Original Airdate: October 26, 1999

Plot: Angel, Doyle and Cordelia are hired by a woman to stop a stalker--who can literally take himself apart to get to her...

Warning: If reading SPOILERS for the latest episode of Angel, "I Fall To Pieces" will push you over the edge, please turn back now...

In short: Creepy and entertaining with only a few niggling drawbacks...

As many of you may already know, I'm an opening credits reader. I love to watch them slowly scroll past each week, waiting in anticipation to see who the architects of a particular episode are.

And as I read the the credits this week for Angel, I've got to admit that my interest was peaked to see that the story was crafted by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt. The two of them showed off their stuff three weeks ago with the first episode of the series and got a chance to really strut their stuff here.

"I Fall to Pieces" was utterly and completely creepy and unnerving. It worked on so many different levels and it did what it had to do--take the old stalker story and give it a new and interesting twist.

There were times watching it that I found myself thinking back to Whedon and Greenwalt's second season offering on Buffy, "Ted" and also two first season X-Files episodes, "Squeeze" and "Tooms." And, for me, that's a good thing as I love all three of those episodes.

But what made "I Fall to Pieces" work so well is that it was a story that had homages to the past but was also a story uniquely told for Angel. I seriously doubt that Buffy could have pulled off an epiosde like this as well. That's not meant to be a criticism of Buffy, because it's still one of the best shows on television. It's meant to be a compliment of Angel for going out and establishing it's own identity in the past month.

Part of it is that Angel has a smaller cast and, so we get to know the victim of the stalking a bit better. We feel a bit more sympathy toward her plight (summed up so well, as always, by Cordelia). However, I liked the fact that Whedon and Greenwalt didn't pull any punches. They didn't sugar coat what Melissa was going through. And they also dealt with the issue of Ronald's stalking on a physical and mental level. Kate's dialogue to Angel about how Melissa was going to have to get mad to get rid of the psychological terror Ronald had inflicted on her really worked. And it was nice to see her go from a reasonably self-assured woman to a frightened one in the first sequence we met her. Also, seeing her being terrified and coming to terms with that over the course of the episode was a nicely done effect. You've really, really got to give the producers a great deal of credit for that.

As for Ronald, he worked well because he was a very creepy guy. To have him in a profession that is built on a having a trust relationship established and then seeing him take advantage of it was nice. Ronald was a lot creepier because of just how calmly evil he could be. Yes, it's great that he can detach body part, but to see the pyschological terror he could inflict made him that much more effective overall. It reminded me of Ted--who was a villain who got more sinsiter as the story went along. I can only think that a rerpeated viewing of this story would make Ronald seem a bit more creepy and interesting knowing his secret.

The episode, as a whole, worked better than "In the Dark" because it has the focus we needed. There weren't any niggling subplots to slow down the plot too much or distract us from the main interest in the episode. That was nicely done.

However, I will admit that some things took it down for me.

One of the biggest is the ending. It felt rushed. Angel gets shot with the drug, but yet you knew in the back of your head he'd show up at the last minute. The fact that the posion didn't kill him took a bit too much suspension of disbelief for me. It screamed that they needed to get Angel out of the way long enough for Ronald to get Melissa and then have Angel dramatically save her.

Next is the amount of time Angel works during the day. Now, I may have missed something but I thought sunlight all around was bad (we've seen him flinch just from the presence of sunlight in Buffy). But here he's able to move fairly freely about in daylight. I understand the reasoning is he gets around in the sewers..but does every building in LA have sewer access? Unless he'd climbing up the toliets, I doubt it. That really, really bugged me. Part of it is that Joss and his crew have been so good at keeping these little details in mind over the course of Buffy that they really stand out here.

And the line at the end about bursting into flames if he goes to deposit the check only made this problem that much more apparent...

Well, I guess that's about it for now, except for a few small things...

--So, how many cards does Angel have for his different identities? And when did this idea come up?
--Doyle's being partial attracted to Angel was an interesting bit...
--Doyle and Cordy seemed less forced than the past two weeks. Not sure what it is.
--You've got to wonder how Ronald's hand got in the apartment to unlock the door. I thought they'd secured it fairly well.

Well, that about wraps it for now. So far, Angel is four for four. I've got to admit, I'm hooked for the long haul....

My rating: 7.5 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Rent control takes on a whole new meaning for Cordy...