of berries, panda meat and consecrated urine. When the child was thirteen, they aimed to ritually sacrifice him in the Rights of Gordabach. Their leader was in the Circle of the Black Thorn, so Angel allowed the contract to go ahead. In the final battle in Not Fade Away, Spike destroyed the Brethren and returned the baby to Amanda. The Brethren wore hooded robes, and had wrinkled, mottled, green skin, large hooked noses and liked organic cola.

Marcus Hamilton

Marcus Hamilton took over from Eve as the new Wolfram & Hart Senior Partners liaison to Angel in the episode Underneath. Smartly dressed, strong and pushy, Hamilton remained wary of Angel, even when he joined the Circle of the Black Thorn. On realising that Angel had been feeding him wrong information via Harmony, Hamilton set about destroying the vampire. The two fought a huge battle which resulted in Angel drinking from Hamilton, and gaining his power through the liaison’s blood. Angel’s own blood became supercharged and he eventually broke Hamilton’s neck.

Cleansing Amulet

The amulet given to Buffy by Angel in Chosen proves very useful to the Slayer but we don’t have much information on it. We know it has ‘cleansing’ power, and eventually cleans out all evil from the Hellmouth, causing Sunnydale to fall in on itself. Angel got the amulet from Lilah in the Angel episode ‘Home’.
When Spike becomes alive again in the Angel season five episode ‘Conviction‘, he emerges from the amulet he wore in Chosen, which was sent mysteriously back to Angel. When he opens the package the amulet falls out and Spike materializes from it, very painfully, sort of the reverse of how burned.
In the Angel epiode ‘Not Fade Away‘, when Angel is giving everyone their orders about who they are going to kill Spike tells him: “First off, I’m not wearing any amulets. No bracelets, broaches, beads, pendants, pins, or rings.”

Effulgent

In the Angel finale ‘Not Fade Away‘, Spike finally has a chance to read his poetry to an appreciative audience. Here is the full poem that he was writing in a flashback in Fool For Love:

Spike recites the poem in a biker bar and the crowd love it. Whilst they are applauding, Spike shouts, “That was for Cecily! All right. This next one’s called The Wanton Folly of Me Mum“. This is a reference to Lies My Parents Told Me, when we saw Spike’s mother make a pass at him.
In Hellbound, Angel finally tells Spike that: “Yeah, I never told anybody about this, but I—I liked your poems.”

Horse wishing

In The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco, Spike says to Angel, “If wishes were horses…” In Not Fade Away, after Illyria says, “I wish to do more violence”, Spike says, “Well, wishes just happen to be horses today”.

If I Ruled the World

When Angel sends his team to enjoy their final day in Not Fade Away, Lorne goes to a karaoke bar and sings Regina Belle’s song “If I Ruled The World”.

Circle of the Black Thorn

The Circle of the Black Thorn was a powerful secret society, whose members were considered to be the instruments of the Senior Partners on earth. Their goal was to enforce Wolfram & Hart’s apocalypse plans in return for power. The Circle’s members were composed of Archduke Sebassis, Senator Helen Brucker, Cyvus Vail, Ed, Grand Potentate of the Fell Brethren, the leader of the Sahrvin Clan, and Izzerial “the Devil”.
Through a vision given to him by Cordelia, Angel discovered that the Circle was the way to destroy W&H’s evil plans. Without consulting his friends, Angel pretended to become corrupted by the evil law firm. He infiltrated the society and ‘proved’ his loyalty to them by pretending to be the true power responsible for the resurrection of Illyria. He also aided several Circle members using his law firm; sacrificed Drogyn; and signed away his right to the Shanshu Prophecy.
After confiding in his friends, Angel and his crew set out on a mission to wipe out the Black Thorns as an indirect attack on the Senior Partners. They would never be able to stop the Partners, but wanted to show them that that they would never be controlled. Angel secretly poisoned the key player of the Black Thorns, Archduke Sebassis. Izzerial and the three other unnamed human members were slaughtered by Illyria. The leaders of the Sahrvin Clan were slain by Lindsey with the aid of Lorne. Spike wiped out the Fell Brethren and their Grand Potentate, Ed.

Shanshu Prophecy

For reasons unknown, even to himself, Angel stole the Scrolls of Aberjian whilst in Wolfram & Hart and gave it to Wesley to translate. Wesley discovered in To Shanshu in L.A that the scrolls contained a prophecy about a vampire with a soul who would be restored to a human, after fulfilling his destiny.

The Shanshu prophecy tells that the vampires will play a major role in the Apocalypse. Wesley realises that “Shanshu” means both to live and to die - so the vampire will become human and, as all mortals, eventually die. The trials the vampire would have to endure are unclear, but they would clearly be hard and numerous. No indication of time was given to the prophecy, but it filled Angel with a new hope that he would be redeemed.

Wesley: “Ah, the vampire with a soul, once he fulfills his destiny, will Shanshu. Become human. - It’s his reward.”
Cordy: “Wow. Angel a human.”
Angel: “That’ll be nice.”

This hope remained with Angel until the fifith season, when he began to doubt himself. Having taken over the L.A. branch of Wolfram & Hart, another vampire with a soul suddenly comes on the scene - his old nemesis, Spike. Spike had fought to regain his soul and had died saving the world, making Angel jealous on a basic level, and deeper, feeling the prophecy may in fact regard Spike. Spike was first told about the prophecy in Hellbound. Angel acted disinterested in the prophecy, but it was revealed that it would be the vampire who drinks from the Cup of Perpetual Torment that will become human. After a race to the cup, and a huge fight, Angel was defeated by Spike, who drank from the cup, only to discover that the story was a hoax.

Angel began to lose his way, but was finally put back on track by Cordelia, seemingly ressurected, who gave him a final vision, showing him the Circle of the Black Thorn, agents of the Senior Partners. Deciding to perform what would most likely be a suicide mission, Angel and his team assassinated each member of the Circle, thereby delaying the Apocalypse for an untold amount of time. In order to learn of the identities of the Circle members however, Angel had to infiltrate the group. To prove his loyalty, Angel was forced to sign his name, with his own blood, on the Shanshu Prophecy, thereby revoking his part in it.

Spike: “What do you think all this means for that Shanshu boogaboo? If we make it through this, does one of us get to be a real boy?”
Angel “Who are you kiddin’. We’re not gonna make it through.”

MacArthur Park

In The Shroud of Rahmon, Angel says, “You know, I’m getting pretty sick of this vampire-killed-my-sister-so-now-I’m-all-entitled song. Don’t you know any others? Like, say, MacArthur Park?” MacArthur Park is a song written by Jimmy Webb. The most famous version is by Donna Summer. We hear the song in the season 4 episode Orpheus, and in the season five finale, Not Fade Away, Lorne sings a high note from MacArthur Park to distract the demons that Lindsay has to kill.