Episode Report Card Demian: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT You Lost Me
By Demian | Season 4 | Episode 12 | Aired on 01.30.2002
Back in the Manor parlor, Tywer pouts on the couch, convinced that he's done something horribly wrong. Piper and the Dolt attempt to reassure him, but he's pretty much shut himself off from their arguments to the contrary. Piper takes his hand and leads him upstairs to the attic. There, she asks if she can trust him. Tywer vows that she can. Piper hauls the Book of Shadows over to a sofa and opens to the entry on demonic bounty hunters. The unfortunate illustration accompanying the text has caught an anonymous bounty hunter posing like that drunk from the Backstreet Boys crooning a lyric I'm certain involves the words "baby, I love you" at some point or another. The entry itself reads, "Driven by greed, these heartless low-level demons will stop at nothing to collect their bounty. They have the power to fire [Flaming Balls Of Death] and/or lightning bolts and can materialize at will. Bounty hunters track down fugitive demons, but if the price is right, they will go after anyone." I thought their proper name was "Zotars," and if so, shouldn't that be the entry's title? Piper and the Dolt explain that Tywer's foster parents were demonic bounty hunters in disguise. Tywer s l o w l y realizes that by killing them, he did the world a favor. Piper flips through the Book to the entry on Firestarters, and passes it to Tywer so he can read it for himself. "An extremely rare and coveted magical creature, usually a mortal," Tywer intones. He stops to ask Piper what "covet" means. Clearly not a Catholic child. Or, for that matter, a bright one. "The power is linked to their emotions," the entry continues. "It first manifests in adolescence with the onset of puberty." As opposed to manifesting itself at puberty with the onset of adolescence. "If subjugated while still impressionable, they can be persuaded to use their powers for evil. Because of this, they are often trained to be bodyguards of The Source." DUN! Tywer frets that he must be Eeevil as well. Piper corrects him, noting magical powers in and of themselves are neutral; good or Eeevil lies within the intentions with which those powers are used. Tywer then fills them in on Ludlow and the "boarding school," which the Dolt interprets to mean "training academy." The Dolt figures that The Source must be ready to rise again if he's sending demonic bounty hunters after Firestarters. He pulls Piper aside for a private chat, leaving Tywer to leaf through the Book on his own. Andy and Vicky must have tracked Tywer through his use of his power, the Dolt asserts. They zeroed in on Tywer's location when he torched the throw pillow. It follows that other demonic bounty hunters might be on their way to the Manor in the wake of Andy and Vicky's immolation. Piper frowns.
Kitchen. Phoebe, in jackass mode, prepares soup. A bald bounty hunter with a handlebar moustache and a black duster rays in, looking for Tywer. Phoebe pouts something tiresome about manners, and the bounty hunter prepares to smite her with an FBOD. Atta boy. Piper skitters into the kitchen and blows the guy up. A brief scene follows in which Phoebe continues with the condescending June Cleaver nonsense while Piper completely ignores her in favor of formulating a plan to confront Ludlow. It actually looks like Holly Marie Combs is ignoring Alyssa Milano, as if Combs herself realizes what a crock this subplot is and is only enduring it for the sake of her next mortgage payment. It's pretty amusing. Anyway, Piper announces that she and the Dolt will pose as bounty hunters themselves to locate Ludlow, and asks Phoebe to call Raige back to the Manor. Phoebe retrieves the cordless as Piper exits.