THE PAINTED WORLD

PLOT

Prue examines a painting that a client, Jane Franklin, has brought to Bucklands.  Prue starts telling her about it, but she's not interest - she just wants to sell the painting.

Phoebe admits to Piper that she's crashed Prue's car, but doesn't want her to say anything as she's got a job interview at an Internet company.  She's dismayed to find dozens of people there as well and is given an aptitude test to fill in.  Discovering that everyone else is more qualified than her, she takes the test home to complete.

Working in her office, Prue notices what appears to be a light in a window of the castle in the painting.  Pulling out a magnifying glass she sees a figure move inside the castle, but it disappears.

The next morning, Prue tells Piper about the painting, but Piper is more interested in all the code violations her club has got.  Prue tells her to stop; she's obsessing.  Piper says she doesn't obsess, she just thinks intensely.

Phoebe tells the pair that she couldn't find anything in the Book of Shadows.  She claims that her interview went fine but when Prue asks for her car keys she's forced to admit that she backed into a pole.  She throws a wobbly that as the youngest sister she's always the one who makes mistakes.

Piper makes her excuses and leaves.  She's off to see Dan for help at the club.  He agrees, but asks her to help with Jenny's biology project - it's about the human reproductive system.  "Sex," says Piper, before saying, "I have plenty of experience."  "Of sex?" asks Dan.  "No, um, I mean... talking about it," Piper replies.

Prue meets with Ms. Franklin and tells her there's something strange about the painting.  "Have you seen him?" she asks.  She tells Prue that she thinks he's trapped and that she has to get rid of painting before she goes insane.

Phoebe is sitting on her bed, making notes from the Book of Shadows when Piper knocks on the door.  Phoebe hides the Book before letting her in.  Piper tells her that the body shop rang - the repairs will cost $1200.  Phoebe says that she has to get the job, continuing her theme about being the stupid one by adding, "smart people don't do stupid things, only stupid people do."  Once Piper has gone, Phoebe casts the Smart Spell to make her intelligent, adding that there'll be no personal gain.

An X-Ray of the painting reveals the words "To Free What Is Lost Say These Words" is Latin written beneath the painting.  Prue sees the light in the window again and, using a magnifying glass, the word "HELP" written on the window.  She says the phrase and is pulled into the painting.

Inside the castle, Prue ducks from a fireball.  A man, who later introduces himself as Malcolm, tells her to follow him and that they have to get over to the bookcase.  Prue deflects one of the fireballs and the pair make it through.

The following morning, Piper is concerned about Prue.  She checked Prue's room and the bed hasn't been slept in and wonders if the painting has anything to with her disappearance.  Phoebe, who has been reciting reams of statistics due to her new-found knowledge, tells her this is unlikely.  She asks Piper if she likes Dan, and Piper sends her to the club to meet him while she goes to Bucklands.

Malcolm tells Prue that he hates witches.  He was an art historian whose girlfriend was a witch named Nell.  She was the one who trapped him in the painting seventy years ago.  Prue tells him they have to work together and that if anyone can find a way out, it's her and her sisters.

Piper discovers Prue's bag is still in her office.  When Joe comes to take the painting away, she freezes him.  Prue's plan is to let Piper and Phoebe know what's happened.  She and Malcolm dodge the fireballs but are thrown around when Piper picks up the painting and walks out of Prue's office with it.

Phoebe is just finishing setting up an appointment to return her aptitude test when Piper walks in with the painting.  Piper shows her the X-ray and is then suspicious of Phoebe's ability to answer the questions from the quiz show she's watching on TV.

When she discovers that Phoebe has cast the Smart Spell, Piper warns her that there'll be consequences.  While Phoebe is heading upstairs, Piper reads the spell and is pulled into the painting.

Prue and Piper both use their powers against the fireballs before Piper says that Phoebe will be able to save them because she's a "superwitch... a genius... an Einstein with cleavage", but the spell will wear off at 7pm.  Piper makes it to the window where she's trapped by blades that emerge from the wall.  Prue uses her power to move them before 

Phoebe is distracted by Jenny asking her to help with her biology project.  After starting to use her new-found knowledge, she settles for a simple drawing - two circles marked "us" and a load of sperm marked "them".

Meanwhile, Ms. Franklin watches the Manor from her parked car.

Once she's got rid of Jenny, Phoebe commands the Book of Shadows to find the entry for Nell.  She discovers that the spell to get out of the painting is "Words Free Us All" in Latin.  She has no idea how to tell Prue and Piper until she sees Kit.

Inside the painting, Prue tells Piper that she thinks that Nell went to a lot of effort just to get back at an old boyfriend.  Suddenly, Kit arrives and hisses at Malcolm.  The sisters realise that Malcolm is a warlock when he 'blinks' out of the way when Piper tries to freeze him.  He recites the spell and is freed from the painting.

Malcolm returns to the Manor, dangling Kit's collar in front of Phoebe.  He tells her that Jane is his lover.  Using her newly-acquired knowledge, Phoebe starts beating him up but he blinks outside.  Jane tells him that she wants to leave, but he offers her a present - Phoebe's power of premonition.

Prue and Piper discuss the situation.  It's almost 7pm when Phoebe's spell will wear off.  Piper admits that she would never have thought of using Kit to tell them what to say.

Seven o'clock.  Phoebe attempts to find the spell in the Book of Shadows, but she can no longer understand Latin.  Malcolm blinks in and lets in Jane, who sets fire to the painting.  Phoebe recites the curse, grabs hold of the pair and all three are dragged into the painting.

Phoebe dangles Kit's collar in front of Malcolm and, after Piper has frozen Malcolm and Jane, she recites the exit spell.  Back in the Manor, Prue extinguishes the painting, which has been completely destroyed.

Piper looks at the list of improvements.  They amount to $250,000 but Dan tells her these were Phoebe's suggestions, and that he can do the job much cheaper.  He wants to speak to Phoebe alone and she asks if it's about Piper.  It isn't, he tells her that he wants Jenny to do her own work and not Phoebe's.

Phoebe tears up her aptitude test, and announces that she might go back to college.  Prue and Piper give her presents of shoes and a bag as a thank you.  Prue holds up her drawing - what is it?  "That's Piper," Phoebe tells her, "and that's Dan."

CONTINUITY

Prue can read Latin.  Piper has a four-year degree.

THE BOOK OF SHADOWS

In the 1920s a witch named Nell tricked a powerful warlock into a painting with a hidden spell that only his power of X-ray vision could see.

THE POWER OF THREE

Trapped inside the painting, Prue twice deflects a fireball.  She also holds back the blades so that Piper can write on the window.

Piper freezes Joe so that she can make off with the painting from Bucklands.  Inside the painting she freezes the fireballs and, later, Malcolm and Jane.

NOTES

Phoebe seems to have forgotten the consequences of personal gain that she experienced in Morality Bites.

Although the painting burns completely, leaving only a charred frame, the wooden chair it's resting on seems completely unaffected.

COMMENTS

Like a lot of Charmed episodes, The Painted World is enjoyable, if rather lightweight.

However, it's unfortunate that the concept of being trapped inside a painting that then catches fire has more than a passing resemblance to Sapphire and Steel: Adventure Four (ATV Network, 1981), although in that case our heroes were trapped inside a photograph.  It's even more unfortunate that The Painted World is nowhere near as good as that one, which made such an impact that I could still remember it vividly more than a decade after first watching it.  It's unlikely that The Painted World will stand the test of time in that way.

Unlike the Sapphire and Steel story, which manages to maintain the tension throughout all four of its 25-minute episodes (including the last one which has Sapphire and Steel trapped inside a photograph for much of the episode), The Painted World is ultimately little more than a fun runaround.  Prue and Piper could probably have been trapped almost anywhere, the painting just provides a slightly more unusual setting.

There are a few top scenes, including Prue's reaction to Phoebe's drawing and Piper's "I have plenty of experience", but it's just a shame that the series doesn't try to make more of these sort of stories.

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