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Touched by an Angel
- 884 statements
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- 82 referencing feature instances
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This CBS drama, which ran from 1994 to 2003, follows the adventures of angel Monica (Roma Downey). Under the tutelage of supervisor Tess (Della Reese), and with the frequent assistance of an angel of death named Andrew (John Dye), she's a "caseworker" who goes from place to place to help various people overcome their problems by steering them towards God. Late in the seventh season, a fourth main character, Gloria (Valerie Bertinelli), is introduced. As she is a newly created angel, she tags along with the others to learn how to help people. | |
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Dropped link to AnAesop: Not a Feature - IGNORE | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_10f35f3a | type |
Creator Breakdown | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_10f35f3a | comment |
Creator Breakdown: invoked Used in-universe in "Restoration", in which a silent movie director recut his happy Redemption into the grim Damnation after his pregnant wife, the lead actress, died in a botched stunt. | |
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Pregnant Hostage | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_1122f435 | comment |
Pregnant Hostage: One episode had a bank heist where the robber ordered the pregnant bank teller to go into the safe-deposit area to grab a valuable item. Then a gas leak explosion traps her in there and he orders the other hostages to help him dig her out. It turns out he's her husband and the father of her baby — they were desperate for money and planned it together. | |
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Anyone Can Die | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_1237828f | comment |
Anyone Can Die: Surprisingly, yes. Possibly used to show the reality of life as a human when juxtaposed with angels and their universe. Note that the angels themselves are exempt due to immortality, in line with Biblical and other interpretations. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_12dd1d4c | type |
Rape as Drama | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_12dd1d4c | comment |
Rape as Drama: The episode "Full Moon" has Monica trying to help a couple deal with the wife's rape that occurred six years prior. They apparently never dealt with it to begin with and now that her rapist has been paroled, the unresolved issues are even more painful. Andrew is left to counsel the rapist himself as well as protect him from the vengeful husband. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_12f078f3 | type |
Artistic License – Linguistics | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_12f078f3 | comment |
Artistic License – Linguistics: In "The Spirit of Liberty Moon", Jean is revealed to be Chinese when she is spotted reading a Mandarin newspaper. The problem: Mandarin is a spoken dialect, not a written one, and all Chinese dialects (in the PRC, at least) are indistinguishable in print. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_1439161f | type |
Heroic BSoD | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_1439161f | comment |
One of the most epic examples of Heroic BSoD involved Kelly, an assignment who was Monica's traffic school teacher (she took her foot off the brake and ran a stop sign, nearly killing said assignment). Kelly had a Heroic BSoD after her son Jesse was killed in a drive-by but had been bitter before then. Viewers discover it's because Kelly is a deep-cover angel who was sent to help Jesse when the boy was two, then stayed to raise him after his mother was killed. Monica and Tess's real assignment is to bring Kelly back to Heaven. | |
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Evil Sounds Deep | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_16364a29 | comment |
Evil Sounds Deep: At the climax of "Breaking Bread." Extremely averted when James Earl Jones gave Monica her performance review. | |
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Title Drop | |
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In a couple of unusual cases, someone would Title Drop a previous episode within the context of the current one (possibly unintentional). | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_19da8a03 | type |
Incurable Cough of Death | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_19da8a03 | comment |
Incurable Cough of Death: A couple of times, notably in "Dear God," right before little Tanya's father succumbs. In the same episode, we hear the same cough in flashback scenes of Auschwitz (assignment Max survived the Holocaust). Also pops up in season four's "Elijah," right before the death of assignment Jacob Weiss's father. Tends to occur in a lot of episodes that feature seriously ill protagonists. See "The Violin Lesson," "Into the Light," and various other examples. Justified in these two instances because one protagonist had cystic fibrosis and the other had AIDS, which had led to respiratory and other infections. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_1b65dfad | type |
The Cameo | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_1b65dfad | comment |
The Cameo: There were several cameos from celebrities, but the most impressive was civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who showed up in "Black Like Monica". | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_1b6f11d2 | type |
The Cutie | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_1b6f11d2 | comment |
The Cutie: Celeste. | |
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Deal with the Devil | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_1fc8335e | comment |
Monica had one in "Netherlands", when viewing a terrorist attack and Gloria's subsequent seeming indifference to it came extremely close to making her lose her faith, and accept a Deal with the Devil. As noted below, this episode wound up hitting a little close to home for many. | |
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Cousin Oliver | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_20314beb | comment |
Cousin Oliver: Gloria. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_23698fa8 | type |
Aborted Arc | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_23698fa8 | comment |
Aborted Arc: Starting with Season Three's "Crisis of Faith", there was a handful of episodes where Tess had a small dog that went on assignments with her. Somewhere between the third and fourth seasons, this was inexplicably dropped. Celeste could be considered an Aborted Arc as well, since she only shows up in two episodes. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_25f0ed12 | type |
Hollywood Tone-Deaf | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_25f0ed12 | comment |
Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Monica is revealed to be this in "Voice of an Angel". She has a hard time fulfilling her assignment to help a young singer (played by Celebrity Star Charlotte Church) because the girl's a bit of a brat yet her voice is so beautiful, making the angel jealous. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_269e82c1 | type |
Death of a Child | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_269e82c1 | comment |
Death of a Child: Quite a lot. The finale comes to mind, wherein a K–12 school is blown up, killing every child inside. Other episodes involve dying children, lost children, or abused children, among other examples. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_2764d432 | type |
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_2764d432 | comment |
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: A handful of the times Satan shows up, he epitomizes this—in one episode, he seems like an Average Joe, only to subtly talk townspeople into not doing anything about the hate crimes plaguing the town, but in a manner that actually sounds quite reasonable—"I'm worried about retaliation", "Maybe these guys will quit and move on", etc. In one appearance, Tess gripes that she should have known it was him due to his "cheap suit". In his final appearance, he appears before a simple-minded man who has rescued three stray kittens and tends to them in secret at a school. Satan imagines that the kittens must be awfully cold in the boiler room and tricks the man into pulling a lever that cranks the heat up too high and overloads the boiler pressure at the peak time to kill as many people as possible, when all grades of students are in the cafeteria for lunch. 42 victims die, and the kittens are lost as well, with Satan promising to find new ones for the man and that guy keeps mum about everything that happened, causing suspicion to sway toward another local resident. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_27a42ebc | type |
Spiritual Successor | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_27a42ebc | comment |
Spiritual Successor: Seen by many as this trope, to the earlier series Highway to Heaven. Joan of Arcadia was likely meant to be this for Touched by an Angel, as it premiered months after the series finale on the same network, and centered upon similar themes of God sending someone to help others. The series finale even featured God appearing as a human, which would become the central plot of Joan of Arcadia. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_28c1d543 | type |
Defrosting Ice Queen | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_28c1d543 | comment |
Defrosting Ice Queen: Or King; happens with several assignments. Some of them end up crying hysterically during the angelic revelations, causing a Tearjerker for viewers as well. | |
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Disappeared Dad | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_28cd01ca | comment |
Disappeared Dad: Many of the kids the angels help fall into either this or Missing Mom (and sometimes both). This can be due to death, divorce, abandonment, or many other situations. Sometimes the absent parent reappears; sometimes not. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_2906a53b | type |
Again with Feeling | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_2906a53b | comment |
Again with Feeling: One episode stars two high-school sweethearts who were tragically separated because the boy's father didn't approve. They ironically end up living on the same street in their elderly years. The two are bitter towards one another and near the episode's end, the woman opens up about how he simply forgot about her after she moved away and never so much as wrote her a letter. The man denounces her as a liar and insists that he wrote her every single day. The woman retorts that she never got any letters, prompting the man to shout "How couldn't you have gotten any letters?! My own father was the mailman!" The two of them pause and realizing what obviously happened he repeats "My own father was the mailman..." in a saddened tone. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_29292e6d | type |
Walking the Earth | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_29292e6d | comment |
Walking the Earth: The angels travel from place to place on assignment. | |
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Even Evil Has Standards | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_319e4a2f | comment |
Even Evil Has Standards: In the final flashback of the episode "Full Moon", a rapist is prepared to kill his victim when he hears the sound of her baby crying and can't bring himself to do it. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_32cb267a | type |
Magical Negro | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_32cb267a | comment |
Magical Negro: Tess. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_35195407 | type |
I Can Change My Beloved | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_35195407 | comment |
I Can Change My Beloved: Season Five's "Fool for Love" dealt with this regarding assignment Sarah, who ran away at seventeen to be with boyfriend Jesse. She refuses to see he's a complete loser and abusive Jerkass, even after he commits armed robbery with her in the car. He ends up abandoning her. Monica eventually helps Sarah snap out of it. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_35ae6a23 | type |
Lethal Chef | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_35ae6a23 | comment |
Lethal Chef: Monica, though not so much because she can't cook as because she makes weird food combinations. The most egregious example probably comes from Season 3's "Have You Seen Me," where she worked as a diner waitress. She presented Tess and Andrew with a "reward for a job well done"—a sundae made with cherry cola, mocha latte, and...French fries. As Tess put it, "A reward or a punishment?" | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_372bc105 | type |
Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_372bc105 | comment |
Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Firmly on the Idealistic side. | |
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Five-Second Foreshadowing | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_381855db | comment |
Five-Second Foreshadowing: In "Breaking Bread", Monica sees Andrew standing outside Matt's bakery and instantly realizes something bad is about to happen. She screams at him, "Let's get out of here" and they escape seconds before the building explodes. | |
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Poorly Disguised Pilot | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_38b05ae7 | comment |
Poorly-Disguised Pilot: "Promised Land", the third season premiere, introduced the Greene family, the focus of a 3-season series called "Promised Land" (which followed Touched on Sunday nights.) | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_392ecd12 | type |
Fake Aristocrat | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_392ecd12 | comment |
Fake Aristocrat: In "For All the Tea in China", Lady Penelope Berrington (Angela Lansbury) confesses to her grandson that she's not British nobility at all. She's actually an orphan with a stolen name who built up the tea business telling stories of growing up in England and losing money in the War. This leads to a great moment where her long-time butler asks if she wants some tea. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_3ca175f4 | type |
Driving Test | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_3ca175f4 | comment |
Driving Test: Even angels have to take them ("Render unto Caesar..."). Tess has to take one with a very rude instructor in Season 4's "Deconstructing Harry". | |
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Secret Test of Character | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_3f7a958b | comment |
Secret Test of Character: Monica's final assignment is to protect a mysterious drifter named Zack who's been accused of setting a bomb that killed multiple schoolchildren. When Zack is convicted, Monica decides to turn down her much-coveted promotion in order to continue protecting him in prison. It turns out that Zack was really GOD and showing that she could be so unselfish as to give up her dream in order to look after a presumed nobody is EXACTLY what He needed to see to determine if she was worthy of being a supervisor. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_3fca462c | type |
Deus ex Machina | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_3fca462c | comment |
Deus ex Machina: Arguably every episode ends in one: Monica reveals her nature, tells the client that God loves them and that everything will be alright. Angelic powers also meant that she, Andrew and Tess could pull pretty much any item that might be required out of their asses at any moment. | |
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Required Spinoff Crossover | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_3ff57e4b | comment |
Required Spinoff Crossover: Aside from a few two-part episodes that started on one show and finished on the other, Tess and Andrew each separately showed up on Promised Land on several occasions. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_40cc0c7e | type |
Bittersweet Ending | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_40cc0c7e | comment |
Bittersweet Ending: Despite the overall uplifting message, quite a few episodes have this. For example, a young girl dies without ever receiving the heart transplant she needed, but the grieving widower of her would-be donor finally accepts his wife's death and allows her organs to be used to save others. The finale. Monica has completed her angel training and has been promoted to a supervisor position, but given the way they all disappeared after biding her farewell, she will likely won't see her friends again for a very long time, if at all. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_4128bc77 | type |
Broken Tears | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_4128bc77 | comment |
Broken Tears: Happens to quite a few assignments, usually after the angels reveal themselves but sometimes before. If it's a guy, this often doubles as Manly Tears. | |
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Ambiguous Ending | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_42215dce | comment |
Ambiguous Ending: Most episodes imply that once the angels have done their work, that assignment is finished. However, some episodes seem to leave loose ends. Sometimes, future episodes clear these up (ex.: Season 2's "The Feather" was an extension of "Fear Not," the Christmas episode from Season 1). But some are left hanging. For example: Did Carla Robinson have to return to prison after realizing her guilt in "True Confessions", even though the court had formally declared her innocent? What happened after Fallen Angel Kathleen finally had a Heel–Face Turn in Season 3? | |
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Angel Unaware | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_45a01289 | comment |
Angel Unaware: The series was pretty much built around it. | |
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In-Universe | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_469e3e2f | comment |
invoked Used In-Universe in "The Medium and the Message" (a Clip Show): Monica tries to pitch a show about angels to a cynical TV exec and his staff, but they want to change her ideas to something less uplifting and wholesome (for instance, they want to take the idea of an angel of death in more of an action/horror direction). Ironically, one writer came up with a script that had Monica and her fellow "touchy feely" angels confronted with an individual who was truly evil, truly unrepentant, and utterly unreceptive to their message of love and redemption. The script also introduced the angel Peter, whose job wasn't to redeem sinners through the love of God, but to punish them through the power of God's Old Testament-style wrath. Naturally enough, the episode was never produced because it didn't fit into the producer's desire to maintain a positive message regarding God. | |
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Our Angels Are Different | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_4977559e | comment |
Our Angels Are Different: None of the angels in the show have wings, and they are just about indistinguishable from humans until they drop the Masquerade. (At one point Tess was even put on time-out for having a hateful attitude towards Satan, and Monica got one for lying.) | |
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Jock Dad, Nerd Son | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_49d56e94 | comment |
Jock Dad, Nerd Son: Ross and Alan Berger of Season 6's "Bar Mitzvah." Alan himself inverts this with son Aaron. | |
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Straw Vulcan | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_4bfd2125 | comment |
Straw Vulcan: Gloria several times came close to being this, especially in her first full episode, as she's brand new and it's explained that her brain works like a computer. (She's the first angel created in the 21st century, and God apparently wanted to try something new.) Her flat, unemotional response to a tragedy, combined with the tragedy itself, gives Monica a Heroic BSoD, and thereafter occasionally infuriates Tess too, but that's actually part of the point... she's there to make them reexamine why they react to certain things the way they do. | |
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Downer Ending | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_4e3d253b | comment |
Downer Ending: Some episodes could be said to have these. One of the biggest offenders is "Minute by Minute," where the screen cuts to black just before a Catholic school is bombed with the human heroine, a nun, inside. Also, the "Netherlands" episode, from a bigger picture: Monica's faith is restored by the episode's end, but several people are dead, including a little girl's mother the angels were supposed to help who was looking for a job to help them combat their homelessness, the unnamed bomber is on the run and was implied to have committed suicide and while Gloria's mission was to find the aforementioned little girl a home, since she ultimately dies from her injuries, her "home" was apparently Heaven, rendering her first assignment completely moot. | |
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Wham Line | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_4e7c4536 | comment |
Wham Line: Several episodes utilize these. For example: | |
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Holy Backlight | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_4fc5ac56 | comment |
Holy Backlight: Whenever the angels reveal themselves, they get a spotlight shone on them. They also sometimes get a light to show that they're invisible to humans. They can still subliminally influence people this way. If they're just talking about people and not interacting, there's no light; we just assume they're invisible. That or they have terrible manners. Roma Downey said once in an interview that she'd jokingly asked the grips (lighting techs) to bring the fixture with her when she went on dates, saying that "it really punches up the red in my hair". | |
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Do Not Call Me "Paul" | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_50cc01e1 | comment |
Do Not Call Me "Paul": Inverted with Andrew, who prefers his full name. Do not call him Andy. Ever. | |
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Sassy Black Woman | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_510e5a9 | comment |
Sassy Black Woman: Tess, full stop. Also Edna, the organist who appears in a couple of episodes featuring recurring assignments Wayne and Joey (Randy Travis and Paul Wittenberg, respectively). | |
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Bookends | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_53224e46 | comment |
Bookends: The series premier starts with supervisor Tess and rookie Monica meeting on a bench and Monica being put on a bus for her first assignment and ends with the two of them driving off into the sunset in a red convertible. The series finale starts and ends the same way, except that this time, the newly promoted Monica drives off alone, presumably to play Tess' role to another newcomer. Throughout the finale, Monica encounters numerous people from her previous assignments. | |
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The Internet Is for Porn | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_53830d | comment |
The Internet Is for Porn: The episode "Pandora's Box" revolved around this subject, opening up on a young girl attempting to research Hawaii for a school project and encountering a porn site. The mother is horrified that pornography is now able to enter her house so quickly, while the father slowly becomes sucked into a world of online porn, eventually getting fired from his job for viewing it at work. However, the ultimate message of the episode was that the computer was a gift from God that could be used for good or evil. | |
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Abortion Fallout Drama | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_545f8c91 | comment |
Abortion Fallout Drama: In one episode, the angels are sent to counsel an estranged couple. It turns out that 20-something years earlier, the couple decided to have an abortion as they didn't feel they were ready for children. They were never able to conceive again and have spent the subsequent time regretting their decision and feeling that they were being punished for it. The angels assure them that that isn't the case. | |
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Improbable Infant Survival | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_550754dc | comment |
Improbable Infant Survival: Sometimes, but surprisingly enough, this series averts it a lot. In fact, episodes that avert it are also some of the most frequently remembered. | |
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Recurring Character | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_56635771 | comment |
Recurring Character: Several other angels. Out of the many "assignments" the angels take on, mentally challenged Joey and his brother Wayne show up multiple times after their introduction in the Season One Christmas Episode "Fear Not", and appear in the Grand Finale. | |
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God Was My Co-Pilot | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_58a7abae | comment |
God Was My Copilot: In the two-part Grand Finale, Monica serves as a lawyer to defend a destitute man in court, accused of killing all the children in a school by way of an explosion. He turns out to be the Almighty Himself, but Monica doesn't learn this until He's convicted and she vows to protect Him in prison (it's a Secret Test of Character). He was actually at the school to take all the kids to Heaven after Satan tricked innocent Joey into putting a faulty boiler on too high a setting. | |
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Near-Death Experience | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_5b4573b1 | comment |
Near-Death Experience: One episode dealt with a man trying to turn his life around after a particularly terrifying NDE gave him a vision of Hell; others have near-death visions in brief. | |
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Education Mama | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_5b9cf82b | comment |
Also played painfully straight in Season 1's "The Hero," where James Mackey's Education Papa tendencies cause his son Matt to attempt suicide. | |
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Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_5beef860 | comment |
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: It may not actually be snakes, but a fair number of assignments face their worst fears or a terrifying moment in their past as part of the episode. An example is Eric Weiss of Season 3's "Angel of Death," who fears being locked in refrigerators even though he is an escape artist. That's because he thinks his twin brother died locked in one during a childhood game of hide and seek. Monica had a fear of water in Season 1 (bad memories of Noah's flood). Since she didn't have any significant water-related assignments after that season, it's not completely clear if she got over it. | |
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As Long as There Is Evil | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_5dff009d | comment |
As Long as There Is Evil: Something humans and angels must learn. Monica undergoes a notable example in Season 3's "Random Acts," since the attack on and near death of her assignment almost causes her first Heroic BSoD. | |
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Fallen Angel | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_5e751f8 | comment |
What happened after Fallen Angel Kathleen finally had a Heel–Face Turn in Season 3? | |
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Courtroom Episode | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_5f207a1a | comment |
Courtroom Episode: Several episodes have a jury trial or court hearing central to the plot, such as "Reasonable Doubt" (Season 7), "Smokescreen" (Season 3), "A House Divided" (Season 6), and "Virtual Reality" (Season 9). At least one of the angels usually serves as legal counsel; Tess has served as legal counsel too, but usually takes the judge's role. | |
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Big Eater | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_5fcedca | comment |
Big Eater: Season two's "Heart of the Matter" gave us character Robin Dunwoody. Though skinny, she eats constantly. Tess seems worried that Monica will become this, since one of her biggest pieces of advice is, "Don't take human form and start on the food." Apparently, Tess spent her first assignment as a food tester, and well... One of Monica's Season 2 assignments, Claudia, is this. As a result she's become obese. Monica must help her confront the real reason behind her weight gain—she covered up her sister Morgan's drunk driving on the girls' prom night, which killed Morgan's then-boyfriend. She had also supplied the booze. | |
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Oireland | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_60f92ddd | comment |
Oireland: Depending on how you feel about her accent, Monica is this. Kevin Greeley nods at this trope when he mocks her accent, as do Kathleen and Monique (made odd on Kathleen's part because her name actually is Irish). The episode "Life Before Death" could be considered this. | |
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Riding into the Sunset | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_613ecc2d | comment |
The series premier starts with supervisor Tess and rookie Monica meeting on a bench and Monica being put on a bus for her first assignment and ends with the two of them driving off into the sunset in a red convertible. The series finale starts and ends the same way, except that this time, the newly promoted Monica drives off alone, presumably to play Tess' role to another newcomer. | |
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Heel–Face Turn | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_617f0563 | comment |
Heel–Face Turn: Some of the angels' assignments had one of these near the end of their episodes. It's also worth noting that Kathleen, an angel who used to be Monica's friend and then crossed to the dark side, had one after being denied a promotion to demonic "caseworker." | |
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Bottle Episode | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_62907b90 | comment |
"Last Call" also ditches the typical formula for a Bottle Episode where Monica's assignment is to provide one person of her choice a miracle in a tavern — where the entire episode takes place— except Monica's unsure who to give it to as nearly everyone was miserable or troubled in some way. There's no one singular person or group of people whom Monica directly told to help out, it's an ensemble piece where all of the episode's characters have their own troubles. Plus Monica reveals her angel identity a lot earlier than she usually does. | |
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Heroic Sacrifice | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_6439de78 | comment |
Heroic Sacrifice: In one episode, a nun (played by Mary McDonnell) at a Catholic School uncovers a bomb plot being acted by some of her students who are in full Taking You with Me mode. She manages to talk them down and gets them out of the building, only to discover the entire student body is about to walk into the building to begin their day. The nun rushes back into the building to pull the fire alarm, turns to walk out and is face to face with the digital countdown of the bomb timer, which clicks the last two seconds away. Right as the timer hits zero the episode ends with an abrupt fade to black. | |
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Formula-Breaking Episode | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_670db7d7 | comment |
Formula-Breaking Episode: "Clipped Wings" strays away from the usual Woobie of the Week formula, and instead of Monica and Tess helping out a lost soul, the episode's premise is a clip show about Monica having to attend an appointment to review her past assignments, and then temporarily being Brought Down to Normal after Fallen Angel Kathleen tricked Monica into missing her appointment by posing as a woman named Jodi with insecurities. "Last Call" also ditches the typical formula for a Bottle Episode where Monica's assignment is to provide one person of her choice a miracle in a tavern — where the entire episode takes place— except Monica's unsure who to give it to as nearly everyone was miserable or troubled in some way. There's no one singular person or group of people whom Monica directly told to help out, it's an ensemble piece where all of the episode's characters have their own troubles. Plus Monica reveals her angel identity a lot earlier than she usually does. | |
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Divinely Appearing Demons | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_67a12cd4 | comment |
Divinely Appearing Demons: An example of Acting for Two was found in an episode where an evil twin of Monica (one of the regular angels "touching" human lives) showed up. | |
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Expecting Someone Taller | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_69391768 | comment |
Expecting Someone Taller: Monica when she meets Satan for the first time. Quoted word for word in "A Clown's Prayer," which revolved around a clown named (Little) Leroy Tucker, who had dwarfism. | |
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Best for Last | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_6cd95d76 | comment |
Best for Last: At the end of the final episode God makes an appearance. | |
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Driven to Suicide | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_6d332aea | comment |
Driven to Suicide: Suicide is an extremely common theme within the series. A large number of the angels' assignments involve people who feel so depressed and hopeless that they nearly commit it, and in some cases actually through with it. Thankfully, there are just as many that were narrowly averted thanks to angel interference. | |
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Deceptive Legacy | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_6d664435 | comment |
Deceptive Legacy: A common theme as several episodes have people discovering their parents have kept major secrets from them. In "Manny", stuffy Harrison Trowbridge Archibald IV has his world rocked when his mother reveals the truth: She's actually from a poor town, a waitress who met Harrison's father at a party and spun the story of being from a rich family. Before he can recover, she also reveals that Harrison is the product of an affair she had with a gardener. In "Charades", a woman is rocked to learn her father's best friend was the one who named him during the Blacklist era and drove him to suicide. She's ready to expose the truth at a ceremony but her mother begs her not to... because the "friend" is really her birth father. | |
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My Greatest Failure | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_6ee10e0 | comment |
In "Jacob's Ladder", an angel put herself into the loony bin after she thought she had failed the girl she was guardian over. Turns out God had different plans. | |
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Masquerade | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_6ef09297 | comment |
Masquerade: Angels pose as humans when they're on assignment, and are otherwise invisible to the naked eye. Unfortunately, dark angels and Satan himself have the same abilities, and they can fool good angels. | |
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Christmas Episode | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_6ef9d3fe | comment |
Christmas Episode: Several, sometimes involving a Christmas Miracle. In the final two seasons, 9/11 figured into the plots of their respective Christmas episodes. | |
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The Grim Reaper | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_7142b38a | comment |
The Grim Reaper: Andrew, the Angel of Death. He doesn't actively reap people — and in fact in one episode he encourages his assignment to get up and keep trying to stay alive — but he does escort them in their journey, and thus his appearances usually (but not always) indicate that someone in the episode is going to die, be at risk of dying, or have to get over someone's death. For having what is probably the worst job in Heaven, he's a reasonably cheerful guy who only expresses dissatisfaction when children are involved (often commenting that he hates those assignments). It's occasionally mentioned that Andrew was previously a case worker like Monica, and it's suggested that he's one of the higher-ranked angels, so on the occasions when his appearance isn't related to a death (which became more common as the show went on, due to his actor's popularity), it's explained as using his experience in the field to lend a hand. It's shown that Andrew's turn came when he failed to stop John Wilkes Booth from killing Abraham Lincoln. He felt he wasn't worthy of being a case worker and his superior said Andrew was still needed. He was thus made an Angel of Death with Lincoln himself the first soul to lead to Heaven. Adam is the previous Angel of Death in the spotlight for the show's inaugural run, but then becomes a rarely-appearing character after his actor began to suffer a mental health battle and Andrew was introduced to show that there are multiple angels who share the responsibility of guiding the departed to eternity or protecting those whose lives become imperiled. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_730e57b4 | type |
Billy Needs an Organ | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_730e57b4 | comment |
Billy Needs an Organ: One episode focused on a young girl who needed a new heart, while her friend tries to convince a man to donate his brain-dead wife's. Unusually for both this trope and this show, the girl DIES. On the plus side, the grieving husband finally accepts his wife's death, allowing her organs to be used to save others. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_75538142 | type |
Friend to All Children | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_75538142 | comment |
Friend to All Children: Monica mentions in several episodes that she likes kids, whom she sometimes refers to as "wee ones." | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_75538142 | featureConfidence |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_76e24530 | type |
Delicate and Sickly | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_76e24530 | comment |
Delicate and Sickly: Several episodes have a dying kid central to the plot, including the 100th episode "Psalm 151", where little Petey is definitely Too Good for This Sinful Earth and the angels have to help him fulfill his list of last wishes, many of which are for others. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_797d10 | type |
Celebrity Star | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_797d10 | comment |
Celebrity Star: Many Special Guest stars, whether they appear as themselves or not, have the plot configured around them and/or their talents. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_797d10 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_797d10 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_79a60aec | type |
For Want of a Nail | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_79a60aec | comment |
For Want Of A Nail: In "Monica's Bad Day", her anger with a rude restaurant owner culminates in her throwing his cell phone into a fish tank. Events go from bad to worse for everyone in the restaurant, and Monica is then shown an alternate timeline in which she didn't throw away the phone and good things happened to everyone... including a woman who is suicidal. Monica and the other people must now save her in the established timeline. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_7a12aabf | type |
New Media Are Evil | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_7a12aabf | comment |
New Media Are Evil: Subverted in "Pandora's Box": a family is threatened by the dangers of online pedophiles and whatnot, but Monica explains at the end that the Internet is not inherently bad and is in fact a gift from God that can and should be used for good. Somewhat averted in "Virtual Reality" which concerns violent video games. The setup had Rafael and Andrew arguing opposite sides of the court case the user of the game was involved in (Rafael for prosecution, Andrew for defense). Tess, serving as judge, makes a speech to the courtroom underlining the fact that children often want to be exposed to things they shouldn't, and that video game in particular was one such thing. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_7b6e47a5 | type |
Armor-Piercing Question | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_7b6e47a5 | comment |
Armor-Piercing Question: In the season three episode The Sky Is Falling Tess gives three. First she gives to a group of people who are believing in Martians. Then later she gives a second one to Monica and finally she gives one to Dottie (an angel) who has come to help her (Tess) improve her manners. Tess also gives these in various other episodes, to angels and assignments. Monica and Andrew get to ask a couple, too. In the episode "What Are Friends For?", a mayoral candidate vigorously defends her friend against charges of statutory rape. Her husband bluntly asks her "Has he ever outright said that he didn't do it?" She's stunned to realize that indeed, he never has explicitly denied the charges. To that end, she obtains a copy of the girl's complaint and realizes that he's guilty—the girl quoted the exact same come-on lines that he'd used on her 20 years ago. She's forced to realize that her friend is an irresponsible jerk and that she's been enabling him for years. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_7b6e47a5 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_7d34f23a | type |
Reckless Gun Usage | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_7d34f23a | comment |
Reckless Gun Usage: One character breaks just about all the rules — carelessly waving a loaded WW2-era pistol around, pointing it straight at a friend, and then removing the magazine without clearing the chamber. After all that, how unlucky is it for said gun to get knocked off a desk, unintentionally fire, and shoot someone right in the heart? | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_7d34f23a | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_7d89315b | type |
"The Reason You Suck" Speech | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_7d89315b | comment |
Some assignments learn that part of being true to God and themselves involves handing down a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to somebody else. It's happened a few times, like in S6's "Legacy." Fraternity pledge Max informed his father, a former pledge of Phi Iota Gamma, that he was going to the police after a friend died of frat-sanctioned alcohol poisoning. He also called out his father because as a pledge, he had attempted to rape a girl. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_7d89315b | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_7fbb2a3 | type |
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_7fbb2a3 | comment |
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Several examples but the biggest one came in “Netherlands” where after the trio of Monica, Tess and Gloria witness the bombing of a building which killed dozens of people. Gloria’s focusing on what kind of bomb it was and her rather stoic and uncaring attitude about the gravity of the situation causes Monica to have a crisis of faith and nearly leads her to literally making a Deal with the Devil. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_7fbb2a3 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_805deb6e | type |
Small Role, Big Impact | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_805deb6e | comment |
Small Role, Big Impact: Dottie the Etiquette angel from the Season 3 episode, "The Sky Is Falling" is one of the biggest examples on the show. She get only around 2 minutes of screentime, and yet those minutes are extremely important, as she's the main reason Tess would become Monica's supervisor and the duo eventually becomes close friends. Dottie would even predict this would happen in her sole scene. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_805deb6e | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_8387bb18 | type |
Good Girls Avoid Abortion | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_8387bb18 | comment |
Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Played straight for the most part in "Great Expectations". Parents-to-be learn that their child will have Down's Syndrome; the husband has misgivings. Abortion is considered, and the wife makes it as far as the clinic before changing her mind, declaring "I'm still pro-choice. And I just made one. I'm having this baby." The angels have to convince the husband that their child need not be perfect to be lovable. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_8387bb18 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_863fa679 | type |
What Happened to the Mouse? | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_863fa679 | comment |
What Happened to the Mouse?: In the pilot, while searching for a boy's runaway mother, Monica thinks she's found her. It turns out to be a completely different woman who's also on the run from the law. We get a brief explanation of her circumstances, but she vanishes after fleeing again. Although Tess says that another angel will look after her, the episode ends with no follow up as to her date. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_863fa679 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_88141a44 | type |
Heartwarming Orphan | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_88141a44 | comment |
Heartwarming Orphan: Several are encountered over the course of the series. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_88141a44 | featureApplicability |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_88141a44 | featureConfidence |
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Touched by an Angel / int_88141a44 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_90c018ac | type |
Justified Trope | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_90c018ac | comment |
Tends to occur in a lot of episodes that feature seriously ill protagonists. See "The Violin Lesson," "Into the Light," and various other examples. Justified in these two instances because one protagonist had cystic fibrosis and the other had AIDS, which had led to respiratory and other infections. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_90c018ac | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_931fc523 | type |
Back for the Finale | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_931fc523 | comment |
Back for the Finale: Many of the previous Special Guest stars. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_931fc523 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_942ca04a | type |
The Bard on Board | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_942ca04a | comment |
The Bard on Board: "Life Before Death" is essentially Romeo and Juliet in Northern Ireland/the locations of an American peacekeeping project. A variant occurs in "The Quality of Mercy," which prominently features a college production of ''Hamlet''. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_942ca04a | featureApplicability |
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Touched by an Angel / int_942ca04a | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_94f517db | type |
Discretion Shot | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_94f517db | comment |
Discretion Shot: The episode "Anatomy Lesson" has one. Monica is working with a coroner and is instructed to remove the heart from a cadaver. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_94f517db | featureApplicability |
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Touched by an Angel / int_94f517db | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_984ef9ef | type |
"Not So Different" Remark | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_984ef9ef | comment |
"Not So Different" Remark: Kathleen pulls this on Monica in an attempt to ruin the latter's evaluation. Monica immediately refutes her. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_984ef9ef | featureApplicability |
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Touched by an Angel / int_984ef9ef | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_9b54d536 | type |
Evil Counterpart | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_9b54d536 | comment |
Evil Counterpart: Kathleen, a fallen angel who faces Monica several times. She returns to the side of God at the end of "Clipped Wings". | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_9b54d536 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_9c4a7090 | type |
Springtime for Hitler | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_9c4a7090 | comment |
Springtime for Hitler: In "Nothing but Net", a professional basketball player has this happen when he agrees to throw a game in return for a large sum of money from some gamblers who will win big. They may well kill him if he doesn't follow through. Already known as a showboat, he figures it won't seem out of character for him to take a bunch of ridiculous low-percentage shots, secretly trying to miss most of them on purpose. Thanks to the heavenly intervention, he makes every bucket anyway, but Andrew takes the gamblers aside when they try to confront the player afterward. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_9c4a7090 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_9dd2af4a | type |
Inspirationally Disadvantaged | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_9dd2af4a | comment |
Inspirationally Disadvantaged: Assignments occasionally involve people who are physically challenged or autistic/mentally challenged. The trope really lives up to its name with Taylor, an angel with Down's Syndrome (played by Chris Burke, Corky on Life Goes On). | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_a1b141f4 | type |
My God, What Have I Done? | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a1b141f4 | comment |
My God, What Have I Done?: Uttered by at least two assignments, alcoholic journalist Elizabeth Jessup and formerly comatose Steven Bell. A reporter leads an investigation accusing an elderly couple of molesting the children of their foster home, driving them to near suicide. Her source was a neighbor who comes by and starts talking about how she thinks another pair of neighbors are murderers. It sinks in to the reporter that the woman is crazy and she just ruined the couple's lives on a false story. In "Venice", elderly Annie has long been considered the shame of her town as years ago, her husband (a much loved high school star) vanished mysteriously. After she loses her sight, the angels get Annie to tell her three neighbors that husband Tommy hated the small town and having to become the local doctor and took advantage of a car accident to flee. Annie received a note saying he'd died but the angels break it to her that Tommy actually died just a few weeks earlier after a long life of cheating and tricking women. Annie realizes Tommy was never coming back for her. The neighbors are rocked to realize that for 30 years they have not only blamed Annie for Tommy's death but made her listen to them hail a man who never gave a damn about anyone but himself. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_a1b141f4 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a2836be5 | type |
Identity Amnesia | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a2836be5 | comment |
Identity Amnesia: Monica lost her memory in one episode. Tess's Alzheimer's may or may not be this, since we're not sure if she ever lost touch with her angelic identity. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_a2836be5 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a6049c20 | type |
Disturbed Doves | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a6049c20 | comment |
Disturbed Doves: (variant) A singular dove ends most episodes. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a6049c20 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a6049c20 | featureConfidence |
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Touched by an Angel / int_a6049c20 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a6c69bd | type |
MacGuffin | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a6c69bd | comment |
MacGuffin: The angels dealt with a fair number of these throughout the series, usually objects or people significant to the assignment that never popped up again afterward. The trend started with the premiere, wherein a child's drawing of his mother helped Monica resolve a fallout during her first assignment. A lot of these fall into the Memento MacGuffin or I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin category. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_a6c69bd | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a70223 | type |
Karma Houdini | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a70223 | comment |
Karma Houdini: The Mad Bomber from the infamous "Netherlands" episode, who was implied to have committed suicide, disallowing any true justice to be had in his crime. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_a70223 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a7850fbf | type |
Only Known by Their Nickname | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a7850fbf | comment |
Only Known by Their Nickname: The season four episode "Children of the Night" involves several homeless teens known only by street names. Overlaps with Do Not Call Me "Paul", as it's explained that real names are actually not allowed in that culture. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a7850fbf | featureApplicability |
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Touched by an Angel / int_a7850fbf | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a7f99c1f | type |
Two First Names | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a7f99c1f | comment |
Two First Names: Occurs with Darnell Thomas of Season 4's "Nothing But Net". | |
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1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a7f99c1f | featureConfidence |
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Touched by an Angel / int_a7f99c1f | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a8abe9d1 | type |
Separated by a Common Language | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a8abe9d1 | comment |
Separated by a Common Language: Monica experiences this in Season 3's "Sins of the Father" with assignment Luther Dixon. Her assignment is to listen and try to understand his language. Being a fairly new caseworker, Monica takes this literally at first. She gets tripped up on some of Luther's slang, such as "jacking" for "stealing" and "chips" for "money." She later uses this to drive home the point that whether Luther bothers to "come up with some fancy name" for God, to make Him fit into his gang culture, God is the only one who will consistently be there for him. Actually subverted with Monica herself. Monica was "born" in Ireland, yet spends 90% of her assignments in the U.S. Yet she rarely if ever uses common Irish slang or has to substitute American terms for Irish ones. She may use words like "meself" now and again, but it's very rare. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_a8abe9d1 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a939a527 | type |
Red Eyes, Take Warning | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_a939a527 | comment |
Red Eyes, Take Warning: As noted on the Characters page, this happens with Kathleen and Monique. It also happens with Satan and other demonic beings. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_a939a527 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_aa1540b8 | type |
High-Tech Heaven | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_aa1540b8 | comment |
High-Tech Heaven: Played With: Angels, while in human form, use technologies of the time the same way humans would, but they have no special trappings that make them seem any more high-tech than humans. That being said, it was stated as a joke that one especially old angel "was doing paperwork before there was paper", implying Heaven is (or at least was) more advanced than humanity technologically. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_aa1540b8 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_abe1e24e | type |
Good Cannot Comprehend Evil | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_abe1e24e | comment |
Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: A recurring theme is Monica often unable to understand why some human beings can be so horrible with Tess saying some folks are just not lucky enough to be born with a good soul. Monica openly asks how Kathleen, an angel who knew the power of God, could turn from Heaven and join with "the other side." | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_abe1e24e | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_ad641426 | type |
Trademark Favorite Food | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_ad641426 | comment |
At least one assignment had a Trademark Favorite Food as well. In Season 4's "Flights of Angels," the main character's middle son George loved doughnuts and was often seen with powdered sugar on his mouth. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_ad641426 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_adfd3165 | type |
For the Evulz | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_adfd3165 | comment |
For the Evulz: This is the primary reason Satan or his minions, such as formerly fallen angel Kathleen, do anything. Tess lampshades it once: "Evil is for evil's sake, period." | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_adfd3165 | featureApplicability |
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Touched by an Angel / int_adfd3165 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_ae3d6438 | type |
Deadpan Snarker | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_ae3d6438 | comment |
Deadpan Snarker: Tess has a few moments. Some assignments are this as well, such as Will Heller from "My Brother's Keeper," season five. It gets to the point that Monica tells him that those around Will need his love, not his sarcasm. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_ae3d6438 | featureApplicability |
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Touched by an Angel / int_ae3d6438 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_aef5c283 | type |
Off-into-the-Distance Ending | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_aef5c283 | comment |
Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The finale, which has Monica driving off to take on her new role as supervisor. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_aef5c283 | featureApplicability |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_aef5c283 | featureConfidence |
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Touched by an Angel / int_aef5c283 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_af3ea0e3 | type |
Face–Heel Turn | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_af3ea0e3 | comment |
Face–Heel Turn: Monica's former search-and-rescue colleague, Kathleen, has one of these, but she has a Heel–Face Turn in season 3. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_af3ea0e3 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_b11ac9f5 | type |
Abusive Parents | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_b11ac9f5 | comment |
Abusive Parents: The angels had to face off against these several times, and even occasionally try to redeem them. In one episode, this trope was actually subverted. Monica and Andrew were assigned to work with an investigative journalist who sincerely believed the senior citizens caring for several foster children were abusive. They're not; it was a false alarm and partially the fault of badly cobbled footage in-universe. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_b11ac9f5 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_b11ac9f5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_b11ac9f5 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_b25df244 | type |
Jesus Taboo | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_b25df244 | comment |
Jesus Taboo: Christians of all denominations make appearances, and a two-parter deals with the persecution of Chinese believers, but the man himself is never name-dropped until the final episode. This may be in part because the show worked to be inclusive; some episodes specifically focus on Jewish people, and "Fight the Good Fight" is built around an appearance by (Muslim) Muhammad Ali. The premiere of Season 6, "For Such a Time as This," made use of a song that carries Jesus' name in one lyric. The lyric was dropped and replaced with something more general. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_b25df244 | featureApplicability |
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| Touched by an Angel | hasFeature |
Touched by an Angel / int_b25df244 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_b6de94d1 | type |
Executive Meddling | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_b6de94d1 | comment |
Executive Meddling: invoked Used In-Universe in "The Medium and the Message" (a Clip Show): Monica tries to pitch a show about angels to a cynical TV exec and his staff, but they want to change her ideas to something less uplifting and wholesome (for instance, they want to take the idea of an angel of death in more of an action/horror direction). Ironically, one writer came up with a script that had Monica and her fellow "touchy feely" angels confronted with an individual who was truly evil, truly unrepentant, and utterly unreceptive to their message of love and redemption. The script also introduced the angel Peter, whose job wasn't to redeem sinners through the love of God, but to punish them through the power of God's Old Testament-style wrath. Naturally enough, the episode was never produced because it didn't fit into the producer's desire to maintain a positive message regarding God. In the early production days of the series, Tess smoked and swore, and she and Monica were constantly at each other's throats, among other less uplifting elements. Creator Martha Williamson disagreed with this direction, and so the original producer walked out. The show then became what we know today. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_b6de94d1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_b6de94d1 | featureConfidence |
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| Touched by an Angel | hasFeature |
Touched by an Angel / int_b6de94d1 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_b8cbdffb | type |
Celestial Bureaucracy | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_b8cbdffb | comment |
Celestial Bureaucracy: This interpretation of Heaven has angels organized into a social work agency, performing case work ("assignments"), getting hired and fired based on job performance, striving to earn (sometimes directly competing for) career advancement in the form of "promotions," and occasionally even retiring. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_b8cbdffb | featureApplicability |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_b8cbdffb | featureConfidence |
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Touched by an Angel / int_b8cbdffb | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_ba440e1 | type |
THeUnfavorite | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_ba440e1 | comment |
The Un-Favorite: A couple of examples. Aaron Gibson from Season 4's "How Do You Spell Faith" is the most egregious example. His athletic mother straight up admits to Tess that her older son Michael is her favorite because Aaron, who is much more scholarly, reminds her of her ex-husband. It takes the older son dying, and the angels' help, to help her get better. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_ba440e1 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_bbda4d83 | type |
Away in a Manger | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_bbda4d83 | comment |
Away in a Manger: "An Angel on the Roof". | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_bbda4d83 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_bbda4d83 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_bbda4d83 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_bddb820f | type |
Must Have Caffeine | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_bddb820f | comment |
Must Have Caffeine: A small Running Gag in the series is Monica's caffeine addiction, usually in the form of a latte. Give her some Irish coffees, however... | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_bddb820f | featureApplicability |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_bddb820f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_bddb820f | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_bf4a5862 | type |
Woobie of the Week | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_bf4a5862 | comment |
Woobie of the Week: Probably the best known example. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_bf4a5862 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_bf4a5862 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel | hasFeature |
Touched by an Angel / int_bf4a5862 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_bf8a2be2 | type |
Isn't It Ironic? | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_bf8a2be2 | comment |
Isn't It Ironic?: Inverted. In "Netherlands", Monica has a crisis of faith and is tempted by Satan to become mortal. At one point, he promises he's there for her by way of the song "No One Is Alone", which is from Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods. In the show it's performed by the humbled good guys; here, because Satan's singing it, it verges on a Villain Recruitment Song. Note that Satan here is played by Mandy Patinkin, who frequently performs in Sondheim musicals; this may be another example of Celebrity Star in action. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_bf8a2be2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_bf8a2be2 | featureConfidence |
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Touched by an Angel / int_bf8a2be2 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c132c0c5 | type |
I Have No Son! | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c132c0c5 | comment |
I Have No Son!: Invoked by Sam Silverstein in Season 8's "Chutzpah" after his artist daughter Rachel started drawing and publishing cartoons that gradually became anti-Semitic. The angels help Sam realize she did it because he had crushed her ambition to be a sopher, or Torah scribe, when she was a kid, because he didn't believe women could be scribes. Sam and Rachel come around by the end. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c132c0c5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c132c0c5 | featureConfidence |
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Touched by an Angel / int_c132c0c5 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c2393191 | type |
Show Within a Show | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c2393191 | comment |
Show Within a Show: The angels sometimes work with theatrical or circus performers, or perform roles themselves. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c2393191 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c2393191 | featureConfidence |
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Touched by an Angel / int_c2393191 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c2cedc1c | type |
Big "NO!" | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c2cedc1c | comment |
Big "NO!": Several assignments utter one in tragic situations. The angels have uttered a couple, too. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c2cedc1c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c2cedc1c | featureConfidence |
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Touched by an Angel / int_c2cedc1c | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c3bafbce | type |
Satan | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c3bafbce | comment |
Satan: Several appearances, each time in a different form (including those of Bo Duke and Inigo Montoya!) In the Grand Finale, he's the prosecuting lawyer at the trial, and was actually responsible for the deaths of the kids — he tricked Joey into setting the boiler in the school basement too high, and that's how the explosion occurred. Satan also appeared in the first season as the leader of a white supremacy group, the fourth season as a car repair man, the sixth season as a little boy and a lion, and the seventh season as himself (in human form) to tempt Monica after she witnesses a terrorist attack. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c3bafbce | featureApplicability |
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Touched by an Angel / int_c3bafbce | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c40c8b74 | type |
And Starring | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c40c8b74 | comment |
And Starring: With Valerie Bertinelli (last 2 seasons) and Della Reese as Tess. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c40c8b74 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c40c8b74 | featureConfidence |
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Touched by an Angel / int_c40c8b74 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c4b0faae | type |
Can't Hold His Liquor | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c4b0faae | comment |
Can't Hold His Liquor: The angels have helped some alcoholics along the way, most notably reporter Elizabeth Jessup, a fictional character played by Phylicia Rashad. Monica herself has this problem, too; she gets stinking drunk on Irish coffee in one episode. The results are neither pretty nor pleasant to the ears. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c4b0faae | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c4b0faae | featureConfidence |
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| Touched by an Angel | hasFeature |
Touched by an Angel / int_c4b0faae | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c75df49a | type |
Shout-Out | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c75df49a | comment |
Shout-Out: Blink and you'll miss it: In "Sandcastles," Tess removes guest angel Rafael's beard, and he complains nobody takes him seriously because he looks 12. Tess's response is, "I don't like angels with dirty faces!" | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_c75df49a | featureApplicability |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_c75df49a | featureConfidence |
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Touched by an Angel / int_c75df49a | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_ca87e3ec | type |
No Name Given | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_ca87e3ec | comment |
No Name Given: In 99% of cases, the angels don't have last names. This can cause some issues, like when they're dialing Information to find someone as in "Indigo Angel" from Season 2 (the person on the phone wants Andrew's last name and uh, he doesn't have one). This also caused trouble for Rafael when he had an assignment as a soldier, as soldiers are generally addressed by last names. Averted in Season 2's "Trust", where Monica worked as a cop and took on the last name O'Dooley. Also averted during "Reasonable Doubt". Monica was on jury duty and was asked to give a last name. When she said, "Well, I..." the officiating clerk interpreted it as "Welleye," kind of like the fish. Fallen angel Kathleen who later turned back to the side of God gave her last name as Luna, or "Moon," during an episode where she appeared as a fortune teller. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_ca87e3ec | featureApplicability |
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Touched by an Angel / int_ca87e3ec | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_cb957409 | type |
Good Is Boring | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_cb957409 | comment |
Good Is Boring: Fallen angel Kathleen once tells Monica this is her justification for switching sides: "I'm having too much fun." She eventually turns back to God, though. In a later episode, high-ranking angel Sam explains that some humans engage in sin because they believe this trope. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_cb957409 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_cc4d190a | type |
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_cc4d190a | comment |
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Happens in season six's "Til Death Do Us Part," when a distraught assignment slaps Andrew. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_cc4d190a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_cc4d190a | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_cd7a8af8 | type |
Amnesia Episode | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_cd7a8af8 | comment |
Amnesia Episode: "Seek and Ye Shall Find". | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_cd7a8af8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_cd7a8af8 | featureConfidence |
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Touched by an Angel / int_cd7a8af8 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_cef6a167 | type |
Second Place Is for Losers | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_cef6a167 | comment |
Second Place Is for Losers: What some assignments believe. These are usually parents who consciously or unconsciously pressure their children, grown or minors, to be perfect. Special mention to James Mackey and Cynthia Willis of "The Hero" and "The Driver" respectively. Willis even told her daughter, "You're a waste of space if you're not in first place." | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_cef6a167 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_cef6a167 | featureConfidence |
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Touched by an Angel / int_cef6a167 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_cf92fea8 | type |
Cassandra Truth | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_cf92fea8 | comment |
Several other episodes have milder versions of this due to assignments being blown away that an angel is in their presence, or because they simply don't buy it. Some of the angels' assignments also deal with Cassandra Truth in that uncovering the real story will help the human in question. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_cf92fea8 | featureApplicability |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_cf92fea8 | featureConfidence |
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| Touched by an Angel | hasFeature |
Touched by an Angel / int_cf92fea8 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_d1b4f0ef | type |
Everybody Lives | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_d1b4f0ef | comment |
Everybody Lives: An extremely rare occurrence for the show, but one episode had a man waking from a five-year coma to discover that his wife is now engaged to his business partner and best friend. Turns out, Monica accidentally caused the man's car crash and it comes out that he was abusive to her and their son. In the end, the only "death" in the episode is his and his wife's marriage. | |
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1.0 | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_d1b4f0ef | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_d2aa7d09 | type |
Littlest Cancer Patient | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_d2aa7d09 | comment |
Littlest Cancer Patient: Played in one instance ("Godspeed") by Hayden Panettiere. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_d2aa7d09 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_d2aa7d09 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel | hasFeature |
Touched by an Angel / int_d2aa7d09 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_d39e327f | type |
What the Hell, Hero? | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_d39e327f | comment |
What In Heaven's Name, Angel? Monica falls into this a couple of times, once when she lies to cover up the actions of a guilty assignment because his perfect persona blinds her and then when she slaps an assignment in a later season, a soldier who told a horrible lie to a dying friend. Sam gives a mild one to Tess when she sinks to Satan's level, verbally, over the behavior of a white supremacy group. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_d39e327f | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_d9ee7048 | type |
Spin-Off | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_d9ee7048 | comment |
Spin-Off: Promised Land, which depicted the further adventures of the Greenes, one of the families the angels assisted, as they traveled around the country helping people. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_d9ee7048 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_d9ee7048 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_da06866e | type |
Old Cop, Young Cop | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_da06866e | comment |
Old Cop, Young Cop: The premise of the show is the older and more experienced Tess teaching the ropes to neophyte case-worker Monica. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_da06866e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_da06866e | featureConfidence |
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Touched by an Angel / int_da06866e | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_dcd423d2 | type |
Affectionate Nickname | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_dcd423d2 | comment |
Affectionate Nickname: Tess has "Angel-Girl" and "Miss Wings" for Monica, though at times she doesn't use them affectionately. She calls Andrew "Angel-Boy" (ditto), and calls pretty much everyone "baby" at least once. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_dcd423d2 | featureApplicability |
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Touched by an Angel / int_dcd423d2 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_de369435 | type |
Interrogation Montage | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_de369435 | comment |
Interrogation Montage: A good version throughout the finale as multiple angels who have worked with Monica over the years are seen telling an unseen someone (presumably God) about their experiences and impressions of her. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_de369435 | featureApplicability |
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Touched by an Angel / int_de369435 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_de7b7cbf | type |
Drugs Are Bad | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_de7b7cbf | comment |
Drugs Are Bad: Though there were several anti-substance abuse episodes, they tended to avoid the idea that the substances themselves were somehow intrinsically evil... rather, that their use and abuse was often the result of some other problem that needed fixing. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_de7b7cbf | featureApplicability |
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Touched by an Angel / int_de7b7cbf | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_de89c0a1 | type |
Dating What Daddy Hates | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_de89c0a1 | comment |
Dating What Daddy Hates: "Last Dance" from season four turns on this trope, as the dating teenagers featured have mothers who hate each other. The ending is much Lighter and Softer than Romeo and Juliet. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_de89c0a1 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e13156e1 | type |
Mama Bear | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e13156e1 | comment |
Mama Bear: Tess can behave this way to anybody who tries to hurt Monica (see "Clipped Wings" for a particularly good example). She's like this with Andrew too, but much more so with Monica. Monica herself can be this way to people or demons who try to hurt assignments, especially children. | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_e13156e1 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e132a621 | type |
Fluffy Cloud Heaven | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e132a621 | comment |
Fluffy Cloud Heaven: "Netherlands" opened with a monologue by Monica expressing her amusement with human depictions of Heaven such as this (one of them referenced, though not by name, was a Victoria's Secret ad campaign featuring scantily-clad angels that was running at the time). | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_e132a621 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e150c4c7 | type |
Manchild | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e150c4c7 | comment |
Manchild: Joey, an intellectually disabled young man appearing in Seasons 1, 2, 4, and 9. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e150c4c7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e150c4c7 | featureConfidence |
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Touched by an Angel / int_e150c4c7 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e21faf11 | type |
Friend to All Living Things | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e21faf11 | comment |
Friend to All Living Things: Monica could be considered this, though not in the Disney princess way. Rather, because she's an angel, she's able to communicate with animals and seems to genuinely enjoy them, even the "creepy crawly" bugs and reptiles Tess avoids. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e21faf11 | featureApplicability |
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Touched by an Angel / int_e21faf11 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e236af66 | type |
Who Would Want to Watch Us? | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e236af66 | comment |
Who Would Want to Watch Us?: In season five's "The Medium and the Message," Monica is assigned to help a TV producer. She ends up pitching him an idea for a show about angels, resulting in a Clip Show. Later, Andrew tells Monica he liked her idea, to which she says, "Nah, it'd never work." | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e236af66 | featureApplicability |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_e236af66 | featureConfidence |
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Touched by an Angel / int_e236af66 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e303d198 | type |
Whole-Plot Reference | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e303d198 | comment |
Whole-Plot Reference: “Reasonable Doubt” is heavily based on 12 Angry Men. Both have the protagonist as the lone holdout on a jury who slowly convinces the other jurors that the accused is innocent. Both have a juror who is absolutely convinced of the accused’s guilt for personal reasons rather than logical ones. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e303d198 | featureApplicability |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_e303d198 | featureConfidence |
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Touched by an Angel / int_e303d198 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e4c95972 | type |
Innocent Bigot | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e4c95972 | comment |
A couple of episodes also imply that Monica has been this toward blacks and homeless people, simply because she had never been either and thus did not fully understand them. Each episode where this trope is used has Monica undergoing an epiphany so that she is no longer the Innocent Bigot toward that group. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e4c95972 | featureApplicability |
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Touched by an Angel / int_e4c95972 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e52a0409 | type |
Calling the Old Man Out | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e52a0409 | comment |
Calling the Old Man Out: Happens to a few assignments, even young kids, whose parents or relatives are being jerks or neglecting them. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e52a0409 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e52a0409 | featureConfidence |
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Touched by an Angel / int_e52a0409 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e5411cdf | type |
Cult | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e5411cdf | comment |
Cult: The angels save the members of a doomsday cult in one episode. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e5411cdf | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e5411cdf | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel | hasFeature |
Touched by an Angel / int_e5411cdf | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e596f27b | type |
Star-Crossed Lovers | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e596f27b | comment |
Star-Crossed Lovers: The kids of the two women that are the assignments in "Last Dance". In fact, the angels' intervention here is to defy this trope. | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e596f27b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e596f27b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
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Touched by an Angel / int_e596f27b | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e5fd8bc2 | type |
Hate Sink | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e5fd8bc2 | comment |
Hate Sink: Shockingly, there are enough for its own page. | |
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Don't Fear the Reaper | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e8491efa | comment |
Don't Fear the Reaper: Andrew. Angels of death help souls peacefully pass on to the afterlife. That being said, some assignments do fear Andrew and his kind because they know or at least sense that their eternity won't be good. Of note is James Block, a criminal and con artist from Season 3 who has a near-death experience after a heart attack. Though the angels never state outright he was headed for hell, Andrew is not James's best pal when he shows up. Instead, he simply stands staring at James regretfully, backlighted at the end of a long, dark tunnel that eventually tries to pull James in. | |
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Never Learned to Read | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e9a3a1ed | comment |
Never Learned to Read: Pro basketball player Eric "EZ" Mony has this problem in "Nothing but Net". The problem also comes up in "The Word" (season 9). The angels are sent to help a student with OCD, whose father is illiterate. | |
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Exact Words | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_e9e35e8f | comment |
Exact Words: Obviously, angels can't lie but they are expert at wording things a certain way. Monica has to pose as a homeless woman for an assignment. When asked how she ended up here, she replies "the simple truth is, one morning I was wearing a fine coat and the next night, I was sleeping on the street." The other homeless people just nod with "ain't that the way?" | |
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As Long as There Is One Man | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_eadecddd | comment |
As Long as There Is One Man: Some assignments involve the angels explaining this to a human and helping him or her confront evil. A notable example is Season 4's "Breaking Bread," wherein Matt Colletti is chosen as a prophet and defeats the devil, with the angels' help, when he uses a hate group to try to divide Matt's town. | |
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Rousseau Was Right | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_eb2195d9 | comment |
Rousseau Was Right: One of the repeated themes is that humans are born with a great capacity for love, forgiveness, mercy, and charity, and simply need to be reminded of it occasionally. | |
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Beethoven Was an Alien Spy | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_ec7da60a | comment |
Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: The angels being immortal, there are a few episodes that show them in earlier time periods, sometimes helping historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, and Albert Einstein.note Only one of these was, in fact, a Christian: Mark Twain was an atheist who openly mocked theism; Einstein was essentially a Deist—if that—and a non-practicing Jew. Lincoln was the only one who was assuredly a Christian. Of course, the angels do help non-Christians on a regular basis, and Monica does note that Einstein was Jewish when the would-be cloner says she wants to experience holidays like Christmas with a cloned child. The stories are often told to present-day assignments to help them through their own problems. For instance, Einstein's struggle with guilt over how his discoveries allowed for the development of the atomic bomb and the destruction of Hiroshima is told to a scientist to dissuade her from cloning a human being from his DNA. | |
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Information Wants to Be Free | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_ecafe646 | comment |
Information Wants to Be Free: One episode revolved around a retired engineer who developed a device that could split water into oxygen and hydrogen with only a small input of sunlight. He sold it to the president of an energy company, who promptly destroyed the prototype and all the plans so that he could keep making a killing on oil. | |
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Naïve Newcomer | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_ed05cfee | comment |
Naïve Newcomer: Subverted with Monica, who is a new case worker, but has been an angel for some time, doing search and rescue. Played straight with Gloria. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_f052b794 | type |
Phosphor-Essence | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_f052b794 | comment |
Phosphor-Essence: When one of the angels reveal themselves to a human, they glow to make their true nature clear. Demonic beings like Kathleen have this, too; their glow is of the eerie blue variety, while the angels have bright white. Satan doesn't glow, but in his first appearance, he was backlighted in red when he revealed his true self. | |
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Once per Episode | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_f05444a4 | comment |
Once per Episode: Most episodes end with a dove appearing somewhere in the area the final scene takes place in, usually flying by and cooing. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_f21d434a | type |
New Job as the Plot Demands | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_f21d434a | comment |
New Job as the Plot Demands: Monica, Tess and various other angels have taken up all sorts of jobs and occupations for whatever the plot demands, depending on the assignment (Some of the jobs Monica's taken include a baseball coach, an assistant police officer, a nurse, a stripper, an MC, a physical therapist, etc.) | |
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Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_f2c895f | comment |
Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Presented as a major problem in the Season 5 episode "Life Before Death," though The Troubles themselves were far more complex (as, fairly, Tess points out, brief as that dialogue is). | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_f2dadf81 | type |
Evil Twin | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_f2dadf81 | comment |
Evil Twin: Monique, a Monica lookalike and "dark angel". | |
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Drives Like Crazy | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_f96f188c | comment |
Drives Like Crazy: Late in the series run, Gloria somehow got her hands on Tess's car. The results were...well, this. Monica has had a couple moments as well. | |
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Have a Gay Old Time | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_fa6bfde9 | comment |
Have a Gay Old Time: The title of the show has inspired many "inappropriate touching" jokes (Family Guy's take might be the best known). | |
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Artistic License – Physics | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_fc225bec | comment |
Artistic License – Physics: See Information Wants to Be Free below. | |
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| Touched by an Angel / int_fd94c4ac | type |
Theme Naming | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_fd94c4ac | comment |
Theme Naming: if one can call it that; there are two different episodes named "The Perfect Game". One revolves around bowling, the other revolves around baseball. | |
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Heroes Want Redheads | |
| Touched by an Angel / int_ff16efbf | comment |
Heroes Want Redheads: Some single men hit on Monica before knowing she's an angel. "Netherlands" used this trope to set up part of Monica's temptation by Satan: become permanently human, marry a guy she met who appears to really like her, and have two kids. In "Life Before Death," human protagonist Tommy Doyle, a Northern Irish Catholic, falls in love with Rose Larkin, a redheaded Protestant girl. | |
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