"Bachelor Party" is episode 7 of season 1 in the television show Angel

Angel (TV series)

Angel is an American television series, a spin-off of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The series was created by Buffys creator, Joss Whedon, in collaboration with David Greenwalt, and first aired on October 5, 1999...

. Written by Tracey Stern

Tracey Stern

Tracey Stern is an American television writer and producer.Stern made her television debut writing for the first two season of ER. She has also worked as a writer on Pacific Blue, Sports Night, Angel, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Leap Years, Touching Evil, Desperate Housewives, The Book of...

 and directed by David Straiton

David Straiton

David Straiton is an American television director.Since the 1990s he has amassed large a number of notable television credits, first making his directorial debut directing an episode of the Disney Channel series Flash Forward...

, it originally broadcast on November 16, 1999 on the WB network

Television network

A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...

.

Plot

Doyle

Allen Francis Doyle

Allen Francis Doyle is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the cult television series, Angel. The character was portrayed by Glenn Quinn.-Character history:Doyle was born to a human mother and a Brachen demon father...

 is caught off guard when his estranged wife, Harriet, asks for a divorce so she'll be free to marry her new love, Richard. Though quite surprised to learn this piece of Doyle's past, Angel and Cordelia

Cordelia Chase

Cordelia Chase is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer; she also appeared on Buffy's spin-off series Angel...

 do all they can to support their friend. With the wedding a few days away, Cordelia accepts Harry's invitation to her bridal shower. That night, Angel shadows Richard and discovers that Harry's affable fiancé is an Ano-movic demon. Since Doyle believes that Harry's rejection of his own half-demon heritage caused their breakup, he must contend with a certain amount of rekindled pain and anger. Nevertheless, Doyle reluctantly accepts Richard's sincere invitation to the bachelor party. Apparently, the wedding cannot proceed without Doyle's express blessing on Harry's second union. Little do either the bride-to-be or Team Angel know, a sacred Ano-movic tradition involves ritualistically eating the first husband's brain.

Harriet and Cordelia discover Doyle is in danger and crash the party, followed soon after by Angel. Doyle morphs into his demon form and tries to help out but in the ensuing fight, he is knocked senseless. Cordelia does not understand Doyle actually transformed in the fight. Harriet learns her husband won't go through with the marriage unless they can kill Doyle, so she breaks it off.

Angel and Cordelia watch Doyle mope in the darkened outer office until Cordelia goes out and cheers him up in her straightforward way. All of a sudden, Doyle has yet another painful vision. This time, he recognizes the blond woman from Angel's bookmark photo, apparently fighting for her life against multiple foes. When Angel asks, wide-eyed, what he saw, Doyle hesitates to speak Buffy's name.

Acting

Guest star Carlos Jacott

Carlos Jacott

Carlos Jacott is an American film and television actor. He has appeared in over 40 television shows including Firefly and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and playing a demon on both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel....

 also appeared in two other Mutant Enemy produced television shows: he played Ken in "Anne", the first episode of the third season of Buffy, and Lawrence Dobson on the pilot episode of Firefly

Firefly (TV series)

Firefly is an American space western television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon, under his Mutant Enemy Productions label. Whedon served as executive producer, along with Tim Minear....

.

Continuity

• Crossover with Buffy: In the last scene, Doyle has a vision of Buffy
  Buffy Summers
  Buffy Summers is a fictional character from Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise. She first appeared in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer before going on to appear in the television series and subsequent comic book of the same name...
  
   in danger. Angel goes to Sunnydale in "Pangs
  Pangs (Buffy episode)
  "Pangs" is the eighth episode of season 4 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.On Thanksgiving, Buffy encounters the restless and vengeful spirit of a Native American, whose people were wiped out by white settlers...
  
  ".
• Doyle fulfills the first half of his promise ("Rm w/a Vu") to tell Angel the story of his life by confessing salient points of his failed relationship with Harriet.
• Cordelia also mentions her previous relationship with Xander Harris
  Xander Harris
  Alexander LaVelle "Xander" Harris is a fictional character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as in numerous items in the series Expanded Universe, such as comic books, tie-in novels and video games...
  
   during the second and third seasons of Buffy.

Arc significance

Doyle has at least two significant opportunities to show Cordelia his demon face, neither of which he takes. The first is when he fights the stalker vamp and chooses to struggle unaugmented rather than reveal his mixed heritage. The second comes when Harry and Cordelia walk in on the boys' mêlée. Doyle has just been knocked flying and is lying out of sight under the table in one of the restaurant booths. He groggily sits up during Harry's tirade—still in demon form. Cordelia, in an excess of concern for her friend, Doyle, vents some of her anger and anxiety by grabbing a handy serving tray and repeatedly bashing the blue-green, spiny thing she believes to be one of the evil, brain-eating demons. Angel hastily comes to Doyle's rescue, both pulling Cordy off and distracting her so she won't see him morph back to human form. It remains unclear whether Cordelia recognizes him as the same person when Doyle deliberately shows her his demon face in "Hero".

External links