Post by vandergraafk on Oct 23, 2006 20:37:42 GMT -5
Yes, parts of this episode seem preposterous. New Years Eve 2000 was not the true millenium. The monks who engineered the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar made crucial mistakes. Well, no they didn't. The monks actually did a quite respectable job in aligning a calendar severely out of whack with the planting season under the old Julian calendar with the seasons. Their invention of a leap year every four years and a leap century every four hundred years to compensate for the extra minutes gained under the leap year program was brilliant and has served us well for over four years. Besides, if Hitler and the Cuban missile crisis were also instances where the apocalypse was near, then what's so special about the millenium? The only problem with Y2K is that many programmers never anticipated that their programs would run till the end of the 20th century. Two digit codes for the year would run afoul at the turn of the century. Much effort was required to re-write programming based on this understandable, but critical flaw. By the time that Y2K arrived, all of these changes had been made.
Of course, to mathematicians, Y2K was a misnomer from the get go. In the Christian calendar, there was no year 0. Hence, a decade, a century, and, of course, a millenium end in a year with a zero. Thus, 31 December 2000 was the true millenium, not 31 December 1999, as Apolcalypse Not seems to imply.
Yet, even this is mistaken as it rests upon a division of the first two millenia since the birth of Christ into two equal parts. The first millenium would be 1000 years, each containing 365 days (the Julian calendar). The second millenium, then, would have to contain an equal amount of days. It, of course, does not since the actions of the monks eliminated thirteen days in October 1586 and added one day every four years, except for centuries not divisible by 400. Thus, 29 February 1700, 29 February 1800 and 29 February 1900 did not exist. So, whatever else may have been wrong with Y2K, it simply fails the reasonableness test. It does not and cannot represent an equal division of millenia.
That said, this is still a fabulous Charmed episode and continued a trend at the end of Season 2 of excellent stories, now that Dan was gone, Jack was presumably still at Buckland's, a place where Prue no longer worked, and Jenny was but a distant memory. In a way, the next to last episode provides a nice bookend to the second episode (Morality Bites). Indeed, reference is made to that fabulous episode in this morality tale.
At the episode outset, the Charmed Ones unflinchingly opt to save a sibling over five strangers when addressing a pop psychology conundrum. As Piper and Prue work frantically to rescue a Prue trapped in a netherworld and choose to cooperate with the four suits, one of whom, War, is trapped along with Prue, the debate heats up after Leo learns the true identities of the suits. They are the four horsemen. Saving Prue will result in devastation to the world.
Leo's argument is compelling, but ultimately rejected by sisters bent on rescuing a loved one. Despite Leo's best efforts to call attention to the lesson of Morality Bites when Prue and Piper had to abandon their effort to rescue a Phoebe about to be burned in an electro-pyre, Piper and Prue believe that without Prue they cannot win. No matter that the four horsement can only be vanquished by the Source, who has annoited these demonic forces. The sisters must rescue Prue no matter the cost. Well, that is until Phoebe has a premonition of a world consumed in a nuclear blast. Rightly, the sisters opt to save the world even if it means losing Prue. True, they do manage to pull her out of the vortex. But, this happy ending is not crucial to the episode. The insight that they would have been willing to sacrifice a sibling to save five strangers, or the entire world, for that matter is the vital aspect. Of course, it comes as no surprise then when questioned again about whether they would save a sibling or five strangers, the sisters unanimously opt to save five strangers, even if neither they nor the world would ever thank them for their selfless act of sacrifice.
Of course, to mathematicians, Y2K was a misnomer from the get go. In the Christian calendar, there was no year 0. Hence, a decade, a century, and, of course, a millenium end in a year with a zero. Thus, 31 December 2000 was the true millenium, not 31 December 1999, as Apolcalypse Not seems to imply.
Yet, even this is mistaken as it rests upon a division of the first two millenia since the birth of Christ into two equal parts. The first millenium would be 1000 years, each containing 365 days (the Julian calendar). The second millenium, then, would have to contain an equal amount of days. It, of course, does not since the actions of the monks eliminated thirteen days in October 1586 and added one day every four years, except for centuries not divisible by 400. Thus, 29 February 1700, 29 February 1800 and 29 February 1900 did not exist. So, whatever else may have been wrong with Y2K, it simply fails the reasonableness test. It does not and cannot represent an equal division of millenia.
That said, this is still a fabulous Charmed episode and continued a trend at the end of Season 2 of excellent stories, now that Dan was gone, Jack was presumably still at Buckland's, a place where Prue no longer worked, and Jenny was but a distant memory. In a way, the next to last episode provides a nice bookend to the second episode (Morality Bites). Indeed, reference is made to that fabulous episode in this morality tale.
At the episode outset, the Charmed Ones unflinchingly opt to save a sibling over five strangers when addressing a pop psychology conundrum. As Piper and Prue work frantically to rescue a Prue trapped in a netherworld and choose to cooperate with the four suits, one of whom, War, is trapped along with Prue, the debate heats up after Leo learns the true identities of the suits. They are the four horsemen. Saving Prue will result in devastation to the world.
Leo's argument is compelling, but ultimately rejected by sisters bent on rescuing a loved one. Despite Leo's best efforts to call attention to the lesson of Morality Bites when Prue and Piper had to abandon their effort to rescue a Phoebe about to be burned in an electro-pyre, Piper and Prue believe that without Prue they cannot win. No matter that the four horsement can only be vanquished by the Source, who has annoited these demonic forces. The sisters must rescue Prue no matter the cost. Well, that is until Phoebe has a premonition of a world consumed in a nuclear blast. Rightly, the sisters opt to save the world even if it means losing Prue. True, they do manage to pull her out of the vortex. But, this happy ending is not crucial to the episode. The insight that they would have been willing to sacrifice a sibling to save five strangers, or the entire world, for that matter is the vital aspect. Of course, it comes as no surprise then when questioned again about whether they would save a sibling or five strangers, the sisters unanimously opt to save five strangers, even if neither they nor the world would ever thank them for their selfless act of sacrifice.