Ship scenes

The pier that was used for the scenes with the ship in Hero was at Southwest Marine, in Sanpedro/Long Beach, the Port of Long Beach.

Anthony Cistaro

Anthony Cistaro played the Ethros demon in I’ve Got You Under My Skin, and the Scourge commander Trask in Hero. He has also been in Alias, Friends, She Spies, Witchblade, Alright Already, The Nanny, Seinfeld, Cheers and The Method.

Howard Gordon

Howard Gordon co-wrote the episode What’s My Line? (Part 1) with Marti Noxon, and was consulting producer on the show. He was also a consulting producer and writer on Angel. He wrote the Angel episodes ‘Hero’, ‘Expecting‘ and ‘The Ring‘. Howard worked with Buffy’s executive producer David Greenwalt before, on an episode of The X-Files. He wrote many episodes and was co-executive producer of both 24 and The X-Files.

Tucker Gates

Tucker Gates directed the episode Fear, Itself. He directed the Angel episode ‘Hero’. Tucker has also directed episodes of Skin, CSI: Miami, Roswell, Providence, Cracker, Dark Skies, and The X Files.

Doyle

Doyle (full name Allen Francis Doyle) had a human mother and Brachen demon father. Doyle had the ability to morph between his human and demonic faces, something which didn’t occur until he was 21 years old. At that time, he was a school teacher and soup-kitchen volunteer, and married to Harriet. Their marriage broke up when neither Doyle nor Harriet could accept his demon-side.

Doyle started receiving mind-splitting visions from the Powers That Be. He had his first vision when Lucas, a fellow Bracken demon, asked for his help against the Scourge, a pureblood sect of militant demons. He turned Lucas away and then saw images in his mind’s eye of Bracken demons getting massacred. Upon seeing their bodies, Doyle confirmed that the visions were real.

Doyle persuaded Angel, who had just arrived in Los Angeles, to carry out his quest for redemption using Doyle’s visions. Together, with the assistance of Cordelia, they formed Angel Investigations, which specialized in supernatural phenomena. Doyle’s visions led Angel to those who were in danger and the two became friends. Doyle had a crush on Cordelia, but was afraid she would reject him upon finding out about his demon background.

When the Scourge returned, Doyle proved himself to be a reluctant hero, by volunteering to die in Angel’s place, sacrificing his life to save his friends, and the city. Before he died, Cordelia learned he was half-demon, telling him it didn’t matter to her. The two exchanged a passionate kiss, and Doyle gave Cordelia his visions.

Death to the cast

Many of the main Angel cast have been killed or near death. Angel was killed and vamped in 1753; Doyle was killed in Hero; Gunn was electrocuted by Gwen and revived in Ground State; Wesley’s throat was slashed in Sleep Tight, he was shot in The Thin Dead Line and finally killed in Not Fade Away; Cordelia was comatose for most of season five before dying in You’re Welcome; and Fred was killed when Illyria took over her body in A Hole in the World.

Brachen demons

Brachen demons have red eyes, spiked greenish skin, and are very strong. They are also reputed to have a good sense of direction. One of the clans lived in Oregon woods for a time. Doyle’s father, whom he never met, was a Brachen demon, making Doyle part-demon too.

The Scourge

The Scourge are a military organization of pure-blood demons whose intention was to destroy all half-bloods. They attempted to kill a group of Lister demons using the Beacon, a hexagonal machine which disintegrates any creature with human blood within a quarter mile radius of it’s cleansing light. Doyle sacrificed himself to save the demons and destroyed the Beacon.

Braveheart

Cordelia says in Hero, “He’s a larger than life character, way too Braveheart for Joe Couch Potato to relate to.” This is a reference to Mel Gibson’s film about William Wallace.