Charmed: Ex Libris

"Ex Libris" is the nineteenth episode of season two of the supernatural drama series Charmed and the forty-first episode of the series overall. It was directed by Joel J. Feigenbaum with a teleplay written by Brad Kern based on a story concept by Peter Chomsky. It first aired on the WB Network on Thursday, April 27th, 2000.

Synopsis
Piper Halliwell is preparing for a night of romance with Leo Wyatt. She thinks the house is unoccupied, until Prue Halliwell turns up, indicating that she is doing some assignment work in the basement. Plans between Piper and Leo continue however and he spends the night. Prue discovers this when she walks into the bathroom and finds Leo naked in the shower.

Meanwhile, Phoebe Halliwell is desperately trying to study for her college finals. She goes to the library where she meets another student named Charleen. Charleen tells her that she is doing a thesis on metaphysics that she believes will prove the existence of demons. This makes Phoebe feel a little on edge given her own experience with demons.

After Phoebe leaves the library, Charleen begins searching through the books and selects a tome called the Encyclopedia of Demons. A Libris demon appears and attacks her.

Throughout the day, Prue is taking random photographs of people on the street for a "Faces of San Francisco" feature. She comes to find out that a man named Cleavant Wilson turns up in every single one of her photographs. The following day, Prue approaches Cleavant and discovers that his teenage daughter had been murdered several months ago at this exact location, and he has been passing out flyers with her photograph on them hoping to find a witness to the crime.

Over at P3, Piper walks into the room to find Dan Gordon and Leo Wyatt in the middle of a fist-fight. She freezes time and pulls Leo aside, demanding an explanation. Leo gives up little information other than to say that Dan came in there and just started punching. Piper unfreezes time and Leo narrowly avoids being punched in the face. She gets Dan to calm down, who then storms off. She turns back towards Leo, who suddenly receives a summon from his Whitelighter masters and orbs away.

Phoebe is walking back towards the library when she comes upon Darryl Morris at a crime scene. She is shocked to learn that Charleen had been brutally murdered and decapitated. Morris is leery at the prospect that Phoebe just happened to know this woman, and fears that something demonic may be afoot.

She goes to the library where she sees Charleen, who is complaining of a headache. Charleen doesn't realize that she is dead and is now a ghost.

Phoebe goes home to tell the tale to Piper and Prue. They tell her that she needs to confront Charlene with the truth of her existence.

Piper later comes upon Dan and questions him about the fight. Dan tells her that he did some research on Leo and warns her that he is not the man she believes him to be. He hands her a file containing information taken from Leo's war record. Piper learns that Leo was once married to a woman named Lillian. Piper takes it upon herself to visit Lillian who is now an old woman.

Phoebe has a premonition of the Libris demon attacking and killing her. The Charmed Ones consult the Book of Shadows and find a spell to dispel the demon. The Libris demon attacks Phoebe as predicted, and Piper and Prue speak the words that destroy him. They believe that destroying the demon will enable Charleen's spirit to move on. However, it doesn't. They then conclude that she can only move on, by helping another lost soul to move on as well - Cleavant Wilson.

Bringing the two cases together, the Charmed Ones convince Charleen's ghost to help them solve the mystery behind the murder of Cleavant's daughter. It is widely believed that a local criminal named Gibbs, who owns a pawn shop is responsible for her death. The motivations are unclear, but they believe that the girl may have seen something she wasn't supposed to see. There are no witnesses to the crime, and nobody is willing to testify against Gibbs.

Prue goes into Gibbs' pawn shop to try and force a confession from him, but he is unflappable and kicks Prue out of his store. Later, Charleen's ghost begins haunting Gibbs, terrorizing him to the point that she will only stop if he gives a full confession. Gibbs barrels through the glass door of his own shop to get away, and then publicly confesses to the murder of Tyra Wilson. Morris is ready at the scene to arrest to Gibbs. Having helped Cleavant to come to terms and receive a bit of closure, Charleen's spirit is now ready to move on.

Later, everyone goes to P3 where The Goo Goo Dolls are performing. Phoebe announces that she aced her final. Leo comes in and Piper asks him about his wife. She is not mad, but wants him to be more open with her in the future.

Notes & Trivia

 * Charmed was created by Constance M. Burge.


 * This episode is production code number 4399040.




 * Special musical guest star: The Goo Goo Dolls.


 * This is the first episode of Charmed directed by Joel J. Feigenbaum. He next directs the season three episode "Once Upon a Time".


 * When the episode is viewed with subtitles, it indicates that the ghost character's first name is spelled as "Charleen", not the traditional "Charlene".


 * It is revealed in this episode that Leo Wyatt was once married to a woman named Lillian during his World War II years.

Allusions

 * The title of this episode is taken from a Latin term, "Ex Libris", which describes a type of bookplate, which is a decorative label placed on a book to indicate its owner.


 * Libris is the name of a particular type of demon, whose function is to exterminate mortals who uncover the true existence of demons. By the mythology of the TV series, a Libris demon uses a scythe as its weapon of choice.


 * Reference is made to Kit in this episode, who is the Siamese cat that lives at Halliwell Manor. Kit first appeared in the series premiere, "Something Wicca This Way Comes".


 * Repeated references are made to Victor Bennett, who is the father of Prue, Phoebe, and Piper. He is not identified by name in this episode. Originally played by Anthony Denison, Victor Bennett first appeared in the season one episode, "Thank You for Not Morphing". In later episodes he is portrayed by James Read.

Magic stuff

 * Intangibility: A library assistant with a book cart passes through Charleen in her ghost form.
 * Molecular immobilization: Piper freezes Dan and Leo in the middle of their fist-fight.
 * Portal creation: Libris pulls Charleen through a dimensional portal and does the same with Phoebe later.
 * Premonitions: Phoebe has a premonition of the Libris demon killing her.
 * Telekinesis: Prue uses telekinesis to have one of Gibbs' pawn shop items fall into him. Charleen also demonstrates poltergeist-level telekinesis as a ghost.
 * Teleportation: Leo Wyatt orbs into Halliwell Manor to see Piper. He later orbs away after being summoned by the Whitelighters.

Quotes

 * Phoebe Halliwell: I thought you said all we have to do is get justice for Charlene's murder?
 * Piper Halliwell: I said, maybe that is all you had to do.
 * Phoebe Halliwell: You did not say maybe.
 * Piper Halliwell: Yes, I did. I absolutely did.
 * Phoebe Halliwell: I did not hear the word maybe.
 * Piper Halliwell: Yes, I did.

....
 * Phoebe Halliwell: Charleen's spirit can't move on unless I get justice for her murder.
 * Prue Halliwell: So, what? By getting murdered yourself?
 * Phoebe Halliwell: Well, hopefully not. On the bright side, I won't have to suffer through flunking out of college.

....
 * Piper Halliwell: So do I, which means I have to go, I have a dentist appointment. How long can you stay?
 * Leo Wyatt: Uh, until they call.
 * Piper Halliwell: Well, if they don't call before lunch, why don't you meet me at the club. I'll buy.
 * Leo Wyatt: Well, you'll have to. Whitelighter pay sucks.

....
 * Charleen Hughes: You were right about me. I went home, I saw the folks crying, then I knew it was true. I've never seen my dad cry before. Not over me anyway. Then I got pissed. The demon did this to me. I wanna prove he doesn't exist any more.