“Rm w/a Vu”

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Episode 5 of Season 1

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“Angel Investigations. We hope you’re helpless.”

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Original US airdate: November 2nd, 1999 (aired directly after the Buffy episode "Beer Bad")

Rewatched: May 14th, 2022

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• Writer: Jane Espenson

• Director: David Greenwalt

• Guests: Elisabeth Rohm, Beth Grant

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Why we live the way we live is the theme of this episode. As viewers already know why Angel lives the way he does, and about his road to redemption, the focus here is on Cordelia and Doyle.

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Doyle’s life involves the seedy underworld of LA. While he tends to know a guy who knows a guy and can find Cordelia a new apartment or find all the ingredients for a spell at short notice, he also owes money and has a guy trying to scare it out of him. While none of us know the story of Doyle yet, this episode provides some hints. As Doyle tells Angel, “Well, why not live like this? I mean what’s wrong with it? Yeah well, I guess it’s the kind of life that keeps your expectations from getting too high.”

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Cordelia, on the other hand, we know more about, although this episode shows us how much she herself understands about who she is. Angel tells Doyle about Cordy’s old life at Sunnydale High. Cordelia’s trophies and diploma are on display. But she’s not picking up the phone when Aura calls. Her life is not where she wants it to be. It starts looking up when Doyle finds her a new apartment. But the apartment is haunted and the ghost of Maude Pearson nearly gets Cordelia to kill herself. She’s not willing to give up on her new place, however, because, as she tells Angel, “and if it goes away, it’s like … like I’m still getting punished … For how I was, for everything that I said in high school just ‘cause I could get away with it. And then it all ended and I had to pay.”

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This is what Angel, Doyle and Cordelia all seem to have in common- the desire to become better people than they were and to work to be better people now.

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At the end of the episode, Cordy finds her inner bitch and forces the ghost to leave her alone. Then, possessed by the 2nd ghost, Maude’s son Dennis, who was sealed behind a brick wall in the apartment by his mother shorty before his mother died of a heart attack, Cordy breaks down the wall, and Dennis is able to banish his mother. Phantom Dennis (a bad pun for Phantom Menace) is now Cordy’s roommate in her way too nice to be true apartment in LA.

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In fun facts, we learn that vampire invitations work away from time/place- as Cordy tells Angel he can come over anytime once she has a new apartment and he later needs no invite. Also, Angel’s world is showing a bit more nuance in the demon world than Buffy. Although there are hints in Buffy of not all demons being inherently evil, Buffy’s world is more black and white. In Angel’s world, there is a world of very human demons hiding in the shadows. Also, there are a few more guns.

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“Sense and Sensitivity”

 

Episode 6 of Season 1

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“Well, spend a little time listening to how the living interact.”

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Original US airdate: November 9th, 1999 (aired directly after the Buffy episode "Wild at Heart")

Rewatched: March 21st, 2022

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• Writer: Tim Minear

• Director: James A. Contner

• Guests: Elisabeth Rohm, John Capodice, John Mahon, Ron Marasco

      

Angel does sensitivity training. It doesn’t end well. While superficially this episode could be seen as a knock at PC sensitivity training, it is ultimately a bit deeper than that, as the characters are able to express some things that need expressing. However, since this is demon-run sensitivity training, it goes too far and gets out of hand. When, at the end, the characters are able to return to normal, they are left with the same emotional baggage as before.

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The episode opens with Cordelia (the irony) complaining about Angel’s lack of interest in others. Not saying please or thank you. Not asking if everything went well. Not noticing her new shoes. At around the same time, Kate (looking very much like Buffy) is chasing the bad guys and bringing them in. But the man she’s chasing remains elusive and she turns to Angel for help. Once the duo is able to track him down, his lawyers from Wolfram & Hart show up. The lawyers arrange for the sensitivity training at the precinct, which makes all the cops turn into crying messes, and all the guys in jail get let out. Angel, trying to figure out what’s gone wrong with Kate, tracks down the trainer and fights him… but also gets dosed with the mojo. Despite both being a bit beside themselves, Kate and Angel stop their suspect from escaping and once they return to normal are able to restart their relationship. Sort of.

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In this episode, Kate did ask Angel to come to her dad’s retirement party as a date of sorts. Their over sensitivity seems to put the dampers on a continued dating relationship, with both claiming they don’t remember what they said. Kate was also able to open up to her dad (who we meet for the first time), although not at the right time and it was a bit much (since she hijacked his party to deal with her baggage). But Kate is disappointed when her father chooses to ignore what she said to him.  This underlines the theme of the episode – it’s not that sensitivity training or dealing with our issues is wrong, but that it needs the right approach and just unloading on someone is not going to get the results you want.

 

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“The Bachelor Party”

 

Episode 7 of Season 1

 

“Harriet didn’t leave because of the demon in me, she left because of me.”

 

Original US airdate: November 16th, 1999 (aired directly after the Buffy episode "The Initiative")

Rewatched: May 28th, 2022

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• Writer: Tracey Stern

• Director: David Straiton

• Guests: Kristin Dattilo, Carlos Jacott

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This episode focuses on Cordelia and Doyle. Cordelia is learning that money isn’t everything. She has a date with Pierce, who seems to have it all – money, the right car, the right houses. But at their fancy restaurant dinner, Cordelia is bored to tears. And when a vampire attacks them in front of Angel Investigations at the end of their date, Pierce runs and Doyle saves the day. Cordelia is reevaluating what she wants, and it turns out she wants brave and interesting, not just rich and handsome. Cordelia is ready to take Doyle to coffee when his wife Harriet shows up (who calls Doyle by his first name, Francis).

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Doyle’s wife Harriet, the two are long separated, wants a divorce as she’s ready to marry again. The two married young, before Doyle knew he was half demon (his father was the demon, his mother didn’t tell him, and it didn’t manifest until he was 21). This news is what killed the relationship. Doyle has always assumed his demon half is what made Harriet leave. But when he finds out the new husband is also demon, Doyle is forced to reevaluate. As Harriet explains it, she didn’t handle it well at first. But then she did. She embraced demons (and choose to be an ethnodemonologist), but Doyle didn’t (and perhaps still doesn’t – Cordy doesn’t know he’s a demon yet and he refuses to morph into a demon when fighting vampires with Angel). He couldn’t accept his demon self and was just angry, so she left.

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Viewers (and Cordy) also learn Doyle used to teach third grade (although the timeline seems off… like if they married before 21, how could he have been a teacher when they met?), volunteered, and was a great guy. Which indicates that his current somewhat seedy lifestyle of drinking, dive apartment and gambling came after his break with Harriet.

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In the end, it turns out Harriet’s fiancé Richard, who is a demon, plans to eat Doyle’s brain in order to be able to marry Harriet. Angel, Cordy and Harriet save the day, and Harriet leaves Richard.

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The episode ends with Doyle having a vision which will send Angel to Sunnydale for the Buffy episode “Pangs”. Although it must be questioned why Doyle has this vision about a run-of-the-mill monster of the week episode Buffy was fully equipped to deal with. Evidently the need for crossovers was more important.

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So, this episode focuses on the journeys Cordelia and Doyle are on. Cordelia is learning that fighting the good fight is her calling. Doyle is learning to embrace his true identity.

 

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“I Will Remember You”

 

Episode 8 of Season 1

 

“How can we be together is the cost is your life or the lives of others?”

 

Original US airdate: November 23rd, 1999 (aired directly after the Buffy episode "Pangs")

Rewatched: June 4th, 2022

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• Writer: David Greenwalt, Jeannine Renshaw

• Director: David Grossman

• Guests: Carey Cannon, Randall Slavin, Sarah Michelle Gellar

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After the Buffy cross-over episode, Buffy comes to LA to visit her father and confront Angel for coming to Sunnydale to save her, but not tell her. Although Angel claims he wrestled with the decision and tried to do what was right, Buffy’s point is that he made the decision without her. Unfortunately, their argument is interrupted by a Mora demon whose blood ends up turning Angel human, kicking off another round of Buffy and Angel’s relationship. They kiss, they have wild sex, and they enjoy food together.

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Although this is Buffy and Angel’s deepest desire, it is actually not all it’s cracked up to be. It doesn’t actually make their relationship perfect; it just brings up new hurdles. The foremost being that Angel still has a conscience. Although at first, he feels like he’s free of his burden, i.e. his need for redemption, ultimately, he realizes that it is not worth being human if he can’t fight the good fight. He asks the Oracles, seen for the first time in this episode (Doyle tells Angel this is the only way to contact the Powers that Be), to turn back time. The Mora demon took a warrior from them and they need him back. Angel is willing to sacrifice happiness and love to fight the good fight and the Oracles turn back time for him, allowing him to remember what happened so he can change events. Angel will carry the burden of knowing he had a chance to be happy with Buffy, but gave it all away to save the world.

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While overall a bit of a cheesy episode, the theme is similar to “In the Dark” – Angel has to earn his redemption and it’s not worth it if it happens just because.

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In fun facts, Angel and Buffy have another emotional sewer talk, like in “The Prom” and Buffy calls Sunnydale her town while talking to Angel, clearly marking that she and Angel are on separate paths.

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“Hero”

 

Episode 9 of Season 1

 

“Is that it? Am I done?”

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Original US airdate: November 30th, 1999 (aired directly after the Buffy episode "Something Blue")

Rewatched: June 11th, 2022

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• Writer: Howard Gordon and Tim Minear

• Director: Tucker Gates

• Guests: Tony Denman, Anthony Cistaro, Michelle Horn, Lee Arenberg, Sean Gunn          

 

The theme of this episode is heroism or, more specifically, responsibility to family and fellow man. Doyle learns about Angel’s day with Buffy in the previous episode. Angel tells Doyle “We [Angel and Buffy] don’t belong to ourselves. We belong in the world fighting.” Doyle responds that Angel must be the real deal in the hero department, as he would have chosen the pleasures of the flesh over duty and honor, “I just don’t have that strength.” However, by the end of the episode it is clear that Doyle also has the strength.

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When Doyle gets a vision about a group of Lister demons who need to be saved from the Scourge, Angel Investigations sets everything in motion to save them. The Scourge are demons (who look a lot like the demons in the Buffy episode “Anne”) who want to rid the world of half-breeds. All very Nazi-like. The Lister are peaceful demons, just looking for a place to belong. It turns out, Doyle was asked to help some fellow Brachen demons out when they were being chased by the Scourge years previously. He declined, saying he wasn’t dying to take chances. Although much of this decision was motivated by his lack of acceptance of his demon self, this is still the event that led to his visions. In fact, his first vision was of the death his decision caused.

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Although Doyle sees Angel as more of a hero than himself (he repeatedly tells the Lister demons Angel will save them), he comes through for them. First, he finds Rieff, a young Lister demon who runs off rather than face the Scourge and tells him how important his family is, and he can either face this with his family, or he can lose himself, hoping it all goes away, which Doyle knows never works. This speech shows how much Doyle has grown as a hero compared to when he turned away his fellow Brachen demons. But he really steps up when he sacrifices himself to stop the Scourge and save the day. Doyle tells Angel and Cordelia: "The good fight, yeah? You never know until you've been tested. I get that now." Then he hits Angel to prevent Angel from sacrificing himself, kisses Cordelia (which gives her his visions) and goes out with a bang.

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Doyle’s journey ends here. His sacrifice is his redemption. He is also the first member of Angel Investigations to die and his death deeply impacts Cordelia (they were just planning their first date and he was a man she maybe could have loved) and Angel (who loses a friend). The two watch the advertising video Cordelia made at the beginning of the episode at the end again. This is not the only time this video will be played, or that Cordelia and Angel will have to face their grief.

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On a final note, there are rumors that Doyle was written out of the show because he was difficult/unreliable on set. His death a few years later, which may have been an overdose, seems to underline the validity of this rumor. However, it is also known that Joss Whedon had hoped to have Jesse in the credits of the first episode of Buffy to make the shock of his death more real. Some think Whedon may have planned an early exit for Doyle all along in order to let fans know that no one is safe.

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