It is very ironical when you know what lies in store for the characters : Prue hates to be compared to her mother because she feels the resemblance means she will be unhappy in love and die young. Sam has clipped his wings because he failed to protect his loved one. And throughout the episode, everybody keeps trying to prevent history from repeating itself, yet at the end they end up doing exactly the same thing Patty did, and someone dies. Exactly like 20-something years ago.
And history will keep repeating itself. That's what makes this episode so sad in retrospect. Prue will indeed lose everything to magic (and isn't it symbolic that while she's at the camp solving a magical case, someone else is sitting in her chair and doing her job ?). Sam's apparent bliss at the end is but a reprieve. It is also quite painful to watch Leo and Piper tiptoe around each other, and the distance between them shows the intensity of their feelings in a way that Piper's more relaxed attitude around Dan never will. Still, Dan and Leo's annoyed rivalry is fun to watch, especially in the scene where Leo hides behind the door.
I also want to say a word about Phoebe, who clearly missed so much, who barely remembers her mother, who wasn't even old enough to go to camp when Patty died. Does it strike anyone else that everybody keeps saying how Prue looks like Patty, to which Prue answers that she doesn't, Piper does --but nobody ever mentions Phoebe ? I feel very sorry for her that she's left out in such a way.
Finally, this episode is very important to the show as a whole, because it introduces the one element that will allow the Power of Three to survive Prue's death.
And history will keep repeating itself. That's what makes this episode so sad in retrospect. Prue will indeed lose everything to magic (and isn't it symbolic that while she's at the camp solving a magical case, someone else is sitting in her chair and doing her job ?). Sam's apparent bliss at the end is but a reprieve. It is also quite painful to watch Leo and Piper tiptoe around each other, and the distance between them shows the intensity of their feelings in a way that Piper's more relaxed attitude around Dan never will. Still, Dan and Leo's annoyed rivalry is fun to watch, especially in the scene where Leo hides behind the door.
I also want to say a word about Phoebe, who clearly missed so much, who barely remembers her mother, who wasn't even old enough to go to camp when Patty died. Does it strike anyone else that everybody keeps saying how Prue looks like Patty, to which Prue answers that she doesn't, Piper does --but nobody ever mentions Phoebe ? I feel very sorry for her that she's left out in such a way.
Finally, this episode is very important to the show as a whole, because it introduces the one element that will allow the Power of Three to survive Prue's death.