THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC

PLOT

Two treasure hunters find the mineshaft that they are looking for and one of them begins chipping away at a rock wall, which has symbols chalked upon it.  Breaking through releases some sort of gas before the wall explodes.  After the smoke has cleared, they see a woman with a snake around her neck.  "I'm free," she declares.

The woman asks them what year it is and, learning it's 1999, says "200 years," before asking for her wand.  They have no idea what she's talking about.  The woman throws some magical dust at them and they shrink to a couple of inches high.  She feeds them to the snake and them tells it to find her wand.

At the Manor, Phoebe is on the phone to Prue.  She's seen Piper kissing Dan and she's worried about her sister.  Prue tells her that it's none of their business, while she examines a sceptre-like wand.

Leo orbs into the Manor.  Phoebe tells him to come back later but he tells her he can't - the worst thing imaginable just happened.  Just then Piper and Dan come through the door.  "No kidding," Phoebe tells Leo.

Piper tells Leo that he can't just orb in and out any more.  He tells her that they've got a magical problem to deal with.  Meanwhile, Dan points out to Phoebe that the handyman seems to spend a lot of time at the Manor and that he has to go to a job.

Leo explains that two hundred years ago a good witch turned evil and started using her craft against innocents.  Fortunately she was tricked into a cave and entombed but unfortunately this morning, she's escaped.

He goes onto tell Piper and Phoebe that they can't vanquish Tuatha, only the Chosen One can defeat her.  She kills good witches, but they are needed to protect the Chosen One from her.

Prue is doing an appraisal on the wand for an elderly woman, Betty.  She values it at $5,000 before Jack Sheridan of Sheridan Internet Auctions offers $1,000 cash for it.  Prue points out that this is $4,000 down on its potential value but he tells her that she's admitted her price isn't guaranteed.  Betty agrees to sell it to him, giving him her address.  However, as he heads off to the bank to get the money, Prue uses her power to whip it out of his pocket.

Leo points out the Chosen One to Piper and Phoebe.  Not only is he a High School student but, as Phoebe notes, he's also a nerd.  Piper thinks it's wrong that they have to use him.

Nevertheless, the pair strike up a conversation with him.  Phoebe asks him if he believes in magic, which he does.  To prove their credentials, Piper freezes the scene while Phoebe hides behind Kyle, telling him that it was "magic."

Betty sets a tray down on a table failing to notice that Tuatha's snake has orbed in.  When she sees it, she holds the wand in front of her and backs towards a corner.  Tuatha orbs in and congratulates the snake, before taking possession of the wand and destroying Betty.

Outside, Prue is in the hallway of the apartment block when she hears Betty's scream.  She uses her powers to break the door open and then flings Tuatha across the room.  She picks up the wand and runs out before Tuatha can recover.  Tuatha tells the snake that they don't have to follow her since because she's a good witch, she'll come back to them.

Back at the Manor, Piper, Phoebe and Leo are talking to Kyle.  Leo is being particularly forceful and Piper thinks he's only freaking Kyle out.  Kyle tells them that he thinks the whole thing is a wind-up on the part of his brothers and decides that he doesn't want any part of it.  As he's leaving, he passes Prue, who's returned with the wand, which lights up as it comes in proximity with him.  Phoebe tells Prue to let Kyle hold the wand, which glows when he does so.

Prue tells Leo that the sisters want to go up against Tuatha first.  Meanwhile, Jenny comes in through the kitchen and asks Kyle what the wand is.  "It's magic," he tells her, adding that, "everyone believes in magic."  "Not me," Jenny replies so Kyle balances the wand on one finger and spins it around.  Leo sees him and hints that Jenny should leave, which she does.

Tuatha finds her spellbook under a pile of rocks and looks up a spell to disempower a witch.  She'll need a human heart.  Outside the cave, a guy with a video camera stumbles upon her.  Tuatha throws her dust at him and reaches into his chest to extract his heart. 

Meanwhile, the sisters have found a scrying spell in the Book of Shadows.  They find the necessary map, string and crystal and discover where Tuatha was entombed.

Kyle practices with the wand but he's unable to repeat his earlier success.  Leo tells him that he was able to use it when trying to impress Jenny because that came from his heart, and that he should believe in himself.

The girls are about to leave when Jack Sheridan shows up.  He wants Prue to give him the wand back because he doesn't have Betty's address.  Prue tells him that she can't be responsible for him losing the address.  Dan shows up and points out that Leo is at the Manor again, but Leo tells them that he never left.  Phoebe takes charge, telling Jack Sheridan to leave, that Piper will call Dan and Leo to help out Kyle.  After they've gone, Dan asks Leo, "don't you have some other house to repair?"  "No," Leo replies.

The sisters find the cave and Prue leads the way.  Inside, she is confronted by Tuatha and finds herself unable to use her powers.  Tuatha reveals that she's cast a spell stripping away Prue's power.  Piper and Phoebe reveal themselves but Tuatha just uses her powers to throw them backwards before orbing out.  "Cool," notes Phoebe, to the disbelief of her sisters.  "Well it was," she adds.

Leo continues to get Kyle to use the wand, telling him that innocent people will die otherwise.  Kyle still doesn't want to it so Leo provokes him.  "Get pissed at me," he tells him, throwing his the wand.  Kyle uses it to throw Leo throw the window.  After he orbs back in, he tells Kyle that it wasn't bad.

The girls return home and after learning that even they are afraid of Tuatha, Kyle declares that he can't go up against her.  Prue suggests that the Book of Shadows might have a spell to strip away powers just as Tuatha did to her.

Tuatha takes the hearts from a boy and a girl with a video camera.  "Before the passing of this hour," she recites, "take away all their powers."  She then tells her snake to find her wand.

Leo offers to heal Piper's cut forehead, but she refuses.  Things are too confusing if they get involved so they'll just stick to doing their jobs.  He heals her but she tells him that she can count on Dan to be around when she needs him.

Jenny forces Dan to stop the car when she sees Kyle walking alone.  He tells her that the Halliwells think he's someone he's not but she tells him that if they think he is someone then he probably is.

The snake orbs into the Manor, slithering towards Piper.  Phoebe tells Prue that she's found a spell in the Book of Shadows, but that it requires a human heart and they're all using theirs.  Piper tells her that she can have hers.  Leo calls out "snake!" which Piper thinks is directed at her before seeing the snake coming towards her.  Prue spears the snake with a fork - apparently killing it - only for two snakes to replace it.  Piper finds that she's unable to freeze it.  Outside the Manor, Kyle hears their screams and rushes in.  Leo tosses him the wand and Kyle brandishes it at the snakes, shouting "die!"

Later, Phoebe tells her sisters about the potions they've got - one to induce sleep, one to repel a evil threat and one to put out fire, which is actually just water.  She also admits that there's no spell in the Book that will give Kyle more courage.  Piper suggests that not taking their powers for granted is their lesson for the day while Prue says that they'll just have to make Kyle feel courageous without magic.

Tuatha orbs in and Phoebe throws the sleeping potion.  Tuatha theatrically pretends that it's having some effect before throwing a more powerful potion, to which Leo and Phoebe succumb.  She calls the wand towards her.  Prue shatters the bottle containing the 'courage potion', which Tuatha dismisses, claiming there isn't one.  Prue tells Kyle to wish for the wand and after a mental struggle he wins control.  "I wish you gone forever," he tells Tuatha, who is destroyed.

After he's come round, Leo tells Piper that he now knows why witches and White Lighters aren't supposed to fall in love.  Prue tells Kyle that there was no courage potion and that even if no one else knows what he's done, he still does.

Later at P3, Prue gives the broken wand to Jack Sheridan, telling him that it's now worth what he was going to buy it for.  He offers to buy her a drink.

Dan offers to make it easy for Piper since she and Leo are obviously more than just friends.  She tells him that it's over, "not you and me, him and me."  The pair kiss. 

CAST

Jay Michael Ferguson was Student #2 in Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Earshot.  Teddy Lane, Jr. also starred in Buffy, playing the Bouncer in Welcome To The Hellmouth.

Brigid Brannagh is often credited as Brigid Walsh or Brigid Conley Walsh.  Amongst other roles she was Poppy Bowen in American Gothic: Damned If You Don't and Erin in Sliders: Murder Most Horrid.

Lochlyn Monro also guest starred in Sliders, playing Billy the Kid in The Good, The Bad and the Wealthy.

Jeremy Rowley was a writer on the USA Network series Strip Poker and plays the William Morris Receptionist in Coyote Ugly.

CONTINUITY

The two treasure hunters tell Tuatha that it's "1999."  Jenny has known the Halliwells for a couple of months.

THE BOOK OF SHADOWS

The Scrying Spell requires a map, a crystal and some string.  To strip a witch of her powers requires a human heart.

THE POWER OF THREE

Prue whips Betty's address out of Jack Sheridan's pocket (doesn't anyone else notice it flying through the air?).  She breaks open the door to Betty's apartment and then backhands Tuatha across the room.  She's unable to use her power against Tuatha in the cave.

Piper freezes the street (presumably) when she and Phoebe are trying to convince Kyle.  She's unable to freeze the snakes.

NOTES

There's a rather obvious nod towards The Blair Witch Project - apart from being explicitly stated, there are some similar shots and the names of the three filmmakers are Joshua, Heather and Michael.

COMMENTS

The sisters face up to a female villain with plenty of cleavage, defeat her and end up back at P3.  Sounds a bit like the previous episode...

Tuatha is slightly more interesting than Darla in She's a Man, Baby, a Man! (although I'd probably have to give Heidi Marks the nod in the looks department) but the series still fails to produce a really interesting villain.  Leo tells Phoebe that the worst thing imaginable has happened, yet Tuatha is destroyed by Kyle brandishing the wand and wishing her "gone forever."  Unless he's somehow got more power than previous Chosen Ones (because he's the seventh generation as well as the seventh son of a seventh son) then why didn't his predecessor do this 200 years ago?  Still, nice to see Jenny actually featuring in an episode without being totally annoying.

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