| Charmed Season 3 | |||
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DVD cover art |
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| No. of episodes | 22 | ||
| Broadcast | |||
| Original channel | The WB | ||
| Original run | September 5, 2000 – May 17, 2001 | ||
| Home video release | |||
| DVD release | |||
| Region 1 | November 15, 2005 | ||
| Region 4 | September 6, 2005 | ||
| Season chronology | |||
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| List of Charmed episodes | |||
The third season of Charmed, an American supernatural drama television series, began airing on September 5, 2000 on The WB. Airing on Thursdays at 9 P.M., the season consisted of 22 episodes and concluded its airing on May 17, 2001.
The third season is the last season to feature original cast member Shannen Doherty, as she left the series in the end of the season.
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released the complete third season in a six-disc box set on November 15, 2005.
Contents |
The third season of Charmed sees many dramatic changes in the sisters' lives. Prue is looking for balance in her life, juggling her photography, her role as a Charmed one, and her love life. Piper and Leo's relationship becomes serious as they plan to get married against the wishes of The Elders. Phoebe gains the 'active' power of levitation and starts a new romance with the assistant district attorney Cole Turner/Belthazor - a half human/half demon sent by The Triad to destroy the sisters.
Most of the first half of the season centers on Cole/Belthazor forcing his way into The Charmed Ones' lives by initiating a romance with Phoebe. However, over time he becomes conflicted between his duty and his love for her. Prue is extremely suspicious of Cole from the beginning, causing a rift between her and her youngest sister. The girls' father also comes back into their lives, this time in a more permanent role as he heals his relationship with Prue and attends Piper's wedding.
The Charmed Ones begin to discover and understand the hierarchy of the underworld, as they learn of The Triad who are responsible for sending Belthazor and various other demons after them.
| № | # | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | Production code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 45 | 1 | "The Honeymoon's Over" | Jim Conway | Brad Kern | October 5, 2000 | 4300045 |
| Piper and Leo have been away for a month seeing the elders, leaving Prue and Phoebe without the Power of Three. While the sisters are trying to get along with each other and manage their everyday life, Piper and Leo are back quarreling. Soon they have to deal with Guardians, demons who help mortal murderers go free in exchange for the souls of their victims. After vanquishing the first guardian all three get acquainted with a very handsome and charming District attorney, Cole Turner (Julian McMahon), who wants to imprison the murderer and needs the sister's testimony at the court in order to do so. While he is doing his best to prove the accused was obviously the murderer, the judge says he has not enough evidence and releases the murderer. After his failure Cole turns to Phoebe for help to prove the murderer was guilty. The short conversation between the two proves they are attracted to each other. Before leaving Cole sticks his visit card between the pages of the book Phoebe is holding and asks her to call him if she thinks she can help. After he's gone Phoebe takes the card out and has a premonition about Cole being killed by the Guardian somewhere in a parking lot. Meanwhile Cole is at the police station talking to Darryl. Phoebe calls him to warn, but the connection is interrupted and all Phoebe catches is that Cole is going to leave the police station right away. Back at the police station parking lot Cole is walking towards his car when he feels someone following him. The Guardian approaches him from behind and knocks him out, but when he tries to kill him the sisters show up and vanquish him. Phoebe learns she has an active power: levitation. Cole visits the murderer before the trial and tells him to warn whoever has sent him for Cole that he will get him even if he loses the case. The sisters are called again to give testimony, but this time they have figured out somebody at the courtroom must be a demon to let so many criminals loose. While Cole is speaking Piper freezes all the innocents in the courtroom. Awkwardly only Leo, Darryl and Cole freeze and the sisters have to fight the demon-judge and the Guardians. After losing the fight to the Charmed Ones the judge collects his Guardians and heads to his office. It is then that we see Cole was pretending to be frozen. He shimmers into the judge's office to his greatest surprise and vanquishes him, then shimmers back to the courtroom and pretends to be frozen again. The sisters can see that the judge was vanquished, but don't want to get deep into details and return to unfreeze everybody. | ||||||
| 46 | 2 | "Magic Hour" | John Behring | Zack Estrin & Chris Levinson | October 12, 2000 | 4300046 |
| The sisters must help a young man who is turned into an owl by day and his girlfriend who is turned into a wolf at night. When they bring the woman home Piper says, "I'm sure I've seen this in a movie somewhere." (She refers to the movie Ladyhawke.) The two lovers have been cursed by the woman's warlock boss, who will lift the curse once she gives in to him. Piper and Leo try to find a way to get married without The Elders finding out, with dire consequences. The Elders aren't the only ones who won't give their blessing to the marriage. | ||||||
| 47 | 3 | "Once Upon a Time" | Joel J. Feigenbaum | Krista Vernoff | October 19, 2000 | 4300047 |
| Prue and Phoebe (trying a new look as a dishwater blond) try to save a little girl (Kate), carrying around a fairy Princess (Thistile) in a small pad-locked box, from evil miniature trolls who lurk in the "tweens" and want to capture the princess, while Piper goes on strike for being a witch. Rescued along a street around midnight by Phoebe who won't let go the claw injury suffered by the young girl, despite doubts aired by her sisters. Kate returns home with her parents and is threatened again in the night. Phoebe unearths independent childhood drawings depicting trolls and fairies proving the girls all knew the same fairy when they were children and hypothesizes people grow to not believe in fairies anymore. Visiting Kate she introduces them to her fairy, Thistle, who casts a spell returning them to youthful innocence which allows them to see her. In their own world the innocence becomes an overzealous playfully silly youthfulness which leads Piper to kick them out of the club and so they return home to witness, an attempt by Cole (in his demonic form as Belthazor) to steal the Book of Shadows. They lose the padlock key they are safeguarding during a sneak attack by the trolls which pushes them down the attic stairway — which regresses their minds back to normal. Piper is attacked by trolls at the club and the three rendezvous to defend Kate and Thistle but they are abducted by the trolls. The three have a frantic battle with the pack of trolls and release both abductees, vanquishing the trolls by tricking them into running through their own bonfire. Piper makes an impassioned self-sacrificing monologue that changes the elders' minds and they send Leo back, but Cole makes another move to seduce Phoebe and use her to get the Book of Shadows as the episode ends. | ||||||
| 48 | 4 | "All Halliwell's Eve" | Anson Williams | Sheryl J. Anderson | October 26, 2000 | 4300048 |
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A crisis occurs in the Halliwell's past as ancestor Melinda Warren is threatened in the womb when Cole Turner time travels back to capture Warren at birth. His ally, Ruth Cobb, leads a band of witch hunters and has captured another Halliwell ancestor the expecting witch Charlotte. Meanwhile, Cole lurks behind the action giving manipulating Cobb. A local coven leader, Eva has summoned the sisters to help. When the Charmed Ones approach Cobb's house to rescue the pregnant Charlotte, magical wards energized by Cole knock them on their buttocks, revealing that they do not have powers in this time. In the ensuing confusion the witch hunters shoot Eva, inflicting a flesh wound to her arm, which the Charmed Sisters' treat with modern methods, and prevent a crude cauterization. Admitting that the sisters must be powerful in the future and can gain their powers back very quickly if they try hard Eva starts teaching them the basics of witchcraft and makes a plan for the sisters to be able to save Charlotte and her baby. The mask party thrown in the village allows the Charmed Ones to slip in. Phoebe is offered to be told the initial of the man she loves and the apple pile shows the letter "C" which Phoebe interprets as "Cole" - to Cole's astonishment who is standing nearby. That very moment she and her sisters are seized by the witch hunters and are hung in the forest. Some time later one of the hunters (Micah) returns and cuts their ropes revealing the ropes around their waists which saved the lives of the Charmed Ones, thus saving them for the second time. It is also revealed that Prue and Micah are attracted to each other. When he is found out to have helped the sisters Micah is stabbed by Cole and dies while Prue cannot save him in order to be able to save Charlotte. They take her to the witches' altar in the forest to protect her and she delivers, with Piper helping her and Phoebe flying around on her broomstick to scare the hunters away. Surprisingly Cole does not go on with his mission to destroy the witches and returns to the present leaving the girls to celebrate the birth of their great-great-great...grandmother. Back in the present, Leo and Darryl are trying to fight the two Grimlocks who were vanquished by the Charmed Ones in the past, but were brought back by the power of Halloween. Darryl learns that Leo has powers, too, and when blinded by the Grimlock, Leo heals him. The sisters return from the past just in time to vanquish the Grimlocks again and leave for the Halloween party at P3. There Phoebe meets Cole and when she asks "So, you're an angel?" he is lost at first, but, a second later he remembers that he's wearing an angel's costume and wings for the party. She says "Me neither". They smile and dance. |
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| 49 | 5 | "Sight Unseen" | Perry Lang | William Schmidt | November 2, 2000 | 4300049 |
| After coming back from the past, after the manor is burglarized, and Prue's personal items start disappearing, Prue becomes obsessed with learning more about the reclusive evil force, The Triad, that is systematically hunting the Charmed Ones, while Piper and Phoebe believe it's just been coincidences and the work of an over active imagination. Meanwhile, Cole discovers that the demon Troxa is stalking the Halliwell sisters, but unknown to all, he isn't the only one doing the stalking. Phoebe and Darryl try to point out to the fact that the killer is more likely to be human than demonic. In the end, Prue is being stalked by Piper's bartender, a woman who has become obsessed with Prue and wants to become her. Meanwhile, Piper can't "concentrate" whenever she's with Leo in a romantic setting because she fears that the Elders are always watching them. This episode has Phoebe and Cole's first kiss. | ||||||
| 50 | 6 | "Primrose Empath" | Mel Damski | Daniel Cerone | November 9, 2000 | 4300051 |
| Unwittingly following the signs laid out by Cole, Prue comes into contact with a seemingly innocent shut-in, Vinceres, who refuses to leave his apartment, which is about to be demolished. The man is faced with an unendurable pain caused by his ability of feeling all of the emotions of the city. After learning the man is an Empath, she casts a spell to relieve him of his power, but it is only transferred into her. Prue is later told he is a demon given this power to serve as a curse - now feeling for the first time - causing him the inability to prey on witches or innocents. She nearly goes insane from bearing this gift that she wasn't ever meant to have. But Prue eventually overcomes it, intensifying the pain Vinceres felt by finally astral-projecting into his body and destroying him. | ||||||
| 51 | 7 | "Power Outage" | Craig Zisk | Monica Breen & Alison Schapker | November 16, 2000 | 4300050 |
| Belthazor, after being warned by The Triad to eliminate the Charmed Ones or face execution because they feel he has let opportunities slip past and learned of his love affair with Phoebe, the Cole becomes desperate and strikes a deal with the demon Andras. Andras, a demon of rage, amplifies small trivial annoyances into gut busting anger and so infects the sisters with uncontrollable rage - so much so that they use their powers on each other, causing the Power of Three to be severed. The Halliwell Book of Shadows even modifies the ancient triquerta symbol to one less intertwined and integrated. Cole becomes conflicted over his feelings for Phoebe and his duty to evil, particularly after he and Phoebe spontaneously make love. After the sisters' fight, Phoebe leaves the Manor and turns to Cole for some comfort. Cole talks to her absentmindedly and while she's telling him how bad she feels about the fight and how much she loves her sisters, he sits next to her with an athame poked into his belt with which he intends to kill Phoebe. She looks at him with tears in her eyes and unable to help herself she kisses him, unaware that he has the athame ready in his hand to stab her. Still unable to fight his human feelings for Phoebe, Cole can't kill her. Instead he sends her back to the Manor to talk to her sisters and fix their relationship adding that she should do it as quick as possible (secretly afraid that the Triad or Andras might appear to kill her instead of him). She thanks him and returns home where the sisters tell each other they didn't mean all the nasty things they told each other. The Power of Three is restored just in time to fight Andras who takes possession of Cole, forcing him to attack the Charmed Ones. An energy ball deflected back at him by Prue drives Andras out of Belthazor and he vanquishes Andras with an energy ball. The sisters then battle Belthazor and cut off a huge piece of skin on stomach for a vanquishing potion. Belthazor turns into a badly wounded Cole and shimmers away before the sisters can see him. Cole is called in front of the Triad who prepare to vanquish him, but driven only by his love for Phoebe Cole vanquishes the Triad instead. | ||||||
| 52 | 8 | "Sleuthing with the Enemy" | Noel Nosseck | Peter Hume | December 14, 2000 | 4300052 |
| The blood smell and weakness caused by the serious abdominal wound inflicted on Balthazar in the finale of the prior episode by Piper wielding an athame allows a bounty hunting demon sent by the Source of All Evil to track Belthazor-Cole to assassinate him for taking out the Triad. In order to avoid the hunting demon Belthazor has to stick to his human form so he won't be able to sense him. After fighting him in the cemetery Cole manages to flee leaving the demon in even more rage. When the sisters Prue and Piper use the bit of Belthazor's flesh to summon the demon, Phoebe is off checking Cole's apartment as she hasn't seen him for over a week. The summoning malfunctions and brings the bounty hunter demon Krell who had been fighting Belthazor when they invoked the spell. After a three way fight where he is hard pressed by Prue and Piper's magic and martial arts agrees to team with the two when they realize they are looking to vanquish the same demon. Later piecing together various clues and indicators, the sisters, together with Krull recognize Cole's suit coat when the demon tracks the blood smell on it to a homeless man in an alley. Thus they discover that Cole is Belthazor. Phoebe finds Cole in his apartment wounded and calls Leo to heal him - but since Cole is partially demon Leo can heal only a part of him. The knowledge that Cole is Balthazar presents Phoebe with the poisoned choices and situation that the bounty hunter and her sisters are closing in to kill him so that she must make one of the toughest decisions of her life: either vanquish her boyfriend or keep an extremely dangerous demon alive. Cole escapes with Phoebe and the two share an anguished moment of revelation, confession, understanding and empathy during which Phoebe actively decides to cover for Cole. After Cole uses his remaining strength to vanquish the hunting demon to save Phoebe she has no doubts any longer and fakes his vanquishing. | ||||||
| 53 | 9 | "Coyote Piper" | Chris Long | Krista Vernoff | January 11, 2001 | 4300053 |
| Prue and Phoebe have their hands full when Piper is possessed by an evil spirit (Terra) with powers that travels as a vapor and who is intent on seeking out and possessing one of the Charmed Ones for her powers. The spirit is the created alienated girlfriend of an evil Alchemist Kierkan (Rainn Wilson) of great power on the day of her high school reunion. Fooled for a while, the three vanquish the alchemist when he tracks his fleeing gal to the manor where she uses Piper's power aided by a ruse to set up the ruthless assassination of her former lover. Piper, who was shy and lacked confidence being something of a doormat in high school undergoes a through personality transfer as the possessing spirit parties with abandon and acts in various ways to totally rewrite the memories Piper will engender to her classmates in the future. Piecing together the clues Prue and Phoebe figure out the possession, arm themselves with the Book of Shadows sourced exorcism spell which when cast by Phoebe and Prue proves insufficiently powerful with only the power of two to drive out the spirit who has taken over Piper and while at the manor also knocked Leo out for a few hours when he twigged that something was different and insisted she tell him his name. The demon fighting the two physically, triumphantly offers to leave Pipers' body the only way she knows how while she was getting her butt kicked physically, but when it turns out that sort of departure means killing Piper by stabbing her through the heart they retract their demand. However, shortly afterwards, Prue figures out a plan and knocks out the possessed Piper in a wild brawl during her reunion, drags her home and has Phoebe waken Leo; with the ready power of three spell to exorcise the spirit (which has added the alchemists powers to her own during his death) Prue ruthlessly stabs Pipers' supine body through the chest forcing the spirit to possess Leo's body. Striking a deal, the two offer to trade the spirits' possession of Leo's body for the alchemist-sourced vanquishing potion if the spirit first has Leos body heal Piper. Awoken from near death, Piper adds her powers and aids her sisters in reading the spell with the Power of Three — right after they give the potion to the spirit as promised, which drives the spirit out of Leo and vanquishes it resolving the crises, save for Piper's new found straight drinks and table-dancing, tough-talking reputation amongst her classmates. | ||||||
| 54 | 10 | "We All Scream for Ice Cream" | Allan Kroeker | Chris Levinson & Zack Estrin | January 18, 2001 | 4300054 |
| The sisters trace a mysterious ice cream van which they stop in mid-act seemingly abducting a girl child of about eight years. After Prue can't get a song out of her head at the P3 club, the next day she wakes up having a nightmare from her suppressed childhood memories showing a frozen playground complete with loud screams. At breakfast, the girls hear their father may have been seen in town, but Prue makes it bitterly plain she really would still rather not see him. In an elevator downtown, Prue hears a child humming the tune she can't get out of her head but cannot ask about it before the girl gets off. Piper visits the office building where her dad was reported, and mistakes a stranger from behind mistaking him for Victor whom she has gone to search out. Meanwhile, Prue and Phoebe are sitting in an office park courtyard still downtown during Prue's lunch hour, discussing Prue's issues with their Dad, when she hears a little girl humming the tune and asks her what it is. The little girl points and scampers off as an Ice Cream Truck pulls up to the curb nearby. Noticing there are no parents reacting to the little girl and that it is quite cold, they follow the child. Prue says there's something wrong with all this, and Phoebe misunderstands and asks if they can talk it over standing still as Prue goes down the steps toward the truck. "No I'm not talking about all this, but I'm getting a serious déjà vu feeling here." Turning past the end of the Ice Cream Truck the see the little girl whose feet are sticking, wiggling to get away, out of the truck's serving window, and they grab on and pull before she disappears. When Prue, the little girl and Phoebe fall down in their rescue, a moment later all three are sucked into the truck by a magical vortex triggered by its driver as he sticks his head out and asks, "Who the hell are you?" They find they have been transported into a nightmarish alternate dimension by a seemingly evil ice cream man, that there powers don't work, and then soon after the little girl who entered with them is captured by the Nothing as they all try to hide, Prue and Phoebe being helped by a boy somewhat older than the girl. Meanwhile, Piper is going crazy making phone calls looking for them, when she is approach by and has a very strange conversation with a man who identified himself as Caleb. Sitting on a playground swing, Phoebe has a premonition back in time, of Prue as a little girl on one of the swings with her father, Victor. Chasing after the good humor man, Prue and Phoebe spot the way out at the top of the slide, and help three kids escape. The good humor man interferes too late, reaching the street as the last boy does, where the lad turns the hands of the man grabbing him to stop his escape into painfully red mitts of pustules from elbow to finger tips causing him to scream, the boy to laugh and give him a shove backwards back into the Ice Cream Truck, where he slams the door. The sisters try to go back in after him, but can't open the door (Later revelations are that one must be mortal to open the door, which is why the operators are mortals.) Leo assures Piper that the two (whom he can't sense or contact) are alright, and they will probably walk through the door any minute with a perfectly logical explanation. Checking the Book of Shadows, they learn of the Ice Cream truck and the nothing and feel that the girls having mistakenly helped demons and endangered innocents indirectly they need to do something about the demons the helped escape. They decide they need to enlist the help of their estranged father to undo their fatal mistake, and find out that he's been living back in the city for three months and Phoebe has been in contact with him throughout. Stressed out about things in general, Caleb comes into P3 and starts to introduce himself to the other sisters and Piper almost blows a gasket. Leo takes him aside, claiming he'd gotten a phone call in the office, and Victor enters the bar. Prue is curt to the point of utter rudeness, and Piper is awfully cool herself, just sitting looking at him as he and Prue squabble, and spar. "Tell us about the Play ground," Prue Demands, to which Phoebe adds, "Daddy, we know you were there, I saw you in my premonition." Victor gives in. "Okay, it was the last thing I ever did as your father," Victor says looking right at Prue. "You were home with a cold, and must have been about six." He relates her mom had some errands to run so he read her to sleep, then he tended the other kids. Prue woke up, must have heard the trucks music coming down for water or something, and looking out saw a boy about the same age being pulled into the truck. Prue ran out to help him. Victor found the door wide open, Prue's bed empty and the back door of the Ice Cream truck open, so he entered it too. He further relates how he and Grams then had a difference over wanting them to use their powers, and that he was just a man, so how could he protect them without any. "I'd just brought Prue back again, but that wasn't good enough. After all I was just the father, how could I protect you all. So with your Mom dead, I left too." Meantime, the three demon children have killed the operator of an Ice Cream Truck, but the one is castigating the younger for having mistaken the wrong truck, which it becomes plain, they very much desire to destroy to eliminate the threat going forward. The girls conclude they need Victor to enter the truck, since he's mortal. Visiting the spot they'd last seen it they found it missing, and get attacked by the three demon Children. Victor figures out the obvious—it's been towed for being abandoned in a no parking zone. At the impound yard, Victor initially can't open the door. Prue gives him some advice about clearing his mind, and he successfully gains entry with Prue. They find the Ice Cream man who is badly wounded and he insists they take an artifact needed to fix the truck so it can again play the proper tune. Making their way toward the exit, the Nothing occurs and the Ice Cream Man gives himself up to it, saying "I can be replaced, you can't." Prue agonizes over his loss, and Victor moves her towards the exit. "You didn't fail. The only way you fail is if you don't get back and do what he asked." Out in the impound yard, the Demon kids have now also found the truck they've been searching for so they can destroy it. They enter a running battle with Prue and Phoebe, reinforced by three other slightly older demon adolescents. Things are looking bad and Victor has to hold on to Prue strenuously as the Nothing's cone of wind almost pulls her off the slide at the exit. Prue's appearance on the battlefield tips the tables and Victor replaces the sound device, causing a total route of the demon kids when the truck begins playing again, and they get sucked inside. Leo shows up at the impound yard with Caleb in tow and explains he'd just been trying to be sure of his identification before asking for help. | ||||||
| 55 | 11 | "Blinded by the Whitelighter" | David Straiton | Nell Scovell | January 25, 2001 | 4300055 |
| The Charmed Ones go up a powerful opponent when an ancient warlock, capable of sucking out and immediately acquiring the magical powers from his victims, begins systematically annihilating the whitelighters of the world. It is evident he has put together a long term plan and murders a powerful witch which triggers a cry, causing the Elders to ban orbing and withdraw whitelighters from Earth back to "The Heavens" while the Charmed Ones can deal with him. But the help from an old friend and co-worker of Leo, an interfering, infuriating, "by the book" Whitelighter breeds animosity between Piper and Leo, who were already experiencing friction over Leo's work. To resolve the issues, Leo turns over his charge to Natalie, but when she falls to a trap, he returns and realizes that the only way they can beat Eames, is to break all the rules. In the end, the Elders allow Piper and Leo to be officially engaged. | ||||||
| 56 | 12 | "Wrestling with Demons" | Joel J. Feigenbaum | Sheryl J. Anderson | February 1, 2001 | 4300056 |
| Recovering from her depressed state over Cole, Phoebe crows "I'm back, bad guys beware!" to her sisters when they are supportively following up a premonition she has and attempting to intervene against a demon attacking people whose picture appear in the paper. Prue recognizes the demon as she and Darryl drive off the attack on the victim thereby discovering that her former college classmate is being led down the path to becoming a demon, and the sisters must risk their lives in an underworld wrestling ring to save his soul. The attacks are being engineered by a businessman[1] fronting for the Source of All Evil, its first appearance and mention in the series. The episode inaugurates the ability of the Charmed Ones to create a spell at need initially used by Phoebe trying to locate Cole, but shared with Piper when Leo loses their mother's wedding ring. The two then concoct a spell to divine the demons next victim which works enabling the three to intercept the old school mate before he can complete killing an innocent and completing his training at the Demon Training Academy which has been confirmed by the Book of Shadows. The two's finding spell overacts humorously with old toys, lost socks, and missing small objects of all kinds show up all over the Halliwell Manor. Undaunted, the three recast the spell into a tracking spell to locate the demon and the demon running the Demon Training Academy and bargain with the recruiter to wrestle a tag team match for her classmates' fate. Amidst the battle in the ring, Piper is attacked from behind and wounded grievously, necessitating a speedy end to the bout for Phoebe and Prue to save her. Reaching Leo he conveys the information that to defeat the recruiter demon that they will have to turn one of his recruits against him. The Charmed Ones lay a trap in the Manor and successfully save Prue's classmate when he is confronted with having to kill his own loving mother to consecrate his transformation to full demonic evil. Mid-crises, Phoebe informs Prue that she hadn't vanquished Cole, and the episode ends with the two quarreling over Phoebe's secretiveness and drawing distinctions between saving her classmate and trusting the human half of Cole-Balthazar. | ||||||
| 57 | 13 | "Bride and Gloom" | Chris Long | William Schmidt | February 8, 2001 | 4300057 |
| Cole returns to San Francisco while still hiding from Demon hitmen and appears to Phoebe on screen at the end of a the movie from second season's episode "Chick Flick," causing Phoebe to walk out rudely on Prue the next morning when she wants to talk about Cole, while going off to meet with him. In the next room Piper and Leo quarrel over wedding arrangements because she wants to involve a wedding planner in an affair which has a groom that according to the United States government is officially dead, will be attended by various family ghosts and officiated by Grams as high priestess. More deadly serious, an evil priestess wanting to turn the Book of Shadows evil so she can have it for herself teams up with a shape-shifting warlock who has a different, potentially incompatible agenda of his own. He is aiming to take Prue's hand in marriage with side plots to turn not only the Charmed Ones but also the Book of Shadows all to the side of evil, since their powers are linked and interrelated—as a bonus, he gets to achieve his carnal fantasies. Using a lipstick taken by subterfuge by the shapeshifter warlock impersonating Piper, the priestess is able to compel Prue to marry the warlock overcoming some protective Halliwell family magic. During their scheme, Prue is trapped in another dimension with the plotters when she fails to answer her cell phone when the other two twig to the likely ringer, but is taken in by the priestess's previously prepared magic and the process of subverting the Halliwell's magic to evil begins. The priestess celebrates with her warlock partner by killing him so she won't have to share the Book of the Halliwells' magic. Meanwhile Cole is told off by Phoebe who claims their relationship is over no matter what. After Prue disappears and scrying, Leo and the Elders all fail to turn up Prue's location, Phoebe contacts Cole again and asks him for help, which may get him killed. When she returns home, the Book of Shadows has been seen by Piper and Leo to be changing, showing evil spells and with her return, Piper and Phoebe both develop the Warlocks' power of Blinking (translocation) from place to place and transfiguration (changing people, animals or objects into other forms including one of the others). Piper and Phoebe embrace their developing evilness and transfigure Leo into a Stick in the Mud, and victimize their wedding planners as well, before Piper fires them. When they relent and restore the three, Leo is recalled by the Elders because by giving in to evil they no longer deserve a whitelighter, while Cole sleuths out through demon contacts the high-priestess is behind the changes and that she will be coming soon for the Book of Halliwells' magic, and the two set a trap. In the event they trap and torture the priestess who is inadvertently saved by Leo's return, so they freeze him and shatter him into dust bunnies. Seeking to keep the Evil Power of Three the two work out that they can blink anywhere they want or to anyone (as the whitelighter do to their charges) and they blink to Prue who is being turned into an evil servant of the priestess who has also resurrected the warlock as a servant/henchman and are forced to fight her. By freezing and smashing the warlock, they break the linked spell on Prue, reconstitute the good Power of Three and vanquish the priestess. The Book of Shadows resumes being a force of good and the evil they had done was reversed returning Leo to life. Phoebe says another tearful goodbye to Cole in the cemetery, but he doesn't believe they won't be seeing one another. | ||||||
| 58 | 14 | "The Good, the Bad and the Cursed" | Shannen Doherty | Monica Breen & Alison Schapker | February 15, 2001 | 4300058 |
| In a wild west twist of plot lines, Phoebe becomes psychosomatically linked with a murder victim from 1873 who is stuck in a time loop created by a great injustice—continually re-experiencing the same day and killings in a ghost town Phoebe visits with Victor, who is thinking of buying it as an investment. Prue and Cole set aside their differences to save Phoebe's life. | ||||||
| 59 | 15 | "Just Harried" | Mel Damski | Daniel Cerone | February 22, 2001 | 4300059 |
| The episode opens with Grams, Prue and Phoebe putting a floral arch in place for Piper and Leo’s wedding. Prue and Phoebe tease Grams about her multiple marriages. Piper comes in and approves of their decorations, but comments on her mother’s absence. The Elders will not allow Patty to come down for her daughter’s wedding. Phoebe takes Prue to bed, and Grams reminds Piper that Halliwell women keep their names before disappearing. The scene cuts to Prue asleep in bed and then to her dream. Prue is in a biker bar and is winning at pool. When she tries to collect from one of the bikers, he attempts to take advantage of her. An attractive man, T.J., helps Prue get her payment, and Prue kisses him before walking out of the bar. Outside the bar, the biker tries to get his money back, but Prue knocks him unconscious, she then reluctantly astral projects out. Piper wakes up on her wedding day to her bed covered with rose petals, courtesy of Leo, and is thoroughly happy. Phoebe and Prue join her, but Prue ruins the happy mood when she recounts the previous nights’ dream. Piper is momentarily upset; however, Phoebe and Prue remind her that she should be happy on her wedding day and shouldn’t worry. Meanwhile, at the bar from Prue’s dream, the police have a crime scene and the biker is lying dead outside. A cop questions T.J. before going inside and watching the security tape that shows Prue’s altercation with the biker. Prue finds Phoebe in the attic with Melinda Warren’s blessing cup that will be Piper’s something old. Phoebe breaks the news to Prue that Cole will be attending the wedding. They run downstairs and Piper screams; Leo has orbed in and she thinks it’s bad luck to see the bride on the wedding day. Leo wants to wear his Whitelighter Robes for the ceremony, but Phoebe tells him he’ll wear something more “traditional.” Victor arrives just as Prue has a dizzy spell, because of her dream. Before more questions can be asked Phoebe hurries Leo and Victor to the basement to change. Phoebe confronts Prue about whether something’s wrong, but Prue convinces her everything is fine, they must stay strong for Piper. Prue goes to take a nap and her dream occurs in the same biker bar. T.J. tells Prue she shouldn’t have returned, and then tries to help her escape on his motorcycle. She reveals her name to T.J. just as the police handcuff her. The scene then cuts between Phoebe waking up Prue and the biker bar with Prue eventually astral projecting from the squad car. Prue tells Phoebe about her arrest, and Phoebe suggests that it’s really happening against Prue’s will, like premonitions. They head to the attic to check the Book of Shadows, but Piper finds them and corners them. Phoebe lies and says they are searching for her something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. Cole shimmers in with a gift after running away from a demon, and promises to keep the manor safe. Leo and Victor are having a discussion about witches and Whitelighters. Victor laments about Patty and Sam, but then concedes that he wouldn’t mind having a Whitelighter son-in-law. Cole enters. Upstairs in the attic, Phoebe and Prue find no magical solution about Prue’s dreams, but vow to keep it together until after the wedding “For Piper.” Patty appears in Piper’s room while she’s preparing for the wedding. After a happy greeting, Patty tells Piper she always knew Piper would be the first of the girls to marry; she is the heart of the family. Phoebe and Prue come in, and Patty greets them telling Prue that she has been a great protector of the family and apologizing to Phoebe about never being there for her. The next scene is downstairs, where everyone is ready for the wedding, but Piper and Patty are not in the room. The doorbell rings and it’s Darryl, he warns Prue that the cops are looking for her. Phoebe, Prue and Darryl agree to go through with the wedding before trying to solve the problem. They all take their places, but Grams instructs Victor to move for Patty. Patty and Victor exchange short words, but Grams silences them. As the wedding is beginning, T.J. breaks through the front door of the manor on his motorcycle. Against her will, Prue astral projects and astral Prue jumps on the cycle. Phoebe calls after Prue, while Piper storms away and calls off the wedding. Phoebe and Leo both try to stop Piper from leaving and calling off the wedding, but Piper is adamant and storms out. In the living room, Victor places Prue’s body on the couch. Patty explains that they can’t wake Prue up, because a part of her wanted to escape. Grams leaves, because the wedding is off. Victor has his doubts about the wedding, but Leo refuses to give up. Darryl is paged away, and promises to update everyone on the situation with Prue. Phoebe tells everyone that she knows Prue is innocent, and the murder accusation is a mistake. Leo takes charge and sends Patty and Victor after Piper, Phoebe to the Book, and himself and Cole to the biker bar. The two men arrive in the bar and walk around, Cole tries to sense the true killers in the crowd. Patty and Victor find Piper at an empty P3. Patty instructs Victor to remain quiet, because he could never say the right things when the girls were younger. Piper has convinced herself that a marriage to Leo is not meant to be, and that Halliwell women aren’t meant to be lucky in love. Victor tells Piper that the happiest time of his life was when he and Patty were married. Piper walks away, citing that she needs to be alone. Patty congratulates Victor on being helpful. In the attic Phoebe finds a spell. T.J. and Prue are hiding in a park and T.J. wonders how Prue got away from the cop car. They discuss how long Prue will be around for, because she’s been astral projecting away every night. They kiss, but Prue breaks it. She runs, obviously Phoebe’s spell has found her. She astral projects away and is still screaming when she returns to the manor, next to her body. Phoebe admonishes Prue for being irresponsible, but the astral Prue reminds her that it’s Prue’s job to be responsible. Phoebe tells Prue that she’s allowed to have fun, it doesn’t have to come down to magic. Prue also admits that she’s jealous of Phoebe and Cole. Prue returns to her body and is preparing to fix the wedding when the lights go out and the cops break in to arrest her. Prue is in the police station getting her mug shot taken. In the biker bar, Leo and Darryl approach Cole and tell him that Prue has been arrested for murder. Cole takes them outside the bar, where he believes the killer is. Cole approaches the other biker Prue was playing pool with and questions him. The biker attacks Cole, but Cole pushes him against the wall and turns into Belthazor. This scares the biker and Cole tells Darryl the biker’s ready to talk At the manor everyone is working to restore the wedding by flashlight, and Leo worries why Prue and Piper haven’t returned home yet. Grams reappears to get Patty, she can only stay till midnight, but Phoebe interjects because they still have five minutes. Prue and Darryl show up, but it’s apparent Leo’s still looking for Piper who shows up moments later. They begin to reset the wedding, and Victor offers to be best man. Grams uses her magic to provide music, and with his Whitelighter powers Leo provides light. Grams performs a Wiccan hand-binding ceremony. Just as the clock is striking 12, Grams pronounces them man and wife and Piper and Leo kiss. | ||||||
| 60 | 16 | "Death Takes a Halliwell" | Jon Pare | Krista Vernoff | March 15, 2001 | 4300060 |
| A pair of demons called Seekers who can bite through the base of the brain to drain information out of victims terrorize several innocents starting with a murder of Cole Turner's landlady in an attempt to find him, and the district attorney's inspector, Reece Davidson, seeking him is really verbally rough on Phoebe whom he believes knows Cole's location. The Angel of Death (played by Simon Templeman) makes a couple of indistinct momentary visits but only Prue can see him when he twice shows up near a woman and Prue. To complicate matters the woman turns out to be a trainee of Inspector Davidson (posing as a photographer) and trailing the Charmed Ones as part of working Cole's case. Cole teaches Phoebe to use the back of her hand looking for premonitions using touch instead of leaving fingerprints behind when they investigate his landladies crime scene—and Phoebe gets a premonition of Prue and the two Seeker demons as they murder the photographer. The angel of death makes his first distinct appearance in the series' plots to claim the soul of Reese's henchwoman after Prue has burst through the door had driven off the Seekers and in a short conversation says he'll be back. Phoebe has a premonition showing the inspector victimized by the seekers next and Cole intercepts him in the hallway of his courthouse (workplace), but must shimmer out with the inspector as the Seekers appear. Following him to his hide, Cole fights to save the detective, and Prue orbs in to help as the three sisters realize that his hide is the likely scene of Phoebe's latest vision. The angel of death appears anticipating the demon's success at Davidson, but while Prue martially karate's the air where he stands, in fact Cole's defeating the two Seekers causing them to flee saves the detective. Unwilling to believe the bizarre, the detective pulls a gun and escapes the Charmed One's protection causing Phoebe to admonish Cole that they don't kidnap officers of the Law and hold them against their wills to protect them, but they do follow them and protect them against their will. Prue encounters the Angel again, and he admonishes her that she needs to see the bigger picture, that "I'm not good or evil, I just am. I'm inevitable." and then takes her to where Davidson is being killed by the Seekers—still trying to get a lead to find Belthazor. They learn of the manor from him and attack Cole there while the Charmed One's commute back in haste, anticipating the attack. Cole is saved by their timely entry and The Angel visits Prue again and reveals if she hadn't stopped fighting him, he would soon have been coming for her, and that being angry at death and fighting him and his inevitability necessarily weakens her and her fight against the real evils. The story relays heavily on the Ingmar Bergman movie The Seventh Seal in the presentation of Death. His bearing, manners and even expression is similar to Bergman's version. Meeting death on a beach is also a clear reference. | ||||||
| 61 | 17 | "Pre-Witched" | David Straiton | Chris Levinson & Zack Estrin | March 22, 2001 | 4300061 |
| A familiar-turned-warlock tempts the Charmed Ones to kill him nine times so that he can obtain immortality. Piper and Leo plan on moving out of the Manor, leading to involved flashbacks of life in the Halliwell manor while the girls were still maturing, so that they fought constantly, Phoebe was always in trouble, and Grams' so seriously considering preventing the Power of Three from ever forming prior to her death, that she argued with her daughter Patty's ghost about it and had prepared a power-binding potion before her natural death. A feline familiar of a Wiccan smashes several bottles of liquid into a puddle and jumps into it turning himself into a warlock then attacks his former mistress with the words: "What's the matter, cat got your tongue?". The familiar-turned-warlock then makes a nuisance of himself to tempt the Charmed Ones to kill him nine times so that he can obtain immortality. Piper and Leo, finding their newlywed privacy ideals all too frequently compromised by Sisterly habits and lifestyles, and so plan on moving out of the Manor. Arguing over the proposed lifestyle change leads to a flashback of a time when one of the girl's planned on moving out (Prue planning a marriage) leading in a succession flashbacks interleaved with scenes "now" to an occasion when Grams' considering permanently binding their powers and preventing their "destiny" (the Power of Three from forming) prior to her death—these are at first interspersed with attacks on each of the three by the familiar-turned-warlock. After the fourth time they vanquish him (while each reporting their individual first times earlier) they get suspicious as it doesn't seem like he's trying leading them to wonder "what's his game?" The Book of Shadows (and-or Grams) strongly suggests them to hold a seance and they find out that the familiar-turned-warlock must die five more times by the next new moon (two days later) to live forever, explaining his motivation. The seance segues into a seance held by Grams to discuss girl-teen rearing problems with the shade of Patty Halliwell. Meantime, the childhood flashback scenes continue with other rearing scenes and "now deaths" at their hands as the warlock tricks them into killing him again and again by attacking innocents leaving him with just two more lives. Patty and Grams continue their spectral debate while Grams shows unmistakable symptoms of great pain and deterioration compatible with a number of cancers—and ends up falling and rolling down the stairway from the attic to her death. Then Phoebe departs for New York after the funeral and the now scene has the three plotting to cast a spell to visit nine deaths of dying pain on the warlock when they kill him the last time, which works and vanquishes him. Piper reconsiders leaving—but only after Leo nearly has the car packed with nearly everything they've boxed. Prue and Phoebe gift the newlyweds with the biggest bedroom and a private bath respectively in celebration. | ||||||
| 62 | 18 | "Sin Francisco" | Joel J. Feigenbaum | Nell Scovell | April 19, 2001 | 4300062 |
| A demon Lucas wielding the Seven Deadly Sins uses his powers against The Charmed Ones, and after only a few hours exposed to Greed, Pride, Envy, Anger, Gluttony, Lust and Sloth, Phoebe (inflicted with Lust), Prue (inflicted with Pride), Piper (inflicted with Gluttony) and Leo (inflicted with Sloth) may self-destruct. | ||||||
| 63 | 19 | "The Demon Who Came in from the Cold" | Anson Williams | Sheryl J. Anderson | April 26, 2001 | 4300063 |
| This complicated episode begins with Phoebe Halliwell fighting with a demon in an alley who has just put an innocent (and prophet) down permanently. Using her martial arts skills, she forces the demon to stab himself with his own (Athame) ensorcelled dagger. Cole Turner comes into the scene, and Phoebe asks him what's the matter as he looks ashen. "You've just vanquished my brother", he responds. The comment sports a quarrel among the couple, and it gets explained that the brother was a blood-brother at the direct appointment of the source of all evil. Leo, Cole and the Charmed Ones conference, and Leo and Cole opine the brotherhood is way beyond anything they have dealt with before, and the one chance they have is for Cole to go undercover as a demon among them again, to find out what their plans are, so they can be checked and defeated. Most of the group are adamant against Cole going, but he insists insisting he has a plan, which decision rebounds on him as being viewed as untrustworthy later, particularly by Prue. Phoebe thinks he's being suicidal and has prepared a powers binding potion to hide him. He claims he's learned to fight the "good fight", that to do nothing against evil is the wrong thing, so they set a rendezvous at the mausoleum in a tearful goodbye. Cole goes undercover, reuniting with his Brotherhood colleagues to stop a corporate merger that will benefit the Underworld. He claims he was hiding because he had no proof behind the claim that he'd killed the Triad because they were plotting against the Source Cole officially joins the side of good and further helps their fight when at great risk, he turns double agent and goes undercover within his old secret society, an underworld brotherhood to help Prue, Phoebe, Piper and Leo learn more about the evil, but their trust in him falters when it looks as though they are being double-crossed because he hadn't warned them the demons were planning for one of themselves, shape-shifter demon, to take the businessman's place. Cole must deal with the suspicions of the ancient The Brotherhood of the Thorn, to which he has long belonged and who have heard rumors he may have fallen in love with a witch. The Brotherhood of the Thorn is an elite society of upper-level demons. They answer directly to the Source of All Evil who selects the members himself. The members take a blood oath, a life-long pledge of loyalty, which Cole is violating by going undercover to seek information amongst their society. One of their goals was to get a hold in the human world by taking over businesses. Cole's powerful demon half, Belthazor is a member of this elite club[2] A mind-reading demon, Raynor used to guide and train the members of the Brotherhood as the mentor of the group and he proves to be the biggest threat to Cole and the Charmed Ones as he temporarily reconverts Cole in the sequel episode "Exit Strategy" before Cole kills him. Suspicious of Cole, but wanting his power if he checks out the demon leader, Vornac, sends demoness Klea whom he uses as a detective and who can lurk invisibly, to go check Cole's cover story. To ensure his 'true return' in good faith, Vornac the shapeshifter, has Cole throw the energy ball meant to kill the businessman Pirelli, but Cole skips off briefly to forewarn the Charmed Ones of the time and place of the attack, not knowing the intent or target. Piper freezes the attack, Leo Orbs Pirelli away to the manor basement, and Phoebe slips a note into Cole's pocket. Cole must play a dangerous game, particularly with Klea able to spy anywhere and anytime being invisible, as she proves later. Cole is forced by Vornac, who has shape-shifted into the businessman's position in order to lead a stockholders meeting into a merger desired by the brotherhood to stay around. Vornac, more suspicious than ever of Cole over the missing body, sends Cole to lead a demon attempt to capture Pirelli, who should be dead. Concurrently, three demons invade the first floor of the manor while Cole and his friend Tarkin shimmer into the basement for the businessman, but Cole's brotherhood friends find Prue has anticipated trouble and prepared a large batch of vanquishing potion attuned to brotherhood members, killing all three. The women reach the basement even as Cole-Belthazor and Tarkin spirit off Pirelli between them, but they return to Vornac refusing to give him up yet—Cole claiming Pirelli is his guarantee that Vornac won't find him a traitor after all, or that the Charmed Ones won't vanquish him. Vornac replies "The question is whether or not they would vanquish you". Right after the exchange, the Charmed Ones enter Pirelli's office to find Cole sitting in Pirelli's chair. The girls vanquish him and he morphs into the leader and shapeshifter Vornac as he becomes a sooty stain. Cole shimmers in behind everyone and explains he had to play the dangerous odds they would recognize it wasn't him while giving them reason to show up and attack with his inability to get away or give them a message. He argues he must return again to safeguard his cover, hoping to have shown he can be trusted again by the remaining brotherhood, but Klea has arrived in the moguls office, sent by the mentor and overhears enough they are even more suspicious. Cole returns briefly to the underworld and argues with Tarkin, who tells him demon Raynor wants to see him for a full accounting. Cole claims he must go, and to just tell Raynor He'd told Vornac to stay in the underworld and not return to the mogul's offices. As Cole turns to leave, Raynor enters the scene and throws an energy ball and Belthazor is unconish saying, "Belthazor has much to explain and much to answer for." | ||||||
| 64 | 20 | "Exit Strategy" | Joel J. Feigenbaum | Peter Hume & Daniel Cerone | May 3, 2001 | 4300064 |
| With Cole still being held captive in the Underworld by The Brotherhood, Phoebe becomes worried and even spends a night at the mausoleum, hoping to hear from him. Piper and Leo plan their honeymoon and prepare to get Leo a passport, but the plans are put on hold when Piper blows up a part of the Passport Office with her new powers. Meanwhile, Prue reassures Phoebe that Cole is alive and persuades her to go to the Manor. Cole returns to Phoebe and tells her he has been assigned to steal two parts of an amulet from witches for the Brotherhood. The head of the Brotherhood, Raynor, plans to turn Cole evil again, while holding his father's soul as leverage. Meanwhile, Piper's new magical ability to explode objects and people at will (Molecular Combustion) which should it become reliable— much augmenting the Charmed Ones magical resources for struggles to come—currently misfires accidentally and haphazardly making it even harder to function now as she can't freeze anyone reliably either, least she blast them to smithereens by accident. Ultimately Cole kills the witch and in a battle, Piper vanquishes Tarkin with her new power, although she meant to freeze him. Phoebe rejects Cole and spills the power-stripping potion and he later vanquishes Raynor who says Cole is now truly evil. | ||||||
| 65 | 21 | "Look Who's Barking" | John Behring | Monica Breen & Alison Schapker & Curtis Kheel | May 10, 2001 | 4300065 |
| Piper is still having difficulty handling her new power of molecular combustion, blowing things up accidentally almost at random whenever she moves her hands, and worse, sometimes blows things or people up when she means to use her first talent Molecular immobilization (Freezing) and draws into retreat in the basement of the manor for the safety of all concerned, so far as she is concerned. Meanwhile, Prue and Phoebe hunt down a Banshee, a demoness who kills people by bursting their blood vessels with her shrieks after a pattern of serial deaths puzzles police. But while they find it, the Banshee attacks Phoebe, turning her into a Banshee as well, as she is sad and susceptible while still grieving over likely losing Cole. After their first unsuccessful hunt, when Piper and Prue consult the Book of Shadows for a counter, the spell the book indicates (opens to) a page (by itself, as it sometimes does) "To Counter a Banshee" which causes Prue to be transformed into a dog, forcing Piper to gain more confidence in her capabilities as a witch as the sole remaining human witch while teamed with her sister, the white dog, cooperatively striving to find Phoebe before she kills and permanently becomes lost to them. Prue as dog after a number of too late, partial leads, finally tracks down the right Banshee, and the sisters manage to save Phoebe. Piper manages to blow up the Banshee with her new power, bringing Phoebe to Cole, who still loves Phoebe and can't deal with the pain of losing her. Banshee-Phoebe tries to kill Cole by bursting his blood vessels as well, but Cole ignores the pain Phoebe's shrieks cause him and claims he was under a spell when he killed Janna, which eventually cures Phoebe. | ||||||
| 66 | 22 | "All Hell Breaks Loose" | Shannen Doherty | Brad Kern | May 17, 2001 | 4300066 |
| The girls are trying to save a doctor, who is under attack from an assasin named Shax, who has been dispatched by The Source. While trying to save him, the girls are caught on live television killing the demon, and thus exposing themselves. As a crowd forms around their house, a mentally unstable girl, claiming to want to join The Charmed Ones coven, breaks in, only to be thrown out by Prue. In retaliation, the girl shoots Piper from outside. The Source strikes a deal with Cole, knowing about Piper, telling him that if he can get Phoebe to agree to stay in the underworld, he will have Tempest reverse time, thus saving Piper. Prue gets Piper to the hospital but its too late and Piper dies. The S.W.A.T Team assembling outside the ER tries to break in to kill Prue, but time is reset to when they first try to save the doctor (this time, unsuccessfully) after Phoebe agrees to stay in the underworld with Cole and Belthazar. (Prelude to Season Four, Episode One -- The same things happen except Phoebe is in the Underworld with Leo who was supposed to weaken him with the spell, and Leo who is supposed to heal them. Leo is in time to save Piper, but was too late to heal Prue, though this fact is not revealed until the first episode of season four.) | ||||||
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