Watching the series for the first time and this is easily the worst episode so far. I really have a distaste for the Whitelighters and the whole mythology surrounding them. They make no sense and it's clear the writers weren't actually trying to formulate plausible lore; they just want to maximize the relationship drama in every episode and put artificial roadblocks in front of Piper and Leo to test their love.
Early on, Piper was my favorite of the sisters. She was flawed and headstrong in a believable way. Ever since her relationship with Leo has intensified, she's become insufferable. Leo can't even have a work friend without her getting jealous? She is possessive and controlling and it's just supposed to be funny, I guess.
Natalie is a useless character. She's supposedly been a Whitelighter for longer than Leo, but her inflexible obsession with rules make it extremely unlikely that she would have been remotely successful guarding her charges for that period of time. At one point she presents a "plan", written on a single sheet of paper, for defeating the villain of the week; she claims to have covered every possible contingency. In practice, it is revealed that she didn't cover even the most probable contingency and is basically so idiotic there's no way she could function as a Whitelighter for any length of time. The episode is meant to be a thesis on rules vs. Instinct, but the writers present absolutely no case for the "rules" side of the debate and the Halliwells, on the side of instinct, are shown to be infallible. If only the mean ole Elders would stop holding them back with useless rules.
There was a moment in season two when it seemed like the writers were actually interested in giving the sisters room to grow, to assess their mistakes and take accountability for them, to really start thinking in a deep and practical way about the extent of their responsibilities as the Charmed ones. In Season Three we seem to be reverting back to the immature "They're the main characters and therefore everything they do turns out to be correct" philosophy. It would have made a lot more sense for them to learn from Natalie as much as Natalie learns from them, but instead Natalie is just an absurd force of bureaucracy that dictates stupid plans and has absolutely no wisdom to impart.
This is why Buffy is a better show. Buffy is about consequences and responsibility. Charmed is about how everyone else in the world is stupid. (And if they're grown women, they're probably slutty or snotty on top of that.)
