Charmed (TV Series) (1998 to 2006) "Wrestling with Demons" Season three, Episode twelve, aired 1st February, 2001

Summary by Helen Chavez

Alyssa Milano (Phoebe Halliwell), Holly Marie Combs (Piper Halliwell), Shannen Doherty (Prue Halliwell), Brian Krause (Leo Watt), Dorian Gregory (Darryl Morris) Julian Mahon as Cole Turner, Ron Perlman (Mr. Kellman), Marco Sanchez (Tom Peters), Buff Bagwell (Slammer), Booker T. Huffman (Thunder), Scott Steiner (Mega- Man), Shirley Prestia (Fran), Dennis Dun (Chang) Plot Summary The Charmed Ones, good witches Prue, Piper and Phoebe Halliwell, discover that Innocents are being killed indiscriminately by a demon, but are horrified to discover the demon is a mortal, Tom Peters, an old flame of Prue’s. Tom has been recruited by Mr Kellman, a so-called ‘business manager who has a contract with ‘The Source’ to provide five demon ‘graduates’ from his training program by that night. He, in turn, has contracts with clients with problems – in return for making those problems disappear, Kellman recruits them into his training program. Tom has only one thing to do before he graduates and becomes a full demon – murder an Innocent. Prue, Piper and Phoebe track Tom to Kellman’s office, where they take an elevator ride to a hellish basement containing a wrestling ring, where failed graduates fight for their souls with demonic wrestlers. There they do a deal with Kellman – the demon recruiter will free Tom from his contract if the girls can beat his demon wrestlers in the ring. If they lose, Kellman wins not only Tom’s soul, but also those of the Charmed Ones … Mr. Kellman (Ron Perlman) Kellman is the epitome of a successful business manager – well-dressed, personable and with a certain amount of ruthless charm. But although Kellman was once human, he is now a demon – a recruiter, furthermore, who provides new demons to ‘The Source’. And it is to Kellman that Tom goes after the Charmed Ones interfere in his final test for demonhood – the killing of an Innocent. But Kellman is busy dealing with another recruit, one who – unfortunately for him – has been unable to summon enough evil from within to do the deed. Kellman is icily calm. "I make your problems go away, and you owe me," he says. When the young man begins to stammer with fear and tries to appease the recruiter, it is to no avail. With a beguiling smile, Kellman waves a hand and summons from nowhere an elevator, in which the doomed recruit drops to his hellish fate. That little problem dealt with, he straightens his jacket and turns to Tom. "Now," he says, "I don’t have to go over all this with again with you too, Tom, do I?" The quiet voice is full of scantily-hidden threats … Later, when Tom goes to Kellman’s decidedly hellish training establishment in the basement to tell the recruiter that he still hasn’t killed his Innocent, but he can deliver three witches to him instead, Kellman’s ruthlessly calm exterior begins to crack. "Witches!? I don’t care about witches!" he growls, his anger surfacing. "I care about deadlines!! Yours and mine! Y’know, if I weren’t running out of time I’d have you drummed - " He suddenly halts his tirade, leaning in close to Tom as though he can smell some strange odour. "Is that humanity I’m sensing from you?? Huh! Now how’d that come back?? That was supposed to be drummed out of you by now! You need a refresher course!" Kellman looks on with obvious relish as he makes Tom watch another ‘failed recruit’ – the one Kellman banished to the elevator to await his doom – get his comeuppance in the wrestling ring, and doesn’t flinch as the young man is sent through the canvas into the fiery depths of eternal damnation. He pauses for a moment as Tom looks on in horror. "NEXT!" Kellman yells, and Tom is pushed into the ring. But things do not progress as smoothly as the demon recruiter would wish, as the Charmed Ones interrupt his plans and ‘freeze’ Kellman’s acolytes. Although not amused, Kellman is confident of his own superiority to the three sisters. "Your little parlour tricks may work on some of the newer boys, but the rest of us will be a little tougher …" and with that he rolls up his sleeve to show them the mark of his demonhood – eight chevrons embossed in his skin. The average demon has only six – Kellman is obviously a demon of some importance. But he is still unsure of Tom, and keeps the trainee demon under control with a hovering silver orb, its three razor-sharp blades pressed to Tom’s throat, just waiting for the man to make a wrong move. By now Kellman is pretty sure he has the Charmed Ones defeated, and he simply oozes smugness. "You girls are ‘way out of your league down here – you have no idea … and you think you can stop me? Hmmm. You think you can save him? Kind of admire that level of arrogance!" he explains, triumph written on his features. But Prue isn’t fazed by the man. "Thanks – we kinda like to think of it as confidence …" Kellman isn’t impressed. "Well get over it," he crows, indicating Tom. " He’s lost!" This is a demon who doesn’t give up that easily. But when the Charmed Ones force him into striking a deal – if they face the demonic wrestlers and win, Kellman lets Tom live and all of them are allowed to go free – the demon recruiter shows another side to his already warped personality. He cheats. Forcing them to fight the biggest, baddest and most demonic wrestlers this side of Hell, he also decides to even the odds by almost killing Piper, leaving her bleeding at the side of the ring, one of his silver orbs buried in her back. This is one demon recruiter who likes to weigh the odds heavily in his favour. But Kellman hasn’t finished. Tom still has his Innocent to kill - and the Innocent Kellman has chosen is Tom’s Mother … All is not lost however. With Piper healed by whitelighter Leo, they head off to Tom’s Mother’s house, and finally beard the demon in his den – Kellman is there, Tom beside him, the urgency of the situation making Kellman careless. He has a contract to fulfil with The Source, and he’s running out of time. Angrily, he urges Tom to do the fatal deed and earn himself full demonhood, and for one moment it looks as though he has succeeded. But Tom, desperate, hovering between humanity and demonhood, is finally swayed by the pleadings of the Charmed Ones and his Mother – and the silver orb intended for her ends up instead deep in the throat of Kellman himself. And so Kellman, business manager, recruiter and eight-chevron demon has met his match at last, and is finally swept away to spend eternity as one more Lost Soul in oblivion …