There is a lot about Angel's story that is hard to wrap one's head around. Why did he move to America? What happened between hanging out with Frank Sinatra and the Rat Gang and getting a James Dean jacket and moving into the Hyperion? When did he start living in dumpsters? How did he lose his accent if he hardly ever spoke to anyone, except all those celebrities he namechecks? How come he has such a modern and American idea of what raising a son entails? He talks about playing baseball with Connor. When did Angel play baseball?
I meant that the loss of his accent in 'Spin the Bottle' didn't makes sense since reverting to his 17-yr-old self should naturally cause him to speak with his original accent. But I liked the joke all the same - anything to spare us the 'Oirish'!
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I'd love more Angel backstory! After all, he wasn't always eating rats and living in sewers.
I can take a stab at why he moves to America: in 'Orpheus' he's shown arriving on Ellis Island, New York, in 1902, off a boatload of immigrants, so I reckon Angel had previously left China and returned to Europe. Pretty soon he realises that Europe hold too many memories of his atrocities there; he probably doesn't even feel like he deserves to set foot there. For many immigrants America meant a fresh start, economic opportunity and freedom from oppression; for Angel, who at that point isn't looking for redemption, it was probably an escape as America was a country he
hadn't tainted as Angelus. There were massive waves of Irish immigration to America from colonial times to the early 1900s, especially of Irish Catholics who faced religious discrimination due to British Protestant rule. We know Angel has always felt a deep connection to his Irishness despite the damage he did to his hometown so it's not too hard to imagine him identifying with his people and choosing to follow them, even if he did avoid human contact.
That said, the writers could have had him come over in another way: with the Chinese immigrants after leaving Darla in China 1900. Then he would have landed in San Francisco at the
Angel Island immigration centre.
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I can believe he lost his accent quite easily. For one thing he is a good actor and has no problem imitating different personalities and mannerisms when he needs to, so changing his accent doesn't seem like that hard a feat for him. He doesn't need to speak to people to do it, he just has to listen, observe and imitate. He spent 90 years in the US and would have heard the regional accents change and develop. As for his American idea of raising a child, again I expect it's just from wanting to fit in the with world and society around him; it's certainly a better parenting model than that of his own childhood! I don't remember Angel mentioning baseball, but they did bring in DB's hockey obsession with Angel buying Connor a little hockey kit, saying he likes it because the games are indoors and at night.
