Episode Report Card Demian: B+ | 4 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Is That All There Is To Utopia? Is That All There Is?
By Demian | Season 7 | Episode 13 | Aired on 01.29.2005
Straight Estates. The instant they've materialized, the Dolt stoops to retrieve the unusually evocative snow globe from where he'd dropped it in the earlier scene. "I need you to get a vision," he explains, fiddling with it. "I need you to see what really happened to Agent Brody." "I know what happened," Phoebe argues. "He's moved on to a better place!" AAAUAUAAAAAUAUAGH! "Maybe so," the Dolt allows, "but it doesn't change the fact that somebody killed him." With that, he pushes the snow globe into Phoebe's hands. She is, of course, instantly flung into a sepia-toned premonition of Brody's death, in all of it's painful, Uniqua-induced glory. "Oh my God," Phoebe breathes once she's snapped out of it. "She killed him." "The Avatars don't want you to know that," the Dolt confirms. "They don't want you to know why people just suddenly disappear." "Why are you doing this?" Phoebe sighs, pained. "Because it's the truth!" he shoots back. "They changed you so you couldn't feel the true pain of death. They want it to seem like it's a good thing so the next time it happens you don't even question it." "No!" she whispers. "Yes," he counters, "and it's going to happen again, as soon as they decide someone in the world is causing too much conflict." Phoebe protests that she can't return to the old way of doing things, and shouts the Dolt down when he attempts to argue further with her. "We made the world a better place, and we're going to live in it!" she insists. "Do you understand?" The Dolt silently eyes her as the image shrinks into...
...the wavery gunk in Avatar Central. The camera pans back as No Name shoots I'm Not Candy a look. "We just need to give him more time to understand," I'm Not Candy blurts. "We're running out of time," No Name counters. "If he turns them, then everything could be lost. I think it's time we faced the facts." I'm Not Candy growls in frustration.
Manor. Party scene I will not be recapping, because it's full of perky nobodies we've never seen before and shall never see again stuffing their faces while Piper and Raige bore me to tears with their incessant babbling. Phoebe and the Dolt eventually enter the scene from the floor above and, as Phoebe scuttles off in search of a stiff cocktail, Piper hurries over to wonder what gives with the Dolt. "What's wrong?" she demands. "It's complicated," he evades. As she natters on about his workload and as he continues not to give her a straight answer, Zankou surreptitiously blazes onto the sun porch and catches the Dolt's eye. A trio of Zankou's henchdemons presently squiggles in next to him as various party guests obliviously wander through the parlor in front of them all. Zankou finally nods at the Dolt and blazes out of there. Once he's gone, the Dolt grabs his still-blathering wife by her arms and whispers, "Forgive me, Piper. If there was another way to do this, I would." "What are you talking about?" she shrills. "I have to fix a mistake," he breathes before adding, "I love you." With that, he shoves her out of the way and screams, "Everyone get down!" He then unleashes a massive bolt of sporking electricity from both hands that shoots through the parlor towards the henchdemons on the sun porch. The three dive out of the way, so the Dolt just ends up taking out a wicker chair. There's some hooting and hollering from the assembled guests while they dive for cover as Piper charges over to shield her kids from what's going on. Oh, Piper. Why bother? You know the Psycho likes to watch. The henchdemons hurl a few Flaming Balls Of Death that deliberately go wide before the Dolt unleashes another spray of electricity that instantly takes out the two lesser dark demonic forces, leaving Irritating Max Perlich by his lonesome on the sun porch. Irritating Max makes a big show of confronting the Dolt on his own, but the Dolt just nails his annoying ass up against the wall with another flood of sporks and finally, at long last, Irritating Max Perlich howls and wails and explodes into a million tiny points of light. Good fucking riddance. The Dolt whips his head around to ensure that his wife, kids, and sisters-in-law are safe as the shot cuts up to Avatar Central, where a disconcerted I'm Not Candy drops his guard to shoot a worried look at No Name. Back on earth, the Dolt, knowing he's about to disappear, urgently instructs Phoebe, "Don't let them make you forget why I'm doing this. It's supposed to hurt -- go to the Book, remember all the losses. Then go to Zankou." As Phoebe phreaks, a mournful Dolt vanishes in a grey haze. The instant he's gone, the partygoers resume what they'd been doing as if nothing had happened, with the notable exception of Phoebe. With the Avatars' grip on her partially broken, she remains cowering behind the couch as Raige easily ambles over to Piper, wondering if the latter's okay. "I guess so," Piper replies, a bit out of it as she passes the hideous genetic mishap masquerading as Tiny Gay Chris to Raige. "I'm really sorry about [the Dolt]," Raige mugs as she slings the frightful excuse for a human infant over her shoulder. "Me too," Piper absently agrees before snapping back into Utopia mode and announcing, "but at least he's gone on to a better place." AAUAUAAUAAAAAAAGH! Phoebe, still crouched behind the sofa, takes this in with a look of horror on her face before disappearing into the next commercial break.
Manor. Party aftermath. As Raige sees the few remaining guests to the door, an agitated Phoebe and an unnaturally serene Piper process through recent events. As Tiny Gay Chris and the Psycho begin to howl in the background, Piper spacily zones, "What [the Dolt] did, he did for his family, and for that I will always love him." Piper sails into the kitchen with a pile of dirty dishes as Phoebe jiggles jumpily after her. "It's really impressive you can stay calm after such a shock," Phoebe leads. Piper babbles something irrelevant about demons as Raige clomps into the room to whine that she can't get the kids to stop crying. "They're so upset!" she groans, all frazzled and put-upon. Shut up, Raige. Piper babbles something else irrelevant about demons, so Phoebe demands, "Do you really think that's why they're crying?" "Well, what else would it be?" Raige guhs. She wasn't talking to you, Raige. Shut up some more. Piper floats past Phoebe to wrangle her children in the parlor as Phoebe sighs in frustration. Raige crosses to natter something about how, while the Dolt's disappearance is a huge deal in its own way, the gals will never forget what he did for them. Did Phoebe ask for your opinion on the matter? Shut up forever, Raige. Phoebe, caught somewhere between the Avatars' control of her thought processes and the person she was before The Change, flashes back on to the Dolt's final warning. "Never forget," she repeats vaguely to herself before excusing herself for a little Book abuse.