MS. HELLFIRE

PLOT

Prue is arranging her schedule for the day over the phone while Phoebe eats breakfast.  The phone at the Manor then rings and Prue learns that Bucklands has a new VP who has called an emergency staff meeting for 9.30 that morning.

Piper returns home to some ribbing from her sisters about spending most of her time next door at Dan's.  Piper doesn't care because her life is normal these days, even though it's Friday 13th.  Despite Phoebe trying to stop her, she even says the date, declaring afterwards that "nothing happened."

Just then, the Manor starts getting shot up and Phoebe and Prue dive for cover and  Piper freezes the room when she joins them.  The three of them discuss their plans to deal with the threat but are surprised by the would-be assassin entering through the back door of the Manor and starts firing again.  Prue deflects the bullets back at her.  Examining her body, the sisters find that she's a mortal, not the demon they had supposed her to be.

As examination of her belongings reveals that she was carrying multiple aliases and foreign currency.  Prue can't believe that she has killed a mortal, but Piper discovers that she was in fact a hit woman with a list of 11 targets, with P. Halliwell and M. Steadwell yet to be crossed off the list.  She was also hired by someone aware of their powers with a list detailing them: Prue - telekinesis, Piper - power to freeze and Phoebe - negligible.

Morris - who the girls have phoned - arrives and examines the body.  When Prue claims it was self defence he asks how the bullets are in the assassin's body if they didn't fire the gun.  "We're witches," Phoebe explains, "we have powers."

Believing that a demon is response, the sisters want Morris to keep quiet about it.  He says that he can call in a favour but that they only have 24 hours.  Reading the assassin's notes, he deduces that M. Steadwell is going to be killed by plastic explosives at 10am.  Phoebe offers to accompany him while they try to discover who M. Steadwell is, while Prue and Piper check out her apartment, although Prue has to make a stop at Bucklands first if she's to keep her job.

At the auction house, Prue slips into a meeting where the new VP is outlining Bucklands tough new regime.  She is partnered with Jack Sheridan and they have to raise $100,000 of auction material by tomorrow.

The meeting breaks up and Piper is anxious to go.  As Sheridan is talking to Prue, she suddenly freezes and momentarily also appears beside Piper before returning to her own body.  Prue tells Piper that it must be a form of astral projection which manifested itself when she felt the need for there to be two of her.

As they are driving, Phoebe offers to tell Morris everything about being a witch, but he tells her that he doesn't want to be dragged into another world.

Marcie Steadwell starts unlocking the front door to her shop.  Stopping the car, Morris shouts out a warning and tackles her to the ground as the front of the building blows out.  Marcie believes that her protection spell has worked and Morris finds it difficult to believe that she, too, is a witch.

Prue and Piper explore the hitwoman's apartment.  Piper finds the kitchen empty and all the mail marked "resident".  Meanwhile, Prue checks out the bedroom and finds the wardrobe stacked with disguises.  Piper wonders whether anyone really knew what she looked like, and adds that if it wasn't for some roses addressed to a Ms. Hellfire, they wouldn't know what to call her.

A lift door opens and Prue finds herself facing three men holding guns.  They think she's Hellfire and Prue asks whether one of them is Bane, who sent the roses but has never met Hellfire.  The man introduces himself as DJ, Bane's right hand man.  Piper freezes the room and suggests she and Prue leave, but Prue wants to impersonate Hellfire instead.  She tells Piper that she can protect herself with her powers if necessary and that if Hellfire was hired by a demon he's going to find out sooner rather than later that P. Halliwell isn't dead.  Unable to come up with a better idea, Piper reluctantly unfreezes the room and Prue leaves with Bane's men.

Bane is impressed by 'Ms. Hellfire', and equally impressed by Prue's honesty in admitting that she would have preferred orchids to roses.  She confesses that the Halliwells aren't dead, but says that M. Steadwell was "a blast".  Bane tells her that he likes her style, and that she has until midnight to take out the Halliwells.

A phone call from Sheridan causes Prue to temporarily astral project back to Bucklands.  She tells him that she's with a client and tells him that she'll call back later.  Bane tells her that he's driving her and tells DJ to go to his offer and report what's happening, explaining that "he'll show."

DJ waits in the office and Barbas, the Demon of Fear materialises behind him.  He asks why the witches aren't dead since he only has a 24 hour window to break free.  He tells DJ that his greatest fear is that Bane is being double-crossed and that Bane kills him for not protecting him, and shows a demonstration of this.

At the Manor, Dan measures the shattered windows and tells Piper that he wants her to move in with him.  Prue and Phoebe can move in as well for the present now that Jenny has moved back with her parents.  Piper tells him that she's not sure.

Phoebe returns home accompanied by Marcie, who quickly proves to be annoying.  She tells Piper that Morris put Hellfire in the morgue under Marcie's name.  Piper fills in Phoebe on what happened to her and Prue.

Prue finds orchids waiting when she and Bane arrive at Hellfire's.  He gives her until 10pm to kill the Halliwells to give him more time in case she's unsuccessful.

At the coroner's office, Barbas tells the coroner that his greatest fear is being autopsied himself, and that starts to carry out the threat.  DJ then pulls out what is supposed to be Marcie's body, which Barbas notes doesn't look much like an explosion victim.

Marcie is busy reorganising the Halliwell's kitchen when Prue returns.  She asks what Piper and Phoebe have discovered and wonders if all those on Hellfire's list were witches.  There were 11 names on the list but if 'P. Halliwell' meant all three of them, that would make thirteen and since today is Friday 13th, they deduce that Barbas could be behind the attempt on their lives.

Prue meets Bane at a nightclub and avoids replying to his question as to whether the Halliwells are dead.  The pair are kissing passionately on the dancefloor when DJ tells Bane he needs to speak to him.  While Prue amuses herself, DJ explains that Marcie Steadwell wasn't in the morgue, but that he suspects the real Ms. Hellfire was.

Marcie skips around the Manor casting spells, annoying Phoebe and Piper, who ends up freezing her.  Dan delivers some wood to cover the windows, and asks Piper if she's decided about his offer.  She tells him that she hasn't.

In Bane's office, Barbas tells Prue that her greatest fear is that someone will kill her sister.  He tells her that demons have assumed their identities and that she has to kill the imposters.

Piper and Phoebe get Morris to look after Marcie while they go to find Prue, who was supposed to have checked in with them by now.  They go to Hellfire's apartment, where Prue confronts them, flinging them both against the wall.  They make for the patio, where Phoebe's sneeze gives them away.  Piper suggests they make her try to be in two places as once so that she'll astral project.

After she does, they try to convince her that they are her sisters and seem to have got through to her just as her astral projection ends.  Piper wants to lay low until midnight, but Prue wants to go after Barbas.

Prue shows up just before midnight and Piper freezes both Barbas and Bane, who has pulled a gun on them.  Phoebe takes the gun before Piper unfreezes him, then Prue throws him into the wall.  As the clock strikes midnight, Barbas screams in agony as he is destroyed.

Back at the Manor, Phoebe admires Dan's work on the windows and asks if Piper is going to take him up on his offer.  She isn't because it's way too soon, which delights Phoebe.

Prue tells Morris to give Marcie Hellfire's ring so that she can rebuild her store.  Jack Sheridan shows up, annoyed that Prue's not making any attempt to do her job is going to take him down as well.  She tells him that she's acquired an anonymous donation with a value of $275,000, with all proceeds to the Stop the Violence Foundation.  The pair go out to celebrate.

CAST

Billy Drago returns as Barbas, the Demon of Fear.

IMDB lists Courtney Gains as playing Marcie and Hynden Walch as DJ, but a simple glance as their other roles and the former's official site shows this to be wrong.  This error also crops up in the Book of Shadows guide.

CONTINUITY

The series throws the calendar out of the window with an episode set on Friday 13th, although the only Friday 13th in 2000 was in October.

Prue broke her ankle when she was seven and gave Piper the chicken pox.  Phoebe taught Prue how to french kiss.  Prue and Piper went to see Duran Duran together and Prue stretched out Piper's legwarmers, which she subsequently gave to Phoebe.

THE BOOK OF SHADOWS

Doesn't even appear - its only mention is when Phoebe starts telling Morris about being a witch.

THE POWER OF THREE

Prue flings Piper and Phoebe at Hellfire's apartment then throws a plate that's hanging on the wall at them.

Her new power of astral projection is used three times - once at Bucklands when she appears before Piper, when she projects from Bane's to Sheridan's office and 

Piper freezes the room when the Manor's being shot up, freezes Hellfire's apartment when DJ shows up, Marcie at the Manor twice (the second time, Phoebe hides this from Dan by throwing a blanket over her) and Bane and Barbas - she then selectively unfreezes the former.

NOTES

Judging by Piper's reaction, it must be pretty cold on Hellfire's patio...

COMMENTS

Nice to see another episode that doesn't revolve around the girls running up to the attic to find a spell in the Book of Shadows.

There's even the added attraction of a returning villain, even though this turns out to be the not particularly interesting Barbas, although at least his powers are shown in a different light this time around.

Bane is more interesting - although his sidekick DJ isn't (and the scene with him and Barbas at the coroner's is pretty cringeworthy) - and there's some nice scenes with him and Prue.  Marcie is also suitably annoying, it's just a surprise that Piper only freezes her rather than slapping her instead.

After nearly a season and a half, Morris finally learns the girls' secret and along with Prue's new power, there's potential for more varied episodes in the future.

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