Episode Report Card Demian: D+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT We All Scream For Ice Cream
By Demian | Season 3 | Episode 10 | Aired on 01.17.2001
The two are interrupted by Piper, who trundles into the kitchen with "I don't know what you two are talking about, but what I've got is better. At least, bizarrer." Prue wonders if "bizarrer" is a word, but Piper tells her to can it. Seems one of their childhood friends spotted "Victor" the day before in the lobby of the Bay Tech building. "Dad Victor?" Phoebe asks, and Piper confirms this, speed-talking her way through the unnecessary exposition: they haven't seen him in years, and he's now apparently back in town. What are they going to do? Prue votes for doing nothing, emphatically claiming her utter disinterest in their father's presence in the city. Phoebe calls Prue on this, stating she can't believe Prue isn't even a little interested in finding out what Victor has been doing these last few years. Prue firmly reiterates that she came to terms with their non-"Rockwellian" family life a long time ago, and tells Piper and Phoebe that they don't need their father in their lives. They have each other, she argues, as well as a wide variety of people who care for them, and they don't need Victor hanging around. Prue rises to retrieve her car keys to head off for the office, and arranges to meet Phoebe for lunch in the park on Nob Hill. Piper leaves with Prue as Phoebe eases the laptop open again to check the "Old Friend's" instant message.
Cut to the 415 magazine building. Prue's crammed into the back of an overcrowded elevator car. She impatiently checks her watch, then hears someone in the elevator humming the Ice-Cream Molester's theme song. Prue eyes the other occupants. A Fed Ex deliveryman starts whistling the same series of notes, but Prue can't spot the person who's humming. The elevator stops on the ninth floor, and we see that the person humming is actually a tubby, bespectacled, frizzy-haired child, who exits with her mother. Neither the child nor her mother should be wearing those horizontal stripes. I'm just saying. Prue tries to push her way out to confront the child about the little ditty, but the doors shut before she can get off the elevator. Prue glares.
Cut to the lobby of the Bay Tech Building, which is decorated with a full-scale reproduction of Rodin's The Thinker. Piper enters, again conservatively clad in a fuzzy black angora sweater over a beige, ankle-length skirt, and nervously approaches the receptionist. She begins to introduce herself, then starts babbling. "You don't really care who I am, do you? I mean, everybody else is on lunch break, and you're stuck here fielding questions from people who probably shouldn't even be asking them in the first place." The visibly unnerved receptionist cuts her short: "Can I actually help you?" Piper asks for the name of the company that employs Victor Bennet. The receptionist checks her records, and tells Piper she has no listing for a Victor Bennet. Perhaps because, as long-time viewers of this show have noted on the forums, Piper's father's name is actually Victor Jones. Piper produces a photo of Victor and asks the receptionist if she's seen him. Before the exasperated receptionist can tell Piper to go far, far away, Piper spots a middle-aged man exiting an elevator, and scampers off after him, calling, "Dad!" The man turns, and, of course, he is not her father. Piper apologizes, and turns to scan the crowd in the lobby once more.