WHICH PRUE IS IT ANYWAY?

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THE PLOT

After watching two boxers sparring, Gabriel Statler asks one of them what it feels like to take a life with his bare hands.  Then, using a crystal sword, he kills him.

Prue isn't impressed to see Grams' marble statue back at the Manor, but Piper tells her that storage there is free, instead of the $90 a month elsewhere.  The pair then find that Phoebe has taken up kick-boxing because of her frustration of not having an active power.  Piper and Phoebe overrule Prue's objection to the statue.

After having a premonition of Prue being killed, Phoebe draws the crystal sword the killer used.  Prue refuses to stay at home, but promises to come straight home from Bucklands, where Prue introduces her to a potential client, Helena Statler.  Prue agrees to undertake a sample appraisal of the collection belonging to Helena and her brother.

At Quake, Phoebe tells Piper that the crystal sword is the symbol of the Lords of War, a clan of supernatural warriors.

Prue is appraising the collection when she puts her hands in a set of stocks and Helena slides the plate across, trapping her.  Her brother then makes his appearance - it's Gabriel, but Prue uses her powers to slide the plate back and throw Helena against the wall before stabbing Gabriel with an axe without affect.  As she runs for it, he throws the sword at her but misses.

Prue finds an incantation in the Book of Shadows to multiply her powers by three and she and Phoebe outvote Piper's objections.  Unfortunately, the spell has the result of producing two temporary clones of Prue, and the three of them levitate the statue to demonstrate their powers.

After Phoebe colour codes them, the three Prues then outvote Piper and Phoebe into following their plan - two will go to Bucklands while the other will go to Quake with Piper.  But the two at Bucklands split up, the original going with Claire to smooth things over with Gabriel and Helena, leaving the other to return to the Manor.  But Gabriel finds her in a car park, prevents her using her powers with tear gas and kills her, something that the original Prue feels.

Andy has been called to the coroner's office.  There's no ID on the body that's been found, but he checks the effects and finds a pair of tickets that he gave Pink Prue earlier.  He decides to break the news to Phoebe personally but she seems more concerned with what colour sweater Prue was wearing than the fact that her sister is dead.  When he sees Blue Prue, Piper tries to fob him off by claiming that everybody's got a twin, but he doesn't believe it, and finds it strange that Prue doesn't seem to remember him giving her the tickets earlier.

After he's gone, Blue Prue suggests using Helena as leverage against Gabriel.  Piper and Phoebe aren't convince and tell the real Prue, but they find that her clone has already left.  Blue Prue has got Helena tied up in a sarcophagus and tells Gabriel that she wants to trade her for the sword.  He knows she's the last clone and kill Helena, then Prue.

Andy checks Pink Prue's prints against the real Prue's and find that they're an exact match - the body in the cabinet is Prue.

Gabriel throws a tear gas canister through a window at the Manor, crashing through after it.  But Prue has already taken the precaution of wearing glasses after Phoebe saw this in a premonition.  He throws the sword and it lands in Phoebe's kickboxing training dummy before Piper freezes everything, Phoebe kicks him in the face and Phoebe throws the weapon at him, destroying him.

Andy arrives and drags Prue to the city morgue, but all that's left of Pink Prue are her clothes.  Later, Phoebe reads from the newspaper that a pile of clothes was found beside Helena Statler's body.  Andy files it away in a bulging file marked "Halliwell, Prue".

NOTES

Susan Chuang, who plays Monique was the Nurse in the Buffy season 3 finale, Graduation Day, Part 2.

According to Phoebe, the crystal sword is the symbol of the Lords of War, a clan of supernatural warriors who have been around since time began.  Their aim is to start war and they are reincarnated once a war has started so that they can start another one.  They are flesh and blood and if they have their sword they are immune to the weapons of man.  If they are disgraced they have to steal back their powers, including the magic of a first-born witch.

The girls have a great-great-great aunt Brianna, who was telekinetic like Prue, but who used her hands instead of her eyes to direct her power.  She disgraced Gabriel during the Crimean War (1853-6).

The incantation said by Prue is, "Take my powers blessed be/Multiply their strength by three."

Halliwell Manor appears to have two bathrooms.

THE POWER OF THREE

Prue tries and fails to move Grams' marble statue (it only wobbles), but has more success moving Phoebe's kickboxing training system.  To Gabriel's surprise, she slides back the plate on the stocks and then throws Helena back against the wall.

As a demonstration of their powers, the three Prues lift Grams' statue.

Pink Prue jerks the sword upwards, cutting Gabriel's face.  Then he kills her.

Blue Prue twice slightly closes the sarcophagus that she's got Helena trapped in.

Piper freezes the Manor as normal Prue walks in on Blue Prue and Andy.  She also freezes Gabriel in the Manor.

Phoebe sees Prue being killed with a crystal sword, and then the gas canister being thrown through the window, followed by Gabriel.

COMMENTS

Highly enjoyable.  As you'd expect Piper and Phoebe don't get a whole lot to do with three Prues to fit in.  But at least Phoebe's now got her kickboxing and Piper gets the best line in the entire episode (see below).

Shannen Doherty look like she's having fun playing the multiple Prues, and there are some great scenes - Blue Piper flirting with the chefs at Quake and the original Prue and her Pink clone fighting at Quake, followed by the latter mocking the original's habit of continually checking in with her sisters.

Even better is the scene where Phoebe explains about Brianna and Gabriel, leading Prue to comment, "so some guy couldn't keep it in his sheath and now I'm marked for death," followed by Piper's "some men can be very sensitive about their weapons" which prompts a grin from Prue while Phoebe continues her explanation.

There's also some background history on the Halliwell family, plus we find out how suspicious Andy is of Prue.  It's nice to see a bit of continuity developing in a show that often ignores any sort of development in favour of stand-alone episodes.

Which Prue Is It Anyway? is definitely one of the series' best episodes so far, it's just a shame that it wasn't Piper who was cloned though...

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