I Fall to Pieces

Teleplay by David Greenwalt
Story by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt
Directed by Vern Gillum

Dianne's Synopsis | Lizbet's Review | SunSpeak

Dianne's Synopsis

Regardless, they need the cash, and Cordelia and Doyle confront Angel as soon as he comes in (well, after he has his first sip of the disgusting recycled week-old coffee). This is obviously a long-standing argument, because Angel turns them down without even letting them finish. The argument is interrupted by one of Doyle's visions: Melissa Burns @ Pardell Paper Products. ["With a candlestick?" --Ed. ;-]

At Pardell, Melissa is worrying over a co-worker's mis-decorated birthday cake when flowers arrive for her from 'Ronald'. She's obviously upset by this and quickly excuses herself to the ladies' room, where she takes a few prescription pills. Heading out through the underground parking garage, she's startled by Angel, who tries to approach her as someone working in "private security" who thought she might need help. Not surprisingly, she's more than a little wary, declines his help, and drives off (albeit with one of his cards in hand).

Back at the office, a worried Angel asks his officemates if he's "intimidating". While Cordy suggests breaking up the "black-on-black" look, Doyle wins a little respect from Cordy by managing to make asking clients for money sound like a favor to _them_-- a way for the clients to pay off their debt and move on with their lives.

Meanwhile, Melissa is trying-- and failing-- to get money from an ATM, when Ronald appears suddenly at her side, and informs her he took it upon himself to change her PIN number to reflect the day they met. He does these things for her own good, he assures her, because he loves her and wants to take care of her. It's immediately evident (to anyone _but_ Ronald) that she's not interested, and that this is not the first time. She tries (*again*, obviously) to convince him there's nothing between them, but he's deliberately oblivious. Then he ups the panic factor on her face by not only chiding her for taking the tranquilizers in the bathroom earlier, but knowing exactly how many she took.

In obvious desperation, Melissa calls Angel's number and comes in for a consult. Ronald turns out to be the surgeon who removed a tumor from behind her eye and saved her sight. Once she'd recovered, he asked her out, and feeling a certain debt to him, she agreed. He's been stalking her ever since-- following her, pestering her, proposing marriage, able somehow to see everything she does all day. She's been quite clear that she's not interested and wants him gone, but that one date was apparently enough for Ronald to decided that they are destined for each other, and he is completely invading her life.

Angel assures Melissa they will protect her and sends her back to work with Doyle as bodyguard, then tries to figure out how Ronald can keep such a frighteningly close watch on her. Angel's thoughts lean towards the supernatural, and, after reflecting that they were alerted to the sitch by one of Doyle's visions, Cordy pretty much has to agree. We learn they're right when we see Melissa getting ready for bed, and Ronald watching her by remote-- through his floating, disembodied right eye.

The next day Angel visits Kate at the police station for help. (While Doyle accompanies Melissa to work.) Kate is obviously all too familiar with stalkers' patterns, and tracks down a police report from a few months earlier: Melissa had reported Ronald for stalking, but his lawyers (Wolfram & Hart) turned it around and actually got a restraining order against _her_. [N.B.: Part of my job used to be helping women get LA County restraining orders against creeps like this (o.k., well, the _non-supernatural_ type of stalker-creep) and the thing is, they work both ways-- _neither_ can come within 100 ft. of the other. So this would have still been a victory for her. Just FYI... -Ed.]

Angel breaks into Ronald's office and looks around-- finding a photo of Melissa framed on the desk and an inscribed book on esoteric spiritual techniques on the shelf. When he's caught, he tells Ronald he's a (rich) husband desperately worried about his wife's brain tumor. Cordelia, meanwhile is interviewing Ronald's colleagues at the hospital under pretext of writing a professional journal article about him. She learns he's both "brilliant" at reattaching severed limbs and secretive about his reportedly "out-there" techniques. Angel tracks the book and inscription (which he lifted from Ronald's office) to a recently-reclusive self-help guru. When they meet, the guru warns Angel that Ronald came to a seminar attended by the most advanced 'psychic surgeons' and yogis in the world-- and freaked them _all_ out with his impossible talents.

We see Ronald standing in the bushes outside Melissa's apartment building. When a cop drives by and checks him out, the cop is startled (then embarrassed) to discover Ronald is apparently a double-amputee-- he has no hands at all. Inside we see Melissa, asleep in her bed-- completely unaware of the disembodied hands crawling across the bedroom floor towards her. They climb up the bed and under the covers [I'm with Cordy at this point: "Okay, flesh. Anytime you want to stop crawling is okay with me!" -- Ed.], and Melissa wakes up screaming. The cop rushes in to save her, but can find nothing wrong. Assuming she had a bad dream, he turns to leave-- and is set upon by the (still disembodied) hands settling around his throat. Melissa-- not being dumb-- runs for her life... and directly into Angel, who was on his way in to see her.

He stays with her until the cops arrive (Ronald watching from the bushes still)-- to find a terrified woman, a strangled cop, and no means of entry. Kate is baffled, but promises to put the guy behind bars. (Which, as Doyle points out to Angel, won't hold this guy long!) Back at Angel's apartment, he repeats his reassurances that she will be safe-- all the while Doyle is busy industriously sealing every crack in the place with duct tape. Angel assures her that she's not crazy, and he believes her--Ronald has developed the ability to disassemble and reassemble his own body at will (and to control the severed pieces by remote).

As Angel looks up places to buy steel boxes in the middle of the night, Ronald calls in on the special line for "Mr. Jentsen" (the husband worried over his wife's tumor). They agree to meet that night. When Angel arrives, Ronald shoots him with a tranquilizer overdose, then goes into a stalker rant as Angel collapses and passes out.

As Melissa sleeps under the influence of the whiskey Doyle slipped into her tea, Cordy bemoans the futility of dating. Meanwhile, Ronald's hand pokes it's way through a duct-taped vent and starts making noise, while his eye hovers in a corner, watching Cordelia and Doyle react. While the second hand lets Ronald into the locked apartment, the first grabs Doyle and yanks him down Angel's tunnel-access shaft. Ronald collects the other hand and uses it to slam Cordy against the wall and push her unconscious form into a closet. Then he turns to Melissa, who has awakened and watches as his second hand crawls to him, up his pant leg, and back onto his arm.

Ronald stops Melissa when she tries to run and she faces him down, telling him that she's done being afraid of him-- even if he kills her, he still will not have won. Before he can make that call, Angel crashes through the door and knocks Ronald into pieces.

Having buried Ronald in twelve separate boxes deep within the concrete foundations of LA's newest subway stop, Angel is back in the office when Melissa stops by with a thank-you plant. Cued by Cordelia and Doyle's unsubtle coughing hints, Angel raises the subject of payment and Melissa happily hands over a check she's already written up. As Cordelia and Doyle crow over the money, Angel wanders back into the offices to brood with his plant. ;-)

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This page last updated November 4, 1999.

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