Charmed 4.13 'Charmed And Dangerous'

‘Charmed And Dangerous’ is the climactic battle between the Charmed Ones and the Source and it was well worth the wait, even if it did come out of nowhere.

Synopsis: The Source unleashes an ancient magic to steal the Charmed Ones powers, endangering all magic in the process.

This is it, the battle that the past season and a half has been building up to, and it was undoubtedly the big climax that we’ve all been waiting for. There was a real sense of a big fight on the horizon and tension in the air during this episode, with everyone preparing for the worst like Piper preparing her will. Taking away their powers and wounding Leo adds such a sense of helplessness that makes the Source’s imminent attack all the more dangerous and exciting.

Paige’s sub plot fits so well into the episode, serving the main plot nicely, as a bit of a simple and relatively calm event in comparison with all the craziness that's happening elsewhere. Paige’s job as a social worker (or at least assistant) is largely ignored other than the few in office scenes, so it was nice they had a bit of time dedicated to it, so we can see just how suited she is to her profession. It’s also a nice fore-shadowing of the great work she will do as a whitelighter.

I really liked Cole and Phoebe’s romantic moment together before the final confrontation. Him giving her the engagement ring is such an ‘if the world ends’ moment; I loved it. They made such an amazing couple and, if you think about it, this is the final moment that they spend together as a ‘proper’ couple, since after this his becomes the Source, and after that is suddenly treated like dirt.

The final confrontation was anything but ‘anti-climactic', it felt like the perfect moment of vengeance for Prue’s death. Their spell is one of my favourites too, one that actually felt like it was written for their final battle.

The unveiling of the Source's true face was another brilliant part. He was played to perfection by Peter Woodward; the epitome of what you’d expect the ruler of all evil to be.

This was intended to be the season finale originally, but for some reason was rushed and placed in here (perhaps to reverse the decline in ratings after Shannen's departure). The one thing that I would have loved would have been a bigger build up to such an explosive episode. It came out of nowhere, all things considered. The previous episodes don’t really show any indication to such a big showdown on the horizon; even season 8 does that to a much better extent. On the other hand, it’s great that the preceding and following arcs weren’t stretched too thin, like others during the show. Still, this is one that could have really benefited from a major build up, since it’s anything but a let-down.

The end of this episode would have been a fantastic end-of-season cliff-hanger too, and a great way to start off a new even darker season, but it still worked amazingly here anyway. The set up of the Seer and her plan was superb and gave the second part of the season a fantastic start.

Despite its peculiar placing during the season, the episode still blew me away and stands out as one of the best episodes of the entire series and (almost) gives ‘All Hell Breaks Loose’ a run for its money.

10/10