Episode Report Card Demian: A | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT All Hell Breaks Loose
By Demian | Season 3 | Episode 22 | Aired on 05.16.2001
Cavern. The Colethazor returns to find Phoebe and the Dolt engaged in a hushed conversation. They clam up and rise to greet him. He fills them in on the deal proposed by The Source. Phoebe can’t believe it. “Why would he think that I would accept an offer like that?” The Colethazor drops the dead sibling bomb. The Dolt thinks Cole’s bluffing. Cole shakes his head sadly. Deathly pause as Phoebe struggles to process this information, then we cut back up to the hospital. Eight more gentlemen in Special Forces drag pour through the main hallway and cautiously approach the Death Room. Inside, Prue mourns. She stares at Piper, noticing at last the various tubes and wires still attached to the body, and impatiently flicks them all away. Special Forces Pete enters the room, telling Prue to “keep [her] hands where [he] can see them and [she] won’t get hurt.” Prue is so over everything that’s happened today. She TKs Special Forces Pete out into the hall. When Special Forces Ivan moves in to take his place, she kicks his rifle out of his hand, then lands a boot to his chest which sends him flying out into the hall as well. Prue barricades the door with an upright from an IV stand and smacks off the lights. The Dolt orbs into the Room of Death. “They killed her, Leo,” Prue tells him. “They think we’re the demons now.” Because I like this episode so much, I won’t dwell on the fact that the Brian Krause snot-nosed “crying” “jag” that now appears on my television screen has destroyed any goodwill towards his character this episode has thus far engendered. He looks like one of the flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz. Shut up, Dolt. And look at that. This episode is so good, Prue tells the Dolt to shut up for me. Thanks, Prue. The Dolt orbs back down to Hell. Prue hyperventilates some more after he leaves, then moves to Piper’s side to offer the reassurance that “[the Dolt] will fix it. Everything’s going to be fine.” Again with the old-Prue-equals-no-new-tricks thing. Honey, you’ve seen how Death immediately spirits away the essence (or whatever) of the deceased. Stop. Talking. To. Your. Sister’s. Corpse.
Cavern. The Dolt orbs in with the bad news. Interestingly, he says not a word when he enters. Phoebe, however, takes one look at his face and breathes, “Piper.” Is this supposed to indicate that the sisters are so close to their Whitelighter, any one of them would be able to guess what he’s thinking? Or does it indicate that Phoebe knows for a fact that the Dolt wouldn’t care if Prue had been the one with the gaping exit wound? You decide. Phoebe comforts him briefly, then turns to ask the Colethazor, “Will resetting time affect us down here?” Cole allows that it won’t. Phoebe notes that, in that case, she has a condition of her own. She will remain in the Cavern if Cole warns Prue and Piper of Fruma-Shax immediately upon the regression of time. “Otherwise, they’re dead anyway.” Cut to Source Earl Jones, booming, “Agreed!” from deep within his red velour robe. Cole rises from his knees and leaves. Leather-clad Lunkhead approaches and genuflects before Source Earl Jones to receive the following instructions from the master of them all: “Once I have reset time, detain him, and then kill his witch. That way I don’t have to worry about Belthazor any more. Or the Charmed Ones.” Get it? The Source himself can turn back time. (Surprisingly, this makes sense. He himself would have the combined powers of all of his underlings, wouldn’t he?) The Source orchestrated the entire thing, knowing that the unusual and foolhardy daytime Fruma-Shax attacks would lead Prue to expose the Halliwells, knowing that The Powers That Be would resort to temporal regression to solve the problem, and knowing that TPTB would involve the Colethazor in all of it. And everyone fell for it. Clever Source. Or, rather, clever Kern. I don’t think I’ve encountered an episode so tightly scripted on this show before. Bravo.