Episode Report Card Demian: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Ow! Quit it. Ow! Quit it.
By Demian | Season 1 | Episode 8 | Aired on 11.24.1998
Manor sun porch. Manky Tanya leafs through the Book of Shadows, looking for the undertaker, while Piper enters from the kitchen with a tray of tea. Apparently, there's been a third murder at some point in the past few hours. The latest victim is a biogenetics professor at Stanford. "A professor, a geneticist, a lab technician," Piper enumerates. "And a sandwich girl?" Tanya asks. "Do you really think he's after me?" Phoebe places a comforting hand on Tanya's knee, and is of course hurled into a conveniently expository premonition. Manky Tanya tenderly cradles a newborn in her arms while rocking back and forth in a sun-dappled room. Phoebe snaps out of it, gapes, and drags Piper into the kitchen.
"She's carrying!" Phoebe squeals. "Carrying what?" Piper asks, rather dimly. "No, she's pregnant," Phoebe explains. Phoebe supposes the undertaker is after Tanya's unborn child, and piece by piece, the ladies assemble a theory regarding the dark demonic force of the week. Reminding Piper of the mysterious alloy forensics found in the undertaker's button, Phoebe deduces that he's been sent from the future to eliminate his various victims for some reason or another. Piper wonders how they'll catch him. Phoebe puzzles over this for a moment, then remembers with dismay that the undertaker saw Tanya at Buckland's with herself and Prue. DUN!
Buckland's. Prue, lost in thought, stares out of the window as Hannah enters awkwardly to apologize for her earlier outburst. Prue levels her gaze at Hannah and sneers, "But you wouldn't really mean that, would you?" Hannah guhs, "No!" as if it were the stupidest question she'd ever been asked in all her long, demonic life. Her mouth then drops open in mortified shock, and she spins around to scamper away in silence. Hee! Can we get a lot more of Hannah, please? She's the funniest damn supporting character they've ever had. The camera tracks Hannah out to the elevator bank. Once she's gone, the undertaker emerges from around a corner to stalk out into commercial.
Back from the break, Prue fiddles with some paperwork as the undertaker invades her office. In a bit of dialogue that's cleverly crafted by Charmed standards, Prue draws the undertaker's mission from him with a few well-worded questions. He was indeed sent from the future to prevent the creation of an as-yet-unspecified vaccine by murdering said vaccine's authors. Prue TKs her desk into the guy and flees.
Manor. Piper's attempts to reach Prue by phone are useless, as the system is automatically shunting her into voice mail. I hate when that happens. Phoebe decides that Piper should head to Buckland's on her own while Phoebe remains in the Manor to protect Tanya. Piper, bless her insecure little heart, doesn't believe she's up to the task. Phoebe assures her that everything will be fine. The Manor Ps hug. Aw.