The Truth Is Out There And It Hurts
A strange man meets Dr. Oliver Mitchell in a parking garage. The man, Gavin, speaks fulsomely about Dr. Mitchell's work – and then opens a third eye on his forehead. A ray comes from the third eye and burns through Dr. Mitchell's skull, killing him.
The sisters are getting ready to see a movie when Piper's boss at Quake, Martin, calls her in–on her day off. A convention is in town and Quake is short-staffed. Prue and Phoebe are worried; Piper's been working a crazy schedule of late. She was supposed to talk to Martin about it weeks ago, but never got around to it. Phoebe happens to bump into Gavin and gets a premonition of a woman being killed. The police arrive and the sisters find Dr. Mitchell's dead body. Phoebe thinks her vision was of the next murder. Piper and Phoebe continue to argue over Leo. Prue thinks Phoebe only likes Leo because Piper does. Prue is unwilling to talk to Andy, feeling it's too soon after they broke up. Phoebe goes in her place to ask about Dr. Mitchell's murder. Prue looks through the Book of Shadows, but can't find anything. As she leaves, the Book flips on its own to a truth spell. Prue is sceptical and closes it back, only to for it to reopen to the spell after she left.
Phoebe has talked to Darryl about the case. She passed Andy in the parking lot and tells Prue that he still cares about her. Phoebe also suggests that Prue tell Andy that she's a witch, if only to see how he handles it. Martin overworks Piper, and she doesn't complain.
Prue casts the truth spell, not knowing that Phoebe and Piper are in the house and will also be affected. She calls Andy, but only reaches his answering machine. Piper asks if Phoebe can see a pimple on her chin. Phoebe is initially reluctant to answer, but just then the spell takes effect and to her shock says she can see it after all. Piper admits she didn't tell off Martin.
Phoebe and Piper notice that they are unable to lie. Phoebe admits that she only likes Leo because Piper does. Prue admits to casting the truth spell, to determine if Andy is okay with her being a witch. For the next 24 hours, anyone who comes in contact with them will have no choice but to tell the truth. Gavin walks into a laboratory and finds Alex Pearson working there. He kills Alex with the third eye, but not before Alex rips a button off of Gavin's coat.
Phoebe goes to Andy and asks him about the murders. Andy tells what he knows. Both of the victims had the same burn mark on their forehead, and it looked like all the life had been sucked out of them. He mentions the button, and says it's made of a strange alloy never seen before. She leaves, and Andy calls Prue. He offers to meet after interviewing a witness.
Piper is called into Quake yet again. Leo comes in, asking to use the washing machine. Piper asks if Leo thinks of her; he does, and thinks Piper has beautiful eyes. She asks, "What do you think about women who make the first move?" Leo says, "I’m still waiting for it to happen." and Piper kisses him. Just as Prue gets off the phone with Andy, Tanya Parker, the sandwich girl, stops by her office. Hannah follows, and snatches a sandwich Tanya was saving for Prue. Under the influence of the spell, Hannah admits that her mission in life is to destroy Prue. Rex pulls her aside and warns her to keep quiet. Hannah lights Rex's cigar, apparently with a magical power, by blowing on it.
Rex stops by the elevator to check on Prue. Under the influence of the spell, Prue nearly blurts out that she's a witch, but Phoebe cuts her off. Just as Phoebe despairs of finding the woman in her premonition, she sees Tanya walking by and recognizes her as the woman.
Piper is overworked. Martin, under the spell, admits to overworking her to keep from spending money on more employees. Piper angrily quits. Phoebe rushes down to stop Gavin while Prue calls security. Phoebe finds Gavin and Tanya struggling, with Gavin getting the better of it. Just as Gavin starts to blast Tanya, Phoebe smashes a bottle over his head. They drive off to the manor. Phoebe explains that the man who attacked her was a demon. Tanya tries to run, but Phoebe convinces her to stay.
Andy goes to Prue at Buckland. Prue demonstrates her power and explains that she is a witch. Andy becomes uncomfortable. She asks him whether or not he can accept that part of her, and he admits that he doesn't know.
Gavin comes into Prue's office. Under the influence of the truth spell, Gavin admits that he is from the future. He was sent to kill Tanya to keep her baby from being born, since he will someday create a vaccine. A biogenetics professor at Stanford has been killed. Three of the victims work in the biotech field, Piper and Phoebe don't see how they're connected to Tanya, a sandwich girl. Phoebe touches Tanya and gets a premonition of Tanya holding a new born baby. Phoebe realizes that Tanya is pregnant, and also remembers the button the police found wasn't made of anything the cops had seen before. Phoebe suspects Gavin is from the future—and isn't after Tanya, but her baby.
Piper can't reach Prue at work, and heads to Buckland's to check on her. Prue flees into a warehouse and hides from Gavin. Piper finds Prue's office empty. Prue asks Gavin what the vaccine is for and he admits that the vaccine will destroy warlocks like him. His other victims will help with the research that creates the vaccine. Gavin realizes something's up and charges at Prue, but she pins him against the wall with her desk and escapes. Gavin finds Prue and grabs her by the neck. He's about to blast her when Piper rushes in and freezes him, freeing Prue. Gavin unfreezes and the two shove a crowbar into his third eye, killing him.
Prue goes to Andy and asks how he feels about her being a witch. He says he can't be with her, and he starts to explain it's not so much that she's a witch, but then the truth spell expires in that moment and Andy doesn't remember what they were talking about, nor that Prue is a witch.
Martin, likewise, doesn't remember that Piper quit her job and orders her into the kitchen while she is having dinner with Prue. She demands that Martin hire some more people or she will quit. He agrees, to Piper's surprise, and she walks out of the kitchen. As she leaves, she smacks the door into Leo, who apparently does not remember the kiss. Piper offers to buy Leo a drink. Prue enters Quake and tells Phoebe about the rejection from Andy. Phoebe hugs Prue to comfort her.
Tropes
- Ambiguous Syntax: Thanks to the truth spell, Hannah admits she wants to destroy Prue. Prue, however, assumes she means destroy her career, rather than kill her.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- When Andy asks about hypothetical children, Prue says they'd get her powers if they had daughters but says nothing about that being the case for sons. Later episodes demonstrate there are plenty of male witches, including two certain members of the Halliwell household. More justifiable than other instances considering this is what the inexperienced sisters currently believe, and this world does lean towards female witches.
- Despite witch-Whitelighter couples being forbidden by the Elders, Leo doesn't show any hesitation or second thoughts about getting romantically and physically involved with Piper. Since this was one of the ten episodes originally ordered before the season was expanded to 22, and the series could have ended after "Wicca Envy", the writers probably didn't come up with that idea until the back half, to create conflict.
- Eye Beams: Gavin has a Third Eye that sends out a beam of burning energy. It targets the same area that the victim's third eye would be.
- Eye Scream: Gavin is vanquished when his Third Eye gets hit with a crowbar.
- Faux Affably Evil: Gavin turns on the charm before viciously (and clearly enjoying) killing his prey.
- Foreshadowing: Andy starts to explain his problems aren't specifically with Prue being a witch, but the truth spell ends before he can expand on it. It wouldn't be until nearly the end of the season when Andy finally gets to explains his feelings.
- Make Wrong What Once Went Right: The reason Gavin the warlock goes back in time is to kill all those responsible for a warlock "vaccine".
- Memory Wipe Exploitation: The three sisters have cast a spell on themselves where anyone whom they question will answer truthfully. Prue takes advantage of this to be honest with her Friend on the Force boyfriend Andy — she tells him the truth about her family's powers and their fight against evil and asks him if she could still have a relationship with him under those circumstances. He answers "No", and then immediately forgets the conversation when the spells wears off.
- Men Are the Expendable Gender: Gavin murders two men before targeting Tanya, but Tanya is the only victim that Phoebe gets a premonition of. It's somewhat justified in the first case considering Phoebe gets her first premonition when she brushes against Gavin only after he's killed his first victim, but said vision completely skips over the male scientist that Gavin targets next. One has to assume the universe only cared about Tanya's baby! Then again, her baby is identified as being the most critical to the future vaccine.
- Motor Mouth: When Phoebe questions Andy under the truth spell, she constantly cuts him off from asking her a question, since she would be forced to answer truthfully.
- No Body Left Behind: Once Gavin is vanquished, a blue vortex sucks up his dead body. Prue hangs a lampshade on it.Prue: I love it when they clean up after themselves.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Gavin passes up chances to get his targets if other people are around. He doesn't care about hurting others; he just doesn't want them getting in his way and helping a target escape (as Phoebe does when saving Tanya).
- The Reveal:
- Tanya is pregnant, so Phoebe guesses that Gavin wants to kill her to get to the baby. Prue later questions Gavin, who is compelled to tell her that the baby is the primary target, the one who will bring the other victims' research together to create the vaccine.
- Rex and Hannah are supernatural beings out to get the Charmed Ones.
- Rules Lawyer: The Truth Serum kind of spell Prue casts forces anyone who the sisters question to tell the truth, but it also works in the other direction. Phoebe immediately realizes that she can work around that by simply steamrolling over people, peppering Andy with questions before he can ask exactly why he's being compelled to tell her about his cases, and then explicitly interrupting him and telling him not to ask any questions before he could ask her.
- Sibling Rivalry: Prue suspects that Phoebe is only interested in Leo because Piper is, too. Phoebe is forced to admit just that after the truth spell kicks in.
- Third Eye: Gavin the warlock has a third eye. It doesn't signify any sort of insight. He just uses it to kill people with Eye Beams.
- Time Travel: This is the first time in the series that time travel makes an appearance.
- Truth Serums: The 24-hour truth spell Prue casts. While it means that any question she (or her sisters) ask must be met with the truth, it also means that they must also answer similarly.
