Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Once, Twice, Three Times A Ball-Buster
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 16 | Aired on 03.02.1999
Anyway. Gabriel blusters that Prue's "ancestor's" TK power was focused in her hands, so he figures hers is too. Prue asks, "My ancestor?" Ms. Statler: "A witch named Brianna? You're not the only one who's done her research." Ms. Statler is about to learn what happens when you mouth off to the Prueminator. Sure enough, the eldest P TKs the restraints open, then sends Ms. Statler flying across the room. As Gabriel tries to draw his sword, Prue grabs a convenient axe and buries it in his chest, with no effect. You should have gone for the hair, Prue -- that would at least have done some good. Prue runs for the door, and Gabriel throws his sword at her, missing as it lands in some wood next to her. He TKs it back to himself, and I wonder why, if he can manipulate the sword with his mind, he didn't direct it into Prue's back. I guess Alyssa didn't tell him to. (You know, once you start telling that joke, it's pretty hard to stop.) Anyway, Prue speeds away in her sweet ride as the brother and sister make it out of the warehouse to watch her go. Gabriel realizes that Prue's power is in her eyes. His sister thinks they should attack her at home now that she knows about them, but Gabriel nixes that idea, saying that home is where she'll have the Power of Three. He caresses his sister's chin as he tells her they'll think of another way. In the immortal words of Ed Rooney, so that's how it is in their family. At least her motivation makes sense now. A creepy, incestuous sense, but as usual, you have to take what you can get with this show.
Manor living room. Piper gives Prue some shit until Phoebe enters with the BoS and tells them that Brianna was their great-great-great aunt (aren't their powers supposed to have been handed down in a direct line?) and she used her TK power to take away Gabriel's sword, disgracing him. I suppose this is as good a time as any to point out that they never say what power it is that Gabriel's trying to get back. I mean, we just saw he's invulnerable, so who cares if he's disgraced? I would also like to remind you that Charmed takes place in San Francisco. Phoebe theorizes that Brianna was able to move Gabriel's sword hundreds of miles away, which of course makes absolutely no sense, but is an excuse for her to push a power-augmentation spell on Prue, called the "Charm of Multiplicity." My hatred of Andie McDowell precluded me from seeing that movie, but since I still know what it was about and it came out in 1996, I think it's pretty poor of the Ps not to anticipate the wacky hijinx that are about to ensue. Piper's against the idea anyway, saying there might be a Power of Three solution, but Prue, concerned for the welfare of her sisters, is all about saying the spell. Piper insists on a vote, thereby driving another nail into my head, despite the fact that Prue's halfway up to the attic to say the spell and the damn thing was Phoebe's idea. Although you'd think it would give the elder Ps pause that the only reason they got their way in each vote is that Phoebe agreed with them. Prue pedutters the spell, which mentions multiplying her power by three, as Piper and Phoebe bitch at each other, setting Phoebe up to say, "What's the worst thing that can happen?" A Cleansing Burst Of Synchronicity? Wrong! Me being out of beer? Right! The former, however, does happen in the form of a thunderclap from upstairs. Piper I-told-you-sos as the younger Ps rush up the stairs. When they enter the attic, they see Prue on her hands and knees in front of the Book, with swirly golden lights circling her. She expels a figure to her right and to her left, and the three of them stand up. Piper asks, "Prue?" Three Shannen Dohertys respond, "What?" Alyssa Milano didn't have to dig deep to find a look of horror, as this is her worst nightmare made flesh. The five Ps gape and goggle and smile us into the commercial break.