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Dead Man Dating


Synopsis

Prue's birthday is coming up, though she's about as thrilled about it as everything else in her life! Undeterred, Phoebe takes a job as a fortune teller to raise enough cash for a nice prezzie. Prue's mood isn't improved and Andy has some explaing to do when she catches him lunching with an attractive blonde. Etc, etc! Meanwhile Piper is contacted by a cute ghost who urgently needs her help to prevent a Chinese demi-god, Yahma, from getting his hands on his soul and damning it to hell.

Full Storyline


Script Credits

Writer:
Javier Grillo-Marxuach

Director

Richard Compton

Guest Stars

John Cho (as Mark Chao)
Patricia Harty (Mrs Correy)
John Hoe (Tony Wong)
William Francis McGuire (Nick Correy)
Elizabeth Sung (Mrs Chao)
Todd Newton (?)



Featured Music

Semisonic: Secret Smile (from the album Feeling Strangely Fine) First scene after opening credits
Paula Cole: Hush, Hush, Hush (This Fire) Scene at Mark's apartment
Beth Nielsen Chapman: Sand and Water (Sand and Water) Mark's funeral


Full Storyline

Andy arrives at the manor with an advance birthday gift for Prue, the key to a hotel room; he wants her to go away with him for the weekend. Mark Chao, a young man dismissive of the superstitions of his Chinese heritage, has a birthday today. After leaving his mother's house he goes to Chinatown where he is shot dead by gangsters he has never met before. We see his ghost leave his body. The gangster boss takes a ring from his own finger and places it on the finger of the corpse, then orders the corpse to be dowsed in petrol and set alight.

Back at the manor Phoebe and Piper are planning a surprise party for Prue, but Prue hates surprise parties and isn't that keen on birthdays in general. When she announces her weekend plans the other two try to talk her out of them (as they clash with the party). Phoebe wants to buy Prue a nice birthday present so she answers an advertisement for "Psychics Wanted" and talks her way into a job as The Amazing Phoebe at a downtown hotel. While Piper is visiting her there Mark's ghost arrives, though only Piper and Phoebe can see him. Not realising he is a ghost, they think he is just crazy. He follows Piper out of the hotel and convinces her he really is a ghost when a cyclist passes right through him on the road.

Meanwhile at Quake, Prue interrupts Andy who is having lunch with a blonde woman. The woman introduces herself as Susan Trudeau, Andy's wife. Without waiting for an explanation Prue storms out using her powers to direct a sweet trolley in his general direction!

At the grisly scene of his murder, Mark explains to Piper that he needs her help to ensure that his remains get a prompt burial. Otherwise his soul will be claimed by Yahma, a Chinese demi-god with takes the souls of the tardy, good and bad alike, to Hell. Yahma duly arrives on horseback to do his job, but Piper freezes him and she and Mark beat a hasty retreat. Back at the manor Mark begins to come to terms with the fact of his own death and he and Piper make a strong emotional connection.

Nick Correy, a guest at the hotel leaves his wallet on the bar. When Phoebe picks it up she gets a premonition of him being knocked down by a car. When she tracks him down, his wife turns out to be a customer Phoebe had a disagreement with earlier. The couple interpret her warnings as harassment and ignore them.

Prue finds flowers and an apologetic Andy waiting for her at the office. Prue hears him out as he explains that Susan is his ex-wife but that they are still on friendly terms. Prue is still angry that he withheld the truth from her for so long.

Piper visits Mark's Mum where he prompts Piper in Chinese to gain her confidence. An anti-ghost amulet on the door, which Mark scoffed at while alive, prevents him from crossing his mother's threshold as a ghost. His mother is worried as she has heard nothing from her son since his birthday. Mark is mystified as to why the police have not informed her of his death. The answer isn't long in coming: back at the manor they see a televison report from the crime scene, the victim has been identified as Tony Wong a local gang boss.

Phoebe gets a premonition while watching the item and pinpoints a location in Chinatown. Mark and Piper pay a visit, she freezes the scene, then takes a photo of Wong holding a newspaper headlining his own death. They get away but the baddies unfreeze in time to jot down her numberplate. She leaves the photo and the address of the hideout at the Police Station for Andy.

Phoebe doesn't give up on Mr Correy, who is by now blaming her for everything little thing that goes wrong in his life. She is on hand to push him out of the way when the time comes. (Though it could be argued that if it wasn't for her he wouldn't have been in such an agitated state and wouldn't have walked in front of the car anyway!) Her next good deed is to talk Prue into forgiving Andy.

Mark invites Piper to his old apartment where she gets to know him better and he gives her a decorated box containing old family recipes to remember him by. Back at the manor they are indulging in some imaginary snogging when the gangsters burst in and kidnap Piper. They take her back to their hideout and tie her to a chair. Wong confirms that he used Mark's body to fake his own death and plans to leave for Hong Kong shortly. Mark directs the remaining sisters to the hideout where Piper gets her hands free just in time to freeze a bullet directed at Prue. Andy arrives on the scene and kills Wong in a shoot-out. The girls manage to sneak out the back way so for once they don't have to explain their suspicious presence at a crime scene! In the back alley Mark confronts Wong's ghost and delivers him to Yahma's lance, and hell. Piper comes between Yahma and Mark and effectively saves his soul when Yahma backs off.

In a sombre finale Mark attends his own funeral, along with the Halliwells. He and Piper say a tearful goodbye, each wishing they had met under different circumstances.


Highlight

The Amazing Phoebe!


Comment

One of my favourite episodes, and nice to see the supernatural traditions of other cultures being blended in. Was Piper and Mark's discussion of Camus an attempt to raise the intellectual tone of the show? I thought there was real on-screen chemistry between Piper and Mark which made their far-fetched relationship seem real.


Was it just me or...

did not a lot of thought go into the nature of ghosts in the Charmed world? A cyclist goes right through Mark, yet he can sit in Piper's car and it goes off with him in it. Shouldn't it go right through him too? Later he sits on the edge of the sofa, making an indentation, yet he can't use his finger to turn on the TV!



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