Charmed (TV Series) Reckless Abandon (2000) User Reviews

Dark Episode

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 20 February 2007]

While in the police station with Darryl, Phoebe touches an abandoned baby called Matthew and she has a premonition of a ghost killing the Matthew's father. She convinces Darryl to bring the baby home, where the inexperienced Halliweel sisters get into troubled situation. Meanwhile, Prue is preparing a presentation with Jack expecting to go to New York, and Dan helps Piper with Matthew. Prue discloses the father's name and sooner the sisters find that the ghost was the chauffeur of the family and he is killing all the men of the family as a revenge for his death.

"Reckless Abandon" is a very dark episode, with many deaths, but all of them simply forgotten because of the survival of the baby. The conclusion, with Alexandra van Lewen not grieving the loss of her husband and her mother-in-law, and happy with the baby in the police station, is at least ridiculous. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Abandonado" ("Abandoned")

Three Witches & a Baby

[seneuser · 6/10 · 20 November 2023]

I give this episode as much as a 6 only due to the interplay of the sisters as they take on the responsibility of caring for a baby. Usually it is men being overwhelmed by baby for the sake of comedy, here the trope is turned on its head as Dan aka Mr. Perfect is great with the baby while the sisters are the source of comedy, especially Piper, the sister one would most expect to actually be nurturing.

Though I think a cuter baby could have been found, I do appreciate some of the baby-related hijinx. The rest of the episode is ridiculous.

The big bad of the week is a ghost with a vendetta against the family that wronged him. It is already established that ghosts are difficult monsters to deal with, and they will continue to be, but this one can shoot lightning out of its hands. Utterly ridiculous and never seen in Charmed or about any other show, book or movie again. Conversely. Electricity is often shown as one of the few things that can actually harm ghosts. Sure, I get it, it is a fictional monster that can be given any powers the writers choose to give it, but it isn't even consistent with the other ghosts that appear in Charmed.

Anyway, even if we give all that a pass, why don't the men of the house simply leave the house? Why doesn't the mom leave the house and stay with her baby instead of abandoning him? There clearly is no reason why she can't leave. And her and grandma's reaction after all the men in their family have been killed is ludicrous. They barely seem concerned. The acting in this is totally unrealistic.

Lastly, it often seems like the sisters can accomplish virtually anything with a spell, including destroying upper level demons, but they can't vanquish a ghost? Seems stupid, but if nothing else, we know the high risk method from Season 1 would work. Regardless, I do appreciate grandma sacrificing herself to bring justice to the ghost. That was a different ending.

Good Soundtrack

[arturo_smallcharm · 10/10 · 20 September 2006]

One of the things because I love this episode, it's because of the soundtrack, where we can gear "Human Touch", and excellent song, that had to do a lot with the story of the abandoned child.

Later he discovered that he was not meant to be abandoned, she was just being protected by the family when a ghost demon showed up and wanting to kill the baby, even when he just killed the whole male members of the family, he was chasing the baby, but this was being protected by the Charmed Ones.

I hope you enjoy this episode as well as I did, trust me, this is one of the best from the second season.

I always rather Paige over Prue!

The One Where The Charmed Ones Get A Baby...

[taylorkingston · 9/10 · 18 May 2015]

I love this episodes. It's one of my all-time favorite episodes from Season 2, and is pretty high up on the list for overall favorites.

In this episode, while at the police station talking with Darryl, Phoebe picks up a crying baby that was abandoned and gets a premonition of a ghost killing the baby's father. How sad is that? She convinces Darryl to let her take the baby home, where the sisters get into trouble with Matthew, the baby, since they are quite unprepared for a child in the household. The sisters visit Matthew's home only to discover that there has been a lot of death there lately. They find out that a ghost is killing all of the males in the family because Matthew's grandmother wronged him. So now the sisters have to banish the ghost before anyone else gets hurt, which doesn't really work out great. Well, it sort of does. The grandmother sacrifices herself because she finds out that if she dies, the ghost will be banished also.

Fun Fact: This is the first time we find out that Darryl has a child/children.

Overall, I give this episode a 9 out of 10, which in my ratings book is: Amazing.

Haunted house

[Realrockerhalloween · 27 September 2016]

Reckless is a favorite of mine for the horror vibes it gives off from a ghost who haunts the property of a woman he loved but could never have. He kills off every male member forcing a mother to abandon her baby at a police station. What makes it scary is the dark haunted mansion full of empty corridors where he can appear at anytime in his haunting form and his bones buried on the property the witches search out to vanquish him. I like the girls taking care of a baby As Prue seems to juggle Matthew, her job and magical duties very well, Piper learns how to care for one and Phoebe keeps him entertained. Its almost sad to know Prue will never be able to have children, but I'm glad for the opportunity to see how she's handle it.

My only problem seems to be that it doesn't make sense why the family stayed there for years. Lundy tells Martha she can never leave but how does he keep her trapped years on end without a slip in the alarm system is barely touched on. Also Darryl said child services would be coming soon yet seems dropped not mentioned again making the ending feel incomplete and not very well rounded.