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
Up in the Room of Death, Prue draws a blanket up over Piper’s body. Sniff. Out in the hall, Special Forces Pete (or we could be up to Special Forces Billy by now) kneels against a doorframe and aims a high-powered rifle at the wall hiding Prue. The rifle has a heat-sensitive, plaster-penetrating scope which reveals Prue’s form as she paces back and forth in the Room of Death. He targets her head. Quick cut down below, where Source Earl Jones intones, “It shall be done.” Special Forces Billy squeezes the trigger, and we shift into BulletCam, following its trajectory through the wall. The bullet wings into the room. Prue raises her hands to the sides of her face in shock. The bullet slows, then stops right in front of her nose. Time reversal kicks in, and the bullet hurtles backwards out of the room and into the rifle. There’s a very quick rewind of this short scene followed by a series of shots of time tramping backwards across San Francisco. Fast fade to the much-abused grandfather clock in the manor hall. The hands on the face whiz backwards to reset themselves at 6:25 AM.
Piper rolls her eyes as if to say, “The only problems with saving innocents are the stupid innocents themselves.” Prue gives Doc the shorthand version of what’s going on. He’s a “healer,” which means he does “good.” Either he’s already “saved too many lives,” or he’s about to help someone the dark demonic forces sent from the flaming maw of Hell want dead. To prevent this, The Source has sent the aforementioned demonic assassin, a personal lackey of his named “Shax.” That’s a horrible name, but I expect nothing less from the “hax” who write these damn things. And that was a horrible joke. Let’s move it along then, shall we? Doc’s had it. He thinks this is all some sort of practical joke perpetrated on his undeserving self by his second wife. He’ll soon learn otherwise. Prue begins to explain the evil they’re up against is very real, indeed. “Dr. Griffiths, this is anything but…” she starts, but cuts herself short when she feels a “chill” run through her body. She calls for Phoebe as the sound of a raging whirlwind amps up a bit on the soundtrack.
Phoebe doesn’t answer.
DemonCam. The whirlwind slams open the front doors and swirls through the front hall. Prue screams, “Phoebe? Where are you?” The cloud knocks the two sisters to the parlor floor then flares out into the form of the demon himself. Doctor Griffiths takes in this apparition from Hell and mutters, “Dear God.” Fruma-Shax swings his right arm around to throw a violent energy shield at the Doc. Prue leaps to her feet and pushes the doctor out of the way. She takes the shield right in the chest, and the force of the blast sends her flying through the wall into the sun porch. Piper jumps up, calling her sister’s name. Fruma-Shax flings another energy shield at Piper, hurling her bodily through what seems to be a retaining pillar. Doctor Griffiths stutters out, “What are you?” Fruma-Shax mouth breathes, “The End.” The demon whips a final shield at the doctor. Griffiths hurtles backwards over the dining room table and crashes through the windows at the far end of the room. Blood pours from his ear. Fruma-Shax gazes impassively at the lifeless forms of Prue and Piper in the wreckage on the sun porch floor. There’s more blood evident this time around. Fruma-Shax flares up white, then disappears into the whirlwind. DemonCam in a tracking shot that pulls rapidly back through the hallway. As the monster backs through the threshold, the front doors slam shut with such violence that the panes of glass shatter and the resulting shards cascade to the floor. The shot abruptly slows and rises up at an angle above the porch as gusts of wind scatter dead leaves about and we fade to black.