EPISODE 1.07

THE BACHELOR PARTY

Written by: Tracy Stern

Directed by: David Straiton

A question of identity

Identity is a crucial part of anyone’s existence.   Who you are, or rather who you perceive yourself to be, affects so many other aspects of your life including expectations for your future and your relationships with others.  And that identity is a function of a lot of different factors: parentage, social or economic background, religion, education, gender, and race to name but a few.    Obviously this is too big a subject to explore thoroughly in the context of a TV program.   But it is a natural subject for ANGEL.   Angel’s own crisis of identity is in many ways the theme of the entire series.   Equally,  both Doyle and Cordelia have to face very serious questions about who they are and what they want.    In Cordelia’s case the former queen of Sunnydale High has now to deal with a future free of the security she once knew.   As she put it herself in “Lonely Hearts”:

“Is it my fault that maid service was interrupted?  It was supposed to go, home, hotel, hotel, husband.”

Doyle occupies an even more awkward place in the world.  As a half-breed, he operates in the margins between human society and the demon underworld.   In “Bachelor Party” perhaps the most important thing the writers do is to take a long hard look at the way both see themselves and their futures.

Someday my Prince will come…

In the teaser we see the Cordelia trying to recapture the life she once thought belonged to her by right.   Her “prince” could bring her all the material things in life she ever wanted:

"I'll have you know that Pierce has a lot more than money.  He has a house in Montecito, he has a Mercedes CLK 320 and a place in the hills with a lap pool."

 The problem was that the car, the house and the money were all there was to him.   The most exciting thing in his life was making money:

"Like today, there was some heavy trading - lean hog options. The spread dropped about 1700 points.  I mean in November they were trading at 6 cents.   So, you know what I did?  I sold at 6 and 1/8 of a cent! 6 and 1/8. Can you imagine anything more exciting then that?"

Just how little substance there was to Pierce can be seen from the way he abandoned Cordelia to save his own skin.  Cordelia herself later describes just what she thought of him:

“And the whole night I was bored silly.  All I could think about was: if this wimp ever saw a monster he'd probably throw a shoe at it and run like a weasel.  Turns out the shoe part was giving him to much credit.

The writers were clearly contrasting Doyle and Pierce.  Looked at from the point of view of wealth or position in society,  Doyle compared very unfavorably.  The most he could look forward to in an evening was getting drunk and playing trivia games in a sports bar.  But when the chips were down he was the one who risked his life and actually got hurt to save Cordelia.

The effect that this had on her was really interesting.  She is first and foremost a practical person who understands the value of material things.  And certainly someone from her background would find the lifestyle Pierce could offer her extremely attractive.  But Cordelia has also had far more by way of life experience than anyone who lived only in the material world could have.  And because of this she has learnt to recognize real substance in a character, even when it is hidden beneath an unprepossessing façade.  More to the point she has learnt to value it.  She is still sufficiently attached to the material things in life to regard her relationship with Xander and any possible relationship with Doyle as a mistake but now she realizes that material things are not enough.   She is, therefore, poised on the horns of a dilemma.  There is no resolution for that dilemma in this episode.  But clearly she must now decide whether she really is still the girl we saw ruling Sunnydale High?  Or is there more to Cordelia Chase than that?  Her progress in resolving this question of identity is the key to Cordelia in season 1 of ANGEL.

Doyle’s Past Catches up with Him

In many ways, though, the importance of Doyle’s rescue of Cordelia for the story in “Bachelor Party” does not lie in the effect it had on her.  Rather it lies in the fact that it confirms for us that, as Angel himself said with a wry smile:

            "Yeah, well, there is definitely more to Doyle then meets the eye."

This is someone has courage and loyalty in abundance – things of real substance.  So, why the sports bars and the drunken trivia games?  Why doesn’t Doyle want more out of life than that?  Indeed why the hand to mouth existence?  Just who is Doyle?

The answer to this question comes in the shape of his wife (confusingly called Harry).  From her we learn more about Doyle’s past.  He and Harry had a 'madly in love couldn't live without each other' kind of thing and were indeed planning on starting a family.  He was a teacher and evidently a sort of natural leader, at least he took naturally to making decisions for other people.  In addition to that Doyle was also someone with a social conscience who worked for the homeless.  This was indeed a man who had not only sorted things out for himself and knew what he wanted but was making a real contribution to everyone around him.  Then things changed.  He discovered he was half-demon when he sneezed and sprouted a demon face.  Previously he had no idea:

"I never met my dad. He was the demon.  And my mom, well, she figured she'd wait to see if I'd got his genes before she got all confessional."

Everything he had been, everything he had wanted out of life, had been based on a false assumption about who he was.   And the effect on his life was devastating.  Doyle described the end of his marriage in the following terms:

“And when things go wrong and you're young like that, you don't just say 'Hey, thanks for the blender, I wish you well'. You fight.  You tear each other apart until one of you can't take it.  She did the walking.  But she had reason.  I wasn't exactly the man she married.  I changed.

The ironic thing is that when Doyle said that he changed he was referring to the fact that he discovered his demon heritage.  He assumed that this was what drove Harry away.  We only get the truth about that from Harry later.

Harry: "That when he first went through his change I freaked. Which is true. But after I adjusted, I realized here is this whole, rich, interesting world just waiting to be explored."

Angel: "But you didn't tell him that."

Harry: "Of course I did! I even tried to get him to go out - meet other demons.  At least go to one mixer, you know? But he couldn't accept himself, - or them.  So then he was just angry, and pretty much a bitch to live with.”

And part of his being difficult to live with was the drinking.  It is not stated explicitly but the implication of Harry’s evident disapproval for Doyle taking a drink is that it was only when he found out he was half demon that Doyle started to consume alcohol  seriously.  So, while Doyle blamed his demon heritage for the loss of his marriage and every other part of the fulfilling life he had, it was his changed attitude to himself and to others that was responsible.  The turning point for Doyle comes in his realization of the real reason why Harry left him.  And once he discovers that Richard is himself a demon there is really no denying it.

“You know all that time Harry would go on about what an amazing thing my demon half could be, the worlds that it opened up to us, I thought she was just trying to make me feel better.  I thought that she was pitying me.  But it was true.  I just wasn't listening. You know, Harry didn't leave because of the demon in me.  She left because of me."

Here, at last is recognition of the truth.  And it does produce a change of attitude of sorts.   It as been established since “Lonely Hearts” that Doyle is afraid to admit to Cordelia that he is half-demon because of the effect this might have on her attitude to him.  At the beginning of this episode, even though it puts him at a considerable disadvantage, he refuses to manifest as a demon.   This is despite the fact that the only person who could see him do so was Angel who was already in on the secret.  That shows just how sensitive he really is about the issue.  Nevertheless, in the climactic fight with the Ano-movic demons his attitude changes.  He does manifest as demon, saying:

"Harry says I should mix with other demons, I'll mix!"

This exemplifies a degree of acceptance of the demon within him, but only a degree.  It is noticeable that even now he will not tell Cordelia the truth.

I thought that, for the most part, this was a strong and convincing study of character.  It takes a powerful and important central idea about how questions about our identity can affect our futures and our relationships.  It then illustrates this idea through Doyle and his history.  Objectively speaking, nothing about Doyle had changed.  The man who married Harry was the same man who discovered he was half demon and the same man who rescued Cordelia.  What changed was his perception of who he was and that change produced the collapse in his self-confidence that devastated his life.  In illustrating this idea through Doyle the writers give us a compelling and convincing explanation for the dichotomies in his character.  It reconciles the man of substance Angel and Cordelia know him to be with the more stereotypical picture we see of a down at heel, slightly shady character with a fondness for alcohol.  More than that, it does so in a way that is consistent with the hints we have been given about him in, for example, “A Rm w/a Vu”.  There for example he described his lifestyle as “the kind of life that keeps your expectations from getting too high.”  And in this context “Bachelor Party”  makes a direct point about one especially important issue of identity – that in the final analysis what counts about a person is his character and not his race or culture.  Doyle was a man of substance but he lost faith in himself because he found being a half-demon unacceptable.  The implication  was that he considered demons less than human and therefore saw the fact that he had a demon heritage as something to be ashamed of.   The result of this self-hatred was profoundly destructive.  Harry’s attitude was different.  She realized that, far from being inferior to human, demons were simply different and after a moment’s hesitation  she accepted this aspect of Doyle for what it was: part of life’s rich tapestry.   Later on she made a study of demon culture her life’s work.  Indeed she actually planned to marry a full demon.   Her attitude was not only positive but healthy.  She was far happier and more fulfilled in her life because of it.   This is  an argument in favor of the acceptance of diversity in society.  And, given the fact that ANGEL uses the supernatural metaphor to explore issues of relevance in the real world, it is not too hard to guess what it is aimed at.  It is in fact a barely disguised plea for tolerance and acceptance of racial and cultural differences in modern society.  It is a simple enough message.  There are no great philosophical depths to it.  But it is coherent and well meant.

But, to be meaningful an exploration of such differences cannot operate at a level of pious platitude.  It must ask the difficult question.  And in particular, here, through a comparison between Harry's experiences and those of Doyle, the writers were asking what are the limits of toleration that can be allowed in the name of the acceptance of racial and cultural diversity?  The Ano-Movician demons are now, according to Harry, a  “peaceful clan - totally assimilated into our culture."  And indeed they demonstrate that in many ways they are.  Angel himself describes the history of Ano-movic demons in the following terms:

“Once a nomadic tribe. At one time they did have violent leanings… But they gave up those orthodox teachings… around the turn of the century. Now they own a number of restaurants with pretty expensive windows."

Apart from being restaurateurs they show a clear appreciation of the finer points of customs such as the Bachelor Party down to the stripper, bad food and beer.  Indeed the scene with the Ano-movic clan around the dinner table is notable by the fact that the conversation cannot be distinguished from the conversation about a Bachelor Party that would have taken place in any human household.  But there was one obvious way in which they prove they are not completely assimilated:

Richard:  “First we greet the man of the hour.  Then we drink.  We bring out the food.  Then we drink.  Then comes the Stripper. Darts.  Then we have the ritual eating of the first husbands brains, and then charades."

Brother: "Wait! What was that? Charades?"

 The purpose of this little exchange was to indicate the extent to which Doyle's murder was considered to be a routine matter for the Ano-Movician demons.  This is all the more striking when it is contrasted to the fact that, in many ways, Richard's family were a model of quite genuine hospitality and were clearly concerned about Doyle’s feelings over the marriage:

Richard:  “You were something I can never be for her.. her first.  She'll always love you, Francis. Always.  But she needs different things now.  I know I can make her happy, but I need you to be a part of it.

  The reason why they wanted to kill Doyle lay in their cultural values:

Richard: "I was just trying to bless our marriage - like in the ancient teachings."

Harry: "And since when does your family follow the ancient teachings?"

Uncle: "We don't flaunt our beliefs, but they're very dear to us."

Harry: "Oh, please Uncle John! When is the last time you pried your self away from ESPN long enough to spill the blood of a she-goat?"

Cousin: "Are you going to let her talk to Uncle John like that?"

Harry: "You know how I feel about these barbaric Ano-movician customs!"

Cousin: "Racist! You're nothing but a racist!"

The killing of a human is considered generally wrong by the Ano-Movicians but is perfectly acceptable when it takes place for well established and commonly understood cultural purposes which are highly valued in the community.  It was one area in which the Ano-Movician demons were not prepared to integrate fully but were intending to retain their own unique customs.  Thus the writers pose the question: to what extent is any guest community entitled to retain cultural values that are important to it but which violate the moral and ethical standards of the host community.

This is, of course,  an important question.  But I thought that the way it was addressed was fairly superficial.  Humor has always been a very effective weapon for political satirists because they can use exaggeration to drive home the absurdities or fallacies of a given argument or situation.  In doing so they more clearly and conspicuously point up the realities facing us.  There is just such an element of exaggeration in the Ano-movic custom of eating the brain of a former spouse.  In devising this scenario the writers are essentially exposing the stupidity of the argument that any objection to traditional cultural practices must by definition be racist.  But while this is something that needed to be said it really doesn't take us very far in the direction of asking us to think seriously about what are the circumstances in which it is justifiable to object to such practices. Murder, slavery and mutilation have all been justified as "traditional cultural practices".  But I doubt if very many of the viewers of this series would take seriously such attempted justifications.  Breaches of  human rights of such an extreme nature as these would be universally regarded as unacceptable.  The hard and therefore more meaningful question comes where we look at cultural practices which generate a real debate about whether they do breach human rights or not - for example women wearing traditional moslem dress.  Taking a stand against murder being accepted will tell us nothing about diifficult questions such as these.

When is a demon not a demon?

But it has to be said that the way in which the Ano-Movician clan was used for the purposes described above posed other difficulties too.   In the Whedonverse there has always been a very clear dividing line between humans and demons and this dividing line had been marked out by the existence of the human soul.   The precise nature of a soul and its relationship with a body - especially a vampire body - is one of the most problematic in the entire Buffy/Angel canon.  One view follows is that a soul is simply a moral sense.  Another follows the traditional Judeo-Christian (and indeed older) view of a human soul which is that it is not simply  a moral sense but rather is  a consciouness having an existence that is entirely separate from the body and represents the true person.  But whatever view we take, it is well established canon in the Whedonverse that every living creature has a "soul".  And regardless of precisely which view you hold, the basic dividing line between humans and demons is that the human soul has an orientation towards good and the demon soul has an orientation towards evil.  Of course, in the BTVS episode "Becoming" we were introduced to "Whistler", a demon who seemed to have an inclination towards good.  In Doyle, admittedly half-human, we see a similar characteristic.  For them, the death of a human being is a wrong to be avoided, rather than something to be enjoyed.  This is a "human" orientation rather than a demon one.  That is problematic enough because it breaks down the established moral distinction between demon and human, a distinction which is fundamental to the whole series.  ANGEL, like BTVS before it, deals with the difficulty of making right moral choices when faced by the temptations of emotion and self-interest.  And one of the most important touchstones when determining whether or not a character makes the right choices is the principle that killing humans is wrong, no matter what they have done.  If it is moral to kill demons but immoral to kill humans, then it must be on the basis that human are always redeemable because of the basic moral orientation of their souls whereas demons are not because of the basic immoral orientation of theirs.  In this context you can regard both Whistler and Doyle as "special cases".  But the situation becomes far more problematic when you have entire demon clans which "seem" to have souls of a moral, human orientation.  In this context I stress the word "seem". 

As we have seen, one of the purposes of "Bachelor Part" is to make a comparison between on the one hand the way one human cultural tradition interacts with another and on the other the way that a demon culture interacts with a human one.  Of course, for this, the demon culture must be broadly comparable with the human one. By definition, there can be no assimilation and no toleration of evil demons within human society.  So, for the episode to work at all the demons must have the same basic moral orientation as humans.  Now there will be those who welcome this development as creating a greater moral ambiguity.  We can now, for example, have debates as to whether it is wrong to kill demons as well.  But it is this last point that puts me on my guard.  We can judge whether or not it is wrong to kill humans or evil demons because the show gives us the appropriate reference points.  We can see what the differences between humans and demons are and examine whether these differences justify a difference in treatment.  But we have no such reference points with the Ano-Movician demons because the writers simply refuse to address the issue of why the Ano-Movicians behave as they do.

In many ways the behavior of the demons can simply be regarded as a practical adjustment to the demands of living among humans. But in other ways it clearly isn't.  For example they didn’t want to cause Doyle any pain so they considerately gave him an anaesthetic.   The moral values the Ano-Movicians show here too close to our own to be able to say that  Richard and his family  get any pleasure out of hurting humans.  They cannot therefore be compared to evil demons.  But that doesn't stop them trying to kill Doyle quite casually.  How then do we explain this seemingly contradictory behavior.  Humans can, for example, be quite selective morally.  It is therefore entirely possible that cultural imperatives may overcome the constraints of a human conscience.  But there is nothing in the episode to support this.  It could equally be the case that the Ano-Movic demons have a soul with have a morally "neutral" orientation.  Or there could be some other explanation entirely.  We simply do not know because the writers have chosen not to make an issue out of it.  This effectively amounts to the writers saying that the soul doesn't really matter when it comes to explaining the morality or immorality of someone's behavior.  Not only do I find this impossible to reconcile with the established importance of the soul in the Whedonverse.  It ignores the implications that the existence or otherwise of the soul must have for the actions of our heroes.  At the end, despite attempting to murder Doyle, Richard and the others were allowed to live.  Should they have been?  Were they capable of learning a moral lesson?  Or would they continue to be a danger to humans?  If we are denied the any basis on which to judge Angel's actions here, how are we supposed to do so?

The Plot

The main difficulty here is that both the set-up for "Bachelor Party" and the conclusion that we were supposed to draw from it were somewhat implausible.  The need to establish that Doyle was very young when he discovered the truth about himself (and consequently lacked the maturity to handle it) clashed with the need to show that, before he did so, he had a very worthwhile life.  The result was a scarcely believable picture of someone who, before the age of 21, was married, was a teacher, was planning kids and was working to help the poor.  What bothered me more, however, was the lack of apparent consequences for the fact that he is beginning to come to terms with his identity.  As we have seen in “Bachelor Party” he makes some strides in accepting his demon half, but he is not all the way there yet.  This is realistic and good.  But the episode took a good deal of trouble to establish that his failure to accept his demon heritage led to the destruction of the fulfilled life he had led and to his present marginal existence.  If that was the case then the fact that Doyle even began to accept his identity should have led to him re-examining his life-style.  Of course there is nothing to indicate he didn’t.  Nevertheless, the link between acceptance of his identity and lifestyle is such a fundamental part of the story that the consequence for the latter of a change in the former should have been addressed in some fashion.

But even leaving these considerations aside, the plot of “Bachelor Party” left something to be desired.  The episode was built around a twist.   Angel's initial suspicions about the Ano-Movic demons were laid to rest when the bona fide of Richard and his clan are seemingly established. We then realized that we had been lulled into a false sense of security and that they were really quite dangerous after all.  This part of the plot actually works quite well.  To dispel our suspicions of Richard’s clan only to have them suddenly revealed as out and out villains would have been clichéd and hard to swallow.  But  the idea of an otherwise normal clan indulging in a blood rite out of respect for tradition is quite believable.  Indeed we have, sadly, rather too much evidence that things like this do happen in in the modern world.  And this aspect of the story is enhanced by the way the fact is revealed – in a throw away line no-one thinks out of the ordinary.

The problem is that the revelation of this twist comes quite late on.  Up until that point all we were seemingly left with was a potentially awkward social occasion to look forwards to.  That clearly wasn't enough to sustain our interest so the writers obviously felt they had to throw in another piece of misdirection.  That is why we have the early scenes in which Angel's initial suspicions were seemingly confirmed before being dispelled (only later being ressurected).  In this context I have to admit that the action sequence of Angel following Richard from roof to roof is terrifically well done.  But I have two reservations about it.  First of all I don't think that this sort of double bluff can ever be truly satisfactory.  It simply looks too artificial to be really convincing.  But more particularly in this context,  Richard’s actions are too self-consciously suspicious to admit of the innocent explanation they were ultimately given.  In particular I found little ambiguity in the way he held the knife and said "Right there, pumpkin" to Harry.  Someone who was genuinely innocent would not have acted in the same way.  We could therefore see only too clearly that Richard's behavior was exaggerated just to bring suspicion down on his head.  So, the very crudity of the initial revelation that the Ano-Movician demons were substantially normal for me essentially robbed the story of most of its credibility.

Moreover the way in which this set-up was revealed and then resolved was itself rather unsatisfactory.  First of all there was an element of detective work needed before Angel became aware of the threat facing Doyle.  I don’t think that this detective work was especially well handled because it depended upon the co-incidence of Angel overhearing two members of Richard’s clan talking, evidently not understanding what they said but still being suspicious enough to get a translation.  More seriously, however, by this stage we were ahead of Angel.  We knew what was going to happen.  We were waiting for him to play catch up and that is just not very interesting.   But the central problem lay elsewhere.  The tension between the very ordinariness of the demons, their general hospitality and in particular Richard’s relentless decency and what they plan to do to Doyle is very well used to create some gentle humor.  But this very fact itself tends to dispel any feeling of tension.  In particular, despite their numbers, the Ano-movic clan simply cannot convincingly convey threat. They are just too ordinary.  Indeed, the ending was a complete anti-climax with Harry and Cordelia stopping the fight just by their presence.  It was as if the writers simply ran out of ideas as to how to wrap up the plot.

Overview (C)

The real strength of this episode lay in the characterization, especially of Doyle.  In my  review of “City of” I said that he seemed no more than a collection of stereotypical characteristics: a shady denizen of the underworld with a fondness for drink and gambling and no strong stomach for a fight.  I also suggested that it really was difficult to believe in such a person as an individual.  But (despite certain reservations about his back story) I have to say that in this episode the writers have  given us a believable individual.  In particular they have managed to reconcile the stereotypical characteristics I have just mentioned with the idea of Doyle as a person with real substance and in the process made him more and not less sympathetic.   In doing so they have raised some interesting issues about how a person’s sense of identity can seriously affect all aspects of their life. And they have made a fairly broad plea for acceptance of diversity while at the same time raising an interesting issue about the limits of such tolerance.  But there was a humor and a lightness of touch about the way in which these issues were raised that prevented the episode becoming too preachy or heavy handed.  The weakness of the episode lay first in the writers' unwillingness to address seriously the very issues of moral responsibility that the plot necessarily raised.  But another problem lay  in the thinness of the plot and the fact that it really failed to engage and involve the viewer at all, even though theoretically Doyle’s life was at stake.