Sympathy For The Demon: Recycle, Inc.

By Lisa Eiseman
Scoopme.com

"Revenge proves its own execution."
- John Ford

Revenge is never a healthy thing. It usually leaves a very bad taste in a person’s mouth. The actions one takes with revenge in mind can lead to some very dire consequences.

The consequences for Barbas were death, but really, were any of you surprised?

How disappointing that after only five seasons, the writers and producers felt that they needed to recycle an old demon. The storyline for this was very stale and felt like the viewers were being exploited.

Even missing most of season three, I was well aware that this demon had been seen before (in fact from season two?). I was very surprised that he was being reused. So the question that we have been posing all season has now come to the forefront. Have all the new, fresh ideas been used and must we now begin to recycle old storylines?

One poster asked what more could happen with the series? Where can they take the storyline? Following the Cole and Phoebe plot last year was exciting, but it has been done. We can’t have an entire season about them again. There is no current Source, so that is not a storyline. No impending doom that the sisters are fighting against, again no storyline. It seems that all this season has been successful in is floundering in its own purgatory (and dressing the sisters up in some risqué clothes).

Every episode thus far has been a stand-alone. Other than the references to Piper’s pregnancy, any of these episodes could be taken and inserted into any season (allowing for the change out of Paige for Prue and Prue for Paige). The fluid continuality of the season is non-existent, instead offering up a bootless contribution to the program.

Extremely upsetting to faithful viewers, this show seems to be marching toward the wayward side of television. All the campiness and sexpot behavior doesn’t seem to be helping at all.

With all this said, let’s look at this episode and try to find some of the differences and new ideas that the writers did try to convey.

Fear in itself is a very scary thing, but when one shares that fear with a support group, it is often easy to overcome the fear.

Piper had to face her fear by herself, like many of the things she always faces. It does seem to be a trend on the show that Piper must face her problems by herself, conquer them, and then share with the others her results. Facing the fact that everything in life isn’t perfect can be hard for any child. Thinking you are the cause of that imperfection is even worse. For Piper to think that once everything is going well there will be some "hitch" in events to make her "happy" world come crashing down is understandable. Seeing that one of her earliest memory is of this happening, it is a wonder that this fear has never come to light before.

Piper constantly takes on problems then shares her wisdom with Phoebe or Paige. It isn’t a blatant attempt to show the older sibling wisdom, but it is becoming more obvious. Yet, it doesn’t seem that it pertains only to Piper as the eldest, but there were strong traces of this when she was the middle child too. It raises question: are the writers simply trying to show how wise Piper is or is this some trace of what Holly Marie Combs is like in real life?

While Phoebe was well aware that her fear from before was losing a sister, it was a little confusing to see her beating up, and ultimately killing Paige. Her fear this time was being evil, but it seemed that the two fears were combined. Actually, the fear of being evil was very hard to spot; it wasn’t until Barbas said out loud what Phoebe’s actual fear was that the viewers were let in on what Phoebe’s fear was.

Paige’s fear of not being able to measure up to Prue was consistent with previous story lines. It has seemed, this season that Paige has gotten beyond the comparison to Prue. It makes this viewer wonder if the writers were simply giving this fear to Paige, only because it was an easy way to give Paige a plot line.

Time and again, it seems that Paige is an afterthought in the timeline of events for an episode. It makes one wonder if it wasn’t for the whole "three for Charmed Power" mythology would there even be a reason for a third sister.

Looking back on my latest reviews, I see that I’ve been rather negative. This is distressing, because I do find that I enjoy the plights of the Halliwell sisters and much of the humor that the show provides. But in looking at Season One and Three, many of the viewers know that there could be so much more than just the minute offering that we are currently absorbing. The call for continuity, along with a dynamic storyline isn’t just complaining on the part of the viewers, but a challenge to the show.

• It is always great to see Grams and seeing the girls’ father was a great added bonus.
• If destroying some of the underworlds' Lords is so easy, why not have Cole call them together, destroy them and then strip his powers. That would keep the underworld down for quite a while.
• What do Leo and Cole do when they go off together? Does Leo even like Cole at all?
• Seeing that Cole and Leo are part of the regular cast, we’ve had an awful lot of scenes in the last few episodes that they are not included in.
• I was impressed to see the girls wearing pretty presentable clothes.
• So Phoebe is dating again, does the girl ever go without kissing someone each episode?
• Loved having Prue’s name mentioned, too bad Shannen Doherty won’t do any special appearances.

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Review provided courtesy of ScoopMe.com