Charmed: Coyote Piper (3.9)

I can't really watch Rainn Wilson's guest spot in this episode without thinking of his later confession on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon that his performance here was the worst piece of acting he'd ever done. It got me thinking what the hell the show was thinking with its various demon characters, the far majority of whom were played with a scenery-chewing, melodramatic menace, like something out of a bad Shannon Tweed movie. I blame Billy Drago, presumably the bench-mark for all similar evil characters on the show. Rainn is spectacularly awful here, especially in that early scene with Terra that he recreated on Jimmy Fallon years later. But regardless of the ham, this is a pretty awesome episode.

Piper is dealing with the ritual humiliation of going to her high school reunion. It's a tried-and-tested comedy plot device, and unsurprisingly the traditions flow through the episode. Piper is nervous about being considered unsuccessful, she has an embarrassing run-in with her old high school rival, she makes a fool out of herself, she eventually realizes that high school was forever ago and that shit really shouldn't bother her anymore. But while the story is rote, Holly Marie Combs works her magic to create Piper at her most endearing, cute and funny. Her interaction with Missy Campbell was hilarious in the subtlety within her performance, while her transformation into Terra was equally a lot of fun.

There's also great chemistry here (just like last episode) between Piper and Prue. They even get their own little catfight, too! Shannen and Holly are so great together, and I loved Prue's palpable anger when she was demanding that Terra get out of her sister's body. The resolution to the story was also pretty ingenious for this show.

The two subplots, one involving Phoebe investigating Cole's ancestry and the other introducing a minor love interest for Prue, are a little too under-developed to create much resonance, but the Piper A-story is ridiculously well-constructed, the episode balancing successfully the absurdist aspects really well with the heavy drama. It's kind of a Charmed classic, and by far one of the greatest uses of the eventually worn-out 'sister gets possessed' idea. A

Credits
Guest stars Chad Willett (Justin Harper); Rainn Wilson (Kierkan); Paige Rowland (Terra); Andrew Bowen (Businessman)
Writer Krista Vernoff Director Chris Long