Ok, I have to admit that I started watching this episode thinking that I would totally hate it. I read the previews and some of the spoilers, and thought to myself: "Umm... this sounds so much like Wrestling with Demons... and I didn't like that episode at all... I heard they're going to bring real WWF ladies to portray the sisters being 'hulked' up... etc. etc.", but I have to admit that it surprised me. Although I still say I didn't like the hulking up thing. More to that later.

In my opinion, this wasn't the best episode so far, but it's keeping up with the quality we've been seeing from the beginning of season 8. I'll start with reviewing the characters, then I'll just go to the things that really bugged me in this episode. Starting with Billie, since she didn't get a lot of screen time this episode. I'm really enjoying Kaley Cuoco by the day. It's weird, cause everyone else seems to be hating her (I wish I could get some feedback from people to see if I'm the only one liking her...). She's looking a lot prettier and acting a lot better. It's only normal, since a new actor grows into the character, especially if it's a new character in an ongoing show. It was nice to see the scene where she threatened the demon so she could find some info about her sister. She reminds me of Prue, over and over... I also liked the scenes where she was dying, she really touched me when she said "I'm dying, aren't I?". But anyway, since this scene was more important to Phoebe than to Billie, I'll talk about it more when I talk about Phoebe.

Piper now... and I'll talk about Leo together since he didn't do much in this episode. And wasn't Holly great! I mean, she's looking so beautiful, acting so well (that's no wonder, I think Holly's one of the best actresses on TV). And I love when Piper takes charge of the situation. The scenes with Agent Murphy and the one she's all hulked up and fighting the demons were great. And oh... I won't even mention the interactions with Leo, cause that only makes me even sadder to think that next week is the last we see of Brian (I hope that changes!! Please?). The packing up scene was so great, Piper's interactions with Phoebe (The scene where they were trying to stop Hulked Billie and the baby crying scene) reminded me of the first seasons... But my favorite scene was definitely the one at Homeland Security. Now, that's the Piper we all know and love!

Paige and Henry, oh I love those two! I hope the writers keep Ivan Sergei around, cause he was the best male addiction since... umm... I dare to say... Julian McMahon. I know many people will say that Julian's the one and only, and I agree, he was by far the best male addition ever on Charmed (hey, I'm a fan!), but Ivan's really really captivating me. He acts great, he's got great chemistry with Rose, his character's got potential. All scenes with Paige and Henry made me smile. Since he first came around. I think this is a great potential for a true love interest for Paige, since she had... well... none. Let's keep our fingers crossed that this will last! And I loved, simply loved the way that Paige used her powers. It was so intelligent. Calling for the place to orb the object, instead of calling for the object. So clever. Although I didn't know it was possible, but if I think about it, I don't see why not. Very well done!


Now on to Phoebe... and well... I have to say I have dual opinions about Phoebe in this episode. Alyssa's looking great, the hair is beautiful. But... I understand what the writers wanted to do with this Phoebe subplot. They wanted to show a woman who's really tired of having bad experiences with love and who is fearing that her biggest dream will never come true. That'd be a great plot, if they didn't make her sound so selfish! So, just because her premonitions are failing HER, does that mean they're failing everyone? So she'll give up on her gift cause the premonitions about HER didn't come true? That part was really selfish. And I sort of hated Phoebe in that particular moment. The whole purpose of being a Charmed One is to help others, not yourself. Wasn't that the main idea behind the whole witchcraft thing? Anyway... Phoebe redeemed herself to me in the baby scenes and the Billie scenes. She reminded me of old Phoebe when she was taking care of Billie. And that was great acting by Alyssa. I almost cried in that scene, when she was trying to comfort Billie, but in fact, it was Billie comforting her. Nicely done. Also the kitchen scene, very well played by Alyssa. But... why didn't the writers make her believe in herself and her premonitions again by having her find the janitor? That's what I thought was going to happen when Paige and Piper orbed to the kitchen and showed the ID tag. Although the solution idea was Phoebe's, it would have been nicer if she had the key to all that. That would prove it to herself that her powers are useful, and that she was just rushing things up. Anyway... And what about her premonition enhancement? I thought that was great. I just wish that we would have seen some evolution to Phoebe's powers. They have introduced two enhancements this season (the premonition in color and this new one), but didn't explain how it happened or didn't show any evolution, like they used to before. I miss that. Either way, it was a nice scene where Phoebe meets future self, to learn that her dreams will come true and that she needs to just believe in them, instead of rushing to get them. I just don't know why the baby blanket would give her a premonition. My guess is that since she's got baby thoughts in her mind, a baby blanket would trigger it. That was a nice scene and it almost made me forget that Phoebe had acted too selfishly. But I won't be too bad on Phoebe (she was my favorite character) and say that Piper acted a little selfish back on the earlier seasons, when she wanted to give up on magic. So did Prue.

Ok, now back to explaining why I didn't like the main plot.  I thought the virus plot was too rushed, lots of things were just assumed and never shown, and the explanation was, well, weak. So the government wants to create super soldiers, so they inject some demon blood on a human and it doesn't affect him? Ok, I can go with that, and that plot kind of reminds me of Dark Angel, where the main plot was the genetically-enhanced humans to be super soldiers... but I digress...  I'm fine with that part of the plot, I wouldn't find it so absurd to have the government wanting supersoldiers. Ok, then we go on with the reason why the human wasn't infected. Do you guys remember Dr. Williamson? Season 3, Astral Monkeys, anyone? When he went crazy after injecting himself with Prue's, Piper's and Phoebe's bloods, and he died because of it? How come this human being was injected with a demon's blood (which is evil on itself, the sisters were good and caused all that mess), and it didn't have any effect? I didn't like that, I wish sometimes the writers could show some continuity. I would have a bunch of ideas, but this isn't the purpose of this review.

Anyway, let's continue, since this was the only thing that kept me from completely loving this episode. They needed the antidote cause Billie got infected. Fine, why didn't the writers show them making this antidote? The way it was cut off, from the janitor guy to the healed-up Billie was a little anti-climatic, I guess. Not sure if anyone agrees with me, but I would have liked to see more of how they did it, how they convinced the janitor to help, etc. Maybe I'm being picky, I don't know.

And well... In my opinion, having WWF people to star on shows isn't a good thing. I didn't like it on Wrestling with Demons, and I didn't like the hulked-up versions of the Charmed Ones and Billie. They didn't seem believable. I would look at them and the only thing that would remind me of Piper, Phoebe and Paige were the clothes. And the voices (but Billie didn't really talk). They didn't bother keeping any of the facial features, instead, they looked like monsters that didn't look like any of them. Still... although I thought the idea Phoebe had of transforming themselves to have superpowers was cheesy (they could have written a spell, right? Like Prue did in "Which Prue is it anyway?"), I liked the fighting scene. It was funny. And I didn't know demons had hearts... but I guess they do, since Hulked Piper ripped the demon's heart off... oh well.

All in all... not a bad episode, not the best either, the highlights were as usual the interaction between the sisters and Billie. I'm enjoying that. I just continue to wish that they would have some more continuity to the demons. I liked when the Sisters had a challenge to face, it would bring more interesting plots. I keep on saying, I like the idea of one major bad guy that the sisters have to face. And this demon-of-the-week was good. I thought he had potential, even if he only spoke like 2 lines. I hope the writers will bring that back.


As usual, some episode tidbits:


- Can I say again? Brian's looking great, acting great, interacting with Holly wonderfully. I know, I'm getting repetitive, but I can't help it if it happens in every single episode.

- The description Henry made of Paige actually described her perfectly. "Beautiful woman, great smile, a little wacky". Heh!

- What about Homeland Security? That's it? I mean... umm... that had so much potential. Piper's sentence in the end kind of makes us think that we won't see so much of Agent Murphy and Homeland Security anymore. Pity. I liked Agent Murphy.

- Rose looked very natural feeding the baby. I thought so. So did Phoebe taking care of Billie. Holly's a mom already, so it's natural that she's got the way with babies, but it was nice seeing some maternal instincts in Rose and Alyssa. Nice!

I guess that's it. I'm hoping for the best next week, but oh.. well... Brian's last episode... You know what I mean!

I hope you liked this review as much as I loved writing it! Cheers!