Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Charmed: A Witch in Time (5.8)

I've always loved stories where a character secretly goes back in time to avert some kind of catastrophe, and A Witch in Time does the surprising thing by having Piper be the one who saves the day, and not the character the rest of the episode is centered around. This episode is all about cause and effect, and revisits the concept of being unable to prevent death. The show explored the same idea in season three's intriguing Death Takes a Halliwell, and this is just as good. Phoebe blindly tries to protect a man who is unfortunately fated to die, and the script neatly folds in themes of time travel and Cole's deep-seated love for his ex-wife to create something surprisingly ambitious.

It's still a little frustrating to see Charmed's strange relationship with death as a concept, but I love it when it's portrayed as something inevitable that can't be avoided. The whole idea becomes so blurred when you take into account the frequent re-appearances of dead characters as well as the messy preventing-the-future hoodoo in season six, but at this point the concept remains true to the mythology as we know it so far.

Cole is a wreck since last episode, unshaven and eating take-out in his empty apartment. It's all pretty angsty. But his heart, at this point at least, remains in the right place, and I'm enjoying the fact that the writers have recently been giving him scenes with characters that aren't Phoebe. I never thought his chemistry with her was all that great anyway. He always seemed to have more fun when playing off Rose McGowan and especially Shannen Doherty. So I liked his banter with Piper here.

A Witch in Time treads familiar territory, but does so in ways that are both surprising and unusually emotional, especially when Piper has to make an agonizing choice over Miles' fate. It's another strong season five hour. A

Credits
Guest stars Ken Marino (Miles); Jason Brooks (Bacarra)
Writer Daniel Cerone Director John Behring

1 comment:

  1. Brilliant review. I'm glad you liked this one too.I loved what you wrote about Cole, I actually never mentioned him much in mine, but I really enjoy all the Holly/Julian scenes for some reason.

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