Storylines
Darla is born in the late 16th century in the British Isles. Her birth name has never been revealed in either series, and Darla herself eventually forgets it. As a young prostitute, she emigrates to the Virginia Colony in North America and becomes independently wealthy but also contracts a fatal case of syphilis. By 1609, Darla lies dying in the luxurious house she owns. She scoffs at a "priest" who comes to her deathbed before he reveals his true identity: the Master, leader of the elite cult of vampires known as the Order of Aurelius. Darla despises the clergy and religion, a trait that would follow her as a vampire. The Master turns her into a vampire and renames her "Darla," meaning "dear one" in early modern English ("darling").
She spends four centuries torturing innocent people, often accompanied by Angel (until his soul is restored), before showing up in Sunnydale. Darla's first appearance is in "Welcome to the Hellmouth", the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, aired in 1997. She breaks into Sunnydale High School with a student who goes there. Darla first toys with the youth, then her face morphs into that of a vampire, and she bites the boy. Darla later appears in the episode "The Harvest", where she participates in the ascension of the Master, a very old and powerful vampire. Darla's role in the series is more prominent in the episode "Angel", where it is revealed that she was Angel's sire and former lover. Darla bites an unsuspecting Joyce Summers (Buffy's mother), making it look as if Angel did it. Angel eventually kills her. She later appears in numerous flashbacks, illuminating her involvement not only with Angel, but also with Spike.
Darla's role in the franchise increased dramatically after her resurrection by the law firm Wolfram & Hart in the final episode of Angel's first season, titled "To Shanshu in L.A." In the second season opener, "Judgement", Wolfram & Hart lawyers Lindsey McDonald and Lilah Morgan question Darla about her past. She talks of how she can feel Angel, and slowly her memory begins to return. In the episode "First Impressions", Angel begins having romantic dreams about his maker. The dreams sap his strength. In "Dear Boy", Angel is shocked to see Darla walking the streets. When he tells his partners, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce and Cordelia Chase, they think he is starting to lose his sanity. During the course of a stakeout by Angel Investigations of a woman suspected of having an affair, Angel confronts the woman, who looks exactly like Darla. She, however, claims she is DeEtta Kramer. When she runs away from him, she walks outside into the sunlight, meaning Darla has not only been resurrected, but is now human. However, Darla and Lindsey's plan to convert Angel back to evil fails. In the end, Wolfram & Hart bring in Drusilla to make Darla a vampire again. Drusilla and Darla unsuccessfully attack Angel and leave Los Angeles.
Knowing that Angel has been cursed so that if he ever experiences pure happiness, he will once again lose his soul, Darla later returns and sleeps with him, but her plot fails; being with her does not make him supremely happy. Darla reappears in season three, surprisingly pregnant with Angel's baby. Admitting that creating life with Angel was the only good thing they ever did together, Darla makes sure Angel will relay that to their child before she stakes herself through the heart, sacrificing her life so their baby, Connor, can be born. Darla turns to dust, but the baby remains.
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