Every intelligence agency in fiction has a chief. The good ones have a Marella. Archangel's senior aide is the F.I.R.M.'s quiet superweapon: the one who assembles the dossiers, runs the computer searches, delivers the briefings and — when the situation calls for it — takes the controls herself.
The series lets her credentials speak in one of its best exchanges, in 'Proof Through the Night': five doctorates — spanning aeronautical engineering, electronic engineering, psychology, microbiology and French literature — and a year short of a medical degree besides. It is played for a laugh and meant absolutely seriously; whenever the plot needs someone smarter than everyone else in the room, the woman in white is already there.
Marella's defining loyalty is to Archangel: she is fiercely protective of the deputy director, and visibly loses patience only when he does something reckless — like climbing into Airwolf himself. But watch closely across the classic seasons and a second loyalty emerges: more than once, quietly and against standing orders, Marella tilts the board in Hawke's favor.
Deborah Pratt played Marella through the CBS years — and her post-Airwolf career became one of television's great footnotes: she went on to co-create and produce Quantum Leap, another Bellisario landmark.