Dead Man Dating

Dead Man Dating is the fourth episode of Charmed.

Plot
Andy offers Prue a birthday present, except her birthday is next week. The present is a trip to a spa in Callistoga.

Mark, a young Chinese man, is celebrating his birthday. His mother worries about him, and urges him to take a protection amulet with him. He assures her that he can take care of himself. He is accosted by four thugs, one of whom draws a revolver and shoots him. As Mark's ghost rises above his body, one of the thugs puts his ring on Mark's hand. The thugs douse Mark's body with gasoline and set it alight.

Phoebe and Piper plan a surprise party for Prue. Phoebe goes to the Neptune Hotel to take a job as a psychic, in order to pay for a present for Prue. She gets a vision from the manager and lands the job.

Piper meets Phoebe at the hotel, worried about Phoebe's use of her powers. Mark's ghost shows up and only Piper and Phoebe can see him. Piper leaves and Mark pursues her; she doesn't believe him until a bicyclist rides right through him.

Prue finds Andy at Quake – with his ex-wife. Prue walks away angry and flings a cart into his path.

Mark tells Piper that his body must be found before Yama catches him and takes him to Hell. As soon as they find his body, Yama appears. Piper freezes Yama and she and Mark flee. Yama unfreezes and lowers his lance, but Mark and Piper are gone.

At the hotel, a man named Mr. Correy leaves his wallet behind. Phoebe picks it up and sees the man being hit by a car. She tries to warn him, but he is suspicious.

Prue finds flowers on her desk and Andy waiting in her office. He apologizes for not telling Prue about his ex-wife.

Piper goes to Mark's mother. Mark gives her the Chinese translation of what Piper needs to say to her. Piper is unwilling to tell Mark's mother that he is dead. Mark tries to enter the house, but the amulet repels him.

Mark's body is found, but identified as Tony Wong, a Chinatown crime lord. Phoebe gets a vision and draws two Chinese characters. Mark identifies a Chinatown warehouse. He and Piper go to the warehouse. Piper enters an upstairs room and freezes the three men inside. She places a newspaper in Tony Wong's hands, the headline clearly reading TONY WONG FOUND DEAD. She takes a photo and the men unfreeze. Tony Wong gets Piper's license plate number as she and Mark drive away. Piper slips the photo into Andy's interoffice mail.

Phoebe pursues Mr. Correy, who walks out of the hotel. The car almost hits him, but Phoebe tackles him and pushes him out of the way.

Two of Tony Wong's thugs break into the manor and drag Piper off. Mark tells Phoebe and Prue and the three leave in search of Piper. Tony tells Piper that he had faked his death and was planning to flee to Hong Kong. Andy finds Tony's picture, with the newspaper in his hands. Phoebe and Prue enter the upstairs room. Piper freezes a bullet in flight and Prue flings Tony downstairs. Tony runs out and the police surround him. A cop shoots Tony. Tony's ghost meets Mark's as Yama appears. Mark shoves Tony onto Yama's lance. Yama tries to claim Mark, but the Charmed Ones bar this action way.

At Mark's funeral, the ghost of Mark's father appears and leads him away as they vanish into the After-life. The sisters return to the manor and are greeted by a surprise party for Prue, with Andy in attendance.

Music
Secret Smile by Semisonic (After opening titles)

Yama
Guardian of the Gate of Hell. His job is to take all souls to Hell before they are properly buried, despite their prior deeds in their lives.
 * Yama is the only spiritual being that has ever been frozen by Piper's power.

Tony Wong
A Chinese arms dealer who killed Mark Chao to fake his own death and escape to Hong Kong. But Mark's ghost went to Piper for help, and together they get a picture of Wong being alive. He was shot to death while he was cornered by the police, and then his soul was captured by Yama.

Trivia
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 * Antagonist: Tony Wong
 * Darryl does not appear in this episode.
 * The title of the episode is a reference to the movie Dead Man Walking (1995).
 * This is the first time the Charmed Ones meet a ghost.
 * This episode marks the first time that the main foe facing the sisters (Tony Wong) is entirely non-magical. The only magical foe (Yama) appears only twice and very briefly each time.
 * Prue's birthday is celebrated at the end of this episode.
 * Piper's license plate number is 3B583Y8.DMD_01.jpg, Shannen and Alyssa on set of Dead Man Dating.]]
 * Phoebe's saving Mr. Correy is an example of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Although not technically self-fulfilling, it has the same circular pattern: Phoebe has a premonition of Correy being run over by a car, and it's because of her pestering attempts to warn him that he winds up in the middle of the road.
 * This is the first time that Phoebe's vision is unseen on the screen. She merely explains what she sees.
 * Like so many ghosts in a wide variety of movies, ghost Mark also only passes through convenient objects (bikers, doors, TV sets, but not floors, car seats, etc.). It should be noted to the creators' defense though, that it would be very hard to compose scenes with ghosts that pass through everything.
 * This is the first time the Charmed Ones witness a mortal being killed.
 * Although Phoebe's vision of Mr.Correy being hit by a Cadillac was in black and white, she seems to know that it was a pink Cadillac.
 * This episode scored 6.4 million viewers.
 * This is the first time that John Cho and Elizabeth Sung will play Mother and Son. They'll play the same roles again in an episode of House, entitled "Love Hurts" which is also the title of a Charmed episode.
 * A version of the episode's script can be found here.
 * The scene where Mark seeks out a psychic to help him, is the similar to storyline to the movie, Ghost which includes the main character seeking out the help from a psychic, in order for him to make contact with his wife.
 * In Secrets and Guys Prue revealed Phoebe told her about the surprise party.

Glitches

 * When Prue meets Andy's ex-wife, she initially assumes it is his sister. But other episodes establish that Prue and Andy have known each other since they were kids; she would have known Andy didn't have any siblings. Though it is possible she was either being sarcastic or hoping that when they parted ways, after he moved away from San Francisco, he'd found out he had a sister.
 * When Mark gets into Piper's vehicle at the police station, you can clearly see the vehicle move despite the fact that Mark is a ghost and therefore his weight wouldn't affect the vehicle.

Quotes

 * Prue: Andy, hi.
 * Andy: I was no where near the neighborhood, thought I'd stop by.
 * Prue: Honest man, I like that.


 * (Piper walks up to Phoebe.)
 * Piper: Phoebe!
 * Phoebe: Piper! I am so busted, aren’t I?
 * Piper: Are you out of your mind, again?
 * Phoebe: No, I’m The Amazing Phoebe.
 * Piper: This is not funny. Our powers are supposed to be a secret, not a marketable job skill.


 * (Yama appears in the distance. He's on a horse which is galloping straight towards them.)
 * Mark: Yama!
 * Piper: Yama? Run.
 * Mark: It's too late. You better go. Run! (Piper freezes Yama.) What happened?
 * Piper: I'm a good witch, remember?
 * Mark: But how?
 * Piper: I don’t know. I panic, I put up both hands and bad things tend to freeze.
 * Mark: For how long?
 * Piper: Not very, let’s go.
 * (They run down the alley and Yama unfreezes. Yama's eyes glow bright green.)


 * (Outside the police station. Piper walks out of the station and over to Mark, who is standing beside her car.)
 * Piper: Okay, all set. I snuck the photograph into Andy's inter office mail.
 * Mark: My afterlife's in the hands of a cop named Andy.


 * (Tony fires his gun and Andy shoots him. Prue, Piper, Phoebe and Mark walk out onto the balcony.)
 * Piper: I've never seen anybody killed before.
 * Prue: Jeremy.
 * Phoebe: Javna.
 * Piper: I mean human.


 * Piper: (crying) Leave it to me to fall for a dead guy.
 * Phoebe: It's an improvement. At least he wasn't a warlock.
 * Piper: Yeah.

International Titles

 * French: Histoire de Fantôme Chinois
 * Czech: Rande s duchem (Date with the Ghost)
 * Polish: Umawiając się z duchem