"You're Welcome" is the twelfth episode of season five of the television show ''
Angel
In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God.
Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles inclu ...
''. Written and directed by
David Fury
David Fury is an American television writer, producer, actor and director.
Career
He is well known for his work on '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer'', '' Angel'', '' Lost'', '' 24'', ''Fringe,'' ''Tyrant'' and '' The Tick''.
Fury was a co-exec ...
, it is the 100th episode of the series, and originally broadcast on February 4, 2004 on the
WB network
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematics ...
. In "You're Welcome," former series regular
Charisma Carpenter
Charisma Carpenter (born July 23, 1970) is an American actress. She played Cordelia Chase in the supernatural drama series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997–1999) and its spin-off series ''Angel'' (1999–2004). She also starred as Kyra in ...
returns as a guest star, when the character of
Cordelia Chase
Cordelia Chase is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer''; she also appeared on ''Buffy's'' spin-off series, ''Angel''. Portrayed by Charisma Carpenter, the character appears as a ser ...
miraculously awakens from her
coma. It is her duty to put
Angel
In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God.
Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles inclu ...
, who has recently been feeling ineffective at fighting the powers of darkness, back on the right path. Meanwhile, Angel's old enemy
Lindsey McDonald Lindsey may refer to :
Places Canada
* Lindsey Lake, Nova Scotia
England
* Parts of Lindsey, one of the historic Parts of Lincolnshire and an administrative county from 1889 to 1974
** East Lindsey, an administrative district in Lincolnshire, a ...
has resurfaced and is plotting revenge. This episode features the death and final onscreen appearance of Cordelia.
The episode was written to reinforce the show's earlier themes, and examine the evolution of the characters in the show's one hundred episodes. The original plan was for
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Prinze ( ; born April 14, 1977) is an American actress. After being spotted at the age of four in New York City, she made her screen acting debut in the television film ''An Invasion of Privacy'' (1983). A leading role on the te ...
to return as
Buffy Summers
Buffy Anne Summers is the title character of the ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' franchise. She first appeared in the 1992 film ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' before going on to appear in The WB/UPN 1997–2003 television series and subsequent 1998 ...
, but when she could not appear due to the death of her aunt and work obligations, it instead focused on rounding off the character of Cordelia. The episode proved generally popular with critics, who praised Charisma Carpenter's final performance as Cordelia and the sense of resolution for the character.
Plot
Cordelia emerges from her coma after experiencing a vision of the symbols painted on
Eve
Eve (; ; ar, حَوَّاء, Ḥawwāʾ; el, Εὕα, Heúa; la, Eva, Heva; Syriac: romanized: ) is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the ...
's apartment door and tattooed on
Lindsey's chest. After Angel and
Wesley collect Cordelia from the hospital, she reveals that the vision which woke her from the coma showed Angel in peril. She finds the symbols from her vision in a book, and Wesley recognizes them as runes to protect and conceal, effective against surveillance. Cordelia apologizes to Wesley for killing
Lilah while under
Jasmine's control.
Spike
Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Books
* ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave
* ''The Spike'' (book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick
* ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter F. Hamilto ...
complains to Lindsey (who is impersonating
Doyle
Doyle is a surname of Irish origin. The name is a back-formation from O'Doyle, which is an Anglicisation of the Irish (), meaning "descendant of ''Dubhghall''". There is another possible etymology: the Anglo-Norman surname ''D'Oyley'' with agglu ...
) that the deranged slayer chopped off his hands. Lindsey reveals he also had one of his hands severed. Spike bites Cordelia until Angel fights him off. Spike explains he was tasting whether she was evil, as his source claimed. Angel questions the source, and Spike says it was Doyle. Angel confronts Eve, suggesting she is working with the Doyle impersonator manipulating Spike. Eve confesses that Lindsey is activating a fail-safe left by the Senior Partners to destroy Angel. When Spike mentions "Doyle" had a hand chopped off, Angel deduces that "Doyle" is Lindsey. Angel battles Lindsey, who is strengthened by his runes. While Angel and Lindsey fight, Cordelia disables the fail-safe. Wesley and Fred perform a spell that causes Lindsey's tattoos to disappear, making him visible to the Senior Partners. Lindsey is sucked into a portal.
Angel and Cordelia say their goodbyes and share a kiss. Angel receives a phone call informing him that Cordelia has died. He realizes, with teary eyes, that Cordelia never awoke from her coma.
Production
The fight scene between Lindsey and Angel in the underground chamber, which took three days to film, was written by
Steven S. DeKnight.
Christian Kane, who went through months of sword training for his role in ''
Secondhand Lions
''Secondhand Lions'' is a 2003 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Tim McCanlies. It tells the story of an introverted young boy (Haley Joel Osment) who is sent to live with his eccentric great uncles (Robert Duvall and Michael C ...
'', approached the writers to see if they could work his new skills into the episode;
Kane ended up performing his own stunts for the sword fight sequence, including wire work.
He also did his own stunts for the scene when Lindsey moves through the lasers in the tunnel, which were not
CGI, but actual lasers.
During the fight scene between Eve and Harmony,
Sarah Thompson says
Mercedes McNab
Mercedes Alicia McNab (born March 14, 1980) is a Canadian former actress. She is known for her role as Harmony Kendall on '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997–2001) and its spinoff ''Angel'' (2001–2004). She additionally is known for her role ...
slapped her accidentally. "She was... so worried she'd hurt me but it actually worked well for the take because I reacted by really screaming," Thompson says.
David Boreanaz
David Paul Boreanaz ( born May 16, 1969) is an American actor, television producer, and director known for playing the roles of vampire-turned-private investigator Angel on The WB/ UPN ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' supernatural drama (1997–200 ...
had just had knee surgery prior to filming, so writer
David Fury
David Fury is an American television writer, producer, actor and director.
Career
He is well known for his work on '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer'', '' Angel'', '' Lost'', '' 24'', ''Fringe,'' ''Tyrant'' and '' The Tick''.
Fury was a co-exec ...
did his best to keep Angel sitting down as much as possible.
[Fury, David, "You're Welcome" (Commentary with David Fury), ''Angel: Season Five on DVD'', ]Twentieth Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
, 2004. Fury used tight camera angles during Spike's apartment scene with Lindsey to disguise the fact that the same set was used earlier for the opening teaser. "Everything is a bit contained; the reason is if I turn around, this is where they found the dead nuns," Fury explains.
Writing
Joss Whedon says he used the 100th episode to reinforce the "mission statement" of the show,
as well as assess where the characters are now compared to how they began. Whedon explains this episode presents an ideal opportunity to - through Cordelia, who was "there at the beginning" - ask of Angel, "Where are you now? Where were you when you started and where are you now and how do you feel about that?"
The return to the show's "original concerns" is echoed by the flashback to Doyle's first season advertisement; Sara Upstone points out aerial images of
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
reappear at the same time Cordelia tells Angel "You forgot who you are," bringing back the show's link to the city. This episode, written as a stand-alone as per the network's request, also sets up a critical plot-thread for the season arc that "will begin to reveal itself toward the end of the season," Whedon says.
The character of
Buffy Summers
Buffy Anne Summers is the title character of the ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' franchise. She first appeared in the 1992 film ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' before going on to appear in The WB/UPN 1997–2003 television series and subsequent 1998 ...
was originally intended to appear in the 100th episode, focusing on the rivalry between Angel and Spike and their feelings for Buffy, but
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Prinze ( ; born April 14, 1977) is an American actress. After being spotted at the age of four in New York City, she made her screen acting debut in the television film ''An Invasion of Privacy'' (1983). A leading role on the te ...
was unavailable. Writer/director
David Fury
David Fury is an American television writer, producer, actor and director.
Career
He is well known for his work on '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer'', '' Angel'', '' Lost'', '' 24'', ''Fringe,'' ''Tyrant'' and '' The Tick''.
Fury was a co-exec ...
explains that since "we couldn't get Sarah," the episode was instead written for
Cordelia Chase
Cordelia Chase is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer''; she also appeared on ''Buffy's'' spin-off series, ''Angel''. Portrayed by Charisma Carpenter, the character appears as a ser ...
. He adds, "This turned out to be a Godsend because Charisma was fantastic." In the original script, Fury wrote a conversation between Wesley and Angel while driving to the hospital that set up Cordelia as a possible vegetable. The scene was never shot because "the shock of seeing her up and around after a 9-month coma was enough. We just didn't want to tip it too soon," says Fury.
Christian Kane was genuinely upset when an addition by
Joss Whedon in the script called for Angel to refer to Lindsey as a "tiny Texan." Although born in Texas, Kane identifies as a "
Sooner
Sooners is the name given to settlers who entered the Unassigned Lands in what is now the state of Oklahoma before the official start of the Land Rush of 1889. The Unassigned Lands were a part of Indian Territory that, after a lobbying campa ...
" and "I'm stronger than David, bigger than David, I'm just shorter." Kane says Joss "likes to take shots at me. He's like, 'I can't build this character up too much without cutting his nuts just a little bit.'"
Cast
Carpenter says she was satisfied with the way her character left the show, as she feels Cordelia's story has been fully resolved.
Creator Joss Whedon agreed, saying, "In seven years, we'd sort of run through our course of
hecharacter and didn't want to start just doing hollow riffs on what we'd done."
Since Whedon suspected this season would be the last, Carpenter says, "we didn't want to just leave Cordelia in a coma..this would be a very big story left untold." Carpenter says the 100th episode was a momentous time to have her character die,
calling it "bittersweet...a love letter to Cordelia"
and the story "one of the sweetest they'd ever told." David Fury agrees: "It's a beautiful farewell to Charisma for the series"
and it gives "Charisma a send off that was respectful to her and Cordelia Chase. I was very proud to have my name on it."
Actor Christian Kane says he had a difficult time calling himself 'Doyle' because he felt on some level he was masquerading as deceased
Glenn Quinn
Glenn Martin Christopher Francis Quinn (28 May 1970 – 3 December 2002) was an Irish actor, best known for his portrayal of Mark Healy on the 1990s family sitcom '' Roseanne'' and his role as the half-demon Allen Francis Doyle on ''Angel'', a s ...
. "It was a very awkward situation for me and David because we were close to Glenn," says Kane. "I didn't know how the fans were going to react to it."
Kane says the memory of Quinn upset Boreanaz: "I could see it in his eyes... it’s got to be a tough deal for him." However, Kane thinks that "
Joss Joss may refer to:
* Joss (name), including a list of people with the name
* JOSS, a time-sharing programming language
* Joss (Chinese statue), a religious object
* Joss JP1, an Australian-built supercar
* Joss paper, a type of burnt offering
* ...
is brilliant because he used that. How do you turn me and David against each other? You really can’t because we’re such close friends. So to use that for Angel and Lindsey, I think has a little bit of brilliance to it. It’s kind of sick...but it did the job." David Fury adds, "I think
he fans
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
appreciated it from the standpoint that we were honoring him. That Doyle's not a forgotten piece of this world."
Reception
This episode was rated as one of the series' top five episodes in a poll done by ''
Angel Magazine''.
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news.
The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008.
Corpora ...
praised Charisma Carpenter's "blithe comic delivery"; the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
noted that Carpenter's return elevated the script from "merely great to something close to awesome," but griped because the show's tight budget left Lindsey's activation of the fail-safe an "unfulfilled promise."
Reaction to the death of long-time character Cordelia was generally positive. After being disgusted by Cordelia's fourth season arc, which she claims "destroyed Cordy's character and viewer trust", author
applauds this episode. "The writers play fair," she says, "foreshadowing the Gotcha to come" - Cordelia is in a private room, yet hastily draws the curtains around a bed-ridden roommate, and remarks to Angel that she understands why Doyle used his "last breath to make sure
kept fighting." Rather than undercutting the emotional impact of the story, the twist of Cordelia's tragic ending reinforces and honors her character. "She is...our Cordy again," Crusie says. Cordelia exits the series "needed, loved, and wanted"; her final words are "You're welcome," Janine R. Harrison argues, because "she ''knows'' her worth."