Charmed 5.08 'A Witch in Time'

This is one of my favourite ‘Charmed’ episodes. While we’re presented with clever use of time travelling to tell a story in a new and entertaining way, this episode also deals with the unavoidability of death and with some crazily fun twists it’s easily one of the best of the season.

In ‘A Witch in Time’ when Phoebe saves the life of her new boyfriend Miles after a premonition, a warlock from the future visits Cole to let him know that the Angel of death is after him.

 ‘A Witch in Time’ is such a cleverly written episode. Take the ending for example. Instead of the Piper from the future continuing on, we’re forced to see the Piper of the past continue on, while the other fades out of existence. Not only was the moment itself quite touching, but there was something so strange and great about it that made it so different in comparison with the way it’s been presented before. It almost as if the experience never happened.

Evil is evil, so a double crossing warlock wasn’t a big surprise. His plan to change the future for himself should have been obvious to Cole. Every time a sister dies it’s always given quite a lot of significance, and this case is no exception to that rule. In this instance two sisters are killed in one of the craziest WTF moments the series ever had and Holly’s performance following that scene is astoundingly brilliant. One thing I thought was amazing is how quickly the episode went from a Phoebe centric hour, to being all about Piper, who ended up becoming the sister to save them both in the end. Her future self also sticking it to her for her treatment of Phoebe was a prime example of how well the writers could weave the magical element of the series, with the normal personal issues the face, and it’s just so typical Piper isn’t it?

The only main issue I have is how we’re supposed to give a shit about someone who we don’t even know. Despite the fact he was introduced in the previous episode, we’ve still only known him for about 2 seconds.  Even so, his death still stung enough to give this episode enough power to work and it almost echoes back to the lesson Prue learned back during ‘Death Takes a Halliwell’ - death is completely unavoidable and no matter how hard you try to fight it, you can never escape the inevitable. The ending is a superb example of how an ending that isn’t all sunshine and rainbows can work. Even though Piper was able to save her two sisters, Phoebe still lost her innocent, and someone very close to her heart; a series classic in my eyes.

9.5/10

4 comments:

  1. I haven't seen this in years but I also remember it being one of my favorites. It was really nice to read your review I'm excited to watch it again. I agree the way they killed 2 sisters was SUCH a WTF moment that I still remember watching it and being shocked for the first time! And it was very unlike Charmed to have future Piper disappear for good and no one knowing about it. It made it a restrained and powerful hour.

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  2. Great review! I really like this episode, too, and I agree with what you wrote about the script switching things up midway through, from a Phoebe-centric episode to a Piper one. It's sudden but creates something really moving. And Piper was always better driving the emotional stories than Phoebe was.

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  3. Thanks for the comments as always guys.

    Nadim: This episode really holds well to re-watching!

    maxpower03: I have to agree with you. I think a lot of that is down to Holly's ability to turn absolute tripe into gold.

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  4. The only thing I disagree with you on is the bit about caring about Miles. I don't think or feel that was ever the intention of the episode or the story, Miles' part could have been anyone. The point of it was to provide a focus for both Piper and Phoebe to learn lessons about themselves.
    This is pretty much Phoebe moving on from Cole and stop projecting false feelings onto Miles and Piper's was to stop being so judgemental and interfering. Even if it means letting someone make mistakes. That's something I felt Prue lacked in her care for her two youngers, it was as though she couldn't let them learn things for themselves.

    Other than that I completely agree, the episodes 'death is inevitable' theme was great and Holly Marie Combs proves again why the show really benefited from having her. Without her the show really would have been in the doldrums.

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