Sensitive Demons

For being created by a man famous for his liberalism, the stories on Angel and Buffy could have some episodes with pretty conservative ideas at their core. A pair of season one Angel episodes show this well--"Sense & Sensitivity" and "The Bachelor Party". The former is an episode that amusingly pokes fun at workplace sensitivity training (an idea that's certainly become more conservative) and the latter questions the idea of blindly accepting the cultural traditions of a foreign community. They're both good episodes but "The Bachelor Party", written by Tracey Stern, is an exceptionally well structured piece of television.

I always liked Doyle (Glenn Quinn) and was disappointed he only lasted nine episodes before being killed off. Joss Whedon took a lot of the blame for that but now we know it was due to Quinn's personal issues. In any case, he's intensely charming in this episode intended to explore his character.

If the idea going in was to have the drama centre around the possibility of Doyle finally getting with his crush, Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), the mission was thoroughly accomplished, believingly and entertainingly bringing the characters within a hairs breadth of a date only to have it snatched way just as believably and even more entertainingly.

Doyle barely survives protecting Cordelia from a vampire attack after she's had a disappointing date with a stock broker. After Doyle's heroics, Cordelia seriously starts to contemplate Doyle's potential as a boyfriend and is on the point of asking him out . . . when in walks Doyle's wife (Kristin Dattilo).

She wants Doyle to sign divorce papers so she can marry Richard, played by Carlos Jacott, one of the few actors to appear on Buffy, Angel, and Firefly ("Anne", "The Bachelor Party", and "Serenity"), always playing different characters but always playing a guy who starts out seeming friendly and then turns out to be a villain. In this case it turns out his family are demons whose culture demands Richard devour the brains of his fiancee's previous husband.

The humour is so wonderfully deadpan at the bachelor party itself. When Angel (David Boreanaz) directly condemns the practice, one of the demons calls him racist without a trace of irony in his line delivery. All of the actors play it absolutely straight which of course makes it so much funnier.

Doyle thought that his wife had left him because he was a demon until he finds out she was getting ready to marry another demon. This also works as a nice bit of introspection for his character.

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