When Prue and Piper are exposed as witches on live television, Phoebe makes a bargain with evil in order to save one of their lives in 'All Hell Breaks Loose'.
Exposure was always such a big risk. Charmed never played around with it, it was always seen as something very serious. We got our first taste of what could happen in ‘Out of Sight’ during the show’s first season, but never to this extent. For the first time, we see just how disastrous things could be if they really were exposed as witches. The major circus on their front lawn was so crazy and just as bloody amazing as it should have been.
Piper’s death is definitely the most dramatic death of any of the sisters. Her shooting is so bloody and shocking and what’s more is that it’s the most human of all the times they’ve been seriously hurt. Shannen is so fantastic here, both in front of and behind the camera. With Leo gone, the stakes were really raised. Prue screaming out for Leo is one of the few times when it actually felt like we could lose one of the sisters; Healing made things a little too easy at times.
Prue’s decision to use her powers against humans (Both to simply get a psycho out of her home, and to get Piper to the hospital) goes against one of the biggest lessons that she and her sisters had learned in ‘Morality Bites’. Though I doubt this was intentional, I really feel like it served this episode well and in some ways contributed to Prue's eventual demise. She broke one of the core rules of magic, and she paid for it.
Shax is one of the greatest villains the series ever had. It may be his association with Prue's death, but the amazing make-up and appearance were major factors in his intimidation, for sure. His final attack on Prue, Piper and Griffiths was one of the darkest moments in the show’s history, and the best cliff-hanger ever featured. Two of the girls’ lives are hanging in the balance, and their innocent that they fought so hard to protect is lost.
The Source makes his first appearance in this episode. While he’s just as funnily creepy as you’d expect him to be, I’m glad that his original appearance here was scrapped for something a little simpler in the fourth season. The wings and that weird looking sword were a tad bit too silly, even for 'Charmed'.
I’m not going to ignore the fact that this episode did have one or two flaws, like why the Elders just stood by and watched one of the Charmed Ones die. And wy would Prue and Piper have a big face off with a demon right in the middle of the street? They’re usually a lot more careful than that. To be honest, though, I just don’t care. The episode is too amazing to really give it any bad press since it’s over whelming brilliance makes up for the tiny fraction of imperfections.
RIP Prue, you'll be missed.
10/10
Best episode ever pretty much covers it. I actually don't know how the producers (or whoever made the decision - obviously, it worked out well. I love Rose McGowan, but still...) could have watched this and let Doherty go. Not only did she direct an insanely entertaining hour of television, she also managed to give an emotionally charged, difficult performance. Piper's death destroyed me on first watch, Doherty and Combs work wonderfully together.
ReplyDeleteThere's also a whole bunch of comedy (Piper's nervous cracks about talk show hosts, not wanting to cry on tv).
I know landing work in tv can be difficult, but I'm actually surprised that Doherty hasn't been doing much acting lately (and she mostly seems to be doing tv movies - I wonder if she is auditioning or seeking out challenging roles?) Went on a bit of a tangent there...
Great review. And I definitely agree - if anything can manage to be this entertaining, lack of realism can be ignored.
-tvfan332
Best episode ever! Great review.
ReplyDeleteMine should be up next week sometime.
Thanks for reading you guys =)
ReplyDeletetvfan: I think it probably has something to do with both her pickiness and probably that she might have a reputation for being difficult to work with. That may be down to her being REALLY into her work, which is what I believe caused the Alyssa/Shannen rift in the first place. Alyssa might not have been as into her work as Shannen was, and that bothered her.Meh, either way she's great!
Supposedly she was always on set during her run on Charmed even when she wasn't acting, and was pretty involved in almost every aspect of the show. I'm sure some people would find that challenging and potentially imposing, especially coming from a woman. Hollywood is still a very sexist environment, and while a man could probably get away with that, somebody like Shannen probably couldn't. Word gets around.
ReplyDeleteThen again, she always was kind of low-rent. She had two major TV shows that were huge successes, but the far majority of her career have been really bad TV movies. Outside of Mallrats, she never parlayed her TV fame into a legit movie career. But that was pretty much impossible during her prime, anyway. TV actors and film actors were two vastly different beasts, rarely crossing over.
I'm sure she's happy and financially secure.
She is most definitely financially secure. I'm 90% sure she lives somewhere in Beverley Hills. I doubt that's cheap...
ReplyDelete"She broke one of the core rules of magic, and she paid for it."
ReplyDelete--what a unique angle I never thought about... To think that after all this time Prue's actions had ramifications and a punishment that even with time reset, the angels of destiny or the tribunal, or even just the natural governing laws of magic deemed it so necessary to punish a charmed-one capable of offensively attacking innocents or mortals. unlike 'morality bites,' that was a precursor/forewarning of what could happen to ward the sisters off of using their powers for their own personal use/punishment, AHBL however shows an event that actually happened in continuity and in an original timeline. really enjoying the reviews!
You summed it up with the best episode ever (although for me Pre witched runs it close). A fantastic episode with acting that is top draw- Alyssa as Phoebe realising that something must be wrong for the Source to realise that she may stay down there; Holly as Piper "don't go I love you" knowing she was going to die, and Shannen as Prue (did she ever better this performance?) during her breakdown, as Piper is dying and of course the chilling 'They think we are the demons now'. But there was humour, the pace was good, Shax was awesome and it was beautifully directed. One thing I would like to have seen changed (although I understand why it wasn't) I would have liked to see Phoebe up there a bit more, perhaps Leo could have bought her to see her dead sister so she could comfort the other one. A minor quibble about the best episode of the show. Top top marks.
ReplyDeleteOh come on. Piper freezes humans all the time, but Prue’s death was in part down to her using her powers on humans, even though she did it to save her sister’s life and didn’t seem to seriously hurt anyone? That’s ridiculous.
ReplyDelete