Episode Report Card Demian: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Sin Francisco
By Demian | Season 3 | Episode 18 | Aired on 04.18.2001
Oh, hello, Cleansing Burst Of Synchronicity. I've missed you this episode. The Dolt, Piper, and Phoebe enter the Evil Carnival of Schlock just as Prue disappears into the Bottomless Carnival of Everlasting Orlando Florida. The Dolt immediately orbs down after her. Kenickie bitches to no one in particular, "Why did she have to have Pride? Pride is the one sin you can't beat!" "Beat this," Piper snarks, and freezes him. She and Phoebe sidle to the lip of the Bottomless Carnival of Everlasting Orlando Florida to await the Dolt's return. It's soon in coming. Up he orbs with Prue in his arms. Prue bitches that she could have handled the situation herself. Piper and Phoebe deduce that "the only way to get the Pride out of Prue is to vanquish [Kenickie]." Yeah, don't kid yourself, gals. Phoebe tosses the boxed Bath Beads into the still-frozen Kenickie. He flares up appropriately for the Bath Beads of Gluttony, Sloth, Lust, and Greed, and as a result is sucked into the Bottomless Carnival of Everlasting Orlando Florida. Prue flares, and the Bath Bead of Pride floats out of her to settle in the box, where it is presently joined by the Bath Beads of Envy and Anger. Phoebe supposes that this means "the priest and the cop" are out of danger, though it could just as easily mean they're both dead. That's me. It's always half-empty, kids. Always.
Phoebe shuts the box and tosses it into the Bottomless Carnival of Everlasting Orlando Florida. Prue grabs the glass staff and taps it on the carpet. The Bottomless Carnival of Everlasting Orlando Florida closes, ne'er to be seen again. Trust me on that one. Piper notices the crystal containing the soul of the late-yet-unlamented Mr. Pike, which she hands to the Dolt, instructing him to "release [the soul] someplace nice." Out orbs the Dolt. Prue guesses her Lesson Of The Week is that she needed her sisters more than they needed her. Piper pleasantly tells her to stuff it, noting that the true Lesson Of The Week is that they all need each other. Prue babbles on and on as the Whitss kick in on the soundtrack. There are a couple of jump cuts of various San Francisco night scenes that land at last on P3AD. The Whitss, in 2K1 grunge-punk guise, jam in front of the usual crowd of raucous now-jobless dot-com Bay Area yuppies. The weekly summing-up continues apace as Prue wonders why her numerous acts of selflessness while infected with the Bath Bead of Pride did not result in a cure for the infection, as such acts had for Piper, Phoebe, and the Dolt. Piper sagely observes "there is no such thing as 'a selfless act' to Pride." "Any good [Prue] did while in [her] Prideful state," Piper continues, "was [in truth] done for the greater good of Prue." More blather, ending in a clinking of Champagne flutes in a double-toast to the Dolt for saving Prue and to Piper's determination not to worry so much about TPTB.
Phoebe hustles on over. Oh, dear. Huge abomination? You're wearing it, honey. Again. This time, it's some sort of bizarre sky-blue sequined sleeveless tunic riding low on her unfettered tits, over a pair of what appear to be jeans. The front flap is connected to the back flap by a couple of strings, and her abovementioned unfettered tits jiggle wildly up and down underneath. Phoebe's thrilled, because she managed to parlay her recent academic humiliation into a B-minus on her Ethics paper by claiming that her meeting with the professor was "an ethical experiment" in "sexual politics." That outfit could be called an "ethical experiment in sexual politics," and Phoebe, baby, you've flunked. Anyway, Phoebe "will be able to graduate." "And no man," she adds, "not even Cole, is going to stand in my way." Yeah, yeah. Ham-Fisted Foreshadowing? Table for the entire Charmed writing department. Now, normally, I would not reveal the actual name of the Whitss, but the name of this particular version lends itself to a not-that-bad joke, so here goes -- Phoebe gets in another dig at Prue's ever-present pride. Prue announces she "[doesn't] even want to think about sin tonight." Phoebe agrees, and Prue changes the subject, asking Piper for the name of the "pretty interesting band" currently performing. Piper smiles. "Orgy." Snerk. An Orgy of Whitss plays us on out to the closing credits.