I Fall to Pieces (Angel episode)
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| “I Fall to Pieces” | |
|---|---|
| Angel episode | |
 Ronald Meltzer's detached hand |
|
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 4 |
| Guest stars | Elisabeth Rohm (Kate) Tushka Bergen (Melissa) Andy Umberger (Dr. Meltzer) Carlos Carrasco (Dr. Narpudan) |
| Written by | David Greenwalt (teleplay & story) Joss Whedon (story) |
| Directed by | Vern Gillum |
| Production no. | 1ADH04 |
| Original airdate | October 26, 1999 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "In the Dark" | "Rm w/a Vu" |
"I Fall to Pieces" is episode 4 of season 1 of the television show Angel. See also List of Angel episodes.
Contents |
[edit] Summary
A woman called Melissa goes to Angel to find protection from a man who is harassing her. This man is a surgeon capable of detaching limbs from his body and controlling them separately. This is the method he uses to watch her without her knowledge. Angel lets her spend the night at his place with Doyle and Cordelia protecting her, but that doesn't stop the man. In the end, Angel turns up at the last moment and saves the situation.
[edit] Expanded
At the office, Cordelia and Doyle discuss their need for actual income from their business. After he tries some of their incredibly old coffee, Cordelia decides to assert herself and tell Angel he needs to start asking their clients for money. Doyle gets a vision about a woman named Melissa. At the office where she works, Melissa and another co-worker wish a happy birthday to a woman named Penny. Flowers are delivered to Melissa from a man named Ronald along with a message that disturbs her enough to send her into the bathroom to take tranquilizer pills. Angel confronts Melissa as she's on her way to her car, and despite her lack of interest, she does take his card.
At the ATM, Ronald approaches Melissa and tells her he changed her bank's PIN, and starts talking to her like they're in a lasting relationship. He scares her enough that she calls Angel Investigations and then comes in to talk with them. Melissa informs them that Dr. Ronald Meltzer has been stalking her for nearly seven months and even when he's not around, she can feel him watching her. At her home that night, Melissa gets undressed and then we see that Ronald is watching her by means of his eye that is levitating in her room. Ronald is sitting in his office.
Angel goes to Kate at the LAPD to ask her a favor. She looks up info for him, but says that Ronald's lawyers, Wolfram and Hart, prevented anything from happening to Ronald. She tells Angel that it's not enough that he fights this stalker, Melissa has to get over him before he leaves her alone for good. While Doyle follows Melissa around at work, Angel breaks into Ronald's office and searches through his things. When he gets caught, he pretends he's in need of Ronald's services and tells him that his wife needs emergency surgery that he is willing to pay anything for. Cordelia interviews another doctor and manages to find out about Dr. Meltzer. A doctor with an incredible talent for attaching and detaching body parts, but who keeps very quiet about the advances he made in his studies.
At the office, Angel searches for information about the author of a book he stole from Dr. Meltzer's office and then arranges to meet with the doctor. They do meet and the doctor basically tells Angel that Ronald was able to master a combination of many psychological and physical talents. While Melissa sleeps, Ronald's hands--just his hands--crawl through her apartment and under the covers of her bed. A cop, sent by Kate to watch Melissa's apartment building drives up and confronts Ronald, who is watching her from outside, but he reveals that he has no hands. Later, the cop hears Melissa scream, breaks into the building and searches her room. At first he doesn't find anything, and then Ronald's hands attack him and strangle him to death.
Melissa runs out and encounters Angel while Ronald watches secretly from behind the bushes. Kate and the police arrive on the scene and she talks to Angel about the stalker. Doyle confesses that this literally scares him. Melissa stays at Angel's place, where Doyle covers every hole with tape. Angel and Cordelia go upstairs to talk, and while Angel searches for a place to get steel boxes to put pieces of Ronald in, Cordelia gets a call from Ronald on the special line. Ronald asks for Angel to meet with him with $100,000 for his supposed wife's operation. When Angel shows up, Ronald knows Angel has been lying, and shoots him with a small dart carrying a paralytic drug that can stop a heart. Angel convulses and drops to the ground.
At the apartment Cordelia and Doyle look after Melissa who is asleep, thanks to Doyle's special mixture of whiskey and tea. Despite the tape all over Angel's place, the hands start to break in through a vent and the sewer. With one eye watching from above, one hand attacks Cordelia from behind, and the other pulls Doyle down into the sewers. Melissa wakes up as Ronald makes his way into Angel's apartment and she talks back to him, telling him that she's done being scared of him. Angel shows up, obviously not killed by the dart, but Ronald's mouth and hand are thrown at Angel, as well as a scalpel that is imbedded into Angel's shoulder. None of them prevent Angel from getting back up and beheading the doctor.
The next day, Melissa drops by the office to give them a plant, and after Angel unwillingly asks her for money, she gladly hands over a check.
[edit] Episode Cast & Factions
Angel, Cordelia Chase, Allen Francis Doyle (all Angel Investigations)
Detective Kate Lockley (LAPD)
Dr. Ronald Meltzer
Dr. Vinpur Narpudan
Penny, John, unnamed intern (all Pardell Paper Products)
unnamed cop
Miltzer's secretary
Miltzer's patient
[edit] Writing and acting
[edit] Production details
[edit] Quotes and trivia
- This episode is cited by cast and crew as one of the worst Angel episodes, and has been referenced jokingly throughout the series.
[edit] Translations
- German title: "Die Maschen des Dr. Meltzer" ("The tricks of Dr. Meltzer"; litteraly: "The meshes of Dr. Meltzer")
- Italian title: "Il chirurgo medianico" ("The mediumistic surgeon")
[edit] Continuity
[edit] Arc significance
[edit] Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
| Location, time (if known) |
Buffyverse chronology: Fall 1999 - December 1999 (non-canon = italic) |
|---|---|
| L.A. 1999 | Angel comic: Doyle: Spotlight |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.01 City of |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.01 The Freshman |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.02 Living Conditions |
| L.A. 1999 | |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.02 Lonely Hearts |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.00 Unaired Angel pilot |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Not Forgotten |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.03 The Harsh Light of Day |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.03 In the Dark |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.04 Fear, Itself |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy graphic novel: Blood of Carthage |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel graphic novel: Surrogates |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel comic: Strange Bedfellows story, Angel #4 |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy video game: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Game Boy Color) |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Tales of the Slayer: All That You Do Comes Back.. |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.04 I Fall to Pieces |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.05 Beer Bad |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.05 Rm w/a Vu |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy books: Lost Slayer series |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.06 Wild at Heart |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy graphic novel: Oz |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy book: Oz: Into the Wild |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.06 Sense & Sensitivity |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.07 The Initiative |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.07 Bachelor Party |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Close to the Ground |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Soul Trade |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel graphic novel: Earthly Possessions |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Redemption |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Shakedown |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Hollywood Noir |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Avatar |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: Bruja |
| L.A. 1999 | Angel book: The Summoned |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.08 Pangs |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.08 I Will Remember You |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.09 Something Blue |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.09 Hero |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.10 Hush |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.10 Parting Gifts |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B4.11 Doomed |
| L.A. 1999 | A1.11 Somnambulist |
