S6-22/23 IT'S A BAD, BAD, BAD, BAD WORLD

[vandergraafk]

This important and exciting episode poses many, many challenges to Charmedverse. The fate of Chris is the most obvious issue left unresolved at the conclusion of this two-part episode. Other questions concern the vanquish of Gideon, the ability of Gideon to murder Chris by magic, and, of course, the largest question of all: the balance in the multiverse. Whether these two episodes sufficiently or adequately resolve all of the outstanding issues is debatable. Still, it is well worth discussing.

Let's start with the most obvious question: is Chris dead? There are some who have written in the Charmedcafe who believe that Chris, in fact, did not die. Somehow, in their view, the future was so changed that Chris does not have to time travel to save Wyatt. Or, the argument is made that even though he appears to have died, the fact that his body vanished indicates that the future changed in some unknown way to have sufficiently averted his death. I find neither of these positions satisfactory.

Chris clearly dies in the episode. Stabbed by a magically endowed athame that Gideon hoped to use to break the protective bubble about Wyatt, Chris cannot be healed by Leo. Gideon's magic is simply too powerful. As the task force led by Inspector Sheridan and Inspector Morris arrive to arrest Chris, Chris breathes his final breaths. Mysteriously, the body disappears.

Let's assume for the moment that Gideon indeed has the power to place such a powerful spell on an athame such that it can kill a whitelighter/witch (Chris), penetrate a powerful protective bubble (Wyatt) and perhaps kill baby Wyatt (though this is not Gideon's intention). The spell cast by Gideon seems simple enough:

Wanton power in this blade yield
Penetrate this force shield.

Since Chris does die, we must conclude that it was a powerful spell indeed!

Still, to then assert that the death of Chris does not spell his demise seems terribly difficult to accept. First, whatever the Charmed Ones can and cannot accomplish with respect to the Demonic Underworld, they are powerless to prevent a demon from freeing the Titans in order for this hapless demon to become ruler of the Underworld. Going back in time poses too many problems for the Charmed Ones. Changing that single event would lead to an incredible string of consequences that may not converge in the saccharine world depicted to lay in the future for the Charmed Ones in Forever Charmed. It would be much easier to go back in time and to save Chris just before he is stabbed in order to send him into the future. The immediate present would not be changed significantly. Leo would still be angry at Gideon for kidnapping his son Wyatt! Placing Chris in his now modified future would avoid his presence changing the immediate future and the experiences that the sisters go through over the next two years.

Suppose, though, that the Elders somehow intervened and rescued Chris before his final breath was drawn. Although Leo alone was unable to heal Chris, perhaps a committee of the most powerful Elders could manage to undo Gideon's magic. Once rescued, the Elders could then send him back to his own, now modified, time.

This speculation, though highly plausible, lacks direct evidence in the series. No attempt was ever made to explain Chris's fate. At best, the fact that his body disappeared suggests that something on the order of what has been proposed did indeed take place.

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A second issue that erupts in this episode is death of an Elder. If Elders are promoted whitelighters, then surely they must fear darklighter poison. Indeed, this theme was developed in Season 3 when the Charmed Ones battled Eames, a warlock who had been collecting various powers in order to secure the ultimate power of orbing so that he could kill the Elders. But, darklighter poison works very, very slowly. Natalie, I believe, is the only whitelighter who ever succumbed to darklighter poison. Leo, Paige and Sam had their encounters; but, all recovered from their wounds.

The advent of the Titans demonstrated yet another way to destroy Elders. Though we are not privy to the exact details, we can surmise that powerful lightning bolts were used to destroy the Elders. Presumably, lightning bolts would also kill whitelighters.

In this episode, the Charmed Ones (The Power of Two Times Two) almost succeed in destroying Gideon by chanting a spell which causes the corporeal form to pus and deform. The massive oozing of blood that accompanied these deformations surely would have killed Gideon and any other corporealized Elder or whitelighter. Could the magic athame cursed by Gideon have succeeded in killing Leo. After all, the athame was able to kill Chris, who, as part whitelighter, should have had a greater immunity.

[vandergraafk]

The third and final major issue in this episode concerns the existence of two parallel, yet opposite universes forever linked in a multiversal balance between good and evil. Disruption of this balance threatens the lives of Phoebe and a hemorrhaging Piper who may die as a result of a difficult child birth. How though do these parallel, yet opposite universes work?

On the surface, it might be argued that whatever the good Charmed Ones do, the evil Charmed Ones do the opposite. Instead of protecting innocents, the evil Charmed Ones would harm innocents. Outcast in their respective worlds, the demon of fear becomes the demon of hope. Presumably, the Source of All Evil would be the Source of All Good. And, Cole? Well, he would have been an agent of good seduced by Phoebe into a life of evil. In Black as Cole, Cole would have been stripped of his good half.

When it comes to the details, however, the existence of parallel, yet opposite universes becomes problematic. Though their personalities may be opposite, their actions must be the same. If the good Charmed Ones orb to a location to protect an innocent, then the evil Charmed Ones must equally orb to that location. Once there, however, their actions diverge.
Good Charmed Ones would act to protect an innocent by fending off demonic assaults. Evil Charmed Ones would initiate the threat to the innocent.

To illustrate this important difference, consider the scene where evil Leo and Chris chance upon Darryl. In this scene, Leo and Chris assault Darryl and leave him a bloodied and battered lieutenant. In the parallel, yet opposite universe, an evil Darryl would have assaulted Leo and Chris. For this to happen, though, the specific means of assault would have to diverge. Evil Chris can orb away Darryl's gun; evil Darryl cannot. The scenes cannot be symmetric.

At this point, one might argue that Darryl is neither good nor evil. He is an innocent who happens to know about the existence of magic. As such, he can never initiate an evil act against magical beings. It would be futile. Suppose, then, that an innocent, but bad boy Darryl chances upon good Leo and Chris in this parallel, yet opposite universe. He might try to arrest Chris, but this would not lead to a hostile response on the part of Chris. Chris could simply orb away. In fact, no exchange of blows needs take place. Yet, it is this exchange of blows that results when an evil Chris resists Darryl's attempt to arrest him.

Thus, when we speak of parallel, yet opposite universes, these universes can never be exact mirror images, a suggestion made all the more pregnant in It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World by the use of a two-way mirror (or is it a portal) to convey the interaction between the two Gideons. At the macrolevel, the effects can still be similar. Good may prevail in a world where the good Charmed Ones thrive. Evil may prevail where their opposites wreak havoc. But similar is not the same as the same.