Episode Report Card Demian: B- | 1 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT Shape of...a smackdown!
By Demian | Season 1 | Episode 3 | Aired on 10.20.1998
Buckland's, the following morning. Prue sits at her desk in a demure twin set, cataloguing slides on her laptop. The shadow of a visitor engulfs her, and she looks up from her work to greet him. The man, who with his bulletproof hair, shiny tailored suit, boyish face, and beady black eyes looks like a Muppet version of a mobster, asks Prue if she could examine his ring. He'd have the Buckland's appraiser do it, but that person would need the ring for a week. As this gentleman doesn't want to part with his "family heirloom" for so long a period of time, he was wondering if Prue could offer her opinion. Prue gamely takes a look, noting that the two stones are "chrysolite" while adding that the setting dates from the seventeenth century. "Egyptians believed [chrysolite] would protect them from spells, curses, and evil spirits," she idly explains. I should mention that while researching chrysolite myself, I found the following bit of information that is even more anvilicious than Prue's, given who Prue's visitor is shortly revealed to be: Chrysolite also "disposes one towards repentance." Prue has a feeling she's seen a similar ring before, and asks her guest if it's a wedding band. The setting, you see, features braided gold entwining the two stones. A light goes off in Prue's head and she levels her gaze at the mafia Muppet, asking again where he got the ring. He leans forward to reply, "I think you know, Prudence." The bitch? She is strapped on. Prue shoots a monumental stink-eye at her visitor as she rises from her desk to spit, "Get out, and stay. Away. From us!" The Mafia Muppet also rises and mildly notes that he's staying at "The Beaumark." He invites Prue and her sisters to dine with him the following evening at the hotel. Prue is having none of it. "Get out before I have you thrown out!" she sneers. "Is that any way to talk to your father?" he asks mildly, for yes, Prue's visitor is the first iteration of Victor "Daddy Dearest" Bennett. For some reason, however, he's identified as "Victor Halliwell" in this episode, and I don't know why the name was changed in the third season. I suppose all the crack and the crystal had melted the producers' brains to the point where they couldn't remember two-year-old character names. The switch from Tony Denison to James Read I can understand. From the looks of his résumé, Denison had other things going on by the time Brad Kern decided to reintroduce the Glamorous Ladies' father. Don't laugh. It's true. But the name change? Inexcusable. To distinguish Denison from the later Daddy Dearest, we'll call him The Teflon Dad in honor of his leading role as the freshly-dead John Gotti in a 1994 television biopic. The Teflon Dad silently exits Prue's office as the camera pulls in to settle on Prue's furious face.