User Reviews

Sadly, this is probably one of my least favorite episodes of Charmed, tied with 7x04, Charrrrmed! which is about pirates, so... yeah... Not one of my favorites, but it's still pretty good and quite interesting. And the good thing about Charmed is, even the worst episodes still get great ratings, from me, anyway.

In this episode, Phoebe's ex-boyfriend comes to see her, after he steals a priceless, valuable urn. He basically comes to see if Prue can sell it. But then everyone who stole the urn with him, start dying. This is because the urn is actually cursed and the Guardian, the protector of the urn, will do anything to protect it, and since she finds them unworthy and overall bad, she kills them. Doesn't really even out. Stealing an urn = death, who knew?

Overall, I give this episode an 8 out of 10, which in my ratings book is: Awesome.

This time "The Mummy" is ripped as the episode opens supposedly in Egypt with three guys stealing a cursed urn. Two of the men know about the curse, while not believing in it, while the third sap, Clay, seems mostly along for the ride. One of the two knowing thieves are killed by the Guardian of the Urn before they can escape.

As it turns out, Clay the Unknowing is a former boyfriend of Phoebe's and comes looking for her once he hits San Francisco. He has an ulterior motive of wanting Prue to auction the urn while also hoping to hook up, naturally.

Prue, of course, doesn't trust Clay, which sets off the familiar squabbling with Phoebe, and ends up justified in her mistrust when it comes to light that the urn was stolen. Clay looks even worse when the second thief is killed by the Guardian, forcing Clay to need to leave town. Prue and Piper aren't even sure that Clay qualifies as an innocent considering he was involved in stealing the urn. Phoebe disagrees vehemently, setting the sisters now on a collision course with the Guardian, who is immune to their powers.

Fortunately, in a decent twist, Clay sacrifices himself to protect Phoebe, and in doing so, satisfies the Guardian's thirst for vengeance and thus saving himself.

First of all, I am a fan of Stacy Haiduk as the Guardian, love the outfit. Secondly, there are a couple excellent scenes with Piper and Phoebe just talking about their past, which I really enjoy. Those things carry the episode to an above average 7 for me.

The plot surrounding the urn was actually pretty stupid if you think about it. You don't steal an artifact like the urn unless you have someone willing to buy it, like a rich collector. You obviously wouldn't want to sell it at an auction house where they are going to do a background check on every item. Not a good plan.

Clay seems clueless to these facts, and the fact that he took part in stealing a precious artifact from another country and then lied about where it came from is glossed over seemingly just because of his cluelessness. Prue was right the whole time, and Clay isn't a good guy just because he refused to let his actions harm Phoebe, his side piece.

Glad we never saw him again.

The feats of clay isn't a favorite of mind but I like the center theme on if people can change and you get a glance at what Phoebe was doing in New York the whole time she was away. Victor Browne (Clay) could easily fit the letter of Phoebe's first love's name and he reminds me a lot of Cole. Clay is handsome, charming and a good guy at heart who wants to do the right thing. I like the details he provides of her being a hostess at a Chinese restaurant and how they spent relaxing romantic evenings together.

Doug's story line is finally fleshed out to where he moves on from being a klutz into a confident server who wants to ask his girlfriend to marry him. While these two story lines are alright The Guardian of the Urn seemed a little out there and dragged most of the time. I like The rich costume she wears, but it never really explores what type of creature she is or how she was bound to the glass jar.

Yet I appreciate the expansion of Phoebe's character by having faith in people and not discriminating on who deserves to be saved. Its just to be The writers will forget this lesson by season five and treat like it never happened. Still I appreciate the early attempts to make each sister a kind, powerful witch in her own right.

Unpopular opinion, but this episode is not as bad as others make it out to be. It's exactly the kind of episode this show should be and represent. They have an innocent to save who happens to give us a little bit of historical insight, on the sisters past, mostly Phoebe's, but I digress. And, surprisingly, this case involves mostly JUST the sisters.

Andy is still in this episode, but he doesn't appear until MUCH later, into the episode (about 20ish mins in) and is only around for like not even 10 mins. Otherwise, this episode is VERY focused on JUST the sisters which is great! And, ALL THREE of the sisters utilize their powers/abilities, in this episode and pretty evenly. Along with ALL THREE of the sisters being fairly involved in the case.

Though, I wished Piper was a bit more involved than she was, but the episode did a good job in explaining why she wasn't. All and all, this episode exemplifies what this show should be about, and I love it.