"Just as Doyle is inches away from finally making a connection with Cordy, his estranged wife shows up at Angel Investigations begging for a divorce so she can marry the new love of her life. After the initial shock of it all, Doyle agrees to consent to the divorce."

Maybe I am missing something but I have always taken this as little more than a preamble to the revelation that Buffy is in jeopardy taking us into the events of Pangs. sk

A funny episode which parodies the rites of divorce and remarriage whilst bulking up Doyle's shadowy character. Here the Cordelia/Doyle relationship seems possible, with hints that Cordy is just the tiniest bit attracted to Doyle. Harry is also very likable as the ex-wife, and brings a spark to the episode. And then there's the cliff hanger of Doyle's buffy vision, enticing us not only to watch Angel next week, but to remember buffy too...

However, this seems like yet another character episode, hot on the heels of the Angel (in the dark), Cordy (Rm w/a vu) and kate (Sense and Sensitivity), and in some ways seems not to move the series along.

It's a Doyle episode. 8.5/10

Uncle John: First we greet the man of the hour, drink, bring out the food, drink, then comes the stripper, darts, then we have the Ritual Eating of the First Husbands Brains, then charades.
Ben: Wait! What was that? Charades?
Nick: Yeah, I don't know about that.

cordie to the rescue and beating the crap out of poor doyle (who had his demon face :lmao: )

a good episode with a few good scenes/quotes

angel breaking the glass to save larry and having a huge bill to pay about it

an interesting introduction about the past of doyle

:thumbsup:

As ever I enjoyed the interaction between the core trio and the humour in that. Doyle is great in this episode, especially his lil' face when he's stuck in the box being pushed around everywhere! :lol: But overall, this episode is a little boring and I agree that it fails to move the story forward. The new husband freaks me out- apart from the obvious demon reasons- isn't he Ken in Buffy's Anne aswell? I recognise him from somewhere :unsure: :huh:

yes, it was the same actor

Yes, I agree. Not much of an episode at all, really, its only merit being that Cordy starts to see there is more to Doyle than she thought.

The first truely Doyle-centric episode and it's not great imo. We learn a lot about the character including that he was a teacher, helped in a soup kitchen and was married. But Doyle told Angel that he married when he was 20, how did he complete his training as a teacher before then :huh:?
Cordy being rescued by Doyle and realising that perhaps Doyle is worth a chance was good and of course his wife would walk in just at that moment :(. And :lol: to Cordy cheering Doyle up at the end.

I've always considered this one of the weakest of S1, and my opinion hasn't changed dramatically, though it was a little better than I remembered.

I like the double twist: that you think (now I can't for the life of me think of his name in this ep, so I'll go with his Buffy name, and call him Ken ;) ) Ken is evil to start with when he turns into a demon, and then you think he's ok, and then he turns out to be kinda bad after all. Although to him, it's not evil, just tradition. :) I like the casual way it's dropped into the conversation "...then the ritual eating of the first husbands brains, then charades" :lol:

I also like Angel's cool stalking from the rooftops, and the way he bursts in through the door. I hadn't remembered that the credit scene came from this ep before.

And also, :lol:@ Cordy bashing Doyle over the head when he's in demon form, then saying "oh look what they did to you" when he's human again.

Mostly though, this ep seems to be a set up for both the Pangs/IWRY crossover, and also for Hero, in terms of Cordy & Doyle's relationship.

This is, imo, a pretty good Doyle ep, but not a patch on Hero. However, it was important that we did have a Doyle ep before Hero, so that we already care about Doyle, which I suppose we already did just from the other eps but this developed his character more.

Harry's voice is really annoying, and is it just me or does it seem like Angel hardly does anything in this episode?

I liked the parallel between Doyle's line "Harry didn't leave because of the demon in me. She left because of me" with Angel's "It's not the demon in me that needs killing, Buffy. It's the man" in Amends. I also liked the subtle way that Doyle's relationship with Harry was paralleled with Angel/Buffy, setting up the crossover to come.

Margot

Thats pretty much my feelings for this episode too.

Fun in parts, but basically just there to give you background on Doyle and as I already liked him before this episode the revelation of him being married, being a teacher, etc was redundent.

I was more interested in the embryonic Cordy/Doyle relationship and I really wasn't expecting it to happen within the space of one epsiode so the appearance of an ex was neither here nor there for me anyway.

Am I making any sense? :huh:

Doyle: Yeah, I take it back!
Richard: Oh. Well. I see. Now I'm not so sure I even want to eat your brains.
Uncle John: Don't be petulant, Richard. You'll eat his brains. You can't take back a blessing. Now apologize to your friend.
Richard: He's right. That was rude. I'd be honored to eat your brains.

:thumbsup: I've always enjoyed this one. Poor Doyle, Harry turns up bringing up old issues from the past, he has to let go, nearly gets his brains eaten and still tries to hide that he is half demon from Cordelia, you have to feel sorry for him.

I've always found it quite funny :)

A brilliant ep, quality early Angel :thumbsup: Watched this ep last night for the first time in many months and it really stood out. Doyle was fantastic in this ep, this is probably the best chance he’s had to shine so far without Cordy dragging him down a notch (though she did popup with some annoying one liners). Despite that, Doyle and his married past was very interesting and unexpected. Really can’t imagine him as a primary school teacher, which more than likely goes to show how much he’s changed since his Francis days. And the irony of his slightly dumb wife becoming a demonologist after leaving him for his demon side was sad too.

The pacifist demons were great fun, very funny seeing them all together as a family, trying to eat Doyle’s brains :lol: with a shrimp fork no less :lol: :lol: This ep also contains the classic clip of Angel kicking down a door which gets used in the main titles, makes for a very heroic scene too :) Also, the begging part where Doyle rescues Cordy seemed very important, it showed what a stand up guy he really is, which only adds to the sadness of what’s to come.


Overall, fantastic! :)

:thumbsup: I also love this episode, I'm a big Doyle fan so no suprise really.

Wow he has a rough time in this one, his ex turns up bringing divorce papers and her new fiance barges in, he learns that it was him she left and not his demon side and then after swallowing all of it really quite nobely they want to eat his brains.

Oh and the battering from Cordy near the end :lol:

As you say Loobi, its also where Cordy finally begins to see the good qualities in him that really matter in life :tear:

It's a good episode because we learn more about Doyle's past which more or less hasn't been revealed before.
Cordelia finding out she has feelings for Doyle, all i can say is about time too.
DOn't really like the whole plot with the sacrifice at all though. ;)

5/10.