Writer:	Joss Whedon
Director:	Joss Whedon
Star:	David Boreanaz (Angel),  James Marsters (Spike),  Alexis Denisof (Wesley Wyndam-Pryce),  J. August Richards (Charles Gunn),  Andy Hallett (Lorne),  Amy Acker (Winifred "Fred" Burkle)
Recurring Role:	Sarah Thompson (Eve),  Jonathan M. Woodward (Knox),  Mercedes McNab (Harmony Kendall)
Guest Star:	Rodney Rowland (Corbin Fries),  Jordan Garrett (Matthew Fries),  Chris Eckles (Special Ops Guy),  Peter Breitmayer (Desmond Keel),  Jacqueline Hahn (Judge),  Marc Vann (Doctor Sparrow),  Michael Shamus Wiles (Spanky),  Dane Northcutt (Hauser),  Daniella Kuhn (Notary),  T.J. Thyne (Lawyer),  Marissa Tait (Woman),  Susan Slome (Cindy Rabinowitz),  Dion Sapp (Sam)

This is the first episode since season three's "Waiting in the Wings" not to have a "previously on Angel" segment. Season five in general had far fewer POA segments than the previous few seasons did. (edit) J. August Richards would star in a short lived series of the same name as this episode ("Conviction") almost 3 years later. (edit) T.J. Thyne, who plays a lawyer in the teaser to this episode, plays Dr. Jack Hodgins on Bones, which stars David Boreanaz. (edit) In the DVD commentary, Joss mentions that for most of this episode the left side of Alexis' face paralyzed due to Bell's Palsy. This is why the right side of Wesley's face is almost always facing the camera, though at some points you can see Wes smiling on only one side. (edit) Corbin Fries is the name of Joss's nephew. (edit)

(after Angel kills Hauser)

Soldier: Whatever happened to mercy?
Angel: You've just seen the last of it. (edit) Fred: I don't even understand half of what were doing. There's this machine, six feet tall that makes this noise, "whoompa whoompa pbbth!" Not a clue. (edit) Angel: He said "drop the bomb." We don't know what that means.
Wesley: We very nearly found out.
Angel: What? I'm not allowed to hit people?
Wesley: Not people capable of genocide.
Angel: Those are exactly the types of people I should be allowed to hit! (edit) Angel: You're my secretary!?
Harmony: Er Hello! Assistant!
Angel: Explain why I shouldn't kill you.
Harmony: Secretary is fine. (edit) Hauser: You pathetic little fairy!
Angel: I'm not little. (edit)

Angel doesn't have his hair spiked anymore. This is the first time he's had a major change in hairstyle, in anything other than flashbacks. (edit) When Lorne gets ready to read the Wolfram & Hart employees to weed out the evildoers, we get a quick glimpse at his clipboard. He has five categories in which to place each person: Okay, On the Bubble, Evil, To be Fired, & Yikes! (edit) According to the package, Angel's mailing address reads:
Angel
C/O Wolfram & Hart
1127 Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90008 (edit) This episode, and the whole 5th season, hinges on one huge unanswered question: does Los Angeles and the world remember Jasmine? Last season saw fire raining upon Los Angeles, eternal darkness engulfing the city and overrunning it with vampires and demons, and then possessed by a goddess whose death left millions of people shocked, rioting and suicidal (perhaps around the world, as Jasmine briefly had the planet under her spell).

Following those events, the world should know about vampires, demons, the Powers that Be, the Demon Age, and the other dimensions: if nothing else, Jasmine explicitly told them all about it. But there's no indication in this season that the world has changed at all, and people still seem to walk through dark alleys and react to vampires with the usual shocked disbelief.

If the writers had never intended the 4th season's apocalypse to have a real impact on the Angelverse, you have to wonder why they wrote such extreme, unexplainable events into the storyline the first place.

At any rate, within the story you might assume that Wolfram & Hart erased the events of the 4th season, since they also have a vested interest in preserving the status quo, or that Angel somehow "fixed" the world with his memory-changing deal concerning Conner. But the story itself never offers a direct explanation for the seemingly global amnesia concerning the 4th season. (edit) Fries declares that his case would have never reached a courtroom "when Holland Manners was running things". But Manners didn't run the LA Branch, or even the regular legal department; he was Executive Vice-President of "Special Projects". Nothing about Fries's case would seem to fall under that department (at least, not before he brought out the threat). (edit)

Lorne: But... lunch with Mary-Kate. She was going to tell me about Ashley's new piercing.

Lorne mentions a meeting he had with one of the Olsen twins in this episode, implying that they're connected with evil Wolfram and Hart's entertainment division. (edit) Lorne: The part's yours. Yeah, I've got a whole freezer full of horses' heads downstairs.
Lorne is telling someone that they will get a part of some sort, saying that "he has a freezer full of horses' heads". In the movie "The Godfather", a man called Johnny Fontane gets a part in a movie because someone puts a horses head in the bed of the director who doesn't want Johnny in the movie, to scare him into giving him the part. (edit) Lorne: Apparently, Old Joe Kennedy tried to get out of his deal with the firm...
Angel: That explains a lot.
Lorne: But George, Sr., he read the fine print.
Joss is making a little commentary on politicians by pointing out that Wolfram & Hart owns just about everybody.
Joe Kennedy is the patriarch of the Kennedy family, including John F. Kennedy, former President of the United States. Many of the Kennedy family members have died tragic and/or mysterious deaths. (edit) Fred: (Hangs up a Dixie Chicks poster)
The Dixie Chicks are an all female country music trio; this country music group is very popular in Fred's native Texas. (edit) Fred: (When asked whether she can find her office) Why, did somebody eat my breadcrumbs?
In the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel", two children wander deep into the forest leaving a trail of breadcrumbs so that they can find their way back home. The breadcrumbs, however, are eaten by birds leaving the children lost in the woods. (edit)