Having grown up in Sunnydale, Cordelia is used to living within reach of demons, but before she never used to tackle them head on. Once a very rich girl, with everything she wanted round school, Cordelia would have run from trouble, and blamed other people for her mistakes. When she meets Angel in Los Angeles though, her life changes forever. Initially joining Angel Investigations as a secretary and helper to Doyle and Angel, she soon becomes much much more. After losing Doyle, she inherits the visions, and is now Angel's link to the Powers. However, being "vision girl" isn't easy, particularly as she is human - a nasty episode brought on by Vocah puts Cordelia in a coma.

This isn't the end of her vision problems either. Although she is brought out of the coma, as the second season progresses, her visions begin to worsen. They do work to her advantage a little during their interdimensional adventure though. As the holder of the visions, she is treated as a princess, but later finds she must pass on these visions to the Groosalugg.

She keeps the visions, as she knows that Angel needs them to continue working for the Powers, but as the series moves into the third season, they really begin to take their toll. At one stage they get so bad that she is told she will not survive another. Her only way out, whilst still helping Angel, is to accept a little bit of demon in her, which she does.

Though she believes herself to be in love with the Groosalugg, she discovers (a little late) that she actually loves Angel, but never gets the chance to say it. Whilst Angel is sent to the bottom of the sea, Cordelia is taken by Skip to "the next level", and appears to be transforming into some kind of angel. The season ends with totally mystery for Cordelia.