Written by: Tracey Stern
Directed by: David Straiton

Cast: David Boreanaz, as Angel, Charisma Carpenter, as Cordelia Chase, Glenn Quinn, as Doyle.

Guest Stars: Kristin Datillo, as Harry, Rib Hillis, as Pierce, Carlos Jacott, as Richard Straley.

Original Air Date: November 16, 1999

At Angel Investigations, Angel is sitting in his office reading while Doyle anxiously paces the floor in front of him. He tells Angel he thinks they need to go out and have some fun, but Angel doesn’t want to go. Doyle emphatically tells him he just can’t sit around there all night and then Cordy comes in, dressed to the hilt, and tells them she has a date with Pierce, an investment broker, tonight. The three of them talk for a bit and then Pierce arrives to pick up Cordy. Doyle and Angel give him their fatherly routine and then the couple leaves. After they leave, Doyle sits and flips through the pages of Angel’s book and tells him that he doesn’t believe Cordy would ever be interested in someone like him, especially if she knew he was half demon. As he flips through the pages, a picture of Buffy falls out of the book onto the floor. Not realizing who she is, Doyle asks Angel if it’s one of his old squeezes. Angel says that she is and Doyle jokingly asks how she would feel about a guy with an Irish accent. He looks over, sees the look on Angel’s face, and realizes its Buffy. He apologizes and then falls back onto the couch in pain. He tells Angel he saw a young guy in a vampire nest downtown. He says the guy is going to be the entrée and Angel says they need to go.

At the restaurant, Pierce is telling Cordy all about the soybean market. Although she says she doesn’t mind listening to him talk about work when he asks, the bored look on her face tells a different story.

Meanwhile, Angel and Doyle are busy fighting the vampire’s downtown. Once the fight is over, the two of them take the guy out into the hallway. There, Angel asks Doyle why he doesn’t fight as a demon when he’s so much stronger that way. Doyle tells him that it isn’t his style and he doesn’t like to fight that way. Angel then tells him he’ll take the guy home and meet Doyle back at the office. As they leave, a vamp steps out and watches them go.

Doyle arrives back at the office and is just going in the building when Cordy and Pierce pull up. Saying he isn’t sure about the neighborhood, Pierce insists on walking Cordy to the door. They’re heading toward the door when a vamp appears and attacks them. Pierce freaks out, runs back to his car and drives away, leaving Cordy to fend for herself. The vamp puts an arm around her neck and she bites him. Suddenly, Doyle appears with a crossbow and shoots him in the foot. The vamp gets angry, throws Cordy to the ground and then goes for Doyle. The two of them fight, but Doyle finally manages to dust him. Although he’s pretty banged up, Doyle’s first concern is for Cordy. He asks if she’s okay, which impresses her, and she says that she is.

The next morning, Cordy gives Angel a recap of all the events the night before, including how bad her date with Pierce was. She says rich and handsome don’t seem to be enough for her anymore and feels she may need someone braver and more interesting now – someone like Doyle. Although he needs a little work and she swore she wouldn’t go down that road again after Xander, she decides to ask him out for coffee. Walking into the other office, she catches him using a ruler to reenact the fight from the night before. Doyle tries to tell her it isn’t what it looks like, but she isn’t buying it. Then she starts talking about the night before, telling him how much she appreciated what he did, but just as she’s about to ask him out, a woman walks through the front door and interrupts them. “Hey Francis,” she says and Cordy wonders who she is talking too. Doyle says it’s him, Allen Francis Doyle, and “this,” he says to Cordelia, “is Harry - my wife.”

Stepping into the room and closing the door, Harry tells Doyle she’s sorry about the surprise but she was afraid to call first. She and Doyle trade a few harsh words and then she says she just wants them to hug and be glad to see each other. They do, much to Cordy’s chagrin, and then talk a bit more. Angel comes in and Cordy, expecting him to be surprised, tells him to come meet Doyle’s wife. Without missing a beat, Angel walks over and shakes her hand. Harry says hi to him and then comments on how cool the offices are. Doyle tells her he’s a private investigator now and Angel and Cordy work for him. Cordy starts to correct him, but Angel elbows her and she hushes. Cordy asks if they were really married and Harry say’s they still are, according to the paperwork. Then a man comes into the office and Harry says she thought he was going to wait in the car. He, Richard, apologizes, saying curiosity just got the better of him, and he’s not quite himself with the wedding being just a few days away. Angel then decides it’s best if he and Cordy leave so he makes an excuse and drags her into the other office. Harry tells Richard she needs to speak with Doyle alone for a while and he leaves as well. Then Harry tells Doyle why she’s there – she needs him to sign the divorce papers so she can marry Richard. Doyle tells her he wants to look over them first and she says she’ll come back for them in a few days. She walks over to the door, turns and says, “It’s good to see you again Francis.” He tells her it’s Doyle now – just Doyle – and she leaves.

Downstairs in his apartment, Angel sits out two glasses and goes to pour a drink for himself and Doyle. Doyle puts his hand over his glass and tells Angel Harry was right, “this stuff does me no good.” He and Angel talk about his relationship with Harry, and although they were crazy about each other, in the end, it was probably for the best that they broke up. Doyle tells him he thinks Richard looks like he could give Harry a good life. Angel says he seemed nice enough, but there was something about him that wasn’t quite right. “Exactly,” Doyle says as he jumps up, “I knew he was no good!” Doyle thinks that even though their exes now, it’s still his duty to watch over her and since he can’t go trailing after Richard himself, he wonders if Angel might do it for him. “Yeah,” Angel replies, “just don’t tell Cordelia. She’ll want to charge you.” Doyle hits him on the back of the shoulder and Angel downs his drink.

That night, Richard is walking down an alley and Angel is following him on the rooftops. Richard crosses the street and takes a package from someone in a parked car. He looks around to make sure no one saw him and then goes down the steps, unlocks the door and enters a restaurant called Straley’s Steakhouse. He takes the box and tosses it into the back of the fridge. A bit later, Harry walks into the kitchen and Richard is following her. She tells him she can’t wait for him to see what she bought and then he goes to get himself a glass of wine. After he takes a drink of it, he morphs into a red-faced demon. He picks up a knife and heads back to Harry, but Angel comes bursting through the window and attacks him. Harry stops Angel, which confuses Angel. “He’s a demon,” he says, “he had a knife.” Harry tells him she knew he was a demon and the knife was for the box strings. Angel asks about the box Richard carried inside and Harry tells him that Richard’s family owns the restaurant and it was full of specialty foods. She then goes on to explain that she studies demons now – it’s her profession – and she met Richard while she was scouting clans in South America. She asks Angel if he has a problem with it and he tells her no, it’s just that Doyle said… Harry says she knows she freaked when Doyle first went through his change, but then she adjusted to it and realized there was a whole, rich world waiting to be explored. Angel wonders why she didn’t bother to tell Doyle that, but Harry says she did. She says she even tried to get him to go meet other demons, but Doyle wouldn’t do it because he couldn’t accept himself or them. He became angry and hard to live with then.

Back at Angel’s, he fills Doyle in on everything he found out and Doyle comes to the realization that Harry didn’t leave because of the demon in him - she left because of him. Then he pulls out the divorce papers and signs them.

The next day, Richard and Harry stop by the office and Doyle gives her the divorce papers. He and Richard shake hands and Harry asks if they have a copier so she can make copies. Doyle tells her there’s one in Angel’s office and that Cordelia will help her. Harry finds Cordelia and tells her that Richard wanted a moment alone with Doyle so he could ask him to come to his bachelor party. She says Richard’s family wants Doyle’s blessing before he marries her. Then she invites Cordy to her bridal shower, saying she’s the first girl she’s met in town less than 370 years old. Cordy tells her she loved to go.

Meanwhile, Richard and his family are discussing the plans for the bachelor party over dinner. His father reads a list of the things they’ve planned to do. “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.” Everyone, including Richard, thinks it will be a lot of fun.

That night, Doyle and Angel arrive at the bachelor party. Doyle asks if it’s okay that he brought Angel and Richard assures him it is. Richard introduces Doyle to everyone and the two of them head to the bar, where they talk about Harry. Angel follows slowly behind and pauses when he hears two of Doyle’s relatives speaking in an unfamiliar language. He looks over at them, they just smile back and he keeps on going.

At the bridal shower, Harry is telling Cordy about Doyle. It seems he was a third grade teacher and a volunteer at a soup kitchen. Cordy has a hard time wrapping her brain around this side of Doyle, but she’s interested in finding out more. Unfortunately, one of the women come over and tells the two of them its time for “pornographic pictionary”, so they head off to play.

Back with the men, Angel is strolling around the room listening to people worry about why the stripper isn’t there yet. Doyle and Richard are still at the bar talking about Harry and Richard tells Doyle he has to have his blessing or else there won’t be a marriage. Just then, a guy comes up and tells Richard its time and they take him to sit on a chair in the middle of the room. Angel comes over to stand next to Doyle and they watch the stripper tease Richard. He asks Doyle if he’s okay and Doyle assures him that he is. Then Angel spots Richard’s brother and cousin leave the room and decided to follow them. They go upstairs and find Richard’s father standing in front of a burning candle chanting. Angel calls Cordy on her cell phone and asks Harry to translate the words for him. He hangs up the phone, turns around and bumps into one of Richard’s cousins. The cousin punches him and before you know it, it’s four on one. They grab Angel and throw him through a hole in the wall. He goes rolling down the roof, bounces around and then falls unconsciously to the ground.

Inside, the stripper finishes her routine and Richard goes back to join Doyle at the bar. He asks Doyle if he thought about what they discussed and Doyle says as long as they can skip the hug thing, he has his blessing on the marriage. Richard yells out the news to everyone in the room and they all cheer. They raise their glasses in a toast to Doyle and the four guys that beat up Angel come into the room. They surround Doyle and then push him into a box with a hole in the top. Doyle sticks his head out of the hole and Richard tells him he’s incredibly moved by his sacrifice. Doyle is confused, especially when they all change into their red demon faces. “This can’t be good,” he says as one of the guys comes up and injects something into his head. He says his head is going numb and Richard says he hopes so – they wouldn’t want him to suffer when they cut into his skull.

Back with the women, Harry translates the words Angel gave her, but feels there must be a mistake. She goes in and asks the other women about the tradition of having the former husband at the bachelor party. Her aunt jokingly says, “Well, they’re certainly not going to eat your ex-husband’s brains!” Cordy and Harry grab their things and head out the door.

In the meantime, Doyle is still in the box wondering where Angel is. One of the guys is marking a dotted line along his forehead. Richard tells Doyle that Angel had to be ejected because he started a fight. Doyle asks him how he plans on explaining this to Harry, but Richard says she accepts their culture, just like she did with his. Meanwhile, Richard’s dad and another relative are busy trying to figure out what type of utensil he should use to eat Doyle’s brain. Richard apologizes to Doyle, saying it’s been centuries since this ritual has been done. Doyle’s says he’d prefer they didn’t cannibalize him and Richard tries to reassure them they won’t – it will just be him. His father hands him the knife to make the first cut, but Angel, in full vamp face, comes busting through the doors and tells them the party is over. A full out fight begins and Doyle eventually frees himself from the box, morphs into his demon face and jumps into the mix. Then Harry and Cordy arrive. Harry yells at them to stop and they do. Richard tells her they shouldn’t be here (it’s a guy thing) and Cordy says they shouldn’t be trying to eat her friend’s brains. She grabs a tray and smacks one of them (Doyle) over the head several times. Angel comes over and tells her it’s okay, to which she replies it isn’t. Doyle changes back into his human face and Cordy spins around to see all the marks on him. “Doyle! Oh look at what they did to you,” she says.

Meanwhile, Harry talks to Richard about what he was going to do. He apologizes and says that he should’ve told her, but his family will never consent to the marriage unless they complete the ritual. Harry looks at him, then back at Doyle, then back at him. She takes his hand and then turns to walk away. Richard looks down and sees the engagement ring he gave her in his hand. Harry walks by Doyle on her way out and Doyle starts to say something, but she tells him if he says one word, she’ll eat his brains out. They all leave.

Back at the office, Angel and Cordy stand in his office and watch Doyle lay on the couch in the outer office. Cordy says he must still be really hung up on Harry and Angel feels that he is, at least more than he knew. Cordy decides he needs a little cheering up and Angel starts to go talk to him, but Cordy says she’ll do it. She walks out to where Doyle is and says, “Hi, Doyle. Are you going to become loser-pining guy, like, full-time now? Because you know, we already have one of those around the office." “Hey,” come the replies from both Angel and Doyle. Cordy tells him he has to move past it and she sits down on the couch next to him. She says he’ll get through it – nice guys don’t always finish last. Doyle is surprised to hear that she thinks he’s a nice guy and says he feels better now. Just then, he’s hit with a vision of Buffy fighting two guys. He looks up at Angel and says, “Oh.” Angel asks him what he saw, but Doyle just looks at him and swallows.