Monica is the titular protagonist of the long-running drama-fantasy series Touched by an Angel. She's a case worker angel who's regularly sent on "cases" or "assignments" to help out numerous assorted people who are dealing with either some kind of tragedy or dealing with some other kind of difficult situation they're in.
She was portrayed by Roma Downey in possibly her most iconic role.
What Makes Her Pure Good?[]
In General[]
- On a regular basis, she'd bring hope to various people or help out in various painful situations that they have, console them when they're upset or provide guidance for how to handle the issue. She'd even reveal she was an angel while giving them proof and state that God loved them and will/had answer(ed) their prayer(s).
- Monica's shown to be very patient and gentle towards children and she'd occasionally play the role of a guardian or babysitter or substitute teacher, and loves looking out for them
- While it could be argued that angels were created by God to bring hope to others and share his love, they're clearly shown to have free will and knowledge of right and wrong. Especially considering that some were shown to be capable of jerkish moments, or even being corrupted, and some had even turned to the dark side after being tempted by Lucifer himself. (including Monica's former friend/mentor Kathleen) This showcases that angels -- including Monica -- aren't Made of Good. Monica's capable of wrongdoing, but she chose to be a selfless hero.
- While she rarely ever prevents any tragedies or troubling issues from occurring and almost never get directly involved in her assignments' lives, she plays a key role in helping the people learn to handle their problems, often by giving them helpful advice or encouraging the people to make the right choices, after revealing her angel status when they're at their lowest point. She's also prevented numerous suicide attempts as most of the time she's able to talk the victim down.
- As a search and rescue angel, Monica would save the lives of various people who were either in peril or suffering near-fatal pain.
- She's one of very few angels who can say they've gone face-to-face with Satan himself without falling to the dark side... multiple times, in fact!
- In Season 2's "In the Name of God", Monica doesn't let her anger get the best of her, despite the corruption and hypocrisy behind Frank Littleton's organization, like Tess does. And she, Sam, Jerry and Tess would all stand up to Frank Littleton (actually Satan in disguise), and despite Monica never having faced Satan head-on before, she tells Tim that Satan used his pain, fear and hate to talk him into killing someone, and plays a role in convincing Tim to cast him out.
- In Season 4's "Breaking Bread", she spreads the word about Andrew’s neighborhood meeting for updates and informing people about how to deal with hate groups, by handing out fliers to most of the townspeople, volunteered to help organize a community group to fight against the white supremacy group, believed Matt Colletti about seeing the devil when nobody else did, (especially considering she herself knows how the devil operates, and how he wasn't the "Big Red Devil" stereotype, but morphs into various forms to deceive and corrupt people), takes Matt out of his bakery seconds before it blows up and catches fire in a massive explosion, saving Matt's life, and supports Mr. Colletti when he’s standing up to the devil against the hate group, serving one of his many followers who takes a stand with/behind him.
- In Season 7's "The Invitation", After Tess informs Monica about Satan being nearby, and planning on corrupting people, Monica would notice a lion approaching Annie Higuerra– really Satan in disguise – and use her faith and belief to stare him down and send him away for a brief time. When Annie starts using a pack of tarot cards, Monica’s worried that Satan was involved, and that the cards would destroy Rick and Annie’s life. On top of saving Clara from an oncoming truck, she realizes that the cards’ fortunes and their outcomes were making everyone paranoid, unsure of themselves and picking up bad habits. When she notices Annie alone in the center of some stairs unconscious with the lion again and about to be eaten, Monica comes to Annie’s aid. Then upon realizing Dennis was actually Satan in disguise, she sticks by Annie’s side and discusses God’s love for her long enough for the others to arrive with enough holy spirit to banish the devil.
- In Season 7's "Netherlands", she’d show immense sadness over witnessing a building explosion that killed dozens of people inside, and has a temporary crisis of faith in humanity, which made her broken enough for Satan to try take advantage of her state. Yet despite this, she still refuses to follow Satan’s philosophy or fall for his charms and manipulation, even attempting to walk away from him a several times. Eventually as Monica started to become more broken and dispirited, Satan would offer her a dream life where she was a loving wife and mother, with a husband and two kids, Monica was almost tempted into agreeing, but suddenly stated that she was still an angel, and that God still loved her. So then Satan convinced Monica to walk to a very high piece, promising to be there for Monica and catch her. But just as she’s about to give into Satan, Monica would have a prayer answered by God, and she’d ask for his forgiveness, return of his side shortly afterwards, banish Satan with her faith yet again, and emerge transformed with newfound hope, fully recovering from her crisis of faith.
- In the two-part series finale, "I Will Walk With You": Zack would get falsely accused of setting off an explosion at a school's boiler, which killed a lot of the town’s children (and some teachers). He would go to prison and get put on trail, and Satan would serve as the prosecuting attorney named Jones, being very tough and turning down all of the defense team's motions for dismissal. Satan would get Zack to admit to taking items belonging to the dead children and to being in various towns when accidents claimed the lives of children, making Zack look even more guilty. The church would be reopened, and Monica would take them all to the church to show the missing toys and photos were being used as a memorial which Zack set up. Despite Gloria and Mike's efforts, Zack would ultimately be found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Near the end of the episode, it's revealed that Joey was the one who set the boiler off and caused the explosion, as Satan tricked him into turning up the valve, claiming it would warm up some kittens.
Season 1[]
- The Southbound Bus: In Monica's very first case as a assignment she protects a young boy named David from a group of bullies who try to steal his backpack and scares them off by taking their knife away and tossing it in the air, where it disappears in mid-air. Then, upon finding out David's mother ran away around the same time his sister died, she tries to find her so she could reunite her with the family, even though it meant abandoning her post and leaving Tess to look after David and upon discovering David's real mother Christine, she tells her that David missed her and the difficulties he faced since his sister's death, and that she had to forgive herself, accept what she did in the past and return to her home. And despite initially being too nervous to face her family again, Christine would not to long afterwards decide to go back.
- Tough Love: When Elizabeth drunkenly sets her house on fire with one of her cigarettes, Monica shows up and saves Beth's life as she bravely carries Beth through tree fire and takes her to a hospital. And this was after Elizabeth fired her from being her assistant.
- Fear Not: When Serena starts dying from her incurable heart condition, Monica would appear alongside Tess and Adam (an angel of death) as they made Serena's final moments calm and comforting as Adam brings her to heaven, with Monica having Wayne sing "Silent Night" to Serena knowing it was her favorite. She'd later arrive at Joey's crying plea of hoping to honor his dying friend's wish of playing her role in the Christmas with her stuffed animal, despite his fears of the dark, and consoles him when he discusses regret over trashing the set and how much he'll miss Serena.
Season 2[]
- The Feather: She'd personally show up in the church and reveal that as an angel she was sent by God as a Christmas present to the faithful people of the church who were generous and selfless to lesser people. She also addresses that they abused the gift by choosing to listen to Charlie's fake preaches and seek out the feather and fame instead of addressing an abandoned baby and listening to God. She'd later praise Joey on having a kind enough heart to look after the abandoned baby, and she's able to have Charles see the error of his ways, and holds no hostility towards him despite the lies he told. She'd ultimately play a role in Charles reconnecting with his brothers.
- Sympathy for the Devil: While she's rightfully upset at her ex-friend Kathleen for turning to the dark side and essentially betraying her, she holds very little hostility towards her and even tries reasoning with her and reminiscing about their past. She also saved Matt from getting rammed by a bull.
- Angels on the Air: She saves Claire from being harassed by Monty by sending him somewhere far away where he couldn't bother her.
- Jacob's Ladder: She accidently goes to a wrong address that was extremely similar to the intended address and gets arrested/falsely accused of drug dealing when she tries to clean up the house. Then later when she's placed in a room with a lady named Claire who also claims she’s an angel, the two of them quickly become close. Even when Monica had all of her charges dropped in court, she wanted to return to the mental hospital – knowing she wouldn’t be released for at least 5-15 years – to help out Claire with her war trauma.
- Lost and Found: Monica reencounters her ex-mentor/friend Kathleen as the latter became a police investigator's girlfriend to get close to him, impress him with her premonition abilities, and take advantage of his insecurities with falling to find a lost child 15 years ago. When Frank’s reaching his breaking point due to Kathleen’s influence, Monica reveals her angel status and reveals that Kathleen was feeding off Frank’s guilt and manipulating him with lies, which led to Frank telling her to leave as he learns Kathleen didn’t truly love him. She also informs Frank that although he may not always be able to help every child, failure shouldn’t stop him from doing his job.
Season 3[]
- Groundrush: When an FBI agent arrest Scott Walden for murder Monica would regularly come to Scott's defense (knowing about his selfless acts) insisting there was some kind of mistake, prior to learning the truth. While she'd play a role in Scott Walden's escape from police custody, she did so because she viewed Scott as a local hero and thought he was being taken in for a crime he didn't commit, not to mention she was completely heartbroken over Scott's murder accusations being correct. And when she's eventually in disbelief over Scott lying to her, she was still willing to hear out his real story and had him face his past. She'd even show sympathy upon learning his sister was raped.
- The Sky Is Falling (flashback): On October 30, 1938, Monica delivered the message “fear not” to various people when they got scared and paranoid and went on a frenzy after hearing Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” broadcast. She'd later pop into a church intending to give her message a scared, large gathered crowd, only for the people to think she was a Martian and ran away. Then later that day, after some encouragement from Tess, Monica would try to sooth Leonard Pound’s nerves after he finds out his father died, being depressed over being unable to do so. Although, it later turns out that Monica wasn't intended to help Leonard, rather she was let his friend Penny grieve with him.
- Clipped Wings: When Monica goes into a psychiatrist’s office, mistaking it for her evaluation, she talks with a file clerk named Jodi (who turns out to be Kathleen in disguise), discussing her past helping people, talking about their interests and even understanding Jodi’s unhappiness with her job. Then, when Monica learns from Andrew that she had gone into the wrong room, she apologizes for the mix-up, but still sympathizes with Jodi’s concerns about her job (unaware that Jodi was actually Kathleen in disguise). And when “Jodi” tells Monica she felt like Monica understood her better than the doctor, Monica decides to stay behind as she felt like Jodi needed her. Later on, she'd pray to God and ask him to forgive Kathleen for what she did, stating she was lost and walked away from his grace, and that despite being on the dark side, she couldn’t forget his grace, love and mercy. She didn’t care about what happened to herself – or even regaining her angel powers, or getting demoted-- she just wanted Kathleen to get a second chance. Keep in mind, this was right after Kathleen had tricked her into missing her evaluation and losing her powers in the first place. She also personally told the Angel of Angels that she didn’t care if she got demoted, or forced into an embarrassing position, and that “[she’d] rather be a doorkeeper in the house of [her] God, than dwell in the tents of wickedness“, and that she’d never shut God out of her heart. This, alongside the fact that she placed another before herself twice earlier that day (once with a friend, and once with an enemy), led to Monica passing her evaluation and having her duties expanded.
- Amazing Grace two-parter: When Monica temporarily becomes blind for a "Watch and Wait" assignment, and has to rely on Josh to be her eyes for the time being, she doesn’t complain about it and was even willing to help Josh out, even advising him to look with more than just his eyes.
- Last Call: When Monica’s given an assignment to provide a single miracle to a person of her choice at a tavern, she’s extremely conflicted over who to choose as she noticed nearly everyone was in a desperate and/or miserable state. And while she’s initially mocked for claiming she was an angel, she’s able to prove she was the real deal to the people in the tavern and ultimately goes through with giving out the miracle.
Season 4[]
- Seek And Ye Shall Find: Although she hit her head leading her to forget who she was and her faith in God, she’s still mostly friendly and showed sympathy for everyone’s plights -- including a man whose wife was murdered. She’d regain her memories and self-identity after Effie forgave Monica for seemingly stealing her money (long story) and gave it to her for her troubles. And when hearing about her Effie wanted to see a real-life angel, Monica would reveal her angel status to her, and thank you for her act of forgiveness and restoring her memories.
Season 5[]
- The Lady of the Lake: When she learns from Tess and Andrew that a lake --Lake Paradise -- is dying and their were no animals residing at it, her next assignment was help out Blake Chapman, and bring the lake back to life. She started working at a bait-and-tackle shop near the lake and nurtured some worms, and when offered a position from Blake, Monica refuses to sell the shop, thereby holding back Mayforth Corporation's progress and plans to buy the property around the lake. Various townspeople wanted to get the property sold to Mayforth thinking the lake would be turned into a resort, and the town would go forth with the plans for the area near the lake with or without Monica's consent, even if it meant destroying her shop. Right after encouraging Laurel to tell Blake that Jeremy was his son and not just hers, she'd chain herself to a tree to make an oncoming bulldozer halt. That wasn't even required for the assignment by the way, she did that on her own accord. She tells the people they "[couldn't] change the past by bulldozing over the future", and exposes to them that Mayforth wasn't building a resort like they claim, but rather outlet mall that would involve filling in the lake and making it a parking lot. And although Monica's arrested for trespassing on Mayforth property, she'd still talk with Blake, recognizing that he returned to the area despite not having to, and trying to level with him about the accident where he and Laurel fell in the supposedly frozen lake on the night he was propose, and yet some miraculously survived... and it's later revealed that Monica herself had saved the two that night as a search and rescue angel so he would realize his life and reform himself. This, along with learning Jeremy was his son leads to him to make amends with Laurel, reconnect with their son, and abandon his plans to destroy Lake Paradise. The lake itself would also thrive and be revitalized some time later with the animals returning.
- Psalm 151: For Monica's 100th assignment -- and one of her most difficult -- Monica arrives at the home of single mother Audrey and her son Petey, whose birthday was that day, but was coughing as a result of his disease: cystic fibrosis. After being released from a hospital for the 24th time, Petey, his friend Celine and Monica would overhear that Petey didn't have much time left to live. With help from Monica, Tess, Andrew, and Celine, they would all work through Petey's list of things he wanted to accomplish before he dies, all of which were actually realistic goals, and even kind and selfless.
- Learning to play the piano (Tess is able to teach him to play beautifully)
- Finding a home for Fluffy, his iguana (Tess reluctantly agrees to take care of the iguana)
- Finding someone else to sing with his mother (The church down at the corner told his mother she was welcome come down and sing anytime)
- Getting someone to shovel the sidewalk for his mother when it snows (Mr. Morgan was willing to shovel)
- Finishing his mother's unfinished song (This was the last thing to be addressed. Audrey was unsure if she'd be able write the song, but Monica would encourage her continue as she'd reveal her angel state and reveal that Petey refused to go to heaven until the list was finished. Monica also gave Audrey advice to write about her love of Petey and honor him. After some delayed thought, Audrey's able to finish the 151st psalm)
- Doing something nice for Celine: namely having her meet Celine Dion (Andrew and Petey took Celine to a concert hall to meet Dion in person before and during one of her shows)
- Wanting to die at home with his mother and Celine (Tess and Celine had to fight to convince the hospital, including Celine to stay at home)
- Getting a flagpole, so the angels would be able to find him when he dies (Andrew ordered a flagpole, and Celine would make the flag)
- Into the Fire: While Melina Richardson signs up for a seminar at a cult known as the Golden Path Institute right after getting fired from a job, Monica realizes the organization was actually a cult and its leader Brother David was encouraging its members to forget about their social lives, stripping them off their identities – even having the members give up all of their personal belongings – deceiving everyone with lies, and basically controlling everyone. She'd later discover that Brother David was withholding letters meant for some of his the members, and that David would spread fear for the date 9/9/99 (allegedly the date when the world's computers would dump all their data) and convince the cult's members to kill themselves, claiming they'd live with God in heaven forever. Monica's able to reveal the truth about the letters to the cult members and that people still cared about them. She'd later point out to David that he had doubt under his guise of authority, but refused to accept that he was simply a man with faults and wanted to play God, and yet she still tries to reason with him and reform him, first by ask what he was afraid of, then by revealing she was an angel. While Brother David still refuses to accept his faults and claimed Monica was a demon (making him one of the very few people to genuinely piss Monica off), Monica's able to convince his followers --including Melina-- to abandon the self-sacrifice pact and continue their everyday lives. Then when Brother David sets fire to the church building with him and his followers still inside, Monica breaks open the doors' locks and lets everyone escape the burning building. She also saves various children from the fire, by getting them out of the building, and even urges David to escape while he could despite the aforementioned antagonism from earlier.
- Black Like Monica: When Monica realizes a black man had been murdered, and gets locked into a jail cell to ensure the cover up, she desperately wants to help the town. She'd then spend some time as a mortal black woman where she'd learn first hand the kind of prejudice black people had to face, including nearly being killed by a group. When she's changed back to herself, just in time to narrow avoid being killed, she comprehends just how bad blacks had it, and sat on the bus with Rosa Parks to explain what happened. After a chat from Tess, Monica encourages Tom and Jones to be honest with each other about their own prejudices, and the duo announce Mooney's death to the town, with Monica in particular putting flowers on Mooney's grave, wanting to thank him.
Season 6[]
- The Last Day of the Rest of Your Life: She serves as the facilitator of a support group for of a group of adults who were all dying. She encourages them to make a list of things they want to accomplish before they die.
- The Occupant: She, Tess and Andrew help out a homeless man named Lonnie who seemingly had Multiple Personality Disorder, but was really possessed by a demon who called himself “Gregory” that was destroying his body. Monica in particular, plays a strong role in exorcizing Gregory as she pleads with Lonnie to ask God for help, while Tess encouraged Lonnie’s friend Duncan to be there for him due to his strong faith.
- Pandora's Box: When the Radcliff parents give up their computer and send it back over issues with their kids potentially being exposed to porn, the daughter Sarah would head to her friend Kiki’s house and use her computer, where Kiki would set them up on a teen chat website. A user calling themself “dean16” would chat with the two online. When Kiki claimed Sarah was a junior, and posted a photo of her, it grabbed the user’s attention and Sarah would eventually get attached to “Dean” and eventually agree to meet him in person. Monica and Andrew would warn Sarah’s parents about how Dean was with Sarah and was actually very dangerous. Monica took their daughter Millie home, while Andrew and the parents went after Dean.
Season 7[]
- Reasonable Doubt: When placed on jury duty for her assignment and selected as one of the jurors, She was hesitant on voting for whether Brendan Falstaff was guilty of murdering his girlfriend or not and instead asked if the rest of the juror was sure the defendant was guilty, and states that they made up their minds without proper discussion. She requests that they go over the evidence properly – the eyewitnesses, what they saw, if they clearly remember the details. Then when the jury takes a second vote upon learning further information, Monica’s the only member to not vote “guilty”. She then calls everyone out for taking a risk when the defendant’s life was on the line. She'd later point out that the witness didn't actually see the license plate that day, and provide additional information that changes the jurors' –including Carol Anne after having a heartfelt talk with her – perspectives of the convict being innocent.
- Netherlands: When a new then-unnamed angel gets created by God, Monica looks after the new angel, and explains why she stayed on Earth, how humanity operates, and some info on being an angel and her role. After recovering from a crisis of faith (more on that in the Satan section), she helps out Gloria with her assignment involving a young girl named Madeline, whom Gloria was to tell a story to, and Monica tell Madeline about her mother being in heaven, and encourage Gloria to tell a true story.
Season 8[]
- Minute by Minute: When a pair juvenile delinquents, John and Cory plotted to blow up their Catholic high school using extremely powerful bombs another one of them crafted (but was beginning to regret doing so), Monica warns Sister Theodore, a nun/teacher, about how two boys were trying to plant the bombs. While she doesn’t directly try to talk the boys out of their actions, she does get Sister Theodore to bust them, even though Theodore gets shot shortly afterward. Monica would then nurture Theodore, and after revealing she knew her real name Mary Renaldi and history and identity, she encourages her to face the boys as herself, as they wouldn’t listen to an angel or a nun.
Season 9[]
- Two Sides to Every Angel: When demon Monique poses as Monica and decieves Gloria into endangering herself and straining the relationship with a loving couple, the real Monica would worry about Gloria’s safety, despite having to let Gloria deal with the challenge mostly on her own. But takes a while for Gloria to realize that Monique wasn’t actually Monica, and a slip-up on Monique’s part. Then when Monica officially learns of Monique’s location and what she had done, she’d track down Gloria, and confront Monique, telling Gloria that Monique confused people and made them question who they were. And when Monique tried to confuse Gloria again, but standing next to Monica, in her exact same clothing, the real Monica knew Gloria was in a tight spot and advised her to listen to God, which allowed Gloria to see her for the real Monica. She also refused to fight Monique with hate, rather she simply resisted her evil causing her to lose her power.
- Remembering Me two-parter: Monica would realize Tess was coming down with a case of Alzhemier’s disease, and shows great concern over Tess’ condition, and sticks by her side continuing to provide love for her, before Monica eventually realizes she has to hand Tess into God’s hands. Luckily, Tess is able to make a quick recovery.
- As It Is In Heaven: During her and Tess’ 200th assignment, Monica nearly runs down her assignment by mistake and has to go to traffic school. After four hours of sign quizzes and drunk driving videos, Monica would discover that her driving instructor Kelly was selling completion certificates to traffic offenders. Monica would later confront Kelly about her dishonest methods, only to learn Kelly was an angel too, and she had adopted Jesse after his mother died. Tess and Monica try to reach Kelly, although she’s not interested. Then, Kelly would learn that Jesse was going to die and she’d try and fail to rescue him, which Monica would console Kelly over telling her that Jesse made a difference in his neighborhood thanks to her. Kelly would accept that Monica came to take back to heaven, and was relieved Jesse would be there.
- I Will Walk With You two-parter: Monica had one final assignment to complete as a caseworker before she could be promoted to supervisor and Tess’ replacement. The assignment was Zack, a traveling handyman heading with her to Ascension, Colorado, where it’s revealed that the town’s children (and some teachers) were killed two years ago when the school's boiler exploded. So now adults want justice for whomever may be responsible for the explosion. But then a town developer claims to have seen Zack near the school on the day of the explosion, and the grieving townspeople instantly accuse Zack of killing all the children and put him in prison, despite barely having any reliable sources. Zack’s put on trial, and Monica tries to get Zack the best representation she can, having Mike -- a big time lawyer and the town's mayor-- become Zack's defense lawyer, along with fellow angel Gloria. Although Zack's found guilty of the murders and sentenced to 54 life sentences in prison (one for each life lost in the explosion), Monica would visit Zack in prison, reveal herself as an angel, apologize for being unable to help him and was willing to abandon her promotion just to stay by Zack's side in prison for the rest of his life and protect him from any harm. She was essentially giving up her life for a total stranger... except Zack disappeared from his cell. Then, after the townspeople learn about who was truly responsible for all those deaths, Monica would encourage the residents not to leave town or lose hope, as that's what evil would have wanted. Then it's revealed that Zack was actually God himself, and Monica's incredibly selfless act of being willing to stay in prison to protect Zack for the rest of her life --without even knowing he was God -- helped her pass her evolution, and showed God that Monica was loving and selfless enough to become a supervisor.
Trivia[]
- So far, Monica's the only Touched by an Angel character to be Pure Good, although considering the show's long time on the air, and the various other angels featured, that could easily change.
External Links[]
- Monica on the Heroes Wiki