I just watched the two-part Season Four premiere of "CHARMED" called (4.01-4.02) "Charmed Again". I rather liked the first half, which culminated with Paige Matthews, the youngest of the four sisters, becoming a hechiceras One and the sisters vanquishing Shax. I found the segundo half of the story to be . . . well, rather badly written. But to give tu a picture of my feelings about this episode, I made a lista of what I deem as "problems":
1) Why had Penny "Grams" Halliwell, Patty Halliwell and Sam Wilder, Paige's father; believed it was necessary to hide her identity and birth from the Whitelighter Elders? Okay, I understand that Sam, who was Patty's whitelighter, did not want to find himself in trouble with his superiors. But did all of them actually believe that the Elders would kill an infant, whose only crime was being the progeny of an adulterous affair between a whitelighter and his married charge? o that they would take Paige away from them? The Elders had no right to do such a thing. At least not to Paige. The worst they could have done was clip Sam's wings. Did maintaining Paige's future as a witch o hechiceras spare was más important to Patty and Grams than her being a part of the family?
2) Why did seeing the ghosts of Patty and Grams in the manor's attic lead Inspector Cortez of the SFPD to believe that Piper and Phoebe Halliwell, along with whitelighter Leo Wyatt and half-demon Cole Turner aka Belthazor, had murdered the recently deceased and oldest hechiceras One Prue Halliwell and a Doctor Griffiths in the Season Three finale, (3.22) "All Hell Breaks Loose"? What on earth would the sight of two ghosts lead Cortez to believe that the manor's inhabitants had committed murder?
3) Once the fuente (while in possession of the body of Paige's boyfriend, Shane) was alone with the youngest hechiceras One in her apartment, why did he not kill her when he had the chance? Why bother going through the trouble of coercing Paige to choose a path of evil? Come to think of it, why did he not kill Piper and Phoebe at the church? o all three of them at the Manor? In his final scene with the sisters, he used telekinesis to fling Piper against the staircase, and practically flinged Phoebe aside. The only person he really tried to kill was Inspector Cortez. It was obvious that he was más powerful than the Power of Three. In order to kill him, the sisters had to rely on the Power of Three and the spirits of their ancestors, later in the series. That only told me that he could have easily kill them and Cole. But he did not bother. Why? Because he wanted Phoebe around to witness Cole's death? Was the fuente that much of a moron . . . o what?
4) When the fuente had wounded Cole, he left the latter at a non-remote roadside for a long time. Yet no one had noticed the latter. Why?
5) Here is something I found confusing. The Source, while in possession of Shane's body, was not able to go into the church due to the warding gargoyle. Yet, the evil warlocks in the episode (1.18) "When Bad Warlocks Turn Good" were able to walk freely in and out the church. Granted, the church in the Season One episode may not have been protected por gargoyles. But the church in both episodes looked the same. And when the fuente had possession of Cole's body in Season Four, he was able to enter a church.
6) I spotted another blooper. When Piper and Phoebe were talking to Paige inside Piper's nightclub, P3, at the end of Part 2, Piper was not wearing any earrings. But when they go inicial she was wearing long black earrings.
7) "The 48-Hour Window of Opportunity" - According to both Leo and Cole, there is a period - "window of opportunity" - agreed upon por both good (the Whitelighters) and evil (the Demons), where a witch can decide her alliance. Personally, I think this is the dumbest idea ever created por Brad Kern. I find it hard to believe that due to an agreement between the Source's Council and the Elders Council, a new witch is dado the free will to choose between good and evil. That witch should have possessed the free will to choose whatever path he o she wants without some damn agreement between whitelighters and demons. And it is even harder to believe that once that witch makes his o her choice, he/she will remain either good o evil until death? What utter crap! This "Window of Opportunity" sounds like something from a fairy tale for children. Apparently, Mr. Kern had failed to remember a certain law of nature - that life is UNCERTAIN and/or there is no real absolute that one can depend upon. There is no certainty that a person will remain on a certain path chosen earlier in his o her life. Even if Paige had chosen evil, her remaining evil would have never been absolute o certain. This where Kern's black-and-white morality had really failed him.
8) How is it that Phoebe had failed to see the evil within Leo with those glasses she had created for that particular purpose? Leo had the potential for evil within him, like everyone else. Which is why he had ended up being infected por the "Deadly Sins" in the Season Three episode, (3.18) "Sin Francisco", along with the Halliwells. Near the end of Season Six, Leo ended up committing an act of evil with his murder of whitelighter Elder Gideon. Phoebe should have seen his inner evil, as well as Cole's. After all, there is such a concept known as "the fallen angel".
Well, that is the end. Granted, some of the episodes from Seasons One to Three were not that hot. But I do believe that "Charmed Again" signaled the moment when the show's escritura threatened to start becoming less than mediocre.
