And now we're into the Top 25. Never actually a 'main character', Officer Kate Lockley still makes it all the way to number five for individual word-counts on Angel season one – number five behind the four characters who were in the cast, making her the season's most substantial 'guest' character. Certainly in the series' early days, when the emphasis on Angel Investigations as a private eye firm was heaviest, Kate felt like a major character, even getting episodes that revolved around her.
Yet by season two, she's dropped on the list to #10, and thereafter she was no more. Elisabeth Röhm's Kate was probably a victim of Angel's initial uncertainty: uncertainty regarding the relationship the writers wanted Kate and Angel to have, and uncertainty regarding the kind of show they wanted it to be. Certainly by seasons three and four, the idea of setting scenes in a police station like a supernatural CSI seemed all but ludicrous; yet, initially it's a rare episode that doesn't have a police station scene.
Kate was introduced in the series' second episode. Initially, that episode would have been called “Corrupt” and would have featured a much darker Kate (addicted to drugs and working undercover as a prostitute). As it was, David Fury's “Lonely Hearts” shows a very different Kate. A very verbose Kate, as it turns out, one whose 761 words give her a third-place ranking for the episode. This is one of the nine season one episodes to include her, and one of the four to have her in the top three. Though “Somnambulist”, in which she racks up 853 words for a number two ranking, isn't about her, “The Prodigal”, in which she says 696 words and finishes #3, and “Sense and Sensitivity”, in which she says a remarkable 1336 words for a very obvious number-one finish, most certainly are. 1336 words is the fifth-highest individual word count for the season and, obviously, Kate's highest overall: it's only 112 words less than her total word count for the whole of season two, in which she appears six times, with two #5 finishes: one of those two fifth-places is her next-to-last appearance, “Reprise”, where she says 368 words. It's the very next episode, “Epiphany”, where Angel saves Kate's life from an apparent suicide, bringing to a simultaneous end both the 'dark Angel' story and Kate's own story. She survives, but has been kicked off the police force, losing her sense of purpose as a person and as an associate of Angel Investigations.
- Overall ranking: #25
- Ranking on Angel: #13
- Total words spoken on Angel: 5940
- Season 1: 4492 (#5)
- Season 2: 1448 (#10)
- Total speaking appearances on Angel: 15
- Ranking #1: 1
- Ranking #2: 2
- Ranking #3: 1
- Ranking #5: 3
- Minor: 8
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