S01.E09: Hero

[Joe Hellandback]

The Good; Actually I rated this ep pretty weak until the last 5 minutes when it then became spectacular. Cordy's advertisement idea and the one she films with Doyle are hilarious but ultimately incredibly poignant. Good scene too when the kid tells Doyle his Halloween story.

The Bad; I didn't really dig the demons in peril storyline and I thought the Nazi allegory with The Scourge was a bit thick (nowadays they'd be the Taliban). Also they seem to accept Angel into their ranks a little too easily. Even their vehicles look Nazi-like and DB's hair looks very 1940s.

Best line: Doyle; "Is that it? Am I done?"

Jeez, how did they get away with that? Doyle's melting face

Apocalypses: 4

Angel Clichés (Cordy's ad is one big Angel cliché)

Damsel in distress; nope, 2.

Inverting the Hollywood cliché; The sidekick sacrifices himself to save the day rather than the hero

In disguise; 3 as a Nazi/scourge DB get's his shirt off; 3

Cordy's tatto;2

Cheap Angel; 2. Exactly what do all these people owe Angel money for?

Fang Gang in bondage: Cordy: 5 Angel: 4 

Fang gang knocked out: Cordy: 8 Angel: 7  Doyle; 1

Kills: Cordy: none this ep. 3 vamps, ½ a demon from her time in Sunnydale Angel: 2 Scourge for Angel. So that gives Angel 8 vamps, 6 demons, 2 humans. Doyle; 1 vamp

Fang Gang go evil: Cordy: 1 Angel: 1

Alternate Fang Gang: Cordy: 2 Angel: 5

Characters killed: the treacherous first mate so we won't count him 14 Recurring characters killed; 1; Goodbye Doyle

Total number of Angel Investigations: 2, Angel and Cordy

Angel Investigations shot: Angel: 5,

Packing heat; Doyle; 1

Notches on Fang Gang bedpost: Cordy: 1? Angel: 1;Buffy

Kinky dinky: The wonderfully named Big Randy.

Captain Subtext; Doyle imagines Angel in tights.

Know the face, different character; 2

Parking garages; 2

Buffy characters appearing in Angel; (unless someone can correct me no original Angel character ever appears on Buffy?) 5; Angel, Cordy, Oz, Spike, Buffy

Questions and observations; So goodbye Doyle, we hardly knew you. A good ending for the character but all the more sad by Glenn Quinn's death shortly afterwards. Cordy refers to 'one of the cheaper Baldwins' in her description of the advert. I always thought Adam Baldwin was one but according to IMDb no he's not. Angel on a motorbike, Cordy drives a truck, is there no end to her talents? Once again we see demons who are slowly being won over to humanity. The Scourge are trying to stop this but are unwittingly aping human's themselves.

Reading Slayers and Vampires it seems the truth is Glenn Quinn would show up drunk and drugged to the set, not knowing his lines and laughing when he forgot them, hence why he was written out. At the time they spread the story that it was always intended to introduce the character then kill him off (as with Jesse) but I think they spread that story so as not to damage his career, they seem to think a lot of him and he was genuine friends with the rest of the cast, going with DB/CC to the Playboy Mansion etc. Didn't work unfortunately as Angel was his last role before dying 2 years later, concentrating on running his James Bond themed nightclub, Goldfingers. I wonder had he lived would they have perhaps brought him back in some form (dream sequence etc) in later seasons? 

Marks out of 10; 7/10, a weak ep rescued by it's awesome finale

[Joe Hellandback]

9 hours ago, nosleepforme said:

I loved this episode back when it aired, because I thought it was super-creepy with the demon army and the hunting of the half-demons. Nowadays, the Nazi allegory and racial metaphors are a little too thick for my taste though and I find it somewhat ridiculous that an army like the Scourge can run through LA undetected and how quickly they disappear by the end of the episode when they would have made a formidable multi-episode-enemy, but all in all, I think it's still quite an effective episode.

 

Doyle's death will never not move me to tears. It's amazing how a character who has only had such a short life span can generate such an emotional reaction. Because let's be honest, Doyle did not have quite as much to do in these 9 episodes, aside from maybe his feature episode. Most of the early S1 and S2 episodes focus on Angel and the guest star of the week, the supporting cast really only gets a chance to shine and grow by season three. Generally, I must also say that Angel does the best death scenes, every death on the show is so well done, so tragic, so emotional, a great final moment for the characters. I think, nowadays, since the days of Lost, death has become such a cheap storytelling device to raise the stakes, but they are very rarely this well-done, usually it's just supporting characters dieing and they don't even get their moment. It's different on Angel. The last five minutes of Doyles are just fantastic and Doyle's line to Cordelia "Guess we'll never know if this is a face you could learn to love" just kills me. And then to book-end the episode with the silly video from the beginning of the episode - brilliant.

 

Well, David Fury talked about how the writers discussed bringing Doyle back as a big bad for season four, however that was around the time he died and I think even if he had lived, there were actually no concrete plans to bring him back for that season.

 

It's sad that Glenn got in the way of himself. He could have had a good run on the show. Surprising they didn't notice he had his problems when they cast him.

Probably hid it well (he was an actor) or maybe developed them during the show, sudden fame and fortune tipping many over the edge as Gary Busey can testify to. I suspect we had less Doyle than we otherwise would have due to his issues, like the story of Jeff Conway on Taxi. 

[wendyg]

Well, Glenn Quinn was on ROSEANNE for years as Becky's boyfriend, then husband. I would expect him to have been used to the attention and money before joining ANGEL.

[Joe Hellandback]

18 hours ago, wendyg said:

Well, Glenn Quinn was on ROSEANNE for years as Becky's boyfriend, then husband. I would expect him to have been used to the attention and money before joining ANGEL.

I never realised he was such a big part of the show, I knew he was in it but not as a regular. I used to watch Covington Cross but I never connected it with Glenn until I looked it up.