The Wendigo


 * You may be looking for the demonic creature called a Wendigo...

The Wendigo is the twelfth episode of Charmed.

Summary
Prue gets Phoebe a job at Buckland's and Phoebe gets a vision of the past when she touches a bracelet. The sisters conspire to keep the bracelet from being bought at auction, and Phoebe uses it to reunite a mother with her daughter who was kidnapped years before. When Piper's car breaks down, she is attacked by a vicious werewolf-like beast that they later find out is called a Wendigo. The Wendigo is created when someone's heart is broken, and it goes about eating other's people's hearts. Piper is saved by a man, Billy, whose fiancée was killed by a Wendigo, and later meets FBI agent Ashley Fallon who has been tracking the beast. Agent Fallon kills Billy when he figures out that she's the Wendigo; Piper starts to turn into a Wendigo from the scratch she received during the attack. Prue and Phoebe lock up Piper and go to kill the Wendigo before she attacks Andy. Piper gets free and goes to attack her sisters, but they kill the Wendigo just in time, saving both Piper and Andy. Prue tells Andy the truth about what happened. Phoebe quits her job.

Plot
Piper has a flat tire and has called Prue and Phoebe for help. Piper decides to call the auto club instead, but her cell phone quits. She spots a telephone booth. While walking to the telephone booth, she hears someone in the woods. She runs for the booth and shuts herself inside. A hairy beast attacks and breaks in. A man appears and fires a flare gun at the beast, which then flees. Piper is scratched on her left arm.

Phoebe talks Prue into hiring her at Buckland's.

Piper is in the hospital being bandaged. The man with the flare gun identifies himself as Billy Waters. Andy introduces FBI agent Ashley Fallon, who tells him about the creature. Billy tells the sisters about the creature; it had killed his fiancee, Laura, by ripping her heart out. Andy wonders why Billy had a flare gun; Billy mentions that it appears to be afraid of fire. Piper consults the Book of Shadows and finds out it is called a Wendigo.

Phoebe and Prue find a gold charm bracelet among goods to be auctioned. Phoebe picks up the bracelet and has a vision of a car accident. The bracelet bears the initials TL.

Piper tells Billy of the first known Wendigo. The first Wendigo had been betrayed by his lover, and cut her heart out. Piper stands up, has a dizzy spell, and begins to feel tired.

Andy has found more information on the Wendigo. It kills before, on or after a full moon; and chooses only AB-negative blood type victims. He thinks the creature is merely a serial killer.



Billy goes to Fallon and they talk in a parking garage. He tells her what Piper told him. He lights a cigarette and Fallon freaks. Billy recoils, realizing that Fallon might well be the Wendigo. Fallon snaps his neck, killing him.

Phoebe has tracks down the car from the accident and finds the owner of the bracelet, Teri Lane. Phoebe is unwilling to let the bracelet be sold.

A health inspector, Laurence Beck, appears at Quake. Piper is evidently ill and sweating. The inspector orders Piper to go home or he will close Quake.

The bracelet comes up for auction. Several bidders raise their paddles, but Prue uses her power to fling them away. The bracelet goes unsold.

Piper dreams of meeting Andy at the manor, turning into a Wendigo, and attacking him. She awakens and finds Andy at the door. She states she feels ill and tries to wave him off. He tells her what happened to Billy, and Fallon also appears at the manor. Fallon suggests that Piper might have been infected from the attack on her. Piper pulls the bandage off her arm and finds that her arm has become hairy.

Phoebe visits Harriet Lane and presents the bracelet. Harriet does not recognize the bracelet. Phoebe asks Harriet what her daughter's name is. Prue is in the hall with Teri, and mother and daughter have a tearful reunion.

Andy and Fallon meet in a park near where Piper was attacked. She flirts with him, and tells him of her fiance who had walked out on her, saying she took steps to make sure she could never be hurt like that again. Andy blows her off, saying that they're only partners on the case.

Prue and Phoebe return to the manor and find Piper sweating, frightened and occasionally snapping at them. Phoebe picks up Fallon's business card and has a vision: Fallon is the Wendigo. The sisters consult the Book of Shadows. They find nothing direct, but determine that they must kill Fallon to save Piper. They need to restrain Piper, however. Phoebe produces a pair of handcuffs, to a bit of embarrassment, and she and Prue cuff Piper to a pipe. Prue and Phoebe go to an Army surplus store to get a flare gun.

Night falls, and Piper transforms into a Wendigo with the transformation ripping off her clothes. She pulls free of the pipe and the handcuffs. Fallon also transforms and attacks Andy. She scratches his chest, but just as she's about to cut his heart out, Prue and Phoebe arrive. Prue fires the flare gun. She misses twice. They find Andy, and Prue misses again. Piper arrives, and Prue and Phoebe don't know which Wendigo to shoot. Phoebe shoots this time, aiming at the Wendigo on the left. Suddenly, the flare freezes in flight--and so does the Wendigo on the right, proving that she's Fallon. Prue then moves the flare toward Fallon, killing her. Piper is restored to normal leaving her naked and freezing. Andy's chest wound then heals as Prue checks up on him.

Phoebe quits her job, because working around so much old stuff at Buckland's will give her premonitions everywhere and she can't handle it, and she needs to find a world of her own.

Featured Music
"Down So Long" by Jewel

Quotes

 * Andy: Yeah, I’ve sent for the Coroner’s reports.
 * Agent Fallon: Why? I think it’s pretty obvious this case is out of your league, Inspector. On the bright side, you don’t want it.
 * Andy: Why is that?
 * Agent Fallon: This witness collaborates with every other statement. According to their descriptions, this - not animal or human. You didn’t blink, I was expecting a response.
 * Andy: Just tell me what I’m looking for.
 * Agent Fallon: You believe them? That it’s not human?
 * Andy: Let’s just say that recent experiences have taught me to keep an open mind.

:Prue: Oh, um, can you get up?
 * Piper: Back off! What, you think I can’t walk now?
 * Phoebe: Honey, we’re just trying to help you.
 * Piper: Help me? You can’t even hold a job.
 * Prue: Okay, now wait a minute, Piper.
 * Piper: Oh, save it. Do you always have to be in charge? I’m sorry. What’s happening to me?

:Prue: Do we have any chains?
 * Phoebe: I actually do think I have something.
 * Prue: Okay. Are you back?
 * Piper: I don't want this to happen to me, Prue. Kill Ashley. This is me talking.

(Phoebe enters. She holds up a pair of handcuffs.)
 * Phoebe: Here.
 * Prue: Where did you get those?
 * (Nods Head from side to side.)
 * Prue: Never mind.

:Piper: And Andy, by the way, what did you tell him about why we were all there.
 * Prue: I told him the truth.
 * Phoebe: Get out.
 * Prue: I did. I said what he saw happened was true, that Agent Fallon really was the Wendigo and that had we not vanquished her, that both he and Piper would've been killed. I couldn't think of anything else to say.
 * Piper: Well, what did he say?
 * Prue: Not much. He was either too stunned to speak or he actually believed me on some level. This was as close that we've ever come to having an honest conversation.
 * Phoebe: So maybe Andy's more open to you being a witch than you think.