Episode Report Card Demian: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Death Takes A Tango Lesson
By Demian | Season 3 | Episode 16 | Aired on 03.14.2001
Fade to a shot of the sun rising over the city skyline. Fade again to the beach from the pre-credits sequence. The camera swirls around Prue as she recites, "Spirits of air, sand, and sea/Converge to set the Angel free./In the wind I send this rhyme./Bring Death before me before my time." Death pops in to say howdy. Actually, he says, "Are you sure you want me?" Let's get this out of the way here: his accent, while British, is far less annoying than any of the previous attempts at British accents I've heard on this show. What is annoying is that is that the funny accent is always British on this show. Would it be so difficult to make Death, oh, I don't know, Belgian? Anyway, aside from that, they've done a neat little thing with the dialogue track in this scene. Both of their lines are clearly overdubbed, presumably to minimize the ambient noise from the ocean behind them. The ambient ocean noise, however, is more muffled underneath his lines than hers. It's more than a little creepy, and -- dare I say it? More than a little cool. Alrighty then, back to the scene. Death accuses Prue of wasting his time, and proceeds to wonder why she summoned him. "Did I take your husband? Or was it your brother?" he asks, walking across the sand towards Prue. "Your mother," he correctly guesses, and Prue starts to cry. Death lays a little supernatural science on Prue, correctly unraveling her sublimated motives for fighting him. He's seen it all before: "The anger. The pain. You lock up your tears and steel yourself against me as if I were the ultimate evil." "You are the ultimate evil," she insists. Wrong! Thanks for playing, Prue. Death, as Prue has been told already in this episode, is neither evil nor good. He just is. Until Prue can accept this fact, she'll be wasting her own time and keep "miss[ing] the bigger picture." Prue wonders what said bigger picture is. Death extends a hand, offering to show her while telling her not to worry, as "it's not [her] time…or not just yet, anyway," he deadpans. Get it? Huh? Deadpans? Oy. I can't believe I went there. I'll shut up now. Prue tentatively places her hand in his, and I must note that Death's hand's are frigging huge. Death and Prue smear off the beach.
The Hardest Working Cemetery in Show Business. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is being laid to rest. No, not the Supreme Court justice. The cop. Reese is in attendance. The presiding rabbi recites (of course), "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of Death blah blah we-get-it-cakes," then launches into a prayer in Hebrew. Problems I already have with this scene: a. the rabbi has a heavy, bushy beard that makes him look like he just stepped into the frame from an Ultra-Orthodox shtetl, even though Ruth struck me as more of a Reform kind of gal; b. I find it extremely unlikely that the Hardest Working Cemetery in Show Business is this ecumenical, and even if it were, I doubt Ruth's family would have her buried there; c. Reese is not wearing a yarmulke. How frigging rude. The camera pulls away from the service to reveal Piper and Phoebe in the SUV, eyeing Davidson. Phoebe's on the cell phone with Cole at the manor. He's climbing the walls from boredom. She tells him to cram it, as spending sixteen hours in the SUV is no slice of pie, either. FetusHead and Moe approach Reese. Reese agrees to speak with the Suckers, as long as they leave Ruth's grieving family alone. The rabbi drones on. Reese leads the Suckers away from the funeral in progress. Piper and Phoebe dart out of the SUV to follow. Davidson and the Suckers enter a large white marble chapel that is either Roman Catholic or Episcopal. Creepy larger-than-life statues of the twelve apostles gaze down on the three men as Moe bars the wrought-iron gates shut with a ceremonial candle-lighting staff thing. I managed to make it through Catholic school without being an altar boy, so I don't know what the thing's called. Sue me. Piper and Phoebe run up and pound on the gates, telling Reese to get out of the chapel. FetusHead's misshapen mouth curls into a sneer. Reese pulls out his automatic and fires at the Suckers. The bullets pass harmlessly through them to shatter several vases behind them. After Reese has emptied his clip, Moe glides over as FetusHead demands to know where "Belthazor" is. Davidson makes a "whuh?" noise as Death smears into the chapel with Prue. Moe starts in with the brain sucking. Prue gasps in shock and turns her back on the scene. "It's his time," Death intones, "just as it was your mother's time. Stop fighting me." Piper and Phoebe shout for Prue to open the gates. Sucking complete, Moe and FetusHead wipe out of the chapel. Death walks over to Davidson, who gives up the ghost. Reese's ghost smears into Death, and Death smears out. Prue gazes at the corpse, stricken. Commercial.