FROM FEAR TO ETERNITY

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THE PLOT

It's the eve of Friday 13th, and Tanjella is anxious to close up her wicca shop before midnight, and hurries along her final two customers, Prue and Phoebe.  She seems to take the whole Friday 13th thing very seriously and tells them that once every 1300 years there's a universal convergence of negative energy on Friday 13th.

A demon materialises after the sisters have left and walks through the shop's locked door.  He tells Tanjella that her greatest fear is being buried alive in an earthquake, and the room starts shaking, before Tanjella dies, her hair having turned white.  The demon wipes the witches' names from her mailing list, including Prue and Phoebe's.

Andy calls on Prue.  There have been three suspicious deaths since midnight, all single females under thirty.  Her credit card was the last transaction at Tanjella's shop.  He tells her that although the body was found amongst the debris of the shop, Tanjella died of a heart attack.

Prue reads up about the Demon of Fear from the Book of Shadows.  She meets up with Piper and tells her what she's found.  Piper is also taking Friday 13th seriously, and her belief that relationships that start on that day are doomed means she's avoiding a guy at Quake who's giving her the eye.

Phoebe has an interview at a real estate agent's and gets the job.  There's just one catch - if her boss's husband ever calls, Phobe must cover for her.

The Demon of Fear materialises in another witch's apartment.  She's expecting him, and claims to have released all her mortal fears, but she's only repressed them and he starts a fire around her.  Prue is trying to track down other witches using a flyer she picked up at Tanjella's but arrives to find the woman dead.

Morris and Trudeau investigate Zoe's death.  The last person to see the victim was Prue, who called 911 anonymously and then left.  Prue is in the shower when the Demon of Fear materialises - her fear is drowning.  The shower starts to fill up with water and she's unable to escape.  Her power is useless against him and she starts to drown.

Morris and Trudeau arrive to question her, hear her scream, kicking in the door and rush upstairs.  The demon vanishes and Prue claims that she had soap in her eyes.  After the detective have left, Phoebe notices that Prue's hair has a streak of white in it - she was that close to dying.

Prue and Phoebe re-read the Book of Shadows and find that the entry for the Demon of Fear has been added to - "to let go of your fears, trust in the greatest of all powers".  Prue recognises the handwriting from the back of the spirit board - it's their mother's.

Phoebe's boss's husband turns up at the real estate agent's.  She can't bring herself to lie about Susan's affair, which he finally admits to himself is true.  After he's gone, Phoebe gets a call from a prospective buyer and agrees to show them round.  But it's a trap, and the demon learns that Phoebe's greatest fear is losing her sister.  The demon impersonates Phoebe to trick Prue into going to the house where he's got Phoebe tied up.

Despite her superstitions about relationships that start on Friday 13th, Piper agrees to have dinner with one of the area's most eligible bachelors.  To her surprise, she enjoyed it, and he confesses that he nearly didn't ask because he thought she was turned off by him.  Piper admits to her superstitious nature and he's not at all impressed.

Prue arrives at the house and the Demon of Fear pushes her into the swimming pool.  She sinks to the bottom until she lets herself go, when she sees their mother, who tells her that love is the greatest power of all powers.  Prue bursts to the surface and uses her power to knock down the demon.  She's not afraid any longer and this destroys him.

NOTES

According to the Book of Shadows, the Demon of Fear appears once every 1300 years on Friday 13th.  He feeds on the fears of witches for his survival.  If he can kill thirteen unmarried witches before midnight, he'll be freed from the underworld to wreck his terror every single day.  According to Prue, this entry was written by their mother, who knew that the demon would appear in their lifetime and wanted to warn them.  

Piper is afraid of flying.  Phoebe is afraid of being trapped in an elevator (but losing her sisters is her greatest fear).  Prue is afraid of water and cannot swim.

It's difficult to see how the episode can take place on Friday 13th; the only Friday 13th in 1999 was August, the one before that was November 1998.  The later might fit because Piper says she met Jeremy on Friday 13th, which could easily be March 1998.  The only problem is Zoe's Spring Equinox gathering - November would be rather early to start organising something like this.

What happened to Prue's Dickie Davies streak of white hair?  It seems to vanish after she and Phoebe read the Book of Shadows.

THE POWER OF THREE

Prue opens the door to Zoe's apartment, she tries (twice) to use her power against the Demon of Fear when she's in the shower but it doesn't work.  After she's conquered her fear, she uses it to knock him down, ultimately destroying him.

Piper freezes her date to see if he's as good as he claims to be.

Phoebe gets a premonition of Prue drowning in the shadow after knocking over a bottle of water.

COMMENTS

As with a lot of Charmed bad guys, the Demon of Fear proves to be not very interesting.

At least there's a bit more characterisation than usual (which isn't saying much).  It's nice to see a different side of Prue for a change, and Piper and Phoebe come across fairly well too - plus there's a returning minor character (Doug from Quake)!

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