Krevlornswath
"Lorne" of the Deathwok Clan, also known as "The Host", is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the cult television series Angel. The character is portrayed by Andy Hallett.
Lorne was born as Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan
in the demonic dimension of Pylea. Lorne, as he preferred to be called, wasn't like his fellow
Deathwok clan demons, bloodthirsty "champions" constantly undertaking quests against evil. He was a gentle soul who did not
share his kin's prejudice against humans (or "cows" as they were called in his world). Lorne would rather flirt with the female
demons and enjoy life than train to be a fighter. He also enjoyed beauty, art, and even music, which was difficult considering
his world had no music. Lorne refused to train his innate mystical senses to learn to hunt beasts and was considered the shame
of his clan.
In 1996, Lorne happened upon a dimensional portal and was sucked through it. He
landed in Los
Angeles, and discovered music and culture like he never imagined. Lorne learned
to hone his mystical senses to read people's auras, but found it easiest to do so when they sang, baring their souls. He decided
to open up a karaoke bar on the same spot that he arrived on Earth, an old abandoned building. Lorne contracted the Transuding Furies to cast
a sanctuary spell on the spot, which stopped any demon violence from occurring on it. He named the bar "Caritas," the Latin word for "mercy."
Caritas became a success in the ambiguously evil Los
Angeles underground scene. To most who visited the bar, Lorne was simply called
"The Host." He later states that he didn't use the name "Lorne" in this dimension, because his striking green skin prompted
people to make Lorne
Greene jokes.
Lorne is always reluctant to help Angel and the other heroes of the series, but his essential goodness usually
wins out over his reticence. He starts off by giving the characters advice and encouragement, but as time goes on, he becomes
more directly involved in the cases of Angel
Investigations and his many contacts in Los
Angeles' magical underworld prove useful. Lorne somewhat reluctantly joins the
team in their mission to Pylea to rescue Cordelia, discovering that he could incapacitate the natives by singing songs and
causing them to cower from "the strange noise." On leaving, he decides that returning to Pylea had been good for him as it had reaffirmed that he did not
belong there and was right to stay away.
In Season Three of Angel, Caritas is raided by Charles
Gunn's old gang and it is temporarily put out of action, finally being completely
destroyed by Daniel
Holtz. After that, Lorne finds himself becoming far more attached to the AI team, and he often looks after the infant Connor while Angel is on business. Eventually, he leaves to start a singing career
in Las
Vegas, Nevada, but leaves after a crime lord forces him to use his empathic abilities
to locate audience members with promising futures so he can steal them. Back in L.A., Lorne helps restore Cordelia's lost memories and is
part of the fight against the resulting Jasmine crisis.
In the show's fifth and final season, Lorne finds
himself the new head of Wolfram
& Hart's Entertainment Division, at first fitting into the job with ease. As time
goes on, his kindness is slowly replaced by a growing cynicism and self-loathing of his position of "cheerleader" for Angel
and his friends, particularly when Gunn is abandoned in a Hell dimension to recover Lindsey
McDonald; Lorne had always assumed that they didn't leave anyone behind.
When his close friend Fred is murdered and her body
usurped by the Old
One known as Illyria, Lorne becomes filled with despair which he keeps secret from the rest
of his equally heartbroken friends. By the conclusion of the series, he announces that he is leaving Los Angeles after carrying out his part in Angel's plan to destroy the Circle
of the Black Thorn. When Lorne learns what his part is to be, he tells Angel "I'll
do this last thing for you, for us... but then I'm out, and you won't find me in the alley afterwards. Hell, you won't find
me at all. Do me a favor. Don't try." Lorne's part is to betray and murder longtime enemy-turned-ally Lindsey, who in his
final words mutters at the unfairness of being killed by Lorne, a 'flunky', and not his longtime rival Angel.
In his final scene, after shooting Lindsey
with a silenced pistol, a disgusted and broken Lorne walks off into the darkness. He drops the gun and simply says "Goodnight,
folks" as he leaves.