Charmed: The Truth Is Out There... and It Hurts (1.8)

This episode's subplot was pretty fun, featuring the aftermath of an ill-advised truth spell. So far, so Sabrina. However, the show puts enough dramatic weight behind the storyline to increase its power, in particular where Andy and Prue are concerned. While it's a little silly that Andy discovers the secret, thinks it over, and eventually decides he's against the whole "witch" thing in less than a couple of hours (with few questions asked), I'm excusing it. Everybody's allowed at least a little bit of artistic license once in a while.

Prue's tag-sequence epiphany was pretty sad. She heard the truth, only it wasn't what she had hoped for. Elsewhere, the sisterly interaction here was great. I loved Piper's "small penis" outburst while Phoebe's mad!detective!skillz! were cute, too. Also interesting was Hannah literally revealing her evil intentions towards Prue, only Prue remains blind to it all, assuming Hannah meant "destroying you" in a typical office-bitch kind of way. Not, you know, all fire and brimstone.

The fun of the B-plot isn't so present in the A-plot, a routine Charmed demon-killing mission with elements cribbed from a famous (and infinitely greater) movie. It doesn't help that so much of the story is filled with plot holes. If the warlocks from the future can send at least one assassin back to exterminate everybody, why can't they just send another one, straight after the first one fails? Why is this future-dude so afraid of killing people in public? Why does he give a damn? I guess logic isn't the best thing to look out for with this show, but sometimes the laziness is just too distracting.

This is a typical early-series Charmed episode. It has some fun character interaction and an amusing subplot, but falls short when it comes to a believable threat for the sisters to fight. But it's fine. C+

Credits
Guest stars Brad Greenquist (Gavin); Michelle Brookhurst (Tanya Parker); Brian Krause (Leo Wyatt); Leigh-Allyn Baker (Hannah Webster); Neil Roberts (Rex Buckland); Jason Stuart (Martin); Richard Gilbert-Hall (Dr. Oliver Mitchell)
Writers Zack Estrin, Chris Levinson Director Jim Contner