Manor kitchen. Fade in on a fork, lying on the table to some Pier 1 dinnerware. Pan up to Prue, trying unsuccessfully to TK the fork to the floor. After a couple of wrist flicks with no effect, she tries to fake the fork out, pretending to ignore it. Wrist flick. Nothing. I can tell already this episode is going to be a classic. In clomps Phoebe, struggling with the straps of the beige scarf top she's wearing. Said top is decorated with an array of brown feathered roach clips. I am not making this up. "Look at me," she pouts. "I am a fashion blunder. A 'Mademoiselle Don't.'" It's a "Glamour Don't," sweetpea, but otherwise I agree completely with that statement. Prue ignores her, concentrating instead on the fork. Phoebe, noticing the ineffectual wrist-flicks, asks if Prue's lost her powers. "Can't lose what you never had," Prue replies, and we discover that Powerless Prue has been astrally-projected into the kitchen by the real Prue in the attic. "I hate when she plays astral games," Phoebe grumps, and stomps up to the attic, still fidgeting with the straps on her top. Number one, Phoebe, if that's all you hate her for, you're not trying hard enough, and number two, just change into a normal goddamn shirt already. I know you have at least one.
Attic. Prue's curled up in a floral-upholstered wingback chair, perusing a book entitled Telekinesis. She tells Phoebe she's been attempting to train herself to use telekinesis in conjunction with astral projection since she did a little more research into Belthazor, who, as we know, is the biggest, meanest, nastiest demon ever. Phoebe cracks wise about Belthazor's hideous skin and mutters, "I would hate to find myself alone with this guy." But isn't she dating Cole? And isn't Cole really Belthazor? Oh, that's right: yes, and yes. Not only do I. Fucking. Get it already, I think my mother, who wouldn't touch the crap on the WB network with a bargepole, also. Fucking. Gets it already. So, shut up about it. Now.
Anyway, Phoebe flops into a wicker chair to Prue and announces that she has a date with the demon. Prue notes that she doesn't seem too happy about it, and Phoebe snits that it's a lunch date. Since she and Cole have been macking loudly and publicly for a week now, Phoebe thinks she's entitled to a candlelit dinner at the very least. Prue starts to respond, but is cut short by a sudden pain from one of her molars. Dentist-appointment-in-an-hour chatter. Phoebe tells Prue to make sure she keeps the appointment, as Phoebe hates to see her sister miserable. Prue remarks that she hates to see herself miserable, and stands to leave the attic as Phoebe leans in to study the entry for Belthazor in the Book of Shadows. Gee, I hope for their sakes that Prue doesn't end up in the basement by the end of this episode, rocking back and forth in empathic pain while leaving tooth marks all over the scenery in Shannen Doherty's latest attempt to snag that ever-elusive Emmy nomination, like all of the previews for this episode have promised, because that would suck, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it? Oh, forget it.
Halliwell SUV. Prue, on her way to the dentist, is stopped by some road construction. Cole squiggles in as a bus passes by, a "Buckle up" transit ad with the tagline "Save the Innocent" emblazoned on its side. Cole, with a flick of his wrist, changes the direction of the blinking arrow from left to right on the detour indicator, then squiggles out. Prue looks either concerned, puzzled, or indifferent, and follows the arrow to the right. Cut to the manor, where Phoebe answers Prue's call from the car. "Did you cast any 'give me a sign' spells lately?" Prue asks. Phoebe answers in the negative, and tells Prue to ignore whatever signs she thinks she's seeing in favor of her dental appointment. Prue is stopped again by a construction crew, and hangs up on Phoebe, telling her she'll call back later. Another sign, "Final Stop Import Export," is painted onto the side of a brick warehouse, and if some idiot really named an import/export company "Final Stop," I have no trouble seeing why the business failed. Prue gets the attention of the construction foreman, who assumes she's from the Department of Social Services. Apparently, a tenant refuses to leave his loft in the condemned warehouse, and demolition is scheduled to start that day. "Someone actually lives here?" Prue asks. "If you can call it [living]," replies Foreman George. The tenant hasn't left his loft once in the last four years. Prue ponders this for a moment, then ignores the big red sign that reads "DANGER: DO NOT ENTER" to step into the warehouse.
Prue walks up the stairs to the warehouse lofts, massaging her aching jaw, and somehow manages to pick the correct door on the first try. She knocks, and tries to open it, but it's chained. "Go away!" the man inside wails, and Prue elects to ignore him, shutting the door, TKing the chain off the hook, and entering the loft. The man inside scrambles into the corner, shouting at her not to come closer. She asks if he's injured, and he moans about the pain in his head. All of the collective pain of the city has gathered in Moany Man's head, it seems, and in spite of Prue's assurance she's there to help him, he insists the pity she feels for him is only making matters worse. He then howls, as he can feel the pain in Prue's mouth as well. "All of this pain! I can't stand it!" he screams. I gaze on in silent sympathy, then remember I'm recapping this crap, and tell him he doesn't know what real pain is. "Why didn't you just go when I asked?" Because then we wouldn't have an episode, genius, and my liver would have made it through to see a better day. Can't have that, now, can we?
Credits. Does Brian Krause have a clause in his contract that mandates his appearance in every episode? Because they seem to manage quite nicely without Dorian Gregory on a regular basis. Just asking.
The Primrose Path
Cut to the Crest Hills Psychiatric Hospital. A balding, middle-aged, unshaven inmate reads about Moany in another inmate's newspaper, and becomes agitated. "Father Thomas" insists he be allowed to leave to head to the warehouse so he can "protect the innocent," setting off a minor ruckus among the other psychos in the dayroom. As he's restrained by a male nurse, we cut to the Final Stop Warehouse of Imports, Exports, And Psycho Empaths, where Prue negotiates with a deputy on eviction duty. The officer agrees to give her "three minutes" to get Moany out of the building, but if she fails, Moany goes to jail. Prue thanks him and rushes inside. Upstairs, she enters the loft and gently approaches Moany, who's perched on a mattress on the floor, rocking himself back and forth. Prue asks Moany his name, and upon his answer of "Vince," asks for his last name. "Misery," he groans. "Would you like some company then?" she asks. Vince stops rocking, looks up at Prue, and states flatly, "That's not funny." I like Vince. Prue settles down to him, telling him he'll be arrested for civil disobedience if he doesn't leave the loft, and Vince insists that he'll die if he gets thrown into jail. Prue assures him she believes him, and tells him she knows what it's like to have a power she doesn't want or understand. She urges him to consider the "blessings" that come with such a gift.
Vince leaps to his feet and stalks away from her, telling her he knows she doesn't really believe a word of what she's saying. What she really is, Vince tells her, is confused, afraid, panicked, and "sorry," and Prue's near tears in agreement. I, on the other hand, am near manic laughter in agreement with that "sorry" bit. As the deputy pounds on the door, Vince insists he cannot leave, and that he's been cursed, not blessed, with this "gift." Prue TKs the door in place, preventing the deputy from entering, and approaches a startled Vince, who asks her how she's holding the door shut. She tells him she's been sent to help him, and we come to a Hallmark moment: "Free the empath, release his gift," Prue chants as Vince drops to his knees and clutches her arm. "Let his pain be cast adrift," she finishes, crying a bit, and halts the TK on the door. The deputy bitches the two of them out; Prue apologizes and hands Vince Cole's business card, telling Vince she'll explain everything later. Vince eyes her suspiciously and thanks her, guessing she has no idea what she just did for him. Taking this as a compliment, she smiles at him, and leaves the loft. Vince then walks over to the disgusted deputy, who tells Vince it's time to scram. Vince notes that he's wondering what the deputy is feeling at the moment, and the deputy wonders why. Vince darts out his hand, putting the deputy in a chokehold, and starts frying the deputy's head like it's been chucked into a demon microwave. As the deputy's skin bubbles up like burnt cheese on an overcooked pizza, Vince intones, "Because. I. Can't. Feel. A. Thing." Way to go, Prue. Close up on Vince's face, then fade to black and commercial.
Chez Belthazor, the morning after the night before. Snuggling. Tickling. Whispered words of naked-in-bed-together bliss. Neither of them has bed head, and Phoebe's left her bracelet and watch on all night. These two look like they've spent the last two hours in hair and makeup, not sweating and snoring beneath the duvet, drooling on the pillows and each other. Whatever. Phoebe notices Cole's partially-packed suitcase, and wonders if he's going anywhere. He gives a vague answer, leading her to reassure him that he need not keep secrets from her. "Secrets? What secrets?" Cole announces he has to get to work, and Phoebe frets beneath the covers, watching his naked ass make its way to the bathroom.
Cut to a church, somewhere in the city. Vince, not following Cole's orders, manhandles a church secretary, trying to find out where Father Thomas is. She tells him the priest was confined to a mental hospital three years ago after suffering a nervous breakdown, and for her troubles, he gives her the burnt-cheese face. Slick, Vince. Real slick.
Cut to Prue, cowering in the basement of the manor, her hands clamped against her ears in a futile attempt to shut out the screaming voices coming to her from seemingly every house in the neighborhood. And for an upscale neighborhood of pricey Victorians, there's an awful lot of domestic violence going on behind those lace curtains, apparently. Piper and Leo enter, asking Prue what's wrong. She hyperventilates an explanation about the pain the empath power is causing her, and as she hits a spike in the emotions she's receiving, her telekinesis flares out, buckling the floorboards above them. Piper declares the empath power was never meant for Prue, and that they're going to give it back to Vince as soon as they find him.
Condemned Demon Emporium. The area is taped off with yellow "Police Line" warnings, and there are several squad cars parked in front, along with an ambulance from the coroner's office. Phoebe runs up to Leo and Piper and asks after Prue, who has stayed in the car. Piper notes Phoebe's walk-of-shame attire, and after confirming Phoebe did indeed have all-night sex with Cole, she and Leo fill Phoebe in on what's happened. Phoebe "smells a demon," Piper wonders how a demon would obtain empathic powers, and Leo guesses they were placed as a curse on the demon by a true empath. The three enter Vince's abandoned loft, and Phoebe is flung into a string of visions: Vince frying the deputy, Vince frying the church secretary, and Vince frying Father Thomas at the nuthouse. Piper wonders how Phoebe could have a vision without touching anything, and Leo notes the loft is likely "dripping with psychic remnants." Thanks for that mental image, Leo. Ew. Phoebe's not certain the last of the murders has taken place yet, and the three agree to head over to Crest Hills. Prue, meanwhile, huddles in the back seat of the car, going all Snake Pit on everyone.
Prue, huddled in the basement. Father T approaches with Leo, causing her to lash out at them with "Go away!" Father T speechifies, telling Prue that while fighting the emotions is a natural response, she must instead embrace and focus them. Vinceres was crippled because demons cannot deal with human emotions, and Prue must not allow herself to fall into the same trap. Meanwhile, Vinceres himself kicks in the front door of the manor and strides into the hallway. Phoebe, cowering in the parlor, shouts to Piper, who freezes the demon for a moment. He shakes it off as Phoebe rushes to Piper's side. Vinceres approaches Piper, who breaks a vase over his head. He flings her into an 1860s love seat. He then flips over a table, smashing it in the process, and sets upon Phoebe, who starts in with the judo. He flings her into the love seat as well. Piper freezes him again and calls out to Leo, who watches Father T attempt to connect with Prue in the basement. Father T tells her his power as an empath was concentrated in his hands, and Prue must connect the empathic power with her own in order to succeed. A few more words of encouragement, a lot more glycerin for Shannen Doherty, and the scene shifts to the upstairs hallway.
Vinceres has Phoebe by the throat, promising her he won't kill her if she gives him Father T's location. Enter Prue, trailed by Leo and the priest. "You want him?" she asks Vinceres. "Come and get him." She then TKs the demon into the wall, cracking the plaster and destroying a couple of framed prints in the process. Vinceres wonders how Prue was able to accomplish that, Prue tells him coolly he'll have to get past her if he wants Father T, and Phoebe and Piper start to pick themselves up off the floor. Prue tells her sisters to stay back, and we get to the part of the episode many have rather loudly complained is ripped off from The Matrix. Because you would have to pay me a large sum of money to watch any Keanu Reeves movie, and because no one came forward with such an offer in connection to that particular flick, I have no way of knowing if the lovable -- if mouthy -- gang on the forum boards is correct. However, I certainly wouldn't put such a tactic past the people who create this show. Hand-to-hand combat between Prue and Vinceres. At one point she literally climbs the stairwell wall, only to spin herself around on the balustrade to kick Vinceres in the face. He manages to get her in a chokehold, sneering that he's immune to her witchy ways. She levitates and smoothly removes his hand from her neck, then kicks him down the hallway. I should note that aside from the framed prints, no furniture has been broken up to this point in the battle between Prue and the demon.