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Charmed [Season 7, Episode 1]
A Call To Arms
Shown 12th Sept 2004
Shown 18th September 2005 [Sunday]
Everyone is still trying to recover from the end of the last Season. Leo (Brian Krause - Sleepwalkers ) is obsessed with hunting down Barbas the Fear Demon (Billy Drago - Vamp ). But Barbas is able to mess with Leo’s mind, turning him into an obsessive paranoid killer. Can the remaining Elder (James Avery - Fresh Prince of Bel Air) talk some sense into him?
Barbas is now the highest-ranking demon around. He recruits minions like Branscombe Richmond ( Tremors: The Series ), and hides out in a lair that is supposedly shielded from the charmed ones. But he also relies on the help of an unseen benefactor.
Things get more complicated when Leo and Piper attend a Hindu Wedding. They get transformed into the living incarnation of a couple of Hindu deitys. Risky choice for the producers, considering the controversy when Xena: Warrior Princess used Hindu Deitys as characters. Piper becomes Shiva the Destroyer, a many-armed goddess like Kali ( Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom ).
Detective Daryl has a new partner - Detective The Mavigan ( Jenya Lano ), who is obsessed with solving the mysterious life and death of Chris last Season.
The babies, Wyatt and Chris, are having sibling rivalry. The sisters' father (James Read) and Grandma cast a spell to make the kids act older. Instead, it takes 20 years off the sisters' mental ages.
Phoebe ( Alyssa Milano ) acts like a lovesick pre-teen over the pretty-boy who took over the newspaper advice column from her. Paige ( Rose Magowan ) acts similarly towards a Skreech-faced teacher guy. Obviously their 30-something hormones are too much for their pre-pubescent personalities!
Meanwhile, a demon (with Leo's face and powers!) is after Wyatt. He does not have a goatee, so it is not parallel Leo.
Leo is still in hot water with the other Elders. They trust him enough to send him and the girls on a mission. However, the New Power is targetting Leo ...
Daryl's mad-woman partner ( Jenya Lano ) is still obsessed with catching the Charmed ones. She calls in the Feds - and one turns up to help. Agent Brody is more MIB than X-Files investigator. He sends them on the same mission as Leo - finding out who is behind the disappearance of young women when The Fog rolls in. It turns out the victims all practise witchcraft!
One witness is a missing woman's partner - and they are not cops! Yes, a mild reference to a lesbian relationship has made it into this child-audience show.
The kidnappers are, as the title suggests, a group of pirates. The sisters make a couple of pop-culture references to Pirates of the Carribean , which this is clearly stolen from. Of note, Phoebe's luuurve-interest also mentions Yellowbeard , which is quite a notable pirate film.
The Charmed ones cast a spell that stops the Angel of Death from collecting souls. As a result, Piper ( Holly Marie Combs ) must take his place and become a grim reaper. Unfortunately, Phoebe ( Alyssa Milano ) is on the list of soon-to-be reaped!
This week it is the turn of Paige ( Rose Magowan ) to dress trampy, in a skimpy mini-skirt and top. She has some competition from guest-star Seer demon ( Charisma Carpenter ), in a wonderbra and a Cordelia-like Valley Girl attitude. Unfortunately she is only in a couple of brief scenes, but there is always the chance she might be back again in Season 8.
Leo gets possessed, and tries to assassinate the Elders. John DeLancie ( Star Trek: TNG ) is less than pleased about this.
He is even less happy when the blue moon rises, and the Charmed Ones turn into hairy were-creatures.
Someone called the New Power is in business. They are hunting Leo, trying to recruit him to their side - by sending disembodied heads of CGI Eddie (Iron Maiden's mascot!) after him. Piper sends him on a vision quest, which gives us some nice Saving Private Ryan style footage.
Paige's new crush, Agent Brody (Kerr Smyth) of Homeland Security, is hunting the New Power. He is also hunting a demon who is stealing peoples' Guardian Angels, to protect himself from the New Power. Again, some fancy Matrix -style camerawork - this is not the look of the average episode.
Peter Woodward ( B5: Crusade ) pops up as the demon's mentor.
Paige ( Rose Magowan ) is working at the Magic School (think ultra-low-budget Harry Potter style) when a book-hating gnome Professor dies in mysterious circumstances. She calls in the Homeland Security Agent she has a crush on (She is a 30-year-old woman! Why must they always talk like pre-teen girls?).
Paige and the Fed get sucked into a cliched 1930s-era gangster noir novel, filmed in black & white. Her powers do not work, but at least her sisters can help rewrite the book.
At last, Paige decides to act on her attraction to the Fed. And Piper may be thawing towards Leo, too ...
The Avatars tip Leo off about a supergrass who will help the Elders defeat the Demons. She turns out to be the Seer ( Charisma Carpenter ), and apparently she has a history with Leo!
The Elders (led by John de Lancie - Star Trek ) do not trust her, even though what she wants most is to be made human. She must be on the level, though, when the surviving demons release a super-demon to track her down. And why are not the Avatars against her? Are they Eeevil? and is Agent Brody, Avatar-hunter, really a good guy?
The ep's high points are when the Seer bonds with fellow psychic, Phoebe ( Alyssa Milano ). They have more in common than visions, though. Both provide something for the dads - though Carpenter, being taller and more visibly buxom (she has a more display-orientated costume, to be fair) wins hands down.
The Avatars decide to advance their plan to bring Utopia. They make all humans go to sleep - except the Charmed Ones, of course. Someone has to go Demon-hunting!
The uber-demon is still on the loose, and all the Underworld is obeying him. Demons seem immune to the Avatars' spell, but humans (including Warlocks, one would assume) seem mind-cleansed - including the really bad stains!
Agent Smith is still obsessed with killing the Avatars. This leads to an unfortunate series of events ...
The sisters are getting used to the Brave New World. Paige ( Rose Magowan ) misses the MIB, and consoles herself with his World Trade Centre snow-globe. Phoebe's newspaper buddy is in a better place, and since there is no bad news there is nothing to print!
Leo meets the uber-Demon, who claims the Avatars are removing Free Will. And the Avatars themselves do not hide their methods - they remove and damaged people!
The Demons are in hiding, unable to influence Mortals into eeevil. Can they help the Sisters save the world?
A friendly Demon (Billy Zane - The Phantom ) makes a deal with an eeevil sorceror (Sebastian Roche - Odyssey 5, Roar! ). However, the sorceror double-crosses him. He goes to the Charmed ones for help!
Zane flirts with Paige ( Rose McGowan ) and semi-seduces Phoebe ( Alyssa Milano ). Typically, this show limits him to monogamy so he must choose one over the other.
When magic goes wrong, Zane thinks he is Robin Hood and that Kurt Fuller ( Alias Season 3 ) is Prince John! Meanwhile, the lady cop is out of the asylum but has amnesia. Will things get any worse?
Phoebe ( Alyssa Milano ) and the friendly Demon (Billy Zane - The Phantom ) go back in time.
It all goes wrong, but she dresses in a cleavage-enhancing costume Not as revealing as her modern-day clothes, though she does quick-change into a very frumpy look.
The ghost of an upper-class gent steals Zane's body.
The Elders, led by John De Lancie ( Star Trek: TNG ) subject Leo to a test to ascertain his path - Mortal or Whitelighter. They wipe his memory and dump him on a desert road in Midwest USA.
The friendly Demon (Billy Zane - The Phantom ) is still hanging out with Phoebe ( Alyssa Milano ). He is annoying, never stops talking. Makes one miss his character from Titanic. At least he will die at midnight. Hopefully.
Piper quits working for the Elders, while she and her sisters give up on love. They realise they are not going to have successful long-term relationships. We might as well be nuns ... with better outfits! Nobody mentions that they can still have the pleasure of multiple one-nigh-stands!
Piper gets a dose of terminal love-sickness. Luckily for her, the most unlikely person shows up and offers to help her!
Leo is adjusting to being Mortal again.
Uber-demon Zankou (Oded Fehr - The Mummy ) is back, with a plan to trap the Charmed Ones.
Phoebe ( Alyssa Milano ) gets asked to step in when the Editor takes the afternoon off. She may be in for a promotion.
A sai-wielding demon-woman named Katya is after Pandora's Box. She wants to open it and unleash evil upon the world. Ignoring the fact that Pandora already opened the box in Ancient Greece, and that evil has been around since before Season One.
Much like the movies this ep is pun-titled over, it involves a mind-swop. Phoebe ( Alyssa Milano ) does not become younger ... She is possessed by an evil demoness. Or an eevil sorceress, since Demons are not meant to have souls. This is never really explained, but who cares?
The She-demon is Ugly, insofar as she looks like the pre-makeover Anne Hathaway in Princess Diaries. But the moral of the story is, if you do not have the same makeup and haircare budget as professional actress-Producer Alyssa Milano , you are evil and do not deserve to live.
The demon-woman has a plan. As well as working off her sexual frustration, she also helps the Sisters murder her Underworld rivals.
Paige ( Rose Magowan ) has a career too - as a whitelighter.
Wyatt has an Imaginary Friends. Well, a demon who only he can see. A demon trying to persuade him to turn eeevil by handing over his teddy-bear.
The Sisters summon Wyatt from the future. When he is good he is boring, and when he is eeeevil he wears black t-shirts
Paige ( Rose Magowan ) is taking her Whitelighter stuff seriously.
The Halliwells are haunted by the zombies of innocents they failed to protect.
This is Zankou's evil plot to get at the Book of Shadows.
Zankou (Oded Fehr - The Mummy ) plans to get the Nexus, the source of Good Magicks under the Halliwells' basement.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security surround the house. Darrell's family is moving house (to a new city), he cannot do more than offer advice. But at least the girls' father (James Read) is around.
The apocalyptic ending was written as a Series Finale, in case the show was not renewed for next Season. The ep title is a pun on the first ep of Series One.
Return to the April 2000 Special