Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Once, Twice, Three Times A Ball-Buster
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 16 | Aired on 03.02.1999
In the car, Piper is luckily driving, as Prue has shotgun, and Phoebe's riding bitch in the back. I love when the meta-commentary is unintentional. Prue gasps in pain again, although it doesn't seem to be as severe as when Perky Prue bit it. Prue breathes that she's gone, and Phoebe strokes her hair into the last commercial break.
Manor. The Ps discuss the blood the police found near Perky Prue's body, and it's Phoebe who realizes that Gabriel's own sword can hurt him, so maybe they should try to kill him using it. Prue leans over to give Phoebe props, which come in the form of another premonition. She sees another smoke bomb crash through the solarium window, and Gabriel leaping in after it. She tells her sisters that Gabriel's on his way.
Andy's back with Dr. Bricker, who confirms that the corpse in question's fingerprints match Prue's exactly. They tiresomely argue the point until Andy tells him not to tell anyone else, and leaves. How did that scene not end up on the cutting-room floor?
Manor. Prue waits in the solarium until the lights short out. She quickly puts on a pair of dark glasses in advance of Phoebe's premonition playing out. Gabriel jumps through the window, and seeing that Prue thwarted that part of his plan, snarls, "Clever witch." Prue runs, and he comes after her, sword drawn. Amazingly, he doesn't bat an eye when he walks by the marble monstrosity, but when he sees the shadowy figure of Slam Man, he throws his sword, destroying him in a shower of sparks. Piper pops up from behind the couch to lay a freeze on him, and then Phoebe boots him in the face, which was not just unnecessary but counterproductive, since it knocked him out of the freeze before Prue even had the sword in her hands. But Gabriel tumbles to the floor in a heap, and then Prue retrieves the sword and TKs it into his chest. The sword sucks out his life force, and Gabriel and the sword disappear down to hell. I raise the episode grade at this point, by the way, just in appreciation of the fact that no one said, "He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword," or something of that ilk. Instead, Prue snarks that it's too bad Phoebe didn't boot him into the statue, which is actually pretty funny. I mean, words cannot describe that thing. The doorbell rings, and Prue answers it to find Andy. She points out that it's four in the morning, and he doesn't dignify that by in turn pointing out that the Ps are all awake and dressed. Instead, he says that she's got to go with him to the morgue, and he'll drive. Andy, I know I gave you flak about the awards show, but taking a girl out to see dead bodies is definitely a step down in the date department.