Entertainment
 

Morality Bites

From Charmed

The Charmed Ones soon learn all actions have consequences
Morality Bites is the 24th episode of Charmed.

Contents

[edit] Episode Information

Season 2
Episode No. 02
Written By Chris Levinson and Zack Estrin
Directed By John Behring
Production No. 4399025
Original Airdate October 7, 1999

[edit] Guest Starring

[edit] Co-Starring

[edit] Featuring

[edit] Uncredited

[edit] Summary

Prue and Phoebe are in the kitchen when Piper comes in carrying groceries and complaining that she stepped in dog droppings.  A man has repeatedly allowed his dog to do its business all over the neighborhood, including the front of the manor. As they suddenly hear a dog bark, the girls run to the window and see the man allowing his dog to do his business at the front of their driveway. Phoebe suggests that they should use their magic to teach him his lesson; Prue and Piper are skeptical at first but go along.  Piper freezes him and Prue flicks the dog droppings onto his shoe. After wondering lightly if he saw them, Prue and Piper go to the kitchen to make coffee and Phoebe to watch TV. When Phoebe pauses on the news channel giving a headline about baseball player Cal Greene she has a premonition of her future self being burnt alive while Prue and Piper watch. She screams and Piper and Prue come running to help.

Piper and Prue are trying to calm Phoebe down while figuring out what triggered the premonition when the doorbell rings. Piper answers it--it's Leo.  He has the day off since the Elders are making him work that evening and he wants to spend it with her. She declines because of Phoebe’s situation, and he suddenly gets a call from the Elders and kisses her as he orbs out. In the attic Leo is flipping the pages of the Book of Shadows by himself and he orbs out just before the girls enter. The book is open to a spell to go forward in time and they determine that is what they must do to save Phoebe. They do the ritual and disappear. Piper wakes up in the manor in her future body and a girl is entering the room calling her “Mommy.” This confuses Piper, but she has little time to think as the girl hears a horn honk and runs to get her backpack for school. The girl calls to Piper, and at the door another mom is picking up Piper’s daughter and she verifies that she should take the girl to Piper’s ex-husband's house after school. Piper decides that is the best course of action and just as the girl is ready to leave she whispers a promise to her mother that she will never use her powers again. A limo pulls up as soon as the girl disappears and a blonde Prue steps out of it followed by an entourage. Prue now owns Buckland's and is excited to hear about how Piper’s future self has turned out. They discuss why they are in their future bodies and not just observing them, like when they traveled to the past. Apparently traveling to the future is different than going to the past. They realize this means Phoebe’s life really is in jeopardy. On the TV, local DA Nathaniel Pratt vows that he will hunt down every witch in the city.  His arrest of Phoebe has made him a favorite for the governorship in 2010.

Piper and Prue enter the attic and are surprised that the book is no longer on its pedestal. Prue begins gesturing emphatically and suddenly an entire side of the attic is nearly destroyed; obviously, her power has grown. Piper sees that the pedestal has overturned and at the bottom is a key to Prue’s safe at Buckland's. They decide that their next course of action should be to head to Buckland's.

In a prison cell with a glass front, similar to Hannibal Lecter’s in Silence of the Lambs, Phoebe is calling out for someone to answer her questions; she touches the glass and is shocked. Prue and Piper are outside Buckland's heading towards it when Piper sees a man almost spill his coffee; out of habit she freezes him. The entire area is frozen, an example of how Piper’s powers have also greatly expanded. Leo storms towards them absolutely infuriated that Piper has used her powers. He apparently doesn’t know they are from the past, and says that they agreed not to use magic for the sake of their daughter Melinda. A woman enters the scene and cries “witch” when she sees everything is frozen. Everything unfreezes and Leo ushers them away before the witch hunters find them. In prison, Nathaniel Pratt visits Phoebe. He reveals to her that she killed a man, and that he is on a mission to wipe out all witches.

In some sort of underground hideout for many accused witches, Piper is trying to convince Leo that she and Prue are from the past. Leo begins to berate her when she interrupts him with a passionate kiss. This proves to him that Piper and Prue really don’t know what’s going on. Leo explains that everyone in the hideout has been accused of witchcraft, although most of them are not really witches. Pratt apparently does not suspect Piper or Prue of being witches. Leo tells them that Cal Greene killed a close friend of hers, but got out of prison on a technicality.  Enraged, Phoebe killed him; she crossed the line from protecting the innocent to punishing the guilty.  They want to go and explain to Phoebe, but Leo says he’ll go for them so that they don’t have to use their powers. Piper agrees and she and Prue plan to head for Bucklands.

Piper and Prue walk out of the Buckland's elevator and people immediately bombard Prue to get her attention. Prue’s assistant steps in and clears the crowd and helps Prue escape to her office, leaving Piper alone. Piper enters and it is revealed that even Prue’s assistant doesn’t know who Piper is. Prue discovers from her assistant that she never married, and that work has become her whole life. Moments later, they dismiss her assistant and pull the Book from the safe once they are certain they are alone. They search for the spell to return in time, but it’s gone.

Leo orbs into the prison cell with Phoebe and tells her that she must pay for her crime to stop Pratt's witch hunt. Phoebe doesn’t understand, but then Leo hands her a newspaper clipping. She receives a premonition of her lying in wait for Greene, then blasting him in the head with electricity.  Phoebe is devastated; she says she could never even think of killing someone. Leo orbs out.

At the manor Prue is flipping through the Book and sees that several pages have the corners turned down. Apparently their future selves have devised a plan to save Phoebe, even though many of the spells cross the line into personal gain. Leo enters, and the girls are upset to find that he didn’t bring Phoebe with him. He tells them that Phoebe has to die for the greater good. Piper is irritated by this and freezes him; while Leo is frozen Piper and Prue take the spells and leave. Outside Leo’s house, Piper and Prue are sitting in the car debating whether Piper will bind her daughter’s powers. Finally, Piper leaves the car and walks to the porch; Piper looks through the window and sees her daughter playing with a dollhouse. She glances down at the Binding Spell in her hands when Leo orbs in behind her. He tells her that binding Melinda’s powers aren’t necessary, and that he will take care of her. Piper questions their relationship, and Leo says that they couldn’t make it work because of their powers but they were very happy for a while. Piper goes back to the car and Prue is upset because she has made her whole life about work, and vows to change. Outside of prison, Prue and Piper look at a big cement wall and glance down at their blue print of the prison. They decide to make a door with one of their spells here. The two enter the prison and Piper freezes a guard that tries to stop them. When they reach Phoebe’s cell it is empty.

Phoebe is tied to a pole where she will be burnt at and Nathaniel is taunting her. Nathaniel turns to the people watching, mainly news media, and reminds them all that this is a lesson for witches and that he will destroy them all. He orders the execution, but Piper and Prue break in and freeze the room just before the fire starts. They try to break Phoebe out, but she refuses. She knows she has to pay for her crimes; the executions must stop with her. Prue and Piper try to use the logic that Cal Greene deserved what he got, but Phoebe says that even if it her intentions were good, she was still wrong to kill Greene.  Prue offers to kill Pratt and free her so they can protect the other good witches, but Phoebe begs her not to become a murderer as well. Piper and Prue concede and step back, and unfreeze the room allowing Phoebe to burn.  Prue and Piper sob into each others' arms.  Suddenly, they return to the present. Prue and Piper frantically search the manor to make sure that Phoebe didn’t really die. Phoebe walks into the room, and the three embrace.  Phoebe says that she felt the flames chewing into her flesh.  They don’t know exactly when they are, but Phoebe turns on the TV and sees the news report that triggered her premonition, telling her that they are back where they started.

The three run to the window when they hear the dog bark and see that the man is allowing his dog to do his business in the same spot. Piper freezes him, and Prue prepares to flick the droppings onto his foot as before when Phoebe stops her.  She realizes this may have been the moment when they began using their powers as punishment, and from here, one thing would've led to another, and their vindictiveness would extend from little things to big things until it became out of control. Moreover, looking closely at the frozen man there, they realize that he was Nathaniel Pratt, and that their punishing prank would've exposed magic to him frighteningly, triggering his witch hunt revolution in the first place. They now fully understand why they were sent to the future and allowed to come back to their own time--to understand their role as good witches is to protect the innocent, NOT punish the guilty.

The girls discuss what they want to change about the future: no more vindictiveness, Prue doesn’t want to become a workaholic, but Piper still wants to be with Leo and to have a daughter, but make the relationship work. The doorbell rings and it's Leo. Piper greets him with a kiss, and Leo explains that he didn’t know why the Elders had sent him up to the attic but only knew that they needed to learn a lesson. She promises that they did. Piper makes him a promise to work on their relationship always and kisses him as the scene fades out.

[edit] Notes

  • Dan, Darryl and Jenny do not appear in this episode.
  • The title of the episode is a reference to the movie Reality Bites (1994).
  • This is the second episode where there are no demons.
  • This is the only episode throughout the entire series that only features the three lead actresses in the opening credits.
  • This is the first time we hear The Elders calling to Leo, and also the first time he orbs kissing Piper (she says that she hates it).
  • Leo moves the Book of Shadows’ pages by using a whitelighter form of telekinesis to look for the spell “To Move Ahead In Time”.
  • The sisters go to Feb. 26, 2009.
  • In 2009, Piper and Leo are divorced; Piper didn’t let him clip his wings for her.
  • There were also several new spells seen in the Book of Shadows but they were not used. These spells were:
-To Move Ahead In Time
-Return Spell
-To Another Place In time
-To Create a Door
-To Induce Slumber
-A Glamour to Change Ones Appearance
-To Create Money
-To Bend Someone's Will
-To Erase A Memory
-To Bind
  • The Charmed Ones use the Glamour to Change Ones Appearance spell in Season 8 to magically fake their own death.
  • Even though it was not in the present day Phoebe dies for the third time (technically).
  • This is the only episode where all the sisters visit the future, Phoebe has three small astral premonitions to the future, in Season 5 The Eyes Have It, Season 6 The Legend Of Sleepy Halliwell and Season 8 Hulkus Pocus, and Piper and Leo travel to the future in the Series Finale Forever Charmed with the help of Coop’s ring.
  • At the beginning of the episode when Leo arrives to spend the day with Piper. All seems well, that is until their duties interrupt them, which then brings about the theme throughout the rest of the episode of how they always have to "talk about it later".
  • There are no demonic enemies in this episode.
  • Ironically, though this episode is the one where the sisters deal with the prospect of modern day witch trials, the previous episode was the one entitled Witch Trial.

[edit] Quotes

(Piper walks to the door.)
Neighbour: Morning, Piper. You alright?
Piper: I guess.
Neighbour: Yeah, with your sister, it's rough, I know. So, don't worry about your little one. I'll get her to school like you asked but uh, are you sure you want me to take her to your ex's?
Piper: Ex? As in husband? As in mine? Yes, if that is what I told you, then yes.
Neighbour: So, you and him are getting along better now?
Piper: Maybe. Prue? Prue?
Neighbour: Okay, let's hit the road.
(The girl whispers to Piper.)
Melinda: Don't worry, mummy. I promise I'll do what you ask. I won't use my magic again ever.
(Piper goes outside and watches them drive off. A limo pulls up. Prue and her assistants get out of the limo. They fuss over her by brushing and touching her.)
Prue: Hey, hey. Okay, enough! People stop touching me. Stay, stay, stay.
Piper: Prue, what's going on?
Prue: I don't know, but I could really get used to this. Check me out. I don't just work at Bucklands, I own it. And three more. Paris, Tokyo and London.
Piper: And you're blonde.
Prue: Yeah, strange.
Piper: Wait, you had time to go to work already?
Prue: Well, actually, I woke up there but it was amazing.
(A guy holding a cup of coffee bumps into someone and Piper freezes him before it spills. They look around and notice everything is frozen.)
Prue: Okay, apparently my power isn't the only one that's grown. You just froze ...
Piper: Everything. What a difference a decade makes. (Leo shows up.)
Leo: What the hell are you doing?
Piper: Leo, I'm so glad you're here. I have so many ... (She goes to hug him but he backs away.) Uh ... what's wrong?
Leo: You know, I knew you'd do something stupid like this. You used you magic in public. What's the matter with you? Are you insane?
Piper: Uh, Leo ...
Prue: Remember he thinks we know what's going on.
Leo: You wanna end up like your sister? Huh? We had an agreement. No using magic for Melinda's sake.
Piper: Melinda?
Leo: Our daughter. What's wrong with you?
Piper: Our daughter?
Prue: Wait a second, you're Piper's ex?
Leo: Nobody's gonna rescue you.
(Phoebe laughs.)
Phoebe: If that is some kind of whitelighter humour, let me be the first to tell you, you are not a very funny race of people.
Leo: I wish you remembered what you'd done. It'd make this so much easier. Your future self used witchcraft for vengeance, Phoebe. Pratt is using that as a plan for him.
Phoebe: Why does everyone think I killed someone? I wouldn't. I mean, I couldn't. What did I do? Premonition the man to death? My power is passive.
Leo: Not in the future. It's grown. As have you. Which means unfortunately you have to suffer to consequences.
Phoebe: I don't believe it.
(Piper gets back in the car. Prue looks upset.) What is it? What's wrong?
Prue: I have no one to say goodbye to. My life, they didn't even know who you were at the office., my own sister. If we die tonight, my tombstone will read "Here lies Prue, she worked hard".
Piper: We're not gonna die. We're gonna find a way back to the present and we'll create a new future.
Prue: What if we can't. What if we can never get home. According to Phoebe's premonition we fail.
Piper: Our future selves fail. We still got a shot.
Prue: You're right, you're right. Let's go get Phoebe.

[edit] External links


Previous Episode:
Witch Trial 		Next Episode:
The Painted World
Episodes: Season 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8
Retrieved from "http://charmed.wikia.com/wiki/Morality_Bites"