Episode Report Card Demian: B+ | 4 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Is That All There Is To Utopia? Is That All There Is?
By Demian | Season 7 | Episode 13 | Aired on 01.29.2005
Up in the nonexistent attic, Phoebe strides into the room, then falters once she spots the Book on its stand. "Come on, Phoebe," she whispers to herself, steeling her spine and slowly crossing the rest of the way from the door. She gingerly places her hands on the Book and is immediately hurled into another premonition, and I was not expecting what follows at all. It's a rapid-fire Montage Of Death, and because it's both tightly edited and features, for the most part, characters and scenes I don't hate, it's shockingly effective. We watch first as Andy's slammed backwards into that china cabinet in the parlor, and the instant his body smashes the glass, we hear Grams emit a sharp cry of pain as we cut to her staggering against the wall at the top of the attic stairs. Grams gasps and clutches at her chest in agony before tumbling all the way down to the second floor, and as her head cracks against the floorboards, the screen suddenly fills with Gonzo, plugged full of holes and bleeding from his mouth. As flashback Phoebe wails in reaction to this, her cries echo into those of the doctor fruitlessly charging paddles while Piper flatlines in the best death scene this show's ever filmed. There follows an out-of-place and unnecessarily jarring shot of Prue's mausoleum nameplate before we hit Piper and Phoebe collapsing in grief at Prue's funeral. As Piper falls apart in her husband's arms, poor Big Gay Chris dies in his father's and slowly fades away before the premonition ends with Cole's first vanquish. As he screams, "No!" Phoebe finally snaps out of it. "My God," she breathes as she opens her eyes, and it's obvious the Avatars have at last lost their power over her. And much as I can't stand the character, and much as I dislike the fact that this means Phoebe will once again save the day, this was the sort of solid exploitation of her powers to advance the story that we haven't seen in years on this damn show, and it was made all the more effective by choosing, for the most part, the least magical and therefore most human and harrowing of the death scenes from the past six and a half years. And I'm over-talking it all. It was just a good, effective, affecting montage, and a nice little continuity reward for those of us who have endured this series for so long.
And if I never have to dredge up that many links for a single paragraph again, I'll be a happy, happy Demian. ["Thank you for not making a happy, happy Sars do it. Good show." -- Sars]